Last Chance For Year-End Awards Nominations
OK, to begin with, a word of warning: our schedule for this week is going to be light. Today (obviously) there will be no new column, and tomorrow will be a re-run column, just to warn everyone in advance. Then Wednesday will be the second installment of our year-end awards (see below). Thursday I will try to write a column, but if the "banished words" list comes out early (sometimes it is posted on the last day of the year, sometimes on the first of the new year), then that's what it will cover. Friday, naturally, there will be no column, as we all nurse our first 2021 hangover. Starting Monday, we'll be back to a full schedule once again, as we count down the last 20 days of our national nightmare.
I'd like to thank everyone for your nominations for the first awards column, as many of them were not only good, but things I had forgotten about or just hadn't considered for each category. So, like last year, here is the list of categories for the second batch, and (as before) please let me know in the comments if you do not want to be credited in the column for the nomination. Otherwise I will assume consent to do so has been given.
One final note, I have just updated the pledge drive thermometer, and as you can see, we are within reach of hitting our fundraising target for the year. So if anyone got some extra Christmas cash that's just, you know, lying around doing nothing, consider making the donation that puts us over the top!
Enough of that, though, let's just get on with the categories. Hope everyone is having a good holiday season, and as always hope you and yours stay safe and happy until they're over.
Destined For Political Stardom
Destined For Political Oblivion
Best Political Theater
Worst Political Theater
Worst Political Scandal
Most Underreported Story
Most Overreported Story
Biggest Government Waste
Best Government Dollar Spent
Boldest Political Tactic
Best Idea
Worst Idea
Sorry To See You Go
15 Minutes Of Fame
Best Spin
Most Honest Person
Most Overrated
Most Underrated
And, as always, the final category is "Predictions," where you can make wild-eyed predictions about what is going to happen in 2021.
-- Chris Weigant
Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant
Well, I'm operating under a province-wide lockdown through Jan 22 at the earliest, so ...
I'll try to get to the bank tomorrow, just to warn ya. :)
But, I pulled a muscle the last day of work trying to change a mannequin. The really bad news is it feels like a heart muscle - in that area, anyways. So painful its hard to walk but I've been taking a couple of Tylenol every four hours or so and I'm virtually pain free for a few hours. It'll pass.
FPC
[46] nypoet22 wrote:
@caddy [30],
i hate to ruin your buzz, but i've known michale a lot longer than you have. if he made a wager, he'll honor it. if he's not here at the moment, it's almost definitely not to run away from any of us. he might even be consciously avoiding the space to 'let us have our celebration in peace,' so to speak. unless we hear otherwise, guided by the last fourteen years or so of precedent that's what ought to be presumed.
Not to worry. Whether Michale pays or doesn't isn't "my buzz." I live in California...do the math: we're not hurting in the "buzz" department out here on the Left Coast.
My big complaint is Michale's toxic effect on this Comments section. I'm VERY interested in debating someone who is interested in reaching me/teaching me the error of my ways. I'm not interested in some pathetic guy who appears to live for pissing folks off.
Tis a pity. Michale is obviously intelligent and could be an excellent "contrarian" voice here in Weigantia.
And likewise to you, Brother Don. I believe I'm not alone here in Weigantia in wanting the corruptive influence of Big Money out of American politics. But you've lost me on One Demand being a workable solution.
I've raised my concerns with OD multiple times and you've consistently failed to address these concerns. Telling me that, "You've already addressed said concerns previously," is a cop out. Telling us, "Blahblahblah...Get Real," is a cop out.
Don't waste our time if you're not interested in engagement/persuasion.
I've saved up my concerns and will happily reprint them in these pages. But only if you'll address them.
Best Spin -- dressing up intolerance toward gay and transsexual people as religious freedom
15 Minutes of Fame -- I previously nominated Emily Murphy of the General Services Administration for holding up the transition. Perhaps a fairer nomination would be Omarosa Manigault-Newman, who sought fame and got 15 minutes of it.
Sorry To See You Go --nonsarcastic: John Lewis
sarcastic: Bill Barr
Worst Political Theater: I previously nominated Matt Gaetz in a gas mask. A second nomination would be the two trucks parked in front of the White House, one of which was "overburdened with regulation"
Worst Idea -- drinking bleach and introducing ultraviolet light through unspecified bodily orifices
Best Idea -- Elizabeth Warren's ideas for expanding the functions of the Post Office
Overrated -- self-driving cars
Underrated -- Chris Wallace, who frequently told the truth while sitting in the lion's den of Fox News
O'tay, Buh'wheat. My nominations:
Destined For Political Stardom:
Tough call. On the Democratic side, the articulate and telegenic AOC and Stacy Abrams are obvious choices. They both have that "it" factor and should either/both successfully pull the Party to the Left they each represent the demographically changing face of America.
But...don't count out Joe Biden (says the Bernie Bro *smh*.) What if Joe recognizes that "more of the same" center-right governance ain't gonna get it and he proves to be more FDR than Obama/Hillary? What if Joe's "bi-partisanship" outreach actually works with a GOP Establishment that's sick of Trumpian madness? He's already won the Presidency, yes, but his star has more room to rise should he prove to be more transformative than caretaker.
On the Republican side, Nikki Haley. She walked that fine line of both supporting Trump while distancing herself from him. And she picked the perfect time to bail on the Trump administration. She's the Repug I most fear in the future. Unfortunately, Sen. Tim Scott is just too black for the GOP.
Destined For Political Oblivion:
Unless the Trump fever doesn't break in the next two years (by the Midterms) I see anti-democracy Repugs such as Matt Gaetz or Jim Jordan simply exiting, er, stage Right.
Worst Political Theater:
I've already excoriated DiFi over the Amy Covid Barrett love-fest, so let's just go with Donald J. Trump. This is in recognition of the damage he's done to our country. #Putin'sBitch, and stuff.
Worst Political Scandal:
The Senate's failure to remove Trump from office via Impeachment. #MoscowMitch, and stuff.
Biggest Government Waste:
Every penny spent on Trump's Secret Service protection at his various properties. What, 300+ vacation days, now?
Best Government Dollar Spent:
Every penny spent on our free and fair elections.
Boldest Political Tactic:
Believe it or not, Joe Biden staying in his basement while Trump imploded. I believe it was Sun Tzu in The Art of War who advised that "when your enemy is destroying himself, it's best to stand aside and let him continue."
Best Idea:
The Green New Deal. We may be years from getting our collective act together regarding Climate Change, but the OVERTON WINDOW hath moved, yea verily.
Worst Idea:
Yet another tax cut (and temporary economic "sugar high") largely directed to those who least need tax relief.
Sorry To See You Go:
Every last fucking Trump enabler. No matter if it takes years to get rid of most of them. Or Rudy what's-his-name. /sarcasm off
15 Minutes Of Fame:
So many candidates (*smh*) but I gotta go with Sidney Powell.
Most Honest Person:
In politics? Shout out to Don Harris...nobody! Maybe Bernie, but our current system of campaign finance forces ALL our politicians to at least some level of dishonesty.
Most Overrated:
The 74 million Americans who voted FOR another four years of this madness.
Most Underrated:
The 81 million Americans who voted AGAINST another four years of this madness.
Okay,
Most Underrated:
Mitt Romney. He may be a Plutocrat but he "stood and delivered" with his vote to Remove Trump on Article 1 of the Impeachment. Justin Smash of Michigan gets Honorable Mention.
Whew!
I have enhanced respect for the massive time and effort that you put into this column, Chris Weigant!
Without looking at the other responses, and reserving the right to be silly, misinformed, or completely clueless:
Destined For Political Stardom - Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. As annoying as she can be, she has the gift. That is, she makes people pay attention to her, who don't really have to.
Destined For Political Oblivion - That guy from Alabama, Tuberville. He seems completely clueless, but (of course) won a Senate seat because Republicans and football, or something.
Best Political Theater - Everything Donald Trump does. I hate, hate, hate it, but there it is. He too has the gift. Be outrageous, spontaneous, and explicitly evil. "The Devil has all the lines", as a little boy once said about a second-grade pageant on the Adam and Eve story. The audience will not stop watching to eat, sleep, or ...
Worst Political Theater - Giuliani's foray to the WRONG Four Seasons in Philadelphia. Is it true the Sex Shop next door now has a product called "The Rudy"? No, I made that up. But I hope it goes viral.
Worst Political Scandal- Oh, God. Post Office hijacked to throw the election? GOP Congressmen fall over each other to sign on to overthrow the election? President Trump tells attentive reporter back in the spring that Covid is really deadly but he's not going to do anything about it? Senate wets itself trying to confirm S.C. Justice in complete contradiction to its supposed rule applied to Merrick Garland four years earlier? U.S. gets Morocco to recognize Israel by selling out Western Sahara?
I don't know. Maybe the Woodward story about Trump knowing about Covid's dangers the entire time.
Most Underreported Story - Climate Change. Wait, you say: wasn't all the coverage of the West Coast fires about climate change? Well, no. That is, reporters simply said that. They didn't develop what we should be doing to prevent further climate change, which is everything possible, as fast as possible, including vast changes to the American economy, ways of life, and domestic and foreign policy. In general, everyone in public life who even says they believe climate change is the world's number one problem over the past seven thousand years of civilization, seems to think that someone else needs to go first to propose the actual policies and changes required to slow or stop carbon emissions. And the media - don't even get me started...
Most Overreported Story - I guess the mysterious Hunter Biden hard drive, which even as mainstream reporters bragged about how they weren't reporting it because it was BS of the first water, still reported it.
Biggest Government Waste - That f---ing wall on the SW border.
Best Government Dollar Spent - The CARES Act. For all its flaws, can we even imagine what would have happened had it not passed?
Boldest Political Tactic - Biden playing it cool and close to the vest, letting Trump shoot himself.
Best Idea - You pay unemployed citizens a reasonable amount of real money, they spend the money on goods and services, and the economy doesn't actually implode due to a plague that forces people not to work who want to work and can work.
Worst Idea - Lifting the lockdown in late spring when there was no, absolutely none, zero, uh-uh, sorry honey, nada reason to do so. Except boredom and, ah, criminally bad PR from the president and his administration and his party. And the curve leapt back into the air, freed once again to slay the populace.
Sorry To See You Go - Maybe Jared Kushner will be hit by a bus the day after the inauguration. It would be proof there is a just God.
15 Minutes Of Fame - The Proud Boys, who were going to take over the election sites with their guns and ... well, it was never quite clear but it was damned scary while it lasted.
Best Spin - Election pollsters explaining how it was COMPLETELY REASONABLE that they predicted a Democratic Senate and an Electoral College landslide by Biden.
Most Honest Person - Dr. Fauci
Most Overrated - Gov. Cuomo of New York. He's articulate, and I'd bet money he has a soul. But he did not actually do all that great a job of saving New Yorkers' lives last spring.
Most Underrated - All the judges appointed by Trump who told his campaign to shove its incompetent and fact-free briefs about election fraud right up their briefcases.
Best Political Theater - I'm nominating this for Best because it's spectacularly, hilariously stupid. Behold Fat Donny's brand new campaign ad released two months after the election. Note the Nobel Prize medal (that he didn't win) on the screen in the Trump Stands For Peace section - the icing on the fruitcake.
15 Minutes Of Infamy - Hack Quack Atlas
Boldest Political Tactic - Bernie's upcoming filibuster. Fingers crossed.
EM-1
From your description you probably have a torn muscle and inflammation. Tylenol is reasonably effective for reducing pain but not inflammation contributing to pain. Ibuprofen or aspirin would probably work much better...if your stomach can handle them. If you have to work through your pain you should consider getting a script for a 7 day course of Prednisone.
EM-
Just an addendum to what TheStig says--only take ibuprofen or aspirin following a meal (assuming you don't have any of the conditions that make them inadvisable). If the pain is very bad, it's better to take both Tylenol and ibuprofen rather than too much of either one. Say, Tylenol first thing, ibuprofen with meals and Tylenol at bedtime, or alternate them during the day, but never take ibuprofen or aspirin on an empty stomach, or just with a drink. Taper off as soon as you can. I was recommended this for post-surgery pain.
Thanks TS and Mezzomamma!
I woke up this morning with very little pain for the first time since Christmas so, I think it may have taken care of itself or run its course. Was a bit worried there for a while and planned to see my doctor or go to a clinic today. Still a small hint of it but I'm on the mend!
Thanks again, you two, for the great advice! Love ya!
[13]
Yes! Good deal. I'll post my saved collection of OD concerns (expressed here in Weigantia) and I won't miss your responses as I apparently had previously.
Some many weeks ago,
Bleydwrote:
I'm seeing a pretty monumental flaw in your OD plan. You essentially seem to require a majority of the citizens to simultaneously go on strike against non-OD candidates in favor of a single OD-friendly candidate in order for it to work. That's simply unrealistic.
First you'd have to find a candidate who agreed to OD's principles and who is popular enough to get the financial support of such a huge segment of the population that they could out-raise the major party candidates. That alone is simply not possible to do all in one go. No candidate of sufficient popularity would willing risk handicapping themselves so monumentally with the rules as they stand.
Even if you could find such a candidate though, how are you expecting to get so many small donors that they could keep up with the current fund raising system? How are you going to convince them that their donations wouldn't be in vain, that the candidate they're supporting would have a realistic chance of beating someone entrenched in the current system? Most people aren't willing to throw money at causes they don't believe have a chance.
So I ask you, what is the workable plan of action you are proposing? Ideals and concepts are great, but unless you have a way to put them into practice, they won't get you far.
Let's add Kicks two cents:
...and after all these years, you still haven't answered a boatload of questions along the same lines.
Prove it. Your equating of "big money" with evildoers is tedium ad nauseam and something for which you've yet to provide any proof despite multiple requests to do so.
You've claim repeatedly that those who would accept more than your mandate aren't worthy, strong, competent, etc. Prove it. I could set my own arbitrary purity test and claim that those candidates who don't say 25 "Hail Mary's" a day aren't "strong and competent" leaders because I said so. I mean, if they're not willing to hit their knees and do the praying, they cannot possibly be worthy to lead. It sounds stupid because it is. Your standard operational statements sound likewise.
And...my one cent:
The only thing I would have added to her comment is the question that you've yet to answer, namely, what about the ocean of PAC money out there? Corporate money, "dark" money and (possibly/likely in Trump's case) foreign money?
@JMCt,
it was a tough year all around for 4-seasons, be it restaurants, landscaping companies or singing groups.
RIP tommy devito
JL
Joshua,
I'm starting to get very distressed over the notion that live music won't be returning for a very long time. I don't believe it has to be this way, though ...
Destined For Political Stardom - Biden. He's been a contender for decades, and finally got the top job when popular wisdom said he was too old and slow.
Destined For Political Oblivion - Trump Hereditary Dynasty. Seemed possible just a few months ago.
Best Political Theater - Puppet Regime on PBS.
Worst Political Theater - Trump's clown show lawyers "trying" to steal the election. Give 'em credit, The 4 Seasons joke was funny. So was Rudy's runny hair dye. So was Borat.
Fifteen minutes of fame - Col. Vindman
Sorry to see you go - I'm still thinking that one over....long short list.
Best Political Tactic - Biden in the basement. Let Trump hit himself.
Best dollar spent - at this moment, I would say COVID vaccine. Masks and isolation were a contender last spring but became wasted opportunities.
Worst Political Scandal - Trump family brazenly running The Presidency as a for profit family enterprise.
Biggest Government Waste. I'm going to say Space Force. We already have too many military branches. Go Purple.
Boldest Tactic - Biden in his basement. Honorable mention to Sasha Baron Cohen for pulling of the Borat scam for a second time. Never overestimate the memory of The American Public. Well played SBC!
Best Idea - State compacts to apportion electoral votes to closely approximate actual votes.
Worst Idea - Electoral College. Slavery WAS worse, but that problem was mostly solved by the Civil War.
Best Spin - Rudi's "I was adjusting my pants."
Most Honest Person - John Oliver
Most Overrated - Trump's golf scores
Most Under rated - importance of social distancing
A longish quote -- but essential to understanding how Trump captured the GOP. This from an Atlantic article The Deep Story of Trumpism:
Thinking about the Republican Party like a political psychiatrist.
In her 2016 book, Strangers in Their Own Land, Hochschild went to the Deep South to study an emerging conservative identity and came away with something like a Rosetta stone for the rise of Donald Trump. She offered a psychological allegory for the right-wing worldview, which she called the “deep story.”
The deep story went like this: You are an older white man without a college degree standing in the middle of a line with hundreds of millions of Americans. The queue leads up a hill, toward a haven just over the ridge, which is the American dream. Behind you in line, you can see a train of woeful souls—many poor, mostly nonwhite, born in America and abroad, young and old. “It’s scary to look back,” Hochschild writes. “There are so many behind you, and in principle you wish them well. Still, you’ve waited a long time.” Now you’re stuck in line, because the economy isn’t working. And worse than stuck, you’re stigmatized; liberals in the media say every traditional thing you believe is racist and sexist. And what’s this? People are cutting in line in front of you! Something is wrong. The old line wasn’t perfect, but at least it was a promise. There is order in the fact of a line. And if that order is coming apart, then so is America.
Trump might be a lifelong bullshitter, but one thing he has never had to bullshit is his grievance toward liberal elites and his antipathy for the groups whom Tea Party Republicans already knew they hated. He animated their distrust toward Barack Obama with his birtherism claims. He gave shape to their hatred for Hillary Clinton by leading “Lock her up!” chants. “From his first rallies, Trump’s basic message has always been ‘I love you, and you love me, and we all hate the same people,’”
I've long wondered just what Trumpanzies were thinking when they voted for him? Did they really think Mexico was going to pay for the wall? Really?
I'm now convinced that Trumpism is not an intellectual movement as beyond following Trump as Messiah it is intellectually incoherent. But rather it's a psychological reaction to 40 years of Reaganism's effect on our American Dream.
Stig [21]
Re " . . . finally got the top job when popular wisdom said he was too old and slow."
How about 'finally go the top job when popular wisdom said the other guy was too stupid, corrupt and incompetent'!!
EM-one thing I forgot to mention. The gap between an effective dose of Tylenol and a lethal dose of Tylenol is very small for a nonprescription drug....and it varies considerably from person to person, and what they have eaten, and whatever other meds and/or alcohol they are taking at the same time. Children are particularly at risk. I believe the drug is still the leading cause of liver failure in the USA.
Tylenol exemplifies the triumph of advertising and lobbying over public safety.
@crs [23],
well, when you're right you're right.
JL
TS,
I believe the drug is still the leading cause of liver failure in the USA.
Great. But, thanks again.
Well, no worries. The Tylenol company would proabably cease to exist if everyone was like me. At the very least, they wouldn't have all the money for advertising. :) I've taken more of it this week than I have in my entire life!
Fortunately, I haven't the need for any drugs, recreational or otherwise. Of course, the scotch and soda cabinet is regularly and variously stoked ...er, I mean stocked!
... all in moderation, you understand. Ahem.
Thanks again for all the great suggestions. The writing has begun...
:-)
-CW
[24]
Alrighty, Brother Don! I'm going to chew on your substantive reply overnight & I promise I'll address it tomorrow. When I'm sober (now that's respect, and I give that respect because I want Big Money out of politics as much as you want it.)
That reminds me of a quote I recall being attributed to one of my only true heroes, Sir Winston Churchill. I paraphrase,
Addressing a contentious female MP, he said,
Madame, I am drunk. And you are ugly. Tomorrow I shall be sober...and you will still be ugly!
[27]
Er, inquiring minds want to know, Elizabeth:
Are we talking single malt Scotch Whiskey, aged at least 12 years? I'd like to think that you're not some poor barbarian.
I mean, I'll still love you in the morning but I may not respect you as much haha
I'm just some poor barbarian. Like Mad Men. Heh.
But enough about me.
Back to the question of Police reform. This quote from How Police Training Contributes to Avoidable Deaths:
To save lives, cops must be taught to think beyond the gun belt.
But in most cases, it isn’t because individual police officers are consciously racist or think black lives don’t matter. It is because officers perform the way they are trained to perform.
In most police shootings, officers don’t shoot out of anger or frustration or hatred. They shoot because they are afraid. And they are afraid because they are constantly barraged with the message that that they should be afraid, that their survival depends on it. Not only do officers hear it in formal training, they also hear it informally from supervisors and older officers. They talk about it with their peers