In which we post interesting or amusing Tweets about the Biden Presidency

90% of the grievances are cultural ones for which no political or policy solution exists. This is the core of the right at this moment. https://t.co/oVrTD9gVU6

— Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes) February 26, 2021

I'm with Chris Hayes on this one. I'm finding culture war bullshit to be really, really tiring.

 

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#Khashoggi Intel Brief: Here’s an Intel Analyst’s perspective. He honed in on key words that, to the trained eye, make it look credible and relevant.

#unrolled below:

I just finished reading the declassified memo on killing of #Khashoggi. I’ve read thousands of intel reports in my career in national security, but this one stands out. Here’s why we need to take this seriously and why we need to do more to hold Crown Prince accountable. THREAD pic.twitter.com/EFQqEuGYKQ

— Andy Kim (@AndyKimNJ) February 27, 2021

 

I'm happy to see someone telling their side of the story and sticking to it!

 

Long way from the days of Reagan and his anti-union actions.

https://twitter.com/POTUS?ref_src=twsrc^google|twcamp^serp|twgr^author

 

This discussion is so funny:

David, serious question: how do we know the potato toy is male?

— Charlotte Clymer 🇺🇦 (@cmclymer) February 27, 2021

So, let me get this right: because the potato toy presents and identities as male, you respect his decision and need no supposed scientific validation? 🤔

— Charlotte Clymer 🇺🇦 (@cmclymer) February 27, 2021

Where in the Bible does it say the potato toy is male?

— Charlotte Clymer 🇺🇦 (@cmclymer) February 27, 2021

 

Guy on Bulwark reads bigsoccer, posts an article: Today's March 1st edition:
Mugged by Reality - The Bulwark

Opens with a discussion of how hard it was to get George Bush senior invited to the 1980 CPAC even though he'd recently been nominated as RWR's VP, followed by some inside baseball on how the "Christian" Coalition came to the fore, led by Richard Vigurie

As chairman of the American Conservative Union, I signed, and signed off on, ACU’s fundraising materials. During my tenure as chairman I found myself forced to rewrite every letter drafted by our outside public relations consultants. The ACU, and conservatives generally, had long been focused on a few things—keeping taxes low, keeping regulation in bounds, adequately funding national defense, and, more generally (this was how conservatism was defined in political terms), prudence and skepticism in the face of proposals for sweeping overhauls.

However, what I found in the fundraising letters I was being sent to sign were harangues centered on social issues. Waging the culture war was a more effective way of raising money. I edited those parts out but failed to see, as I do now, that these rants were early signs that the ideals of conservatism were being abandoned by those who claimed to be its greatest champions. But I couldn’t see that at the time; I simply deleted the social/cultural warfare lines, rewrote each piece in more traditional conservative terms, and moved on. These fights began to creep into Congress as well, the usual partisan squabbles over tax policy, defense spending, foreign policy, assistance programs, and budget levels joined by bitter and continuous partisan fights over social issues: abortion, gay rights, women’s empowerment, etc.

After five years as ACU’s, and CPAC’s, chairman, I resigned. I resigned as ACU’s chairman, I resigned as a board member, and I resigned as a member. As the push for this new brand of conservatism—a populist and retrograde pseudo-conservatism—grew stronger, I wanted no part of it. But it still had not transformed the Republican Party, or even conservatism generally, into the ugly and malignant force it has become.
​

So, to follow up Chris Hayes' tweet on the top of the page... this culture war crap shouldn't surprise anybody. It's where the ********ing money is.

By the way, the author is Mickey ********ing Edwards: not a liberal by anyone's definition.

 

That should be good for several hundred thousand dollars!

 

In Reaganland, there's a particular passage that mentions the Reagan conservatives seeing Barry Goldwater as too establishment. If that's not a sign that maybe one should reassess, then geez.

On a related note, Perlstein also mentioned that with Goldwater, a Goldwater delegate said they kicked the Mason-Dixon line all the way to Canada.

 

Related to Potato Head.

I think about this quote, cited in @rickperlstein's "Invisible Bridge," all the time. Today, the freakout is about honorifics applied to toys rather than schoolbooks, but it all stems from the same anxious, desperate need to stamp out uncertainty from human life pic.twitter.com/OhC4cDFG03

— David Nir (@DavidNir) February 25, 2021