Driftglass Nails It and Other Other Matters

• The alternate universe we don't inhabit:

  Wow! You know, I am kinda digging this "Sane Donald Trump" fella.
  
  And yet my admiration for this wholly fiction candidate invented by a blithering liar to lead a wholly fictional Republican Party that is somehow, suddenly not overflowing with bigots and imbeciles is somewhat tempered by the fact that these character traits -- giving the GOP leadership more benefits of the doubt than they deserve by a factor of 1000, offering the country hope instead of fear, proposing a humane and comprehensive immigration policy, trying to fix our trade problems and prepare our people for the realities of tomorrow, standing up to the Republican obsession with shredding the social safety net and an overall reverence for the democratic process -- all sound remarkably like this guy:
  
  [photo of President Obama with children]
  
  You know, the guy you and the rest of the actual Republican Party and it's actual candidate have spent the last eight years trying to obstruct, slander, sabotage and in every other way nail to a cross with a belt-fed bullshit gun?

  Ask me again why I'd rather read Driftglass than Mr. Brooks, Mr. Douthat, or Ms. Noonan, and I may explain, if I can stop laughing long enough.
  
• Rude but fair.

  Republicans are scared shitless of the realities of democracy. We see that in their almost comically racist attempts at suppressing voter turnout through bullshit i.d. laws. We see that when they make the filibuster a regular part of legislative action so that they have eliminated the ability of a simple majority to pass anything in the Senate. We saw it back in the Bill Clinton presidency when they sought to eject him from office for the limpest of reasons. We saw it in the constant attempts to strip Barack Obama of legitimacy.
  
  What all this has done is make the nutzoids and dumbshits that make up the GOP voter coalition completely mistrust that democracy works. If everything the opposition does is a cataclysmic event ready to bring on an apocalyptic nightmare of zombies, terrorists, and government health care, then obviously you'd believe that elections are rigged and evil agents are trying to steal your lovely country from your innocent hands. Donald Trump has succeeded in working his followers into a fever pitch by promising them shit that he couldn't do even if he was elected and telling them that if he loses, it's only because bankers or someone are working against him. What the fuck are they gonna think about democracy if their Trump godhead doesn't ascend to his White House iron throne?

• BooMan Tribune:

  Maybe he only intended to irritate people. Maybe he’s one of those morons who thinks if some black person somewhere uses the n-word or the NAACP doesn’t abandon “colored” it gives him permission to throw those words in black people’s faces while explaining his motives for screwing them.
  
  The important thing, I think, isn’t any meaning that’s conveyed in the actual words. It just makes conservatives feel good when they insult and denigrate their opponents. It makes the base feel good when they see a politician laying into their enemies. “Heh, heh, he called them ‘colored.’ They hate that.”

It'll be a long time before I trust "conservatives" or Republicans to collect my garbage, let alone have any kind of power. And speaking of garbage:

• Somewhere, someone is having a fantod about this story, but it is made clear that this guy signs up for huge amounts of overtime.  And frankly, the janitors should be making this much money as a matter of course.  They are far more valuable to the "system" than directors.