Politicklish

(with acknowledgements to Those Who Came Before.  Hi!)

• Note to the "Marketing Community:"  If I really wanted optimized searching at this blog, I would mention the capital of South Korea a lot more often.  I don't.  Capisce?  Also, the fact that I have on occasion, especially before that last November election, mentioned Buttercup by name does not mean that I am in favor of Buttercup, his policies, his party, his people, or anything else pertaining to him whatsoever.  There are reasons I don't accept advertising for this endeavor, one of them being that I'd end up with pro-Buttercup-themed ads when I'm anti-Buttercup.  Also, there are over 700,000 blogs with a greater audience.  There are advantages to being small-time.  I don't have to pander.  
• Blinders and blinkered:

  Roberts asked [R-FL Rep. Francis] Rooney about Paul Ryan's lame excuse that Trump is just "new to government" and therefore didn't really understand that what he was doing.
  
  Here's how Rooney responded:
  
  ROBERTS: When it comes to James Comey referring to the president as a liar, do you think that that is accurate. Do you think that President Trump has ever lied to the American people?
  
  ROONEY: I haven't seen evidence of a lie yet, and I'm really surprised that the FBI Director would use that kind of language, especially after some of the things that he's done.
  
  Thomas Roberts just shrugged it off and moved right along to the next question. The only time he got even the least bit testy with Rooney during the interview or pushed back at him at all was when he attacked the media later in the same segment.
  
  The Washington Post has been tracking just how much Trump lies, and they're up to 623 lies just in Trump's first 137 days.

  Heather, Crooks and Liars. Including bonus chart of the lies in question.
• Echidne of the Snakes links to Katha Pollitt's article on "empathy, lack of, and who does and does not," and had a couple of questions:

  As an aside, two questions about this conversation fascinate me: First, why is it assumed that if I lean left politically I am not hard-working, self-supporting or resilient? In other words, why do many assume that the stereotypical left and right values cannot be held by the same person?
  
  Second, note the sleight-of-hand in the way the basic problem is so often defined by first constructing all of the left as "elitist" (and not the party of the poor, say) and then demanding that those "elites" -- because they now are viewed as elites -- must attend to the grievances of the down-trodden Trump-voters (who are actually in power)?

  The Pollitt article points out:

  Empathy and respect are not about kowtowing to someone’s cultural and social preferences. They’re about supporting policies that make people’s lives better, whether they share your values, or your tastes, or not.

  Seriously.
  
• And bloody about time!  (NYTimes link.)