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[–]penelopepnortneyBecome ungovernable[S] 3 insightful - 3 fun3 insightful - 2 fun4 insightful - 3 fun -  (9 children)

That was before my time but I recall that my father liked Stevenson, which inclined me to have a favorable opinion of him. Hearing these anecdotes just makes me like him more, there's something to be said for people who have a sense of humor, especially about politics.

It's interesting to me that my father, who voted Republican his entire life, decided after being recalled to active military in the 1950s to make the air force a career because there was a Republican president and according to him, small businesses like the one he owned before being reactivated always fared better under Democrats.

[–]CaelianPost No Toasties 3 insightful - 3 fun3 insightful - 2 fun4 insightful - 3 fun -  (4 children)

AES is featured in one of my favorite Doonesbury comic strips, from Dec 1, 1984. It was right after Reagan was reëlected. Newt Gingrich was mostly unknown at the time -- it was long before he was Speaker of the House or even House Minority Whip. Garry Trudeau used Newt's name because he thought it sounded ridiculous.

[–]penelopepnortneyBecome ungovernable[S] 3 insightful - 3 fun3 insightful - 2 fun4 insightful - 3 fun -  (3 children)

Newt Gingrich was one of the most amoral personalities to grace the halls of poltics, and that's a very low bar. Kind of funny how similar his name is to Grinch.

[–]CaelianPost No Toasties 3 insightful - 3 fun3 insightful - 2 fun4 insightful - 3 fun -  (0 children)

I once read that anser gingrit is Latin for "the goose cackles" :-)

I believe Grinch is from the French word grincheux (grincheuse), meaning bad-tempered.

I am vexed and ratty (shakes fist)
And hopping mad! (stamps feet)

-- Monty Python's "Precision Display of Bad Temper"

[–]MeganDelacroix🤡🌎 detainee 4 insightful - 2 fun4 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

Can't remember where I saw it, but it stuck in my head:

Newt Gingrich Family Values

Using your daughters from your first wife to convince everyone your second wife is lying about your third wife

[–]penelopepnortneyBecome ungovernable[S] 3 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

That's brilliant. Max Blumenthal did a scathing takedown of Focus on the Family's endorsement of Gingrich in his exceptional Republican Gomorrah.

[–]CaelianPost No Toasties 3 insightful - 3 fun3 insightful - 2 fun4 insightful - 3 fun -  (3 children)

Famous egghead Adlai Stevenson is basically the exact opposite of the certified morons we have running nowadays. But what can you do in a representative democracy?

[–]penelopepnortneyBecome ungovernable[S] 4 insightful - 2 fun4 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 2 fun -  (2 children)

It helped that ignorance has been promoted as a virtue for decades but it really goes even beyond that to the uniformity of thought required in practically every institutional setting. The result has been that it's no longer the "best and the brightest" who rise to the top, it's careerists willing to sacrifice whatever principles they have to become part of the elite club.

It parallels what these self-serving idiots did to America's capacity for self-sufficiency by destroying our manufacturing base. Hoist on their own petard, basically (and us along with them), as the empire no longer has the physical or intellectual capacity to confront the current crises we face.

[–]CaelianPost No Toasties 3 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

it's careerists willing to sacrifice whatever principles they have to become part of the elite club.

In my early working years I discovered The Law of Large Organizations:

In any Large Organization, Loyalty will always be rewarded over Competence.

[–]penelopepnortneyBecome ungovernable[S] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Very true. And also counterproductive because they're not the ones that make the organization effective and/or profitable.