General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsAnother DU Christmas Present - The ReTHUG Wreck of a Post Shellacking Caribbean Cruise
http://nymag.com/news/features/republican-caribbean-cruise-2012-12/<snip>
The whole thing was white, and broken, that much was clear. A week after the presidential election, when the dreams of Republicans were dashed with President Barack Obamas victory over Mitt Romney, we were snorkeling in the blue waters of the Caribbean. In the distance was a shipwreck. You could make out the pieces of it, said Ralph Reed, the right-wing political operator who had bolstered the Evangelical Christian vote for Romney. It was deep and murky.
Jonah Goldberg, the National Review contributor and author of Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, From Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning, also bore witness to the once-great vessel that foundered off the coast of Fantasy Island and was now sunken and covered in white barnacles. I saw the silhouette of it, he says.
But what, exactly, were we looking at? It was Friday, November 16. We were in Honduras, gazing at a wreck off a resort called Fantasy Island, near Mahogany Bay. Through my goggles, I watched Reed, in white swim trunks and black flippers, flap his way down through the extravagantly blue waters to the old sunken barge, part of the $64.95 Shore Excursion available to passengers aboard the m.s. Nieuw Amsterdam, an 86,000-ton cruise ship owned by Holland America Line. It was day five of the National Review magazines Post Election Cruise 2012, and the GOPs recent problems were, mercifully, about 760 nautical miles away. The cruise, featuring the star columnists of William Buckleys 57-year-old conservative biweekly, had been planned long in advance, and everybody had believed it would be a victory party. An e-mail from the magazines publisher arrived a few days before we embarked: Do not despair or fret. At least not next week.
Onboard the Nieuw Amsterdam, no one could follow his advice. Who sent Obama here to destroy America? a fiftysomething woman asked me one evening over dinner, as if it were a perfectly reasonable question. And here onboard the cruise ship, it was. If the Nieuw Amsterdam was a kind of ark of American alienation, at least it was an eminently comfortable one. The ship was a country unto itself, eleven stories high, 936 feet fore to aft, with eleven bars, six restaurants, two swimming pools, five hot tubs, a large café, and a library. There was the endless buffet on the Lido deck, slot machines and craps in the casino, an Asian lounge singer who did a mean Copacabana, a discothèque and a chamber-music cocktail lounge, cigars and Cognac by the pool, gift shops, and a full-service spa.
Kolesar
(31,182 posts)***
Hassett, with an oddly cheerful, Oh-What-My-Country-Has-Done-Now mien, predicted economic doom under Obama, the most likely scenario being another Great Depression, which would make 2008 look like a joyride.
That prompted a tall, extremely tanned blonde named Kay, from Old Greenwich, Connecticut, to ask Hassett, the co-author of the 1999 book Dow 36,000, So what do we do with our money?
----
There was a study that showed that stocks have the best return over long periods. Clowns like Hassett have extended that data and claimed that "you won't lose money in the stock market if you invest for a long period of time". That's bu!!$hit.
malaise
(269,045 posts)victory trip
arely staircase
(12,482 posts)what they should do with their money - or at least the tanned woman is.
PennsylvaniaMatt
(966 posts)She was frantic and called her financial advisor wondering if she should sell all of her stocks..........after watching Neil Cavuto.
The financial advisor told her not to - thankfully.
I swear to God, the fear that is propagated from Fox News on older people is terrible. The 60-65% of seniors in this country that vote Republican, watch Fox News, etc. is basically a case of brainwashing with fear and ignorance. It is very sad.
arely staircase
(12,482 posts)she said she was so upset about the "death" tax and how that was going to eat up all of the money he left her. when i pointed out that didn't kick in until the millions of dollars she was floored. she had no idea that the several tens of thousands she got would be tax free - since she only listens to right wing info. sources.
PennsylvaniaMatt
(966 posts)I have noticed the same thing with what Fox reports when it comes to taxes. For example, they may mention that President Obama wants to raise taxes, but they conveniently leave out that it is for people who make six figures, however, many of their viewers think it will affect them, when in actuality, a majority of Fox viewers do not make more than $200,000.
Kolesar
(31,182 posts)d_r
(6,907 posts)of changing demographics -
----------------------------------
Susan from Princeton granted that the Republican Party is lily white and its a problem and it is messaging and Mitt Romney screwed up royally.
But Ms. OSullivan again took umbrage. As everyone went silent, she recalled a conference she attended in Australia in which a liberal nun (who didnt even have the decency to wear a habit) criticized America for its inner-city racism. Offended, Ms. OSullivan recounted what she wished shed said to this nun:
Pardon me, madam, but I have been in your country of Australia for ten days and the only Aborigines Ive seen have been drunk on the street, and at least if we were in my country they would be serving the drinks at this conference!
Ms. OSullivan then warned against watering down the purity of the conservative agenda to placate minorities or, as she put it, rather succinctly, the bastardization of the product.
-----------------------------
JHB
(37,160 posts)Asking for financial advice from the author of Dow 36,000?
BOSS: You notice none of the workers are white.
CAREGIVER: Except the managers upstairs.
BOSS: Well, thats the way it should be.
This kind of delusion isn't fresh off the still. Vision that blinkered requires careful aging, free from any contaminants for a long, long time.
they didn't become republicans because they wanted to hang out with a bunch of minority folks. Heaven forbid.
JaneyVee
(19,877 posts)malaise
(269,045 posts)Happy Holidays
ThoughtCriminal
(14,047 posts)they are still firmly in the bubble of the perpendicular universe for everything else.
NO clue that they are disastrously wrong about pretty much everything.
Berlum
(7,044 posts)...cruising aboard the Nieuw Amsterdam? WTF? That sounds like a fancy French socialist name, or something.
Why do Republicans HATE good old-fashioned American boats? American boats not good enough for them? What is wrong with these people?
Some folKs are claiming that the doCumenTarY phOtO below was snapped during an occult Republican Black Ops ritual held on the shuFFleboarD courT of the Niew Amersterdam:
catbyte
(34,402 posts)Berlum
(7,044 posts)malaise
(269,045 posts)Happy Holidays !!
Capt. Obvious
(9,002 posts)GoCubsGo
(32,086 posts)That little, imaginary demon in your head sent him, lady. Seek professional help. And, take all your nutbag shipmates with you.
malaise
(269,045 posts)They remind me of WilLIARd's 47% ('I thought we were speaking in private' comments)
Capt. Obvious
(9,002 posts)The table grumbled in assent.
The thing we have to understand is, these are people who dont have any morals, said Hassett. Theyll do anything. Im one of their No. 1 targets. I mean, they really want me bad.
abelenkpe
(9,933 posts)I love how people can't decide which one. It doesn't make them look ignorant at all.
abelenkpe
(9,933 posts)lunatica
(53,410 posts)These are the last three paragraphs:
On the leeward side of the Nieuw Amsterdam, John Yoo stood next to his mother, Sook Hee Yoo, a small, elegant Korean woman in black-framed glasses. She described herself as nonpolitical, an objective observer. And she had a diagnosis.
To protect the ego, you have a defense mechanism: denial and projection, she told me as her son leaned in to hear over the party din. You deny your problem, saying its your fault and not mine. Instead of projection, blaming other people, we have to think of a positive solution. But I didnt hear that yet.
They are still grieving, she concluded as her son winced and began to break in, fearing shed gone too far. I hope not for more than six months. The grieving process should only be six months. If it goes on for more than six months, it could go into a major depression.
**************
And that shirtless fella feeding the iguana is Ralph Reed.
malaise
(269,045 posts)I'm lovin' it Happy Holidays!!!
Berlum
(7,044 posts)malaise
(269,045 posts)Fuck Yoo was designed for that war criminal!!
arely staircase
(12,482 posts)not something i expected to read this morning.
lunatica
(53,410 posts)jmowreader
(50,559 posts)When Ralph Reed feeds an iguana, how do you tell them apart?
otohara
(24,135 posts)oh woes us...
malaise
(269,045 posts)This is a more downbeat bunch this year, he said. We lost in 2008, but it was almost boisterous and fun. This, a little less so. People were dyspeptic.
Their conception of what the country is about, they really were sure the country would reject Barack Obama, he continued. I do think it hits them hard. The fear I have, why this election stung, I think, Obama has successfully de-ratified some of the Reagan revolution in a way that Clinton never could and didnt even try to. Thats what freaks people out, that feeling in their gut, either Obama has changed the country, or the country has sufficiently changed that they dont have a problem with Obama. Thats what eats at people.
And the truth is that the country has sufficiently changed and people don't have a problem with Obama. It's over for these old white men.
---------------
This was a great read
pamela
(3,469 posts)As the Republican image stood today, said Lileks, were the stupid people, were the yokels, were the dumb, were the racists, were the hicks, were against everything thats hip and cool.
Um, yeah, asshole. That's exactly what you are.
malaise
(269,045 posts)JHB
(37,160 posts)...there wasn't much need to turn the engines on.
hobbit709
(41,694 posts)tjwash
(8,219 posts)What's up with the far right and the love of oversized cruise ships?
Compensating for something maybe?
malaise
(269,045 posts)UCmeNdc
(9,600 posts)Good article......
malaise
(269,045 posts)yardwork
(61,649 posts)Good article. Thanks for posting.
malaise
(269,045 posts)Glad I found it. Happy Holidays!