Extraordinary, and extraordinarily amusing, to see Bevin flail so desperately, isn’t it?
Yes and no. It does tickle my funny bone, but it’s not a shock. He’s the least popular governor in the country, loathed by his own state government, barely scraped past an unknown Kenneth Parcell-alike in the primary and wears a tie with grandpa jeans. One of the worst campaigns in living memory. The political equivalent of deciding to invade Russia.
Not quite. He’s still the bookies’ favorite.
He was what, 8 or 9 points behind Conway right up until polling day last time around? So, probably. The desire to stick with the devil you know, even when you know him to be one of the most unlikable people in the country who doesn’t give a toss for you or your family, is pretty powerful.
He gives enough of a toss to spend almost $300 million taking away Medicaid. Predominately, from people who likely voted for him in the first place, I assume.
It’s like all these things — drug testing welfare recipients being another good example — where the money spent on trying to take away benefits far outweighs what the benefits cost in the first place. A little like this ridiculous anti-jaywalking ordinance. Arresting beggars, giving them criminal records and trying to get them to pay fines will cost far more than letting them beg.
Do any states still do that? Drug test welfare recipients, I mean. I have a feeling it all got quietly shelved. And even if they are doing it, none appears to be dumb enough to go berserk with the state credit card, unlike Bevin. Besides, the point isn’t reform or some such bollocks. The point is to kick as many people off Medicaid as possible.
The *dignity of work*, boy. Not that you’d know what that is. Or, in this case, the dignity of working without pay to stay alive, commonly known as slavery. As for the cost, it’s Bevin’s credit card as far as he’s concerned, and he’ll spend it any way he damn well likes.
Whenever he’s asked about some touchy subject — flights, campaign emails to teachers, Braidy — he has that look on his face that I used to have when teachers would ask how I was getting on with the project that was due tomorrow. And inside I’d be saying, “What the hell are they asking me about?”
The only difference being that Bevin does know what the hell he’s being asked about. Personally, Braidy is the one I’m most looking forward to seeing unravel. Russian money, likely illegal state investments, ghost building sites. It’s got all the ingredients of an Ian Fleming potboiler.
I predict a disappointing trading update sometime shortly after Nov. 5. But you’d have to be totally brainwashed to vote for any GOP candidate. They’re all cult followers.
An overused cliché, but clichés exist because they tell truths not lies. Which is probably also a cliché.
One of the many telltale signs of something being a cult is a leader with abilities that mere mortals can only dream of. Trump here, Johnson across the Pond, neither of them a single major achievement to their names, but listen to their followers, and you’d think they had superpowers.
Right. But isn’t becoming president an achievement? I mean, only 44 people have done it in this country before him. I’m not sure how many prime ministers we’ve had, but no matter how you do it, it’s hard to deny that it’s a noteworthy achievement.
Despite them, not because of them, and both were installed by the system. Wins by default don’t count.
I’ll accept that. And I’ll also accept that they’re both cult leaders, too, Johnson over Brexit and Trump over whatever the fuck it is that Trump is doing. And it’s worse over there than it is here, I’d argue. Brexiters are literally talking about eating grass rather than stay in the EU, despite the fact that they only have one stomach, and eating grass will result in them being brown bread.
But can you name a policy achievement for either of them that has improved life? I can’t think of a single one for either of them. Johnson has lost every vote he’s had since he took over, a record nobody in British history has ever come close to matching. Meanwhile Trump’s sole policy achievement made the entire country substantially poorer, if the budget deficit hawks are to be believed.
You’re making two mistakes: Deficit hawks aren’t real, and neither of these pillocks is aiming to make life better for anyone except themselves. Trump has had the means to improve lives for 70-odd years, and all he’s ever done is cheat people. Now, it’s not quite the same journey for Johnson, but he’s ended up in the same place. So, you’re holding both of them up to a standard that’s meaningless to them.
Maybe so. It has to be a cult I suppose because only by being a cult can Trump get away with it. To give him credit, he had the nous to realize how corrupt the Congressional GOP was, then make sure enough of them are in so deep there was no getting out of it. Ensure loyalty by making the truth so bad that if it ever came out, it would destroy all of them and the Republican Party along with it.
If that’s the case, then you can chalk that up as another achievement for Agent Orange. If they all knew — McConnell, Paul, Graham — as seems likely, but did nothing because they stood to gain personally and professionally, they’re all in it as deep as he is.
I think they call it mutually assured destruction, don’t they?
Which is how it’ll end up. Maybe leaving our supposed allies to be slaughtered will wake some of them up. But I doubt it.
Jesus, and I thought Bevin was a miserable git. •
