Chelsea Handler, human urinal, is at it again:

Handler Sends Crude Tweet Suggesting Lindsey Graham Is Gay, Getting Blackmailed

Smirk.

BTW, who cares what Chelsea Handler thinks? I like shooting fish in a barrel as much as anybody, but how much damage can such a person do to the American soul?

You knew this was coming:

https://legalfling.io/

We may never again see a non-celebrity POTUS Trump (& now Oprah) could be just the beginning The social network reach of widely known people can so easily be repurposed for campaigning that it’ll be near impossible to compete as a normal politician:

https://twitter.com/maxbrody/status/951151932160094208

Trump Derangement Syndrome:

https://nypost.com/2018/01/09/this-is-what-happens-when-potus-tweets-out-your-email-address/

...but how much damage can such a person do to the American soul? ~ Crid at January 11, 2018 1:37 AM

Erosion destroys slowly. The rot sets in. In the short-term, she can do only slight damage. Over time, she and others like her can do great damage.

How will the Devil come? "He will be attractive! He'll be nice and helpful. He'll get a job where he influences a great God-fearing nation. He'll never do an evil thing! He'll never deliberately hurt a living thing. He will just bit by little bit lower our standards where they are important. Just a tiny little bit. Just coax along flash over substance. Just a tiny little bit."

Civilizations don't fall because it's inevitable that they do. They don't fall because they become too lofty. They fall because the price of defending them becomes too high; it's too much work. No one is left willing to do the heavy lifting that defending a civilization requires. It's easier to take the handout, laugh at the joke, watch the gross-out comedy, read the bestseller, to accept the party line - to ignore the man behind the curtain. Bread and circuses.

Imagine filing this claim.

> Over time, she and others
> like her can do great damage.

Not to you, though, right?

> They fall because the price of
> defending them becomes too high;
> it's too much work.

Anonymous electronic ridicule of a fading C/D-level comedienne as 'human urinal, at it again' takes work? I recommend again this podcast with Big Mac. Handler is merely contemptible, not beneath contempt: Her critics ought to be able to fault her with clear and convincing language.

> easier to take the handout,
> laugh at the joke, watch the
> gross-out comedy, read the
> bestseller

And, I affirm, to watch the basic cable TV show. This is exactly what happened with Trump: He doesn't read books, news, or seek fresh information of any kind: Neither did his voters, and here we are.

From the top, then...

The problem with this kind of bitching is that the bitcher imagines himself to be so far removed from the mundane imperfection of the man on the street that he needn't establish credentials of flesh out the reasoning. (Handler can do *great damage*.) The bitcher is therefore concerned with the feelings of distant masses of people who he imagines to be inferiors.

The bitcher isn't concerned with refine or updated his own sources of information, or checking their applicability. The bitcher nonetheless is desperate to tell *others* what to pay attention to... Y'know, the little people.

So we get transparently illiterate chatter about "fake news." Macron is trying outlaw "fake news" in France. Of course he is... No other culture has America's dedication to free speech.

Do you sincerely think bitching about 'human urinals, capable of great damage' is any more enlightened?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-mLIdLZZeI

[Chorus: Humphrey]
I'm on the drug, I'm on the drug
I'm on the drug that killed River Phoenix
I'm on the drug, I'm on the drug
I'm on the drug that killed River Phoenix

[Verse 1: Ron]
I saw his body thrashing 'round
I saw his pulse rate going down
I saw him in convulsive throws
I said, "I'll have one of those"

From Portland, some reporters doing the smelly lifting.

Portland's top brass said it was OK to swipe your garbage--so we grabbed theirs.

You'll never believe what happens next. Ok, fine, the mayor believes they may have committed a crime.

http://www.wweek.com/portland/article-1616-rubbish.html-2

"On his laptop, Therrien started digging. He found a securities filing saying Vista had merged with a company called That Marketing Solution Inc. After paying a few dollars to an online people-search service, he got its president on the line. “You sold my personal information to a bunch of thugs,” Therrien recalls telling the man. “I want to know why, and I want to know what you’re going to do about it.”"

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2017-12-06/millions-are-hounded-for-debt-they-don-t-owe-one-victim-fought-back-with-a-vengeance

Do you sincerely think bitching about 'human urinals, capable of great damage' is any more enlightened? ~ Crid at January 11, 2018 6:27 AM

I've already expressed dismay at the tone and quality of our political discourse. And calling someone a "human urinal" only serves to further degrade the tone.

And, yes, Handler's insinuations about Graham also serve to degrade the tone of our political discourse. Who cares is he's closeted? Isn't the argument of Handler's fellow travelers that sexual orientation no longer matters and is not a legitimate avenue of attack?

My concern stated above is that the insightful, subversive comedy of Lenny Bruce and George Carlin has ushered in the toilet humor of Martin Lawrence. And toilet humor and vulgarity have become mainstream acceptable. Pussy hat anyone? Vagina Monologues? Puppetry of the Penis?

Standards are being lowered, bit by bit. What happens when they hit bottom. Bruce and Carlin made a point with their shocking language and topics. Lawrence and too many of today's comedians deliver the shock, not the insight.

And, yes, Trump is a symptom of those lowered standards. As were Hillary and Bernie. And even Obama. Neither Trump nor Bernie was a fully-formed candidate, they were poster-children for the party's base. Hillary's main appeal was in being a woman, not in her actual ideas or presumed contribution as a president. Obama was inexperienced to the point of naïveté, but he ticked all the right boxes. He looked the part, as the people in the party's base envisaged the part.

Warren Harding was nominated because someone in the Republican Party said he looked like a president was supposed to look. No one cared about his ideas, his qualifications, his politics, anything; he looked the part. One would have thought his scandal-plagued administration would have taught voters that presidential candidates must be chosen wisely. Apparently not.

Hillary was a woman and thus appealed to those who needed to see a woman in the office, actual accomplishments be damned. At least Trump used a populist appeal to generate support, but even then his bona fides for the office were thin to the point of being transparent.

And now we're discussing Oprah as a serious contender for the presidency.

'nuff said.

Oprah? #SheKnew should be an automatic disqualifier.

Here's the publisher of a partial list of the Weinsteinian Matrix offenders:

https://www.thecut.com/2018/01/moira-donegan-i-started-the-media-men-list.html

Called the "Shitty Media Men" list. I see references to it, but no actual link to that specific list. This might be of use:

https://www.fastcompany.com/40489989/heres-the-ever-growing-list-of-men-accused-of-sexual-harassment-since-weinstein

Remember this when people tout Kamala Harris for president.

From what I know of Chelsea Handler, she has made an entire career out of being a personal and professional train wreck. Sort of like Brett Butler, except at least Brett Butler was funny.

To anybody who thinks my crack about Chelsea Handler was awful, behold: a truly vile way to treat people:

Man captures video of "patient dumping" outside Baltimore hospital

> also serve to degrade the tone
> of our political discourse.

Tone ≠ efficacy. It ain't the rudeness towards Handler (or hears towards whomever) that's a problem, it's the presumption that describing them as beneath your contempt means you don't have to articulate their errors. Saying "fake news" means I'm never going to do my homework.

Once you've done your homework you can call people whatever you want.

"Tone of our political discourse" sounds pretentiously highbrow

... it's the presumption that describing them as beneath your contempt means you don't have to articulate their errors. Saying "fake news" means I'm never going to do my homework. ~ Crid at January 11, 2018 2:58 PM

I really hate the phrase "fake news" and could live happy never hearing it again.

You're right that it conveys nothing - except that the utterer disagrees with what has been said and is dismissing the argument out of hand.

"Tone of our political discourse" sounds pretentiously highbrow ~ Crid at January 11, 2018 2:58 PM

It does, doesn't it?

Tone does have something to do with it however. The "presumption that describing them as beneath your contempt means you don't have to articulate their errors" means we don't discuss, we sneer. We take on a tone that this discussion is beneath us and that we've been dragooned into explaining calculus to chimpanzees.

While the description of Handler as a "human urinal" is sneering contempt, so was Handler's smug insinuation of something amiss with Graham's sexuality. Instead of addressing his comments and his arguments, she decided an unfounded personal attack was the way to go. Perhaps she deserved a little of her own back.

> Perhaps she deserved a little
> of her own back.

Most all of us do... I got nothin' against makin' fun of Chelsea Handler...

But I don't know what her larger crime is. (For a short time, she and I even worked at the same company, but I've never consumed any of her product.) When people go straight to the urinal descriptions, one might assume she was famous for scorching retarded children with fire.

Yet still, I don't understand the popular presumption that persuasion, with its learning and growth, are only or best accomplished when people are feeling safe and flattered.

For most every learning experience of my life, it was quite the opposite... It bad news, and it was insulting and threatening.

"And, I affirm, to watch the basic cable TV show. This is exactly what happened with Trump: He doesn't read books, news, or seek fresh information of any kind: Neither did his voters, and here we are."

Amazing how certain you are. You are truly the owner of unique and scintillating insight.

Please evaluate Hillary and her voters.

"it's the presumption that describing them as beneath your contempt means you don't have to articulate their errors. "

Of course. But there also is the problem that inventing bullshit requires a lot less effort than refuting it. Our reluctance to put fabulists in the credibility penalty box has a lot to do with how we got to be where we are.