Althouse: "Because of his incontinent use of it, the rhetorical mustard that the president slathers on every subject has lost its tang."

July 16, 2020

"Because of his incontinent use of it, the rhetorical mustard that the president slathers on every subject has lost its tang."

Writes George Will, slathering his own rhetorical mustard in his new WaPo piece, "The nation is in a downward spiral. Worse is still to come."

Yeesh. That title. It's like a parody of the columns Bari Weiss was referring to when she wrote about the NYT "publishing our 4000th op-ed arguing that Donald Trump is a unique danger to the country and the world."

85 comments:

rhhardin said...: Tang was the triumph of the space age. It's easily removed from urine.; 7/16/20, 7:15 AM
Darrell said...: Since Will is enamored by baseball, let me use some baseball jargon--George is a useless fuckhead. His "Republicans" are Democrats, destined for the same ditch and dustbin of history.; 7/16/20, 7:19 AM
stevew said...: No kidding. And that sentence is written as if we all understand and know what he says to be true. I'm still getting plenty of tang from Donald Trump's commentary and speeches. Such tang is delicious as it incites the lamentations of such blowhards as George Will and the other "smart" conservative writers and commenters.; 7/16/20, 7:25 AM
Laslo Spatula said...: Bari. Barometer. Bariometer.

Sometimes you do need a weather man to see which way etc etc.

I am Laslo.; 7/16/20, 7:26 AM
traditionalguy said...: Mustard never loses its tang. Will lost his 20 years ago. Once a phony like will is seen for the phony that he is it is all over; 7/16/20, 7:27 AM
iowan2 said...: There's a name from the past searching for relevance. George Will. Exactly what insight has Will given any situation is the last 40 years?; 7/16/20, 7:27 AM
Todd said...: "The nation is in a downward spiral. Worse is still to come."

Sure because the actual "things" that Trump has done as President are SO over the line compared to every other President that the republic is LITERALLY at risk!

Even long time adults have lost all perspective and knowledge of history.

Get the vapors much?; 7/16/20, 7:28 AM
Laslo Spatula said...: Incontinent mustard.

Dripping from a dead dog's etc etc.

I am Laslo.; 7/16/20, 7:29 AM
MayBee said...: Incontinent mustard is definitely dirty baby diapers, and I don't want to test the tang.; 7/16/20, 7:29 AM
RNB said...: Will's writing falls under the "Bland is Better" bullet point on the "Aspects of Whiteness" wall chart.; 7/16/20, 7:31 AM
Laslo Spatula said...: "...on every subject has lost its tang."

It's what the Astronauts drank.

And, perhaps, Wu-Tang Clan.

Dolla-dolla bill yo, etc etc.

I am Laslo.; 7/16/20, 7:32 AM
CJinPA said...: I used to love reading George Will. I learned a lot from him. Like many Conservative Inc. writers, he's still fighting battles long lost with an army that has long deserted him.

Even now, with the American history he adores being shredded before his eyes, he can't bring himself to set aside superficial differences to support the one Republican providing a fulll-throated defense of our heritage.; 7/16/20, 7:32 AM
Howard said...: You people have not problem Hoovering up all the "mustard" Trump "slathers" on your faces. Good to the last dribble.; 7/16/20, 7:34 AM
Sebastian said...: "It's like a parody of the columns Bari Weiss was referring to"

Right. Self-Parody in this case. Especially odd after the Mount Rushmore speech.

Hey, George, considering the pretty comprehensive takedown of Joe Biden at the Rose Garden: any Joe position you care to defend?

And, George, why exactly is Trump to blame for "worse to come," compared to to Dems and riots and courts and CCP and WuFlu and -- .; 7/16/20, 7:35 AM
gspencer said...: George, don't you have some baseball game to take your kid to, and then later drone on endlessly about that game and your kid?; 7/16/20, 7:35 AM
rehajm said...: Will misses baseball and takes it out on us...; 7/16/20, 7:40 AM
Marcus Bressler said...: Stopped reading George Will in Obama's first term. He's another Never Trumper, RINO.

THEOLDMAN

These people pretend to fight but roll over to the Dems; 7/16/20, 7:43 AM
Mike Sylwester said...: Democracy Dies in Darkness!; 7/16/20, 7:48 AM
Bob Boyd said...: OK Poser; 7/16/20, 7:52 AM
pious agnostic said...: That mental image! Tangy mustard-yellow incontinence. Ugh.; 7/16/20, 7:53 AM
Anne in Rockwall, TX said...: Just curious Althouse. You have talked often about what you find blogable and what you don't consider, or are not interested in.

But is there a method to your searches? Do you have a routine or system, or do you just randomly check your regular sites?

Many readers have a "first site I check every morning, then second, and so on. And then click on links that may not be in our list of favorites. Do you?

You've explained many times what you find interesting. I was just curious how you find blogable material.; 7/16/20, 7:57 AM
Mike (MJB Wolf) said...: George Will never listened to what Trump was saying. He certainly hasn’t considered what actions Trump has taken. Will simply rejects Trump’s style, devoid of erudition and the faux dignity of the carefully crafted bow-tie “conservative.” Trump is boisterous and crude, and those superficial traits have made Will realize he’s not really a conservative at all, doesn’t care about religious liberty or low taxes or economic growth or restraining the administrative state. Nope. Will appreciates a smooth liar like Obama. Just ignore everything Will wrote between 1950 and 2015. George doesn’t believe in all that freedom shit he used to preach. Nevermind.; 7/16/20, 8:01 AM
Lucid-Ideas said...: Hi,

My name is George Will. You may remember me back in the day when 'conservative' editorializing voices such as myself existed in an environment where people still gave a damn. This was during a unique period of time when 'conservatives' such as myself had a super-small and extremely narrow set of issues that we clung to...none of which genuinely manifested itself as representing 'a hill worth dying on'. You may recall, won't you? You may recall that it was specifically this set of issues - not so wholeheartedly embraced - that caused us to lose many battles in the culture wars and has seemingly created the present situation in which we now reside.

But forget all that, I'm still relevant, despite my desire to return to the good ol' days, where my ability to police tone still mattered. To top it all off, I plan to vote democrat in November and so should you in the name of decency. You are decent, aren't you? Hello? Is anybody out there?; 7/16/20, 8:02 AM
Joe Smith said...: George thinks he's smarter than he is.

And never be 'that guy.'

"Bill, he's the guy who wears sneakers with his suits, right?"

"Jill in accounting...the one who dresses like a leopard?"

"Oh George, is he the bowtie guy?"

In his case, don't be the guy who looks like your mother dressed you for the ice cream social at the Ames, Iowa Grange circa 1952.; 7/16/20, 8:03 AM
JPS said...: Wow. Will and Larry Diamond of the Hoover Institution now back the theory that Stacey Abrams was robbed.

It's interesting to me that Will, whom I've read for about 35 years, is more offended by Trump's actions re Roger Stone (which and whom I don't like) than by the DNC's successful laundering of oppo research through the DOJ/FBI, or by the latter agencies' behavior in the quest to nail LTG Flynn, as a means to bring down the President.

Presidents come and go. Systems last longer, and the corruption of ours in the effort to save us from Trump well outweighs any corruption from Trump and his enablers.

I'm not impressed with Trump's leadership, if you want to call it that, in recent weeks. I remain absolutely appalled by the McCarthyite vanguard of the left, and the self-dealing, self-regarding, self-protecting political elite in both parties whose main problem with Trump is, He needs to do what I say and he's not! (There's a lieutenant colonel in the Army who recently announced his retirement, who's a nice example of that.); 7/16/20, 8:03 AM
Bob Boyd said...: Because of his incontinent use of it, the rhetorical mustard that the president slathers on every subject has lost its tang.

I bet he thought of that while his nurse was changing him before lunch.; 7/16/20, 8:04 AM
JPS said...: "This nation built the Empire State Building, groundbreaking to official opening, in 410 days during the Depression, and the Pentagon in 16 months during wartime. Today’s less serious nation is unable to competently combat a pandemic.... This is what national decline looks like."

Will used to be capable of much tighter reasoning than this. This absurd comparison amounts to, "How is it that we can put a man on the moon but we can't ___ [pick your pet cause here]?"

Construction is macroscopic. Viruses aren't. Human behavior helps spread viruses, and humans are - this is normally a good thing - hard to control.

A better indictment would be for the professorial Will to tell us about pandemics effectively combatted by the U.S. in the past, versus now, as evidence for our national decline.; 7/16/20, 8:08 AM
Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...: let's get Ted Nugent's thoughts on 'tang'; 7/16/20, 8:10 AM
Greg Hlatky said...: George Will is like Mark Russell, Eleanor Clift and Moxie: you're surprised they're still around.; 7/16/20, 8:12 AM
narciso said...: how about relish mr will

https://www.dailywire.com/news/nypd-chief-who-knelt-with-protesters-in-june-gets-injured-in-clash-with-protesters; 7/16/20, 8:13 AM
Ann Althouse said...: "Just curious Althouse. You have talked often about what you find blogable and what you don't consider, or are not interested in. But is there a method to your searches? Do you have a routine or system, or do you just randomly check your regular sites? Many readers have a "first site I check every morning, then second, and so on. And then click on links that may not be in our list of favorites. Do you? You've explained many times what you find interesting. I was just curious how you find blogable material."

I have a few things that I click on, but not in a particular order, just by feel: the NYT, WaPo, Memeorandum, Real Clear Politics, The New Yorker, New York Magazine, NPR, BBC, The Guardian, NY Post, Instapundit, Twitter, Facebook. Just by feel. I start clicking things to open in a separate tab, and then I have things I can read, by feel, and choose to blog if something jumps out at me as a different way into the article than the headline suggests. Some things I immediately know I will blog and go right to them, but then I have all my tabs that I can get to at leisure, as the spirit moves me. Something I used to say a lot in the early years of blogging, that I haven't mentioned in a long time but that has always been true for me — in 16 years of daily blogging — is that I do writing that is intrinsically rewarding for me and that creates energy for me. It's bound up with the process of reading and choosing what to read, and I do it for myself. Part of that is knowing that I have readers, but I have a confidence that what I'm doing in my own way is experienced as valuable by others. That's part of the reward and important to the energy that keeps this thing afloat. Part of my reading is reading the comments, and I do that to the extent that it gives me energy and a feeling of momentum.; 7/16/20, 8:15 AM
Char Char Binks, Esq. said...: Now is the winter of Trump's incontinence.; 7/16/20, 8:18 AM
Ann Althouse said...: How could Will have left the word "incontinence" in the sentence with "mustard"? He's obviously so prideful about his writing, and he's been stroked about his language prowess for years. Did he not notice that readers would picture mustard coming out of an ass or shit coming out of a mustard squirter? Or did he want to make us do that? And what's with the damned "tang"? Maybe he just has my number and got me to blog him. Ha ha. How weird would I need to be to think George Will was squirting tangy mustard signals out of his ass just for me?; 7/16/20, 8:20 AM
Temujin said...: Trump will be gone, in either 5 months or 4+ years. But the stink of wild-eyed Leftism will remain. And they and their new-found friends on the right will quickly pivot to focus on the new target that is 'a threat to Democracy'...whatever that means.; 7/16/20, 8:22 AM
Sebastian said...: "it gives me energy and a feeling of momentum"

Keep it up!; 7/16/20, 8:24 AM
Temujin said...: "How weird would I need to be to think George Will was squirting tangy mustard signals out of his ass just for me?"

That's why we love you.; 7/16/20, 8:26 AM
rhhardin said...: Know the four warning signs of incontinence.; 7/16/20, 8:28 AM
Darkisland said...: Anyone see the speech pdjt have at UPS in aeroplanes yesterday?

I did not but did read the transcript. Very tangy!

He announced a slew of regulatory cuts that will take approval times for infrastructure projects from decades to months. It will also put a lot of regulatory consultants out of work.

Is that kind of speech tangy enough?

Transcript here https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/donald-trump-atlanta-speech-transcript-on-rebuilding-infrastructure-july-15

He's also rounding up and deporting thousands of MS13 members as well as declaring them terrorists and going after them in El Salvador.

Not in the ups speech.

Is that tangy enough?

John Henry; 7/16/20, 8:28 AM
bagoh20 said...: Will is right about the current mess the country is in, as if anybody needs told that obviousness, but it's not Trump doing it. Trump is all that's currently standing in the way of the decline. People like Will don't have the moral clarity to see that they have joined forces with those who want to destroy everything they care about. If Trump is gone the country will only accelerate into chaos, and who will stop it then, the George Wills and Romneys? Yea, they are the warriors we can count on to fight. With all due respect, Mr. Will, Fuck off. You no longer serve this country. You harm it due to your pettiness, and self-regard.; 7/16/20, 8:35 AM
Greg Hlatky said...: If Will thinks that we return to normal once Trump leaves the scene, he's delusional.; 7/16/20, 8:44 AM
Anne in Rockwall, TX said...: One day, I would love to see Althouse live-blog her blogging.

I wonder what that would look like. Keeping a separate blog post going as other blog posts are being written and the process, the spark and the snark, the frustration and discovery.

Pure gold. Especially with Althouse's sense of humor and Meade providing cryptic commentary in the background.; 7/16/20, 8:45 AM
stlcdr said...: I believe George Will expects civilization to advance with more sophistication, where his writing is more widely appreciated.

It's as if he still doesn't understand that we will always be on the verge of barbarianism, as witnessed these past few weeks (months?) with the riotin' and lootin'.; 7/16/20, 8:52 AM
Larry J said...: George Will is struggling with delusions of relevance. Sure, he may still be invited to Washington parties but few people listen to him anymore.; 7/16/20, 8:53 AM
Howard said...: My best friend (a Trumper and personal friend of Ted Nugent) hates musturd. Hate. I'm using the word "hate" here, about musturd. Hate.

He appropriatly calls musturd baby shit, so I thing Will is absolutely spot on in his incontinent usage as to pertaining the infantile Trump's lack of sphincter management.; 7/16/20, 8:55 AM
Howard said...: John Henry: it's not only tangy, it's low in carbs and high in vitamin C, B12, ascorbic acid, calcium, citric acid, fructose, lactic acid, magnesium, zinc, potassium, sodium, fat and protein, perfect for your caveman diet.; 7/16/20, 8:58 AM
Wince said...: "...the rhetorical mustard that the president slathers on every subject has lost its tang."

Mean Mister Mustard

Mean Mister Mustard sleeps in the park
Shaves in the dark trying to save paper
Sleeps in a hole in the road
Saving up to buy some clothes
Keeps a ten-bob note up his nose
Such a mean old man
Such a mean old man

His sister Pam works in a shop
She never stops, she's a go-getter
Takes him out to look at the queen
Only place that he's ever been
Always shouts out something obscene
Such a dirty old man
Dirty old man; 7/16/20, 9:02 AM
Nichevo said...: Did he not notice that readers would picture mustard coming out of an ass or shit coming out of a mustard squirter? Or did he want to make us do that? And what's with the damned "tang"? Maybe

Maybe you're teasing us again, Betty Boop? Obviously GW wishes us to associate PDT's supposedly uncontrollable verbal flow with incontinence. But you're just turning it on him. I'm for PDT and against GW, but his usage is clear. He intends for you to be disgusted by the President, not by him.

You should confront the dilemma more squarely, if you wish to say that Will blackens himself by flinging pitch (or poo).; 7/16/20, 9:06 AM
mtrobertslaw said...: Will has been very successful in parlaying superficial knowledge into a career. In reality, he is an arrogant fool.; 7/16/20, 9:08 AM
rehajm said...: It's interesting to me that Will, whom I've read for about 35 years, is more offended by Trump's actions re Roger Stone (which and whom I don't like) than by the DNC's successful laundering of oppo research through the DOJ/FBI, or by the latter agencies' behavior in the quest to nail LTG Flynn, as a means to bring down the President.

Worth repeating. In that context Will's whinging about Trump mustard exposes Will as just another corrupt player.; 7/16/20, 9:15 AM
rehajm said...: Trump had Trump Water- was there ever Trump Mustard?; 7/16/20, 9:16 AM
The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...: "Because of his incontinent use of it, the rhetorical mustard that the president slathers on every subject has lost its tang."

I used to use black pepper, now I use red pepper. Trump's rhetorical mustard has anchored itself in the public consciousness. Maybe that's why Will no longer tastes the tang. Sorry, George. No matter who wins the elections, there's no turning back.; 7/16/20, 9:27 AM
n.n said...: I guess it speaks well of America, and Americans, that the protests, dysfunction, and collateral damage did not happened when diversity was asserted to be a motive. Although, the acutely phobic reaction to our first Orange... orange President, has to account for something.; 7/16/20, 9:36 AM
rcocean said...: Since we're talking about religion, I've never been a member of the George WIll cult. Even when Will was posing and pretending to be "Mr. Conservative", I enjoyed Doonesbury's parody/attacks on him. He was always a pompous bow-tied prig, who spent too much time peppering his columns with quotes from Burke, and too little time on insightful analysis. I always enjoyed Bob Novak or Pat Buchanan much more.

Will ran out of gas about 20 years ago, and he's been running on fumes ever since. I don't know who his audience is. People over 65? He was really a creature of the old Media Monopoly, we watched and read him, because the Media Monopolists at ABC/WaPo put him out as the token conservative. Once the internet & Fox News came along, he was finished.; 7/16/20, 9:40 AM
rcocean said...: Like Kristol, I always knew George Will was a Fake-con. But, like Kristol, i never realized till Trump came along that he was actually a liberal Democrat with a few conservative positions. What liars they both were, pretending to be Right-wingers. I guess $$ makes people do funny things.; 7/16/20, 9:42 AM
Francisco D said...: Anyone remember when George Will criticized Ronald Reagan by saying that the problem in America is not that the American people are taxed too much?

Rush Limbaugh was on a Sunday AM talk panel with Will several years later and brought that quote up. Will's indignant attitude and denial that his words were not what they clearly meant was evidence that Will was never a conservative.; 7/16/20, 10:17 AM
Inga said...: Meh, I’ve pretty much started to not give one damn what Trump does or doesn’t do. He’s a has been and his time is coming to an end. People are eager to move forward out of this nightmarish time.; 7/16/20, 10:37 AM
Sam L. said...: I stopped reading George Will yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrs ago.; 7/16/20, 10:47 AM
John henry said...: Something else tangy, zesty, and delicious that I forgot to mention

The Hong Kong sanctions he signed Monday or Tuesday.

No special treatment for Hong Kong until it is autonomous again.

Sanctions against companies like Disney and NBA just by way of no harm.

Super tasty. Super tangy.

John Henry; 7/16/20, 11:10 AM
Mary Beth said...: Theory - "incontinent" was chosen just to remind the faithful of the pee tape.; 7/16/20, 11:11 AM
John henry said...: I learned about all 3 from Carlos Osweda.

I think I had heard about the Hong Kong sanctions but Carlos pointed me to the text which nobody else had.

PDJT getting stuff done. Action not talk, like biden/Obama

John Henry; 7/16/20, 11:13 AM
Bilwick said...: So who does Will propose stand between us (i.e., those who want to live in a basically free society) and the Left? Mittens or some other Vichy Republicans?; 7/16/20, 11:13 AM
Joe Smith said...: "Did he not notice that readers would picture mustard coming out of an ass or shit coming out of a mustard squirter?"

In San Francisco, some people pay extra for that.

: ); 7/16/20, 11:30 AM
The Crack Emcee said...: The President's all over the place on race, unable or unwilling to shed his white pride for the sake of votes.

It's hard to watch him.; 7/16/20, 11:37 AM
Gospace said...: JPS said...

Construction is macroscopic. Viruses aren't. Human behavior helps spread viruses, and humans are - this is normally a good thing - hard to control.

Minor nit- Humans, generally, throughout history, with a few exceptions, have been easy to control.

Americans- since the concept of Americans came about, have been hard to control. Seems we have this odd concept that the governors rule only with the consent of the governed.; 7/16/20, 11:54 AM
Joe Smith said...: @ Crack Emcee

Should he not be proud? Aren't you proud to be black? If not, you should be.; 7/16/20, 11:58 AM
RMc said...: Trump will be gone, in either 5 months or 4+ years.

Not necessarily. I wouldn't be at all surprised if he lost in 2020 and then won again in 2024. (The new Grover Cleveland, ladies and gentlemen!); 7/16/20, 12:03 PM
Narr said...: Oh what the heck, I'll pile on too.

George Will is an overrated doodyhead. (Bowties and baseball, ugh.)

I used to read him.

Narr
But that's all over now.; 7/16/20, 12:06 PM
narciso said...: apologize for western civilization, really now, adopt the asanti way,; 7/16/20, 12:25 PM
JPS said...: Gospace, 11:54:

Maybe. My first thought was, you're right; then I started what-abouting. In any case the rejoinder made me smile, so thanks.; 7/16/20, 12:52 PM
Jim at said...: Yes. The country is in a mess.

Let's blame the guy who's been in the White House for 3.5 years and instead elect a guy who's been in DC since 1973 to fix it.; 7/16/20, 1:11 PM
Drago said...: Inga: "Meh, I’ve pretty much started to not give one damn what Trump does or doesn’t do."

After having your hundreds of conspiracy hoaxes exposed, making you look even more like the lemming idiot you are, I am not surprised you are taking a break from pushing the newest hoaxes and lies.; 7/16/20, 1:23 PM
Rory said...: This is a ten in the deck-chairs-on-the-Titanic competition. George needs to be airdropped into Portland, around sundown.; 7/16/20, 1:29 PM
Skeptical Voter said...: Well George Will loves to write baseball. But he's kind of lost the velocity on his heater this days; can't make the 6-4-2 double play anymore either. Writer wise, he's had his cup of coffee in the bigs, time to send him back down to 2-A ball---maybe on a copy desk in Mudville Michigan.; 7/16/20, 1:37 PM
readering said...: Will has a way of writing that is idiosyncratic but enjoyably readable if you get into its groove. But this site attracts commenters with Will derangement syndrome.; 7/16/20, 1:47 PM
Francisco D said...: The Crack Emcee said...The President's all over the place on race, unable or unwilling to shed his white pride for the sake of votes.

Do you mean that he doesn't pander?

I am starting to understand Biden's view that if you vote for Trump you 'aint Black.; 7/16/20, 1:48 PM
bagoh20 said...: Trump is finally doing the things Will has railed about his whole career. He's clearly been a fraud all that time. He only called for those things when he knew they wouldn't happen.; 7/16/20, 1:51 PM
daskol said...: It figures that George Will would write the column so straight as to appear parody of Bari Weiss' prediction, because Will and his bowtie and uncanny resemblance to Arvid appears to be parodying the out of touch inside the beltway thought leader.; 7/16/20, 2:43 PM
JAORE said...: "How weird would I need to be to think George Will was squirting tangy mustard signals out of his ass just for me?"

Do not ask for whom the tangy mustard ass squirts. It squirts for thee.; 7/16/20, 4:29 PM
walter said...: So he's voting for Biden, right?
STFU George.
Put that incontinent mustard on a dog and eat it.
Useless.
(Show Crack the money!); 7/16/20, 4:47 PM
LA_Bob said...: George Will intensely dislikes Trump, and this slathers mustard over much of his commentary.

But he also dislikes civil forfeiture, so he can't be all bad.

https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/columnists/george-f-will-a-second-pandemic-virus-opportunism/article_eaa9ab3e-9413-5da1-a536-fca661973aff.html; 7/16/20, 4:55 PM
Roy Lofquist said...: Blogger rhhardin said...
Tang was the triumph of the space age. It's easily removed from urine.
7/16/20, 7:15 AM

I remember it well. The most popular flavor was Prune Tang.; 7/16/20, 5:01 PM
effinayright said...: Blogger rhhardin said...
Tang was the triumph of the space age. It's easily removed from urine.
*******************

The other was teflon.

Before its adoption as a coating on stadium seats, they needed spatulas to scrape teenage girls out of them after a Beatles concert. It put a lot of guys out of very desirable work.; 7/16/20, 7:54 PM
Doug said...: Will decided in 2008 that he liked Georgetown cocktail parties more than he liked conservative principals.; 7/16/20, 9:06 PM
Narr said...: Only America could send men to the Moon to play golf and drink Tang.

Narr
Fuck Yeah!; 7/16/20, 9:40 PM
Leigh said...: Pardon me, George. Do you have any Gray Poupon?; 7/17/20, 11:16 AM