January 25, 2023

I laughed at this WaPo headline: "Biden’s devious plan to break the MAGA fever just might work."

That seems like more of the usual fluff. But it turns out the "devious plan" is to spend "enormous amounts" of federal money. That's not crediting Biden with cleverness — as I was expecting. 

But "devious" doesn't mean devilish. It means by way of a winding path — circuitous, rambling, deviating. The "-vi-" is key. It's the Latin "via" (that is, "way").

Here's how Robert Louis Stevenson used it:

I READ, dear friend, in your dear face 
Your life’s tale told with perfect grace; 
The river of your life, I trace 
Up the sun-chequered, devious bed 
To the far-distant fountain-head.         
  
Not one quick beat of your warm heart, 
Nor thought that came to you apart, 
Pleasure nor pity, love nor pain 
Nor sorrow, has gone by in vain; 
  
But as some lone, wood-wandering child  
Brings home with him at evening mild 
The thorns and flowers of all the wild, 
From your whole life, O fair and true 
Your flowers and thorns you bring with you!

31 comments:

n.n said...

Does WaPo pooh pooh on a great America or again? Americans, second, one scalp, head, at a time.

takirks said...

Magical thinking.

These idiots all think that their opposition stems from the same sort of astroturfed bullshit they themselves use. The reality? It's not the "Firearms Industry" that supports the NRA which then brainwashes the masses; it's the masses themselves who buy the guns because they perceive the need to do so.

Ironically, in most cases, because of the same policies the magical thinkers put in place.

It's purest projection and magical thinking; my own "movements" and "causes" are derived from things I do to create and nurture them; therefore, everything that opposes me must be derived from someone else doing the same thing.

The reality that people don't trust the government and don't want the idiot class intervening on their behalf? That never occurs to them, and it won't, right up until the nooses start going around necks. The French aristos never considered that the masses in pre-Revolutionary France might not love them, that they might have had options that didn't include the aristos being around...

Same as it always was, same as it will ever be.

hombre said...

Spending "'enormous amounts' of federal money," is not a plan. It's a Democrat obsession.

D.D. Driver said...

Why is this a winning strategy against Trump? Trump got into a pissing match with his own party because he wanted to dole out bigger freebies in 2020. Trump turned Reagan's GOP into the party of welfare queens. Dumb strategy.

Two-eyed Jack said...

Bruce Dickinson: Guess what? I got a fever! And the only prescription... is more cowbell!

madAsHell said...

Biden has a plan??

Tofu King said...

There is no such thing as Federal money. It's the taxpayers money. If they keep printing more it devalues the dollar and takes from our savings.

Saint Croix said...

Demonic is Funnier

Sebastian said...

"it turns out the "devious plan" is to spend "enormous amounts" of federal money"

Say it ain't so! But then again, aren't all Dem plans devious forms of vote buying?

rcocean said...

I love that poem. Its 10x more interesting than Joe Biden's "Plan".

Mr Wibble said...

Jack beat me to it.

I'VE GOT MAGA FEVEH,AND THE ONLY CURE IS MORE SPENDING!

Saint Croix said...

6:01 dude

that's what Blue Oyster Cult needs!

Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...

It's sad how the collective lair left love their dear leader- Crook Biden.

Saint Croix said...

"the MAGA fever"

we're not deplorable

we're just sick

because we didn't take that vaccine

awwwwwwww

WaPo, always helpful, always healing.

You're ready to go to med school, WaPo.

"Make your baby disappear. $300!"

Yukon Cornelius said...

"Tortuous" would be a better fit for that headline than "devious." Both have the meaning of complex twists and turns, but tortuous has the added benefit of sounding like "torture" (although utterly unrelated) -- and arguably the Biden economy is tantamount to torture for many people. Perhaps a better headline would be "Biden's tortuous plan to break the MAGA fever is torturous."

Lurker21 said...

The cunning plan is spending more money we don't have? Biden really is that stupid? WaPo is that stupid?

But I really doubt Republicans were that upset by Trump spending money, or that Reagan was any great deficit hawk.

Curious George said...

"Biden's devious plan..."

The guy is a potted plant. Let's stop this shit that he has goals, plans, desires, agendas. He is a retarded puppet for others. His plan is to get his pudding and not shit his pants. Wait, not his plan. His demented hope.

Michael K said...

Dopey Driver weighs in with another nonsensical comment.

Trump got into a pissing match with his own party because he wanted to dole out bigger freebies in 2020. Trump turned Reagan's GOP into the party of welfare queens. Dumb strategy.

The only 2020 "freebies" were the Covid rescue grants that were needed because of the insane policy to shutdown the economy. A few billionaires made out like bandits while the middle class suffered. I don't agree with the shutdown policy but Trump was driven by the crazies around him like Fauci and Birx. Scott Atlas tried to bring a bit of reality but they were having none of it. DeSantis listened to him.

traditionalguy said...

The last 60 years or so the GOP championed balanced budgets and accused Dems of overspending. But every new GOP President then spent like a drunken sailor on military and new entitlement programs. Boy did that piss off the Dems. When they got back in it was too late to run up the deficit any higher

Now the splurge on free money for all for the Covid shut down has opened the Dems eyes. Now no amount of spending is too much. And when DJT comes back in 2024 he will be the one that cannot spend much. Sneaky Biden has flipped the field.

walter said...

Demented.

Drago said...

DD Driver: "Trump turned Reagan's GOP into the party of welfare queens. Dumb strategy."

LOL

Tip ran circles around Reagan and his staff. The democraticals promised (wink wink) $3 in spending cuts for every $1 in tax cuts.

Shocker: they never delivered.

DD Driver "forgets" lots of relevant facts. He's a slightly more sophisticated LLR Chuck who himself is a slightly more sophisticated gadfly who is a slightly more sophisticated Inga.

Kassaar said...

I, non-native speaker, associated "devious" with duplicitous, insincere. So I looked it up to be sure. Wiktionary says:
1. Cunning or deceiving, not straightforward or honest, not frank.
2. Roundabout, circuitous, deviating from the direct or ordinary route.

BUMBLE BEE said...

Deviant describes the entire Biden family perfectly.

stlcdr said...

Spend more money! Haaahhahaha! That’ll learn us!

Tina Trent said...

Devious bed

Does that mean he meanders from woman to woman, or garden to garden?

I'm not a fan of Stevenson. I don't think he uses words to great effect.

Sorta like WaPo.

JPS said...

Sir Galahad: Let us taunt it! It may become so cross that it will make a mistake.

King Arthur: Like what?

For some bizarre reason, I keep expecting the WaPo to have more professional pride than this. Democrats doing what they do is part of a devious plan by that cunning mastermind Joe Biden? Clearly Republicans underestimate him their peril.

Now I'm thinking of Weekend at Bernie's, when Bernie (being dead) makes no response to the latest exciting offer on his Maserati, and Andrew McCarthy's Larry excitedly asks the buyer, "Is this guy a tough negotiator or what?"

Mike Sylwester said...

Democracy Dies in Darkness!

Marcus Bressler said...

This self-appointed Grammar Nazi knows that you can find several dictionaries that support the definition you've known all your life and several more that tell you different. I have given up and no longer get upset at writers who use the wrong word choices (or usage). Decimate. Destiny. Data. And that's just a few Ds

MarcusB. THEOLDMAN

n.n said...

Shared responsibility through progressive prices?

Slavic Spring to sustain Obama's investment in the World War Spring series?

Green deals for green people?

Immigration reform in lieu of emigration reform and "our Posterity"?

Keep women affordable, available, and taxable, and the "burden" of evidence aborted, cannibalized, sequestered in darkness?

Mengele, eat your heart out?

n.n said...

Democracy Dies in Darkness!

Demos-cracy is aborted at The Twilight Fringe, under an ethical religion, with "patriarchal"/"matriarchal" blessing.

Rocco said...

WaPo headline:
"Biden’s devious plan to break the MAGA fever just might work."

I hope his plan starts with plenty of rest, drinking fluids, an ice pack or two, and ibuprofen.