Indivisible

Just when you think MT Greene can’t say anything dumber, she comes out with her suggestion of a “National Divorce.” I guess she’d know all about it because she is not only divorced from her former husband, but from reality. Or maybe it had been a while since the State of the Union Speech and nobody was talking about her for a hot second.

While I don’t think this will ever happen, not in a thousand years, it IS an intriguing proposition. Many others have opined on how exactly the Red portion of the country is going to survive without the welfare dollars from the Blue portion. It’s been well documented that Red states take in far more in federal dollars than they contribute, which is heartily ironic, given their penchant for speechifying on taking handouts.

Personally, I’d look forward to seeing an improvement in test scores across the board, once the states with the lowest marks in education secede. Let them all go to Sunday school. The only thing they’ll be prepared to do is enter a life of menial jobs and servitude.

And I don’t think this grand experiment will last very long, were it to come to pass. Once the next pandemic hits, without those mean old Blue States to develop and distribute vaccinations, they’ll die off like mold in the sun.

What really gets me curious, though, is how exactly the country would get divided up? I don’t see a way that the Blue States can remain contiguous. The biggest obstacle is a north-to-south lineup of Red States that creates an impermeable barrier. Look at North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas, all stacked atop one another. Where’s the weak link that can be turned Blue?

So either the Blue States of America would not be able to abut, or they’d have to create three countries… Blue East, Blue West, and Red. And maybe Texas. They’re not known for playing well with others.

I’m sure there would have to be some further slicing and dicing within the states themselves. This would be the perfect time for Eastern Washington and Oregon to go and unite with Idaho. Perhaps Dallas, Houston, and Austin would want to break off from the rest of Texas. Florida may also want to claim independence just because no one else wants to be associated with them.

There would have to be treaties from the start, to allow free trade and passage amongst all entities of the former USA, although I don’t know how long they would last. I can see them as the first casualty to fall for the cause of international lib-owning. Before long, the plains states will resemble the terrain from the Mad Max movies. Maybe someone can build a tunnel from Illinois to California. OR, maybe everyone would just have to get used to driving east to west and back by way of Canada.

Anyway, it’ll never happen. It’s just one more way for political pinheads to say, “Hey, look at me!”

Headline News

How is this even a story?

Ah, it’s from Fox “News.” Why would any Democratic governor ask a Democratic Senator to resign, short of criminal activity? And who says the Governor has the authority to tell a Senator to do anything? All over a health issue, one that can be addressed? It’s not like he doesn’t know what he’s doing. (That would be Senator Feinstein.) Depression can be treated, unlike the conditions afflicting people like MT Greene, Lauren Boebert, Gym Jordan, Matt Gaetz, et al., who look at meanness and ignorance as virtues. When are they going to resign for being dimwits who have yet to deliver a tangible benefit to their (non-wealthy) constituents? I’ll take an honest guy like Fetterman, slowed as he may be, over those other malicious clowns every day of the week.

The real story: TFG claims the Democratic President didn’t fix Republican destruction of rail safety regulations fast enough to avert a tragedy.

Just remember the GOP talking points:

·         When a Democratic politician doesn’t show up at an emergency site, he’s abandoning the people.

·         When he does, it’s dismissed as just a photo op.

Did you see where Republicans are now claiming that East Palestine is being ignored because of racism against white people?
Never in my life have I heard people twisting themselves into such knots in order to claim victimhood. I will definitely agree that they are victims of believing their own bullshit.

I’m glad that there is a concerted effort to get this footage into additional hands. The only way a distorted edit works is if no one ever sees the raw footage. I think Fox “News” wants to give James O’Keefe something to do, now that he has all this time on his hands after being fired from the much-disgraced Veritas Project.

I’ll be curious to hear the word salad sure to issue forth from Speaker McCarthy, as he tries to come up with a logical reason why he can’t give the footage to anyone but Fox.

Oh, who am I kidding? They don’t even try to hide their shady dealing anymore.

It was with much sadness that I read about Scott Adams going ‘round the bend like that. Dilbert has always been one of my favorite comic strips. As an almost 25-year veteran of office work, it was like he had spies telling him everything that went on in my world.

I was a regular reader of Adams’ blog a few years back. He had some interesting ideas on how TFG was getting so popular and actually predicted his win in the presidential election. He seemed to think TFG was some kind of genius at communication, tricking people into assigning positive qualities to the open-ended statements he used. I thought it was an interesting hypothesis at the time but after watching the guy since 2015, I’m back to thinking he is an idiot.

I suspect Adams had to have known this would blow up the way it did. Maybe he was ready to retire from cartooning and wanted to go out with a bang. He wasn’t stupid, by far. He had to have known that such obviously racist comments would end his career. Either that or he wants to live out his life by entertaining the MAGAs, Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, and the Klan.

And as a pre-emptive strike, for when the inevitable defenses come out (like from Elon) about how Adams is a victim of “cancel culture,” let me reiterate that people have always been responsible for the fallout from what they say. It’s not new, it’s just the way it is. When you say something wildly offensive, you have to deal with the consequences.

Fox Libel and Other Headline News

I’ve been watching with great amusement the story of Fox “News” being sued by the Dominion voting machine company over their post-election broadcasts, in which in one of many whacko conspiracy theories they pushed, Dominion machines were programmed to switch votes from Biden to Trump.

As a result of the discovery process of their suit, Dominion has obtained and released text messages that prove that Fox “News” on-air talent and management knew full well that this accusation was unsubstantiated bullshit.

This matters bigly… in order to sue successfully for libel, you have to prove malicious intent. Most parties plead ignorance. Normally, that would be a slam dunk with any case involving Fox, but here, the intent is clear. By knowingly broadcasting a damaging lie, there’s no other reading of the facts that eliminate malice.

It’s not like they were spreading allegations of runaway decency and fairness; they were making accusations of election tampering they knew to be untrue. This accusation caused damage to business and reputation. If that’s not malicious activity, I’d like to know what is.

This information is even more damaging to Fox than if they “didn’t know” the accusations were false. It shows that they were more concerned with upsetting their viewers with the truth than telling them lies they wanted to hear. It was a conscious choice. And no matter how much backpedaling the talking heads do, the film doesn’t lie. They wholeheartedly pushed this story out there.

Naturally, Fox is falling back on the freedom of speech defense, which tracks with Republican tendencies. Whenever they can’t defend their speech, they fall back on defending their right to speak it.

How long will it be before they once again defend themselves in court by claiming they’re not really a news service, they’re an entertainment channel? That seems to be their go-to Get Out of Jail Free card.

I’ll be quite interested to see how this thing shakes out. Fox finally went too far, by smearing an entity that can demonstrate loss and has enough money to go toe-to-toe with a major media outlet. If Fox knows what’s good for them, they’ll stick to hazy unspecified conspiracy theories in the future. Here’s to hoping the financial penalties make this lapse of ethics really hurt.

Headline News

Now onto some headlines I saw last week on my news home page:

More bullshit from Fox “News.” Wasn’t this Rep. Ronny Jackson the same guy that sent out that wildly discredited health report on TFG? You know, the one that looked like it was written like a 2^nd grader doing his own report card because he was too scared to bring the real one home to Mom and Dad?

I heard some of the details on the radio… they published Biden’s actual stats for BP, bloodwork, and such. There’s no reason to believe the numbers are untrue, other than that they conflict with Fox’s predetermined view that Biden has one foot in the grave and the other on a banana peel. This is just one more of the hundreds of examples of Republicans accusing Democrats of things Republicans have already done. And the “details left out” of TFG’s medical report were, basically, all of them.

This is another example of Republicans’ predilection for arguing either side of the same issue. All over conservative media, the standard line about East Palestine OH has been “Biden hasn’t shown up” or “Buttigieg hasn’t shown up.” But when someone does show up, the National Review calls it a “publicity stunt.”

As far as I’m concerned, all such appearances are publicity stunts. When was the last time there was a crisis somewhere, a flood, a tornado, a mass tragedy, and someone said, “If only there was a politician here!” I guarantee that if someone from the Administration had shown up right off the bat, Republicans would not only call it a publicity stunt but decry the inevitable traffic tie-ups and lock-downs that go with any presidential visit. You can’t win with these guys, they will argue any side of a point as long as the Democrats are on the other side. And then whine about a lack of unity.

In a related rhetorical flourish, Republicans are all for States’ Rights until a State disagrees with Republican dogma. In this case, Former Veep, Mike “Not Hung” Pence wants to ban the abortion pill in all states, presumably because it defeats conservative efforts to discourage, delay, and increase the pain and inconvenience of a woman’s attempt to end her own pregnancy.

Abortion pills have been proven safer than office visits for a manual abortion and are expected to be the number one way around state bans, so of course Republicans want to kibosh them nationally.

But it’s all for a woman’s health, mind you. Because somehow in the forced birth movement, it’s safer to endure giving birth, a process that numbers show to be far more hazardous to a woman’s life, than the one that prevents it.

Republicans may not be able to force changes to pro-choice states’ laws, (yet), so they’re trying to ban the tools. Same end destination, just different ways around the block.

The only way this shit ends is with continued resounding defeats at the polls and a mandate from the masses.

***

I agree with the idea that something has to be done about the current Social Security system, lest it run into insolvency by the end of the great Baby Boomer Retirement. But the answer is not to cut benefits or raise the qualifications; it’s to shore it up with new money. Or old money, via paying back the massive “loan” Congress took from the fund in the 1980s, but I’m not holding my breath on that one.

So I’m excited to see where the new Sanders/Warren Social Security bill goes. This bill ends the cap on Social Security payroll taxes currently set at $160,000, after which people earning more pay nothing further into Social Security.

There is no good reason why people should be immune from paying into Social Security once they pass this arbitrary limit. This cap is nothing but a big sloppy kiss to the asses of the rich. I imagine the theory behind it is to not hamper the job-creating intentions of the business class, but we already know that more profits don’t translate into more jobs. Only higher demand for goods and services can do that.

This should be an easy fix and is already wildly popular. I think the biggest drawback is that it’s sponsored by Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. I’d bet that if the same bill was signed by Republicans, it would be universally hailed. Not that such a thing is possible; corporate Republicans HATE the idea of Social Security and have been trying to end it for decades. Their tummies are all tied in knots just thinking about the existence of a giant pile of money out there that they can’t skim.

The Super Bowl LVII Viewing Experience

I still enjoy watching the Super Bowl and I don’t apologize for that. I’ve been a football fan since I was a young boy and still remember watching my first Super Bowl, number III. I was rooting for the Colts, not because I had anything against Joe Namath and the upstart AFL, but because I liked their bright blue uniforms better than the Jets’ white and green ones. I mean, I was seven, that’s all I had to go on.

Obviously, it wasn’t the big deal then that it is today, which is practically a national holiday. So much money changes hand over this one football game, it boggles the mind. (Now more than ever, with the ubiquitous sports book apps running full steam ahead.)

So I sat down last night, stiff drink in hand, to take in the experience so I could tell you what I thought about it. And please note, this will be about the general watching experience, not a breakdown of the game. I figure anyone who would care already knows all about it.

I didn’t really have a dog in this fight. My Steelers were not involved, nor were any of our “arch-enemies” or inter-division foes. I enjoy watching Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs so I was rooting for them. But I picked the Eagles to win. I had them in mind to pick right after the conference championships, then changed my mind Sunday morning when our local paper’s sports columnists were split 3-3 on picking the winner. The Pro-Chiefs trio, which includes the guy with the best picking record among them, made some convincing arguments. These are the guys I mentally compete against. I don’t have any money on the game, I just make picks for shits and giggles and try to outdo our local “experts.”

But then later, every single pre-game show host on Fox Sports picked the Eagles. So I figured I’d go back to my original pick and went with Philly. I made my “pick” official by telling Sweetpea. She then invoked the “no take-backs” clause, so I was locked in.

So then, onto the game… eventually. Man, do they ever drag this stuff out. I am so done with all the flag hype and national self-reverence. The NFL spares no opportunity to entwine itself with patriotism and the military. Geez, it’s just a football game. A big one, but still a game. Get on with it.

Babyface did a nice job with America the Beautiful. I think THAT should be the national anthem. But only Ray Charles version. Chris Stapleton did the longest and slowest version of the Star Spangled Banner I’ve ever heard. He wasn’t missing out on his time in the spotlight, was he? I presume the sports books were taking bets on the length. I should have bet the “over.”

And then just when you think it’s time to play a little ball, they start with another clip package, about the Pat Tillman scholarships. Just more ways to wrap the NFL in the flag. I think Tillman would have been appalled at being used this way. When he was alive he wanted nothing to do with hyping his military service. Maybe they should play some clips of how he got killed by friendly fire and the Army bent over backward to cover it up.

Eventually, they began the game and next thing you know, it was time for the much-ballyhooed Super Bowl commercials. I had some thoughts, courtesy of my iPhone Notes app.

·         Dunkin’ Donuts, showing Ben Affleck working at a Dunkin’ Donuts drive-thru (for some reason) . Ben looked about engaged in this commercial as he did at the Grammys. I got a laugh when JLo rolled up, wondered why he was there (much like me), and then said, “Bring me a GLAZED.”

·         Avocado ad where Anna Faris wonders what it would be like if Eve ate an avocado instead, sparing the world from original sin, and clothing. Interesting idea, but it didn’t seem like it went anywhere though.

·         Ooh yeah! New Indiana Jones movie coming out. I bet Harrison Ford’s stunt double gets a real workout.

·         Serena Williams for Remy Martin. This one bugged me because I spent the entirety of the commercial wanting to know what the product was. At the very end, it’s Remy Martin. I’m like “what does all this hoo-ha have to do with cognac? There were a lot more spots like these to come… It’s like, “Here’s an A-list celebrity talking and doing stuff. Boy, we really spent a lot of dough on this ad buy. Oh by the way, here’s the product. And out…”

·         Bradley Cooper and his moms with outtakes from a T-Mobile commercial. They should have done the straight commercial first and then later, ran the outtakes commercial. Would have made more sense.

·         I thought the spot with the giant talking Stallone boulder was funny, but again, I was straining to find the point. I guess it was for the Paramount streaming service or something.

·         In the first of some recurring ads, Michelob Ultra decided to remake Caddyshack, with stunt casting. Great idea on paper, I guess. Anytime you can reference Caddyshack during a sports broadcast, it’s guaranteed to carry universal recognition among guys. (I loved the movie, and I don’t even golf.) There’s Serena again. And Tony Romo as the Bill Murray character fit right in.

·         The Adam Driver commercial for “Websites making Websites.” The thought behind this seemed to be, “Let’s get a celebrity and surround him with eye-popping special effects that’ll make all the drunks’ heads explode.”

·         Will Ferris for electric vehicles… more A-Listers slumming for dough.

·         Diddy for Uber. Same thing. All heat, no message.*

*I came to understand later that several hip-hop all-stars were also in that spot, which included songs for which they were famous. Obviously, I am not the target audience for this ad. No wonder I had no idea what was going on. It totally had nothing to do with my vodka and tonics.

·         Amy Schumer (briefly) in the Google phone pic ad highlighting the ease of editing things out of pictures that don’t belong there, like exes. I liked the idea but then it kind of drifted.

·         Animals doing the Electric Slide in a Jeep commercial. “Hey, look what we can do with SFX! Now buy a Jeep.”

·         The (Jon) Hamm and Brie (Larsen) ad for mayo was cute. But then they add Pete Davidson, for no apparent reason other than to pad their lineup with another star.

We interrupt this blog for a note on the game. My note was “Mahomes hurt before the half. That’s (the end of the) game (for the Chiefs).” I believed that if Mahomes stayed out, the Chiefs would never be able to hang with the Eagles.  They were barely staying in it WITH Mahomes, even after benefiting from an interception return for a touchdown.

·         Dorito triangles. This was my favorite one of the night. Finally, something funny and on point. I hope they keep running this one.

·       The Blue Moon ad, is awfully daring to feature Coors Light and Miller Lite and only bring in your own product in the last two seconds. Again, I was sitting there wondering why there would be a commercial for both Coors and Miller together. I’m not sure they thought this one through.

Halftime! Excuse me, I meant the “Jeep Halftime,” which included the “Apple Halftime Show.” Now they’re just double-dipping. How many sponsors can you have for the same time period?

Halftime

·         The halftime show: Again, I am certainly not the target audience for Rihanna. I’ve never heard a single song she did during the show.

·         I did like her staging… thought it was a good idea to use some of the vertical space in such a cavernous stadium. No one ever thinks to work “upward.” I didn’t like that she was lip-syncing. I say if you’re a serious musical act, get out there and sing your songs.

·         The dancers were surely working hard. I appreciate how much work it must’ve taken to get that choreography together. There must have been a hundred dancers, at least.

·         The diamonds in the sky effect with the lights… we did that at Super Bowl 40 when they provided little squeezy flashlights. Today they probably just use their cell phones

·         In recent years, they seem to have given halftime over to pop and hip hop. I yearn for the day when they bring back some rock-n-roll. I lucked out in the Super Bowl I attended, the Rolling Stones were the halftime show. Just breathing the same air as Keith Richards will add 3 years to your life.

But in particular, AC/DC needs to play the Super Bowl halftime show. Sure, they’re past their prime now, but so is their main audience. Angus Young still rocks harder in his 60s than anyone else out there.

On to a few 2^nd half ads

·         Breaking Bad chip ad was good and at least made sense. I’m really going to have to binge-watch Breaking Bad sometime. I’d probably like it.

·         I liked the Kia ad with the Dad looking for his kid’s binky. (Not that one, the other one.) Total slice of life for a family man. Although if I were making this ad, it would have been for vodka.

·         I also liked the Crown Royal/thank you Canada/Dave Grohl ad, although it took a while to reveal the product. Yes, thank you, Canada, for providing a nice counterpoint to all the hyper-Americanism. And hockey.

·         The Roast of Mr. Peanut was a great idea, and almost made me want to scan the QR code and watch the extended clip. Almost.

·         I loved the Workplace/Rockstar ads, which were clever and very well done. As a disclaimer, I should probably admit that as Joan Jett’s biggest fan, I would think anything she’s in is awesome, by default. But Ozzy was pretty good in it too. Now that’s one for which they should show the outtakes.

·         I had a problem with the Dodge Ram EV commercial because it seemed counterproductive. They reel off all the perceived faults of electric cars and then basically tell you to go look up the real facts at the end of the commercial. As if anyone is going to remember to do that. They’ve just been sent away with subconscious reminders of every Koch Brother-supported anti-EV meme. Not helpful.

·         The Busch/Sarah McLachlan animal commercial parody was inspired. “Sarah, that’s a wolf!”

·         Who knew Jesus was going to start buying ad time? There was a Jesus commercial in the first half, showing lots of cuteness and hugging children, while the 2^nd half spot consisted of still shots of people screaming at each other. The tagline was, “Jesus loves the people we hate.” What I want to know is… Who the hell is the “we?” And who is it that “we” are supposed to hate? I thought this was the ugliest commercial of the night. And most other nights.

·         I would watch a reality show starring Snoop and Martha Stewart. I can’t believe that hasn’t happened yet.

And that was the last of the relevant commercials. There was some game left though. This turned out to be a real barn burner. Philly had just tied the game at 35, but the Chiefs were driving with about two minutes left when the controversial moment of the game arrived. Philly was called for defensive holding, which gave the Chiefs a first down inside the 20. They were already in field goal range, but now they could burn most of the time left and kick the field goal with under 10 seconds, which they did.

The announcers seemed to have the opinion that they shouldn’t call such a penalty at a critical point of the game. Granted, the violation was hardly flagrant, but it was still a clear call. I say you can’t just turn off the rules when it’s crunch time. That just ensures everyone will try to take liberties when the game is on the line. If you would make the call on the first play of the game, you should make it on the last as well. I have no sympathy for the ref whiners. Even the guy that the penalty was called on said, “Yeah, I held him. I just hoped they’d let it slide.”

I’m sorry, if it’s a penalty then call it a penalty, regardless of the situation because the rules of the rules should not be situational.

So, the Chiefs won 38-35 in an entertaining game. I hope my guys get a turn next year, but we’ll see. And now, hockey gets my undivided attention.

The State of the Union, Such as it is

Well, that wasn’t a typical SOTU, was it? It may be on the way to being the “new normal,” however, as long as one side feels bold enough to heckle from the peanut gallery. More on that later.

These are a few of the thinks I thunk as I was watching President Biden deliver the annual address to Congress.

·       I’m sure there was a contingent of Fox “News” viewers who tuned in to see an old man stumble around and drool on himself because that’s how conservative media portrays him, all evidence to the contrary. Watching him up there taking shots and dodging bullets must have been a big surprise. Of course, this is where conspiracy theories come from… when reality doesn’t meet expectations. There has to be another angle involved, to keep someone’s deeply held beliefs from being considered untrue.

“It was a body double. He’s getting a feed from an earphone. George Soros is under the podium, working him like a Muppet.” All theories are more believable than them being wrong.

Yes, there were some times that Biden tripped on his words, or elided others. Fox will likely play each instance all mashed up in a loop for the next week. But as far as I’m concerned, that’s a non-issue. Public speaking is hard. YOU try to read for an hour straight without tangling some words. It’s tough under the best of circumstances, let alone when you’ve had to overcome a stutter. It is certainly not an indication of diminished capacity.

·       Speaking of Fox, I saw one of their headlines this morning:

I say Fox “News” doesn’t get to talk about misleading claims coming from the presidential pulpit, not now, not ever. Not after they embraced the outright pants-on-fire falsehoods that spewed forth from TFG. It’s a given that all politicians distort data to suit their needs. It’s the cost of doing political business. But their guy was an unfiltered torrent of verifiable bullshit and Fox lapped it up and pushed it out every night. We felt the effects of it on 1/6/21 and they are still echoing today. Fox should STFU about anyone’s “misleading claims” until they atone for their own role in the dumbing of America.

·       I wonder who’s tracking the standing/sitting/clapping data from the SOTU. That seems to lead most discussions after the fact: who stood for what, who sat when, and who applauded. It all seems like political theater. People in prominent camera positions, like Speaker McCarthy, have to be cognizant of what they’re doing at all times because the base is watching. It makes for an interesting experience watching the guy squirm. He has to decide how to react to widely agreeable items, proposed by his political enemy. He can’t be seen applauding much of anything, even though if one of his guys said the identical thing, he’d have more clap than a Texas cat house.

They panned to Ted Cruz several times amidst the raging applause, as he sat there with a look on his face like someone was holding a turd under his nose. (Although I do recognize that it could well be his regular Resting Turd Face.)

But it’s telling because those who refused to stand or applaud positions that are so favorable to so many, have to explain why such popular items are not worthy of support. 

I hope the media provides aggressive follow-up on those who sat on their butts and hands when the President was talking about lowering drug prices and supporting the middle class. They need to seek explanations on why they don't support ideals that are so obviously beneficial to average Americans.

·      Once again, I sat in stunned amazement as members of the GOP thought it would be a good idea to heckle a president giving the SOTU address. MT Greene was especially vocal, reminding me of the guy who goes to comedy clubs to heckle the comedian because he thinks the rest of the crowd would really rather hear him than the act they paid to see.

Cruella Taylor Greene in action. The look on the faces of the two people in front of her says, "Won't this broad ever shut up?"

This woman isn’t a legislator, she’s a performance artist. Her only asset is the ceaseless mocking of her opponents. Maybe one day her constituents will realize that owning the libs isn’t really making their lives any better. But I doubt it.

·       One such bone of contention was the statement (of fact) that TFG spiked the deficit. The Republicans reacted like he just blamed them for a fart in the room. That’s how well-trained they are to do their donor’s bidding because the data on the deficit is crystal clear. TFG’s tax cut for the rich ballooned the deficit, with little to no residual (or trickle-down) benefit for anyone else.

It’s bad enough that they all went along with it. The least they could do is own up to their actions.

·       I loved Biden’s comments on the infrastructure bill, which Republicans voted against, but still tout their own imaginary involvement to their constituents when the investment pays off at home.

If Biden had nothing better to do, I’d love to see him show up at every ribbon cutting made possible by the infrastructure bill. Just to highlight who got things done and who voted against them.

·      The jewel of the night was the Social Security issue. I don’t know if this whole thing was intentional from the outset, or just wound up this way with Biden flying by the seat of his pants. But the end result is that he just got all the Republicans in Congress to publicly come out against cutting Social Security and Medicare. They were so aghast that he mentioned their (previously announced and well-publicized) plans to curtail Social Security and Medicare, that they jumped right into the trap.

The thing is, they DO want to cut back and/or privatize Social Security so that their donors can get their hands on all that money and all the inevitable processing fees that would come with managing it on behalf of American citizens. But they don’t want to be seen doing it.

I guarantee that this issue comes up again, just as soon as the Republicans can come up with a way to blame the Democrats for it. I expect it will be something like, “Because the Democrats blah blah blah, we are now forced to take action on ‘entitlements.’ Not because we want to, heaven forbid, but because the Democrats are making us.” Just like what every abusive douchebag says, "Look what you made me do."

·       Just a note on that “Junk Fees” bill the President was flogging. It’s a nice idea but I can’t see that it will ever happen. Added fees are the lifeblood of modern business, from banking, to entertainment, to utilities, to travel, and more. Corporate America will find a way to kill this bill in its sleep. They will never give up such a cash cow, ever.

Obviously, they will have the Republicans on their side. All they’ll need to do is lock down Manchin and Sinema, which is not exactly a reach.

And even if it were to pass, affected businesses would just add that much more to the cost of service. All it would really be doing is managing consumer expectations.

·       I saw a conservative friend’s response to the SOTU on Facebook this morning, complaining that Biden did nothing to unite the country. Seriously.

Remember, this is coming from people whose standard-bearer’s inaugural address is known as the “American Carnage” speech. How uniting was that?

The only way to unite Republicans with Democrats in 2022 is for Democrats to become Republicans and embrace their positions completely. (And even then, it would be iffy.) What could the President possibly have said that would move Republicans to unite with the sane part of the country? He already offered lower drug prices, a stabilized Social Security, money for border security, money for infrastructure, and so on. Modern Republicans don’t negotiate, they demand complete capitulation and threaten to bring down the whole show if they don’t get it. There’s no uniting with this, there is only outnumbering them.

Sorry, All the Good Balloon Puns Have Been Taken

 So it looks like this will be the new Most Important Thing in the World for the next week. China let a spy balloon loose over America and people are losing their minds.

It was a given that the Republicans would have a field day of blame-placing. It’s the same old story. It’s always the Democrats' fault. Even the three balloons that seem to have visited during TFG’s administration were somehow the Dems’ fault. It never changes. Maybe they were waiting for someone to fire the Jewish Space Lasers.

I guarantee you that if we would have shot it down over Montana, they’re be raising hell about risking the safety of the people on the ground. Republican people, at that! I can hear it now:

“They stole the election, and now they want to endanger their opponents!”

Republicans are nothing if not adept at arguing either side of a point, just as long as the Democrats are on the opposite side of it.

Frankly, I can’t believe no one in Montana didn’t pack up their survivalist rifles, commandeer a crop duster, and go get it.

The news said President Biden wanted it shot down last Wednesday, but military leaders persuaded him to wait for it to drift over the Atlantic. That’s definitely a long way to drift. But maybe it wasn’t just a matter of public safety. Maybe they liked the odds of recovering the hardware better if it didn’t come smashing down onto the ground. Who knows? I don’t. You don’t. And all the people throwing fits about it don’t either. They’re no more experts on international surveillance than they were on respiratory contagions, macroeconomics, South American drug cartels, the Constitution, or the capabilities of alternate power sources. But they sure sound smart down at the end of the bar!

What you have to keep in mind with things like this is that we are rarely given the complete story. Everyone makes their pronouncements about blame or lack thereof without knowing what’s really going on. So doesn’t it make better sense to reserve judgment until more facts come out? Granted, cable news outlets have 24 hours to fill, so that’s not going to happen. They gotta talk about something… Spy balloons are certainly more intriguing than the next economic forecast. And with the new unemployment numbers, the last thing Republicans want to talk about right now is the economic recovery. Better to distract with scary spy talk than forfeit a talking point for the next campaign.

Director’s DVD Commentary: I’m leaving this post a little short so I may add to it later, after the State of the Union address this week. Or if there’s enough to chew on, I may make it a separate post. Stay tuned.

Update: There was way too much going on at the State of the Union address, so my thoughts on the night are in another post. Please check it out.

Deja Blue

To the surprise of exactly no one, it happened again. Just like it always does. Lather, rinse, repeat. Police kill a guy, people get inflamed and call for change, and it happens again. It’s happened enough over the last decade or so that I’ve written about it 43 times before, according to the “Police Stories” label on my Label Cloud on the right. This is the 44^th time. What does one even say anymore?

So, five cops from a special “Scorpion” squad chased a guy down on a traffic stop for reckless operation, and just beat the guy to death. Five guys punched, kicked, and tased an unarmed man until he lay there unconscious and eventually died. According to the police chief, they’re not even sure there WAS any reckless op. Why five cops from a specialized unit were pursuing some rando in the first place is another question. I mean, don’t these “elite” teams have a higher list of priorities to pursue besides traffic violations?

I’m suspect of all of these “elite” teams that are separated from the rest of the rank and file. (The brilliant Lawyers Guns and Money blog is on the same wavelength.) I think it’s human nature for those placed in small groups with increased power to let it go to their heads. Hell, just look at HOAs. I guarantee there are people in your HOA who would just LOVE to curb stomp anyone who lets their grass grow too high or has non-standard pavers making up their walkway. But they don’t have the cover of law enforcement protecting their actions.

Baltimore is famous for its “Gun Trace Task Force,” which created the need for a Consent Decree and spawned the HBO mini-series/docu-drama “We Own This City.” This was a unit assembled to get guns off the streets but quickly devolved into a renegade band who robbed drug dealers (and anyone else they found with more than pocket change), kept the money, planted evidence and guns at crime scenes, and arrested anyone who had the nerve to complain. And all the while, they were padding their paychecks with unworked overtime to an obscene degree.

The Memphis police chief disbanded this Scorpion unit over the weekend and we’re already watching how these five officers are being singled out for 100% of the blame. The problem is that this “civilians as blood enemies” culture doesn’t grow out of thin air; that’s why these incidents keep happening. The recruitment, training, and supervision of the nation’s police units need a top to bottom overhaul. I guarantee it never happens, for the same reason that every other systematic injustice remains: because the people with money want it the way it is. Hardcore policing keeps the riffraff at bay. It’s not their problem if they get the crap kicked out of them. It’s their own fault for not being born into wealth.

Of course, Fox “News” is leading the way with headlines like this:

“Lowered standards,” right beside pictures of the five Black cops. Tell us what you really think the problem is, Fox! Maybe their point is that White cops would have known to turn their body cameras off before beating someone to death. Silly savages.

The racists love Black-on-Black violence because then they get to sit back and cluck over it all, knowing that whichever party is in the wrong, a Black person gets the blame.

RIP

It is with a lead-heavy heart that I read of the passing of Annie Wersching, who I adored. She played many notable roles but came to my attention when she co-starred in two seasons of “24,” as Special Agent Renee Walker, FBI badass, and eventual love interest of Jack Bauer. And here I thought it was bad when her character was killed off. She died of cancer at 45. Forty-freakin-FIVE!

This is what I wrote in this very blog, back in 2010, when her character was whacked:

“Sometimes it really sucks following shows like 24 and last night was one of those times.  Just when you think things are going well… Jack finally gets a moment’s peace and gets to do some belly rubbin’ with yummy FBI Agent Renee Walker.

“All looks good, but deep down, you know that there are still six more episodes to come, so something else has to happen.  Then… BAM.  Sniper fire.  Agent “Freckles” is down, wearing nothing but a bed sheet.

“You would think having sex with Jack Bauer would make a girl bulletproof.

“So I’m bummed.  No more looking into the haunted eyes of our Agent Walker. She’s been my favorite part of the last 2 seasons.  I know it’s stupid to get upset about a freakin’ TV show.  I know that right afterward, someone yells, “Cut!” and everyone gets up and grabs some coffee and a donut.  But why let reality encroach on the story?  You can’t help but get drawn in when you follow a story over time.  While the show is rolling, you start to see these characters as real people.  What’s the point of watching a drama if you don’t suspend disbelief?

“The skeptic can come out after the credits roll.”

So there’s no real-life buffer with this loss. This one hurts.

On the flip side, I can offer a happy “RIP” to the Cincinnati Bengals Super Bowl hopes, after their loss yesterday to the Chiefs. Once again, they lost in part because they couldn’t keep themselves from committing stupid personal fouls. They’ve handed the Steelers at least two such wins in past years. Now they’re spreading the love.

And thank you to the Chiefs! Your win keeps me from having to root for a Philadelphia team, and that’s always a winner in my book.

Cuts, Butts, and Nuts

My original plan was to write about the debt ceiling mess. I mean, how many times must we do this dance? Every time it comes up and there’s a Democratic president, Republicans pretend that they’re against national debt and decide to hold the debt ceiling for ransom, so to extract concessions that would never otherwise be on the table.

When there’s a Republican president, the debt ceiling is raised without issue. Even when the Trump tax cuts were adding over a trillion dollars to the deficit, you never heard a peep about the deficit from Republicans. They’re not against government spending, per se, just against Democrats directing the spending.

Republicans came into this term stating out loud that their goal was to extract concessions or else they’d tank the economy. What I don’t know is why they think it will play out differently this time than it has the last several times they did the same thing. Do they think no one remembers?

Once those Social Security checks stop rolling out, people will start losing their minds… including Republican people. Not that these criminals care about the average retiree, mind you. They’re just collateral damage. But eventually, when the wheels of government grind to a halt and it begins to affect businesses, the Donor Class will start button-holing people and telling them to cut the shit, and then the debt ceiling will be raised and we’ll all live to fight another day about something else.

So I don’t feel like there’s enough here worth blowing up into a full post. Instead, let’s talk about some goofy shit.

It all starts with Chicken Butt. Do you know how little kids run around repeating pointless rhymes and stuff? For no reason whatsoever. Around here, first-graders love to come up to grown-ups and say, “Guess what?”

You answer “What?”

They say, “Chicken butt!” and giggle with glee. They will do this to their parents roughly 25 times a day. My wife, Sweetpea, the first-grade teacher, has been hearing this for generations.

A while back, I saw this design on a t-shirt and immediately got it for her.

I mean, how could I not, right? I had to live up to the t-shirt I got myself at the same time, that said, “Trophy Husband.”

On Friday, she wore it to school, (under a buttoned shirt), to reveal to her class. That was the plan, up until she opened her email and saw one from a parent with a complaint. This parent said her daughter told her that a boy from another class used inappropriate language in the cafeteria. The daughter came to her to ask what it meant, which upset the parent.

What was said? She heard a boy say “My nuts hurt.”

Yep, “nuts.” That is what set off the alarms. And rather than engage in a 30-second explanation with her child, the parent decided that the school needed to drop what they were doing and investigate, to stop this little nut-cracker in his tracks.

At that point, Sweetpea decided this probably wasn’t the best day to reveal her chicken butt shirt. She directed the email to her principal and added “Suggestions?” Later she told him she’d speak to the other first-grade teacher, who said she would talk to her class about appropriate language in the cafeteria.

But if you ever wonder why schools seem like they don’t have enough time in the day, things like this are a contributing factor.

What’s the beef here, that a 5-year-old didn’t use the word “testicles?” Or did she have a problem that this boy referred to something that’s literally a part of him? It’s a good thing they retired the “Dick and Jane” books, or who knows what else kids would overhear and cause their parents to email their complaints? Oh man, what if the cafeteria was serving mushroom caps? There would be anarchy.

She’s lucky her kid was never in a class with my youngest nephew, Sammy, when he was in first grade. He not only used that term liberally, he rolled it out with a great flourish.

“Oooh,” he’d say, “That got’em right in then NNNNNNNNuttts!”

One time there were at a Catholic League gym hockey game and Sammy saw the goalie putting on his pads. At top volume, he exclaimed, “Hey Dad, those are for his NNNNNNNNUttts!”

If “nuts” didn’t corrupt a Catholic League gym full of students and parents, I’m sure the cafeteria crowd will survive.

Now watch, the next brainstorm from the school board will be some kind of naughty-word tracking system that teachers to have to complete daily. I bet Florida already has one. Just wait until these new report cards come rolling out. Wouldn’t it be a shame if a student could be kept out of the college of their choice based on incorrect gonadal terminology from elementary school?

Good thing we have such active parents in the community, who keep teachers focused on what’s really important.

What's Up, Docs?

If the “effective” portion of the Biden presidency didn’t end with the election of a Republican-led House, it sure seems to be over now, with the discovery of more secret documents on Biden’s premises. As many, many other people have pointed out, there is little comparison between Biden’s document situation and that of TFG. Biden’s team were the ones who found the misplaced docs and turned them in immediately, and has been actively cooperating with the National Archives ever since. TFG delayed and prevaricated so much they had to issue a search warrant just to find out what was still there, long after his team swore that all docs had been turned over.

But none of that matters to a GOP House. The Democrats just handed them two years of investigations on a silver platter, with the delicious irony of it being a similar issue to the one over which TFG has been dogged.

Now we can look forward to every new revelation being blown up to the most important threat to national security ever, whether it’s an 8-year-old requisition for military-grade TP or the names of every spy and mole in the system. The truth won’t matter to these “esteemed panels,” only headlines and outrage. I expect Fox "News“ to set up a regular time slot with its own theme music, just to cover “Docu-gate.”

This is what they do. Why bother to govern when they can get people pissed off enough to, with any luck, vote them back in two years later, despite having no beneficial accomplishments on which to run.

And it’s doubly upsetting that the Dems just handed this to them like a 16^th birthday present only instead of a new sports car with a bow on it, it’s a lip-sticked, gift-wrapped, pig.

Republicans will be working overtime to ensure that the only things Americans care about more in 2024 are Hunter Biden’s dick picks. All the better to provide cover while they strip Social Security and Medicare, for parts.

***

I saw this on FB a week or so ago and it just rubbed me the wrong way.

On the surface, it may seem benign, but because I culled it from a Republican friend’s stream, I know what it’s really about.

Yeah, this is a call to go back to the “good ole days,” where Black people were property, gays were closeted, and uppity women were burned at the stake as witches.

Or, is it the yearning for a more recent past, when Black people were locked into subservient jobs, gays were still closeted, and women were tied to the kitchen and bedroom.

Note that in both eras, well-to-do White men got to pretty much do as they pleased. To this mindset, I’m sure it does seem like the tearing down of civilization when your own demographic no longer rules the roost by default. But a civilization really prospers when everyone is on it and the world is not just a looting opportunity for the ruling class.

I hope you had/are having a nice MLK Day. It’s a shame that so many pay lip-service to his words and then act in complete contrast to their meaning. But I’m happy to enjoy a day off, in celebration of an extraordinary man.

And it’s especially sweet because MLK Day is the anniversary of my first date with Sweetpea. This year the numbers line up exactly as they did in 2017, when we met on Sunday 1/15, (which we now call our Meet-a-versary) then went out for lunch the next day because we were both off from work. (If interested, you can read full story here.)

That’s one thing I learned from my dad… use national holidays for important occasions; that way you always have the anniversary off. This, from the guy who got married on July 4^th.

I wish I could say that it was intentional in my situation, but I’d be lying. Sometimes, shit just works out a certain way and you go with it.  

So happy anniversary, Sweetpea! It’s surely a good thing that we met… after all, if the Republicans get their way, it’s going to take both our Social Security checks to keep from living in a refrigerator box in my brother’s garage.

Unspeakable

I wanted to pull up to a front-row seat and bring a tub of popcorn, but the proceedings stopped being funny and ended up giving us all a sneak preview of the clusterfuck the House of Representatives is going to be for the next two years.

They say depravity sells and there it was out on display; a parade of fame and power whores lining up to see who could be the most petty, vindictive, and self-promoting. I wonder what kind of ratings CSPAN got last week…

One of the things that bothered me the most was the oratorical cover they tried to give themselves, speechifying about how they needed to “clear the swamp” and get back to “The People’s business.” But when you get a look at their action agenda, you find nothing but the pursuit of vendettas and the appeasing of the rich. They’re already talking about gutting the Ethics rules. Is there anything more Republican than that? That tells you all you need to know about that group of people. Rules are for everyone else because they were chosen by God, and He wants them to have nice things.

I’m sure there’s a reason their God wants them to cut Social Security and Medicare, despite providing massive assistance to millions of Americans. Just ask them; they’ll come up with something. Although, the fact that it’s something their rich benefactors have been wanting for decades probably won’t be mentioned.

They probably even have biblical verses to back up their desire to end assistance to Ukraine. I imagine it goes something like, “And I say unto ye, let thy allies fighteth their own battles against tyranny and oppression, for it shant be thy problem. Hunter of Biden’s laptop will not investigateth itself.”

It’s not like there was anyone to root for here. Picking sides was like trying to choose between syphilis and herpes. On one side, you had the noodle-spined Kevin McCarthy, who in his clumsy pursuit of power, stepped on his own balls by bargaining away any power he hoped to wield. On the other, a bunch of know-nothing attention whores, clamoring to get their way by holding their breath until the whole House falls in. And that would be just fine with them, as it seems their main preoccupation is to grind the government to a halt anyway. They can’t wait to shut things down over the debt ceiling, which is merely the approval to pay for the stuff they already bought.

You know it’s the End of Days when MT Greene sounds like the voice of reason. Of course, that’s only because she landed a special deal with McCarthy, to ensure her own seat at the head of a table. I’m sure we’ll find out, shortly, which committee she’ll be screwing up.

Now they’re bending over backward trying to find a way to blame the Democrats for the display of Republican dysfunction. It won’t work though, not on anyone who isn’t down the Fox “News” rabbit hole. When you elect a bunch of clowns to run the circus, you can’t blame the acrobats when the Big Top inevitably collapses. We’ll have to be sure to elect some lion tamers in 2026.

And can you believe there were people in the media wondering why the Democrats weren’t there to cut a deal with McCarthy? Personally, I wouldn’t trust any deal coming from a Congressional Republican. They’ve already shown an eagerness to play both sides of any fence, taking any stand that will help them today, regardless of taking the opposite stand yesterday. They are a team of “Lucys,” who can’t wait to pull the ball out from under Charlie Brown, again and again. I wouldn’t piss on their shoes if their feet were on fire, let alone help them solve a problem of their own creation.

The best we can say about last week was that it was a week not spent screwing the American people. I’m sure they will begin their mission of financially fellating their rich donors later this week or next, once the rest of the mundane Housekeeping tasks are handled.

I think that’s why the voting spectacle finally came to an end. The Donor Class button-holed some of their loose cannons and told them to cut the shit and get on with siphoning money from the treasury, right back to them, as they were “elected” to do. Time was a-wasting. And if they wouldn’t do it, they’d find themselves being primaried in two years by someone that would.

In the meantime, I hope President Biden is getting his executive orders in order. If he wants anything done before 2025, he’s going to need them.