Sunday, October 22, 2017

I'm A Rich Old Man Who Likes To Play Golf

I guess the problem is Trump likes precisely two things: watching people say nice things about him on the teevee and playing golf. If only he just liked the latter.

Predictable

It was the point.

MIAMI (CBSMiami) – A spokesperson for Rep. Frederica Wilson says the threats against the congresswoman have intensified.

Afternoon Thread

Everything is still horrible.

Syndrome Speaks



Sunday Morning Thread

Damn, it seems like last Sunday was yesterday. That's living life in the fast lane, I suppose.

Saturday, October 21, 2017

Saturday Night

Rock on.

How Did Hillary Clinton Lose To Donald Trump?

Because voters are horrible, while largely true, does not offer a way forward.

Bill O

I'm trying to think of a non-crass way to say this and coming up short. Bill O'Reilly spent more money than I will make in my lifetime so he could be a tremendously horrible person (possibly worse than that) to women who worked for/with him. He probably could have spent that money in other ways.

Last January, six months after Fox News ousted its chairman amid a sexual harassment scandal, the network’s top-rated host at the time, Bill O’Reilly, struck a $32 million agreement with a longtime network analyst to settle new sexual harassment allegations, according to two people briefed on the matter — an extraordinarily large amount for such cases.

What I am trying to figure out how to say is...for that much money, you can buy a lot of sex. It wasn't about the sex.

Saturday Afternoon

Everything is still horrible.

America's Worst Humans

John Kelly.

Oopsie

What is a pundit? What are they for? Okay, what am I for?

Back in the early blogging days a bunch of cranky stupid pundits were mad that bloggers were "advocates" or "activists" while they were... I guess I never figured out what they thought they were. They certainly didn't express opinions about things in hopes of influencing politics and policy! Or something.

At some point you gotta bring out the scales of justice and realize you were on the wrong side of everything and just shut the hell up. Feel free to tell me if this applies to me!

Angry Racist Gramps

Dubya was really really bad and I am dedicated to the idea that people should not forget this, but at least we didn't wake up every day wondering if he might nuke North Korea because he was in a shitty mood.

Friday, October 20, 2017

Not Everything I Like Is Bad

Cranky Old Man

It me.

Specifically I am cranky about how The Kids Today don't remember the Bush era. I get it. It was a long time ago. I got annoyed when Dems of a certain age were fixated on 1972. It is 2017. The Iraq war started 14 years ago. It is my origin story. It is not theirs. I get it.

When The President Is Senile

I guess if he doesn't hit the nuke button it isn't that important, but....

Friday Evening

Enjoy

Friday Cat Blogging

Assholes

Somehow We Didn't Get Rich

I know that most of you hate my taste in music. I don't care about that. And, yes, sometimes I am just trolling. But sometimes I am not. Usually I am just trying to promote stuff I really like. It's sad that there is a lot of brilliant stuff happening that will never provide the financial rewards necessary to keep it going for people. There are a few superstar acts, but otherwise nobody makes any money anymore. I am one of those weirdos who still buys music instead of streaming it (I do a bit of that, too, but I buy what I like).

Even those who manage to make a living at it for awhile probably have to pack it in and find something else to do one day. The transition from rock star to store clerk is probably a bit difficult.

Posting videos most of you hate has always been my small attempt to provide some exposure to bands I like. Some of them are good! Be nice.


Gotta Get Down On Friday

Also, it was a good song, internet.

Is It OK To Punch Nazis?

I never advocate violence. I hate armchair revolutionaries, the people who call for the revolution but never quite manage to lead it themselves. But the idea that violence is never thought to be wrong in our society is absurd. We lionize our combat veterans. We praise our cops even when they engage in unjustified violent behavior. The white vigilante in many forms is a hero in pop culture (shooting black criminals, fighting against imagined government tyranny).

There's nothing we exalt more than WWII veterans. They were sent off to hell to kill Nazis. Tom Brokaw's meal ticket is praising the Greatest Generation. Beating Nazis is the 20th century's foundation myth of the US.

More importantly, Nazis aren't just people who are a bit racist, like your typical conservative. The are exterminationists. They explicitly ally themselves with those who deliberately committed genocide on an unimaginable scale (colonial and imperial atrocities are not entirely dissimilar, but the technocratic genocidal program of Hitler was somewhat unique). Someone who wears a Swastika isn't simply saying "I don't much like Jews and Blacks." They are saying they are on board with a program to exterminate them.

Should you punch them? I dunno. Captain America would. That's why he's a comic book hero.

Maybot

I know it's one of my peculiar interests which most of you don't care about, but Brexit is going to be a disaster. It was always a bad idea (Maybe joining the EU was a bad idea, but leaving it is also a bad idea. These things can both be true). The only way for it to not be a disaster was for the UK to be like, ok we're Norway now. Which would have been mostly pointless, but not insane.

Maybot is driving the bus towards the cliff and no one can tell her to just turn the damn wheel.

The Lifestyles Of The Not So Poors

The regular New York Times feature "lifestyles of the not quite rich enough" is amusing because usually the people in question are, even by New York rich white people standards, far from poor. I mean, you don't actually have to be able to afford private kindergarten for Adelaide and Chad along with your 3 vacations per year. Still there is a very real issue for the great masses of people in places like New York and San Francisco who didn't inherit real estate in that even if you are pretty damn high income by any measure, the prospect of having enough money to have a family-sized place (by NYC standards, I don't mean a 2500 sq. ft. detached home) in Manhattan or Brooklyn so that you can plot a life that involves maybe settling down and having kids, is aspirational at best.

Ok in your 20s, but after that? Those places are expensive.