Today's Tweet

.@SarahPalinUSA you want to #MakeAmericaGreatAgain but you don't even know what the 1st amendment is about pic.twitter.com/DdshNpr7EP

— krautsider (@krautsider) March 15, 2016

Today's Day

Today's Tweet

"@LlacerMarianne: @1ven55 pic.twitter.com/cfZSRSE78n"

As if , like the coloring from the sky(≧▽≦)✴🎵

— ひーちゃん (@shaiynoa) March 11, 2016

Today's GIF

Today's Tweet

Trump cancels Chicago rally amid security concerns https://t.co/LVEGWkrAQ7 #Chicago #DonaldTrump photo by @ejwamb pic.twitter.com/tF1NTu8qui

— Chicago Trib Photo (@ChiTribPhoto) March 12, 2016

Slag her all ya want, guys.  She's earned it.  And she knows she's earned it.  And she's proud of having earned it.

For 25 years, she's been taking the training to do exactly that, at exactly that moment. 

Limbaugh, Coulter, Boortz, Savage, Cavuto - they've been teaching her that what really matters is to make "The Libruls" mad.  That's the only test.  If "The Libruls" get pissed off, then you're on the right track.  Do anything, say anything - it doesn't even have to make sense cuz making sense is what "The Libruls" try to do. So just come out with whatever you find when you unpack all that weird shit way down deep in the lizard part of your brain (which, of course, you're absolutely sure isn't even there); now say it.  And watch "The Libruls" gag.  And you'll know you're right.

Try it.  It's easy.  

Somebody needs to start a betting pool on when the lid comes off this motherfucker, and we get our first real donnybrook / fracas / melee / gunfight whatever.

I'm taking sometime before midnight on March 31.

And with apologies to Gil Scott Heron, this little dance party is gonna be on everything that even remotely resembles a TV screen. 

Friday Groove

Let It Roll

(headphones recommended for the Zeppelin cut - #2 - cuz it's freaky, man)

Today's Quote

Nothing is so hard for those who abound in riches as to conceive how others can be in want. — Jonathan Swift

And just to move things along, we need to be able to think about these issues beyond the sentiments of the quotes and the bumper stickers and the memes.

We can fill our heads with righteous indignation when "conservatives" spout the usual blaming bullshit about the "Professionally Poor", and we should be pissed about that, but we should be pissed about that because it's a tactic of deflection - it puts us in a position that makes us look like we're defending "waste fraud and abuse", which legitimizes an almost-totally illegitimate argument.

Waste Fraud and Abuse accounts for about .001% of total expenditure (not that we know with any precision cuz - you know, people need to hide that shit).  Anyway, it goes up some - sometimes getting as high as 1 whole percent on individual programs - but it's nothing near what "conservatives" love to fantasize about.  But that still means you're defending against a phantom threat.  Stop doing that. 

And don't get bogged down when they shift to The Tyranny Of Large Numbers crap either.  Yes, 1 or 2 percent of a humungous number is still a very large number - until you divide that very large number by that other very large number - poor people who just need a little fucking help, asshole. You're gonna get all bent outa shape because some guy scraped an extra 82 bucks out of the system's gutter just so his kids had a decent breakfast once in a while? Well ain't you just chock full of the spirit of Christian love and charity.

But that's not the point either.  The point is that when we're on the defensive like that, we miss the opportunity to point out that Waste Fraud and Abuse is what the big guys have built into the system to benefit themselves; and what the small-to-medium sized guys can take advantage of as well (so they can feel smart too), while they're all soaking up the tax dollars intended to help people who actually need the help. And here's the kicker on that part: these jokers are happy to throw a few crumbs at the poor because they can use that tiny bit of tax money to fuel the judgmental hypocrisy of Wingnut Autocrats and their army of Orcs rubes. 

Waste Fraud and Abuse is what happens when Archer Daniels Midland puts half-a-billion tax dollars in its pocket, and then hides behind a human shield that Coin-Operated Congress Critters get paid handsomely to refer to as Moochers or Welfare Queens.

These people have no soul and no honor. Stop helping them.

About That Loss Thing

A little poem for my own bad self on my own special day, cuz living can seem like it's all about loss.



You're not a kid who gets to spend hours throwing dirt clods at a stick in the irrigation ditch
That's lost.

You're not a bullet-proof teenager with 4 bucks and a badly rolled blunt in his pocket, looking to score some Coors
That's lost.

You're not gonna be a football star
You're not gonna be among the legends of rock-n-roll
You're not gonna be the greatest cocksman who ever strolled thru a singles joint
That's lost.

You're not gonna be a boy-genius jillionaire
You're not in the Sweet Spot Demographic anymore
You're not your sisters' brother
You're not your mom's baby boy
You're not the loving husband
You're not the pride on your dad's face when you played well
All gone. 
Lost.

Living has a nasty tendency to pare you down
To carve away everything that's not you
Til there's nothing left but you
It isn't amazing that you managed to survive all that
It's a little amazing how stridently you've resisted becoming who you need to be

Today's GIF

Each day it seems like we get one more taste of just how FUBAR the GOP is. And each day, we think, "Well, it can't get any worse than this shit right here". And each day, it fucking gets worse.

So screw it. Here's today's Republican Party In One Brilliant Insight (du jour)

 

Today's Pix