eVille Times

May 13, 2016

A Poem

The Oxymoronic English Contradictionary --Brian Bilston

Alone together for once,
I told her how I thought that, in my unbiased opinion

The incidence of oxymorons in the English language
Had been growing smaller.

"That's old news", she said
Adding that it had been the case for almost exactly ten years.

Things got pretty ugly,
But this in itself felt strangely normal,

For ours was a bittersweet relationship;
A civil war of violent arguments

I found myself annoyingly endeared to her
While she regarded my puritanical streak as seriously funny.

Our contradictions
Compliment each other perfectly

"Same difference",
I whispered loudly.

But she, with a sad smile,
After telling me how I'd left her speechless,

Went back to reading
Her textbook on business ethics.

May 12, 2016

Today's Pix

Trump Sucks

A lot of times, we need validation. We need some reassurance that others think the same way we think about something.

So just in case you weren't really sure about just how awful Donald Trump is; in case you needed any confirmation at all - that it's not just you - here's a handful of reactions from outside USAmerica Inc (and most of these are our friends):

Cuba

Ireland

British Prime Minister David Cameron called Trump’s anti-Muslim comments “divisive, stupid and wrong.”

Former Mexican President Vicente Fox called Trump a “hated gringo” and “ugly American,” and said that “I’m not going to pay for that fucking wall.”

Former Mexican President Felipe Calderón pointed out that Trump’s policy isn’t just offensive — it also doesn’t make sense. “It’s going to be completely useless,” Calderón said. “The first loser of such a policy would be the United States.”

Earlier this year, Trump said he’d consider halting oil sales from Saudi Arabia to the U.S. In response, Saudi Prince Turki al Faisal urged Americans to “make the right choice” and not vote for Trump. Turki, who is Muslim, also disavowed the presidential candidate’s Islamophobic comments.

Sigmar Gabriel, Germany’s economy minister and vice chancellor, said that Trump is “not only a threat to peace and social cohesion, but also to economic development.”

Saving the best for last:

That last one's from an Aussie ex-pat named Illma Gore, who filed a police report claiming she'd been punched in the face by a Trump supporter in LA, for having posted the picture on social media.

Sometimes, this joint is just too fuckin' weird for words.

Quick Question

Why is this shit OK?

Politics is undoubtedly the Blunt family business: His wife, Abigail, is the top D.C. lobbyist for Kraft Foods. His son Matt served one term as Missouri governor and now leads the main lobbying group for Detroit automakers. Son Andy and daughter Amy are both lobbyists in Missouri; Andy is managing his father’s Senate campaign.

May 11, 2016

Dude, Where's My Meme?

From Yahoo Science:

Five of the Solomon Islands have been submerged underwater and six more have experienced a dramatic reduction in shoreline owing to man-made climate change, according to a paper published in the journal Environmental Research Letters. The missing islands, ranging in size from 2.5 acres to 12.4 acres were not inhabited by humans. But six other islands had swathes of land washed into the sea and on two of those, entire villages were destroyed and people forced to relocate. It is feared that the rise in sea levels will cause widespread erosion and inundation of low-lying atolls in the Pacific.

It just seems like somebody shoulda posted something on Facebook by now, screaming about how the Greatest Generation did such a gloriously awesome thing and sacrificed so much to liberate the Pacific island nations in WW2, and that it's all in vain now because some asshole conservatives won't even admit Climate Change is a thing and...

Yeah, I know - it doesn't quite fit the prescribed narrative, does it?

My bad. Never mind. Y'all go back to doin' what ya was doin' before.

Today's Tweet

I'll probably lose more follows over this one...but damn it's funny! pic.twitter.com/awbkZfMJZi
— ☘ Sinnie (@JazDodgerUteGal) March 31, 2016

May 10, 2016

Yeah But...

#VoteBlueNoMatterWho to save the destruction of our government, our country,& our futures.Let's improve what we have pic.twitter.com/A3e6FmpJNS
— Carja (@_Carja) May 5, 2016

I don't think anyone should simply dismiss the notion that Dirty Tricksters are at work here, but just to keep this from turning into an upside down Alex Jones False Flag thing, I'd like to see some evidence one way or the other. Just sayin'.

This Just In

Ol' Doc Maddow is reporting on some new polling numbers from Public Policy Polling.

To wit: Donald Trump is less popular than Lice, Traffic Jams, Used Car Salesmen, Hipsters, DMV, Jury Duty, Nickelback and Root Canals.

The good news is that Trump beats Cockroaches and Hemorrhoids...

...unless you're talking just to women:

Seriously? He loses to Nickelback!?! That guy's fucked.

Today's Tweet

Trans people should start dropping off jars filled with their urine at @PatMcCroryNC's office so his staff can oversee its safe disposal.
— Dan Savage (@fakedansavage) May 9, 2016

Dan Savage is the kind of guerrilla activist we haven't seen in too long a time.

1st Woman Nominated For POTUS

Victoria Woodhull - on this date in 1872.

Victoria Claflin Woodhull, later Victoria Woodhull Martin (September 23, 1838 – June 9, 1927) was an American leader of the woman's suffrage movement.

Woodhull was nominated for President of the United States by the newly formed Equal Rights Party on May 10, 1872, at Apollo Hall, New York City. A year earlier, she had announced her intention to run. Also in 1871, she spoke publicly against the government being composed only of men; she proposed developing a new constitution and a new government a year thence.[25] Her nomination was ratified at the convention on June 6, 1872. They nominated the former slave and abolitionist leader Frederick Douglass for Vice President. He did not attend the convention and never acknowledged the nomination. He served as a presidential elector in the United States Electoral College for the State of New York. This made her the first woman candidate.

No, I'm really not slagging Hillary. Sec'y Clinton will likely be the very first woman to accept the nomination of a "major political party" in the history of the USofA. And that's a big fuckin' deal.

If you want a real kick in the head, go look at this one at Wikipedia.

Yes, that is indeed "that Gracie Allen" who ran in 1940 on the Surprise Party ticket. And she got 42,000 votes - as a gag, that some folks obviously weren't convinced was a gag at all. Which should serve as something of a reminder that all of this weird shit we're angsting over in 2016 is really not terribly new.

We've found our way through it before, and we will again.

God willin' and the crick don't rise.

May 9, 2016

John Oliver

Again - why's all the journalism happening on half-hour comedy shows?

And y'know, something just kinda popped into my brain: people ask why there's so much crap on TV news, and the TV news gurus always tell us it's because there's just too darn much time to fill - they can't help it - they just gotta find lotsa stuff to put on the air.

Well, TV gurus, maybe what ya need to consider is filling some of that vast expanse of time with greater efforts to check out the potentially bullshit claims of your guests(?) Can you imagine what happens when you call for a short pause to check out the statements made by whatever talking head is holding forth at the moment?

Maybe you could do it during the commercial breaks. Or maybe you could watch Pardon The Interruption on ESPN once or twice and see how Tony and Mike do it.

I don't have all the answers here btw, but please don't gimme that usual crap about how you have to play nice with these jokers because if you don't you'll "lose access" to them.

Here's the logical response to that: Yeah, so fucking what? What exactly do we lose if the parade of fuckwits is suddenly devoid of fuckwits?

I think it's a pretty safe bet that the vacuum won't be empty for long.

Another btw - stop cowering in response to the "Gotcha Journalism" slam. That's your job, Skeezix. Should we piss and moan about how the cops are always playing "Gotcha Law Enforcement"? And when you're overdrawn at the bank, are they just trying to fuck you over with their "Gotcha Accounting"?

C'mon - do your fuckin' job.

He Knew

July 1968 - six months after The Tet Offensive put the lie to Vietnam, and 3 months after MLK was killed, and about 40 days after RFK was killed, and kinda in the middle of another whole year of some big bad shit going down in USAmerica Inc.

LBJ's son-in-law, Chuck Robb, was serving as commander of a combat rifle company in Vietnam. Johnson had asked him to send tape-recorded messages describing what was happening on the ground in what a lot of us came to call "Johnson's War". This picture is said to convey the anguish of a president as he learns the truth about how political policies play out in the lives of real people.

It's always about more than anybody wants to tell us it's about. So included in the mix is Johnson's anguish over being remembered as the Accidental President needing to ride the coattails of two dead Kennedys, while struggling to come out of their shadows; the guy who lost Southeast Asia, built concentration camps for black people, and made it almost impossible for Dick Nixon to lose in November of that year.

That's not to ignore some truly big-fuckin'-deal things like Medicare and Civil Rights and Public Education and other good things as well. I'm just trying to remind myself to see the whole thing - or as much of it as possible; to go back and look at it again once in a while, because there's probably something I missed - like not remembering ever hearing about what was playing on the tape recorder in that picture.

Today's Deep Think

Today's Tweet

When you wanna fight for Trump, but mom doesn't want you to get hurt because your state didn't expand Medicaid. pic.twitter.com/gnRLIG0el5
— Ashley Spry (@NoChillary2016) March 11, 2016