Another 420

Usually, on April 20th, I put up a post to be kinda jokey about The Hemp Rangers, or I'll try to link it back to the struggles of working people against the Corporatists, but every once in a while, I feel the need to hedge my bets against the whole after-life thing.

So just in case Adolph is able to check in with us (this being his birthday and all), and because there's a sizable portion of Americans who seem to think Mr Hitler had some good ideas too - which makes them think it's OK to support the authoritarian crap spilling out of the GOP right now - I think it's important to take just a small moment to mock him (and them) unmercifully, and to make sure they all know how stoopidly childish their behavior is.

(and of course, I do this in a stoopidly childish way to make sure they can understand it)

So Adolph was an extremely bad guy who did extremely bad things.  And he didn't love his country; he actually had a deep sense of shame and loathing for himself and everybody else, and his whole political career was aimed at punishing the German people for being stoopid enough to follow The Kaiser, and then even stoopider for following him, and all he could think of was to burn the whole place down etc etc etc.

But a Nickelback fan? Universal condemnation is in order - so yeah - fuck that guy.

Today's Pix

Today's Quote

"I don't have time for anything that has no soul."

--Charles Bukowski

hat tip = Twitter buddies @Paulus_vv & @gnousdz

Today's Tweet

pic.twitter.com/OP7d6VNpHu

— ℛ༏ѵɛя (@River5369) April 18, 2016

New One For Me

From a guy named Chauncey DeVega, Tim Wise talking about Brain Studies and Trump voters - starting at about 33 minutes:

Today's Word

Today's Tweet

If this retractable tape measure snaps back & cuts my hand just one more time, I may be forced to stand up & get the remote control myself.

— Annie (@HatfieldAnne) July 23, 2015

Today's GIF

Today's Tweet

Tech Support https://t.co/kRKkh3trgr pic.twitter.com/UDA5gD0jJs

— Cynical Spunkferret (@namtien92) April 16, 2016

Please, Mr Kasich

The danger is that what some folks have been hoping will happen is still a possibility - ie: positioning Kasich as 'the moderate choice'. He's trying to take advantage of the media narrative of Trump being out on one extreme and Bernie being out there on the other extreme, with Kasich in the middle.  And never mind Hillary or Ted because they're both kookie too, just in a different way.  What ya really need is a kindly conservative like Plain Ol' Gee-Golly John.

Kasich's record is pretty easy to characterize as Authoritarian and Austerian, along with Privatizing and (at least Semi-) Theocratic. And, with that video, we could add Tone Deaf or  maybe even Brain Dead.  It's pretty easy to find lotsa criticism for that record online.

A lot of weird shit could happen in Cleveland - Kasich's back yard btw. Right now, there's a GOP rule (I think it's #40b) that's being interpreted as saying you don't get nominated if you haven't won a majority of delegates in at least 8 primaries. Lotsa speculation and wrangling over that one. Parties almost always open their national conventions with a few sessions of their Rules Committees, so we'll just hafta wait to see what silliness pops up this time around.

I think Kasich's pretty sure he's out, but that doesn't mean he can't be King-Maker; and it doesn't mean he won't make a play for Party Savior etc etc etc. So Kasich's job right now is to put himself somewhere between Trump and Cruz, and to re-paper the GOP with a plausible veneer that lets 'em Etch-A-Sketch their way back to the 90s when they were a big steamin' pile of freakzoid zealots, but they were all a lot better at pretending they weren't.

Here's the thing: Don't be fooled by all this Moderate-By-Comparison bullshit that the PR guys are peddling - a smiling hyena will still eat your kids.

This shit prob'ly gets worse before it gets better.

Caribou Barbie

So, Sarah Palin's at it again.

Former Alaska governor and 2008 Republican vice presidential hopeful Sarah Palin argued Thursday that Bill Nye is not actually a scientist.

“Bill Nye is as much a scientist as I am,” Palin said at an event in Washington, D.C., according to The Hill. “He’s a kids’ show actor; he’s not a scientist.”

Now, at first blush, I have to ask - does she really not know how to spell 'google' or what? Or is she just really sure that nobody in the audience is gonna check on anything, so she can Slap-Chop her way thru a few page-fuls of about 1500 randomly selected (and barely related words), knowing it doesn't fucking matter?

So I just have to wonder - no, seriously now - I do. She's not really all that dumb. There's something going on in whatever it is she's using as a brain, but it's like she's internalized the process of Deliberate Ignorance to the point where she's convinced herself that being stoopid is how 'being smart' works. And maybe it is, in her own special way - because she's got a following. She has a group of people who practically hang on her every word. And you don't build that kinda loyalty just being dumb - even tho' (obviously) it helps a lot if you can get the crowds to believe you're as stoopid as you think they are. Or something.  

It makes my head hurt.

Today's Pix

Too Many Dots

Just thinking a little semi-randomly.

There's an empty seat at SCOTUS, and many empty seats thru the Federal Judiciary, and practically no discernible intent coming from Mitch McConnell to get any of that filled any time soon.

Also, after shitloads of Anti-Abortion laws coming out of the states, plus the Anti-Voting stuff, now we have this growing tide of Anti-Equal Rights legislation.

Recently, a very nice lady told me her thinking is that the GOP / "Conservatives" have been pushing all this malarkey knowing it serves a function beyond the usual thing of whipping the wingnut voters into a rich creamy lather.  She says they know most of the shit they're putting into the law is ridiculous, and it'll be struck down, but that the little extras that go along with these new statutes stand a good chance to stick. 

So first - yes it's true - one of the best things for a man is the company of a smart woman.

Second, I need to look a little closer at what else is included with the bullshit in Georgia and North Carolina and may be coming up in Michigan.  

Circling this back to SCOTUS and empty seats on Federal Benches, it's an interesting little game.  Because a whole strategy has to emerge now for moving the challenges to existing law thru the courts.  With a real probability of a prolonged 4-4 split at SCOTUS, each of the circuit appeals courts becomes a de facto mini-SCOTUS.  And won't that be fun?

And now, kinda skipping to the chase, I've recently been thinking some of these newer developments are starting to make sense if I factor them into a wider strategy that looks a whole lot like a continuing assault on the Redress Clause of the 1st Amendment.

For quite a while, Conservatives and Neo-Libs have been pushing for things like Tort Reform and Mandatory Sentencing, and Forced Arbitration (instead of law suits) on everything from Cable Subscriptions to Employment-At-Will Agreements, and a variety of other things I'm sure I'm totally unaware of.

An awful lot of power is being brought to bear to make it harder for "Regular Joes" to seek relief thru the courts because LLC's (eg) are finding it easier to off-load or duck entirely their responsibilities under the law. 

I have to consider it a pretty bad sign when so many people in positions of power and privilege seem to view our Justice System as something that's old and clunky and just too inconvenient; or they see the probability of having some judgement going against them as just another business expense.

And then add in a coupla hundred million people who can't or won't - or anyway don't - pay much attention to the whole thing because they're increasingly too busy keeping their last nostril above the water line, and holy fuck, Batman, how do I not think we're crazy stoopid close to Caesar crossing the Rubicon.

I really don't like myself when I get all alarmist like this, but honest, kids - this shit ain't good.

Somebody talk me down here.

Voter Outreach

Never give up. Never surrender. 

Today's Tweet

Day-Before-Yesterday's Tweet actually.  But hey - my blog, my rules - fuck off.

(whoa - that sounded way more like Debbie Wasserman-Schultz than anybody should be at all comfortable with. Sorry)

Anyway:

I think women should protest pay inequality by showing up to work 79% of the time.
Be here full time? Gimme full pay.#EqualPayDay

— Jim Capie (@Jim_Capie) April 12, 2016

So - again - all you clear-eyed pragmatic super-genius "conservative" bidness folk, please tell me how you wouldn't completely lose your shit like a Cocoa-Puffs-Denied 4-year-old at Kroger if a customer expected you to deliver 100% of the goods and services while intending to pay 79% of the invoice.

Today's GIF

...is possibly the best GIF ever.  I may hafta post this one every week or so, and retire the GIF posts altogether.

 

Today's Tweet

Please take a moment to feel a little compassion for the people whose biggest problem is that gay people want to pay them to do their jobs.

— LOLGOP (@LOLGOP) April 11, 2016

Cuz when you're a clear-eyed pragmatic business super-genius (as are all "conservatives"), you have an innate understanding that the way you grow your enterprise into a thriving overarching success is to make sure your Prospective Customer Base is as narrow and shallow as possible - just like your dumb-as-a-fucking-stump attitudes.

Lest We Forget

Joe Biden is the first US Vice President in over 10 years not to have shot somebody in the face.

True story.

hat tip = Twitter pal Miles

Today's Pix

C'Mon You Guys

And I'll keep asking: Why does a once-a-week comedy show have better reporters and better investigators and better writers - and producers with more balls - than every fucking news organization on the air!?!