À Propos of Nothing

I can just about accept Reagan pronounced as Ray-gun, and Cheney as Chainee, but Koch is not pronounced 'Coke', Boehner is certainly not pronounced 'Bayner', and Loesch sure as fuck is not pronounced 'Lash'.  At least the latter admits it.  When the hell will Republicans/Right-Wingers own up to their actual names and stop mispronouncing them ?

* Yes, I could just respect people's choices to pronounce their names as they see fit.  In the case of the right-wing scum aforementioned though, fuck that.  I'm not sure I can manage any respect for even the star of Bedtime for Bonzo**, never mind those other arseholes.

** By which, I mean Ronnie obviously.  Totes respect the chimp.

Speaking of Which...

As All of America/The Entire Republican Party/Fox News Viewers/A Handful of Political Junkies eagerly await the pretend Republican debate(s) on Fox News next week, meanwhile, the actual debate of Republican candidates not named Trump, with an actual chance at the nomination, will take place in southern California this weekend as charisma-less son and brother of former presidents, JEB!, personal puppet-doll of the Kochs, Scott Walker, lunatic clown, Ted Cruz, pretty boy, Marco Rubio, and for some altogether inexplicable reason, failed businesswoman Carly Fiorina compete for the chance at being the billionaire Koch Brothers' chosen bitch in the coming Republican primaries.

Although the remaining eleven 'serious' candidates & Carly, may have a chance of being chosen for the historically most-often powerless VP spot (Darth Cheney, and to a lesser degree, Uncle Joe aside), really, most of the others have no chance of winning, and know that full well, but are running anyway, because...they have nothing the fuck to lose in so doing, and can hoover up oodles of cash in the name of an utterly futile campaign.  They could also have counted on oodles of attention from the media, were it not for one attention-crazed multiple-bankrupt property-developer entering the race...

Fiorina's presence puzzles me a little.  I can only assume, that either, a) the Kochs have her in mind for the VP slot, thinking that her possession of lady-parts somehow lessens Hillary's chances in the General Election, or that b) they think it's needful to string her utterly hopeless campaign along a little longer at least to counter the idea that the GOP is solely a party of rich white men.  Which to be true, it isn't.  It also includes a lot of people, who desperately would rather they were rich white men, and are more than happy to paper over any differences in order to gain even a junior seat at the big boy's table.

Regardless, keeping the Donald's joker-card in mind, almost certainly the nominee will be one of these four assholes: JEB!, fascist fuck Scott Walker, the always entertaining idiot Ted Cruz, or, less likely by the day, 'I'm so Young and Pretty; Isn't Hillary an old Hag' Marco Rubio.  The rest of the crowd is just so much entertainment-value, funded not just by the Brothers Koch, but by the rest of the billionaire-establishment that made Citizens United possible (H/T Chief Justice John Roberts, H/T as always Harriet Miers).

Of course, the Koch-sucking show will all take place behind closed doors (please let someone have sneaked in a camera, please !) as the top candidates get down on their knees and promise various ways in which they, if president, will personally advance the Kochs' agenda of maximally increasing their own personal wealth and power, at the expense of any other single consideration of humanity.

But don't worry, proles, though you are, and long have been, completely shut out of decision-making in your own so-called democracy, at least you'll get to laugh at the pretend candidates in the 'debates' on Fox.

What you won't get, which our more wise historical overlords knew the value of of, was the chance at public dunkings, and throwing rotten fruit.

Scott Walker, King of the Unfinished Cheesesteak*

Somehow, I doubt that this image of authoritarian sociopath fuck Scott Walker eating a sandwich will end up on the cover of many American tabloids.  Not that US outlets don't have their own ways of shaming candidates over their consumption of sandwiches, such as questioning their choice of cheese.

Walker said he was well aware of Kerry's faux pas.

"Oh, yeah, I heard about the Swiss cheese," Walker said. "I wouldn't be able to eat it if it wasn't with Cheez Whiz or American anyway. Maybe cheddar if they had it, but I'm not supporting Swiss cheese."

Because, Swiss surrender-monkeys ?

But apparently, that's not the real topic of discussion, regarding this picture.  No, it's...the bald spot.  Which, er, has its own page on Facebook and its own blog ?**  Might it have something to do with his bizarre claim that his bald spot was a result of an accident in the kitchen ?

As Gov. Scott Walker was wrapping up his visit Monday with the State Journal editorial board, he joked with cartoonist Phil Hands that Hands draws his ears too big — but said the cartoonist’s portrayal of his bald spot was accurate.

The governor continued.

The bald spot, he said, was the result of a repair incident in the kitchen when he banged his head on an open kitchen cabinet door while making repairs requested by his wife, Tonette.

She kept telling him to go to the doctor to get the scar on his head looked at, he said. When he finally did, the doctor said his hair would never grow back in that spot, the governor explained.

Tonette still points to the bald spot as a reminder that he should always listen to his wife, he said.

Uh huh.  So, you hit your head, a part of your head (that part of your head itself quite round, note) that just so happens to correspond exactly with traditional patterns of male pattern baldness on a somehow perfectly round and absurdly wide section of a cabinet-door, and were left with a massive bald spot ?  Or maybe you got a scar at the very centre of the part of your head that just so happens to correspond exactly with traditional patterns of male pattern baldness, and the surrounding hairs all died off out of sympathy for their lost colleagues ?  That the way it works now ?  Well, gee, I'm not a scientist, so wha' the hell do I know ?

I don't want to know, don't want to even imagine what this combination of utter lunacy and limitless vanity says about Scott Walker.  Everything I already know about the man and his billionaire backers scares me quite enough already, thank you very much.


* This makes me sad: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CLBT18pXAAAX27H.jpg:large***

** What, you say those are fake sites created by Walker's political opponents ?  Nooooo, surely, not.

*** Was wondering why the two images didn't match, and almost doubting my sanity.  But then: 'Walker ordered one each from Geno's and rival Pat's King of Steaks, across the street, during a brief campaign swing through the City of Brotherly Love. He's one of 16 Republicans vying for the party's presidential nomination and, true to political form, wouldn't say which cheesesteak was better.'  Okay, so I'm not mad.  Good.

Feel the Bern ! Or Not

Somehow this video just sums up perfectly for me the Bernie Sanders campaign.  And is a complete 180 from the slickly produced and carefully scripted videos Hillary puts out.

Here we have the guy speaking, not in a packed stadium to thousands of supporters, but in someone's living room*, surrounded largely by overweight pasty white folk, as he dishes on the evil Koch brothers, whilst the guy to his right yawns and picks his teeth.  And in which he manages to both shush his supporters, and tell them 'you should know that'.

The old guy's got a good message, can't deny.  I predict he'll make an excellent mayor of Burlington, VT.

From a page on C&L entitled ironically enough, 'Bernie Electrifies Crowds In Louisiana With Climate Change Message'.


* Just imagine Hillary doing this.  No, no, just try.