Peter David's Blog, page 8

Freak Out Friday: March 15, 2019

It’s incredible. There is a shooting in New Zealand, with the trigger pulled by an Australian, and America in general and Trump in specific are being blamed for it. We’ve reached a point where, no matter where in the world it is, we are seen as bearing responsibility.

The executive director of the Council on American-Islamic relations stated to Trump, “”During your presidency and during your election campaign, Islamophobia took a sharp rise and attacks on innocent Muslims, innocent immigrants and mosques have skyrocketed.” He then went on to say, “”We hold you responsible for this growing anti-Muslim sentiment in the country and in Europe, but we also do not excuse those terrorist attackers against minorities at home and abroad.”

I suppose it makes a certain degree of sense. There is no question that Trump’s belligerence has led to acts of terror and attempted terror here in the United States, whether it’s people getting beat up at Trump rallies or nuts in vans sending out bombs to people on Trump’s enemies lists. So it could be argued that he likewise bears responsibility when foreign nationals, inspired by his clear anti-Muslim attitudes, decide that they’re going to kill more than four dozen people who are peacefully worshipping in their mosques. Then again, let’s not condemn all white supremacists: I hear tell there are some very fine people in their ranks.

Let’s see, what else:

1). Emergency? What emergency? Both the House and now the Senate have declared what everyone in the country, up to and including Trump himself, already knew: this is no emergency on the Southern border. Trump’s repeated assertions that to oppose his nonsensical declaration means that you’re for open borders, drug trafficking and rape is widely seen for the tripe that it is. Naturally, Trump vetoed it. He is assuming that the cowardly Mitch McConnell and his coterie of Trump bootlickers wouldn’t dare to override his veto.

Here’s the thing that he he’s ignoring, though. According to a poll on Politico, 52 percent of those polled are opposed to it, and 45 percent state that they are less likely to vote for legislators who support it. Granted, 80 percent of Republicans support it, but the overall numbers are still considerable. Which means that any Senator who chooses to side with Trump is putting his own future in jeopardy. Not to mention the fact that it’s about more than just an emergency. If this declaration is allowed to stand, it lays groundwork for any president, including a future Democratic one, to shove Congress aside and take charge of the country’s purse strings, which is the total opposite of how the Constitution is supposed to work. Are the Senators really comfortable with turning over their power and influence to the Executive branch?

2). How tough are you?. In an interview with one of the few media outlets that Trump trusts–Breitbart–he stated, “I can tell you I have the support of the police, the support of the military, the support of the Bikers for Trump – I have the tough people, but they don’t play it tough — until they go to a certain point, and then it would be very bad, very bad.”

What the hell is that supposed to mean?

There would seem to be only one reasonable interpretation: People screw with Trump at their physical peril. Try to mess with him, try to piss him off, and he’ll send in the police to arrest you, the military to shoot you, and bikers to beat you up and burn down your house. This guy, whose wife is a big believer in stopping bullies, basically just threatened everyone who dislikes him with physical violence and retribution.

Not too hard to believe that he regularly adopts the phrasing and verbiage of criminal mob bosses, is it.

3). Bobbing for Mueller. We have just received further proof of how terrified Trump is of Bob Mueller’s investigation, which I’ve been hearing is “winding up” for the past year. The same week that Paul Manafort is being sentenced to prison, Trump is trying to brush Mueller aside by stating that it should never have been begun in the first place. “This was an illegal & conflicted investigation in search of a crime,” Trump tweeted. He got one out of three right, which is pretty good for Trump: It wasn’t illegal or conflicted, but it was in search of crime and it has increasingly found it as Trump’s friends and advisors are sentenced to jail. Trump is also determined to make sure the report never reaches the public, but I’m reasonably sure that someone will leak it to the Post or the Times or maybe Random House and the details will get out, no matter how much the Justice Department tries to keep it under wraps. Hell, maybe it’ll come out at the exact same time as the GOP national convention; how hilarious would THAT be?

Did he do anything right? Yes. Remember when the US used to take the lead on world events. This time pretty much every other major country banned the 737 that has been crashing, but Trump held firm that he wasn’t going to…until he did. So yay, I guess. Every so often, after every other country does the right thing, Trump will reluctantly follow suit.

Nice to know.

PAD

Freak Out Friday – March 1, 2019

It’s likely been said before–possibly by me–but it seems that this was the most eventful week in the entirety of the Trump presidency. It was a spectacular balls-up for not only Trump, but the entire GOP, and I’m hoping it will not be lost on voters in 2020.

1). Kim Jong unbelievable. Without doing any major prep work, without guidance from his subordinates, without any cautions that any reasonable president might have undertaken, President Bone Spurs finally got off his ass and went to Vietnam, there to meet with the North Korean murderous despot and new best friend, Kim Jong un. The alleged Master of the Deal, coming off of being thoroughly out-dealt by Nancy Pelosi, was determined to get Kim to agree to de-nuclearization. He was absolutely certain that he could sweet talk him into it, because his tactics have worked so well with the Democratic House of Representatives.

And to the surprise of absolutely no one except Trump himself, he failed spectacularly.

I have to admit to being somewhat surprised. Kim Jong un basically drew a line in the sand: He wanted Trump to roll back sanctions against his country in exchange for…well, nothing, really. He did not even pretend to promise that he would shut down North Korea’s nuclear research. I must admit, I’m a bit surprised by that. I could easily see him promising Trump whatever he wanted and then not actually following through while Trump, in return, sticks to his part of the deal and lifts the sanctions. It would be months before Trump realized he’d been had, during which time North Korea would be benefiting from the deal and Kim would be laughing at Trump’s credulousness. But no, Kim made it clear that he wanted Trump to give him a major concession and offered absolutely nothing in return.

And why wouldn’t he think that Trump was that easy to sucker? Last Friday Kim assured Trump that he had zero knowledge of the torture inflicted on Otto Warmbier, and Trump bought into that as readily as he accepted the claims of ignorance by Putin and Saudi Arabian royalty over their own murderous actions. The Warmbier family expressed outrage that Trump thoroughly accepted Kim’s pleas of innocence, but really, they couldn’t have been surprised that he’d side with a dictator because he ALWAYS sides with dictators.

So Trump wound up getting out of Vietnam early, abandoning a lavish lunch set up. And if Trump passed on lunch, you know it had to have been a lousy situation.

2). Lawyer up. Meanwhile disbarred attorney Michael Cohen caused “The Price is Right” to be preempted by testifying before Congress. As opposed to the last time, when he lied to Congress in order to protect Trump, this time he had nothing to hide. And the GOP knew it, but that did not deter them from relentlessly attacking Cohen’s believability, even though they astoundingly did not challenge almost anything he said. Over and over they demanded to know why they should believe him, ignoring the fact that any number of mobsters have been taken down by bad men who were sworn in and told the truth about their actions. That is exactly what we were seeing here. Trump, thanks to his own words and actions, has been compared to a mob boss, and Cohen was the squealer who was ratting him out on all the crap he’d done.

How do we know Cohen wasn’t lying? Two reasons. First, no motive to do so. Will he get a book deal? Possibly, but so what? He could easily do that without testifying. Will it cause his prison sentence to be lessened? No. Second, he could easily have made the case far worse. He could have said he did believe that Trump conspired with Russia or asserted that he’d hit Melania, but he said no in both instances. Amusingly Trump claimed that Cohen had lied about everything except that, ignoring the far likelier possibility that Cohen wasn’t lying about any of it. Of course, with Trump’s malfunctioning brain, it’s entirely possible he doesn’t realize Cohen is telling the truth. He so lives in the moment of his fabrication that he likely doesn’t know the difference between fact and fiction anymore.

Furthermore he opened the door, which Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez then strode through, for Congress to examine Trump’s tax returns. There is obviously a wealth of information to be had there, which Trump is determined to make sure never gets out. Common sense tells you that anything someone wants to hide that badly contains damaging stuff. Do not forget that if income tax fraud was good enough to take down Al Capone, it’s good enough to take down Donald Trump.

Unfortunately the bottom line is that Cohen’s testimony will likely not have any real impact. For those who hate Trump, Cohen’s charges of him being a racist and con man merely confirm what we already know. Meanwhile his supporters will embrace the notion that Cohen can’t be trusted, even though they accept the words of a man who has demonstrably lied over eight thousand times in the past two years.

PAD

Freak Out Friday – February 22, 2019

So Trump has been very busy doing nothing this week.

He declared a national emergency and then went off to play a couple of rounds of golf and haunt an omelette station. Because at a time of crisis, you want to make sure your chief executive is under par and well-fed.

He took to his twitter feed and claimed that senator Richard Burr has declared there is no evidence of collusion with the Russians, despite the fact that the investigation is in fact ongoing, that Democrats disagree with the assertion, and that Burr’s committee lacks the investigative powers of the Mueller probe.

He declared that the wall was already partly built. No. All that happened was that some repairs were recently completed on an already built structure and the money for the repairs came from the Obama administration.

He also roundly condemned Alec Baldwin for his dead-on Trump impressions on SNL, and also went after Jussie Smollett for allegedly faking the assault on himself and blaming it on guys wearing MAGA hats. That really burned Trump’s biscuits. How dare Smollett set up hat-wearing racists for a non-existent personal attack! He singlehandedly made millions of people look bad, even though their own statements and actions have served to make them look far worse.

What I find more problematic is the people he did NOT weigh in against.

1). Christopher Hasson. Hasson is, or more properly was, a coast guard lieutenant and self-proclaimed white supremacist who was planning to kill a ton of people in order to spark a race war. That apparently did not reach Trump’s radar. Not a single word condemning his plans. Then again, he never does. On the rare occasions when he does tweet about some new actions by a racist, or a racist’s assault, the tone and style of the tweet changes which indicates it is being written by someone else.

2). Putin. Putin gave his state of the country speech on Wednesday and basically threatened the United States. He said, in part, “Russia will be forced to create and deploy new types of weapons that could be used not only against the territories where a direct threat to us comes from, but also against the territories where decision-making centers directing the use of missile systems threatening us are located. The capability of such weapons, including the time to reach those centers, will be equivalent to the threats against Russia.” If that wasn’t specific enough, he went on to say, “Among the ruling class” in the United States are many people who are too captivated by ideas of their exceptionalism and their superiority over the entire rest of the world. But do they know how to count? Surely they do. Let them first calculate the range and speed of our advanced weapons systems, and then make decisions on the threats against our country.”

So Putin basically threatened to fire missiles at us.

Trump’s response? Did he tell Putin to screw off? Did he rage over how the strong man threatens nuclear rain on the country he’s sworn to protect?

Of course not. The Department of Justice, that he attacked. The FBI, that he went after. A comic actor, a bad actor, those were worth going after. But one of the most notable threats currently facing the United States?

Complete silence.

There is a genuine possibility that the Mueller investigation could be released while Trump is in Vietnam (speaking of Vietnam, it’s worth noting that in five generations of the Trump family, not a single member has served in the military) meeting with his newest best friend, Kim Jong-un, primarily as a gambit to try and win a Nobel peace prize. Let’s hope he seeks refuge there to avoid arrest.

PAD

Liliana meets her relatives

We are in North Carolina spending some time with Ariel and family.

Liliana is a little confused at all the new people. AJ is working on being the best big brother.

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Freak Out Friday – February 15, 2019

Today is destined to be a major day in the history of the United States.

It is the day when a US president completely, thoroughly and utterly turned his back on the Constitution that he swore to protect and instead publicly embraced the tactics of the dictatorial despots he openly admires.

Let’s face facts: the master of the deal, in the past two months, was completely outmaneuvered by Nancy Pelosi. A woman who so intimidates him that his nickname for her is “Nancy,” Pelosi kept the Democrats united and in solid opposition to his wasteful border wall. And it is wasteful, make no mistake. There is NO emergency at the border. None. Arrests are at a twenty year low. Drugs are not being imported over the southern border. Gang members are not stalking across and seeking to kill Americans in their homes. The vast, vast majority of mass shootings are being committed by good old fashioned US-raised white boys. There is. NO. emergency. I know it, you know it, and the truth of the matter is, Trump knows it.

Why? Because he’s been president for two years, during which time the GOP had control of both the House and the Senate, and in that time Trump did not declare there to be an emergency.

What IS an emergency? Let’s find out:

Merriam-Webster defines it as: “an unforeseen combination of circumstances or the resulting state that calls for immediate action.”

9/11 was an emergency. When W. declared that to be a national emergency, NO ONE protested. No one could have foreseen the attack (except for, you know, the intelligence agents who predicted it and W. ignored, just as Trump ignores his guys) and immediate response had to be taken.

Nothing has triggered an emergency at the border. There’s been no single instance that had America go, “Holy crap, we must do something about this!” The truth is that no one was giving the border a second thought until three years ago when Trump launched his racist campaign by declaring Mexicans were rapists.

Yet now that the Democrats control the House, Trump has suddenly decided that the wall is an emergency. He was certainly not helped when Ann Coulter and Fox and Friends castigated him for forgetting about his oft repeated campaign promise. You remember: the wall Mexico was going to pay for.

The fact is that any thinking person (which lets out Trump’s base) knew the wall was a non-starter. Mexico wasn’t going to pay for it; people who owned the land weren’t going to give it up; and the majority of the country saw no need for it. Yet thanks to Coulter and company, the wall is back on the table and Trump’s fruitless efforts to ram it down the House and Senate’s throat shut down the government for over a month.

Having finally realized that they’re not going to give him the money he wants, Trump has decided to toss aside the Constitutional requirement that funds come through Congress and has instead decided to unilaterally declare an emergency so that he can siphon funds from other projects.

I have to say, frankly: I love this idea.

Will it get the wall built? Of course not. Court challenges will tie it up for years, long after Trump is out of office.

But the precedent it establishes is fantastic, for two reasons:

First, it puts the final nail in the coffin of the essence of the GOP. For decades, they’ve advocated small government. Screw that: the government is taking over. Trump is ignoring the wishes of the American people who put their representatives into place and instead enforcing his own will on government funding, just as any strong man despot would do. He’s wanted to be Putin in the worst way, and now he is.

Second, the precedent is set. Because sooner or later, a Democrat is going to be in the White House, and you know what? As opposed to arrests at the southern border which are down, gun deaths are skyrocketing. A Democratic President can unilaterally ban assault rifles; hell, they might just suspend the Second Amendment altogether. Are more people dying because they can’t afford healthcare? Congratulations: Medicare for all. Don’t like the Green Day plan? Too bad; the planet is going bye bye in twelve years. That’s a pretty major damned emergency.

By the way, I find it interesting that even with the population of the entire world on the line, critics can only trash Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s plan to try and save us all. I know that there is a knee-jerk reflex of people in opposing camps to find nothing but fault in any idea proposed by the other side, but we’re talking about ALL of our futures. The fact is that if the current mentality had existed back in the 1960s when JFK stated we’d be on the moon by the end of the decade, that accomplishment would never have happened. Republicans would have united to make sure that JFK’s dream was never realized.

But hey, at least the government’s not being shut down.

At least until October.

So that’s good.

PAD

State of the Union live blog 2019

This will be in lieu of Freak Out Friday this week.

8:48: We’ve decided to tune in to CNN for the coverage.

8:52: Kathleen is going to be monitoring the NYT for fact checking, and as she brings me up to speed with lies I will relay them to you.

8:55: Well, all of Trump’s idiot conservative justices from the SCOTUS walked in. God, I hate Kavanaugh.

9:03: Good Christ. He looks even more orange than usual. What the hell are they slathering on his skin. And I’m not sure if I’m imagining it, but does the applause sound far less thunderous than it usually does? I have a strong suspicion that a lot of them aren’t clapping.

9:06: Wow. What a sea of white. It’s a solidarity among women in honor of Suffragettes.

9:08: Yeah. Sure you’re ready to work with Democrats. Yes, we do hope that the two parties will govern together, but considering he already stated a previous draft went too soft on Dems, it’s unlikely.

9:09: He sounds like he’s half asleep.

9:09: Yup. No applause from the Democrats. They’re just sitting there.

9:11: Okay, that’s impressive. D-Day vets. Probably some of the few left alive.

9:12: Uh,no, Neil Armstrong planned the flag, I’m pretty sure.

9:13: Buzz Aldrin was honored at a $600 a plate dinner at Mar-A-Largo. So Trump benefited from him.

9:14: Considering the middle class is howling they are getting screwed by taxes this year, that’s going to be quite a trick.

9:15: Mr. “I’m not signing this without my wall” wants compromise? Uh huh.

9:16: He’s setting it up so that he can blame the Democrats for everything. “Greatness.” “Continue American greatness.” As he uses his tweets to tear down everyone who disagrees with him.

9:17: No. The economy has been growing non-stop since 2008. Meanwhile the tax cut is killing growth.

9:18: Wrong. Latvia, Poland, China and Greece have better economies. Meanwhile the economy slowed in the last quarter of 2018 and even more in the first quarter of 2019.

9:19: False. Yes, more people are working, but that’s only because there are more people in the United States. And the tax cut was aimed at the top one percent. Meanwhile the elimination of the estate tax only applies to people with estates over $10 million.

9:21: No, they’re not returning.

9:22: Pretty sure Russia and Saudi Arabia produce more oil.

9:24: Under Obama we gained 900,000 manufacturing jobs. Under trump, half that.

9:25: Trump administration has slowed down the pace of adopting new rules and wants to roll back some, especially environmental protection.

9:28: They have not created 5.3 million new jobs. Meanwhile the creation of manufacturing jobs has dropped since the 1990s and early 2000s.

9:29: Yes. He did one thing right in pardoning her. Dozens of things wrong, one things right. A batter with a .005 average is hardly a quality hitter.

9:30: Okay, turns out we did pass Russia and Saudi Arabia in oil.

9:32: Here we go.

9:33: Jesus, MORE troops? Christ.

9:34: As Trump brought up the caravans, Pelosi raised a hand to silence the booing from the Democrats.

9:35: Border crossings are not an urgent national crisis. they have been declining for the past two decades. It’s the separating of kids from their parents that is causing problems.

9:35: Did he just say compassion for immigrants is CRUEL? Congratulations, it’s officially 1984.

9:37: Yes. Drugs coming through legal ports of entry, you idiot. And no, MOST drugs do NOT come through the southern border.

9:39: Jesus. A shooting from an illegal alien. How terrible. Now let’s bring in people whose families were shot in Pittsburgh, and Las Vegas, and Connecticut, etc., by good old Americans.

9:41: And if Elvin’s family were trying to come in now, Trump’s policies would likely do everything they could to keep them out. And what is his obsession with sex crimes.

9:43: That’s a lie. They didn’t vote for a massive wall covering 2000 miles.

9:48: Yes, and the vast majority of the women are Democrats.

9:50: Crime in El Paso actually dropped over 30 percent before the wall was even constructed.

9:52: Trump’s speech thus far has covered seven pages. There’s another seven pages to go.

9:52: The problem is that auto workers have been laid off because we’re not getting in the steel from China.

9:54: I agree, except that’s called the Affordable Care Act, which he’s been trying to kill.

9:55: Is anybody reading this? I’ve gotten no comments.

9:56: They tried this before. It didn’t work.

9:59: Good for Grace.

10:01: School choice, so that religious and private schools can siphon off money from the public schools.

10:02: Oh my fucking God. He’s bought into the lies and trash about the new abortion laws. Late term abortion is NOT HAPPENING. It is NOT A THING. This is the beginning of the end of Roe v. Wade.

10:06: And so Trump decided to give Putin exactly what he wanted: the demolition of the treaty that Reagan put together so that the Russians can do whatever the hell they want.

10:07: Lies. Nuclear testing has not stopped, and missiles have launched. Even his own people aren’t buying into his assertion that we’d be at war with North Korea right now.

10:08: Considering all the name calling he hurled at Kim Jong-un, he doesn’t really get to boast about great relations with them.

10:10: Thereby exacerbating relations between Israelis and Arabs.

10:15: Isis, if Trump clears out the troops, could easily resurge and take back all the territory they’ve lost.

10:18: Okay, NOW he brings up the Pittsburgh shootings.

10:21: Okay, that’s a pretty good story. Of course it’s Judah’s story, not Trumps, but still…

10:26: Yes that’s right. We used to face down evil empires. Which is why it’s so disturbing that Trump adores the dictator of modern day evil empires.

10:27: If by thrilling achievements he’s referring to his impeachment, I’m on board with that.

10:28: He’s definitely winding down.

10:29: It’s just hilarious to hear the most divisive president in our history talking about how we have to work together.

10:29: I mean, for all that he speaks about unity, as of tomorrow he’ll be back to tweeting divisive messages lambasting anyone he dislikes. It’s nice words, but he won’t live up to them.

I was going to live blog the Democrats, but screw that. Ninety minutes of this is enough.

My new granddaughter

Leliana Adalia Palermo, born to Ariel and Anthony yesterday. Eight pounds, eighteen and a half inches. She has a head of curly hair like her mom.

She is, of course, adorable, although to be fair I’ve only ever seen one ugly baby in all my life.

Here’s the most recent picture of her.

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Super Bowl LIII live commercial Blog

6;30: Holy crap. It started off with Endgame. It’s just downhill from here.

6:39: Spike seltzer. Alcoholic water. Just what the world needs.

M&Ms. Cute.

I’ve really gotta start watching Handmaid’s Tale.

Bumble? What the hell is Bumble? Guys, at least TELL us what it is you’re selling. The name means nothing.

6:47: Long way to go for Hyundai.

A Turkish airways commercial directed by RIDLEY SCOTT? Jesus. Have the “Aliens” film sequels failed that badly that that’s what he has to do for a living?

So far, nothing especially memorable. No “Oh my God that was brilliant” moment. Then again, we’re only twenty minutes in.

6:52: Okay, funny Olay commercial. Most commercials that spoof horror films are entertaining.

A Doritos commercial with a rap star. Cute.

Not toxic pet dishes? You mean previous bowls were toxic? Jesus. Nothing is safe anymore.

6:56: Short Captain Marvel trailer. Not bad.

A whole commercial about corn syrup? I can feel my blood sugar spiking just watching it. If I drank beer, I’d totally be getting the one that doesn’t have corn syrup in it.

7:03: Hobbs and Shaw. They should have teamed Hobbs up with Calvin.

An ad for another app with another rapper. I feel so old, that I don’t know who any of these guys are.

7:12: Sorry, guys. If I’m at a restaurant and they say “Is Pepsi Okay?” I get water. Coke or nothing.

Home security. Okay. Got ADT so I’m covered.

I feel like this is an ad about a guy who died. Oh! Okay, he almost did. Well done, Audi.

7:17: Bud Light meets Game of Thrones. Best beer commercial possibly ever.

World’s Best. Sounds like a sequel to World’s Finest.

7:24: Okay, THAT was a hilarious Pringles ad. We get insight into Alexa’s lack of inner life. Brilliant. I could write a whole short story with that.

Google translate sucks. Caroline says so and I believe her.

7:33: Wow. I really DO wish I could control the world like that. I’m not gonna buy an Audi but that I could really empathize with.

T-Mobile and Taco Bell? Really? Because those two companies have so much in common.

7:37: Am I the only person who has no idea who Toni Harris is?

A Planters commercial with both A-Rod and Charlie Sheen? Very well done,Planters. I still don’t like peanuts, but a clever commercial.

7:42: God, I loved the cruise we went on for our honeymoon. It was Disney but still.

Holy cow, I heard they were remounting Twilight Zone, but that looked way cooler than I expected. Damn, I hate that Harlan is gone. He would’ve been perfect for that.

7:47: Screw Turbotax. They could make a whole film out of Robochild.

Best cameos of the evening so far in the Stella Artios commercial.

7:57: Holy shit. A violinist missing an arm? Okay, I’m interested.

You know, I already have auto insurance, but if I were going to change, I’d definitely check out Cure just because of that ad.

SkullShaver.com? Until the end I thought it was an ad for Saturday Night Live.

8:05: I have NO idea what that commercial with all the football players was for, but it was certainly entertaining.

8:09: Someday they’ve gotta have Weird Al as the halftime performer.

8:22:Is there NO famous rock song that can’t be used in commercials? I mean, jeez.

Ah. As I said, I have ADT. They’ve been pretty good, actually.

Looks like Jim Beam was an Amish with the whole building thing.

Jeez, can’t I just work out on a treadmill and watch TV while I’m doing it?

8:32: Good Christ, this Kia commercial is the most depressing car ad I’ve ever seen.

Who the hell is Michael Bubly?

8:42: No, I’m not with you, and I’m really getting sick of the T-Mobile commercials.

You know, that Ultra commercial would have been way better if it had starred Robot Man from Doom Patrol.

8:48: Jeez, Verizon, first responders are great and all, but please make the printing bigger in the commercials. I couldn’t read a damned thing.

8:54: I didn’t recognize any of those codes. That was a really helpful ad for Google.

9:04: “Hanna” looks interesting.

Screw Goosebumps. I’m still interested in that one-armed violinist.

9:10: Not a bad little CBS ad, although I’m curious how many people didn’t recognize the things from the 60s and 70s.

MAKE THE DAMNED PRINTING BIGGER! Jesus!

Scientology? Seriously?

9:18: Very nice Microsoft ad. Video games are for everyone, apparently.

Okay, we get it, Bud Light doesn’t use corn syrup. Enough already.

9:33: Harrison Ford in an Amazon commercial? Good lord, what is this country coming to?

9:41: Very clever, Michelob. When someone whispers you automatically listen very closely to them. Nicely done.

9:53: Christ, I’m really starting to hate T-Mobile.

Wait, wasn’t the woman with an eyepatch in a movie recently?

Freak Out Friday – February 1, 2019

Y’know, I remember the days when Presidents didn’t do stupid stuff every damned week. I remember when they didn’t dominate every minute of every news cycle with their idiocy. Those were good days. I miss them.

1). Trump’s lack of intelligence. Has there ever been a more ironically apt observation of Trump than this fact: he has no time for intelligence. Recently his intelligence heads testified before congress, basically stating that everything Trump was claiming about the world was wrong. They asserted that ISIS was not remotely defeated and that removing our troops would open the door for a resurgence of their influence and terrorism. They stated that Iran was not developing nuclear weapons.

Yet rather than listen to the assertions of his own people–people whose entire career is staked on KNOWING THIS STUFF–Trump insists that they are wrong, that they need to go “back to school” (what does that even mean?) and that he and his legendary gut know far better than people who are paid to know shit. There has never been a president so utterly self absorbed in his own conviction of eternal rightness, and so completely wrong about so many things. The fact that his poll numbers are plunging is not surprising; what’s astounding is that he has any backers left. Including his chief enabler, Mitch McConnell, whose own ties to Russia are now coming further and further out into the open.

I would like to quote directly from an article on the subject on medium.com:

McConnell recently voted to drop sanctions against Russian aluminum company RusAl which is still owned by one of Vladimir Putin’s sanctioned oligarchs, Oleg Deripaska. His action directly benefits one of the GOP leader’s major donors, whose fortune comes from Russian oil.

The Senate Leadership Fund, a super PAC run by Sen. McConnell’s former Chief of Staff, received a total of $3,500,000 ($2,500,000 in 2016 and $1,000,000 in 2017) via Access Industries and a subsidiary. Len Blavatnik is a Russian oligarch with US and UK citizenship who owns Access Industries and donated to Sen. McConnell’s 2016 Senate campaign vehicles.

It is entirely possible that Robert Mueller will be coming for McConnell next, and wouldn’t that be sweet?

2). Global colding. I’m old enough to remember the arms race from the Cold War. This was back when neighbors were building fall out shelters and we were having drills in school that told us to hide under our desks in case a nuclear bomb went off nearby. Because nothing deters incineration and/or radiation poisoning like a desk.

I know absolutely no one who is nostalgic for that era of American existence, yet Trump apparently is. The Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces treaty has been in force since 1987. But Trump wants to pull out of it. He asserts that Russia has been in violation of it since 2014, but rather than trying to deal with it through diplomatic means, he is once again trying to strong arm them. Because threats and blackmail have worked so well for him in, for instance, dealing with Nancy Pelosi. This move has our European allies worried about their safety, and everyone concerned that we’re going to wind up in a brand new arms race where missiles could start flying because someone screwed up in a reading about incoming weapons.

Then again, he’s also pulled out of the Trans Pacific Partnership, the UN Human Rights Council, UNESCO, the Paris Climate agreement, and he’s begun pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal and threatened to pull out of the World Trade Organization. The next President shouldn’t be either a Republican or a Democrat; it should be someone from Damage Control because that’s what we’re going to need to repair everything this idiot has done.

3). Emerrrrgency. Everybody to get from street. It’s becoming fairly obvious what’s going to happen. Trump is going to declare a state of emergency in order to siphon money intended for other things to build his idiotic wall.

He and his enablers are going to have to come to grips with a simple reality: the wall is never going to be built. Trump’s emergency claim will immediately be challenged in court and likely be tied up for months if not years. And then there will be years more of delays as land owners along the border are going to refuse to turn their land over to the government and he’s faced with dozens of eminent domain lawsuits. The ONLY way this thing could roll forward at all is if Pence wins eight years in the White House as president. I want to say that won’t happen. I pray to God it doesn’t happen.

Here is a fact: the GOP is running scared. That’s never been more evident than when McConnell lambasted a Democratic series of laws designed to improve elections, describing it as a “power grab” by the Democrats. How could it remotely be argued that making elections fairer, more open and easier to get involved with is a power grab? It’s obvious. By improving elections, it makes it easier for Democrats to vote, which means that the people holding office will more accurately reflect the people and opinions of the majority of the country. The Trumpies can howl at the moon all they want, much like dinosaurs sinking in a tar pit, because they understand that they are genuinely a dying breed. The majority of the country has moved beyond them, and they are being left behind like the doomed neanderthals that they are. Assuming that we do not environmentally destroy the planet, this could be a great country in fifty years.

Did he do anything right? Yes, for the first time in a while. Foxconn, which had originally decided to build flat screens in Wisconsin, had announced that they were going to scuttle the plans to do so. Apparently Trump contacted the company’s chairman and convinced him to proceed with the original plans. Granted, Foxconn had stated they were going to hire over 13K people either way, but still, talking people into manufacturing anything in the US is a plus, so well done.

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Bill Maher’s anti-fan rant

Bill Maher has informed us, both on Twitter and again last night, that comic books are for kids and that fans of them are basically stunted individuals who are unable to accept adulthood.

So let’s talk about fans.

Fans love to argue. They are particularly big on arguing who their heroes can defeat. And periodically they gather in large crowds, sometimes numbering over 50,000. They pay ridiculous entry fees to get in, and many of them dress up like their favorites. In the places where they gather, they cheer on their respective faves, chant together, eat and hang together. They buy a ton of merchandise, dropping hundreds of dollars at a time. And if they’re lucky, they get autographs and go home happy. Hell, on rare occasions they even attend parades dedicated to their heroes.

And that’s just Mets fans.

It’s also Yankees fans, and Phillies fans, and Dodgers fans, and Jets and Giants fans, and Knicks fans, and so on throughout the country.

Hell, Bill Maher even profits off it, since he bought a minority share of the Mets in 2012.

And all these games…they involve balls. Isn’t that interesting? Large ones, small ones, that get bounced or hit or thrown. Balls, which are–as you know–one of the favorite toys of babies.

Yet interestingly no one, not even the profiting Bill Maher, ever accuses sports fans of being juvenile. Of being overgrown children. Get a whole bar riled up about Yankees versus Red Sox and no one is going to say, “My God, grow the hell up.”

That’s because, as Neil Gaiman pointed out, if you have stories told via words alone, that’s books and the realm of adults. Have pictures by themselves and that’s art, and also for adults. But the moment you combine words and pictures, assholes believe that that makes it entertainment purely for children.

I’ve said this before but it bears repeating: comic books aren’t juvenilia. Comic books are modern myths. The definition of a myth is something that is defined within its own essence. If you ask someone, “Who is Gomez Addams?” they will reply, “He’s a character created by cartoonist Charles Addams.” IF you say, “Who is Superman?” people will likely respond, “He’s a superhero, the last son of Krypton, with the secret identity of Clark Kent.” In the same way that if you ask who Hercules is, you’ll be told that he is a half-god born of Zeus having an affair with a mortal. You don’t put it in context of its creation; you define it as itself. People who find Spider-Man fascinating are just as valid and adult in their interests as someone who studies Arthurian legend. The fact that it’s happening in modern time and we know who the creators are doesn’t make it any less mythic.

Nor is the multi-billion dollar success of their movies proof of their crossover appeal, according to Maher. “They’re all the same!” he declares, asserting that ALL comic book movies are about superheroes fighting over “glowy” things (like athletes fighting over a ball, remember.). The short answer is, Yeah, right, “Black Panther” is just like “Wonder Woman” (neither of which involved anything glowing.). The longer answer is, Yeah, right, super heroes fighting over glowing things is sure an accurate description of Men in Black. Or Road to Perdition. Or Kingsmen. Or V for Vendetta. Or From Hell. Or 300, Sin City, American Splendor, Atomic Blonde, Ghost World, Dredd, Scott Pilgrim vs the World, and on and on.

BUT, Maher further asserts, comics aren’t literature. Well, let’s figure that out. The dictionary definition of literature is: written works, especially those considered of superior or lasting artistic merit. So what’s lasting merit? It seems reasonable to assume that it’s obvious: something that lasts. That transcends generations. So since Action Comics #1, which was produced over eighty years ago, still has resonance, that would seem to satisfy the definition, as does Spider-Man who was created fifty-five years ago. But perhaps it’s deeper than that. Perhaps to be literature, it must be critically acclaimed. Like Watchmen was when it won the Hugo. Like Sandman when it won the Bram Stoker award. Like Maus was when it won the Pulitzer.

How many Pulitzers do you have on your shelf, Bill?

I’m not pissed off with Maher because he went off on a rant about fans. God knows I’ve done that myself. I’m pissed off because he went off on a rant that was factually wrong, demonstrably inaccurate, and incredibly unfair. His words come from ignorance, and I wish to God he would do something, anything, to educate himself.

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