Month: October 2018

So Much For THAT Campaign

Lies and Untruths, Politics

So one-time-moderate Republican Phil Bredesen is campaigning for the U.S. Senate seat in Tennessee, as a Democrat.

One might think that this would be an uphill battle as it is;  but apparently the people who are trying to get this tool elected said this recently:

A top spokesman for the Tennessee Democratic Party’s effort to get Phil Bredesen elected senator has said he views “white male” gun owners as “the biggest terrorist organization on the planet.”

In Tennessee.  Well, I guess there’s only one thing to say to Bredesen:  buh-bye.

In the meantime, all you dangerous white male gun-owning terrorists should do the responsible thing — no, not that thing, the voting thing.

And let’s make sure that Marsha Blackburn isn’t the only Republican sent to the Senate come November.  Ditto the House.

November 6 just can’t come quickly enough.

Best Comedy TV (Part 8)

Entertainment

Absolutely Fabulous (UK)

Absolutely nobody I know likes this ridiculous, over-the-top, outrageous and over-acted series, but I absolutely fucking love it.  The fact that the show is based on an actual PR person (no names, no pack drill) makes it even more delicious.

The point is that from beginning to end, AbFab is not actually a comedy, but satire — and it lampoons everything, from the PR business to fashion to feminism to family relations and oh so much more.  Whether it’s the frantic, hysterical Edina’s latest fad diet, the feline Patsy’s fondness for Bollinger at 8am or insufferable daughter Saffron’s earnest espousal of everything PC, AbFab doesn’t so much skewer it as either a bludgeon it with a club or flay it with a razor.

Saffie:  I’m sorry, mum, but I’ve never seen what it is that you actually do.
Eddie:  PRrr.
Saffie:  Yes, but —
Eddie:  PR.  I PR things.  People.  Places.  Concepts…
Patsy:  Lulu.
Eddie:  Lulu.  I make the fabulous…  I make the crap into credible.  I make the dull into —
Patsy:  Delicious.

No better description of public relations was ever penned.  And as for PR awards:

Eddie:  They don’t matter, do they, darling?… Awards, Pats?
Patsy:  Oh, Eddy. We’ve been here before.
Eddie:  It’s just… you know… I WANT one. I don’t just want one, darling, I NEED one. My career is on a toboggan run of failure at the moment… I just need one. It’s the only thing that seems to mean ANYthing these days… I need one now before the menopause drags me into her gaping jaws. Before my creative hormonal oil-well dribbles to a halt. Before my bottom becomes just a patch-work quilt of monkey glands, darling.
Saffie:  But, Mum, menopause can be a very exhilarating and positive experience for a woman.
Eddie:  Oooh, yes.  And the curse is a blessing and childbirth is painless.  No.  Unless that gaping hole on my mantle piece is filled pretty soon, darling, I might as well… I might as well lick this light-switch and do us all a favour, darling…

And:

[to daughter Saffron, after a heated argument]
Eddie:  With any luck we’d get Roman Polanski interested in you.
Patsy (snarling):  She was never young enough for him.

Not to mention the booze:

Patsy:  What will you drink if you stop drinking?
Eddie:  I shall drink water.
[pause]
Eddie:  It’s a mixer, Pats.  We have it with whisky… I mean, you‘ve given up drinking before? 
Patsy:  Worst eight hours of my life.

Finally, there’s Eddie’s mother, played by the amazing June Whitfield:

Eddy:  Mother, are you still on the computer?
Gran:  Yes, dear.  Sometimes you get into a porn loop and just can’t get out.

And then of course there’s Patsy:

“The last mosquito that bit me had to check into the Betty Ford Clinic.”

Fabulous.  Absolutely fabulous.

GTFO

Pussification Parade

Unlike others, when I read this little whine I just burst out laughing.

Why I’m Leaving the Republican Party
The Kavanaugh confirmation fight revealed the GOP to be the party of situational ethics and moral relativism in the name of winning at all costs.
…
The Republicans, however, have now eclipsed the Democrats as a threat to the rule of law and to the constitutional norms of American society.  They have become all about winning.  Winning means not losing, and so instead of acting like a co-equal branch of government responsible for advice and consent, congressional Republicans now act like a parliamentary party facing the constant threat of a vote of no confidence.
That it is necessary to place limitations, including self-limitations, on the exercise of power is—or was—a core belief among conservatives.  No longer.  Raw power, wielded so deftly by Senator Mitch McConnell, is exercised for its own sake, and by that I mean for the sake of fleecing gullible voters on hot-button social issues so that Republicans can stay in power.

I have two comments. First, a remedy for this little twerp’s great pain:

Second (because he is an ignorant twerp):  The raw power so “deftly wielded” by Mitch McConnell was made possible by rule changes to Senate procedure rammed through by McConnell’s predecessor, Harry Reid (D-NV) — and in fact, McConnell not only protested those changes, he warned Reid that future Senate leaders (i.e. Republicans) might be able to use those same new procedures against the Democrats.

Now that McConnell is doing just that, the Democrats (and neo-Democrats like this Nichols creature) are weeping and wailing about “restraints on power”?

Good grief.

And if any Republican can say with a straight face that the diffident Republicans are the “win at all costs” party — when that description, covering things like voter fraud, intimidation and mob violence are the sole provenance of the feral Democrats — allow me to suggest that this Republican is not only no Republican, he’s also a gullible fucking moron.

Anyone seen crowds of angry Republicans breaking windows in downtown streets, hounding prominent Democrats out of restaurants and chasing liberal professors off campuses because they disagree with the content of their speeches?  No?  How about some disaffected Republican attempting mass murders of Democrats about to play a baseball game?  Not that either?  What about a prominent Republican who lost a presidential bid (Mitt Romney?) who said just a couple days ago:  “That’s why I believe, if we are fortunate enough to win back the House and or the Senate, that’s when civility can start again.”

Oh wait, no:  did I say “Republicans” and “Mitt Romney”?   I meant to say “Democrats” and “Hillary Bitch Clinton”.  Because that’s the party which is ignoring all moral precepts and principles just to seize power.

And for Nichols to wax all indignant about a lack of parliamentary restraint by Republicans, when the Democrats and their Antifa cohorts are engaging in actual street violence and mob intimidation…

Bah.  I need to quit now before I need to shoot off a thousand rounds at the range this afternoon, instead of just a box or two.

Now THAT’S A Crisis

Food & Drink

OMG — this past hot summer has caused a problem of serious dimensions over in Britishland:

The price of fish and chips is expected to soar this winter – due to a potato shortage that threatens to put some chippies out of business.
The cold snap early in the year followed by a long hot summer has hit potato crops in the UK, and a sack of spuds now costs double what it did last year.
And the situation has been worsened by increases in the price of cod and haddock due to scarcity caused by warmer sea temperatures.
Crops in northern Europe have been affected by similar weather, meaning the situation cannot be solved by imports.

I’m not big on government intervention, as a rule, but if ever there was a time when the BritGov needs to step in with a little relief (e.g. no sales taxes on fish ‘n chips, no import duty on foreign-grown potatoes, or reduced business taxes for chippies?), this would be the time.

Because if I go back Over There later next year and find no chippies in my favorite towns (e.g. Devizes, Wilts), there will be trouble.

We’re talking a national crisis, folks.  The nearest parallel I can think of for us Murkins would be if hamburger meat were to be similarly affected Over Here.

Are there any Idaho potato farmers listening?  I sense an export opportunity.