Royce's Random Thoughts

 Okay, about the JD Vance couch thing.

 So, a man who doesn't believe in masking or social distancing at rallies tests positive for Covid 19. Here's my POV.

The immediately cynical take is, of course, that it's a blatant attempt to gain sympathy points and avoid debating Biden again before the election. Que him publicly campaigning again in two weeks and stating that "See, the Coronavirus isn't that serious!."

This ignores the fact that A) The debates could be handled remotely, and B) When has Trump EVER allowed himself to be perceived as unhealthy and weak in any way?

 “What about the alt-left that came charging... at the, as you say, the alt-right? Do they have any semblance of guilt? (...) There are two sides to a story."

-Donald Trump, remarks on Charlottesville VA Neo-Nazi Rally, Tuesday August 15^th, 2017

 

Dear Mr. President,

 

No, there is not. On the one side you had people carrying torches, throwing Nazi salutes, and chanting 'Blood and soil” and on the other side you had people opposing them. There is no “equivalency” here. Even your own Republican allies in Congress can't swallow this one, and are coming out against you. White Supremacy is terrorism. Period. Your meal-mouthed “condemnations” on Saturday and Tuesday, where you tried to paint both sides in the wrong, are a load of bull, and confirms everything I said in my commentary on your inauguration day. Your words are emboldening white supremacists, neo-Nazis, and other hate groups, because your words confirm YOU ARE THEIR ALLY.

 

But this isn't coming from just you. To qualify as a Republican these days, you have to lack empathy. To assume that everyone on the side that opposes your beliefs do not just have a different point of view, but are outright evil.

 

Minimum Wage? Can't raise that. It would cut into a business's profits.

 

Welfare? Look at those jobless folk sitting on their asses watching TV all day on the government dime. Make 'em work! Who cares if there are no jobs, or they've been injured, or are in their 70's? Welfare Queens, all of 'em. Oh, and tax retirees' checks from Social Security, never mind that they'd paid it into the system already.

 

Obamacare? Why should we give twenty or thirty million people affordable health care? That would raise taxes on rich people!

 

Environment? Global warming is a myth. We can prove it because we can find five or six scientists who say so, never mind the 99% who say it's real. They're just lying to keep their funding.

 

Black Lives Matter? Obviously a hate group. They've got no right to protest when cops are caught on camera murdering black men when they're already cuffed and on the ground, or running away.

 

Anitfa? Another hate group. They should just shut up and let the god fearing white folks say whatever the want, without commentary or protest.

 

Muslim goes on a shooting spree? Terrorism. White guy goes on a shooting spree? Lone Nut.

 

Protesting Trump's words? Or for that matter just taking his public statements at face value? Disrespecting the President.

 

I am very, very tired of false equivalencies. You either give a damn about people, or you don't.

 

You don't.

 Dear President Trump,

I don't normally post anything political here, but right now I can't sleep. My stomach is literally in knots.

I am so sick to my stomach. I cannot believe this.

From everything I see right now, Donald Trump is going to be our next president.

A man so lacking in empathy he mocked a disabled reporter, insulted the parents of dead soldier, fat shamed women, ogled women, ogled his own daughter, cheated on his first and second wives.

Spent a week after stumbling through the first debate insulting a woman on Twitter who had spoken out against him.

Made admiring comments about Russian strongman Vladimir Putin, a nation where opposition reporters are regularly murdered.

Pushed the Birther lie that Barack Obama wasn't really an American citizen, was somehow a secret Muslim that would take away our guns (newsflash, the President can't repeal the 2nd Amendment without the states agreeing to a new constitutional amendment) and put the country under Sharia Law (which is as impossible as putting the country under Catholic Law, or Jewish Law, or the Flying Spaghetti Monster Law for that matter)

Has cast doubts on our very electoral system, stated without any evidence that it was rigged.

Has appealed to every dark impulse of America, stoking the fires of xenophobia against immigrants, against refugees.

Stated that our military is falling apart, when we outspend the next eight nations *combined*.

A man without any realistic economic plan. Who's great business sense involved four bankruptcies, cheating his contractors, and being PROUD of not paying taxes for almost twenty years.

Who is such a great philanthropist that he uses the funds of his foundation to buy $20,000 paintings of himself.

Who gained the endorsement of the official newspaper of the goddamned KKK

Who we are giving control of our nuclear arsenal, and who stays up to 3 am sending Twitter insults to his opponents.

Who for at least the next four years will be deciding who to nominate to the Supreme Court.

This is the man who is going to be our president.

The only, the one and only, bright spot in all of this is that four years from now we will have a chance to choose again.

But I have no idea what damage will be done to us in the meantime, and that frightens me.

For Hellhound: "They only created it to get us to buy sandwiches"

Note: If you think this idea was bad, you should have seen the first one I wrote.

Note 2: This is my Saturday drabble. Two more to go to catch up.

* * *

"That's… really disturbing," the executive said, looking at the… thing… the lab had created.

"They needed something to try to distract people from the CEO's comments," his assistant said.

He rubbed his forehead, feeling a headache coming on. "Well if the idiot had the sense not to talk about Supreme Court decisions that have nothing to do with how the company is run, we wouldn't be in this mess. Now this is going to look like exactly what it is, a weird publicity stunt that's going to blow up in our faces."

"Eat moar fish?" the bioengineered chicken asked hopefully.

In theory this should have been, if not an easy win for Mitt Romney, at least a closer fight than it turned out to be. The economy is still in the tank, pretty much, the middle east is in the middle of a sometimes violent sea change, China's economic dominance is on the rise, American civil liberties are still at risk because of the Patriot Act and its successive laws. Mitt could have, tried to, use at least some of that against the President to win. But it didn't work.

So what can the next GOP candidate do?

1. Remember that voters have more than one skin color.

Demographics are seriously against the Republican strategy of appealing to white voters and giving the rest to the Democrats. Hispanics? Still Catholic, still valuing hard work and education. Blacks? They were pretty lukewarm to the idea of gay marriage and a large percentage still are.

Those are conservative values. They could have served as a hook to draw more of them into the GOP. White voters are going to be the minority by mid century, and nothing the Republicans can do will change that.


2. Remember that litmus tests are limiting.

Romney, once, resembled a more moderate Republican when he was governor of Massachusetts. He had to be. Kennedy country is firmly Blue, so he had to use compromise to get what he wanted, and construct plans that appealed to non-Republican voters.

Then he decided to try and become president. Which meant he had to win the nomination. Which meant he had to Appeal to the Base. And that meant appeal to the Tea Party and the rest, who were not very forgiving of people who stray from the One True Path of No New Taxes Not Ever and Socialized Medicine is the Decline and Fall of the West.

And then, once he's become the GOP nominee, he had to make another U-turn and reassure the rest of America that he could appeal to everyone, not just the Tea Party activists.

This proved a bit difficult...


3. Remember that voter have long term memories.

The economy got wrecked by out of control banks. The Republicans in Congress actively blocked significant legislation to rein those banks in. And kept on blocking Obama's other bills, one after another. And then had to gall to argue that Obama was an ineffective president.

And then argued the problem with the economy was the restrictions on the banks.

People actually remembered that.


4. Remember you can't run on two messages.

Mitt had a fighting chance through the summer, riiiight up to the point that the infamous 47% remark became extremely public on YouTube. He spent too long waffling before rejecting his remarks, and by then the damage was well an truly done. America had seen his private opinion of welfare recipients, which just happened to include the elderly, retired military, the disabled, ect., and it was that they were addicted to government handouts and deserved neither Republican attention nor sympathy.

After that everything was just trying to bail out the rowboat as the water rushed in.


There's more to this, but I'm tired and I need to get ready for work. The upshot is that the Republicans, if they want to win next time, have to moderate their message and act like moderates. The obstructionist strategy developed by Newt Gingrich of having Congress stick its fingers in its ears and screaming "NO! NO! NO!" is no longer working. Or rather, it is working and people can damned well see where it's leading us.

The Republicans cannot go on like that, or they, as others have pointed out, are going to become a much smaller, more regional party. Litmus tests and ideological purity means they're locking more voters out, not welcoming them in.

And those locked out have only one other party to turn to right now.

Summary; Seeking to prove himself as serious interviewer, David Frost (Michael Sheen) gets the ultimate 'gotcha' interview opportunity, four inwith disgraced former President Richard Nixon (Frank Langella). Frost's team is out to get Nixon to finally admit culpability for the Watergate scandal, while Nixon seeks to repair his reputation and perhaps return to Washington politics.

Review: To be honest, I didn't actually finish watching this movie, stopping just before the first interview. For one thing, the setup to have Frost prove himself to the world is BS. He was already a noted serious interviewer before he managed to land Nixon, so there was actually no drama there, which Ron Howard readily admits in the making of video.

Another thing he notes is that no one every applauded a movie for the set design, which unfortunately takes center stage. This movie is painfully set in the seventies, from the swinging sky lounge aboard a transatlantic 747 flight, to Frost's horrible hair and mod suits (and those teeth), which was distracting as hell.

Finally, I really didn't buy Langella as Nixon. Physically his face has none of Nixon's hangdog jowliness (though admittedly that would take more prosthetic makeup than a Star Wars alien) and he sounds nothing like him either. The one thing he does get down pat is Nixon as a man extremely uncomfortable in his own skin, walking slightly hunched over and cracking jokes that fall utterly flat, even in front of his friends.

Not recommended, though if I ever catch the stage play I might have a more favorable opinion.

(Normally I do my best to avoid political matters in my blog, but this is just too funny not to share.)

Dear GOP: A Romney/Santorum ticket would be like handing Barack Obama the largest, most delicious fruit basket ever created. Delivered by a pony. A sparkly pony. With ribbons in its mane. Named “Buttercup.” Just so you know.
-John Scalzi