Random Thoughts interspersed with kitten gifs

1. You know how conservatives just hate hate HATE the elitist snobs with their fancy college defrees and their lattes and what-not? And how conservatives only care about the regular salt-of-the-earth Joe six-pack ordinary plain ol' folks? And how they hate career politicians and love political outsiders? Like every Republican campaign ad tars their opponent as a "lifelong inside-the beltway insider" and touts himself as the jus' plain folks "outsider" who is obviously the better choice because he ain't fancy and has never been in politics before? You know how they do that?


Well then along comes Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and suddenly they're all Dowager Countersses, looking down their noses and harumphing "why she's nothing but a bartender, a common bartender! A tender of bars has the insolence to suppose that she should take a seat in the august body that has been home to the noble likes of Louis Gohmert, Michele Bachmann, and Smoky Joe Barton? Well I never!"

Like here is one Twitter wag's reaction to OAC's disinterest in debating professional shitposter Ben Shapiro:

I’m shocked a bartender from Queens doesn’t want to debate a Harvard law graduate.

— Bethany S. Mandel (@bethanyshondark) August 10, 2018

And I can't tell you how many times I've seen some version of "hell, she was a bartender just a year ago," as if that is somehow disqualifying to people who voted a syphilitic game show host into the Oval Office. Somehow lack of governmental experience is seen as a plus for tRump or Herman Cain or Ross Perot or Arnold Schwartzenneger, all of whom ran for top executive offices, but for AOC, running for an actual entry-level position, it's completely invalidating. (Also, these were the same people who complained that Barack Obama was "inexperienced," then turned around and voted for il Douche.)



via GIPHY

2. Hey, NPR.
I know you're super committed to the whole "balance" thing, but sometimes it's okay to just present one side. Let me give you an example. Let's say you have a representative of Black Lives Matter on your network. You don't need to balance him out. If you really really feel the need for the phony both-sides garbage, you could maybe have someone on to give some bullshit defense of trigger-happy cops, maybe explaining why these brave men and women suddenly get to be in fear for their lives every time they see a black kid who might possibly have some sort of bulge in his pocket. You could do that if you really felt the need.
But here's what you don't do. When you have someone on to say that black lives matter, you don't, seriously don't, "balance" him out by having someone else come on and say "no they don't."

NPR interviewed the racist behind ‘Unite the Right 2’ and it was a disaster

Two days ahead of what is expected to be a small white supremacist rally in Washington, D.C., NPR gave rally organizer Jason Kessler a national platform to peddle junk “race science.”
After the nearly 7-minute interview ended, NPR transitioned to an interview with a Black Lives Matter activist, a setup implying that white supremacists and people advocating for racial justice are two sides of the same coin.(via: Think Progress)

3.

Bethenny Frankel's ex-boyfriend Dennis Shields dies of a supposed overdose in Trump Tower

If someone pseudo-quasi-famous had died in an apartment building owned by a Clinton, Republicans would have already appointed a special prosecuter.

4. Can everybody please please please stop giving a shit about Omarosa's book?
And whether or not she has tapes?
If she has tapes of tRump that somehow could cause him to lose support and she sat on them all this time while GOING TO WORK FOR HIM and going on TV to proclaim that everyone would have to bow down to President Cartman, she should be tarred and feathered and rode out of town on the same rail as Donald, his family, and every member of his administration.
Besides, what good could this possibly do? What could he have possibly said on those tapes that would hurt him politically? The N word? His base would love that! Foul filthy comments about the female contestants on his show? If the Access Hollywood tape didn't hurt him, what worse thing could he possibly have said.
Unless you have him on tape saying "I don't really believe this racist shit, I just say it to rile up the rubes," or maybe saying something positive about Mexicans, nothing he could say could possibly dissuade his base from supporting the guy they've decided to make their god-emperor. (not even joking: https://www.facebook.com/godemperortrumpofficial/)

5. What is Space Force?
I mean, I know it's nothing, but what exactly is the plan supposed to be?
'Cuz if it was like Reagan's Star Wars plan, at least there was some logic to that. It didn't work, bnut at least there would be some value in having satellites that could shoot down Russian missles. But I'm pretty sure that's not what this is. They're acting like this is going to be a new branch of the military, so that would mean actual troops flying around in X-wing fighters, battling Klingons or something? Has anyone actually heard any details of the plan? Has their been any public statement about what the space force would entail? Because absent any evidence to the contrary, I gotta think that the Dotard is picturing himself as Bill Pullman in Independence Day.

Probably it's just a mechanism for funneling taxpayer money into the coffers of Haliburton or Bechtel of Northrup - Gruman or whoever books the conference room at Mar A Lago first.