Election WTF's

Gawd, this fucking election!

 

 I really don't even want to think about it, but what the hell else am I gonna write about?

Here's a few WTF's from the 2014 midterms.

 First of all, WTF, Arkansas?

You vote to raise the minimum wage. Okay, that's good. but you raise it to $7.50 an hour? You know the current federal minimum wage is $7.25, right? I mean, I know your state minimum wage was $6.25/hr, so it probably seems like you're getting a $1.00 per hour raise, but you aren't because the Federal wage supercedes your state wage, so you went through all the time and trouble of gettingthis initiative onto the ballot and passed for a lousy 25 cents an hour? WTF?

Also, you vote to increase the minimum wage, then elect a Senator who opposes raising it? How does that logic work? How is it that you can step into the polling booth, say "YES" to an increase in the minimum wage and then think "I'm gonna vote for this fucking teebagger scumbag who will make sure that people in other states don't get any increase?"




And WTF, Iowa?

Joni Ernst? Are you fucking serious with this shit? We always thought of you as a sort of moderate-conservative-not-insane kind of a state, but when you elect the next Michele Bachmann, I guess we have to reassess your standing. I mean,you want to elect a far-right Republican? That's your business, but my God, this woman is a lunatic!



This is a woman who thinks that global warming is fake and Agenda 21 is real.

This is a woman who thinks that not only can states 'nullify" and Federal laws they don't like, but that local police can arrest anyone who does try to enforce Federal law.

This is a woman who thinks that she might have to defend herself against the United States government with a gun she keeps in her fucking purse!

 

 What ya got there, lady, a .38? Good luck with that!

 Seriously, Iowa. WTF?

Also, WTF, Wisconsin?

Thousands of you will show up at the capitol to protest Scott Walker, but you won't show up at the polls to vote him out?

 

You hate this smug son of a bitch, remember?  I mean, we all hate him, but you actually had the chance to do something about him. Remember this?
 

What happened to this? Where did all these people go? Not to the polls, apparently.

WTF, Wisconsin?



And WTF, MSNBC?

I managed to watch about 10 minutes of your election night coverage before Chris Matthews made my head explode. First, he said, and I'm paraphrasing here, that both candidates in North Carolina had some negatives. Hagan was seen as being too close to Barack Obama and Tillis "destroyed their education system." WTF?!?! How do you drop those two facts next to each other as though they were anywhere close to equivalent?

 

Dude, that's like, my bit!

Then he took a little jab at FOX, which was totally appropriate, but immediately backpedaled saying "no, they're a great network." No, Chris, they are not. You were right the first time, don't apologize. 

Then he said that right-wing nutjob governor John Kasich was a great guy and a good friend. 

 

How does being good friends with John Kasich not disqualify you at least from covering Ohio? How are you not required, whenever the Ohio governor's race comes up, to recuse yourself and leave the room? 

How does MSNBC continue to employ this twit? 

WTF?

 

Bad Ads - Cell Phones

Who is the target market for this ad?





These are a bunch of grown-ass women screaming like teenyboppers who just saw the Beatles, and they're screaming about a phone that literally anyone can obtain? Nobody got this excited when the first mobile phone was invented, and that was a way bigger deal than a new, slightly different version of an existing phone.

How do they expect anyone to sit through this ad to the end?  It's ear-shattering. It actually hurts to watch this ad. I have no idea what the deal is being offered because I've never seen the entire thing. How can this possibly be an effective ad?

Although at least it isn't as depressing as this one:






I don't get how this is supposed to encourage anyone to trade in their old phone. Because , is it just me, or do you feel really sorry for the old phone? My God, the desperation in that phone's mechanical voice is just palpable. The poor thing just seems terrified at the prospect of being deserted, yet the desertion process just grinds steadily along. This is more heartbreaking than the end of Shane.

  

How could anyone watch this ad and not pick up their phone, cradle it to their bosom and gently whisper, "don't worry Siri, I'd never trade you in?"

Millenials: Cheap or just not stupid?

So I saw this headline the other day:

September 2012

The Cheapest Generation

Why Millennials aren’t buying cars or houses, and what that means for the economy

Are they, though? Are the really cheap? Or are they just not blind? They can see the world we've left them. They can see that the odds are stacked against them.

First of all, who can afford to buy a house anymore? Let alone anyone under 30?

 

Exception noted. 

 

Prices of houses and cars have both outpaced inflation by a wide margin. And wages have absolutely not kept up. And that's if these young people can find jobs at all.

And even those young people who do have decent jobs are saddled with student loans that they may never pay off. How could we expect them to save up to buy a house under that onus?

And all they have to do is look around at what working in America has become. If you work for any decent-sized company, there is, right now, as we speak, someone in the home office getting paid to figure out ways to eliminate your job.

Have you considered enslaving children?

You have a job in a factory? They'll shut it down and move it to China or someplace with even worse labor laws like Mississippi.  You have a tech job? They'll send it to India. You work with numbers? It's only a matter of time until they get a computer program that does what you do.

Why would you buy a house under those conditions? Why would you make that kind of investment knowing that the whole concept of a life-long job is obsolete. You may be doing well today, tomorrow you might be moving out-of-state to find work. And when you do find it, that job will likely disappear at some point and the whole cycle starts again.


The millenials are not stupid, even though they were raised on the Disney Channel believing that the Jonas Brothers were a rock and roll band and that High School Musical was a legitimate form of entertainment. They know perfectly well what happened to the last generation when they invested in houses.



Let's see. . .  people did what they thought was the prudent thing and invested their money in houses. Then the banks fucked up the economy, those people lost their houses, the bank took them back and auctioned them off, leaving the previous owners with nothing to show for all the hard-earned money they'd sunk into these homes. And we wonder why their kids aren't anxious to follow that same path?

Good news, rape culture is over!

(TW: Rape)


Recently, a fraternity on the Georgia Tech campus got itself into a bit of bother over the occasional rapes taking place in its house and the frat's explicit encouragement of such behavior.

'Rapebait' Frat Encouraged Sexual Violence, Lawsuits Claim

Posted: 10/31/2014 3:06 pm EDT

A member of a Georgia Tech fraternity sexually assaulted two women using the playbook described in a "luring your rapebait" email, two lawsuits filed this week against Phi Kappa Tau claim.
The Alpha Rho chapter of PKT turned a blind eye to red flags that brothers were encouraging each other to sexually assault women, the suits allege, including the "rapebait" email, songs joking about sexual violence, and chapter meeting minutes declaring "rape is good." The two suits contain nearly identical allegations but each is filed on behalf of a different plaintiff.

 The fraternity chapter has been disbanded, and apparently that has completely solved the problem of on-campus rape culture.  At least according to this guy:

Sarasota speaker: There is no campus 'culture of rape'

 

And who is this speaker with such expert knowledge of collegiate culture? Why, no less an authority than  Dennis Prager of course!


Because who would know better what goes on in today's universities than this guy?

 

To be fair, his wife may actually be an undergrad.

 So here's what he had to say about rape culture on college campuses:

“It’s a gargantuan lie to get votes. It’s as big a lie as the culture of rape on your campuses. What nonsense. There is a culture of rape on campuses run by the feminist left?
What do you cite to sell me this nonsense?

Well, I guess I might cite the fact that a large number of women get sexually assaulted on campus?

  One in 5 women are sexually assaulted on campuses. Do you know what sexual assault means? Did you ever look at what counts? An unwanted kiss is considered sexual assault. 

Well, yes. I'm not sure why it wouldn't  be. Well, I guess I'll let the expert explain why not.

An unwanted kiss is considered sexual assault. I’m stunned it's only 1 in 5. Four out of five women have not gotten an unwanted kiss? My wife gets unwanted kisses every so often.
(laughter)

Oh, now I get it! If I kiss my wife at a time when she doesn't feel like smooching, maybe she's annoyed with me or feeling unattracted to me because I look like a potato in a Bobby Cremins wig, 

 

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Anyway, that's obviously the same thing as a stranger trying to shove his tongue down a woman's throat like he's Fitzgerald Grant and she's Olivia Pope.  That wouldn't be horrifying at all!

They make light of rape because they redefine these terms. We don’t make light of it. We think it is the worst thing possible short of murder. But they make light of it by trivializing it. Culture of Rape? No. I’ll tell you why it exists on the campus, and that is: a rape of the culture.”

So there you have it. Problem solved! feel free to send your daughters off to college secure in the knowledge that rape culture doesn't exist, it was all just a problem with mis-defining the terms. What a relief!

There is really a special place in hell for people like Prager. I don't understand why these people always feel the need to stand up for the assholes. Or maybe it's just that they feel some need to stand up for the powerful against the less powerful. Whether it's taking selfies in line at Chic-Fil-A or "standing with" the Duck Dynasty creep, these people will always rush to the defense of those who neither need or deserve defending. So of course these scumbags are going to side with fratboy rapists over their victims. It's some kind of sick pathology with people like this.

Okay, Phil is a millionaire with his own television show who is regularly given a platform to air his twisted views by various magazines and radio shows. He doesn't need you to stand with him.

Um, Israel has the strongest military in the region because of millions of dollars in US support. Support for Israel is the sine qua non of American foreign policy. Even criticizing Israel can make you a pariah amongst the conventional-wisdom-mainstream pundit class, just ask Jimmy Carter. Israel doesn't need some teenybopper in a T-shirt to stand with it. 

 

Chic-fil-A is an extremely successful company with over 1,800 locations. They are hugely profitable, thanks to using almost no actual chicken in their chicken sandwiches. They are not some poor little mom-and-pop restaurant being bullied by the all-powerful gay lobby or whatever you think they are being bullied by. They don't need your help.

But any time the powerful are in any way challenged by the less powerful, right-wing scumbags will rise to their defense and call it courage. Pathetic!

Chomp & Stomp this Weekend!

If you live in the greater Atlanta area, or if you can get to Atlanta easily, this weekend would be the time to come!  This Saturday, Nov. 1st is CHOMP AND STOMP!



What is Chomp and Stomp, you ask? It's so funny that you should ask that, because I was just about to tell you what Chomp and Stomp is. It is the world's largest (I assume) Bluegrass festival and chili cook-off.

 

 Apostles of Bluegrass, Chomp&Stomp 2013

The festival is free. If you want chili, buy a spoon for $5 and sample all you can handle. (get there early, chili will run out)

Music starts at 11:00am sharp. Our personal favorite, the High Strung String Band plays at 3:30, if you like to sleep in. 

We also highly recommend Slim Chance & the Convicts at 1:00 pm





(yeah, not all the bands ar e strictly bluegrass.)

And I see "Farmland Band"  listed at 5:00pm. If this is "Smokey's Farmland Band" which I assume it is, we highly recommend them as well.








But really, you can't go wrong at Chomp & Stomp.


Also, there's beer, cabbage games, an artists' market and some other fun stuff. And the Autumn weather in Atlanta is usually perfect.

So come