Q NOTES # K+35: One Thought for Saturday

I've been around long enough to live through several of the wars, assassinations, scandals, and other crisis situations of the late 20th century and early 21st century, so I've haven't thought of the United States as a perfect place since I was old enough to attend public school. It only took a few months of Donhole in the White House to make me recognize the greatest weakness in America's system of democracy: The whole damn thing was grounded in mistaken assumptions that the vast majority of U.S. citizens would always be intelligent, rational, and dedicated to protection of the values, rights and freedoms established originally in the Constitution and refined over the course of history.

If the assumptions had been correct, there's no fucking way in hell that something like the Waste of Shit could have gotten within a thousand miles of the presidency, much less taken control of an entire political party and made it the most dangerous enemy the United States has today.

There isn't a single thing in the MAGA Monkey legislative agenda that could make life in the United States better for most of us, but there are plenty of things that would make it a whole lot worse.

Q NOTES # 351

DAILY KOS @ Former Guy and CPAC wrap-up.

Former Guy apparently wants it clearly understood that he expects the RepubliQan party to be cleansed of all RINOs, the category that includes every (R) who's less than 100 percent loyal to Former Guy. At some stage in the process, the party will need to decide whether allowing one corrupt, incompetent sociopath to have absolute control over who can run for office as a (R) candidate is where they really want to be.

Update 5:23 PM Monday: The rain started last night and continued through this morning and most of the early afternoon. The Weather Channel radar showed some clearing at about 3:20 PM, enough to allow the time I needed to walk a 2.9 mile route. The weather was chilly but fairly dry, and I carried a small umbrella just in case. As it turned out, I was still about 1.2 miles from home when it started to sprinkle enough to need the umbrella. I also dodged one sidewalk puddle by stepping in another one, so the last 26 minutes was completed with cold, wet feet.

I've had an unusually large amount of unclaimed time during the pandemic, and I've been amusing myself grading each day by classifying its activities as either necessary or unnecessary, and either pleasant or unpleasant. For example, if I spend most of a day on activities that are both pleasant and necessary, that day will earn an A. On the other hand, if I get stuck doing a lot of crap that's both unnecessary and unpleasant, that day gets an F.

Most days feature activities that are pleasant but unnecessary, or necessary but unpleasant. Those days earn a B, a C or a D based on a subjective assessment of the preponderance. Since today's afternoon walk was both necessary and unpleasant, and was also the main activity, this Monday will probably get a C unless something radical happens to pull it up to a B or down to a D. 

Realization

It's taken a long time, but I finally realized that when it comes to (R)s, I'll never be able to reach the maximum hate level. As rotten as they are today, they'll invariably be even more rotten tomorrow, so hating them as much as they can possibly be hated is an unattainable goal.

Worst AG ever? Maybe for today.

Random Sample

Let's assume that (R) voters elect (R) candidates that are just like themselves (e.g., Donny Scump), and that Congress is a representative sample for statistical purposes. That would tend to prove that the percentage of (R)s in the United States who are decent human beings would be somewhere between zero and one, probably on the low end.

Profit Center

Somebody needs to tell the donhole there's an opportunity waiting to be exploited, and if he acts quickly, it could easily be worth a billion dollars. All he needs to do is crank up production of those red MAGA ballcaps, then order Fox News and right-wing talk radio to saturate their audiences with news that donhole's latest executive order requires his loyal supporters to wear their MAGA hats at all times, and that the only hats meeting the specifications in the order are sold by the official donhole organization at a unit price of $200 each.

Since his most devoted followers are convinced donhole was sent by god, they'll love being recognized as true believers. Patriotic Americans will gain the advantage of being able to spot deplorables a block away.

Catching Up

I was too busy this week to spend much time reading about politics, but I had an opening this afternoon and used it to find out which atrocities Donny Pretty Shitty and the GOP bottom-feeders have been committing this week. I was happier not knowing.

I hereby propose that we ship the whole Pretty Shitty family to Russia as permanent exiles, and prohibit every Republican currently holding an office in federal or state government from appearing on any election ballot ever again. Taking those steps wouldn't make everything okay, but would be a small movement in the right direction.

The N Word

I never watched Donny Dickweed's TV show, so the name Omarosa Manigault was one I hadn't heard until she popped up in a highly-paid, no-work-required White House position last year, with her only apparent qualification being her experience as a contestant on The Apprentice. I understood this as another step in Donny's effort to create a comfort zone for himself by transforming his new job into an around-the-clock TV reality program, with him playing the most beloved and brilliant White House CEO ever.

For whatever reason, Omarosa got the axe a while back, and now she's trying to turn it into another personal enrichment opportunity by spilling her guts about what a racist asshole Donny was, and still is, as proven by his use of the N word.

Of course, I'd be amazed if Donny didn't use the N word in every private conversation about Barack Obama. My old man typically referred to Obama as "the (N word)", almost never by his name.

And that's why Omarosa's revelations are mostly inconsequential. Every decent American has already taken Donny's overt racism into account when evaluating him as a rotten POS. The deplorable dregs of humanity (Donny's fans) won't consider his use of the N word a problem; it's one of the main reasons they just love him to pieces. I'm pretty sure my old man would've considered it a big plus.

Update 1:26 PM Thursday:

So, if Omarosa is telling the truth about him, would Donnie try to buy her off? Well yeah!

The Donnie Effect

Members of the Old White People for Donnie cult are pissed off at the news media for making a big deal out of babies in concentration camps. These geezers are past the point of independent thought, and are now allowing vermin like Stephen Miller and Laura Ingraham to do their thinking for them.

Recently I've been wondering about how many of these people I could make a place in my heart for on any given day. Right now, I believe the maximum number would be three, and one of those spots is already permanently taken. Fortunately, my private life has been scaled back since 2016, so I have plenty of flexibility in choosing the people I associate with.

People who know him best say everything the fat motherfucker touches turns to shit. 

Update 12:35 AM Thursday: A huge part of our problem is that most people who voted for Donny Ringworm are stupider than shit. Donny stages a goat-roping in Singapore for the TV cameras to entertain those idiots, then tells them to sleep well at night because he's just restored peace to the world all by himself. And they believe him.

Idle Thoughts

Bush 43, the guy I once believed would be the worst president ever, called Vladimir Putin by the nickname Pootie Poot. The current so-called precedent (sic) calls Putin "Your Majesty." That makes him a lot worse than W. So have we reached the bottom of the barrel yet, Republicans?

I keep a mental list of things that would make my day if they happened. For example, I would get a laugh out of seeing Donny Phatazz dragged from the White House by his hair and driven away in a Cadillac full of Russian Mafia thugs. Another hilarious thing would be Devin Nunes convicted of a felony and sentenced to 50 years in a federal pen.

Helpful Definitions

covfefe: Origin unknown; possibly a Swahili or Bantu term referring to elephant shit, as in "Elephants have been known to produce 200 pounds of covfefe in a single day."

Some covfefe

Big steaming pile of covfefe

Sons of Bitches

I've had several dogs in my life, from the mutts that were family pets when I was a boy, to the AKC-registered breeds that I've owned as an adult. Despite their differences in pedigree, all those dogs had one thing in common: They'd hunker down to shit whenever and wherever they felt like it. Didn't matter whose yard they were in or who was watching them. I had one dog that would shit while I was walking him on a leash down the sidewalk, leaving a trail of turds 12 feet long behind him.

Every time Donald Dickdrip's latest tweet tantrum is posted in the political blogs, it reminds me of my dogs and their indiscriminate, unembarrassed shitting. 

Risky Business

Why it's a risk to let the maniac order an "investigation" of imaginary voter fraud that led to his crushing popular vote defeat: Steve Bannon and the other Nazis on his staff will produce a report that "proves" Fatso's fantasy is actually real. Making shit up is what they do, and if you want the idiots who voted to believe The Big Lie, just keep telling it.

The people working for him are deadlier than Fatso as a threat to America because they can handle detail work.

Voting rights may be on the way out if the Republican Party doesn't get these assholes under control pretty soon.

Speaking of Speakers

For about thirty years now, Republicans have had a noticeable tendency to choose the worst of the possible alternatives in any situation about 95 percent of the time. Given a choice between good and bad, they'll choose bad; between bad and worse, they'll choose worse.

With their established track record, it's reasonable to assume the next Speaker will be the worst of the potential candidates. Before long, we'll be remembering the Boehner years as the good times.

Thinking out loud...

We know Donnie Trump is a loose cannon, and we know that he has taken liberal-to-moderate positions on a number of issues over the years. We also know that he's an experienced huckster who's skilled in media and manipulation.

Suppose Republicans nominate Donnie on the basis of his current position on immigration, and even manage to get him elected. Then, after he's in office, they discover they've elected someone who doesn't give a goddamn about the religious right's agenda and GOP tax orthodoxy, and has no sense of allegiance to anyone but Donald Trump.

I can see the possibilities for real schadenfreude here.

Campaign Thought 1

Right now, conservative Republicans are having a great time dressing up and playing make-believe. They're getting their kicks wandering through Wonderland behind the ultimate Mad Hatter. The polls aren't open and no actual votes are being counted.

If they're still diddling themselves a year from now, that might be a problem

The Corps

There's a lot of fretting on the Internet about a female cadet being selected for the position of Corps commander at Texas A&M. I've decided that by the time most right-wing men are ready to join the 21st century, it'll be over.

Equality

The basis of conservatism as practiced by 21st century Republicans is the simple premise that all Americans are equal at birth and have equal opportunities, ergo, anyone who is unable to succeed is a worthless loser with only himself to blame.

If this single organizing principle is shown to be false, it creates massive problems for Republicans in terms of their social agenda, economic policies, and political objectives. If the foundation crumbles, the whole structure collapses.

Call it luck.

I don't possess the supernatural power to vaporize people, places, or things by merely closing my eyes and snapping my fingers. Therefore, Rep. Darrell Issa and Dan Patrick can sleep peacefully tonight.

Mall thoughts

Random thoughts that crossed my mind during this afternoon's mall walk:

• At least 90 percent of women who shop at Victoria's Secret almost certainly live by the motto "We aim to please."

• The biblical story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden should be taught in public schools as (a) history, or (b) science, or (c) both, or (d) neither. The correct answer is (d). If you chose (a) or (b), you should be living in South Carolina. If you answered (c), you should be a member of the South Carolina legislature.

• Ted Nugent calling Barack Obama or anyone else on earth a "subhuman mongrel" is a textbook example of supreme irony.

Violated

I bought my first home computer, an iMac, in November 2001, and have owned five Windows-based PCs since then. For nearly 12 years, I used my computer daily, often hourly, and never had any trouble with viruses. That changed Tuesday afternoon. My newest PC, an all-in-one desktop that I've fallen in love with, suddenly began behaving like a lunatic. I ran a quick system scan and discovered that a virus, possibly spyware, was lingering somewhere in the guts of the machine, and that I was in a potential high-risk situation.

I've lived a charmed life until now, and had fallen into the trap of thinking this was the kind of shit that always happened to other people. Now it's happened to me. If I was making the rules around here, people who hack into computers or infect them with viruses or other malware would find out that when they were caught, their punishment was death by beheading, the same as for child molesters.