Inglourious Basterds
"He may be a bastard, but he's our bastard." — FDR
I have a new nickname for the one I try so very hard not to name.
I started my rants by referring to him solely as the Angry Yam.
I wanted to be — seemingly — fair and balanced in my judgement of the blowhard playboy who entered politics for revenge and lucre. I wanted to be fair and balanced like a certain cable news company that launched in the ‘90’s considered themselves “fair and balanced”.
Thus Angry Yam. Kind of whimsical, kind of comical. Didn’t think the yam constituency would care.
I’ve since referred to him as Drumpf in honor of his German heritage, our country’s 46th best POTUS (which places him dead last, and after this coming November I hope to — still — be referring to him as the 46th best POTUS we’ve ever had), the Commander-in-Thief and, more commonly, faux billionaire playboy.
My new moniker for the man who is THE ONLY PRESIDENT to never serve in the military OR serve as a public servant — both quite notable omissions — is Felonious Punk.
Or 34. Or Felon-in-Chief. Or just convicted felon.
Here is Representative Eric Salwell’s recitation of all the countries our scurrilous former president, and present-day nominee of the party of cough-cough Lincoln, cannot gain entry to:
Felonious Punk’s bootlickers, of course, see his being convicted by a jury of his peers — in an American courtroom in which he had every opportunity to tell his side of the story and in which his lame attorneys had every opportunity to parlay their stellar skills into loading the jury with sympathetic, or potentially sympathetic, individuals — as proof that the ‘fix’ was in. They think this, of course, because they’re told to think this and because, if the shoe was on the other foot, that’s how they would have played it.
Lose the Electoral College? Create fake electors!
Lose the popular vote? Declare fraud with voting machines and mail-in ballots!
Lose a trial? Beg a corrupt Supreme Court to intervene no matter how much it tramples a state’s right!
Just try and imagine the kangaroo courts that will try Biden and Biden’s sympathizers and any reasonable conservative who dared speak their mind if Felonious Punk regains the presidency. There will be kangaroo courts that will make those courtrooms in Mississippi during the civil rights era seem like bastions of real legal justice.
I hear the latest justification to vote for a convicted felon like Felonious Punk is to say “he may be an asshole, but he’s our asshole.”
Like the dumbass actor Dennis Quaid.
I suspect Dennis believes Felonious Punk is the only thing standing between Dennis’ piles and piles of money, and his potential to add to his piles and piles of money, and communism. Dennis is old enough to know better. He is, after all, from the 20th century. He remembers the ‘salad days’ of the last century, even if he was only a boy.
Remember those good old days of yesteryear when college educations were subsidized, interstate highways got built, veterans were taken care of and the middle class felt like the American Dream was within reach? Yes — I know — this only rings a bell for dinosaurs like me and those alive during the 1900s but take a brief glance at the graph just above.
What did Bonzo’s co-actor call it?
That’s right. A shining city on the hill. The idealization of the America Bedtime for Bonzo’s supporting actor imagined his actions were ushering in. When, in reality, the ‘80s, the “greed is good” decade, were the beginning of the long slide into today. We can thank the Boraxo shill’s union-busting, welfare-shaming and dismantling of the tax structure to favor the wealthy for where we sit financially as a nation. And how a substantial number of Americans view the efficacy of taxes.
(In reference to the video clip above, gag me.)
Today in America, college education is not subsidized, highways are badly deteriorating, veterans are an afterthought and, unless you’re a member of the nouveau riche gig economy, you can forget the white picket fence and the cushy pension. But, hey, you can allow yourself to feel nouveau riche by spending an hour’s minimum wage on a burrito!
A ‘50s era tax structure would make America great. Isn’t that what the felon’s followers want?
It would appease the heartland and all those insipid voters the media insists we need to understand. It would shore up a social safety net that is getting more raggedy by the day. It would preserve government programs all those income earners who don’t rise to the level of being taxed depend upon. It would put people to work. It would save public education.
It could be used to strengthen and expand the Affordable Care Act. It could be used to subsidize organic agriculture and alternative energies of all kinds. It could be used to aggressively seek solutions to climate change.
Dumbass Dennis Quaid is old enough and smart enough to know all of this to be true. He knows socialism or communism will never darken America’s lust for making money. Neither of the two dominant political parties oppose naked capitalism. His flippant response to the 34 convictions of his orange demigod — that he’s “our bastard/asshole” — is merely his way of saying, “I’ve got mine, Jack.”
With even more subtext…”I don’t care about the rest of y’all. I’ve built my bunker in South Dakota.”
Even though he could live multiple lifetimes on the money he has earned, he can’t imagine parting with any of it for the good of a nation he calls his home. For the good of a flag he has the right to fly upside down.
Here’s what I say:
He may be a bastard and — because of that — let’s hold him accountable. Just as would be done to any one of us under the same circumstances.
At first glance, can you decipher what you’re looking at? I couldn’t.
It’s an island off the coast of Panama called Gardi Sugdub. Inhabited by indigenous people of Panama known as the Gunas. Turns out, they will be some of the first groups impacted by climate change and rising oceans. The government of Panama has built a village on the mainland for them but it will be quite the change from the lifestyle they once knew.
Hurricanes are also growing more powerful as the earth’s seas and oceans grow warmer. But, please, go on Ms. Boebert, let’s hear that joke you like to tell about how the climate changes four times every year…It’s a good one!
Also - This good looking young man was banned for life from Major League Baseball for betting on games.
Big surprise.
Betting is now ubiquitous in ALL types of sports. This is going to be a forever problem. You can’t say “no one saw it coming” because with things like ‘prop bets’ everyone should have seen it coming.
What is a prop bet?
A prop bet allows you to wager beyond the standard full-game odds and bet on different aspects of a game or event.
Proposition bets first popped up for Super Bowl XX in 1986, when Las Vegas oddsmakers took bets on whether Chicago’s famed defensive tackle-turned-short yardage running back William “The Refrigerator” Perry would score a touchdown.
The unique nature and excitement of those alternative markets quickly gained popularity and prop bets became a staple of Super Bowl betting. That demand eventually bled beyond the Big Game and, with the emergence of online sportsbooks, multiple prop markets are now available for regular-season contests in just about every sport.
Prop wagers used to be viewed as “sucker bets” in the past but with the popularity of fantasy sports and advancements in analytics, prop betting generates a growing handle every year and is a market many sharp gamblers look to for variance and value.
Want to know more? Check out the rest of the article here.
I’m going to go on the record as saying sports — in general — is spiraling out of control — from collegiate sport to some dumb fucking ‘sport’ called “slap fighting”.
Because what America needs right now is grown ass men and women (and every gender inbetween) slapping the crap out of one another for money and entertainment.
Some sports may become unwatchable in the future, since you can never be sure the outcome hasn’t been manipulated.
Oh, well. Heavy sigh.
The game of football was invented following the Civil War as a means of having young men blow off steam by slamming in to one another. Maybe slap fighting will satisfy the appetite of those who want to overthrow the government. Maybe an overindulgence in sports betting will bankrupt them.
You’re on a roll James 🙌🏼
Thanks Scooter! Doing my best!