An Undead Cutie-Pie

Trump's communications director Stephanie Grisham spoke at the Democratic Convention tonight. On January 6th she texted Melania to get through to Trump (who you might remember was famously in seclusion) to ask if they could at least tweet, "While peaceful protest is the right of every American, there is no place for violence and lawlessness." Melania gave a one-word answer- "No." Stephanie figured she dealt with enough chaos and quit.

A piece of advice Trump gave her as the communications director was that if you just keep saying something often enough, it doesn't have to be true but people will believe it. You know what, I might be crazy, but I think I've seen that in action!

That is directly out of Goebbels' meoir, by the way, but I suspect Trump just has an instinct for these things. Plus, not much of a reader.

Why is it that all of these Trump people split from him after they can't take it anymore, and all tell the same story, a story 100% consistent with what we hear with our own ears and see with our own eyes? 

I mean only half of his former cabinet members think he deserves a second term!

I believe that every former Defense Secretary of any administration said that he's a menace to the public safety.

I can't imagine the cognitive dissonance it would take to overlook this stuff, or to equivocate it with something generally innocuous, like Harris not giving a substantive interview in the time between becoming the nominee and the convention. She didn't? Damn!!! 

But don't overlook the fact that Stephanie Grisham said that under Trump she purposefully didn't give a press conference because she knew she would be forced to lie. And Trump himself went over 300 days without a press briefing... while he was president! 

We can focus on nonsense, or we can focus on the important things, and all of Trump's defectors have important things to say about him. He said that he hires the best people, so listen to them when they tell you in a variety of ways that he's an agent of chaos.

August 20, 2024

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Tip of my hat to Fox News. Many times during the Democrats' key note speeches over the years, I'll flip to it to discover they're not even playing it, they're playing they're pundits talking over it. I don't know if they played Michelle Obama's speech uninterrupted (and too bad if they didn't!), but they are playing her husband's. Like him or not, he is a magnificent speaker. If there's one person better, it's Michelle. How are these two people the exact two best speakers in the nation? 

And a tip of my hat to Barack Obama for invoking Abraham Lincoln, the best speaker in the history of the nation, and genuinely appealing to the better angels of our nature.

August 20, 2024

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BJ Novak looks like the end product of Kevin Arnold fucking Frankenstein. 

God damn it, that's mean. I can't write that. Let me start over.

I'm an asshole for the thought crossing my mind that BJ Novak looks like the end product of Kevin Arnold fucking Frankenstein. 

Better. And anyway, Kevin Arnold is so cute I think that is a net positive. 

If I wanted to be really mean I could say that he looks like the end product of Frankenstein fucking Kevin Arnold, which would obviously be rape. 

I could have taken it a step further and said that if Frankenstein raped a transgender Kevin Arnold who could have carried the abomination to term, I just hope that it would have been in a state that would have allowed BJ Novak to be aborted. Office or no Office, none of us want to live in that world.

Anyway you cut it, I hope they invite me to his roast.

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Babe Ruth- "Reading isn't good for a ballplayer. Not good for his eyes. If my eyes went bad even a little bit I couldn't hit home runs. So I gave up reading."

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Trump's communications director Stephanie Grisham spoke at the Democratic Convention tonight. On January 6th she texted Melania to get through to Trump (who you might remember was famously in seclusion) to ask if they could at least tweet, "While peaceful protest is the right of every American, there is no place for violence and lawlessness." Melania gave a one-word answer- "No." Stephanie figured she dealt with enough chaos and quit.

A piece of advice Trump gave her as the communications director was that if you just keep saying something often enough, it doesn't have to be true but people will believe it. You know what, I might be crazy, but I think I've seen that in action!

That is directly out of Goebbels' memoir, by the way, but I suspect Trump just has an instinct for these things. Plus, not much of a reader.

Why is that all of these Trump people split from him after they can't take it anymore, and all tell the same story, a story 100% consistent with what we hear with our own ears and see with our own eyes? 

I mean only half of his former cabinet members think he deserves a second term!

I believe that every former Defense Secretary of any administration said that he's a menace to the public safety.

I can't imagine the cognitive dissonance it would take to overlook this stuff, or to equivocate it with something generally innocuous, like Harris not giving a substantive interview in the time between becoming the nominee and the convention. She didn't? Damn!!! 

But don't overlook the fact that Stephanie Grisham said that under Trump she purposefully didn't give a press conference because she knew she would be forced to lie. And Trump himself went over 300 days without a press briefing... while he was president! 

We can focus on nonsense, or we can focus on the important things, and all of Trump's defectors have important things to say about him. He said that he hires the best people, so listen to them when they tell you in a variety of ways that he's an agent of chaos.

August 20, 2024

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You know what crosses my mind often- Futurama referred to our era as The Stupid Ages.

August 20, 2021

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Bukowski- "The best advice I've ever received: nobody else knows what they are doing either."

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I watched a great movie on Buster Keaton last night, directed by Peter Bogdanovich. When Buster Keaton used to write screenplays he'd write the beginning and the end and he'd say the middle would just work itself out. Here's one of those things that ended up in the middle... he was sitting on a bench with a girl who shut her eyes so he could kiss her, and a dog came up and licked her in the face a couple times. When she opened her eyes the dog was gone and Buster just sat there not knowing how to explain.

August 20, 2019

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I just saw in a thread someone say "2012 wants it joke back", to which someone else responded... "1985 wants its "wants its joke back" joke back." That tied my brain in a knot.

August 20, 2018

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Just read in the news that the president called the news fake, so he must not have said that at all, and if he didn't say it's fake that means that it's true, but if what it's saying is then true that means it's fake, so therefore true, which is to say fake, or... hey, if the media publishes this post, is my confusion fake or true? Feels true.*

*The truth is, my confusion is fake... the president just pops off at the mouth (and fingers) when he doesn't like something, it's simple as that. True?

August 20, 2017

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Gretel wanted to get underpants that have cupcakes on them. Her second choice was... chocolate pudding, hmmm.

August 20, 2017

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Sam Harris, 2011:

"How many Republicans who have vowed not to raise taxes on billionaires would want to live in a country with a trillionaire and 30 percent unemployment? If the answer is “none”—and it really must be—then everyone is in favor of “wealth redistribution.” They just haven’t been forced to admit it."

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I played peekaboo with my daughter tonight, and she really liked it. She wouldn't have liked it nearly as much though if she knew that as I hid behind the pillow I was eating an ice cream cone.

August 20, 2014

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Luis Bunuel- "God and country are an unbeatable team. They break all records for oppression and bloodshed."

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Bertrand Russell- “The first thing to realize...is that most people go through life with a whole world of beliefs that have no sort of rational justification, and that one man’s world of beliefs is apt to be incompatible with another man’s, so that they cannot both be right. People’s opinions are mainly designed to make them feel comfortable; truth, for most people is a secondary consideration."

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In Edmond, Oklahoma, on this day in 1986, U.S. Postal employee Patrick Sherrill gunned down 14 of his co-workers and then committed suicide. As you know, it coined a term.

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HP Lovecraft joined us on this day in 1890.

"The world is indeed comic, but the joke is on mankind."

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Amy Adams was born on this day in 1974. A friend of mine was at a restaurant telling a friend how delightful she is. Guess who overheard, and came over to thank him for the kind words. So delightful.

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Anther notable birthdays- Benjamin Harrison (1833)

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Notable deathday- Phyllis Diller (2012)

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Buzzfeed- Dick Assman Has Died

"A famous Canadian named Dick Assman died this week. He was famous for being named Dick Assman."

https://www.buzzfeed.com/ishmaeldaro/dick-assman-has-died

August 20, 2016

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Sorry to hear that Leon Vitale left us today. Excellent as Lord Bullingdon in Barry Lyndon, then serving as Kubrick's director for his final three films, even making quite an impression as Red Cloak in Eyes Wide Shut.

August 20, 2022

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The Onion- Melania Trump: ‘My Fat Piece-Of-Shit Husband Who Should Go Kill Himself Needs To Stop Bullying People Online’

Well, Trump is not beyond satire yet!

https://trib.al/P3tTeFE

August 20, 2018

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NPR- 70 Former Republican National Security Officials Endorse Biden, Call Trump ‘Unfit’ For Office

Remember when 70 Democratic National Security Officials endorsed Romney, saying Obama was unfit for office? Of course not, because that's not a thing that happens!

https://trib.al/OBashqV

August 20, 2020

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The Creepiest Things That Kids Have Ever Said:

“The other week, I was reading my 2-year-old daughter a bedtime story. When we finished, we were talking about been scared of ghosts, monsters, trolls, etc. and she turned to me and said, ‘Daddy, I’m not scared of ghosts.’ I asked, ‘Why’s that?’ to which she replied, ‘Because the one that comes into my room at night and strokes my hair is a nice one.’”

And...

When I was really little I pointed to a tree outside my house and said to my family: “That tree is going to die.” No one thought anything of it, but the next morning it randomly fell over and crushed my grandpa’s car.

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Gretel found the bird today, some kind of warbler. It couldn't fly so we took it to a bird sanctuary.

August 20, 2023

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Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary:

"Egotist- A man more interested in himself than in me."

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Steve Martin- "Talking about music is like dancing about architecture."

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William Blake:

He who binds to himself a joy

Does the winged life destroy;

But he who kisses the joy as it flies

Lives in eternity's sun rise.