The more things change, etc.
No, I didn’t watch the “debate.”
I didn’t watch “The Apprentice,” either.
Nor have I watched “American Idol,” “The Bachelor,” “American Ninja Warrior,” or “The Circus.”
I did, however, read Hank Stuever’s appraisal of the “debate.” And he said pretty much everything about it that I wanted to say, save for “You have got to be fucking kidding me.”
Somewhere in the Beyond, Hunter S. Thompson is fitting another cigarette into its holder, ordering another round of mescaline and margaritas, and chuckling to himself over having gotten it so right so long ago.
“Jesus! Where will it end? How low do you have to stoop in this country to be President?”
Mad Blog Media 
August 1, 2019 at 2:48 pm |
I listened for about ten minutes as Kirsten Gillibrand lambasted Uncle Joe and then turned it off. Gillibrand has a lot of nerve accusing Sleepy Joe of being yin-yang on politics, given her first A and then F rating with the NRA. Not to mention other sordid goods on her.
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/02/kirsten-gillibrand-tries-to-explain-her-pro-gun-anti-immigrant-past.html
So I went outside and cleaned the garage. I think David French and Bret Stephens crystallized my thoughts. How low do you have to stoop to pander to the base?
Jesus wept.
August 1, 2019 at 2:49 pm |
Zappa said it best, “Politics is the entertainment division of Big Business.”
August 1, 2019 at 3:34 pm |
Also, and too, remember your Carlin on the media: “The media are made up of equal parts advertising, politics, business … public relations and show business. These people are sitting right at bullshit junction! There’s enough bullshit in the media for Texas to open a branch office! And you’d still have enough left over to start two law firms and a Christian bookstore.”
August 1, 2019 at 3:54 pm |
First dem debate on MSNBC, and the second on CNN. Talk about preaching to the choir. Why wasn’t that video and audio feed free to all media outlets, like NPR or Fox for example. You can’t win an election unless you talk to everyone. Mayor Pete and Bernie went on Fox and tore it up. Money perhaps? Keeping us divided perhaps? If George were here now, I think he would go into another angry period. I am already there. If it wasn’t for the corrupt democratic party, Bernie would be president right now. If it wasn’t for the gutless and corrupt republican party, Trump would have been impeached by now. Without flipping Congress, you are just pissing into the wind. And, I am tired of walking around soaking wet and stinky all the time.
August 1, 2019 at 4:37 pm |
Slightly modifying Steve Jobs’ thoughts on TV:
When you’re young, you look at politics and think, There’s a conspiracy. The parties have conspired to dumb us down. But when you get a little older, you realize that’s not true. The parties are in business to give people exactly what they deserve. That’s a far more depressing thought. Conspiracy is optimistic! You can shoot the bastards! We can have a revolution! But the parties are really in business to give people what they deserve.
August 1, 2019 at 4:49 pm |
And oy, are we ever getting what we deserve. In spades.
August 1, 2019 at 3:01 pm |
One mustn’t forget the Wild Turkey when enumerating the good Doctor Gonzo’s stash. Other than that, I totally agree with your sentiment. Ten people with a moderator isn’t a debate – it’s a Q&A session at best. The first one to eviscerate the thin-skinned mango maggot with their proposed policies will get my attention. Until then, it’s just hot air fronts battling for a little attention.
August 1, 2019 at 3:25 pm |
The media and the GOP seem hellbent on trying to one-up each other when it comes to driving people away from the ballot box.
Meanwhile, the Donks stand just outside the 100-foot boundary wearing a stained overcoat and nothing else. Periodically they yank the coat open for passers-by.
“Hey, whaddaya thinka this here, hey?”
Jaysis, etc.
Election season has become like doing the Australian crawl in a chain-mail wetsuit across an endless sewage lagoon for eternity.
Sisyphus had it easy. The Augean stables? A doddle.
August 2, 2019 at 5:28 am |
POG-wasted an hour looking all over Amazon et.all for chain mail wetsuits. No luck. We are close to the same size. Can I borrow yours? I figure if I can swim across the Detroit River to Canada in it, they’ll have to let me in and give me asylum. Then, I’ll send it back to you and you can follow. It’s probably well past time to form a colony of bicycling crazy ex pats over there and snark from El Norte.
August 2, 2019 at 7:34 am |
Can I go, pleeeeease? Pass me an Elsinore, heh!
August 2, 2019 at 6:44 am |
“El Rancho Pendejo del Norte.” Has a nice ring to it, eh? Beauty.
Speaking of our fair neighbors to the north, have any of you hosers ever watched “Corner Gas?” I got acquainted with it when Marc Maron interviewed creator Brent Butt on his podcast. Herself and I are starting the fourth season now. It’s a nice little piece of work.
August 1, 2019 at 5:55 pm |
This circular firing squad (what my party does best) must cease. Our current “President” must be the focus of all of these public displays of opposition, not minor policy differences. I truly like most, if not all, of these candidates, but all of them must realize that their own ambitions are subservient to the greater good — stopping Trump. Inserting each of their ambitions and delusions of grandeur into that narrative will not achieve that goal.
Truly, many politicians are different than most of us. They believe that only she or he can save us (what Herr Trump said about himself). A bit of unity would go a long way. I hope my party gets with the program.
Dale in Right-Wing Evangelical Hades in Mid-Missouri
August 1, 2019 at 8:00 pm |
Dale, I feel your pain. Pat in an over 55 gated community in Arizona.
August 2, 2019 at 6:52 am |
We’re pretty blue in ’Burque, and Herself is working with the Donks to make it even bluer. P’raps the answer is to work locally and try to push the hopey-changey thing upwards.
Ignorance, sloth and Shiny Object Syndrome remain stumbling blocks, however. And as Pat O’B notes, without veto-proof majorities in both House and Senate, which would sideline Moscow Mitch the Traitorous Turtle, giving Ginger Hitler the heave-ho will not solve all our problems.
It’s a must, of course. Just not a panacea.
August 2, 2019 at 12:06 pm |
Two nights ago I had a conversation with my Republican neighbor. He did not vote for Trump in the 2016 Primary, but probably voted “R” in the General.
Now he is ready to vote for anyone not Trump (even a Democrat).
I am beginning to imagine a hundred ways the Dems could fuck this up, and it is beginning in the “debates” (see the circular firing squad comment above). I don’t remember how many Dems are running (22 maybe), but there comes a point when a few should face reality and drop out.
August 2, 2019 at 2:44 pm |
Post-debate palate cleanser:
https://www.newbelgium.com/events/event/2019/08/03/foco-fondo/
We’ll be doing the family friendly 12 mile version, and wishing it was a 12k.