I’ve seen several references to this…event…in Texas, but I think Juanita Jean–she of the World’s Most Dangerous Beauty Shop, Inc.–has the best description. She titles it “I Love Yew, Texas.”
Well see, the QAnon people are coming to Dallas because there’s gonna be a slamdinger of a show!
Some staunch believers of QAnon think that JFK Jr is in fact alive and well, and plans to make a return to public service and announce a tilt at the White House as vice president on the ticket of Mr Trump, who has not yet announced a 2024 run but is widely considered by many to be the favourite to win the Republican nomination if he does so.
And it’s not just JFK, Jr – it’s the entire Kennedy clan showing up. However, it’s not clear if it’s all of them or just the dead ones. Word is that they are meeting on the grassy knoll, except they spelled it grassy noel, which in Texas translates to Christmas in the wheat fields.
Her best line, though, invokes Indiana’s former embarrassing Governor.
And if you’re wondering who comes back from the dead to be vice president, you need only look as far as Mike Pence. So there ya are.
Actually, I’ve been mulling over the fact that, in January, Mike Pence actually did something admirable–he refused to take part in the coup attempt. He followed the law, and refused to refuse to certify ballots. (Granted, when it comes to Mike Pence, the bar for “admirable” is very low…) As long as I’ve known him (and that is ever since we were both Republican candidates for Congress in the 1980s, so a long time) it is the only admirable thing I’ve ever seen him do–and the irony is that in today’s GOP, doing the right thing and respecting the rule of law has probably been the kiss of death to his presidential ambitions. (Not that I think those ambitions were very realistic in any event, but then, who would have thought anyone would vote for the pussy-grabber…?)
Democrats are constantly being criticized for “elitism,” for “looking down on” unsophisticated/uneducated /rural “real Americans.” I think this is largely a bum rap: I don’t know any liberals who sneer at people simply because they lack a degree or live in a rural area or even because they vote Republican. I do know people (and I’ll admit to being one of them) who shake our heads and perhaps even snicker at folks who look for Hillary Clinton’s child trafficking headquarters in the (non-existent) basement of a pizza parlor, or who blame California wildfires on Jewish space lasers, or who ingest horse dewormer rather than listening to their doctors and getting vaccinated…Admittedly, the people who turn up at protests with grossly misspelled signs also get a chuckle .
And forgive me if I fail to take seriously the QAnon lunatics who traveled to the “grassy noel” to await the reincarnation or whatever of JFK, Jr.
Let’s be candid: Today’s GOP is profoundly unserious about governing. Its base is filled with crackpots of various kinds, and the party’s elected officials and political leaders are virtually all spineless panderers to those crackpots. Thanks to gerrymandering, vote suppression and weaponizing of the filibuster, they’ve managed to prevent Congress from engaging in anything resembling actual governing.
If we couldn’t laugh, we’d cry.
Pence made an “admirable” decision? Apparently he did consider going along with the plan and now tells us it was only after consulting with God and the ghost of James Madison that he decided to comply with the law. That decision should have taken no reflection; that it can be described as admirable is only an accident of semantics. But, yeah, as you say, the bar in his case is low. Very, very low. I’d say a snake could clear it but I might be accused of being redundant in this case.
Well, you can laugh and then cry, or cry until you laugh. Just don’t forget the expression about he who laughs first…
I get a chuckle out of QAnon and all the craziness that comes out of Texas and Arizona, but just remember, we are an Oligarchy where power is concentrated in the hands of very few people. I am guessing that most people on this blog aren’t in those power seats.
Therefore, we are also subject to manipulation by those in power. Remember, they use the target market to devise plans. Our brothers and sister on the right are quite gullible for sure. It’s their nature to be that way. But, that doesn’t mean they are the only ones. 😉
Does the oppositional party present real opposition to Neofascism? What happened to the Antifa and BLM crowds? Did they fizzle out with the OWS movement? What happened to those Leftist responses to fascism? What just happened to the Squad in Washington and DSA? What happened to all the momentum with the workers at Amazon underneath the “union apparatus?”
Be careful. All these “uprisings” got swallowed up into the power structure on the left side of the Oligarchy. None of it materialized into changes. It smacked into the power structure and then acquiesced like it’s been doing for decades. Why?
Awareness is the key…are you a critical thinker or are you falling in line with the left’s propaganda machine called pseudo-intellectualism? Has your ego attached to the identity of being a Democrat or are you still questioning everything?
Anyone in the know could tell you the reason JFK Jr. did not show up on the grassy “noel” was because he was in Maryland helping Hillary Clinton sex traffic kids out of the basement of a pizza parlor. After all, he could’t be two places at once.
We know that Republican leaders and their co-conspirators disdain their followers. The latest evidence is the 1999 secret recording of NRA leaders calling their members “fruitcakes,” “hillbillies,” and “wackos.” Still, they take their money and cater to and fuel their ignorance.
https://www.npr.org/2021/11/09/1049054141/a-secret-tape-made-after-columbine-shows-the-nras-evolution-on-school-shootings
The Q’s showing up in Dallas is nothing but theater to grab headlines. Remember the chronic disrupter in your classroom who menaced the teacher. Anything to get attention including the parade of one singled out to walk the hallway with a pink slip to the principal’s office. Everybody knew. Do we feed the prankster with undue attention? Or just ignore and give our full support to the teacher.
Laugh or cry are our only options; but neither ends my fear as the Republicans become more and more bizarre and more and more powerful making them more and more dangerous.
Speaking of laughing, every time I imagine the Democratic Party plotting and planning to keep us in thrall to the oligarchy as Todd claims, I just burst out laughing. Will Rogers famously said, “I don’t belong to an organized political party. I’m a Democrat.” I haven’t seen any evidence of organizational ability in roughly 72 years of paying attention.
I initially thought that “basket of deplorables” was too harsh a judgement. I had no idea how wrong I would be proven.
So Big Bird, “don’t mess with Texas” – per the eminent physician, Dr. Cruz. Something in the air there…sagebrush? Not too many sages…
So Pence’s presidential ambitions ended when he followed the rule of law in the electoral count on 1/6? It’s worse than that. Republican officeholders are primaried by order of Herr Trump today for not giving credence to the views of some of the fruitcakes and now threateners of homicide who have found a home in the party.
The good news (if we can hang together long enough to see it play out) is that the Republican Party is headed back to the oblivion of its predecessor Whigs inasmuch as such party has no platform, no guiding principles, nor any good reason to exist beyond provision of a home for fruitcakes and power grabbers. “Party of Lincoln?” Lincoln would be a Democrat today.
Big tent Democrats, like the country that I was born in, are inclusive. Tiny tent Republicans are exclusive to everyone but competitive authoritarians who fund political campaigns and those who get their political entertainment from Fox and the like and vote in the politicians paid for by the others. That exclusivity allows the GOP to be nimble – with the truth, a huge political advantage.
I am baffled by how people can believe the bizarre conspiracy theories of Q-Anon. They are quite delusional. Maybe this is due to the lack of mental health and substance use treatment centers in rural communities. Maybe it is because our public school teachers who want to help students use critical thinking cannot do so because they are forced to teach kids facts that allow them to pass a test.
What’s even more bizarre is that someone like Marjorie Taylor Greene made it to Congress. Geesh! I guess this means there are lots of people in her district who are delusional.
Todd, I see that like me you are giving us questions to contemplate. I will have to sit with those.
And now NPR reports the wealthy in our oligarchy are protesting the taxes on their wealth. Yes, we should have a wealth tax.
Too bad Q-Anon is not proposing a wealth tax and claiming the wealthy are engaging in sex trafficking. What was his name? Oh right, Jeffrey Epstein. And people like him make me SO angry I can’t laugh.
And in the meantime Gosart, has made threatening remarks on Anime toward Rep. OSC and our president. Too bad Q-Anon is not targeting him. For me, the question is will he be censored for his threatening remarks?
So call me “TACKY!” Hahahahahahahha! And I visited Juanita Jean’s web page. LMAO!!
In these times one cannot laugh too often! So, butter my butt and call me a biscuit!!!
Please,don’t give Pence credit. He’s a busy man. Believe it or not, he has walked away from politics and has been living in the Netherlands where he spends his time drumming with a classic-rock band.
Here is proof!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a54R9zE_hJk
I’m not so sure the Dallas show was all for attention, as I believe that some % of those that showed up believe the idiocy. I’d like to be wrong, however. In any case, if it’s all theater, I’m sure the oligarchs are laughing all the way to the bank. Some fools had a large banner, proclaiming their support for a Trump/Kennedy ticket, in ’24. So, they spent money on that? Who is making that money?
Pence speaks with his imaginary Sky Fairy, and Madison? Is that related to GWB “Knowing” that his Sky Fairy wanted him to be POTUS? Because there were great plans being made for his legacy?
It is sad, but how can one not laugh at the Q-sheep, at the Rambo-Trump believers (that amazing poster?), at people who think that the wanna-be man who reveled in attempts at destroying the very institutions that made the country what it is, was going to save it from entrenched child molesters?
Still, if the John Lewis voting Rights Act does not get passed, it will be anything but laughable!
This brings to mind the “classic” tea-party protest sign: “Keep your government hands off my Medicaid”
I recommend watching Jordan Klepper’s various videos where he talks with participants of Trump rallies. They are quite cathartic. (But also a little bit horrifying, to be fair.)
Let’s try this…. Georgia magat congress spook Madison Cawthorn was videotaped trying to pop wheelies in FDR’s wheelchair. Is nothing sacred?
Caol Sewell – I love it – thank you
Sheila and all – humor is good – it is OK to laugh (the alternative is pity and depression)
This all brings to mind Tom Lehrer’s comment that political satire became obsolete when Henry Kissinger won the Nobel Peace Prize – an earlier version said when Richard Nixon was elected President. Lehrer was, of course, a true liberal – satire has a liberal bend – far-left and far-right humor is polemic and not very funny.
Sheila – thank you for introducing us to Juanita Jean – a good dose of her blog helps me face the world.
Well … I wouldn’t mind showing up in Juanita Jean’s most dangerous hair salon for a refreshing trim. 😇