#DimensionTrump | #WhatTheyVotedFor
![Roseanne Barr (@therealroseanne): 'Trump made peace in no ko and now Iran! Power to the people!! Where we go one we go all!' [via Twitter, 2 July 2018]](https://bdthisis.files.wordpress.com/2018/07/barr-20180702-tweet-trumpnokoiran-detail-bw.png?w=620&h=213)
“Trump made peace in no ko and now Iran! Power to the people!! Where we go one we go all!”
Okay, then.
No, seriously, what the ...?
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Image note: Tweet by Roseanne Barr (@therealroseanne), 2 July 2018.
[#rapeculture]
The lede from Reuters:
Amazon Studios chief Roy Price was put on an immediate leave of absence Thursday, the company said, following allegations that he harassed a producer and ignored an actress’s claim of a sexual assault by producer Harvey Weinstein.
Prognostication being more or less the art of capricious but not quite arbitrary projection, a certain obvious question arises: How many entertainment execs are about to fall? One of the interesting questions becomes whether Tinseltown is about to explode into a million billion tiny, glittering pieces; Hollywood, after all, is a town that has long needed more than just an enema.
There is an alternative at least as obvious as the question itself, that maybe one or two more high-profile entertainment executives might fall from grace, and then society will decide that we have discovered and weeded out the few bad seeds, and get on with show business as usual.
And, hey, maybe the next round can be in the music industry, so we can finally free Kesha, but society probably needs a couple years off, first. You know, only a few at a time. I mean, there are only a few bad seeds, y’know, at any one time.
(cough)
Just compared to shattering Hollywood, which itself seems unlikely, what, really, is the chance this is the beginning of a chain reaction lashing severely through the halls of American financial and commercial power tearing away significant chunks of institutionalized rape culture?
(sigh)
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Image note: Detail of frame from Attack on Titan episode 6, “The World the Girl Saw”.
Reuters Staff. “Amazon Studios chief Roy Price suspended following harassment allegation”. Reuters. 12 October 2017.
This is worth noting:
For the good of the country, Gov. Bill Haslam believes Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump should withdraw his candidacy and give way to vice presidential nominee Mike Pence.
Haslam, R-Knoxville, became the first prominent Tennessee Republican to make such a statement when he issued his comments Sunday afternoon. He joins a growing chorus of national Republicans to repudiate their party’s standard bearer in light of a 2005 video where Trump made vulgar comments that appear to condone the sexual assault of women.
“I want to emphasize that character in our leaders does matter. None of us in elected office are perfect, but the decisions that are made in the Oval Office have too many consequences to ignore the behavior we have seen,” Haslam said.
“It is time for the good of the nation and the Republican Party for Donald Trump to step aside and let Gov. Mike Pence assume the role as the party’s nominee. If he does not step aside, I will write in a Republican for the office of President.”
(Boucher)
It is easy to get caught up in narrative and moment, and thus we sometimes feel flat-footed when history blows past us and, you know, of course we could see it coming, but it’s so easy to lose oneself in high-strung, even mythopoeic history that we often instinctively caution ourselves against believing the hype.
This time, though, let us go ahead and mark the moment with Gov. Bill Haslam; the Tennessee Republican’s statement serves as a personal benchmark insofar as it is now possible for me to believe that Donald Trump might well have finally done gone an’ broke it.
Just sayin’.
Even still, doubt whispers and cynicism clamors; this can’t really be the moment, except that yes, if “vulgar comments that appear to condone the sexual assault of women”, as Dave Boucher’s report for the Tennessean puts it―and why not? it’s a reasonable description dutifullyα ducking the fact that we all know there’s no matter of mere appearances about it―are somehow insufficient to settle the matter, then there is far more wrong in these United States than merely Donald Trump.
We kind of knew that last, already, right? I mean, we’re all clear on what is going on, here?
‘Tis easy to hedge. This is going to be an interesting week, proverbially and otherwise. Consider it this way, please: Mr. Haslam denounces Mr. Trump’s misogyny, preferring instead Mr. Pence’s less felonious misogyny. This ought to be absurd enough to get us through the days.β
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α There are reasons why the reportage is not supposed to do the convicting and crucifying. This is, however, really, truly that straightforward. What seems striking is that the nod and wink, this time, would reject the good ol’ boys’ club.
β And that’s a completely meaningless sentence, isn’t it?
Image note: Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump holds a rally in Fredricksburg, Virginia, 20 August 2016. (Photo by Leigh Vogel/WireImage)
Boucher, Dave. “Bill Haslam: Donald Trump needs to step aside for Mike Pence”. The Tennessean. 9 October 2016.
Must I absolutely have a reason?
The upside, of course, is that Adam waited an extra day before going Garbo, and on some valence the existential reality of the Universe thanks him.
I know, I know. Kind of like God saying, “Thanks a bunch for being my tool!” Adam has fewer excuses than Job, but nobody had to dare the Lord to give the Bugmeister some Bozo feet.
No, seriously. Oughta teach God to brag. And something goes here about Adam and complaining into cosplay.
You’re welcome.
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Image note: Triptych ― Top to bottom: Bug in Life, Buggy Warbucks, Adam of Green Gables; detail of Bug Martini by Adam Huber, 16 August 2016.
Today was supposed to be something of a good day. The question, then, is what tomorrow brings. Let us start, then, as Steve Benen did, with yesterday.
Recognizing the writing on the wall, Sanders’ aides conceded yesterday that the campaign will “reassess” its strategy going forward. While that’s often a euphemism for “quit,” that’s not the case here: Sanders isn’t prepared to walk away, but he is prepared to shift his focus in light of the recent results. Consider the statement his campaign issued last night:
“I congratulate Secretary Clinton on her victories tonight, and I look forward to issue-oriented campaigns in the 14 contests to come. […]
“The people in every state in this country should have the right to determine who they want as president and what the agenda of the Democratic Party should be. That’s why we are in this race until the last vote is cast. That is why this campaign is going to the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia with as many delegates as possible to fight for a progressive party platform that calls for a $15 an hour minimum wage, an end to our disastrous trade policies, a Medicare-for-all health care system, breaking up Wall Street financial institutions, ending fracking in our country, making public colleges and universities tuition free and passing a carbon tax so we can effectively address the planetary crisis of climate change.”
Over the last couple of months, each of the Sanders campaign’s election-night statements have included at least one reference to his “path to the nomination.” This one did not. It wasn’t an accidental omission.
Sanders started the race as an issue-oriented candidate who didn’t expect to be the party’s nominee, and the recent results have brought him full circle. He’s not done fighting; he’s just going to fight for something new: he can’t catch Clinton through the ballot box, but he can “fight for a progressive party platform.”
This is the day, apparently, when the Democratic Party is supposed to come together and turn its eyes to November.
Er … okay ...
Authorities in Florida have arrested a man accused of throwing a live alligator through a restaurant’s drive-through window.
If the lede isn’t strange enough, there is the detail:
Once approached by authorities, James admitted to having picked up the alligator along the side of a road, driving to Wendy’s and throwing the beast through the drive-through window.
A judge on Tuesday ordered James to stay away from all Wendy’s restaurants, to avoid possessing any weapons, to get a mental health evaluation and to limit his contact with animals to his mother’s dog, according to WPTV.
James’s parents described him to the TV station as an outdoorsman and harmless prankster, adding that he viewed famous crocodile hunter and conservationist Steve Irwin as an idol.
At some point, this really does start to sound like a farce that never should have seen a green light. For the suspect, Mr. James, and everyone else ranging from inconvenienced to terrified in the moment of dealing with an alligator chucked through the window, reality unfortunately reminds that this is apparently not some script for the next Will Ferrell movie.
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Chokshi, Niraj and Sarah Larimer. “Assault with a deadly weapon: Florida man charged with throwing alligator into Wendy’s”. The Washington Post. 9 February 2016.
MEMORANDUM
To: Huffington Post, Jamie Feldman (Associate Style Editor)
re: Stylish sexism
In the first place: Why do I care?
The Huffington Post sidebar is, of course, notorious; I can discover all manner of fascinating insights about how you think of your readers, because, you know, some of us just so want to know about Martha Stewart’s sex life, or what slits were too high for comfort. Something about cherries, and something about sex toys; yeah, that was the sort of moment I would never experience without the Huffington Post.
It is not so much a question of why I care about the notoriously obnoxious lack of decent character shown by the HuffPo sidebar; it is, after all, merely software.
But the question persists why I care what Kate Middleton wore yesterday. Nor was this merely in the sidebar; someone chose to put the article about the Duchess of Cambridge being an “outfit repeater” on the front page of the Huffington Post.
Royals: They’re just like us―when it comes to recycling outfits, that is.
Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge took her new haircut out to a holiday party at the London’s Anna Freud center Monday, a charity she has visited before as part of her ongoing work for children’s mental health.
Dressed for the holidays, Kate opted for an all-red Alexander McQueen outfit that she has worn not once but twice before
Perhaps Jamie Feldman, associate style editor for HuffPo, might explain if this is one of those moments in which I am suppsoed to squee! uncontrollably.
Maybe weep?
Fall to my knees in prayer? How about just shake my head sadly?
“Outfit Repeater”? Really? Yeah, okay, I can shake my head sadly at that.
Oh, for ....
In the first three books of “A Song of Ice and Fire” (and four seasons of the show),
Tyrion has a trajectory that might sound awfully familiar to Obama: He’s a bright and charming man who is nonetheless looked down upon by people who are a lot stupider than he is because they are prejudiced against people who look like him. Despite these obstacles, Tyrion rises high in government, taking on the highest executive office in Westeros, with the title of the Hand of the King. His job as the executive is to rein in an economic crisis as well as deal with an unnecessary war, all while trying to manage a bratty king named Joffrey.
Tyrion does an excellent, if imperfect job, despite these overwhelming circumstances, helping stave off an invasion and deal with other political crises. Despite his hard work and many successes, many in the kingdom continue to hate Tyrion irrationally, calling him a “demon monkey” and blaming him for catastrophes brought on by the king, catastrophes that Tyrion has actually gone out of his way to fix. In the end, this public’s desire to scapegoat him leads to Tyrion’s downfall, as he is blamed for the king’s murder, which he didn’t commit, and has to escape unjust execution under the cover of darkness.
If you substitute “the president” for “Hand of the King,” “the Republicans” for “King Joffrey,” and “secretly born in Kenya” for “demon monkey,” the parallels between Tyrion and Obama are downright startling. Like Tyrion, Obama walked into office with a military crisis and an economic disaster on his hands. Like Tyrion, his efforts to fix things get stymied at every turn by forces that oppose him for political reasons. Like Tyrion, he had a major military victory (killing Osama bin Laden) and domestic victories that prevented suffering, but many refuse to give him credit. Like Tyrion, Obama gets blamed by huge numbers of people who have preexisting prejudices about him, who would rather blame someone they irrationally hate than the truly guilty parties.
It is not so much a question of whether Amanda Marcotte is right or wrong; rather, it is simply a matter of, “Oh, come on!”
And it is true that societies witness and take part in transformations of myth, occasionally retiring one here or there while scrabbling perpetually to create new ones. As Barkerα reminds, nothing ever begins. History, meanwhile, will eventually show this particular mythopoeic play more a question of waterskiing in a leather jacket.
Well, you know, if history bothers noticing this one at all.
This is an important question: If life imitates art so much that we shape our decisions in order to create and align mythopoeia that, circularly, it reflects and reinforces itself, at what point have leapt the carcharodon?
‡
Because … oh, I don’t know … I needed an excuse?
• Not quite interpretive dance: Meet Gazelle Bug in, “Survival of the Fastest” (8 July 2015)
• Mod Mode Messless Mix: Hang with Nerd Bug, and learn to love the fresh, clean scents of molded plastic and Lysol® in, “Bless This (and Your) Mess” (9 July 2015)
• Special cameo appearance: Get your swing thing some zingaling with Randy Tesla and some Flapper Bug in, “Electric Boogaloo” (10 July 2015)
I know, I know, I know. Adam passed on a chance to do the obvious joke, and, really, if we’re aiming for cameos, Randy Tesla or Sparky the Firefly?
Uh-huh. That’s what I thought.
Long as it ain’t Randy Quaid, eh?
So … right. This is … er … ah … well, you know. This is hardly news, but any time we get to sit around and chill with Xenu is time well spent, right?
Something about priorities goes here, I’m certain. Then again, the unresolved implication would be whose priorities.
Or should I try the political joke about how we need to be careful to not achieve such equality that our Christian neighbors ruin themselves fighting for their supremacy? After all, next up is, well, the Xenubites.
Certes, we can do better. Right?
Oh, wait, that’s probably not as good of a joke as its temptation suggests.
Too bad ’bout that.
Nor was the joke worth it.
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Bolling, Ruben. “Xenu, Intergalactic Overlord, returns to Earth”. Daily Kos Comics. 9 April 2015.
This Is 