Honor Is So "Yesterday"

Wonder how tough Hillary Clinton would be as president? Let me tell you, she's tough -- brutal. After all, four dead men in Benghazi are simply collateral damage. People who were killed because foreign agents hacked her "personal" email server? Ehh. It was for the greater good; i.e., Hillary's lifelong quest for higher office.

There are, I'm sure, lots of reasons why everyday citizens are pissed off. The resentments and outrages have been discussed on websites and news channels ad nauseum. Nobody, though, has mentioned the mourning over our country's loss of honor. There was a time, I guess a long time ago, when politicians perhaps didn't feel shame, but they understood that we were ashamed of them when they screwed up and let us down. They at least pretended to be ashamed. No more.

The irony is, HRC was on the Watergate committee back in the seventies. You know, that evil Richard Nixon who sent guys off to break into the offices of the DNC. At least he didn't kill anyone. But as Republicans, we were ashamed; no matter that he was one of "our" guys. We didn't circle the wagons. We knew he was a bad actor and that it was time for him to go.

Now? Shoot, not only will we excuse her evil-doing, but we'll elect her!  And pundits wonder where "all the cynicism" is coming from.

It's all a game and people are tired of the game.

But it won't matter. Because people are pissed off; thus they've settled on a hideous jokester like Donald Trump, because he'll save us for sure. Or almost worse, an oily used car salesman named Cruz -- and we'll lose the election to HRC for sure.

And we'll be stuck -- again.

And I'll be done. 

I'm tired of thinking and talking about honor.

Nobody, it seems, is listening.

Who Would You Have a Beer With?

As I was endeavoring (fruitlessly) to fall asleep last night, telling myself I could have just as well stayed up and watched the damn debate since insomnia was torturing me anyway, I played little mind games in the hope of finally drifting off.

The game I played last night was, "Which candidate would you want to have a beer with?" Sorry, The Five, but I thought of it first. But thanks for boring into my brain and sucking out my woozy thoughts to use as a segment on today's show.

 You know, Ronald Reagan was the penultimate politico who everybody wanted to sit down with and toss back a couple. Unfortunately, it's too late for that now. My dad hated (hated!) Ronald Reagan (who hates Ronald Reagan?), but I bet the two of them have shared a few "up there", neither of them able to hear what the other is saying, but still having a great old time. It's not so much the words as the atmosphere, after all.

But, to be serious for a moment, it's very important to know which potential president fits with my lifestyle. Because, after all, it is all about me.

To wit, I have assembled the following chart:

Jeb Bush - prefers lemonade, but will, upon occasion, sip a beer - but only if mixed with tomato juice.

Ben Carson - enjoys a steaming mug of hot chocolate.

Chris Christie - will hoist a six-pack as long as the wife isn't watching.

Hillary Clinton - closet vodka guzzler.

Ted Cruz - needs to take a poll first to find out if he should or shouldn't crack one open. But if the people like that, and the numbers tell him drinking beer is the anti-establishment thing to do, then by God, drinking beer is good for America!

Carly Fiorina - white wine only, but doesn't begrudge anyone their beverage of choice.

Jim Gilmore - from what little I know of him, he does enjoy the occasional alcoholic beverage - on a hot day.

Mike Huckabee - if combined with a double cheeseburger, then sure!

John Kasich - his daughters frown on drinking, so he'll go with the root beer float.

Martin O'Malley - needs to drink more.

Rand Paul - oh yea, I mean, really.

Marco Rubio - knows his beer and also knows how to bounce quarters.

Bernie Sanders - if someone else if buying, then FINE.

Rick Santorum - c'mon.

Donald Trump - apparently only drinks vanilla milkshakes with Bill O'Reilly. Vanilla? Really, Donald? That sounds like a LOSER choice. At least go for the chocolate! Who orders a vanilla milkshake? I'm disappointed in you.

So, there you go. Based upon my survey, my candidates of choice would be Chris Christie, Rand Paul, and of course, Marco Rubio.

Because you gotta bond with "the people".

Tell Me Why You Like Ted Cruz

The majority of the GOP presidential candidates, I can take or leave. They don't annoy me, per se, but they're rather bland. There are a couple, only, who have any spark. The rest? Ehh. Their pronouncements make for good napping. Shoot, even Donald Trump at least has shiny orange hair!

There's one contender, though, who sets my nerve endings sparking. And that contender is Ted Cruz.

I listen to Bill Bennett on the radio, and his callers (all men) are enraptured by the guy; and I don't get it. He's such an obvious phony. And that lecturing! What the F? Leave me alone! If I want someone scolding me, well, shoot, I can get that at work every single day of the week!

Did I mention he's a phony? And an opportunist? Who believes this dude? Obviously somebody, but I guess if we close our eyes, we can all imagine pretty pictures.

To me, Ted Cruz is what the devil would look like in the flesh.

I think Trump's days are numbered, and I sorely hope that people finally catch on that Marco Rubio is our only hope to defeat the prison-striped harpy who is HRC. But even Trump would be better. Yes, even that guy. Better than Ted Cruz.

Close your eyes all you want, but trust me, if you nominate this guy, the devil will sear your veins...eventually.

Sometimes it just takes longer for everyone to catch on.

What's The Deal With Iowa?

As a Midwesterner, I don't suffer from Iowa derangement like the media does. I've traveled to Iowa.  It's essentially non-nondescript. It's flat -- I'll give it that. If that's something. Iowa is like its neighbor to the north, my state; Minnesota, without the rivers and bluffs and left-wing newspaper rags.

Who decided that Iowa would be the decider of things? Is that fair? I mean, you guys (you Iowans) are apparently easily swayed. You like Ted Cruz. I, as a fellow committed conservative, don't care for him. He's maybe smart (everybody tells me he is), but he's an ass. Anybody who thinks he can lecture me and waggle his finger at me isn't getting my vote. But that's how I roll. I'm subversive that way.

Maybe I should get some say.  As it is, I get to vote up or down on somebody that you and New Hampshire have decided is the guy. New Hampshire -- the state that, as far as anybody knows, is next door to where Bob Newhart had his inn. It's cold; it's snowy. Been there; living that. Cold and snowy doesn't give anyone the cache of being omniscient. You, New Hampshire and Iowa, are just flush with the fake importance of candidates showing up on your snow banks and talking to you like they give a good God damn.

Frankly, they pick you because your states are small and easily maneuverable.

Oh, I grant you, you can winnow the field. You can sort out the chafe. But again, just ask me! I could do that! There are three candidates who have anything going -- Trump, Cruz (thanks to you), and Rubio.

There. I've settled it for you.

And I didn't even have to "caucus".

I've been informed that sixty per cent of Iowa caucusers are Evangelicals. Well, what about those of us voters who aren't? I don't show up on your church's doorstep and demand that you consecrate the Body of Christ, do I? That seems kind of rude and presumptive.

I say let's have a national primary. I rather resent being a foregone conclusion. I'd like to have some say. As do the other forty-eight of your brethren.

Every four years, I'm stuck voting for the guy you've chosen. And where exactly has that gotten us? Good job, Hawkeyes and...New Hampshire Skinny Trembling Men (or whatever your stupid-ass team nickname is, if you even have one).

Chalk that up as one more Republican National Committee blunder. It's a wonder we ever elected a conservative president in my lifetime.

Don't blow it, Iowa. I'm not all that taken with you to begin with. If I had to choose a simpatico neighbor, I'd be going with the North/South Dakotans, just so you know.

Ooh, Someone's Been Reading My Blog!

"Thanks very much to everyone who’s asked to see more of me on the panel, by the way."

 

Source

You know and I know, it's me! I don't want to brag, but....

Thank you, Jonah, for acknowledging my plea for more Jonah Time. 

P.S. Anybody who loves dogs is tops in my book. Not only loves dogs, but "gets" them. I have one of those dog/humans. She and I have an understanding: I won't bitch at her if she has an accident on the rug. She will love me.

 

And now back to our regularly scheduled whining......

Mad

As much as my rant about Fox News was true, there are still commentators whom I admire. I like Charles Krauthammer, I like Steve Hayes, I'm a big fan of Jonah Goldberg (have him on more!). A few of the female panelists on Bret's show have something cogent to say. I'll probably think of their names later. I have a predilection for opinionists who have a touch of outrage in their voices: Jason Riley, Tucker Carlson.

The thing about these people, however, is that they live in a whole other world from mine. My husband likes to say they reside in gated communities and view social issues in the abstract, since they're not exactly experiencing them. I don't know if that's fair. I don't stalk these people - I don't know how they live, but I assume with money comes a nice living arrangement. If I had money, I wouldn't be living here! I do think "abstract" is a justifiable term, though. Nothing seems so bad when you're comfy.

Thus, I see many of them shake their heads, unable to grasp the unadulterated anger of the conservative masses and their kooky support for someone like Donald Trump.

These guys (and some gals) don't get that people are MAD, or maybe more precisely, sick of it. Sick of it all.

Here is a short list of subjects I am supposed to care about: Muslim feelings, thugs getting manhandled by the police, whiny women who possess everything they could ever hope for and still want to bitch, rich spoiled-baby college kids, the ozone layer, sorting and essentially gift-wrapping my trash for the garbage haulers to pick up (There's a reason it's called "trash"), transgender people's right to invade my bathroom, women's right to kill their babies and hold a giant rummage sale with the body parts, the fact that some people are poor and some people are rich (in other words, life),  imbeciles who can't vote (twice) because they forgot their ID's at home, teachers' God Goddess-given right to indoctrinate my kids and/or grandkids in their socialist manifesto, McDonalds hiking up the price of their limp cheeseburgers to ten bucks so surly drive-through attendants can make more money than I, a person who's been in the workforce for forty years, do. Confiscating citizens' guns (don't think we don't know what you're up to), wind-powered automobiles.

Whew. Okay, I know there are more. I just need to turn on my TV to reveal the left's latest outrage.

But let me tell you who else is outraged: conservatives. Because nobody, and I'm looking at you, elected officials with a D and an R behind your names, nobody cares about us. Oh sure, you care about getting re-elected in order to continue your cushy lifestyle of self-importance and microphones stuck in your face and chauffeur-driven rides to the Big Building in Washington, where you can clip across the gleaming Capitol floor in your shiny shoes. We get that. And we get that you "care" about us when voting time nears.

But you don't, really. Here's a thought: ask me what matters to me. Or read below.

• Security, monetary and physical
• To be left alone and not constantly hassled
• Opportunity to improve my family's life
• Values that matter to me and not those that aren't really values, but rather "fads"
• Honesty, not bullshit

See how short my list is?

It's not hard. I know you folks in Washington like big, thick binders; but shoot, you could jot my list on a post-it note.

I'm not a Trump fan. I think he shoots from the hip and not the brain. I am weary of his narcissism. I don't, in fact, trust what he's exactly up to.

However, I understand the fervor. He might not mean all the things he says, but at least he's saying them. He's savvy enough to know that we're sick of it.

Sick

Of

It.

We've had enough. Sure, if we end up with a bad candidate, possibly a Trump, we're going to lose, and life for us is going to be a continuation of the hell that's sizzled our skin since 2008.

But it still feels good that somebody is saying it.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
EDIT 01/05/16:


OMG, did you read that the new Star Wars Monopoly game doesn't include the female character Rey? Great, another thing I need to care about.

EDIT 01/31/16:

This is what I mean:

VIDEO

 

What's Up With Fox News?

It might just be me.

It could be me, but I don't actually think so. Has anyone else noticed how sucky Fox News has become?

Unlike liberals, who have options, people like me have to endure the only game in town; and the bastards at Fox know it. They're taking us for granted. They're bombarding us with craptastic news anchors whom they apparently scooped up off the street; because, you know, conservatives, well, they'll eat up anything that doesn't shill for The Clintons.

I've stomached the latest blonde blasts while pressing my finger on the "channel up" button and surfing over to -- gasp! -- CNN, simply to avoid the mosquito bite that is the vacuous bimbo newsreader.

Here's a tip, Fox. People like me want to watch someone authoritative. I'm not a feminism-denier. I just want to watch a person who's substantive.

The worst of the worst is Outnumbered, with the women with long legs protruding from their short skirts, trying to tell me what's what. I do like Melissa Frances, because she seems to possess some brain cells, but the rest of them? They're just squawkers.

I, unlike some of the more gentrified conservative overseers, actually work for a living. However, I do have the option of plugging in my earbuds at work and monitoring the Fox broadcast. Once John Scott and Jenna Lee have signed off, I'm encumbered with the ultimate lightweight, Gretchen Carlson, who I'm assuming, got hired because she once wore a beauty pageant crown. Poor Gretchen doesn't seem to know a lot of words. She cringingly mispronounces common terms with regularity. She has a segment where she gives "her word" or whatever it's called. Inane. An insult to Minnesotans' (her home state's and my) intelligence.

And don't even get me started on Shep Smith.

The primetime lineup is negligibly better. I like The Five - don't ask my why, but I do. The Five is probably my favorite show on Fox. Maybe I just like smart people. Kimberly Guilfoyle is a star. Greg Gutfeld is more serious than he wants us to think.  Sure, Eric Bolling is a dolt and Juan Williams is a hack. I miss Bob Beckel. I actually paid for Dana's book and that was money not well spent. I, not to brag, wrote a much better autobiography, except, unlike Dana's, nobody actually read it.

Bret Baier is solid. I don't give a damn what anyone else thinks. He does his job and he does it just right. Charles Krauthammer is a treasure. I wish, however, that Bret would expand his panel;  throw in a few new voices. And please, more Jonah Goldberg!

What can one say about Bill O'Reilly that he hasn't already said himself? I was always curious to read one of "his" books, and my husband bought me "Killing Reagan" for Christmas. The book was great. I was prepared to hate it. I'm no fool. I completely understand that Martin Dugard wrote the book. And I completely understand that it would have gone nowhere without O'Reilly's imprint on it.

O'Reilly's show is a schtick that's lost its luster over the hundred-odd years it's been on the air. Too much Dennis Miller (who's actually not funny); too much fake offense. It is what it is.

I would definitely watch Megyn Kelly's show if I didn't have to go to bed at eight o'clock. She's the future of Fox. Sharp, opinionated, passionate.

Hannity? Well, he's a low-hanging fruit. I hear him on the radio -- not one iota of deep thought or contemplation. But I suppose he serves his purpose. Just not mine.

But here's what bugs me the most: weekends. Okay, let's skim some hobo off the street and plop her in front of a microphone. Nobody cares! Nobody's watching. Well, I am -- for as long as I can stand it. And, for God's sake, give me more of that silver-maned property mogul who lulls me into my long weekend nap! He's negligibly worse than Carol Alt!

So, here's my tip: Wise Up, Fox! You are soooo lucky that nobody's crafted a new conservative network. You've got some stars, but you've got a ton of duds.

Do something about that.