THE REPUBLICAN MAGIC ACT CONTINUES

Everyone knows the key to a good trick is deflection.

If the magician can get the crowd to look to the left while he does something on the right he’s ahead of the game.

The republican party has become masters of the magical world of deflection in that they are constantly getting the public to blame the ‘left’ for things they have done and continue to do on the ‘right’!

Just like most magic tricks, once you know how it’s done the mystery is gone, along with the thrill.

A true magician must continually tweak his act in order to remain mysterious and popular.

Information overload is also a good method of deflecting awareness of what is really going on.

A perfect example is ‘The Three Ring Circus'.

You may or may not love the flying trapeze act in the center ring, but you will not be bored because the clowns in ring number one have the crowd rolling in the aisles.

And look to your left where the beautiful blonde lady is standing on her horse while it races around the third ring!

But sitting just behind the curtain on the right are the architects of the ‘entertainment’.

Armed with their algorithms and pollsters they gather information on what works and what needs more work to work. And they devise insidious questions aimed at getting what they want to work, to work.

Comedians know that a guy getting hit with a cream pie or walking into a pole might not draw a laugh.

BUT if there's another guy watching the pie fly or the nose meet the pole, it's the look on the second guy's face that gets you to laugh.

That’s why Fox’s Carlson has made a career on right wing television.

His absurdly fake dumbfounded ‘How can this be happening’ look works on his mesmerized viewers as they suspend all logic and react with whatever emotion he is trying to elicit.

And he tweaks his act by setting up the center ring of shame by asking absurd questions that imply the obvious guilt of the subject in today's crosshairs.

He will ask a guest, or planted clown, “How do you feel about crime being up under the Biden administration?”

Invariably the answer that was preplanned is accompanied by the now infamous Carlson ‘open-mouthed’ stare of disbelief.

And Tuck's ridiculous act has been so successful that those in Congress with nothing constructive of their own have adopted and adapted the tactic.

When Ted Cruz and the rest of the clowns on the right used Tucker’s fake dismay to falsely accuse and ‘diss’ Supreme Court justice nominee, Ketanji Brown Jackson, they were playing to their audience.

When they asked if she thought babies were racist, or ‘Can you define what a woman is’, they were hoping to taint her with the same undeserved guilt as one would paint a married man with by asking him, “When did you stop beating your wife?”

And naturally the answer does not matter since the question itself has already elicited the desired effect. 

And their 'base' loves it!

These tactics are not new.

They have been used by con-artists, grifters and flim-flam men for ages.

The latest and most obvious example was recently voted out of the White House after he lost the popular vote for the second time.

But because the tactics seem to work on enough voters, who have little or no desire to do their own research, the lack of veracity of the implications cause enough of a negative stain on the recipient to attain their desired end result.

And when the questioner uses a disgusted look, he seals the deal.

The ‘right’ stopped being right for most of America when they stopped caring about America and started realizing they could win by deflecting.

Gas prices are up?

Look who’s in power!

Milk costs more?

Blame Biden (Or Obama, or Clinton, random Democrat in your district.)

“We did not cause any of the inflation that’s hurting your bottom line because we are not in power.  But if you vote for us, we can clean up the mess”.

Does the above sound familiar?

It should.

It is the 'lather - rinse - repeat' tactic used by the GOP every time a Democrat is in power.

The republican party blocks everything the Democrats try to get done and when the pain of nothing getting done starts to hurt, lather up!

And all the while the 'right' will hide their ‘do nothing’ agenda and ‘no platform for America’ mentality by pointing to the left.

The sad part is that when a magician does it, we laugh, but when the Republican Party does it, Americans die!

WOMEN ARE BETTER THAN MEN

Naturally 50% of the World would agree with the title of this piece and many men too.

In fact, Joseph Conrad said, “Being a woman is a terribly difficult trade since it consists principally of dealings with men.”

So why are so many countries still ruled by men?

Surely there are lessons to be learned from the reigns of Indira Ghandi, Margaret Thatcher, Golda Meir, and most recently Angela Merkel.

Why are so many voters, women included, fooled by the false tropes of monthly troubles or pregnancy mood swings and emotional outbreaks?

In real life women are not only calmer than their male counterparts, scientific studies show men to be far more susceptible to stress and anger related early death.

And related to the above it is also a fact that, on average, women live longer than men.

An 82-year-old female President would have a better chance of living through her entire term than her male counterpart.

But when President Biden seeks another term at 82 you can count on the ‘right’ to bring out the ageism tweets.

Why is it when two World leaders appear on the stage together it is only the women who’s clothing and hair are critiqued?

This disparaging disparity not only demeans the entire female gender but holds the rest of us back in ways far more important than worrying about a pants suit or a perm.

For one this silly inane distraction gave us the Donald, a second-rate reality star and first-rate con man over a woman who already had a proven track record on the World stage as an intelligent capable leader.

We are well into our third century as a nation, and we are only now pointing with mocked amazement at our first female Vice President.

Earlier this year President Biden was incapacitated for a day while he underwent a routine colonoscopy. As expected, we were confronted with headlines touting Kamala Harris as our first female President!

It’s the end of the World, I tells ya!!!

So, why does our glass ceiling seem like concrete?

It started in pre-historic times.

Back then the physically strongest beings became the leaders.

The winner of any argument that arose was decided on that basis.

Women were generally weaker in that regard and therefore not capable of taking control of the pack.

Today’s animal kingdom still uses this criterion as we see with rams butting heads for the right to mate with the ewes of their choice.

Sadly, today that leads to butt heads being in charge.

But we lifted ourselves out of the jungle long ago and came to realize brains were as important as brawn, at least outwardly.

Too many still harbor the cave man mentality.

Many famous females of the past used their wits to entice men into doing their bidding. Cleopatra and Mata Hari come to mind in that respect.

Check out how GM, Pepsi, IBM, Lockheed Martin, Oracle & Kohl’s are doing.

Surely you can guess that every one of these companies are being run by very capable female CEOs.

Isn’t it time to start treating and respecting women as at least equal to, if not better than men?

And one last point, with the possible exception of a test tube or lab beaker every one of the over 7 billion humans walking around on Earth were born by women.

When men can boast that bit of biological magic perhaps the title of my next article will be MEN ARE THE EQUAL OF WOMEN!

My Poor Pluto

As a child I was one of the first in my class to be able to recite the names of the planets in their astronomical order. Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter and the rest were like friends to me. The textbooks I carried to and from school reinforced my knowledge and gave me comfort. I was at peace with the nine planets of our solar system.
I was whole.

But late last year the so-called wise men of the International Astronomical Society (IAU) ordained that Pluto, the distant dot, that orbiting orb that many still believe was named after a Disney character can no longer be considered a planet. ¹
They coined a new phrase for Pluto, Dwarf Planet! (Actually Pluto would much rather you say Little Planet!)
They justified their universal slight with an explanation that to a layman was as clear as the Crab Nebula on a cloudy night.

Who were these men to tell me that the ninth planet of our Solar System was to be Plutonized?

Think of the children who learned those mnemonics. (My Very Educated Mother Just…)²

And what of Jeane Dixon and her friends? Okay she probably predicted this, but what of the rest of us?

Oh the humanity!

Well those astronomers are not the only ones who can change the course of history. After all we are each and every one of us children of the universe. I for one will not sit idly by while they disrupt my life. I must get a chance to disrupt someone else’s life.

That’s the American way.

So with apologies to Joe Biden I hereby Plutonize Delaware. Your home state is way too small to be considered a state anymore. Oh sure you can boast clothing sales without tax but you more than make up for that by having tolls every fifty feet on your tiny stretch of I-95 that speeds through your state, uh I mean locality.

And don’t you start laughing Rhode Island. You could be next if anyone ever really cared to notice you on their way to Maine!

And what’s up with the penny? Does anyone really care about the one cent piece anymore?
Plutonize it!

And while we’re at it put the nickel on notice as well.

Let’s also Plutonize that ridiculous “point nine” that comes after the price for a gallon of gas at every service station in America. Everyone knows the price is not $3.199 but rather $3.20. What are they trying to hide?

We should have Plutonizing contests to come up with the next insignificant item to be wished away ala Billy Mumy in that classic Twilight Zone episode. ³

And let’s add referendums to the ballot in November so Americans can vote on the best, or worst item if you will to be Plutonized.

What I am trying to say is that I refuse to replace my reference books just because a few stodgy old men sitting in a smoke filled room decided to screw with reality.

I think we should plutonize the IAU.

Let’s hold those guys hostage until they give us back our Pluto.

Walt would have wanted it that way.

After all, if you don’t think Pluto should be a planet then you don’t know your Venus from Uranus.

FOOTNOTES & LINKS:

1 - Pluto is suddenly a dwarf planet

2 - My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, PLUTO)

3 - It's A Good Life