tremonster

Lincoln Park Cleveland, O.

 

the Donald, and the Canadian

Larry Wilmore is on Comedy Central, and as a comedian he is wont to tell the truth humourously. Barack Obama is currently the twice legally elected President of the United States. So he is doubly hated (perhaps more). He is a Democrat, so because of Gingrich and Company he is hated ab ovo. The partisan animus has always existed, but beginning with the 'Contract on America', it is paramount. He is a black man, so with much overlap (and from some otherwise usually not interested), he is also hated ab initio. This re-inforced by the busheviks (who also overlap) who are keenly upset about legitimate winners. Well, 2016 will not see the election of a black man as president (Ben Carson has faded away).

So currently we are engaged on the odd battlefield of the Iowan caucuses. Of the dozen or so Repukes, it is now between the Donald, and the Canadian. The Donald speaking to George Stephanopoulos in an interview on “This Week” Sunday on January 17th, 2016:

“I don't think Ted Cruz has a great chance, to be honest with you. Look, the truth is, he's a nasty guy. He was so nice to me. I mean, I knew it. I was watching. I kept saying, 'Come on Ted. Let's go, okay.' But he's a nasty guy. Nobody likes him. Nobody in Congress likes him. Nobody likes him anywhere once they get to know him. He's a very – he's got an edge that's not good. You can't make deals with people like that and it's not a good thing. It's not a good thing for the country. Very nasty guy.”

 Ames, Iowa, Jan. 19, 2016. Photo by Mark Kauzlarich Reuters

Terry Branstad is the current governor of Iowa. No one has been governor of a state longer. He is in his 6th four year term (non-consecutive). It is not practice for the governor of Iowa to publicly side in the caucus contest. Branstad has called for the defeat of Cruz (on the grounds Cruz is the boy of big oil money). [click]

A leader of the crazy shithouse rat faction of the Republican Party, Sarah Palin, is campaigning for Trump (she had supported Cruz a few months ago for senator). She announced a few hours after her son was arrested for punching his girlfriend, while he was drunk, and holding a firearm. Of course, she blamed President Obama.

Unless things change, the top two contenders for the opposition party are Trump and Cruz, with many also rans that will soon disappear. A while back most politicos thought Trump was a joke, but it is sinking in that he is fully representing people who vote Republican. The same politicos hate Cruz, because he is repellent. Politicians lie, but Trump lies because he is a bullshitter, he is a businessman. Anything can be said, so as to get what you want. The meaning behind the words are nothing. Cruz is a liar because he is devious. He wants what he wants, but he won't tell you what that is, because you would not want it; well not enough of you to win, there is a sizable minority though that does. Part of that is a dominionist religious heresy.

Now, there are Republicans who see both as disasters to the party. Some prefer Trump for two unenthusiastic considerations:  he is a narcissistic windbag, but some nitty gritty political work and interests he is not interested in, and somethings can be worked out; Cruz is loathsome.

This is the first time there has been serious talk of a brokered convention, or wanting one; they have been engineered coronations for many years. That is something that only the oldest of us have in historical memory. Cleveland may become an interesting place, as Shakespeare wrote in The Tempest:

 “Hell is empty and all the devils are here.”

Republican Jeopardy contestant

 

“Now, my own personal theory is that Joseph built the pyramids to store grain.”

1998 commencement speech, Andrews University(Seventh-day Adventists).

wedding photographs

I go out to parks and a few times i encounter people taking staged shots, yesterday at Parma Metropark. 

I have surfed the interwebs for local fotos, and found Kim Yanoshik's Daily Snap for Lakewood (she has stopped it). Well anyway, she had plenty of good fotos. I met her by St. Vitus Cleveland one day, we both going about independently taking pictures of the Chinese zodiac animal art project. I have also went birding, and crossed the paths of Chuck Slusarczyk Jr., he also takes great pictures. And there are other people with cameras who come to photograph. Sometimes, i see the same people again, for we are have the same interest, and sometimes not.

brambling

The latest avian celebrity in Ohio is a brambling (an Eurasian finch) that has been a few weeks about a house near the entrance to a Medina County park. This is the second recorded in the state (the first was sighted nearby in 1987). He is the one with a white belly, and an orange chest. Other birds at this feeder station Thursday morning included a fox sparrow, rusty blackbirds, house finches, gold finches, tree sparrows, and others. Excellent variety of seed eating birds in a small place, even without the celebrity.

Iowa is coming

The establishment's prime candidate combines loyalty to the tribe with obliviousness, "But my brother—if you did the polling and actually looked at it, he’s probably the most popular president amongst Republicans in this country." This is emblematic of the party. 'Jeb!' looks as uncomfortable as a boring, non-descript, random guy who has been shoved on stage and told "you are running for president, now start campaigning."

Garry Trudeau. Doonesbury.

Also this 'brand loyalty' comes with delusions, often paranoiac. At this point, Donald Trump is the proverbial 800 lb. gorilla.  Many Republicans fear that he will bring down the party. Instead of admitting much of the Republican electorate is enthusiastic about Trump, and Trump reflects their beliefs and fears, they have concocted a conspiracy theory that he (as a crypto-Democrat) is in league with the Clintons. First of all—Trump is for Trump, completely. Also, using the 'smear' that he was a Democrat is grasping for invisible straws, Ronnie Reagan was a Democrat too.

Two Republicans (Graham, Pataki) have admitted to themselves that they are wasting their time, and have dropped out. The Iowa event should be the hook for more.

President Obama, yesterday, gave a poignant and modest exposition of his proposed executive order(s) in regards to guns. He made the obvious argument that people's right to live outweighs absolute rights to gun possession and use. Rubio reflexively cried out 'unconstitutional'. Republicans continually show their ignorance and hypocrisy on this, just as they do when confronted with listing the Ten Commandments. Out in Oregon, some out of state gun toting 'constitutionalists' have seized a federal bird sanctuary. The stupid burns.

☐ John (Jeb) Bush
☐ Ben Carson
☐ Chris Christie
☐ Rafael (Ted) Cruz
☐ Carly Fiorina (née Cara Carleton Sneed)

☐ Jim Gilmore
☒ Lindsey Graham December 21, 2015
☐ Mike Huckabee
☒ Piyush (Bobby) Jindal November 17, 2015
☐ John Kasich

☒ George Pataki December 29, 2015
☐ Rand(al) Paul
☒Rick Perry  September 11, 2015 oops
☐ Marco Rubio
☐ Rick Santorum

☐ Donald Trump
☒Scott Walker  September 21, 2015
========================

☒ Lincoln Chafee  October 23, 2015
☐ Hillary Clinton
☒ Lawrence Lessig  November 2, 2015
☐ Martin O'Malley
☐ Bernie Sanders
☒ Jim Webb  October 20, 2015

La Befana

La Befana arrives on Epifania, and at the end of Mass in Cleveland's Pico Italia's Holy Rosary she was there.  First she needs to do a little sweeping in church. Then she speaks to the children. Then she has gifts to give. Different cultures use different characters to be the gift giver to children. The Italians have la Befana, other people have St. Nicholas, the Three Kings, the Christ Child...

Nel vecchio paese, l'Italia, lei spazza...In the old country, Italy, she sweeps the house after she comes down the chimney to leave gifts. She was sweeping her house as the Three Kings went by to Bethlehem, and she missed going to see the Infant Jesus.

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postscriptum 9 January: Yea, a few friends saw these pictures and asked, "What's with the lady with the broom?". No one remarked "witch", nor asked about obsessive compulsion. So much of cultural folklore is unknown to people.