The Republican Party Should Be Reclassified As A Terrorist Organization

Screw the poor, screw minorities, screw students, screw women, screw old people--if ISIS was running rampant down Main Street USA, they couldn't possibly do more damage to America than the Republican Party.

Take away health care from those who need it most. Try to gin up a race war. Keep as many people from voting as possible. Play footsie with any and all dictators. Nudge nudge, wink wink.

Cheat. Lie. Steal. Repeat.

They cannot govern. In fact, they have no interest in governing. Governing effectively is complicated, and who has time for that? No, it's much easier to rig the system for their rich friends--even more than it already was.

They appeal to the worst instincts of our worst people. You know, neo-Nazis, white supremacists, Stephen Miller, Steve Bannon, and other scum.

I wonder what they will do if they succeed in destroying America?

"Stan And Ollie"

While you are all anxiously awaiting the next Marvel super hero epic, counting the seconds until the interminable fight scene that decides the planet's fate, might I suggest entertainment of a somewhat different sort?

"Stan and Ollie" are Laurel and Hardy, of course.

They were the premier comedy team of the 1920's and 1930's. And, like Chaplin, Keaton, and the Marx Brothers, they outlived their fame. Or, rather, they outlived their viability in Hollywood. They were still world famous...they just couldn't get a movie deal.

The picture finds them in England, on tour, running through their old sketches for live audiences, hoping to get financing for a Robin Hood picture.

Hardy is a Flastaffian character, with huge appetites for food, women and gambling. Laurel is more grounded, spending his time writing new material, for projects that will never materialize. (Indeed, in what passes for "real" life, even after Hardy's death, Laurel continued to write scenes for them.)

It is an extremely touching look at two old friends struggling to make it back to the pinnacle they once knew.

John C. Reilly is Hardy, "Babe" to his closest friends. Steve Coogan is Laurel down to every small facial tic. Shirley Henderson and Nina Arianda are perfect as their wives, and Rufus Jones steals most of the scenes he's in as their British promoter.

It really is a wonderful film. Naturally, it was overlooked by the Oscars.

As was "The Death of Stalin", which is simply the funniest movie I've seen in years.

Oh well...as always, there is no accounting for taste.

Let's blow something up, huh?

Random Thoughts For A Dreary Winter Day

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Where Are We Now, Where Are We Now?

As we wander, timidly I suppose, into a brand new, shiny year, we must pause, take a deep breath, and ask ourselves, "where are we now?"

Robert Mueller, who is so very much smarter than anyone attacking him, is apparently reaching the end of his investigations. Plural.

And the House, now controlled by the Democrats, is set to launch its own investigations. Plural.

So, what can we expect them to yield?

That the current resident of the White House is a traitor is obvious. That he is a willing puppet of Vladimir Putin (and the Saudis, too, for that matter), is a given. Why? $$$$$$. That he has surrounded himself with a collection of crooks, liars, racists, fools, and traitors is also obvious. This collection includes his three oldest children. But we knew that already.

What else might Mueller and the Democrats expose?

I suspect that there may not be much left of the Republican Party or the NRA when all is said and done.

And that's where it gets tricky.

We only have the two parties, really. The Libertarians are a clown car full of Ayn Rand worshiping punks. And the Greens are simply nothing. They contribute only background noise.

But now, one of our two major parties is on the verge of being revealed for all to see as so totally corrupted by money that they have openly betrayed our country--just to win an election.

This will not go over to well with the folks who call themselves conservatives. And not just the MAGAts. There are many millions of people who still identify as proud Republicans.

How will they react?

We know the MAGAts don't believe in facts, so they'll undoubtedly deny everything, scream "fake news" and rally around the Great Orange Pustule. However, they are just a loud, obnoxious, idiotic minority.

But what about the majority of the Republican Party?

That will be the central question of 2019.