Day: August 25, 2018

Stupid Is As Stupid Does

Fandango16 Comments

60CE4100-365A-4A3D-9724-0FD8AAFC0EE5You’ve probably seen this photo of these two buttholes at a recent Trump rally wearing t-shirts that read, “I’d rather be a Russian than Democrat.”

Is this really what Republicans believe? Does their hatred toward Democrats actually translate to their taking sides with the country, a declared adversary of American — and global — democracy, that meddled in the 2016 election to help Trump get elected and is likely continuing to meddle as we move toward the critical midterm elections in November?

What has happened to the Republican Party that once claimed to be the party that was tough on Russia and stood for family values? Has negative partisanship become so intense that they are willing to believe the worst about Democrats and to rationalize away the sins and crimes committed by Donald Trump and his cronies?

As Bill Maher said on his HBO show last night, the new Republican mantra seems to be “Better red than well read.”

And as Forrest Gump said, “Stupid is as stupid does.”

The Performance Evaluation

Fandango6 Comments

Negative Performance ReviewGeorge slammed the door behind him and threw his briefcase on the credenza. He stomped his way into the kitchen, where his wife was fixing dinner. He literally growled like a dog.

“I take it your annual performance evaluation didn’t go as you expected,” Donna said.

“No, it did not,” George said.

“So you didn’t get the raise you thought you’d get?” Donna asked.

“No.”

“What about the annual bonus?”

“No.”

“What did he say?”

“Oh, he told me I am doing a great job, that I’m a rising star, and that I have a bright future with the firm,” George explained. “And then he patted me on the back and actually said, ‘Attaboy, George.”

“And that was it? Just an attaboy? No raise, no bonus, no promotion?”

“Nope,” George said. “So I quit.”

Donna got a shocked look on her face. “George, wasn’t that a rash thing to do?”

“Yeah, it probably was,” George said. “But the last straw was when he scratched my head behind my ear and offered me a biscuit.”

Written for today’s Fandango’s One-Word Challenge, “attaboy.”

The Way My Day Started

Fandango16 Comments

senior bald man shows middle fingerThe back of the guy’s car was sticking out a few inches into the intersection.

I was at the stop sign getting ready to make a right turn.

He was standing outside of the rear door on the driver’s side of his car, helping an elderly woman, his mother, maybe, into the car.

After looking to the left, I got ready to right turn, giving plenty of clearance to the parked car.

Just as I started my turn, the guy closed his car’s back door and stepped backwards right into the path of my turning car.

I slammed on my brakes to avoid hitting him.

He stood there, directly in front of my car.

He angrily said, “Hey, watch where I’m going!”

Then he flipped me the bird.

That’s the way my day started.

Tale Weaver — There Will Be Blood

Fandango8 Comments

69FCAF31-8A9B-4B87-8454-DF4F14A6100B“I’m really worried,” Sam said. “I think he feels cornered and I don’t think he’s going to go quietly into the night.”

“Oh come on,” Richard said. “I agree that his ego won’t permit him to resign, like Nixon did when it was obvious that he’d been caught. But if he gets indicted or impeached, I’m sure he’ll step away peacefully.”

“You’re being naive, my friend,” Sam said. “His rabid, almost fanatical supporters, I call them “MAGAmaniacs,” will not take his departure lightly. Trump will beat the ‘witch hunt’ drum and will claim it’s all rigged against him. He’ll rile up his base and, I hate to say this, but they’re going to take to the streets, armed to the teeth, and there’s going to be an insurrection.”

“Aren’t you being a bit dramatic?” Richard said. “Do you really believe there will be an armed uprising of Trump supporters?”

“I honestly do,” Sam admitted. “I think if anything happens to Trump, it’s going to precipitate a new American Revolution. I believe that our country is on the precipice of another major civil war. There will be blood.”

“I think — I hope, anyway — that you are wrong.” Richard said. “This is America. We’re not some third world banana republic. If Trump is indicted or impeached, there will be a period of transition, but I’m sure our democracy will survive.”

“I wish I could be as confident as you are, Richard,” Sam said. “But the truth is, I have a serious case of MAGAphobia and I’m not sure there is a cure for it.”

Written for this week’s Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie Tale Weaver prompt, where the theme is “phobias.” I certainly hope this is a tale of fiction and is not a foreshadowing of America’s future.

SoCS — Did You Notice?

Fandango21 Comments

Did you notice that I didn’t win Linda’s annual Stream of Consciousness Saturday badge contest? I know. Hard to believe, right. It turns out that my design came in fourth (out of ten).

But that’s okay because the winning badge, designed by Pamela, at A Chronicle of Hope, won. And her design was built around an actual water-based stream, whereas mine was based upon a stream of wispy clouds. So Pamela’s badge design was much more apropos for the prompt. Here it is. It’s really well done.8D53F4D3-B456-461F-BFAD-41536450817BSo congratulations, Pamela, on your big win.

On an entirely different topic, did you notice that ever since WordPress dropped its daily one-word prompt at the end of May, a bunch of bloggers, me included, started posting daily, one-word prompts? So now, instead of writing one post in response to each day’s WordPress one-word prompt, there are six or more one-word prompts to respond to.

But I just don’t have the bandwidth to compose and publish a separate post for each such one-word prompt. So I’ve taken to combining a bunch of them into a single post each day. I’ve been trying to weave somewhere between four and six daily word prompts into relatively short posts over the past couple of weeks.

I was even able to squeeze six prompts into a one-sentence post this past Wednesday. And just yesterday I fit eight prompts into a single post, although only six were one-word prompts and two were writing prompts.

I’m not sure how sustainable this multi-prompt approach is. So far I think my multi-prompt posts have hung together fairly well, but I’m concerned that they may start sounding forced or contrived and I sometimes wonder if the quality of my posts, by trying to cram multiple one-word prompts into single posts, will start to suffer.

Oh well, I’m just sort of thinking out loud, which means that you may notice that I have done my job in responding to Linda’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt, where we are asked to use the word “notice.”