I'm told that she really did say those words in a YouTube video: "I am a huge Donald Trump supporter and so should you." Naturally, my thoughts turned to this book title:
Sarah Palin will work to defeat House Speaker Paul Ryan by backing his primary opponent in Wisconsin, the former Alaska governor told CNN's Jake Tapper.What a sentence! It deserves a minute or two of study. Yes, it is grammatically correct, if you don't mind the split infinitive (which I've learned to accept) -- but its inelegance is wondrous.
Palin said in an interview that airs Sunday on "State of the Union" that her decision was sparked by Ryan's bombshell announcement to Tapper last week that he wasn't yet ready to support Donald Trump, the Republican presumptive nominee. Palin endorsed Trump back in January.
"I think Paul Ryan is soon to be 'Cantored,' as in Eric Cantor," Palin said, referring to the former Republican House majority leader who was ousted in a shocking upset in 2014 when challenger Dave Brat ran to his right in a Virginia primary.
"His political career is over but for a miracle because he has so disrespected the will of the people, and as the leader of the GOP, the convention, certainly he is to remain neutral, and for him to already come out and say who he will not support is not a wise decision of his," Palin continued.
What tickles me most is the idea of Sarah Palin uttering the phrase "His political career is over," as if she herself were poised before a dazzling future. On the other hand, she did help a Democrat become governor of Alaska, so perhaps we ought not underestimate her.
The GOP reminds me of Forbidden Planet: The party, having attained almost limitless power, has fallen prey to the Monster of the Id.
Added note: I wasn't kidding when I said that I was unfamiliar with Ms. Tequila's life and work. Just now, I glanced at her Wikipedia page.
Holy shit.
Her political career may be over, but her grifting career has only begun. As we all know, there's no difference in the GOP between grifting, wingnut welfare, guest punditing (hello, Morning Joe on MSNBC!), and actual political office. It's all one big machine, structurally modeled after the Soviet-era Communist Party. Once you get in and faithfully follow the zig-zagging Party line, you can have a good income as long as you want.
ReplyDeleteHow true, CG. But what I want to know is: How is the party line transmitted?
ReplyDeleteWe've all had the experience: You wake up in the morning, fire up the internet -- and suddenly you discover that two dozen right-wingers are making the exact same point in almost exactly the same words. Obviously, a memo has been distributed behind the scenes. That memo is like the Q document one hears about from New Testament scholars: Even though you may not have access to the actual text, you can sense the existence of that text.
Who writes the memo? Is it Priebus or someone else? And how is that memo distributed?
And the only way to kill the Monster from the Id was to blow all the reactors down to Altair IV's core. Let's hope it doesn't take burning the country to the ground to kill the GOP.
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ReplyDeleteBob, you know what always bugged me about the end of that movie? Walter Pidgeon basically says "Pull that lever over there and you'll blow up all the reactors and destroy the whole planet."
ReplyDeleteThe lever is, like, right THERE. Out in the open.
One visit from Dick Van Dyke, and it's Apocalypse Now.
Irving Block, who wrote the original story, was one of my old art teachers. Great guy; he looked like Einstein. He told me about a frantic phone call he received after production wrapped on "Forbidden Planet" (but before the film opened). One of the producers called him and screamed: "We got trouble, Irving. I'm watching my kid in this play. Guess what? They stole our idea!"
The play, of course, was "The Tempest."
I've been baffled by the day-to-day GOP Party Line command structure since the early Nineties. How is it transmitted? Who decides? Is it a committee? What feedback system is used to launch a new campaign?
ReplyDeleteI'm not imagining it. The phrases used by the pundits, hate radio, and Fox News are word-for-word identical. The words and concepts are obviously market-tested with focus groups: Weapons of Mass Destruction, Welfare Moms, the decades-long demonization of the word "liberal".
But who exactly is doing this? The GOP is an authoritarian, top-down structure that has access to the best available marketing and intel-community persuasion systems. The oldest, and most reliable, trick in their book is accusing the Democrats of what they've been doing for decades. It's a clever pre-emptive tactic; if your criminal dirty tricks are ever discovered, you can then shout "Both Sides Do It!" as a defense. That goes back to Nixon, and before that, to HUAC and Joe McCarthy.
My best guess is there is a revolving door between Ericksonian or NLP mass-hypnosis practitioners (and Trump is certainly using these techniques on the crowds and the media), Madison Avenue, and the intel community. The techniques used to overthrow Mossadegh in Iran (rent-a-crowds, media buyoffs, targeted violence) are being used in the USA, so there's clear intel community involvement.
But who's in charge? It doesn't seem likely all of this originates with the modern-day version of James Jesus Angleton, or Allen Dulles.
Why this even news?
ReplyDeleteI had never heard of Ms. Tequila until I read your blog today. After reading her entry in Wikipedia, I think you owe me for several gallons of brain bleach.
ReplyDeleteNot only is Ms. T. a fan of Donald Trump, she's also apparently quite enamored of some fellow named Hitler, doesn't like Jews much (actual quote: "There are only two things in this world, for which I would gladly sacrifice my own life; the destruction of all Jews and preservation of the white race"), and has stated that she believes the Earth is flat. Her main contribution to Western culture appears to be a "song" entitled "I f*ked the DJ".
Lovely person.
And that, Prop, is why I stick to classical music.
ReplyDeleteI've never heard of her before either Joseph, and I listen to a lot of modern music. Of course, you have to keep in mind that what passes for "popular" music nowadays is mostly manufactured image and computer generated beats. I don't pay any attention to that stuff, it's really just the last dying gasps of the quickly disappearing major record labels. The days of popular music being something that could make a band or single artist wealthy are long gone (now you need to come from a very wealthy Hollywood family and just get your name out there by doing outlandish things.....no talent or skills of any kind required, besides maybe a knack for media manipulation or just some public exhibitionism.....sex tapes are SO 1990's). Most of what I listen to is by musicians who do music in their spare time and have day jobs, or who are part of multiple musical projects and/or other aspects of the industry like running a studio or doing session work (or music for ads or movies or some such).
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I'm not bothering to look her up, as it sounds like I was better off having never heard of her.
Joseph, FORBIDDEN PLANET is one of my favorite films (even if I was born waayy after it was first released), and it is good to see that it's celebrating 60 years this year. Interesting to find out that Block was an art teacher of yours!
ReplyDeleteAnd Bob, I also hope that it does not take wiping out the country to take out the GOP. Of course, there are some who feel that we should let the GOP take over and burn it all down because, you know, "Revolution, man", but they also do not care for those innocents that would suffer when that happens (I'm looking at both of you, Walker Bragman and Susan Sarandon).
I guess she's an honest-to-God sTrumpet.
ReplyDeletehttp://coverthistory.blogspot.com/search?q=tila
ReplyDeleteand yes there is a sex tape.
In case you missed the part where Tila Tequila became an alien race advocate...
ReplyDeletehttp://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2016/01/tila-tequila-claims-shes-an-alien-the-messiah-and-human-crack-co/