Random sighting of liberal bloggings… the governor of Missouri… out of the running for vice presidency due to recent ugliness and etc.

I think the Republicans, due to Hillary Clinton’s inevitability on the Democratic side — which I note is not any thought I had back when she was deemed so in 2008

, and the likeliness that their nominee will be a dude,

will be obliged to select a woman.  So… you know… he was out of the running already anyway, so I guess he can do what he want say what he must without the great prize of Vice President lying about.

“What is this — Russia?”
It occurred to me that I needed to ask as follow up… “Czarist Russia, Communist Russia, or Putin’s Russia?  And is there any difference between the three?”
“Putin’s… and probably not.”

From there, I spot this quote in from New Republic:

Last December, I met up with Gleb Pavlovsky, the man who helped Putin cruise to victory in 2000. “It’s impossible to say when this system will fall, but when it falls, it will fall in one day,” he told me. “And the one to replace it will be a copy of this one.”

I overhear someone- in poor taste in my humble opinion — some mocking quotations of one celebrity on the impact of Robin Williams.  The undertone here is that the celebrity is insincere in his praise of personal relationships of Robin Williams… and it is worth noting, the celebrity being quoted in question is someone who was “big once” but has faded out of view.  The subtext is thus that he’s trying to get a quote into the news just a bit.

I overhear someone give a blithe statement of “who cares” about Robert Williams.  “Takes Iraq off the news”.

Someone else expresses that she’s going to go watch Mrs Doubtfire again.  Which is good for her, I guess… the impact of his life’s work mattering to her.   I remain cynical, but more cynical about the cynics.

Another death, harkening back to a different era… Lauran Bacall… who, all I can think about there is… Truman… slightly out of character for Truman, who got quite a hearing from his wife.

So, what’s going on in this Senate race in Mississippi?

The endlessly complicated aftermath of Mississippi’s Republican Senate primary added a new layer of complexity late Tuesday, with reports that the man who had accused the campaign of Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) of buying votes is now accusing a spokesman for Chris McDaniel, Cochran’s opponent, of paying him to lie about the whole thing.

That’s Integrity for you.

And the Senate race in Montana… John Walsh withdraws, we go to… who the hell knows?

And in Tennessee?

But even though the Tennessee Democratic Party remains undermanned compared with the state’s dominant Republicans, it at least will have a candidate this fall who’s not a national joke — something the party couldn’t say two years ago.

Still waiting for Oklahoma, even though… apparently no one cares enough to make a joke of the would be “joke” candidate.

  According to this cover of the National Review, Abraham Lincoln is crying because of the poor performance of Illinois’s current governor.

This might be an interesting way to proceed for covers of political journals when they publish critical pieces admonishing current state governors.  For instance… the next time a publication has reason to go on the attack against Indiana’s governor … Benjamin Harrison is Crying right now!

But shouldn’t the National Review feature both Lincoln and Obama crying?

Though its vocabulary was not altogether intelligible, it talked in terms of power energies, mechanics, efficiency, elimination of waste, and these, even more than its utopian promise of $20,000 a year incomes, were calculated to capture the American imagination.  Howard Scott, its progenitor, had been a familiar face in radical bohemian circles for many years, during which time had been pouring forth his scorn on the radicals’ schemes of mass revolution and demonstrating that twelve revolutionary engineers in strategic places could bring capitalism to knees in three days.  Coming now from the hollowed precints of Columbia University, backed by an imposing array of academic sponsors and assistants, his theories took on an authority and dignity that made Scott the Man of the Hour.  A Technocracy Craze swept the country.  The newspapers were full of it; whole magazines were devoted to it; fierce controversies raged around it.  Verblins’ The Engineers and the Price System, which contained the essence of technocratic theory, was republished and became a best seller.

Scott himself helped to kill the movement several months later in a rambling, incoherent and confused speech that was broadcast throughout the country.  A few stubborn admirers hoped, and claimed, that their idol was somewhat “tight” when he made it.  But a new prophet had toppled from his pedestal.  The new panacea died a rapid death.

——      Rebel America, Lilliam Symes and Travers Clement, page 369, 1934

Okay, this National Review article is insane.  Yes, it is.

Which is to say that the nerds of MSNBC and beyond are not actually nerds — with scientific training and all that it entails — but the popular kids indulging in a fad.

Hit a Nerd where it hurts, why don’t you?  Why, I bet they were all secretly hanging out with the star quarterback in high school while nobody was looking… and then brushing them off and ignoring them in haste whenever anyone might see them together.

[…] stereotypical facsimiles of the real thing. They have the patois but not the passion; the clothes but not the style; the posture but not the imprimatur. Theirs is the nerd-dom of Star Wars, not Star Trek; of Mario Kart and not World of Warcraft; of the latest X-Men movie rather than the comics themselves.

Someone out there needs to throw Rachel Maddow a Pop Quiz on The Dark Phoenix Saga.

Look at me and let me tell you who I am not, which is southern, politically conservative, culturally traditional, religious in some sense, patriotic, driven by principle rather than the pivot tables of Microsoft Excel, and in any way attached to the past.

Wait.  I thought these were Star Wars nerds and not Star Trek fans… or, you know “A Long Long Time Ago” (in a Galaxy far far away…)

The movement’s king, Neil deGrasse Tyson […]
Bill Nye wants to usurp the crown so badly…
is useful because he can be deployed as a cudgel and an emblem in political argument — pointed to as the sort of person who wouldn’t vote for Ted Cruz.

Someone needs to vinn diagram people who quoteth  Neil deGrasse Tyson on their social media accounts with those who go for that whole “Chuck Norris” meme.

Marie Antoinette is no more welcome in America if she dresses up in a Battlestar Galactica uniform and self-deprecatingly joins Tumblr.

I Haz Ur Cake!

Sorry, America. Science is important. But these are not the nerds you’re looking for.

Sure beat the nerds voting for Ted Cruz and Sarah Palin.

Scattered about in a neighborhood in Portland:

We’re Going to Throw Apples onto the Rooftops of Jeff Merkley Supporters
No Paychecks…. No Future

It’s a real puzzle.

This would send a message, I suppose.  Message:  Monica Wehby supporters are real jerks.  And… incomprehensible jerks at that.  What is the apple?  Is that symbolizing the teachers’ union?

I half suspect a dirty trick on the part of the Jeff Merkley campaign to make Monica Wehby look bad.  Then again, maybe it’s a dirty trick from the Monica Wehby campaign to make it look like a dirty trick coming from the Jeff Merkley campaign.

“I’m President Chester Arthur.  And you’re not going to mess with President Chester Arthur.”

  “Smarter Than Thou”…

“America’s Nerd Problem”?

Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson has been the recipient of a seemingly bizarre political backlash — after the conservative magazine National Review penned a takedown cover story on the “Cosmos” host last week depicting him as a smug, intellectual bully.

The story struck many as odd given Tyson’s gentle, geeky presentation style. Comedian Bill Maher had Tyson on his HBO show over the weekend, trying to make sense of the backlash.
“You’re a scientist, and a black one, who’s smarter than [conservatives] are,” Maher quipped.
The line got laughs, but it’s worth remembering that Tyson served the George W. Bush administration as a member of the Commission on Moon, Mars and Beyond in 2004. Conservatives have no problem harnessing Tyson’s intellect.

The “Adlai Egghead” problem rears its ugly head in America, I suppose.

NERD!!!