The Stranger In The Room: The Zelenskyy Ambush

Don’t we at least deserve competent evil doers?

In most meetings when big decisions are going to be made or deals are poised for closing all of the hashing out of details is done ahead of time, before the principals show up to make a show of it. But when one side doesn’t want the deal to close or has nefarious designs on tricking the other there’s an age old tactic used to help derail things. It’s called “The Stranger in the Room.”

The “Stranger in Room” during the Zelenskyy visit to the White House was J.D. Vance. 

Here’s how the game is played. 

“The Stranger” is present in the meeting, often as a second, third, or even lower functionary. Often as innocuous decoration. But “The Stranger” is brought in with the purpose of blowing things up, so that the principal doesn’t have to get his/her hands dirty.

Often it’s with an innocuous comment. Sometimes it’s with a serious question. Occasionally, though rarely, it’s with a completely defiant statement. I’m sure you’re familiar with the variant of having an assistant call someone out of a meeting for an important call at just the right time. 

Vance’s role was to derail the meeting once things looked like they weren’t going The White House’s way, perhaps even scotch things from the beginning. He succeeded, but the masquerade was shorn of its cover when his principal, Trump, decided to open his mouth, and escalate things further, letting his ego take over revealing not only the game, but how ineffectual Vance was at playing his role.

It’s now quite obvious that Trump and his cadre of criminals thought they could snooker Zelenskyy. But they snookered themselves, endangering the future of Ukraine, Europe, and the world order in the process. Zelenskyy was right that they aren’t playing cards. Which is a good things, because the idiots he’s dealing with can’t even cut a deck, much less deal it. 

Look, I know these are evil assholes intent on horrible things. It’s just a damn shame we don’t even have competent evil assholes.  But then again, when damage is done it doesn’t matter if it was brought about by ignorance or malice.

(apologies for the weird formatting. WordPress is doing odd things today.)

 You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. I can also be found on social media under my name as above. 

Fact of Life

The shooter will always win even if he misses his mark.

J.D. Vance, the moronic MAGAt candidate for Vice President of the United States, in the wake of another school house slaughter says that school shootings are a “fact of life.” Slightly different and thoroughly indifferent to the issue, his comments are in the same vein as previous ones from the decaying convicted felon/child rapist Donald Trump, when he says that we just have to “get over it” when it comes to gun violence.

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Here’s a fact. We’ve allowed this to become a fact of life. We’ve put targets on the backs of our kids each time we let the politicians cave to the gun lobby in the supposed service of the second amendment to the constitution. Vance, in his weird way of pretending to appear honest, can’t say the words that your kid’s life is worthless and worth less when it compares to the rights of gun owners, but that’s what he’s saying.

I’ve discussed this in a thousand ways in thousands of words. Others have too. But talk is cheap when compared to money. And there is always too much talk and always more money. The talk of hardening schools and giving teachers guns, etc… is not only a mythical excuse borne out of stupidity, but it is bullshit blanket meant to hide your head under when you don’t want to solve an obvious problem. If you ignore the leak in your roof long enough, you’ll pay for it down the road.

Here’s a fact. The shooter always wins. Even if the shot doesn’t hit home. Even if the shooter is taken down. The shooter always wins. That’s a fact. Of life and death. I’m surprised we haven’t seen a rise of businesses offering suits of armor for school children. It’s probably the next step. That would be as foolish as the bullet proof backpacks some parents have protected the books their kids can no longer read.

A shot may not kill, but it will scar in ways you can’t imagine if you haven’t been shot at.

Fact: unless you have a gun trained on a potential shooter and are faster to the trigger, any method of stopping a shot is going to fail. You could be packing. You could have an arsenal in your house. You could surround a former president with secret service and other law enforcement protection, competent or incompetent as they may be. A determined shooter will always get off the shot. Unless you don’t allow any guns anywhere close to the event.

In the space between this word and the next, a shooter will win even if he/she doesn’t kill.

The myths have been thoroughly shot through but they won’t die. They linger like old wounds because of a fear greater than that of a parent sending their child to school. The fear that we’ve brought this curse on our children ourselves and we can see no way to solve the problem beyond taking away the guns.

That’s a fact of life.

You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. I can also be found on social media under my name as above. 

Weird?

Is it weird or is it just me?

Weird. Maybe it’s the word. Maybe it’s the truth. Maybe it’s just “weird.” 

The political world in its ever unquenchable thirst for a meme, a talking point, a gaffe, or just a good time, has latched on to Minnesota Governor Tim Walz’s description of the Trump/Vance ticket as “weird.” Of course the implication means those who worship them are weird as well. For the most part, I can’t disagree with that. 

I guess that means that we’ve moved past “deplorable.” Because, you know, “weird” can be lovable and it’s hard to deplore something that’s lovable. But hey, weird can also be bad. But we’ve long since moved beyond the bounds of being “bad” as a disqualifier in the world of politics. “Bad” seems to be what far too many want as long as they can use their version of “bad” to punish what they think is “bad.” 

Labels cut both ways, depending on who’s wielding the label maker. 

I’m not suggesting that we stop calling the MAGAts “weird.” It is indeed a fun attack that more than seems to fit and goodness knows if it works then keep using it.

If for some reason you’re weird enough to have avoided all of this and you’re looking for a laundry list of the MAGAt ticket’s  “weirdness” check out David Todd McCarty’s article The Maga Movement Has a Weirdness Problem. Fun article. Not weird at all. Also check out Anna O’Malley’s article from 2012 on The True Meaning of Weird

As glad that as I am that label seems to be sticking I am also just a bit sad that it has. I’m just “weird” in the way i see both sides of a coin and also its edge. I used to pride myself on being a bit “weird.” After all, I’m a theatre geek so I’ve always been looked at as weird by most of my non-theatre friends and my family (we can’t blame the mailman because my dad was the postmaster.). In fact, I’ve spent a good deal of my life celebrating weirdness. So, it’s weird that I see this label sticking in what passes as political discourse. But then that entire game has always been weird. 

That said and worth repeating, if it keeps the MAGAt ticket from winning the election I’m all for it. Just keep in mind that the election will just be another battle in this weird war that won’t end with on election night. These folks might be “weird” but they are also pure evil. 

I’d rather tattoo that on their foreheads. 

You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. I can also be found on social media under my name as above. 

The Marsh Family takes on J.D. Vance in Parody Song

This is just too good not to share. Using Abba’s Dancing Queen as the tune, The Marsh Family does a terrific parody song that hits all the notes we know so far about the MAGAt candidate for Vice President J.D. Vance. 

The lyrics are just too damn clever. Bravo! Well done. Share this around, watch from your couch and enjoy the laughs. 

You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. I can also be found on social media under my name as above. 

Things We Know

Some things we know, yet somehow pretend we discover anew now and then. It’s not rocket science.

Rocket science.

Donald Trump is a convicted felon.

Donald Trump is a racist.

Donald Trump is a child rapist.

Donald Trump is a dangerous psychopathic narcissist.

Donald Trump’s agenda is in writing. It’s called Project 2025 sometimes masked as Agenda 47. It’s evil.

J.D. Vance is a self-serving opportunist and a useful idiot.

Both Donald Trump and J.D. Vance are bought and paid for looking to cash in further on you.

The party that used to be the GOP embraces and coddles criminals of all stripes instead of wanting to see them in stripes.

Those that support Trump/Vance/GOP will not be content until they can turn back the clock on the things that they irrationally fear.

If you think there’s a choice in this November’s election, or if you feel like debating what the choices are, you support all of the above. If you wonder why someone may vote for Trump, stop wondering. They support all of the above and either don’t care or think this is who we are or should be.

It’s that simple.

You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. I can also be found on social media under my name as above. 

Tech Bros Gamble on Trump Hoping for Vance

High stakes gambling going on. But there’s a hedge.

The tech bros are going all in, pushing all of their chips onto the table in favor of convicted felon, child rapist, and national security threat, Donald Trump. Well, not really. They’ve got a hedge.

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The cynic in me (it’s a very large cynic that overwhelms sometimes) thinks that the big tech bros donating to Trump are gambling that he gets elected, expires or is removed from office somehow, making Trump’s new VP pick, J.D. Vance, their penny ante puppet. They’ve already paid plenty of pretty pennies to pull Vance’s strings.

Elon Musk gets most of the attention because he begs for it, but he’s not alone. 

The hedge is that even if Trump continues to hang in there he’ll create enough chaos to let them run rampant without any real adult (read government) supervision. It’s the same gamble Putin, Xi,  other world leaders and CEOs are making.

Either way, they’re priming the pump gambling they won’t have to dump it.

Image from Dugger94621

You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. I can also be found on social media under my name as above.