Hatred More Than Money

If the air outside the Fortress of Ineptitude seemed rancid with the stench of flop sweat, failure and bovine manure, it was because that primo bullshit purveyor himself, Donald Trump, was in Greensboro for the North Carolina  Republican Party convention.

Mostly Donald Trump never says anything interesting. The man has the most limited verbal repertoire and can only say the same thing over and over.

• All investigations are "witch hunts".
• All investigators are "thugs".
• All perceived enemies are "deranged". 
• All anticipated outcomes will "be worst than anyone has ever seen before".  

Blah blah blah. 

I hope for his birthday (Li'l Donnie turned 77), maybe someone would get him a thesaurus?  

But while in Greensboro, Donald Trump made an observation that I have to admit was interesting. 

It all started with this piece of hate mongering fuckery.  

Trump declared that if re-elected as President, "I will 

immediately sign a new executive order to take federal funding away from schools that bring critical race theory and transgender insanity to children."

Trump paused for applause and even he seemed to be taken aback by what happened next.  

The applause began to grow and swell in intensity as those gathered there rose to their feet for an enthusiastic standing ovation. 

Then Trump made this observation which I found interesting. 

“It’s amazing how strongly people feel about that. You see I’m talking about cutting taxes, people go like that,” Trump said while mimicking a golf clap. “I talk about transgender, everyone goes crazy. Who would have thought? Five years ago, you didn’t know what the hell it was.”

I said it was interesting but not necessarily surprising. But Trump seemed genuinely bemused that his political movement is driven more by hatred than money.  

Of course, hatred has been at heart of Trump's political movement since before he came down that escalator in 2015 to announce he was running for President.  

Li'l Donnie is myopic and assumes everyone sees everything the same way he does. All the hate is just a path to all the money that can be made.  

Does Trump underestimate  this movement that hangs on his every word as to how much the hate drives them?  A chance to fuck over a transgender person is a stronger motivator than a tax cut. 

Hatred holds a power greater than money.

Cracker Barrel Has Fallen!

This past Friday, Andrea and I had dinner at Cracker Barrel.

As there are approximately 52 Fridays in a given year, it is a good bet Andrea and I are having dinner at Cracker Barrel on about 26 of them.

We have a rotation in what we order. Every other visit to Cracker Barrel, we get their Friday fish fry which is quite good. We get it with the steak fries and cole slaw.  

On the Fridays we do not get the fish, Andrea will inevitably get the hamburger steak. I alternate between the hamburger steak and the chicken and dumplings.  

All of this is to establish our bonafides as connoisseurs of Cracker Barrel: we go there a lot and we know what we like. 

Getting back to the beginning of this post...

This past Friday, Andrea and I had dinner at Cracker Barrel.

It was a fish week.

We couldn't help but notice how empty the parking lot was. Normally there is way more traffic at this particular location on a Friday evening, a veritable hotbed of mid American senior citizen activity.  

Gee, I speculated, I wonder if this has anything to do with the rainbow rocker? 

Well, it might. 

Wait, what rainbow rocker?

This rainbow rocker.  

 

This rocking chair with the rainbow slats came with this statement from Cracker Barrel:  “We are excited to celebrate Pride Month with our employees and guests. Everyone is always welcome at our table."   

Cracker Barrel wasn't always so welcoming, banning LGBTQ people from working in its restaurants and firing employees it learned were gay. Those policies were reversed in 1991.

The company now has a diversity, equity and inclusion policy, scores an 80 on the Human Rights Campaign’s corporate equality index and made headlines in 2019 for refusing to allow an anti-gay pastor to hold an event in one of its restaurants.

Which just pisses off conservative snowflakes.  

We take no pleasure in reporting that @CrackerBarrel has fallen.A once family friendly establishment has caved to the mob.

— Texas Family Project (@FamilyProjectTX) 

June 8, 2023

The histrionics of "Cracker Barrel has fallen" led to some inspired wisecracks on Twitter. My favorites are these Tweets, done in the style of Ken Burns' Civil War documentary.  

My dearest Cynthia,

I write to you today a broken man.

Despite our best efforts, the Cracker Barrel fell. We fought for its potpourri-scented gift shop, its tabletop puzzles. Our tears and sweat mixed with the cream gravy atop the chicken fried steaks. 

— brooke foster, 2023 edition (@lonesometoast) June 9, 2023

My darlin' Beulah. We marched on Tallahassee today only to confirm the worst of the rumors. Cracker Barrel has fallen. Kiss my children-cousins for me and pray for my soul. I shall now drink from a rusty puddle and hope for death.

— Dennis Perkins Will Never Pay Apartheid Boy A Dime (@DennisPerkins5) June 9, 2023

Dearest Penelope,

Cracker Barrel has fallen. I never thought I would be writing these mournful words to you, but the moment we dreaded for so long has arrived. We regroup now to take our positions at Hobby Lobby. Kiss the children for me, and pray.

Yours in haste,

Elmer 

— Julia S. (@booktweeting) June 9, 2023

My dearest Clotilda,

The news from the front is terrible. We happened upon a Cracker Barrel, where we had hoped to sup and rest up before the next battle at Wokesburg. To our shock, we found the place overrun by the gays. We retreated til the morning.

Ever yours,

Eaton Beaver

— Michael Feher (same @ on The Pliocene Pachyderm) (@SaxMike71) June 9, 2023

Well, I do declare! Cracker Barrel has fallen! What shall we do?

Well, it depends if it is fish week or not.   

If it is not fish week, I'll have to choose between the hamburger steak or the chicken & dumplings. If it is fish week, well...

I'll have the fish.

Y'all be good to one another, OK?  

 

Cinema Sunday: The Ritz

Since June is Pride Month, today's Cinema Sunday posts looks at a movie from 1976, a comedic farce that takes place in a gay men's bathhouse.  

Directed by Richard Lester, The Ritz is based on the 1975 play of the same name by Terrence McNally. 

Rita Moreno won a Tony Award for her performance as Googie Gomez in the Broadway production and reprises her role for the film version.  Others from the 1975 original cast, such as Jack Weston, Jerry Stiller, and F. Murray Abraham are also on hand for the movie as well.  

Somewhere in Manhattan....

Businessman Gaetano Proclo is looking to hide from his homicidal brother-in-law, mobster Carmine Vespucci. Looking for a super cheap out of the way hotel to hide in, the very straight Gaetano winds up at a gay bathhouse.   

He doesn't know he's in a gay bathhouse but the clues do start to add up as various oddball characters express their interest in this newcomer to there little corner of paradise. 

The oddest of them all perhaps is Googie Gomez, an entertainer of questionable talents who thinks she is ready for the bright lights of Broadway glory.

Googie thinks Gaetano is a big time Broadway producer.

Gaetano thinks Googie is a man in drag.  

Anyway, Carmine tracks Gaetano to the bathhouse, still intent on murdering him. With a little help (sometimes inadvertent and other times on purpose) from his new found gay friends, Gaetano's life is saved and the plot behind why Carmine was out to kill him is exposed.  

You know how in every stage musical, there's that one supporting character who is over the top and threatens to steal the show? Googie Gomez is that character and Rita Moreno carries out the theft of the show. Whatever Moreno gave for the stage show, she does not dial back her performance for her time on screen. 

The "It's That Person Who Was In That Thing" Department 

• That's Jerry Stiller as Carmine Vespucci, as bold and brash and loud as George Costanza's dad on Seinfeld.  
• F. Murray Abraham as Chris would go on play Salieri in Amadeus.  
• There's a blink and you'll miss it cameo from John Ratzenberger, Cliff Clavin from Cheers and frequent Pixar voice actor.  

I think that even making allowances for it was the 1970s and people didn't know any better, The Ritz isn't an especially good movie. Yes, some of the gay men in the bathhouse play into the worst stereotypes. And some of the humor seems forced. 

But the fact that a mainstream film directed by a mainstream director with predominately gay characters even got made in 1976 marks The Ritz as a milestone for LGBTQ+ representation in cinema. 

______________________________

Andrea and I saw Spider-Man - Across the Spider-Verse last weekend and the Cinema Sunday post about that will appear next week.   

Songs For Saturday: Brandi Carlile, Rufus Wainright and Tegan & Sara

 

Celebrating Pride Month, this week's Songs For Saturday features LGBTQ+ musicians. 

While Brandi Carlile has been performing for years, I didn't discover her until about half a year ago when she was a musical guest on Saturday Night Live.  Here is a song she performed that night and is one my favorites Brandi Carlile songs, "The Story".  

Up next is Rufus Wainright with Sting covering the Police classic "Wrapped Around Your Finger". 

Next up is Tegan and Sara, a Canadian indie pop duo performing since 1998.   The duo are identical twin sisters, Tegan Rain Quin and Sara Keirsten Quin. Both musicians are songwriters and multi-instrumentalists as well as both being openly gay.  

I found out about this due from their performance over the closing credits of the series finale of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.  Here are Tegan & Sara with "Girls Talk". 

LGBTQ+  community is under attack by right wing hate mongering politicians and this alarming. We're talking about people with dreams and aspirations and talents that deserve to be respected and celebrated, no denigrated and sublimated. 

Until next time, remember to be good to one another and to always keep the music alive.  

Your Friday Video Link: That Damn Mrs. Maisel Dance Thing

 

This week's Tuesday TV Touchbase was about the series finale of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.

Inspired by the "Pink Shoe Laces" dance sequence from The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, there went forth out unto the world a challenge for others to replicate this dance.

Your Friday Video Link is a 3-minute dance video created by John LeGear of Chicago featuring the scene from the series and a compilation of others who answered the challenge.

As someone who's Tik Tok feed has one of these dance challenges every 3rd video or so, it is also known as "That Damn Mrs. Maisel Dance Thing".   

Trump Indicted... Again!

Donald Trump was indicted Thursday by a federal grand jury on criminal charges for removing top-secret documents from the White House and schlepping them to Mar-a-Lago and refusing to fucking return them when he was fucking told to.

The breaking news of the indictment interrupted Jeopardy. I'm fucking pissed about that.   

Li'l Donnie was also fucking pissed about the indictment, whining that "I never thought it possible that such a thing could happen to a former President of the United States."

Well, I gotta say I agree with Donald Trump: I too also never thought it possible that such a thing could happen to a former President of the United States.

That is until we elected a fucking god damn crooked moron as President! 

You know, once a crooked moron gets elected as President, well, all bets are off baby.

Do I expect anything will come of this?

Yeah, I do. I expect Donald Trump's poll numbers will actually go up. 

Fuck! 

OK, the regularly scheduled Your Friday Video Link will post in a couple of hours.   

The Return of the Republican Clown Car

Back in 2016, a ridiculously large number of people decided to run for the Republican nomination for President, many of whom (including one reality TV show host) were of questionable abilities to be President.  This led to several pundits describing this assemblage of  candidates as a Republican clown car. 

For the 2024 race, the clown car appears to be filling up once more.  

On Monday, Mike Pence is squeezing himself into the clown car, announcing he's running for President. 

OK, I'll ask the question: Why?

1) Pence is not going to get anyone who doesn't like Donald Trump. The dude sat there silently as Li'l Donnie debased himself through scandals and incompetence.  No one who dislikes Trump is going to overlook 4 years of Pence kissing Li'l Donnie's big fat ass.

2) Pence is not going to get Trump supporters because of that ONE day Pence didn't kiss Li'l Donnie's big fat ass on January 6th. 

Since the Republican Party is defined by it's relationship to Donald Trump (those who wish him to shut and go away and those who still sing his praises and swear fealty to him), just who the hell does Mike Pence think is going to vote for him? 

But Mike Pence is making a run for it, joining Gov. Ron DeSantis, Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson.

And Chris Christie, former governor of New Jersey piled into the clown car on Tuesday for... reasons. 

I've got the same questions about the viability of Chris Christie as I do about Mike Pence.

1) Hate Trump? Who wants to vote for the guy who immediately weaseled his way into the Trump inner circle as soon as his own campaign was over in 2016?

2) Worship Trump? Who wants to vote for the guy whose been talking shit about Li'l Donnie for the last 2 years? 

In short, Chris Christie has negated himself with both halves of the Trump addled Republican Party.

And in the above list of people crowded into the clown car, I'm missing one name.  

Now who could that be? 

That's right, Donald Trump.   

Who in current polling is driving the clown car.  

And the current assessment is that more clowns in the clown car improves Li'l Donnie's chances of snagging the Republican nomination. 

Also if the Department of Justice weighs in with an indictment for either the classified document boondoggle and/or the insurrection shitstorm, there is the very likelihood that Trump's standing within the clown car will only improve. 

So this lying piece of shit is looking good to secure the Republican nomination for President in 2024. But surely he will not prevail in the general election, right?

Well, I thought that in 2016 and look where we wound up?