Burn in a lesser hell Bob Dole

As the cliché goes, assholes live forever, and it was somewhat true of this bitter old man. I’ve already heard all the crap in his defense about how he risked his life in WWII which permanently injured him. Too bad his sense of empathy for the poor and suffering was also mortally wounded with his right arm.

Dole was not an honorable person. He was involved with Tricky Dick and became Ford’s running mate in 1976 due to the sitting vice president (Nelson Rockefeller) not being right wing enough. Plus this creep admitted to attempts at overturning the election of Jimmy Carter so he helped sow the seeds to the skunk weeds we’re experiencing today. In case you forgot, he was the only former candidate to show up at the 2016 RNC convention in Cleveland to crown Tiny Weeny Peeny Mussolini. Quayle, both Bushes, McCain and Romney stayed clear.

Through the Eighties and until his drubbing in 1996, Dole went on to be the Republican water boy for St. Reagan and Bush the Lesser. Obviously, it was due to his losses in 1980 and 1988 to get the nod. Yet his former mistress turned trophy wife succeeded in getting cabinet positions before her worthless six years as a senator for North Carolina.

After Bush the Lesser joined the club of one-term losers, Dole figured it was his time to shine. Slick Willie looked pretty vulnerable in 1995. The NeoLiberal from Arkansas squandered the Dem’s House majority for the unpopular NAFTA bill, propelling the sociopath of GA…Newt Gingrich and his three chins, to House Speaker. Then the GOP overplayed its hand with a government shut down, many say fueled by Gingrinch’s temper tantrum over not getting to sit at the grown-ups table on Air Force One after a major state funeral. This saved the Democrats enormously.

So Dole ran for POTUS in 1996 with the often losing campaign slogan…It’s My Turn! With other variations such as: I Was in WWII So I Deserve This! and Bob Dole Would Do a Good Job! No real substance beyond, I won’t do what the current POTUS is doing. Wall Street wouldn’t bite and GOP infighting led to an easy victory for Slick. I knew it was over when the only chump willing to be veep was long-time D-Lister  Jack Kemp. The GOP’s true king makers threw Dole to the wolves since their real plan was to groom Bush the Lesser’s idiot, coke-snorting son who became Texas’ governor two years earlier. Getting mocked by Norm MacDonald on SNL probably didn’t help.

For his remaining days he pitched boner pills, super gross, and the punditocracy would wake him from his coffin whenever they needed him to shit talk Slick and Obummer. I’d say, in the end he’ll have a pretty unmemorable legacy along FDR hater Robert Taft and all the pork projects named after him in Kansas. Dole was really disgrace to the Greatest Generation and all the sacrifices many of them made to make America better.

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How fitting, we’re seeing A Christmas Carol today

This will be my first time at the Zach Theatre. I’ve lived here for 27 years and never bothered. I’ve been to plays and operas at UT, just not the local theater group. Jennifer has seen this production before so she enjoys it. Glad this is something she has chosen to share with me. What makes the Zach deal different according to Jennifer is the troupe’s integration of contemporary Pop Music and the cast’s diversity. Sounds good to me, I just hope they don’t use any awful Taylor Swift or Billie Mushmouth. Having non-White people win key roles is fine too. Dickens’ story has been hijacked by SitComs, the not-very funny Bill Murray and even a very heavy-handed episode of The Six Million Dollar Man.

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Advent 2021 Beer #4

I liked this one the most so far but truthfully, I have to say it was the really colorful, cool-looking table. The dude resembles somebody in a brass or marching band but according to the first word, I believe he’s a hussar, a form of armed cavalry from the Napoleonic to Franco-Prussia Wars.

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The Right failing to do its homework as always, Dec ’21 edition

Given how much more functional Western and Central Europe are compared to Amerika’s dysfunctional ammosexual paradise and Jesusland, I think places such as Germany would send thank-you cards. They’re experiencing negative growth and they’d love to take in well-educated Americans who are unlikely to have a problem with learning the language. Especially in light of how Europeans don’t let their people go bankrupt over a medical problem, getting an advanced education or through greedy insurance companies denying claims to preserve the shareholders’ stock.

The Right would then find out how much brain drain this would since their base of gullible, violent morons aren’t capable of holding things together, accelerating the US into the Third World status they want. The base will also be pissed over the reduced number of targets they murder or blame for the loss of their jerbs. It might make the base finally realize, it was the GOP/Far Right pulling the strings all along as we told them.

What would be my pick? It’s tough due to Europe having crappy weather and too little/too much sunlight due to their position on the planet. I’m leaning toward the Netherlands but only due to my friend Jeremy living there. Germany would be pick number two. As much as I love Italy from afar, I’ve read too much about their dysfunctions and next to the UK, they’re practically Amerika Lite. We should’ve seen the warning signs when they elected Berlo-scummy to lead. He’s a disgusting combo of Rupert Murdoch and Teeny-Weeny-Peeny Mussolini. How he managed to avoid prison is disheartening given how frickin’ guilty he is. For any consideration, they need to break up the monopolies on their media.

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Advent 2021 Beer #3

I think I’m going to need my friend José to help me out on this. Tonight’s beer didn’t taste as thick as the night before but the German’s aren’t winning me over using the word “hell” and a graphic reminding me of the Rolling Stones’ Sticky Fingers. I did enjoy it despite the big meal I had at Red Robin to celebrate Mason’s birthday. For the third straight night it has been a lager. Again, I welcome José correcting me if I should be wrong. I’m wondering if there are any dark or bock beers in this box.

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A D&D Commercial that’s too on the nose

To be fair, I was this excited and filled with anticipation when I first got to play in seventh grade. The difference? I grew out of it because I was saddled as the Dungeonmaster as soon as I got my first Basic Set!

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Advent 2021 Beer #2

I liked tonight’s beer much more. It seemed “thicker” than most I have ever had and this was definitely a weisse which I prefer. Well, Belgian whites are the best after being in Austin for 27 years. Therefore, I didn’t mind having to drink the majority of it thanks to Jennifer having some Patron before I arrived at dinner. My main concern will be this beer stalling my attempts at weight loss, anything containing wheat automatically brings up the friend who always tells you how giving up carbs is the key to success. I also like the bear on the design. Simple. Iconic. Friendly even though American bears are pretty dangerous.

It appears my friend José bought the same Costco calendar so I would like to invite his commentaries. He has a more diverse, well-informed palette and vocabulary. Compared to him, my statements come off like Bill Burr’s Bostonian Redneck in SNL‘s Sam Adams parody commercial.

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The last symmetrical date of the century! 12-2-21

Now before you Europeans or wannabes correct me over the US’s better and more logical format, jokingly claiming this really happened in February, ask yourself…are we English speakers more likely to say, “December 2nd” or “the Second of December?” Yeah, I thought so. I get the rationale behind the order of ascending values but my native language doesn’t always flow by comparative order. I can understand the Romantic family going the other direction because it’s normal with their adjective use, e.g. pay day = oggi di soldi, litterally “day of money,” which sounds annoying and pretentious. Some things get a pass, sadly, the “people of color” moniker thanks to the more efficient and equally accurate “colored people” getting hijacked into the racist connotation column for the foreseeable future.

I am going to miss all the symmetrical date stuff as 2022 will be less interesting in such matters. I am grateful to have lived in such a fun stretch despite the shit shows since 2001.

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Advent 2021 Beer #1

This year, Jennifer and I got the jump on Costco’s beer-advent calendar. Seems you have to buy it in the early Fall before they’re all swallowed up! Last year’s “wine” version from Aldi…sucked. I’m not sure if all the beer is supposed to be from Germany neither but hey, I’m willing to give it a chance.

First up was this Grumpy Hell. Not sure if it has an English name in Germany. Maybe it sells well over there. Americans aren’t keen on any product being “grumpy” unless it’s the dwarf from Disney. The label appears more effective on a bottle than a can too.

How was it. I felt it was on the heavy side. Thankfully no bitter aftertaste despite being on the lighter side as I feared it was an IPA or a nasty Weiss. Jennifer only had one sip and turned it over to me. So much for the original plan. She drinks a third, I do the rest. Not exactly something I want to do before bed in my quest to lose more weight. Would I drink it again? I honestly don’t remember much else about this beer which makes it only if I know the other choices are crappy.

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Welcome to December 2021!

I decided to just “catch up” and fill in the missing dates in between, again, instead of being like that newspaper from Colonial Days in New England I learned about in college; The publisher only had so much space and he printed the news in order of which he received it, so birth announcements were soon a couple years “late.”

December celebrates the 35th anniversary of another movie I enjoyed the hell out of during my first Winter Break from college, Little Shop of Horrors, before Broadway got addicted to recycling old, crappy movies into musicals. The leads did hold their own pretty well even if Steve Martin stole the movie with his abusive dentist.

Enjoy! Stories will be “old” and current as we go along. I’m almost done with this year’s Xmas card, as in writing a nice individual letter and mailing them. Good thing Thanksgiving was early too. Gave me a huge head start. I managed to knock out and mail 40-plus before today. Same goes for this year’s XMAS music mix.

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Tomorrow begins the “voluntary” winterization

While the GOP made sure they can dictate what women can do with their bodies, “urban dwellers” have a harder time voting and preventing children from learning the ugly truth about Amerika…they sure as hell didn’t do shit about the power grid. I guess they would’ve been more concerned if those 200 people were fetuses. We shouldn’t be surprised since the last time this happened in 2011, former Gov. and ex-Sec’y of Energy Goodhair asked the Big Energy Providers pretty please to do something. Obviously they didn’t since profits are more important than consumers’ lives. Besides, the majority of the dead weren’t White People who make over $100K/year.

Wish us luck as Climate Change and an influx of Republican Californiacators will strain matters even more this upcoming Winter. Then try to stifle your laughter when Gov. Shitbag, Lt. Gov. Red Skull, Bush the Little Brown One and Sid the Redneck blame it all on windmills, the Sun, the moon orbiting Uranus and Critical Race Theory.

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Got my booster shot against CV-19 today

Not sure if the booster is making me tired, the long weekend or the aftermath of Daylight Savings Time ending. Just glad I had it done as Winter will kick in. Can’t get a flu shot though for about four weeks. I also went with HEB because Walgreens wouldn’t have anything available for a couple weeks. The downside was HEB only having the less effective Johnson & Johnson version. However, it’s better than nothing and even we are facing a mutation or new variant, it’s better to have a foundation over zilch. My super religious cousin Leesa claimed she “knows” two people who are allegedly in wheelchairs or walkers or something bad from J&J. I forgot to confront her about their names to make sure this isn’t a cousin’s best friend’s sibling. The comment was disheartening since Leesa has a master’s degree in Chemistry. I doubt she wants to be reminded by an Atheist cousin about Jesus having a doctor (Thomas) in his entourage of bros.

Another annoyance was HEB’s pharmacist. She was professional and all, nothing negative about her personality, customer service or how she jabbed me (barely felt it!). I just keep my vaccination history on a very trusted app on my iPhone. She wouldn’t let me have the key details for me to enter: batch number helps give my status validity. How else can I get into a public place easily if somebody looks pretty closely and realizes that my second dose of Modern from APH was over six months ago. Maybe APH will do another round of the two stronger solutions and I can squeeze in early next year as J&J wears off.

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Why I never went to Larry Flynt’s house for Thanksgiving

It’s because his household never serves turkey and ham is more of a Christmas thing.

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RIP Stephen Sondheim

I got into Sondheim late and before then, I was rather oblivious as to who the heck he even was or what was his material while it played in front of me!

If you grew up in the Midwest and had the Seventies version of cable TV, Sondheim’s “Comedy Tonight” from A Funny Thing Happened to me at the Forum was probably drilled into your head via WGN’s ad for all the syndicate SitComs they carried. As aside, who ever thought Hogan’s Heroes was funny? I also saw the film version of his breakout musical during my Latin class at Strake Jesuit. At least it was more on topic than those terrible Steve Reeves Hercules flicks from Italy.

I became more aware of his work through my boyhood crush on Bernadette Peters. In the Eighties, Showtime had a presentation of his Sundays in the Park with George. I’m such a fan, I have her 1997 album of her singing just Sondheim’s material.

His material was so strong that even Tim Burton and Johnny Depp couldn’t ruin the film version of Sweeney Todd. Sure, Burton Goth’d it up but he didn’t turn into a standard train wreck…the story’s narrative was maintained instead disintegrating into a series of random events a la Mars Attacks or suddenly, somebody’s mom was a witch. Sadly, this didn’t turn into a merchandising opportunity for Hot Topic.

Lastly, I’m glad he had the chance to play himself on The Simpsons. The very talented and kind Michael Price wrote the episode plus had the lucky opportunity to meet him. Nell Scovell, another writer I admire shook his hand when she was a student. Mudita to all of you! It’s always a thrill when we meet our heroes and they rock.

Farewell Mr. Sondheim! Thank you for everything! You belong to the ages alongside the other greats: Cohen, Rodgers, Hammerstein, Gilbert and Sullivan. Broadway better name something after you.

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Check out my Mandalorian forces!

Just in time for the upcoming Book of Boba Fett next month on Disney+. The one at the center left is wielding a generic sword, not the famous blacksabre Bo Katan needs to reclaim rulership over Mandalore. Thanks again to my cool friend and co-worker Chris for gluing and constructing them together. The relatively new Star Wars Legion expansion sets are now shipped on blister packs which is a bigger nuisance making the minis more prone to having flash on the limbs. Can’t wait to use these badasses in a d20-based Star Wars campaign.

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