The MAGA GOP is doomed to be the Edsel of American politics.

 By Hal Brown

The Ford Motor Company wanted to develop Edsel as a fourth brand to compete with Chrysler and GM. The attempt failed dismally for a number of reasons in addition to the fact that many people thought the grill design was ugly. A popular joke at the time, Edsels "resembled an Oldsmobile sucking a lemon".

Those of use who remember the car recall the front grill. However, the rear was ugly too:

  You can read all of the reasons on Wikipedia for the failure here.

Wikipedia's explains:

The name "Edsel" became synonymous with the real-life commercial failure of the predicted "perfect" product or product idea. 

I noted the use of the word "perfect" since this is one of Trump's favorite words to describe himself and everything he does.

Wiki notes that "similar ill-fated products have often been colloquially referred to as "Edsels".

Flash forward from the late 1950's to the early 2020's and into the world of American politics. MAGA is the brand name for the Republican Party and people who identify with the brand are called MAGA's. 

Anyone who believes in small D democracy views the MAGA product as ugly on the inside, and sometimes on the outside. I won't inflict photos of Donald Trump and Marjorie Taylor Greene screaming on you since these images are already easily imagined.

I will, however share a video of an run-of-the-mill MAGA cultist:

The woman also mispronounces ignoramus three times in a row. 

Update: Since I posted the blog an hour ago the number of views of this video increased to 1.8 million.

This is probably because it was the subject of this Raw Story article. I am sure that almost all of those who watched it were appalled by this woman's behavior since Raw Story is a progressive website.

I would have worried every time this racist woman reached into her purse for fear she had a pistol there. Perhaps she did.

She is why the GOP MAGA faction now in control of the party is doomed to become Edsels. These people are their base. The woman here doesn't seem to be mentally ill. She seems to be in total control of her faculties. Her beliefs are baked in. She represents the base that MAGA politicians appeal to. 

While there are millions of people like her, there aren't enough to swing all but select House elections in deeply red districts, and perhaps a few Senate elections and state governor and legislature elections. She and her brethren are doomed to become Edsels.

This is currently the numb er one trending article on Raw Story.

Addendum: The person who posted this video has a book which made The Washington Post list of recommended books to read in 2023: I Still Believe: The Immigrant Sergeant Who Defended Democracy by Sgt. Aquilino Gonell with Susan Shapiro 

DeSantis deserves to be called Ron DeSatan so why hasn't Trump called him that?"

 By Hal Brown

Public Domain, Wiki Commons, Hal Brown

About the image above.

If you think this story from this morning is bad...

Click above to read

... and this from early this month:

What in the hell is wrong with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis?

This top of the HUFFPOST website story describes the poisonous icing on the already toxic cake that is Ron DeSantis 

Click. above to read

Of course there's nothing particularly original about calling this sadistic bully DeSatan. For example:

Click above for link

Click above for link

Click above for link

What I wonder is why Trump hasn't picked up on this obvious nickname as he tries to demonize his most likely, and most formidable, primary opponent. Satan is considered literally the chief demon.

Trump has reportedly been spitballing nicknames since Ron DeSantimonous didn't catch on. He denied considering Meatball Ron and has used Ron DeSanctus which makes no sense. He hasn't used Ron DeAnus but I wouldn't be surprised if he's thought of it.

Why then not the obvious Ron DeSatan?

While DeSantis actually just allowed someone who arguably shouldn't have been put to death to be killed by the state, and his Covid policies may have led to more deaths, perhaps Trump is savvy enough not to open himself to being called out for his own satanic policies. 

Both Trump and DeSantis are classic sadistic bullies. I wrote about such people here. 

Comment:

 Ben Kalom said...

Nice article.

Well said.

Musicality is duly noted. Too bad it is dissonant, cacophonic, constant staccato, with much too much reverb.

Also
"...more cowbell!"

SNL viewers and fans will understand.

It is not anger control issues. It is "Look-a-me!" issues. All these folks want is to move away from being not seen to being always seen.

We already give them too much attention. All of this is behaviorally "Cluster B" and Cluster A mixed in. 

Apparently, being seen, receiving attention, being fawned over is akin to the dopaminergic quality of cocaine. They think they're funny. They think they're "Somebody!"

Back to music: the Billy Joel song "Big Shot" comes to mind.

Music says it all.

I would very much prefer to hear "The Sound of Silence" from them...

Mostly, they're a collection of Sid Vicious and the Sex Pistols..

Addendum: 

This is a comment from the HUFFPOST article with another nickname:

13 minutes ago

After getting rid of the weak and the elderly during covid, DeathSantis now goes after the mentally disabled.

Nobody's safe, including your children!

After all, they don't work, live from handouts and are therefore useless according to maggat economic theory. 

Greater Idaho Movement: A proposal to trade parts of Oregon with Idaho

 

An earlier map didn't include Bend in Oregon. Since it is a Democratic leaning city I have adjusted the borders.

By Hal Brown

While Marjorie Talor Greene is making the news for wanting to reinstate the Confederacy those in Oregon and Idaho are following the greater Idaho movement. This is a proposal that has gained traction in Idaho and the very conservative mucho-MAGA eastern Oregon.

Click above for website

Click above to enlarge. The county Bend is in is Democratic, the county to the east leans Republican.

How red is Idaho. Consider this story:

Here's another example:

Idaho House votes to prohibit use of student IDs to verify identity for voting

Then there's this:

Click above to read

One of my very best friends going back to childhood lives in Sun Valley. I visited him once when I drove to Portland where I now live. 

Sun Valley is truly a beautiful place to live.  At least nine celebrities live there year round or part-time.  It has even been called New North Hollywood. 

Sun Valley is considered a premier winter resort:

Click above for Visit Sun Valley website

You are surrounded by mountains, but you are also surrounded by hoards of people who would enjoy watching you hang from the gallows if you are politically progressive.

The Political Climate in Sun Valley, ID is Somewhat liberal.

Blaine County, ID is Very liberal. In Blaine County, ID 67.1% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 30.3% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 2.5% voted Independent.

In the last Presidential election, Blaine county remained overwhelmingly Democratic, 67.1% to 30.3%. 
Blaine county voted Democratic in every Presidential election since 2000 (reference)

Boise the state capitol leans conservative but is not really hardcore MAGA.

There's no way that Oregon would vote to give away a huge portion of the state to Idaho. The population is highly weighted towards the western part of the state which is Democratic. 

I have a proposal for a trade. It isn't original. However I made a map to go with it as to how the borders could be redrawn. 

This would give both states the most unusual shapes, but so what. The boundary would be about a mile wide along the main route from the Portland area to Ketchum, where my friend lives, which is in Sun Valley:

Click above to enlarge

The roadways would be patrolled by the Oregon State Police. Nobody would have to worry about being arrested for bringing marijuana, which is legal in Oregon, into Idaho.

  Last year Idaho banned abortion after six weeks.

There would be enough room along the corridor for Planned Parenthood and other groups to open family planning clinics which would legally provide abortion services. Centers could be opened in Boise (pop. aprox. 240,000) and Twin Falls (pop. aprox. 50,000)

Of course Idaho and Oregon would have the same number of Senators. It is possible, but not a certainty, that Idaho would gain more members of the House since Oregon could redraw a congressional district to include the area along the corridor.  Idaho currently has only two members of the House. It would be one of the most unusual shaped congressional districts but that would be the way the cookie crumbled.

If Oregon wanted to play hardball they could gerrymander like this and make it likely they would gain one or more Democratic members of the House. Idaho now has two members of the US House while Oregon has six. No doubt the people behind the Great Idaho Movement want to gain one or more members of the US House at the expense of Oregon losing one or more.

Note that there are two phases to their plan. Why anyone would waste their time on such a doomed effort is impossible to know.

If this ended up as the sate of Oregon...

... it would probably have as many colleges and universities per square mile as the small New England states. Compare Oregon colleges to those in Idaho and make of this what you will.

"WAH" indeed, Daily Beast beats Raw Story with DeSantis title

 by Hal Brown

Here's the Raw Story title for the same story about Ron DeSantis saying he will boycott NBC and MSNBC until they apologize for something Andrea Mitchell said:

Click above to read

The Daily Beast was more creative in their title. 

Click above to read

I was particularly struck by the red " | WAH |  " in the lower left. Positioned where a subtitle would generally go it wasn't exactly a subtitle. I'd call it more an "aside" meant to convey an editorial comment with a word which suggests the sound of DeSantis having a tantrum.

The editors could have used "Boo-hoo" instead to convey the same thing but "wah" is a word that sounds like someone having a hissy fit, literally a tantrum. "Wah" is derived from "wah-wah" which is a musical effect achieved on brass instruments by alternately applying and removing a mute and on an electric guitar by controlling the output from the amplifier with a pedal.

 

What a political world, eh? From the two top contenders to be the GOP  presidential candidate to the likes of Marjorie Taylor Greene we have individuals who seem to have anger control problems and when they are offended express their feelings either by literally screaming during a session of Congress, making posts on social media, or hurling threats.

I don't know what would cure whatever is wrong with them. Perhaps meditation or yoga would be the prescription. Psychotherapy might be helpful. The basic message these people need to heed would be along the lines of what the hippies used to tell people who were overwrought or too full of themselves and is now a common meme (click here):

Addendum

Yesterday's blog was about Trump's blatantly self-aggrandizing visit to E. Palestine. It is still in the news. This Salon story photo shows how shameless and insensitive this man is. I thought giving out Trump branded bottled water was bad enough, but giving out Trump hats is beyond the pale.

Click above to read

Trump's publicity stunt article about going to the railroad explosion town gets the paper towel treatment in Raw Story comments

 

By Hal Brown

Evening Update: You couldn't make this shit up/....

Click above to read article. The ex-president took “Trump Spring Water” to an Ohio town reeling from a derailment disaster, along with some water he said was of “a much lesser quality.”

Afternoon Update:

Click above to read article

......

Trump wants to show up President Biden who visited a war zone and was hailed both for his bravery and his empathy. Now Trump wants to show off his empathy for those who suffered from the toxic cloud from the train wreck in Ohio by going there. 

He isn't even there yet and it is already making the news:

Click above to enlarge image

Politico's article doesn't say anything about paper towels but does explain how Trump's intention can backfire:

Click above to read article

Excerpt:

Donald Trump’s visit to the site of a toxic train derailment in Ohio is offering a political opening to battered Biden administration officials — by calling new attention to the former president’s record of rolling back regulations on both rail safety and hazardous chemicals.

Trump’s administration withdrew an Obama-era proposal to require faster brakes on trains carrying highly flammable materials, ended regular rail safety audits of railroads, and mothballed a pending rule requiring freight trains to have at least two crew members. He also placed a veteran of the chemical industry in charge of the Environmental Protection Agency’s chemical safety office, where she made industry-friendly changes to how the agency studied health risks.

Here's the HUFFPOST top of website article:

Click above to read article

This is how Fox is covering his planned trip:

Click above to read article

It's not surprising that the Fox article attacks Biden, however it may have answered the question about whether Trump is actually donating personal money to help the citizens:

Trump is expected to donate thousands of gallons of cleaning supplies, along with 13 pallets of water to East Palestine. A single pallet typically holds a couple of thousand bottles of water. The former president is teaming up with nonprofit organizations Blue Line Moving and KORTX. 

For the curious, this is what a pallet of water looks like and how much it costs:

Click above to see on Amazon. 13 pallets would cost $7,345 which I assume Trump could pay for himself.

The article also says he will donate thousands of gallons of cleaning supplies which brings up the question as to whether this will include paper towels, a question that goes unanswered.

Numerous commenters to a Raw Story article about Trump's planned visit referenced his dismal record on rail safety, but I was struck by how many commenters to the Raw Story article (scroll down) about this referenced the paper towel debacle in Puerto Rico.

"They had these beautiful, soft towels. Very good towels,” Trump told Mike Huckabee." Click above to read article

From Raw Story:

Click above to read article.

Below is the Raw Story comment that leaped out at me because of the photo. It was followed by other comments related to the paper towel spectacle from Puerto Rico.

Whirledpeas 24 minutes ago

 0

• −

Shaydee25 minutes ago

Will Trump be throwing out paper towels? Will he shout out, 'where's my African-American?'

 0 0

Reply

•

Share ›

Ricardo Santos 32 minutes ago

The motherfcker is so vain, he'll make the story about him! Melania in stilettos giving out water, Trump throwing paper towels, and "Whose boat is this", Trump and Melania attending three different hurricane tragedies. So, expect nothing but attacks on Biden and Mayor Pete.

dlindeman hour ago

I wonder how many paper towel rolls will be thrown today. tRump lacks any basic human concern for anyone but himself so this could be interesting.

Bradley an hour ago

Maybe the jerk will give out paper towels.

Mike Nan hour ago

What use will this easy to spot liar, grifter, coward, fraud and corrupt unfit incompetent Russian dupe be a disaster? The Six Time Bankrupt fraud is used to causing them, not fixing them.

Is he bringing paper towels to throw them?

fauxnombre1 an hour ago

Here comes tossed rolls of paper towels. Praise the Lord.

baselbob an hour ago

Let's see, shooting basketball hoops with paper towel rolls probably won't work. What can the poor schmuck do to show his sincerity? On second thoughts, maybe they can soak up the toxic chemicals with those towels?

Postictalan hour ago

Get him a roll of Bounty and he'll be fine.

Finbackrich  Finbackrichan hour ago

Bet he forgot his
... paper towels ...

Anyone who has analyzed Trump's personality, whether a mental health expert or not, knows that Trump is the exemplar of someone incapable of empathy. Furthermore, they know he relishes making people suffer. This makes him a sadist. He is a bully. This is a characteristic prevalent among MAGA Republicans. See "Understanding the sadistic bullies in the GOP" my blog from yesterday.

\

Updates:

That Time I Blogged as a Slime 24 minutes ago

Trump's East Palestine stunt could backfire because 'he's not known for empathy': Maggie Haberman

I'm sure the fine citizens of East Palestine can't wait to have a fat, flatulent fascist prick lob paper towels at them like an asshole.

Mr Joshuaan hour ago

Hey, Trump has empathy. This is nothing a few paper towels and MAGA hats thrown into the crowd won't fix. Amirite or amirite?

Eyeball_Kid  TV Guyan hour ago

By now, he'll descend into tossing used toilet paper.

Here are related stories: 

'Like a campaign rally': Trump to impose 'big show' on suffering East Palestine residents

East Palestine mayor fears Trump visit will turn them into ‘political pawns’