Wordsmitng: Here are some good lines from a Brian Karem Salon article

 By Hal Brown

I enjoy reading excellent wordsmthing and hope that at times I come up with a clever turn of phrase that conveys an idea in a particularly succinct and snarky way. I appreciate it when others do this. For example here are my favorite lines fron the Brian Karem article shown above:

In Florida, in one of the most insidious moves ever made by any legislature since the end of the Civil War, new laws demand that school children be taught that there were benefits to slavery. You know, skills. 𝐀𝐬 𝐢𝐟 𝐬𝐥𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐚𝐧 𝐞𝐱𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐝𝐞 𝐬𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐨𝐥 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐫𝐨𝐨𝐦 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐛𝐨𝐚𝐫𝐝.

Then there are Kevin McCarthy, Lauren Boebert, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Jim Jordan and the usual gang of idiots, now including Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, who want to impeach Joe Biden without any evidence to justify it. 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐞 𝐩𝐞𝐨𝐩𝐥𝐞 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐥 𝐟𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬.

. It's enough to make the hair dye run down his face. "𝐈𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐝𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐥 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐚𝐬 𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐚𝐬 𝐆𝐢𝐮𝐥𝐢𝐚𝐧𝐢, 𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐥 𝐰𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐛𝐞 𝐞𝐦𝐩𝐭𝐲," Eisen explained on the podcast "Just Ask the Question."

from

Donald Trump unleashed a war against the U.S. government — and now he can't control it

I liked this paraphraph I wrote from yesterday's blog:

If Trump gets reelected we will see his most extreme pathological impulses powered by the rocket fuel of the presidency. He'll be a guided nuclear missile with mutilple warheads aimed at American democracy. He already has his targets selected and has a plan for turning the United Staes into a dictatorship where he can destroy his enemies on a whim.

Salon's Brian Karem's best line: "...extreme members of Congress, with their cocaine eyes and speed-freak jive..."

 By Hal Brown

Photo is from "Cocaine Eyes: How Cocaine Effects Your Eyes" on Addiction Resource.

I am always on the lookout for writers I'd call snarky wordsmiths. They not only have a lot of original thoughts to express but they convey them in compelling, often snarky and clever ways. They often come up with an original turn of phrase which really grabs me as describing an individual or group in a way I'd say was deliciously nasty. 

I think Salon has some of the best wordsmiths of this ilk. Heather "Digby" Parton and Amanda Marcotte are two of my favorites. (You can see their columns at the links.) I also particularly like Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank. 

I am not meaning to suggest that there aren't superb writers posting online descriptions of people like, for example, Frank Bruni's of Ron DeSantis in The NY Times:

It brings me no joy to make those observations. It gives me the willies. I’m rooting hard against DeSantis, a flamboyantly divisive and transcendently smug operator with the chilling grandiosity to cast his political ascent as God’s will and a rapacity for power that’s one of the best arguments against giving it to him.

I am referring to the particularly powerful but also sarcastic, sardonic, and satirical ones.

Brian Karem (all columns) is another wordsmith like this who I admire. 

Here he is on Twitter:

He is also on Mastodon where I follow him:

He has some really good descriptions in his essay today:

We went nuts over a balloon! Thank you for saving us, Rihanna

If I had to select one description from his essay which I thought was his best it is this:

... extreme members of Congress, with their cocaine eyes and speed-freak jive...

This struck me as a great way to describe the GOP zealots in Congress even though I wasn't sure whether cocaine eyes were those with tiny or enlarged pupils. I looked up the term (here):

The photo in the lower right is of a cocaine eye.

I assumed that I knew what "speed-freak jive" was, but I figured I'd look it up since I was writing this blog. I discovered it really was a "thing" in pop culture and more than just someone speaking very rapidly and incoherently.

Click above to enlarge. This is a web search on DuckDuckGo.

It is in the lyrics to The Rolling Stones' song Can't You Hear Me Knocking:

Yeah, you got satin shoes
Yeah, you got plastic boots
Y'all got cocaine eyes
Yeah, you got speed-freak jive, now

Note that both cocaine eyes and speed-freak jive used together comes from this song. Brian will have to respond to me on Twitter or Mastadon to confirm this is where he got the idea to use it in his essay.

Musician Howling Waters has a song with that title. You can watch the video here.

Other parts of the Karem essay I particularly liked in addition to the main message which is conveyed in the subtitle about the balloon hysteria that:

It ought to be a "teachable moment": This country is deeply unhinged.

It is possible to be sidetracked by the clever jabs. What he is saying is very important.

Follows are some excerpts that grabbed me:

Millions of people jumped to conclusions, declared themselves experts in downing high-altitude balloons or were too quick to blame Joe Biden for an overblown crisis that would've made a great plot point in "Seinfeld." It was like accidentally tossing a Junior Mint into an open incision during an operation. (Of course people not familiar with that episode wouldn't appreciate this.)

and... 

Speaking of Ron DeSantis, that's why many people speculate he will upend Donald Trump and claim the GOP nomination in 2024. In other words, some are betting Ron DeSantis is the flatulence that is actually a bowel movement. He keeps smelling bad and won't go away, rather like Trump, but he's a fresher squeeze of the cheeks.

I like his describing Nikki Haley this way:

Nikki Haley has now tossed her political Medusa tentacles...

He also wrote about her:

She has a better chance of shooting down a high-altitude balloon with a Daisy Red Ryder BB gun...

I'd add to that reference that it is probably an homage to the line in the classic movie "A Christmas Story" when Ralphie says he was this BB gun for Christmas and is told he'll shoot his eye out with it if he has one.

Read more about this here.

When I read creative clever wordsmiths like these I wonder why I even try to write my blog.

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