Grab Bag: Meme Game, Wanker Pete, Bret(bug)
Three topics, and unfortunately, I have to mention Bret Stephens again. Now I need a hot shower... FML
Life has been cray-cray lately, but one thing I do is read. Read a lot.
And when I read, I connect dots, I chuckle, and sometimes I am horrified.
Still, I read. News sites, Substacks, and alternative media, I go where my fancies lead me.
Top of the list is the clusterfuck that is Iran. On Thursday of last week, I was at the office, and when I went out to grab a bite for lunch, I drove by a gas station. And diesel was $7.39.
Yesterday, I was doing a quick errand (my sister bought a house, and I went to send her a $5K check to help fund her move) and I saw Diesel at $7.79.
Before Trumpenyahu unloaded on Iran, that was about $3.89 a gallon. Sure, gasoline is up about $1.20 a gallon here (to almost $6, but that is California for you), but diesel is up near 90%. That has massive issues. Not just for people with those ridiculous pickup trucks that love to "roll coal" but truckers. You know, the people who move goods and products from points of origin and distribution centers to stores and to your house.
People thought costs went up a lot in the supply chain disruptions around covid? Hold on to your britches, because those were the good times.
And all the people who are thinking that Trump is finally going to back out and at least halt the damage (narrator: that isn't possible) especially since he TACO'd on Monday morning just before the market opening (that netted some traitorous insiders more than a billion dollars).
But upwards of 5,000 Marines and the 82nd Airborne team is due to arrive on Friday. And it seems that Trump is frantically trying to open channels with the Iranian leaders via his bumbling chucklefuck negotiators Witkoff & Kushner.
Then, there's this headline:
Last week's This Fucking Guy, Bret Stephens, is back with another shit-take.
He tries to make the case that past conditions had caused oil prices to be higher than now, so clearly, bombing the fuck out of Iran, and the concomitant increase in the price of crude isn't that awful, and we should take that as a positive sign.
Most Americans probably don’t look back at March 2012 — if they remember it at all — and think of terrifyingly high gas prices. In the month when “The Hunger Games” ruled the box office and President Barack Obama was on his way to a comfortable re-election, the price of Brent crude closed the month around $123 a barrel. That would be about $175 a barrel in today’s dollars.
As of Tuesday, despite Iran’s effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz and its attacks on its neighbors’ energy facilities, it’s hovering around $100, slightly higher than the average inflation-adjusted price since January 2001, roughly $95.
See, nothing wrong here, all is well. In fact, this is fine.
This is all part of Bret(bug)'s efforts to whitewash the conflict, because like Lindsey Graham, the only thing that gets his junk working is Israel attacking those damn Iranians.
He tries really hard to justify this, but he seems to be cocooned in his swaddling of cotton in his ivory tower at the NY Times, and is insensitive to people's concerns.
And if there is one thing that 'muricans treasure, is their God given right to cheap gasoline to load into their massive SUV's and pickup trucks. And for fuck's sake, have you seen how much these metal monstrosities cost? Their car(truck) note is often $800 or more a month, and now you want them to have to pay over four fucking dollars for a gallon of magic go-go juice? That's bonkers dude.
Then, there's the Meme game. Last week, Politico reported that the messaging coming out from the White House around the war is different.
Yer' goddamn right it's different, it is BANGER memes man.
Inside the White House plan to sell the Iran War
The administration’s TikTok-style mash-up videos of missile strikes spliced into movie clips and video games — along with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s attack-style language at Pentagon press conferences — have gobsmacked those with a more traditional view of how a government should sound during a time of war. But this modern media strategy is achieving what the White House appears to prioritize: audience engagement.
“Over a four day period, the videos that we put out had over 3 billion impressions,” said a senior White House official, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly about the administration’s communications strategy. “That blows away anything we’ve ever done in the second term.”
Fuck me running, we are now the fully influencer led country. I want to pull the rip cord and get off this ride right now
The White House says it’s a winning message. “Polls show that a lot of young people are actually somewhat supportive of this war and our goal is to deliver content to them,” said the senior White House official, who is involved in the video efforts. “What we’re doing is not disrespecting the American troops. To the contrary, we’re highlighting all the great work — the heroic work that they’ve been doing with these videos. We do it in a way that captivates an audience.”
No previous administration ever tried to sell a war by making a video of legendary bowler Pete Weber landing a strike using computer-generated bowling pins to represent Iran’s military — all to a Lynyrd Skynyrd soundtrack. But past administrations didn’t exist in the age of incessant group chats, TikTok and AI.
Yay, and here's from one of the shitbirds himself:
A second senior White House official who is also closely involved in the video-making effort described it as a collegial, creative endeavor. “We’re over here just grinding away on banger memes, dude,” said the person, also granted anonymity to speak candidly. “There’s an entertainment factor to what we do. But ultimately, it boils down to the fact that no one has ever attempted to communicate with the American public this way before.”
Get that, a "senior" White House Official talking about "grinding away on banger memes, dude"
And, from "I Fucking Love Australia" a substack that is a worthy read, we have "The Art of a Wanker":
Substack
I spent a few years working for a couple of Aussies so I have an appreciation of their unique vernacular that is spread in their daily talking akin to Trump's slathering of Ketchup on his overcooked steaks.
And the term "Wanker" is something that deserves definition...
In Australia, we have a word. It's one of our most important words. It's a word that carries the weight of a thousand disappointed fathers, a million eye rolls from every tradie, brickie, sparkie and truckie who ever had to deal with a bloke who was all hat and no cattle.
The word is wanker.
Now for the uninitiated, a wanker is not just an insult. It's a diagnosis. A wanker is a bloke who is so profoundly, catastrophically up himself that he has lost all contact with the observable universe. A wanker looks in the mirror and sees a god. Everyone else looks at him and sees a bloke who'd cry if his coffee order was wrong. A wanker is the guy who revs his rented Lambo at the lights. The guy who name drops at barbecues nobody invited him to. The guy who calls himself an alpha while needing three people to help him pick a shirt.
My wife was angry that I cackled at reading that before she woke up this morning. Oops.
And IFLA just nails it here:
Which brings us to Pete Hegseth. Secretary of Defense. The most powerful military position on the planet outside the Oval Office. The bloke with his finger near the button. Mister Warrior Ethos. Mister we're bringing back the fighting spirit. Mister no more woke bullshit, we're here to kill.
Big tough guy.
This bloke looked at photos of himself giving a press conference and went, nah, take those down, I look weird in that one, my chin's doing a thing, ban the cameras.
BAN. THE. CAMERAS.
Wanker indeed!
Read the whole thing, and give them a sub. Great stuff.
That's enough for today.
