The floodgates of hell...............(Who knew hell had floods?)

"If Ronald Reagan was (sic) President, ISIS would be WASWAS." - This wins the award for cleverest yet stupidest political meme this month. I was unable to find the source for this, but it combines the revisionist tendencies of the Republican right wing (lying about history) with the conceptual framing (see Lakoff) and slogan manufacturing of the most successful propaganda machine in the history of the world. The existential reductionism with the implication of mass eradication simplifies the horrible reality of difficult or impossible choices. Reducing the difficult and complicated to bumper stickers is their only success: meaningless nonsense cast as wisdom. I do think that casting the 2nd Iraq as the best thing ever will not fly. * * * * * * * * Nebraska is now bracing for a spike in murders fearing that a backlog of killings which were not carried out because of the deterrent effect of the death penalty will now occur. "The floodgates of hell will be unleashed," said a spokesperson for Gov. Ricketts. (Who knew hell had floods?) "Civilization as we know it will come to an end. Nebraska murderers who have been patiently biding their time now for a hundred and sixty years waiting for the death penalty to be abolished are now dancing in the streets looking for someone to kill. In fact, we predict murderers from all over the country will now be moving to Nebraska because of the green light given to killing by the Nebraska Unicameral. It won't be long until Nebraska is the murder capitol of the United States if not the world." Just kidding folks. Governor Ricketts, though is vowing to execute the 10 people now on death row in Nebraska, some of whom have been there for decades. They seem to risk dying of old age more than anything. The Governor proudly announced he acquired the necessary drug cocktail in India - "Psst, got any drugs for sale?" The FDA though announced this week those drugs may not be imported. * ** * * * * Here's an Andy Rooney question for you: "Shouldn't 'phonetic' be spelled 'fonetic'"? And while we are on the subject of language, did you know there is no agreement on whether a sentence should have one or two spaces after a period? I personally use one space if anyone cares.... * * * * * * * * * Republican candidates for President announced and unannounced continue to say and do stupid things: Donald Trump said he has a secret plan to destroy ISIS, but that he won't say what it is. Ted Cruz voted against FEMA aid for New Jersey after Hurricane Sandy, but is demanding federal aid for Texas after the terrible flooding there. Prayers for Texas in recovering from the flood and for having Ted Cruz as a Senator. Rick Santorum is now a candidate - he will split the "dumb" vote with other candidates. Chris Christie claims that the reason a majority of New Jerseyites don't want him to run for President is that they want him to remain as governor. Now that's spin! Jeb Bush is sinking in the polls. The Republican party itself will limit their debates to the top ten, yes that's right, the top ten, candidates. Good luck with that. The Dems now have three declared candidates. * * * * * * * I've got to say nice things about Nebraska's Patriot Guard and so many others who came out in force to honor Officer Orozco, killed in the line of duty by a felon who had an illegal weapon, and protect her family from Westboro Baptist Church protestors who showed up in Omaha. I saw one internet post that said "Live your life in such as way that Westboro Baptist Church will want to picket your funeral." Amen to that. Officer Orozco was killed the same week an Officer in Cleveland was acquitted of standing on the hood of a car and firing some 23 shots at the unarmed driver and passenger of the vehicle, even stopping to reload. A total of 147 shots were fired into that vehicle by that officer and others.