We’re getting near the end now, and the quarter-finals are upon us. There’s only one match up left in each of the four divisions of bullshit. In a couple I found it quite tough to make a choice. The level of bullshit is just so high.
There are four days before the semi-final, so you’ve got a bit of time to make your own choices. But, with only four votes to make, it doesn’t take long. So why not do it right now? Just go here: Third Month Mania: Bullshit Bracket, scroll down until you can see the bracket, and click on the wee pic of Trump’s YUGE inauguration crowd.
Here are the choices I made:
Trump Conference: Division I
The two left in this division are Trump’s inauguration crowd and his self-reported “amazing” response to the disaster in Puerto Rico. My vote went to his claim that his inauguration crowd was the biggest ever. However, it has stiff competition.
There are many in Puerto Rico that are still suffering significantly. After months of no electricity for a huge chunk of the island, the US Army Corps of Engineers moved in, and progress is occurring. Their goal is to have 95% power restoration by the end of this month.
Everyone Else Conference: Division I
This division’s final two bullshit claims are Paul Ryan’s sick tweet re the Republican tax plan, and the conspiracy theory that the Parkland shooting survivors were crisis actors. As it has all the way through, the Paul Ryan tweet gets my vote. The damage that will be done to US society’s most vulnerable long term by the GOP tax plan should concern any decent person imo.
The crisis actors claim is also a major piece of quite unbelievable bullshit, but I think the kids themselves have done a great job of countering that one. If anything, it’s been a help in getting their message out.
Trump Conference: Division II
Trump provides so much copy for comedians and journalists, this competition proving that yet again. His claim that there were “very fine people on both sides” in the Charlottesville protests split not just his country, but his own administration. His then new Chief of Staff, John Kelly, could be seen hanging his head in shame as Trump made the comment.
Trump’s claim that he would be a hero when confronting a school shooter gave cartoonists another opportunity to poke fun at him. Many were of the theme that someone with five deferments for bone spurs (that seem to no longer be a part of his anatomy) doesn’t fit the profile of hero. However, I actually give Trump a pass on this one. Most of us would like to think we’d do the right thing in this sort of situation, but few of us know for sure how we’d act. It was crass of Trump to mention the subject, but the reason he did is obvious. His deep insecurities are clear to all. They’re the source of most of his biggest faults, but also, I suspect, some qualities in the eyes of a few he’s close to.
Everyone Else Conference: Division II
This match up was a tough choice. We’ve got sexual harassment vs the delusion of American Exceptionalism (with a hint of racism). Both, ironically, are from Fox News hosts. Bill O’Reilly’s had my vote since Round One, but I stopped voting for Tucker Carlson in the last round when he came up against the Mike Pence walkout. That was a tough choice, but I decided Carlson’s claim was stupidity rather than full-on bullshit. So anyway, I stuck with O’Reilly again.
So, what do you think of my choices? Have I got it right, or would you have made different ones? Make your own choices official by going here, then come back and let us know how you voted.
I’ve got a pretty bad record this year – I haven’t been close to what most people have chosen. I’m clearly out of mainstream thinking of US society, at least amongst viewers of The Daily Show. Is that a good thing or a bad thing?
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I don’t really understand the contest.
I just like the established fact that bullshit never sleeps. It shines awake and wide-eyed every day and at all times. At the FoxTrumpPropaganda network it seems they’re on cult-creating territory. The true magnitude of the Mueller investigation probably won’t reach those in the cult-thralls. But the wake-up call is resounding in other demographics. Shifts are happening. The Bolton thing is terrifying, but it also shows a weakness. Hiring a paranoid, conspiracy-theorist lawyer to replace his previous corrupt but more level-headed lawyer is also a weakness. Another of his many political follies.
And out there is a true young American movement that is against the amalgamation of guns, hate, paranoia, fear and politics. We’ll see, but I feel good about this fervent passion…they are legion. I graduated HS in ’87 and never for one second thought about getting killed by a psycho w/ an AR-15 running amok in the halls. I also know that politics (Reagan was POTUS) was never discussed to any relevant extent. Now many schools and esp. high-schools have metal detectors, lock-down drills and some call for armed teachers. FFS and WTF? These American children have had enough and they have my 100% support. We trudge along over here with the gun violence; the most obvious and easiest solution to mass murders is to get a handle on the guns. Federally, not by state discretion… but this conundrum is the quintessential impediment in US policy: ideology inserted into politics. Feds for some reason have become the ‘bad guy’.
Hope you’re feeling well…living in New Zealand is always an advantage on this earth. Living here is a continuing battle for reality, as you know.
These kids battling gun violence are amazing. I put a short video on the Heather’s Homilies Facebook page yesterday highlighting comments from people calling for their murder! It’s like an alternate reality. They will be this generation’s Civil rights and anti-war protesters, and they’ll make a difference. They’re going to shift the Overton window, and we could even see that stupid 2006 SCOTUS ruling being overturned.
Then there’s the general who resigned as a Fox News commentator last week because so many of their shows have become propaganda for Trump.
I think back to the election. My brother did his MBA at Yale, worked at Goldman Sachs before 9/11, and was a solid Republican (though socially liberal like most NZers). He hoped the Republicans would lose the election because they’ve lost the plot by nominating Trump. I notice there are more and more Republicans saying something similar. Hardly any Republicans were supporting the more reasonable John Kasich then, but his support is growing. Yesterday Arnold Schwarzenegger called for Kasich to start running for 2020 now. A change is coming because the extremists are going too far.
I have no quarrel with any of your choices. Also, as an English cricket fan I offer my heartiest congratulations to New Zealand on their victory, managing to surmount the weather (England were never in this match, but the weather certainly was) and emerge with a thoroughly deserved victory.
Thanks Thomas! It was certainly nice to win again after a depressing series of losses rerecently.