As I was away for a couple of days, I didn’t even get to vote in Round Two of ‘Third Month Mania’, let alone post about it. However, bullshit never sleeps. As we vote is this year’s ‘Third Month Mania – Bracket of Bullshit’, we’re getting new bullshit every day, especially from the Trump Conference. The Everyone Else Conference isn’t exactly falling behind though. Putin winning Russia’s “free and fair” presidential election in a landslide challenges anything Trump could come up with.
I thought I’d notice the results via my notifications from The Daily Show. We don’t get The Daily Show in New Zealand, so the only bits I see are the clips they post online. However, it appears the results of Round One weren’t put in an online video, which means I didn’t see them. So, we’re straight into Round Three today.
Still, it does mean there are fewer clips to wade through!
Here are Michael Kosta and Roy Wood Jr introducing Round Three:
Bracket of Bullshit
Trump Conference: Division I
1. The first match-up includes the bullshit that I think will be the overall winner. That is, Trump’s claim about the size of his inauguration crowd being bigger than Obama’s. (I bet he’s had private investigators trying to find out the size of Obama’s dick too, in the hope he could shame him. Clearly Obama’s is bigger or we would have heard the results. ???? )
Of course, my vote went to the “Best Inauguration Crowd Ever” bullshit. Surely even Trump’s closest allies didn’t believe that Comey got the sack for being too tough on Hillary, though that piece of bullshit certainly deserves to have made it this far.
2. The other two loads of bullshit in the first division of the Trump Conference are also clear winners from earlier rounds. I can’t remember which of these I voted for. Both are pretty bad. I suspect it was Puerto Rico as that hurt, and is continuing to hurt, real people. (I know I should’ve written my votes down, but I didn’t.)
Everyone Else Conference: Division I
3. Paul Ryan got my vote here. The evil he perpetuates, and is continuing to plan, against those who need help the most, is beyond disgusting. He’s like a candidate for the Anti-Christ with his benign smile and baby face as he destroys lives.
4. Hannity got my vote in the first round, but he’s not worthy of any more attention in my opinion. The situation with the Parkland students is another one that’s a disgrace. I want to support what they and other high school students are doing, so they get my vote.
Trump Conference: Division II
5. The choice here was pretty easy. “Very Fine People on Both Sides” got my vote. As I said last time, I suspect even most of Trump’s supporters didn’t believe that the Republican Tax Bill was bad for Trump.
Some will remember I wrote a couple of posts about Charlottesville. I’m not sure I support statues being destroyed, although the history of how many of the statues in the US south were erected is dubious to say the least. However, if I went to protest statues being removed and found that the protest had been taken over by white supremacists, there is no way I would stay. I would expect halfway decent people to leave. You CANNOT be a good person and march with white supremacists. Therefore, there were NOT “very fine people on both sides,” whatever Trump says. That’s bullshit.
6. My vote here went to Trump’s claim that Obama tapped his phone. His claim that he would be a hero is more about his insecurities than anything else. If he wasn’t such an awful man I’d feel sorry for him.
Everyone Else Conference: Division II
7. My vote went to the revolting Bill O’Reilly. (I just wish I got $32 million for being a victim of abuse. It would almost make it worthwhile. Of course, like most people, the social climate meant I didn’t even say anything at the time.)
I didn’t vote for Wells Fargo in the first round, so I’m not going to start now. What they did is completely outrageous, and I don’t know how they got away with it for so long. And the Republicans think banking regulations in the US need loosening!
8. The Mike Pence NFL game walkout was one of the most disgraceful pieces of political theatre I’ve ever seen. And imagine what the taxpayers money spent on the trip could have been used for. (A 10% deposit on Trump going to one of his golf resorts for the weekend, for example!) So that’s where my vote went. Hopefully, no one is stupid enough to believe Tucker Carlson’s claim that the US ended slavery.
There are only three days to get your votes in. Hopefully I won’t miss the next round. Go here to put your own votes in. Just click on the pic of Trump’s inauguration crowd, and it will take you to the first match up.
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“Bullshit never sleeps.” Well said!
I said I wasn’t going to play the game, but I’ve been sucked in, and my votes tally with yours.
It is difficult to decide, we agree that the inauguration crowd size is probably going to win, but it’s present ‘sparring-partner’ would be a worthy winner too. After all, Mr Trump incriminated himself by admitting that he fired Mr Comey because the latter did not want to end the Russia probe. I mean, much of this bullshit is so outrageous.
In a sense I disapprove of this competition, for several reasons.
1 – We know who’s going to win: Mr Trump. The non-Trump contenders do not stand a chance.
2 – Pegging his bullshit one one ridiculous tweet does not do him justice. There is so much more. This is one thing Mr Trump is really good at. Would a ‘tableau’ of his asinine inanities not be better?
3 – Related to 2, the choices are too difficult. Whichever way you vote, you think it is unfair to the losing tweet.
That being said, I still enjoy it.
*I mean, that one deserves at least a silver medal, but will be eliminated before the ‘semi-finals’
Yeah, I feel that way about the Comey tweet too. In many ways, it should be the winner. It’s certainly a far more dangerous lie.
And the problem with Trump is not the odd lie, it’s that there are so many of them, and his lies change reality for so many, including himself. People believe him. He’s good at lying. Many of his lies are also dangerous, which goes without saying.
I don’t think this competition trivialises them though there’d be a danger of that if this was the only politics on the show. Just the fact that it’s Trump vs Everyone Else exposes how bad Trump is. Like many comedians, Trevor Noah does a great job of exposing Trump every day. In many ways the comedians are doing a better job than some of the hard news reporters. That was especially true in the run up to the 2016 election. They’re another factor in the Clinton loss.
My oh my (‘lordy’ as Mr Comey would say), the Australian team was caught ball tampering. The youngest player, Cameron Bancroft was caught on camera working the ball with a piece of sandy sticky tape, and later hiding it in his trousers. Apparently there was collusion: captain Steve Smith, vice-captain David Warner, and senior players Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazelwood and Mitchell Starc had been discussing it during the break. Bancroft volunteered to carry it out.
The once so proud Australian team has sunk low in it’s desperation. ‘Sad’.
In NZ we’re calling it “the lowest point in Australian cricket since the underarm incident.” And so it is. It’s a disgrace – just not cricket! It’s like no one had the moral fortitude to say, “This is wrong.” Winning at any cost – a very Trumpian attitude! Sad, indeed!
A small detail that I find most despicable (after all, ball tampering to varying degrees is as old as cricket, although this degree is kinda very blatant), is that the ‘leading group’ of players saw fit to task the youngest player to carry out the ‘felony’. It reeks of cowardice.
I think that the whole business was instrumental in the monumental loss, by 322 runs (more than any of their innings), of Australia in this 3rd test of the 4 test series. Most of the Ozzies looked like whipped dogs in their second innings.
Smith and Warner stripped of their respective captaincy and vice-captaincy is -I fear- but the beginning of the repercussions.
I’m still kinda ‘shellshocked’, who would have thought that Steve Smith and the other ‘seniors’, all honourable men, would turn to cheaters? The collusion angle of it, so sordid.
The unexpected part of it reminds me of Hansie Cronje, the ‘gentleman cricketer’, who turned out to be a sell-out, throwing away matches for money from bookies. My Sri Lankan neighbour refused to believe it, and when it became clear it was true, she blamed the Indian bookies, saw him as a victim.
The underarm incident in 1981 (nearly 4 decades ago) was, however, not illegal at the time, although very much ‘not cricket’. How great was the chance NZ would have hit a 6 from the last ball? Deeply disgraceful indeed!
I mean -referring to the ‘underarm incident’- what is worse, a defeat or being painted as cowards for decades? Greg Chappel later admitted it was wrong and that he was exhausted and not fit to be captain at that moment.
Still waiting for such a statement from Mr Trump, isn’t there anu moment he has a shimmering of a realisation he is totally unfit to be POTUS?
Except he’s more confident than ever. That’s why he’s cleaning house imo. He knew he wasn’t really up to it to start with, but now he thinks he’s got the job sussed. He’s growing in confidence, which is really scary!
I remember one of the reasons many thought Hansie Cronjie couldn’t be guilty was that he was a Good Christian. He was a really nice guy, and I was shocked to discover what he’s done. It didn’t see to fit with his character at all.
I agree with what you say about the Aussies. All the senior players were confident enough in the way the others would react that they discussed cheating quite openly amongst themselves, which I think says a lot. There’s been an attitude in Aussie cricket for some time, and there needs to be a clean out. Remember the attitude of Shane Warne for example. He was an amazing bowler, but a complete a$$ho£€.
And yes, it’s extremely unlikely Brian McKechnie would have got a 6. There had already been a couple of umpiring decisions in that match that were dodgy – see the Wikipedia entry of the incident: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underarm_bowling_incident_of_1981
Even now. Australia hadn’t played NZ at 20-20 for about ten years until this year because we’re really good at it and they knew they couldn’t beat us. They played this year because they had a team good enough that they were sure they could beat us.
Strangely enough NZ dropped quite a bit in the T20 rankings, they are fourth now after Pakistan, Australia and India. Right after they were No 1 after beating Pakistan. I do not have a clear view of how these rankings are calculated, ‘the calculator’s ways are impenetrable’.
They are also 4th in the test rankings, after India , South Africa and Australia, but the difference is not great. 104 v 100 points. I suppose that after SA beats OZ in the fourth test (I confident prediction), they might overtake OZ at the third place. But as sasid the calculations of these rankings are a bit obscure.
In the ODI’s they are also 4th, after India, South Africa and England.
At present they look to be consistently 4th, regardless of the teams ranked higher. And we like consistency in cricket, now don’t we? 🙂
[Note that in the last series between India and SA, the win in the tests (2-1) was not enough to take the first place from India, while the dismal SA’n loss of 5-1 was enough for SA to lose their no 1 spot]
I also note that -sadly- Sri Lanka is dropping. They have not recovered from the simultaneous retirement of their 2 top world-class batsmen (Sangakkara and Jayawardene) and the more spread loss of some of their top world-class bowlers (Vaas, Muralitharan and Malinga). I personally think that Muralitharan was even a greater spinner than Warne (and that is a reference). but I diverge….
NZers like being #1 of course when we can manage it. Personally I’m not too worried as long as we’re ahead of Australia!
I think you’ll win the next test too. If it’s by a big margin, that will drop Aus’s points I think.
If Australian cricket had any decency, they’d take the captain out altogether, along with some of the other senior players. After that press conference, he should have been removed completely too imo. To go back on the field was wrong. Not being named captain means virtually nothing. I bet he still participated in tactics, decision making etc.
In the test here, the English fans keep waving little bits of yellow tape. It’s hilarious! They’re loving seeing Aus exposed, and so are most of the players. Apparently there’s no respect for Aus in the cricketing community because of the way they play the game.
Yes, Hansie Cronje and Steve Smith, they were so much the gentlemen, honarouble men, we thought (I never thought of Hansie’s Christianity as a factor for or against, most South Africans are Christians, and in my experience being a Christian or not has little import on ethics anyway).
Who is next? Who is the most honourable gentleman in cricket nowadays? Quinton de Cock?, Kane Williamson? (luckily Brendon Mc Cullum has retired, I was -still am- great fan of him). Ross Taylor? Eoin Morgan? Angelo Matthews? Jason Holder? If Smith and Cronje, who not? You get the feeling.
Not Ross Taylor. It’s irrelevant to his cricket or how he plays the game, but there’s a sex tape of him and his partner. (I don’t know if she’s still his partner.) It was all entirely consensual – they were both into filming themselves at it. I don’t remember much about it, or how it got out, because it was ages ago. So there’s a wee blot in his copybook.
Btw, I think religion has nothing to do with ethics either. I was just repeating what was said. I do remember Cronjie initially using his Christianity as a defence – saying he’d never do what he was accused of because of it. Although I was still a Christian myself at the time, that was when I began to doubt him. Ime, as soon as someone uees the religion defence, it’s a sign they’re guilty.
I have to go with the school shooting with Trump running in. I’m pretty certain he would not go into a Kitchen if someone saw a mouse in there. The guy with at least as many deferments from serving in the military as Cheney, unless he killed someone with his mouth I don’t see any other action taking place. He may decide to serve as his own lawyer so the size of the fool is simply huge.
‘Bone-spurs’ summarises it nicely.