Well, the winter season is here, and it feels like I’m snowed in at a horror movie ski cabin full of lunatics, idiots and psychopaths. The door is blocked. There is no way out.
Listen–it’s Trump’s Freedom Kids, singing their patriotic little hymn again. Over here, USA! Over there, USA!
Hillary is at the party too. She is cackling at everyone’s jokes, wondering why nobody finds her likable.
Bernie and Trump are playing a game of I’ll do you one better. “I’ll make America great again!” “I’ll make America even better than America! I’ll make it Sweden!” “I’m gonna win!” Trump yells. “I’m gonna win!” Bernie mumbles.
“Neither one of you is going to win!” I want to say, but there’s too much clatter just outside the living room door. Out there, religious fanatics are beheading and shooting people, and blowing things up. Great. We’re going to have to bomb the kitchen and the pantry.
In the corner lurks the scariest person of them all, Ted Cruz. “You know why all this is happening? Because we’re weak,” he whispers in that smooth telemarketer tone of voice. “We need to become religious fanatics just like them, otherwise we’ll lose…”
I want to scream, I want to wake up from this nightmare, but I can’t, because this isn’t a dream. I really am stuck, spinning around on a blue marble with these crazies, unable to get off. When is the Mothership coming to pick me up? When are the snows going to melt? Please, let me out of here, preferably before my head explodes.
eurobrat 
01/21/2016 at 9:36 pm
Good script for a sci-fi movie. “I’ll make it Sweden” makes for an original plot 🙂
01/22/2016 at 8:28 pm
Thanks! Depending on who wins the White House, we may see a science fction movie acted out in real life (I’m mostly thinking of Trump here)…
01/23/2016 at 1:24 am
Traditional sci-fi pales in comparison…
01/24/2016 at 4:46 pm
Yes…unfortunately!
01/21/2016 at 9:43 pm
Completely understandable. Time for a walk, or a movie, or a trip to an exotic locale.. I was going to suggest Europe, but things aren’t much better over there. So exotic-better-where the language barrier means you’ll just have to enjoy your drink with the mini umbrella!!
01/22/2016 at 8:28 pm
Best. Suggestion. Ever. Yes, a tropical vacation would do the trick….
01/22/2016 at 5:04 am
Right there with you!
01/22/2016 at 5:05 am
Reblogged this on Praying for Eyebrowz and commented:
Really feeling this one today! Read more at eurobrat.wordpress.com.
01/22/2016 at 8:29 pm
Thank you so much, as always, for reblogging my posts…it is deeply appreciated!
01/23/2016 at 5:23 am
I’m a new fan of yours. I enjoy your style.
01/24/2016 at 4:45 pm
Well, thank you so much, capejohn! I will be sure to visit your blog as well 🙂
01/25/2016 at 2:30 pm
🙂
Agreed with the fellow commentators – time for some escapism! I for one am often turning to Hungry Babies Mania on my ipad these days, instead of news apps.
And of course writing a novel about a nice and beautiful world where everything is nice and happy – and how it should be 😉 It works!!!!
01/25/2016 at 7:56 pm
Ah, isn’t that why fiction is so wonderful 🙂 I agree though, finding an escape is a good idea…I find mine in terrible pop music!
01/31/2016 at 12:30 pm
Do I hear people whining about wanting some escapism? Escapism is exactly what got us where we are!
We’re always trying to “escape” the hard work/frustration of living in a democratic-ish society ruled by the Lowest Common Denominator. Perfectly understandable. Yes, the odd “fast” from the shit sandwich that’s modern life is certainly healthy. However…
The reality is that, for the overwhelming majority, “escapism” isn’t a healthy break. It’s a way of life. The fact is that 50% can’t even connect with the political system enough to vote once every 4 years! (Which itself is actually an embarrassingly low threshold for “participation”.) Escapism is the NORM, not just a “time out”, nor “a tasty dessert within the context of a healthy lifestyle.” Truth is, America is the guy who eats fried chicken and ice-cream at every single meal and still can’t understand why he’s an obese diabetic with rotten teeth. So to escape that reality, he opens a tub of ice cream to drown his sorrows.
Escapism may make you feel better, but it ultimately does more harm than good. It’s like the 50% who don’t vote. The business of life carries on without even the tiniest of input from them. It’s hardly surprising when those in power don’t represent them, but act against their interests. If you’re always going on vacation, one day you’ll come back and find squatters have taken over your house. The more we escape, the more it leaves the field wide open to the worst of us.
Case in point, in the 1980’s everyone wanted to escape the reality that America was in decline. Enter a lovable actor playing everyone’s favourite senile grandpa, Ronald Reagan. He promised that if you turned off your brain, he’d provide a Hollywood happy ending and everything would be flowers & unicorns. People put their brain in the “off” position….and most of them left it there permanently! As a result, shit got much worse and the train to Crazy-town picked up speed.
And while we’re in the 80’s, let’s check out what people were doing back then to escape…besides Bolivian Marching Powder.
1) Professional sports was nowhere near the mental anaesthetic of the male population that it is today. A small bunch of businessmen thought the market for macho escapism was large enough for a second pro-football league. The most outspoken franchise owner thought the demand was so large, the league should move their schedule from spring to fall and compete directly with the NFL. He was probably right, but just a few years too early. That mistake destroyed an otherwise decent league and sealed the NFL’s monopoly position on testosterone driven, escapist, fantasy. The NFL is now one of the most lucrative enterprise in America because it sells men the chance to escape their emasculating lives and pretend they’re macho warriors.
2) There was a hugely popular escapist TV show in the 80’s named Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous Big audiences tuned in every week for some “Champaign wishes & caviar dreams.” If I recall, the two most featured Rich & Famous folks were a vulgar arms dealer and an owner of the “classiest, most prestigious” resort hotels in the world. People dreamed that, one day, they might win the lottery and live like them. Curiously, lottery tickets & gambling rose tremendously in popularity in the 80’s, almost in concert with the decline in the American Dream.
3) Another popular escape of the day were game shows, where people “just like us” could win big money. In 1990, there was a card based game-show filmed in an Atlantic City Casino. The show’s name was a play on the casino owner’s name. He also ran escapist beauty pageants that let little girls pretend they could grow up to be as pretty
and smartas the contestants. It also allowed men to fantasizem but about something else entirely. (Hey, it was amazing what men did before Internet porn!)I’m hoping that some folks are clued in enough to realize….that all the above examples of 80’s escapism involved one particular “escape artist”. Not only that, his personal life gave 80’s news programs a great excuse to “escape” doing the depressing news and help them move toward a new “news” format, one that more closely resembled entertainment. They figured even people tuning in to watch the news wanted to escape from it.
Flash forward to today. That purveyor of escapist entertainment got filthy rich from helping people escape. In fact, he got his own “Reality” TV show, (a laughably escapist term itself). The show allows ordinary schmucks to fantasize about becoming his protégé (French for “apprentice”). This hawker of escapism…he became so rich & so famous, he had public stature to run for President in a nation where it costs billions to run and where most people can’t be bothered to pay attention. Just like the so called “news” did when they decided to report on his entertaining personal life decades earlier, he realized that even people choosing what people & policies should guide their lives…Well, he knew from 30 years of experience that most people would rather get some feel-good entertainment, than be forced to confront reality in the cold sober light of day.
Now, what was his name again? I forget. But I hear he’s doing well.
01/31/2016 at 5:41 pm
I know way too many who indeed are disconnected from the reality they live in…and don’t even want to know about it. However, I’m an active and involved person, and I have more than earned a temporary escape 🙂
02/01/2016 at 11:53 am
That would fall under the “tasty desert within the context of a healthy lifestyle” category…which is something only a very small minority of people can maintain. Those tasty deserts are soooo hard to put down. That’s how they get ya! Lots of destructive, addictive, habits start as a “reward” for good behaviour. One second you’re having harmless fun, the next you’re weighing 700lbs, lying unconscious in an alleyway with a needle in your arm, or worse yet…voting for Trump. 🙂
But seriously, writing the above “escapism” comment really did get me thinking about The Trump from another angle, a historical angle….as the supplier of escapist entertainment. He’s had 3 decades of experience at giving people entertaining distractions and has reaped billions from it. During that time, he (and a long list of others) have grown the demand for constant entertainment so large, EVERYTHING must come in an entertaining package, even news.
Today, Trump is using his vast experience and his talent as a salesman to succeed in a new venue, politics. He knows what we want, or at least respond to. He knows the majority of the population doesn’t want to think at all, even while making the single most important decision they’re allowed to make in our society. And it’s working! His shallow, entertaining approach is working because of decades of “groundwork” done by him and countless others.I think it’s a great example of “cause & effect”, or “appetite expectation”, where peoples’ appetites alter to demand more of whatever you feed them. (ie shit sandwiches)
We’re at the brink of generating a “feedback loop”. If this Trump clown gets in, or even gets close, kiss all aspects of “serious thought” left in this world goodbye forever.
02/01/2016 at 7:46 pm
“tasty dessert within the context of a healthy lifestyle”
Exactly! I’m a big believer in that philosophy–both when it comes to my food diet and my mind diet. The dessert is that much sweeter when it doesn’t happen all the time 🙂
As far as Trump goes, yes, we would be stuck with a grotesque form of entertainment if he won the presidency. However, he only represents a percentage of one political party’s support and I’ve read that he has the highest unfavorability ratings of any candidate. So, we’ll see what his chances look like in the general election.
02/02/2016 at 2:52 pm
Maybe, but he still can shoot a man in the middle of 5th Ave and still poll just as high! 🙂
Trump may represent 30-something% of the party and the other 60-something% may hate him. But the same could be said about Romney and he got the nomination. And once you get the party nomination, especially the Republican party’s, you got nearly every Republican voter. They may not be smiling about it, but still. Does anybody seriously think they’ll vote for a woman or a socialist???? No!
In an era where voters are firmly entrenched in one of 2 fairly equally sized parties for life, the Presidential final is about winning the 5-ish% who vote, but still have no idea what party suits them best. (Just who you want to decide the future of the nation!) Democrats will be chasing that 5% and will get most of it.
But nobody goes after the 50% who never vote. Trump is the kind of guy who has a following with the non-voting 50%. Even though he may lose in that 5%, I think Trump can make that up (or more) in the non-voting 50%. Look at Obama. He drew in just a small percentage of the non-voting 50% and won because of it. Trump is the only Republican who can draw in non-voters. Trump has to be stopped by Republican Primary voters, or he could win.
But even without even seeing last night’s results…whether he becomes President Trump, or was last place in Iowa & drops out, matters only slightly. The damage has already been done. He’s kicked down the door for more Trumpism to enter. The mere fact Trump has been taken seriously as a Candidate for so long has legitimized……..I was going to say “what he stands for” but I can’t even write that without throwing up….
You get the idea.
02/03/2016 at 9:03 pm
It will be certainly very interesting to see what happens from here. Whether or not the door is open to future Trumpism probably depends on how far Trump’s own campaign goes. If it implodes in the first couple of primary states, then it’ll end up being shown as a failure. If he actually gets nominated, it’ll be amazing to watch conservatives line up behind a guy who has come out in support of single payer health care and abortion in the past….but line up behind him they will.
02/01/2016 at 8:13 am
I think you misunderstood a little bit, the comment referred to not spending too many hours pr. day reading political news.
02/01/2016 at 10:32 am
Yeah, I should specify that I don’t think any of those apathetic, disconnected people can be found among my blog commenters! If anything, we’re all a little too obsessed… and can use a little break! No kidding…
Date: Mon, 1 Feb 2016 16:13:58 +0000 To: missvixiev@hotmail.com
02/01/2016 at 11:03 am
:))
More confusion, maybe! I meant that “Sedate Me” misunderstood the comment – not you!! 😀 But maybe you were agreeing and indeed supporting my little clumsy effort at clarifications!!
02/01/2016 at 12:05 pm
Yes, I was agreeing with you 🙂 I did realize that your comment was meant for Sedate Me…we’re all confused today! Happy Iowa Caucus Day!
Date: Mon, 1 Feb 2016 19:03:39 +0000 To: missvixiev@hotmail.com
02/01/2016 at 1:00 pm
Actually, I didn’t mean to post my comment in a direct response to you at all. It was supposed to be a stand alone comment only mildly playing off of yours. Not putting it in its intended place was just one of my all-too-common “Internet accidents”. Sorry about that. (Shit, did I just apolojizzle?)
However, your comment did get me thinking about Trump and his career of providing escapist entertainment and that he’s now capitalizing on the demand for escapism he helped foster in us. Harvesting the seeds he sewed.
But now that you’ve clarified your comment, you’re right. What cynically calls itself “news”, particularly political news, is not something you want to pay much attention to…if any at all. It tends to warp one’s mind, get you caught up in the drama and make you lose proper perspective. The best approach is, as they say, “Get in. Get out.”
News is now really just entertainment cloaked in importance, rather than something that’s actually important. Everything is so dramatized and over-hyped (ie every story has theme music now). Especially considering virtually NOTHING gets done in Washington anymore! Rather than present informative, fact-based, news from around the world, everything has to fit a “narrative” in a narrative intended to appeal to the audience. It’s all drama & sport. Very little of it is a “public service” anymore.
For example….Like all elections now, the 2016 election will be nothing more than a horse-race. As I expected, for all of 2015, we’ve been stuck watching the utterly meaningless pre-game hype for this horse-race. Once the Starting Gate finally opens in Iowa, the announcers will switch from pointless speculation to actual play-by-play. What goes on will finally start to matter, but it will always be covered passively and as entertainment.
As such, there will be loads of holograms and #meaninglessbullshits to generate excitement & emotional involvement. However, there will be as few facts and policy discussions as possible. And what little there is will always be framed to fit a narrative. (ie “Candidate X is dropping off the pace”, “Immigration is a winner for Y”, “Z is unlikeable with virgin voters” “Who is C’s man banging now?”)
Again, I didn’t mean to point any of that at you.
01/26/2016 at 3:04 am
Pretty scary, I see a replay of George W only seriously scary…
01/31/2016 at 6:03 pm
Agreed! And I remember all the people who said there wouldn’t be a difference between a Bush vs. Gore presidency…well, there certainly was a difference, wasn’t it? Trump and Cruz cannot be allowed to win!! Thanks for reading and commenting.
02/01/2016 at 1:12 pm
Maybe. But there was very little difference between Candidate Bush & Candidate Gore. I don’t blame anybody for voting for somebody else. If I had a vote, I would have.
Other than one candidate’s brain being damaged by decades of drug & alcohol abuse, I think the biggest difference was that one candidate had a brother in charge of the Ballot Box in the most important race in the country. In the end, that’s all that mattered.
Bush 2016! 😉
02/01/2016 at 7:41 pm
I would hope that anyone with a modicum of intelligence could have guessed that there would be a big difference between them after they were elected. But many voters are not that practical, unfortunately. We’re in danger of making the same mistake now….
02/02/2016 at 3:02 pm
For several different reasons, I think the days of substantial “in-office” differences between Presidents are all but gone. This is made worse by the fact that nobody can get anything done in Congress.
If Obama is indicative of anything, we can’t really expect much in the way of difference anymore. He came in sounding like an entirely different species from BushCo. But in the end, we mostly got more of the same, but with friendlier service.