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    FRIDAY FOLLIES: Bachmann's Adios, Hitler Tea Kettle, Michigan Dreaming, and Scandalous Cheerios

     

    Michele Bachmann to leave Washington to spend more time with her "family".  Prompts the resurrection of FRIDAY FOLLIES.  (What?  Every Friday?  Uh. . .we'll see how it goes.)

    So Michele Bachmann is leaving her fancy, paid position as a Representative of Only Certain Teapartiers, One Percenters and Planetary Aliens.  She is not pulling a Palin--quitting--but will not seek re-election in 2014.  This is good news for some, but you will not be astonished to learn that there are still folks--Glenn Beck among them--who are wailing over the treatment of this poor, misunderstood Minnesotan.  If she had been given her due respect, she might well still be in congress years from now, maintaining her impeccable talk-silly, do-nothing record.

    But all is not lost.  She will be on the taxpayer dole until January, 2015, which should give her plenty of time to wow us with more of her wacky whoppers.



    I have nicely chosen not the worst pic of Michele Bachmann.  The worst of them are somewhere else on my blog.


    I guess you've heard that famous designer Michael Graves partnered with famous department store J. C. Penney and came up with the subversive idea of making and selling a tea kettle that looks like famous monster, Adolph Hitler.




    No, really.  Hitler.  You don't see it?  Sure you do! Look again.

     I'm not putting up a picture of Hitler, but if you look hard at that black dip on the handle, it'll begin to look like a long black bang swooshed to the side, and if you pretend the black rounded handle is a short, fat mustache, and then consider the spout as a raised arm signifying "Heil!", you will see what the mayor of Culver City, CA saw.  The mayor of Culver City saw Hitler up there on that billboard and he was furious!

    The execs at J.C. Penney may or may not have seen it, but they took the billboard down tout suite, and have removed any pictures of the offending tea kettle from their online catalogue--but not before they sold out those teakettles completely.  (No word yet on what Michael Graves thinks about all this but would I LOVE to be a fly on the wall at his studio right about now!  Still--they did sell out.  Completely.)

    So it's not just American icon J. C. Penney in hot water these days, now the Heart Healthy cereal, Cheerios, has done it, too.  The parent company, General Mills, actually thought a commercial featuring an adorable girl-child, the product of a clearly identifiable interracial couple, would be okay in the 21st Century.  Ha!  The racist ignoramii came out of the woodwork and spewed such crap the comments had to be disabled on YouTube.  It was as if they were just waiting for something like this.  Because, you know. . .
     

    Cheerios cutie


     

    The website Mothering Justice published an online newspaper called The Mackinac Chronicle the other day, and it was shocking.  It showed Michigan politicos in a light I hadn't seen since the days before a bunch of rich con men convinced a bunch of dumb yahoos that the way to be patriots was to usurp the words "Tea Party" and help the rich con men take over the country by obstructing any kind of forward movement, thereby encouraging the entire nation to just give up and become a wholly-owned, for-profit venture. 

     

     The headline read, "Lawmakers and Business Leaders:  Workers are at the Top of Our Agenda".  Atop the picture of two adorable minority kids the headline read:  "Kid's 'Sick-In' Softens Top Lawmakers Hearts".  The story below the fold promised, "After Visiting Actual School, MI GOP Leaders Reverse Stance on Key Education Issues."

    It was as if the long nightmare--the Siege of Michigan--was over and the duly-elected sell-outs had come to their senses and recognized the need to forget about those damned Koch Brothers and actually abide by their job descriptions.

    Could it be?????

    No, it couldn't.  Alas, it was a hoax.  A newspaper page showing The Way It Should Have Been.  A wake-up call and a damned funny one.  But, as I said. . .Alas.


    This next one isn't really funny and maybe shouldn't even be here, but it's disgusting in a weird way, so here it is:  The Chicago Sun-Times has laid off (read "fired") all of their staff photographers.  All of them.  All 28 full- and part-time staff, including at least one Pulitzer Prize-winner.  A big, big city newspaper with no staff photographers has to be a first anywhere in the world, even including those ignominious Third World countries we've pointed our fingers at so often throughout our own glorious past history.

    But apparently, here in 21st Century America--a century that will live in infamy--getting rid of talent to satisfy a bottom line preferring to service the no-talent CEOs at the top is becoming the accepted norm:

    The move to have reporters shoot video and photos while covering stories is a growing trend among television stations and newspapers, according to California-based media analyst Alan Mutter, who said quality may be sacrificed in the process.
    "We'll always have a lot of pictures — there will always be something between the articles — but will we have great photography, the memorable iconic images? Probably less so," Mutter said.

    So it's settled.  We've become a nation half full of idiots and instead of fighting them we're looking for new and better ways to pander to them.  Probably in hopes that we'll all become them someday.  All except that noteworthy Koch-addled One Percent.  They'll be in charge.

    Hey! Whoa!  Stop that!  Friday Follies is supposed to be FUN! (Enough with the exclamations already. That's my quota for the week, I swear.)


    Now for the Moment Sublime:

    Pencil drawings by Erica Rose Levine.  Scroll down her Facebook Page for more. (H/T to Jezebel, who wrote about her first.)
     

     

    And because I haven't done these for a while, here's another Moment Sublime.  The sidewalk art of Michigan's own David Zinn:
     


     

    Cartoon of the Week



    Mike Lukovich

     

    Crossposted at Ramona's Voices

    Comments

    Okay, I will start and probably come back.

    Michele has never ever been off of the public dole.

    She sees all these millions being generated by her ridiculous and false 'facts' coming out of her brainless mouth and millions being generated for the campaigns of others.

    Again, she is mentally ill.

    But you got me laughing. hahahaha

    The Hitler teakettle really got to me. hahahaha

    If I had a few extra bucks, I might have purchased a few and sent a couple to enemies of mine. hahahhah

    They sold out! hahahahah

    You got me laughing. 


    No pictures.  That is sad.  I guess every one in Chicago will have to make sure their phone has a camera to help the Sun-Times.  Jim Graves has decided not to run either in Michele Bachmann district.  He was only trying to get rid of her. 


    Wonderful weekly wrap-up, Ramona!  I love the artwork, it is indeed sublime.   And yeah, we have become a nation of idiots, and more than half, sadly,  but I think the sense is more of futility and an exhaustion from having to fight so hard just to remain in the same place.  Let's call it the "treadmill effect."

     

    P.S.  Ramona's Friday Follies and The Haikulodeon ... Fridays are fun at Dagblog!   :-)  


    Mr. Smith, you are much more consistent with your delightful Haikulodeon than I am with my Follies, so you are far more responsible (yes!) than I am for that Friday fun.

    "Treadmill effect" describes it beautifully, but when we're not standing still we're falling behind.  Can't let that happen again.  The fight is exhausting, yes, but they would get too much satisfaction out of seeing us quit.  Nobody wants to give them the satisfaction.

     

     


    Very nice collection, Ramona. But you left out what, for me anyway, is perhaps the greatest absurdity of the week: The signature treat at Wisconsin State Fair, the creampuff, will now be made by an Illinois company.

    They were formerly made by Golden Guernsey in Waukesha. A vulture capitalist group bought the profitable enterprise last year, sold off its assets, busted the union, and closed the plant. Apparently, there remains no other business in Wisconsin (America's Dairyland) that makes the iconic creampuff.

    Or is that IRONIC creampuff. It stands as a perfect example of just what's been happening in our state - and yours, too - wherein we are left to wonder if in fact anything will be left at all by the time the ALEC Vandals and the profit-takers who are now in charge are through with us.

    If I buy any creampuffs at all this year, it will be to warm up my pitching arm for the next time I happen to see the Governor. One in Walker's kisser would be perfect. If I could launch two on target? Sublime!


    Golden Guernsey has an 83-year legacy in the Milwaukee area. In 2011 the company was acquired by a Los Angeles private equity firm that shut down the operations suddenly in January and then sought Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection for the dairy operations.

    Missed the cream puff story.  Sad and infuriating.  Once the money people get their claws on their target companies--even those that are beloved institutions--there isn't a damned thing anyone can do about it.  Let's face it, we came very close to electing one of those proud vultures as president of our country.

    We're in an age of insanity and it's tough for those of us who are still sane to stand on the sidelines and watch this happen.  There used to be laws against usury, against vulture capitalism, against outright theft.  Now they're seen as signs of success.  Honesty and ethics are for losers.

     

    Also this.  Uh huh:

    The sale doesn't include a labor contract with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 695 that had represented the plant's employees. But Lifeway indicated it would like to hire former Golden Guernsey employees because they have the most knowledge of the dairy plant, according to Stanziale.

     

     


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