Friday, December 18, 2015

Paul Ryan

His eyes read, "I'm doomed." They do. He can buff up all he wants, his body knows he's doomed.


Sanpaku, "three eyes" there are two types, one, I've gone daft, and two, I'm doomed. Ryan's type. All photos of Ryan, not just this one are like this. His face honestly conveys what his body knows about all the things bearing on him that his mind believes he is handling and throughout all that his body says, "I am done for."

And he is.

It's very odd. The whole thing is odd. The political situation so bizarre it's untenable. Civil war in slow motion across the country so slow that its wave breaks over Washington like this omnibus package. Paul Ryan rides the crest of that wave to high office then abruptly turns against it for a "clear slate," worst of all reasons for his base, that gives opponents all that they want to avoid the fight that from the base's point of view he was elevated to wage. He failed them. And they're not in the mood for excuses. He does this when the base is in prolonged turnover mood.

A way to understanding is bizarrely inappropriate too. From the East, not even our system of understanding. We don't look at eyes like this, but once you do it's quite impossible to ignore.

41 comments:

AllenS said...

Hey, Ryan you need to shave. You will never be Aaron Rodgers.

bagoh20 said...

Our problem is not the congressmen - they are the symptom. The press, the pundits, the comedians, and consequently the voters panic over the government losing any money, reducing it's size, or even taking some time off. Thanks to electing Obama, any remedial action always leads to "shutting down the government", which to me sounds glorious, but to most sounds like a disaster, which is always the Republican's fault. People don't seem to realize that the last shutdown didn't cause any problems that weren't manufactured for political purposes, and besides, the government shuts down all the time for holidays, weekends, political campaigns, etc. No disaster. The disasters happen mostly from government being hard at work.

ricpic said...

Well, I don't know. I can't read much intro his face. But then I think humans are pretty unreadable.... until they open their mouths.

The one thing I do know is that the landslides handed the Republicans in 2010 and 2014 sent an unmistakable message: Stop Obama! Republicans can't honestly claim the message wasn't clear. They just don't want to stop him or stop their fellow statists in the Democrat Party. Ergo this Omnibus Monstrosity.

Chip Ahoy said...

Politics really is downstream from culture, and in this case the deepest pit, the lowest most important political place where the thickest slowest reside and run things who fancy themselves finest, the swamp where things flow slowly as through a sponge.

See Whigs. It is a VERY interesting page. Short and sweet just how I like 'em.

And I look back at that American History CLEP exam counted for two full semesters. That's an entire year. The college bookstore is right there where I'm at. I go in and buy their textbook for the class I didn't take. Read the book cover to cover in two nights and I was totally blown away at how interesting American history is. I knew all the presidents, their secretary of states, the things that happened during the administrations, how all the pieces fit in that I learned about earlier, the impressive timeline, the amazing phenomena of the whole enterprise. Breathtaking. Took the exam. Aced it. Ate sushi for reward.

But none of that made clear precisely who the Whigs were, their reason for being, their very brief existence, their brilliant impact, their eventual uselessness nor why. None of that made clear why Whigs disappeared. It's all told in a sentence. And that's not good enough.

Because now we're living the same thing. Precisely.

It is an amazing time to be alive and witness. We are seeing the precise same shift. Maybe they'll retain the name, but Republican party will be a different entity one way or another. Pressure meter says so.

He acquiesced to avoid a fight, to fit in, to have things smooth, to NOT begin with a fight, to start out with a clean slate by giving Democrats, everything they ever asked for!

You don't feed the dragon you were sent to slay.

If I were Republican and if I put him in office then he would go. Just like that.

But he's from that unfathomable place at sea level. No comprendemos le vous. We're up here where the clouds go sailing by in every direction and sometimes at once. Speaking of clouds.

I've been studying them. Sunrise, sunset, and in between. It's an interesting pursuit. On Photobucket gallery page thumbnails of time-lapses all play at once and it's trippy as living in a real life collide-o-scope. Maybe you can't see it. I don't know. I wish you could. Because it's TRIPPY. All the anims are there playing at once but time-lapses of clouds are taking over temporarily.

Maybe, if you care to, go to one of them, then click the icon to go up a layer to the gallery. But only if you want to. Only if there is a faint interest detected in such things as monumental masses of water sailing overhead continuously and available to literally rain down destruction upon you at the vaguest of signals. So close you can touch them. And attractive besides being terribly interesting as shifting forms but other than that of little to no practical value.

bagoh20 said...

It takes a lot of prodding to get these people to do what is really a brave thing. They are convinced that it's only a distinct minority that wants them to take those scary steps. They may be right, even if they are underestimating it. I don't know. I see some unusual people looking for real change out here, but I think it scares them too. Besides these congressman have no idea how to do what we want - it's not part of the culture. It's like expecting the people at Microsoft to start making stuff that works right.

Sent from my PC with Windows 8.1.

Aridog said...

ricpic ... you said "Omnibus Monstrosity" and that's what it is...NOT a real budget. We've had not a real budget for 7 years going on 8 and CR's are nothing but licenses to steal. The money is all lumped together. I worked hard to submit real budget figures when in DOD...and that seems to be a lost effort these days. Why did I bother? Just because I guess. This omnibus CR is pure crap and how many people realize it? We've got a conservative, allegedly, Congress and Senate...so what's going on? Can you feel the hand in your pocket as your wallet is pilfered? Soon, if you do not, you will have an empty wallet. That's as certain as sunrise.

This situation today scares the crap out of me, technically...but I'm so old it may not matter :-)

Dust Bunny Queen said...

I find this lack of interest in doing anything that the voters are screaming for them to do, incomprehensible.

Either they can't hear the voters or are deliberately not listening. Elect me and I will do XXXX.....once elected, it is as if they suddenly have forgotten everything they promised to try to do. Basically, I'm in office now...screw you voters!

There is really really going to be Hell to pay and the RINOs are going to be amazingly surprised when they come out of their coma.

bagoh20 said...

If you spend your time here or at conservative sites, you think everyone wants cuts and downsizing of the government, but the other side of the opinion world, which is larger numerically, is saying just the opposite. They want every problem real, potential, or merely imagined to be solved by government, so obviously it needs to be bigger, spend more, tax more and do more. God forbid that you would hold it back. Are you crazy or just a racist hater? It's like another planet, and they are louder than us, they are well funded and connected, as well as cute, famous, and fun to be with.

Aridog said...

bagoh20 ... it is precisely that shallowness that scares me. "Cute, famous,(??) and fun to be with"...yeah, that's the ticket. Government, as you say, will never solve the problems of government. Yes, I must be a "hater" ... what else can I be?

Trooper York said...

The Rhinos want to do whatever they can do to help elect Trump.

The can't help themselves.

edutcher said...

I saw him trying to weasel about how he doesn't like the "process".

133 Rs voted for this and everyone of them (mine, included) needs to be primaried good and hard.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

I find this lack of interest in doing anything that the voters are screaming for them to do, incomprehensible

One of the know-it-alls on Insta jumped all over me when I brought up blackmail as one of the possible reasons (there are other, God knows), but can anybody, remembering how the Ozark Mafia used the FBI files on House Rs that magically materialized in Hillary!'s bedroom to destroy several key members in the impeachment of Willie, rule it out with all the NSA data undoubtedly in the hands of the Choom Gang?

bagoh20 said...

If you spend your time here or at conservative sites, you think everyone wants cuts and downsizing of the government, but the other side of the opinion world, which is larger numerically,

Is it, really? Or is it just what the polls say?

Methadras said...

You know, I keep hearing the refrain of "Well, this is the cards we were dealt." Well, if that's the case, then you guys are the worst fucking card players on the fucking earth

Meth,there were people who said that, because it had the votes to pass, what was the point of voting "No".

These are the people, as much as the pure sell-outs and the ones more eager to destroy Trump (or Cruz or Carson or Rand or the Tea Party), who have got to go.

PS Good work, Chip. Interesting reading, especially all the compromises, isn't it?

Amartel said...

THESE are the people who are burning it (the GOP, the entire country) to the ground. All by themselves without any help from the Tea Party, disaffected conservatives, TrumpFan, etc.

Unknown said...

Harry Reid is the serpent in the dc garden of good and evil.

Titus said...

Rubio the RINO missed the vote.

Cruz and Paul voted no.

Unknown said...

Didn't think Ryan could make me miss boner.

ampersand said...

Everyone knew what Ryan was when they elected him speaker and that includes the conservative caucus. If they were serious they would have elected someone outside congress.
There were two effective Republicans recently, Reagan and Gingrich. As much as the GOPe flaps their gums praising Reagan they didn't want him in then or now. Gingrich was given the bums rush at the first opportunity.

chickelit said...

You can't hide your Ryan eyes
And your smile is a thin disguise
I thought by now you'd realize
There ain't no way to hide your Ryan eyes

edutcher said...

Titus said...

Rubio the RINO missed the vote.

Cruz and Paul voted no.


That says it all, almost.

Rubio didn't miss it; he was hiding from it.

So much for the Great Whig Hope.

bagoh20 said...


"Didn't think Ryan could make me miss boner."

He is dreamy.


It's FRIDAYYYYYYYY!!!!!

Trooper York said...

Are you kidding me.

He looks like Eddie Munster all grown up.

Trooper York said...

It just goes to prove that one essential axiom.

You can never trust anyone from Wisconsin. Just sayn'

bagoh20 said...

It proves that proper capitalization can be important.

Chip Ahoy said...

And that furrowed knitted brow of deep concern in this photo. I imagined Anderson Cooper has that trademarked. Such gravitas. Such crushing weight bearing upon his soul, he, the epicenter of two waring factions. Ryan, you are our nation's only hope, he hears with the ears in his mind.

Chip Ahoy said...

Know what else is a bummer?

My clear ice experiment involving an unsightly plastic cooler on the terrace keeps melting due to global climate change's little brother, el niño, freeze thaw, freeze, thaw, freeze, thaw, freeze, thaw, freeze, thaw, see the problem I'm having? It's like a pattern or something.

I need the ice to freeze from the top down. For perfection, it should be slowly to allow air bubbles to be pushed downward as water crystals form instead of around them, but I don't care about that part. I like air bubbles. I'm trying to eliminate clouded areas.

This will be like a lake with protected sides and bottom. All the water will not freeze, just the top. The top removed and chipped into pieces for clear ice in irregular chipped shapes. Real caveman like except unclouded and perfect.

Why do this?

I do not know. I don't understand myself sometimes.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

At some point, Republican voters will finally have no other choice but to wake up and face the fact that the American people are not as far to the right as they are.

Regarding spending, the American people want to keep their programs and (as a secondary consideration) they'd like to decrease the debt.

Of course, there aren't many ways to do this but it can be done. Only by electing a Democrat, though.

The Republicans are simply too beholden to their donors and lobbyists, and Trump knows that.

But the rest of them, including the crowd here, will keep clamoring to ignore that glaring inconsistency.

Everything else they notice is wrong: The poor budgeting, the dishonesty of having to kiss ass all day, the disconnect that connects with regular folks. And even the perils of proliferate interventionism. And more of them are in love with the only guy on their side who gets that.

But they still don't come around to accepting the glaring problem at the center of it - Lobbying.

The enemy has to be the government, even when the job is figuring out who you're going to vote to head up to lead it. Nope, the problem can never be a party that is more in love with a system of graft than the altruism of doing away with it. It's the government itself.

Ok, then accept the magnitude of the problem and the fact that almost no Republican will do away with it. If the government is your permanent enemy - by definition, then the only solution is not voting. Not pretending that you're going to get a "good guy" installed at the helm of your enemy. That's as stupid as a Jew trying to find the right Nazi to vote for. Surely if the Third Reich had the right guy in charge of it, things would have been better. Perhaps if al Qaeda or ISIS just had the right people in charge of it, America would have less of a headache and hassle.

Just stop voting. You are making yourself a part of your enemy. And worsening it horrendously, I might add.

chickelit said...

Just stop voting.

I'd rather vote for Trump.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

You can vote for Trump. But if your only answer to plutocracy is to simply vote for plutocrats, rather than for altruists or idealists or just plain principled lovers of democracy, then good luck with that.

Aridog said...

R & B ...any vote of mine for Trump would be against Hillary...if that is the case, which is not a certainty. I'm still listening and reading the others in the race. I'd not vote for Hillary under any conditions, even though I lean Democrat at times (was one for most of my life)...even a garden slug would be better. Hillary is not a "Democrat" she's a mendacious wench of the first order. How she's captured the "clan" befuddles me.

bagoh20 said...

"Regarding spending, the American people want to keep their programs and (as a secondary consideration) they'd like to decrease the debt.

Of course, there aren't many ways to do this but it can be done. Only by electing a Democrat, though."


You must be a recent Yale graduate?

Conservatives aren't dumb enough to think their guys can fix this because of the letter after their name.

bagoh20 said...

What Democrat is talking about decreasing the debt, because every single Republican is at least talking about it. They talk about destroying ISIS too, soo...

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

The Democratic party is no less split than the Republicans. Moreso, even. I never realized it, but Hillary illustrates it better than anyone. She's the wing represented by Boss Tweed, if you want to be generous. If you want to be less generous - George Wallace. I never knew this about them and it illustrates my own blind spots - but no use denying it any longer. Bernie Sanders has brought out a revolt in the party greater than Ron Paul did with Republicans. Sanders will fight for what should have always been the true ideals, but were lost between the corruption of LBJ through slick Willie. RFK would have been great, though. Another Bernie/FDR decent, honest progressive. Hillary is just about identity politics and power - as nakedly revealed as ever before - and her support reveals just how blind and power hungry and elitist and conventional a base for her and her types exists within the Democratic party. It's nauseating to me but at least now we can see it and hopefully deal with it.

If she wins, I guess she'd be like the Democratic Nixon. Nixon wasn't all bad as far as records go, but his character mostly was.

As far as not being a "Democrat" though, you're right. She was brought up in a Republican party and those tribal assignments are hard to break. Why she changed affiliations is not clear to me. Apparently she liked MLK but I never heard a strong and convincing explanation from her on this. The easiest assumption is that she defines herself primarily through the "identity" "made" by her sex organs and saw within the Democrats a stronger ally for her feminism and obnoxious, narcissistic ideology of feminist supremacy. Her law professor detailed how uncontrolled she was during the Watergate hearings.

As best I can tell, her supporters don't usually come across as nasty, but pragmatic. They think she's their best shot to winning (or power) and as far as anyone can tell the polling proves them right.

But she's as much a phony as she is an asshole and I pity anyone who can't see that through her psychotic grin.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

"Of course, there aren't many ways to do this but it can be done. Only by electing a Democrat, though."

You must be a recent Yale graduate?


I'm just someone who isn't ignorant of the political history of the country in whose elections I vote.

Conservatives aren't dumb enough to think their guys can fix this because of the letter after their name.

They're self-defeating and absurd enough though to think that they're the ones best positioned to fix problems with the implement that they claim must always be permanently broken.

Democrats almost consistently bring debt down. Republicans ever since Reagan almost consistently raise it.

But because they make more noise about it, and sow more fear about it, they think they're the ones who will do eliminate it.

Of course, they're just exemplifying the flaws of their own philosophy. Things get worse when government pays attention to a problem, so they say. So by fear mongering about debt and campaigning to get elected on the platform of wanting to do something about it, they're doomed to fail. According to their own view.

By Republican reasoning, a government committed to reckless debt spending is the only one bound by fate to decrease it - because the government must always fail at what it tries to do. So if you want to do away with the debt, elect someone committed to increasing it, as they will fail and cause the reverse to occur.

At least, that's what should happen if Republican thinking is correct. ;-)

edutcher said...

Rhythm and Balls said...

At some point, Republican voters will finally have no other choice but to wake up and face the fact that the American people are not as far to the right as they are.

Presidents Stevenson, McGovern, Humphrey, Mondale, Kerry, and Gore might disagree.

Democrats almost consistently bring debt down. Republicans ever since Reagan almost consistently raise it.

No, Republicans kick the economy into gear, so the debt gets paid down. They also have to restore defense spending since the Demos think buying votes is more important than keeping the country safe.

Democrats say they balance the budget, but it's always in the out years.

And I do recall a guy named Roosevelt who did a real job on the debt.

You can vote for Trump. But if your only answer to plutocracy is to simply vote for plutocrats, rather than for altruists or idealists or just plain principled lovers of democracy, then good luck with that.

We're talking Pissy here, I take it.

chickelit said...

Trooper York said...

Are you kidding me. He looks like Eddie Munster all grown up.

Don't forget that Edward Wolfgang Munster was supposed to be a werewolf. This was played up more in the unaired The Munsters pilot. Butch Patrick played the character more as a little vampire.

Aridog said...

Just so no one misunderstands my "mendacious" remark about Hillary...she's a liar of the first rank and can look you in the eye and lie, even when she knows, for sure, you know she's lying. Nothing is a worse insult. When caught up, she cackles. Hey, lady, it is not funny. While in DOD had I done 1/10th of her egregious foibles, I'd be writing this from Fort Leavenworth. Her distractions about Benghazi, plus other messes, are paramount, but nothing I'd not expect from her. She just CANNOT be POTUS....

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

And yet, she will become POTUS because Americans know that her lies are not as dangerous as the lies that Republicans can't stop telling themselves. See Chickie's new, selective disregard for facts in a later post comparing 1990 to 1941 if you want to see evidence of that.

Trooper York said...

Hillary will not be President no matter how much you try to sell it. In the end the Democratic coalition will not be motivated enough to come out in droves for her the way they did for Obama. That is to say the Blacks will sit home.

Trump will be the nominee and pull a Bloomberg. You wonder how Bloomberg could get elected in ultra-liberal New York as a Republican running against a black guy? He simply paid off the Reverends and the black civil rights profiteers and turned out his voters. Trump will do the same thing as well as collecting plenty of moderates because as everyone wants to tell me he is not a true conservative.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

See, this can be problematic for some people. They can't tell the difference from me stating a fact and me "selling" something. There is more to life than promotion, as anyone who managed the relationship between Trump and Macy's can tell you. I am saying that the best evidence shows that Hillary will beat any Republican except (barely) Rubio, and that she will trounce Trump. There is a difference between hoping for something and preparing for what's likely. I hope it will be sunny when there is a 90% prediction of rain. Whadaya gonna do 'bout it? Life is not just about what we want things to be. I'm sure the pollsters have taken black voting into account already.

Of course, this could all be wrong and your second paragraph has some truths in it. But at this point I believe the polls, and I believe them for good reasons. Do you think that Trump has credibility? As Bags says, he wants you to believe what it's good for him to have you believe. Sure, he's a breath of fresh air into a stale process and a stale party with leadership that even Republicans are sick of. So I agree that he's probably a healthy thing, or at least a necessary thing. He may even leave a deeper and more lasting impact than Ross Perot, or John Anderson, or George Wallace (lol), or whatever. You get my point. Third-party runs (even though Trump is technically running as a Republican) happen. It looks like he is one of those, just with the added development of doing it from within. He will probably leave a lasting impact, no doubt. And it might even be a (mostly) positive impact. But whether he will win is an entirely different matter.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Hey, I'd have thought it would have been awesome if Teddy Roosevelt had won the 1912 election. A president that great should have surely had another chance at taking the reins - he didn't even get a full eight. But alas, shit happens - to paraphrase no one in particular. Julius Caesar came and saw and conquered. And then a bunch of dagger-wielding purists in the Senate said to hell with that. What came next was not pretty. Luckily, the fallen stars of our own age will not leave as much disaster in their wake, though.

chickelit said...

I answered you in the updated text of my post, R&B

Aridog said...

Rhythm and Balls said...

I am saying that the best evidence shows that Hillary will beat any Republican...

You do realize you have assured me another sleepless night :-)