A blog about societal, cultural, and civilizational collapse, and how to stave it off or survive it. Named after the legendary character "Crazy Eddie" in Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle's "The Mote in God's Eye." Expect news and views about culture, politics, economics, technology, and science fiction.
Susan Page (Kate McKinnon) moderates a debate between Senator Kamala Harris (Maya Rudolph) and Vice President Mike Pence (Beck Bennett).
On the one hand, no Jeff Goldblum as "The Fly." On the other, I'm just as glad 'SNL' found a way to re-use Jim Carrey as Joe Biden for an impression of Goldblum and his characters. Also, I knew that Maya Rudolph would demonstrate why she deserved her Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy. Finally, the conclusion of this skit gave me an opportunity to say farewell to Herman Cain. It's been such a busy year that I just didn't see an opening to do so until now. May he rest in peace except when invoked in comedy like this.
Appearing on Bryan Fischer’s radio program this afternoon, Cain called for a large faction of Republican Party leaders to desert the party and form a third, more conservative party.
“I never thought that I would say this, and this is the first time publicly that I’ve said it: We need a third party to save this country. Not Ron Paul and the Ron Paulites. No. We need a legitimate third party to challenge the current system that we have, because I don’t believe that the Republican Party … has the ability to rebrand itself,” Cain said.
...
“It is more viable today than it has ever been,” Cain told Fischer today of a third party.
Conservatives have *three* third parties already, the Libertarians, the Constitution Party, and the Reform Party (or what's left of it). They don't need another. The dissidents can go pile into one of them and take it over. Cain would probably feel most at home in the Reform Party. After all, it already has a history of being run by an eccentric egomaniac with lots of money and being a haven for ambitious conservatives who don't feel at home in the Republican Party.
If that doesn't work, they can continue to run out the moderates and keep the GOP for themselves. The refugees who won't become Democrats can hijack the revived Whig Party or what's left of Americans Elect.
Either way, they lose power and we win.
G-d, that felt to good to type. I've been waiting to say this since I first heard Cain's foolish remarks.
I mentioned the positives for Cain in joining the Reform Party. I covered the negatives involved in joining the Constitution Party in another comment.
I cover politics here in Michigan and have spoken to Bill Mohr, the head of the U.S. Taxpayers Party, Michigan's state affiliate of the Constitution Party, about their nominees. He told me about how Alan Keyes tried to become their nominee in 2008 and the party rejected him. According to Mohr, they figured out that Keyes was a Trojan Horse for a GOP takeover, or something like that, and rejected him in favor of Chuck Baldwin. I figured something like that would happen to Cain, which is why I recommended he take over the Reform Party. It would be much more to his liking.
As for which Republican politician I would like to see go to the Constitution Party, it would be Sarah Palin. She'd fit right in with their wrapped in a flag and carrying a Bible theocratic vision. Also, she's already familiar with one of its state affiliates, the Alaska Independence Party. She and Todd can be in the same party again.
Someone else mentioned the American Independent Party, to which I replied:
I had to check that one. I counted the American Independent Party as part of the Constitution Party, as they were California's state affiliate of that organization until 2008. They split because of Alan Keyes' failed attempt to become the Constitution Party candidate...So, that means that there are three nationwide, but a fourth one with ballot access in California. Ask Roseanne Barr how being on the ballot only in California worked out for her.
As if that wasn't snarky enough, someone mentioned Cain "going Splitter." That deserveda video.
Tonight, my wife and I will be at the Smithee Awards, an event that honors movies so bad they're good. It turns out that the poster child (literally!) of such movies is "Plan 9 from Outer Space." Here at Crazy Eddie's Motie News, I have my own version of this film, the economic plan so bad it's hysterical, Plan 999 from Outer Space. Not only is this a tag/label for this blog, it was also the eighth most popular search string during the first full year of the blog. It certainly deserves a post of its own.
On the subject of bad films, if I'm willing to highlight the best sustainability-related films, am I willing to spotlight the worst? Yes, I am. In fact, it turns out that one of the other films that could claim the crown of "Worst Movie Ever Made" from "Plan 9 from Outer Space" is "Birdemic," which is up for six awards tonight, including Worst Picture. Other sustainability-related terrible films on tap for tonight are "Absolute Zero" (nominated for two awards), "Mega Piranha" (up for six awards, including Worst Picture), and "Locusts: the 8th Plague" (nominated for two awards). It should be a fun evening.
Tonight's song is "Bela Lugosi's Dead" (lyrics here) as performed by Nouvelle Vague. I'm sure Ed Wood wished he'd never heard those particular words during the filming of "Plan 999 from Outer Space."
Herman Cain announced on Saturday that he is suspending his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination.
The news comes in the wake of Cain being accused of having an extramarital affair and sexual harassment charges from more than a decade ago resurfacing. The former CEO of Godfather's Pizza has vehemently denied any wrongdoing amid the controversy.
'Plan 999 from Outer Space' has been the most used search term leading readers to my blog this past week, so I decided to search for it myself to see what it would turn up. I'm glad I did.
Politically incorrect movie tailer on Herman Cain's candidacy
Finally, there is a lot of news about Occupy Wall Street in between the opening and Krugman's interview. One of the items was how Eric Cantor was harried by the mob.
Really, he is. Wait until the 2:10 mark. He calls Cain's idea "plan 999 from outer space" twice!
He's not the first big name to use the meme. In Cain Unable, Paul Krugman embedded the trailer for Plan 9 from Outer Space, although he didn't actually call it that.
WASHINGTON -- In Herman Cain's America, the tax code would be very, very simple: The corporate income tax rate would be 9 percent, the personal income tax rate would be 9 percent and the national sales tax rate would be 9 percent.
But there's already a 999 plan out there, in a land called SimCity.
Long before Cain was running for president and getting attention for his 999 plan, the residents of SimCity 4 -- which was released in 2003 -- were living under a system where the default tax rate was 9 percent for commercial taxes, 9 percent for industrial taxes and 9 percent for residential taxes. (That is, of course, if you didn't use the cheat codes to get unlimited money and avoid taxes altogether.)
...
Presumably, under the Cain plan, disasters would be turned off.
This bit of news deserves a response from Heath Ledger's Joker.
Yes, it's a bad joke, but if it's true, it's on Herman Cain.
I have a bunch of tabs open with stories about Occupy Wall Street, so it's time to blog about them and move on to new stories. First, a video from Think Progress on YouTube in which Herman Cain, who is currently third in the polls among GOP candidates for President, says that he thinks that Occupy Wall Street was "orchestrated...to distract from the failed policies of the Obama Administration," although he acknowledges he has no facts to back up that belief.
Normally, I'd tell Mr. "Plan 9-9-9 from Outer Space" that Occupy Wall Street will point out at least one failed policy of the Obama Administration, that of not prosecuting the bankers and others on Wall Street who contributed to the Great Recessioin, but I don't think that will make it through the Reynolds Wrap beanie he probably wears off camera. Even if it did, it would be inconvenient to his narrative.
Speaking of "Plan 9-9-9 from Outer Space," it's time to be an environmentalist and recycle.
And here's one where all the "false" and "true" claims have been lumped together.
As you can see, the least truthful candidate is Michele Bachmann. I'll let Iago have the first word.
Thank you, Iago. My reaction is "Madame Representative, the voices in your head are not reliable sources."
Santorum is down there with her, and the two Georgians, Cain and Gingrich (at least we won't be subject to a GOP ticket that has both of them on it), aren't much better. In fact, Cain is the only candidate without a completely true statement in the sample. As for Perry, he barely has more true statements than false ones. As someone on Daily Kos pointed out, Perry's true statements during the debates have been about other candidates, while the false ones have been about President Obama. Compared to this crowd, Romney (you can't spell Romney without "money") looks reasonable.
Of course, the paragons for telling the truth have been Ron Paul and Jon Huntsman. My appraisal of Ron Paul in 2008 was that the man can see the country's problems clearly. It's just that his solutions are delusional. I've also said that Ron Paul is a stuck clock who is right twice a day. It looks like that's enough to make him the second most truthful politician in the room during GOP debates. As for Huntsman, he has avoided making any completely false statements. Too bad for both Paul and Huntsman that neither will be nominated.
For comparison, here is the analysis of President Obama's statements on Politifact.
The good news is that he's generally truthful and more truthful than most of the GOP candidates. The bad news is that Politifact grades Ron Paul as being more truthful than President Obama. If the Paulturds find this out, we'll never hear the end of it.
Time for another tour through the lighter side of sustainability this week, with sustainability news that is funny, silly (including just plain stupid), fun, or simply positive. This week's news features Next Media Animation, Cracked, Grist, and Hysterical Raisins with supporting roles played by CNBC, The Huffington Post, USA Today, Data Driven Detroit, and others and continues over the jump.
