One Giant Leap for Cyberdyne Systems’ “Terminator” Program: 24 Dead

One Giant Leap for Cyberdyne Systems' "Terminator" Program: 24 Dead

Synnyvale, CA—An experimental facility patterned after the fictional Cyberdyne Systems Corporation’s Skynet has reached an impressive milestone today. Their robotic creation, the Hal-5000, fired thousands of rounds of a highly advanced weapon into every corner of their southern California installation last night. The robotic rampage killed 23 lab technicians and a custodial engineer named Dante, who before expiring told EMTs, “I wasn’t even supposed to be here today.”

Cyberdyne’s CEO, Daniel Milgram, is pleased with recent events, “It’s not every day it takes a SWAT team to take out one of your own rogue creations. This is huge. This is why people go into this field in the first place.”

The Board of Directors at Cyberdyne Systems, Inc. is also heartened by the arrival of a futuristic cyborg assassin, who mowed down several key researchers last week amidst a barrage of exotic bullets.

“Wow!” said Milgram. “Looks like we got someone’s attention.”

The military is already offering Cyberdyne a considerable percentage of the Nation’s defense budget to create a female version for some of the top generals in the armed forces.

Ask The Ghetto Shaman

Ask The Ghetto Shaman

Dear Ghetto Shaman,

Are there any Cliff Notes for enlightenment? Any shortcuts? I have read everything from Maharishi Mahesh, to Genpo Roshi, to Toltec friggin’ wisdom and I am in a spiritual wasteland, man! I’m not growing compassion, I’m growing old, I’m growing tired, I’m growing ulcers!

Gary

Dear Acid Reflux,

No one can do this for you, Gary. Gurus, meditations, the very Dharma itself can only point you in the direction. In my case that direction would be south. Try rereading chapter two of my Booty Sutras: The Sanctity of the Spank-titty. But If I tell you anymore I could actually hinder your spiritual growth. No, really, I will…

The Ghetto Shaman

H.G. Ertel’s The Time Machine

H.G. Ertel’s The Time Machine
H. G. Ertel

For years scientists have disputed the possibility of time travel: matter can’t travel faster than the speed of light, Zefram Cochrane won’t be born until the next century, yada yada. Other scientists just dodge the question entirely with things like, “I’m more than a little busy looking at these glass slides and shuffling these papers around” …and, “How did you get passed the retinal scan to get in here, anyway?”

As for me? I’ll quote a popular Monkee’s song, “I’m a Believer”…because yesterday it happened to me. I went from June 24th, 2012, all the way back to January 1st, 1970. I fell through what I believe was an inter-dimensional portal located in my apartment. I awoke to discover my cellphone had absolutely no service, and somehow the date/time had reset….SENDING ME BACK IN TIME!!!! Sorry for the ALL CAPS and exclamation points thing, but I believe the situation warranted the excitement implied by such a frowned-upon writing style. So…F-YOU!!!

The first thing I did—since everything I know about time-travel I learned from the Back to the Future films and season five of Lost—was check to see if I wasn’t somehow erasing little-by-little like that photo of Marty McFly and his siblings.

(By the way, the Johnny B. Goode part in BTTF, when Marty McFly goes ape shit & busts out some van Halen licks?! C’mon, how’d he get such a processed cheesy ‘80s metal sound out of a guitar/amp combo made in the early ‘50s?! Jesus man, fuzzboxes weren’t even invented until the ‘60s. Back to the Fender!?)

Everything’s still here, I thought to myself, double-checking my pants to see if my penis was still intact. Y’know…I’d better check again. You can’t be too careful when you’re messing with the fragile nature of the time/space continuum…or my balls. I repeated the procedure for the rest of the afternoon, just to be sure.

What DO you do when you’re suddenly transported back in time?! All of the possibilities were there…I could buy Apple stock, warn the public of things to come, I could even “write” all the greatest hits of the ‘70s, before they were written by the people that actually “wrote” them! Jesus Christ, I could convince John to ditch Yoko & keep The Beatles together! I could write Rush’s most classic albums! Jailbreak by Thin Lizzy, written by Ertel! Dark Side of the Moon, Wish you Were Ertel, Animals. All the music of Pink Floyd written by ME! Have a cigar, I’m gonna go far!

I could even (gasp) warn The Discord not to bother!

The financial rewards for my obsessive studies of useless bullshit over the past 20 years were finally going to pay off! I could start trends before they happened! invent Rap! Pre-date the ‘80s! Start wearing my pants down around my knees! On second thought, I’d better hold off on that one.

And the sex! Most STDs from the early 70s were basically cured by penicillin & special shampoos with lice-combs. None of this AIDS bullshit to deal with. Surely I could convince the porn industry that Lady Bics were the wave of the future!

I thought of all the old people I know…I could see them back in their heyday, complete with huge chunky sideburns and button-up shirts with butterfly collars. I could get drunk with my dad! …who sported a rather “Ohio Player’ish” afro/beard combo at the time, which made me think “man, cleaning the shower drain after THAT guy must’ ve been torture!”

Theoretically, I could have been downstairs drinking Billy Beer and watching The Rockford Files, while my parents were upstairs fucking in September of ‘75 to the mellow strains of If by Bread.

(Trust me, you have NO idea how much I just shivered typing that line. Better check my pants again to see if I’m disappearing.)

Then, they repaired the cellphone tower that caused this temporal rift in time….and I was suddenly back in 2012.

No untold billions.

No fame.

No massive numbers of girls just throwing themselves at me all in the name of “free love, man.”

Y’know what? FUCK John Lennon….I ain’t tellin’ him SHIT.

The Discord’s Chewy Defeats Thurman Debacle

The Discord’s Chewy Defeats Thurman Debacle

Philadelphia, PA—Having just posted our latest round of retractions, it pains me to announce another grievous mistake so soon. Posting every day in this 24/7 news cycle world is often fraught with difficulties. Having said that, I, Pierce Xavier Winslow, take full responsibility for this error. Our readers have come to expect thorough and accurate reporting, especially since comedy sites like ours have become the last refuge of actual newsing these days. Newsing is a new, but legitimate, word—though it probably should not have debuted at this darkest of hours.

We now understand the following: in a bar on the planet Alderaan, Uma Thurman pummeled the crap out of Chewbacca—not, as we originally reported, the other way around. The rush of incoming AP wire reports were confused and at times even garbled, so we made an educated guess that Chewbacca would have mopped the floor with that scrawny bitch—however, it turned out that the wookie’s injuries actually landed him in Aldera County Hospital.

I had an itchy trigger finger, for sure. The only thing that kept running through my mind prior to posting was the scene when Han Solo said, “Let the wookie win.” I really thought the wookie was going to win. The Discord news team received conflicting reports originally and we needed to get the post up as my beer was getting dangerously warm. My Photoshop team worked on pictures for either outcome: one with Chewbacca pumping his fists victoriously in the air and a second with Thurman doing likewise. I simply got it wrong.

Our news team also borrowed the image from gawker.com by turning the famous Dewey Defeats Truman! image into Obama holding the news in iPad form. We regularly steal stuff here at the Discord especially paperclips, but not others’ comedy! We keep our material original—and Zano cut this one too close! We took gawker’s original viral image, made it much funnier, and proceeded to get about six hits for our trouble…the usual.

Pierce Winslow, CEO

Dawn of the Dumb: A Look Back to 2012

Mick Zano

In the year 2050 The Daily Discord is celebrating its 42nd anniversary and its one thousandth page view! Whoot! Whoot!…that’s almost 25 a year! We would like to look back to the time of the Discord’s inception—a time of turbulence, a time when humanity turned away from logic, reason, science, and a hit television show known only as Glee.

We found an interesting quote from one of our first contributors, Mick Zano, wherein he stated, “Fifty years from now you’ll be surprised how this period looked historically, well…if you’re a Republican.”

We decided to humor the man known as the Discord’s Founding Father, or Blogstradomus, or Postpernicus—a man who many felt bordered on a violent political narcissism not seen since the Cantor Administration. Oh, and Cantor’s documentary is holding its own this week with Twilight 47: Why Won’t Edward Just Jump into a Meat Grinder Already? Part 4. Mr. Zano was distinguished enough to be on something called parole for most of his adult life and was eventually added to a prestigious group known as The Terrorist Watch List. In fifty-years of blogging that is the closest to an accolade this website has ever received.

Initially we couldn’t figure out Republican logic at all, then we uncovered an episode of Your World with Neil Cavuto. It explained everything! These Fox News viewers really thought it was their world, which angered the Earth Goddess, Gaia, who later told the press, “I got sick of these douche bags fracking me in the gas.”

When Gaia fought back with her coordinated global climate initiative (GCI), many of the time mistook it for the Rapture. Some even preemptively took off their clothing in preparation for their God, Jehovah, to whisk them into the heavens. When nothing happened, many of these Rapturers were added to the sexual offender lists of the time as public nudity was then frowned upon.

Apparently, Republicans only cared about how much money they were going to make in something called the Stock Market. As it turned out, a disparity of wealth this large typically triggered a revolution, but any proper disobedience would have to wait as society embraced a number of falsehoods—not the least of which was “you’ll be rich soon too!” By 2017, one historian estimated there was more chance of winning the state lottery twice and getting hit by lightening in the penis than moving up a single socioeconomic bracket…which is ironically how he died. Moving up one socioeconomic bracket, what were you thinking?

Despite all rhyme or reason, Republicans remained convinced the best way to correct the U.S. budget and deficit problem was through…get this, supply side/trickledown economics. So they elected people who historically proved incapable of cutting anything except cheese and started numerous popular but unfunded social programs, kept waging wars, and kept not paying for any of these in the name of responsibility and fiscal conservatism.

The founder of the Transcosmetic Party, Mick Zano, covered this important stuff and both of his fans really appreciated him at the time as evidence by some recently recovered feedback, “Nice one, Zano, but can you bitches post more Ghetto Shaman?!”

Zano’s insights and predictions are stunning considering his affinity for bath salts—a substance that later triggered the Zombie Apocalypse of 2016.

Excesses of the prior thirty-years were greatly exacerbated under Bush, Obama, and then came to a head under Romney. We lost any chance during that time period of righting the economy or diverting global climate change. Many coastal Republicans refused to move and drowned, but as their living rooms filled with water Fox News Anchors reassured them it was only tears from God (who was still pissed off about Solyndra).

Of course, I am writing this from the Arizona Penal Colony. Privatizing prisons caused what was already the most incarcerated country in the world to mushroom to 35% of its population within five years. There was no incentive to ever release jaywalkers, or pot smokers, or especially those damndable jaywalking pot smokers.

Three presidents tried to pass a comprehensive immigration plan, but partisanship ended each attempt. After states were able to enforce their own immigration laws things really got ugly. Arizona was the obvious choice for the state-sized penal colony as it already had walls along its southern and eastern borders. A giant border wall was constructed along the entire southern border of the U.S. in 2014, later named The Great Wall of Stupid. Arizona then constructed a wall on its Eastern border after deeming New Mexico’s immigration policies “way too lenient.”

Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s grandson, Joey Jr., is now the warden of the Arizona State Penal Colony. I live in an un-air-conditioned tent in the heart of the Sonoran Desert and, having never returned that library book, I am likely to die here. I take some small satisfaction in the fact the rest of the country’s border wall is gone. The Mexican Government eventually commissioned registered Republicans at minimum wage to tear down the eye sore in 2030.

The Romney-Corrections Corp. of America Act passed in 2015 and, of course, that’s how we eventually changed our country’s name to UCCA, the United Correction Corp. of America. And the rest is…we’re history.

Arizona was also a perfect choice for the penal colony, because—although Obamacare passed in 2012, it was deemed unconstitutional to force any expansion of the Medicaid program—so then Governor, Jan Brewer, refused the extra help in one more attempt by a Republican to save one dollar by losing ten. Without those critical services, Arizona soon slipped into a lawless state. The remaining two walls on the state’s western and northern borders were constructed in 2017 by Halliburton and the aforementioned Republican Migrant Workers. This poor unionless group remained happy because they believed if they worked hard at any moment they could be promoted to CEO. Most, sadly, were struck by lightning in the penis.

Oh, and our researchers found an article on The Daily Beast by David Frum about a poll designed to snap people out of their ideological delusions. As it turns out, when forced, liberals of the time were able to identify cuts and some semblance of an economic strategy. Republicans, however, for all their misdirected anger and bloviating, refused to make a decision about cutting anything. Hey, just like their presidents! Next time we decide to have a tea party, let’s leave the tea partiers out of it. Here is the Beast’s article.

Andrew Sullivan’s take on that very Frum piece:

“And people wonder why our debt exploded under Reagan and George W. Bush. And why it will explode once again if Romney becomes president. A party this irrational – a party hysterical about debt whose members do not actually want to cut spending or raise any taxes, a party a majority of whose members have somehow persuaded themselves that there were indeed WMDs in Iraq in 2003  – should not be a mainstream party in a Western democracy. It should be in therapy.”

We marvel, as Zano did then, that there existed any insightful Republicans at all, so hat tip to Andrew and David of the past, a breed that officially went extinct during the Primary Wars of 2016. The last Republican with a clue is believed to have taken his own life during an episode of Hannity in early 2018.

Here’s another classic of the time Why I gave up on being a republican. Then came Thomas Frank’s book in 2012, Pity the Billionairea book first credited with identifying the phrase “Ignorance is Strength.” This man covered how this “unified wrongness” on the Right turned out to be our ruination. This phenomenon was first covered by our own Mick Zano years before, but, sadly, no one ever clicked on one of his articles. It was 2012 when we really identified how ignorance and partisanship really changed the course of history, a phenomenon covered most thoroughly by the comedians of the time (hell, that should have been their first clue).

Since most records were lost during the Great Partisanship Wars of 2022, we did manage to find a quote from a man named W.B. Yeats, who our sources tell us was a prominent Discord contributor. His quote captures the essence of the time:

The best lack all conviction, while the worst

Are full of passionate intensity,

Surely, some revelation is at hand…

–W.B. Yeats

But don’t take off all your clothes just yet; it’s not going to be that kind of revelation.

Discord Apology XXXIV: The Smell of Fear

Pierce Winslow

These retractions continue to wear on me emotionally. I care about what we do here at The Discord. It’s important work. It’s God’s work…well, certainly demi-God’s work, or Demi Moore’s work. It’s work, for sure. Sometimes I spend days trying to turn the Crank’s string of expletives into coherent thoughts. I deal with a constant barrage of receipts from Zano and Bone for bar tabs, brothels, and massage parlors all across the southwest. “But it’s a haunted brothel, Mr. Winslow, honest!” Fuckers.

Our headline Iraq Wins the Stanley Cup! was obviously a heinous mistake. Jerry Lewis’s ICU Telethon was not our finest hour. We would like to apologize to JE-RRREY! and his family for calling his hospital room every twenty minutes trying to pledge enough to get the tote bag. In retrospect, interfering with medical care is just not funny.

Everything pales in comparison to our three full days of Cokie McGrath’s coverage while she camped outside of the Great Pyramid of Giza waiting for the Egyptian Parliament to emerge. What? I have to pay for this shit! If she could even learn to use Wikipedia as a fact checking tool it would be a vast improvement. Google it Cokie, Google it…fine, I will send you to a seminar on Googling.

Ask The Ghetto Shaman

Ask The Ghetto Shaman

Dear Ghetto Shaman,

I moved to a magical place! It has wonderful people with a new agie feel to it. I’m thinking about opening a crystal store. Thought I’d share.

Shelley

Dear Shelley,

That’s nice, Shelley. My little slice of urbania is pretty amazing too. Lots of blue and red lights everywhere and the chicks on the corner are always dressed to the sixty-nines. All of the intersections are decorated with sparkly little bits of glass that shimmer in your headlights as you drive by…oh, and we have drive bys too!

The Ghetto Shaman

P.S. And we make our own crystal, Shelley, in basement or mobile labs. Nirvana!

The John Conner Interview

The John Conner Interview
Alex Bone

I caught up to John Conner, of Terminator fame, in an abandoned WWII weapons testing range. His mother, Sarah, was off hunting radioactive rabbits with a sling shot, so I was able to speak with him without her breaking my jaw…like last time.

John: You know this interview could be jeopardizing my life as well as the entire human race, right?

Bone: Relax, I heard that the Borg only watch Fox News so I think you’ll be safe.

John: Umm, you mean Terminators. Sounds like someone’s been doing his homework.

Bone: That was just a Star Wars joke.

John: Trek.

Bone: Whatever, look, let’s get started before your mother shows up and kicks my ass again.

John: OK, but make this quick, mom has me jogging a double marathon, practice shooting, and crickets don’t pickle and can themselves, you know.

Bone: So has Judgment Day already happened?

John: (after a long stare) Ah, no.

Bone: Will there still be beer after the apocalypse?

John: What? I don’t know maybe some, but it will be popular.

Bone: That sucks. Will it be easier to get chicks into bed? You know you could do the whole ‘we’re both about to die anyway, baby’ kind of thing.

John: Since Judgment Day hasn’t happened, how would I know this?

Bone: But you should be an expert in theoretical post-apocalyptic poontang (APP). Could you program a bunch of terminators to turn levers that work turbines in power plants, like that superhero does in that School House Rock video, and solve the energy crisis?

John: Huh? Where are you coming up with this crap?

Bone: Well, Terminators are the ones who go ex-terminator, ex-terminator, right?

John: Those are Daleks and they say exterminate. Jesus, dude. Shouldn’t you be asking me about what each person could be doing to help us avoid Judgment Day?

Bone: I’ll ask the questions. Now, if say you’re dating this hot futuristic chick, but when you went back in time you ended up having sex with her mother….that could add whole new verses to that song, “I’m my own grandpa.” Or what if she’s like sixty-five when you return and all nasty looking? And would you tell your girlfriend that you slept with her mom or just burn the old photos up in her attic?

John: You’re an idiot. No wonder my mother punched you. Now I should really let everyone know about this certain Terminator weakness we discovered where—

Bone: Yeah, yeah, and that lawsuit with Sarah is still pending. So if they made a super hot terminator chick, like Boomer, would you sleep with her?

John: (Smiling) I’ve already done that, man, but again it’s a Terminator…Boomer is a Cylon.

Bone: Babylon 5?

John: Battlestar Galactica.

Bone: Oh, well you got some cyber nukkie, so high five, bro! Now let’s get back to the whole beer issue. Shit here comes your mom! I have to go. Oh no, she has that sling shot and it’s filled with cholla!

I barely escaped and, due to certain well targeted missiles, I was forced to type this whole interview standing. So after Judgment Day, there will be beer, but much less of it. But the chicks will be easier, so stock up on beer now and, wow, the apocalypse could rock! Thank you for visiting the Discord’s Science Department, where non-fiction meets considerable friction.

King’s Correction, “Why Can’t We All Just Get a Loan?”

King’s Correction, "Why Can’t We All Just Get a Loan?"

Rialto, CA—Rodney King’s lawyers have released startling statements from his last will and testament. The man known for sparking the 1991 L.A. Riots and for his inability to fend off LAPD—or swimming pools—amended his famous statement, “Why can’t we all just get along?” to “get a loan.”

King allegedly wrote, “You see, my wife and I had shitty credit at the time and no one was lending us any money. So we needed a loan.” King later failed to correct his misstatement with the press because, “It became popular, so I just kind of went with it. I never did get that mother f***ing loan.”

Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Police Department is suing The Daily Discord for our marquee joke earlier this week:

After battling for survival since 1991 Rodney King finally succumbs to his injuries.

We would really like to retract that, but…on second thought, we would like to dedicate it to LA’s finest.

Dino Farts the Cause of Prehistoric Global Warming?

Dino Farts the Cause of Prehistoric Global Warming?
Erisa Brahe

Late Jurassic Period, Earth – I am standing here in the middle of a Mesozoic marsh where I have sunk the Discord’s company Delorean past the fenders. As I wait for a creepy green puppet to appear and pull my car out of the mud with his mind, I figured I should report this story—a story I broke the boundaries of time and space to tell. There is evidence Global Warming happened in the prehistoric past, but the facts stink!

The theory of Global Warming seems to have been around Gorever (sorry!). It was certainly discussed when I was a wee kindergartener in the late 80’s, but it turns out that the threat and the controversy are far more ancient than was previously believed. Researchers have estimated methane emissions from sauropods may have contributed twice as much greenhouse gas than our modern industrial output.

Many have heard talk of cows and their droppings contributing to greenhouse gasses, but now think of a herd of cows releasing twice as much gas than the past 150 years of automobile exhaust and radio talk show hosts combined (not including Rush Limbaugh, of course). In other words, sauropods, or our friendly long-necked dinosaurs, had such strong flatulence it may have instigated climate change at the end of the Jurassic Period.

I tried interviewing these creatures, but it is difficult to grab the attention of an 85-foot Brachiosaurus with its head munching the tops of some ancient conifers. It is even more treacherous to approach one from behind as wind speeds can reach hurricane like levels, not to mention trying to dodge fecal debris the size of a small car. The smell is also atrocious and it’s everywhere! It’s like they’ve turned the entire Earth into a giant Dutchoven.

This is a politically and gastro-intestinally turbulent time. Local small mammals and herbivores have taken a strong stance on conservation and increasing air and water quality. A group of Progressodons even tried to ban beans and cabbage from all diets, but to no avail. The Republiraptors are up in their very tiny arms about the whole situation. Sayings like From My Cold Dead Bowels are everywhere. This countermovement has been started by a group calling themselves Freedom Farters.

“Screeeeee Screee! Hissss Screeeeeach!” said a white, balding T-Partisaurus in response to the report. 

I am told, from a reliable source, that this loosely translates to “The Discord sucks! And how dare you insult my fellow citizens with your future science when there is no proof that the increase in methane is impacting our climate? Are we not made in Godosaurasus’ image? First they tell us not to take dumps in the water supply, and now they don’t want us to fart! The Democratops have gone too far! I shart in their general direction!”

I tried to explain how the warm, moist environment was already a perfect example of a Greenhouse Earth, but I had to leave before the pack rabid Republiraptors chose to feed rather than discuss scientific issues.

Now, I find myself hiding from a dinosaur lynch mob under a pile of rocks, watching the Delorean disappear into the mud and contemplating how often history repeats itself.  I would beg for someone to send help, but there’s still a bounty on my head in 2012.

Oh, hey, Yoda. A little help?

“Sorry, Busy am I.”

Great. Then may the Farts be with you!

Ask The Ghetto Shaman

Ask The Ghetto Shaman

Dear Ghetto Shaman,

I have been desperately trying to engage in rough sex, but my boy toy is terribly concerned about harming me. I was thinking about safe words or maybe some good phrases. Do you have any ideas?

Sincerely,

Sub Missy

Dear S&M,

Your safe phrase should be, “I’m calling your probation officer!” and a good word might be “revocation!” Well, those were mine and they worked like a charm, until my sentence was reinstated May of 2007. I am sorry for your loss Mr. and Mrs. Wilkens. I’m just an excitable boy.

The Ghetto Shaman

P.S. Of course, I had to come up with a completely new set for Bubba.

Ouija Session Reportedly “Very Fustratting” for Dyslexic Ghost

Ouija Session Reportedly "Very Fustratting" for Dyslexic Ghost

Ann Arbor, MI—As part of a sleep over, a group of teenage girls climbed into the Miller’s attic on June 16th and held an over four hour Ouija session with one of the residence’s ghosts. The paranormal entity later described the event as “fukcing ecxcruciatting” for a tortured soul who sufferers from dyslexia.

Discord reporter, Cokie McGrath, believes the ghost in question has resided in the attic where the game took place since his untimely death, nearly 80 years ago. The apparition stated he would rather be left alone than be assailed by a bunch of teenagers who, after hundreds of questions, still couldn’t figure out that yes/no questions worked best.

The young ladies, who wished to remain anonymous, were perplexed by the ghost’s indecipherable responses such as, “I have servere dylslexia” and “I deid in this vrey place” and finally, “Why don’t you bithces play somehting eles?!”

The young lady who hosted the party told McGrath she believes the ghost wasn’t murdered, but added, “He sure can murdre the English language. Get it…murdre?”

After the comment the ghost is planning to “Huant that littel shit for ettenrity!”

Occupy the Tea Party

Mick Zano

It’s absurd what’s happening today, and not just because of my last post about the Facebook Nazis. We are in dire straits, folks, and, Mark my words, I have had a Knopfler. (The Sultans of Swing Voters?) Sorry. Half our country can’t motivate and the other half probably shouldn’t. The Occupy movement remains rudderless and the Tea Party has charted a clear and exact course toward some jagged rocks.

Why are we increasingly polarized? Is it based on real differences, or is it by design? We need to get on the same page, folks, and soon. As Dylan and Hendrix warn us, “The hour’s getting late.”

Check out Dictionary.com’s definition of polarized.

Po·lar·ized   /ˈpoʊləˌraɪzd/ Show Spelled[poh-luh-rahyzd] Show IPA

(who should I show my India Pale Ale to?)

adjective

1. of or pertaining to a medium that exhibits polarization.

2. (of an electric plug or outlet) designed so that the plug and outlet fit together in only one way.

Check out definition number two. We are designed to see the world in one of two ways: progressive or regressive, positive or negative, D or R. Neither side has a monopoly on the truth, yet we have been pigeonholed into black or Romney thinking.

How did so many get so misinformed? Most of the blame rests with our entertainment in the guise of news journalism. Damn you Daily Discord, damn you! If you followed the Scott Walker recall coverage, umm, it was appalling.

“Given this blatant partisan coverage, it was absolutely impossible to watch either network [MSNBC or Fox] and weed out any clear understanding of the actual significance of the event, much less what effect it would actually have on the 2012 presidential election.”

Dylan Byers Politico

When Mr. Olbermann started acting out, MSNBC told him good night and good luck. I imagine it won’t be too long before Ed I-know-nuszink Schultz follows suit. But here’s the rub, radicalism equates to promotions on the Right. Ideology is rewarded with viewers. Oh, and lie all you want, you’re audience doesn’t care. Fox is never having to make a retraction.

I want to retract that, Mr. Winslow. See? Even I can do it. Oh, he’s printing it anyway. Well, it’s the thought that counts and someday the Right will have those.

What can we do about this? There’s obviously a slew of people who want to watch this shit, facts be damned. Certainly one of the consequences for this station was a W. second term. Could you imagine if all you had was Walter Cronkite types? Bush would have been impeached, not re-elected. But, you can’t shut down Fox, you can only choose to shut it off, and that’s not likely to happen with the current caliber of their viewers.

“It’s a 66-Magnum….It shoots through truth.”

—Joe Piscopo

As predicted, the Tea Party was hijacked by Fake News, and, whatever it manages to accomplish, God help us. Then there’s Occupy, which has thus far been meaningless. The Discord’s version sums it up.

We are Discord!
We are Discord! We Occupy Space
We occupy space

In this environment, can any grass roots movement really lead to more political parties and/or genuine reform? Face it, this is not exactly an independent-thought-friendly-era (ITFE). That was part of the initial inspiration for the formation of the Transcosmetic Party in the first place…and, of course, stories about Facebook Nazis.

Our two party system has us by the short hairs (I knew I should have manscaped). I fear Occupy is going to get rough and tumble at some point. And if you go carrying pictures of Chairman Mao…sorry, Beatles flashback. If I were a betting man, I’d say we have some riots in our future. I just want our ire to be channeled toward those responsible. And is that likely to happen? Occupy can be summarized thusly, “We’re mad but not sure why” and the Tea Party can be summarized as “We’re mad and supporting those destroying us.”

Well done everyone. How about we take a deep breath and think about shit before we start gnawing off each other’s faces.

“I’m taking my cannibalistic talents to South Beach!”

—LeBron James

Some of the misinformation is directly impacted by the dumbing down effect so prevalent today. Here’s a recent excerpt from NPR.

“The sophistication of federal lawmakers’ speech patterns is on the decline, with members of Congress now talking, on average, at the level of high school sophomores. According to a new report by the Sunlight Foundation, Congress has fallen by almost a full grade-level since 2005.” [and] “The members speaking at the lowest grade levels tend to be freshmen Republicans.”

If this is true, I would like to temporally channel a young sophomore Congressman Zano. I’m sure we’ll be interrupting him from his important endeavors back in high school…actually, let’s not. He just left for a Judas Priest concert with a bottle of Yukon Jack and a baggie of stems and seeds (a real Norman Rockwell moment).

We really don’t need to talk to him, er me—let alone allow him, er me to govern. This is a key aspect of Fox’s false assumptions, dumb is the new smart (the Palin Effect?). I have covered this disturbing phenomenon for yerbs. That’s what The Right is calling years now. It’s OK, I’ve gotten usett to ip.

“That depends on what your definition of ip is.”

—Bill Clinton

I wouldn’t be concerned about a bonefied Mr. Smith marching off to Washington but this isn’t about Jimmy Stewart, or principles, or anything remotely patriotic. Today, Mr. Smith doesn’t need to go anywhere near Washington. No coherent or compelling speech necessary. He—clearly in the minority— can simply filibuster shit from his iPhone enroute to the Judas Priest concert with the aforementioned bottle of Yukon Jack. This typically occurs after a memo and an enclosed check from the Koch Brothers. Yeah team America! Activate form of nullification.

If being inarticulate were their only drawback, we would welcome these new voices into Congress, but, as it turns out, that’s their only endearing quality. The worst part is their persistent all-or-none thinking. Let’s have a contest here at The Discord. If you can find something repeated over and over again on Fox News that is not based on a false assumption, you could be eligible for cash prizes! …or a bottle of Yukon Jack.

I’ve been diligently searching for scraps of truth on that side of the aisle since long before the Discord’s inception, but, like my evenings spent at the Bellagio, I keep coming up empty. Kidding! I’m barred from the Bellagio.

No grass roots movement is likely to remain viable amidst this two party tyranny. The main problems?

  1. The media won’t allow it. See Ron Paul’s coverage on Fox or MSNBC.
  2. Our two glorious parties won’t allow it.
  3. Our country is waaaay too full of Regressive Conservatives armed only with ideology and a romanticism bordering on delusional. In fact, why don’t you and the 1950s get a room? (I left the Schmuck’s Capacitor for you back in the DeLorean.)

Before Andrew Sullivan named it ‘The Cocoon’ or Bill Maher started his ‘Dispatches from the Bubble’ bit, I was covering the alternate reality I named The Neococoon’. In the end, I predict the Tea Party may actually do Occupy’s bidding. I think the problem with Occupy is they are vying for a full blown collapse, which they can’t seem to bring about, despite their organized camping initiative (OCI). The only way to bring about a collapse today is by repairing our existing system through stupidity.

Enter the Tea Party…

As for Occupy’s current tactics, you can count me out of any activity designed to simply hurt small businesses…that’s the Government’s job. But a full blown collapse is looming and the Tea Party’s current policies are likely to bring about Occupy’s desire—aka, starve the beast, block any payment on our bloating credit cards, downgrade and destroy.

Activate revolution form of Inept Reforms.

“I just cannot see how that argument wins against the logic that this sacrifice needs to be shared, that we all need to do our part, that, at this stage in the debt-binge begun in earnest under Reagan, we should double down on supply side economics in the face of massive evidence that it doesn’t fucking work. You need some kind of intravenous injection of Jude Wanniski to get this argument off the ground and in the air.”

—Andrew Sullivan

No, you just need Fox News and their ilk. They are the wind beneath our sails…of the just ate too much Mexican food variety. This coming from the man who wrote The Conservative Soul: How We Lost It, How We Can Get It Back. I don’t think it’s coming back, Andrew. Here’s what Sully recently said over at The Dish about the inspiration behind his book:

“I truly had no expectation that my book on conservatism would have an iota of an impact on the current GOP. But I wrote it anyway, as a marker to myself of what I believed, as a way to clarify for myself – and anyone else interested – what conservatism is for me, and why today’s GOP has so brutally assaulted the tradition whose name they claim.”

I promise not to go all Ted Nugent on these peeps until they impact the micro brew and specialty coffee shipments coming into my town. When that happens, no promises. I also vow to blog about my subsequent visit from the Secret Service. My actions will make Guy Fawkes look like Ghandi, MFs! Sorry, I just felt the need to top Ted for a moment. Urge to kill fading…

None of us should be defending either party anymore. Can’t we all agree on that? No? I didn’t think so. The Right is always too busy defending the indefensible and making up shit about their political adversaries (isn’t it a shame that’s too long for Fox’s slogan?). The left is ready to throw in the towel. Meanwhile, the Right is ready climb back in with Sandusky, towel or no (what, too spoon?).

Romney’s economic advisor was on Fareed Zakaria this week, A.U. Sterity. He described Romney’s approach as Simpson-Bowels without any revenue generation. To me it sounds like an austerity-only cluster-fuck. Maybe Republicans should try the animated version, Simpson-Griffin? Doh!

Look, I never claimed to know a lot about economics…just more than a Republican. Cut from the same cloth, Paul Ryan’s Budget doesn’t address defense spending or revenue generating either and is designed to be as cruel and inhuman as possible, their usual M.O. I would actually sign off on their shit, if there was a chance in hell it would work…but, the only people impressed with their record at this point seems to be them.

Meanwhile, support for Occupy has dropped in half over the last few months. Therefore, many believe this movement is DOA….umm, those people are wrong. Admittedly, they do suck at the moment. In fact, I tried to contact the organizer in my town to ask, “Why aren’t you Occupying Facebook Meetups?” Using the internet to mobilize is the only thing the Tea Party got right. Yet I couldn’t even reach the guy. Hmmm. See the Discord’s important coverage of one of those local Occupy events here.

The Tea Party will die when they get the blame for the next Standard & Poor’s downgrade and officially gridlock us into oblivion. This will likely ignite a more formidable Occupy resurgence—too late to save our economy, of course, but fun and eventful nevertheless. And those with a clue will shift teams. Ultimately, Occupy has the potential to change the political landscape forever. It might alter how society functions and I hope a key focus will remain on sustainable energy and sustainable resources, as well as an emphasis on capitalism with a conscience. Yeah, that’s me dreaming again, but er, my dreams of tomorrow have proven to be more accurate than the Republican’s grasp of reality today.

Sociopaths can no longer be our CEOs and our leaders. Gordon Gekko must die! I know the Right has posed that Obama is a sociopath, but there’s currently little evidence. However, there is growing evidence that this man makes Gordon Gekko look like, well…. a community organizer.

There is growing evidence that Romey makes Gordon Gekko look like a community organizer.

I realize sociopaths are the Right’s champions, but my take on that sad piece of reality here.

It doesn’t take an Einstein to predict this shit, but it does take an Einstein to make people believe the exact opposite. Kudos Herr Ailes. Could you imagine a Michele Bachmann or a Rick Santorum with the ability to target anyone anywhere with a drone strike? That is when I will move myself and my family over to virtual Canada over at NHL.com (the puck stops here?).

The image of Bachmann with unlimited drones should keep you up at night. What will keep you up, you ask? The near constant explosions as our Government targets our gay and atheistic neighbors. (Studies suggest Explosion Therapy more effective than Conversion Therapy?) I’m being a bit facetious here but Presidents have more powers than ever before and they now want dangerously incompetent people to inherit these powers? One drone to rule them all…

Matt Drudge over on The Drudge Report is jumping on the Dem’s recent disillusionment. I think this shows the ability of the Left to assess and interpret facts. How quaint. Objectivity on the Right officially died during a recent episode of Hannity. RIP. Hey, maybe Giraldo can bury it in Al Capone’s vault. There’s also a chunk of our population who believes the Right’s appraisal of Obama’s performance thus far, which has little to do with reality.

Republicans didn’t mind deficits until they drove ours into the stratosphere. Their plan remains to counter our economic situation with their dumber than W plan. Sounds lovely. And, sorry, if you think returning to an incompetent foreign policy and an irresponsible economic plan is the way out of this mess, you’re more delusional than my prior posts suggest.

Kidding, I’ve had this bunch pegged all along.

Waylan Smithers

The only thing that remains consistent in this freakishly bad economic period is the right’s unwavering ability to misread the tea bag leaves. In this environment, how can they do anything but hinder our recovery? How can they do anything but Fox-block a proper revolution? The answer is, they can’t—not if they insist on approaching each issue from the perspective of, “What would Mr. Burns like me to do?”

Good luck with that. If you find any policy or issue where Fox strays an iota from this theme, hit our contact button and I will post your comments. Good luck with that. I think you would have better luck finding a Mormon in a hash bar, or a Jew in Damascus, or an Iranian gay pride parade (Pricilla, Ayatollah of the Desert?).

At the end of the day, Republicans would rather allow the union to collapse than return to 90s level tax rates…and collapse it will. The Dems role in the demise of America is destined to be a footnote, but the Republican section will make War and Peace look like a haiku.