Sunday Morning Comin' Down

Under the Dumb, Ctd.

Last week I passed along this little nugget of distilled stupidity from the state of Maine.

...further down that same Vector of Stupid would be, say, picking a fight with one of America's most famous living writers who sells books by the metric ton and knows how to use the Twitter machine,

Maine's Republican governor is apparently unfamiliar with this principle:

 Stephen King wants Maine's governor to apologize for saying he didn't pay taxes 

The governor of Maine has learned the hard way that if you make an author — specifically Stephen King — angry, you'll get scolded in colorful terms on a variety of platforms.

The conflict began when Gov. Paul LePage (R) stated in his weekly radio address that King no longer lives in Maine or pays income taxes in the state. This is absolutely untrue, King said. "Governor LePage is full of the stuff that makes the grass grow green," King wrote in a message to Bangor's The Pulse AM 620, which he owns. "Tabby [King's wife] and I pay every cent of our Maine state income taxes, and are glad to do it. We feel, as Governor LePage apparently does not, that much is owed from those to whom much has been given." He also sent an email to the Portland Press Herald, saying that in 2013, he paid approximately $1.4 million in state taxes...

This week, I am forced to report that the basic laws of the political universe have not been repealed and Governor LePage has elected to cope with his little King problem by going straight to page one, paragraph one of the all-purpose, Conservative playbook:  deny you ever said what you said and have your minions scrub the record (emphasis added):

...

The Portland Press Herald reported that on Wednesday, LePage denied accusing King of not paying taxes. His staffers removed the remark from the transcript of his original remarks.

“I never said Stephen King did not pay income taxes,” LePage insisted. “What I said was, Stephen King’s not in Maine right now. That’s what I said. How the papers report it, I don’t know.”

King released another statement on Thursday accusing LePage of “gilding the lily and playing with semantics,” and calling for an end to the feud.

...

Having watched the Republican memory effortlessly consume most of American history from 1962 through 2009, there is little we peons can do but hope that the wafer-thin after dinner mint of doom will arrive sometime during our lifetimes.

Prophecy tells us that one sign that the end of our Wingnut Dark Ages is at hand would be the day that smirking, bloody-minded sociopaths who have been publicly horribly and wrong about everything forever are no longer be plunked down in front of national teevee cameras and feted as visiting sages from the land infinite wisdom.

Sadly, that day remains far away (h/t Heather at Crooks and Liars)  --

-- and the best we peons can do is keep a tiny light burning to remind each other that it need not always be this way.

People like Bloody Bill Kristol and David Brooks do not have permanent sinecures at the top of the the American media food chain because of some irrevocable law of nature.  They stomp across the land unmolested because a handful of wealthy individuals -- their employers and several hundred of their colleagues -- have struck an unholy bargain to sell out their professional and betray the American people in exchange for a fuck-ton of money.

It really isn't any more complicated than that.

Also Mike Pence remains a helluva slice of Indiana cheese.  But you already knew that.

From Brother Charlie Pierce:

...

Anyway, off to this Sunday's epochal moment in gobshitery, a performance so stunning that we don't even have to consider what went on in the Overlook Hotel at 30 Rock, where my man Chuck Todd always has been the caretaker, or the gathering hosted by former Scipio Africanus dispatch runner Bob Schieffer. No, the House Cup was clinched by Mike Pence, the big bag of hammers who governs Indiana, who dropped by This Week With The Clinton Guy Shocked By Blowjobs, and who wrapped up the competition in the first three minutes of his appearance. This may have been the worst performance by a politician on a Sunday Show I ever saw. In fact, it may be the worst performance by a purported human being in he history of television. As you may have guessed, Pence came on to defend his signing of the anti-gay Religious Freedom Restoration Act at a private ceremony last week, and to explain how Jesus wanted him to drive his local business community mad, and his local tourism economy into the abyss. He began by distorting a little history.