[QUOTE=Dr Sardonicus;475292]They say that seeing is believing, but when you see the [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9qv8RSreIM]Official Trumpy Bear commercial[/url] you [i]still[/i] won't believe it.

Assuming it's a real thing (not just a spoof), I can say with confidence that it would make a better president than the one we've got.[/QUOTE]

Ha,ha, I first saw that on late-nite cable a couple months ago, initially thought it was a joke, but it appears to be a real product. Now the sellers might have started it as a tongue-in-cheek thing and be laughing their butts off all the way to the bank, but it's even [url=https://www.amazon.com/Trumpy-Bear-As-Seen-TV/dp/B077P1W9FS/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1514588823&sr=8-2&keywords=Trumpy+Bear]for sale on Amazon[/url].

If you want to understand what has happened to the United States of America, listen to


[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5ShyXSJpJs]David Souter on civic ignorance[/url]

A DESPERATE, blithering eff-up has demanded the media accurately report how unbelievably fantastic it is.
[URL]http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/international/piss-eyed-tango-monster-demands-everyone-say-nice-things-about-it-20170217122330[/URL]
[QUOTE]The unnaturally fluorescent mass of insecurities, apparently incapable of understanding basic logic, told press that the real story was how incredible it was and how much everyone loved it.[/QUOTE][a reporter commented that] : “Its neediness is almost to be pitied, if it wasn’t such a contemptible sack of orange '[I]stuff[/I]'.”

Mikado
 

[url]https://twitter.com/mrnickharvey/status/949772526103736320[/url]

[QUOTE=xilman;476830][URL]https://twitter.com/mrnickharvey/status/949772526103736320[/URL][/QUOTE]
I must point out that the spoofed lyrics are from The Pirates of Penzance.

[QUOTE=kladner;476842]I must point out that the spoofed lyrics are from The Pirates of Penzance.[/QUOTE]Scheiß :sad:

Did you not realise the parallels between the Mikado and the Donald?

[QUOTE=xilman;476873]Did you not realise the parallels between the Mikado and the Donald?[/QUOTE]

The Donald is a vainglorious leader who wants to get medieval on terrorism. The Mikado does have a vainglorious leader that wants to get medieval on unmarried flirting.
[QUOTE]POOH-BAH (Spoken) Don't mention it. I am, in point of fact, a particularly haughty and exclusive person, of pre-Adamite ancestral descent. You will understand this when I tell you that I can trace my ancestry back to a protoplasmal primordial atomic globule. Consequently, my family pride is something inconceivable. I can't help it. I was born sneering. But I struggle hard to overcome this defect. I mortify my pride continually. When all the great officers of state resigned in a body, because they were too proud to serve under an ex-tailor, did I not unhesitantly accept all their posts at once?

PISH-TUSH (Spoken) And all the salaries attached to them? You did.

POOH-BAH (Spoken) It is consequently my degrading duty to serve this upstart as First Lord of the Treasury, Lord Chief Justice, Commander-in-Chief, Lord High Admiral, Master of the Buckhounds, Groom of the Back Stairs, Archbishop of Titipu, and Lord Mayor, both acting and elect, all rolled into one. And at a salary! A Pooh-Bah paid for his services! I a salaried minion! But I do it! it revolts me, but I do it!

NANKI-POO (Spoken) And it does you credit.

POOH-BAH (Spoken) But I don't stop at that. I go and dine with middle-class people on reasonable terms. I dance at cheap suburban parties for a moderate fee. I accept refreshment at any hands, however lowly. I also retail State secrets at a very low figure. For instance, any further information on Yum-Yum would come under the head of a State secret. (Aside) Another insult, and, I think, a light one![/QUOTE]

I visited wiki entry about the movie, [URL="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topsy-Turvy"]Topsy-Turvy[/URL], that portrays the Victorian era making of The Mikado by Gilbert and Sullivan. I really enjoyed that movie when it came out and planned to watch it again, although I never did.

The Mikado has an executioner version of the
[URL="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barber_paradox"]barber paradox[/URL]:
[QUOTE]PISH-TUSH

Our great Mikado, virtuous man,
When he to rule our land began,
Resolved to try
A plan whereby
Young men might best be steadied.

So he decreed, in words succinct,
That all who flirted, leered or winked
(Unless connubially linked),
Should forthwith be beheaded, beheaded, beheaded
Should forthwith be beheaded.

And I expect you'll all agree
That he was right to so decree.
And I am right,
And you are right,
And all is right as right can be!

CHORUS

And you are right.
And we are right,
And all is right, is right as right can be!
And all is right as right can be!
right as right can be!

PISH-TUSH

This stern decree, you'll understand,
Caused great dismay throughout the land!
For young and old
And shy and bold
Were equally affected.
The youth who winked a roving eye,
Or breathed a non-connubial sigh,
Was thereupon condemned to die—
He usually objected, objected, objected,
He usually objected.

And you'll allow, as I expect,
That he was right to so object.
And I am right,
And you are right,
And everything is quite correct!

CHORUS

And you are right,
And we are right,
And everything is quite, is quite correct,
And everything is quite correct,
All is quite correct!

PISH-TUSH

And so we straight let out on bail
A convict from the county jail,
Whose head was next
On some pretext
Condemned to be mown off,
And made him Headsman, for we said,
"Who's next to be decapited
Cannot cut off another's head
Until he's cut his own off, his own off, his own off.
Until he's cut his own off."

And we are right, I think you'll say,
To argue in this kind of way;
And I am right,
And you are right,
And all is right—too-looral-lay!

CHORUS

And I am right,
And you are right,
And you are right,—too-looral-lay!

PISH-TUSH and CHORUS

And we are right,
And all is right,
And all is right!

[Exeunt CHORUS.][/QUOTE]

On New Year's Eve, I watched Anderson Cooper in Times Square. In previous years, Kathy Griffin was with him but she has been disinvited from that event over her holding a mock decapitated Donald Trump head. All the same I missed her presence this year.

[QUOTE=xilman;476873]Scheiß :sad:

Did you not realise the parallels between the Mikado and the Donald?[/QUOTE]
Well, now that you mention it, the Mikado is a better parallel. The Pirate King is far too perceptive to compare to The Donald.
[INDENT]When I sally forth to seek my prey
I help myself in a royal way
I sink a few more ships, it's true
Than a well-bred monarch ought to do

But many a king on a first-class throne
If he wants to call his crown his own
Must manage somehow to get through
More dirty work than ever I do.
[/INDENT]

[url]https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/cr/B077F4WZZY/ref=mw_dp_cr[/url]
The Amazon reviews of Michael Wolff's [I]Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House[/I]
are themselves fast and furious. With currently 1300 reviews, it reminds me of the [URL="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/28/wendy-davis-shoes-amazon_n_3516574.html"]Wendy Davis' Filibuster Shoe[/URL] (Mizuno Women's Wave Rider 16 running shoe) reviews although less guarded in expletives. I like this one:
[QUOTE]5.0 out of 5 stars When wannabee dictators make demands
By Cynthia M. on January 5, 2018
Format: Kindle Edition|Verified Purchase

When a lunatic sitting in the whitehouse DEMANDS that a publisher halts the publication of a book that exposes that lunacy, I did what every red-blooded American would do. I immediately preordered it just to say '*F*** Y** #45. You can poison the air, land and water and make horrendous policies that hurt everything I hold dear, but keep your tiny ugly hands off my book shelves."

28 comments| 4,086 people found this helpful.[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=only_human;476933]I visited wiki entry about the movie, [URL="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topsy-Turvy"]Topsy-Turvy[/URL], that portrays the Victorian era making of The Mikado by Gilbert and Sullivan. I really enjoyed that movie when it came out and planned to watch it again, although I never did.
[/QUOTE]
There are many films in which good actors fail to convince when they pretend to play the piano or conduct an orchestra.
Topsy-Turvy is refreshing because the actor playing Sullivan (Allan Corduner) really can do both.

For some reason, [i]Il Duce[/i] and his followers bring to mind James Thurber's

[url=https://www.k-state.edu/english/baker/english320/Thurber-The_Owl_Who_Was_God.htm]The Owl Who Was God[/url].