Thick as a Brick

Sometimes, I get stuck in traffic and am forced to bide my time (when no one is on the CLARA amateur radio two meter repeater) listening to the drive-time political commentariat. In the Southern California area, this means either KRLA 830 Khz, KFI 640 Khz, or KABC 790 Khz if one wants to hear anything close to objective opinions.

Still in all, it is woeful -- and by that, I mean the talk show hosts have to be just too hip for words and are careful to expand their audiences by not alienating either the left or the right. And, in threading this needle, their cynicism leaks over into smug #NeverTrumper commentary with the obligatory bashing of trump (and, by extension) his supporters as mouth-breathing, right-wing proles.

Of course, all one has to do is listen to some of the callers and one can see where they are coming from. Also, I realize this is their paycheck and it behooves them to keep their ratings up.

Yada-yada-yada..

So, this post will not be a n in-depth compendium of the SoCal talk radio scene. It's just my usual gratuitous bag job kvetch on a few of the more annoying talk show people.

We start out at the lower end of the dial at KFI (we have to start somewhere) where they have some screaming Jew named Bill Handle holding forth, replete with histrionics and a rant a mile wide and an inch deep. He is a bread-and-circuses-for-the-masses types who revels in eviscerating the mirror-foggers that call in. The commercial load on KFI is onerous so I rarely hear more than a few syllables from this guy. But I respect him because he's got to make a living and he is certainly good at promoting his sideline businesses while on air. (And, lest you think I am anti-semitic, I am a staunch fan of Israel and have the obligatory scads of Jewish friends, etc. As one of them told me a while ago: there are Jews and their are kikes and kike is another word for schmuck.)

Handel is NOT a kike or schmuck and is likeable. As I said, I just had to start somewhere and his legal advice show on Saturday mornings is entertaining. I am just in a bad mood. read on..

Next, you can flush Doug McIntyre on KABC 790 down the crapper almost immediately. He comes off as a too-hip guy from the East who made his bones on a stand-in gig during the Bush-Gore 30-day war back in November 2000 when he took George Bush's side and adroitly dissected the crap the left and the Dems were attempting to pull off. Ratings went through the roof and he got an overnight slot doing what he called "Red Eye Radio". (I am not going to explain it; you look it up.) Well, he was promoted to the morning drive slot, demoted, and then promoted again, currently being in that role today.

But he is apparently turned off by Trump and his antics and prepared to vote third-party or for his wife's Chihuahua or something. You know the type: smug, principled, just a hair's breadth away from Big-L Libertarian and pandering to our Dem and liberal betters out here in Kalifornia. He does not realize that we are sinking in a river of sewage and, although his favorite crusade is illegal immigration, he apparently cannot make the connection between Trump's metaphoric wall, the fate of the common American citizen, and the perils of allowing that bubble-assed lying bitch in the $13,000 house coat a shot at the presidency.

He gets about a minute or two of my time; the scan button gets hit as soon as he begins one of those smug trump-is-a-buffoon routines. We are currently taking up a collection for McIntire to have a plate glass window installed near his belly button so he can see the world because is seems his head is perpetually shoved up his own ass and all that.

And this brings us to my favorites of the lot. Two guys who are the leftovers up at Huge Hewittless's KRLA 830. My morning "favorite" is this reedy, whiny little dickhead, Ben Shapiro, whose hatred of Donald Trump is the stuff of legends. He is basically one of these principled conservative pricks who will not vote for trump ever. Below is an excerpt from his anti-trump screed. The logic and reasoning extant in this drivel makes me doubt the guy ever went to Harvard but probably got his degree from some mail-in college on the plains of Manitoba or operating out of some back-room in Milpitas, California.

Truly lame, "shoot yourself in the foot" strategic thinking:

I will never vote for Donald Trump.

Ever.

I will never vote for Donald Trump because I stand with certain principles. I stand with small government and free markets and religious freedom and personal responsibility. Donald Trump stands against all of these things. He stands for Planned Parenthood and trade restrictions and targeting of political enemies and an anti-morality foreign policy and government domination of religion and nastiness toward women and tacit appeals to racism and unbounded personal power. I stand with the Constitution of the United States, and its embedded protection of my God-given rights through governmental checks and balances. Donald Trump does not. I stand with conservatism. Donald Trump stands against it.

I stand with #NeverTrump.

The counterargument to the #NeverTrump movement comes down to two words: Hillary Clinton. Trump will supposedly close the borders (a lie); Hillary will not. Trump will appoint conservative Supreme Court justices (unlikely); Hillary will not. No matter how bad Trump is, the argument goes, conservatives have a duty to back the anti-Hillary.

I think Trump will get blown out in a general election. But let’s assume that these critics of #NeverTrump are right. Let’s assume that but for we #NeverTrump voters sitting out the election, Trump would become president, and Hillary would go down in flaming defeat. And let’s assume that Hillary Clinton will appoint terrible justices, destroy the military, and usher in the apocalypse. Why in the world would conservatives live with President Hillary Clinton on their consciences?

Because first, it’s not on our consciences. It’s on the consciences of the people who went along with this nomination. We did not select Trump. We will not vote for him.

And if we are going to save the country, it will not rest on one or two justices on the Supreme Court. It will rest on the will of the people to resist tyranny. That will start at the state and local level. It will start with the people.

It will start with conservatives willing to say “no.”

Because if we never say “no,” we will never have the opportunity to say “yes.”

So he is saying that he is not a team player. You know, like one of those pin dicks who would have said we needed to avoid "entanglements" in Europe (to stop Hitler) and in the Pacific (to stop Tojo).

And this is type of classic dogma that ensures he and his ilk will be out of power for the rest of his natural life. So, Ben, get used to saying "no"; it'll become an annoying habit, kind of like that nervous tic you will develop when attain a ripe age and become a sclerotic old codger, sitting on the front porch of your Kibbutz, whittling on a stick, wondering why life passed you by.

Also, Shapiro, if you don't get your people elected, you don't get to make the rules. Sometimes it is necessary to work with others to realize your goals. After all, we worked for John McCain on 20078 and Mutt Rumbley in 2012. But when it comes to pulling an oar for the working stiff's choice this year, Butt-wipe Ben doesn't want to soil his hands.

But the piece de resistance comes from Shapiro's station-mate who does afternoon drive on the same station, the so-called Great One: Mark Levin.

This guy is a piece of work who has increasingly annoyed me over the years with his principled stances. But what tore it for me was listening to him on the heels of trump's press conference in Doral, Florida today.

Basically, in his typical free-form fashion, Trump owned that the minimum wage would have to be raised to $10 in some states (and more or less in others) and went on to explain how that would not matter because his aim was to make the economy rebound.

Here's a quiz for youse: anyone know what the minimum wage is in North Dakota? (Hint: it's $7.25 per hour.) Anyone remember when the rest of the economy was sucking swamp water how much you could get paid for a job flipping burgers in North Dakota? Hint:

Trump also owned that college graduates shouldered an onerous burden with their education loans and are now facing a grim economy and staggering debt.

So, Mr Principled gets on the airwaves, delivers a condescending lecture on why a minimum wage causes job losses and why the minimum wage was meant to be an entry level stipend and not meant to provide subsistence for a family. Anyone who supposedly can slog through Levin's daily fare should have the requisite intellect and experience to already know these facts. But he droned on.

Then it hit me: here is some self-anointed prick who lectures his audience and -- by extension -- is lecturing a billionaire in the contracting/building industry on the effects of the minimum wage? Really? You think Trump is not already aware of this? This is practically his daily fare and certainly one of the underpinnings of his business model.

But what is even more alarming is that Levin did not see this in the context of the recent days' events, he was that myopic. Bernie Sanders raised this army of "gimmedats" who practically took the coronation of Bubble-Ass off at the knees. His army, once Sanders sold them out, continued on its own steam by staging an open revolt and walk-out of the DNC. Interview after You Tube video of these precious little snowflakes reveals that handouts for the common folk are what's on their mind and they are prepared to go to the mat for free stuff.

So, in this press conference Trump threw them a bone. He basically said to them that he was not as terrible as the Democrat leadership and Hillary shills have been pointing out and that they ought to give him a second look. He hoped to peel off a few more to add to the 20% who said they would already throw over Clintoon for Trump.

But this apparently did not sink in with "Mr Principled" as he does not want to pander.

So, like Shapiro, McIntyre, and the rest, Levin will be sitting out there in the wilderness, preaching to his narrow segment of "principled conservatives"..smugly. Sure hope their ratings don't dwindle too much.

But, actually, I could care less. They can all die and go to hell with a hard-on. Sometimes it's better to turn off the fucking radio and just drive home in relative silence.