POST 1303
Have You Noticed . . .
. . . that when you hear conspiracy idiocy, baseless propaganda and other absolutist Trumpian and MAGA-ian “truthiness” (think: Pizzagate) and self-congratulations (think: the Iran war is going ‘very very well’ and ‘we‘re winning by a lot’) that their claims always have the depth of thought and the integrity of a brainless bumper sticker? Perhaps you’ve also noticed that it takes an absurd amount of words and effort to refute them? Welcome to Brandolini’s Law.
Brandolini’s law (also called the bullshit asymmetry principle) states that the amount of energy needed to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude bigger than to produce it. This denotes that it’s usually much easier to speak without regard for the truth, than to prove that what was said is false.
What that means to you is that in the face of spewed idiocy from ill-meaning far righties and their uninformed but very vocal dupe-dopes, your good sense reply based on actual reality and your flailing of arms and raising your voice are wasted effort. You would have far better effect, have a better time and expend far less effort explaining things to your dog. Plus, the dog won’t senselessly argue with you citing whataboutisms.
Remember Brandolini fondly, as he has brought to you the path to inner peace through avoiding bullshit asymmetry verbal warfare.
Huh?
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent made a major announcement last week, declaring that our efforts against Iran are largely shifting from destruction via military means to Iran’s ultimate destruction via economic means. It’s D-Day, he told us, as Trump and his incompetent, embarrassingly fawning mouthpieces once again defame our military with a label the Trumpies obviously don’t understand.
Bessent calls the program Operation Economic Outcast and presents it with no clarity about what the US will do, other than to go after countries that are Iran’s trading partners. Presumably that will include hostile action against Russia and China, major trading partners of Iran. He presented implications and no specificity, but did so with substantial playground bully bravado. Actually, we don’t know if there is any substance behind Bessent’s chest thumping, but that wasn’t the strangest part of this PR tough guy song and dance.
Before Trump, if announcing major foreign policy issues and actions wasn’t done by the president, it was the job of the Secretary of State. Leading foreign policy strategy and actions are right there in the job description. But invisible Marco Rubio rarely announces anything.
Indeed, he doesn’t lead our negotiating team to find a solution to end Trump’s enormously dumb war. He is absent from anything to do with Gaza or Israel. He wasn’t important enough to leave the decoy airplane with Trump and ickily devoted Natalie Harp on the sneak away airplane. He hasn’t made nice with countries we’ve punched in the nose with tariffs and he appears to have ignored the demeaning of our allies so that now we don’t have any. And he was once again AWOL, as instead of him, the Treasury guy announced what he tried to make look like a major foreign policy action, something the Secretary of State should be announcing.
That leaves us to wonder why a rather insignificant dollar bill printer and foreign policy ignorant made the Operation Economic Outcast proclamation instead of Rubio. Is Rubio the actual outcast?
It’s the same wonder about why Pete Hegseth makes strategy statements that sound like they originated in an extreme low pressure area inside his skull while he was studying comic book action figures. He makes the US sound like our military strategy originates from a bad cartoon character. Again, why clueless Hegseth, the posturing Testosterone Man?
This story is tag-along to my I Don’t Get It post a short time ago. The fundamental question is about why we are destroying our country by doing things that neuter us both domestically and internationally. You and I don’t benefit as our national defense is compromised, our intelligence agencies are neutered, our food safety agencies are decimated, our healthcare is deeply compromised, our voting structure is under siege and so much more. Who does that benefit?
Satire of The Week
From Andy Borowitz:
In his most withering rebuke of Senator [Caroline] Graham, [Eric Trump] said, “The USA doesn’t need an incompetent nincompoop who knows nothing about foreign policy. We have Pete Hegseth.
Borowitz also reports that the brilliant humorist, satirist and skewerer of political dummies, Molly Ivins, said of a Texas congressman,
If his IQ slips any lower we’ll have to water him twice a day.
Which brings to us – to you – a challenge. To which politicians should Ivins’ cautionary observation be applied today, right now? Please, submit names of only the bottom 1% of the IQ bottom 1%.
So sad that there are so many choices,
The time for action is NOW!
Keep standing up,
speaking out
and taking action
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Count-down Timer
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To The November 3, 2026
Mid-Term Election
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