Unreality Check #20: Hellfire is real! Hellfire is here!

Posted on by dugtheship

Houston independent filmmaker Jeremy Sumrall is making his biggest, bestest, bustiest, booziest, movie yet: ‘HELLFIRE’, a grindhouse action flick. This one’s been bubbling in his mind for a while now and when Sumrall finally decided to pull the trigger and bring it into existence, he did it the only way he knows how, with maximum impact.

What else would you expect from the man behind such indie horror classics as ‘Sweatshop,’ ‘Possum Walk,’ and ‘Pickaxe’? Dude ran around one of them smashing shiny ravers to bits with the biggest sledgehammer you ever saw!

In doubt? Have a look at the Indiegogo campaign video. And while you’re there, contribute to making it happen.

HELLFIRE is coming. Don’t miss your chance to live forever…in flames!!

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Tucker vs. the NSA

Tucker Carlson evidently hasn’t learned anything ever. No, not the ADL/Fox News battle. His hate credentials are already well-established. I’m talking about the foolhardiness of taking on this country’s intelligence agencies.

Whether you’re Ed Snowden or Tuck’s personal tongue cozy, Donald Trump, the outcome is the same. You do it, you lose. A once promising time horizon is yanked away from you and replaced by never-ending torment, exile, or worse. Look at what happened to Nixon! Or, if you want to go full conspiracy-theory, JFK.

Think about when things really went wrong for Donnie. He was stumbling along, ruffling some feathers but otherwise still pretty much intact. He was less than one month away from getting sworn in as President and decided to pick a fight with the CIA regarding alleged Russian interference in the election. And the rest is history. His term was done before Kellyanne Conway even said the words “alternative facts.”

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Crenshaw vs. Team USA

You know what you’re free to do in this country? Well, lots of things. But among them is fly the American flag, or not. Salute the flag, or not. Wear American flag shirts, or not. The freedoms we have regarding what we do or don’t do with regards to flag or truly boundless. It’s that way by design.

You know where they practice forced patriotism? North Korea. No wonder Donnie loved that place so much! Burma seems like another place where you’d be better off doing whatever’s required of you if the flag goes past. Hell, let’s throw Turkmenistan into the hopper as well.

Are these the kinds of places the greatest country on earth should be emulating? Not according to most. But count Congressman Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) as among those who think the answer is a resounding YES!

Gwen Berry, an athlete, evidently insulted Crenshaw, a veteran, when she turned her back on the flag during a medal ceremony that was part of the US Olympic Trials. He thinks she should be kicked off the team. It would be hilarious in its wrong-headedness if it weren’t so disgusting.

“We don’t need any more activist athletes. She should be removed from the team,” Crenshaw said. Exactly how many activist athletes are too many, Dan? Should they just shut up and play? Where do they, and we, live again?

Way to fight for freedom. Keep up the great work!

Unreality Check #13: Conspiracy Generator

Posted on by dugtheship

The need to be victimized is apparently limitless. The 2020 Census resulted, as designed, in the reapportionment of some seats in the US House of Representatives. Most of the states that gained seats lean Red, most that lost, Blue. And yet somehow conspiracy theories have emerged (yet again) that the fix was in on the part of the Democrats.

The speed with which each new event generates its own wave of misinformation designed to reinforce the idea that something was stolen during the last election stretches the limits of credulity. It’s almost as if the stories are generated by design.

In the event they were, who could benefit from reminding the disaffected as frequently as possible that they’d been wronged?  Republicans? Russia? The Media Elites? Let’s look at the size of benefit for each. The people who run media companies could make more money, and then use that money to attempt to force their artist-waged employees to execute the bigwigs’ evil agenda. The GOP could retake control of the executive and legislative branches of the United States government, a bigger prize by far. But Russia…Russia could succeed in destabilizing the greatest defender of freedom the world has ever known. Now, THAT’s a prize!

Uh oh. I think I might have just done it myself.

The moral of this story? Rabbit holes, even when you build them yourself, are dangerous. Best to spend most of your time taking things at face value. That’s almost always what reflects reality anyway.

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Here’s a fun graph looking at how motorsports fans break vs. the general population in terms of how likely they are to buy an electric vehicle. As both an avid motorsports fan and an F1 fan, it looks like I’d better starting planning for higher electric bills!