Overcast and rain, then vice-versa, here this early Friday afternoon on California’s north coast, as the NWS continues the narrative: ‘An atmospheric river is currently pointed directly at Northwest California, and will result in widespread moderate to heavy rain through the first half of the day.’
Or maybe all day, or forever and a day — this winter so far rated a little on the certifiable side…

Speaking of which, I didn’t see any of the GOP debate last night, or The Donald’s surreal solo venture, but just followed the Guardian‘s live blog of both — laughable if the reality wasn’t so freaking frightful.

Hard to fathom the idiotic high-point of “..Putin is a one horse country…” in the context of a supposedly serious process to select the next so-called leader of the free world.

(Illustration: ‘NSFW Sarah Palin,’ collage by Jonathan Yeo, found here).

And in writing Dr. Carson’s gibberish, should you hyphenate ‘one horse,’ since the two-word phrase modifies the noun, ‘country,’ or maybe not, if read in context: ‘“We ought to fight them on the economic basis because Putin is a one horse country, oil and energy. And we ought to fight them on that level.”‘
What-the-living fuck?

Hence, in a country of only two major political parties, and one of them is so screwed-up it can even speak in understandable language, there’s going to be some bad shit coming down.
Bob Gates, Republican, and former secretary of defense, with a comment this week on the current slate of GOP presidential contenders:

“The level of dialogue on national security issues would embarrass a middle schooler,” Gates said of the Republican contenders at a Politico Playbook event in Washington on Monday.
“People are out there making threats and promises that are totally unrealistic, totally unattainable. Either they really believe what they’re saying or they’re cynical and opportunistic and, in a way, you hope it’s the latter, because God forbid they actually believe some of the things that they’re saying.”

The background of the dumbing down of the GOP has been in the works for decades, but really didn’t become way-obvious until 2008, and the shattering-arrival of Sarah Palin. Thank-you John McCain!
She allowed plain ignorance to overcome reality — and didn’t really give a shit, either.
Maybe the actual origin epicenter of all this public-speaking nonsense was Katie Couric’s interview with Palin — from Crooks and Liars, Sept. 29, 2008:

COURIC: And when it comes to establishing, I was curious, what newspapers and magazines did you regularly read before you were tapped for this to stay informed and understand the world?
PALIN: I’ve read most of them, again with a great appreciation for the press, for the media.
COURIC: Like what ones specifically?
PALIN: Umm… all of them. Any of them that have been in front of me over all these years.
COURIC: Can you name any of them?
PALIN: I have a vast variety of sources where we get our news… Alaska isn’t a foreign country where it’s kind of suggested it seems like, wow how could you keep in touch with what the rest of Washington, DC may be thinking and doing, when you live up there in Alaska. Believe me, Alaska is like a microcosm of America.

A now-quaint, and way-naive update from that C&L post: ‘Holy crap. It completely slipped my mind that Plain has a degree in journalism. Yes, someone who studied journalism can’t name a single magazine or newspaper.’
Nowadays we already understand, and are not shocked…too much.