In Living Colour

Walking on sunshine, yo.

First black President, or so it's been said.

SEXYPREZ

Young Sexy Nixon in the ocean is like a zen koan, Americanized.

Teddy Roosevelt, age 19. A thuggish sexy brute with a neckbeard. Nothing makes sense!

A young LBJ in his teaching days. Education for all is super sexy! The sexiest, in fact.

LBJ did so much for so many, and yet his name was dragged through the mud and blood of Vietnam. Sad - for all involved, involuntarily or otherwise.

Lessons from St. Ronaldus

I just finished the book Nixonland and highly recommend. Kinda scary. But relevant to our times, for we are living in the reality of the true Revolution of the 1960's, and that was the Conservative (Wingnut) Revolution. The Triumph of the John Birch Brigade. Three men were in large part responsible for this Revolution - Goldwater, who was rightly considered the loon he was; Nixon, of course, who was a grab bag of resentments and hypocrisy, and good old St. Ronnie, who coulda run for President in 1968 and probably won. What Reagan gave us was the victory of the actor.

 An actor with little knowledge of the issues but with a good sense on how to move a crowd. An entertainer's skill transferred to politics. The politician as actor, the actor as politician - none of it real, all a facade, an empty chalice in which the Agenda (plot) is poured within. And so today, we have the Republican Party, devoted to the legacy of The Great Man Reagan, giving us

Sarah Palin, defender of Big Gulps and

chewing tobacco. Yay, chaw! Freedom to be fat and get mouth cancer then go die and in the street cuz you ain't takin' no OBAMERCARE! Yeehaw, America!

The Know Nothings are here, and proud of it.

Let us bask in their good natured humor and civic spirit! Cheers!

Have a drink with the Turtle. He'll filibuster his portion of the tab.

If you recall, humor was Reagan's main charm. And he was good at it, relatively. Today's Repukes? Not so much. Do you know of any truly funny right wingers? And for that, again, we should feel blessed with good fortune.

What's next in Rockets

Sadly, or not, it's private enterprise - IN SPACE! Above is SpaceX's Falcon, which is already supplying the ISS, using this nifty little ship:

The Dragon! The Dragon has made a few trips to the ISS (just splashed down a few days ago) to deliver supplies and take back trash/experiments. It's automated to date, but is entirely ready to deliver people to space as well.

SpaceX is frankly awesome. They're working on their next rocket, which could revolutionize human access to space (in terms of cost - but this is a major barrier):

Here's a test launch. Check out the legs:

This rocket is designed to blast off, reach space, deliver its cargo, then fly back to Earth and land vertically, on those legs. This is the revolutionary part - the reusable rocket. Long a goal, and the original idea behind the Space Shuttle - check out this prototype from the 60's that never had a chance thanks to Nixon and Vietnam:

The rocket itself was not reusable, but this design was far more efficient than the Shuttle design that we finally got.

Anyways, SpaceX's Grasshopper is a reusable rocket, which greatly reduces the cost of any individual mission. Additionally, it can handle more cargo. Here's the cargo module, which would sit on top of the Grasshopper:

This is huge, relative to other rockets delivering stuff to space today.

Again, SpaceX seems like a kick ass success story, and their success will lead to more success. Good luck Elon!

Oh, and Branson's "Virgin Galactic"? Tourist trap only. Cool, but for rich thrillseekers and not much else.

Presidents meet Rock Stars

The gold standard, of course. But there's so many more!

It's Jerry Ford with George Harrison and the dude with the best afro in history!

From the pilot episode of "Hangin' with the Prez!", Willie Nelson and Gang meet up with President Jimmy Carter to put an end to littering! Also, many years later at the reunion show:

President Carter busts out his lucky harmonica and they jam out like olden times. Good times, before the dark times. Before, Michael.

MJ hears the babbled requests of President and First Lady Reagan - they're olds, you see, and don't get what MJ is all about. They were ordered to appease His Royal Gloved One. Cuz Michael owned the 80's. This is a Pete Souza, by the by, who takes most of the cool shots you see of Obama over the past 4.5 years.

Nah gonna do'it. Wouldn't be prudent. Bush Sr. met no cool rock stars, by the way, cuz he was a big wimp.

Pearl Jam and Big Dog. You know shit went down after this photo - grunged out mosh pit right there in the Oval Office.  Awesome!

W., like all Republicans, was still in thrall to MJ, even after he turned into a scary crow monster. K.I.S.S.I.N.G.

So cool.

A Right Turn in Yorba Linda

Briefly, the decline of America began under Nixon, and accelerated because of Nixon's descendents. From here on till today, each new iteration of the Republican Party gets worse. More evil. Nixon was the beginning, for who didn't like Ike?

Nixon had to resign! He was terrible, and yet his martyrdom at the hands of LIBERAL MEDIA has been the rallying cause for generations of "Conservatives" since, with many of the key players involved in all the acts to come. Dick Cheney, for instance. Roger Ailes, for another. However, America of the 1970's still had some sense left in her, and so rejected Ronnie for Jimmie Carter and sweaters and solar panels on the White House.

Yay Jimmy Carter! But alas, for Jimmy, and us all, the monster had been woken, and took power in part because of a total rat bastard deal with the Iranian Mullahs. Hail Saint Ronnie!

Thanks to relentless right wing propaganda, you may remember Ronnie as a kind hearted, awesome President who saved the world from evil. However, the truth was, and is, he was a puppet for far darker forces which effectively ruled in his stead once he began suffering from severe dementia circa 1985. It was this so called Reagan Revolution that loosed the Wing Nut Id on America and the world, and think of the damage this has caused - and will cause in the years to come. Millions of dead Middle Easterners, just for starters. Millions of Americans in prison. Plenty of straight up treason too in the Reagan Administration, ably covered up by:

Bush Senior, and for that he'll be remembered poorly. But alas, in retrospect, compared to the utter loons now dominating the Republican landscape, Bush the Elder was a moderate, sane man who I do believe genuinely wanted to do good by the country and the world. For example, I think he handled the fall of the USSR smoothly - a situation that was extremely dangerous. But being a moderate elite technocrat was also now dangerous in the Republican Party, so Bush Sr lost to Bill Clinton

A fine President in many respects, yet because of his human failings, and the explosion of the First Wingularity, he played defense for most of his two terms, which translated to enacting highly pro-corporate policies, which led directly to the economic collapse of 2008, and now have placed America firmly in the grip of ruthless tycoons who will bleed this country dry for their own betterment. So, mixed bag really with Slick Willie. He was perhaps the funnest President though, by far.

And you know all about W., I hope, by now. And so here we are in 2013, with the fires of mass insanity burning brightly in about 27 - 40% of the population, and we have the best President of my lifetime trying to control them. Good luck Barack, you'll need it!

The coolest President.

Bonus Nixon pic:

Space Ship Time Schedule

Alas, Jeremy A. Shapiro, I doubt your reservation to any of these destinations will be met within your lifetime. What once seemed an inevitable conquest of the solar system has turned into a silent program of satellite launches. Nixon has a large part to play in this shame, for shame, yet again, Tricky Dick. You ruined so much.

Click for big of course - as with all photos here at Redshirt's Lament. Supposedly these are all the ships of Sci Fi as of 2003, to scale. A nerd's delight.

Sci Fi has kept our dreams alive - I mean this literally, as in our genes want to leave this planet, must leave this planet if they are to live forever. We will be driven to do so if we have the technology to make it possible, eventually. Sci Fi movies and shows keep this reminder in the public mind, regardless of actual progress.

Black n' White

A madness has infected America - Wingnuttery. It's a contagion at this point, replicating via right wing radio and tv. This contagion is spreading globally to the detriment of the entirety of humanity. But! This small percentage of infected Americans - usually around 27% full infection, 15-17% partially infected - is growing increasingly marginalized, least of all by the radicalization of the rest of the population. One cannot simply sit back and let evil take over unchallenged. Rohan? Will you stand?

The Wingnuts today are still seeking payback for the impeachment of Nixon - Clinton went down because of this - and view him as a victim of the LIBERAL AGENDA rather than any malevolent being on his own. Also too, given his policies during his Administrations, they'd burn him - but cognitive dissonance is never a problem for the Wingnuts.

Never fear! A Savior came and rescued America from the grip of the LIBERALS:

St. Ronnie Raygun, Bringer of the Madness. At this point, you've got to view Reagan in one of two ways (with some nuance, of course, but not worth discussing with the Wingtards, since nuance is a concept lost upon them): 1. The greatest President evah!, or 2. A dottering fool used to usher in an age of American fascism.

Did you pick #1? You probably HATE this guy then, amirite?

FDR. The DEVIL hisself. I mean, he gave America generations of wealth and comfort for the aged and ill, and oh yeah, won WW2. LIBERAL SCUM!

Not a 'shop, by the way - how awesome is that? Also too, everyone back then was pretty damn ugly  - evolution in action?

President Baby

President Baby thinks your work needs improvement. Could you be giving more effort and attention? Also, a diaper change would be grand.

Ditto. Also, pardon me!

L'il Nixon goes to China

Go ahead and do a Nixon impersonation - I guarantee you'll feel awesome when done. For impersonating Nixon IS fun, period. I. Am. Not. A. Crook!  Blalghalalghlagh!

And how would a little girl in China know how to do a Nixon impersonation? Memes. And why would she do it at her Birthday party? Cuz she's awesome.