The Phil Donahue Effect: Braco the Gazer

Neither Snickers Bar nor Mars, Incorporated,
have paid Angela for her endorsement...
and that is a frickin', cryin' shame.

by Angela K. Durden
The Most Brilliant — and Funniest — Woman in the World

Citizen Journalist.  Novelist. Author of other stuff. 

Business writer.  Songwriter.  Protecting creator's copyrights. 

They used to call it a staring contest.

Now the P-HWPCDLRSFC women say gazing — at a man, — gives them a sense of purpose, of... of... connectedness. Paying for the privilege is worth it because it helps them center themselves and get in touch with their strong inner wounded lioness. Oh, the irony is just like, going, you know, like, all over the, you know, like, like...crawling all over me.

Women flock to Braco the Gazer, their newest guru, because he's a man who stares in their eyes and doesn't say anything. They can then put any meaning on it they want. They can take this profound moment home and...

Hang tight just one frickin' minute.

I already know where this is going. It is called "The Phil Donahue Effect."

These women will all go home to their menfolk and then hound them to death with "Why can't you be more like Braco? He wouldn't do [insert trivial first-world-problem crime against woman here]. Braco would just... just... read my heart and... and... understand!"

Look, ladies, when Braco goes home to his significant other and she asks him to take out the trash, I can double gare-O-damn-tee ya what the conversation will be. Let's listen in, shall we?

THE SCENE: 

The mudroom door from the garage swings open and slams shut. Braco's Significant Other (BS-O) hears Braco the Gazer (BG) kick off his faux snakeskin boots and cut the cheese with a loud rip. BG walks in to the kitchen. BS-O is at the sink, elbow deep in suds. Dinner simmers on the stove. Smells good and BG is hungry after a long day of gazing.

BS-O: Braco, honey, could you take the trash out, please?

BG: [Staring]

BS-O: Honey? Did you hear me? Could you —

BG: [Interrupting BS-O] Good God, woman! Can't you give me just one frickin' minute to unwind before cuttin' loose with your Honey-Do List?

BS-O: [Wrinkling her nose as cheese scent reaches her but also staring back at BG]

BG:  What?!? WHAT?!?!

BS-O: [Staring some more.]

BG: [Staring at BS-O]

BS-O: [Sighs]

BG: What does [copies sigh of BS-O] mean?

BS-O: [Putting on her Mama voice] Take the trash out or you know Daddy won't be getting any of that healing he likes so much for a month, right?

BG: [Staring]

BS-O: [Staring]

BG: [Executes a smart turn on his heel as he searches for the container] Where is that trashcan, darlin'?

BS-O: [Pointing] That's my good boy. Hurry up, now. Dinner is almost ready.

BG: [Yanking bag from can and heading out the door] Yes, ma'am.

Unconscious Bias Training: Yeah, Starbucks' schizoid approach to business is not working.

Angela the Anonymous.

by Angela K. Durden
The Most Brilliant Woman in the World

First they came for Zookerbug

and I spoke up.

Did I get any thanks?

I did not.

Then they came for Starbux

and I spoke up.

Did I get any thanks?

I did not.

But when they come for me,

Zookerbug and Starbux will be silent.

Bad derivation of the famous poem, but what do you expect when writing about P-HWPCDLRSFC* companies who have served their Deep State masters until those turned on them?

Liberal Socialist Fascist Commie ideology has never inspired a great stringing together of words. Have you ever tried to read Mein Kampf or The Unabomber Manifesto: Industrial Society and Its Future? Self-focused, overly romantic, and narrow viewpoints were not only boring to read, but lead to great destruction for destruction's sake with never a thought as to how to actually build.

In other words, Adolf and Ted alike were so focused on what went wrong in their own lives, they assumed everybody else felt the same. But they must have known, deep down in their heart of hearts that maybe, just maybe, they were wrong. Otherwise, why would Adolf have to lie to his own people, throwing generations of them under the bus, by calling his blatantly Marxist ideology Social Democracy? Otherwise, why would Ted remain anonymous and kill and maim for almost 20 years as a domestic terrorist?

Starbucks has just done the same thing to their managers and employees — and their paying customers — with their Socialist Fascist Commie Unconscious Bias Training.

Here's how they've done it.

Starbucks managers are responsible for sales numbers in their stores. Corporate is not interested in maintaining sales. No, managers are required to build those numbers.

In order to build those numbers, certain controls must be in place. Cost controls such as employee hours, shrinkage, and facility maintenance are musts with little wiggle room.

For those controls to work, somebody must make hard decisions. Who works when and for how long. How to keep customers and employees from walking off with products displayed in the store. And making it easy for paying customers to have a place to sit.

Starbucks managers' feet are held to the fire if they miss any Corporate-mandated profit goals.

And now store managers have to worry about reading minds? And identifying cheapskate social justice warriors wanting to use their facilities for their Campaign HQ? And now being told that the company they work for has always been a racist company whose goal is to control public spaces?

Really? How insane can you get?

However, here is what is most ironic about all of this.

Just as Facebook and Zuckerberg found themselves attacked by the Deep State and many other Liberals including #CrunkNewsNetwork crowd, so has that self-righteous bastion of How To Be the Best Liberal Company Ever — Starbucks — found themselves in the crosshairs.

Neither understands that no matter how much they do for the cause, P-HWPCDLRSFC will never be happy with anything they do because it will never be enough. And because they so want to please the crowd and have the crowd love them, they end up pleasing no one and being unloved.

With their Unconscious Bias Training, Starbucks' knees buckled to the psychosis of political correctness, and in so doing, they painted targets on their stores, their employees, and their customers. 

Starbucks needs to decide what business it is in and then do that. This schizoid approach to business is not working.

Citizen Journalist.  Novelist. Author of other stuff. 

Business writer.  Songwriter.  Protecting creator's copyrights. 

* P-HWPCDLRSFC is Pussy-Hat Wearing Politically Correct Democrat Liberal RINO Socialist Fascist Commies

Fire sneaks in and says "Boo!"

by Angela K. Durden
The Most Brilliant Woman in the World

What does an incense factory in India have in common with Trump Tower, Hillary Clinton's compound, Rome's English College, a housing complex in Alexandria, everywhere in Los Angeles, Purgatory Mountain, and each Christmas season since the beginning of the installation of electric bulbs on dry, fuel-filled trees?

That's right. They each get headlines and stand-up reporters that scream — 

FIRE BREAKS OUT!

I did a news search on Goo-Goo-oogle on that phrase. It is used so much that 8,500,000 results were returned. Of course, the search engine, being ever helpful, limited what I saw to everything that was not repeated or were similar. Specifically, when I got to the end of the 32 pages of results they showed, I got this message —

So I clicked "repeat the search with omitted results included." More of the same. Two conclusions here. One, so many people sharing the same news that is it clear why MSM is such an inbred group. And two, this search algorithm is one that actually works for the good of mankind.

All this got me to thinking about the use of language and how we could better describe the activities of fires. Just once I would like to hear another way fire got there or, once arrived, what it did, you know? Right? Like these headlines instead:

 

Fire sneaks in and says boo!

Fire Chief says, "Oh, that fire. Such a prankster. Scared the family just a little bit, but no harm, no foul, right?"

Fire forced itself through the door.

Family says, "We thought it was a serial killer rambling around the attic. Imagine how happy we were to find it was only fire."

Fire flared fitfully.

Living next door to the house that fire tried to burn down, Mr. Brown told this reporter, "The thing is, we weren't exactly sure what the fire was going to do. See, we watched it as it tried to make up its mind. First it sort of flickered a bit, but then we didn't see it. Then it jumped up like a uhhh...ummmm...you know like a pole vaulter. Pretty good form, if I do say so myself. But then it sort of hunkered down and went away. Me and the Mizzuzz sure was surprised when it broke a window and jumped out."

Reluctant flames happily surrender to water.

"This fire was reluctant. We wish all fires surrendered that easily," said first responders. "I mean, we thought this was going to be a five-alarmer, but we got here and threw a little water on it and it gave up just like that!"

See, better use of language sure would sell more newspapers. 

Citizen Journalist.  Novelist. Author of other stuff. 

Business writer.  Songwriter.  Protecting creator's copyrights. 

Def Leppard - Ziggy Stardust (Live - Acoustic)

I Talk To The Wind (Live)

First, get rid of the competition.

At it again...all for you. 

by Angela K. Durden
The Most Brilliant Woman in the World

Citizen Journalist.  Novelist. Author of other stuff. 

Business writer.  Songwriter.  Protecting creator's copyrights. 

The problem with non-mainstream sources of news and opinion is that they are called The Competition.

Fake news has been around since the beginning of time. One name for it is gossip. Another is called propaganda. The first is purely entertainment. The second is a sneaky tool used by those who seek power or want to secure that which they have.

How do they secure power? The first way is by controlling the flow of information. Hitler did a fine job of that and his citizens were none the wiser, partying, carrying on like nothing had changed, as if they were winning the war.

Until, that is, the bombs began falling on their cities. All of a sudden, Germans got woke big time. Only it was too late for them to do anything about Hitler and a stronger force came into play on their behalf to solve their problem.

There are those who learn from history but are doomed to watch others repeat it. 

The Department of Homeland Security is getting ready to repeat it. The agency is seeking bids from contractors who can build them one big-ass database. What will the big-ass database do? It will be used to track and monitor media influencers, including bloggers like your Citizen Journalist, and news and opinion outlets like Righting on the Wallz.

All this effort to combat that scourge called Fake News. Only we know what it really is. It is a move by the Deep State to get rid of competition. Citizen Journalists are a real threat to the Deep State, and the Deep State knows it. Why else would they be throwing such a massive amount of money at them.

The Deep State is not afraid of the Russian influence on social media. Nor is it afraid of #CrunkNewsNetwork, FLOTSAM*, and other MSM. That is a ruse on the part of the Deep State because they already know what those are doing as they've given them their assignments.

What the Deep State is most afraid of are the truly woke citizens they claim to want to protect. Those Citizens who — through research, humor, satire, fiction, and more — tell what is really going on.

So what is really going on? The Deep State (and there is Deep State in every country in the world) have one goal: Deny freedom for the masses.

The only thing that keeps the Deep State in check are the likes of you and me. We are their enemy because we represent honor, fair play, and other God-given virtues — and we are willing to fight tooth and nail to secure God-given rights for all.

Getting and staying woke is a never-ending job for the diligent of heart and mind.

* FLOTSAM: For Liberal Opinion That is Serious and Actually Matters

Shoot Out At The Fantasy Factory

Helplessly Hoping (Live)

Kill The Pain

Crytal Blue Persuasion (Live)

Thomas Sowell: The Vulgar Pride of Intellectuals

At it again...all for you. 

by Angela K. Durden
The Most Brilliant Woman in the World
Citizen Journalist.  Novelist. Author of other stuff. 
Business writer.  Songwriter.  Protecting creator's copyrights. 

Your righteous indignation is my overreaction? Wait...I'm confused.

Angela the Anonymous.

by Angela K. Durden
The Most Brilliant Woman in the World

Citizen Journalist.  Novelist. Author of other stuff. 

Business writer.  Songwriter.  Protecting creator's copyrights. 

If you didn't see the story wherein two black males were arrested and perp-walked out the front door of a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US, Starbucks, well then, it is obvious you aren't woke enough.

The woman who filmed it on her smart phone immediately put it up on YouTube wherein, self-reported by herself, within two days 4.5 million hits were accrued. The news story about her hits had her gushing madly about the video going viral. This report of her viral video showed up almost before the story hit the FLOTSAM* mainstream media.

But that report barely mentioned a peep about the incident itself.

The denouement came fast enough when the Starbucks store manager and Corporate came to an agreement that their work relationship would end, after which CEO Kevin Johnson says — caring drum roll, please — they will implement Unconscious Bias Training.

Next came protesters. Signs were hoisted (Is she fired or nah?) Chants were heard (Starbucks Coffee is anti-black! and Anti-blackness anywhere is anti-blackness everywhere!)

Then came the Bacefook posts from my peeps ranting against all Starbucks and their employees everywhere and calling them racists.

I've been in many Starbucks. Everybody gets treated the same: Order is taken with a disdainful smile and burnt coffee is served with bored affect.

It is at times like this Angela wishes she could remain truly anonymous in her postings on social media. Yes, Angela K. Durden, The Most Brilliant Woman in the World, did something stupid: She told a black man that she knows in real life, V—, that he was overreacting in his condemnation of all the company's employees.

I thought V— would understand my comment since he was protesting the overreaction of one person (the manager) about two guys (black) waiting for their friend (white). You see, V— believes his overreaction is righteous indignation and that trumps everything else.

But did V— ask what caused the manager's reaction in the first place?

No, he did not. 

Not only did V— not understand Angela's comment, before she knew it Angela was being villified, called names, and so forth by both her friend and his friends. She also received massively long messages that, by the time she got to the end of them, made her realize the man must be mentally unstable.

I'm serious. This is not me throwing about mentally unstable as if it was a silly last-ditch diss, but me truthfully worried about him. What's worse is there is nothing I can do except...

UNFOLLOW HIM. 

Notice I did not say Unfriend him. That would simply be too cruel because he would notice. And then he would kill himself. And next thing you know I'd be hounded by the SM police. (Gitcher head out of the gutter. SM stands for Social Media, not Sado Masochistic. Geez, you people.)

So unfollow it was. That just means his posts won't show up on my feed and that I have to go looking for him. At least...that's what unfollow used to mean, but what with all the algorithm changes, I bet you somebody somewhere has flagged communications between us and will now make his stuff show up as soon as I log on so they can start a war.


* FLOTSAM: For Liberal Opinion That is Serious and Actually Matters

J. Brien to George Stephanopoulos: "But...but...but...I thought Ol' Hill would WIN!"

At it again...all for you.

by Angela K. Durden
The Most Brilliant Woman in the World

Citizen Journalist.  Novelist. Author of other stuff. 

Business writer.  Songwriter.  Protecting creator's copyrights. 

Former G-Man J. Brien Comey is whining his way through the FLOTSAM** talk show circuit as he flogs his book, A Higher Loyalty, to a bunch of P-HWPCDLRSFC*.

Poor J. Brien. Back-peddling fast as he can to rewrite his place in history. I am very good at writing resumes for people while never lying on their behalf or twisting the facts. But even I, Angela K. Durden, The Most Brilliant Woman in the World, couldn't help the man with his personal advertisement without lying. I hope he has some money tucked away.

Oh, sure. Just after Trump fired Comey a historically black university hired him to deliver five lectures. But what is next? Will Howard University re-up J. Brien? Depends on who is paying his salary. I doubt it will be Clinton, Inc. endowing his chair.

J. Brien has been vilified as the man who lost Ol' Hill her seat at the most powerful desk in the world by leaking more emails from Clinton's famous private server. J. Brien had in his hands proof the woman and her minions played loosey-goosey with top secret information.

Ex G-Man J. Brien Comey fast talking like another famous G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover.

J. Edgar Hoover: The pattern to follow for all G-Men Deep State wannabe's.

At first, J. Brien acted like everything was copacetic and it was merely we idiot citizens of the land that were reading too much into the situation. But then, Donald "The Hammer" Trump entered the race. J. Brien and all the other P-HWPCDLRSFC now knew for a certainty that Ol' Hill would win.

There was no other option but that she would send "The Hammer" home, crying in his high-fashion model wife's cleavage. Therefore, according to J. Brien, he knew he had to come clean with what the real situation was with Ol' Hill's famous server.

According to J. Brien, it was all CYA for him because if this information came out after she was elected — and it was almost certain that it would — then her presidency would be illegitimate; and doncha know that just wouldn't be good for the country, now would it?

And J. Brien, ever the loyal servant of King Deep State, could not abide a smear against his monarch. Therefore, he threw Ol' Hill under the bus. Which is where she needs to be and good riddance. But now J. Brien is left with a dilemma.

Who will hire him now? Not even Micky D's will have him to run the drive-thru window. I bet, under the guise of writing his book, J. Brien has been perusing his notes for where bodies are buried and secrets are stored. And for those who know he knows, I bet the ex G-Man has liberally sprinkled hints of those secrets throughout the body of the text.

Yes, like a good little Deep State G-Man would, J. Brien has a long memory and documentation to prove those memories. So, yeah. The boy will land on his feet somewhere. Titles he will have? Why, consultant, professor, lecturer.

* P-HWPCDLRSFC is Pussy-Hat Wearing Politically Correct Democrat Liberal RINO Socialist Fascist Commies
** FLOTSAM: For Liberal Opinion That is Serious and Actually Matters

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The Shape You're In