This Week in PurpleAmerica (6/14-6/21)

PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE BINGO IS HERE!!!! Get your Game Card Now!

Ah yes, it’s that time again PurpleAmericans! Earlier than normal but no less fun. With the First Presidential Debate (let’s hope its not the last— watching too old coots go after each other will be as much fun as mud wrestling night at the old folks home!) less than a week away, it’s time to discuss the upcoming event and put out our PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE BINGO cards! (More on how you can get those shortly).

So, the two main party nominees have agreed to a live televised debate. No crowd, only the candidates and the moderators allowed, the moderators being CNN’s Jake Tapper and Dana Bash. Each will stand for the duration at a podium, the position of whom is on the left or right to be determined by coin flip just prior to the event. Crucially, when one candidate is speaking, the other will have their mic turned off, no doubt to prevent Trump from consistently interrupting and cutting off Biden.

We, the American public, are therefore guaranteed a unique side by side comparison of the candidates, aged as they are. We’ll be able to genuinely get a sense as to who knows what they are talking about and have real rational solutions, and who is just talking out to the online void cheerleading for a hollow cause. Tapper and Bash are good at holding interiewees to account, and not letting things pass if they are misstated or outright false. This should be entertaining.

Usually, debates don’t occur until after the conventions, at a point in the campaigns where they have relatively little impact. With two Presidents going at each other, I’m curious what kind of impact an earlier one will have in the process. Nonetheless, I suspect the main reason both of these candidates agreeed to the debate this early is to shut out potential Third Party spoilers. There had been mixed signals about whom candidates like RFK Jr and Jill Stein would pull votes from. One would think Biden mostly, but a number of polls showed them pulling equally from both sides and several demonstrated RFK might pull more from Trump. Debating now ensures that these two candidates are going to get all the attention going forward, and the also rans are relegated to the campaign dumpster heap

DEBATE BINGO CARDS!

OK. PurpleAmericans, here we go. Our first General Election Debate Bingo Cards! No two are the same, potentially 75 different entries, just like actual Bingo. To claim yours, all you need to do is send an email to purpleamericanunity@gmail.com saying “I WANT MY BINGO CARD!” before Wednesday, June 26th. That’s it. I’ll reply to your post with a PNG of your bingo card. Let me know how many you would like.

If you forget about it until the day of the event, don’t worry. On that Thursday I will create a post of 20 different Bingo Cards for you and your friends to play. The more the merrier I always say.

ENJOY and Happy Bingo-ing!

PurpleAmerica’s People of the Past Week

The Good

Jrue Holiday and the Boston Celtics. 18th Championship deserves some kudos, I suppose, but I want to give a huge shoutout to Jrue. After winning the NBA “Best Teammate” award with the Bucks, Jrue was traded to Portland as part of a deal that sent Damian Lillard to Milwaukee. Portland in turn, traded him to Boston. Jrue’s defense was a big reason the Celtics won it all this year.

Furiosa and Inside Out 2. In the past 3 weeks, I’ve seen two films. They were both extremely entertaining. IO2 can wait for Disney+ in a couple months if you don’t want to see it in theaters (don’t expect too much and you’ll be pleasantly surprised—its not great but it’s not bad either), but definitely see Furiosa on as big of a screen as you can find. Chris Hemsworth steals every scene he’s in.

Ed O’Neill. The veteran actor known for Modern Family and for his decade plus as Al Bundy completely nails L.A. Clippers owner Donald Sterling in the Hulu Series “Clipped.” Guy doesn’t get near the credit that he deserves as an actor.

The Bad

The Acolyte. It doesn’t deserve the hate it gets, but boy does it not deserve the hype either. It’s better than Book of Boba Fett and Kenobi, but that’s not saying much. It introduces some interesting takes and then undermines them repeatedly. Unless you are a die-hard, I wouldn’t bother.

House of the Dragon, Episode 1. OK. Hear me out on this one. It’s GREAT to finally have HOTD back after 2 years. And after how last season ended, many who have read the books and saw the episode title (“A Son for A Son”) knew what we were going to see in this first episode back. And for the first 50 minutes, it pretty much delivered. But then when the big moment came, it kind of handled it almost as an afterthought and just got it done and over with. This is a HUGE event, and it lasted all of 45 seconds. Note to the writers, don’t just work on building stuff up, but take your time in tearing them down too.

The Ugly

My consistent writing. Sorry all. I’m trying to get better. I recently started a new job and was on vacation in Canada last week as well. I’m trying to get back into a regular schedule with these again.

George R.R. Martin. Still no Winds of Winter? Evergreen post right there.

Have a nominee for us to consider? Send an email to purpleamericanunity@gmail.com!

PurpleAmerica Pop Culture Random Top Five

This week: The Top 5 Game of Thrones Deaths

With the return of House of the Dragon, George R.R. Martin stories are back and like the Grim Reaper waiting to yank the rug out of the most optimistic viewers, we are here for it. GRRM LOVES TO kill characters that we all enjoy, and do so in the most unforeseen ways. So here are our Top 5 Game of Thrones Deaths.

5. “Hold the Door, Hodor!!!!” ‘Nuff said.

4. Cersei blows up….everyone. The Battle of the Bastards episode played just before this one, and I distinctly remember thinking “How on earth are they going to follow up that?” From the opening of this episode to the moment it happens, it slowly builds in drama and tone until we’re all right where Margary is, just before the Sept explodes dispatching of all of Cersei’s worst rivals in one big swoop. And then there’s that wonderful shot of Cersei sipping a glass of wine after it all, followed by King Tommen with his mouth agape just before he casually walks out the window.

3. The Viper. Pedro Pascal completely represented “the Viper” Oberyn Martell. The bisexual, romantic, aggressive Lannister hater and warrior was a natural fit for him and he was heroic and admirable in portraying a fan favorite character from the books. When it all came to a head at the climactic fight scene against the Mountain, it was so dramatic you couldn’t take your eyes off it (pun intended).

2. Ned Loses his head. Being honest here, I was not that much into GoT when it first started. It was kind of dull and took a lot of time to find some steam. It had to introduce a LOT of characters and places and keeping it all straight wasn’t so easy. The only star at the time was Sean Bean, and they wouldn’t kill him right? Once Ned met his demise, I sat up in my chair and bought into everything else that followed.

1. The Red Wedding. Man, in the books it was shocking but when the HBO series covered this scene it was downright diabolical. Smirking through all of it was Walder Frey and in terms of shere audacity, nothing else comes even close. It’s such a pivotal scene that the “Divine justice” that occurs to each of it’s perpetrators plays out over the rest of the series, with each one one getting killed the same way as one of the victims at the Wedding.

Honorable Mention: Jon Snow getting knifed repeatedly by his own Night’s Watch. The scene is a complete shocker when it happens, and since no books had been published since that scene, nobody knew if that was it for the bastard Stark. It’s so hard to believe that THIS is still the point the books are at since GRRM has no intention whatsoever of ever releasing The Winds of Winter. Instead, all we’ll get are more Targaryen drama and Dunk and Egg tales.

PurpleAmerica’s Cultural Corner

Since it’s the longest day of the year, and the setting for probably the most unnerving horror film of the past 20 or so years, I’m just going to leave this right here. IYKYK. Enjoy.

PurpleAmerica’s Subscriber Mail

When we here at PurpleAmerica Respond to the Teeming Millions (well, we’re still working on that first million)

You know what happens when you don’t post for a few weeks? You don’t get much mail. Still, there were a few gems in the bunch once I started back up again.

Dear Gen Xoomer,

It’s time for you to schedule your colonoscopy again. With everything you said about Gen Z, I’m pretty sure the proctologist will find your head up there too.

[Unsigned but presumed Gen Zer]

Dear Unsigned,

I’d say its time for you to go back into your parents basement again, but they’re already planning on being stuck with you for another 30 years. I pity them. Stuck with some overweight virgin on their basement couch who only plays video games and comments on substack articles that they are not the center of. So, so sorry for them.

Purple My Ass!

I can’t believe you are letting this Supreme Court off the hook! Everything they do is geared entirely toward taking women’s, LGBTQIA+s, and minorities rights away—THAT’S THEIR ENTIRE AIM!!! You are such a toady for the right wing you may as well call yourself BloodRedAmerica. At least then it would describe what you think about guns shooting everyone up instead of making excuses for 2nd Amendment Gun Nuts.

*Sigh* In analyzing Court opinions, it’s not all “ends justify means.” The means matter. Biden unilaterally forgiving student loans for instance—he had no legislative authority to do it, went and did it on his own, said it just to appeal to a political supporting group, then the Supreme Court looked at the Constitution (imagine that!) and said “Wait a minute, you can’t do that.” I’m picking on Biden here, but both sides do this all the time. They make executive orders that go far beyond legislative authority and the Supreme Court rolls it back when they do. Presidents get the advantage of saying they tried doing something for the good of America and then pointing to the scapegoat Court who shot it down. That’s what happened with the Bump Stock case. I should add, that the administration that enacted the Bump Stock ban was actually the TRUMP administration.

So yeah, step off that rainbow guilded cloud of yours and start considering, oh I don’t know, the Constitution and the law next time.

PurpleAmerica.

Hey PurpleAmerica,

WHERE ARE YOU?

PurpleAmericaFan

Dear PurpleAmerica Fan,

Yeah, I know, I know. I started a new job recently and its taken some time adjusting to different schedules. However, last week, I was in that great wide northern country of Canada, enjoying the fresh air, fishing lakes and completely unplugging for an entire week. It was bliss. I felt like Gregory Hines and Billy Crystal from Running Scared when they went to Key West. I seriously think many people out there should do it more often. When you are way up in the Arctic Watershed on a sunny day fishing for walleye, you don’t care about every minutiae that gets broadcast across the Internet every hour and realize what passes for Breaking News these days is not so important. I found out there is going to be a Presidential debate in 2 weeks, and while CNN has been constantly hyping it up with details hourly, for the entire time I was north of the border I didn’t know, and didn’t care. I was in paradise.

So my advice to any and all, sometime this summer, put down the phone, unplug the laptop, and get away from the television. Just enjoy the summer. Breathe the air, smell the grass, hear the kiddos playing and the birds chirping and unwind. America needs it.

Have a question you want us to answer? Email us at purpleamericanunity@gmail.com

PurpleAmerica’s Historical Note from This Week

Well, being June 21st, the Summer Solstice and the longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere, you’d think there would be a lot to talk about historically speaking, and there is. I mean, knowing the day would be long and the weather warm usually brought out the anger in Generals who basically said to their armies, “Start fighting and don’t stop until it gets dark three days from now.”

But I’m instead going to get into something else that is taking on a mind of it’s own lately as well. Flags.¹ And Free Speech. And Protesting.

You see, on June 21, 1989, the Supreme Court decided the case of Texas v. Johnson,² which legitimized burning the flag as a form of political protest protected by the First Amendment. To those that remember, following this decision there was a big push to get a Constitutional Amendment to outlaw the conduct that came actually pretty close to passing. But I digress.

Displaying, trampling, burning or just plain ignoring the flag is undoubtedly free speech. It makes a statement. Other than some content neutral reason for prohibiting flag-burning (e.g., a fire permit), you can go ahead and do it if you like. But I would like to appeal to your better angels not to be so provacative. You see, WE are America. All of us. The flag represents all of us. Yes, you can be upset at OUR government, which can be unresponsive, slow, and display antipathy toward your beliefs depending on who is in control. As Lincoln once remarked, “You can’t please all the people, all the time.” When people don’t get their way, they tend to protest, and burning a flag in demonstration of that gives protesters the eyeballs they crave. But burning a flag is analogous to advocating for the demise of our country, and this is not something many of us want to witness or be a part of.

I’ve commented before about Toxic Activism. I’ve come back to it again as well. For those who haven’t read my pieces about this, its when activists do something in protest that the manner of their protest is counterproductive to their goals. Tossing soup at a painting or shutting down traffic on a highway for instance. Such conduct brings nobody over to your cause, and in fact revulses people otherwise sympathetic towards it. I would include burning a flag, or displaying it wantonly upside down even, as another of these. These are very selfish acts, analogous to a toddler not getting their own way more than a thoughtful dissenter on policy they disagree with.

It used to be that burning the flag or waving it upside down was reserved for the most liberal of protesters. However, since Trump’s Insurrection, the Stop the Steal movement, and the aftermath that followed, upside down flags (a sign of distress) were emblematic of this movement. So much so that Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito had one flying at his home (he blamed his wife for putting it up the flagpole upside down). ³

In any event, even though you have the unqualified right to do so, I’d like to suggest that you don’t. You are not going to attract anybody to your cause who isn’t already in it by burning a flag. In fact, you’re more than likely to send reasonable people sprinting in the complete other direction.

PurpleAmerica’s Dad/Uncle/Cheesy Joke of the Week

I keep asking people what all the letters in LGBTQIA+ stand for. I have yet to get a straight answer.

*Happy Pride Month*

And with that…

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Footnotes and Fun Stuff

1. As an afterthought, it occurred to me after writing this that Flag Day was June 14th. So wave Old Glory if you can.

2. Texas v. Johnson, 491, U.S. 397, (1989).

3. To liberals out there at this point, if you REALLY want to make a case and bring people into your camp, start draping yourself in the stars and stripes. Take pride in your flag and your country. Show some patriotism. Demonstrate it. Love it. This WILL be effective at bringing people to your cause. People WANT to love their country, and here is your opportunity.