Beelzebub

So: in the Vice-Presidential debate, a fly landed on Mike Pence's hair, and stayed there for a while, and now some people are calling Pence "Beelzebub."

Because "Beelzebub" means "Lord of the flies," and yes that's also where William Golding got the name for the novel everyone in my generation was supposed to read in school but many of us didn't. I'm also reminded of one the many great moments in Rob Roy, 

 

 

a much better movie than Braveheart but Braveheart was released like a month later and destroyed it commercially:

Montrose : Great men such as yourself draw rumor as shite draws flies. Duke of Argyll : You are the shite, Montrose, and the flies upon it!

And I'm reminded of that because I disagree with those who say that Pence is even worse than Trump -- I mean, have you seen Trump?! Have you heard Trump? Have you SMELLED Trump?!

 

To stay with the metaphorical theme of this post, in my opinion the biggest offense committed by Mike Pence is the same as that committed by most Republicans over the past four years, namely, polishing a turd. Admittedly, Pence is even more guilty of this one than are most of his colleagues.

Which is why I'm so struck by the physical resemblance between Pence and Franz von Papen, one of the clique of German upper-class twits who, in January 1933, thought it would be a good idea to appoint Hitler Chancellor of Germany, figuring it would be easy to control him -- a real world-class, Hall of Fame bad idea.

Which brings us back around to Hal Holbrook in All the President's Men, telling Robert Redford that these guys weren't very bright, and things got out of hand.

So get out there and vote if you haven't already. Or stay in there and vote from there, which ever one applies. You know what I mean.