"Convention history is dotted with dramatic, even farcical, events."

H.L. Mencken at the Republican convention, 1936 (photo credit).

Nope, Bernie Sanders didn't say this:

“The work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die.”

It is lifted from Ted Kennedy's 1980 convention speech.

At times, one simply must accede to the superior wisdom of Google and roll with it. My search for "Republican convention farce" yielded this top result, which is an entertaining survey of noteworthy past conventions held by both of America's political parties, Country AND Western.

The Craziest Convention Moments You’ve Never Heard Of, by Jeff Greenfield (Politico)

Convention history is dotted with dramatic, even farcical, events that have changed the course of politics.

A legion of political journalists is heading to Cleveland this month with a sense of anticipation that’s been absent for decades: at long last, a national convention with the prospect that something unexpected might actually happen ... will we see anything in Cleveland that approaches such genuinely unpredictable and historic levels? If the 2016 GOP convention—with all of the passions surrounding the impending nomination of Donald Trump—winds up being a by-the-numbers infomercial, maybe it’s time to give up on conventions and take a lesson from the Democratic Party in 1872 ...

“This is the last time anyone will try to do this.”

Martin Amis all but rests the case against the GOP and Mitt Romney. Thanks to Bluegill for the link, and to the Brits, at least some of whom have retained an ability not just to think, but to express their thoughts so brilliantly. Yes, a majority of voters in both Floyd County and the state of Indiana won't be reading, and yet, as Amis presciently notes, "The GOP, moreover, is doomed by demographics. It is simply running out of the white people who form its electoral base."

The demographic transformation will take longer here, although eventually it will occur, and it cannot happen soon enough for me. Take it away, Martin.

Martin Amis: Getting Sweaty With the GOP, by Martin Amis (The Daily Beast)

Mitt is stiff, Ann is phony, and Paul Ryan is a liar. British novelist Martin Amis scoped out the RNC and reports back. Plus, exclusive video.

 ... The Republican dialectic, in 2012, can be summarized as follows. Obama might or might not have inherited a difficult situation (and Democrats, at least, will remember George W. Bush’s historic warning in 2008: “This sucker could go down”); but he hasn’t fixed it, so let’s try Romney, who’s a businessman, not a socialist. This lone notion was pressed home with repetition, tautology, platitude, redundancy—and then more repetition.

Money porn at the GOP confection.

There's porn, and there's food porn. Maybe even beer porn.

Then there's money porn, otherwise known as the GOP platform.

Frank Rich on the National Circus: Chris Christie, New Jersey Sun King

... This is the same patrician stance that both Romneys always take: That we, the little folk, should just “trust” them — and not worry ourselves about the fine details, whether those details pertain to their unreleased tax returns or the specifics of his policy initiatives should he be elected president. No reason to believe that this noblesse oblige tactic will fly any better today than it has so far. And as for this notion that Ann Romney can fix Mitt’s “likability” gap by giving him a transfusion of humanity, that’s a fool’s errand. Indeed, the Romney gurus seemed to have embraced a Wizard of Oz strategy for filling in the blanks of Mitt’s public persona — Ann Romney was to give her brainy hubby a heart and Chris Christie was to imbue Mr. Etch A Sketch with courage. Don’t they realize that this makes Mitt the Tin Man?

Bill Nye: "We need scientifically literate voters and taxpayers for the future."

Bill Nye offers the perfect antidote to the pervasive superstition and sheer doltery parading sans intellectual clothing in Tampa.

Bill Nye Isn't Dead, He's Gone Viral (bigthink.com)

In the video, Nye says that while everybody is entitled to his/her own opinion, creationism is unequivocally wrong, and that people who still believe it -- or more importantly, insist it is taught to their children -- hold society back for everybody. Nye argues we need a scientifically literate and educated population.

In his words: "I say to the grownups, if you want to deny evolution and live in your world, in your world that's completely inconsistent with everything we observe in the universe, that's fine, but don't make your kids do it because we need them. We need scientifically literate voters and taxpayers for the future. We need people that can—we need engineers that can build stuff, solve problems."

For the life of me, I can't explain why every four years around this time ...

... I can't stop thinking about Leni Riefenstahl. Must be a coincidence.

LOL: Thou shalt not mock Republicans, sayeth NBC.

Naturally, I never bother watching the Republican National Convention, having already viewed Leni Riefenstahl's classic Triumph of the Will, and not really being a rerun type of guy.

Consequently, I wasn't aware of the scandal at MSNBC ... but how delicious it is to read Olbermann's comments. He may be my favorite human being at present (Tim Filler's a close second).

Political anchors demoted (Yahoo)

Tensions at MSNBC lead to lesser roles for outspoken Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews.