The key event of the week was rather obviously the first of the eight Jan 6 public hearings. More is yet to come. The next one is tomorrow.
If you missed it and only caught the highlights then you can find it on YouTube.
- The recording of full PBS Newshour livestream of the event is on YouTube here. That clip runs for 4 hours, to skip the PBS general news section and buildup prior to it, simply jump to the 2 hour and seven minute mark.
It is, if you step back and consider it all, truly jaw dropping stuff. This is the case they are now commencing to lay out …
- Trump repeatedly and aggressively lied to the public falsely claiming the 2020 election was stolen from him. His Attorney General confirms this, his own daughter confirms this … under oath.
- Trump sought to replace the Acting Attorney General with a loyalist so as to weaponize DOJ to use the force of the law to support his election lies
- Trump corruptly and repeatedly pressured Vice President Mike Pence to violate the U.S. Constitution and the law by refusing to count certified electoral votes on January 6
- Trump improperly pressured state election officials and legislators to change their states’ election results and undermine the will of the voters in their states by flipping the state from Biden to Trump.
- Trump’s team, including his lawyers, told GOPers across the country to manufacture fake slates of electors and send those fake elector slates to the U.S. Congress and the National Archives.
- Trump summoned and assembled a mob of supporters to D.C. and directly told them to march to the US Capitol.
- Despite the violence against police and in the Capitol, Trump ignored myriad pleas for help and folks begging him to take immediate action to stop the violence and tell the MAGA mob to leave the Capitol.
Rather a lot of people are OK with all of this despite all the evidence. They truly have been conned and wholly deserve the label, “The Cult of Fools”.
Moving on, below you will find my usual selection of some truly bizarre claims that have popped up during the last 7 days. Each is laced with my snarky commentary. With my usual hat tip to my various sources, such as Right Wing Watch and others, let’s dive in.
Enjoy.
Jan 6
Former President Donald Trump declares that “January 6th was not simply a protest, it represented the greatest movement in the history of our Country to Make America Great Again.”
- It was indeed “historical” to see a president who lost an election attempt to rile up a mob to overthrow democracy.
Mike Lindell has a new plan to reinstate Trump, a movie he has coming out next month … “is gonna change everything.” He says any politician in the US who says the election wasn’t stolen after his movie comes out should go to prison.
- This is now tedious, boring and oh so predictable. Ever single previous “pivotal” revelation that Mike promises turns out to be a content free nothing burger. Past experience really is an indicator of future behaviour.
- I’ve literally lost count of the number of times Lindell has promised to reveal something that is going to change everything, yet was actually devoid of any meaningful content.
- Will those who bother to watch his latest movie all get free pillows when they fall asleep during the show?
Steve Bannon says the TV ratings for the J6 hearing were rigged.
- Indeed yes, the millions who watched were all crises actors as part off a false flag operation
Post Hearing notes …
- All the people who declared that they most definitely were not going to watch the hearing are now telling us that the hearing they did not watch was all lies.
- Why would the Republican Members of Congress “who did nothing wrong” feel worried enough to beg Trump for a pardon?
- Donald Trump has posted multiple deranged rants on Truth Social about the J6 Committee since the hearing ended … but he’s not worried.
Homophobia
Jarrin Jackson is not a fan of Pride Month: “Straight dudes find it disgusting whenever they see other dudes kissing. It is gross. Being gay is gay. It’s the most disgusting, despicable, stupid, blech thing ever.”
- Rhetoric like this is often rooted in their own sexual fantasies and is often a response to them being at war with what they find inside themselves. There is actual scientific research that links being secretly gay with a very vocal anti-gay stance.
- I also have honestly no idea why he spends his time watching anybody kiss. It sounds rather creepy
MAGA Candidate Mark Burns Says Those Promoting ‘LGBTQ Indoctrination’ Should Be Executed for Treason
- I have honestly no idea how mentioning that your partner happens to be the same gender is either “Indoctrination” or “Treason”. I’m not convinced that he actually understands such big words.
- What comes next for him. Will being tall, or Irish, or for that matter simply voting Democrat be “Treason”.
- Reminder: Mark Burns is the guy who was confronted about his completely faked biographical claims on camera during an interview. He stormed out in a huff leaving the camera crew in his church and then later admitted that he had in fact lied. In normal times that would end a campaign. In today’s world it made him an ideal GOP candidate, so he has gone on to run for office.
Guns
Speaking of MAGA pastor and GOP congressional candidate Mark Burns, this past week he also declares that the proper solution to the issue of gun violence in America is “simply add more guns.”
- We are currently at 1.2 guns for every single person and he thinks increasing that even more is a “solution”
- It’s sort of akin to thinking, well gosh traffic congestion is bad, let’s solve that by having lots more cars.
Ted Nugent says the best way to stop school shootings isn’t gun control, it’s to station commandos in every school.
- The official “commandos” simply stood around outside while the shooter walked the halls inside.
- To be honest, the commandos would be doing the nation a deep service by keeping Ted Nugent away from 12 year old girls.
- What happened in the churches where there have been mass shootings, did they not pray enough?
- What is perhaps the best ever Rep Gohmert moment was his suggestion that we could resolve climate change by altering the orbit of the moon and the earth – I’m really not kidding, this was his actual suggestion in June 2021(Clip via Reuters)
Christian nationalism
David Lane says that “the Bible should be the principal text in American education [because] God established civil government to restrain violence, to keep depravity in check.”
- Translation: Religious guy wants schools to indoctrinate all kids with his specific variation of belief – imagine the uproar from this same guy if a Muslim suggested this for the Quran.
- The “peaceful” text he wants to deploy to “restrain violence” literally promotes genocide on a, if you will forgive the term, “Biblical scale”.
- The rather alarming news is that 375,000+ people actually voted for her
- The next card she has now played is oh so familiar – she is alleging fraud in California’s secretary of state election, which she lost by hundreds of thousands of votes, and so once again Jesus turns out to not be your best choice as a campaign manager.
Truly Bizarre
Jarrin Jackson wants to “ban the BAR Association” and “ban the medical licensing/accrediting agencies” because “much of our ‘understanding’ is tied to expertise, which gives way to a soft form of idolatry.”
- Paraphrase: “We don’t need no stinking experts or doctors or teachers, just the bible and superstition“
White nationalist Vincent James says school shootings, food shortages, and social collapse are good for the fascist right because eventually people will turn to “someone like me, someone with moral courage” who is willing to take control and “dominate without mercy.”
- “Dominate without mercy“
- If he does indeed roll the dice for social chaos, what makes him so sure that it will not be his head that ends up on the receiving end of some other religious fanatic’s axe because they deem him to be a heretic.
Prior to landing his “internship” with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Milo Yiannopoulos nuked all of his social media accounts, but apparently forget to purge his Parler account.
- Reminder: Milo is the guy who has literally advocated his open support for paedophilia. That’s why Breitbart fired him.
- This is also the same guy who is very vocally anti-gay and has called for the execution of Dave Rubin and his husband, all while he is still married to his long-term boyfriend.
- MTG thinks, “Yep, this is the guy to have on my team, he fits right in“
According to the Transformed Wife, consent for sex between husbands and wives is blasphemy. Wives are supposed to obey their husbands.
- Each day appears to bring the Republic of Gilead one step closer.
- Meanwhile, I’d speculate that her marriage is not exactly a blast for her.
Marsha Blackburn says Democrats are intentionally causing gas prices to rise to force everyone to buy electric cars as part of the Green New Deal.
- I had no idea that Biden was so powerful that he has managed to arrange for Gas prises to rise within every nation state on the entire planet. This is not an anti-Biden stance but instead is an argument for having somebody with that much power in charge.
- Meanwhile we should also not forget that every single Republican voted against a bill to stop Gas price gouging
Abusive Pastors
Three months after his church’s external investigation, police charged Canadian pastor Bruxy Cavey with sexual assault. He was previously hailed as Ontario’s Most Influential Pastor. They believe there are more victims, and he will appear in court at the end of the month.
- He presented himself as one of the “cool” pastors who preached “Jesus over religion”. (You know the Shtick, long shaggy hair, sneakers, etc…) Turns out that he is like all the others and abused women who reached out seeking help.
Statistic of the week
The decline in church attendance is not just the young, it is happening right across all age ranges.
Interesting Articles
- Kathryn Joyce @ Salon: Marjorie Taylor Greene and Milo Yiannopoulos: A match made in troll heaven.
- Tess Owen @ Vice News: They Love Jesus, Bon Iver, and Incels. Inside America’s New Ultranationalist Youth Movement.
- Alexandra Berzon @ The New York Times: In Races to Run Elections, Candidates Are Backed by Key 2020 Deniers.
- Katelyn Polantz, Zachary Cohen and Evan Perez @ CNN: Email reveals Trump campaign told fake electors in Georgia to use ‘complete secrecy.’
- Spencer S. Hsu , Rachel Weiner and Tom Jackman @ The Washington Post: Proud Boys leader Tarrio, 4 lieutenants charged with seditious conspiracy.
- Will Sommer @ The Daily Beast: Alex Jones Is Turning on His Own Lawyers in Sandy Hook Case.
- Ben Jacobs @ Vox: The first January 6 hearing served up surprising revelations — that all point to Trump.
- Tom Boggioni @ Raw Story: Trump rages at ‘weak and frightened’ Bill Barr for convincing ‘checked out’ Ivanka there was no voter fraud.
- Creede Newton @ Hatewatch: Jan. 6 Committee Details Proud Boys, Oath Keepers Involvement in Capitol Insurrection.
- Zachary Petrizzo @ The Daily Beast: Jan. 6 Organizer Has Meltdown as House Committee Lays Out Its Case.
- David Siders @ Politico Magazine: ‘Comes Across as a Cult Guy’: The Pennsylvania Candidate Freaking Out Both the Left and the Right.
- David Gilbert @ Vice News: The JFK QAnon Cult Is Heading Back to Dallas for Another ‘Second Coming.’
The Good Liars
Jason asks a deep red MAGA guy how he feels about Jan 6th. When he gets an answer he points out why that makes no sense at all and leaves the guy completely lost for words … truly hilarious stuff …
Its a great example of how to have such conversations.
Being careful, without yelling, but instead by asking questions is the first step to deprogramming. You can see the look on his face as it begins to dawn on him that it is all nonsense.
Don’t lecture, don’t yell. Instead just ask them to explain the inconsistencies and thus nudge them into starting to really think.
The term for that is “Socratic questioning“. If you are interested is having meaningful productive conversations, then I highly recommend adding this skill to your social interaction toolbox.