In the week that has seen Republicans fetishizing gas stoves, banning books, and pointing guns at clouds, we have also seen them boot Ilhan Omar off the House Foreign Affairs Committee for the “crime” of being brown and Muslim.
Tell me why again?
They claimed that she had once said something antisemitic.
Do you know what is not actually antisemitic?
Criticising Israel.
Do you what what actually is antisemitic?
Putting a conspiracy lunatic who thinks Jews control the weather and blames a supposedly Jewish controlled space laser for starting wildfires in CA, on the Homeland Security Committee. That is a pure antisemitic play.
So now that Ilhan Omar has been expelled for no justifiable reason at all from the committee, what can the Democrats do?
Well … this truly excellent power move promptly happened. He knew this was coming so he was ready. Hakeem Jeffries, immediately put her on the House Budget Committee …
Meanwhile, this revelation was also surfaced …
Two disillusioned House Republicans unloaded on their vengeful leadership for inadvertently making a hero out of Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar by publicly stripping her of a high-profile committee assignment in what one deemed the “stupidest vote in the world.”
…Foreign Affairs Committee GOP member Ken Buck and Republican Rep. Mike Simpson…
…After airing their grievances, the pair reportedly asked those around them “not to let leadership know their thoughts.”
Moving on, below you will once again find my usual selection of some truly bizarre and extreme 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, let’s dive in.
Enjoy.
Balloons
You probably know it already, but for completeness, let’s cover it.
MAGA has been claiming that Trump would not have tolerated it and would have taken it out immediately. Here are a few insights that literally bursts their balloon …
Christian Nationalism
Whenever faced with somebody who tells you that they are “Christian”, then you do need to be aware that the term needs a bit of clarification, so you should perhaps be then asking “Do you mean Classic Jesus or Republican Jesus?”
Read on and you can perhaps guess which one the folks in these following snippets embrace.
White nationalists Vincent James and Lauren Witzke agree that Jews “are not the chosen people” and should therefore be prohibited from serving in government: “We shouldn’t allow anyone that doesn’t believe in Christ in positions of power in this country.“
- Reminder: she is not just a fringe nutter saying weird shit, Lauren Witzke was the GOP nominee for U.S. Senate from Delaware in 2020. If you identify as “Republican” then you stand under a banner that happily embraces people like this.
Tony Perkins warns that the Republican Party cannot afford to ignore “SAGE Cons” voters (as in Spiritually Active, Governance Engaged Conservatives): “You can’t win a nationwide election with just SAGE Cons, but you can’t win without them.”
- Translation: “If you want to win elections then you will need to carry on pandering to religious extremists like me“
Former Arkansas state senator and founder of the National Association of Christian Lawmakers Jason Rapert declares that Christians “must take authority” over government: “Do you think that America is gonna be free with a bunch of drag queens running this place?“
- That’s a very strong YES Jason. If indeed drag queens were running things, then America would indeed be a far better society, it would be truly amazing, so where do we sign up for this?
- He claims there is a national debt because “the Christians refuse to take authority“. Nope, the reason that the national debt is what it is, is because the evangelicals supported Trump who then proceeded to add $8 Trillion to the national debt by literally robbing the poor and giving to the rich.
- Jason also claims that he wants the country to be saved … but fails to grasp that it needs saving from lunatics like him.
Hitler
Nick Fuentes attempts to clarify something: “We love Hitler in a Christian way, you freak. Not in a gay way. In, like, an awesome way, OK? In like a we love Trump way, you fucking liberal.”
- I really don’t think that clarification helps him in any way.
- Loving Hitler in any way at all is deeply problematic. I mean honestly, when someone says “I love Hitler” we all assume they’re a bigot who supports fascism, not that they want to blow him.
The Dictator Fan Club
Jon Miller and Joel Davis are quite explicit about their love of dictators: “If you’re the dictator, you’re like, ‘Fuck you, bitch, I’m in charge. If you don’t like it, I’ll kill you.’ It’s just like so much more based.”
- What they perhaps fail to grasp is that they might actually be the first up against the wall if this came about.
Nick Fuentes, yes again, the guy who used his restored account to praise Hitler, is now very bitter about getting banned again from Twitter after only 24 hours: “I’m somebody who, in a functioning society, would be rewarded for being a genius. … I am awesome and my Twitter was funny and I want my account back now.”
- It is more or less a rock solid guarantee in life that anybody who claims to be a genius and funny … isn’t.
- This guy is literally dunning-kruger incarnate, he is far too stupid to grasp how deeply ignorant he actually is.
- Meanwhile this past week the “genius” also says that cops and priests will be the cornerstone of his hoped for police state in which people who don’t convert to Catholicism are sent to jail. You can really see that “plan” working out well.
COVID
Rabid anti-vax conspiracy nutter Patrick Howley declares that “we the unvaccinated should make all decisions.”
- Many many US citizens did indeed make a decision to not be vaccinated or wear a mask … over one million US Citizens are now dead.
- Strong healthy people are now dropping dead, not because they got vaccinated, but because they have had a COVID infection, even a mild one – Nature (Feb 22): Massive study shows a long-term, substantial rise in risk of cardiovascular disease, including heart attack and stroke, after a SARS-CoV-2 infection. The risk remains high for up to one year after a COVID infection.
Jan 6
Ali Alexander, the Stop the Steal organiser, announces that he intends to “raise 1 to 10 million dollars to retell the Jan. 6 story”: “I’m not going to let that day go down in history as a day of bastards. It should be day of celebration.”
- You know how this works, you have seen this grift before – He will raise $1-10 million then spend $600 making a movie on his iPhone and keep the rest.
- This is the guy who previously claimed he could time travel .. can’t he simply pop back a few decades and invest in Apple shares?
Homophobia on Steroids
Lauren Witzek wants to see draconian anti-LGBTQ laws enacted in the United States.
- Consider how you might feel if the proposal was … “Lauren Witzek wants to see draconian anti-heterosexual laws enacted in the United States”. Your feelings regarding something like that tell you how rather a lot of people might feel about what she proposes.
Pastor Mark Driscoll says Christians shouldn’t attend gay weddings, compares them to strip clubs and drug dens …
- Mark has made an entire career out of telling others what to do. It has not worked out all that well for him. He was tossed out of his leadership position at Mars Hill church because the members were unable to cope with his abusive behaviour.
- People are of course free to not attend anything they want. If they miss out on life that’s on them. I guarantee you that such events will be a lot more fun without deeply religious homophobic nutters being there.
- It is perhaps understandable why they don’t want to go. Attending would be a terrible risk, they just might get infected by … empathy and love of others.
Misogyny
Jon Miller is a virulent misogynist: “I don’t really subscribe to the notion that rape is always indefensible. … The idea of rape in a marriage is just asinine to me because she consented when she married you.”
- He appears to fail to grasp that a spouse is not property.
- I bet you can now see why he is banned from rather a lot of social media.
Whacky Conspiracy Claims
Mercedes Sparks suspects that the deep state knew about the classified documents stored in President Joe Biden’s residence long ago and carried out the raid on former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence last year in order to give Biden cover.
- Evidence for this claim? … oh come now, you know how this stuff works, she is simply making stuff up.
Truly Bizarre
A draft bill by a Montana Republican would ban the teaching of scientific theories in schools. “Science instruction may not include subject matter that is not scientific fact.“
- He is literally too stupid to understand what a “Scientific Theory” actually is.
Republican Gretchen Fritz claims election fraud because her Democratic opponent for county clerk got more votes than the Democratic governor. She thinks every Democrat on the ballot should have received *exactly the same number of votes*
- Those determined to corner the stupidity market will find a great deal of competition out there.
- People really do skip voting in some races because they just don’t like either candidate.
- Trumpism is what happens when you defund public education and then fill that void with religion, reality TV, and Fox News
With Nikki Haley reportedly set to announce that she is running for president against former President Donald Trump, Lauren Witzke wants Haley deported
- Deported to where exactly … Haley was born South Carolina
Ted Cruz says AT&T was wrong to remove Newsmax from DirecTV and is calling for hearings: “There are million of Texans that want to hear the truth, that want to hear news. OAN does a great job, Newsmax does a great job, Fox News does a great job.”
- Hearings on what exactly? … DirectTV made a business decision, is Ted now demanding that Government controls private businesses?
- It actually went like this. Newsmax demanded greatly increased carriage fees from DirectTV to carry them. Direct TV, said, “Nope”, and dropped them. This is simply a financial dispute, Newsmax literally did this to themselves.
- And yes, the word “truth” is not exactly a concept that was ever familiar to OAN, Newsmax, Fox or Ted Cruz.
- I’m honestly not sure what he wants Newsmax on DirectTV, I don’t think they operate in Cancun.
The False Profit$
False Prophet Mario Murillo continues to issues warnings about false prophet Robin Bullock, even going so far as to liken Bullock to Jim Jones.
- I’m honestly loving this sideshow … long may it continue.
Meanwhile over on the other side, Christian “prophet” Robin Bullock said that Heaven only recognizes Donald Trump as president. Then he mocked trans people: “Looks like they bought their wig at a dollar store.“
- It truly is symbolic that his specific imaginary friend located in an imaginary place picked Trump to be an imaginary president.
- It’s also really rich for dollar store Boromir to trash the looks of others.
Trump-loving “prophet” Julie Greene says God told her a bunch of Democrats are going to be arrested. God: “You’re about to see many people in leadership step away .. you will see them resign, you will see many die. You will see many hauled out of govt buildings .. handcuffed.”
- She needs to lodge a complaint about all the whispers that God gives her. So far he has failed to deliver each and every time. It’s almost as if it was not God at all and that she was simply streaming the voices in her head.
- However, I can add that she is perhaps almost correct with this one, she just got the name of the political party wrong.
Interesting Articles
- Prem Thakker @ The Ticker: The Right Is Somehow Already Using Video of the Attack on Paul Pelosi To Push Conspiracy Theories.
- Summer Concepcion and Marc Caputo @ NBC News: Trump hosts conservative influencers behind Libs of TikTok and Babylon Bee for dinner.
- Andrew Prokop @ Vox: The stunning hypocrisy of Bill Barr’s probe into the Russia-Trump investigation.
- Jake Lahut and Zachary Petrizzo @ The Daily Beast: Mike Lindell Swore He’d Win the RNC Chair Race. He Got Smothered.
- Sarah Posner @ MSNBC: The rocky marriage between Trump and evangelicals won’t lead to a separation.
- Jack Jenkins and Adelle M. Banks @ Religion News Service: National Prayer Breakfast breaks from ‘The Family’ with new organization.
- Eric Hananoki @ Media Matters: Trump lawyer Christina Bobb tells Nick Fuentes ally that she’d like to see treason trials over 2020 election.
- Laurie Roberts @ The Arizona Republic: Kari Lake’s campaign may be over, but the grift goes on.
- Peter Stone @ The Guardian: Far-right project that pushed election lies expands mission as Trump ramps up 2024 campaign.
- Alex Kaplan @ Media Matters: The election denial movement — and Trump — have become increasingly intertwined with QAnon.
- David Edwards @ Raw Story: Mike Lindell reveals RNC will let him run new ‘election crime unit’ for 2024.
- Sarah Leach @ The Holland Sentinel: Christian nationalism is gripping the nation — has it arrived in Ottawa County?
- Sarah Rumpf @ Mediaite: ‘You’re the Frickin’ Governor of Arizona!’ Steve Bannon Takes Election Denialism to Bonkers New Level in Wild Interview With Kari Lake.
- Christopher Mathias @ HuffPost: Inside The Online Community Where Home-Schoolers Learn How To Turn Their Kids Into ‘Wonderful Nazis.’
Media Corrections
AOC has a gift for calling it out as it really is …
AOC does not hold back, she uses her one minute to roast the Republicans …
So also happily goes toe to toe with MTG …
Politics Girl and the Republican Fair Tax Act
She explains just how bizarre the supposedly “Fair Tax Act” actually is …