This past week we saw Elon start to issue demands …
Why did Elon do it?
Well gosh, why would a guy whose business interests are currently being investigated by 3 different government agencies want to shutdown the government and halt all that ASAP? … So yes, it’s not exactly rocket science to join up the dots.
However, I think I prefer this take on it …
So where does Elon fit in?
Jason nails it …
Even the political cartoonists get it.
Once the bill was dead a Republican Plan B takes shape, or should that perhaps be far better termed “concepts of a plan“, but …
Hence the outcome looked really dark because it was not a serious proposal …
In other words, Elon was tapping into his previous business experience …
But, as we all know at 38 minutes after the deadline for a shutdown passed, they averted it with a 118 page bill that includes almost all of the original bill that was dramatically scuppered by Elon. It’s basically a short term patch that takes us to next March.
Oh, and least you wonder, it reauthorizes the pediatric disease research initiative within NIH through to fiscal 2028, so that thankfully made it.
It was close, very very close, but it got done.
One twist here is this – Elon got all the attention and Trump got more or less none, and that’s fast becoming a pattern with him.
One other recent twist to the Trump-Musk bromance is the news that Elon gate crashed a dinner between Bezos and Trump. To put that another way, what he did to Congress he also does to Trump … (basically turns up uninvited and causes chaos) …
If he keeps doing stuff like this we might see an end of Leon’s involvement before January 20 comes, Trump hates taking a backseat.
So what should we all do now?
Get to know the word “Oligarchy” because that’s what’s fast approaching and is just a few weeks away. This is a system of government in which virtually all political power is held by a very small number of wealthy but otherwise unmeritorious people who shape public policy primarily to benefit themselves financially through direct subsidies to their lucrative government contracts, agricultural estates or business firms, and protectionist measures aimed at damaging their economic competitors — while displaying little or no concern for the broader interests of the rest of the citizenry.
Is it perhaps a bit too soon to tell all those Trump voters and also the stay-at-home non-voters, “we warned you“. I guess we can keep that powder dry for after Jan 20 because we really are going to need it for the dramatics and lunacy yet to come.
OK, let’s move on and see what other crazy stuff has happened during the past week.
Not A Landslide
The final election results are out and so it is official, and is what you all already knew because unlike most, you tend to keep your finger on the pulse. It really was very very close and not a landslide in any way …
These are not huge decisive numbers, and that perhaps make it all the more heartbreaking that so much will be lost due to the crass stupidity and gullibility of so few.
As I’m sure you are aware, but for completeness let’s also articulate it – he did not win the popular vote either …
On the back of the hype of his claim, a lie, that he has a huge mandate, much is now incoming.
The Cult of Trump
Yes, it really is a political cult, but are you wondering which one?
Well, since he has now sued a newspaper, owns a bunch of real estate, and has a cult following then I guess he is basically Scientology.
Anyway, here is what this cult has been up to this past week.
His promised vindictiveness turns into actions – The end of political polling …
- “the government killed polls they don’t agree with” is not a world we want to live in, even if polls are annoying, and yet that’s where we are now heading.
Steve Bannon, and also a couple of others were suggesting that Trump might run for president in 2028. The Twenty-Second Amendment explicitly prohibits that, but since when has the Constitution been an impediment to the MAGA cult?
- The overweight orange turd will be 82 by then, so no, not happening … and yet this is Trump, so who the hell knows.
Whacky Appointments
The who’s who list of the very worst, least competent, and most corrupt people to do the most important jobs continues to grow.
Herschel Walker got nominated …
- I can no longer tell if Trump is just trolling with all these choices or if he actually believes them to be the best.
- The Onion must now be seriously worried that the Trump admin is stealing all their best ideas.
Moving on, let’s take a peak to see what the religious fanatics who crave the establishment of a religious dictatorship have been doing.
Christian Nationalist “Love”
Dave Reilly says the best way to spread Christian nationalism is “by mobilizing churches” to teach that “not once in the Bible is racism ever mentioned as a sin. In fact, it’s encouraged in the Old Testament.”
- Er … so what does Mr Reilly think the parable of the Good Samaritan is about?
- Diet Christianity is clearly one hell of a trip – all the hypocrisy and none of the teachings of Jesus.
Joshua Haymes says “the Founding Fathers are rolling over in their graves” because “whenever they were thinking freedom of religion … they didn’t have in view mosques being erected.”
- Mr Haymes is dead wrong as his ilk usually are. Quote from Here and it comes with documentary evidence … “The Founders of this nation explicitly included Islam in their vision of the future of the republic. Freedom of religion, as they conceived it, encompassed it. Adherents of the faith were, with some exceptions, regarded as men and women who would make law-abiding, productive citizens.”
Meanwhile, the ongoing merger of the MAGA movement with New Apostolic Reformation dominionism continues at TPUSA’s AmericaFest. FlashPoint host Gene Bailey is promoting appearances on Media Row by Lance Wallnau, Hank Kunneman, and others.
- They are in fact all the same. This is basically a grifter love fest.
Those who want Indoctrination instead of Education
“Only our belief and no others” …
Here is Tony Perkins taking the same stance …
USPS
Apparently it is unprofitable …
- Think of all the public services that you take for granted at the moment, then consider how you feel about it all being eliminated because it is “unprofitable” and so is sold off to the highest bidder.
- USPS privatised also means that mail-in ballots will be out of the hands of government employees.
- As for establishing a “profitable” business, the Orange Idiot has a well established track record of doing just that – see Trump Media, Trump University, Trump Casino, etc…
- FYI … I also found this fascinating thread on BlueSky that details how England’s Royal Mail privatisation has been a total disaster.
SCOTUS Hypocrisy
- Yes, you read that correctly, it is apparently an ethics violation for a Judge to call out the ethics violations of a SCOTUS Justice.
- Meanwhile back in the real world, not calling out the ethics violations of a SCOTUS justice is actually the real ethics violation, and gagging those that do so I would argue is also an ethics violation.
- (Sigh!) … if you want to make a killing on the stock market next year then buying the stock of pharma companies that manufacture daily anti anxiety meds just might make you a fortune.
Fake Profit$
Robin Bullock was among the self-proclaimed “prophets” who guaranteed that Trump would be reelected in 2020. Now, he claims the 2020 election was stolen so effectively that it created a “delusion” that made people think the prophets got it wrong.
- Funny how the supposed all knowing god that Bullock claims whispers in his ear did not tell him about this before 2020. Perhaps his god decided to punk him.
Weirdest of the Weird
So this is the part where I flag up the stuff that stands out as weird even when presented with a lot of other weird stuff.
Joshua Feuerstein: “Jesus was unvaxxed, breast fed, homeschooled, and received essential oils for His bday. He turned out great!“
- There are tons of things that fall into this category – no electricity, no internet, no modern medicine, etc … good luck Josh, you will be doing all that … right?
Johnny Enlow suggests that reports about drone sightings might be tied to “Operation Blue Beam,” a QAnon conspiracy theory alleging that the “deep state” will fake an alien invasion to prevent Donald Trump from taking office.
- It’s the same old story with these people. Something they don’t understand happens, so they conclude that it is all part of some grand conspiracy.
Here is a Republican Atheist group that does not appear to have figured out what the word “Atheist” actually means (Side note, yea, a tweet from the bad place, so no link, but you can look it up if you wish) …
- Let’s be clear about this – If somebody does not believe there is a deity, then they are an atheist … period. That’s how the word works. You can actually be an atheist and also at the exact same time be a bigoted, right-wing dumbass.
- In a similar manner, you can also be a Christian and also Pro-trans, Pro-choice, tolerant of all, and not bigoted. For percentages, see next sub-section further on below that is titled “Statistic of the week”.
Seth Gruber attempts to link mifepristone (RU-486) to “Nazi death camps.”
- His chain of “evidence” is just weird and works like this – The majority shareholder of the company that produces Mifepristone is German. That same company was once associated within another German company that was involved in producing the Nazi death camp chemicals … therefore …
- You can play weird link games like this all day. For example, the surname Gruber is German, and one of the guards in a German Nazi death camp had the surname Gruber … therefore …
- So yes, his “logic” is what happens when you have shit for brains.
Eric Teetsel claims that “there are three pre-fall institutions that God created: The family, the church, and government.” God created government when there were only two people on the entire Earth?
- Beyond the bizarreness of the initial claim, it’s a deeply creepy and weird belief that has no basis in fact. Let me put it this way – where did Cain and Able get their wives from? – It really is a dark and deeply incestuous belief to embrace.
- So how do those that believe such stuff answer the wives of Cain and Able question? – If you check out “Answers in Genesis”, the folks who believe that planet earth and the entire universe is just 6,000 years old, then you find a long rambling answer that finally concludes with the revelation that Cain and Able fucked their sisters (ugh!). I speculate that Josh Duggar just loved pondering over that bit.
Statistic of the week
People are complicated. You might indeed assume that somebody identifying as “evangelical” is also homophobic and that somebody identifying as “none” is not. While that is often commonly true, it is not actually correct in every instance …
- So yes, there really are people who oppose same sex marriage, but also at the same time do not believe it is wrong – what can I say except to note that people can indeed be complicated.
- The big takeaway item is that 29% of Evangelicals both support same sex marriage and also do not believe being actively gay is wrong … vs … the 4% of “nones” that do not support same sex marriage, and also do believe that being actively gay is wrong.
Quite often the things that people are supposed to believe because of the label they use is often not what they believe at all. Take for example Catholics, whose church teaches specific things, yet despite that, the vast majority of members (in the US), say “nope, I don’t agree with that” …
Guns and Jesus
After the most recent school shooting, Lance Wallnau reacted by insisting that gun control is not the answer, arguing that if someone carried out a terrorist attack via a suicide vest, “you don’t ban suicide vests, what you do is you ban the ideology that produces radicals.”
- I’m rather confident that if suicide vests were readily available for sale and being regularly being used to kill masses of people, they would get banned … under normal circumstances, but with MAGA in charge I suspect the suicide vest lobby would soon put a stop to that.
As for the claim that the “solution” for mass shootings is more Jesus, it was a shooting by a student within a Christian school, a place supposedly filled with Jesus from floor to roof, and it offered exactly zero protection. Despite that reality, the solution is that “We need even more Jesus” argument still gets rolled out …
- The claim is “King Herod slaughtered all the babies, bad stuff happens, so we need more Jesus” … but … the one fatal flaw, that supposed slaughter by Herod never actually happened, it is a total myth and not a historical fact. Beyond the verse in just one of the four gospels, there is no other mention of it. No contemporary historian noticed it, not even Josephus who wrote a comprehensive history of Herod and documented all the bad stuff he did do, yet fails to mention this.
Political Cartoons from the past week
As always, there are many excellent political cartoons for the last 7 days. Here are a few samples. Each comes with a link to the cartoonist putting the cartoon out via BlueSky. If you are on Bluesky then you can use the link to follow them.
Media Thoughts
Pick your media sources carefully over the next four years and filter out those that bend the knee to the orange tyrant …
LA Times is apparently taking a break …
- Yes, taking a break is a great idea … I suggest that subscribers take a break from subscribing to the paper.
- Editors could proceed to make a statement by publishing a blank op-ed page every day, or perhaps publish one with censor bars all over it, however I suspect doing so would be a career decision, so probably not going to happen.
- “journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed; everything else is public relations.” – Orwell (Side note: His real name was Eric Arthur Blair, George Orwell was his pen name)
Vaccines
I guess we will be returning to this topic many times over the next few years.
Vaccines & Autism: It’s been looked into long ago, and it has been robustly established that there is no connection … period …
- Large numbers of people are going to die from preventable diseases because the dumbest, most hateful Americans out-voted team sanity by the slimmest of margins.
- Side Note: He has exactly zero Brilliant people looking at it. Seriously, can anybody name just one smart nominee?
- There is however a very strong well-established link between stupidity and voting for Republicans.
When it comes to making the right choice about vaccines, it really is not rocket science …
Finally…
The Jewish Holiday marking “Blah” …
- For those wondering “Why TK?” – it’s common practise within a draft prior to publication. TK means “To Come”, but is rendered as TK because that’s a lot easier to search for than TC.
Most are away for the holidays next week, so all will be quiet and absolutely no crazy stuff will happen, hence next week’s weekly posting will be completely blank …
Right?