Given the total shit-storm that is incoming, permit me to glean a small bit of relief by mocking and laughing at the utter depths of the incompetence that is now in play.
It might indeed be hard to grasp, but this really has been happening …
Are we really going to have a head of the Dept of Defence who has to ask his mommy for help with important decisions?
The rest of the world is watching and ROTFL at all of this. So, as Defense Secretary, if the US gets into a war that he cannot handle will his mommy come and bail him out?
Also, this has been happening …
For a bit of further clarity, the phrase “I will quit drinking” is galactically distant from “I quit drinking”.
Why the promise?
Well … because drinking is a mortal sin with trump, but all those other things are virtues.
“Yes Pete, one more thing, your mommy can’t come to work with you to hold your hand“.
OK, let’s move on from this and see what other crazy stuff has popped up during the past week.
The Cult of Trump – The Democrat & Biden Fan Club
Michele Bachmann claims that the Democrats are in disarray because “they are now a lying brand,“.
- It’s a deeply weird and very confusing criticism given that pathological liar Donald Trump was just reelected. Lying and Disinformation is literally the official GOP brand.
Eric Metaxas says that President Joe Biden is “the anti-George Washington”: “To me, Joe Biden is the example of what the Founders didn’t want.”
- Eric appears to be claiming that the Founders would have been just fine with a sexual predator, rapist, fraudster, and convicted felon. #weird
Mario Murillo fumes that Biden is “an animal, a beast, [and] a villain”: “You are a disgrace. A complete dishonest, unmitigated totally heartless villain in everything you’ve done and you don’t deserve to be remembered as anything else.”
- Remind me again about the character, morals, integrity, and ethics of the guy that Mario actually supports.
Pardoning Hunter
So here are a few excellent takes on it.
As noted by some … “It’s interesting that the media seems intent on focusing on Kash Patel’s threats to go after the media, but don’t say a word about Patel’s many threats to go after Hunter. All while criticizing the pardon. How curious.“
- He is not wrong, the vindictive attitude expressed by Trump&Co, makes this a very needed pardon. Hunter would be in great danger without it.
Also … “Dems/media condemning Joe for pardoning Hunter right after a psycho who has spent 4 years ranting that he was going to go after him is the most toxic kind of phony virtue signaling imaginable. Don’t forget to pat yourselves on the back from your perches on the moral high ground.“
- The media is so blind to their role in re electing Trump. Meanwhile they are all scratching their heads on why their ratings are plummeting, and their subscribers are leaving in mass.
Also … “Now Trump can pardon hundreds of thugs who beat cops in an attempt to storm the Capitol to stop the electoral count and Dems can’t criticize that because of Hunter is the world’s stupidest take.“
- Some dems and media have lost their minds. And frankly, I don’t give a rat’s ass what they think. It was the right thing for Biden to do. How could he NOT do it, given the perverted vindictive freak show rolling into town in January?
To wrap this up, Elie nails it all beautifully …
- Here is a link to his article in The Nation – Of Course Joe Biden Was Right to Pardon His Son
- Quote: “This is a good pardon. Trump’s pardons were bad and will be again. If you can’t spot the difference between pardoning your son who was persecuted because of your job versus pardoning your criminal coconspirators or pardoning terrorists who attacked the Capitol at your request, you should take your head out of your ass.“
Whacky Appointments – Kash Patel
It’s a pity that our billionaire owned mainstream media did not do its job when it really mattered. Now we face the problem that created. Thankfully some are willing to flag up the rather blatant problems with Patel and others …
Also worth noting that Patel always has been a total con artist …
- Marketing Firm: “How do you want to us market this shit?” Patel: “Just throw complicated medical-sounding words like mRNA and Spike protein around.” Marketing Firm: “But only complete morons will buy that” Patel: “We’re selling to Trump voters” Marketing Firm: “Perfect! We’ll add “Shedders“
There was of course also this deeply weird kids book he wrote, and also put himself in…
- The fact Patel refers to Trump as a King tells you everything you need to know
- Also … to the left of the King in the image above, Patel inserted himself as a wizard. #weird
- Will Elon now buy Disney and force them to inflict the movie of it upon us all?
Moving on.
Christian Nationalism
Let’s now see what these guys have been up to this past week.
As always, we have an item from the pastor with the very very very small … church … and so puts out provocative stuff for clicks. This week Joel Webbon declares that “no practicing Jew who hasn’t converted to Christianity will be able to serve in public office.“
- He takes this stance against all non-Christians, but then circles around and underlines “especially Jews” because he claims that Judaism is a “parasitical” religion. (er… remind me again which came first, Christianity or Judaism?)
- It’s as always a rather extreme stance he takes to provoke. Via here … “Webbon believes that the American people are too degenerate, stupid, and cowardly to abide by the Constitution and must therefore be governed by a Christian dictator. This dictator, Webbon believes, must “rule with an iron fist” and force everyone to, at the very least, “pretend to be Christian.”
- If this guy was ever in charge, then yea, it would become a time to expect the Spanish Inquisition.
- Just to give you another example of what to total asshole he is, this past week he also asserted that if a husband commands his wife to wear a red dress every day, then she has no choice but to graciously submit.
- It’s also rather telling that the reporting of facts deeply upsets him.
Also this past week, Christian nationalist Lance Wallnau (yes him again) says that with Trump in office, “the government and the church” can begin “moving together to build the ekklesia” to take control of “the government mountain” globally.
- RRW does a deeper dive: Yes, he really does mean globally, he says it all on camera.
- For context: Lance advocates for what is called Seven Mountains Dominionism. This strives to place right-wing Christians atop the seven primary “mountains” that shape society: government, education, media, arts and entertainment, family, religion, and business. This is what drives the New Apostolic Reformation. Names you will recognise are in it : Mike Johnson, Doug Mastriano, Charlie Kirk, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and Lauren Boebert. Yes they are religious fanatics, yes this is indeed a modern cult that has about 3+ million within in, and yes, they believe Trump is the chosen one to enable their delusional vision.
- Art Jipson, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of Dayton, has a serious academic writeup of them.
- Canada enters the conversation from stage left, points at the word “Globally”, says “F*** Off”, then repeats that in French, and storms off.
- England’s King Charles also appears and says “Nah, I’m good, I already have my own official church“.
- The correct response to him is “No”. (Yea, I’m perhaps being way too polite there. Feel free to inject something far more appropriate).
- Newsflash: Hey Evangelicals, Trump lied to you so he could get all your votes, and grift all your money. Now you’re dead to him, he no longer needs you. There ain’t no way on gods green earth that he’s sharing power with you in any way.
- Side Note: The word “Ekklesia” popped up in the last couple of items. It is actually the Greek word for Church (the NT was originally written in Greek). The word comes from a verb meaning “to call out”. It literally refers to people who have been called out of the world system. Mr Sheets and others are going for the opposite, a power grab to dominate and rule the world. Clearly this theology is a perversion of the original.
- Just to drive that point home, here is a quote from you know who – “My Kingdom is not of this world“
Christian “Love”
Mario Murillo declares that Christians must not “make nice with Democrats” because, having lost the election, they “will be more vicious and evil than anything they have ever done”: “There is no mystery that the hatred came from the heart of Obama.”
- These days the very best argument against Christianity is indeed being successfully made by the Christians.
But life is so much better with all these Christians … right?
- Religion is not what gives you a moral compass, it is how you cover up not having one.
“Biblical” Marriage
There was this excellent pushback from FFRF to Rep Josh Schriver’s latest bit of shit-fuckery …
- FFRF are spot on, we don’t use deeply vague and highly ambiguous ancient texts as a legal foundation.
- We do have freedom of religion, so Josh can, if he wishes live by whatever his interpretation of the bible is. Freedom of religion also means freedom from religion, so Josh does not get to impose his whacky rules on anybody else … but hey, you already know all this, and so does he even if he pretends to not know.
- It is indeed weird that religious people like Josh spend so much time thinking about gay sex far more than gay people do.
- Meanwhile, when it comes to applying “Biblical standards”, does Josh have on thoughts on multiple divorces or cheating on your spouse with a porn star, or will he be ducking doing a comment on all that?
Weirdest of the Weird
So yes, you already knew it, but D’Souza himself now has been forced to admit it was all bullshit …
- Reminder: D’Souza is also a convicted felon, pardoned by Trump for his campaign finance violations.
- It is quite frankly deeply frustrating that this only comes out now, after Nov 5. Rather a lot of people concluded that there was something to the “Stolen Election” BS because of this totally faked movie.
- Will we now get an apology from Fox News who promoted the film non-stop? … Nah.
- Weird Fact: D’Souza used to date Laura Ingraham. As disinformation creators, they really were made for each other.
Child labour in Iowa is (yes really) …
- Modern US Law: You always have to crime big. Petty crimes are punished harshly, big crimes get a fine, and huge crimes make you untouchable.
- Since it was ruled that corporations were people, why can’t this corporation go to jail?
- I’m sure you already know this, but for those that don’t, the Satanic Temple does not worship Satan. The imagery was created to piss off radical asshole hypocritical Christians bent on imposing their beliefs on everybody. For details, see Wikipedia article on them.
- Basically it is all about trolling the fanatically religious by using their own religious imagery against them. You would think they would wise up by now and realise they are being trolled, but no, every single time religious heads spin 360 and explode when faced with TST.
So yes, this next bit involving TST is also deeply weird …
Sen. Tommy Tuberville doesn’t think that it is the Senate’s job to vet Donald Trump’s nominees. The drafters of the Constitution would beg to differ.
- So @SenTuberville won’t vet the nominees, but will do his best to hold up appointments made by a president not named Trump.
- How are insurance executives qualified to determine what’s “unnecessary care.” These people are practicing medicine without a license and we’re supposed to accept that?
- There is a deep anger felt by many about the current system. The above is just one data point that explains why.
Is there even weirder stuff out there?
- And the cherry on the cake … check out who the president is of the company responsible for this survey is.
- As for the survey itself, I really do want to give it a go and fill it out with the most unhinged responses imaginable, but I’m terrified that I’ll then get offered a high-level position if I do.
The False Profit$
I previously mentioned above that Kash Patel wrote a children’s book in which he portrayed himself as a wizard. Now QAnon conspiracy theorist/self-proclaimed “prophet” Mark Taylor is using this to accuse Patel of having placed a curse on himself and Trump.
- We really do live in the stupidest timeline
Deliberate Deception
- Here is a link to the above article.
- There are distinct hints of a lot of financial corruption in play here via the article … “today, the program receives $140 million. The program, which is run by four contractors, is “supposed to promote pregnancies, encourage family formation, and increase economic self-sufficiency,” per ProPublica. The contractors distribute the funding to subcontractors operating CPCs across the state. But there’s no transparency around what these millions are paying for, and CPCs can charge the state $14 for every single anti-abortion pamphlet they distribute. They can also charge the state $14 for distributing a single pack of diapers—even if the CPC obtained those diapers free of cost from a diaper bank.“
Media Updates
Harry Litman takes a principled stance and quits the LA Times. The media is supposed to report the news, not become the news …
- If on Bluesky and looking for people of integrity to follow, then Harry Litman’s account is here.
- Here is a recent quote from him … “Before he has even taken office, Trump has faced down two of the country’s most prominent newspapers, inducing them to back off longstanding, well-reasoned editorial opposition. That is terrifying.”
US vs Rest of the World
- In the old days the fall of Syria wouldn’t just be on the national news it would be on the local news, too. “News” 24/7 & we know less than we ever have.
Crypto Scams
If you are ever considering buying crypto … then don’t … seriously, just don’t …
- “My tulip representative will be in touch.” (To get that ref, checkout the wikipedia article on the Dutch Tulip Bulb bubble)
- Meanwhile, people that buy crypto because it’s unregulated and then complain that they then got screwed over because it’s unregulated, will inevitably become a moral story that wider society really should learn from.
Billionaires Buying Elections
“The best government money can buy” – Mark Twain.
Political Cartoons from the past week
As always, there are many excellent cartoons. 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.
Reactions to the Xodus
A bit of excellent news, LibsOfTiktok, a handle for various far-right and anti-LGBT social-media accounts operated by Chaya Raichik, got rapidly banned …
Meanwhile, here is a Bluesky fun Starter Pack by a comedy scriptwriter …
- So yes, it really is a never-before-seen form of storytelling that breaks new ground.
Progressive Thoughts
… and some excellent news if it happens, because AOC will actually fight …
Finally…
Why did the movies not explore this option?
And yes, this really happened. D’Souza, the guy who got a pardon from Trump, actually complained about presidential pardons …
Since we are speaking of D’Souza, and previously mentioned the revelation that his 2000 Mules was based on pure BS, then let’s wrap up this weeks posting with an excellent suggestion …
