As we have now all seen in complete astonishment, they held a vote to elect the speaker … then another vote … and then another vote. Rinse and repeat many more times. Normally those with the most seats are the majority, but apparently that was not true until McCarthy finally caved and gave the nutters promises that should make the next two years “interesting”
We have all just been loving it. Many of the Dems were tweeting pictures of themselves literally bringing popcorn on to the floor to watch as the GOP proceed to demonstrate just how utterly incompetent they really are …
It was not just them, it was all of us. There was even a rumour that President Biden had to release 150 million gallons from America’s strategic popcorn reserves.
At one point Trump endorsed McCarthy and thus pitted Trump against some of Trump’s most staunch allies such as batty Boebert and gadfly Gaetz. In response Gaetz nominated Trump as his own personal bluetooth speaker for a couple of the many votes, thus we saw Trump add one more election defeat to his long list of election losses …
If you enjoyed the show then you might also like this parody clip …
As the old saying goes, when you put clowns into a palace, you don’t get kings, instead the palace turns into a circus.
They really really have been having some very bad days and it was all totally self-inflicted …
What comes next, what exactly has McCarthy promised?
There is no avoiding the observation that the next two years will be a complete and total shit-show. Up next will be the vote for the rules on Monday 9th.
Moving on, below you will once again find my usual selection of some truly bizarre and utterly weird 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.
Rainbows belong to God
So this was tweeted by an elected representative who as apparently distressed about an abuse of Rainbows …
- The bible she leans upon does rather explicitly suggest that lying is not a good thing (“Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor”). Calling the duly elected Gov a fake on the basis of no credible evidence at all is not exactly in alignment with her stated theology.
- Meanwhile, we do actually understand rainbows … hint: No gods or other supernatural beings required.
- People can of course be passionate about many things, but in this case the choice of the hill to die on here is indeed weird; Ownership of rainbows.
COVID
Quite some some ago, right-wing anti-vaccine “expert” Sherri Tenpenny declared that … “by the end of 2022, every fully vaccinated person over the age of 30 may have the equivalent of full-blown vaccine-induced immune suppressed AIDS.“
- Well, here we are in 2023 and this did not happen, but you knew that would be the outcome when she said it. Her credibility amongst people who are not gullible or stupid enough to take her seriously was always zero.
“Education”
Tyler Russell thinks that “the Taliban banning women from university [is] a step in the right direction” since women only go to college because “they’re all being tricked by Jews.”
- For Tyler the Republic of Gilead from The Handmaid’s Tale is just far too mild, left-wing, and woke for him to feel at home there.
- I don’t know Tyler’s personal circumstances but I would place good money on him not being married or even having a girlfriend … ever.
Grifting Via Fiction
Rep. Steve Scalise Raises Money on Phony Threat by Liberals to ‘Expel’ Justice Amy Coney Barrett
- If McCarthy had bowed out of the race as speaker then this was the guy who was next in line
- He reportedly once described his politics as “David Duke without the baggage.”
Truly Bizarre
After the Jan. 6 Committee shut down, “Stop The Steal” organizer Ali Alexander unleashed a wild livestream in which he claimed that he is “a lot like Jesus” except for one key difference: “Jesus was a carpenter, and I’ve got motherfucking machine gun.“
- He also claimed in that same livestream … “I’m a fucking time traveler“
- We could speculate that he is preparing his insanity plea for when the DOJ catches up with him, but I don’t think he is actually that smart and instead he really is this crazy.
- He is perhaps making a rather credible case for an increase in funding for mental health services.
Luke Hogan, vice chairman of “Students For Ye,” explains why people should support Kanye West for president: … “He is the next Napoleon. He is America’s Caesar.“
- Reminder: Ye was the guy who recently expressed his love for Hitler.
- For those familiar with history, can any of you perhaps remind us all of what actually happened to both Caesar and also Napoleon. If indeed this is the path Ye wants to follow, can we skip all the middle bits and jump directly to the end game where Napoleon ends up imprisoned on a very small Island that is over 1,200 miles from the nearest landmass.
- “Students for Ye” is I would argue an abuse of the word “Student”. I suspect you can replace the word “Students” with a far more appropriate alternative.
Michele Bachmann says that liberals are trying to impose a “woke” theocracy on America: “That’s the theocracy that’s rising today. It isn’t Christianity; it’s this woke cult.”
- She and many others use the term “woke” because the more accurate term, “empathy”, would reveal who and what they really are.
- The deep irony is that Jesus himself, as described in the bible, was rather “woke”
The False Profit$
Pro tip for aspiring prophets: Don’t put specific dates on things, like Manuel Johnson did in 2020 when he claimed that God took him to the year 2022 and showed him that Donald Trump was president.
- You know in your heart of hearts that if these guys could really see the future then they would be too busy looking up the powerball numbers to be paying any attention at all to who was president.
- You and I knew that he was running a scam back in 2020 when he said this. What was also perhaps known then is that pointing out his failed prediction in 2023 to his followers would not in any way motivate them to pause writing him cheques.
- Personally I am actually happy to write him cheque that has lots of zeros … just zeros and no other numbers at all … as a symbolic representation of the true value of his “prophecies”.
Pastor Shane Vaughn fumes at Christians who dare to support anyone other than former President Donald Trump: “You must never give up the faith! … Shame on you!”
- It is in so many ways deliciously symbolic that this guy who vigorously supports Trump is a convicted felon who spent years in jail for fraud, not before he was a pastor, but after. He was a pastor at the time of his fraud conviction.
- If we lived in middle earth then this would be the guy telling you to bow down and worship Sauron as the true Messiah
After Michael Flynn called the QAnon conspiracy theory “sheer nonsense,” QAnon conspiracy theorists Dave Hayes (aka “The Praying Medic”) and Mary Grace insist that Flynn’s comments are all part of the plan: “Anything that Flynn tells you, you have to realize is part of a psyop.“
- In the Q-verse everything appears to be a hoax, psyop, or hologram, nothing that is ever real actually happens.
- Q is what happens when you are so f**king stupid that your IQ has been chopped in half and you are just left with Q.
After going over the supposedly “God-inspired” predictions that Trump would return to the White House in 2022, the ever-gullible Steve Shultz told his followers he believes those prophecies were real… “except for the detail of when do we see him physically in the White House.“
- My prediction for the lottery last week was 100% right … except for the detail of the specific numbers.
- His God sure does move those goalposts is very mysterious ways.
Interesting Articles
- Kristen Doerer @ Mother Jones: Hate Leader Nick Fuentes Is Recruiting Incels.
- Tim Dickinson @ Rolling Stone: ‘Alex Jones Did Nothing Wrong’: Meet the Christian Nationalist Behind ‘Pastors For Trump’.
- Michael Daly @ The Daily Beast: MAGA Pastor’s Unholy Racket Is Driving Neighbors Nuts.
- Laura Jedeed @ The New Republic: My Week Inside a Right-Wing “Constitutional Defense” Training Camp.
- Rio Yamat @ The Associated Press: GOP firebrand Michele Fiore appointed to Nevada judgeship.
- Igor Derysh @ Salon: Meet the new MAGA generation: These newly-elected Republicans set to join Team MTG.
- Nicholas Confessore @ The New York Times: The Invention of Elise Stefanik.
Statistic of the week
While holding steady numbers in other places, this has happened in MA …
We need not speculate why …
- How the Boston Globe exposed the abuse scandal that rocked the Catholic church
- Priest and Clergy Sexual Abuse in Massachusetts
- etc…