When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with a bunch of gibbering idiots, let us look to convincing the lesser idiots of their folly.
Many, possibly most, of us know people so hopelessly enamored of the conservative misinformation silo, that those people have lost complete touch with reality. They’ve accepted egregious lies as fact, bought into beyond absurd debunked conspiracies, and become complicit in numerous unethical, immoral, and criminal acts committed by their leaders. Republicans must use dirty water for their brainwashing. Otherwise, they wouldn’t push so many filthy ideas.
We know that the top of the republican manure pile is corrupt to the core. If republican politicians were the tiniest bit self-reflective they’d resign en masse and go into voluntary exile.
Are the rest of them all just an ongoing train wreck of moronic, misguided, mouth-breathing muttonheads living purposeless lives, filled to the brim with hate and envy? I think not. We can and we must fight back to capture hearts and minds wherever we can.
Let’s explore how to talk to lazy voters. Our goal is to find common ground and build consensus. That means we can’t actually say what we are thinking. Face it. They can’t handle the truth. That’s why they spend all of their waking hours denying it.
What you are thinking: I finally understand why you don’t believe in science. It’s scientifically impossible for someone with a head as fat as yours to manage to get it so far up their ass. Yet here we are.
What you say: I get so pissed off when some rich asshole tries to blow smoke up my ass about trickle-down economics. Do you ever wonder why the rich get obscenely rich and the rest of us get screwed?
What you are thinking: So what attracted you to the republican party? They misogyny? The racism? The chance to associate with other really stupid people?
What you say: I don’t know about you, but I don’t have a lot of respect for people running around waving Confederate flags or swastikas. A lot of Americans died putting down those guys the first time around. What is the republican party doing to merit their support?
One more (Go here if you’ve made progress with more universally supported positions and have established some rapport):
What you are thinking: You fucking voted for TRAITORS, you worthless piece of shit!
What you say: I watched people attack our Capitol because they believed a lie. A lie I’ve seen promoted and repeated to this day. I truly don’t understand how anyone can excuse it, let alone support the perpetrators. What these people did, and their leaders encouraged, was the most unamerican thing I’ve seen in my lifetime. Do you think there’s anything that justifies what they did?
You get the idea. We are looking for common points of agreement on which to build a path into the light. If you can’t get agreement on something simple, run, don’t walk away — you are talking to a hardcore mindless magaot. Their singular claim to fame is that every time they open their mouths a fart gets its stench.
Every person we move away from today’s Reich wing cult of madness, is one more vote for sanity. Sure, actuarial tables are on our side. But, we can accelerate the end of the nihilist cult by continuing to work at the grassroots, one voter at a time.
GET OUT THE VOTE in GEORGIA!
We have the power. We have the ability. We can and we will do this.
Stephen had some thoughts on the recent dinner at Merde a Lardo [11:00].
Before we get started, how about a Senator Reverend Raphael Warnock ad to make you a little nuts.
News to make you feel good (or at least keep you away from the ledge) starts here:
Methinks the Mango Mussolini Doth Protest Too Much
It wouldn’t surprise me if we find out Spanky McBonespurs spends the time after his golf cheating sessions hanging out and watching Japanese bondage porn in the clubhouse with Nick Fuentes and his personal FSB handler.
Raw Story: Tom Boggionni: Huge hole blown into Trump's claim he didn't know dinner-mate Nick Fuentes
During an appearance on MSNBC on Saturday morning, podcast host and political commentator Dean Obeidallah rolled his eyes at Donald Trump's assertion that he didn't know who Nick Fuentes -- a notorious anti-semite and Holocaust-denier -- was when he had dinner with him earlier in the week.
Trump has been in damage control mode since news broke that he sat down to dinner at Mar-a-Lago with Fuentes and equally controversial Kanye West -- and went so far as to say he was clueless about who Fuentes was, who has also been associated with Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Paul Gosar (R-AZ). ✂️
"It's impossible to believe Trump did not know him [Fuentes]," he continued. "First of all, Trump has Secret Service; you don't just wander up to Trump. Secondly, Nick Fuentes ran the America First Foundation that Marjorie Taylor Greene spoke at. There they were huge headlines Trump had to see."
"That guy was the host of a right-wing channel, he loves Trump!" he added. "He was there January 6th, Trump knew who Nick Fuentes was, I have no doubt about it."
But wait, there’s more. Seems Agent Orange is trying to deny having his racist and eat with him too.
The Guardian: Hugo Lowell: Donald Trump ‘shied away from criticising Nick Fuentes’
Donald Trump repeatedly refused to disavow the outspoken antisemite and white supremacist Nick Fuentes after they spoke over dinner at his Mar-a-Lago resort, rejecting the advice from advisers over fears he might alienate a section of his base, two people familiar with the situation said.
The former US president was urged publicly and privately to denounce Fuentes in the aftermath of the dinner, which included the performer Ye, previously known as Kanye West, who has also recently been propagating antisemitic remarks.
And then the guy he wanted to hang chimed in:
Huffington Post: Josephine Harvey: Pence: Trump Should Apologize For Giving White Nationalist 'A Seat At The Table'
Former Vice President Mike Pence on Monday called on Donald Trump to apologize after the former president hosted a dinner at Mar-a-Lago with white supremacist organizer Nick Fuentes.
“President Trump was wrong to give a white nationalist, an antisemite and a Holocaust denier a seat at the table, and I think he should apologize for it,” Pence said in an interview with NewsNation. “And he should denounce those individuals and their hateful rhetoric without qualification.”
Of course, Mike “The Unethical Coward” Pence couldn’t stop there and had to defend his Orange Messiah (the one who forsook him) by brazenly lying through his teeth. This won’t do him any good with either set of voters he’s trying to woo.
Pence then defended his tenure as Trump’s second in command, arguing that while Trump had shown “profoundly poor judgement” in “giving those individuals a seat at the table,” he doesn’t “believe Donald Trump is an antisemite.”
“I don’t believe he’s a racist or a bigot. I would not have been his vice president if he was.”
What’s happening with the rest of the republican establishment you ask. Mostly cowardice, sycophancy, and pandering.
Vanity Fair: Bess Levin: Surprise: A Number of Republicans Don't Want to Condemn Donald Trump’s Dinner with a Couple of Antisemites
In the year 2022, the number one thing that unites the Republican Party is bigotry and hate. Hate for Black people. Hate for (non-white) immigrants. Hate for anyone who isn’t Christian. Hate for the LGBTQ+ community. Which is why it should surprise no one who has been paying literally any attention whatsoever that a number of GOP lawmakers apparently don’t want to publicly condemn Donald Trump’s recent dinner with two men who have made names for themselves as virulent antisemites.
Axios reports that though a handful of Republicans have spoken out against Trump’s dinner with Kanye “death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE” West (a.k.a. “Ye”) and Holocaust-denying white supremacist Nick Fuentes, many members of the party “have largely remained silent,” with spokespeople for almost two dozen House and Senate GOP lawmakers—including “party leaders” and people who are literally “cochairs of caucuses and task forces focused on Judaism or antisemitism”—declining to respond to requests for comment. While the outlet suggests that the lawmakers’ refusal to criticize the dinner speaks to “the stranglehold Trump still has on the Republican Party” despite his poor showing in the midterms, it seems more likely that these people, like Trump, don’t want to upset voters who were actually extremely pleased to see the ex-president and current candidate for office dining with individuals who have expressed such views.
Among the small group of Republicans who have spoken out against last week’s dinner, the trend appears to be that the only ones who have truly castigated Trump are people who are departing Congress in January (representatives Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger) or don’t actually hold positions within the party at this time (former NJ governor Chris Christie). While current GOP lawmaker James Comer, who is likely to be the next chair of the House Oversight Committee, responded to the matter on Meet the Press, his mild criticism left a great deal to be desired; he told the morning show that Trump “needs better judgment in who he dines with.” Among the elected officials who actually offered full-throated condemnation were Rep. Don Bacon, the GOP cochair of the Caucus for the Advancement of Torah Values, who told Axios of the sit-down, “I am appalled,” and Senator Bill Cassidy, who tweeted: “President Trump hosting racist antisemites for dinner encourages other racist antisemites. These attitudes are immoral and should not be entertained.” (He added, obviously falsely, “This is not the Republican Party.”) Late Monday, Senator John Thune said Trump having dinner with Fuentes was a “bad idea on every level” and that the person who planned it should be fired
The Sky Is Falling, the Sky Is Falling
Mitchell Epner is a former US Assistant Attorney. He has some thoughts about what’s about to happen to tfg’s future plans. Make it so, Number One, make it so!
Daily Beast: MItchell Epner: Trump Might Have to Face His Worst Nightmare—a D.C. Jury
Federal prosecutors on Tuesday, under the direction of newly appointed Special Counsel Jack Smith, argued to the 11th Circuit Court that they should immediately shut down the Special Master process created by Judge Aileen Cannon.
Based on the oral argument, it appears that the 11th Circuit is about to bring the curtain down on the sideshow that Judge Cannon created. The three judges on the panel (two appointed by Trump, one appointed by George W. Bush) expressed extreme skepticism that Judge Cannon had the jurisdiction to take any action before indictment and, even if she did, that she had a factual predicate to have enjoined the Justice Department and appointed a Special Master.✂️
If the 11th Circuit rules against Trump, I would expect an emergency appeal to the Supreme Court, which would be quickly denied. As soon as that happens, I expect that newly appointed Special Counsel Jack Smith and his team will indict former President Trump on multiple counts.
Although Trump has tried to keep this case in the Southern District of Florida (where Republicans recently routed Democrats in statewide elections), I expect that the indictment would be issued from the District Court for the District of Columbia. The crimes related to the removal and retention of national security documents in violation of the Espionage Act were arguably committed when Trump removed them from the White House, making D.C. a possible venue for an indictment on those charges.
Is This the Next Big tfg Criminal Scandal?
If it can be proven that Benedict Donald directed the IRS to audit his political enemies, he’s staring at yet another felony conviction. And it’s black letter law.
New York Magazine: Matt Stieb: It Sure Looks Like Trump Sicced the IRS on His Enemies
According to former White House chief of staff John Kelly, Trump repeatedly said “we ought to investigate” and “get the IRS on” figures such as FBI director James Comey, who conducted the agency’s investigation into the former president’s connections to Russia — until Trump fired him. Kelly claimed in an interview with the Times that he was able to stop Trump from seriously pursuing this specific abuse of power. But after Kelly left, it seems Trump got his wish to annoy the officials trying to hold him accountable.
Earlier this year, the Times reported that Comey and his former deputy Andrew McCabe were the subject of random and highly intrusive audits — inspections that IRS agents refer to as autopsies “without the benefit of death.” The sheer odds that the two main figures who led the FBI’s investigation into Trump would face such an audit indicates that a coincidence is unlikely. In 2017, the year when IRS agents peaked around Comey’s filings, around 5,000 were conducted out of 153 million returns.
Since the story broke earlier this month, momentum has been building to get to the bottom to the matter.
Raw Story: Tom Boggioni: ‘An unambiguous felony': Trump at risk in IRS audit probe
✂️ According to the legal expert, there is already an investigation by the IRS inspector general into the suspicious audits of the two FBI officials, with Epner writing, "As reported earlier this summer, both Comey and McCabe were subjected to highly unusual IRS audits. The odds of an individual randomly being subjected to this type of audit are similar to being struck by lightning. For both to be the subject of special audit by happenstance is about as likely as a whale falling from the sky and landing in the middle of a mountain range."✂️
"If Trump made this demand while he was president, that is an unambiguous felony. Section 7217 of Title 26 of the United States Code makes it a crime for the 'President' to 'request, directly or indirectly, any officer or employee of the Internal Revenue Service to conduct or terminate an audit or other investigation of any particular taxpayer with respect to the tax liability of such taxpayer,'" he wrote before adding, "Based on my training and experience as an Assistant U.S. Attorney who prosecuted tax offenses, I expect that each IRS employee along the chain of command kept detailed notes and records of who ordered them to conduct the audit, and on the facts that were cited to support that audit demand. I would not be surprised if each of those IRS employees cooperated with the DOJ, with all fingers pointing in Trump’s direction."
We Won’t See an Undefended Repeat of the Emails & Benghazi Theatre
The republican Congress is poised to go all in on smearing Joe Biden when they (probably) take the gavel next month. The good guys are preparing to fight back and not concede the stage to McCarthy’s hacks and flunkies.
Politico: Heidi Przybyla, Jordain Carney: Investigating the investigators: Dem strategists to launch counterpunch to House GOP
A group of top Democratic strategists are launching a multi-million-dollar hub to counter an expected investigative onslaught by the likely incoming House GOP majority — digging into President Joe Biden, his administration and his son, on top of potential Cabinet impeachments.
The newly relaunched Congressional Integrity Project initiative, details of which were shared first with POLITICO, will include rapid response teams, investigative researchers, pollsters and eventually a paid media campaign to put congressional Republicans “squarely on the defense,” founder Kyle Herrig said in an interview.
It’s designed to serve as the party’s “leading war room” to push back on House Republican investigations, Herrig said in an interview. He added that the project would “investigate the investigators, expose their political motivations and the monied special interests supporting their work, and hold them accountable for ignoring the urgent priorities of all Americans in order to smear Joe Biden and do the political bidding of Trump and MAGA Republicans.”
There’s a Dumbass Idiot Loose in the Streets of Georgia
The article is from a couple of weeks ago, but it points out the perfidy of the republican party. They don’t want people capable of critical thought, weighing issues on merit and making informed voting decisions. They want mindless automatons. And that’s what Herschel would give them.
Rolling Stone: George Chidi: With Herschel Walker, the Stupidity Is the Point
ABOUT HALF OF Georgia voters cast a ballot for Herschel Walker on Tuesday. Most of these voters wouldn’t trust Walker to run the check-out at a Family Dollar. But that’s the whole point.
Herschel Walker has repeatedly proven himself to be stupid. Herschel Walker’s voters aren’t necessarily stupid. That’s too easy.
Georgia Republicans aren’t stupid. But they see safety in stupid politicians. The stupidity of Herschel Walker isn’t a problem for them. It’s a feature. And writing off Georgia Republicans as country idiots is a kind of smug, lazy thinking that oversimplifies a complicated political problem, not just in Georgia but across the country.
Herschel Walker was not nominated to govern. He was not nominated to bargain. He was not nominated to formulate policy. He was not nominated to exercise judgment. He was nominated to mash the R button whenever a vote comes up, no matter what.
His stupidity doesn’t tell the full story of Herschel Walker. He has shot himself in the foot so often, he’s now hopping around on stumps and they are getting shorter each and every day. He’s been generating scandals almost as quickly as tfg. In a sane world, he’d get 0% of the vote, just like he deserves. This might be his most recently exposed scandal. Although, I haven’t had time to scour the interwebs to make sure.
CNN: Andrew Kazcynski, Em Steck: Georgia Senate candidate Herschel Walker getting tax break in 2022 on Texas home intended for primary residence
✂️ Publicly available tax records reviewed by CNN’s KFile show Walker is listed to get a homestead tax exemption in Texas in 2022, saving the Senate candidate approximately $1,500 and potentially running afoul of both Texas tax rules and some Georgia rules on establishing residency for the purpose of voting or running for office.
Walker registered to vote in Atlanta, Georgia, in 2021 after living in Texas for two decades and voting infrequently. In Texas, homeowner regulations say you can only take the exemption on your “principal residence.”✂️
Walker, despite now voting twice in Georgia and running for Senate in the state, has maintained the exemption, according to public records. The county tax office in Texas where Walker maintains his home confirmed the exemption.
The War on Christmas is over. Laura Ingraham has thrown in the towel and made a mockery of Fox’s mockery of a war.
Wonkette: Stephen Robinson: Joe Biden Ruins War On Christmas For Fox News
This silliest of seasons is here at last! Ever year at this time, Fox News begins its whine-soaked coverage of the imaginary War on Christmas. The metaphorical shots are fired as soon as a retail employee says "Happy Holidays!" at 4 a.m. on Black Friday or Starbucks serves coffee out of red-and-green cups without overtly wintry designs and inspirational quotes. Nothing is too small to blow out of proportion! Somewhere, there’s a gender non-conforming Santa who’s a bit too jolly for “Fox & Friends.” Let’s not forget all the ways Black people ruin Christmas with our Marxist protests and R&B Santas.
This year, though, they seem off their tiresome game. Maybe it’s the lump of coal Santa left them instead of a Republican Red Wave. Regardless, the less-pleasant Grinches at Fox News are now complaining that President Joe Biden is too full of the Christmas spirit.
Monday, Laura Ingraham, the ghost of segregated Christmases past, said the Bidens had “jumped the gun on Christmas” by having the White House tree delivered before Thanksgiving. This was the same day as Fox News’s own “all-American Christmas tree lighting.” (There’s rarely anything about tree lighting to justify the jingoism. It’s not as if the ornaments are made from recycled Bud Light cans.)
Another Republican Gun Myth Debunked
The problem with republican gun rhetoric, aside from it being bunkum, is that their generic “good guys with guns” are not particularly good with them.
Slate: Shirin Ali: Civilians Without Guns Take Out Mass Shooters More Often Than Civilians With Guns
Richard Fierro became an overnight sensation after he took down the gunman of a mass shooting happening inside an LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs, Colorado, over the weekend. Once bullets could be heard in the club, Fierro catapulted into action, running directly toward the shooter, pulling him down to the ground, and beating him with the shooter’s own gun. By the time cops showed up, the shooter was no longer struggling. Fierro actually feared that he had killed him. He didn’t—the 22-year-old gunman was hospitalized, and has been charged with five counts of first-degree murder and bias-motivated crime.
It helps to know that Fierro spent 15 years as an Army officer, with three tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan, making him uniquely qualified to intervene. He now joins a small but mighty number of unarmed civilians that have successfully stopped gunmen in mass shootings. From 2000 to 2021 there have been at least 433 active shooter attacks in the United States—a disturbing rise in recent years—and 249 of those attacks ended before the police arrived on the scene. In 64 of those situations, a bystander either subdued the attacker or shot at them.✂️
If unarmed civilians can successfully kneecap mass shooters, what about armed civilians? Martaindale told me the data just doesn’t show that the “good guy with the gun” argument, often preferred by Republicans (we’re looking at you, Ted Cruz), bears out. “There are plenty of incidents where people are armed but pulling out that weapon and shooting at that moment might cause more harm,” he said. That’s because bystanders can be in dangerously close range and a civilian also shooting out bullets can make the job of law enforcement confusing—once on the scene, they have to figure out where the shots are coming from and who’s responsible.
Sarcasm and ridicule are important tools to combat misinformation and propaganda. Just ask the founder of the NAFO movement (or me if you are shy about talking to people you don’t know). It’s not hard to make republicans or Russians look stupid — they do a great job of that all by themselves. Ridicule is what makes them whine about being called out for their stupidity and consequentially look even worse. The bolded section struck me like a tuning fork.
Kviv Post: Jason Jay Smart: Founder of NAFO Reveals Identity, Discusses Raison D’être
The North Atlantic Fella Organization (NAFO) started up in the third month of Russia’s war in Ukraine to combat Russian disinformation. As one member described it, “NAFO is an effort to raise funds for Ukraine’s defenders while using humor, memes, and other online means to shed light on Russian disinformation.”✂️
As you have probably seen before, we’ve been recognized by the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense, including [minister] Oleksii Reznikov, [presidential adviser] Mikhailo Podolyak and others. As far as the “standard” west goes, we’ve been endorsed by U.S. Congressman Adam Kinzinger, as well as U.K. Minister of Defense Ben Wallace.✂️
Other than that, I don’t refer to Russian propaganda specialists, but Russian propagandists themselves. Once you nail down their habits and patterns, you can just sweep them off their legs. But what always works is ridicule. They all see themselves as incredibly serious and important, hence why they struggle with being made fun of. And this doesn’t really work against us because we make enough fun of ourselves.[Bolding Added]
An NNNE GNR without an appearance from Andy Borowitz is like a Democratic National Convention without Barack Obama.
The New Yorker: Satire from the Borowitz Report: Trump to Try for Historic Third Impeachment
PALM BEACH (The Borowitz Report)—Stating that “no one’s ever done this before,” Donald J. Trump announced plans to be impeached for a historic third time.
Speaking to supporters in a ballroom at Mar-a-Lago, the former President claimed that he and only he could bring impeachable offenses back to the White House.
Although he was short on specifics about which crimes he might commit, Trump pledged, “We’re gonna perpetrate so much, you’re gonna get tired of perpetrating.”
Science keeps winning, no matter what the deniers say.
GoodNewsNetwork: Andy Corbley: CAR T-Cell Therapy Sends Lupus into Remission for Patients, Using Specially-Armed Immune Cells
A decade ago, CAR T-cell therapy changed the face of cancer research and treatment. It’s now been applied in a small trial to lupus patients with total success.
Four female patients and one male whose lupus had been untreatable were given an infusion of genetically-engineered immune cells called T-cells, which attacked another group of cells that do the damage in lupus patients, sending all five into remission.✂️
“Several other autoimmune diseases which are dependent on B cells and show autoantibodies may respond to this treatment. These include rheumatoid arthritis, myositis and systemic sclerosis. But also diseases like multiple sclerosis may be very responsive to CAR T-cell treatment.”
Today’s a good day to listen to an international (Playing for Change — Songs Around the World) cover of Bill Withers classic, Lean on Me.
From Masha Kondratenko, a Ukrainian TV star (School) and singer, Van’ka Vstan’ka is a short satirical piece based on a popular Russian toy. In the song Russian invaders are invited to prepare themselves for their inevitable end. Kondratenko stated she wants to raise the fighting spirit of Ukrainian defenders with her song. After all, everyone is now fighting the enemy. And her fighting front is musical.
A Nevalashka or Vanka-Vstanka doll is the Russian version of a Weeble (they wobble but they don’t fall down). Vanka is also a popular boy’s name meaning ‘get up’.
Let’s close it out today with a leap back to June, 1989 with this tasty rendition of When Push Come to Shove.