Even if you weren’t a parent of a young child during the late 90’s, early 2000’s, it was hard to avoid Teletubbies. Those soft round humanoids of toddler-like proportions, with smiling faces, antennas on their heads, tummy-mounted silver television screens, and infectious waddles were a cultural phenomena. There was Tinky Winky, predominantly purple; Po, red; Laa-Laa, yellow; and Dipsy, green. They were sweetness personified and toddlers loved them
Not surprisingly, the religious right, led by the televangelist Jerry Falwell decided that Tinky Winky was gay and warned parents that the character was a bad role model for children. Falwell cited Tinky Winky’s color (fast forward to Tucker Carlson’s attack on the purple M&M?), his triangle-shaped antenna, and his attachment to his red purse, or “magic bag,” as subtle and intentional representations of his sexual orientation.
Spotlight on Tommy Tuberville, the Alabama, Trump loving senator. You might be wondering where I am going with this?
In an interview published this week by Birmingham-based radio station WBHM, Tuberville criticized the state of the military and said Democrats were to blame.
“We are losing in the military — so fast — our readiness in terms of recruitment,” said Tuberville, a member of the Armed Services Committee. “And why? I can tell you why. Because the Democrats are attacking our military, saying we need to get out the white extremists, the white nationalists.”
Asked whether he believed white nationalists should be allowed in the military, Tuberville said: “They call them that. I call them Americans.”
Rumor has it that after the interview Tuberville turned to a staff person and started ranting. The military was turning into a bunch of soft, are you feeling ok?, rolly polly teletubbies. It was a disgrace. When his kids were little he would never let them watch that crap. I’m a football coach. I like it when people want to take the opponent’s head off. Hit’em, hit’em hard and make sure they remember who hit them, so the next time they see you they are scared to death. And I remember Jerry Falwell warning us about that purple TeleTubbie, that it was gay. I’m a damn football coach. We don’t do gay in football. Frankly, we shouldn’t do gay in America. For my money, I wish the military was made up of “White Nationalists,” who are some of our great Americans. These are the guys I want defending us, whether it’s abroad or in our backyards. As far as I am concerned, the more guns they have the better because when those left wing commies act up, well…I am football coach, God damnit.
His staffer, a real MAGA kind of guy, listened intently and floated an idea. “Hey Tommy, why don’t you create a new set of Teletubbies and make them reflect the true America? And they can live in a land called Tubberville?
“Incredible man. What an incredible idea. And think how much money we can make. A TV show and merchandising alone will make millions. “Sure will,” said his aide. Cancel all my meetings for the day and let’s have a brainstorming session. This is going to be huge.
“Yeah, Tommy, it might even elevate you to the highest office in 2028!”
“Hey look. I ran an elite college football team. Nothing can prepare you for the presidency more than that. The war strategy involved alone gives you the creds.
“Absolutely, Tommy. So who are the TeleTuberville characters?
“First and foremost is MAGA man himself, Trump.”
“Absolutely.”
Tommy, that statement he made during his recorded deposition before that witch hunt sexual assault trial was amazing. Told it like it was and still is!
“When that awful woman’s attorney asked him about what he said during that tape.”
“You mean when he said when you’re famous you can grab women’s private parts?”
“Exactly, Tommy.”
“I missed that. What did he say?”
“Well, historically, that’s true with stars. When she pressed him. Well, that’s what — if you look over the last million years, I guess that’s been largely true.” Not always, but largely true. Unfortunately or fortunately.”
“Got to love that guy. The honesty.” I can tell you stories about some of my football players and things they did that would blow your mind.
I bet you could. And so many came to Trump’s defense.
Senator Marco Rubio told a reporter, “That jury’s a joke.” Senator Lindsey Graham said he questioned “the whole process” and told Punchbowl News, “I think you could convict Donald Trump of kidnapping Lindbergh’s baby.”
Lindberg’s baby. That Graham. He is hysterical. And he does outrage so well.
Maybe we should make him a character.
“Not a bad idea?
And Tommy, your comment, after he was railroaded and convicted that “it makes me want to vote for him twice,” was truly inspiring.
So who else should we have as our four TeleTurbies?”
“How about Clarence Thomas? After all, they can’t scream ‘White Supremacist” if we have Clarence.
“Clever. Very clever.” And how about for our fourth we have a soldier who is a real American. Maybe a Proud Boy in army gear?
‘That’s it.” Trump, Graham, Clarence and the wrongly convicted Enriquo Tarrio.”
And we should have a theme park. People can live out their Christian white Nationalist fantasies. There should a place to bring your kids to ban books. Shooting ranges everywhere. An obstacle course that recreates army basic training. and what about a biology center that makes it clear that sex should only happy between a man and women. And maybe after DeSantis brings Disney down we can get the lease on the space and open an actual TeleTuberville?
Now that’s genius Tommy. True Americans will come from all over to have their kids meet all the cool characters. The hell with that sissy Mickey Mouse. I’ll take a Proud Boy any day.
The glee I felt when I found out that Tucker Carlson was let go by Fox was akin to what I felt when The Don lost the election to Joe Biden. Except of course, according to Carlson and his cronies, The Don didn’t really lose. Carlson’s lies and shameless spreading of disinformation about everything from the so called “friendly visit of the January 6th touring group” at the Capitol and his support of the “Big Lie,” have played a major role in stoking the flames of hate and grievance on the right. His misogyny and anti-LGBTQ and racist rhetoric was destructive and repugnant. And now the man who promulgated “Replacement Theory,” the conspiratorial hogwash that White America will be replaced by “those others” has been replaced. The man who continually attacked “cancel” culture was canceled. Guess, ultimately, what goes around comes around.
Of all his many egregious ramblings his tic-like obsession with “Replacement Theory” was the most insidious as it consistently served to gin up White grievance and paranoia. Nothing like a constant refrain of “They are coming for you so hold on to your AR 15s.” If you recall, during the infamous Charlottseville protest against removing confederate statues, people marched with Tiki lamps chanting “Jews will not replace us.” Witnessing this was chilling. Listening to a president claim that there were “good people on both sides” was terrifying. Carlson reinforcing it was despicable.
From his perch on top of the cable news world, Carlson’s harping on this was toxic and dangerous. And he did it all with that prep school boyish charm and ‘aw shucks’ demeanor that made him so easy to believe and digest. While The Don was foaming at the mouth, spreading lies and attacking anyone and everyone, the bow-tied Carlson shamelessly validated it all. The more he tied himself to The Don, the more his ratings soared. It was a demonic symbiosis that fostered polarization and tore at the fabric of our democracy.
Carlson loomed large, and his ego and stardom must have made him feel invincible. Like The Don, he probably felt he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and get away with it. Wouldn’t you like to have been a fly on the wall when he was told (in what must have been one cold phone call) that he was no longer an employee of Fox? In shock, I’m sure he probably thought it was a prank, a belated April Fools foil, that they were messing with him to create confusion before they rewarded him with even more money and power. After all, he was irreplaceable. He was the face of Fox News, its greatest asset.
How easily the mighty can fall. From superstar to liability. It just takes one phone call. Don’t come to work on Monday. Your things have been gathered and will be delivered to you. Your computer has been erased. You’ve been canceled.
In addition, Producer Abby Grossberg is suing Fox, and Carlson, alleging a hostile and discriminatory work environment. Big surprise there. Getting rid of Bill O’Reilly and Roger Ailes and having to pay settlements to women who were sexually harassed was just symbolic-the talk that Fox was going to change its culture was always a joke.
Rupert Murdoch knew what was going on behind closed doors: he just didn’t want to upset his money making machine by insisting that they do something about it. Most of all, without Murdoch, Carlson doesn’t exist. Murdoch sanctioned and encouraged the lies, the vitriol, the anti-democratic values and the White Supremacy. Why the sudden disenchantment? What was in those redacted Carlson communications? How vile did he have to get for it to become a bridge too far? Were their photos of Carlson and Putin?
Will Fox use this as an opportunity to reboot after having to pay out almost 800 million dollars to Dominion (and potentially more) to others who are suing them for defamation? Fat chance, as there is money to be made ginning up the anti-government, right wing they nurtured.
Will there be a backlash and decline in their viewership with Carlson’s dismissal? What will Tucker do? Will he become Newsmax’s new star anchor? What new venue will he find to spread his poisonous and destructive rhetoric? Maybe he will run for president?
I have a thought. How about a reformation project? A chasten Tucker wants to make amends. How about a Sesame Street gig? Maybe they would create a character called Fibberpuss, who is always getting caught with his hand in Cookie Monster’s cookie jar, tries to lie about it, but eventually comes clean and has to “replace” the stolen cookie. Unfortunately, I fear these news monsters (Tucker and Fox News both) will continue their venal ways. This is America. If you can sell it to hell with the consequences.
The expulsion of two young black *Tennessee legislators for protesting in the well of its chambers against gun violence was egregious and a further example of the Republicans abuse of power and movement toward autocracy. The fact that a white woman, who was as much a part of the action considered to bring “disorder and dishonor to the House of Representatives,” was not expelled, was outright racist. When asked why she didn’t get expelled like her two black colleagues, Gloria Johnson stated: “Well, I think it’s pretty clear. I’m a 60-year-old white woman, and they are two young Black men.”
Before the expulsion both Justin Jones and Justin Pearson were the subject of attacks. Jones, who had been a well known an activist, stated during his speech before his expulsion said: “Basically I had a member on the floor call me an uppity negro. This is the behavior of our body.”
Johnson was taken to task for wearing a dashiki, traditional garb in Africa. Here’s a twitter post from the Tennessee Republicans
Referencing the bipartisan and unanimously approved rules for House decorum and dress attire is far from a racist attack. If you don’t like rules, perhaps you should explore a different career opportunity that’s main purpose is not creating them.
Racist dog-whistling has been a feature in the Republican Party since the 60’s, but that lip-sync has sailed, and has been replaced by the bullhorn. The irony of it all: these legislators were expelled for using a bullhorn to protest gun violence, which was simply an expression of their right to free speech; Republicans used their bullhorn to silence free speech.
All of this happened just 10 days after another tragic mass shooting-this time at the Covenant School in Nashville-which killed three 9 year olds and three adults.
Hundreds of students, parents, and teachers marched to the State Capitol on March 27 and have held demonstrations at the Capitol to demand action by the legislature to toughen gun laws. Last Thursday, Representatives Jones, Pearson, and Johnson — whose districts are in Nashville, Knoxville and Memphis, the state’s three largest cities — interrupted the legislature by chanting “No action, no peace” on the House floor. Legislative proceedings were forced to a halt.
Pearson and Jones were expelled for their peaceful protest of the tragic murder of six people who were going about their day at a school. The three legislators were showing their support for a community in grief. Pardon me, if they flouted the laws of decorum of the chamber by protesting the Republican majorities callousness and refusal to do anything about protecting the children. Republicans refusal to do anything is not only a flouting of decorum, but a flouting of human decency. In fact, the Republicans have recently passed laws (and are pushing for more) that actually make access to guns and Ar-15’s more accessible!)
In defending the expulsion of the two members, House Speaker Cameron Sexton compared the incident to Jan. 6: “What they did today was equivalent, at least equivalent, maybe worse depending on how you look at it, to doing an insurrection in the State Capitol.” Did people die? Was there violence? Were they chanting: “Hang Cameron Sexton?”
Republican allegiance to the NRA is despicable; they are morally bankrupt. And what always stuns me is that a large majority of Americans, Republicans and gun owners included, want sensible gun laws. It is clear that as long as these people are in the majority we will never have them.
The nine year olds who were gunned down by a military type weapon were probably just in the middle of learning their multiplication tables. For extra credit children: Can you tell me the answer to this: Multiply the amount of mass shootings since January by the number killed at each shooting. Okay, now, put on your thinking caps and get to work. And by the way, remember our shooter drill as you never know…
One in 25 American 5-year-olds now won’t live to see 40, a death rate about four times as high as in other wealthy nations. Firearms account for almost half of the increase.
Let’s turn to Tennessee’s legacy of ousted legislators.
Six lawmakers were expelled from the Tennessee House in 1866, immediately after the Civil War, for seeking to prevent the ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment, which granted citizenship to formerly enslaved people. Since then, the House of Representatives in Tennessee has voted only twice to oust a lawmaker. Both votes were bipartisan: in 1980, after a sitting lawmaker was convicted of soliciting a bribe, and in 2016, after the House majority whip faced allegations of sexual misconduct.
Here’s Ms. Johnson during pleading her case before the vote to expel: “We have had admitted child molesters on the floor, we have had members that have peed in each other’s office chairs, we have someone who has illegally prescribed drugs to their cousin’s mistress, and nothing ever happened to those folks.”
Now we have two young outspoken black men expelled for “bullhorning.” Maybe the Republicans should be expelled for violating their right to free speech?
Certainly protesting in support of your constituency is as egregious as committing multiple acts of sexual misconduct or taking bribes. If you recall, John Lewis staged a protest against gun violence inside the Capitol building and he and other members of congress weren’t expelled. He was making what he referred to as “good trouble.”
Here’s who weren’t expelled:
In 2019, Rep David Byrd faced accusations of sexual misconduct after multiple women claimed he assaulted them when he was their high school basketball coach. There is actually a recording of him admitting this to one of the women he assaulted. Democrats, including Johnson, wanted to take a vote to remove Byrd. Guess what? He was never removed. He was then asked by the Governor not to run for re-election and he did anyway and won. What’s with these Republicans who support men who sexually assault women (Byrs finally resigned as a result of becoming very ill from Covid)?
And no story is complete without a tale of “pee.” The Majority Whip, Rick Till’s chair was peed on after it was discovered that he was involved with an anonymous Twitter account disparaging a fellow Republican legislator. To this date they have yet to identify the “man of the yellow stain” but chances are, when they do, they will decide that the peeing was the result of a bladder infection and he will be forced to go to a Urologist. “The perpetrator of “Peegate” is still at large, but if we don’t do something about the Republicans pissing all over our democracy we all will find ourselves in a wet, stinky mess.
*Just last night, to the chagrin of the Republicans who expelled them, the Nashville City Council voted unanimously to reinstate Justin Jones. The Memphis City Council is expected to do the same for Justin Pearson in the next few days. These are temporary reinstatements as there will have to be an actual election for the seats which hopefully the two Justins will win. All I can say is power to the people who rose up to their defense. And to the two Justins: Here’s to “good trouble” and make noise!
I have been waiting for this moment for a long time. It’s official: Donald J. has been INDICTED. For the first time, a former president has been INDICTED. Like any other American, he will have his day in court(s?) and will be judged by a jury of his peers. The Don is incredulous that he could be judged by a jury of his peers since, in his grandiosity, he is peerless and above the law.
That this finally happened states unequivocally that no one is above the law!
Stop with all the hand-wringing that of all the potential indictments he may face, that this is one, brought by Alvin Bragg, regarding paying hush money to Stormy Daniels, is small potatoes or will be difficult to bring to a conviction. (I have to assume that given the intense scrutiny and blowback-including knowing there would be death threats-that Bragg has a very strong case, though there is no guarantee a jury will convict.)
Please stop whining about how this will make The Don stronger and lead him to the presidency- that people will rally around the aggrieved and maligned hero. The chorus is already singing: “Can you believe they are going to prosecute him for giving hush money to a porn star?” After all, this is the man who on the infamous Access Hollywood video joked about grabbing women’s private parts. From the Republicans point of view, the issue with Stormy Daniels is a step up. At least he paid to have access to her private parts!
Do you imagine that the Republicans would react differently if the indictment came out of Georgia, where The Don asked for 11.780 votes to alter election results or from Jack Smith, the Special Prosecutor investigating both the documents case and the events of January 6th? Do you think for a moment they would reject The Don and say; “Now this case is serious?” As they say, not until hell freezes over.
After all, a crime is a crime, is a crime.
Understandably, many are worried that this will martyr him and will breed violence. After all, he incited his believers on January 6th. Some worry that prosecuting The Don will lead to the death of our democracy. To them I say: to not prosecute and defend the rule of law could be a lethal blow to our democracy.
Over the course of his life, The Don has probably bent and broken more laws than we can imagine. With able finances and a pugilistic bombastic bravado, he has bullied his way out of many an imbroglio, whether it be tax fraud, faux bankruptcies, stiffing workers out of money and countless sexual assaults.
When he was president, he took a battering ram to many of the guard rails of our democracy, which reached its peak on January 6th, when he led an insurrection to overturn the election. For three hours of riotous violence, he did nothing, relishing in the love. He then spent the next two years railing against the outcome, continuing to promulgate the big lie that the election was stolen. The man has, until this moment, gotten away with everything but shooting someone on Fifth Avenue. If you don’t hold him accountable for his crimes, we will be entering the wild, wild west if he is elected again. It is not hard for me to imagine him rounding up and prosecuting those who are against him. If you think he weaponized the Department of Justice before, you ain’t seen nothing yet!
And true to form, The Grand Offal Party is either silent, or on a full frontal attack. Mitch McConnell, who has wet dreams about The Don going down, hasn’t said a peep. Neither has Mittens Romney. Though they are not on Fox News, like boot lickin’ Lyndsey Graham, screaming about the injustice of it all, their silence is a calamity of pusillanimity. And guess what Mitch, if The Don becomes president, he’s coming for you, too. He hates you more than he hates Nancy Pelosi, who I believe he has more respect for.
He and his fellow chaos agents are on the attack doing what they can to de-legitimize any possible prosecution as an attack against democracy.
Here’s The Don: “The Democrats have lied, cheated and stolen in their obsession with trying to ‘Get Trump,’ but now they’ve done the unthinkable,” he wrote, on Truth Social. “Indicting a completely innocent person.” Don’t you just love it the way “Trump” refers to himself in third person like the invented brand he is.
And Fucker Carlson seems really chastened by the defamation lawsuit at Fox News brought by Dominion. Carlson said the ruling showed it was “probably not the best time to give up your AR-15s.” A call to arms or what?
Here’s Carlson again: “The rule of law appears to be suspended tonight — not just for Trump, but for anyone who would consider voting for him.” Hey, who says you can’t vote for him; it just means he might be in jail when you do.
And here’s Mr. DeSatanist, who refuses to say anything to turn off The Don’s base, who he hopes to inherit. “The weaponization of the legal system to advance a political agenda turns the rule of law on its head.” To put a cherry on top of his outrage, DeSatanist declared: “Florida will not assist in an extradition request” (for Trump.) I guess he is showing the base that he would never cross The Don. However, it did cross my mind that DeSatanist hoped The Don would take him up on his protection because then The Don wouldn’t be able to campaign out of the state.
Alan Dershowitz, a lawyer and defender of The Don said during an interview on Newsmax that The Don should use a mugshot of himself as a campaign poster. Frankly, I love the idea. Then the Democrats can use that picture and add Al Capone or John Gotti to it.
Anyway you slice it, on Tuesday, April 4th, 2023 history will be made when The Don walks into the courtroom and is officially indicted. And despite all the hand wringing I say: Book’em!
The Don can be described in many ways. He is a psychopathic liar, grifter, racist, anti-semite, misogynist, megalomaniac, who lacks the capacity for empathy. His need for attention and admiration are insatiable. This need is the driving force behind everything he does.
The most extraordinary example of this need was evidenced on January 6th. You know, the day, according to many Republicans, that a patriotic picnic inspired a harmless foodfight. If you recall, despite pleading from everyone from Kevin McCarthy to his very own princess, Ivanka, it took over three hours of mayhem before The Don reluctantly asked his violent mob to go home. Even then, he thanked them for the love and and ensured them they were loved, too
The Don asked his devotees to show up to the Capitol, promised them a “wild time” and a wild time was what he (and they) got. The storming of the Capitol was a fever dream for him. Thousands of people destroying property, beating on police, and threatening to kill Nancy Pelosi and hang the vice president, expressing their fealty to their God of Nefarious Things. For a malignant narcissist, watching this unfold exceeded even his wildest dreams. After all, what other president had been so loved? This was the greatest orgasm of his life, a porn show unequaled, and the country be damned, if he was going to intervene. No insurrection interruptus for him-this was one (ins)erection that he wanted to last forever. (Unlike the 90 seconds that Stormy Daniels claims!)
The man who needs love and attention should be in heaven again. After all, four different prosecutors are spending endless hours thinking about him; he’s in the news constantly. The country is tuned into The Don’s new TV show called “The Indictment.” Will it be Fani Willis, D.A. of Fulton County, Georgia for his attempt to get Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger, to “find 11,780 votes?” Will it be the D.A. of Manhattan, Alvin Bragg, for The Don’s involvement in paying $130,000 in hush money to Stormy Daniels and other malfeasance? Will it be Jack Smith who actually has two shots at him: one for his mishandling of classified documents and obstructing their retrieval, or a minor thing like being a willing partner and collaborator in an insurrection and/or the dereliction of duty to protect the police officers and the lawmakers from harm? Or will it be Attorney General of N.Y.S., Letitia James, for The Don’s organization’s attempt to defraud the government? And wait, what about the civil case brought by Jean Carrol for battery and defamation (which begins April 25 in New York)? What other president has ever received that kind of attention? That’s a “Bigly” kind of attention.
However, recent decisions by a D.C. judge have made the God of Nefarious Things unhappy. In the documents case, The Don’s lawyer, Evan Corcoran, was compelled to give testimony. Corcoran was part of the legal team that submitted a sworn affidavit to the Justice Department that stated there were no more classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, only for the F.B.I. to find more than 100 more. What makes his testimony so unusual is that it overrules attorney-client privilege. In order for a judge to breach this privilege, which is a cornerstone of a lawyer/client relationship, the judge needs substantial evidence that a crime was committed. The million dollar question: did The Don lie to Corcoran about it? If he did that’s obstruction of justice which should result in jail time.
In another ruling by the same judge, Mark Meadows and a number of other White House cronies were compelled to testify regarding the January 6th insurrection overruling claims of executive privilege.
And to top it off, Mike Pence has lost his bid to avoid testifying to the D.O.J. in the January 6th investigation. I guess the courts didn’t buy Pence’s defense that his speech was protected when he voted in the senate on bills to break a tied vote. They decided, Mr. Pence you were the vice president, not a senator, so you have no protection.
Poor Don can’t catch a break. The walls are closing in. The man who needs to be the most number truly is most wanted, but not by the people he wants to be most wanted by.
In predictable fashion, the Don has gone on the offensive, using his calling cards of grievance, outrage and claims of “witch hunt,” rallying his devotees to his cause. He has, not surprisingly, fund-raised off this “weaponization” of the justice system. As usual he has flipped everything on its head and has accused people of the very thing he is guilty of.
“The abuses of power that we’re currently witnessing at all levels of government will go down as among the most shameful, corrupt and depraved chapters in all of American history,” he said. If we switch out the words “at all levels of government” and replace it with “by Donald Trump” we have the opening line of the history books written about his presidency.
His attacks on Alvin Bragg are particularly heinous and dangerous. He called Bragg an “animal” and “worse than the Gestapo.” He said that “only a degenerate psychopath that truly hates the USA!” could do what Bragg is doing, that “death and destruction” would result from an indictment. He also didn’t lose an opportunity to spout his antisemitism by invoking George Soros, who donated money to an organization who supported Bragg’s campaign. As a result of his dangerous rhetoric, Bragg received a letter stating “ALVIN: I AM GOING TO KILL YOU” followed by 13 exclamation points. The Don also posted an article about the investigation that featured a large picture of the former president holding a baseball bat, juxtaposed with an image of Mr. Bragg. Maybe he should be arrested for inciting violence? If he was a regular old citizen his ass would be hauled in by the F.B.I. for questioning and he would be told to cease and desist these actions or face serious consequences.
On a number of occasions The Don has ginned up his people with what I believe could be his campaign slogan: “They’re not coming after me, they’re coming after you.” He is their protector, the only thing that stands in the way of the dangerous deep state.
In an attempt to rally his troops, he kicked off his campaign by having his first event in Waco Texas. This is the 30th anniversary of the standoff between the government and the Branch Davidian cult led by David Koresh. The ultimate siege by the federal government which resulted in the deaths of 76 Branch Davidians, including 26 children, two pregnant women, and David Koresh as well as four federal agents. The symbolism is pretty clear: Trump, the cult leader, protecting his flock from the evil government. The crowd waving red-and-white signs with the words “Witch Hunt” behind him while a recording of men incarcerated for their actions during January 6th sing “The Star-Spangled Banner” while Mr. Trump recites the Pledge of Allegiance. America’s great protector!
Speaking of the jailed January 6th participants, I would be remiss if I didn’t give a shout-out to MTG for going to the prison to lend her support to the heroes who have been vilified and erroneously convicted for standing up for democracy. Rumor has it that in an effort to show her appreciation for all they did that she set up a separate room to offer comfort for the maligned.
Let’s for a moment play out the battle for supremacy as the King/Queen of anti-Wokeness as a sound out match, the kind that occurred in the streets of my childhood neighborhood in the Bronx.
Our ragging on each other would go something like this:
“Oh yeah, look at those ugly sneakers you got, bet you bought them used!”
“Oh yeah, look at that haircut you got; was the barber blind?”
“Oh yeah, well your mother’s weird!”
“Oh yeah, your mother’s ugly!”
Here’s the anti-Woke version.
“Oh yeah, well I voted against treatment for trans people.”
“Oh yeah, I slam dunked Mickey Mouse and Disney because they trumpeted inclusion.”
“Oh yeah, I banned books that tell the truth about our history to protect White Supremacy.”
“Oh yeah, I am going to make sure no woman can get an abortion even if it means they die.”
“Oh yeah, I was the one who said Silicon Valley Bank failed because it was too dedicated to wokenesss”. (Drop the mic!)
Got me on that one.
Yes, the Republicans have now brought wokeness to the banking world.
WTF? Banking, too?
A growing chorus of conservative pundits and politicians have said the failure of Silicon Valley Bank was the result of the bank’s woke policies, blaming the California lender’s commitments to workplace diversity and environmentally and socially conscious investments.
Here’s schoolyard bully Ron deSatanist on the issue: “This bank, they’re so concerned with D.E.I. and politics and all kinds of stuff. I think that really diverted from them, focusing on their core mission.”
Here’s our favorite fake newscaster Tucker Carlson on SVB’s failure: “The Obama administration imposed diversity, equity, and inclusion standards on the entire financial sector. And that’s one of the main reasons our big banks are now increasingly incompetent.”
Before we discuss the Un-American and awful activity of California lender’s commitments to workplace diversity and environmentally and socially conscious investments, here’s a quick synopsis of what happened.
It’s actually quite straightforward. In a nutshell, the bank was caught with its pants down in a rapidly changing economic environment; it waited till the last minute to try to avert its fate.
Fans of Frank Capra’s “It’s a Wonderful Life” well remember the run on the Savings and Loans of Bedford Falls when the depositors believed that the bank couldn’t protect their money.
The same thing happened at SVB. The collapse was due to a run on the bank. People wanted their money because they feared the bank was going to go bust.
Banks typically invest customer deposits in a variety of assets that they can earn a return on, including a mix of long-term and short-term bonds issued by the government — usually a safe bet. SVB made the mistake of investing most of its money in longer term bonds, which provided higher interest returns, but the lack of diversity that increased its risk.
When interest rates were raised rapidly (to combat inflation), the the value of the bonds decreased and the bank had to start selling its bonds at a considerable loss to get the cash it needed to cover depositors. Depositors no longer trusted the bank could protect them and demanded their money.
Did anyone read anything in this simple analysis that suggested committing to workplace diversity and environmentally and socially conscious investments had anything to do with SVB’s collapse? Didn’t think so.
But that doesn’t stop the shameless Republicans from spreading lies and disinformation. Wokeness is subversive and brainwashing children’s minds. Wokeness is causing banks to be unable to protect your money. Banks are spending too much time hiring women and non-whites. Banks are giving loans to small businesses for women and non-whites. Banks are so worried about having to spend their time making sure there is diversity that they are not paying attention to the money. They are giving loans to those less capable, more likely to default. They are taking risks by investing in environmental and social projects. Why are banks spending time, energy, and money lending to companies and organizations that want to impact climate change or create a more equitable society? What a waste.
The facts are that Only 8% of SVB’s assets were used for investing in environmental and social investments, which is typical for most banks.
But here we are and there is no end in sight. Republicans think they have a winning message in anti-wokeness, that racism, homophobia, and misogyny are their golden goose. The genie is out of the bottle and not going back unless the American people and corporations stand up against these voices of oppression.
It truly is a battle for the soul of America. All over the country legislatures are passing laws (or trying to) limiting abortion, trans rights and controlling what can be taught in schools. It is scary and they are using their bully pulpits to great effect.
In Red states, Walgreens decided not to sell medications that enable women to have safe abortions at an early stage.
Last May, Consumers’ Research, a conservative group that began a campaign against what it called “woke capitalism,” attacked the insurer State Farm for partnering with the GenderCool Project, which supports transgender and nonbinary youth. The program helped provide books on L.G.B.T.Q. themes to schools and libraries. State Farm severed its ties with GenderCool hours after the attacks appeared in a right-wing outlet.
Next on the agenda? Going after all companies who make chocolate products and demanding they start using only White Chocolate?
Black Americans are the vanguard of the struggle for equality and freedom. All Americans owe a debt to their bravery, the blood they shed and the unyielding determination for equality. All battles for civil rights stand on their shoulders.
As we acknowledge the 58th anniversary of the transformative civil rights march across the Pettus Bridge in Selma Alabama, dark forces in the Republican party are in an all out war to turn back the clock.
These attempts to undermine freedom of speech and equal treatment under the law make it necessary for us to look at this moment with sober eyes. It is time for The F word to be said out loud. Facism is gaining steam.
Everywhere you look, Republicans are on the attack.
At CPAC, a right-wing carnival, where people like Don Jr. get their rocks off, the cuffs are off and rhetoric of hate thrives. Don Jr., taking a page out of his father’s playbook on cruelty, called Senator John Fetterman, (who suffered from a stroke and is now in the hospital for Depression) a “Vegetable.” He continued his vile comments by adding: “I’d love for John Fetterman to have, like, good gainful employment. Maybe he could be, like, a bag guy at a grocery store.” Rumor has it that Don Jr. whispered to his equally revolting girlfriend, Kimberly Guilfoyle: “Why do we waste time and money on any disabled people? What do they contribute? They need too much support. They are just a drain on us, and in the way of making us even greater.”
At the same CPAC charade, MTG announced her desire to make it a felony to perform “anything to do with gender-affirming care.”
Here’s Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley: “Wokeness is a virus more dangerous than any pandemic, hands down.” So your campaign slogan is “Wokeness kills, Pandemic, meh?”.
In Tennessee, legislators passed a bill making it a crime to perform drag shows in any public spaces. So, it’s okay for Neo-Nazis to parade down the street but not okay for people to express themselves by dressing in drag? Saluting Hitler is fine, but singing show tunes is dangerous?
Also in Tennessee, during a House Criminal Justice Committee meeting Tuesday, where the use of a firing squad was being debated for those sentenced to death, Tennessee lawmaker, state Rep. Paul Sherrell, took the opportunity to suggest bringing back “hanging by a tree,” as an option for execution. Rumor has it, that after he proposed it, he turned to a fellow legislature and said: “My granddaddy got to see a bunch of them lynchings and always said it was such an exciting thing and created strong community.”
In a contentious race for State Supreme Court Judge in Wisconsin, which pits a liberal-leaning Democrat against a right-wing Republican, somehow George Soros, the anointed devil-worshiping Jew philanthropist, who is tied to many right-wing conspiracy theories, is featured in an attack ad accused of being the “mastermind behind America’s crime wave.” With comments like that, and other conspiracy theories blaming Jews, it is no wonder that anti-semitism is on the rise.
Yes, Jews are undermining our democracy and the rule of law. As opposed to The Don who has promised to pardon all those convicted of crimes during the January 6th insurrection (even those convicted of seditious conspiracy against our country!). To show his commitment to law and order, The Don assembled a group of defendants naming themselves the J6 Prison Choir who released a song titled “Justice for All” that features their rendition of the national anthem while the former president recites the Pledge of Allegiance. Rumor has it that The Don has threatened to sue Billboard if his song doesn’t make the top 10 next week saying: “This is the most patriotic song ever made, and some think it should be played before every sporting event in America. These heroes are the true patriots and they don’t deserve to be in prison with all those, you know, other people.”
Welcome to the greatest country in the world, where people who try to overthrow the government run free, and the return of lynching seems like a yearning for the good ole days.
Banning books that expose the heinousness of slavery or address the experience of the LGBTQ+ community are under siege. In Florida, schools in Manatee County have resorted to removing and covering the books that address issues of diversity as a result of a law instituted by Ron DeSatanist. The law mandates that books need to be reviewed by “certified media specialists,” who will determine whether or not the book is appropriate for school children. I don’t know about you but when I hear “certified media specialists,” but I hear the footsteps fascism.
Continuing his assault on education, DeSatanist plans to transform New College, which is known as progressive and describes itself as “a community of free thinkers,” into a beacon of conservatism. Last month, the Republican governor removed six of the college’s 13 trustees, replacing them with allies holding strongly conservative views. The new board then forced out the college’s president, a career educator, and named Mr. DeSantis’s former education commissioner, a career politician, as her replacement.
At North Idaho College, in the town of Coeur d’Alene, a committee precinct woman accused the school of supporting a “radical, racist and Marxist organization” and “guilting white male students.” An attempted coup by conservatives is wreaking havoc. Thankfully, the accreditation committee has threatened to take away the school’s accreditation which will force the university to shut down if it continues down this path.
In a chilling decision, the Georgia state legislature has passed a law that creates a ProsecutingAttorneys Qualifications Commission composed of gubernatorial and legislative appointees empowered to “discipline, remove, and cause involuntary retirement of appointed or elected district attorneys or solicitors-general” for “mental or physical incapacity,” “willful misconduct in office,” or “willful and persistent failure to carry out duties.” In other words, if a prosecutor is not acting in a manner that is favorable to the Republicans, they are at risk of being removed! Not only is The Don at risk at being indicted by prosecutor, Fani Willis, for his schemes to influence the outcome of the election results in Georgia (Just need 11,800 votes), but other Georgia legislators may also be on the list of those who could be indicted. This should chill us to the bones as it is nothing else but an attempt to dismantle our legal system.
Let’s end with my pal Ron Desatanist, who is also trying to pass a law that requires bloggers who write about legislators and the governor in Florida, to register with the state. The bill, if passed, will also require bloggers to disclose who is paying them and how much. Rumor has it that DeSatanist will also ask the legislature to add an additional element to the bill that requires all Floridians to use the word “DeGreatest” before they say his name. Failure to do this will result in a fine; a second infraction could result in a prison sentence. Hitler and Putin would be proud!
Is it possible that big lies will finally be exposed and truth will prevail, that justice will triumph and rule breakers and spreaders of false narratives will finally get their comeuppance?
I have been waiting for this moment for a long time and am trying to temper my optimism, as I, like many, have been continuously befuddled by the lack of accountability. I know the road to justice can be slow, that we can’t rush to justice, that it is more like the turtle than the hare, but for some time now, it felt like the turtle has been on life support.
However, some recent events have pumped new blood into the turtle’s veins and the overconfident rabbit may be in for a walloping surprise.
For one, Jack Smith, the special prosecutor, appointed by Merrick Garland, to investigate the events of January 6th, as well as the classified documents found at Mar-a-Lago (and what seems like the willful obstruction of returning them), seems to be heating up.
In the documents case, he has subpoenaed attorneys who signed sworn affidavits testifying that all the classified documents found at Mar-a-Lago were returned to the National Archives. As we know, that turned out to be untrue, as months later, the F.B.I. found over a hundred more documents.
Mr. Smith wants to know who lied. Did the attorneys know there were more documents and cover for The Don, risking their careers and the possibility of jail time or did The Don lie to them, the way he lies to everyone? Bottom line here is unless the attorneys are reckless, self-destructive nitwits, chances are they were fed false information about the documents. Mr. Smith needs to ask one question: Who told you there were no more documents? Whether The Don told them directly or someone else relayed the information, the chances The Don wasn’t involved are zero. Of course, he will scream foul and claim witch hunt and maybe even create a conspiracy theory that Hillary Clinton paid an impersonator who lied to the attorneys.
Mr. Smith has also turned up the heat in the January 6th investigation going for the jugular by subpoenaing Mike Pence and Mark Meadows. Both Meadows and Pence refused to talk to the Congressional committee, but subpoenas from the Justice Department have more teeth. Meadows has little wiggle room here as his claim of executive privilege will go nowhere and let’s face it, as the song from Hamilton goes: He was in the room before it happened and when it happened. He is trapped like the rat he is and unless he makes a deal for immunity and gives up the goods on The Don, he is in trouble.
Then there is the ex vice president, who calls his wife “mother” and who fancies himself a man of great moral rectitude and courage, who has decided to fight his subpoena rather than tell the truth and finally put an end to the man who has done more to undo our democracy than any other president in history. (Not to mention wanting Pence hung?) And why is that? Umm…Is it because he has some fantasy that he can win the Republican nomination for President in 2024 and doesn’t want to alienate all of The Don’s supporters? But how foolish can you be Mikey? All those MAGA people still want to hang your ass for not breaking the law and helping The Don stay in power. Do you really think your shambolic attempt to show loyalty to The Don is going to change their feelings about you?
So let’s talk about your unique approach to wiggling out of the subpoena. You are going to claim that most of the time you were the vice president and worked in the executive branch, but you also moonlighted as a senator, because every once in a blue moon you had to cast a vote to break a tie when the senate was deadlocked? As a senator you can claim the protected “debate or speech” clause in the constitution that states “the executive branch cannot summon officials in the legislative branch into a court in any other place.”
Not so fast Mikey. In fact, the former federal Judge Michael Luttig, a staunch conservative jurist, who personally advised youthat you did not have the unilateral power to overturn Joe Biden’s election (which by the way implies that you considered it!) stated: “If there are privileges and protections enjoyed by a Vice President when he or she serves as the President of the Senate during the Joint Session to count the electoral votes, those privileges and protections would yield to the demands of the criminal process.” And if you recall Mikey, Lindsey, Bootlicker, Graham, who actually is a senator, tried that defense to avoid testifying to a Georgia grand jury and lost; second, the information they are interested in is regarding your communication with The Don in the oval office or any place outside the Senate. So why just give it up now and do your patriotic duty?
And if that’s not enough, in New York, Manhattan’s district attorney, Alvin Bragg, is reported to be presenting evidence to a grand jury about Mr. Trump’s role in paying hush money to the pornographic film actress Stormy Daniels during his 2016 presidential campaign. Yes Don, she’s back and a storm is brewing.
And if that’s not enough, in an unprecedented interview, the foreman of the special grand jury in Georgia, revealed that they were recommending more than a dozen people for indictments. My bet is that one of those people is The Don. Now it is time for Fani Willis, the D.A. of Fulton County, Georgia, to officially weigh in and announce the indictments.
And one more thing. It appears the masters of fake news and disinformation, Fox News, is about to get its comeuppance. They have been sued by Dominion for defamation, a company that provided voting machines during the 2020 election, for 1.6 billion dollars. Despite exhaustive evidence that there was no voter fraud, Republican operatives and spreaders of the “Big Lie,” most notably Rudy G. and Sydney Powell, were continually featured on Fox News, claiming the voting machines were tainted. But now for the first time, we have documentation in a brief filed by Dominion that includes text messages that prove that they knew The Don lost and continued to promote misinformation about the voting machines.
The Dominion filing declares. “From the top down, Fox knew.”
On Nov. 12, in a text chain with Laura Ingraham and Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson pointed to a tweet in which a Fox reporter, Jacqui Heinrich, fact-checked a tweet from Mr. Trump referring to Fox broadcasts and said there was no evidence of voter fraud from Dominion.
Here is Tucker’s response: “Please get her fired,” Mr. Carlson said. He added: “It needs to stop immediately, like tonight. It’s measurably hurting the company. The stock price is down. Not a joke.” Ms. Heinrich deleted her tweet by the next morning.
Here’s Tucker again with a desperate clarion call to action:“Do the executives understand how much credibility and trust we’ve lost with our audience?” Carlson texted his producer. He added, “An alternative like Newsmax could be devastating to us.”
The network knew, of course, that Trump’s lawyer Sidney Powell, a chief promoter of Dominion conspiracy theories, was at best just making stuff up because of the attention she was getting and at worst, delusional. She actually claimed that her beliefs about Dominion were based on an email she received from someone who claimed to be capable of “time travel in a semiconscious state.”
On Nov. 18, 2020, Carlson told Ingraham: “Sidney Powell is lying by the way. Caught her. It’s insane.” Ingraham wrote back that Powell was a “complete nut.”
But Fox viewers were switching channels specifically to watch Sidney Powell as a guest” on Newsmax. And lo and behold, a few days after this discovery, Powell was a guest on Hannity’s show.
Looks like the foxes were finally caught in the hen house. And can someone explain to me what “time travel in a semi-conscious state” looks like?
Before we get to clowning, let’s talk about balloons. Sometimes when clowns come to parties they bring balloons. Sometimes they even twist and contort them into different shapes. We’ve all been at children’s birthday parties where a long skinny balloon is transformed into an adorable dog.
And then there are spy balloons. It seems bizarre that the Chinese would send out a big balloon for surveillance purposes given how noticeable it is, but I guess we will find out more about what its mission was when the recovered equipment in it is analyzed.
On cue, Republicans foamed at the mouth that the Biden administration didn’t immediately destroy the balloon. The Pentagon decided to take a cautious approach because the balloon was large enough that any potential debris could pose a “significant risk of civilian injury or death.” They eventually shot it down when it floated over water and out of harm’s way. Makes sense to me. Imagine the outcry of Republicans if the balloon was shot down over Montana and there were casualties. “Biden Attacks his Own Country. Impeach Him!”.
But true to form, the House Republicans are weighing the passage of a resolution this week condemning the Biden administration for its handling of the balloon.
Beyond foaming at the mouth, was MTG who tweeted that “President Trump would have never tolerated this. President Trump would have never tolerated many things happening to America.” Funny thing about that. During his tenure it was revealed that there were a number of Chinese spy balloons that visited us, but his administration didn’t know about it. Really? Is that possible? Well, perhaps The Don did know about them, but told his Secretary of Defense to stand down as secretly he was hoping to work out a deal with the Chinese to exchange a number of intel gathering balloon visits for the rights to build a Trump hotel near the Great Wall in China?
Rumor has it that Lauren Boebert got wind of this threat in the sky before MTG and texted her gun buddy:
Boebert: MTG, get your AK-15. We have a mission.
MTG: WTF, Bobie. What’s up?
Boebert: Damn, girl, haven’t you heard about the Chinese military balloon floating over Montana?
MTG: You shitting me girl?
Boebert: Where have you been? It’s all over the news.
MTG: I was having a closed door meeting with Kevin.
Boebert: Another one?
MTG: Me and Kev are thick as thieves.
Boebert: Watch yourself girl. Kevin’s a bit slimy. I heard he was almost as upset as Tucker about the M&M candy losing her heels.
MTG: But he’s cute.
Boebert: Yuck, gag me with a spoon.
MTG: But what’s with the balloon?
Boebert: Turn on the news.
MTG: Holy shit. And we are fucking doing nothing?
Boebert: Until now. Can you sweet talk Kevin into getting us a pilot and a plane?
MTG: I can get Kevin to do anything I want. Girl, are you thinking…
Boebert: Absolutely. You game?
MTG: Born ready.
Boebert: We’re going to blow that shit out of the sky into oblivion.
MTG: If you need a bomber jacket I’ve got an extra one.
Boebert: You’re the best MTG. You and I will be heroes and in our bomber jackets we will become American icons. They will put us on stamps!
MTG: Yes, let’s do this shit. Let’s get a stamp in our honor. I am with Kevin right now. I’ll get back to you in a few once I secure the plane.
Compressed by jpeg-recompress
MTG: Hey Bobie, can you believe Kevin said no!
Boebert: WTF? No more secret meetings for him.
MTG: You got that right. Maybe I’ll call a vote to have him ousted as speaker.
Boebert: I’m so pissed. No fucking stamp.
MTG: Don’t worry Bobie, the time will come and we will get our stamp.
Boebert: Roger that girl!
MTG: Over and out!
Now to the clowning. Boebert took to the floor of the House and did her opening clown show act, expressing concern on the House floor that Americans own (only) 46 percent of the world’s civilian firearms, saying “we need to get our numbers up.”
Continuing on the gun theme, Republican members of Congress, Rep. George Santos and Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (among others) were spotted wearing lapel pins resembling miniature AR-15 rifles.
In the halls of Congress? WTF? What’s up with that? Turns out that
Republican Rep. Andrew Clyde from Georgia owns a gun store and has now taken responsibility for handing them out.
When some Democrats were critical of this, Clyde was tickled. “I hear that this little pin I’ve been giving out on the House floor has been triggering some of my Democrat colleagues,” he said. “Well, I give it out to remind people of the Second Amendment of the Constitution and how important it is in preserving our liberties.”
The congressman owns Clyde Armory in Athens, which makes millions selling military-style rifles, body armor, ammunition, and other weapon accessories. Rumor has it that George Soros looking to make some quick cash volunteered to work with Clyde to create a website to sell them to raise money to rescue imaginary dogs. Clyde loved the idea, and while the website is under construction, Santos has set up a stand outside the Capitol building selling the pins to tourists.
And Clyde is not the only Republican lawmaker to be handing out unusual objects as Rep. Cory Mills handed out inert grenades to his colleagues as welcome gifts!.
And what clown show would be complete without MTG.
The House Committee on Oversight and Accountability (MTG’s prize new assignment) had its first hearing in the new congressional term to investigate what it called the “waste, fraud, and abuse” of billions of dollars of federal spending amid the COVID pandemic.
MTG went for the jugular suggesting that COVID relief was spent on critical race theory—an academic study looking at systemic racism in American laws and institutions that is largely not taught below college level anywhere in the U.S.
“It’s a racist curriculum used to teach children that somehow their white skin is not equal to black skin and other things in education,” Greene told Gene Dodaro, Comptroller General of the United States and head of the U.S. Government Accountability Office. MTG then pushed a bogus claim that one elementary school in Chicago received $5.1 billion in funding, which it used for “equity and diversity.” One school? Time to go back to school to learn some math!
It’s the culture war. That’s all the vapid Republican party is about. Divide people through grievances about how America lost its way. Rile up White Christian America, particularly rural America, and make them feel that they are being replaced by immigrants, and that Jews are pedophiles running sex trafficking rings. They want to cleanse us of this filth, and Make America Great Again.
The out of control socialist Democrats are leading us down a blasphemous, immoral path. They want gay and trans people to have the same rights as us. The Democrats want them to confront their past by teaching the true history of our country by doing crazy things like creating an Advanced Placement course for high schoolers focusing on African American history. Fifteen states now have active educational gag orders. From July 2021 to June 2022, PEN America’s Index of School Book Bans listed 2,532 instances of individual books being banned, affecting 1,648 book titles. The content in most of the banned books involves prominent characters of color, LGBTQ protagonists, or themes and subject matter related to race and racism.
We have a potential presidential candidate (over the Don’s dead body!) Ron DeSatanist, who projects himself as an anti-woke superhero, who even attacked Disney because of its embracing of “wokeness.” We have a potential Republican candidate, Mark Robinson, running for governor in North Carolina. In an article entitled “In the Gospel According Mark Robinson”, Robinson is said: ”The United States is a Christian nation, guns are part of God’s plan, abortion is murder, climate change is ‘Godless … junk science,’ and the righteous, especially men, should follow the example of the Jesus who cleansed the temple armed with a whip, and told his disciples to make sure they packed a sword.”
Fire and brimstone from the mount. The righteous world is disintegrating before our eyes. We have returned to the days of Sodom and Gomorrah. America is melting down. It must be saved!
Which brings me to that iconic saying of M&M’s: “It melts in your mouth, not in your hands.” But now it seems that with the world descending into the decadence of a Hieronymus Bosch painting, where the heat of hell lurks, that M&Ms are melting in one’s hands before they get to your mouth.
You must be wondering why I am talking about M&Ms? Before I explain, do you have a favorite color? Do you prefer peanuts or plain?
First it was Disney characters, now it appears M&M’s are in the middle of the culture war.
When green M&M traded her high-heel boots for sensible sneakers and then had the nerve to add a purple colored, larger bodied candy to its pack, it caused Tucker Carslon, our most famous fake newscaster, to melt down.
“M&M’s will not be satisfied until every last cartoon character is deeply unappealing and totally androgynous. Until the moment you wouldn’t want to have a drink with any one of them. That’s the goal. When you’re totally turned off, we’ve achieved equity…”
Tucker, Tucker, Tucker. Who knew you were so focused on the heels of an M&M. Makes me very concerned about you. Honestly, it scares me to think of what kind of fantasy life you have. But unlike you, I won’t venture into the world of make-believe and spout conspiracy theories about an M&M sex ring (M&MAnon?) you are running in the basement of the Fox News building. That wouldn’t be fair to you, right? Unlike you, I don’t spread disinformation but…
Sadly, the Mars company decided it didn’t want to be part of the culture war and to “take an indefinite pause from the spokescandies.” However, there are rumblings that Mars may not be as acquiescent as it appears. We may have to wait until Super Bowl Sunday to find out.
Despite what Mars decides to do, rumor has it that Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert, two kick-ass, gun toting, right wingers, aren’t satisfied with the spokescandies being put on sabbatical. They are pressuring Mars to create new spokescandies that represent real America. They are insisting on a Red, White and Blue one and one that is holding a rifle. MTG is rumored to have said, those spokescandies are history unless they comply with our requests. Are they referring to a mass shooting of M&M’s?
And these days, no story is complete without inquiring into George Santos’s position on a subject. Rumor has it that he is pushing for a candy that changes color depending on how you look at it.
Kevin McCarthy’s desperate dealmaking to secure the Speakership is taking shape. In essence he has created Congress’s version of January 6th insurrectionists. He has empowered a right-wing crew of political arsonists, whom he has no power over, and given them his blessing to do whatever they want. These people don’t need to break into the Capitol; they work there, and love playing with matches. They are like little kids who get charged up after lighting a bug on fire.
Giving these people power is dangerous. These right wing dissemblers of democracy, who include Representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Paul Gosar of Arizona, Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Scott Perry of Pennsylvania,, or associated with white supremacists. All were deeply involved in The Don’s efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results.
All of those mentioned above, except Gaetz, have been assigned to the Oversight Committee, which has the power to investigate anyone and anything it wants.
Other new members on the Oversight Committee who have attracted less attention include Representative Russell Fry of South Carolina, who has campaigned with election conspiracy theorists including Mike Lindell, the chief executive of MyPillow; and Representative Anna Paulina Luna of Florida, who has denied the results of the 2020 election and has appeared on a television program that has pushed the QAnon conspiracy theory. It’s a veritable all-star cast of political arsonists.
For a moment, let me move from the world of arson to the world of pillows. Have Lindell’s sales increased during his foray into right-wing politics? According to Lindell, he has lost a 100 million dollars during his foray into election denial but others say his profits increased. Who knows? But rumor has it that he is working on a promotional campaign that he believes will skyrocket sales. When you buy a pillow you a get special pillow case with a picture of the ? storming of the Capitol. And for an extra $5.00, you can get a special commemorative item of a noose and the crowd chanting “hang Mike Pence”. Lindell promises that his pillowcase will just add to the comfort of his pillows, guaranteeing the best sleep yet.
Given that it takes just one person to challenge the validity of McCarthy’s Speakership, it is clear that he has no oversight over the Oversight Committee. He is the equivalent of a scarecrow with no scare in him; the birds circle him, snicker, and once in a while poop on him. This is going to get ugly.
Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has buddied up with McCarthy, is the ringleader. If you remember, not too long ago, MTG was stripped of her committee positions for her incendiary remarks. Most notably, she endorsed the executions of Democratic politicians including Speaker Nancy Pelosi and President Barack Obama. She also challenged whether planes actually flew into buildings on 9/11 and suggested that some school shootings had been staged. Though she claims to no longer be a QAnon enthusiast, in 2017 she called QAnon “a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to take this global cabal of Satan-worshiping pedophiles out.” She also blamed space lasers controlled by a prominent Jewish family for the devastating fires in California.
In 2021, when Democrats moved to strip Greene of her committees, McCarthy said he “unequivocally” condemned Greene’s many controversial remarks about “school shootings, political violence, and anti-Semitic conspiracy theories.” He told Greene: “as a member of Congress we have a responsibility to hold ourselves to a higher standard.”
Greene, under duress, and desperate to preserve her committee appointments, relented and retracted some of her most outrageous statements, stating: “School shootings are absolutely real” and that “9/11 absolutely happened.” If you believe there is anything sincere about these apologies I have a unicorn to sell you. In fact, these retractions were made in the privacy of McCarthy’s office but in public, she wasn’t as contrite. She is still the same firebrand, as evidenced by her recent statement that if she and Steve Bannon had been in charge of the insurrection “they would have been armed and they would have won.”
As for Gosar, he too was censured by the House and removed from committees after he posted a photoshopped anime video to social media showing him appearing to kill Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and attacking President Joe Biden.
To reiterate McCarthy’s statement to MTG: “As a member of Congress we have a responsibility to hold ourselves to a higher standard.” Given McCarthy’s descent into shameless pandering, I think we need to amend this statement to “As a member of congress there are no longer any standards to hold ourselves, too. Or to summarize: standards, meh? And guess what? McCarthy has sworn unswerving devotion to MTG, taking the term friends-with-benefits to a new level.
Of course, no discussion of no standards could be complete without a mention of our Mr. Make Believe, George Santos. Not only is McCarthy refusing to take any action regarding Santos, but to show how low he can go, he appointed Santos to the small business and Science, Space, and Technology Committees.
Rumor has it that Santos has started working on his first bill. It is called the Go Fund Me bill. It’s believed to be a major fundraiser for him. The bill will help small businesses create Go Fund Me sites that will wind up in his back account. The good news is that he promises not do anything that results in the killing of animals.
In Frank Capra’s classic movie, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Mr. Smith, an aw, shucks, salt of the earth kind of guy, played by the venerable Jimmy Stewart, gets appointed to fill a Senate seat with the help of the senior senator from his state who assumes he will be a pawn and do his bidding. Over time, the earnest Stewart, realizes his supposed mentor, is not on the up and up and ‘for the people,” and takes a stand against him; ultimately, he exposes his nefarious aims. Truth and justice prevail. Mr. Smith is an American hero standing up for the “little guy.”
In Mr. Santos goes to Washington, a man named George Santos, pretends to be somebody he isn’t, pledges to do whatever the scheming, spineless and power obsessed Kevin Mccarthy asks him to do-which amounts to the defenestration of the government-and is defended by McCarthy, despite pressure to get Santos to step down. In this movie lies and possible criminality prevail. (There is mounting evidence that Santos was involved in shady financial shenanigans) Mr. Santos is an American anti-hero. Well, actually, maybe not. Maybe Santos is the product of a Republican Party that has embraced disinformation and lies, the biggest, that the 2020 Election was stolen; maybe Santos is what spawns from The Don, the greatest fabricator of them all and an American hero to many,
Rumor has it that Santos is monetizing his invented, false self by creating a comic book where people get to create any version of him they want. Pre-order sales are reported to be extraordinary. The comic book comes with a pamphlet titled: Be Anyone You Want to Be, Even if it is Someone Else, Political consultants are predicting Santos will go from pariah to perhaps vice presidential pick of The Don, should he win the nomination. If he doesn’t win the primary rumor has it, he will create a new party called: The Truth Party.
When McCarthy, a man of great conviction, was pressed to take action against Santos, he retorted that lots of politicians make up stuff so no big deal. Santos wasn’t going anywhere. And why? Because there would be a special election in the district and this time a Democrat could win, narrowing his already slim majority. The fact that McCarthy continues to defend Santos is just another example of him having no shame.
As days pass, more and more intel about Santos emerges and it seems like a number of high level Republican operatives were aware of the lies and invention. The research firm used to vet him found the following: multiple evictions; no I.R.S. registration for an animal charity he had claimed to have created; details about his involvement with Harbor City (Mr. Santos himself was not named in the Ponzi scheme allegations) and more recent suspicious business dealings; as well as apparent discrepancies in his financial disclosure forms that raised questions about the source of hundreds of thousands of dollars he had lent his campaign. Talk of getting foreign money for his campaign is also circulating. Russia? (Does that remind you of another guy accused of cavorting with Russia?) And the most recent allegation was lodged again by two New Jersey Veterans Two New Jersey who claim he promised to raise funds for lifesaving surgery for one of their dogs in 2016, then became elusive and took off with the $3,000. All you can do is just gasp at the immorality of the man. Perfect fit for the Republican party.
My favorite vote so far was the Republicans neutering the House Ethics Committee. If it wasn’t so scary it would be funny. McCarthy was particularly pleased with this one as now there are no more farmers to protect the hen house, just foxes. And what do you think George Santos thought of this one? Santos smiled and said: “It’s fantastic” And then actually said about the gutting of the committee: “I think it gives them more power.” Indeed, power to make sure he never gets investigated.
And one last thing. The Missouri State Republican controlled legislature decided to change the women’s dress code. Now women must wear jackets defined as both blazers and knit blazers because as one female lawmaker said “it is essential to always maintain a formal and professional atmosphere.” Next up: All women must wear their hair in a bun because long flowing hair is too much of a distraction for the men.
And in Arkansas, the newly elected Gov. Hucsksterbee Sanders’ made good on her promise to prevent the “indoctrination” of schoolchildren, with an executive order that targets the teaching of Critical Race Theory (CRT), and instructs the Secretary of the Department of Education to identify and remove any materials found to encourage the teaching of CRT.
The order characterizes CRT as “antithetical to the traditional American values of neutrality, equality and fairness,” as it “emphasizes skin color as a person’s primary characteristic, thereby resurrecting segregationist values, which America has fought so hard to reject.” Yes, Sarah you are so right! White Americans needed to be protected from being segregated. Hucksterism at its best:
After a very, very, very bad week and 15 votes, Kevin McCarthy finally got over the hump and got his dream job. The man finally got his grovel, oops, I mean gavel.
Kevin was in rare company when victory finally arrived. Only three other times in our history has it taken that many votes to win the speakership. In fact, you have to go back to before the civil war. McCarthy’s dubious achievement is akin to the person in 4th place for the number of all time career strikeouts in baseball-eventually, if you swing enough times, the ball eventually does hit the bat. Hey, but you got to give it to Kevin, as his capacity for humiliation has no bounds. But we already knew that. If you recall, just two weeks after his stirring speech about The Don’s responsibility for the January 6th insurrection, McCarthy was down in Mar-a-Lago groveling for The Don’s forgiveness. And McCarthy didn’t miss a beat when he praised The Don after he finally secured the grovel; oops, there I go again, I mean gavel.
On a positive note for McCarthy, at least he and the nation didn’t have to endure 133 votes before a speaker was chosen, which happened in 1853. If you think about the date, at least a failed vote makes sense: The debate over the speaker reflected the battle about the expansion of slavery into new territories. Our present one had to do with a bunch of stalwarts vying for their own reality TV shows and expanding their followers on social media, while claiming they were all about setting America on the right track.
The entire process was a clown show. At the end of the 14th vote, all eyes were focused on Matt Gaetz of Florida. Yes, that’s the same darling of the right, Matt Gaetz, who according to testimony from Trump aide Johnny McEntee, sought a pardon in connection with the Justice Department’s investigation into sex trafficking allegations. Gaetz was so anti-McCarthy that rumor has it that he told Congresswoman Lauren Boebert, another McCarthy dissenter and a nefarious right winger known for her hate tweets, that he’d rather go to jail for doing bad things to young girls than vote for Kevin.
Back to the vote. All eyes were on Gaetz, who passed the first time his name was called to vote. Gaetz had been on Fox News earlier, and it seemed that he was going to say yay to McCarthy, that he was going to let the groveler have his gavel because he had extracted what he wanted. The tension was mounting. Colleagues were sweet-talking him, trying to cajole him into ending the Republicans’ misery and humiliation. Please, please Matt. What do you need Matt? Just tell us. But Gaetz burned them again and didn’t vote for McCarthy; he decided he could extract more from the desperate Kevin. After his thumbs down, (remember that glorious moment when John McCain nixed the repeal of Obama Care with the famous flick of the thumb) Congressman Mike Rogers of Alabama had enough and started moving toward Gaetz looking like a mad bull readying to ring his neck. It was so exciting. The WWF live from the halls of congress. The next thing we witnessed was someone putting their hand over Roger’s mouth, pulling him back from Gaetz. Don’t you wish you could have heard what he said to Gaetz? Well, whatever the exact words, we could probably extrapolate and assume it was something like: You little fucking weasel. When I get through with you your own mother won’t recognize you.
When it seemed like they would adjourn for the weekend, McCarthy made one more attempt to entice Gaetz and after a phone call to him, McCarthy walked over to him and got the confirmation he needed. Suddenly, the hounddog face of defeat transformed into the bouncy, bouncy step of Tigger (see Winnie the Pooh) that indicated he had prevailed. McCarthy then immediately called for another vote. In the end, Gaetz didn’t vote for McCarthy, but voted “present” along with the other 4 holdouts allowing McCarthy to get the majority he needed. The question is what did McCarthy guarantee Gaetz to finally get him not to vote against him. What promises to his detractors do we know of at this point. Here are a few.
Create an investigative committee to probe the “weaponization” of the federal government. Translation: Investigate the F.B.I. Investigate Merrick Garland and the D.O.J. Delegitimize the January 6th commission as a conspiracy against White Supremacists and most important, exonerate The Don.
Efforts to raise the nation’s debt ceiling must be paired with spending cuts. Translation: Hold the country hostage on raising the debt ceiling, threatening the stability of our economy, until money is extracted from government programs like Medicaid, Social Security, Food Stamps and other programs that help the less fortunate.
Place more members aligned with them on key committees, including the Rules Committee, which plays a big role in deciding what bills go to the floor. Translation: Give more power to the more radical element of the party so they have the power to stop any bill they want from coming to the floor of the House. In other words, dead before arrival.
Any member can call for a motion to vacate the speaker’s chair. Translation: Mr. Speaker, if you so much as fart we will bring a motion to remove your ass.
There are other concessions we know McCarthy made as well but much more interesting (and concerning) are the ones we don’t know about. Here are a few possibilities.
Marjorie Taylor Greene will insist that the leader of QAnon replace the current religious leaders who provide services to the congress.
Lauren Boebert will be allowed to develop a line of Nancy Pelosi Voodoo dolls that she will feature on her new website: Better with Boebert. FYI: Pins for the dolls are extra.
Jim Jordan, who will likely be the next chair of the Judicial committee will not only investigate Hunter Biden, but will go after the Biden dog because it tried to lick him once.
And Matt Gaetz. What does Matt Gaetz get? Wouldn’t it be delightful if McCarthy had to promise him the chair of the Armed Service Committee which was expected to go to the guy who tried to choke him, Mike Rogers. Maybe Rogers knew something when he went after him the first time?
And what about governance? Who needs governance when your goal is to tear down the government. And one more thing: Do you think George Santos will make a friend?
For any of you who think that the Grand Offal Party, after its recent midterm disappointment, has been humbled in any way or had a come-to-Jesus moment that “crazy” is out of favor, it’s time for a reality check.
The January 6th coup attempt failed, but the thirst for another chance has never vanished. Many on the right are pissed about the failure to seize control of the government, and create a White Supremacist Christian government with The Don in the White House.
According to Marjorie Taylor Greene, who was a featured speaker at the recent New York Young Republicans gala, if she and Steve Bannon had organized the Jan. 6 attack on Congress, “we would have won. Not to mention, it would’ve been armed.”
Who else graced the gala with their presence?
Well, there was Gavin Mario Wax, the leader of Young Republicans, who declared “total war on enemies of Republicans.”
Peter Brimelow, the founder of the anti-immigration website VDare, who publishes writings by white nationalists. In 2018, he said: “My heart is with civic nationalism, but my head is with racial nationalism.” At a white nationalist conference in 2017, he said “Hispanics specialize in rape.”
Also in attendance was Jack Prosobiac, a far-right commentator known for promoting the Pizzagate conspiracy that Hillary Clinton and Democratic elites were running a child sex-trafficking ring out of a Washington pizzeria.
Guests of honor included three Republicans who took districts from Democrats in last month’s midterm elections: George Santos of Long Island; Cory Mills of Florida; and Mike Collins of the northern exurbs of Atlanta.
Don Jr. was there to pump up the audience. And they even invited the disgraced Rudy G, who may be about to be disbarred from ever practicing law. But hey, it was for the cause, so we are proud of you Rudy.
And a special shout out to a foreign entourage of the Freedom Party of Austria, a far-right party founded by an SS officer in the aftermath of World War II as a political home for Austrian Nazis after the Nazi Party was banned.
So where was The Don? So much love to bask in. Where was the gala’s very own Fuhrer. Rumor has it that the entourage from Austria was very disappointed that he didn’t make an appearance. Well, it turns out that he was feverishly at work on a secret project.
Like Santa, he was working in his hideaway (you know the place where keeps the secret documents he’s yet to return?) on a secret holiday project that was going to reveal something so bigly that it would be life changing. The rumor mill was full throttle. Was he announcing that he was officially applying to change the home of the president to Mar-A-Lago based on a yet disclosed Twitter survey by Elon Musk that proved a majority of Americans supported this? Was he revealing that he had backers to create his monument at Mt. Rushmore? He was bringing back the Apprentice with a new twist, calling it the Apresidentice, where contestants present ingenious ways to overturn the rule of law? Or maybe he was going to define his presidential run more demonstrably by naming Marjorie Taylor Greene as his running mate?
Instead, he announced the creation of his new line of NFT trading cards.
“America needs a superhero,” he pronounced. And there he is, our very own, twice-impeached, insurrectionist, White Supremacist, superhero Photoshopped as Superman. He is also a bad-ass sheriff, and a bunch of other hero-type characters.
And guess what? In just 12 hours, the 45,000 limited edition of his NFT cards sold out making him a cool 5 million dollars. Hey, let’s give the guy credit, he is one hell of a grifter. So why stop there Don. As W.C. Field said: “A sucker is born every minute.” Your true super power is getting people you actually disdain (poor, uneducated, white people) to believe you give a shit about them while you are actually shitting on them. If you are looking for some new ideas for your next batch I have a few.
Also, I have a marketing idea for you. Announce their release on January 6th 2023 with: “We lost that battle, but we will win the war.”
Breaking News: The January 6th committee just referred The Don to the D.O.J for the following criminal charges: Obstruction of an official proceeding of the United States government, conspiring to defraud the U.S., making false statements to the federal government and inciting or engaging in an insurrection.
I have another idea for a card.
Warning: If any of you believe this will finally be the straw that breaks the fever of the Republican base’s fealty to The Don and desire to undo democracy, don’t get too giddy. The Don will weaponize this as injustice and use his capacity for grievance politics to rally the troops. He may be injured but he’s got a lot of fight left in him. Now it is up to the justice department to indict and prosecute him. And even if they do, will a jury of 12 convict him, when only one juror needs to find him not guilty?
Let me start with a big sigh of relief and congratulate Raphael Warnock on his senate victory. Warnock is the first Black person from Georgia to be elected to a full 6 year term. Hallelujah!
The outrage about The Don’s Thanksgiving guests is warranted but why the shock? This man has been trafficking in racist and anti-semitic rhetoric since he could speak. After all, his father, Fred, mentor of the dark arts of the deal, was arrested while attending a K.K.K. meeting.
The Trumps were redlining blacks from their buildings in the 1970’s and even after they were sued by the federal government for their racial discrimination, they continued this racist policy and were sued a second time. And this was by the Nixon administration who was not shy of using their own racist tropes.
Then there is The Don’s infamous statement. “Black guys counting my money! I hate it. The only kind of people I want counting my money are short guys that wear yarmulkes every day. Those are the kind of people I want counting my money. No one else.”
And let’s not forget about the sexual predation, misogyny, anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim rhetoric. Remember he began his campaign for president claiming that Mexicans were rapists.
This is The Don. The fact that Kanye West and Nick Fuentes were guests for dinner should not surprise us. (Recently he has been using QAnon’s theme music at his rallies!) The fact that it took seven days for Mitch McConnell or Kevin McCarthy to make a statement about it is disturbing and disheartening but shouldn’t surprise us as either. Even when McConnell did finally speak, he didn’t mention the Don’s name. McCarthy, the blithering sycophant that he is, supported The Don’s denial of knowing Fuentes.
Don’t you just love McConnell’s: “First, let me just say that there is no room in the Republican Party for anti-Semitism or white supremacy.” Sure Mitch, but didn’t you and your party continue to do nothing after The Don made his heinous “good people on both sides” remarks during the Charlottesville protest, with White Supremacists carrying tiki torches, chanting “Jews will not replace us, Jews will not replace us”?
Let’s face it: Republicans have had so many opportunities to take a stand against this man and have failed miserably. All this hand-wringing about how The Don is rotten for the party is an exercise in hypocrisy and disingenuousness. As I have said before, if the midterms had turned out better for the Republicans, there would be no hand wringing; there would be lip-licking, savoring the ascendency of their power. Their limpid attempts at hand washing of The Don are pathetic and laughable. They have no shame.
But back to Thanksgiving dinner at Mar-a-Lago with The Don, Kanye and Nick. Let’s imagine the conversation. (The italics are actual statements)
The Don: Nice to see you, Kanye. And Nick, oops, what am I saying. Kanye, who is your friend?
Kanye: This is Nick Fuentes. He’s my new BFF. He’s very cool. Great vibe. We are working on a song together called: “So you’re a Jew, how about some Defcon, too!” (Cracks up laughing)
The Don: Hope you mention Pepe the frog in the song. Did you hear Elon posted Pepe on Twitter?
Kanye: Didn’t know that. Did you Nick?
Fuentes: Yeah, I saw it. Elon’s got the power and the right thinking to change things. That’s why we need you Mr. President back in power. You understand what needs to be done to save this country. Jews have too much power in our society. Christians should have all the power, everyone else very little.
Kanye: Amen, Nick. Mr. President, did you have a chance to see the cool video Nick did?
The Don: Which one Kanye? You have been sending a bunch.
Kanye: The one where he compared Nazi death camps to Cookie Monster baking cookies, suggesting it was not possible to have killed six million Jews during World War. So cool that he could riff on Sesame Street? Pretty sick, right? I mean who would think of that?
The Don: I never let my kids watch that idiotic show. If I came into the TV room and it was on I would blow a gasket.
Kanye: Blow a gasket?
The Don: Yeah, you know how they say I tried to choke the secret service agent in the car when he wouldn’t take me to the Capitol? Like that, that kind of gasket.
Kanye: So you really did that? I told you Nick. I knew he did that? Totally cool. Fighting for your people, Mr. President.
Fuentes: A true revolutionary. If you were leading the people on January 6th it would have been a different outcome.
The Don: Got that right. (Turns to Kanye) I really like this guy. He gets me.
Kanye: Thought you guys would hit it off.
Fuentes: Yeah, Mr. President, we jive…loved your Muslim ban. The First Amendment was not written for Muslims. Also Mr. President, while we are on the subject of equal rights, Jim Crow segregation was better for them, it’s better for us, it’s better in general. Of course, I make exceptions to this like my man Kanye. Herschel, too.
Kanye: Got that right my man. Hey Mr. President, did you hear us on InfoWars.?
The Don: Didn’t catch that. Love Alex. Love, love, love him. Shame he lost those lawsuits.
Kenye: A lot of coin he has to pay. But he’s still out there telling the truth.
Fuentes: Sure is. Ye, loved it when you gave the Fuhrer his due. What did you say again?
Kanye: I was like: I like Hitler. Hitler has a lot of redeeming qualities. We got to stop dissing Nazis all the time.
Fuentes: And the holocaust, that shit can’t be true.
Kanye: I’m down with that, Nick. And you had some cool things to say about Putin, Nick.
Fuentes: Oh yeah. I am definitely very pro-Putin and pro-Russia.
(Clicking of glasses)
Kanye: I am also. Mr. President, where are you at with Putin? You guys go way back, right?
The Don: We are thick as thieves. Remember the shit I took when I was in Helsinki and said I believed Putin when he said Russia didn’t interfere with the election even when our intelligence agencies were saying he did?
Fuentes: That took guts, Mr. President. You are an inspiration.
The Don: And I can’t wait for this idiotic war with Ukraine to be over as Putin told me I am finally going to get to build my Trump Tower. Not in Moscow but in Ukraine. Very cool, right? I am going to be a big part of Russia’s expansion.
Fuentes: Mr. President, that is very cool indeed.
The Don: Ye, I am so glad you brought Nick to dinner. My kind of person. Hey Nick, what would you think of being a strategist for the campaign?
Fuentes: I’d be honored Mr. President. By the way, Mr. President, Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. Honors a time when White Christians took what what was theirs.
The Don: Amen…and look, here comes the turkey.
Kanye: Let’s say grace. Let’s pray for your triumphant return to the White House so we can Make America Great Again.
Before I begin, I want to applaud the senate for supporting the ‘Respect for Marriage Act’, that protects the rights of citizens to marry whom they choose, and that their marriage recognized as legal under federal law.
Of course there were still 37 republican senators who opposed the bill, despite the fact that 71% of the country supports the right of every American to choose who they love. Not only does the bill protect gay marriage, but inter-racial marriage as well. Once again, the great defenders of freedom decided that marrying who you want doesn’t count as one of the most fundamental freedoms. In a head-scratching move, Mitch McConnell voted against it. Rumor has it that when someone raised the fact that he was married to an Asian woman, he said: “I don’t think of her that way.”
Let’s start with a few questions.
Now that the midterm elections have mostly been decided with the Republicans having a slim majority in the House, what can we expect?.
What will happen in the run-off senate race in Georgia? And will werewolves and vampires have an outsize influence?
Will the Republicans, who want The Don gone, really stand up to him or will they all fall in line when all is said and done?
For the past two years, Kevin McCarthy had a recurring dream in which a gavel kept floating into the frame and every time he tried to grab it a woman’s hand would whisk it away. Yes, that woman was Nancy Pelosi. And you would think that now that the Republicans have secured the majority in the House, he would stop waking up in a cold sweat from the torture of it all. But the dream continues; except in this version he has the gavel in his grasp but another woman holds a gun to his head and says: “If you want to keep hold of this thing, you do as I say or else this will be the last time you will ever touch.” Yes, that woman’s name is the White Supremacist extremist Marjorie Taylor Greene. Poor Kevin, all that time praying for the power of the gavel, only to bow down to another woman! Between your sycophancy to The Don and cowering to MTG, perhaps instead of calling you Speaker of the House, we should call you “The Great Supplicant of the House,” as your fear of The Don and MTG make you nothing but a water boy dressed in a suit.
So what will the Republicans do with the majority? From what I can tell, they will immediately disband the January 6th commission and go on a revenge tour to pay back Democrats for investigating The Don by investigating anyone with the name Biden. (Some say they have their sights on the Biden’s dog as well!)
They also have their eyes on Anthony Fauci. I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the conspiracy theorists among them believe Fauci was responsible for unleashing the virus to derail The Don’s presidency.
Rumor has it that they are so primed to investigate that they have their eyes on a bathroom attendant. They claim he directs Democrats to bathroom stalls that have more cushy toilet paper. “We are tired of having to wipe our ass with the coarse paper, and we will get to the bottom of this, if it is the only thing I accomplish in Congress,” raged an anonymous lawmaker. Hold on, as it is definitely going to be a shit-show.
Now to the senate race in Georgia. I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait for it to be over. Just yesterday I received 10 emails asking for money from the Warnock campaign. At one point, I received four desperate requests in an hour. That being said, despite the fact that the Democrats have control of the senate, this is a crucial seat for them. It gives them a bit more flexibility and opportunity to have the votes necessary to pass important legislation if Joe Manchin or Kristin Sinema don’t support important legislation. Republicans are terrified that the “Big Orange Loser,” will stay away from Georgia. I say come to Georgia Don, Herschel needs you!
If we had any reason to doubt that Herschel Walker’s candidacy and possible victory is a horror show, doubt no longer. Walker, who often has no idea what he believes or is talking about, found a reason to educate us on the powers of vampires and werewolves.
Choosing to rehash the plot of a film he said he recently watched, whose title he remembered as “Fright Night, Freak Night, or some type of night”, he said in rambling remarks: “I don’t know if you know, but vampires are some cool people, are they not? But let me tell you something that I found out: a werewolf can kill a vampire. Did you know that? I never knew that”. He continued: “I don’t want to be a vampire any more. I want to be a werewolf”.
No Herschel, I never knew that, but I’m thinking that if you win the election I hope you honor your newfound werewolf status and show up in the middle of the night when there is no activity in the senate.
Washington, D.C. (January 6, 2021) The Senior Official Performing the Duties of the Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security Ken Cuccinelli tours the U.S. Capitol to survey damage from violent protests earlier in the day.
Now to The Don. I must give credit where credit is due and tip my hat to the N.Y. Post. The Rupert Murdoch run paper, which was one of The Don’s greatest supporters, has been leading the way in taking him down. First we had the Humpty Dumpty Cover, and even more delicious was its page 26 article titled “Florida Man Makes Announcement,” after The Don declared he was running for president in 2024. That one must have really stung. Page 26! That’s where you see titles like “Florida Man Wrestles with Alligator and Loses Hand.” Rumor has it that the Post is considering following up with an article, once again on page 26, titled: “Florida Man Who Made Announcement Loses His Shit About Page 26.”
Despite the fact that The Don is seen as a loser now and has lost some of his support in the party, he still has a dedicated base. Remember how all those Republicans, who excoriated The Don when he was a candidate, suddenly changed their minds when he won the primary? Remember McConnell and McCarthy’s speeches condemning his actions after the January 6th insurrection? That was it, we are through with him speeches? And how long was it before McCarthy was begging him for forgiveness at Mar-a-Lago? A week? As I have said before, The Don’s eulogy has been written many times, but like a vampire he stalks the night waiting for his opportunity to suck some blood. And the horror of it all is that he may very well win the primary, and it is very likely the naysayers will retreat from their dissent and will decide that having a Vampire in the White House isn’t so bad. My headline would read: “Soulless Sycophants Suck Up To Satan.” Now that is one hell of a horror movie, isn’t it Herschel? And sorry Herschel, but Satan beats a werewolf.
Turns out democracy mattered on election day and Americans can pause and take a breath. Election deniers lost and even conceded (Kari Lake, who lost the race for governor of Arizona, is still holding out). Thankfully, there was no violence. Given the cross winds facing them: high inflation, Biden’s low approval rating, the Republican fear tactics on crime and immigration, the stage was set for a scary and unsavory result.
In the final analysis, it seems that crazy has its limits. But let’s temper our excitement and be clear-eyed and sober: the crazy still is very much present and is capable of creating chaos and much dysfunction. After all, White Supremacy hasn’t suddenly been erased. The Republicans, who pretend to be the protectors of freedom, are still wedded to controlling women’s bodies, racist and anti-LGBTQ policy, banning books and authoritative impulses. They are still a party dominated by the likes of Ted Cruz, Ron Johnson, Josh Hawley and Lindsey Graham, Marjorie Taylor Green, and a host of other dangerous and morally repugnant folks, who will do anything to attain power. Election denial took a drubbing, but there is no denying that the Republicans are still a toxic brand.
We are back to the chorus of the “battle of the soul” of the Republican Party. Sorry guys, when you make a deal with the devil for so long, it eradicates your soul. The fact that their new apostle is Ron DeSatanist is proof in point. He calls himself. Mr. Anti-woke In other words, he is a standard bearer for all the denial of rights mentioned above.
Whining about losing and blaming The Don for these losses is pathetic and comical. They allowed The Don to ascend, promulgated his election denial and Big Lie delusion, and had a chance to rid themselves of him through the impeachment process, but the Senate didn’t convict him, even though he organized a violent insurrection and attack on our Capitol. Anyone doubt that if they had been more successful at the polls that he would be anointed as the second coming? They protected him, defended his liesm and believed he could lead them into the promised land; they shot for the moon, and lost.
The G.O.A.T is now the goat. The greatest winner is now the biggest loser. And now, the party is turning on him.
Former Representative Peter King, a Republican, who has long supported Mr. Trump said, “I strongly believe he should no longer be the face of the Republican Party; he can’t become a personality cult.” Please Peter, The Don has been the leader of a personality cult, called the Republican, for 6 years. You suddenly noticed this? Give me a break!
Even Fox News’ Laura Ingraham, one of his staunchest supporters, seemed to sour on him. “If the voters conclude that you’re putting your own ego or your own grudges ahead of what’s good for the country…they’re going to look elsewhere, period”. Laura, suddenly you noticed that his “ego” and his “grudges” are flaws. Give me a break!
The New York Post ridiculed him on the cover as “Trumpty Dumpty,” with a gratuitous shot about how he not only had a great fall, but couldn’t build a wall. Rupert, the kingmaker: have you lost your taste for the man you helped put and keep on the throne? Give me a break?
But the demise of The Don has been predicted many times and despite Fox News, The Wall Street Journal and the N.Y. Post designating him a loser, urging him to fade into the sunset, this is never going to happen. The only one who gets to call anyone a loser is The Don. Call him a loser at your own risk. The wounded lion is the most dangerous.
He is already attacking Mitch McConnell. He’s attacked the N.Y. Post. He is blaming Sean Hannity and darling Melania for his selection of Dr. Oz. What is important to remember is The Don is still the malignant narcissist he has always been. Nothing is ever his fault; if you attack him he comes back at you with a vengeance. We watched this time and time again; it is his modus operandi. He is energized by the fight. He is energized by the media attention. He will be energized by the millions who still love him. Sorry Republicans, you don’t get to determine the rules of this game. You fed the monster and now the monster is coming for you!
The battle has already begun. He has already come up with a nickname for Ron DeSatanist (It always starts with a nickname: Low Energy Jed, Little Marco, Lying Ted.) And now ladies and gentlemen let me introduce you to Ron DeSanctimonious.
I must say that calling him DeSanctimonious made me chuckle as it followed a video DeSatanist released where he ordained himself anointed by God.
The Don had the opening blow in the battle of the ordained and said this: “If he did run, I will tell you things about him that won’t be very flattering. “I know more about him than anyone other than perhaps his wife, who is really running his campaign.”
I’m surprised The Don was so humble and conceded that he knew more than Ron’s wife. What kind of juicy stuff does he know and what lies will he tell? After all, he started a rumor that Ted Cruz’s father was involved in the Kennedy assassination. Perhaps DeSatanist’s father was Vladimir Lenin’s right hand man?
The Don feels particularly venomous toward DeSatanist. After all, his support helped him become governor of Florida. In other words, The Don made him what he is today. In mob speak, he was a “made” man, who has the unmitigated nerve to usurp the boss. That usually doesn’t turn out too well for the usurper.
As long as people are attending his rallies and he is getting air time, The Don will continue on. He will take no prisoners and tear the entire party apart if need be. He has no allegiance to anyone but himself. If he wins the nomination he will lose the election and he would have bludgeoned the party on the way. My most delicious fantasy however, is that he loses the nomination, runs as an independent, burning down the Republican party. Republicans cowardice, immorality and craven desire for power has brought this upon them. They created a monster and the monster is about to destroy their creators. Frankly, I can’t wait to watch. It couldn’t happen to a more unsavory bunch of people.
With less than a week to go until the midterm elections, Americans face a stark choice. The choice is encapsulated in a NY Times/Siena College poll that revealed that 71 percent polled said that democracy was “at risk.”
No, this isn’t a poll from a dystopian novel, in which America, in Ronald Reagan’s words transforms from “a shining city on a hill,” into a sinkhole of darkness.
This is America, circa 2022. And in the present, we are literally witnessing the country sliding into the sinkhole. Terrifying, right?
Not so fast. Wrap your head around this. The sinkhole is waiting with open arms, but only 7 percent of those 71 percent believe it is the most important problem facing the country.
But let’s look at another analysis from the poll which speaks volumes: Seventy-one percent of Republicans said they would be comfortable voting for a candidate who thought that the 2020 election was stolen, as did 37 percent of independent voters (12 percent of Democrats did as well). It is worth repeating: 71 percent of Republicans are comfortable voting for an election-denying candidate!
Let’s take a moment to see what the Republicans are running on that are greater concern than democracy.
Crime, Crime, Crime. Look at all the crime in those blue cities. According to research done by Jim Kessler of the Third Way, the murder rate is 40 percent higher in red states won by the Don? Did you know that Kevin McCarthy’s home district of Bakersfield, California has the highest murder rate in the country?
The Economy and inflation. The Republican solution to inflation is to threaten to shut down the government and hold the American people hostage until concessions are made to gut Medicare and Social Security. And then of course, there is always the tried-and-failed trickle down economics, which provides more tax-cuts to the rich with the belief that if they have more money they will invest in America. So in other words: screw the elderly and those that have less.
And then we have the price of gas! So in other words, what’s more important: filling’er up or tearing’er it down (democracy) (By the way, prices have come down significantly, and things are much worse in other countries.)
But let’s look at another analysis from the poll which speaks volumes: seventy-one percent of Republicans said they would be comfortable voting for a candidate who thought that the 2020 election was stolen, as did 37 percent of independent voters. (12 percent of Democrats did as well.) It is worth repeating: 71 percent of Republicans are comfortable voting for an election denying candidate!
In other words, democracy? Meh?
What is so mind-boggling about all this is that Republicans, despite their steadfast belief that the 2020 election was stolen and that many of their candidates have stated they will not concede if they lose, are accusing the Democrats of stealing democracy. Here’s J.D. Vance, the once vociferous anti-Trumper-turned-sycophant and carnival barker.
“Radical Democrats are planning their most aggressive move yet: a PERMANENT ELECTION INSURRECTION. Their plan to grant amnesty to 11 MILLION illegal immigrants will overthrow our current electorate and create a permanent liberal majority in Washington.” Democrats “have decided that they can’t win re-election in 2022 unless they bring in a large number of new voters to replace the voters that are already here.”
Blake Masters, the Republican Senate nominee in Arizona, warns that Democrats want to increase immigration “to change the demographics of our country.”
Republican fear-mongering at its best. Promulgation of Replacement Theory. Masters of flipping the script, calling black, white, hoping to convince voters that they are the true defenders of democracy as they advance a white nationalist Christian agenda and a movement toward autocracy.
In their democracy, elections are only fair if they win, separation of church and state- a cornerstone of our democracy- becomes a thing of the past, civil rights, women’s rights, and gay rights are eroded. What can be taught in schools and what books students can read will be monitored. In other words, the principles of American democracy, which include equal justice and opportunity for all, is threatened.
What Republicans offer is the opposite of freedom and democracy. What they offer is oppression and autocracy.
Once again, it is worth repeating: 71 percent of Republicans and 37 percent of Independents are not troubled by this.
How did we get here? The disinformation machines of Fox News, Breitbart and social media have nurtured the narrative of conspiracy theories about the Democrats for years, culminating in the absurd but dangerous QAnon cult, which promulgates the theory that Democrats are part of a secret cabal stealing children and running a sex traffic operation. The perpetrator who broke into Nancy Pelosi’s home and attacked her husband with a hammer, was deep into conspiracy theories. He eerily repeated “Where is Nancy, where is Nancy?” This was the same refrain chanted during the January 6th insurrection. Some Republicans like, Kari Lake, running for Governor of Arizona, actually made a sick joke about the incident; not surprisingly, Donald Trump Jr. did as well. Given the normalization and encouragement of violence, who knows what will happen during and after this election? All I can say, is that we are going to see things we have never imagined possible.
It took someone like The Don, a wannabe autocrat, with the bully pulpit of the presidency, to ratchet up the volume and break the rules and guard rails of our democracy to the point that those who are threatened by a changing and increasingly brown America, decided that it is okay to abandon democracy if it means they can remain in power.
The stakes couldn’t be higher. So this week when you are filling your tank and angry about the price of gas and decide this is what will make you vote Republican, think for a moment: is freedom to drive cheaply worth losing the freedoms that come from living in a democracy?
In the poll by YouGov and the Economist, 65% of all respondents said political violence had increased since the start of 2021. Among all US citizens, 43% said civil war was at least somewhat likely.
I think an actual civil war is unlikely, but an increase in organized violence across the country is something we may witness on election day. This is serious cause for alarm.
A surge of conspiracy believers are signing up for positions as poll watchers and are being trained by others who have propagated the lie spread by The Don and his cronies that the 2020 presidential election was riddled with fraud.
For instance, In Nevada, the Republican Party’s nominee for secretary of state, Jim Marchant, a vociferous election denier of Biden’s 2020 victory was a featured speaker at a party poll watcher training.
With so many election deniers running for office and intimidation promised by Republican poll watchers, it is inevitable that elections will be contested, fraud will be claimed and violence will be an end result. We have to hope that the F.B.I. Homeland Security and the National Guard are tracking it all to intervene. Yes, let me repeat that: the F.B.I. Homeland Security and the National Guard need to be ready to intervene.
But here we are. One month away from what I am afraid will be an election chaos the likes of which we have never seen before, all kickstarted by The Don.
It is hard to believe, but there are 299 Republican Party candidates running in federal and state elections that are avowed election deniers, some who have already said they will not necessarily accept the results of the election.
The Republicans craven desire for power has led to a chilling lack of civility.
Here’s what Dana Loesch, the right-wing radio host, had to say about the recent revelations about Herschel Walker, the anti-abortion candidate who paid for his ex-girlfriend’s abortion: “I don’t care if Herschel Walker paid to abort endangered baby eagles. I want control of the Senate.”
Confession: When I first read this statement, I had a fantasy, that a bunch of mommy and daddy eagles came soaring down from the sky, plucked Ms. Loesch from her radio station, and left her in an eagle nest where she had to watch baby eagles soar into the world.
What the Republicans want is absolute power, no matter what the cost. To what end? To control women’s bodies. To control what students learn about American history. To whitewash the slaughter of the indigenous people of this country. To protect white children from confronting the stain of slavery. To promote a White Christian Nationalism. To prevent the flourishing of an increasingly non-white population.
This movement to oppress and disenfranchise the “other” is a cornerstone of this country.
After the civil war, during the reconstruction period (1865-77), blacks, despite 200 years of slavery and dehumanization, managed to flourish. They ran successful businesses, ran for political office, elected a black senator and more than a dozen congressmen. But the south rejected the outcome of the war and could not tolerate that their former slaves were becoming equals. Whites felt like their way of life was stolen from them and they wanted to reclaim their supremacy. The federal government, whose presence in the south during reconstruction made it possible for blacks to thrive, bailed out; Whites took matters into their own hands, creating the Jim Crow laws, disenfranchising blacks and unleashing a wave of violence (According to the Equal Justice Institute resulted in 6,500 known lynchings.)
Any civility toward blacks by whites eroded. No longer slaves, blacks were still dehumanized and treated as 2nd class citizens. White Supremacy was allowed to ascend and flourish. For a moment, imagine a world where blacks continued to flourish and were integrated as equals. America would be a very different place. But America was not then, nor now capable of this.
It took until the passage of the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts in 1964-65 to finally dismantle the Jim Crow laws. However, from the moment those laws were passed, the Republican wheels were set in motion to do anything they could to disenfranchise Blacks. Though Jim Crow laws were dismantled, the underbelly of White Supremacy has remained and manifested in many ways. What we are seeing today is a bubbling up and fomenting of this country’s White Supremacist underbelly. The Don is like the hot pepper that activated the ulcer.
The proliferation of conspiracy theories, hate groups, all which are reinforced by a social media world out of control has led to a depressing incivility in our country, where some believe the only way to save the country is to reinforce its White Supremacist roots. In other words let’s scare all the White people into believing that a vote for Democrats is a vote to losing the country you love.
Here are a couple of Republicans recent hits:
Republican Senator from Alabama, Tommy Tuberville: “They are not soft on crime,” he said of Democrats. “They’re pro-crime. They want crime. They want crime because they want to take over what you got. They want to control what you have. They want reparations because they think the people that do the crime are owed that.”
Marjorie Taylor Greene: “Joe Biden’s 5 million illegal aliens are on the verge of replacing you, replacing your jobs and replacing your kids in school and, coming from all over the world, they’re also replacing your culture. And that’s not great for America.”
And no piece about incivility is complete without The Don. who recently went on a rampage on social media about Mitch McConnell and felt it necessary to make an anti-Asian slur when referring to Mitch McConnelll’s wife, Elaine Chao.
Where doe this ramped up incivility and White Supremacy rhetoric lead us? All I can say is that if you feel a lot of anxiety, and are scared, you have every right to be so.
The Don has now decided that the letter Q is his favorite letter. After all, he did share an image of himself sporting a “Q” pin, for QAnon, and has been reposting more QAnon messaging on his social media site, “Lie Social.”
Rumor has it that he might create a few Sesame Street episodes on his social media platform. The pilot episode will feature the letter Q. Rumor has it that it was a tough decision to choose Q as his favorite letter as he had to relegate L (for Lying and Lawlessness) to runner up.
Here’s how the show begins:
Today, boys and girls, we are going to learn about the letter Q.
The Don is for QAnon.
Fingers pointed to the sky makes him high.
What’s all the fuss, what’s to get
it’s really such a fun letter in the alphabet.
Now to the piece.
Kevin McCarthy and the Republicans unveiled their “Commitment to Autocracy,” oops, America” platform. Here is the commitment we will get if they take over the House. Short on details, this is what it espouses:
We want “a nation that’s safe,” “a future that’s built on freedom”, and “a government that’s accountable.
So let’s deconstruct this. What does “a nation that is safe” mean?
Making sure anyone who wants a gun can have one? Screaming foul and threatening to defund the F.B.I. because The Don refused to return classified documents (that are illegal for him to have!) that could jeopardize our national security?
Did it make you feel safer when Lindsey Graham threatened that there would be “riots in the streets,” if The Don were indicted? How about Ginni Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, brazenly reiterating before the January 6th committee that the results of the 2020 election were fraudulent? How about fostering White Supremacy and Christian Nationalism fomenting racism and anti-semitism.
Doesn’t it make you feel like you want to take to your favorite chair, put your feet up, and take a little nap?
What about a “future built on freedom”? Does that include making voting more difficult? Intimidating poll workers? Does it include all those candidates of yours who are running as election deniers, who if put in power, could use their office to change the results of elections? Freedom to carry an automatic rifle? Freedom to tell schools what books children can read, what teachers can teach? Freedom to storm the Capitol in order to overturn the results of an election and refer to it as a happening that got a bit out of control? Does that include supporting a former president who has no regard for democracy, and if re-elected would get to fulfill his fantasy of becoming the autocrat he has always wanted to be? Does it include Ginni Thomas, insisting that the results of 2020 were fraudulent? Is that the kind of freedom you are offering the American people? (Sorry for the repetition, but I just can’t stop thinking about Ginni!)
Doesn’t it make you feel like you want to take to your favorite chair, put your feet up, and take a little nap?
Now to a “government that is accountable.” Sorry, but I can’t get Ginni off my mind. The only government she wants to be accountable to is the government that reflects her extreme views, where democracy dies. In fact, now that I think of it she reminds me of the venal and frightening character Angela Lansbury played in the Manchurian Candidate, where she tries to mastermind overthrowing the government.
A government that is accountable for making the rich richer. A government accountable for threatening social security. A government that will make sure big pharma doesn’t have to negotiate with the government to bring down the cost of prescription drugs for seniors. A government that will be accountable for denying climate change and undoing environmental regulations. A government that will foster denying the results of elections if they are not in its favor. A government that will be accountable for creating a national ban on abortion.
Doesn’t it make you feel like you want to take to your favorite chair, put your feet up, and take a little nap?
Before ending, let’s turn to Joe Kent, who is running for a congressional seat in western Washington who reflects the agenda of many Republicans.
“Our agenda for the first two years is simple: “Impeachment, obstruction, and oversight. The Biden agenda dies off in the crib.” We talking infanticide here, Joe?
Kent also promised to impeach Vice President Kamala Harris, Attorney General Merrick Garland, and the secretary of homeland security, Alejandro Mayorkas. Why stop there? Why not impeach Hillary Clinton? That’s a good idea you say? Oh, right, she doesn’t hold office. Shucks, that would have been so much fun, wouldn’t it?
Kent also promised to hold Anthony Fauci “accountable” for the “scam that is Covid.” When asked what holding Fauci accountable meant, he replied: “criminal charges.” When queried further about what charges, he replied “Murder.”
Hey Joe, can we charge The Don and DeSatanist, too? After all, the first suggested we use ultraviolet light and ivermectin, a drug used to treat parasites in horses, not to mention his general ineptitude that led to tens of thousands of unnecessary deaths. The latter devalued vaccines leading to multitudes of deaths. What ya think Joe?
Before I begin the piece I would like to begin with a game show called “Who Said This?”
“Since we don’t control the air, our good air decided to float over to China’s bad air, so when China gets our good air, their bad air got to move. So it moves over to our good air space. Then, now, we got to clean that back up.”
If you said ‘a 2nd grader trying to explain the challenges to reduce pollution in our country’, you are off the show. If you said’ a candidate for U.S. Senate named Herschel Walker’: ding, ding, ding, you win a giant vacuum cleaner to help Mr. Walker move all that air back to China again.
Please Georgians, send Raphael Warnock back to the Senate again, because there is already too much “bad air” and polluted bodies moving around in the U.S. Senate and the fate of our planet is in the balance.
Now to the piece.
Do you remember when The Don made fun of a physically challenged reporter during a campaign rally in 2016 and some audience members cheered? In retrospect, for many, that event seems a throw-away event in the din of what has unfolded since, but to me it was what one calls a “drop dead moment.”
If you are a feeling human and that moment didn’t horrify you to your core, please take a moment to watch the video of the event and let it sink in.
If we witnessed a child acting that way, we would be appalled, but could forgive them because they are a child. We would take them aside and help them understand the meaning of their actions, have them apologize and work with them to understand the difficulties people face because of their distinct challenges. We would help them understand the pain cruelty can cause.
Children respond that way because they feel uncomfortable and do not have the capacity to tolerate the discomfort, so they respond by projecting their discomfort outward at the expense of the other.
Our job as the significant adults in their life, is to open their minds and hearts to embrace difference. Our hope is that the experience will be a meaningful moment in the development of tolerance and empathy that will continue to develop into adulthood.
Unfortunately, this process, the capacity for tolerance and empathy, which by the way, is what all the major religions preach and teach, is sadly lacking in too many adults. That the majority of Evangelical Christians support The Don, despite his inability to have compassion for others and his outright delight in his cruelty, is something that should keep them awake at night, but clearly this is not the case.
As humans, we all have the capacity for cruelty. If we are honest with ourselves, all of us have experienced a moment where this kind of impulse arises, but most refrain from expressing them. But sadly, some take pleasure in perpetrating cruelty on others.
As bad as the “Access Hollywood” tape was in what it revealed about The Don’s misogyny and disdain of women, for me, the mocking and belittling of the reporter exposed a deeper level of meanness and cruelty.
As far as I am concerned, that was the “bridge too far” moment that should have ended his candidacy. After all, someone who can do that on a public stage no less, and find pleasure in it, is someone with no empathy and as a result, capable of extreme acts of cruelty and dehumanization of others.
What does it say about us that we elected The Don president? What does it say about us that after watching four years of continued devaluing and denigration of others, and the fomenting of violence, that he received 74 million votes and almost won again? (Well, according to almost 70% of Republicans, he did win!) What does it say about the lawmakers of the Republican party who would vote for him again if he were their candidate for president in 2024? It is a statement that cruelty and dehumanization of others is a principle component of the party platform.
When those in power use their power to dehumanize others, we create the petri dish for fascism. It is us against them. We must get rid of them or they will take what is ours. That’s how Hitler came to power.
In the most recent iteration of “Cruelty is Us,” Ron DeSatanist and Greg Abbott decided to deceive Venezuelan immigrants seeking asylum by promising them to take them to a “sanctuary,” where there were people to help them get on their feet. The place was called Massachusetts.
Imagine the harrowing and desperate journey of these asylum seekers across multiple countries, encountering danger at every turn, arriving in our country with hope and being used in a dehumanizing publicity stunt.
Here’s what Domingo Garcia, a leader of a civil rights organization working with Hispanic Americans had to say about a group of asylum seekers brought by bus to Kamala Harris’s residence:
“They were just literally dumped like human garbage in front of the vice president’s house. That’s un-Christian, un-Texan, un-American, and something that should not be allowed.”
In the Republican Party, or as they say “the party of Trump”, cruelty is not a bug, but a feature in their attempt to gain power. When people in power, like The Don and DeSatanist believe it is okay to flaunt their depraved and cruel selves on a specific group of people, we are all dehumanized and those who don’t understand this, and take pleasure or support it become dangerous, as taking pleasure in this process is the nadir of being human.
So what can we do about this descent into darkness? We must summon our humanity and rise up to make sure these people are defeated and lose their power. If we fail to do this, our country will pay a steep price.
As far as DeSatanist goes, how about we tell him he is being taken on a trip to the White House and make a detour to the nearest jail for being convicted, according to one legal analyst, by a statute called “Kidnapping by inveiglement.”
(Today’s piece will not have any photos as my mad genius designer is on vacation.)
In a highly criticized decision, a Florida judge has granted the Don’s wish to have a special master appointed to review the documents seized by the F.B.I.
Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee who sits on the Federal District Court for the Southern District of Florida, also blocked federal prosecutors from further examining the seized materials for the investigation until the special master had completed a review. And in a statement that many legal experts consider unprecedented, Cannon suggested that a former president may have some wiggle room when it comes to executive privilege. Rumor has it that the information for the possibility of wiggle room came while eating Jello. A true eureka moment to rival Kekule’s discovery of the Benzene ring while dreaming of a snake.
According to Peter M. Shane, who is a legal scholar in residence at N.Y.U. the decision “seems oblivious to the nature of executive privilege.” Here is Shane again: “Even if there is some hypothetical situation in which a former president could shield his or her communications from the current executive branch, they would not be able to do so in the context of a criminal investigation — and certainly not after the material has been seized pursuant to a lawful search warrant.”
Cannon did allow for a separate review of the documents, by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, to continue. The D. N. I. can continue to assess the risk to national security that the insecure holding of sensitive documents at Mar-Lago may have caused. I guess some part of her partisan brain realized that the discovery of documents pertaining to the nuclear capability of another country represented a threat to national security. But she is missing the bigger picture, which would be expected given her predilection for Jello) and the most obvious one: THE PERSON WHO REPRESENTS THE GREATEST RISK TO THE NATIONAL SECURITY OF THE UNITED STATES IS THE FORMER PRESIDENT, DONALD J. TRUMP!
God, it felt so good to capitalize the last sentence-it was so, well, Trumpish!
All I can say is here we go again. A court has never held that a former president can invoke executive privilege to keep records from his time in office away from the executive branch itself. But then this is The Don, who was protected by William Barr in the Mueller investigation for what seemed obvious obstruction of justice, if not colluding with Russia during the 2020 election, who was impeached twice but not convicted by his sycophantic Republican senators-the 2nd time for being at the center of an insurrection!
Even William, Lower the Barr, The Don’s greater protector, criticized the decision. “The opinion, I think, was wrong, And I think the government should appeal it. It’s deeply flawed in a number of ways.”
Here’s what I have to say about Barr’s resurrection career tour: We might not have been dealing with any of this (and all the prior transgressions) if you hadn’t co-opted the Mueller report and dishonestly represented the facts to protect The Don. So Mr. Barr, I have two words for you and they ain’t Merry Christmas. (Hint one of them starts with an F!)
For concerns about national security issues let’s turn to Michael Cohen, who knows a thing or two about the workings of The Don.
“This is all about him. And I stand firm when I say that Donald wants to use this to hold the country hostage. . . . He knows his ass is in the grinder right now. . . . He’s going to use this to ensure that he doesn’t spend the rest of his natural life behind bars charged with treason.”
It has been recently revealed that boxes of documents even came with The Don on foreign travel, following him to hotel rooms around the world — including countries considered foreign adversaries of the United States.
Here’s Cohen again: “Let me be very clear, considering I know this ‘Mandarin Mussolini’ extremely well. Donald doesn’t take boxes of material around the world for no reason at all. He took it for nefarious reasons. . . . For all we know, he’s already given it away.”
Chilling indeed. And as I have written in a previous piece, anyone who thinks he isn’t capable of it is fooling themselves. The deal with The Don has been to be incredulous with each new-can you top this- transgressions with the refrain: “Can you believe he did that?” If you understand the man’s psychology, as Michael Cohen does, the answer should always be: “Of course he did and there is nothing he won’t do to get an advantage or protect himself.
Even after the visit by the F.B.I. the Justice Department lawyers are concerned that the judge’s order was impeding efforts to determine whether there may yet be “additional classified records that are not being properly stored” and noted that the search had recovered empty folders marked as classified whose contents “may have been lost or compromised.”
Empty folders? Is it still possible that even after the F.B.I. searched his home, there are still documents he hasn’t turned over; or maybe they are the ones he has already sold?
And that brings me to the man with the “tiny hands” and the big desk. You remember the “tiny hands” drama, when The Don was a candidate for president? Remember when Marco Rubio humiliated himself by implying that The Don’s “tiny hands” implied he had a small penis, and by extension, how can you vote for a man like that.
Well, those “tiny hands” have done some serious damage, including taking top secret documents that don’t belong to him, creating national and perhaps international security risks. And somehow, his hands managed to put a few classified documents in his desk drawer.
Brazen? Stupid? Oblivious? So grandiose that there is no connection to reality that anyone would ever discover them or if they did no biggie?
Imagine an F.B.I. agent turning to his colleague during the search and asking: “You think we should search his desk?” “Really, you can’t be serious,” his buddy responded. Who would leave a top secret document in the desk drawer?
When asked about the appearance of those documents in his desk it is rumored that The Don said: ‘You guys are taking this stuff too seriously. There’s nothing to this stuff. But do you want to see all the snow globes I’ve accumulated from my world travels? How about the love letter from Kim Jung-un.”
As the information about The Don and his documents becomes more known… Wait, did I just say his documents? After all, they were in his house, weren’t they? You can’t just come into someone’s home and take things. Right? That’s outrageous! Right? That’s stealing, bold face robbery. Right?
It didn’t matter that he and his lawyers were told the F.B.I. was coming to remove the documents that belonged to the National Archives; it didn’t matter that he knew he shouldn’t have the documents. None of that matters to The Don because he makes the rules.
Imagine him as a young child playing a game with another child. How long before that child screamed: “Hey that’s not fair, that’s not how you play the game. You are not following the rules. Now give me my game back.” “ No way, the game is in my house now, so it’s mine.” The Don would be the “greatest” in the one-and-done playdate contest.
As more facts emerge (that there were 700 hundred pages of documents ) and his delusion of executive privilege is punctured, it is getting harder and harder for him to find competent lawyers to represent him. After all, his pit bull and Mr. Competence, Rudy G, is too busy trying to stay out of jail himself.
At this point, it is hard to find lawyers who want to be associated with him. It kind of reminds me of the children’s book I read to my kids called “Are You My Mother?” It is a story about a baby bird searching for its mother. It asks a kitten, a hen, a dog, and a cow if they are his mother, but none of them are. It even asks a car, a boat, and a plane if they are his mother.
For clarity sake, let’s review the basic facts and what any lawyer would be up against in defending The Don:
The documents he had are government property.
Executive privilege goes away when you are no longer president.
Holding onto these documents by an ex-president is against the law
Stating that you have returned them all when you haven’t is obstructing justice, considering many were top secret.
So what could the defense be? Well, the train has left the station on the “they were placed there” defense as The Don has actually pushed his lawyers to get the documents back! I guess they could say: “Hey look, you guys (The F.B.I.) put them here and they were kind of cool and now I want them back. In other words, you can’t bring a toy to my house and then take it back. It’s unfair!
This week his legal wizards were informed by a Florida judge that they had bungled routine paperwork to take part in a suit filed following the F.B.I. ‘s search of Mar-a-Lago. The judge addressed this error by saying “a sample motion can be found on the Court’s website.” Rumor has it that her original response was: ARE YOU SHITTING ME WITH THIS IDIOCY! ARE THE TWO OF YOU ACTUALLY LAWYERS OR JUST PRETENDING TO BE?
The Florida judge also questioned whether she even had the jurisdiction to hear the case and asked the lawyers what the motion was asking her to do? Rumor has it that the filed motion had something to do with the judge playing golf at Mar-a-Lago.
Then in a feat of total tomfoolery the conservative journalist, John Solomon, posted a letter The Don’s legal team had received back in May from the National Archives (link to the letter ) on its website believing it would help The Don’s cause, which, included that The Don had retained more than 700 pages of documents with classified markings, including some at the most restricted level. Oops!
Then on Friday, after the clamoring of Republicans the affidavit justifying the search was released; and once again, rather than revealing information that could be helpful to The Don, it just made the D.O.J’s case that much clearer. The affidavit showed that the archives asked Mr. Trump in May 2021! That means the Justice Department had been in conversation for 15 months trying to get all the documents before the search warrant was executed.
The affidavit included a letter from May 2022 that showed that Mr. Trump’s lawyers knew that he might be in possession of classified materials (after he returned some and stated he no longer was in possession of any more), and the government wanted them returned.
The affidavit stated there was “probable cause to believe that evidence of obstruction will be found” at Mr. Trump’s house.
The only thing left for the coterie of dunces to do is to divulge the communications between The Don and Putin about the documents.
I was starting to write about the historic bill addressing climate change and the Republicans, at the state level, doing whatever they can to deter action on our warming planet, when the F.B.I. showed up at Mar-a-Lago. And it wasn’t for some leisurely swimming in its luxurious pool!
And unlike your typical F.B.I. visit, where the G-men are donning their official government blue windbreakers and all work and no play, this bunch of Feds were more casual. Rumor has it that one of the agents had brought his bathing suit. He was hoping to usher in a new, kinder F.B.I. action called “Seize and a dip.”
The Don had already been subpoenaed for boxes of documents he unlawfully absconded with and, according to his lawyer, had returned them all. Well, I guess not all of them. Just so you know, that’s a crime!
For the justice department to take the drastic step of sending in the F.B.I. to The Don’s home (particularly given the politically volatile climate we live in), suggests that they knew for certain that there was some serious shit still in his possession. There is no way, knowing how his followers and the Grand Offal Party would respond, that they would take that chance and come up empty.
The Republicans clamored for the warrant to be released and Attorney General Garland called their bluff; he announced he would release the warrant by 3:00 this past Friday unless The Don appealed it. The Don was trapped like a rat and had no choice to allow it to be public. To say there were concerning materials that The Don had in his possession is an understatement.
The Don now has the grand distinction of being the only president investigated for colluding with a foreign government to impact an election, being impeached twice, denying the results an election, spreading lies that it was stolen, fomenting and orchestrating an insurrection, thinking it wasn’t a bad idea for his vice president to be hung and have his residence invaded by the F.B.I for withholding documents that could impact our national security. Perhaps we should change his title from Mr. President to Mr. Precedent?
And yet, with all the above, he still remains the most powerful person in the Republican party, as evidenced by a string of recent primary wins by candidates he backed who support the “Big Lie.”
On cue, Republicans went ballistic. Kevin McCarthy had this to say:
“The Department of Justice has reached an intolerable state of weaponized politicization. When Republicans take back the House, we will conduct immediate oversight of this department, follow the facts, and leave no stone unturned.”
In a moment of total irony Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., who went ballistic when calls to defund the police occurred after the murder of George Floyd took it a step and tweeted: “DEFUND THE FBI!” Now the F.B.I was the enemy.
Not surprisingly, F.B.I. Director Christopher Wray and Attorney General Merrick Garland have experienced a surge of death threats. Threats on the F.B.I are mounting and have already resulted in one incident in Ohio where a die-hard supporter of The Don was shot and killed while attempting to break into an F.B.I. facility. The victim just happened to be a frequent visitor to The Don’s social media platform “Truth Social.” Notice how The Don spoke out about the violence. Ask Mike Pence, he can relate!
The Don’s supporters champed at the bit about “civil war.”
“All it takes is one call. And millions will arm up and take back this country. It will be over in less than 2 weeks.”
Another said, “Lets get this started! This unelected, illegitimate regime crossed the line with their GESTAPO raid! It is long past time the lib socialist filth were cleansed from American society!”
Just as he was mesmerized by the violence of January 6th and did nothing about for 187 minutes, the idea that his people would start a civil war for him and go after the F.B.I., pumps him up and emboldens him.
Before the warrant was released The Don used the old “they planted it on me” defense. Yep, the F.B.I. brought in secret documents that they had no access to and framed him. When that ridiculous ploy fell flat, he decided to say that he had in essence waved a magic wand and poof, everything he took was automatically declassified because, if he says it is so, it must be so. Umm, not really Don; then he went back to an oldie but goodie: “President Barack Hussein Obama kept 33 million pages of documents, much of them classified. How many of them pertained to nuclear? Word is, lots!” Turns out that what there is a lot of is bullshit, as Obama did no such thing. Just the fact that he claimed it was 33 million documents alone shows how absurd that statement is. Maybe that number is how many more people he thinks voted for him than Obama?
What’s so scary, yet sadly predictable at this frightening time in America, is that Republican politicians know that something really is rotten in Mar-a-Lago. The Don likely had top secret documents that compromised U.S.national security, but because of their fear of him, chose to support the egregious narrative that it is our own law enforcement that threatens our national security.
So why did The Don keep these documents, even after they were subpoenaed? His narcissism allows him to believe that everything is an extension of himself and the documents are no exception. The fact that there are strict rules against this doesn’t faze him because he plays by his own rules.
So what did he do or plan to do with them?
Maybe, rather than having “documentary movie night” at Mar-a-Lago, he instituted “document” night. On these special occasions the very wealthy could pay millions of dollars to see top secret information. And at the end of the evening, the individual who put in the most extra money (secret ballot), got to take home a framed copy. Can you imagine what that would fetch at Sotheby’s one day?
He also could be negotiating with adversaries and allies for large sums of money. Back channel communications with Russia, anybody? Are he and his love buddy Kim Jung-un in contact? President Xi? The name of that show is “If the Price is Right!
Before I get into the new piece I want to share a new project I have just published a book entitled: “Where are Your (K)nots? Getting Unstuck in Your Life.” This book represents a crystallizationof my work as a psychologist over the last 35 years.
The book explores how the emotional knots we develop and carry with us through our lives prevent us from living our lives fully.
My intent was to write a concise and easy to understand book that would be accessible to almost anyone. My hope is to stimulate curiosity and encourage people to create an emotional map in order to understand their unique way of being in the world. It examines the unconscious choices we make to cope with emotional pain and the (k)nots that develop as a result.
The book is intentionally short; its goal is to concisely articulate essential elements of developmental and psychodynamic theory so it is accessible to the layperson. It is a primer for anyone beginning therapy or for anyone interested in what the title of the introduction asks: Where the hell am I and how the hell did I get here?
At $5.99 for the e-book and $12.99 for the paperback, I hope it will be hard to resist your curiosity. Also, 50% OF ALL PROCEEDS will go to two organizations: The Trevor Project, which supports the mental health needs of LGBTQ+ individuals and the Steve Fund, which supports People of Color. Both are amazing organizations that support communities in need.
If you’re so inclined, please spread the word through your social media, list serves, etc. as there are a lot of knots that need to be unraveled. You can even give it as a present to someone you wish would do a little reflective soul searching.
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*See testimonials about the book at the end of the piece
Now to the piece.
The January 6th commission presented its final hearing until September. The topic: “What the hell was The Don doing during the 187 minutes of the attack on the Capitol?”
If we determine him to be guilty of the dereliction of duty to protect and defend the country (which he was), we fail to understand an essential fact: The Don wasn’t asleep at the wheel; he was the man who intentionally stopped his car in the middle of the road, didn’t call for road service, and enjoyed the chaos of the traffic jam he caused!
What I am saying is that there were two components of his actions: inaction (doing nothing), and actively motivating the crowd.
The degree of psychological disturbance (malignant Narcissism, Sociopathy) and the subsequent consequences of this disturbance, though abhorrent and terrifying, is not surprising to me. An aggrieved malignant narcissist is like a wounded animal, and will stop at nothing to punish those it perceives have hurt him, taken something from him.
Watching Capitol police attacked and beaten had no impact on this law-and-order man. In fact, lacking any capacity for empathy, he relished the violence perpetrated for his cause; he viewed the Capitol police as a menace, inhuman barriers standing in the way of him getting what he wanted. After all, what more can The Don ask for than a mob of worshippers willing to overturn an election, restoring him to his proper place as king? To do nothing was doing something.
As for actively doing something, we need go no further than the tweet regarding Mike Pence while the angry mob was tearing through the Capitol. That tweet was like a match thrown in a parched forest and ignited the crowd into a chant of “Hang Mike Pence.” New evidence during the hearing revealed messages from the secret service, who were protecting Pence, fearing for their own lives. Can you imagine this out-of-control, virulent mob seeing that text? If any of them had any ambivalence about what they were doing, the gloves came off. Pence was now fair game- the ultimate betrayer, and needed to pay for his cowardice.
Since that last hearing, we have learned that Merrick Garland’s Justice Department is finally on the offensive, interviewing important insiders and specifically looking into The Don. Whether he will ever be indicted for the numerous crimes he committed leading up to, and during, January 6th is far from certain.
So my mind turns to Georgia.
From where I sit, the case is a slam-dunk. Interfering in an election is a federal crime. And the evidence of this is as straight-foward and clear as can be: the infamous hour-long conversation with Georgia’s Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in which The Don asks him for 10, 780 votes (which happened to be one more than Biden’s victory in the state.) When Raffensperger didn’t say “Yes, sir, whatever you need,” The Don threatened him:
“You know what they did and you’re not reporting it.” You know, that’s a criminal — that’s a criminal offense. And you know, you can’t let that happen. That’s a big risk to you and to Ryan, your lawyer. That’s a big risk.” (Raffensperger has already testified before the grand jury.) Rumor has it that under-oath Raffensperger admitted that the day after the phone call he found a horse’s head in his bed.
The Don also called the elections investigator, Frances Watson, after Mark Meadows met with her. (Mark Meadows, also traveled to Georgia in December 2020 amid an audit of absentee ballots.) The Don told Watson that Georgians knew he had actually won by “hundreds of thousands of votes.”
The Don called Gov. Brian Kemp as well, urging him to convene the legislature in a special session where they could appoint pro-Trump electors. (Mr. Kemp has also testified in a recorded video statement.)
Is there a grand jury that can interpret any of this but what it is? A strong-man trying to strong-arm an elected official insinuating that he would be committing a crime if he didn’t do what he said to change the results of the election in Georgia.
And there is a motley crew of characters who participated in different ways to try to influence the results in Georgia.
It includes a United States senator. A Chief of Staff. A congressman. A local Cadillac dealer. A high school economics teacher. The chairman of the state Republican Party. The Republican candidate for lieutenant governor. Six lawyers aiding Mr. Trump, including a former New York City mayor. The former president himself. And a woman who has identified herself as a publicist for the rapper Kanye West.
Let’s start with major sycophant Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina (who has been subpoenaed by District Attorney of Fulton County, Fani Willis and is fighting the subpoena.) Graham called Raffensperger to inquire about ways to help The Don by invalidating certain mail-in votes. I imagine the conversation went something like this:
“Hey Brad, I hear some of the mailboxes down your way, you know, they sort of, well, they may have had some stuff in them that might not be in Trump’s favor. How about a look-see about that. Trump is ready to open the doors to Mar-a-lago for you and the family. So you know, things can be done. I mean there is a lot of chicanery on the other side. Just trying to make sure truth and justice prevail. You got that Brad?”
Then there is Georgia Representative Jody Hice (also fighting a subpoena by the grand jury), a stalwart Trump ally who was part of White House meetings in December 2020 that focused on changing the results of the election and who also led efforts in the House in January 2021 to stop the certification of votes. Rumor has it that Hice made up a rap song in support of the Big Lie which he sings in the chamber of the House of Representatives that starts like this:
“My name is Jodi Hice
And this whole thing was a heist.
Don’t care what they say
The stutterer won by foul play
We won’t let them take our democracy,
It’s a sin and total hypocrisy!”
As for the lawyers, Ms. Willis is also seeking to compel testimony from John Eastman, an architect of the legal strategy to keep Mr. Trump in power, as well as other lawyers — Kenneth Chesebro, Jacki Pick Deason, Jenna Ellis and Cleta Mitchell — who played critical roles in the effort. Mr. Eastman had advised lawmakers that they had both the lawful authority and a duty to replace the Democratic Party’s slate of presidential electors, who had been certified as the duly appointed electors for the State of Georgia after the November 2020 election, due to unfounded claims of widespread voter fraud within the state.
And let us not forget America’s lost soul, once America’s mayor, Rudy G. Rudy was present at 2 legislative hearings in Georgia in December 2020 where he spouted lies and a conspiracy theory that there were secret suitcases of Democratic ballots and corrupted voting machines. He told members of the State House, “You cannot possibly certify Georgia in good faith.” For good measure he also falsely claimed that tens of thousands of underage teenagers had voted illegally in Georgia, even though an audit by Georgia’s secretary of state found that no one under the age of 18 had voted in the 2020 election. And let’s not forget racist Rudy G. who zeroed in on mostly Black election workers at an Atlanta arena, likening them to drug dealers. “Look at them scurrying around with the ballots,” he said. “Nobody in the room. Hiding around. They look like they’re passing out dope, not just ballots. It is quite clear they’re stealing votes.”
We end with our most unusual character. Trevian Kutti, a Chicago-based publicist who says she worked for Kanye West, the rapper and Donaphile. Ms. Kutti, who had previously been a celebrity stylist and Illinois cannabis lobbyist, traveled to the Atlanta area a few weeks after the vote and visited Ruby Freeman, an obscure election worker whose January 6th testimony laid bare the pain and disruption of her life after being accused of counting bogus ballots.
Ms. Kutti, presented herself to Ms. Freeman as a “crisis manager” connected to powerful people, who was there to help her. She told Ms. Freeman she was “in danger,” and had “48 hours” before “unknown subjects” arrived at her home, “I cannot say what specifically will take place,” Kutti was heard telling Freeman in a recording captured by the police called to the scene. “I just know that it will disrupt your freedom and the freedom of one or more of your family members. She also said: “You are a loose end for a party that needs to tidy up.”
In essence: admit to committing election fraud…or else!
What more needs to be said except Godspeed to you Ms. Willis. Let’s finally get these bastards. Let’s get them on the solicitation of election fraud, the making of false statements to state and local governmental bodies, conspiracy, racketeering, violation of oath of office, and any involvement in violence or threats related to the election’s administration.
That’s why Georgia is on my mind!
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Dr. Finkelstein’s book “Where Are Your (K)nots?, provides a clear, concise and wise description of why humans operate the way we do and how to take an inventory of your life to ensure it is as fulfilling as possible. As a psychotherapist and founder of a mental health organization, I am excited to have something accessible and approachable to support my clients in their journey toward self-actualization, and I look forward to selling the book in my storefront! Lia Avellino, L.C.S.W.
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The January 6th commission continues to be revelatory. So let’s get into it; let’s talk about the infamous clandestine meeting on the night of December 18th.
If there was an invitation it might read: Urgent! Desperate circumstances require desperate measures: New strategies for overturning the 2020 election.
This meeting occurred after each state counted their electoral votes on December 14th and confirmed that Joe Biden was the winner. Attorney General Barr, Mitch McConnell and a host of other prominent Republicans made statements that Joe Biden was the victor. Every attempt that The Don and his cronies made to prove fraud, and that the election was stolen, had been refuted and it was time to move on, time for The Don to concede.
Fat chance. The Don doesn’t lose. There had to be a way to stop this from happening.
Can you imagine how outraged The Don was when he heard Barr and McConnell closed ranks and put the nail in the coffin of his delusion? Rumor has it that he had to be convinced not to call Rudy G., who knew a guy, who knew another guy, who would gladly do some damage to the betrayers.
Not to be deterred, The Don summoned his trusted inner circle: General Mike Flynn, Attorney Sidney Powell and the former C.E.O of Overstock.com, Patrick Byrne. Byrne’s presence must have really infuriated, Mike, Snubbed, Lindell, the Pillow Guy. Rumor has it that Lindell was found intoxicated at a local Washington bar ranting and raving. “How could the president do this to me after the way I have supported him? What was he thinking when he had Byrne at the meeting? That he could get him an endless supply of plates that he could smash in the dining room? The only reason the president sleeps even a few hours at night is because of the support of MyPillow!
And what about Rudy G., who was hanging out all by himself in the cabinet room? Why wasn’t he included? When asked about it, Rudy claimed he “liked” hanging out in the cabinet room by himself. That’s how pathetic and delusional Rudy has become. Perhaps the most important meeting in the Don’s attempt to overturn the election and Rudy is not included? Did he think he was being held on the sidelines for a special moment where he would swoop in and save the day? And why was he escorted out of the White House by Mark Meadows? Maybe Rudy was even too crazy for Powell and Flynn? Rumor was that Rudy wasn’t simply escorted.
Rumor has it that when he heard the Overstock guy was there, he called Mike Lindell who invited him to join him at the bar. Lindell continued to rail against the Overstock guy and Rudy fumed that The Don had chosen Sidney Powell over him. Rudy mentioned to Lindell that he knew a guy, who knew a guy…
So how did these three get into the White House without being noticed? Quite a coup! After all, security is supposed to prevent things like that. Must have been an inside job, right? Indeed it was. Garrett Ziegler, an aide to Peter Navarro, said he escorted Flynn, Powell, and Byrne into the Oval Office. Rumor has it that the tree of them, were incognito and wore police uniforms so as not to look suspicious. If you believe Navarro’s denial- that he didn’t instruct Ziegler to allow the trio in- then I have a unicorn to sell you.
According to Pat Cippollone, the white House attorney, who testified to the commission, it was quite a scene. Supposedly, Cippollone was in the white House at the time and was told about the meeting and tore ass down the hallway and barged in. His first response was WTF? And who the fuck was this guy? Oh, he’s the former CEO of Overstock.com. Can’t you imagine Cippolone losing his shit and screaming?
Cipollone: WTF is he doing here and WTF is going on?
Flynn: WTF does it look like we are doing, asshole? We are brainstorming to figure out a way to keep our president in office. He won the election. It’s an outrage.
Powell: Total outrage
Cipollone: Where’s the evidence? Where is the fucking evidence?
Flynn: It’s coming, don’t you worry. We have some new secret info that aliens changed some of the ballots in Biden’s favor. We will have video footage shortly.
Powell: Pat, you call yourself a patriot? You are a traitor. You should be brought up on treason.
The Don: We are going to ask the Secretary of Defense to seize voting machines and put Sidney in as a special council to examine and expose the fraud.
Flynn: I know a lot of people in the military who will jump at the chance to keep our president in power.
Cipollone: If you do this Mr. President, the country will turn against you. It is a grave mistake. And making Powell the special council? Are you out of your mind?
Powell: You’re just jealous, Pat. I am going to be the hero in all this. I will steamroll your ass!
Flynn: Ha! Ha! Give it to him Sydney. He’s just a little twerp.
The Don: As much as I want to do this, I think Pat is right. I think it could backfire. But don’t worry, I have another plan.
Flynn: What, Mr. President?
The Don: You’ll see.
Infuriated that his plan to have the military seize voting machines was thwarted The Don took to the internet. At 1:48 AM he tweeted:
“Big protest in D.C. on January 6th,” “Be there, will be wild!”
That tweet set his radical supporters on fire stimulating a wildfire of tweets:
“Is the 6th D-Day? Is that why Trump wants everyone there?”
“Trump just told us to all come armed.”
“It will be wild means we need volunteers for the firing squad.”
“It’s already apparent that literally millions of Americans are on the verge of activating their Second Amendment duty to defeat tyranny and save the republic.”
“A red wedding going down,” a reference to the “Game of Thrones” show in which many of the attendees are murdered at a wedding.
“Why don’t we just kill them, every last Democrat, down to the last man, woman and child.’”
“It’s time for the day of the rope. White revolution is the only solution,'” Raskin said.”
Tweets like these were flying all night long. Guess Mr. Pillow’s magic didn’t work that night as The Don was up all night reveling in the revolution he had ignited. And damn it was wild!
I tend to think of judges as protecting us from murderers, not as murderers. But the six Republican appointed judges of the Supreme court who overruled Roe V Wade have flipped the script. Though they will not literally wield the murder weapon, their cruel and heartless decision, will result in the deaths of women who can’t get the medical care they need.
Women are 14 times more likely to die by carrying a pregnancy to term than by having an abortion. The United States bears the chilling distinction of being the most dangerous place in the industrialized world to give birth, ranking 55th overall in the world. American exceptionalism at its most supreme.*
And let us not forget that the day before the Roe decision, our great protectors, decided that it was cool for people to be allowed to carry concealed weapons in New York. That ruling will open the floodgates for people all over the country to do the same. Rather than ensuring people’s safety, the court has inspired a new version of the wild, wild west. And there is one thing we know: guns kill!
The court also undid important environmental controls implemented during the Obama years that will increase pollutants and in turn lead to health problems and deaths of Americans.
FILE – Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas delivers a keynote speech during a dedication of Georgia new Nathan Deal Judicial Center in Atlanta, Feb. 11, 2020. Reports that the wife of Thomas implored Donald Trump’s White House chief of staff to act to overturn the 2020 election results has put a spotlight on how justices decide whether to step aside from a case. (AP Photo/John Amis, File)
The court’s recent ruling to reduce emissions control of power plants will have a deleterious impact on the U.S’s capacity to keep global warming at about 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels.
Cristiana Figueres, the former head of the United Nations Framework on Climate Change, recently described the world’s current trajectory as “a suicidal path,” and globally, the United States was already the most conspicuous laggard. The court just assured us that we are even more of a global menace. The majority of Americans disapprove of these decisions. Supreme in its extreme, the court has become a rogue institution that is disembodied from the will of the American people. Because of their decisions, more Americans will die.
With all the malarkey about democrats stealing the election, the real steal was on the Supreme court. Neil Gorsuch is only on the court through the benefit of Mitch McConnell’s chicanery, blocking Obama’s selection of Merrick Garland, claiming a justice shouldn’t be appointed close to a presidential election. And lo and behold, the trickster pulled the wool over the eyes of the American people again when he decided that his objection to the nomination of Garland didn’t apply to Amy Coney Barrett, who was put on the court weeks before the 2020 election. And then there is the the lying-to-your face antics of sexual assaulter Brett Kavanaugh, who swore he would uphold Roe V Wade because he believed in precedent. (Gorsuch swore the same thing)
Speaking about putting people’s lives at risk, the newest revelations about The Don’s actions, where five people died and many were injured, make it abundantly clear that he was not only expecting violence, but wanted to be leading the charge into the Capitol building. Any doubt about the Don’s “intent’ or what was in his mind, should be put to rest now.
Many of his supporters brought weapons to his rally, but his deepest concern was the crowd size, as many chose not to enter the Ellipse because their weapons would be confiscated. How crazy is that? (Amazing how things come full circle. We started with the lie that the crowd was the largest inauguration ever, and ended with concerns about crowd size. To The Don, “size” always matters!) Here’s what The Don had to say about the secret service’s actions of confiscating weapons:
“I don’t care that they have weapons. They’re not here to hurt me. Take the f-ing mags away. Let my people in. They can march to the Capitol from here. Let the people in. Take the f-ing mags away.”
Exactly who were they there to hurt? I wonder where they got the idea that they were supposed to show up with weapons (including AR-15s) to a “peaceful” rally?
From Cassidy Hutchinson’s extraordinary testimony it was clear that The Don was expecting them to be armed, and more so, that he wanted to be at the Capitol to lead them. He fancied himself as the leader of a rogue army taking back what was his.
He ultimately was prevented from going to the Capitol, but was enraged that he was thwarted. Whether he actually tried to grab the steering wheel or put his hands on the throat of the secret service man in outrage, is not the point (though it is totally in character with something he would do given his belief that no one can prevent him from doing anything!) The point is that he was ready to lead the armed mob into the Capitol.
I keep wondering about what would have happened if he had gotten his way and been brought to where the rioters were. After all, he was the “fucking president” and how dare anyone prevent him from doing what he wanted to do. Would the Capitol police try to block him from entering or would they have ceded to his wishes and his angry mob just enter? Would he have led the mob himself into the Senate Chamber where the unAmerican betrayer of democracy, Mike Pence, prepared to read the electoral count and directed the insurrectionists to destroy the electoral votes? Would the mob, emboldened by his presence, perpetrate violence on lawmakers with him smiling, exhibiting complete indifference to the violence and potential death of members of congress?
If you recall, when Pence did not adhere to The Don’s request to withhold the counting of the electoral votes, he incited the crowd by tweeting:
“Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution, giving States a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify. USA demands the truth!”
Anyone who doubts that he would have stood by and watched the blood spill is deluding themself. The proof is that he did watch (I believe with a smug satisfaction) as the rioters beat police officers, destroyed property and hunted down lawmakers. He did that for three hours while everyone from his Ivanka and Don Jr, to Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham, to Kevin McCarthy and other Republican lawmakers pleaded with him to do something to stop the violence.
His need for revenge and vindication, his desperate desire to stay in power and not be seen as a loser are so intense that he, to quote Machiavelli, would use “any means necessary” to prevail According to Cassidy Hutchinson, who was in the room when White House lawyer, Pat Cippolone, pleaded with Mark Meadows:
“Mark, we need to do something more. They’re literally calling for the vice president to be f-ing hung.’ According to Hutchinson Meadows response was something like: “You heard him, Pat, he thinks Mike deserves it. He doesn’t think they’re doing anything wrong.’ To which Pat said something like, ‘This is f-ing crazy.”
The Supreme Court and the former president of the United States; heartless, cruel, armed with anti-democratic beliefs, and very dangerous.
*In Mississippi, a Black woman is 118 times as likely to die by carrying a pregnancy to term than by having an abortion. According to the Mississippi Maternal Mortality Report, from 2013 to 2016, Black women accounted for “nearly 80 percent of pregnancy-related cardiac deaths” in that state. At present, there is only one clinic in the entire state of Mississippi to serve hundreds of thousands of women that might need to terminate a pregnancy.
The January 6th commission has provided riveting hearings. Here are my takeaways so far.
Practically every person who worked with The Don, including his loyal and smarmy Attorney General, William, Lower the Bar(r), told him he lost the election. One noticeable exception was the town drunk, Rudy G., who according to some, sided with the president’s delusion that he won.
Rumor has it that Rudy has taken to the bottle ever since the Four Seasons Landscape press conference debacle. It was during this bizarre event, when he had his Dracula moment and black make-up oozed down the side of his face, that The Don was certain that all the naysayers were wrong. Rumor has it that The Don, who was watching, turned to Mark Meadows and said: “Anyone who would humiliate themselves like that on national TV to defend me must know what they are talking about. And did you see the way he terrorized those two black poll workers in Georgia who were doing shady things with ballots. Rudy accused them two of engaging in ‘surreptitious, illegal behavior’ and accused them of ‘passing around USB ports as if they are vials of heroin or cocaine.'” That’s my Rudy.
But let’s return to William, Lower the Barr. After supporting and abetting The Don through all his transgressions, Barr finally had enough on December 2nd, 2020. Here is some of what he had to say:
Barr told The Don his insistence that the election was stolen was “crazy stuff” and “bullshit” and that he was doing “a great, great disservice to the country.”
Here is Barr again: “There was never an indication of interest in what the actual facts were.” “If he really believes this stuff he has become detached from reality.”
When Barr insisted there was no systemic fraud in the election, Trump had a tantrum: “This is, you know, killing me…You must have said this because you hate Trump. You hate Trump.”
Thanks, William, it took an attempt to overthrow the government to get you to finally stand up to The Don. So Barr is a hero, right? Umm, not so fast. In his book, he states that he wouldn’t support The Don’s candidacy in the Republican primary, but if he won, he would vote for him. Now that’s some bullshit! (I vote for bringing in the town drunk Rudy G. to upchuck all over Barr to show my disdain. Anyone else out there want to see that?)
Speaking of bullshit, Congressman, Rusty Bowers, of Arizona gave moving testimony regarding The Don’s attempt to support his false allegations of fraud and how he stood tall against the pressure. He took an oath to defend the constitution and the constitution was actually a “divine” document. He could never take an action that would belie his need to defend it. Now that’s some moving testimony from someone with a clear sense of ethics and morality, right? Actually, it’s bullshit because ole Rusty declared he would vote for The Don again in 2024. Since he went all divine on us, that’s like saying he rebuked the devil but would gladly have him back. That’s some Bowery bullshit!
We also learned that the great scam artist-the man who created a bogus university and had to pay 25 million in a lawsuit to the defrauded- raised $255.4 million in the eight weeks following the election as he sought to undermine and overturn the results with unfounded accusations of fraud. Impressed with his haul, the Don was rumored to have said: God, are these people suckers or what? If I had known how easy it was to take their money I would have run for president years ago.”
And then we have The Don’s pressuring of Mike Pence, who decided to thwart the Don’s attempt to bully him into rejecting some of the states’ electors so they could be replaced with fake electors who supported him.
And if anyone had any doubt that the Don tried to do this, he made it clear in a speech as recently as last Friday in Nashville when he said: “I said to Mike, ‘If you do this, you can be Thomas Jefferson.’ And then, after it all went down, I looked at him one day and said, ‘I hate to say this, but you’re no Thomas Jefferson.’” Nope Pence is no Thomas Jefferson, but do you realize you just further incriminated yourself?
So Mike Pence is a hero, right? Umm, not so fast. Over and over, Pence asked if there was anything he could do, even though he knew that his entire function was to do nothing but count the electoral votes. He even sought counsel from his fellow Hoosier and former Vice President Dan Qualye.
Here’s my take on their conversation.
P: Hey Dan, Mike Pence here.
Q: Who?
P: Ha! You always had a wicked sense of humor, but this is a serious call.
Q: Oh Mike Pence, the guy who calls his wife ‘mother’?
P: Come on Dan, I need your counsel.
Q: You need my help? About what?
P: Well, you were once Vice President.
Q: I was?
P: Well, you were kind of invisible, but you were.
Q: I may have been invisible but I was so much more good looking than you; at least I wasn’t a boot-licking sycophant, doing the bidding of a man trying to destroy our democracy.
P: That’s a bit harsh, don’t you think?
Q: Umm, well ask me your question, and I’ll let you know if it is too harsh.
P: Well you see Dan, The president believes the election was stolen, and he has been robbed of his right to serve a second term. And he wants me to do something?
Q: Yeah. And?
P: He wants me to accept alternate electors that would declare him the winner in some battleground states; or if not outright accept these electors and their votes, not count the votes on the 6th because of the presence of two different sets of electors. Sounds fishy to me, but Dan, Is there any way I can do that? The president is really pushing me on this.
Quayle: (Actual words) “Mike, you have no flexibility on this. None. Zero. Forget it. Put it away.”
P: “You don’t know the position I’m in.”
Q: “I do know the position you’re in. I also know what the law is. You listen to the parliamentarian. That’s all you do. You have no power.”
P: (Back to imagined dialogue) But the president is going to kill me.
Q: Oh Mike. What do you think he is going to do? Hang you in the town square?
P: But Dan. You sure there is no way…
Q: Absolutely not! Pence, the P in your name should stand for Pathetic. And as far as you thinking me harsh regarding calling you a boot-licking sycophant, doing the bidding of a man trying to destroy our democracy, I don’t think that goes far enough. Frankly Mr. Pathetic, if you don’t do your duty as vice president, I’ll find you and hang you myself!
P: Okay, Dan. Okay. And what’s with this hanging stuff. He would never do that to me, would he? Dan, you there. Dan, Dan, Dan. You wouldn’t have me hung, would you?
Before we delve into Mike Pence’s Hamlet moment of: “to stay or not to stay,” let’s take a moment to sip some champagne to celebrate the Justice Department’s hauling Peter Navarros ass in for refusing to appear before congress.
Is it possible that Merrick Garland, who at least on the surface, seems like the kind of guy who would be an antidote to insomnia, or at least be cast as “Sleepy” in the modern version of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves (Navarro would be a contender for Dopey!), has a pulse? That all this time he has been plotting to pounce on these insurrectionists?
I must admit, that the guy who boasted in a book and television interviews that he was one of the leading blockers in the infamous “Green Bay Sweep,” (which was merely intended to do an end around the election results and reinstate the Don, ushering in the end of democracy!) After being handcuffed and brought before a judge where he was indicted, Navarro whined: “This is not the way that America is supposed to function. They’re playing hardball.” Do you think he understood the irony of his comment?
Navarro also declared that he was ‘disappointed in our Republic.” You mean the Republic you were in the process of undoing? That republic? Rumor has it that off-mic he was heard saying: “Damn it, we were so close to taking over the country, and now I may have to go to jail because of my attempt to save America. How fucked up is that?”
Garland’s justice department also indicted members of the Proud Boys for seditious conspiracy. For the record the definition of sedition is: conduct or speech inciting people to rebel against the authority of a state or monarch. For the Justice Department to issue that indictment (which is difficult to prove) they must have pretty compelling evidence.
Which brings us to the other part of this piece: the role Mike Pence was supposed to play in denying the orderly transfer of power. Pence was supposed to be the ultimate blocker in the “Sweep” and refuse to count the electoral votes, turning it back to the states where the results were close; this would allow an alternative set of electors supporting the Don to take the place of the legitimate ones, declaring The Don the president.
Turns out that the day before a mob of President Donald J. Trump’s supporters stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of staff called Pence’s lead Secret Service agent to his West Wing office.
The chief of staff, Marc Short, had a message for the agent, Tim Giebels: The president was going to turn publicly against the vice president, and there could be a security risk to Mr. Pence because of it.
If you recall, at the January 6th rally The Don ginned up the crowd with these inspiring words: “You’ll never take back our country with weakness.” At another point, he focused his inspirational oratory on Pence: “Mike Pence, I hope you’re going to stand up for the good of our Constitution and for the good of our country. And if you’re not, I’m going to be very disappointed in you. I will tell you right now. I’m not hearing good stories.”
Umm, “not hearing good stories?” Does that translate into: “if the ingrate doesn’t come around, hang the bastard?”
During the insurrection, the secret service were ready, and whisked Pence away while the crowd was chanting “Hang Mike Pence, hang Mike Pence.” Honestly, every time I write that refrain I think to myself: that didn’t really happen, did it? Not in America, can’t be!
Pence was faced with the question “to stay or not stay?”. Pence, the patriot, decided to stay. In fact, he remained in some secret place surrounded by secret service for hours, until it was safe to return to the Senate chamber, where he insisted on finishing the certification process. Rumor has it he insisted that the secret service order in Chick Fil A while they waited the insurrection out.
According to reports, Pence didn’t leave despite being at risk because he didn’t want the world to see him fleeing; he didn’t want the world to see the Vice President of the United states of America, the “greatest democracy in the world,” driving off to some unknown bunker. Definitely a bad look for the U.S.. And to give him credit, when all the chips were on the line, this sycophant stood his ground and stood up for the constitution and the peaceful transition of power.
Rumor has it that he called “mother” (his wife) to consult.
Pence: Mother?
Mother: Are you okay Mike?
Pence: Can you believe this? After all, I’ve swallowed for this guy, he wants me hung.
Mother: Dance with the devil, die with the devil.
Pence: Oh come on mother, now’s not the time for sermons.
Mother: Mike, are you sure the secret service are there to protect you?
Pence: What are you talking about? Of course they are.
Mother: Don’t be so sure. The devil may have gotten to them, and maybe they are pretending to be your protectors but once you go with them they will vanish you.
Pence: Mother, I told you to stop reading those Tom Clancy novels. They fill your head with crazy ideas…Mother, do you think it’s possible…
Mother: The man wants you dead Mike, and he can make those things happen.
Pence: So if I stay, they could hang me; if I go they could vanish me?
Mother: Quite a pickle you are in, Mike.
Pence: So what should I do?
Mother: Stand tall and let the Lord lead you. Jesus died for his cause, and if you have to die for yours, then that’s the way it should be.
Pence: Yes mother.
Mother: I’ll pray for you.
Pence: Yes, do that mother. By the way mother, do you remember what our last meal together was?
Mother: You mean our last supper?
Pence: Our last supper. In case I don’t come back I want to remember our last supper.
Violence in this country is not a bug in the system, it’s a feature. It is at the core of who we are.
We own more guns, and kill more people with them, than any other country in the world. We have mass shootings in schools, places of worship, places of work, concerts, and places to shop. Americans make up less than 5 percent of the world’s population, yet they own roughly 45 percent of all the world’s privately held firearms.
The original settlers, who sought freedom from oppression, slaughtered and nearly wiped out the entire indigenous population. We enslaved millions of Black Africans, dehumanized them, and perpetrated acts of egregious violence to control them.
These egregious acts of violence are part of our historical psyche.
We have a soulless hypocritical political party screaming at the rooftops about the sanctity of life when it comes to abortion that doesn’t give two shits about children being slaughtered; a soulless party beholden to the NRA, an organization devoted to the proliferation of guns and a warped view of the 2nd Amendment.
Republican candidates campaign proudly brandishing their weapons.
Blake Masters, a leading candidate in Arizona’s Republican Senate primary, cradles a semiautomatic weapon. “This is a short-barreled rifle,” he said, ominous music playing in the background. “It wasn’t designed for hunting. This is designed to kill people.”
Yes, Blake, it does kill people. Nineteen children to be exact in a school in Texas. Would you be moved to do something about this horror if one of them was yourchild?
In Alabama, Gov. Kay Ivey unpacked lipstick, an iPhone and something else from her purse in an ad declaring “a little Smith & Wesson .38,” she said. A Republican candidate for governor in Georgia declared in a different spot, “I believe in Jesus, guns, and babies.”
Yes, Kay, how does it feel that those guns killed those “babies.” Your lipstick is their blood! Would you be moved to do something about this horror if it were your grandchildren?
In Nevada, an ad for former Senator Dean Heller, now a Republican candidate for governor, bragged about his wife’s shooting skills. And in North Carolina, a spot for Representative Ted Budd, a Republican Senate candidate, boasted that he owned a gun range.
Yes, Dean, but I wonder how effectively those skills would work against someone with an AK-15 wearing body armor. Would you be moved to do something about this horror if it were your children?
Yes, Ted, how cool you own a shooting range. Maybe that’s we should train all of America’s teachers to be gun-slingers. Would you be moved to do something about this horror if it were your children?
In a House primary in Ohio, the Air Force veteran J.R. Majewski ran a television ad in which he carried a rifle, said, “I’m willing to do whatever it takes to return this country back to its former glory” — and then pulled the trigger.
But J. R., what glory can you claim when our children are being killed in their classrooms? Would you be moved to do something about this horror if it were your children?
In Arkansas, an ad run by a group supporting Jake Bequette, an Army veteran and former pro football player whose G.O.P. primary challenge to Senator John Boozman failed on Tuesday, repeated the phrase “Babies, borders, bullets” — calling those the “values we cherish” — and showed clips of the candidate taking aim with an assault rifle.
Yes, Jake, bullets do kill “babies.” Would you be moved to do something about this horror if it were your children?
I believe the answer to the refrain above is astonishingly no! The answer is to give teachers guns! Certainly our shortage of teachers would be solved by asking teachers to carry firearms. Maybe Republicans will pass legislation requiring all teachers getting education degrees to do an internship at a shooting range before they can get their license to teach.
We have an ex-president who encouraged violence and according to Mark Meadows, his chief of staff, after hundreds of rioters at the Capitol started chanting “Hang Mike Pence!” told colleagues that he was complaining that the vice president was being whisked to safety. According to a report by the N.Y. Times The Don suggested that if the January 6th insurrectionists (for him patriots!) would have hung Mike Pence none of this would have happened (suggesting he would still be the president!)
We have created a society where kids are scared to go to school. Kids have “shooter” training. Some have bulletproof backpacks! Perhaps the Republicans want children to carry handguns in their lunch box.
But there are countries that have met the challenge of gun violence.
On Monday, the government in Canada banned handgun sales and proposed legislation requiring that most owners of “military-style assault weapons” turn over their rifles to a government buyback program.
After a British gunman killed 16 people in 1987, the country banned semiautomatic weapons like those he had used. It did the same with most handguns after a 1996 school shooting. It now has one of the lowest gun-related death rates in the developed world.
In Australia, a 1996 massacre prompted mandatory gun buybacks that saw, according to some estimates, as many as one million firearms melted into slag. The rate of mass shootings plummeted from once every 18 months to, so far, only one in the 26 years since.
This will never happen in America until we come to terms with the violent society we are. In fact, it could get worse. Republicans continue to gin up fears and grievances against those who are not White Christians urging people to take back America from these so called invaders. Honestly, this continued horror will not end anytime soon. It will not end until Republicans find a soul and conscience and decide that politic expediency and need for power take a back seat to the sanctity of life.
Here we are again in a very familiar place. A mass shooting. Outrage. Prayers. Calls for reasonable gun control. Screeds on social media advocating white supremacy. And now, Replacement theory.
One in three American adults now believe that an effort is underway “to replace native-born Americans with immigrants for electoral gains,” according to an Associated Press poll released this month. The poll also found that people who mostly watched right-wing media outlets like Fox News are more likely to believe in Replacement theory.
Here’s Tucker Carlson fanning the flames: “Why is diversity said to be our greatest strength? Does anyone even ask why? “Since you’ve made this our new national motto, please be specific as you explain it.”
Okay, Tucker I will. Everyone living in this country, except Native Americans, who, by the way, were slaughtered and replaced by White people from Europe, have ancestry from other countries. We are all immigrants. Yes Tucker, you too. Diversity defines America. It’s just that you want to exclude anyone who doesn’t look like you.
In fact, a Times investigation published this month showed that in more than 400 episodes of his show, Mr. Carlson pushes the idea that Democratic politicians and assorted elites want to force demographic change through immigration.
This belief transforms social issues into direct threats: immigration is a problem because immigrants will out-breed the white population, abortion is a problem because white babies will be aborted, black people are a threat because they may marry white women whose babies will be tainted.
When we witnessed and heard the infamous chant in the White supremacist march in Charlottesville, Virginia: “Jews will not replace us, Jews will not replace us,” many were exposed to replacement theory for the first time. But this is not a new phenomenon in this country.
Why are they chanting “Jews will not replace us?” Because Jews are part of an international cabal and conspiracy to destroy the White Christian world and replace it with the ‘other’. Isn’t that obvious? What does the “other” include? Essentially non-White immigrants, and ultimately, anyone who is viewed as not a member of the White Christian universe.
Yes, the Jews have been trying to destroy the Christian world ever since the apostles co-opted Jesus from them. After all, Jesus was a Jew (albeit, not pleased with the state of Judaism at the time) who was bringing a new message, a more inclusive one for that matter. He actually was a strong believer in the “other.” He said: “Whatever we do to the least of our neighbors we do to Him (God).” Seems the White Christians of this country have strayed from Jesus’ teachings. Forget about the Muslims, Hindu’s Buddhists, Jews who are not Christian being the “other,” but what about all the Latina, Black and Asians who are Christian? How is it that they are excluded and considered a threat? Oh right, they are not real Christians because they are not White!
In fact, it is more than likely that Jesus himself, growing up in the Middle East, was a brown skinned person (think Palestinian of today’s world?) than a White one. So when you think about it, the person who the White Christian world is defending against the “other,” is the “other.” So what does that make him? The enemy?
So if Jesus were to return, the promoters of Replacement theory might be in for a shock. Jesus might say: “You people know nothing about who I am and what I stand for. In fact, you have strayed so far from my teachings that you have become the other! Actually, it is time that you were replaced! It is time that Black people who have endured the evils of your White supremacy can feel safe and have equal opportunities; it is time for Islamophobia to be a thing of the past; it is time for the brown skinned people crossing the border escaping danger and abuse to be embraced. And Tucker Carlson, you are an abomination, an embarrassment to my cause and a dangerous man who needs to be replaced. And that brings me to Rupert Murdoch, who employs Carlson. He is the devil himself. Not only does he need to be replaced, but there will be no place for him in God’s kingdom, and there is a place for both of them somewhere else.
Remember when George W. Bush, after a meeting with Vladimir Putin, said “I looked the man in the eye. I found him to be very straightforward and trustworthy…I was able to get a sense of his soul.” Guess he got that right!
Maine Senator Susan Collins looked Brett Kavanaugh right in the eyes, deep into his soul, and was convinced he was trustworthy and that when he spoke about the importance of precedent in Roe V Wade, he would honor it. Kavanaugh defended precedent in his Supreme Court nomination hearings as did Neil Gorsuch, though, at least with Gorsuch, she didn’t confirm a rapist to the Supreme Court. Thanks Susan.
So when the document leaked that the judges were preparing to overrule Roe V Wade, Collins claimed foul, stating it was inconsistent with discussions she had with Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch. Can you believe it? The two God fearing, anti-abortionists lied to her? Such blasphemy! Either Collins is like one of those parents who actually believed their child when they swore the dog ate their homework, which makes her either a gullible fool, or a partner in deception.
In all fairness, Kavanaugh worked hard to convince her. At his hearing he made it seem that Roe was safe.
“Roe said the liberty interest included a right to privacy. Casey (vs Planned Parenthood) added that the right to choose whether and when to have a child made it easier for women “to participate equally in the economic and social life of the nation.” He also said: “Casey is precedent on precedent.”
Begs the question: What do you get when you make a precedent (on precedent) sandwich? More precedent? Well, actually what you get is a sandwich with nothing in it, generally something you just throw away.
In its landmark decision in 1973, the Supreme Court inferred from the 14th Amendment that the government’s ability to take away people’s liberty unfairly, which courts have interpreted as implying a right to privacy and personal autonomy over decisions involving people’s bodies and relationships, was unconstitutional.
So if Roe V Wade is appealed, once again women’s rights to control their own bodies will be violated.
Here’s Nancy Pelosi’s take on it. She called the draft decision “monstrous” and a blueprint “for Republicans to obliterate even more of our freedoms because denying a constitutional right of privacy would make other rights, including same-sex marriage and contraception, vulnerable to attacks from social conservatives.”
The 14th Amendment also guarantees “ equal protection.” “Under our Constitution, the freedom to marry, or not marry, a person of another race resides with the individual, and cannot be infringed by the state,” the court stated in Loving v. Virginia. Will the court also move to declare inter-racial marriages unconstitutional as well. After all, there are probably many red states that would love to ban them. After all, it is such a stain on the White Supremacist vision of America for a white person to marry a person of color.
States all over the country have laws ready to be triggered when the court officially follows through on overturning Roe v Wade.
In fact, the State Legislature in Louisiana advanced a proposal this week that would classify abortion as homicide, going further than anti-abortion measures in other states by making it possible for prosecutors to bring criminal cases against women who end a pregnancy. In addition to punishing women who obtain abortions, opponents said the bill would arguably criminalize in vitro fertilization and forms of birth control.
*Poll after poll show that the majority of Americans believe women have the right to choose what to do with their bodies. Then again the majority of Americans support equal rights for LGBTQ individuals, humane and just immigration policy, do not want the government legislating what should be taught in classrooms, don’t support banning books and oppose making it more difficult to vote.
So folks, what we are seeing, from the attempt on January 6th to overturn the election, to the promulgation and embracing of the “Big Lie,” to the radical attempt to control and decide who has equal rights and liberty, is the very dismantling of the democratic ideals that this country is founded on. The battle lines are clear. And let’s be sober and clear that when we look into the souls of most Republican legislators we see what is there: a soulless group of mostly white men who will lie and cheat and stop at nothing to gain power to impose their frightening autocratic vision on us all. As I have said before, the time for back-pedaling and outrage is over. It’s time for the Democrats to have the fight for all to see about which America people want to live in: an autocracy where individual freedoms and rights are stripped away or a country where everyone has equal rights.
*A Pew Research poll in 2021 found that 59 percent of Americans believed abortion should be legal in all or most cases, while 39 percent said it should be illegal in all or most cases.
Another poll last year, from the Washington Post and ABC, found 60 percent said the Supreme Court should uphold Roe v. Wade, while 27 percent said it should be overturned.
In 2019, an NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll found 77 percent said the Supreme Court should uphold Roe v. Wade, but 26 percent supported keeping it in place while adding more restrictions.
The time has come for the Democrats to unhinge themselves and do something they are bad at doing; unleashing their aggression. They need coherent, poignant and shall I venture to say, hyperbolic messaging, to counteract the Republicans’ ownership of the culture wars. Instead of yelling “foul,” start fouling! Instead of talking about the absurdity of the Republican banning of books depicting the accurate history of racism in this country or disallowing conversations about LGBTQ issues, start calling them out as the oppressors and fascists they are.
A recent poll showed that 79% of the country is in favor of LGBTQ individuals having equal rights! Not only do the Democrats have the majority of the people on their side, but this is about the future of our democracy; it is about the right to be treated equally. And while you are at it, start telling the American people that Republicans are doing everything they can to dismantle our democracy-that if they get in power we will be on our way to autocracy. Scare them, compare Trump and his cronies to Putin. They need to use the same strategy the Republicans used when they accused Obamacare of creating “death camps.” The Democrats are on the right side of all the issues (including the right to an abortion) and they need to start owning it.
We know we are going down a slippery slope, when America’s feel good family fantasy land, Disney World, is under attack. Led by their fearless and despicable leader Ron Desatanist, the devil himself, has started a war with Mickey, Minnie, Daffy and Pluto. Why? Because Disney took a stand rejecting Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill.
Here’s DeSatanist:
“If Disney wants to pick a fight, they chose the wrong guy,” “I will not allow a woke corporation based in California to run our state. Disney has gotten away with special deals from the state of Florida for way too long…” “If we want to keep the Democrat machine and their corporate lapdogs accountable, we have to stand together now.”
What DeSatanist wants to repeal is Disney’s special tax status and its ability to be a self-governing entity.
Not missing an opportunity to go for the jugular, Fox News tweeted out:
“Disney’s agenda is anti-family and sexually perverted”
Ted Cruz, Desatanist’s demon brother responded: “Exactly! Also, I have some explicit thoughts on the physical mechanics of Mickey Mouse mating with a dog.”
During a live recording of his Verdict With Ted Cruz podcast, he said: “I think there are people who are misguided, trying to drive, you know, Disney stepping in, saying, you know, in every episode now they’re gonna have, you know, Mickey and Pluto going at it. Like, really?”
“It’s just like, come on guys, these are kids, and you know, you could always shift to Cinemax if you want that. Like, why do you have – it used to be, look, I’m a dad. You used to be able to put your kids on the Disney Channel and be like, alright, something innocuous will happen.”
Actually, I have some thoughts about Ted Cruz mating with a dog and the dog is desperate to get away because the guy is so gross.
First teachers are indoctrinating their students into sexual cults by talking about LGBTQ issues and now Minnie and Mickey are seducing young children right before their parents’ eyes.
It’s time for the Disney characters to take it to the streets. How about this for a campaign idea for the Democrats: each democratic member of congress gets to campaign with their favorite Disney character? All across America they should be yelling: “Republicans hate Mickey Mouse. Who hates Mickey Mouse? Evil people do. Vote for the party that wants you to come to Disney world and get a big hug from Goofy.”
And as far as Ted Cruz goes, prohibit him from going near dogs!
Remember the infamous “Access Hollywood” video? You know, the one where The Don is telling the interviewer that he routinely grabbed women by the genitals? That when you are famous you can do anything you want and get away with it? Who reading this didn’t think, “That’s it! He has finally sunk his ship. His campaign was over. There is no way he could survive!”? Well, were we wrong! America voted for a man who was a known sexual predator and 88 percent of Republican women voted for him!
How is this possible? Turns the #MeToo movement on its head. It’s like these women are saying: “It happened to me too; it happens to all women, that’s just what men do, so what’s all the fuss? Hey, we like are men, tough and macho, If having them sexually assault me is part of the package that’s a price I’m willing to pay.”
The ability of The Don to become the most powerful man on earth despite his transgressions has led to a Republican sexual revolution. All across the nation there are men running for office who are wearing t-shirts saying: “Trump did it. So can I.”
In Missouri, Georgia, Ohio and now Nebraska, Republican men running for high office face significant allegations of domestic violence, stalking, even sexual assault — accusations that once would have derailed any run for office.
Increasingly, Republicans cast accusations of sexual misconduct as an attempt by liberals to silence conservatives. One morally outraged candidate had this to say about him being called out for his predatory behavior. “This is the epitome of cancel culture. How dare they try to have me resign my campaign because I have sexual desires?”.
Let’s take the outrageous case of former governor of Missouri, Eric Greitens.
Mr. Greitens resigned as Missouri’s governor after a hairdresser testified under oath in 2018 that he had taped her hands to pull-up rings in his basement, blindfolded her, stripped her clothes off and taken a photo of her, which he threatened to release if she revealed their affair. Career-ender, right?
Think again, as Mr. Greiten is now running for the open seat of the retiring Senator Roy Blunt. So one must ask: What does a Republican have to do to be disqualified as a candidate? Remember good old Roy Moore of Alabama. He was accused of seducing teenage girls and was, of course, endorsed by The Don. A sordid badge of honor if there ever was one.
Amid his current Senate campaign, Mr. Greitens was accused by his former wife that he had violently abused her and had hit one of their sons as his governorship unraveled. Still, a recent poll shows Mr. Greitens is neck-and-neck with his rivals in the primary.
Only a few days ago, a Republican state senator in Nebraska, Julie Slamma, accused candidate for governor, Charles Herbster, of sexually assaulting her three years ago when she was 22, saying in a statement that she had “prayed I would never have to relive this trauma.”
Herbster’s response? “They did it with Brett Kavanaugh. They certainly did it with Donald J. Trump and now they’re trying to do it with Charles W. Herbster.” If you were truthful, Mr. Herbster, what you should have said was: “Those guys did it, and look where it got them!”
Let’s move to the Georgia senate race where The Don has endorsed former football player Herschel Walker. What’s with this football thing in the south? First former Auburn University football coach Tommy Tuberville becomes a senator and now former football star Walker is trying to join him. Both are know-nothings! Maybe the Republicans are recruiting them for the next Green Bay (Packers) sweep, the name given to the action to replace Democratic electors with Republican electors in an attempt to overturn the election. Maybe Tuberville’s coaching and Walker’s running might make the difference next time in the execution of the play.
And what are Walker’s transgressions? Just domestic violence and assault allegations by his ex-wife claiming that our stand-up guy attacked her in bed, choking her, and threatening to kill her. To Walker’s credit, he doesn’t deny the assault, and has said he was suffering from mental illness.
After breaking off a long term relationship with Walker, his long-term girlfriend had threatened to kill her and himself. Walker was also accused of stalking a Dallas Cowboy cheerleader but has denied this allegation. Is this the guy you want to represent your state?
Max Miller, another Trump-backed candidate and a former White House aide running for an Ohio House seat, was accused by one of Mr. Trump’s press secretaries, Stephanie Grisham, of hitting her the day they broke up. Mr. Miller denied the charge and sued Grisham for defamation, accusing her of making “libelous and defamatory false statements.” Can’t you imagine The Don calling him and saying: “Listen Max, just sue the bitch for defamation.”
That leads us to one of the more whacko members of congress, Madison Cawthorn. Cawthorn has become sort of a thorn in the Republican brand. He seems to be very concerned about the inappropriate sexual exploits of his colleagues. A man with a moral compass? Let’s see what he has to say.
“The sexual perversion that goes on in Washington … being kind of a young guy in Washington, where the average age is probably 60 or 70 — [you] look at all these people, a lot of them that I’ve looked up to through my life, I’ve always paid attention to politics. … Then all of a sudden you get invited — ‘We’re going to have a sexual get-together at one of our homes, you should come.’ … What did you just ask me to come to? And then you realize they’re asking you to come to an orgy. … Some of the people leading the movement to try and remove addiction in our country, and then you watch them do a key bump of cocaine right in front of you. And it’s like, this is wild.”
Is Cawthorn talking about Mat Gaetz, who is under federal investigation for allegations of sex trafficking? Or maybe he was invited to one of Brett Kavanugh’s beer bashes?
Though these wild accusations are false I could imagine they got the attention of The Don. Rumor has it that his response to these claims was: “Now that’s a guy I could support. Orgies, now that something worth returning to the White House for!”.
Remember the infamous missing 18 and half minutes of tape recording from the Watergate hearings? Rosemary Woods, who was transcribing the recording, claimed that she was reaching for the phone and accidentally kept the record button on which taped over the original conversation. There’s a famous photo of Woods re-creating the moment, in which Woods attempts to keep her foot on the dictaphone (stone age recorder) pedal and reaches for the phone on the other side of her desk at the same time. Some have jokingly referred to it as the “Rose Mary Stretch.” It was all very preposterous.
In the end, the missing minutes were further evidence of Nixon’s wrong doings and Tricky Dick resigned the presidency to avoid being impeached and convicted of obstruction of justice, abuse of power, and contempt of Congress. The only reason he resigned was because it was clear to him that he had lost the support of his party and was doomed. Them were the “good old days”, when Republicans believed in democracy, the rule of law, and could at least pretend to have a sense of morality.
In the current Republican party, there is no way that Tricky Dick would have been convicted. Missing tape, meh? After all, our former president fomented (and most likely helped organize!) an insurrection and it turns out that it’s no biggie.
Fast forward to the present, and surprise, surprise, turns out that there are 7 hours of phone logs missing during the January 6th insurrection. Take that Tricky Dick! How is this possible when the president uses designated devices where all phone calls are recorded and logged?
Burner phones. Yep, burner phones! You know, the kind drug dealers and criminals use so they can’t be traced? Our president was using secret phones? Of course, he was. Who knows how many conversations he had with Putin on burn phones while he was president?
When the news broke, The Don’s response was “I don’t even know what a burner phone is.
Don’t you wonder who he was talking with during that time?
We will get back to that in a moment.
Equally troubling was the discovery of Ginni Thomas’s texts. Yes, Ginni of Ginni and Clarence Thomas. Turns out this patriot was deeply involved in trying to overturn the election and reinstall The Don. Who knows what Clarence knew about her activities? He sure knows about her far-right politics. Maybe we will find some texts on Clarence’s phone that says: “That’s my gal. That’s why I married you.”
Ginni was quite something. A top shelf insurrectionist. Here are a few of her texts to Mark Meadows prior to January 6th.
“Help This Great President stand firm, Mark!!! … You are the leader, with him, who is standing for America’s constitutional governance at the precipice. The majority knows Biden and the Left is attempting the greatest Heist of our History,”
“Sounds like Sidney (Trump lawyer Sidney Powell) and her team are getting inundated with evidence of fraud. Make a plan. Release the Kraken (a mythological sea creature) and save us from the left taking America down.”
Here’s one from four days after the riot on Capitol Hill.
Thomas wrote to Meadows that she was angry with then-Vice President Mike Pence for not taking the steps necessary to block the certification of the election results.
“We are living through what feels like the end of America. Most of us are disgusted with the VP and are in a listening mode to see where to fight with our teams. Those who attacked the Capitol are not representative of our great teams of patriots for DJT!! Amazing times. The end of Liberty.”
How disgusted were you, Ginnni?
What was Ginni doing on January 6th when America’s democracy was being threatened?
What if some the missing hours of phone logs were between Ginni and Don. Let’s imagine their conversation.
The Don: Ginni, isn’t this amazing what’s going on out there? The love, the love Ginni. No other president has ever had this kind of love.
Ginni: Never, Donald. You are a hero, and justice will be done. You will be restored to your proper place, and prevent a communist takeover by the Dems. You will be reinstated in no time, don’t you worry.
Don: Do you love me Ginni?
Ginni: What a silly question. Besides Clarence, I love no one more. Remember that night when we…
Don: And then Melania showed up.
Ginni: Bitch. She doesn’t love you the way I do. You know that. By the way, you are speaking to me on one of those burner phones I sent you.
Don: Of course, G. Do you think I’m stupid? I took it right out of the box labeled Ginni.
Ginni: You have a box of burn phones with my name on it? Are you crazy? Get rid of that box now. Do you hear me?
Don: Don’t get so heated. I’ll take care of it now, though I hate to walk away from the TV. It’s such an amazing spectacle to see all the great patriots fighting for America’s freedom, fighting for me.
Ginni: Go right now. Throw out this phone, and call me back on a new one.
Don: But this one still has some minutes on it.
Ginni: Donald! Please, just do what I say.
Don: Anything for you, G. Maybe we can meet up? You can come over, and we can watch the patriots take back what is ours. We could have a Monica Lewinsky moment on the oval office desk. Have to say that Clinton was a sly devil. What do ya think?
Ginni: As much as I am so hot for you now, it probably isn’t a wise thing for me to be hanging out with you watching the siege on the Capitol. People might get the wrong idea, don’t you think?
Don: You are probably right, but when I’ m reinstalled we will make it happen.
Ginni: Absolutely. Now can YOU PLEASE BURN THAT PHONE! And get rid of the box that has my name on it.
(A few minutes pass. Then phone rings)
Don: Ginni?
Ginni: Who else do you think it is, the Queen of England?
Don: Love your sense of humor Gin. Melania is such a sourpuss. No sense of humor. She won’t even watch this beautiful thing that’s unfolding. Did I miss anything good while I was dealing with the phone thing?
Gin: Did you get rid of the box? You did what? Are you shitting me? You crossed it out with magic markers. What are you in kindergarten? Now go down there and destroy the box with my name on it.
Don: Oh look, there’s this guy with his feet up on Nancy Pelosi’s desk. When I am back in power, I am going to invite him to the White House. And look there’s the guy with the horns. Mr. Q, I’ve already had him to the White House, but he was dressed as an F.B.I. agent and was lead in by Mark Meadows. Wasn’t that clever Ginni? And what’s going on with Pence? Is he going to change his mind and do the right thing?
Ginni: We are working on that. Where do you think the noose idea came from? Great scare tactic. Clever, don’t you think?
Don: Brilliant: What could be more frightening for a White Supremacist like Mikey to be offed that way. Terrifying. Ginni you are a genius. Makes me want you even more. Are you sure you don’t want to come over? Talking to you over the phone is making it hard for me to concentrate. We could sneak you in like we did the Q man.
Ginni: Donald get a hold of yourself. You got to get rid of the box with my name on it. Please Donald.
Don: Look, look at what’s happening. By the way, is Clarence watching?
Ginni: He’s in heaven. You know he’s your biggest fan.
Don: Oh shit, the phone is about to die. Oh my God, do you see the way they beat up on those traitor policeman?
Ginni: Donald my love, you must get rid of the box with my name on it!
Don: Love you Ginni. When I return to power would you like to be my new Vice President?
I watched in anguish and disgust as the Republican senators on the judiciary committee turned the Ketanji Brown Jackson confirmation hearing into three days at the circus. To quote Woody Allen, from his 1971 film Bananas: “I object, your honor! This trial (in her case, this hearing) is a travesty. It’s a travesty of a mockery of a sham of a mockery of a travesty of two mockeries of a sham.”
Assurances by top Republicans to show respect for Ketanji Brown Jackson’s confirmation hearings turned out to be empty (surprise, surprise) as potential Republican presidential candidates Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley used their platform to appeal to their potential voters and grill the first Black woman nominated for the Supreme Court on her views on critical race theory and insinuate that she was soft on child sexual abuse and child pornography. It was their mission to paint her as a criminal-coddling, soft-on-pedophiles, and someone who supported subjecting white people to the view that they were oppressors.
What about Senator Marsha Blackburn of Kentucky actually asking KJB, “Can you provide a definition for the word ‘woman’?” as she tried to paint her as a gender-bending danger to the moral foundation of our country.
Wouldn’t it have been great if KJB could have pulled a Bret Kavanaugh (during his confirmation hearing he aggressively responding to a question by senator Amy Klobachar regarding his drinking: “You’re asking about blackout, I don’t know, have you?”) and responded:
Are you a woman Senator Blackburn?
Actually Senator Blackburn, are you a human?
Are you shitting me with that question?
Senator Blackburn, do you remember the scene from the movie Clockwork Orange when the main character is tortured by being forced to listen to Beethoveen’s Ninth Symphony? Well, I would like to tie you up and force you to watch all the seasons of Transparent.
Let’s return to Cruz badgering KJB on her involvement as a board member of her kids’ private school Georgetown Day. Cruz began pulling out books, including Antiracist Baby by Ibram X Kendi, in order to claim the school is definitely teaching CRT, even though CRT is, as KJB pointed out, is an academic theory that was taught in law schools. (Factoid: KJB and Cruz were at Harvard Law School at the same time. I bet they spent a lot of time hanging out together in the cafeteria.)
Here’s the repulsive, smug, attention-whore Cruz:
“There are portions of this book that I find really quite remarkable. One portion of the book says babies are taught to be racist or anti-racist.” “Do you agree with this book that is being taught with kids that babies are racist?”
With much poise and extraordinary restraint KJB answered: “I do not believe that any child should be made to feel as though they are racist, or though they are not valued, or though they are less-than. That they are victims. That they are oppressors.”
Wouldn’t it have been beautiful if KJB smiled and responded:
“Senator Cruz, you really have me confused. Isn’t it true that your children go to St. John’s school in Houston? Well, let me read a quote I happen to have by former headmaster Mark Desjardins and John Moody, the chairman of the board of trustees. ‘St John’s as an institution, must be anti-racist and eliminate racism of any type — including institutional racism — within our school community and beyond.’ And here’s a statement on community and inclusion, approved by the board in 2018, that says the school ensures ‘cultural intelligence and proficiency’ for all community members. It also incorporates ‘cultural proficiency, diversity, global awareness and inclusivity into all facets’ of the curriculum. In fact, Senator Cruz, I wouldn’t be surprised if your own children have a copy of Anti-Racist Baby on their bookshelf. How do your antiracist children put up with such a racist asshole like you?”.
The inquiry by Cruz, Hawley and Blackburn on KJB’s record on sentencing for sex offenders was outrageous and inaccurate.* This line of inquiry was actually a political ploy and a dog-whistle to QAnon. You know, those crazies, who are a strong part of the Republican base, who believe the conspiracy theory that the Democrats are running satanic pedophile rings in Pizza joints (Pizzagate!) or butterfly sanctuaries (See my last piece Butterflies Are Not Free!). Rumor has it that before Hawley started his questioning of KJB that he texted Q (the purported QAnon leader) and said: “This one’s for you.”
Wouldn’t you have loved it if KJB looked right into Hawley’s eyes and said: “Senator Hawley, it is interesting you have questions about my judgment in these cases. After all, you supported a president who was a sexual predator for 4 years, voted for a Supreme Court Justice that was probably a rapist and didn’t seem to mind Roy Moore, a known pedophile, from being in the senate. And by the way Senator Hawley, where do you stand on the matter of Matt Gaetz?
But when all is said and done, we will have our first black female Supreme Court Justice!
All I can say is that KJB was lucky she wasn’t married to a white man as she might have been asked to respond to Indiana Senator Mike Braun’s comment that he would leave the issue of interracial marriages to the states, allowing for the banning of interracial marriage in those states. Wait, isn’t Clarence Thomas married to a white woman?
*Andrew C. McCarthy, wrote in the National Review that he would oppose Jackson on many grounds, “[b]ut the implication that she has a soft spot for ‘sex offenders’ who ‘prey on children’ because she argued against a severe mandatory-minimum prison sentence for the receipt and distribution of pornographic images is a smear.” As McCarthy noted, those mandatory minimums have not been updated in more than a decade, and even the most hardened prosecutors often argue for leniency for younger perpetrators, as did Jackson, because of the nature of the crime and the distorted nature of the current guidelines. As the Washington Post’s Fact Checker noted, it is a widespread view in the judiciary that these sentencing guidelines are too harsh and judges often depart from them. As the Post reported, “A 2010 survey showed 71 percent of judges said the mandatory minimums for receipt of images were too high.” Further, a 2021 report by the U.S. Sentencing Commission found that judges gave these non-production child-porn offenders sentences below the guideline range 70% of the time.
The horrors of the Russian invasion are intensifying. Putin’s fever-dream of returning Russia to its past greatness and his megalomaniacal vision that he has been chosen to “Make Russia Great Again” are chilling. It seems nothing is off limits when it comes to achieving his goal- his is a scorched-earth policy with little concern for human life.
In our country, the Far Right’s determination (led by their fearless Furor, Donald Trump) to “Make America Great Again” has its own distinct chill.
I was in the car listening to the radio when I heard an interview that left my head spinning.
The story was about how The National Butterfly Center, in Mission, Texas, was forced to close indefinitely after it was accused of fronting for a child sex trafficking operating.
Remember Pizzagate? If you recall, in 2016, Democrats were falsely accused of abusing children and holding them captive in the basement of Comet Ping Pong, a pizzeria in upscale northwest Washington, D.C. that doesn’t even have a basement. That was right out of the QAnon playbook, and so is the craziness surrounding the butterfly center. It is a continued attempt to inflame and excite a Republican base that flirted with (or openly embraced) the QAnon conspiracy theory alleging a Deep State cabal of Democratic-Satanic pedophiles (at the time of Pizzagate Hillary Clinton was the ringleader!)—and has focused its energy on trying “Stop the Steal” of a legitimate election that didn’t go their way.
The Butterfly Center is a sanctuary and home to over 200 species of butterfly, as well as bobcats, armadillos, coyotes and tortoises. It attracts more than 35,000 visitors each year, including 6,000 school children.
So why all the commotion and conspiracy theories about a butterfly sanctuary?
The 100-acre site along the Rio Grande is near the path of the promised wall that helped elect Trump, and its construction remains a magnet for his supporters. When the wall was discontinued, Steve, Who Should Be Banished, Bannon, and his cronies decided to take it into their own hands and raised money to build the wall in an area that ran through the sanctuary. Funny thing happened on the way to building this part of the wall. Bannon absconded with the funds and was charged with fraud. The Don then pardoned him.
When the center decided to challenge Bannon and his crew for infringing on their land, all hell broke loose, unleashing a right wing assault on its director, which reached its peak when Kimberly Lowe, a fringe congressional candidate running in a GOP primary in Virginia, visited the site with hopes of uncovering the child sex-trafficking hub.
Denied entry based on her trail of inflammatory Facebook posts, Lowe became belligerent. A war of words and a physical altercation with the center’s director followed. Soon after, right-wing media featured video from outside the center’s gates alleging “credible threats of the cartels trafficking children through the butterfly center.”
Kimberly Lowe is trying to become part of a special squad of lawmakers on the fringe, who are becoming more and more influential in our politics. Lowe hopes to join the likes of Lauren Boebert, Majorie Taylor Green and Madison Cawthorn. Not only do they want to oppress and deny certain inalienable rights of people of color and members of the LGBT community but, in their world, even butterflies are under siege.
Given the history of our country’s relationship with Russia, you would think that the egregious and deadly invasion of Ukraine would be one thing Democrats and Republicans could agree on. But then again, why should we be surprised by a lack of unity when we can’t unite on getting vaccinated to end a pandemic?
While some Republicans are outraged by Russia’s actions, others led by their two leaders, The Don and Tucker Carlson, are saying “Hey, what’s the big deal? What’s so cool about Ukraine that we should take its side?”
Here’s Carlson:
“It might be worth asking yourself, since it is getting pretty serious, ‘What is this really about? Why do I hate Putin so much?’” he said. “‘Has Putin ever called me a racist? Has he threatened to get me fired for disagreeing with him?’” (After a lot of blow back, Carlson did finally say that Putin was at fault; but the fact that he could say it at all shows you how over the cliff he is.)
In true form, The Don, not only didn’t think Putin’s actions were terrifying but praised him.
Here’s The Don:
‘This is genius.’ Putin declares a big portion of the Ukraine — of Ukraine — Putin declares it as independent. Oh, that’s wonderful, “He used the word ‘independent’ and ‘we’re gonna go out and we’re gonna go in and we’re gonna help keep peace.’ You gotta say that’s pretty savvy.”
It seems that some Republicans hope Russia succeeds on Biden’s watch as that will weaken him and the Democrats further as we approach the midterms. One wonders if Hitler were around whether Carlson and the Don would be singing his praises as well and urging their people to buy “Mein Kampf!” I mean look at that guy. Can you believe how he is gobbling up countries? It’s like he is playing a game of Pacman.
The support of autocracies like Russia is just another part of the Republican playbook to undo our very own democracy. I wouldn’t be surprised if right wing congressmen like Mo Brooks or Louie Gohmert equate Russia’s actions in Ukraine with January 6th. After all, Putin is just taking back what is part of Russia and the patriots of January 6th were just taking back their country.
While Putin bullies his way into undoing Ukraine’s democracy, Republicans are doing their darndest to undo ours.
Banning books, discussions about race, the teaching of an accurate history of the impact of slavery, are all an attempt to elevate the White Chrisitian narrative at the expense of other voices and the truth.
45 states have considered 245 bills that would restrict the right to peaceful assembly. Thirty-six of those bills passed. Some of them would protect drivers who hit protesters with their cars on public streets. As Putin rounds up protesters in his country, how long will it be that peaceful demonstrators in our country will suffer a similar fate?
Now 15 bills in state legislatures are gaining momentum that restrict how textbooks and curriculums teach LGBTQ+ topics, who can be hired and what teachers are allowed to say when it comes to gender identity and sexual orientation.
Unsurprisingly, Florida is leading the way with what is being called the “Don’t Say Gay” bill. The bill, passed by the Florida House of Representatives on Thursday approved legislation that would ban certain discussions of gender identity and sexual orientation in schools (It still needs to be passed by the senate and signed by Governor DeSatanist.) And if that wasn’t bad enough, a new amendment to the bill would explicitly require schools to inform parents of their child’s sexual orientation within six weeks of learning the student is any sexual orientation other than straight.*
Will they make these students wear pink stars like the Nazi’s did?
And then we have another Floridian, Senator Rick Scott, blessing us with his “Rescue America Plan.”
When asked about the plan Scott remarked: “I’ll warn you; this plan is not for the faint of heart.” You could say that again. Forget the faint of heart: It’s heartless! It is an outright assault. It plays the top hits of the Republican/Trump world: a declaration that there are only two genders, a potentially unconstitutional mandate that all kids stand for the Pledge of Allegiance, Voter ID would become the law of the land (voter suppression!), no tax dollars could be used for “diversity training or other woke indoctrination that is hostile to faith.”
Scott also wants to restart the construction of the US-Mexico border wall and name it after, you guessed it, Donald Trump. Rumor has it that he wanted to change the name of our country to Trumerica, but that was a bridge too far for some of his supporters
In true Trumpian style, Scott projects the Republican party as the defenders of democracy:
“Today’s Democrat Party is trying to rig elections and pack the courts because they have given up on Democracy. They don’t believe they can win based on their ideas, so they want us to game the system and legalize voter fraud to stay in power. In true Orwellian fashion, Democrats refer to their election rigging plans as “voting rights.” We won’t allow the radical left to destroy our democracy by institutionalizing dishonesty and fraud.
Wait, isn’t that what the Republicans are doing? The Republican playbook is to accuse the Democrats of the very things they are guilty of. It’s like the fox going into the hen house, getting caught with the chicken in his hand and then pointing to the farmer accusing him of being the thief. Given the depraved state of the Republican party, it’s possible, with some help from Tucker Carlson, that millions of people will think the farmer is the thief!
By the way, this is exactly Putin’s strategy. He is claiming that he needs to de-Nazi-ify Ukraine, a democracy with a Jewish leader. Scott and his anti-democratic cronies preach autocratic doctrine claiming he and his party are the good guys, protecting democracy,
*A recent survey by the Trevor Project, a LGBTQ+ youth suicide prevention and crisis intervention group, which found 42 percent of LGBTQ+ youth seriously considered attempting suicide in the past year.
A separate report from the Trevor Project found that LGBTQ+ youth who learned about LGBTQ+ people or issues in school had 23 percent lower odds of reporting a suicide attempt in the last year.
Among middle and high school LGBTQ+ students, 19 percent who reported never learning about LGBTQ+ issues or people in school attempted suicide in the last year compared to 16 percent of students who had received LGBTQ+-related lessons.
Were people actually shocked that The Don flouted the Presidential Records Act, which required him to preserve written communications concerning his official duties? Come on people, The Don was the child who tried to flush his report card down the toilet for fear of what his sadistic and terrifying father would do to him when he saw it.
And old habits die hard. While he was president, staff in the White House residence periodically discovered wads of printed paper clogging a toilet — leading them to believe that he had attempted to flush documents, according to people familiar with the situation. He was known to do the same on foreign trips.
Rumor has it that he backed up the entire plumbing system in one foreign hotel. At one point, a stream of documents with intelligence information floated down the hall and was found by another guest. When asked about the situation, The Don claimed that what the guest found was just the strangest toilet paper he had ever used. “Who puts writing on toilet paper?” he said.
And what about the boxes of documents he took to Mar-a-Lago, which is also a no-no. Of course, he claims there are only beautiful memorabilia like the letter Obama left for him when he was first sworn in. (Frankly, I am surprised about this one, as I thought it would be the first thing he flushed down the toilet, or used for toilet paper given his disdain for anything and everything related to the former president!) Of course there were the cherished letters written to Mr. Trump by the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un. According to those in the know, The Don is in conversation with a publishing company to write a memoir called: “Deep Love,” which explores the beauty of his relationship with the Korean leader. Next up, “A Deeper Love” which explores his relationship with Putin.”
Also included in the boxes was a map Mr. Trump famously drew on with a black Sharpie to demonstrate the track of Hurricane Dorian heading toward Alabama in 2019 to back up a declaration he had made on Twitter that contradicted weather forecasts. If you recall, The Don claimed the Weather experts were wrong. Three years later he is still insisting he was right despite the fact that he was 100% wrong. Not only does he still insist he was correct (not unlike insisting he won the election!) but he has decided to turn the photo into wallpaper and redecorate all his bathrooms with it as a reminder of his brilliance.
Rumor has it that now that the Don is under pressure to return the documents, he has decided to organize a treasure hunt at Mara-a-Lago as a way of padding his campaign war chest. Promises of the value of owning a piece of history that he created has his devoted followers chomping at the bit.. For an entrance fee of $100,000 you get to roam the property in hope of discovering a cherished keepsake (before the government seizes them!).
Further flouting of the Presidential Records Act, include tearing up documents and missing time periods in the president’s phone logs. Rumor has it that The Don, in collaboration with Hasbro (makers of Monopoly, Trivial Pursuit and Candyland) is creating a series of puzzles in which you can put together some of the classified documents he ripped up.
Then we have the missing call logs. The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol has discovered gaps in official White House telephone logs from the day of the riot, finding few records of calls by President Donald J. Trump from critical hours when investigators know that he was making them. To this I say: Remember Watergate and how the discovery of the missing minutes of the tape brought down Nixon!
All of the above actions are egregious and potentially criminal but they pale in comparison to The RNC’s statement regarding the January 6th insurrection.
“Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger crossed a line,” Ronna McDaniel, the Republican National Committee chairwoman, said in a statement. “They chose to join Nancy Pelosi in a Democrat-led persecution of ordinary citizens who engaged in legitimate political discourse that had nothing to do with violence at the Capitol.” (After the vote, party leaders rushed to clarify that language, saying it was never meant to apply to rioters who violently stormed the Capitol in Mr. Trump’s name.)
And that was the toned down version. The original version had this sentence: “Democrat-led persecution of ordinary citizens engaged in nonviolent and legal political discourse.”
I guess the fact that five police officers died and more than a 100 were injured was a bridge even too far for our “true patriots.” Still: “Legitimate political discourse?” When did chanting to kill the vice president become legitimate political discourse?
Boy did Mike Pence let down the Don and his cronies.* After all, on January 6th, the day democracy almost died in this country, Mike Pence had a choice to make. He could perform his administrative duty and just read out the electoral certificates submitted to certify that Joe Biden was the next president or he could have said: “Gee, this is kind of confusing. I didn’t expect to get two sets of electoral ballots. I guess I will have to send this back to the states to decide who really won the election.”
Pence could have said that. He did get false Electoral College certificates in seven states won by President Biden: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, New Mexico, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
If you believed the “Big Lie,” that The Don really won, then fake electors make sense, right? Jenna Ellis, one of the Don’s lawyers, who has been subpoenaed by the January 6th commission for her involvement in promoting false information and promoting the “Big Lie,” wrote a legal memo to Mr. Trump on December 31st advising him that six states (Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, New Mexico, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin) had “electoral delegates in dispute” and that because of this conflict, Mr. Pence should not accept any electors from them, but rather ask state lawmakers which slate they wanted to use. On Jan. 5, 2021, with pressure building on Mr. Pence, Ms. Ellis wrote a second memo reasserting the vice president’s authority to refuse to consider electors from states that would have given Mr. Biden a victory.
Now you know why The Don wanted Pence hung! He could have just said it was just so confusing and couldn’t make a decision. After all, how do you know which electors are real?
Given how determined The Don and his cronies were to reinstate him, I can’t believe they let the “real” Mike Pence control their fate. The reason their coup failed could be chalked up to a lack of imagination. All they needed to do was kidnap Pence and replace him with his doppelganger. They should have been training someone to play Pence to such perfection that no one would have been able to tell he was a confederate, not even his wife, who he creepily refers to as “mother.”
Thankfully, the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol attack issued 14 subpoenas on Friday to people who falsely claimed to be electors for President Donald J. Trump in the 2020 election in states that were actually won by Biden , digging deeper into Mr. Trump’s efforts to overturn the results.
The committee is trying to get to the bottom of this brazen attempt to disavow the results of the election: “We believe the individuals we have subpoenaed today have information about how these so-called alternate electors met and who was behind that scheme.”
Wouldn’t it be cool if these people went to jail? Or maybe they will say they were just following orders and explain to the committee how it all went down in exchange for immunity.
Fake electors were not the only scheme hatched by the Don and his cronies.
The Don was desperate to maintain power and worked another angle. He tried to have ballot machines seized, claiming it was necessary to prove the results were fraudulent. First he asked the DOJ, headed by William Barr, to seize the voting machines .When that didn’t work, he looked into whether the military could do it; when that didn’t work, he tried Homeland Security. Rumor has it that when that didn’t work he asked a random bunch of teenagers if they would do it, and promised the Congressional medal of honor as well as a lifetime pardon for any crime they might ever commit. He suggested they dress up as Dominion machine workers and were taking the machines to update them for the next election. Even they turned down The Don. Here is how the conversation went:
“How would you like to be American heroes?
“Teenager: Sounds good to us.” What do we have to do?”
“Just get some voting machines and bring them to me.”
“Are you serious Mr. President?”
“Dead serious”
‘That’s illegal. We like you and all but that’s a crime.”
“No worries, I will pardon you.”
“Mr. President, our lunch hour is over and we need to get back to school.”
All the above is so outrageous. When will the Don finally pay the price for all of it?
*(Since the writing of this piece, Pence made a public statement pronouncing that The Don was “wrong” that he (Pence) had the authority to overturn the election. We have yet to hear The Don’s response to this newest betrayal.. Expect to hear that Pence was never anything but a pathetic creature who actually wasn’t the Vice President. And Mike, watch your back!)
Let’s face it. There is a lot to be depressed about. The pandemic is still taking 2,00 lives a day (though there is some evidence that the number of daily infections are waning considerably in some places.)
The Republicans continue to do everything in their power to upend voting rights, while claiming the Democrats attempt to legislate and protect voting rights is an outrageous abuse of power. How dare they work to interfere with each state’s right to do as they see fit, even though they know the constitution specifically designates that the “Election Clause,” in the constitution, gives the federal government that power, specifically to protect against rogue states undermining the franchise?
What’s so evil and nauseating about their unwillingness to support the voting rights legislation is that in 2006, the Senate voted 98-0 to reauthorize the bill. Here’s what McConnell said back then.
“America’s history is a story of ever-increasing freedom, hope and opportunity for all. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 represents one of this country’s greatest steps forward in that story. Today I am pleased the Senate reaffirmed that our country must continue its progress towards becoming a society in which every person, of every background, can realize the American dream”
What changed?
McConnell had just smoked weed and after eating a large bag of M&M’s was so giddy he couldn’t help himself. Now that he is cold stoned sober he realizes that people do and say stupid things when they are high?
Back then it seemed like a good idea to support democracy, but now that the gap between white and non-whites is narrowing, he had second thoughts, as too many of “those people” voting could upset the balance of things.
He’ll do anything to have power, and if that means returning us to the era of Jim Crow, then so be it!
The federal government is out of control and only the states are competent enough to decide who should vote.
This nefarious game of claiming foul when you are committing the foul is boilerplate Republican chicanery. Just outright change reality. Biden is illegitimate. January 6th was just a boisterous tailgating scene. There is no climate change. The virus is just, meh, even though Republicans in counties that Trump won are dying at alarming rates compared to people in blue states where the rate of vaccination is higher. Reducing child poverty and offering free pre-K to all Americans is socialism.
And then there is Joe Manchin and Kristin Sinema, who have decided that getting rid of the filibuster to ensure voting rights, which will make it possible for democrats to have a fair chance of winning elections, is just not something they can get behind. If I recall, Mitch McConnnell, as Senate Majority leader, carved out a filibuster exemption for Supreme Court nominees. As a result we are stuck with Brett Kavanaugh, Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barret for the next 30 years. It makes you want to scream! Okay, all together now: Aaahhhhh!
So what can we be happy about? How about the people who were part of an orchestrated plot to overturn the election being charged with sedition! Sedition, that’s serious stuff. Finally, the D.O.J is throwing down the gauntlet. Eleven ‘Oath Keepers’, including their fearless leader Stewart Rhodes are accused of recruiting participants, organizing training in paramilitary combat, coordinating travel, teams and logistics and bringing weapons to D.C. in order to carry out the conspiracy. For a dateline account of their actions go to the link below. Reading through it is riveting and frightening as hell.
Then we have the delicious news that the New York State attorney general, Letitia James, accused Donald J. Trump’s family business of repeatedly misrepresenting the value of its assets to bolster its bottom line, saying in court papers that the company had engaged in “fraudulent or misleading” practices. As a result of James’ declaration Daddy, Jr. and Ivanka may all have to give depositions. Who wants to take odds on whether The Don will throw his kids under the bus if he can? Or maybe they will throw him under the bus?
How about Rudy G. and his co-conspirator legal team being subpoenaed by the January 6th commission for questioning in their effort to use the courts, state legislatures and Congress to try to overturn The Don’s defeat? Rudy G’s antics are well known, but here’s what the other three did.
Jenna Ellis, the committee said, prepared and circulated two memos analyzing the constitutional authority for Mike Pence to reject or delay counting electoral votes from states where The Don’s allies had attempted to arrange for the submission of an alternate slate of electors. Ellis advised that Pence had the authority to not count electoral votes from six states in which the Trump campaign falsely alleged there was widespread fraud.
Sidney Powell was among the leading promoters of some of the most far-fetched and fantastical claims of widespread voter fraud, including a bizarre conspiracy theory alleging a vast plot by China, Venezuela and the financier George Soros to hack into Dominion Voting Systems machines to flip votes away from The Don to Biden.
Boris Epshteyn reportedly attended planning meetings at the Willard Hotel in the days leading up to Jan. 6, the committee said. The panel, citing reporting from The Guardian, said he also participated in a call with Mr. Trump the morning of Jan. 6 that included a discussion of Mr. Pence’s unwillingness to deny or delay the certification. Guess these folks could face some serious jail time if the D.O.J decides to prosecute them.
Lawyers of the Insurrection!
A grand jury is being convened by the District Attorney in Fulton County, Georgia investigating whether The Don committed a crime when he asked Brad Raffensperger to find him one more vote than Biden received in the state. They have a tape of him asking him to find the votes. Now that’s what I call a smoking gun!
And to top it off, the Supreme Court voted 8-1 to reject The Don’s appeal to block the release of White House records requested by the January 6th committee. Could be some smoking guns there that tie The Don directly to planning the insurrection.
So we have arrived at 2022. We had so much hope that the pandemic would be behind us by now, but that is not to be. No one can say with accuracy how many positive cases there are each day because the spread is so rapid and not all cases are reported due to home testing. We are so desperate for silver linings that only 1,500 people dying a day and a less drastic rise in deaths, relative to cases, becomes a standard for good news. Let’s hope we follow the trajectory of South Africa that showed a quick leveling off and rapid decline in cases after a month.
And now let’s turn our attention to the other virus wreaking havoc: The Republican Party or as I like to call them the Grand Offall Party.
It was pretty astounding that there were only two Republicans present for a day dedicated to remembering the horror of January 6th. And one of them was Dick Cheney, the man who should have been tried for war crimes for starting a war in Iraq (remember the imagined weapons of mass destruction?), aka, Darth Vader! Either democracy really does matter to him, or he thought he was accompanying his congresswoman daughter Liz to a staff picnic. I mean after all, to hear Republicans’ recollections of that infamous day is to think that maybe it was just a bunch of patriots at a tailgating party that got a bit rowdy.
The Offal Party’s reluctance to acknowledge what that they know to be true, and continue to foster the lie that the election was stolen, makes them the party of treason. Their abeyance to an ex-president, who is fascist at his core, clearly reflects their disdain for democracy and their ruthless quest for power by any means necessary: When results of elections are a matter of interpretation and a violent attack on our Capitol is just another day, we are in perilous times.
My disdain for these spineless and evil people has only intensified with each passing day.
Since Republicans have decided to hold fast to their reality of January 6th and the threat to democracy, I thought commemorating some of them would be a way to ensure their infamy. To that end I’ve created what I am calling: Toys of Tyranny.
Let’s start with Mike Pence. Yes, yes, Mike Pence saved democracy. He didn’t cave to The Don’s pressure to not certify the electoral vote. But here is what he had to say just the other day to Fox News:
“I know the media wants to distract from the Biden administration’s failed agenda by focusing on one day in January.”
Wow, Mike, guess people chanting “Hang Mike Pence” was no biggie? I guess your wife, who you dreamily call ‘Mother’, hasn’t always been so adoring?
To properly define in this moment infamy, I am offering a Mike Pence doll (an evangelical Ken doll?) that comes with accessories such as: a noose, a tar and feather kit, and a guillotine. Each package also includes a quote from the person who incited the mob to kill you.
Here’s The Don on his concern about Pence’s safety during the insurrection. “I think it was an expression. I don’t think they would have ever thought of doing it.”
According to The Don “There was no downside (to not certifying). So Mike could have done that. And I wish he did. I think it would have been much better for the country. I also think it would have been better for Mike.”
Mike, I need to ask you something. On a scale from 1- 10, 1 being least likely, how do you rate the ex-president’s concern for your safety, given how enraged he was at you for defying him and his documented need for revenge when others cross him? Do you think he would have called off his patriots when they were putting the noose around your neck or would just continue to watch it all unfold on TV?
Our next commemorative is the “Ted Cruz ventriloquy set. This gift includes a Ted Cruz puppet and a Cruz doll. Every once in a while the puppet blurts out things that are true as if the Ted Cruz doll has no control over it. It’s best line:
“January 6th was a violent terrorist attack on the Capitol, where we saw the men and women of law enforcement demonstrate incredible courage.”
The kit also comes with a Tucker Carlson doll that says: “Your political career is dog poop unless you retract that.”
Next up is the Peter Navaro doll which comes with a book that gives a step by step procedure to stage a coup.
Our last offering is a set of two Lindsey Graham, Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy dolls. The dolls come with a video of each of them denouncing Trump after the January 6th insurrection.
Each doll is programmed to say: “That guy sure looks like me, and I hear what he is saying, but that person is definitely not me. I guess I just have a body double out there. Freaky, don’t you think?”
If you order now, not only will you receive one of our unique gifts commemorating January 6th, but you will also get a special Kool Aide mug that says: January 6th. Just Another Day!
I can’t believe I am going to say this, but though I disagree with mostly everything Liz Cheney stands for, watching her stand-up for democracy gives me goosebumps. Okay, goosebumps is a bit much, but her fortitude in the face of powerful countervailing forces, even in the wake of death threats, is impressive.
Given the Republicans’ despicable and dangerous attempt to seize power, whatever the cost to an increasingly fragile democracy, Cheney (and Adam Kinzinger as well) are staying the course: They believe the truth about January 6th must be brought forth to the American people. The committee believes that they need to do whatever it takes to get to the truth. They believe what happened can, and must, never happen again. They hope that the truth will awaken more moderate Republicans and Independents to the danger posed by the cult of the current Republican party.
This week we finally got a glimpse of what the committee has been uncovering.
It seems that Mark “What’s that stench in the Meadow” is in the middle of it all. People like Meadows are the Offal of the Grand Offal Party!
“God, you smell like a freakin dumpster!”
Here’s some samples of the texts Meadows received during the attempted coup that Cheney read out loud ahead of a House vote to hold Meadows in contempt for refusing to testify.
“It’s really bad up here on the Hill. “The president needs to stop this ASAP,” another said. A third simply wrote: “Fix this now.”
There were even desperate pleas from Don Jr. and some Fox News people. Don Jr texted this to Meadows: “He’s got to condemn this shit ASAP,” Donald Trump Jr. texted. “The Capitol Police tweet is not enough.”
We don’t know what action, if any, Meadows took as a result of these texts begging The Don to stop the mayhem, but we can always imagine.
(The Don sitting on a couch watching the insurrection on TV)
The Don: Hey Mark, can you believe how much the people love me? It’s absolutely beautiful, don’t you think?
Meadows: (quivering)
The Don: Mark, what’s wrong? You’re holding yourself like you need to take a piss or what?
Meadows: Mr. President. Um, um.
The Don: Spit it out, Mark. Oh look at that guy with the Viking costume. We need to get his name. I may want to offer him a job.
Meadows: Mr. President, I’m getting texts from a lot of people saying you need to stop this, that it’s out of control.
The Don: Sometimes when you are defending democracy things get a bit rough. These are real patriots doing their job. It’s amazing. No other president has had people rise up against the injustice of the election like this. Only me.
Meadows: But there is going to bloodshed, people may die.
The Don: Listen Mark, if watching a true patriotic revolution is too much for your queasy stomach then you need to get the hell out of here. Don’t fuckin rain on moment of glory. So what is it going to be?
Are you going to wimp out or join me here on this couch and celebrate the moment.
(Meadows meekly sleeks over to the couch)
The Don: Good boy Mark. Hey Mark, before you get too comfortable can you get me a Diet Coke?
Meadow: Yes, Mr. President. Wow, Mr. President, now that I am watching we really should hire that Viking guy. He is kicking ass!
And what about the lead up to January 6th? What involvement did Meadows have? Turns out a whole lot.
He joined a January 2nd call now under investigation in which Trump pressed Georgia’s secretary of state to “find” enough votes to defeat Joe Biden. He repeatedly passed on conspiracy theories and falsehoods to top administration officials encouraging them to overturn the election. And he participated in discussions about the Jan. 6 rally that turned violent, saying the National Guard would be present to protect “pro-Trump people.” Turned out that protecting Pro-Trump people meant the National Guard just hung out in their trucks on standby while the Pro-Trump crowd beat on police, destroyed property, hunted down the vice president and other legislatures.
According to reputable sources, Meadows received text messages and emails about a strategy to encourage Republican legislators in certain states to send alternate slates of electors to Congress, which some Trump allies believed would allow vice president Mike Pence to overturn the election results. When a member of Congress described the plan to Meadows as “highly controversial,” Meadows responded, “I love it.” Sounds like he is quoting his buddy Don Jr. when he was presented with the possibility of getting dirt on Hillary by Russians at the infamous Trump Tower meeting and said “I love it.”
He also disseminated a memo from Jenna Ellis, a Trump campaign lawyer, to Marc Short, Pence’s chief of staff, arguing the vice president could set aside certain electors, according to a person familiar with the matter. And he brought in other outside lawyers to press his dubious case with Pence’s orbit that the vice president had the authority to overturn the election results.
Last December, Meadows emailed then-acting attorney general Jeffrey Rosen a long letter filled with outlandish claims — which became known as “Italygate” — about how an Italian defense contractor had somehow conspired with senior CIA officials to rig the election by switching votes from Trump to Biden. Rumor has it that he was overheard saying: I heard the Biden team got 100’s of pounds of the best Parmigiano cheese with those votes. Pisses me off!
Prior to the vote of holding Meadows in criminal contempt of congress, Cheney pivoted to The Don, suggesting by failing to stop the violence at the Capitol on Jan. 6, may have violated a federal law that prohibits obstructing an official proceeding before Congress.
In must-watch TV, the investigation could very well lead to Mr. Trump facing her questions, with criminal penalties hanging over his head if he lies.
“Any communication “And if he persists in lying then, he will be accountable under the laws of this great nation and subject to criminal penalties for every false word he speaks.”
Watching Liz Cheney interrogate The Don will be must-watch TV.
With the new variant Omicron beginning to spread, America is potentially setting itself up for another big hurt. Still reeling from the devastation of the Delta variant, with 100,00 new cases a day and a thousand deaths, the right’s resistance to science continues to be looney tunes.
The Biden administration just released a plan to increase home-testing, and continues to push the importance of the vaccine, including mandating it in businesses with more than 100 employees, as the best protection against serious illness and death from the virus.
The Republican response to this is to threaten to shut the government down unless the Biden administration abandons its efforts to fight the coronavirus with vaccine mandates. In other words: “You want to require vaccines, then no one who works in the government gets paid! So much for mail delivery during the holiday season!”.
Once again the Republicans scream: “How dare the government infringe on our personal freedom?”
Since when does the definition of freedom include the right to endanger other people’s health and lives because you don’t feel like taking basic precautions?
What happened to the defenders of freedom, like Florida Governor, Ron DeSatanist and Texas Governor, Dread Abottt, who endorsed legislation preventing private businesses from requiring their workers to be vaccinated? So much for the freedom to have your business choose to protect its workers! What gall!
And now we learn that The Don knew he was positive for Covid before his debate with Joe Biden. The former Narcissist-in Chief put all the people around him at risk without even a thought for their well being. As horrific as that is, it isn’t surprising as, The Don lives in a universe of one. Rumor has it that when one of his staff gently suggested he postpone the debate because he was a walking super spreader he said: “Are you fucking kidding me? This is the land of the free. You think I am going to give up an opportunity to destroy Biden with millions watching me, just to protect some staff? And who knows, I might infect the idiot and then the election would be mine!”
Do you think The Don is winning more hearts in Republican land because he did this? Now there is a guy who knows what he wants, and goes after it. A real man. A real American hero.
The Republican disregard for life, in the name of freedom, is astonishing. Makes you wonder if they are rooting for the pandemic to continue to devastate so they can blame the Democrats and Biden for failing to keep Americans safe. After all, the 2022 elections are less than a year away.
Speaking of Republicans who are helping the pandemic stay robust, putting people in harm’s way. Marcus Lamb (church) died this past week at 64 from Covid. This past May, he and his wife, Joni, on their show “Ministry Now” included a segment in which the Covid vaccine was falsely said to be “killing your immune system.”
“We want to warn you, we want to help you, we want to give you an alternative,” Mr. Lamb said.
Instead of getting vaccinated, “we can pray, we can get ivermectin and budesonide and hydroxychloroquine,”
“I’m at a loss for words today,” his son, Jonathan, tweeted. “My father was promoted to heaven at 4 am this morning.” Since we are using the word promotion, it is kind of like he skipped a couple of grades? I thought that kind of promotion was reserved for very smart people.
I am hoping that if there is a God, they will look at him and say: “WTF, this idea that you were promoted is utter nonsense. Demotion is more like it. You are headed down there because your idiocy has killed a lot of people. Remember the Ten Commandments. “Thou Shall Not Kill!” Nor shall one be a witting accomplice to murder!”.
Prayer, ivermectin and budesonide and hydroxychloroquine do not work to protect people. But that doesn’t stop people with influence from promising false testimony to their efficacy.
But how about dirt? That’s right you heard right. Dirt! Maybe the virus is repelled by dirt. “Hey, no way am I going to get myself dirty trying to kill people. Not my thing.”
And this is not just your everyday dirt. Just the kind that is sold on the Black Oxygen Organics (BOO) Website. For a $110, you too can get on the BOO train. What do you get for that kind of coin? Four-and-a-half ounces magic dirt, sealed in a sleek black plastic baggie. And if you are thinking about this being a steep price, don’t forget to include the cost of shipping in your calculations.
Visitors to the Black Oxygen Organics website, (which was recently taken offline), were greeted with a pair of white hands cradling cups of dirt like an offering. “A gift from the Ground,” it reads. “Drink it. Wear it. Bathe in it.”
BOO, which “can be taken by anyone at any age, as well as animals,” according to the company, claims many benefits and uses, including improved brain function and heart health, and ridding the body of so-called toxins that include heavy metals, pesticides, and parasites. Tens of thousands of people have and are still ingesting it praying that it keeps the virus at bay.
Though there has been some push back regarding the benefits of dirt eating as a protector from Covid, there are still many out there trying to get in on the action. Rumor has it that some devotees are convinced that the fact that the name of the company is BOO is a sign that it scares the virus away. After all, who messes with anyone who says “Boo!”?
If this wasn’t a deadly affair, it would be funny. But like P.T. Barnum supposedly said (there is evidence that it is more likely that a banker named David Hannum from Syracuse, New York who actually said it) “A sucker is born every minute.” Usually, most of those suckers just lose money. These sad souls lose their lives.
And what’s up next in the world of fake cures for Covid? How about a new product called “Poop Dreams”? The sales pitch: Covid scared shitless of baby poop!”
While sitting at a traffic light in Mt. Pocono, PA, a pick up truck adorned with American flags came into view displaying the banner: Kyle Rittenhouse American Hero.
A 17 year old drives to another city with an automatic rifle in order to “‘protect property” during the protests over the killing of yet another black man and kills two protesters, injuring another. He claims self-defense and is found not guilty by a jury, and lauded as a hero!
I won’t indulge my outrage at his exoneration except to pose this: If Kyle Rittenhouse was black, what are the chances that he would have walked out of that courtroom a free man? A black man defending himself in that situation would be seen as a dangerous and a violent thug; Rittenhouse was seen as a victim, and thus had the right to defend himself according to Wisconsin law. The American way: Unequal justice under the law!
But wait, you say. What about the verdict in Georgia by a jury of 11 white jurists and one black one convicting ? that shows the system worked, that justice was served. Right?
Before we get too carried away by the verdict, let us pause to remember that the three defendants walked free for two months, and potentially could have gotten away with a modern-day lynching of Arbery. Why? Because the District Attorney tried to hide evidence that proved their guilt. What was the evidence? An actual video of the cold blooded act shot by one of the three defendants.
Remember it was the video of Derek Chauvin’s knee on George Floyd that led to his conviction. In the current case, the defendant provided the evidence to his own conviction. Oops!
Guess he was hoping to have evidence supporting their actions? Support that Arbery got what he deserved?
William “Roddie” Bryan, one of the three convicted, filmed an execution of a black man out for a run. In America, if you are black, you can put on your Nikes, go out for an afternoon jog, and get put down like a dog!
Was there any moment in the filming that this White Supremacist registered the horror of what was unfolding? Was there any sense of humanity? Who knows, maybe he planned to show it off to some friends one night at a local bar, or at some holiday party.
Rumor has it that his two partners in crime, Travis McMichael and his father, Gregory McMichael, were outraged when they found out that he still had the video on his phone. “We told you to delete that shit, you stupid ass idiot? WTF?”.
Bryan reported that his buddies were so enraged with him that they told him he better request a different prison because they would kill him, just like they killed that black guy, if he was incarcerated with them. “You fucking ruined our life.”
As for Rittenhouse, he remains the new darling of the American right. The outpouring of support for this American hero was overwhelming.
“There’s still a chance for this country,” wrote one Proud Boy. Another member stated that political violence must continue. “The left won’t stop until their bodies get stacked up like cord wood,” he wrote.
Marjorie Taylor Greene introduced a bill to “award a Congressional Gold Medal to Rittenhouse, who protected the community of Kenosha, Wisconsin, during a Black Lives Matter (BLM) riot on August 25, 2020.”
Other notables to receive the award: George Washington, astronaut Neil Armstrong, the Tuskegee Airmen, Rosa Parks, Pope John Paul II, and Jackie Robinson. Why not Rittenhouse? How about a stamp with Rittenhouse sporting his Ar-15?
Congressman Matt Gaetz said he was open to giving Rittenhouse an internship on Capitol Hill. Not to be undone, Representative Madison Cawthorn, made a flat-out offer of an internship and said: “Kyle Rittenhouse is not guilty, my friends. “You have a right to defend yourself, so be armed, be dangerous, and be moral.” In the mind of our very own congressman, being armed and dangerous is about morality!
Rumor has it that Crawford was overheard saying: “This boy has a great future ahead of him, and I want to be the one to launch it.” When asked about the future of the the two murder victims Cawthorn responded: “You support BLM, shit happens!”
In a tweet that has since been deleted, Donald Trump Jr. wrote: “Gun Owners of America is sending Kyle Rittenhouse an AR-15. Sign the card in support of Kyle. Americans have a fundamental right to defend themselves, and to keep and bear arms. The verdict in the Kyle Rittenhouse trial is a recognition of those rights.” And then we have The Don himself weighing in after a visit with Rittenhouse at Mar-a-Lago. “He came over with his mother. Really a nice young man.” Someone in the room said off camera he continued and said: We took a photo together and he’s very photogenic, almost angelic. His mother, not so much. I wouldn’t be caught dead with her. Not sure how such a good looking kid came out of her. I told him that if he were of age I would ask him to be my vice president. Hey Mike, your lucky Kyle wasn’t around with his weapon during January 6th.
The Republican party has gone rogue and off the rails. Refusing to clearly condemn the “Big Lie” of the “StoptheSteal” campaign and acknowledge the seriousness of the January 6th insurrection, they have made a mockery of the rule of law and as a result, have fueled a movement that threatens our democracy. Their moral turpitude and sycophantic obeisance to The Don, coupled with their insidious and rapacious desire for power, has fostered an environment where potential for violence, in the name of faux patriotism, is becoming more and more real.
Polling indicates that 30 percent of Republicans, and 40 percent of people who “most trust” far-right news sources, believe that “true patriots” may have to resort to violence to “save” the country.
Let’s look at a few recent incidents that frankly scare the shit out of me.
Here’s a comment made by someone at rally sponsored by a right wing media provocator:
“At this point, we’re living under corporate and medical fascism. This is tyranny. When do we get to use the guns?” the man asked, to applause from the crowd. “No, and I’m not – that’s not a joke. I’m not saying it like that. I mean, literally, where’s the line? How many elections are they going to steal before we kill these people?”
Good question. When are they going to “use the guns”? I don’t have any actual data, but I am willing to bet that most of the people who own guns in this country are the “we” he is referencing.
Representative Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, who is one of the only Republicans to condemn the “Big Lie” and is sitting on the committee (along with Liz Cheney) investigating the January 6th Insurrection, was told to slit his wrists and “rot in hell.”
Another hoped Representative Don Bacon of Nebraska (whose outrageous act was to vote for a bill to fix bridges and roads!) would “slip and fall down a staircase.” Rumor has it that Bacon told a friend, “Hope that asshole steps in a pothole and breaks his leg”.
Fred Upton, another congressman, who committed heresy by voting for the infrastructure bill, said his phone lines were flooded with more than a thousand angry and threatening calls, including multiple death threats to him and his family. An Upton spokesperson reported that the strangest voice message he heard was someone singing the beginning of a dark Curtis Mayfield song:
“Hey, hey
Love, love
Yeah, yeah
Ah, ha
Freddies dead
That’s what I said”
Marjorie Taylor Greene sicked her ire on her colleagues, and blasted out the office phone numbers of the 19 Republican senators who voted for the infrastructure bill in August. She referred to them as “traitors.” But MTG, we just want to fix the roads and bridges. What’s the harm in that? Rumor has it that MTG responded “Better to die driving over a bridge that caves in, than to give those treasonous Democrats a victory. Real American heroes die for their country; and if it means hurtling through the air to your death: So be it!”
Representative Paul Gosar, Republican of Arizona, this week tweeted an anime video altered to show him killing Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
What did Minority leader Mr. McCarthy, and almost all his Republican cronies, have to say about Gosar’s outrageous action? Nothing at all. Rumor has it, that when McCarthy was asked what he thought about Gosar’s video, he said, “Paul’s got a weird sense of humor, anyway I can’t be bothered with that as I am too busy fantasizing hitting Nancy Pelosi in the head with a gavel when I replace her as speaker”.
Michigan Congresswoman Debbie Dingell said she was threatened by men with assault weapons outside her home last year after she was denounced by Tucker Carlson on his Fox News show. One friendly constituent left this voice mail: “They ought to try you for treason. I hope your family dies in front of you. I pray to God that if you’ve got any children, they die in your face.” God, if you are listening, can you please do something to this menace to society? If you don’t, I will be forced to come to the conclusion that you are a Republican.
And what of Ted Cruz’s assault on Big Bird, who dared to support children getting vaccinated. Cruz accused Big Bird of “Government propaganda…for your 5 year old!” That’s right Big Bird wants to control your mind. He wants to take away your freedom. He wants to teach you how to read things like Toni Morrison’s “Beloved”. Watch out as Karl Marx is Big Bird’s great, great grandfather.
And then there is what The Don had to say when asked about Mike Pence’s safety during the insurrection when great patriots were screaming, “Hang Mike Pence, Hang Mike Pence!”.
“No, I thought he was well-protected, and I had heard that he was in good shape” Trump said.
“Because you heard those chants — that was terrible,” Karl said.
“Well, the people were very angry,” Trump replied.
Jonathan Karl from his new book: Betrayal: The Final Act of the Trump show continued:
“They were saying, ‘Hang Mike Pence’” Karl said.
“Because it’s common sense, Jon,” Trump replied. “It’s common sense that you’re supposed to protect. How can you … if you know a vote is fraudulent, right? How can you pass on a fraudulent vote to Congress? How can you do that?”.
So, is the Don saying what I think he’s saying? Was he suggesting that Pence would have gotten what he deserved, that if by some chance he didn’t get to safety that wouldn’t have been so terrible? Yes, you heard it right. You heard the ex-president say that killing his vice president would have been understandable given the people’s anger. You heard a not-so-veiled call-to-arms to take back what was stolen. Yes, that’s where we are in this country. Scary place to be!
On a positive note, Steve Bannon was finally indicted for refusing to appear before the congressional committee.
Everything we need to know about the polarity and divisiveness plaguing our country can be seen in the Governor’s race in Virginia.
It’s the culture-war on steroids, and the Republican candidate Glen Youngkin has decided that focusing on education is his path to victory. And it is working, making the race a toss-up a few days before the election.
The Republican playbook is simple and of course, ruthless. What better tactic to motivate parents by insinuating that their children are being brainwashed and traumatized by what is taught in the classrooms?
His message is: if you love your children, and want them to be safe, you must vote for him. A vote for the other guy is a message to your child that you don’t care about them. So the choice is very stark. If the other guy wins, your kids will be forced to read Toni Morrison’s “Beloved,” and you might as well have them cavorting with the devil himself.
Here’s nearly-lynched Mike Pence, (remember that chant on January 6th: “Hang Mike Pence! Hang Mike Pence!”?) weighing in on the issue in Virginia:
“Children as young as kindergarten are being taught to be ashamed of their skin color,” Pence said, adding that “critical race theory is nothing more than state-sponsored racism” and calling it an attempt to ”indoctrinate our youth into radical, left-wing ideology.” Youngkin has said that if he was elected he would immediately ban Critical Race Theory.
All I can say, Mike, is that after you escaped lynching, I hoped you would have a developed a little more compassion for the black experience. As much as us lefties despise and disagree with you, we would have protected you from the lynch mob. No human deserves that fate. Wouldn’t you agree, Mikey?
Though Pence hasn’t specifically supported banning Nobel Laureate Morrison’s book, it’s all part of the same racist Republican brew. A brilliant strategy, at that. Our poor children need to be protected from the likes of Toni Morrison, and other writers, who ask students to confront elements of our brutal treatment of blacks in this country. And just to set the record straight Mikey, since 1619 black children were taught to be ashamed of the color of their skin by people like you who believe America’s true self is a White Christian Nation!
The battle to ban Morrison’s book has been going on since 2013 when a mother of a high school senior, who had nightmares from reading it, spearheaded a bill in the state legislature to have it banned. The bill was presented to Terry McCaulife, then Governor of Virginia, to sign and he vetoed it. Youngkin has brought this battle into the race by having the parent tell her story in an ad supporting him.
So what is all the insanity over “Beloved”? The story of Beloved is inspired by an event that actually happened: an escaped slave, knowing she was about to be captured, killed her two-year-old daughter, to spare her from being returned to slavery.
Instead of creating a crusade to ban the book to protect her child, wouldn’t it be something if she said: “Nightmares are scary, but imagine the nightmare that mother lived in for her to feel that killing her own child was preferable to her living as a slave.” And then her child responded: “Wow mom, that’s so powerful. Now that you put it that way, I wouldn’t be human if the book didn’t give me nightmares”. “Yes son, sometimes we need to have nightmares to confront the nightmare of our past actions. It’s the only way we can make sure it can’t happen again. It’s the only way we can do better.”
We are a so-called democracy where members of one party, The Grand Offal Party, continue to systematically disenfranchise citizens from voting.
According to the Brennan Center for Justice, since January, “19 states have enacted 33 laws that will make it harder for Americans to vote. And those were just the ones that passed. As the center pointed out, “More than 425 bills with provisions that restrict voting access have been introduced in 49 states in the 2021 legislative sessions.”
Texas is leading the way. In August the legislature passed a law that bans drive-through voting and 24-hour voting, which were used by nearly 140,000 voters in Harris County — which is almost 50% Hispanic and 20% Black during the 2020 election. Umm, could that possibly be racist?
It prohibits election officials from sending absentee ballots to all voters, regardless of whether they had requested them; bans using tents, garages, mobile units, or any temporary structure as a polling location; further limiting who could vote absentee; and added new identification requirements for voting by mail.
What’s with banning the use of tents and garages? According to rumor, a Republican spokesman said: “If you use a tent, it is an affront to the Injuns, oops, I mean, Indians, I mean Native Americans; it’s the equivalent of blackface. Injuns smoke the peace pipe in those tents and using it for voting would be devaluing their ritual.”
And garages? Here’s the Republican spokesperson on this: “You know garages are for cars and power tools. Those are sacred spaces, just like the Teepee is for the Injuns, oops, I mean Natives, oops, Native Americans. After all, the car is the symbol of American greatness. Voting in a garage devalues American workers and just, well, just is Anti-American.”
Adding new ID requirements also places a burden on more marginalized communities. Republican operative: “Look, we went easy here. Some legislators wanted to require all young voters to bring their parents to prove who they are, so don’t push it buddy.”
Then there is gerrymandering. Because of population growth, Texas stands to gain two congressional seats. And although 95 percent of that growth was due to people of color, the Republican-led Legislature is working on new maps that would increase the power of white Republicans in the state and reduce the power of people of color.
Furthermore, according to The Texas Tribune, “In the proposed Senate map, 64.5% of the districts have white majorities,” and “white Texans make up the majority of eligible voters in 60.5 percent of the proposed congressional districts, though they only make up 40% of the voting population.
It’s called gerrymandering, but I call it old-fashioned cheating. It’s like playing a card game where only the white people have two aces to start with.
Next on the list: voters who didn’t vote for Donald Trump? People who like artisanal foods? College graduates? Can they do that? Why not? Whoever thought they could pass a law allowing citizens to sue an Uber driver who is aiding and abetting a women seeking an abortion by dropping them off at a Planned Parenthood.
To use a few Trump’s favorites, this is what you call a ‘rigged’ system; it is a recipe for “stolen” elections. Don’t you think it is time for Democrats to create their own “Stop the Steal” campaign?
The Republicans are masters of playing the opposite-game. When you ask them why they feel they need the voting laws in Texas, they tell you it is to preserve the sanctity of our cherished democracy. Brilliant, right? When you ask them about the Democrat’s voting rights bill that actually protects democracy, they become outraged and equate it to the Democrat’s takeover of the government. Telling, isn’t it? If we make voting easier, then Democrats will always win. That’s not fair. If you are going to play that game with us we are just going to have to equalize the playing field by simply taking out some of your voters. Fair is fair. I mean what kind of democracy do we have where one party has more voters than the other? That’s not democracy. Gee golly, that’s simply un-American. It’s outright, autocratic rule.
The evil of people like Mitch McConnell is that they can stand there with a straight face, look you in the eye, tell you their only goal is to protect our democracy, and then go home and sleep like a baby. It is the same evil and hypocrisy in the name of freedom that can promote ugly, and at times, terrifying, behavior towards teachers, parents and even their children who are following mask mandates. “Child-abusers” the anti-vaxxers scream, as they terrorize young children with their parents leaving schools for wearing masks. It is clear who the real child-abusers are, just as it is clear who is promoting anti-democratic laws claiming they are protecting our great democracy.
The Democrats on the other hand, twist and turn in the wind, resisting the obvious solution to “Stopping the Steal” and the hijacking of democracy. Does anyone believe that if Mitch McConnell were in the same boat he would hesitate for a moment to get rid of the filibuster? Democrats don’t need to be evil like McConnell to do this: They just have to understand that it is their duty to protect democracy. What more of a moral imperative do you need than that?
