A reader sent me this and notes: You must simply comply! Do not question the authorities, do not not concern yourself with opposing views or you will be censored and ridiculed. Sounds like communism to (sic) all right. (more…)
It’s hard to imagine how anyone could disagree with this.
Of course, some politicians take this to the next level.
DeJoy owns tens of millions of dollars in holdings in a competitor to the Post Office that he’s been ruining for the last year. Trump and his family have business holdings all over the world that clearly influenced how the former president managed relations with various countries.
There was a time that this level of criminality needed to be covert; now it’s done right in our faces, on the presumption that there is nothing we can do about it.
There are two main take-aways from what we learned about Trump’s relationship with Benjamin Netanyahu a couple of days ago (see video below). First, the notion of this “bromance” between the two was put up for political purposes only, both in the United States and in Israel. It never, in fact, existed. No real surprise there. (more…)
This is brilliant.
Here we are, 70 years later, noting how truth has been the main casualty in the war between Donald Trump and those who oppose him.
And it’s true: you can’t have fascism without destroying the notion of truth and falsity.
Apparently, there are people who don’t understand that Biden didn’t hold rallies. Perhaps this was because he didn’t want to recklessly endanger people during the pandemic; perhaps it’s just not his style.
There are the same people who are ignoring the fact that 60+ different courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, found no evidence of voter fraud.
Biden didn’t win because he was a fabulous candidate; he won because he was the only choice for those who didn’t want to re-empower a sociopath.
A right-wing reader sent me this. OMG, that sounds awful. Googling it, I found that Salk did actually say this.
Then I started to wonder how many cases of polio there have been since 1961, and I found the graph below. Practically zero, and, like all vaccines, there are rare cases of bad reactions.
What that graph shows is how terrible the disease was, and how effectively the vaccination worked in driving it into virtual extinction.
Those who deliberately distort the truth, especially on matters of public health and safety, are not good people.
From this:
Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida and the former White House advisor Steve Bannon floated an idea that an “army of patriots” and “shock troops” should be prepared to take over the government if former President Donald Trump were to run and win in 2024.
During Thursday’s episode of Bannon’s “War Room” podcast, he and Gaetz outlined their plan if Trump should win.
Trump has not yet publicly announced he is running in 2024.
“People didn’t like that Donald Trump raised his voice, but sometimes you gotta raise your voice to raise a ruckus and to raise an army of patriots who love this country and will fight for her,” Gaetz said.
Bannon then went on to suggest to a nodding Gaetz that there should be a “theory of governing” before elaborating on what his plan would be if Trump were to be president again.
“It’s fresh and it’s new. This is Trumpism in power. That’s when we went to the 4,000 shock troops we have to have that’s (sic) going to man the government. Get them ready now. Right?” Bannon said. “We’re going to hit the beach with the landing teams and the beachhead teams and all that nomenclature they use when President Trump wins in 2024 — or before.”
Bannon went on to suggest that these 4,000 shock troops would then become “political appointees.”
“And we’re going to go after this administrative state and we’re going to start at the Department of Justice and the FBI. That’s the job I want. You know, send me over to the Judiciary Committee and their sphincters will tighten because they have been doing a lot of corrupt things over there,” Gaetz said in response to Bannon’s suggestion.
It is unclear what Gaetz and Bannon meant, specifically, with references to an “army of patriots” and “shock troops.”
In October, Bannon made a similar, albeit less detailed suggestion when calling into NBC News.
“If you’re going to take over the administrative state and deconstruct it, then you have to have shock troops prepared to take it over immediately,” Bannon said. “I gave ’em fire and brimstone.”
Well, on the surface, that has the potential to be upsetting. But here are a few comments:
First, why are “shock troops” necessary if Trump wins? Did you see any violent uprisings when Trump beat Hillary Clinton in 2016? The Democratic party has its issues, but promoting baseless conspiracy theories about stolen elections isn’t among them. They don’t storm the Capitol; they retreat and get to work on the next election.
More importantly, where are these people going to come from? Many of Trump’s most violent supporters are behind bars, with many more to follow. How much appetite for prison time do these fools have?
Next, how are they going to be effective? Do you think for a moment that our generals and admirals are going to join a coup that sets asunder rule of law and the U.S. Constitution? These people command 1.3 million active duty personnel, supported by a $770 billion military budget, and they’ve spent their entire adult lives defending this country from attacks, foreign and domestic.
This presumes that law enforcement doesn’t get the job done before military intervention is necessary. Yes, there were cops who participated in the insurrection, but it’s a safe bet that only a slim minority of the members of our police forces are criminally insane.
Lastly, there’s a very good chance that Steve Bannon is going to be prison in 2024, which may impact his capacity to unleash “fire and brimstone.” Of course, the same could be said about Matt Gaetz, considering the very credible allegations of child sex trafficking.
Pessimists believe we’re doomed, and many of them would cite the meme here as evidence.
Think for a moment, if you will, how miserably ill-informed you’d need to be to post the meme here.
There is no cure for COVID-19.
Social media is flagging rank bullcrap, but most of us think that’s a good thing.
Who thinks the medical community routinely cheats on the numbers? Does your doctor seem blatantly dishonest?
Anyone can question science, but those without scientific training look kind of stupid in the process. Does anyone care what his swimming pool cleaner thinks about epidemiology?
It’s pathetic.
The past few months have presented us with discussions of “red states” seceding from the union. This would have been a very nice option had Lincoln chosen it in 1860, but unfortunately, it’s no longer viable, if only because the states are not contiguous, and they would be so weak economically that they’d have mass starvation.
West Virginia has 26.4% of it citizens on federal welfare. The total GDP in the states that went for Trump in 2020 was $7.6 trillion, vs. $14.8 in the states in which Biden prevailed.
That said, as soon as space migration becomes a possibility, perhaps they can set up shop on an exoplanet. Here’s one that was discovered just last week.
The answer, of course, is there is no such thing as either one.
Be this as it may, that’s what’s going on with our justice actions against Trump, and the former president’s untarnished record of worming his way out of legal difficulties are impacting one another with the force of two galaxies colliding.
