Will be away for some R&R for a few days.
Be excellent to each other.
Monday, March 28, 2022
Sunday, March 27, 2022
Thursday, March 24, 2022
Ginni Thomas Involved With the Attempt to Overturn the 2020 Election!
Holy Sedition!
PHOTO VIA CBS NEWS
Copies of text messages obtained by CBS News and The Washington Post reveal Ginni Thomas, Justice Clarence Thomas' wife, exchanged texts with former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows about efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
Those messages — part of 29 total messages obtained — reveal an extraordinary pipeline between Virginia Thomas, who goes by Ginni, and then-President Donald Trump's top aide during a period when Trump and his allies were vowing to go to the Supreme Court in an effort to subvert the election results."
[skip]
"In her text messages to Meadows, Ginni Thomas spread false theories, commented on cable news segments and advocated with urgency and fervor that the president and his team take action to reverse the outcome of the election. She urged that they take a hard line with Trump staffers and congressional Republicans who had resisted arguments that the election was stolen."
Ginni Thomas is clearly out of her freaking mind:
"In the Nov. 5 message to Meadows, Thomas went on to quote a passage that had circulated on right-wing websites: “Biden crime family & ballot fraud co-conspirators (elected officials, bureaucrats, social media censorship mongers, fake stream media reporters, etc) are being arrested & detained for ballot fraud right now & over coming days, & will be living in barges off GITMO to face military tribunals for sedition.”
How embarrassing! The wife of a Supreme Court justice a silly, gullible conspiracist and a certifiable kook!
******************************
The Thomases must have been told that this appalling scandal was going to become public. Is that why Justice Thomas went missing? He was hospitalized last Friday, but no news on why or even if he's returned home.
This is a very big, very stinky story. Chief Justice Roberts must be fuming because this will bring a stench to his court. Don't forget that Justice Thomas was THE ONLY dissenting justice on the court in the decision to allow Trump's documents to be seen by the January 6 Congressional Committee.
And now that dissent is quite suspect.
Senator Corey Booker
If you don't have tears in your eyes after watching this, then you're not human.
Wednesday, March 23, 2022
Good question.
BREAKING NEWS:
Occupy Democrats @OccupyDemocrats
Officials announce that they pulled ex-Trump campaign Chairman Paul Manafort from a plane and revoked his passport as he tried to flee to Dubai after the US Senate declared him “a grave national security threat” over his Russian ties.
Why was Judge Jackson being asked, “What faith are you, by the way?”
Senator Lindsey Graham questioned Judge Jackson on her religion. Why did he do that? It's not even legal to do that during a job interview, so what was his motive in doing so yesterday?
The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States." It immediately follows a clause requiring all federal and state office holders to take an oath or affirmation to support the Constitution. This clause contains the only explicit reference to religion in the original seven articles of the U.S. Constitution."
I don't recall Graham asking Amy Coney Barrett any questions about her religion during her confirmation hearing. I don't recall anyone calling for Amy Coney Barrett's LSAT scores either.
But Judge Jackson was subjected to this nonsense during her nomination process.
I wonder why.
Found this on Twitter, and it made me spew coffee all over my desk:
Monday, March 21, 2022
Good Luck Judge Jackson!
Monday was an historic day.
Good luck, Judge Jackson.
"Judge Jackson said when she considers cases, she is looking at the facts and the law. 'I'm methodically and intentionally setting aside personal views, any other inappropriate considerations,' she said. 'I would think that race would be the kind of thing that would be inappropriate to inject in an evaluation of a case.' "
"Tomorrow, for the first time in American history, a black woman will start the advice and consent process to sit on the Supreme Court.
And Republicans will absolutely beclown themselves trying to stop her."
Sunday, March 20, 2022
Saturday, March 19, 2022
RED STATE FAILURES
Comments?
"Eight of the 10 states with the highest covid death rates adjusted for age have Republican governors: Mississippi, Oklahoma, Alabama, Texas, Tennessee, Arizona, Arkansas and Indiana. (Nevada and Kentucky are the exceptions, coming in 6th and 10th, respectively.)
Similarly, nine of the 10 states with the worst vaccination rates — Wyoming, Mississippi, Louisiana, Idaho, Indiana, Tennessee, Alabama, Ohio, West Virginia and North Dakota — have GOP governors.
Of these, only Louisiana is led by a Democrat, and all of them voted for defeated former president Donald Trump in both 2016 and 2020.
The same divergence between red and blue states exists with respect to murder rates, as well. The center-left think tank Third Way reports:
“In 2020, per capita murder rates were 40% higher in states won by Donald Trump than those won by Joe Biden.”
Even more dramatically, “8 of the 10 states with the highest murder rates in 2020 voted for the Republican presidential nominee in every election this century.”
[skip]
Thursday, March 17, 2022
BREAKING:
"Biden's predecessor, former President Donald Trump, was impeached in 2019 and charged with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. The impeachment focused on Trump's efforts to strongarm Zelenskyy into launching political investigations into the Bidens by withholding nearly $400 million in military aid to Ukraine and dangling a White House meeting.
The hold on the security assistance was lifted after Politico reported on Trump's actions and House Democrats launched an investigation into the matter."
This woman -- AGAIN!
She's a darling of the Trumpers.
Candace Owens: "Ukraine wasn't a thing until 1989. Ukraine was created by the Russians."
And she's embarrassingly uninformed.
It doesn't matter to the people she's talking to, because apparently, they know even less than she does.
Everything she said is wrong. Horribly wrong!
This is grossly stupid!
Wednesday, March 16, 2022
WHY ARE THERE STILL APES?
Hershel Walker, Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate from Georgia, asked this question recently.
Yep. He really did.
He's not the only one to have asked it either. As a country, the U.S. has failed its citizens when prominent people running for a prestigious government office still ask this.
From one of my favorite authors, Frans de Waal:
Senate candidate Herschel Walker suggests evolution isn't real:
"Science said man came from apes ... If that is true, why are there still apes?"
This is an oft-heard argument that reflects a major misunderstanding of evolution. You may also ask why I still have cousins even though I descend from my grandparents? Or, we all know that dogs came from wolves, so why are there still wolves?
There are many ways of pointing out the silliness of this question, a staple of creationists, but the main point is that we share with the present apes a common ancestor who lived 6-8 million years ago. We descend from this ancestral ape as did our closest relatives, chimpanzees and bonobos. These apes evolved since then, too. And like us, they still exist because they did well. Not as well as us, but well enough to still be around. Let's hope we can keep it that way.
Well, I'm not sure we can "keep it that way." This is the 21st century; and in the most technologically advanced country in the world, a candidate for the U.S. Senate shows the world he has no concept of the scientific fact of Evolution. This amazes me.
But it doesn't matter what Hershel Walker believes, because Evolution is real and is a scientific fact. Anyone mouthing off nonsense like Walker did does not belong anywhere near a position in government that could affect people's lives.
Walker has shown us that he's an ignorant person, unwilling to educate and enlighten himself on basic accepted facts. The Republicans who encouraged him to run for office don't care, as long as he knows the talking points that appeal to Trumpublicans, he's good with them.
Tuesday, March 15, 2022
RUSSIA...
But Putin did NOT sanction Trump or any of his lackeys. We all know why.
Dear President Biden, Secretary Clinton, Secretary Blinken, General Austin, and Ms. Psaki,
Wear this as a badge of honor.
We judge you by who your enemy is: The murdering war criminal Putin.
Putin did NOT sanction Trump.
That says everything we need to know.
Monday, March 14, 2022
MEMBERS OF THE TRUMPUBLICAN PARTY: PRO-RUSSIAN DICTATOR AND MURDERER
We obtained a leaked Kremlin memo telling Russian media outlets it is “essential” to feature Tucker Carlson “as much as possible” in Ukraine war coverage. See it for yourself: https://bit.ly/3i65mIq
The most-watched cable news host in America, parroting Kremlin talking points to own the libs.
It's no wonder Russian state TV loves him.
Not a day without Tucker Carlson on #Russia's state TV.
Bill Kristol @BillKristol · 24m
This is a bit pedantic, but indulge me: People call Tucker Carlson a useful idiot. But a useful idiot doesn't know the truth; he's taken in & taken advantage of. Carlson knows what he's doing. He's not a useful idiot for the liars & dictators. He's their knowing co-conspirator.
Here's another useful idiot (from Joe.My.God blog):
"Russian Embassy Approvingly Retweets Candace Owens
March 14, 2022, Russia, Trump cultists
Mediaite reports:
The Russian Embassy in the United States retweeted pro-Trump commentator Candace Owens accusing Americans, its leaders, and government institutions of “appalling” treatment of Russians amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Owens has previously been sympathetic to Russia during the invasion of Ukraine. Last month, she blamed America for the invasion, which is now in its 19th day.
Their criticism of American support to Ukraine has not gone unnoticed by the Kremlin and its propaganda machine."
The Trumpublican Party has other pro-Russian apologists: Steve Bannon, America's suppurating pro-Trump pustule, is not shy about broadcasting his admiration for Putin.
Yeah. Putin is "anti-woke" and pro-killing of children and pregnant women. Bannon, Carlson, Hawley, Owens, and their ilk are falling over themselves trying to see who can lick Putin's boots harder than Trump.
Sunday, March 13, 2022
Saturday, March 12, 2022
Friday, March 11, 2022
GUEST POST BY DAVE MILLER
I’ve chosen to respond to him in a dedicated post, because of how his response was full of what are tired right wing talking points, devoid of facts and mostly unfounded conjecture.
See what you think…
--
Skud… Rev, You said combat the lies but it was the democrats who pushed defund the police.
Dave… This is a good example of what I see from conservatives on a daily basis. You take a few people who might support something, and extrapolate it to the entire party.
The leader of the Democrats, Joe Biden, has forcefully rejected the idea of defunding the police. Leaders within the African American wing of the party, for example Jim Clyburn and Al Sharpton have also dismissed the idea. Latino Democrats don’t support the defund movement either.
Now, can you find Democrats who do support the defund movement? Of course. But the point here is this… when the Democratic Party was faced with an extreme viewpoint, as a party their leaders came out and spoke against it. This effectively marginalized that viewpoint.
You should contrast their approach to an extreme viewpoint like Defund the Police with how the GOP handled another extreme viewpoint, Stop the Steal. Not only did they not denounce it, they promoted it and continue to do so, to the detriment of our country.
Skud… It is the democrats who are responsible for rising fuel prices with their hate oil movement.
Dave… I’m glad Skud that you are helping drive up ratings by staying fixated on FOX News talking points. Oil prices rise for many reasons. In this case, the recent run up is a product of many of different causes. I know like many conservatives like you prefer binary thinking, but it doesn’t work when it comes to oil.
Oil prices rise and fall on supply and demand. US oil companies during the pandemic, when demand was low and oil literally went into negative territory, shuttered wells across the country. Also, with that low demand, Big Oil chose not to develop new oil fields or explore for new oil sources.
Now as America emerges from the pandemic, demand around the world for oil has risen and the oil companies are behind in raising production. It takes months to restart those shuttered wells. But also factoring in here is a reluctance by Big Oil to increase production because, wait for it, rising prices bring higher profits, which their mostly American stockholders on the right and the left, demand.
Couple that with an unprovoked war by Russia, a leading world oil producer and you have incredible volatility in the world oil market. And it is that world oil market where prices are set.
All of that is before we even get to the over 9000 oil leases the US Government has approved for Big Oil that are not being drilled and we have a recipe for disaster as it relates to prices.
Skud… Biden is in a no win with Ukraine and whatever he does is not going to be enough. As a country and world we have let russia [sic] build back bigger and badder so shame on us. When someone said russia [sic] is 20 years ago that set the tone for the country, ignore them and they will melt. Problem is that didn't happen. We spent 4 years blaming them for causing a hated candidate to lose. Now trump is being rightfully attacked but the entire focus is on him and not the world and US issues.
Dave… What would be enough Skud? A no-fly zone? That risks direct war with Russia. Would that be enough? Let’s remember, Russia has nuclear weapons.
As for the election to which you allude, yes, as I’ve said numerous times, HRC was a terrible candidate, and I did not vote for her. But the time we, as a nation, spent trying to uncover wrong doing from the Trump campaign was not a waste.
There was credible evidence of the Trump campaign colluding with the Russian government during that election. In the following election, we found even more evidence of the Trump campaign trying to use foreign governments again to influence our elections.
In fact, in the run up to that election, President Trump called the president of Ukraine and pressured him to help his campaign or lose valuable “already approved weapons.”
Sadly, people like you and other conservatives, somehow never seem to remember that it was President Trump who bears some responsibility for Ukraine not having the weapons it needs to defend itself today against the Russian invasion.
You see how so much of this is related to the former guy?
Skud… Now we need to give away more money to bring down inflation…
Dave… Who in the Democratic Party is advocating giving away money to lower inflation? There are some from the progressive wing who advocate continuing Covid related relief programs that lifted millions of children above the poverty line, but that is not related to lowering inflation.
Skud… We shouldn't remove unnecessary regulations on the oil industry to bring down costs and increase production, really. The rapid push to renewable energy and a maligning of the fossil fuels industry has helped create the current supply shortages that have sent oil and gas prices surging but of course the administration blames the industry.
Dave… That’s a pretty convoluted statement Skud. I’m not sure you are being serious or sarcastic. If you want to talk about “unnecessary regulations”, give us some examples. Since you, like a lot of the FOX News crowd and others critical of government, use that term frequently, I’m sure you have some specific examples.
It would be helpful for you to state them with precision, otherwise, you are just spouting unfounded talking points. Because most liberals would agree, YES, we’d say. If the regulations are unnecessary, let’s get rid of them.
As for the supposed “rapid push” to renewable energy, count me as skeptical. It was during the Carter Admin when Democrats started talking about renewables, going so far as to install solar panel on the White House. That’s forty five years ago. If that is rapid, what would slow and deliberate be?
Your take it slower approach is similar to the protestations we heard from conservatives when it came to Civil Rights for black people in the 50’s and 60’s. We support the premise they said, but we can’t risk moving too fast because it will unsettle America.
Blame the industry? Has Big Oil ever been part of moving us away from fossil fuels? Of course not. Because they are fighting for their very life. Did Big Tobacco willfully accept limits even though they knew their product was deadly? Not at all.
Like tobacco, the use of fossil fuels are in fact harming us. That’s not blame, it’s fact.
Skud… The answer to down ballot voting is simple, people are tired of the we know better than you how to run your life and we have done such a shitty job of educating your children we deserve to lose.
Dave… Skud, you posited no solution in your word salad. I will say this as it relates to people raising their kids… there are hundreds of examples of where parents have no idea how to care for their kids and are in fact abusive. And I’m not talking about the generally accepted stuff like beatings and sexual abuse.
Is smoking in the house, in which a baby’s lungs are permanently damaged, abuse? Is a parent who abuses drugs fit to have their kids in the house? Is it wrong for a mom to feed her kids a Happy Meal everyday because it’s the only food she can afford?
As it relates to raising children, the problems out there are myriad and again, do not lend themselves to easy binary right/wrong answers or solutions.
Finally, let me say this… I am not unsympathetic to many of the issues conservatives have raised about where America is these days. Many on the right, particularly in rural America, are in a bad spot. They need help and support. They need two parties listening to them, something the Democrats have not done well.
But if we persist in seeing our issues as simply being left/right or us/them, we will never move forward. Government functions best when our two parties choose to work together for the common good.
Unfortunately, as has been true since the Gingrich Contract for America, the GOP today does not seem to want to do that. I could cite numerous examples for you, but I’ll hold that for another post.
Dave Miller
Thursday, March 10, 2022
GOOD NEWS
Wednesday, March 9, 2022
File under "Tell Us Something We Don't Know -- Part II"
This is the sort of behavior one would expect from a malignant narcissist, and it's the sort of behavior that defeated Trump. His need to get even with those who would not bend to his will eventually handed the two Senate seats in red state Georgia to the Democrats. This is what happens when a aggrieved narcissist puts his needs above that of his party and country.
'I think he feared him. I think the man intimidated him,' Grisham said of Trump and Putin during a Tuesday appearance on The View.
" 'I also think he admired him greatly. I think he wanted to be able to kill whoever spoke out against him.' Grisham added that Trump 'loved the dictators' he met with on international trips during his four years in office, repeating comments she's made in the past."
One can only imagine Trump sitting in Mar-a-Largo, cheering on the death and destruction Putin is raining down on Ukraine. Never forget that Trump tried to extort Ukraine President Zelensky in order to have him dig up dirt on Biden.
That is exactly the behavior one would expect from a mobster. And Trump was never shy to play the mobster in international relations.
Never forget that there are millions of Americans who want this despicable anti-democratic, anti-liberty creep back in the Oval Office.
Tuesday, March 8, 2022
TO FLORIDA,
I have only this to say to you:
GAY! GAY! GAY! GAY! GAY! GAY! GAY! GAY! GAY! GAY! GAY! GAY! GAY! GAY! GAY! GAY! GAY! GAY! GAY! GAY! GAY!
GAY! GAY! GAY! GAY! GAY! GAY! GAY! GAY! GAY! GAY! GAY! GAY! GAY! GAY! GAY! GAY! GAY! GAY! GAY! GAY! GAY!
GAY! GAY! GAY! GAY! GAY! GAY! GAY! GAY! GAY! GAY! GAY! GAY! GAY! GAY! GAY! GAY! GAY! GAY! GAY! GAY! GAY!
GAY! GAY! GAY! GAY! GAY! GAY! GAY! GAY! GAY! GAY! GAY! GAY! GAY! GAY! GAY! GAY! GAY! GAY! GAY! GAY! GAY!
Monday, March 7, 2022
NOT EVEN CONSERVATIVES LIKE MR. TRUMP
Trumpublicans are NOT Conservatives. Trumpublicans are cultists who adore a Liar, a Cheat, and a Fraud. Real Conservatives moved away from the disaster that is Trump long ago.
And here is proof that now it is only cultists who support the twice impeached, Putin-supporting and loving Former Guy:
"A private, off-the-record gathering of conservative leaders and wealthy donors will convene this week in Sea Island, Georgia, with appearances by a Biden White House official and several critics of former President Donald Trump.
Trump was not invited to the exclusive event, which will be attended by some of the Republican Party's biggest donors, according to two people familiar with the event who were not authorized to discuss it.
The conservative American Enterprise Institute's annual World Forum this year will be held at The Cloister, a high-end hotel complex in Sea Island, and feature invite-only discussions, meals and access to miles of private beach."
[snip]
Sunday, March 6, 2022
MIKE POMPEO'S LOVE AFFAIR WITH THE BLOODY DICTATOR, PUTIN
He is a very talented statesman. He has lots of gifts,” Pompeo told Fox News in January. “He was a KGB agent, for goodness sakes. He knows how to use power. We should respect that.”
Pompeo has targeted Biden as exemplifying “enormous weakness,” leading “an America on its back, an America that apologizes.” He asserts that Biden’s withdrawal from Afghanistan and response to a ransomware hack of the Colonial pipeline last year contributed to Putin’s confidence.
Putin is “very shrewd. Very capable,” Pompeo said in another recent interview with the Center for the National Interest. “I have enormous respect for him – I’ve been criticized for saying that.”
Here is Pompeo in his own words lauding, admiring, even calling Putin "an elegantly sophisticated counterpart WHO IS NOT RECKLESS..."
There are people out there in the blogsphere who deliberately lie about this incontrovertible fact: Mike Pompeo praised and admired Putin.
What he said after the fact, after Putin began is bloody invasion of Ukraine, amounts to nothing more than backtracking and a desperate CYA operation, but what he really thinks about Putin is on record forever: