Paraprosdokians

 

First time I heard about paraprosdokians, I liked them. They are figures of speech in which the latter part of a sentence or phrase is surprising or unexpected and is frequently humorous. (Winston Churchill loved them). 

1. Where there's a will, I want to be in it. 

2. The last thing I want to do is hurt you -- but it's still on my list. 

3. Since light travels faster than sound, some people appear bright until you hear them speak. 

4. If I agreed with you, we'd both be wrong.

 

5. We never really grow up -- we only learn how to act in public.

 

6. War does not determine who is right, only who is left. 

7. Knowledge, is knowing a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad

. 

8. To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism. To steal from many is research. 

9. I didn't say it was your fault, I said I was blaming you.

 

10. In filling out an application, where it says, "In case of an emergency, notify," I answered "a doctor."

 

11. Women will never be equal to men until they can walk down the street with a bald head and a beer gut, and still think they are sexy.

 

12. You do not need a parachute to skydive. You only need a parachute to skydive twice.

 

13. I used to be indecisive, but now I'm not so sure. 

14. To be sure of hitting the target, shoot first and call whatever you hit the target. 

15. Going to church doesn't make you a Christian, any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.

16. You're never too old to learn something stupid.

 

17. I'm supposed to respect my elders, but it's getting harder and harder for me to find one now.

Good News from the Biden Administration

 

From fb friend, Lee Arnold: 

On Wednesday, the House will pass the “American Rescue Plan” and send it to President Biden’s desk to be signed into law. This comprehensive legislation takes bold action to defeat the COVID-19 pandemic while providing needed assistance to bolster the economy. The “American Rescue Plan” provides direct assistance to families, invests in vaccine distribution, ensures schools have the resources to resume in-person learning safely, and supports small businesses. Americans around the nation support this legislation in a bipartisan manner. 

What’s in the “American Rescue Plan”? 

$1,400 direct payments to each American, including for each child, for individuals making less than $75,000 a year and married couples making less than $150,000 a year to help those struggling to pay their bills and help get the economy moving. 

$300/week enhanced unemployment benefits through Labor Day, with $10,200 tax free for those making less than $150,000, to help Americans who are waiting to get back to work. 

$20 billion for development and distribution of vaccines, including $7.5 billion in CDC funding to address racial disparities and ensure vaccines are reaching every community, including communities of color hit hardest by the pandemic. 

$48.3 billion for testing, tracing, and mitigation efforts to fight the spread of COVID-19 and provide PPE to frontline health care workers. 

$350 billion in critical aid to state, local, territorial, and tribal governments to keep frontline workers such as teachers, law enforcement, and health care workers, on the job. 

15% increase in SNAP benefits through September to help families struggling to put food on their table. 

$3,600 expanded child tax credit per child under 6 and $3,000 per child from ages 6 to 17 for parents making less than $75,000 or $150,000 per couple; because it is now fully refundable for the lowest income families, this will cut child poverty in America in half. 

Nearly $35 billion to strengthen the Affordable Care Act and ensure individuals have access to quality, affordable health care during this public health crisis. 

$29 billion targeted specifically to help struggling restaurants who have been hit the hardest by measures to contain the spread of COVID-19. 

$50 billion for the Disaster Relief Fund under the Federal Emergency management Agency to assist in securing PPE, distributing vaccines, and sanitizing public buildings. 

Over $125 billion for K-12 schools, $40 billion for colleges, and $39 billion for child care providers to ensure a return to safe in-person learning for students, teachers, and staff.

And this:

NEW POLL - 

Overwhelming bipartisan support for the American Rescue Plan. 

Support: 75% 

Oppose: 18% 

Dem: 90% Support        5% Oppose 

GOP: 59% Support      35% Oppose 

IND:  71% Support       20% Oppose

Good News!

 

A combination of President Biden's stimulus package and his administration's rapid vaccine rollout will boost a rapid recovery from the pandemic. Economic projections are positive as Americans continue to get vaccinated, continue good health practices, and are cautious in opening up businesses.

There's reason to hope if we continue to keep to CDC guidelines and get our jabs!

U.S. Economy to Recover Twice as Fast as Expected, Report Says:

"The American economy will accelerate nearly twice as fast as expected this year as the coming passage of President Biden’s $1.9 trillion stimulus plan, combined with a rapid vaccine rollout, ignites a powerful recovery from the pandemic, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said Tuesday."

 [skip] 

"In its half-year outlook, the organization said the United States would expand 6.5 percent this year, up sharply from 3.2 percent forecast in December. The surge in the world’s largest economy will generate enough momentum to help lift global output 5.6 percent, from a 3.4 percent contraction in 2020."

And this is all there is to say about the trials and tribulations of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex:

It’s interesting how much of the British establishment seems to have a bigger problem with Meghan Markle than Prince Andrew.

A year ago today! (We're so lucky we're rid of that idiot!)

Thank you President Biden and Democrats!

 

Just to be clear, the Senate did not pass Covid relief. 

The Democrats in the Senate passed Covid relief. 

Republicans did nothing but delay and obstruct. After increasing the Federal debt $7T under Trump in a growing economy, their claims of cost are laughable.

bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb

And a year ago today (We are so lucky we're rid of the idiot!):

Saturday Night Dancing

TRUMP HIRED ONLY THE BEST THUGS

Trump State Department Aide Beat Capitol Cops With Riot Shield, Egged on Jan. 6 Crowd: FBI

 

One of Trump's thugs who attacked the Capitol (Trump's own government) on Jan. 6.

"A Trump appointee who was still employed at the State Department when he allegedly bashed police at the U.S. Capitol with a riot shield and egged on a crowd of insurrections has been arrested for his role on Jan. 6. 

 Federico Klein, a 42-year-old State Department staff assistant, is facing a slew of charges for his role in the Capitol riots, including unlawful entry and assaulting an officer with a dangerous weapon, according to a criminal complaint first obtained by the New York Times. Prosecutors allege Klein, who also worked on Trump’s 2016 campaign, allegedly “physically and verbally engaged with the officers holding the line” before assaulting one law enforcer with a riot shield—and using that stolen police equipment to wedge a door into the Capitol to allow insurrectionists inside."

Yahoo News

This is why the Trump cultists are whining and bitching about Dr. Seuss and Mr. Potato Head. They don't want to read about this.

This report is more evidence of how Trump's Big Lie influenced his own people to attack his own government so he could install himself as president, because he didn't accept the fact that he lost to President Joe Biden.

More evidence will show how many more of Trump's staff and supporters were involved.

Did anyone show this to Trump?

 

Or his worshippers?

Who Was Behind the Delay in Sending Reinforcements to Capitol Police?

D.C. National Guard chief William Walker told two Senate committees that he preemptively loaded troops on buses amid the chaos of the insurrection while awaiting approval from acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller. That approval took hours to arrive, he said. 

In the interim, top Army leaders — including the brother of former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn — pushed back, worrying that the visual of National Guard troops ringing the Capitol could “inflame” the rioters, Walker said. 

[skip]

 Walker’s testimony adds a new piece to the puzzle of security lapses and miscommunication that enabled a violent mob to ransack the Capitol and delay the certification of the 2020 election results. He is the latest official to suggest that senior military leaders were partly responsible for tying the hands of the security officials on the ground as they hustled to respond to the threat. In his testimony, Walker agreed with Capitol security officials that Pentagon leaders gave a tepid response to urgent pleas for aid during a 2:30 p.m. call on Jan. 6.

 

Officials Put ‘Unusual’ Limits on D.C. National Guard Before Riot, Commander Says 

"Maj. Gen. William J. Walker testified that he did not receive permission to deploy troops for hours on Jan. 6, as violence by pro-Trump supporters escalated.

Days before the riot, the Pentagon had removed General Walker’s authority to quickly deploy his troops, he testified. He said he was unable to move troops even from one traffic stop to another without permission from Ryan D. McCarthy, the Army secretary. Once General Walker had approval for deployment, the Guard arrived at the Capitol only minutes later, at 5:20 p.m., and helped re-establish the security perimeter on the east side of the building."

Good News!

 

Biden says U.S. will have enough coronavirus vaccine doses for every adult by end of May 

The administration has been working to increase the supply and distribution of the three authorized vaccines.

More good news:

The Best News:

Joe Biden is POTUS and Donnie Trump is the EX-president and is in Mar-a-Lago whining about the election he lost!

Crazy Trump News:

EX-president Trump claimed that the COVID-19 pandemic was a Democratic hoax. Yesterday, we found out that EX-president Trump received a vaccination against said "hoax," and kept it a secret from his cultists. And that, my friends, is so typical of the lying, cheating fraud that we threw out of office last November.

The most telling part of this report, to me, is that he didn't want people to know he got the vaccine! He wants protection for himself but not Americans. Just like telling the January 6th rally he'd "be there with you" when they stormed the Capitol. "Cowardly little weasel" is the appropriate term for people like Trump.

Trump and CPAC Fully Embrace Cancel Culture

 

Isn't it amusing to hear Trumpublicans moan, bitch, and whine about "cancel culture," and then hear The Former Guy, a/k/a Ex-President Trump, vow to purge the party of anyone who dares to stand against him or dares to tell the truth about who actually won the 2020 election. Trump and his legislative lackeys will cancel anyone who does not repeat Trump's Big Lie (See: Cheney, Liz, R-WY).

And Trump is still advancing his Big Lie that he won the 2020 presidential election in which he lost the popular vote by 7 million and lost the electoral college vote by a landslide*: 306 Biden to Trump 232. (*Trump called that a landslide when he won by that many e.c. votes in 2016.)

Trump then incited his mobs and thugs to attack America's Capitol building while the electoral votes were being certified by Trump's own vice president, and while his mobs and armed thugs screamed "HANG PENCE!"

Talk about Cancel Culture! Trump and his mobs and thugs tried to cancel an entire American election, even if canceling meant hanging his own vice president.

You won't, however, read any of this on any of the Trump Cultist blogs because they're dishonest. They'd rather pretend that what happened on January 6, 2012, was just "a tiny bit of rowdiness."

It's up to us to continue to keep this truth fresh in their dishonest faces until justice is done and more of Trump's insurrectionist thugs are in prison for what they did, and for Trump to pay for his seditious acts against the government of the United States of America.

Here's more truth that Trumpublicans will never admit:

FBI Director Wray denies that 'fake Trump protesters' were involved in Jan. 6 assault on Capitol

Meanwhile, the "religious" Evangelical Christians thought the golden idol of Trump was a wonderful thing to behold and worship. I guess they didn't read the part in the Bible that warned against doing just that. Or maybe those particular Evangelicals have decided to abandon their God and idolize Trump, after all, isn't Trump everything the Ten Commandments say a good Christian should be?

SUNDAY TRUTH BLOGGING

 

Every single Republican in Congress opposed sending people relief during the worst pandemic in a hundred years.

 

Every Republican who had the chance voted for a $2.3 trillion tax break for the wealthy four years ago, during the Trump Cultist Administration.

McConnell: "Trump is morally responsible for the January 6th  attack on the Capitol."

Also McConnell:  "I absolutely support Donald Trump as the 2024 Republican nominee for President."

Captured at the Trump Cult Rally in Orlando, Florida.  

LOL!

A TRUMP CULTIST WORSHIPPING HIS IDOL. LOL!

Saturday Night Dancing

 

Dancing with Sophia:

 

And one of my favorite dance scenes from the movies:

 

The Stage for CPAC Meeting. Look closely.

 UPDATE HERE: 

 The Odal rune on a flag from the 2017 Unite the Right rally, Charlottesville, VA

This is NOT an accident: When a group shows you what they are, BELIEVE THEM!

This is the stage for the current CPAC meeting.  

This is no accident.

They're not trying to hide it anymore:

Neo Nazis prefer the odal rune over the swastika.

"Reesus Patriot" on Twitter wrote:

"I am stunned. I work with graphics every day as does our team. We drop stuff all day long with images laid in.  

I’ve done event planning. You *always* check and double check that your designs could even remotely resemble something controversial. 

This is not an accident. 

This is in our face. 

WE ARE HERE and, yes, it is what you thought."

The Trumpublican Party and Its Golden Idol!

"You shall not make gods of silver to be with me, nor shall you make for yourselves gods of gold." Exodus 20:23

I wonder -- did they make a matching GOLDEN TOILET for their idol? LOL!

A golden statue of Trump is as good a summary of CPAC and the GOP as one could possibly make.

(Former Vice President Mike Pence, Mitch McConnell, and Nikki Haley WILL NOT BE ATTENDING THE IDOL WORSHIPPING CPAC this year!)

This is what the Trumpublican Party has reduced itself to:

Worshipping a golden statue of Trump. 

(Isn't there something in the Bible about this --  worshipping golden idols --? Condemnation of worshipping a graven image?)

Wikipedia:  "According to the Bible, the golden calf was an idol (a cult image) made by the Israelites when Moses went up to Mount Sinai. In Hebrew, the incident is known as or the Sin of the Calf. It is first mentioned in Exodus 32:4."

The former Republican Party has now duplicated what was written in the Bible (Evangelicals! Listen up!) And its lesson about worshipping golden idols.

The Golden Idol, Trump, and his cultists!

He believed Donald Trump's Big Lie

Now he's facing prison.

A retired NYPD cop turned on his brothers in blue at the U.S. Capitol riot, assaulting an officer who he called “a commie motherf----r,” prosecutors charged Tuesday. 

 Thomas Webster, who also served in the Marines, exploded in rage on Jan. 6, attacking the Metropolitan Police officer, Assistant U.S. Attorney Ben Gianforti said during a hearing in White Plains Federal Court. 

“This is a man who was going to unleash some kind of violence ... He goes after that cop like a junkyard dog. Like I said, fists bared, teeth clenched,” Gianforti said, describing Webster as one of the most serious cases involving the riot that passed through the Westchester courthouse. 

Webster, 54, was labeled by social media sleuths as the eye gouger due to photos showing him appear to poke his thumb into the eyeball of the uniformed cop. He’s accused of attacking the officer with an aluminum pole that held a Marine Corp flag. Video captured Webster tackling the cop once a protective barrier had been removed during the mayhem. They wrestled and he ripped off the cop’s protective gas mask and helmet, briefly choking him in the process, authorities said. “F--king piece of s--t, commie motherf----r!”  Webster said to the cop in comments caught on video, according to prosecutors. 

 “This is a cop calling another cop that,” Gianforti said, adding that Webster also betrayed his oath as a Marine. A police source said Webster joined the NYPD in 1991 and retired in 2011 after working the security detail at City Hall and the mayor’s residence at Gracie Mansion. 

The married father of three from Florida, N.Y., in Orange County now runs Semper Fi Landscaping. He faces as much as nine years if he chooses to go to trial — a minimum of roughly five years if he pleads guilty. His attorney, James Monroe, said Webster deserved bail, portraying him as a law abiding citizen — except for on Jan. 6. 

“He went there to protest an event that was urged on by our former president,” Monroe said, alluding to President Donald Trump’s lies that the election was stolen for President Biden.

Congratulations Massachusetts!

 

All 50 States Ranked by Livability:

#1 --  Massachusetts.

1. Massachusetts 

Population change; 2010-2019: +5.1% (23rd largest increase)  

2019 unemployment: 2.9% (11th lowest) 

Poverty rate: 9.4% (8th lowest)  

Life expectancy at birth: 80.5 years (6th longest) 

 Based on educational attainment, life expectancy, and the relatively lack of widespread economic hardship, Massachusetts ranks as the best state to live in in the country. 

The best educated state in the country, Massachusetts has a bachelor’s degree attainment rate of 45.0% — well above the comparable rate of 33.1% nationwide. 

 Incomes typically rise with educational attainment, and in Massachusetts, most households earn over $85,000 a year — or about $20,000 more than what the annual income the typical U.S. household earns. 

Additionally, Massachusetts is one of only 11 states where fewer than one in every 10 residents live below the poverty line.

(Mississippi is ranked the WORST.)

Methodology To identify the best and worst states to live in, 

24/7 Wall St. constructed an index comprising three socioeconomic measures for each state: poverty rate, the percentage of adults (25 and older) who have at least a bachelor’s degree, and life expectancy at birth. The selection of these three measures was modeled on the United Nations’ Human Development Index. 

Poverty rates and bachelor’s degree attainment rates came from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2019 American Community Survey. 

Life expectancy at birth is from the 2020 County Health Rankings & Roadmaps, a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute joint program, and is based on data from the years 2016-2018. 

Additional data was also reviewed. 

Unemployment rates are from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and are annual for 2019. 

Crime data came from the FBI’s 2019 Uniform Crime Report. 

Uninsured rates, median household incomes, high school diploma attainment rates, and median home values also came from the ACS. 

Other data on health behaviors and outcomes came from County Health Rankings & Roadmaps.

And it's only Tuesday...

 

Confirmation hearings for Judge Merrick Garland for President Biden's Attorney General:

This is significant:

Supreme Court won’t halt turnover of Trump’s tax records

WASHINGTON (AP) — In a significant defeat for former President Donald Trump, the Supreme Court on Monday declined to step in to halt the turnover of his tax records to a New York state prosecutor. 

The court’s action is the apparent culmination of a lengthy legal battle that had already reached the high court once before. 

 Trump’s tax records are not supposed to become public as part of prosecutors’ criminal investigation, but the high court’s action is a blow to Trump because he has long fought on so many fronts to keep his tax records shielded from view. The ongoing investigation that the records are part of could also become an issue for Trump in his life after the presidency. Trump has called it “a fishing expedition” and “a continuation of the witch hunt — the greatest witch hunt in history.”

Apparently, after the SCOTUS's action, The Former Guy had a tantrum and called the decision "fascist." 

Remember when The Former Guy was running for president and promised, PROMISED!, to turn over his tax records as soon as the IRS was finished auditing him? Yeah. That was a LIE. And then The Former Guy kept telling Americans he would definitely release his returns -- telling Americans that lie for five years.

Now the SCOTUS has made it possible to see if The Former Guy's bragging about his financial prowess and wealth was true, and to see who he owes money to.

Pass the popcorn!

*****************************

Oh my!

This guy was CANCELLED! By CPAC! Apparently Goopers are okay with "cancel culture?" Or are they beginning to understand that words have consequences? Even the present Trumpublicans apparently agree with some form of CANCEL CULTURE! 

So where are the far right bloggers who were recently whining about how the Lefties cancel people whose ideas they disagree with? Is it "cancel culture" only when Liberals do it? 

Anyone?

February is Black History Month

 

Gwendolyn Brooks (1917 - 2000) Today, Brooks is considered to be one of the most revered poets of the 20th century. She was the first Black author to win the Pulitzer Prize in 1950 for Annie Allen, and she served as poetry consultant to the Library of Congress, becoming the first Black woman to hold that position. 

She was also the poet laureate of the State of Illinois, and many of her works reflected the political and social landscape of the 1960s, including the civil rights movement and the economic climate.

Saturday Night Dancing

 

Far Right Media Lies Again!

FAUX NOOZ hosts have pinned the blame from the power outages in Texas solely or mostly on the frozen wind turbines. 

They have told viewers that Texans are feeling the sting of green energy policies in a state run for decades by Republicans. Some of the most widespread and erroneous claims came from FAUX NOOZ host Tucker Carlson. 

 "Unbeknownst to most people, the Green New Deal came to Texas, the power grid in the state became totally reliant on windmills," Carlson said Feb. 16. "Then it got cold, and the windmills broke, because that’s what happens in the Green New Deal."  Carlson lied about solar panels as well, because he's a hate monger and spreader of false information to his gullible listeners.