This is what a real president does
💔🙏💔 https://t.co/gELf5I16zh— Ruth🟧 (@BoughRuth) February 2, 2024
- After the drone attack by Iran backed Houthi rebels that took American lives, News Corpse is decidedly unsurprised as a Fox personality reacts by blaming the US military for enlisting too many Black people.
- One problem shared by many on the fringes is an inability to make ideological distinctions. Everything is binary.
Followers of Ayn Rand often see anyone who favors any degree of government regulation as a stalking horse for a proto-Soviet style dictatorship.
Libertarian Michael A. LaFerrara takes the binary approach a bit farther, seeing the Biden administration as responding to deadly attacks on US soldiers with appeasement. Seems Biden is neglecting to make Iran glow in the dark.
Key binary view:
The idea that “war with them is not the answer” is a dangerous evasion that leads to a PRO-WAR POLICY OF CONTINUING APPEASEMENT.
- Meanwhile, in the world of reality, the US has begun retaliating with major airstrikes on 85 targets across seven locations where Iranian-backed militants are holed up, with more US retaliation to come.
- M. Bouffant at Web of Evil hears Joe Biden’s private description of Donald Trump and seems decidedly unstunned.
- At The Moderate Voice Don Hermann points out the lesson Donald Trump is being taught by the American system of justice. Loser does not mean those who died to defend our freedoms. In fact, it means what he sees in the mirror as he brushes his teeth.
- In theory, free speech doesn’t cover defamation. You can’t just lie about a private person.
Reality doesn’t always follow legal theory.
It’s a familiar pattern for some blessed with extreme wealth.
I’m bigger than you, stronger, with resources you don’t have.
If you go against me, I’ll make your life miserable.
E. Jean Carroll gets assaulted by Donald Trump.
Trump denies it happened and attacks her in very personal terms.
And keeps attacking.
She sues for defamation and wins. The award is $5 million.
$5 million? Ha, ha, ha. Chump change for someone of his wealth. So he keeps attacking.
And attacking and attacking.
She sues again, and he attacks again. He keeps attacking even during the trial. Over and over, he attacks.
Her lawyers ask the jury to consider how large an award it will take to get him to stop his attacks.
Jury’s answer: $83.3 million.
Wow!
In television interviews, she is asked what she will do if he keeps attacking.
Her answer is simple. She’ll sue a third time, then she’ll sue again as often as he attacks.
Tommy Christopher reports as Trump is angry as all hell about verdict and the financial hit.
He attacks the trial. In fact he attacks both trials.
He attacks the verdicts.
He attacks the judge.
Somehow, he neglects to attack E. Jean Carroll herself.
Some sort of memory lapse?
- Green Eagle goes to wingnut world to watch MAGA folk get twisted out of shape about the $83 million verdict.
- Julian Sanchez suggests that a massive defamation verdict just might not be an attack on free speech:
Matt is very concerned that if this can happen to Trump, it could happen to anyone who commits sexual assault and lies about it. https://t.co/zhTFaoDuj1
— Julian Sanchez (@normative) January 26, 2024
- The Palmer Report brings us Rudy Giuliani and the weirdest defense ever of Donald Trump.
- From Andy Borowitz:
- So mr Trump sabotages border security because passing a bi-partisan bill would give President Biden a win.
Iron Knee at Political Irony sees a replay of a Richard Nixon move in 1968, except Nixon was smarter about it.
- In Letters from an American, historian Heather Cox Richardson sees Republican dizzying opposition to the same bipartisan border security proposal they have been supporting as yet another demonstration of the growing extremism of the Republican party.
- Ted McLaughlin at jobsanger reports as Texas Governor Greg Abbott defies a Supreme Court decision, and continues stringing razor wire in the Rio Grande, and orders state troopers to block US border agents from rescuing little kids drowning as a result.
Governor Abbott defends the killings, and I have a thought:Maybe I'm old fashioned.
My more conservative Christian brethren seem to look at the teachings of Jesus in a way that is not familiar to me.
Way I was raised, razor wire and little kids should not be wound around each other.
— Burr Deming – @BurrLand01@mastodon.world (@BurrLand01) January 24, 2024
- The Propaganda Professor takes 7 lies commonly told and believed about immigrants and exposes them to the harsh light of truth.
- Vixen Strangely at Strangely Blogged watches mr Trump who, having been shut down by E. Jean Carroll, goes after Taylor Swift. Perhaps he has a problem with women?
Key Taylor trespass:
Donald Trump is very jealous that Taylor Swift is prettier than him and has a football player boyfriend and is the Time Magazine Person of the Year. And she did it all herself.
- In Hackwhackers, Trump aides declare a holy war on Taylor Swift.
- The Travis Kelce/Taylor Swift romance has triggered conservatives. North Carolina pastor John Pavlovitz suggests those on the right have a deeper problem:
Key affliction:
The Conservative response to Taylor Swift’s relationship with Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce reminds us what grievance culture does to those who find their home in it: they eventually become violently allergic to joy.
- Max’s Dad has changed his mind about Taylor and Travis.
- Frances Langum has fun with videos as late night comedians roast Republicans over the romance.
Key quote (Seth Meyers):
Because only a grand conspiracy would explain why she might prefer Joe Biden over a man who everyday behaves worse than any man in a Taylor Swift song, which is saying a lot.
- CalicoJack in The Psy of Life explains affective polarization, the reason voters cast their ballots against the policies they say they support.
Key effect of the affect
…hating the other side overrides policy considerations.
- Infidel753 explores a self-limiting aspect of the right-wing mind, and offers a plausible reason right-wing violent fantasies so often peter out.
Those living in fantasy are perpetually divided.
Most, at their deepest level, know, or at least suspect, the funhouse mirror does not reflect reality. It is escapist refuge from a changing world.
And for the rest? The small minority of true believers are, by their nature, incapable of unity.
When it comes to revolutionary action, action that involves risk, captives of paranoia cannot trust each other.
- Wisconsin conservative James Wigderson has a question about gun laws and the insurrection:
Seriously, I'd love an explanation why "gun control laws never work" but the laws in Washington D.C. did on January 6, and many of those people were probably members of the "criminals love gun-free zones" @NRA.
— James Wigderson (@jwigderson) January 28, 2024
- At The Onion, a gay parent gets overprotective, completely overreacting as his son is pelted with rocks by other kids.
Key observation:
Classic helicopter parenting, going absolutely ballistic over every little rock that collides with his child’s skull
- Imani Gandy reviews a confused Appeals ruling on who gets to make abortion decisions. In Texas v. Becerra, the ruling seems to say the decision should be made by the fetus.
- Our favorite Earth-Bound Misfit relays advice from former Boeing employees on which planes to avoid.
- driftglass addresses the basic hiring problem at The New York Times. It isn’t just that they are bringing on a host of conservatives, it’s that they are bringing on conservatives who don’t know what they’re talking about.
- The condescension Christians show to those who do not share our beliefs is often unintended, I think. (Well… hope, actually)
In The Life and Times of Bruce Gerencser, Bruce shares his often painful journey from true believer to atheist.
- Nan’s Notebook finds an Oregon Republican State Representative saying, right out loud, that non-Christians should not hold public office.
- Is Elon finally right about something?
tengrain at Mock Paper Scissors has a Republican congressional representative angry at Elon Musk when his tweet is flagged for violent content. Gosh. All he did was to call for someone to be thrown out of a helicopter.
- Scotties Playtime reviews a proposed law to make viewing porn a felony in Oklahoma, and discovers a cohesive series of proposals to jail those who view nude adults, read descriptions of sexual activity, engage in pre-marital sex, or send sexting messages. Abortion would be banned and divorce would be abolished. That sex is bad would become a basic legal principle.
- @whiskeywhistle98 helps us find true meaning in cooking:
Will cannoli be legal in Oklahoma?
- Disaffected and it Feels So Good looks into the phenomenal increase in sextortion, blackmail, and other cybercrimes.
- Vincent at A Wayfarer’s Notes shares another poem by ee cummings, this about reckless flirtation.
- In Happiness Between Tails da-AL illustrates the risk and reward that comes from shared experiences through blogging online.
She guest hosts Nguyễn Thị Phương, who escaped from Vietnam after the fall.
Key wisdom from painful child trauma:
I was five, and where was my father? He was out of sight. They took him, they took him into the mountains, and he was fading. He was fading into the darkness.
- The Journal of Improbable Research finds multi-university research into the production of a sort of organic plastic from sewage and cheese whey.
- Author John Scalzi takes an outdoor photo, later examines it, and is haunted by what he sees.
- Clickbait satirist Reductress has the latest canine research on whether your dog knows it’s him in the mirror and just regrets it.
- Mark Waulberg (No, not Mark Wahlberg, the other Mark) has the fiercest dog ever:
- SilverAppleQueen celebrates lego love.
- PZ Myers is surprised to find an ingredient label he loves.
Key reaction:
Whoa
- YellowDog Granny prepares for surgery (thoughts and prayers), but takes time to provide two rules for success.
- We are barely into February. In Georgia baseball, The Savanna Bananas already have a possible play of the year.
worried we’re headed for war against Iran… tx for linking my post here – wishing you & yours a lovely week, Burr
All wars have been upstaged today in UK by the cancer of King Charles III; and how long it will be before the crowning of King William V and Queen Kate.
with a yawn from their loyal subject Vincent