Too Cute for Words:
The ending.. 😂 pic.twitter.com/AaVOUAXCdw
— Buitengebieden (@buitengebieden) August 27, 2022
- Martha’s Vineyard seemed like a good place to demonstrate the hypocrisy of the limousine liberal crowd. The right wing crowd could not imagine those leftist scolds being anything but horrified when actually confronted by all these Latin folk claiming to be refugees.
And conservatives did scramble and shuffle to pretend that it didn’t backfire.They were so sure the residents of Martha’s Vineyard were racist assholes like them. They expected a bigoted reaction. Instead the migrants were helped and shown compassion. But the GOP had this whole thing planned, so they pretend it happened the way they imagined it. https://t.co/KF3cnEo36l
— Charles Johnson (@Green_Footballs) September 17, 2022
Max’s Dad pulleth no punches, explaining with the sort of clarity that comes with laser focused fury, what went wrong for DeSantis in Martha’s Vineyeard and what the debacle revealed about cynicism and compassion.
- Dave Columbo does Tucker doing Martha’s Vineyard:
@davecolumbo Do you like the new haircut? #tuckerimpression #politics #political #politicaltiktok #politicalsatire #democrat #democrats #democratsoftiktok #fy #fyp ♬ Manke, honobo, everyday, funny, loop – arachang - Nojo has a suggestion.
Since we’re now kidnapping human beings for sport, let’s just go for it…:
More pranks to own the libs!
- Iron Knee at Political Irony has suggested Ron DeSantis is like a Trump clone, but with intelligence. After the migrant stunt backfires and a previous voter fraud stunt backfires, maybe the intelligence factor had been exaggerated.
- DeSantis explains he could not have been tricking or exploiting Venezuelan refugees because, he explains, he got them to sign a consent form.
Cato Institute’s Julian Sanchez explains how an explanation becomes evidence of guilt.I’ve flown or taken a car provided by some third party probably hundreds of times. I’ve never been asked to sign a “consent to be transported” form… because they weren’t trying to trick me into something I’d want to sue them for later.
— Julian Sanchez (@normative) September 21, 2022
- tengrain at Mock Paper Scissors reports as Jared Kushner, loyal Trump family member, is disturbed at the way DeSantis is using migrants as political pawns, ignoring that they are human beings.
Jared speaks without intended irony, while falling into a kids-in-cages ironic ocean.
- News Corpse brings us the latest Trump complaint about the search warrant that the FBI executed to find a ton of classified documents he had lied about. It seems they wore shoes during the search.
Ruthless!
- The Special Master mr Trump demanded to screen documents tells Trump attorneys they must explain which documents were declassified and how they were declassified so he can determine classification. In Hackwhackers lawyers respond with a sort of convoluted version of the fifth.
Hackwhackers sees the dilemma. If they explain, then they admit he stole any documents their explanation doesn’t cover.
And there is even more complication for them, poor saps.
- Vixen Strangely at Strangely Blogged takes on one of the stranger defenses by Trump and company. The Mar-a-Lago stash of classified documents actually contained absolute proof that all accusations against Trump were false, just part of a global plot – or something.
- The Hannity interview and mr Trump’s paranormal mental declassification techniques have inspired internet humor, and a serious side:
I have actually seen this "declassify" argument from Trump enthusiasts
HorribleSome of these documents have identities of people risking everything to help us
Information that can get them, and their families, killed
This is how it was handled by Trumphttps://t.co/SIzqajtjQh
— Burr Deming (@BurrLand01) September 22, 2022
Tommy Christopher has the text as Maggie Haberman points out the key admission. Trump eviscerated most of the defenses attempted by his own attorneys.
The right to remain silent apparently has its limits in the Trump mind. - Ant Farmer’s Almanac surveys the documents taken from Mar-a-Lago and notices one previously unreported item.
- Criminal liability for stealing top US classified documents, risking nuclear secrets, and putting human information sources into deadly danger have led the headlines, but are not the total of Trump legal issues.
Frances Langum brings up the quarter billion dollar New York civil suit for fraud, four primary excuses Trump and company are fronting, and an interview with investigative journalist David Cay Johnston pretty much exploding each excuse.
- In the Borowitz Report the nation is stunned to learn Trump may have committed fraud.
Americans expressed shock and incredulity that one of America’s most successful and respected businessmen might have violated his own high ethical standards.
- driftglass has a point to make! Today’s anti-Trump conservatives are only now dimly recognizing, and taking credit for, the drumbeat driftglass has been banging like…forever.
I confess I’m a little uncomfortable with the feeling that this remains his primary message. Temporary allies, belated allies, unreliable allies, are allies still, especially when it comes to an Armageddon level battle to salvage democracy.
Winston Churchill spoke about an impending alliance with the Soviet Russian dictatorship during the dark hours of World War II:
If Hitler invaded hell I would make at least a favourable reference to the devil in the House of Commons.
- Wisconsin conservative James Wigderson sees another instance of his party’s decline:
Former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman calls for a bloody revolution after finding no evidence of a Democratic vote fraud conspiracy in the 2020 election. Perfectly normal @wisgop, right? https://t.co/SMWm59kHma via @journalsentinel
— James Wigderson (@jwigderson) September 20, 2022
- My long time conservative friend Darrell Michaels celebrates Constitution day with an advertising email he found in his inbox. It comes from a right wing educational group. So my uncritical friend finds it …well… educational.
Oh Darrell.
- The Propaganda Professor has the definition and knows the symptoms. He counts the ways you can know you might be in a cult.
- M. Bouffant at Web of Evil has figured out an important difference between the elites of our two major political parties. It is a difference absent from other western countries.
- Dave Dubya provides a brief glossary to Frank Luntz type definitions as used by today’s authoritarian right.
- PZ Myers says you can’t really compare modern Trumpism with the Nazi Holocaust, but there is an unavoidable legitimate comparison.
- Book burnings still happen occasionally today, sometimes even in this country. They became infamous during the Nazi ascendancy in Germany.
At The Moderate Voice retired U.S. Air Force officer Dorian de Wind reviews published accounts of one courageous preservation of banned books. Amazingly it was accomplished by courageous Jewish children in a Nazi death camp.
It is a source of continuing astonishment that one sometime candidate for book banning by today’s conservatives is The Diary of Anne Frank.
- CalicoJack in The Psy of Life looks at the advertising approach of the anti-Trump group the Lincoln Project. The campaign is designed to convince ordinary Trump supporters they are being suckered by a grifter. Jack explains why the strategy will never work, but that an alternative approach might.
- North Carolina pastor John Pavlovitz asks readers what each of us would do to save America.
We are reminded of past sacrifices. Assassination, lynching, bullets, clubbings, and more.
Pastor Pavlovitz has a simpler request. An online link helps each of us register to vote. Then take a trip to your polling place to cast a ballot.
- The expectation (hope?) of some analysts was that the abortion decision from SCOTUS would be intense, but fade a bit before the coming election.
Ted McLaughlin at jobsanger brings the latest polling, compares it with last month, and finds that, sure enough, the opposite seems to be happening.
- YellowDog Granny has a suggestion for men who want an abortion ban but also want sex. It involves an anatomical improbability: one of many wonderful suggestions.
- The Washington Post says Matt Gaetz might not be prosecuted after all, mostly because of credibility issues with two main witnesses.
The Palmer Report picks apart the Post report.
Among the causes of skepticism:- The description of a anonymous sources seems to indicate that they are not at the center of the investigation.
- The credibility-lack of one witness is contradicted by his continued role.
- The other witness with credibility issues appears to be an accidental composite confusing two witnesses, one of which was an underage victim.
So maybe wait until something is more solidly reported? - The Respect for Marriage Act will recognize the validity of same-sex and interracial marriages. If the Senate vote is postponed until after the November elections, enough Republicans promise their support to get it done. Scottie is somewhat more than skeptical. He explains why postponement is foolish to the point of betrayal.
- Our favorite Earth-Bound Misfit takes a look at how Ukrainian dominoes are falling against Putin’s aggression, as one thing leads to another.
A former Ambassador to Russia agrees:Putin's wants you to believe that he wasnt really trying to win his war in Ukraine for the last half year, but now he's going to really try. Dont believe the spin. He went all in — overextended– from the very beginning. After some quick battle wins, he's been losing ever since.
— Michael McFaul (@McFaul) September 20, 2022
- In Letters from an American, historian Heather Cox Richardson provides quick insights to several important stories. The first is that failures in Ukraine is forcing Putin to impose hardships on Russian people. So many Russian soldiers have quit, been disabled, or killed that one million, that’s 1,000,000, young men are being hunted down for military draft.
Stories are circulating of men given only an hour to appear at recruitment centers, students being given draft notices while they were sitting in class, and workers taken off the job.
Seems to be a consensus:Putin demands military age Russians be availablehttps://t.co/hBZ6YYLthe
— Burr Deming (@BurrLand01) September 21, 2022
Protests in Moscow and St Petersburg today have grown pretty large. People chanting “No to War!” Dozens of arrests reported pic.twitter.com/9F4E5VIy9E
— Matthew Luxmoore (@mjluxmoore) September 21, 2022
As of a couple days ago reports are Putin is fed up with continued military failures, so he is cutting the military hierarchy out of the loop and taking direct control of the Ukraine disaster.
Combining massive and growing protests with former allies spending their last moments of life learning how to fly, fear and loathing would almost have to be a growing fact of life between Putin and …well… pretty much everyone around him.
So it’s getting easier for an active imagination, which is to say mine, picturing Putin fastidiously avoiding large windows in the upper floors of tall buildings. - Green Eagle opens history books for informative parallels to Ukraine:
This failure is going to plague Russia for many years to come; however there is, I think, likely to be some massive fallout from Putin’s collapsed adventure that practically nobody has been talking about.
The abiding, unreported, likely effect of demonstrated weakness is long term and far reaching.
- At The Onion the FBI suspects foul play as the U.N. mysteriously disappears after criticizing Russia.
- Iran has apparently been an intensifying pressure cooker for a while. Infidel753 has the evidence. With the death of a young woman, apparently beaten after being arrested by morality police, protests are escalating.
Key passage:
This is not a medieval country being ruled by a regime natural to it. It’s a fairly modern society in which the religious-reactionary minority (a class that exists in many countries, including ours) are organized and empowered and rule over everyone else by brute force.
- Bruce Gerencser got me to thinking this week. A Baptist pastor wrote to explain that he had listened to a podcast featuring Bruce. The pastor was impressed by the wisdom right up until he discovered Bruce was an atheist.
One small part of how Bruce answered reminded me of a long, long ago experience.
Bruce writes:
What possibly could an Evangelical-preacher-turned-atheist say about God/Jesus/the Bible/Christianity that is wise or valuable, right? Instead of focusing on the message, people such as Langley focus on the messenger. Instead of wrestling with the question: is what Bruce says true? all they see is my atheism (or liberalism, socialism, humanism, pacifism). Because I am not part of their in-group, my words have little to no value.
My own experience:
It may have been as long as 50 years ago. Time takes its toll. I was riding a St. Louis bus. A stranger, an old man, started up a conversation. He was estranged from his family, his loved ones.
He wanted to choose a different path and, perhaps, make up for some of his past. But he had grown old, and there simply was not enough time left for him.
I didn’t know what to tell him. So I vacantly spoke the only phrase that came to my thoughtless mind.
It’s never too late. And I was instantly embarrassed at my flip response.
He regarded me thoughtfully for a few moments as if suddenly glimpsing a strange sort of insect.
The bus was coming to a stop. He stood, reached out, and shook my hand.
This is my stop. I want you to know you’re right. You may have changed my life. I’ll give it a try.
What it was has been a mystery to me. When that memory comes back to me, it brings me to a sort of Paul Simon approach to faith, at least as I choose to take it:
The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls and tenement halls…
Which is to say that even my immature responses over the years might have provided inadvertent hope.
Wisdom is wherever you can find it.
I am a committed Christian.
Bruce is an atheist who is, for me, a continuing source of wisdom.
I hope he would not be offended that I regard him as a frequent prophet.
- Nan’s Notebook asks readers to speculate about the who and what
of the real Jesus.
Can we at least reject what seems a too common view?This GOP Jesus ad will never age out pic.twitter.com/htUFGMpl8Q
— Marjorie Gaylor Queen 🏳️🌈 (@Tim_Tweeted) September 15, 2022
- In Happiness Between Tails da-AL draws an analogy with food. Readers generally see non-fiction as a kind of civic duty nutrition and fiction as a sort of fun time dessert.
da-AL begs to differ, and has an insightful example: an exquisitely told love story.
- Sarah Cooper has an idea for a murder plot so to speak. And I wonder if this is somehow inspired by a Trump interview.
A woman attempts to infiltrate the upper echelon of her Homeowners Association when their new gardening ordinance threatens to expose the body she hid in her backyard 20 years ago
— Sarah Cooper (@sarahcpr) September 22, 2022
And we have a title
— Sarah Cooper (@sarahcpr) September 22, 2022
- John Scalzi at Whatever is asked about cursive writing and is triggered into a rant.
For myself, I stopped cursiving (Is too a word!) when a manager remarked: Wow! You write like your hand is mashed!
I do have to admire an author writing about cursive who hasn’t used it in literally decades.
But, then, I’m elderly and have an affection for obscure unintentional humor.
- Imani Gandy and Jessica Mason Pieklo of Rewire News Group will begin videocasting in a few days. Worth a 96 second promo:
- Clickbait lifehacks are always available with Reductress: like how to improve your memory without having to remember your childhood.
- @whiskeywhistle98 has an idea of what she wants to be:
@whiskeywhistle98 It’s only fair that I get to be a witch to all the kids besides my own…#witch #tiktokmom #fyp #foryourpage #fall #haunted #crazy ♬ original sound – Leah Rudick - SilverAppleQueen has cats who know how to share a spot of sunlight.
A few tweets I thought worthy:
Q is advising people to be scared for 2022 because 2+0+2+2 is 6; the exact number of nipples JFK Jr would have if he had 4 more.
— @𝕊𝕦𝕟𝕕𝕒𝕖_𝔾𝕚𝕣𝕝 (@SundaeDivine) September 18, 2022
This sort of thing happens too damn often
Yet another antisemitic attack against Hasidic Jew walking to shul on Shabbat https://t.co/TpWqD506Xl pic.twitter.com/V9GgFt0ixX
— Jacob Kornbluh (@jacobkornbluh) September 18, 2022
I didn’t take the documents.
And if I did, they weren’t classified.
And if they were, then they were planted.
And if they weren’t planted, I want them back.
And anyway, I declassified them.
Besides, the boxes were just newspaper clippings.
This is a witch hunt!— Annie van Leur (@AnnevanLeur) September 17, 2022
This came across my Instagram feed today, and it's 💯 pic.twitter.com/skCmOWLSAj
— Kevin Gannon (@TheTattooedProf) September 19, 2022
This needs to be said again: There are people every day who sneak across the border and enter this country illegally. But people seeking asylum are NOT entering this country illegally. And those people DeSantis put on a plane were seeking asylum. They were NOT here illegally.
— Joe Walsh (@WalshFreedom) September 20, 2022
About a funeral – what a petty, uncharitable man.
A Trump re-write of Luke,
“But when you are invited, go and sit down in the best place, so that when he who invited you comes he may say to you, ‘Friend, LOCATION IS EVERYTHING.’ Then you will have glory in owning the losers.” pic.twitter.com/DnHJ5YqJyO
— Peter Strzok (@petestrzok) September 20, 2022
I believe that the Biden’s were the only dignitaries that were allowed a motorcade. The rest got a bus.
At no time did President Biden attempt to choke his driver or SS detail to circumvent the traffic jam.
— 🌻US 🇺🇸 still stands with Ukraine 🇺🇦 🌻 (@NicoleVCook) September 20, 2022
20% of American seniors are diabetic and many depend on insulin.
100% of Democrats cut costs and capped insulin copays for seniors on Medicare to $35 dollars a month.
Shamefully, 100% of Republicans in Congress said NO to helping seniors. Vote them OUT. #MondayMotivation
— Nancy Pelosi (@TeamPelosi) September 19, 2022
Let me get this straight. Biden is taking heat from Republicans for saying a pandemic that they denied existed is now over? Is that correct ?
— Rick Havoc (@RikHavic) September 20, 2022
Londoner hits back at Americans who say the monarchy doesn’t make sense: “What doesn’t make sense is the Electoral College.”
— Mike Sington (@MikeSington) September 19, 2022
Anyone notice how the Rail strike was averted and there's no chest thumping and bragging coming out of the White House? Nice to have a someone sane governing, isn't it?
— Karl McKinnie (@KarlMcKinnie) September 21, 2022
Let's be clear—until 1965, all white immigration was effectively open borders, and all non-white immigration was effectively banned.
The "why don't they come here legally crowd" are largely the descendants of immigrants who came here during open borders for white people only.
— Qasim Rashid, Esq. (@QasimRashid) September 16, 2022
Ooh, ooh, it's tomorrow! Can't wait!!! 🧟🧟♀️🧟♂️ pic.twitter.com/W9H7nTCjGn
— Sïstēr Märy Bäphømēt🇺🇦 (@marybaphomet) September 23, 2022
Cathy Latham Sworn Testimony: “I didn’t go into the office,”
Surveillance Video: “She took a selfie with one of the forensics experts”
🙄 https://t.co/maC9PctkQL pic.twitter.com/miHSYArQMD
— trapezoid of discovery (@get_innocuous) September 20, 2022
Cult-like devotion to a leader who promises that he alone can return the nation to former strength and glory by violently purging it from a host of globalist, leftist enemies and restoring the rule of the *real* people.
Is there a term that succinctly captures this phenomenon? https://t.co/0ukCTumYAv
— Thomas Zimmer (@tzimmer_history) September 18, 2022
Note the details are appropriately limited to avoid further harming the girl. One suspects the garbage DA who did this knew he could abuse a child with impunity because shame would deter her from provoking a public backlash. https://t.co/t7j6MWY64m
— Julian Sanchez (@normative) September 17, 2022
And I’m allowed a few of my own:
Meanwhile, behind the scenes, from his secret private place…https://t.co/zP7tURdfuj
— Burr Deming (@BurrLand01) September 18, 2022
Yup.
The first few words and the last few do sound familiar, don't they.Well played, sir.
And I say that with a tear in my eye. https://t.co/vvliHzfvOl— Burr Deming (@BurrLand01) September 19, 2022
By "guns" you mean rocket launchers and military grade weapons?
And by "people in power" you mean military units? https://t.co/6BEPPoUpdG— Burr Deming (@BurrLand01) September 19, 2022
Lured
Trickedhttps://t.co/SchdsCQ31S— Burr Deming (@BurrLand01) September 21, 2022
Most Republicans Back Declaring U.S. a Christian Nation
— Because religious freedom should only go so far —https://t.co/gfYabN71pE
— Burr Deming (@BurrLand01) September 21, 2022
My opinion:
Indicates a lot about this individual onlyNothing about his party
(assuming appropriate reactions from colleagues)https://t.co/ycZfNbHwKC— Burr Deming (@BurrLand01) September 21, 2022
Oh my!https://t.co/amBKvls2E0
— Burr Deming (@BurrLand01) September 21, 2022
Good to know Republicans now clarify that they think
"women should be allowed to vote and work."https://t.co/q2Cgr9VQA4— Burr Deming (@BurrLand01) September 22, 2022
What a surprise!
Ted Cruz Takes Credit for Legislation He Voted Againsthttps://t.co/xwCESvmluz
— Burr Deming (@BurrLand01) September 21, 2022
Motorist ran over and killed a Republican kid after political argument, he says because he thought the kid was phoning for someone to come get him.
Isn't this an instance where bond is inappropriate? Isn't the guy a danger to others?https://t.co/JfpreFSFSg
— Burr Deming (@BurrLand01) September 22, 2022
"Trump is never, ever playing three-dimensional chess; he’s always just sticking pieces up his nose to see how they’ll taste."https://t.co/fbAtJU8Jmq
— Burr Deming (@BurrLand01) September 22, 2022
Worse and worse.
GOP Conference rolled out inspirational video of American scenes
“actually stock footage from Russia and Ukraine.”Fr/party can't condemn 1/6 lynch mob that hunted for legislators to assassinate
Fake quote
Fake videoFake patriotismhttps://t.co/EU5b0qXfV9
— Burr Deming (@BurrLand01) September 23, 2022
A woman with chronic pain so severe that she contemplated suicide was denied the medication to treat it because it could jeopardize her potential fetus, even though she isn't pregnant and doesn't plan on having kids. @kylietcheung spoke to her: https://t.co/06qRxKla3q
— Laura Bassett (@LEBassett) September 22, 2022
Republicans keep going back to attack Social Security and Medicare.
Yet another Republican says they will be pushing to privatize Medicare.https://t.co/JR5sYjPY75
— Burr Deming (@BurrLand01) September 22, 2022
New Republican Slogan:
Fighting inflation by making drugs more expensivehttps://t.co/ErI1v4phNY— Burr Deming (@BurrLand01) September 23, 2022
It's a triple negative, but we do get the point.
— Burr Deming (@BurrLand01) September 23, 2022
– Podcasts –
thank goodness for the laughs! thank you for adding me to your great roundup!