Month: December 2021

Christmas, Trees, Plague, Trump, Goo, Cult, Jan 6, Watters All Wet, QAnon

Legal expert Imani Gandy gets surprisingly musical:

  • Libertarian Michael A. LaFerrara rejects left and right this season. Christmas has nothing to do with Christianity and multi-culturalism rejects true American culture, which is inherently libertarian. So both are unAmerican.
     
    Here’s why Christmas has nothing to do with Christianity: It is a state and federally sanctioned holiday.
     
    Inherently libertarian? I’m taking some liberties here. He actually says American culture is rooted in individualism. Mr. LaFerrara is not the only libertarian to appropriate individualism as a synonym for their anti-government philosophy.
     
    Let’s take a look, shall we?
     
    That Christ is part of the name Christmas is not simply historical coincidence.
    Right?
    Nobody should be required to celebrate December 25 as a religious holiday, nor should it be prohibited. The fact that it is recognized by government is not a barrier to either. That includes my right wing friends. It also includes me and other hippy leftist longhairs who happen to be religious (remembering those happy days I actually had hair).
     
    In fact, religious freedom includes everyone. Celebrate or don’t celebrate as secular or religious. That’s …you know… individual.
     
    Multiculturalism extends social participation to those who have been excluded in the past. It does not require anyone to give up their individuality.
     
  • Concerned about the War on Christmas? In MadMikesAmerica, Glenn Geist says Christmas has already been killed.
     
  • But maybe Christmas in its truest sense can be given a resurrection:

  • SilverAppleQueen protects her Christmas tree from predators.
     
  • Household pets cannot always escape the joy:
  • @momwino98 is stunned by a Christmas realization:
     

    @momwino98

    Come on Santa! Get here!!! ##santa ##FFXmasSwitch ##thegrinch ##wine ##tiktokmom ##fyp ##foryourpage

    ♬ Original sound – TikToksSoundGuy

  • North Carolina pastor John Pavlovitz suggests the real tragedy of the COVID pandemic is the core reason the pandemic did not end long ago.
     
  • As to humanity lost:

  • Hackwhackers still doesn’t much care for Mr. Trump but since suddenly he so vigorously endorses vaccinations, Mr. Trump deserves some appreciation. The turnaround does produce some conflict within the MAGA crowd.
     
    My reaction:


    And maybe I yield to a bit of cynicism:

  • PZ Myers has yet another story of folk who don’t want vaccines because they don’t know what’s in it.
     
    Good phraseology:
    …but then they’ll turn around and slurp up toxic goo mixed up in a church basement by a kook…

Continue reading “Christmas, Trees, Plague, Trump, Goo, Cult, Jan 6, Watters All Wet, QAnon”

Insurrect, Pence-ive, But… Their Emails!, Perry, Jordan, Big Lie, Rice in Peace

  • Green Eagle reports on the latest from Mike Pence. Seems that testifying about Jan 6 is not a sure thing. Green Eagle may know why. Has to do with an underreported aspect of the Constitution.
     
  •  

  • Vixen Strangely at Strangely Blogged hears Liz Cheney read emails from the Republican Fab Four, plays the game one of these is not like the others, and looks forward to actual hearings.
     
  • News Corpse covers Fox Network confusion about how to cover their mis-cover of the Jan 6 failed coup. Liz Cheney makes text messages public that Fox personalities had sent on January 6 urging that Donald Trump stop his followers as they trashed the Capitol Building, killing a few police officers, sending dozens more to the hospital, and attempting to assassinate legislators. As FoxFolk were sending messages urging that Trump tell the mob to stop, Foxxers went on air to say that the carnage was completely independent of Trump. As other networks showed Rep. Cheney reading the messages to the cameras, Fox refused to say a word about the hearings for more than 24 hours.
     
    The excuses they eventually offered for the difference between public coverage and private panic are pathetic, but they are the best pathetic excuses they had then, or have now.
     
  • In Letters from an American, Heather Cox Richardson notes that CNN reporters think they know who the Jan 6 Committee think they know wrote a subversion memo suggesting Republicans overthrow the 2020 election. The initials turn out to be May I have the envelope please? Rick Perry, one-time Energy Secretary for President Trump. The investigative momentum, she says, seems to be picking up.
     
  •  

  • The Palmer Report is paying attention to who says what in and out of the Jan 6 Committee. The individual who may be putting himself into an ocean of legal pain is Rick Perry.
     
    I haven’t liked Rick Perry since he was Governor Perry of Texas. An obviously innocent man was put to death for killing his family because Governor Perry was too damn busy read too damn lazy to read an urgent authoritative report proving the man could not have done it. Perry later tried to cover up the man’s innocence.
     
    There’s something about executing innocent people that flat-out ticks me off.
     
  • Jim Jordan reveals that he also wrote texts to Mark Meadows advocating the overthrow of the election. Andy Borowitz covers the stunned reaction as the nation is shocked that Jim Jordan is capable of writing a text.
     
  • Dave Dubya talks about the Big Lie that is disproven in an endless series of Groundhog Days, remarking,
    But a cult is a cult. And a cult isn’t a cult to a cult,
    asking if Trumpists are fascists, and whether we should compare them to Nazis, then proposing an answer.
     
  • On the other hand, Scottie has definite proof of voter fraud in the 2020 election.
     
  • CalicoJack in The Psy of Life finds reason for pessimism about our national future:

  • driftglass is frustrated as columnist Jennifer Rubin insists Biden must defend democracy by publicly identifying its foes. driftglass asks: identify what to whom?
     
  • MadMikesAmerica explores in cartoon format why President Biden’s poll numbers have been going down.
     
  • Frances Langum has the documentation showing exactly where Republicans stand on Biden’s American Rescue Plan.
     
    It’s becoming a pattern. Representative Paul A. Gosar (R-AZ):
     
    While bill is being debated:
    The American Rescue Plan is a Trojan horse for socialism!
     
    After bill passes:
    I am pleased to announce that the City of Kingman will receive this critical funding…
     
    Yup. Oppose it all the way until Republican opposition is defeated and relief for beleaguered Americans passes.
    Then Republicans claim credit for it.
     
  • M. Bouffant at Web of Evil gathers the documentation and the reaction as Donald Trump, bitter at his massive election defeat, accuses the American Jews collectively of inadequate loyalty to Israel.
     


    This rather jumps out:
    It used to be that Israel had absolute power over Congress and today I think it’s the exact opposite.

Continue reading “Insurrect, Pence-ive, But… Their Emails!, Perry, Jordan, Big Lie, Rice in Peace”

Pandem Variants, Masks, Gargle, GOP, Jan 6, Exec Priv, Big Lie, Evil, Gaetz

  • Infidel753 has the initial facts on the fairly new Omicron variant.
     
  • Here in Missouri, if our Governor ever faced accusations that intelligence exceeded the legal limit, he would have many overlapping proofs of innocence.
     
    Our favorite Earth-Bound Misfit watches the latest drama:

    • Mike Parsons opposes any masking requirements, which is run-of-the-mill dumb among Republicans in these parts.
    • Mike Parsons orders a study to prove he is right about opposing mask-mandates. This elevates the dumb a bit.
    • The study proves he is wrong. Mandates work. This merely documents the dumb. A deal of sorts, but still not that big a deal.
    • He tries to hide the study, which is way-y-y-y dumb.
    • News media find it anyway. Duh! Making it even bigger news than if he had been honest about it. Now it’s a newsworthy news story that can’t be ignored in news coverage by local news organizations.
    • Governor Parsons blows up, mad as hell about it being found. Which produces headlines everywhere.

     
    Of course, separately, this never gets old:
     

  • At Scotties Playtime, Senator Ron Johnson (R-Idiocy) abandon’s bleach injections and says gargling with mouthwash cures COVID.
     
    Along that vein, so to speak
     

  • Some of us do get frustrated by so many lazy accept-whatever-they-say reporters interviewing prominent disinformation political types. Tommy Christopher shows that it is not always that way. A Senator who opposes vaccine mandates by employers seems unprepared for a couple of sharper than usual CNBC anchors and trips all over himself.
     
  • The Palmer Report documents the documents and a bad week for Mr. Trump that ended in a very bad day yesterday.
     
  • Hackwhackers, discovers the newly discovered Republican Power Point presentation directing Jan 6 efforts to overturn the election of Joe Biden and the national rejection of Trump. Then posts several pithy internet reactions. Entertaining, instructive, and, on reflection, horrifying.
     
  • One major news item this week involved Trump losing so far his executive privilege claim on archived White House documents. The appeals court decision was unanimous. News Corpse covers the coverage, watching for the slant from the Fox Network.
     
    Turns out there is no slant. Fox didn’t mention it at all.
     
    Well, I suppose reporting nothing on one side and nothing on the other is Fair And Balanced after a fashion.
     
  • Green Eagle explains the part of law that may make Mike Pence unwilling to testify to the Jan 6 Committee. Has to do with the Constitutional right to kill Vice Presidents.
     
  • Julian Sanchez joins fellow Cato Institute personality Caleb Brown in podcastville to consider the Mark Meadows case and Congressional access to information from former executive branch officials. Julian Sanchez seems to think the case represents a fuzzy legal issue with no clear answer.
     
  • The good news for Mr. Trump is he has attracted heavy duty investment into his very own social network. The Borowitz Report covers the bad news. The network’s standards have been violated and Trump has been banned.
     
    If you haven’t read his blistering statement about the expulsion, it’s because he hasn’t found anywhere to post it.
     
    Warning: None of it is true. It’s satire, folks.
     
  • CalicoJack in The Psy of Life takes a close penetrating look at why middleclass suburban white voters fall for racist dog whistles and variations of the Big Lie and other lies, and why Democrats are perpetually caught flat-footed and unprepared.

Continue reading “Pandem Variants, Masks, Gargle, GOP, Jan 6, Exec Priv, Big Lie, Evil, Gaetz”

Abortion, COVID, Fauci, Jan 6, Lincoln Project, Kamala, DeSantis Military

  • It seems a staple on the right that pregnant women must be prosecuted if they are suspected of aborting the fetus or in any way causing their own miscarriage.
     
    A few misguided souls on the left greet the prospect of the coming Supreme Court ruling with some glee. It might help win enough seats next year to save the Republic.
     
    Infidel753 explains, step by step, why the controversy should be regarded as about an essential freedom not a political chess piece.
     
  • This involves real people. Legal scholar Imani Gandy says abortion is part of a larger pattern. She brings the true stories of a few actual victims from an ongoing state and local war on pregnant people.
     
  • Vixen Strangely at Strangely Blogged elaborates on the flippant suggestion of adoption as the solution as Justice Amy Coney Barrett asks an extraordinarily loutish question.
     
  • Sarah Cooper explains a flaw in Supreme Court thinking on women, abortion, and adoption:
     

  • Nan’s Notebook points to an obvious group that has no legitimate voice on controlling the bodies of pregnant women, which is to say men. She also has obvious advice for anti-abortion women.
     
  • This hits home:

  • Andy Borowitz reports on a new variant of non-intelligence, discovered in Texas. The mutation has developed immunity to all information.
     
  • M. Bouffant at Web of Evil has the news. When it comes to vaccines, seems the sheriff of Los Angeles County is a paranoid loon.
     
    The Sheriff refuses to vaccinate because when you get the vaccination, the Chinese get your DNA. Honest, says he, the FBI themselves told him. Really they did.
     
    Doesn’t say whether they had tears in their eyes or called him sir.
     
  • MadMikesAmerica watches as Death consoles a disappointed Omicron.
     
  • This answers one inane argument:

  • Frances Langum takes notes as Jimmy Kimmel provides an eloquent, compelling, and funny rant defending Anthony Fauci from Senate Republicans and Fox personalities. Saving lives occasionally offends delicate conservative sensibilities.
     
  • News Corpse follows the occasion as once-upon-a-president Donald Trump hosts a recent event of devoted followers, and leads the cheers for Corona-19 in the hope that each new death might hurt Joe Biden.

Continue reading “Abortion, COVID, Fauci, Jan 6, Lincoln Project, Kamala, DeSantis Military”