Good day, all you misfits, miscreants, and citizens. Today is the day before Wednesday and the day after Monday, April 16, 2024. Summer is right around the corner, and then a few blocks away.
Sunny here in Ashlandia, but that was needed. Woke up to 35 F. Now it’s 51 F. Clouds pepper the eastern blue sky and smother the western sky. Gonna go below freezing tonight but we’ll lift up to 64 F before the sun leaves today’s scene.
Must mention, though, the air here smells and feels really fresh, like its never been breathed before. It’s mighty fine air.
Mom is doing well, living large at the rehab center. Tucker is recovering fabulously. I caught him setting up an ambush for Papi in the living room. Papi rounded the corner, saw Tucker and sat down to stare at him. Tucker busied himself observing the sunshine on the carpet. Both floofs’ tails flicked in that eternal signal that they’re waiting, watching, thinking.
The Neurons popped up with “All You Zombies” by the Hooters in the morning mental music stream (Trademark flashing). I’m afraid the 1982 song’s presence in the stream is politically related. I’d just finished a NYTimes column about the state of Trump’s MAGAers before his criminal trial.
This, by the way, is the criminal trial about Trump paying hush money to keep the story about his affair with Stormy Daniels. Just didn’t want to ensure you didn’t mistake it for another trial.
The trial started Monday, that is to say, yesterday. The story was written a few days ago. Trump’s supporters were happy and confident as ever that the trial didn’t matter. Dressed in red, white, and blue outfits, including onesies, or in camouflage, it was a rave event, even though much of what Trump said in his speech has been disproven as lies, false information, misinformation, or urban myths.
They didn’t care! No sirree. They are mated for life with him.
So the song, “All You Zombies”, would seem to fit because zombies are the unthinking blissed out undead in our society.
Stay pos, be brilliant, remain strong, and Vote Blue. Coffee has gone over the lips and past the gums. Here’s the music. Feel free to sing along. Cheers
You might remember Clay Higgins from that time back in 2016 when he declared “Kill them all” and wanted to start a ‘Christian war’ against radical Islam.
Yes, because war works so well. Check Russia’s continuing war of aggression against Ukraine for example, or the never-ending killing between Israel and HAMAS to verify how fucking great that’s working out.
Lindell made that claim back in 2022. He’s still out there making it. None of that ‘evidence’ he claims to have has been revealed.
Also note that the U.S. population is 332 million. Lindell is claiming to have evidence to have almost 90% of the population imprisoned — ‘for life’. Adults make up about 78% of the population, so he’s including children. There are also about 38 million registered Republicans, so Lindell is jailing about six million of the GOP, based on his purported evidence.
Should we ask him what prisons he plans to use? Should we address with him how the economy will continue to function after he’s imprisoned 90% of the population?
First, let’s just ask him to show that evidence, or shut up about it and go away.
And yet, this is the same course which we see Rep. Clay gleefully skipping down.
Even by a conspiracy theorist’s standards, the wild claims made by Representative Clay Higgins, Republican of Louisiana, stand out.
The hard-right congressman, now in his fourth term in the House, has said that “ghost buses” took agents provocateurs to the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, to instigate the riot. He has claimed that the federal government is waging a “civil war” against Texas. And he has called the criminal charges against former President Donald J. Trump for mishandling classified documents a “perimeter probe from the oppressors.”
But far from relegating Mr. Higgins to the fringe of their increasingly fractious conference, House Republicans have elevated him. They made him the chairman of the subcommittee overseeing border enforcement, and Speaker Mike Johnson named him one of 11 impeachment managers tasked with trying to remove the homeland security secretary from office in a Senate trial set to take place next week.
None of it has dampened Mr. Higgins’s penchant for spreading unsupported theories, many of which portray law enforcement and the government in an evil, conspiratorial light.
This week, in a lengthy podcast interview, he expounded at length on his belief — based, he said, on his own extensive investigation and evidence that only he has been able to see — that federal law enforcement officers entrapped Mr. Trump’s supporters into violently attacking the Capitol on Jan. 6. He was repeating a conspiracy theory that has been debunked repeatedly.
Over the course of a two-hour interview on the “Implicit Bias” podcast, Mr. Higgins, wearing a shirt emblazoned with the logo of the Three Percenters, a right-wing antigovernment militia, repeated the lie that the 2020 election was fraudulent. He laid out an outlandish story that tied the rise of the coronavirus pandemic to what he said was a plot by the government to infiltrate pro-Trump online forums and urge members to engage in “riotous” behavior, as he put it.
Finally, he said, also groundlessly, that federal agents posing as Trump supporters traveled to Washington on Jan. 6 and tricked Mr. Trump’s backers into carrying out mob violence.
Really. REALLY? Here we go again.
A MAGA election denier claiming they have evidence no one else has ever found. They’ve never shared this evidence. Higgins specifically claimed his findings were based on evidence that only he could see.
To be a conservative or hard right politician is one matter. But to make wild claims of conspiracy without showing any evidence supporting these conclusions has become too much.
Yet, the way that the GOP treats its members making these outrageous claims, lying about evidence they have (or are so delusional that they THINK they have real, hard evidence which no one else has noticed or can see), has entrenched being delusional and lying as the GOP party norms. GOP voters eagerly support them in sufficient numbers that these liars are voted into office again and again.
So what do I make of these voters? Are they:
a. Delusional
b. Ignorant
c. Hate the United States
d. All the above
I asked this sadly but earnestly. Because, how can you continue supporting people actively undermining our government’s structure and claim that you support that government? How can you expect that government — our federal government — to continue functioning if you’re filling positions with people who spread wild conspiracies based on lies or evidence only ‘they’ can see?
If the government fails, do you really expect the nation to continue to exist as a democratic republic?
Fortunately, there are intelligent and engaged voters in most of the country, Democrat, Republican, and Independent, voting for capable people to represent them.
Fingers crossed that they emerge in Louisiana and boot Clay Higgins from office. Please make it soon.
As a progressive, as a Democrat, I’m often told by Republicans that we ‘libruls’ and ‘dems’ or ‘dumbocrats’ hate America, and that if we hate America, we should leave it. Take our freedom-hating communist thinking (or sometimes they call it fascist because they don’t know what that is) and go to another country. They’re implying that the United States is not our country.
And they’re right in that part. Not when the GOP has a convention — CPAC, one of their largest every year — where they highlight speakers are calling for the end of democracy in America, and the attendees cheer. See, Democrats still support democracy in America; Republicans, in their own words, do not.
First, I know I’m always hard on the NYTimes. But they frequently give me cause. For example, a reporter this week wrote about how diverse Iowa is, and how well it represents America. Iowa, with its about 86% white population. (Yes, that’s just one aspect of diversity, but it’s a pretty striking one.) I know it sent progressives like me flocking to the net to check that declaration about Iowa’s diversity.
Of course, sites like MediaBiasFactCheck lists the NYTimes as left-biased. That amuses me; I think it highlights just how much to the right the United States actually leans. Compare it to Europe and what I read in newspapers based in Europe, and I see far less of a leftist bias.
Editorials like these are like shouting into a snowy hurricane; MAGA and the Republicans who keep supporting Trump or giving him cover aren’t interested in his failings. They simply want to stay in power, perhaps to correct wrongs they perceive after being fed a diet of lies by Trump and the GOP to validate their impressions, or to stick it to the libs — a comment I often see — without realizing that Trump is a beast beyond their control. As he’s done several times, if someone does something he doesn’t like, he turns on them and attacks. Besides all of that, he doesn’t keep any promises and is a vain, shallow person who’s thinking rarely advances past what is good for himself.
The Editorial Board points all this out and more in their editorial, highlighting Trump’s disrespect and disregard of the powers and rule of law spelled out by the Constitution and court rulings, and how this is so different from most other lawmakers.
‘When the Supreme Court delivered a sharp setback to President George W. Bush in 2008, ruling that foreign terrorism suspects held at Guantánamo Bay had the right to challenge their detention in federal court, the Bush administration accepted the ruling. Senator John McCain, then the Republican Party’s presidential nominee, said he disagreed with the court, “but it is a decision the Supreme Court has made, and now we need to move forward.”
‘By contrast, as president, Mr. Trump repeatedly attacked the integrity of other government officials — including members of Congress, Federal Reserve governors, public health authorities and federal judges — and disregarded their authority. When the court ruled that the Trump administration could not add a citizenship question to the 2020 census, for example, Mr. Trump announced that he intended to ignore the court’s ruling. After leaving the White House, Mr. Trump refused repeated demands, including a grand jury subpoena, to return classified materials to the government. As the government investigated, he called on Congress to defund the F.B.I. and the Department of Justice “until they come to their senses.”’
Nice to see the NYTimes step out of their bothsiderism cocoon. It would have helped if their reportage and commentary was sharper and more on point in the past. Instead, they worked hard to project themselves as balanced and neutral. Despite that, the modern right mocks mass media and publications like the NYTimes as fake news, left-leaning, or progressive. Trump himself escalated those attacks since he entered politics.
‘Even by his standards, President Trump’s biting attacks on the press this week stand out.
‘He has praised a libel lawsuit against The Washington Post, called for “retribution” against NBC for satirizing him on “Saturday Night Live” and, on Wednesday, issued his sharpest words yet against The New York Times, calling the newspaper “a true ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE!”’
In reading the article from 2019 again, it was nice to see that they didn’t say anything about the other side doing the same.
I don’t know about you, but reading posts, comments, and articles about Trump supporters doesn’t lead me to believe they’re open-minded, critical thinking individuals. I think that those people who the editorial addresses are not likely to read it. Those few who do will most likely defend Trump and jump into the bothsiderism which plagues the NYTimes and many other mass media outlets, accusing Democrats and President Biden of being worse than Trump.
Just read the comments on the editorial and you’ll see.
Despite my criticisms of the NYTimes, I am happy to see the editorial, as it validates my impressions of Trump as lawless, and not the primary enforcer of the law which this nation needs. Though it addresses people who will disregard their advice, the rest of agree, it needed to be said.
Don’t be misled by the misleading headline for this breaking news. Tuberville still maintains a chokehold on promotions for four-star generals, which are generally (ha, yeah, couldn’t be helped) the most critical senior leadership position.
He’s still a terrorist posing as a Senator, undermining the nation at a critical time as nail-biting situations continue around the world.
“I’m releasing everybody. I still got a hold on I think 11 four-star generals. Everybody else is completely released from me.” Tuberville told reporters. “But other than that, it’s over.”
What bull. What absolute arrogance. He should have never been holding these promotions up. It was political grandstanding and hypocrisy at its worse.
Wish the Florida-living senator from Alabama will get voted out of office but he won’t because he was a college football coach, and Alabama loves its football. He’s an empty head, parroting MAGA points, standing with Trump in calling the 2020 POTUS election “stolen”, and fighting against climate change legislation because he doesn’t think it’ll amount to anything for the next 400 years. Just like Trump, he knows better than the military; he knows better than the scientists and refuses to believe any evidence presented to him.
So just remember Tuberville when the extreme weather increases and causes more damages and deaths, when hurricanes ramp up faster and become more intense, wildfires strike more states, and drought causes more water shortages and crop loss, and thank the voters of Alabama.
Thursday, November 9, 2023, has come to have its say in what happens and how it happens with little clear explanation about why it happens. Many people like muddying the clarifications about why things happen because they dislike those explanations. Angers them because they can’t grasp the explanation, so if they can’t understand, why should anyone else? Shut it down; hide it; don’t teach it. Make it a mystery, so they can smugly say, “Nobody knows.”
Down to 34 last night in Ashlandia, where the schools are first rate and the arts and athletics are above average, it’s forty and foggy now as frost covers the bare ground and glazes some grasses. Don’t you worry, though; partly sunny skies will see us through to 57 F by daylights end. The remains of the day will deliver us back into darkness and 37 F.
When I awoke this morning, I opened a window blind. Soft dawn was crawling white through the trees and across the yard. Among the denuded poplar branches, a hummingbird hovered for a few seconds and then zinged away.
The hummingbird’s appearance surprised me. Cold, mid-autumn, winter hustling toward us, I figured hummingbirds would have better places to be.
Meanwhile, Tucker the magnificent (which is the mixed long-haired/short-haired cat’s official title) rose, ate, used the litter box, and went back to bed. Papi, the ginger blade feline floof, went out, declared it too cold, came in, declared himself bored, went back out, declared it too cold, came in, declared himself bored, went out, declared it too cold…get it?
I was outside at midnight last night. Clouds and moon were absent, letting the stars and other celestial bodies take a turn at shiny. Beautiful and serene with clear fresh air, but the black night was hugely cold to my body, driving me into my shelter after just five minutes of standing outside and thinking.
Somewhere in the night, I thought about the GOP – Right Wing – MAGA approach to governing and education. Limitations are the key the their approach. They will not accept anything being taught except what they like and understand as history, which is very, very narrowly defined. Their version of history must not show our nation or white people in a dark light. Our nation is good, because, come on, it’s christian, you know, one god, and all that, as the Founding Fathers so ordered, amIright? In their view, slavery was a good thing: sure people were locked up, traded, and beaten, but they were taught trades and given food and shelter. Surely that’s enough, so don’t dare teach that slaveowners were cruel bastards who often raped slave women and treated slaves worse than animals, unworthy of human rights.
It seems like they take the same approach to anything other than two sexes, male and female, whether it’s in gender or sexual preference. That’s what the bible says, they say, so they must be right.
They only want – no, they only accept – one religion, their version of christianity, and their god, a white, benevolent man who knows everything and is the only deliverer of knowledge, justice, and love. Such a god can’t have ideas about other religions and philosophies, so they can’t be taught because they’re not in their religious book, and their tiny minds can’t brook anything other than what their little black book says, even if they only follow the parts of the little black book that THEY like. Screw the rest of that silly, ancient black book, they decide by action, even if they won’t say it. Like, what’s that whole thing about loving thy brother, turning the other cheek, and that whole thing about bankers and rich men being in the temples and entering ‘the kingdom of heaven?’
“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.” But, but, capitalism! We are a christian nation, and can’t have rules and regulations which limit our abilities to exploit others and grow wealthier. We’re Capitalists!
“Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.”
I’m sure wealthy Americans plan to do that after they die, right? Until then, they will donate to charities which support their principles to grow wealthier, as long as it’s tax deductible.
Meanwhile, it’s not the government’s job to take care of anyone else, not in our christian nation. No! That encourages laziness. If they’re lazy, they won’t work for others for low pay so companies and the wealthy can make more money. No, no, no. And if companies pay them too much, then the companies will make less profit, and the shareholders will make less money, and the rich executives won’t be able to collect larger bonuses and buy more beautiful, pretty things for themselves, like mansions, vacation homes, jets, cars, and yachts. So pay for the lower classes must be kept low, for so it’s written in the bible…innit?
It all falls back on education then. Limit what is taught or don’t teach them at all beyond the basics of following instructions. That’s all that’s needed.
All that has me and The Neurons singing Pink Floyd’s mashup from The Wall in the morning mental music stream (Trademark unavoidable). See, the way it goes in The Neurons’ view, the Right Wing dictates and limits what will be taught in school, threatening the school systems and teachers with punishment if they don’t adhere and obey (exhibit A: Florida; B: Texas; C: Wisconsin. Etc.). They want perfect little white children (some blacks might be acceptable, as long as they adhere to the doctrine), all male or female – and nothing else because the bible! (And then they descend into lies about what those ‘other’ so-called sexes do, and how evil they are.) Because, see, they don’t understand. And if they don’t understand, they can’t accept. And if they can’t understand and accept, why should anyone else?
Under the GOP plan, aided by the misnamed “Moms for Liberty” who are all about censorship, which as Matthew Perry imight have said as Chandler Bing on Friends, “Can anything be more anti-liberty than stopping what other people read?”, schools become mills to turn out perfectly ignorant, intolerant, non-thinking little images of their white, bible-thumping masters. And the teachers will be the ones molding these little monsters of tomorrow, so long as the teachers adhere to the doctrine, don’t think, and obey the rules, which they will, or the GOP will beat, intimidate, and incriminate the teachers.
Because anything other than the GOP curriculum is ‘woke’, and that’s communist, socialist, thought control.
See how they turn it on its head? It’s no wonder that the GOP and its christians put its greatest faith in trying to build walls.
Stay positive and woke, be strong, and lean forward for others’ rights and freedoms as well as your own. Coffee is now at hand and warming my innards. Here’s the video.
Michael Seidel, writer 