Friday, December 31, 2021

Tweets Of The Day

 

Colorado wildfires -- 


 

 

MIA Gov. Ron DeSantis promises a repeat of the Malignant Loser years --

 

 

 

 

 

Oh for chyron out loud --

 


And the winner is ... --

 

 

 

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Betty White, 1922-2021



A sad, shocking end to a sad, shocking year.  The iconic comedienne, actress and animal rights advocate Betty White has passed away just shy of her 100th birthday:

Betty White, the quick-witted comedienne whose ribald humor as showcased on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Golden Girls and Hot in Cleveland made her America’s ageless darling, has died. She was 99.

The beloved five-time Emmy Award winner and animal advocate, whose career reached another level after she became an octogenarian, died overnight Thursday into Friday at her Brentwood home, her agent and close friend Jeff Witjas told The Washington Post.

“Even though Betty was about to be 100, I thought she would live forever,” Witjas said in a statement to People magazine. “I will miss her terribly and so will the animal world that she loved so much. I don’t think Betty ever feared passing because she always wanted to be with her most beloved husband Allen Ludden. She believed she would be with him again.”

White joined the cast of The Mary Tyler Moore Show for the CBS sitcom’s fourth season in 1973 as Sue Ann Nivens, the blunt, man-lusting star of the WJM-TV show The Happy Homemaker, and she won two straight Emmys for outstanding continuing performance by a supporting actress in a comedy series.

On NBC’s The Golden Girls, which aired for seven seasons, White played the simple-minded Minnesotan Rose Nylund opposite Bea Arthur, Rue McClanahan and Estelle Getty. She was nominated for lead comedy series actress in every year from 1986 through 1992, winning the trophy in her first try.

And on TV Land’s Hot in Cleveland, which completed its six-season run in 2015, White was cast in her late 80s as the sharp-tongued Elka Ostrovsky, who takes care of the Victorian home inhabited by L.A. transplants played by Valerie Bertinelli, Jane Leeves and Wendie Malick. That earned her a supporting actress Emmy nom in 2011.

“Betty White is one of the few people who walks into the room and you know her,” Carl Reiner said on the 2018 PBS special Betty White: First Lady of Television. “You’ve known her all your life. She’s one of those people that are always welcome on any show she’s on.”

Here's the cover of People magazine that, sadly, celebrates a birthday she didn't live to see:

 

 

Before starting her career in show business, she wanted to be a forest ranger because of her love of animals and the outdoors, but the Forest Service didn't allow female forest rangers at the time.  But in 2010, she was made an honorary forest ranger, fulfilling a lifelong dream.

What a career.  What a life.  What a person.

Rest in peace.

BONUS:  Lots of tributes coming in on Twitter.

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Today's Cartoons

 

(click on images to enlarge)

(Clay Bennett, Chattanooga Times Free Press)

(Pat Bagley, The Salt Lake Tribune)

(Drew Sheneman, The Star-Ledger, Newark, NJ)

(Kevin Kallaugher, The Economist, London)

(Rob Rogers, Tinyview.com)

(John Darkow, Columbia Missourian)


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Weekend Ring Out Ring In Music

 

In 1974, George Harrison wrote "Ding Dong, Ding Dong" as a New Year's Eve song for his "Dark Horse" album.  Also playing on the recording is an all- star cast of musicians, including Ringo Starr, Alvin Lee, Ron Wood, Jim Keltner, Klaus Voorman and Mick Jones.  This promotional video was filmed at his Friar Park estate in Oxfordshire, with George attired in various outfits marking periods in his Beatles life, including his Sgt. Pepper's uniform.  Hope you enjoy --  and Cheers!

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Quote Of The Year -- Don't Be "Better"




"If you’re on this call, you are part of the unlucky group that is being laid off.”  -- Better.com's CEO Vishal Garg in a December 1 Zoom call with 900 "unlucky" employees, terminating their employment "effective immediately."  Following mass resignations of the company's top management, on December 7 Garg apologized for the crass act and announced he was taking a leave of absence from his position at the digital mortgage lender.  

Of course, in a *better* world, Garg would be the one terminated and the 900 "unlucky" employees would have a livelihood going into 2022. 

(Image:  Grinch Garg delivering the "unlucky" news / screenshot via Better.com)


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Putin Threatens "Complete Rupture" Over Ukraine Pushback

 

In the phone call yesterday afternoon with President Biden, Russian thug and autocrat Vladimir Putin threatened the U.S. and its allies with a "complete rupture" in relations should heavy sanctions be imposed if Russia were to invade Ukraine. It's believed that remaining sanctions against Russia would not only severely cripple the Russian economy, but would directly impact the finances and lifestyle of Putin and his corrupt circle of oligarchs.

Putin has mobilized roughly 100,000 troops and equipment near its border with Ukraine in an effort to dissuade Ukraine from closer relations with the West. Over the past few years, Putin has made it clear that he sees Ukraine as a vassal state of Russia, if not part of Russia itself. He recently made demands on the NATO and the U.S. for a written agreement that NATO would not accept Ukraine as a member, and that it would halt any further expansion eastward in former Soviet republics. The demands are seen as "non-starters" by the U.S. and its allies.

Employing some traditional sabre rattling, Russia continued testing more test firings of its Tsirkon hypersonic cruise missile just days ago from a frigate and a submarine as if to warn the West about interfering with Russian ambitions toward Ukraine. Bilateral talks at the deputy ministerial level are scheduled to be held in Geneva on January 9 and 10, and at the NATO--Russia Council on January 12 in an attempt to defuse the tense standoff. 

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Thursday, December 30, 2021

Come Out, Come Out, Wherever You Are Governor




As Florida's COVID-19 infections climbed to 47,000 on December 28, and as the state continues to be one of the leaders in new COVID cases, its pathetic governor and Trump lackey Ron "One Glove" DeSantis has been missing from public view for about two weeks.  It's not entirely a surprise that he'd hide out while the deadly fruits of his COVIDiocy regarding mask mandates and vaccines are on full display. No need to answer unpleasant questions from the press or explain your disease-spreading policies when you're in bunker mode.

Of course, the holidays provide a ready-made excuse for the governor, but who hasn't seen Dem governors (Murphy of New Jersey, Northam of Virginia, Newsome of California, etc.) or a Republican or two (Hogan of Maryland, DeWine of Ohio) face the public when the going got tough on COVID no matter the time of year? The simple fact is that, like his malignant Dear Leader, DeSantis wants to duck serious questions about his failed, deadly stewardship while minimizing the tragedy of increasing COVID deaths by not addressing it. It's no wonder that he's considered a likely successor to lead Trump's cult of death in the future.

(photo: DeSantis demonstrates his "natural way" of testing for COVID. Associated Press)

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Tweets Of The Day


Determined to validate Darwinism (cont.) --

 


"Not a suitable person" Dersh was all over media opining on something he was *intimately* involved in (allegedly!) --

 

 


Conveniently overlooking the obvious --

 

 

Aunt Pittypat (a.k.a., Huckleberry Graham) still campaigning for the Malignant Loser --

 


Karma's a bitch --

 

 

Bon appetit! --

 

 

 

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Jobs And "The Worst Economy We Never Had"

 

No doubt this is "bad news for Biden" on the jobs front:

Initial filings for unemployment insurance dipped last week and remained close to their lowest level in more than 50 years, the Labor Department reported Thursday.  [snip]

When adjusting for weekly volatility, the four-week moving average for claims came to 199,250, the lowest level since Oct. 25, 1969.

Continuing claims, the data for which runs a week behind the headline number, dropped by 140,000 to 1.72 million, the lowest level since March 7, 2020, just before the Covid pandemic declaration.

The numbers reflect an increasingly tight labor market and come with the Federal Reserve pulling back on some of the historically accommodative policy it put in place during the crisis. The national unemployment rate has dropped to 4.2%, a far cry from the 14.8% peak in April 2020.  [snip]

Some of the decline in claims has come from the ending of benefits through programs created during the pandemic that provided enhanced and extended payments. Still, the total getting benefits is a far cry from where it was a year ago when 20.5 million were on the various programs.

The jobs market also has seen a record pace of people quitting their jobs, many for better opportunities elsewhere as average hourly earnings climb in an inflationary environment the U.S. has not seen in decades. (our emphasis)

Yes, inflation -- the fly in the economic ointment -- caused by global pandemic supply chain issues and just good, old- fashioned price gouging.

But, as Dana Milbank points out in "The worst economy we never had," the good news doesn't end there:

“America’s economy improved more in Joe Biden’s first 12 months than any president during the past 50 years notwithstanding the contrary media narrative contributing to dour public opinion,” Matthew Winkler, former editor in chief of Bloomberg News, wrote last week. Among the gains: The economy expanded an estimated 5.5 percent in 2021 (fourth-quarter growth dramatically outpaced Europe and even China). Unemployment plunged to 4.2 percent. Record-setting U.S. stock markets (the S&P 500 is up nearly 30 percent) outperformed the world. Productivity jumped. Corporate profits are the largest since 1950 and corporate debt the lowest in 30. Consumer credit expanded. Confidence among CEOs is the highest in 20 years. The American Rescue Plan cut child poverty in half.

But, as with most other inconvenient facts, none of this is penetrating the Republican cult bubble:

[A] Gallup poll out last week found that “Americans’ confidence in the economy has dropped to where it was in April 2020, when nationwide shutdowns brought on by the covid-19 pandemic plunged the nation into a recession.”

The reason is clear. As The Post’s Philip Bump explained, Republicans in April 2020 were evenly split on whether the economy was in excellent/good condition or fair/poor. Now, despite dramatic improvements, 91 percent of Republicans say the economy is in fair/poor condition. (The Democratic shift, in the opposite direction, was smaller.)

This happened — surprise! — during Fox News’s hysterical coverage of inflation, gas prices and supply chain problems. It invoked inflation roughly twice as often as CNN and MSNBC. Now, as Bump reported, three-quarters of Republicans say prices are the most important measure of the economy’s health (only one-quarter did a year ago), eclipsing unemployment, personal finances and the stock market.  (our emphasis)

The point, in the end, is that the Biden Administration will continue to do what it needs to do in order to improve peoples' lives, even those people who insist against all evidence that it's not.

 

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Today's Cartoons

 

(click on images to enlarge)

(Kevin Kallaugher, Counterpoint)

(Rob Rogers, Tinyview.com)

(Ed Hall, Artizans.com)

(Chris Britt, gocomics.com)

(Joel Pett, Lexington Herald-Leader, KY)

(Mike Luckovich, Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

(Jason Adam Katzenstein, @JasonAdamK)


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QOTD: "Nightmare Ramshackle of a Man"




Brian Karem writing this morning in Salon, about how America's greedy, celebrity-worshiping cultural underbelly created and sustained the malignant former guy, and how it may allow him to escape justice:

"This inability to deal with facts, this infatuation with prurient and salacious innuendo, led us to Donald Trump — a man who is as vacuous as he is pompous. He is as phlegmatic as he is he is mind-numbing, as combative as he is clueless, and as un-American in deed as a battle-hardened Nazi stormtrooper. Donald Trump is the antithesis of the American dream, a nightmare ramshackle of a man who rattles around in the cage he made for himself, stinking of Adderall, perspiration and fear. He's straight from the Hollywood B-list, with A-list dreams that can never come true — and he's going to make the world suffer, if he can, for his own failures. 

Shortly after the beginning of the New Year, if my sources in the Justice Department are accurate, Donald Trump could face federal RICO charges. Of course there have been threats against Donald Trump in the courts for years, and as his minions know, he's dodged every bullet fired his way. But in the end it only takes one to land, and with the House Jan. 6 committee breathing down his neck, the Southern District of New York and even the Manhattan D.A. still investigating him, it appears as if this cheap polyester suit of a man, the ultimate troll and ultimate grifter, will eventually face a paroxysm of litigation even he cannot conquer. But then again, don't hold your breath: There are many who believe Trump will never face justice until he takes his last breath."  (our emphasis) 

Time will tell, and the time is drawing close for him, and for us as a rule-of-law democracy. 

(photo illustration. If, and when, the day comes.) 

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Armed Conspiracy Loon Arrested On Way To White House




First, a little palate stimulator from Jose A. Del Real on the "American tradition" of conspiracy theories:

QAnon followers believe that former president Donald Trump spent his time as president battling a cabal of Satan-worshiping “deep state” Democrats who traffic children for sex, a paranoia that has often led to valuable resources being diverted away from real missing children cases. Since the 2020 election, they have also come to believe that Trump’s loss was the result of massive fraud, a disproved conspiracy theory that has in turn created a real threat to our democracy and elections. Going further than the 7 in 10 Republican voters who believe the same election conspiracy, Q followers also assure with prophetic zeal that Trump will be reinstated imminently. Mass arrests of the country’s corrupt elite and a “Great Awakening” will follow, they say. [snip]

Across screens and servers, it has also become easier for opportunists to mobilize conspiratorial thinking for political strength and influence.

More questions unfold from there.

What eases the slide from harmless skepticism, to mainstream doubt, to militant conspiracism?

Where is the line?

Who is most susceptible to crossing it?

We have a case in point, hot off the police blotter!

News item:  Armed man with "hit list" including Biden, Fauci arrested in Iowa on way to White House

Authorities in Iowa have arrested a man who was found during a traffic stop to be carrying a rifle and a "hit list" that included President Biden and Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious diseases expert, The Los Angeles Times reported.

Kuachua Brillion Xiong, from Merced, Calif., was taken into custody last week after allegedly telling police who pulled him over for driving aggressively that he was on his way to the White House "to kill persons in power," according to federal court records that were unsealed Tuesday.

Authorities said they found an AR-15-type rifle, ammunition, body armor, medical kits and a grappling hook in Xiong's vehicle, per court records.

Xiong's "hit list" of targets was compiled from TikTok videos, according to court records. In addition to Biden and Fauci, the Times reported that the list included former Presidents Clinton and Obama and Meta Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg, among others.

 “Xiong believes that he is the only person remaining who can free the United States of evil and it is necessary for him to kill those in positions of power,” Secret Service agent Justin Larson said in an affidavit, according to the Times.

From the Probable Cause charging document (click to enlarge)


 


There's the low IQAnon link -- the sex abuse of children by top government officials that exists only in the fevered brains of those cultists. Del Real's article, which delves into the history, scope and conditions that foster conspiracy theories is a fascinating read.  

But we have a fairly prosaic observation out of all of this:  a clearly mentally ill person was able to purchase an AR-15.  It's illegal in Xiong's home state of California to possess, make or sell an assault rifle. If he purchased it somewhere else and had no criminal record, it's likely he passed a background check.  Our guess is authorities will look into how he got the AR-15, and doubtless will find he purchased it legally (though possessing it in California was illegal).   That's because we have a patchwork of ineffective "gun laws" across the states that do little to keep killing machines out of the hands of mentally unstable people like Xiong -- and, for that matter the Denver shooter -- much less your ordinary apolitical psychopath.  That's another "American tradition" that we can't seem to overcome.

(Photo:  Xiong mugshot via Cass County, IA, sheriff's department)


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Wednesday, December 29, 2021

BREAKING: Ghislaine Maxwell Guilty On 5 Of 6 Charges

 


Jeffrey Epstein's girlfriend and "associate," Ghislaine Maxwell,  has been found guilty on 5 of 6 counts: sex trafficking a minor, transporting a minor with the intent to engage in criminal sexual activity and three related counts of conspiracy.  She was found not guilty on the charge of enticing a minor to travel to engage in illegal sex acts.

She faces decades in prison.  Epstein, of course, didn't stick around for his comeuppance.


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Tweets Of The Day

 

"Democracy dies in darkness" --

 

 

Covidiots abroad also validating Darwin's theories --

 

 

 

Evergreen --

 

 

If his investment advice is as sound as his deceptive, "suboptimal" hot takes, you may want to ignore him --

 

 

Artificial intelligence is out to get us --


 

 

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Today's Cartoons

 

(click on images to enlarge)

(John Buss, @repeat1968)

(Clay Jones, claytoonz.com)

(John Deering, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)

(Jimmy Margulies, jimmymargulies.com)

(Clay Bennett, Chattanooga Times Free Press)

(Pat Bagley, The Salt Lake Tribune)

(Ed Wexler, caglecartoons.com)

(Drew Sheneman, The Star-Ledger, Newark, NJ)

(Christopher Weyant, The New Yorker)


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Mid-Week Music

 

In 1924, bandleader Paul Whiteman commissioned George Gershwin to write a jazz piece in concerto form for Whiteman's orchestra.  Gershwin had five weeks to compose the piece, since it was supposed to debut at an all-jazz concert in honor of Abraham Lincoln's birthday.  The rest, as they say, is history: this is the first recording of the immortal "Rhapsody in Blue," considered one of the defining compositions of the Jazz Age (this Hackwhacker is proud to have this 78 rpm recording, btw).  It's always a thrill to listen to this, especially knowing it's Gershwin himself at the piano.  Whiteman died on this day in 1967 at the age of 77.  Hope you enjoy this classic.

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Surprise! Denver Killer Had Alt-Right, Ammosexual Views

 

  

Consider us surprised not surprised:

THE gunman accused of killing five people pledged "he would never go unarmed" as he posted several chilling red flags before his deadly rampage.

Cops identified Lyndon McLeod, 47, as the suspect following the spate of deadly shootings that hit Denver and Lakewood, Colorado on Monday.  [snip]

He reportedly harbored extremist views and alt-right conspiracy theories online.

McLeod shared a Covid conspiracy meme on Twitter that appears to show Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg and Microsoft founder Bill Gates discussing an “injectable nanoworm”.

The conspiracy theory is completely baseless and studies have shown that the risk of severe illness from Covid-19 is reduced by 90 percent or more among people who are fully vaccinated.

Health officials have advised that the Omicron variant is more infectious and could lead to further breakthrough cases, yet the spread can be offset by all vaccinated Americans receiving a booster shot.

Last year, the suspected gunman ranted about emasculated men.

McLeod said: “Our entire society is made up of sh***y little f***s who insult badasses & get away with it because law enforcement & social norms protect the WEAK from the STRONG. I'm over it. The weak better buckle up... s**t is about to get real.”

At least three of the victims of this murderous "badass," avenger of "emasculated men," were women;  all of his victims were unarmed.  But, the moron used his penis compensator to end their lives... because they were "weak" and he was "strong."  That was his motivation;  no need to look further.

This is the same "mentality" exhibited by Trump's erstwhile Praetorian Guard, a.k.a., the incel- dominated, frightened collection of toxic masculinity misfits who call themselves Proud Boys.  It's the same "mentality" as the COVID conspiracy kooks, convinced there are "nanoworms" in vaccines.  There's enough overlap to see the common threads:  paranoia, grievance, gun culture, a willingness to break norms and act out.  Atomized, they're Lyndon McLeod, lone wolf killer;  in a mob, they're the "Stop the Steal" insurrectionists that stormed the Capitol, assaulting police and our democracy.

"S**t is about to get real," indeed.

(Photo: McLeod with his penis compensator-- the gun, not the cigar -- master of all he surveys/ Instagram)


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Harry Reid, 1939-2021

 

Former Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV), former Senate Majority Leader and political giant, has died:

Harry M. Reid, a Nevada Democrat who rose from a hardscrabble mining town to become one of the longest-serving Senate majority leaders in history and a political force during the presidencies of George W. Bush and Barack Obama, died Dec. 28 at his home in Henderson, Nev. He was 82.

The death was confirmed by David Krone, a former chief of staff. Mr. Reid was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2018.

A combative but soft-spoken former amateur boxer, Mr. Reid displayed an economy of personal magnetism and embraced the art of the scrappy insult. Columnist Molly Ivins called him ­“charismatically challenged.” Obama, a friend and political ally, euphemistically remarked on his “curmudgeonly charm.”

Mr. Reid was never a commanding presence before a crowd or on television. Sometimes he was barely audible, and he tended to litter his speeches with awkward pauses. But he was the consummate inside player, exercising his political and legislative skills behind the scenes.

He was Senate majority leader from 2007 through 2014. Since the position’s creation in the 1920s, only two senators have held it longer: Democrats Mike Mansfield of Montana, from 1961 through 1976, and Alben W. ­Barkley of Kentucky, from 1937 through 1946.

His greatest legislative achievement was shepherding the Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare") through the Senate in 2009.  He was also responsible for making a Senate rule change that lowered the threshold for confirming Federal judges to a simple majority, after Republicans filibustered President Obama's nominations.  Those two achievements alone ensure that Reid will be remembered as someone who was a fighter who used his power for good in an age when so many are using their power otherwise.  Rest in peace.

BONUS:  You can see some tributes to Reid here.

(Photo:  Reid in 2005/ Melina Mara, Washington Post)


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Tuesday, December 28, 2021

QOTD -- Performative Centrism

 

"In basically every major institution in America, there are powerful figures who I doubt voted for Donald Trump but nonetheless play down the radicalism of the Republican Party, belittle those who speak honestly about it or otherwise act in ways that make it harder to combat that radicalism. That needs to change. Americans desperately need leaders and institutions that are fully grappling with Republicans’ dangerous antidemocratic drift. [snip]

"Here’s the big problem with all this performative centrism: Real harm is being done. It’s harder to push for changes to the Supreme Court when one of the liberal justices is playing down the danger. It’s harder to get political journalists to adapt to the radicalism of the GOP when some of the most prominent figures in the field suggest that covering Republicans honestly amounts to left-wing activism. It’s harder to prevent false information from reaching millions of Americans when the leaders of the biggest social media companies aren’t fully committed to that cause.

"Throughout the Trump era, a pattern has played out over and over: Those in the center or on the left, often women and people of color, warn that Republicans are about to take a radical step. They are cast as alarmist by institutionalists. Republicans take that radical step. The pattern repeats." -- Perry Bacon, Jr., writing in the Washington Post on "The Problem with Performative Centrism."

 

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Tweets Of The Day

 

The Malignant Loser mounts a legal defense based on sociopathy;  seems right --

 

 

Red hat cult covidiot illogic --

 

 

"How could it be sedition? We were doing it in plain sight!" --


 

 How I met my 8-month wife --

 

 


Doing the stuff no one notices --

 

 

"Darwin's successor" E.O. Wilson,  1929-2021 --


 

 

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Today's Cartoons

 

(click on images to enlarge)

(John Darkow, Columbia Missourian)

(David Fitzsimmons, The Arizona Daily Star)

(Mike Luckovich, Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

(John Branch, Houston Chronicle)

(Jimmy Margulies, jimmymargulies.com)

(Jen Sorensen, gocomics.com)

(Hilary Campbell, @altajournal)


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Republicans In Disarray -- The MAGA Purge


The loons are on the march:

The defiant far-right acolytes of former president Donald Trump in the House Republican caucus have embarked on a targeted campaign ahead of the midterm elections to expand their ranks — and extend their power — on Capitol Hill.

The effort, backed by Trump and guided by House members such as Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.), is part of a broader push by followers of the “Make America Great Again” movement to purge the GOP of those not deemed loyal to the former president and his false claims that the 2020 election was rigged in favor of Joe Biden.

Former Army Green Beret Joe Kent is running for a U.S. House seat in Washington state held by another Republican, Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, who voted to impeach Trump over his role in the events of Jan. 6 at the Capitol.

Kent said he has little interest in fighting with Democrats if he makes it to Congress. Instead, he wants to force Republicans into tough votes, starting with articles of impeachment against President Biden and a full congressional inquiry into the 2020 presidential election, which he says was stolen from Trump.

“A lot of it will be shaming Republicans,” Kent said. “I need to be going after the people in the Republican Party who want to go back to go-along-to-get-along. It’s put up or shut up.”

The effort is to create Congressional "MAGA strongholds" by ousting any Republican insufficiently obeisant to the cult leader, the Malignant Loser.  The purity of the coup caucus is paramount to the long- term goals of these Big Lie crackpots:  to reinstall the leader of their movement, the Malignant Loser, to power and turn the tables on Democrats.  

This particular loon, Kent, it's noted, was a former Green Beret, whose training apparently didn't include basic lessons in civics and the Constitution.  In fact, the MAGA purgers seem to be from central fascist casting -- former military and jocks, and quite white, of course -- so not only are they loons, but they're good lookin' loons!

The emerging candidates — some former collegiate athletes and military veterans, telegenic and mostly White male millennials — have benefited from publicity from [seditionist Steve] Bannon and the fundraising prowess and endorsements of the alliance of Republican House members who have cast themselves in Trump’s image, including Greene, Cawthorn, Matt Gaetz (Fla.) and Lauren Boebert (Colo.).

As Kent puts it, they'll be a pain in the ass for other Republicans before they turn their guns (literally?) on Democrats:

“I think for the first two years our job is to be the resistance. We’re going to be fighting the Republican Party a lot,” he said. “I think for your average Republican voter, what comes out of Marjorie Taylor Greene’s mouth is what they want to hear. That’s what Trump did; he brought the average American into the room.”

The bathroom?  The massage room?  The mud room? 

The entire article is worth the read to get the sense of the radicalism of this crop of potential candidates.

It should go without saying that there's no more important mission in our country right now that to defeat these un- American, anti- democracy fascists at every opportunity.  If Republican in- fighting helps achieve that, we're all for it.  But we also have to be on our game, be proactive and work like hell.


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Monday, December 27, 2021

Quote Of The Day -- It's All A Hoax, I Tells Ye!

 

"I’m just a lowly seventeenth-century British sailor, not some fancy-pants seventeenth-century British sawbones, but there’s one thing I know for sure: I would rather walk the plank than suck on a single stinking lime. In fact, I will be giving a wide berth to any and all citrus fruits the Captain brings aboard during this long and arduous voyage, because scurvy is a hoax, and I don’t trust foreign fruit.

"You know what I do trust? My own body to protect me. I’m young and fit, and my childhood rickets has almost entirely cleared up. And as far as I can tell, nothing bad has ever happened to a young and fit sailor with just a touch of rickets who heads recklessly off to fight pirates and ghost ships for months on end with nothing for nourishment except barrels of stale, rat-infested biscuits.

"So, no, I’m not 'afraid' of scurvy. What’s the worst that could happen? My teeth will fall out? My bowels will bleed? I’ll die at sea, and my body will be cast into the murky depths by my equally moribund shipmates, who won’t even have the energy to say a blessing as octopuses and sea monsters feast upon my corpse? That doesn’t sound any worse than a little seasickness, and it definitely sounds better than occasionally sucking on a lime." -- excerpt from Kathryn Baecht's "Wake Up, Sailors, Scurvy Is A Hoax," in McSweeney's top 21 articles of 2021 (originally published on September 8, 2021, but still sadly relevant as we close out the year).

 

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Tweets Of The Day

 

Lost causes --

 

 

 

The Malignant Loser's chaotic coup --

 

 


Free- speeching Trump cultist schmuck Schmeck's "Let's go, Brandon" comes back to bite him, and he's whining --

 


 

Consume with a grain of salt, and never, never take anything for granted --

 


We'll have what she's having --

 

 

 

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Today's Cartoons

 

(click on images to enlarge)

(Andy Marlette, Pensacola News-Journal, FL)

(Joe Heller, hellertoon.com)

(Clay Jones, claytoonz.com)

(Marc Murphy, Louisville Courier-Journal, KY)

(Banx, @Banxcartoons)

(Nath Paresh, The Khaleej Times, Dubai)

(Joe Dator, The New Yorker)


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