Texans Sing Same Song, 2nd verse, 2nd verse Same as the 1st

One thing you can’t hide, is when you’re crippled inside.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott leaves the podium after speaking at the 11th annual National Catholic Prayer Breakfast May 7, 2015 at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in Washington, D.C. (CNS photo/Tyler Orsburn)

Texas Guvnah Greg Abbot is a goddamn moron, a cruelly incompetent, and corruptly selfish son-of-a-bitch, fucking liar and idiot, whose brain is apparently as crippled as his withered, useless legs.

Cow turds have some nutrient fertilization value for soil, and when dried, can even be burned; whereas on the other hand, he has no value whatsoever.

Texans will have to burn more cow turds to keep warm, since your sorry-ass governor can’t even keep the goddamn lights turned on. But, that’s what you wanted, because you voted for more of it. So, enjoy your fill until January 19, 2027.

And be certain to thank the Electric (Un)Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), a “membership-based 501(c)(4) nonprofit corporation, governed by a board of directors and subject to oversight by the Public Utility Commission of Texas and the Texas Legislature.” They’re similarly corrupt, inept, and in the pockets of the Repugnicunt state legislature, and executive office.

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Frustrated Texans Endure Winter Storm With No Power, No Heat

Thursday, 02 February 2023

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Thousands of frustrated Texans shivered in homes without power for a second day Thursday, most of them around booming Austin, and fading hopes of a quick fix stirred grim memories of a deadly 2021 blackout after an icy winter storm across the southwestern U.S.

The freeze has been

George Santos, Anthony Devolder, whatever his name is, has indicted himself.

The lying Republican elected to represent New York’s 3rd Congressional District (Queens/Nassau) is not just any old run-of-the-mill liar, he is a pathological liar.

His life, or rather, what he has presented as his life, is just one blatant falsehood after another. And that the good people of that portion of Long Island which he represents have elected him, speaks more to THEIR laziness and THEIR ineptness than to anything else.

The people of that district have stained THEIR own name, THEY have soiled their own shorts.

One of their local newspapers, The North Shore Leader, broke the story on The Fabulist, and did an at-lenght exposé of him BEFORE the election, and BEFORE the New York Times.

In a story published 20 January 2023 and headlined “The Leader Told You So: US Rep-Elect George Santos Is a Fraud — and Wanted Criminal,” they detailed how, at least four months earlier, they had broken the story, and wanting to endorse a Republican candidate, they could not, because of his wholesale lies about himself, which again, they discovered and reported BEFORE the New York Times.

Instead, they endorsed a Democrat.

In the few days since he took the oath of office as a United States Representative, numerous news outlets have uncovered, discovered, and otherwise brought to light the ignominious history of the man, with tales so perverse, so depraved and bizarre that only the most wretched human being could have possibly done them. Among them, stealing the money from a GoFundMe account established for a Veteran, whose Service Animal needed life-saving surgery.

The Veteran’s Service Animal died because George Santos/Anthony Devolder diverted the money raised for his own selfish use.

It is almost a pointless exercise to detail the hideous lies he has told about himself, each one more fantastic than the next, and with the discovery that they were all a pack of lies, he merely brushed them all off saying they were “embellishments” of his résumé.

Seemingly countless people have come forward, individuals who knew, or have known him personally, and without exception, they every one have essentially said the same thing: George Santos/Anthony Devolder is a liar.

Wikipedia page for user Anthonydevolder, who is, more likely than not, George Santos. Devolder is his late mother’s surname.

It’s even uncertain what his real name is, or even what his birth date is. But what IS certain, is that he is a wanted man in Brazil, where authorities there had years earlier charged him with theft of a checkbook, forgery of those stolen checks, and theft of merchandise purchased with those forged checks. Santos even apologized to the merchant where he passed the forged instruments, and confessed to the authorities that he had committed those crimes. But shortly, when authorities came searching for him, he was nowhere to be found, and had absconded to the United States, where he remains to this day. It is unclear exactly what actions Brazilian authorities will take, if they will seek extradition, or exactly what course of action they will take in regard to seeking justice.

Stay tuned.

In the mean time, others who have been around him over the years have found evidence from a few years earlier when he was a drag queen.

While he has claimed to be openly gay, he was once married to a woman, and purports to have changed. Exactly how, he has not made clear, and refuses to speak to news outlets.

When news and video of his drag queen days made the national news, he denied it all.

When news of George Santos’ Wikipedia User ID page under the name of “Anthonydevolder” in the category of Drag Queen was made known, “edit wars” started upon it almost immediately, and the page was “blanked,” which raises several unsettling questions: “Why?,” and “who?” most notable among them.

HOWEVER… HuffPost recently published at least one news article about the recent discovery of an item which was

Alabama Redneck Weasel Repugnicant Mike “Rugrat” Rogers Drunk on House Floor

Richard Hudson-R,NC8 physically retrained Mike Rogers-R,AL3 from attacking Matt Gaetz-R,FL1 after he verbally accosted Matt Gaetz following Gaetz’ “PRESENT” vote in the 14th round of balloting for Speaker of the House (SOTH), causing Kevin McCarthy-R,CA20 to lose, late Friday night, January 6, 2023

“Matt, you’re FINISHED!
I’m not gonna forget this!”

Ever wonder what barnyard animals
— pigs —
behave like?

Wonder no more.

Mike “Rugrat” Rogers, a Redneck Repugnicant from Not-So-Sweet-Home Alabama, a slave state, the asshole of Dixie, who misrepresents the state’s 3rd Congressional largely poor, uneducated and easy-to-command mostly-White District was drunk and disorderly, under the influence of intoxicating/spirituous beverage, according to at least one observer who was close enough to smell his breath, when “Rugrat” Rogers accosted Matt Gaetz-R,FL1 and attempted to start a fight with him on late Friday night, January 6th, 2023, after the 14th failed round of balloting for Speaker of the House.

No, Mister Mike “Rugrat” Rogers, YOU’RE the one who’s finished.

You’ve now made your Alabama shit stain mark
to a national television audience,
a global audience via the Internet,
and yourself a permanently indelible pock mark
upon your wretchedly failed party,
and sadly, upon American history.

Richard Hudson-R,NC8 physically retrained Mike Rogers-R,AL3 from attacking Matt Gaetz-R,FL1 after he screamed at and verbally accosted Matt Gaetz following Gaetz’ “PRESENT” vote in the 14th round of balloting for Speaker of the House (SOTH), causing Kevin McCarthy-R,CA20 to lose, late Friday night, January 6, 2023.

Congratulations, Mr. Asshole Weasel Drunk Redneck Mike Rugrat Rogers.

You shouldn’t have been on the House floor under the influence, and you sure as hell didn’t represent Alabama — or, maybe you did!

Alabama is full of assholes like him.

They’re called “weasels,” and are generally considered pests everywhere they’re found. Interestingly, a group of weasels is called

Mitt Romney Was Correct

Mitt Romney’s remark made at the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines in 2011, that ‟Corporations are people, my friend,” was then, and remains even now, painfully accurate.

His explanation, however was an abysmal failure, and came nowhere close to explaining why ‟Corporations are people, my friend.”

Essentially, ‟Corporations are people, my friend,〞because their articles of incorporation state something to the effect that they can “… to wit, to do any thing a natural person could do…” That is known as “artificial personhood.”

Cornell University writes the following about artificial personhood, which may sometimes also be referred to as legal personhood, though the two are not always interchangeable — a Natural Person is also always Legal Person, but a Legal Person is not always a Natural Person — which is why there is a differentiation made with Natural Person, and the term “Artificial Person” is much more simple, and descriptive:

“An artificial person is also known as a juridical person; it has a legal name and has certain rights, protections, privileges, responsibilities, and liabilities in law, similar to those of a natural person. In other words, an artificial person is a non-human legal entity that is not a single natural person but an organization recognized by law as a fictitious person. In the United States, an artificial person usually refers to “any entities established under the law of the United States, any foreign country, or a state, province, territory, possession, commonwealth, or dependency of the United States or any foreign country, and as to which the government, state, province, territory, possession, commonwealth or dependency must maintain a record showing the entity to have been established.” Specifically, in a business sense, an artificial person is any form of business association and any other non-governmental legal organization, including a profitable or non-profitable corporation, partnership, limited liability company, association, trust, or unincorporated organization.”

The United States Supreme Court has reinforced that sense of personhood by and through their decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission which was issued January 2010, which supported the notion of artificial personhood, and granted additional rights to corporations, but few, if any, of the responsibilities.

Some rightfully call it the “money is free speech” ruling, and the primary problem with such a belief, ruling, or ideology, is that, if it is true that money is free speech (it is not), then the poor man has none, and the Constitution was written for all, equally, and so, in that sense, at the very least, the ruling violates the Equal Protection Clause, and the First Amendment.

The essence of the case is summarized as;

Holding: Political spending is a form of protected speech under the First Amendment, and the government may not keep corporations or unions from spending money to support or denounce individual candidates in elections. While corporations or unions may not give money directly to campaigns, they may seek to persuade the voting public through other means, including ads, especially where these ads were not broadcast.

Judgment: Reversed, 5-4, in an opinion by Justice Anthony Kennedy on January 21, 2010. in a 5-4 decision with an opinion written by Justice Kennedy. Justice Stevens dissented, joined by Justices Ginsburg, Breyer, and Sotomayor.

There are other cases, of course, and this one didn’t just suddenly appear out of nowhere. There were other precedents which prepared the way for it, among which were:

• Buckley v. Valeo (aka The Court’s First Big Mistake) (1976)
• First National Bank of Boston v. Bellotti (aka The Citizens United of the 1970s) (1978)
• Federal Election Commission v. Massachusetts Citizens for Life (aka The Nonprofit Case) (1986)
• Austin v. Michigan Chamber of Commerce (aka The Good One) (1990)
• Citizens United v. FEC (aka The Worst Decision Since Dred Scott) (2010)
• Arizona Free Enterprise Club v. Bennett (aka The Public Financing Case) (2011)
• McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission (aka The Nightmare Continues) (2014)

But, to be absolutely certain, the problem can be traced back even further, to the Civil War era, when before that time, corporations were held to account by focusing upon the Chief Executive who was responsible, and accountable for all aspects of operations, and any failures fell squarely on their shoulders alone. Power and responsibility were natural complements of each other. After changes in laws were made, power and responsibility were separated, and power was concentrated at the top, but responsibility was diffused throughout the organization, so that no one person could be held to account — all the power, and all the perks that came along for the ride, but all the responsibilities were left at the train station.

That all came to a metaphorical head with the collapse of Enron, a once-high-flying Ponzi scheme bankruptcy of an energy company based in Houston, Texas which was founded and headed by the now-late Ken Lay (1942-2005). That firm’s collapse and subsequent bankruptcy was one of the largest instances of corporate fraud then to have occurred in America, and illustrated how the divorcement of power from responsibility was a formula for disaster. Healthsouth, another firm caught up in such a scheme, in which “cooking the books,” i.e., purposely, deceptively, and fraudulently making falsified entries in the firm’s accounting, most often for the purpose of driving up (artificially inflating) the company’s stock prices, which in turn benefited the executives, primarily, but others who may, or may not, have been somewhat privy to the acts… which, at that time, were not in and of themselves illegal, per se, though they were most certainly frowned upon by reputable accounting firms, Wall Street, and others.

Congress put a screeching halt to such abuses by writing legislation requiring the CEO to personally sign for the authenticity and accuracy of all corporate accounting and reports. And that was just a scratch up upon the surface of corporate greed and corruption, which remains prevalent today, more so now in the form of avarice (greed gone wild), than anything else.

Corporate avarice is also the single greatest problem in our nation’s economy, with one very minor example being the difference between the CEO’s pay, and their average employee’s pay — who, on average, made over 350 times the average employee’s pay. In 1989, the average differential was 61 to 1.

In fact, research performed by the Economic Policy Institute found that from 1978 to 2020, increases in CEO compensation far outstripped growth of either the Standard & Poor’s stock market index – 817%, exceeded by 6 times the increases in top income earners’ gains, and grew, on average, 1322%.

Meanwhile, in that same period, the typical employee’s annual compensation only grew a paltry 18%.

When it comes to Wall Street and BIG BUSINESS, it’s more for them, less for you.

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‟Corporations are people, my friend.〞

by Mark LeVine, Director of the Program in Global Middle East Studies at UC Irvine
12 August 2011

Mitt Romney’s friendliness to corporations excuses them from bearing the responsibilities endowed upon them by the rights they are given as ‘persons’ under US law [AFP]

Thank God for Mitt Romney.

In a moment of candour he likely thought would win him much needed support from the Tea Party wing of the Republican Party, the presidential candidate explained his thinking to a heckler – who asked why

Liars, Lunatics, and Losers: Today’s Republican Party Not So Grand

Liars, Lunatics, and Losers: Today’s Republican Party

The formerly “Grand Old Party” is now Not So Grand.

Can the once-Grand Old Party survive the onslaught which has filled its rolls with the likes of Donald Trump, Marjorie Taylor Green, Lauren Boebert, Paul Gosar, Herschel Walker, J.D. Vance, Tom Cotton, Rand Paul, Mitch McConnell, Matt Gaetz, Kevin McCarthy, et al, and other sycophants?

We’ll see… we’ll see.

“We, in America, have some of the cleanest air and cleanest water of anybody in the world. We don’t control the air. Our good air decided to float over to China’s bad air so when China gets our good air, their bad air has got to move. So it moves over to our good air space. Then, now, we’ve got to clean that back up.”
— Herschel Walker, Georgia GOP U.S. Senate candidate, campaign event, Hall County, GA, Saturday, July 9, 2022

After the Uvalde, Texas school massacre, where 19 students & 2 teachers were slaughtered, Hershel Walker was asked about gun control, and said:

POTUS BIDEN IDs GOP Hypocrisy & Globalization Failure

Neoliberalism’s Globalization scheme has failed… SPECTACULARLY.

And all it took was 50 years, a global pandemic, the practical decimation via “outsourcing” of the majority of the American domestic economy, an increase in homelessness, deaths of all kinds from all sources, addictions, crime, disease, mass incarceration, increase in preventable deaths from lack of healthcare, all-time high wealth dispartity, increase in poverty rates, tax cuts upon the wealthiest Americans and their corporations, after GOP POTUS Richard Nixon kissed Communist China’s Chairman Mao’s derriere through cozying up to Mao’s successor/henchman Chinese Communist Chairman Chou En-lai.

What is “neoliberalism”?

Well, one thing it’s NOT, is pro-American.

The sequence of events that led to ‘Brexit’ — a moniker referring to the British exit from the European Union — began as part of a neoliberal campaign to deregulate many previously-regulated industries, and create a ‘free market uptopia’ in the UK. They failed at every turn.

The other thing that IT IS, is a primarily a GOP-wielded tool… though, in all fairness, there have been some Democrats (like Bill Clinton) who enthusiastically supported it, along with the so-called “Three Strikes” laws which is a two-part scheme, consisting of a:

1.) School-to-prison pipeline, which then becomes a;
2.) Prison-packing scheme

— which has continuously disproportionately harmed our non-White brothers & sisters, primarily, and in that process turned America into a police state. In the United States, there are MORE TOTAL PEOPLE INCARCERATED than in all the prisons combined in Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Russia, North Korea, China, and other despotically-ruled totalitarian regimes worldwide.

Applying a “Free Market” ideology to that scenario would dictate that capacities of the prisons should not be enlarged (in order to minimize operating costs), and instead, build Wall-$treet-traded PRIVATE FOR-PROFIT PRISONS — which is a very “pro-free market” thing to do, which again, is part and parcel of neoliberal behavior, strategies, and tactics.

Yeah.

But “neoliberalism” is a hard-line “modern spin” on some old ideas, at least as interpreted by an entire cadre of moderns (most of whom are in the current era).

The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy writes this about Neoliberalism, stating that neoliberalism is a:

“philosophical view that a society’s political and economic institutions should be robustly liberal and capitalist, but supplemented by a constitutionally limited democracy and a modest welfare state.”

Typically, individuals who subscribe to, and promote, such ideas often do so blindly, and unthinkingly.

Again, most — but, not all — whom have espoused, or supported neoliberal ideas have been (and are) GOPers and Radicalized Republicans.

Recall that it was Ronald Reagan who, in his first Inaugural Address January 20, 1981, stated that “In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.“

The preposterous absurdity of that statement is self-evident, because if government is the problem, then the obvious solution to that problem is elimination of it (government); and the absence of government is a state of anarchy, chaos, and lawlessness. Yet, it was at that point in which radicalized Republicans who identified themselves as the “TEA Party” caucus (Taxed Enough Already), began in earnest to slowly dismantle government, bit-by-bit, piece-by-piece, and law-by-law.

POTUS Clinton was also largely sycophantic to the GOP’s destructive objective under the direction of GOP Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, when he proudly proclaimed in his January 23, 1996 State of the Union Address, that “The era of big government is over.” Yet, his go-along-to-get-along strategy proved inadequate when faced with the reality of the failures of Three-Strikes laws, creation of a school-to-prison pipeline as a private-prison-for-profit packing strategy, which incarcerated more non-Whites than Whites, especially through disparate sentencing for crack vs powder cocaine, and cannabis.

Investopedia lists these characteristics of the ideals, principles, and practices often found in neoliberal governments which often

Why does Banana Republican Florida Man U.S. Representative Matt Gaetz, CD-1 vote AGAINST hurricane help?

Partisan politics makes enemies of men & women who would otherwise be friends.

Matt Gaetz is a prime example of that, as is Marjorie Taylor Green, and Colorado High School dropout Lauren Boebert, as is Ted “Canun” Cruz, as are several others. Those individuals exist to serve themselves, and their interests, personally, without respect for their constituency’s wishes, or expressed desires. It is the most egregious example and type of self-seeking, and a callous disregard for the well-being and lives of others.

During Texas’ statewide energy crisis (electrical & NatGas) Ted “Cancun” Cruz and his family fled to Cancun, Mexico, where they partied and vacationed for several days. Then, presumably struck by pangs of conscience, Ted departed earlier than his family — but only by a few days. Of course, the best part was hearing Ted try and justify his actions by saying something about “work,” which for him is warming a seat in the Senate.

That is, if one doesn’t count him as being a constantly-generating bag of hot noxious gas on Capitol Hill whom is known for its enormous volume of putrid output… which, of course, he is.

But Matt Gaetz… don’t you wonder what ever became of the investigation into his behavior with now-plead-guilty sex trafficking pal Joel Greenberg? Seems Federal Prosecutors found that the 2 most central and most important witnesses were “unreliable” — Joel Greenberg, and the then-17-year-old young woman —

Federal Prosecutors were examining whether Greenberg paid women to have sex with Gaetz,
and whether the two shared sexual partners,
including the 17-year-old girl at issue in Greenberg’s case.

— which would hamper any prosecution attempt — and so for that primary reason, declined to prosecute.

KEY BACKGROUND, via Forbes: “Greenberg, who was elected as tax collector in 2016, was arrested last summer on charges of stalking and using social media to impersonate an opponent. An ensuing investigation — including a raid of Greenberg’s home — resulted in him being accused of soliciting a girl between the ages of 14 and 17 for sex, wire fraud, conspiracy to bribe a public official and theft of government property. That probe reportedly found evidence linking him to Gaetz, prompting a Justice Department investigation into whether Greenberg procured women for Gaetz and whether the Florida Republican had a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old girl whom he paid to travel with him.”

Given Greenberg’s case history, Jurors would most likely NOT be inclined to believe sworn testimony from him, who as a politician, fabricated a false story against a schoolteacher who was campaigning against him as Tax Collector. Greenberg anonymously sent letters to the school where the teacher worked, and falsely claimed that the teacher had an inappropriate sexual relationship with a student — an allegation similar to the Gaetz case — which was but 1 charge of 6 to which Greenberg plead guilty. The other charges to which Greenberg plead guilty were identity theft, stalking, wire fraud, conspiracy to bribe a public official, and sex trafficking of a minor.

“Nobody’s going to believe anything that Joel Greenberg says by itself. His statements would need to be corroborated by testimony or evidence,” said David Bear, a lawyer for the schoolteacher.

What a lucky strike for Gaetz, eh?

Gaetz Maintains Innocence As Associate Admits Introducing ‘Other Adult Men’ To Minor For Paid Sex In Guilty Plea Deal

— Introduced her to “other adult men” who “engaged in commercial sex acts” with her.

Exactly what are “commercial sex acts”? Is that anything like cattle insemination? What about its collection? Is that also a sex act? And, to the extent that humans are involved with animal sex acts, that makes for a good headline.

Gotta’ sell those papers, don’cha know?

But, what kind of human being would CONTINUOUSLY vote AGAINST helping their own fellowman, especially during time of natural disaster?

By now, you ought to know.

None other than

DEATH: The Great Equalizer

In response to the question in the article linked below, “No. It does NOT absolve them of responsibility for their actions. It merely means “it’s all over but the crying.””

And this is the crying.

Emphasizing particularly that it is important to acknowledge someone akin to a debating partner, rather than a mortal enemy. It is a hallmark of civility.

As long has been said, disagreeing on the finer points of a narrow range of subjects doesn’t mean to be disagreeable, though some have so misinterpreted the aphorism. Everyone is welcome at funerals… save then-POTUS Donald Trump, whom Arizona Republican Senator John McCain specifically excluded by name before he died. Like him, or loathe him (ideologies, not personally), John McCain was a man of integrity and honor.

But, death is THE common denominator from which ALL humanity suffers.

Even at a funeral, the attendees all share a common bond — the deceased.

Funerals are NOT for the deceased; instead, they are for the living, to enable them an opportunity to publicly and collectively express their individual, private, and public, sense of loss and sorrow, at the deceased’s departure.

〝Eulogies, by their very nature, often lionize the dead,
and by so doing,
tend to give a flawed, romanticized picture of the deceased,
one that sometimes is not based in reality.
It paints a portrait of the person
as we WANT to remember them,
rather than how they were.〞

Obituaries, on the other hand, can be, and often are, written by another, sometimes not even a relative, such as with the death of a public figure, where elongated obituaries often become human interest feature articles, and can, and do, also sometimes mention difficulties, losses, struggles, and failures, not just the high-lights, or high points of one’s life.

Thinking forward, one will naturally be curious about who will attend Donald John Trump’s funeral. Naturally, there’ll be the likely suspects, Rudi Giuliani, Michael Flynn, Steve Bannon, Roger Stone, immediate family (children, their spouses & families), a few business associates, and perhaps a few others. But ‘who would want to attend’ such an event is about what I’m curious. How many extras would be hired to give the (false) appearance of being well-attended — as he did exaggeration at his Inauguration? Clearly, there he did not. The crowd size experts that estimated “numbers” of those attending the event was severally estimated by numerous independent agencies, to be between 300,000 – 600,000.

In stark contrast is the 2009 Obama inauguration’s estimated 1,800,000 attendance. That has to rile him something fierce. Of course, Trump’s obituary will likely lead with something like “he was best known for being the only twice-impeached POTUS, and instigator of the January 6, 2020 Insurrection, when murderous mobs armed with unconventional weapons literally broke into the U.S. Capitol Building, and roamed freely throughout, pillaging as they went…”

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They Voted to Overturn an Election.

Did Their Obits Let Them Off the Hook?

By Michael Schaffer
09/09/2022
04:30 AM EDT

When Indiana Congresswoman Jackie Walorski died in a traffic accident last month, readers of the Washington Post write-up had to wait until the final paragraph — below the fulsome tributes from a bipartisan array of colleagues; below the discussions of her anti-abortion politics and her committee assignments — to learn about what may have been the most important vote of her career: On January 6th, 2021, she voted against certifying the results of the 2020 election.

…

It’s not that votes against certifying the election have been universally memory-holed. The New York Times obit for Hagedorn, for instance, led with his election-overturning vote. It’s that the coverage is all over the place. The same vote was mentioned low in the reports of his death offered by the Associated Press and his home-state Star-Tribune, and not at all in the Guardian, a publication that’s generally not especially friendly to baseless conspiracy theories about 2020 fraud.

U.S. Representative Jackie Walorski, R, IN-2 –CENTER– listens during a meeting between President Donald Trump and congressional members in the Cabinet Room of the White House February 13, 2018 in Washington, DC. – Alex Wong/Getty Images

Likewise, Wright’s vote made the last paragraph of the AP obit, but was unmentioned in the lengthy obituary in his hometown Dallas Morning News or the news account of his death in the Texas Tribune. (POLITICO didn’t run traditional obits, but its news accounts of the three deaths — which featured tributes from colleagues but no lengthy resume-recitations — also did not take note of the way they voted on January 6.)

This is all, on the face of it, rather strange. The last few years have featured no shortage of assertions in the media that the preservation of democracy ought to be the profession’s highest calling. The vote on whether or not to certify the election was a seminal one, a moment to pick sides. No less a figure than Mitch McConnell called it “the most important vote I’ve ever cast.” So why not treat it as similarly defining for that vast majority of legislators with careers that have been shorter than McConnell’s?

Part of what’s going on here is our society-wide taboo against speaking ill of the dead and a major-media taboo against appearing biased. The deaths of all three members of Congress were greeted with genuine sorrow by Republican allies and generous aisle-crossing statements by the likes of Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi — warm remembrances attesting to faith and friendship and devotion to public service. Why muck it up by mentioning something controversial?

Rep. Jim Hagedorn addresses a crowd at a campaign rally for President Donald Trump in 2020. — Bruce Kluckhohn/AP Photo

Beyond the fact that mucking things up is what the news media is supposed to do, that speak-no-ill logic assumes that a vote to overturn the election was a bad thing — a statement a substantial minority of Americans disagree with, for better or worse. Presumably, if you believe the election was fatally marred by irregularities, you still agree that the vote to reject it was an important one.

More practically, unexpected deaths of sitting members of Congress are also a place where the measured judgments of people writing for history bump into the reality of

Unqualified Georgia GOP Senate Candidate Hershel Walker a 2022 Herman Cain Redux

History repeats itself, we’re told.

… but only if we ignore it, wrote George Santayana.

George Santayana in Rome, 1944.

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

– George Santayana (1863-1952), Spanish philosopher writing in his 5-part book “The Life of Reason” Volume 1 “Reason in Common Sense,” (published 1905-1906)

One only need look at Georgia to see that GOPers are doing it again.

What are they doing again?

“It” is using the same old failed plays to win.

This time they’re using Hershel Walker like a subway token, just like they did Herman Cain.

They’re parading an utterly unqualified, out-of-touch-with-reality, ultra-wealthy individual as a candidate for high-level elected public office at the Federal level.

Hershel Walker, love him, loathe him — or ambivalent — has never held any elected office, much less held an office of public trust… just like another recent failure who retired to a palatial Florida estate which doubles as a high-priced “Members Only” club. So, why would ANYONE in their right mind imagine that Hershel Walker — in any way, shape, or form — would somehow be “qualified” to be a United States Senator from Georgia?

Sure, the Constitution states that the only qualifications to be Senator are as follows:

“No Person shall be a Senator who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty Years, and been nine Years a Citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State for which he shall be chosen.”
[U.S. Constitution, Article I, section 3, clause 3]

That bar is low enough that anyone — literally, anyone — could be a U.S. Senator. And according to that low standard, even a convicted felon still imprisoned could be a U.S. Senator. How preposterously absurd is that?!? Hershel Walker, as most anyone who’s been paying attention for the past several years, ought to know that

Fetterman v Oz

Contrary to what some political pundits, prognosticators, soothsayers, and talking heads say, Pennsylvania’s U.S. Senate race has not “turned ugly.”

It has always been ugly.

Keystone State residents are faced with what has, once again, become a sad reality across this nation:
An extremely wealthy GOPer faces off against the Common Man.

Why people would choose someone so very unlike them to represent them is beyond the scope of imagination. But, “fool me once, shame on you. Fool me… you can’t get fooled again.”

And in that process, the GOPer merely shows their true colors. But unlike the true colors in Cindi Lauper’s song by that same title, they’re not beautiful. They’re grotesquely hideous, and a maliciously macabre mockery.

The nation saw it in Georgia with Kelly Loeffler, the unarguably wealthiest individual ever to warm a seat in the U.S. Congress — House, or Senate — whose financial net worth, with her husband Jeffrey Sprecher, owner and CEO of the New York Stock Exchage, was then valued at upwards of $800 million.

Loeffler is so very wealthy, that after she was briefly appointed by Georgia’s Republican Governor Brian Kemp to briefly fill the vacancy created by the resignation of U.S. Senator Johnny Isakson due to declining health from Parkinson’s Disease, she used Trump’s 2017 tax cuts “loophole” to purchase a fancy corporate jet — a 2010 Bombardier Challenger 300 (tail#N830EC) — for a mere $10,000,000 and claimed that she used it for campaign travel.

In fact, under Trump’s tax law changes, the entire purchase price of a new or used aircraft bought by a company can be a 100% tax deductible write-off against its earnings.

What the multi-millionairess did, was to create an “ownership trust,” which is a company that owns the plane, rather than herself personally. By so doing, it offers some degree of anonymity by giving it the appearance of being isolated from the individual(s) whom actually control it. Essentially, it’s a type of “shell company” set up exclusively for the purpose of ownership, and nothing else.

Its greatest single benefit?

It helps avoid taxes.

This has all raised its ugly head because the Oz campaign’s Senior Communications Adviser Rachel Tripp said in an interview with Business Insider published August 23, 2022, that, “If John Fetterman had ever eaten a vegetable in his life, then maybe he wouldn’t have had a major stroke and wouldn’t be in the position of having to lie about it constantly.”

Tripp is an alum of the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and one would expect more from a university-educated woman like her, and certainly much, much, more from the one who hired her — Oz, a very wealthy (as in multimillionaire wealthy) retired cardiologist. Of course, Oz has his own baggage, but the difference is, he doesn’t carry his own luggage — he has a porter to carry it for him.

But Tripp’s remark not only shows ignorance, it shows Oz’s true colors… his yellow belly, and forked tongue.

While as a retired cardiologist Oz knows about Afib,

South Dakota GOP Governor Kristi Noem: “Every life is precious.”

When asked today (Sunday, 03July2022) by Dana Bash, CNN News Anchor, and Chief Political Correspondent about the matter excerpted and linked below, South Dakota’s GOP Governor Kristi Noem refused to answer a direct question about a real-life situation, if it were to have occurred in South Dakota.

The matter is a very real one, and it is the tragic sexual abuse of a 10-year old girl who became pregnant as a result of that abuse, and was referred by a Child Abuse physician in Ohio to an OBGYN colleague in Indiana.

These matters, while previously in the realm of the fictitiously surreal, as in “The Handmaid’s Tale” — a dystopian 1985 novel by Canadian author Margaret Atwood, in which a militaristic totalitarian theocracy has overthrown the United States government, as the story’s plotline explores themes of the women subjugated by the extremist, oppressive government, and the various ways by, and through which they gain agency in that society — sadly, have now become reality.

Why Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley is a See You In Tea

Iowa’s Banana Republican Senator, the 88-year Old Man Charles Grassley, is mad because Joe Biden’s Border Patrol seized his fentanyl.

Welcome 2 Pres Biden’s America where 10,000 pounds of fentanyl hv been seized by Customs & Border patrol so far this fiscal yr which is enough to kill over 2 billion ppl or more than 1/4 of the world’s population

— ChuckGrassley (@ChuckGrassley) November 1, 2021

Bessie Hendricks, who at 114 is Iowa’s oldest resident, and old enough to be Grassley’s mother, isn’t having any of it, and thinks the whippersnapper Grassley needs to “stick it where the sun don’t shine.”

“Chuck must be getting Alzheimer’s,” said the supercentenarian. “There’s no other way to look at it. I mean, why would anyone in their right mind complain about taking deadly, addictive, illegal drugs off the streets? Right?”

The Shady Oaks Care Center resident bemoaned the current state of the GOP saying,

Partisan Hacks Abound

One would NOT mention something if it were NOT part of the equation.

It’d be like mentioning Tostitos at a cake-baking contest, the theory of relativity to 3rd Graders, a taco soup recipe to Chinese citizens in Shenzhen, or the merits of a ’57 Chevy during discussion of a cardiac surgical procedure. TOTALLY out of place.

The very fact that SHE — Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett — mentioned it, is sufficient.

“My goal today is to convince you that this court is not comprised of a bunch of partisan hacks.”

— Supreme Court Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett, Sunday, 12 September 2021, at the McConnell Center, University of Louisville, KY, a venue created by Kentucky Republican Senator Mitch McConnell

Similarly, one would NOT need to be convinced if a thing, saying, or claim had utterly no credibility. It’d be like claiming (falsely) that “the sun rises in the west.” Any casual observer can plainly see that the sun appears to “rise” in the east, because of the Earth’s rotation upon its axis. That is to say, Earth spins in an “easterly” direction.

But, what else could be said about a court that INCREASINGLY issues “emergency” rulings, colloquially known as the “Shadow Docket,” WITHOUT proceedings, WITHOUT hearing ANY argument?

That tactic DENIES citizens their Constitutional RIGHT TO BE HEARD IN AN OPEN & PUBLIC COURT OF LAW.

NO ONE BUT she brought up that topic.

So, yeah… Amy Coney “I’m not a partisan hack” Barrett,

Another Moron Has Died

Guess who’s saying “Death to Republicans!“?

The coronavirus.

Morons.

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The leader of an anti-mask movement in Texas has died from COVID-19.

Caleb Wallace, 30, who created a group called the San Angelo Freedom Defenders that conducted a rally to combat what he called “COVID-19 tyranny,” has died after spending over a month in the hospital, according to a message posted by his wife, Jessica Wallace, on a GoFundMe page to raise money to cover his hospital bills.

“Caleb has peacefully passed on. He will forever live in our hearts and minds,” Jessica Wallace wrote in a post on Saturday.

Caleb Wallace checked into the Shannon Medical Center on July 30 after contracting COVID-19, according to The New York Times.

Earlier that month, he organized a rally for people who were frustrated with the COVID-19 mitigation measures that had been put in place to contain the current surge in infections.

Caleb Wallace reportedly started feeling symptoms associated with COVID-19 — shortness of breath, high fever and a dry cough — on July 26, and they worsened the next day, according to the San Angelo Standard-Times.

He initially refused to go to the hospital and get tested for the virus, instead opting to take ivermectin — an anti-parasite medication used mostly in livestock that the Food and Drug Administration recently urged people not to take to treat COVID-19 — along with high doses of Vitamin C, zinc, aspirin, and an inhaler.

“Every time he would start to cough, it would turn into a coughing attack, and then that would cause him to completely go out of breath,” his wife Jessica said. “He was so hard-headed. He didn’t want to see a doctor, because he didn’t want to be part of the statistics with COVID tests.”

On July 30, however, a relative took him to the hospital, where he remained until his death.

Within days after his hospital admission, he was placed on a ventilator – a “breathing machine” that mechanically inflates the lungs with oxygenated air through a tube stuck down the throat.

“He couldn’t breathe on his own,” Jessica said. “The first week

Florida Nuts Best In Nation

Florida man, eh?

El Stupido MAXIMO!

Ron DeSantis, Republican Florida Governor

Goddamn Ron Deathsantis is a FUCKING MORON!!

Let’s put this in perspective, shall we?

Try this on for size:

DeSantis maintains clothes can be detrimental for children’s development and that younger children simply don’t wear clothes properly. But board members in the counties of Broward, home to Fort Lauderdale, and Alachua, home to Gainesville, decided not to allow parents to easily opt out of the clothing mandate as surging cases of severe second degree sunburn fueled by climate change began straining hospitals.

How does THAT fit, eh?

Yup.

Deese Flahda fokes ah nutz!

Oh… and WHO IS LITERALLY DEFUNDING GOVERNMENT OPERATIONS, INCLUDING PUBLIC SCHOOLS?

Yup. You guessed it!

Goddamn Republicans.

Banana Republics are run by Banana Republicans.

Banana Republicans specialize in, and are expert at, a psychological manipulation technique called “projection.”

Projection is the practice of accusing others of doing the very thing that the accuser is doing. They “project” the action upon others whom they hope to revile by so doing.

Banana Republicans accuse Democrats of “defunding” the police, and yet, here they (Ron Deathsantis being their chief exemplar) are, LITERALLY defunding the “socialist” public schools.

Oh… and ANOTHER THING:

Banana Republicans decry “socialism” (though they NEVER actually define it) as being government involvement in anything.

So, using that measure, that metric, that (perverted) “definition,” ALL government is socialist — which makes Ron Deathsantis the Chief Socialist of the Socialist State of Florida.

––//––

Florida Threatens To Pull School Funding Over Mask Mandates

Marsha Blackburn: Liar, Idiot, Moron, Fool

Sometimes, you just have to wonder:
Are people born permanently stupid, or, are they made that way (over time)?

There’s no question that we’re all born stupid, but whether we stay that way, or not, is largely of our own choosing.

It’s the classic “Nature versus Nurture” argument.

And frankly, while there’s evidence both ways, there is at least ONE thing we are absolutely certain of, which is that education cures and eliminates ignorance. So, score one for the “Nurture” column.

And, if you’ll recall, there were at least two (and, perhaps more) hit comedy motion pictures which played upon that theme: One in 1983 called “Trading Places,” starring the inimitable clown-men Eddie Murphy, and Dan Akroyd, supported by Don Ameche, Ralph Bellamy, and the ever-lovely and talented Jamie Lee Curtis; then in 1985 a motion picture with an obliquely similar theme entitled “Brewster’s Millions,” starring late funnyman Richard Pyor, and John Candy, supported by Hume Cronyn, Jerry Orbach, and Yakov Smirnoff; and yet another, although somewhat-lesser-known — though certainly with no less star power — in the 2014 title “Breaking the Bank,” staring Kelsey Grammer, supported by Susan Fordham, Richard Cordery, and Pearce Quigley.

In all three motion pictures, the protagonist is placed in an unexpected predicament by either the sudden presence, or lack of, abundant wealth. What they do with their lives in those stories, is comedic – though no less authentic examples of – nurture, combined with a healthy dose of nature.

And we can certainly see real-life examples of such stories in those who win phenomenal sums in lottery. Late West Virginia businessman Andrew “Jack” Whittaker, Jr. (1947-2020) is perhaps the most notable real-life example of a tragic, everything-goes-wrong-after-winning-the-lottery life story. A self-made construction business millionaire worth at least $17 million, on Christmas night 2002, then-aged 55, he purchased a winning Powerball lottery ticket which at the time was the single-largest lump-sum payout in U.S. lottery history — $315 million, which after taxes was valued at $113.4 million. In later years, he was very public about his sorrow at winning, and in a 2007 interview, stated that he wished that he’d torn up the ticket, saying,

“I’m only going to be remembered as the lunatic who won the lottery. I’m not proud of that. I wanted to be remembered as someone who helped a lot of people. I’ve had to work for everything in my life. This is the first thing that’s ever been given to me. Since I won the lottery, I think there is no control for greed. I think if you have something, there’s always someone else that wants it. I wish I’d torn that ticket up.”

But more to the point — the point being, stupidity on very public display.

In an emailed communique recently, Tennessee Banana Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn wrote the following, and shared YouTube video of her ignorant remarks which she made from the U.S. Senate floor about the House, no less.

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From an email communique from Republican Marsha Blackburn, U.S. Senator for Tennessee:

MASK MANDATES ARE ABOUT POWER

Washington elitists are willing to do whatever it takes to keep the American people under their control. The new guidance from the CDC doesn’t follow the science and puts the wellbeing of children in K-12 schools at risk. There is no valid reason to require a vaccinated person to wear a mask. Mask mandates and lockdowns are all about power.

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What she DELIBERATELY does is couch “freedom” as being able to do any damned old thing that you want, WITHOUT regard for anyone else.

That is NOT “freedom.”

That is selfishness and stupidity.

Musician/singer/song-writer Eric Johnson, in his song “Sad Legacy” from his 2005 album entitled “Bloom,” wrote in part that,

“There’s no such thing as freedom
Without some responsibility.
All this shock and surprise…
But we’ve been throwing out a mean boomerang,
And now it’s coming back at us.”

As has oft been stated, “your right to swing your fist ends where my nose begins.”

Furthermore, in her remarks, she deliberately DENIES the scientific facts.

And to be certain, despite her claims otherwise, the former President did NOT

JD Vance Advocates Voting Discrimination

I have nothing good to say about that man scumbag.

Nothing.

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JD Vance Attacks Childless Politicians, Advocates Child Number-Based Voting

See: https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/564646-jd-vance-takes-aim-at-culture-wars-and

J.D. Vance, memoirist author of Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis, which twice became a NYT best-seller in August 2016 and January 2017, a limited-release motion picture, and was later adapted for Netflix, is an attorney/venture capitalist campaigning as a Republican for Ohio’s 2022 election for its Class III U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Rob Portman.

Mr. Vance spoke Friday, July 23, 2021 at an Intercollegiate Studies Institute-sponsored Future of American Political Economy Conference, and in large part, claimed – without any citation of evidence – that childless politicians who he said “don’t have a personal indirect stake” in improving the country, are responsible for what he called “cultural wars,” which he said are waged by “the left.”

In part, he said that:

Texas Governor Greg Abbott

“You can shine your shoes and wear a suit.
“You can comb your hair and look quite cute.
“You can hide your face behind a smile.
“One thing you can’t hide,
“Is when you’re crippled inside.”

– John Lennon, “Crippled Inside,” from his 1971 album “Imagine”

Everything is BIGGER in Texas.

Including assholes.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott leaves the podium after speaking at the 11th annual National Catholic Prayer Breakfast May 7 at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in Washington. (CNS photo/Tyler Orsburn) See BREAKFAST May 7, 2015.

The news item linked below, is from Daily Wire, a so-called “conservative” reporting outlet.

Texas’ BIGGEST problem is an incompetent and crippled Governor.

It’s not just his legs that are lame.

https://www.dailywire.com/news/governor-abbott-democrats-who-fled-texas-to-stop-democracy-will-be-arrested-immediately-upon-return

But then, what can one say about a 26-year-old man who, as new Vanderbilt University Law School graduate studying for the upcoming bar exam, while out jogging with a friend on July 14, 1984 in Houston’s wealthy River Oaks neighborhood, in a freak accident, had an oak tree to fall upon him, and then, sued the landowner, and the tree service company, and won a literal tax-free insurance jackpot for life?

Abbott’s settlement included

Open Letter To White Republican Men

There is hope only for the living. As they say, “It’s better to be a live dog than a dead lion!”
— Ecclesiastes 9:4 (NLT)

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Dear White Republican men,

 

Whatever you do, DO NOT EVER — as in NEVER, EVER — GET VACCINATED AGAINST COVID-19.

And for goodness sake, REFUSE to wear a mask EVERYWHERE you go.

Your resulting infection with, and death from, COVID-19’s delta variant will leave society better off — MUCH, MUCH BETTER.

We don’t

Moscow Mitch McConnell Redux As Senate “Grim Reaper”

“Some folks just need killin’.”

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https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/555877-mcconnell-returns-as-senate-grim-reaper

By Alexander Bolton, 05/29/21 05:52 AM EDT

Too bad he didn’t hit his head and die. The world would have been much better off without “Moscow” Mitch McConnell, seen here as then-Kentucky Republican Senate Majority Leader proudly displaying the Nike brand athletic shoes which he blames for his fall which ironically, injured his LEFT shoulder.

The Senate’s self-proclaimed “Grim Reaper” has returned.

Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell of KY is keeping his Republican conference largely unified, and it’s creating major obstacles to President Biden’s legislative agenda.

McConnell has maintained the loyalty of his fellow GOP senators despite repeated attacks by former President Trump, who has called on Senate Republicans to oust him as their leader.

And it was McConnell’s opposition to a House-passed bill establishing a bipartisan January 6 commission that snuffed out the legislation in the Senate on Friday.

One GOP senator said the measure would have garnered enough votes to pass the chamber and eventually land on POTUS Biden’s desk had McConnell not gotten involved.

“The vote on the commission would have had 60 votes in the absence of McConnell’s position,” said the Republican lawmaker who ended up voting against the bill.

The senator said the vote outcome was a good example of just how influential McConnell is in the conference.

McConnell warned GOP senators at a Republican lunch earlier this week that

Missouri Republican Lawmaker Ousted For Child Sex Abuse Of Adult Daughters

Once again, Banana Republicans are caught with their pants down.

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ajc.com

Republican Missouri Lawmaker Expelled Over Child Sex Abuse Charges By Adult Daughters

Rick Roeber expelled after GOP House-led investigation

By Tim Darnell, Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Saturday, 24 April 2021

The Missouri House of Representatives voted Wednesday to expel a suburban Kansas City lawmaker over allegations he sexually abused two of his children years ago.

By an almost-unanimous vote, the GOP-led House expelled Rick Roeber, a Republican who was elected in November to represent the Lee’s Summit community.

Republican child sex abuser Rick Roeber of Missouri State House

The vote came after an ethics committee report on Monday that formally accused Roeber of sexually abusing two of his now-adult children when they were 5 and 9. The committee found their allegations credible.

The expulsion was the first time the Missouri House had expelled a member in more than 150 years.

No one opposed Roeber’s ouster, though one lawmaker voted “present” to sidestep taking a position.

“It is unacceptable what he has done to the home life of these children,” GOP House Speaker Rob Vescovo said, according to The Associated Press, during a speech from the chamber floor. “And I find him in the worst capacity to represent the people, and more specifically represent the children, of the 34th District or the children of the state of Missouri.”

Roeber previously told the committee that he didn’t sexually abuse his children.

Several of Roeber’s children testified to House investigators this year he also frequently beat them with a belt, choked them and once drowned a litter of puppies.

One child who said Roeber was sexually abusive told investigators that

On The Dole: Marjorie Taylor Greene Profits From Low-Income Federal Subsidy Program

Is Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Green Pretending?

Cue Eric Clapton’s 1989 hit “Pretending.”

Clay Bennett is a native Alabamian, and Pulitzer prize-winning, long-time political cartoonist for the Chattanooga Times-Free Press.

While Marjorie Taylor Greene has claimed business success credentials as a candidate for Georgia’s 14th Congressional District – while spouting the bizarre lies and not-even-specious rhetoric as part of the QAnon conspiracy – what she has NOT said is that Federal subsidy of low-income housing, and Federal tax credits associated with them, has played a significant role in that “success.”

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution recently published an investigative article about Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Republican QAnon conspiracy theory supporter who moved her campaign headquarters from the state’s 6th to the 14th Congressional District exclusively in order to campaign for the U.S. House of Representatives. The Constitution does not require a Member of Congress to reside in the district they represent, only the state.

The 14th CD is located in the state’s uppermost northwest corner, bordering Alabama and Tennessee, a portion of which is considered part of the Chattanooga, TN Metropolitan Statistical Area.

Located slightly north of the state’s capitol city, from 1992-2018, GA’s 6th CD has, until recently, been a largely Republican-dominated suburb of the Atlanta MSA which has produced the likes of Newt Gingrich, Johnny Isakson, and former Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price.

Georgia’s 14th CD includes Dalton, which has long been known for the numerous carpet and floor covering firms which supply a significant portion of all carpet sold domestically and internationally, and with at least 150 factories, is colloquially known as the “Carpet Capitol of the World.”

It is in that region that Marjorie Taylor Greene projected herself to district 14 voters not as a “carpetbagger,” nor as a “scalawag” – even though she is an opportunist Republican profiteering from Federal poverty programs – but as a business owner/entrepreneur alongside her spouse, Perry.

The term “carpetbagger” refers to:

“a traveler who arrives in a new region with only a satchel (or carpetbag) of possessions, and who attempts to profit from or gain control over his new surroundings, often against the will or consent of the original inhabitants.”

While scalawag refers to:

“White southerners who, for various reasons, saw more of an advantage in backing the policies of Reconstruction than in opposing them.”

And in an ironic video she recently shared with her supporters, she attempted to cast aspersions upon, and belittle fellow Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Democrat from New York’s 14th CD with whom she indicated that she’d spoken, and challenged her to a debate on her “Green New Deal” saying that “she just has a government job” – the same type job Greene has.

“2. As a business woman in the construction industry, I’ve spent the last two decades alongside my husband, Perry, building our company and creating in jobs. The politicians in DC and really at all levels of government have let us down.”

2. As a business woman in the construction industry, I've spent the last two decades alongside my husband, Perry, building our company and creating in jobs.

The politicians in DC and really at all levels of government have let us down.

— Marjorie Taylor Greene 🇺🇸 (@mtgreenee) December 15, 2019

The top of her campaign platform was

TN GOP Governor Bill Lee Expected To Sign “Show Us Your Genitals” Law

50th Tennessee Governor Bill Lee (R)

It makes me wonder… why are Banana Republicans so interested in others’ genitals – especially CHILDREN’S GENITALS?

Sounds VERY creepy to me.

In fact, it sounds very much like something a pedophile would do, or support.

What’s the possibility, eh?

Now, I’m not suggesting that the bill’s authors are pedophiles, but “if it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck,” it’s probably a cow… right?

Maybe a pedophile influenced, or wrote the bill, eh?

But then, why are Tennessee’s GOP legislators listening to pedophiles, eh?

Of couse, this sounds very much like a remedy in search of a problem, rather than vice versa. Seriously. I mean, how “bad” a problem is the so-called “problem” it purports to remedy?

I’ve yet to read any news items about any such matters. You know… something like “Man Shoots Trangendered Victim In Public Toilet,” or “Teacher Shoots Transgendered Teen In Lockerroom” something else patently and absurdly similar. After all, we’re assaulted daily, 24/7 with

It’s OFFICIAL: Matt Gaetz is a POSSOB scumbag.

So the little “Florida Man” is trippin’ on the illicit street drug commonly known as “ecstasy” while paying to have sex with underage girls, hauling them across state lines, and then, showing nude photographs of them to fellow Members of Congress.

What a family guy!

True “family values,” eh?

Great “conservative values,” right?

Let’s check the list:
✅1.) Child molester
✅2.) Pedophile
✅3.) Child Sexual Predator
✅4.) Child Sexual Trafficker
✅5.) Liar
✅6.) Illicit drug abuser
✅7.) All-around low life
✅8.) “Florida Man”
✅9.) Hypocrite
✅10.) Soon to be ousted from Congress

Hope NOT to see you later, you miserable POSSOB!

We’ll be looking for your next assignment IN FEDERAL PRISON!

There, you’ll likely have the stuffing beat out of you, because in prison, child molesters are the LOWEST OF THE LOW.

And who knows?

They could do us a favor by

Matt Gaetz: Another Drowning Rat From Trump’s Sunken Ship

He’s a “Florida Man” to be certain, and his Twitter bio states as much. He’s the moral equivalent of Jeffrey Epstein. His “NAY” vote was the EXCLUSIVE – the SOLITARY – the ONLY vote against a human sex trafficking bill. And his flimsy “excuse” or rationale why, is as weak as water. He’ll be out soon as just another worthless, hypocritical, flash-in-the-pan piece of GOP garbage.

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Matt Gaetz, On The Ropes From Juvenile Sex Trafficking Investigation, Finds Few Friends In The GOP

by Juliegrace Brufke & Mike Lillis
03/31/21 05:33 PM EDT

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/545850-gaetz-on-the-ropes-finds-few-friends-in-gop

In four years on Capitol Hill, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) has experienced a meteoric rise to national prominence — one fueled by a close alliance with former President Trump, a penchant for political theatrics and a no-apologies brand of conservatism that’s made him a darling of the right-wing cable outlets.

Matt Gaetz now – with a slicked-back pompadour, and snazzy suit.

Yet this week, facing a federal investigation into allegations of a sexual relationship with an underage girl, Gaetz is finding himself in an unusual spot: On the ropes and virtually alone.

Few of Gaetz’s GOP colleagues are coming to the defense of the third-term Floridian following a New York Times report that the Department of Justice (DOJ) is investigating allegations of sexual misconduct with — and interstate trafficking of — a minor roughly two years ago. And a number of Republicans, while warning against jumping to premature conclusions about Gaetz’s conduct, also suggested they wouldn’t miss him if he were gone.

“I don’t know anything about this situation other than to say he has certainly made enemies and painted a bull’s-eye on his back,” said one Republican lawmaker, who requested anonymity to speak freely on a sensitive topic. “This appears to be a self-inflicted wound.”

Gaetz has vehemently denied that he had a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old-girl — the central allegation of the Justice Department probe, which was launched under the Trump administration. Gaetz contends that he and his family have been targeted by a former DOJ official in an extortion scheme seeking millions of dollars to have the allegations vanish.

In a series of tweets, statements and media interviews Tuesday evening, he maintained that

Cancun Cruz: It’s Show Time!

Ted “Cancun” Cruz is a goddamn fucking moron.

Nobody likes him.

Nobody in the Senate.

Few in Texas.

Even fewer nationally.

Wouldn’t it be ironic tragedy if he was shot?

Somehow, being shot seems to change people’s minds about firearms laws.

It changed people’s minds after POTUS JFK was assassinated.

It changed racist White Supremacist Alabama Governor George Wallace’s mind.

It changed POTUS Ronald Reagan’s mind.

It changed Reagan’s Press Secretary James and his wife Sarah Brady’s minds.

It changed Arizona U.S. Representative Gabby Gifford and her husband Mark Kelly’s minds.

It changed Louisiana U.S. Representative Steve Scalise’s mind.

It changed peoples’ minds in El Paso.

It changed peoples’ minds in Parkland, Florida’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. (Sadly, there’s a list of school shootings maintained here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_school_shootings_in_the_United_States)

It’s amazing how little pieces of lead have power to change people’s minds.

I wonder why?

Of course, none of that applies to Alabama’s 5th District Moron Brooks.

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Cruz Accuses Democrats Of Playing “Ridiculous Theater” In Proposals Following Mass Shootings

By Celine Castronuovo – 03/23/21 12:47 PM EDT

Cancun Cruz

Texas Senator Cancun Cruz (R) on Tuesday accused Democrats of playing “ridiculous theater” by proposing universal background checks and other reforms following mass shootings, which he claimed would take “away guns from law-abiding citizens.”

Cancun Cruz made his remarks during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on gun violence that had been scheduled before of the deadly mass shootings at massage parlors in the Atlanta, Georgia area last week and at a Boulder, Colorado, grocery store Monday evening.

Cancun Cruz said that

Trump & Republicans LITERALLY Destroyed United States Government

Alejandro Mayorkas, Department of Homeland Security Secretary, White House press conference, Monday, March 1, 2021

“The prior administration dismantled our nation’s immigration system in its entirety.”

– Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, Monday, March 1, 2021, White House briefing room press conference

That has been, and continues to be, the primary modus operandi of the former Grand Old Party, now known as the Banana Republican party – tear it down.

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/press-briefings/2021/03/01/press-briefing-by-press-secretary-jen-psaki-and-secretary-of-homeland-security-alejandro-mayorkas/

“Let me explain to you why it is hard and why it is going to take time. I think it is important to understand what we have inherited, because it defines the situation as it currently stands. Entire systems are not rebuilt in a day or in a few weeks. To put it succinctly, the prior administration dismantled our nation’s immigration system in its entirety.

“When I started 27 days ago, I learned that we did not have the facilities available or equipped to administer the humanitarian laws that our Congress passed years ago. We did not have the personnel, policies, procedures, or training to administer those laws. Quite frankly, the entire system was gutted.

“In addition, they tore down

ERCOT To Be Sued Into Oblivion

What’d I tell you, eh?

Just a matter of a few days ago, on Thursday, February 18, 2021, in an entry entitled “Details On Texas’ Electrical Power Grid Production Problems,” I wrote in part that,

“It would not be too far-fetched to imagine (unless the Texas State Legislature asserted otherwise, and chose not to protect the people, but industry instead), that in the future, if such deliberate failures to act to prevent catastrophic loss in Texas – primarily as loss of human life, but property loss, as well – would be subject to litigation by others against the offenders – that being the entire spectrum of participants, ranging from  Power Generators, Investor-Owned Utilities aka Retail Electricity Providers, and ERCOT as the esrtwhile ne’er do well pseudo-manager, and perhaps even the Public Utility Commission of Texas for allowing it all to happen under their watchful eyes.

“Ultimately, of course, the responsibility lies with Texas politicians who have horrifically and bitterly failed their constituents… again, and in magnificently resplendent fashion – making this catastrophic fiasco their magnum opus of failure.

“And there is precedent for the same. Pacific Gas and Electric (PGE), the primary electrical utility and NatGas service provider for California, was sued recently, and consequently filed bankruptcy because of the sheer volume of lawsuits filed citing PGE’s deliberate failures to act in a preventative manner to secure their power lines to prevent fire, which in turn caused massive wildfires in the state. To assert that affirmative corporate responsibility is somehow tortuous or onerous to justice or jurisprudence is beyond the scope of the pale. And ERCOT is a well-known name in Texas.”

And, have you noticed?

The ERCOT website, ERCOT.com has remained off-line for several days, and at last check, moments ago, remained off-line.

Fortunately, however, there is a thing called the “Internet Archive” which has a “Wayback Machine” that caches and “makes images” (copies) of websites worldwide. So the ERCOT website isn’t truly gone… even though they might wish it to be.

But ERCOT and Entergy… deserve to be punished for their failures.

The buck stops here.

---

$100M Lawsuit Alleges Negligence By Power Company, Grid Operator Led To Texas Boy’s Death During Winter Storm

https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/539798-100m-lawsuit-alleges-negligence-by-power-company-grid-operator-led-to

The family of an 11-year-old boy who died in the freezing Texas weather last week has filed a lawsuit against the state’s grid operator, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), and power company Entergy, alleging that gross negligence led to the child’s death.

Local Houston news station KHOU reports that the family of Cristian Pavon has filed a lawsuit and is represented by attorney Tony Buzbee.

---

Family of Conroe boy who died during winter storm suing ERCOT, Entergy for $100M

The lawsuit alleges gross negligence by the power grid operator and the electricity provider, saying it led to the death of 11-year-old Cristian Pavon.
Published: 7:24 PM CST February 20, 2021
https://www.kens5.com/article/weather/11-year-old-found-dead-after-freezing-cold-night-in-a-conroe-mobile-home-with-no-power/285-4781bcb9-6643-4224-8b5b-c1fc5c725b61

CONROE, Texas — A Conroe family whose young son died during the winter storm has enlisted to help of high-profile attorney Tony Buzbee in their lawsuit against ERCOT and Entergy.

The lawsuit alleges gross negligence by the power grid operator and the electricity provider, saying it led to the death of 11-year-old Christian Pavon.

The boy died Tuesday after spending the night in his frigid mobile home that lost power.

The lawsuit says Christian died of hypothermia, and the family is asking for more than $100 million in damages.

Medical examiners have not yet released his cause of death.

Entergy released the following statement on the lawsuit:
“We are deeply saddened by the loss of life in our community. We are unable to comment due to pending litigation.”

ERCOT also released a statement:
“We haven’t yet reviewed the lawsuits and

Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott says…

“This shows how the Green New Deal would be a deadly deal for the United States of America. Our wind and our solar got shut down, and they were collectively more than 10 percent of our power grid, and that thrust Texas into a situation where it was lacking power on a statewide basis. It just shows that fossil fuel is necessary.”

Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott says stupid shit.

The chart below, from the United States Energy Information Administration, shows that in Texas, Natural Gas-Fired electricity generation is BY FAR – by at least TWICE – the SINGLE LARGEST SOURCE of electrical power in Texas.

It is NOT Nonhydroelectric Renewables, which supplies only 8679 thousand MWh while Natural Gas which supplies 19,890 thousand MWh.

Yeah.

But wind turbines are the problem – according to Governor Abbott and other nuts.

What kind of ding-dong dumbass is Greg Abbott?

Governor Abbott had an embarrassing and unannounced public case of verbal diarrhea on The Blame Game show on Tuesday’s edition of Faux Newz with Right Wing Nut Job Extremist Sean Hannity as the talking head show.

But, let’s be fair about this, shall we?

It happened on YOUR watch, Governor Greggy-poo. Therefore, it’s YOUR fault.

It’s YOUR FAULT
because
YOU DID NOTHING
TO
PREVENT IT FROM HAPPENING.

Simply put, you did NOT look out for the welfare of your state’s citizens.

You FAILED.

In a series of Tweets, Dan Crenshaw, Texas Republican U.S. Representative for CD2-Houston stated what many agreed is the problem – there’s no insulation in natural gas pipelines in Texas. Thus, they were freezing up, and creating problems.

“Low Supply of Natural Gas: ERCOT planned on

Mitch McConnell: Acquittal Vindicated the Constitution, Not Trump

U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Joseph Story (1779-1845), Daguerreotype portrait by Matthew Brady’s Studio c.1844/45

Joseph Story (1779-1845) was an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, nominated by President James Madison, who served in office from February 3, 1812 until September 10, 1845.

He was also: Republican Congressman from Massachusetts, 1808-1809; Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, 1811-1845; Acting Chief Justice, 1835-1836, 1844; Professor of Law Harvard University 1829-1845.

He is perhaps most renown for his work “Commentaries On The Constitution of the United States” which was first published in 1833, though he authored several other books on the law, and Constitution.

The United States Constitution states in part as follows:

Article I, Section 3, Clause 7:
Judgment in Cases of Impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from Office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any Office of honor, Trust or Profit under the United States: but the Party convicted shall nevertheless be liable and subject to Indictment, Trial, Judgment and Punishment, according to Law.

Article II, Section 4:
The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.

Justice Story wrote about the matter of impeachment at great length, and in part wrote that:

§393. It is obvious, that, upon trials on impeachments, one of two courses must be adopted in case of a conviction; either for the court to proceed to pronounce a full and complete sentence of punishment for the offence according to the law of the land in like cases, pending in the common tribunals of justice, superadding the removal from office, and the consequent disabilities; or, to confine its sentence to the removal from office and other disabilities. If the former duty be a part of the constitutional functions of the court, then, in case of an acquittal, there cannot be another trial of the party for the same offence in the common tribunals of justice, because it is repugnant to the whole theory of the common law, that a man should be brought into jeopardy of life or limb more than once for the same offence. A plea of acquittal is, therefore, an absolute bar against any second prosecution for the same offence. If the court of impeachments is merely to pronounce a sentence of removal from office and the other disabilities; then it is indispensable, that provision should be made, that the common tribunals of justice should be at liberty to entertain jurisdiction of the offence, for the purpose of inflicting the common punishment applicable to unofficial offenders. Otherwise, it might be matter of extreme doubt, whether, consistently with the great maxim above mentioned, established for the security of the life and limbs and liberty of the citizen, a second trial for the same offence could be had, either after an acquittal, or a conviction in the court of impeachments. And if no such second trial could be had, then the grossest official offenders might escape without any substantial punishment, even for crimes, which would subject their fellow citizens to capital punishment. [emphasis added]

§394. The constitution, then, having provided, that judgment upon impeachments shall not extend further, than to removal from office, and disqualification to hold office, (which, however afflictive to an ambitious and elevated mind, would be scarcely felt, as a punishment, by the profligate and the base,) has wisely subjected the party to trial in the common criminal tribunals, for the purpose of receiving such punishment, as ordinarily belongs to the offence. Thus, for instance, treason, which by our laws is a capital offence, may receive its appropriate punishment ; and bribery in high officers, which otherwise would be a mere disqualification from office, may have the measure of its infamy dealt out to it with the same unsparing severity, which attends upon other and humbler offenders.

– Joseph Story, “Commentaries On The Constitution of the United States” §393, §394, p278-280, Book III, chapter X; 1833

How the cowardly, weasel-like jellyfish of a man “Moscow Mitch, the Bitch” McConnell could POSSIBLY use the word “vindicate” in reference to the United States Constitution is beyond the scope of imagination – however derelict and perverted it may be – and it is definitely most perverted.

McConnell wrote “Our job wasn’t to find some way, any way, to inflict a punishment. The Senate’s first and foundational duty was to protect the Constitution.” -and- that “The text is unclear” about impeachment, whether “the Senate can try and convict former officers.”

McConnell had also earlier written a “dear colleague” letter to his fellow Banana Republicans in the Senate, in which he wrote in pertinent part that “I am persuaded that impeachments are a tool primarily of removal…”

His mind is like concrete – thoroughly mixed, and permanently set.

The cases of Tennessee United States Senator William Blount – impeached July 7, 1797, on charges of conspiring to assist in Great Britain’s attempt to seize Spanish-controlled territories in modern-day Florida and Louisiana, tried December 17, 1798–January 14, 1799 – and Ulysses Grant’s Secretary of War William Belknap – who tendered his resignation March 2, 1876 only moments before the House impeached him, was tried March 3–August 1, 1876 – demonstrate very clearly that officials may be tried on impeachment charges after they’re out of office. Or else, it completely absolves any official of any responsibility for any act of criminal wrong-doing while in office. It is the intellectual and moral equivalent of saying “so-and-so doesn’t live in Texas anymore, and moved to Minnesota 10 years ago, so s/he can’t be tried for murder or any crimes committed while residing in Texas.”

To assert as much is so absurdly preposterous that it defies imagination.

It’s an ethically reprehensible, morally wrong and judiciously untenable to deny anyone – including society – justice. And that is, in effect, what has happened with Donald Trump; society has been denied justice for the reprehensible, morally repugnant, and outright illegal acts of Donald Trump while in office as the President.

McConnell claims that Trump can be tried in other courts, and cites Justice Story’s writing that:

“There is also much force in the remark, that an impeachment is a proceeding purely of a political nature. It is not so much designed to punish an offender, as to secure the state against gross official misdemeanors. It touches neither his person, nor his property ; but simply divests him of his political capacity.” –– §406, chapter X, book III, p289

“And the final judgment is confined to a removal from, and disqualification for, office ; thus limiting the punishment to such modes of redress, as are peculiarly fit for a political tribunal to administer, and as will secure the public against political injuries. In other respects the offence is left to be disposed of by the common tribunals of justice, accord- ing to the laws of the land, upon an indictment found by a grand jury, and a trial by jury of peers, before whom the party is to stand for his final deliverance, like his fellow citizens.” –– §407, chapter X, book III, p290

But, rest assured: Trump is completely free and clear of any charges related to impeachment. However, there are other charges at the state level which he may face for things he did while in office, including most notably, attempting to persuade Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger to manipulate the results of the election in that state to throw the election to Trump’s favor. The Fulton County District Attorney, and Georgia State Attorney General are investigating that matter.

And just to be utterly and absolutely certain, the word “vindicate” is defined as meaning:

1. To clear of accusation, blame, suspicion, or doubt with supporting arguments or proof: “Our society permits people to sue for libel so that they may vindicate their reputations” (Irving R. Kaufman).
2. To defend, maintain, or insist on the recognition of (one’s rights, for example).
3. To demonstrate or prove the value or validity of; justify: The results of the experiment vindicated her optimism.
4. Obsolete To exact revenge for; avenge.
(American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition.)

1. to clear from guilt, accusation, blame, etc, as by evidence or argument

2. to provide justification for: his promotion vindicated his unconventional attitude.

3. to uphold, maintain, or defend (a cause, etc): to vindicate a claim.

4. (Law) Roman law to bring an action to regain possession of (property) under claim of legal title

5. (Historical Terms) Roman law to bring an action to regain possession of (property) under claim of legal title

6. rare to claim, as for oneself or another

7. obsolete to take revenge on or for; punish

8. obsolete to set free
(Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014)

1. to clear, as from an accusation or suspicion: to vindicate someone’s honor.

2. to afford justification for; justify.

3. to uphold or justify by argument or evidence.

4. to maintain or defend against opposition.

5. to claim for oneself or another.

6. Obs. to avenge.

7. Obs. to free.

8. Obs. to punish.
(Random House Kernerman Webster’s College Dictionary, © 2010)

“Moscow Mitch, the Bitch” McConnell is a Banana Republican from Kentucky, Senate Minority Leader, the biggest weasel in Washington, D.C., and an ardent, though oblique, supporter of the Cult of Trump.

---

Acquittal Vindicated the Constitution, Not Trump

wsj.com
Sunday, February 14, 2021
by Mitch McConnell

January 6 was a shameful day. A mob bloodied law enforcement and besieged the first branch of government. American citizens tried to use terrorism to stop a democratic proceeding they disliked.

There is no question former President Trump bears moral responsibility. His supporters stormed the Capitol because of the unhinged falsehoods he shouted into the world’s largest megaphone. His behavior during and after the chaos was also unconscionable, from attacking Vice President Mike Pence during the riot to praising the criminals after it ended.

President-elect Donald Trump leaves a meeting with Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, at the U.S. Capitol November 10, 2016 in Washington, DC Zach Gibson/Getty Images

I was as outraged as any member of Congress. But senators take our own oaths. Our job wasn’t to find some way, any way, to inflict a punishment. The Senate’s first and foundational duty was to protect the Constitution.

Some brilliant scholars believe

The Republican Party Is Dead. There Are Only 6 Remaining Members.

Maine Republican Senator Susan Collins

A significant number of the American people have been bamboozled, swindled, and otherwise cheated and lied to for at least the past 40+ years, at least since 1980, and beginning in earnest in January 1981 with the Reagan administration.

In actuality, the Republican party’s seeds of destruction were sown in 1964 at the Republican National Convention in Daly City, California when then-New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller warned the assembled delegates that

“The Republican party is in real danger of subversion
by
a radical, well-financed,
and
highly disciplined minority.”  

He was given 5 minutes to address the delegates, but was booed for over 16 minutes.

Why?

He was seeking the inclusion of language in the official party platform which would have said,

“The Republican Party fully respects the contribution of responsible criticism, and defends the right of dissent in the democratic process. But we repudiate the efforts of irresponsible, extremist groups, such as the Communists, the Ku Klux Klan, the John Birch Society and others, to discredit our Party by their efforts to infiltrate positions of responsibility in the Party, or to attach themselves to its candidates.”

One would think that such language condemning and repudiating the Ku Klux Klan, Communists, John Birch Society members, and others, would have been welcomed.

Ku Klux Klansmen rally in support of Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater, the GOP 1964 Presidential nominee.
Image: Universal History Archive/Getty Images

But, it wasn’t.

That was the year Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater was the party’s Presidential nominee.

That was also the year the GOP suffered one of the greatest losses in American political history.

A mere 6 states – Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and South Carolina – voted for Barry Goldwater.

Lyndon Baines Johnson won in a landslide with 486 Electoral College votes to Goldwater’s 52.

The Popular Vote was just as decisive:
Johnson 43,127,041 (61.1%), to Goldwater 27,175,754 (38.5%).

The next quadrennial election cycle proved to be a harbinger of things to come.

Nebraska Republican Senator Ben Sasse

In 1968, Alabama Governor George C. Wallace – a stridently biogted racist and segregationist, at the height of his hatred of Blacks – campaigned on the American Independent ticket against Republican Richard Nixon of New York, and Minnesota Democrat Hubert H. Humphrey, who had been LBJ’s Vice President. That year’s election was equally decisive in its victory, but what may be most interesting, is the fact that as a 3rd Party Candidate, the openly racist, bigoted Alabama Governor George C. Wallace, though he was a Democratic governor, campaigned on a platform of racial segregation as a Presidential candidate on the American Independent ticket – and commonly, though incorrectly known as a “Dixiecrat” – won 5 states (AL, AR, GA, LA, MS) and their 46 Electoral College votes, along with 9,901,118 Popular Votes, for 13.5% of all Popular Votes cast. It remains the strongest showing of a 3rd Party candidate in American political history. Not even John B. Anderson in 1980, or Ross Perot in 1992 won any Electoral College Votes, though Ross Perot made a good showing among the Popular Vote with 19,743,821, or 18.9% of all Popular Votes cast, and in 1996, Perot secured 8,085,294 Popular Votes, which was 8.4% of all Popular Votes cast, though he never won any Electoral College votes in any election.

Alaska Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski

Wallace’s strong showing among those 5 Southern states in 1968 was resounding evidence of how pervasive, ingrained, and embedded – how thoroughly infiltrated – the message of hate, and he as its chief messenger – along with the Ku Klux Klan, Communists, John Birch Society, and other such elements as then-New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller had mentioned at 1964’s RNC convention – had become in the South. Sadly, Nixon did nothing to help, and rather, relied upon a “Southern Strategy” to win over those very voters – the racist bigoted “Dixiecrats” who had become enured with the Ku Klux Klan, Communists, John Birch Society members, and others – to welcome them into the fold of the Republican Party.

Nixon’s “Southern Strategy” was the creation, per se (it was more an anthropological and demographic analysis of long-term trends than anything else), of Kevin Phillips (b.1940), a brilliant, if not genius (matriculated Colgate University aged 16, graduated Phi Beta Kappa, Magna Cum Laude, spent his junior year at Scotland’s University of Edinburgh, where he knew more about Scottish history than his Scottish classmates), Harvard Law-educated man who authored the 1969 book “The Emerging Republican Majority“ in which he detailed an ethnographic political strategy that capitalized upon, an exploited alleged hostilities between the Irish, Italians, and Poles, and Jews, Negroes, and affluent Yankees to achieve its goals. He later abandoned the GOP in the 1990’s after becoming grossly disaffected by them.

Having now authored over 13 books, the premise of his first book “The Emerging Republican Majority,” was the presumption that most voters “still voted on the basis of ethnic or cultural enmities that could be graphed, predicted and exploited. For instance, the old bitterness toward Protestant Yankee Republicans that had for generations made Democrats out of Irish, Italian, and Eastern European immigrants had now shifted, among their children and grandchildren, to resentment of the new immigrants – Negroes and Latinos – and against the national Democratic party, whose Great Society programs increasingly seemed to reflect favoritism for the new minorities over the old.”

Louisiana Republican Senator Bill Cassidy

In a May 17, 1970 article entitled “Nixon’s Southern strategy ‘It’s All In the Charts’” for the New York Times,

Greene Expelled

Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia’s 14th Congressional District has been expelled from her committee assignments – House Education and Labor Committee, and House Budget Committee – by a majority vote of Members of the House of Representatives.

House Resolution 72 – Removing a certain Member from certain standing committees of the House of Representatives – was passed by a vote of 230-199. The breakdown was as follows:

219 Democrats voting FOR,
11 Republicans voting FOR,

199 Republicans voting AGAINST,

2 Democrats Not Voting,
1 Republican Not Voting.

The resolution was introduced by Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D, FL-23) on 2/1/21, and was agreed to on 2/4/21 by Roll Call vote number 25 at 6:50 PM ET.

The text of the resolution may be read on the Congress.gov website, but it’s short enough to post here:

Whereas clause 1 of rule XXIII of the Rules of the House of Representatives 
        provides, ``A Member, Delegate, Resident Commissioner, officer, or 
        employee of the House shall behave at all times in a manner that shall 
        reflect creditably on the House.''; and
Whereas Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene should be removed from her 
        committee assignments in light of conduct she has exhibited: Now, 
        therefore, be it
    Resolved, That the following named Member be, and is hereby, 
removed from the following standing committees of the House of 
Representatives:
    Committee on the Budget: Mrs. Greene of Georgia.
    Committee on Education and Labor: Mrs. Greene of Georgia.

It’s only the SECOND TIME in recent history that a Banana Republican has been removed from their House committee assignments.

After a 17-year Congressional history, Steve King of Iowa’s 4th Congressional District was the first, however, though he was removed by GOP leadership (Kevin McCarthy) in January 2019 rather than by a vote of the House, as was Greene.

King’s list of egregious behavior was at least as extensive as Greene’s.

• In 2016, he was found displaying a Confederate flag on his Washington office desk.
• In 2017, he endorsed a Toronto, Canada mayoral candidate who had neo-Nazi ties.
• In 2018, during a trip to Europe financed by a Holocaust memorial group, he met with a far-right Austrian party which had been founded by a Nazi, with continued leadership of neo-Nazis.
• In 2018, he was recorded by The Weekly Standard referring to Mexicans as “dirt.”

In an interview with a website associated with the party, King (R-Iowa) declared that “Western civilization is on the decline,” spoke of the replacement of white Europeans by immigrants and criticized Hungarian American financier George Soros, who has backed liberal groups around the world.

On Twitter, he follows an Australian anti-Semitic activist, who proposed hanging a portrait of Hitler “in every classroom.”

In July 2013, King spoke about proposed immigration legislation and said of illegal immigrants: “For every one who’s a valedictorian, there’s another 100 out there who weigh 130 pounds — and they’ve got calves the size of cantaloupes because they’re hauling 75 pounds of marijuana across the desert.”

And in March 2017, King wrote, “Culture and demographics are our destiny. We can’t restore our civilization with somebody else’s babies.”

https://apnews.com/article/d8e91a7d5782fc43bc0595b18ddbdd1a

What’s the difference between Marjorie Taylor Greene (aka MT-headed Greene) and a seal?

Q: What’s the difference between a trained seal, and Georgia Banana Republican MT-headed Greene?

Hmmm… a trained seal plays a tune on horns, performs tricks, and barks on command.

So does MT-headed Greene.

A: There is NO difference between a trained seal, and Georgia Banana Republican MT-headed Greene.

Greene Apologizes To GOP Colleagues — And Gets Standing Ovation
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/537263-greene-apologizes-to-gop-colleagues-and-gets-standing-ovation

Alternate headline:
Lapdog Barks, Owners Applaud

Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-14, Georgia) pretend-apologized for some her past controversial remarks and embrace of the QAnon conspiracy theory during a heated closed-door House GOP conference meeting — and received a standing ovation at one point from a number of her colleagues.

Greene told her colleagues that she “made a mistake” by being curious about “Q” and said that she told her children that she learned a lesson about what to put on social media, according to two unnamed sources in the room.

She also denied that she knew what “Jewish space lasers” were and defended her comments that past school shootings were staged by stating that she had personal experience with a school shooting. (Oh? Really? Which one? What was your “personal experience”?)

She received a standing ovation from some members of the caucus at the conclusion of her remarks. (Trained seals receive standing ovations for their performances, too.)

The House will vote Thursday on removing Greene from the House Budget and Education panels, where she was placed by Republicans. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-California) has so far declined to take disciplinary actions against Greene. (McCarthy and Greene are two peas in a pod, insofar as they BOTH recently went trotting off to see the cult leader Wizard of Mar-a-Lago, seeking guidance and instruction.)

The first-year lawmaker is

Georgia’s M.T.-headed Greene Representative

Fear the Q.

That’s the message Georgia’s nutjob Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene is sending to Republicans, her constituents, and America.

The GOP is sunk.

They didn’t keep out the KKK, Communists, John Birch Society members, racist Dixiecats, and other such ilk in 1964, and look at ’em now! All grown up!

Mr. Lincoln would NOT be proud.

Of course, the utter nonsense of her demonstrably false claims of “voter fraud” in Georgia – which she claims led to Trump’s loss – somehow, magically, mysteriously, did NOT result in her loss.

She still hasn’t figured that one out.

Stupid cunt.

---

As Democrats Call For Marjorie Taylor Greene’s Removal, Republicans Stay Silent

January 30, 2021, 6:20 PM ET

The list is long of the baseless conspiracy theories that Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene has embraced. She’s:
1.) Denied that a plane hit the Pentagon on September 11, 2001;

2.) Supported the idea that the Parkland school shooting was a “false flag” operation meant to usher in tighter gun laws;

3.) Seemed to agree that Hillary Clinton was recorded “filleting” a child’s face.

4.) Greene has also “liked” social media posts that called for executing “deep state” FBI agents, or that;

5.) Advocated removing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi with “a bullet to the head.”

6.) Greene supports QAnon and;

7.) Has said Muslims do not belong in government.

Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Georgia, CD-14, wears a “Trump Won” face mask as she arrives on the floor of the House to take her oath of office as a newly elected member of the House of Representatives on January 3. Erin Scott/Pool/AFP via Getty Images

As reports on Greene’s history and flirtations with violence have come to light, Democrats have rushed to condemn her, suggesting she be censured, stripped of committee assignments, or more: Representative Jimmy Gomez of California has promised to introduce a resolution that would expel Greene from the House of Representatives entirely. Other Democrats have said they would join that resolution.

Pelosi called Greene’s comments “absolutely appalling” and criticized House Republican leadership for placing Greene on the House Education Committee.

California Representative Barbara Lee said Greene “is a threat to the safety of members, staff, and our democracy. It’s time for her to go.”

Republican lawmakers have been more reticent. Utah Senator Mitt Romney indicated in a tweet that Greene was speaking “nonsense.” But most have stayed silent; a spokesperson for House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said he plans to “have a conversation” with Greene about her “deeply disturbing” comments. The lack of forceful denunciation doesn’t sit well with many Democrats.

“A member of your caucus has harassed a Parkland survivor and Representative @CoriBush, and made violent and dangerous statements,” Representative Katherine Clark, D-Massachusetts, tweeted Saturday. “How about serious consequences instead of a ‘conversation’, Kevin McCarthy?” (Representative Bush of Missouri is moving offices after a confrontation with Greene over Greene not wearing a face mask.)

But dealing with rogue members isn’t among McCarthy’s chief concerns these days. McCarthy’s priorities this year have been “traveling to Mar-a-Lago to make up with the former president,” keeping his job secure, and regaining majority control in 2022, NPR correspondent Ron Elving told Weekend Edition. McCarthy met with Trump on Thursday, reportedly to secure his support.

And those Republicans who are staying silent? If they opened their mouths, Democrats might not like what they hear. “There are also Republicans who want to circle the wagons and defend Representative Greene, much as they have defended the former president and his denial of the 2020 election results,” Elving said.

Even with a Democratic majority in the House, expelling Greene wouldn’t be easy. That would require a two-thirds majority vote, meaning around 70 Republicans would have to join the Democrats — something that would make them vulnerable to primary challenges. “And even then you’d have to ask, what would it ultimately accomplish?” Elving asked. “Would she not be more powerful as a martyr than she is now, far more important than she needs to be, with an even bigger megaphone?”

Some Republicans outside of Congress have condemned Greene. After the liberal group Media Matters reported this week on another conspiracy theory Greene had endorsed — that
8.) The November 2018 wildfires in California may have been caused by lasers from space linked to the Rothschild company — the Republican Jewish Coalition said it was “offended and appalled.” Other Jewish leaders have also vigorously condemned Greene’s embrace of “antisemitic canards.”

House Republicans have long known that Greene could be a problem for their party. “Everybody was well aware of her previous persona and who she is,” John Cowan, who challenged Greene during last summer’s primary runoff, told Axios. “Maybe they just assumed that the awe of winning an election would calm her down a little bit, and so she would actually be interested in governing and be interested in policy, and she’s just clearly not.”

In the absence of vociferous Republican condemnation in Congress, Greene is doubling down. In a statement Friday, titled “A Message to the Mob,” Greene thumbed her nose at detractors, claiming that the more the “radical, left-wing Democrat mob” and the “Fake News media” try to “take me out,” the more money she raises from supporters.

“Every attack. Every lie. Every smear strengthens my base of support at home and across the country because people know the truth and are fed up with the lies,” Greene wrote, blaming “cancel culture” and urging the GOP to stand in solidarity. “If Republicans cower to the mob,” she said, they would be “opening the door to let the vicious cancel culture mob take out every one of you.”

On Saturday, Greene said she had a “GREAT” phone call with her “all time favorite POTUS,” Donald Trump. “The blood thirsty media and the socialists hate America Democrats are attacking me now just like they always attack President Trump,” Greene said, adding: “I will never back down.”

https://www.npr.org/2021/01/30/962438098/as-democrats-call-for-marjorie-taylor-greenes-removal-republicans-stay-silent

Publix Grocery Stores Supports Florida Governor Ron DeSantis

Publix grocery store’s prices are SIGNIFICANTLY higher, too.

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miaminewtimes.com

Publix Gave $100K to DeSantis’ Re-Election Campaign Last Month

by Jessica Lipscomb<
January 12, 2021 – 10:26am

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If you’ve been paying attention, it shouldn’t come as a huge surprise that Publix — Florida’s cult-favorite grocery store — made a six-figure contribution to the state’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, last month.

For years, the Lakeland-based company and members of its founding family have supported conservative causes and backed efforts to oppose progressive legislation, including the legalization of medical marijuana and the regulation of polystyrene, better known by the brand name Styrofoam. In 2018, Publix leaders gave $670,000 to a campaign for Republican gubernatorial candidate Adam Putnam. The next year, heirs to the Publix fortune donated $28,000 to Donald Trump’s re-election campaign and $25,000 to a PAC supporting DeSantis’ re-election bid.

Last month, Publix doubled down on its support for the business-friendly governor. In December, the grocery chain made four $25,000 contributions to the Friends of Ron DeSantis PAC, which has raised more than $50 million to date. Publix previously donated $25,000 to the committee in January 2020 and another $25,000 in November 2019, according to state records.

A spokesperson for Publix’s Florida stores did not respond to an email from New Times asking why the company supports DeSantis’ re-election.

The grocery chain has previously come under fire for its political donations. After survivors of the Parkland shooting reamed Publix for its support of Putnam, who described himself as a “proud NRA sellout,” the company in 2018 said it would re-evaluate its corporate processes for political advocacy. But the controversy died down weeks later, and Publix continued to make campaign contributions.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis at a Publix COVID vaccine announcement.

While many businesses have suffered because of the COVID-19 pandemic, grocery stores like Publix have enjoyed record sales as more people shifted to eating at home. The Lakeland Ledger reported that Publix’s profits rose 41 percent for the first nine months of 2020 compared to the same time period in 2019.

Now, the pandemic is

Contradicting Tennessee Governor Bill Lee On Abortion

Bill Lee is the 50th Governor of the State of Tennessee, a Republican, and is serving his first term in office, having been elected in 2018.

Vice President Kamala Harris two days ago Tweeted:
“On the 48th Anniversary of Roe v. Wade, we recommit ourselves to ensuring that everyone has access to care—including reproductive health care—no matter their income, race, zip code, health insurance status, or immigration status.”

On the 48th Anniversary of Roe v. Wade, we recommit ourselves to ensuring that everyone has access to care—including reproductive health care—no matter their income, race, zip code, health insurance status, or immigration status. https://t.co/2CMdjihsXV

— Vice President Kamala Harris (@VP) January 22, 2021

Tennessee Governor Bill Lee included the Vice President’s Tweet with a response of his own:
“Abortion isn’t healthcare.”

Abortion isn’t healthcare. https://t.co/hpHnvw5pso

— Gov. Bill Lee (@GovBillLee) January 22, 2021

I’d like to address this entry to Governor Lee, and to every other person who, for whatever reason, opposes abortion – though opposition to the procedure is mostly religious-based, and that itself presents a Constitutional problem, insofar as our nation is not established upon any religion, and I mean specifically to refer to the “Establishment clause” of the First Amendment. I am NOT going to argue religion, that is for theologians, and I am not making a theological argument.

First, it is a very dangerous precedent to write a law that not only eliminates one’s ability to make an independent, and informed decision (about that, or any other private matter), but mandates that the government tell you (or anyone) what to do in your private life. That is the essence of what is happening with this type of argument. Proponents are: 1.) Forbidding exercise of Constitutional rights and freedom to make a free-will decision, and; 2.) Essentially forcing the pregnant woman to give birth to the child.

Regardless of whether one agrees, or not, that abortion should be discouraged, or even made illegal, the essence of what is happening is that, when government gets involved in a personal, private matter, there is no longer just a woman, and her physician, in that private treatment room, but 535 other people – 435 Representatives, and 100 Senators. And that’s just too many people in one small room.

Whenever government steps in and makes decisions for you, you no longer have freedom, you no longer have liberty. And whether they realize it, or acknowledge it, or not, that’s what the anti-abortion activists want – for government to make your decision, or more accurately, to deny you the ability to make a decision… one with which they disagree with upon religious grounds. Not only is that is the VERY antithesis of so-called “smaller, less intrusive” government (something about which GOP types have clamored about), but it is “Big Brother” government, another thing about which most right-wing, and GOP-type folks complain.

Second, contrary to the claims made by

Who Cares What Jesus Would Do? What Would Trump Do?

Dear Judas,
(A Letter to the Evangelical Church)

NOVEMBER 20, 2020
by JOHN PAVLOVITZ

Dear Evangelicals,

I thought of you today.

I was reading the Bible. (You may remember the Bible from a sitting president’s recent upside-down, tear-gassed, church steps photo op.)

I came across Matthew’s story of Judas’ final moments here on the planet: overwhelmed with guilt, in a searing, sweaty panic — realizing that he had betrayed his beloved Jesus and sent him to an unthinkably violent death, all for thirty cold pieces of silver that now felt worthless in his hands.

He’d kissed him and he’d killed him, just to gain a quick windfall that he suddenly realized was fool’s gold.

He died knowing he’d forfeited his soul and couldn’t get a refund.

President Donald Trump poses with a Bible outside St. John’s Church across Lafayette Park from the White House Monday, June 1, 2020, in Washington, D.C. Part of the church was set on fire during protests on Sunday night. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

I wonder if you will ever have such a last-minute awakening: a similarly sickening moment of clarity-come-too-late, when you look around and see all that you’ve destroyed and how many people you’ve grievously wounded — and if you too will realize that you’re now permanently in the red because you have abandoned your namesake for another name that adorns very different kinds of buildings.

Take a moment and survey the coins in your hand, now, friends.

Roll them around your fingers.

Feel the weight of them.

Your thirty pieces of silver were these last four years, some Supreme Court Justices, a couple hundred lower court judges, the temporary high of a few political wins, the bully pulpit of a President’s Twitter feed for forty-eight months, and perhaps soon, loss of a woman’s right to autonomy over her own body.

That was your soul’s selling price.

Was it all worth betraying Jesus for, I wonder?

Was it worth brutalizing the already vulnerable and oppressed, whose lives he said he inhabited?

Was it worth aligning with this petulant, profane Caesar in all his pervasive and prolific violence?

Was it worth driving a generation from the Church that Jesus built to be a refuge for wanderers, a balm for the hurting, a destination for weary pilgrims, and a home for prodigals?

From where I’m standing, it wasn’t.

From where I’m standing, you’re bankrupt.

From where I’m standing, you’re stuck.

President Donald Trump (in blue tie, 3rd from right) poses outside St. John’s Church across Lafayette Park from the White House Monday, June 1, 2020, in Washington. Part of the church was set on fire during protests on Sunday night. Standing with Trump are, LEFT to RIGHT, Defense Secretary Mark Esper, Attorney General William Barr, White House national security adviser Robert O’Brien, Trump, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany, and White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

I’m out here with the multitudes who will never darken the door of one your gatherings ever again because they’ve seen your greed.

I’m here with those whose last remaining tethers to religion have been fully severed seeing you abandon the tender world-loving heart of Jesus, in favor of a thin facade of nationalistic bravado.

I’m here alongside hundreds of thousands sitting vigil for

John C. Calhoun and the Racist Roots of the Senate Filibuster

Following are excerpted portions of the in-depth interview, which may be read in its entirety, or heard, via the link at the end this entry.

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Book ‘Kill Switch’ Examines The Racist History Of The Senate Filibuster

TERRY GROSS, HOST: Congress is trying to return to normal after the insurrection. But what is normal? There are more threats of violence surrounding the inauguration. The norm-breaking that became the norm during the Trump presidency is about to change with the Biden administration. Another change will be the new Democratic majority in the Senate. After newly elected Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock are sworn in, the Senate will be evenly divided, 50 Republicans and 50 Democrats. But Vice President Kamala Harris will have the tie-breaking vote.

But how much power does that actually give Democrats in the Senate? A majority is not enough to pass legislation anymore and hasn’t been for a long time because of the modern use of the filibuster. It takes three-fifths of the Senate to override a filibuster, which means the minority only needs 41 votes to prevent any bill from even coming to a vote. My guest Adam Jentleson says the modern use of the filibuster has crippled American democracy, enabling the minority to systematically block bills favored by the majority. He’s the author of the new book, “Kill Switch,” about the rise of the modern Senate. He knows the ins and outs of Senate rules because he worked as Harry Reid’s deputy chief of staff when Reid was the Democratic leader. Jentleson joined Reid’s staff in 2010 and stayed until 2017.

“Kill Switch” is a history of how the filibuster started as a tool of Southern senators upholding slavery, and then later was used as a tool to block civil rights legislation. The book concludes with Senator Mitch McConnell’s advances in the use of filibuster as an obstructionist tool. Jentleson is now public affairs director at Democracy Forward, which was founded in 2017 to fight corruption in the executive branch.

ADAM JENTLESON: Slowly, over the course of time, but primarily to serve the interests of slave states and try to preserve slavery against the march of progress and a growing majority of both states and Americans who wanted to abolish slavery. The filibuster did not exist in name or practice until about the middle of the 19th century. So this was well after all of the Founding Fathers had passed away. James Madison was one of the longest lived and an ardent opponent of the filibuster to the extent that it sort of was coming into existence in the 1830s. And he passed away in the early 1830s.

John C. Calhoun (1782-1850), United States Representative of South Carolina-CD6, 10th Secretary of War, 16th Secretary of State, Senator of South Carolina, and 7th Vice President (1825-1832), ardent slavery proponent, and slave owner.

So the progenitor of the filibuster, its main innovator, was John C. Calhoun, the great nullifier, the leader, father of the Confederacy. And Calhoun innovated the filibuster for the specific purpose of empowering the planter class. He was a senator from South Carolina. His main patrons were the powerful planters. And he was seeking to create a regional constituency to empower himself against the march of progress and against – what was becoming clear was a superior economic model in the North. So Calhoun started to innovate forms of obstruction that came to be known as the filibuster.

GROSS: So you describe John Calhoun as, like, basically, the father of the filibuster. Let’s be clear who he was. I mean, he not only wanted to protect slave owners, he argued that slavery created racial harmony and improved the lives of slaves. You quote him in the book. He said, never before has the Black race of Central Africa, from the dawn of history to the present day, attained a condition so civilized and improved, not only physically, but morally and intellectually. Amazing that he could justify that slavery was improving the lives of enslaved people.

JENTLESON: That’s right. And it’s important to note at this time, you know – not to give people of that era too much credit for being enlightened. But, you know, there was a shift in public opinion going on regarding slavery in the United States. The abolitionist movement was beginning to gain traction. And, you know, while folks weren’t exactly at the enlightened state of believing in full equality, they recognized that slavery had – was, at best, a necessary evil, emphasis on the evil.

And so Calhoun took it upon himself to argue that there was nothing evil about it. In that same speech that you quoted, he went on to explain that slavery was not a necessary evil, but, quote, “a positive good.” He was such an ardent defender and such a vehement racist that he couldn’t even accept the sort of antebellum acknowledgement that there were parts of the institution that were evil. So it was very clear what his motivations were. He wanted to preserve slavery. And the filibuster was what he deployed to achieve that goal.

GROSS: So we’ve established that needing a supermajority to pass legislation was not what the founders wanted. They wanted simple majorities. You’ve talked about how the filibuster was initiated in the mid-19th century and the ways it was used to enable slave owners and to keep the institution of slavery. But you write that the only time the filibuster was used during Jim Crow with any consistency was to block any form of civil rights legislation and that this happened through the 1960s.

So give us an example of that – like, of the systematic use of the filibuster to block civil rights legislation.

JENTLESON: So what Southern senators faced starting in the 1920s was majority support for civil rights bills. These were rudimentary civil rights bills. These were anti-lynching bills and anti-poll tax bills, but they were civil rights bills nonetheless. These bills started passing the House with big majorities. They had presidents of both parties in the White House ready to sign them, and they actually had enormous public support. Gallup polled the public on anti-lynching bills in 1937 and found 70% of Americans supporting federal anti-lynching laws. And they polled anti-poll tax laws in the 1940s and found 60% support. So Southern senators started to block these bills in the name of minority rights

Open Letter to POTUS Abraham “Honest Abe” Lincoln

Dear President Lincoln,

You and George Washington had something in common, aside from Presidency – you were both honest men.

There’s a story told, that as we understand it now, is but a mythical fable of someone’s vivid imagination, although every lie has an element of truth. That fable was first apparently crafted by the Reverend Mason Locke Weems (1759-1825), the first person ordained by the Anglican Church for the Episcopal Church in America after the American Revolution.

Though he first studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh, and in London, his calling was apparently to the Christian ministry, and he never practiced medicine.

His 1784 ordination – first as deacon, as customary, September 5, and then as priest on September 12 – was remarkable in part, because he was the first beneficiary of the English Parliament’s passage of the Enabling Act on August 13, 1784, which thereby enabled English bishops to ordain clergy for the American Church without requiring them to swear a loyalty oath to the English sovereign.

He later served as rector in two Maryland parishes – All Hallows’ Parish in Anne Arundel County, 1784-1789, and then from 1790-1792 of Westminster Parish in the same county.

For about 20 years, he was also an itinerant preacher at various Virginia parishes, most notably among them the Pohick Church, where George Washington (1732-1799) attended, before the Revolution. That enabled him to refer to himself as “formerly rector of Mt. Vernon Parish.”

From around 1791 until his death, he became an author, and book peddler for publisher Matthew Carey. Though he wrote and had published various moralizing tracts and biographies of individuals of renown in that era, such as Benjamin Franklin, William Penn, and General Francis Marion (a Continental Army General nicknamed the “Swamp Fox” for his elusive tactics), his most famous biography was of George Washington – “The Life and Memorable Actions of George Washington, General and Commander of the Armies of America” – and first published in 1800. It proved to be quite a success, especially with school-aged children, and in its fifth edition in 1806 – albeit with a slightly different title, “The Life of George Washington: With Curious Anecdotes, Equally Honourable to Himself, and Exemplary to His Young Countrymen” – for the first time, there appeared the anecdote of Washington and the cherry tree.

Knowing Weems was a minister, and that he

Evangelicals Rethinking Trump Support

‘How Did We Get Here?’ A Call For An Evangelical Reckoning On Trump

January 13, 2021, 5:08 AM ET
Heard on Morning Edition
by Rachel Martin

https://ondemand.npr.org/anon.npr-mp3/npr/me/2021/01/20210113_me_how_did_we_get_here_a_call_for_an_evangelical_reckoning_on_trump.mp3

As fallout continues from the deadly siege on the U.S. Capitol, Ed Stetzer, head of the Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College, has a message for his fellow evangelicals: It’s time for a reckoning.

Evangelicals, he says, should look at how their own behaviors and actions may have helped fuel the insurrection. White evangelicals overwhelmingly supported President Trump in the 2020 election.

Some in the protest crowd raised signs with Christian symbolism and phrases.

“Part of this reckoning is: How did we get here? How were we so easily fooled by conspiracy theories?” he tells NPR’s Rachel Martin. “We need to make clear who we are. And our allegiance is to King Jesus, not to what boasting political leader might come next.”

Members of the audience react as U.S. President Trump delivers remarks at an Evangelicals for Trump Coalition Launch at the King Jesus International Ministry in Miami, Florida, U.S., January 3, 2020.
REUTERS/Tom Brenner

In the interview, Stetzer also laments that evangelicals seem to have changed their view of morality to support Trump.

“So I think we just need to be honest. A big part of this evangelical reckoning is a lot of people sold out their beliefs,” he says.

Here are excerpts from the Morning Edition conversation:

You write that “many evangelicals are seeing Donald Trump for who he is.” Do you really think that’s true? There have been so many other things that Trump has said and done over the past four to five years that betray Christian values and their support didn’t waver. You think this time it’s different?

I think it’s a fair question, and I’ve been one for years who was saying we need to see more clearly who Donald Trump is and has often not been listened to. But I would say that for many people, the storming of the Capitol, the desecration of our halls of democracy, has shocked and stunned a lot of people and how President Trump has engaged in riling up crowds to accomplish these things. Yeah, I do think so. I think there are some significant and important conversations that we need to have inside of evangelicalism asking the question: What happened? Why were so many people drawn to somebody who was obviously so not connected to what evangelicals believe by his life or his practices or more.

You write that Trump has burned down the Republican Party. What has he done to the evangelical Christian movement?

If you asked today,

Donald Trump Now A 2-Time Loser

First POTUS to ever be impeached TWICE.

He also holds the distinction of being the President who has had the most members of his own party vote for his impeachment.

Or perhaps instead, should that be FOUR-TIME LOSER?
1.) Lost 2016 Popular Vote
2.) Impeached December 18, 2019
3.) Lost 2020 Election: Popular -and- Electoral College Vote
4.) Impeached January 13, 2021 in the final days of his totally failed presidency

There are more, but those are the highlights.

Of his impeachment, the venerable truth-telling BBC wrote:

A Sad Day In America – Trump, Jr. Threatens GOP: “This is Donald Trump’s Republican Party!”

“To those Republicans, many of which may be voting on things in the coming hours: You have an opportunity today. You can be a hero, or you can be a zero. And the choice is yours. But we are all watching. The whole world is watching, folks. Choose wisely.”

“These guys better fight for Trump. Because if they’re not, guess what? I’m going to be in your backyard in a couple of months!”

– Donald Trump, Jr., in a meandering, expletive-filled speech delivered almost entirely in shouting, to the mob gathered for the “Save America March” assembled on the White House Ellipse, suggesting that he would support primary campaigns against Republicans who did not side with his father on confirmation of the state’s certified Electoral College vote results. After a speech given by the President, the exclusively White mob later rioted, became insurrectionist, and violently overthrew the Capitol Building, rampaging, looting, destroying, and wreaking havoc, and mayhem.

Trump, Jr. screamed thanks to the “red-blooded, patriotic Americans” in the mob “for standing up to the bullshit,” whining that his personal Instagram account is “being censored to hell right now.”

Donald Trump Jr. speaks Wednesday, January 6, 2021, in Washington, D.C., at a rally in support of President Donald Trump called the “Save America Rally.” The “rally” was a mob in waiting, which later rioted, becoming insurrectionists, and violently overthrew the nation’s Capitol Building.
image by Jacquelyn Martin/AP Photo

Trump junior also said that the mob “should be a message to all the Republicans who

Trump Recorded Asking GA SOS to Commit Election Crimes

By now, unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, or just checked in from an overnight trip to Mars, you’ve heard the news that the soon-to-be-former President suborned conspiracy and fraud from the Georgia Secretary Of State Brad Raffensperger.

The Washington Post, in conjunction with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, first published the story, which was quickly picked up by other news reporting outlets, including the Associated Press, Reuters, CNN, New York Times, NPR, and many others, including international news outlets.

• AJC – Trump demands Georgia elections official overturn his defeat in hourlong call
January 3, 2021 at 9:40:50 PM CST
https://www.ajc.com/politics/politics-blog/trump-demands-georgia-elections-official-overturn-his-defeat-in-hourlong-call/6MRGK445JNAGHBL2HXLZ3FIVZU/

• WaPo – ‘I just want to find 11,780 votes’: In extraordinary hour-long call, Trump pressures Georgia secretary of state to recalculate the vote in his favor.
January 3, 2021 at 8:59 p.m. CST
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-raffensperger-call-georgia-vote/2021/01/03/d45acb92-4dc4-11eb-bda4-615aaefd0555_story.html

Full transcript and audio – https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-raffensperger-call-transcript-georgia-vote/2021/01/03/2768e0cc-4ddd-11eb-83e3-322644d82356_story.html

• NPR – “This Was A Scam”: In Recorded Call, Trump Pushed Official To Overturn Georgia Vote
January 3, 2021 2:51 PM ET
https://www.npr.org/2021/01/03/953012128/this-was-a-scam-in-recorded-call-trump-pushed-official-to-overturn-georgia-vote

• NYT – Trump, in Taped Call, Pressured Georgia Official to ‘Find’ Votes to Overturn Election
January 3, 2021 Updated 10:06 p.m. ET
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/03/us/politics/trump-raffensperger-call-georgia.html

• Reuters – In recorded call, Trump pressures Georgia official to ‘find’ votes to overturn election
January 3, 2021 1:40 PM
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-trump/in-recorded-call-trump-pressures-georgia-official-to-find-votes-to-overturn-election-idUSKBN2980MG

• Associated Press – Trump, on tape, presses Ga. official to ‘find’ him votes
January 3, 2021 at 9:17:20 PM CST
https://apnews.com/article/election-2020-joe-biden-donald-trump-georgia-elections-a7b4aa4d8ce3bf52301ddbe620c6bff6

• Voice Of America – Trump, in Phone Call, Pleaded with Georgia Officials to Overturn His Election Loss
January 03, 2021 07:10 PM
https://www.voanews.com/2020-usa-votes/trump-phone-call-pleaded-georgia-officials-overturn-his-election-loss

• DW – Donald Trump heard on tape telling state official to ‘find’ him votes
03.01.2021
https://www.dw.com/en/donald-trump-heard-on-tape-telling-state-official-to-find-him-votes/a-56121196

• France 24 – Trump presses top Georgia election official to ‘find’ votes for him in recorded phone call
03/01/2021 – 22:53
https://www.france24.com/en/americas/20210103-trump-presses-top-georgia-election-official-to-find-votes-for-him-in-recorded-phone-call

• Guardian – “I just want 11,780 votes”: Trump pressed Georgia to overturn Biden victory
Sunday 3 January 2021 14.10 EST
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/03/trump-georgia-raffensperger-call-biden-washington-post

• Business Insider – Trump pleaded with Georgia’s secretary of state to ‘find’ additional votes to win the state in an hour-long phone call, according to new audio
January 3, 2021 at 2:01:12 PM CST
https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-brad-raffensperger-phone-call-georgia-votes-presidential-election-2021-01

The Loser in Chief and POS45 LEFT, and Georgia’s Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger RIGHT

Throughout the entire call, The Lying Sack of Shit in Chief, aka the Loser in Chief and Criminal in Chief, was consistently inconsistent in asserting his “the Earth is flat” debunked fraudulent election claims.

And even though his figures throughout the hour-long recorded phone call were inconsistent, there was one thing he consistently stated, in many ways, that he wanted : For the GA SOS to invalidate enough votes from the already-certified election results which would cause the election to be thrown to him.

If that’s not corrupt – to blatantly ask (numerous times) for a criminal act to be performed (to suborn fraud and conspiracy, “suborn” being defined by Black’s Law Dictionary, 8th ed. 2004, as “to induce (a person) to commit an unlawful or wrongful act, esp. in a secret or underhanded manner”) – I don’t know what is.

And, as it turns out, it is illegal, at the State -and- Federal levels.

Republicans should rejoice that laws exist which regulate behavior involving elections and voting, and not just at the ballot box, either.

Georgia Code
Title 21 – Elections
Chapter 2 – Elections and Primaries Generally
Article 15 – Miscellaneous Offenses

Section § 21-2-604. Criminal solicitation to commit election fraud; penalties

(a) (1) A person commits the offense of criminal solicitation to commit election fraud in the first degree when, with intent that another person engage in conduct constituting a felony under this article, he or she solicits, requests, commands, importunes, or otherwise attempts to cause the other person to engage in such conduct.

(2) A person commits the offense of criminal solicitation to commit election fraud in the second degree when, with intent that another person engage in conduct constituting a misdemeanor under this article, he or she solicits, requests, commands, importunes, or otherwise attempts to cause the other person to engage in such conduct.

(b) (1) A person convicted of the offense of criminal solicitation to commit election fraud in the first degree shall be punished by imprisonment for not less than one nor more than three years.

(2) A person convicted of the offense of criminal solicitation to commit election fraud in the second degree shall be punished as for a misdemeanor.

(c) It is no defense to a prosecution for criminal solicitation to commit election fraud that the person solicited could not be guilty of the crime solicited.

(d) The provisions of subsections (a) through (c) of this Code section are cumulative and shall not supersede any other penal law of this state.

Code 1981, § 21-2-604, enacted by Ga. L. 2011, p. 683, § 21/SB 82.

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2010 Georgia Code
TITLE 16 – CRIMES AND OFFENSES
CHAPTER 4 – CRIMINAL ATTEMPT, CONSPIRACY, AND SOLICITATION
§ 16-4-7 – Criminal solicitation
O.C.G.A. 16-4-7 (2010)
16-4-7. Criminal solicitation

(a) A person commits the offense of criminal solicitation when, with intent that another person engage in conduct constituting a felony, he solicits, requests, commands, importunes, or otherwise attempts to cause the other person to engage in such conduct.

(b) A person convicted of the offense of criminal solicitation to commit a felony shall be punished by imprisonment for not less than one nor more than three years. A person convicted of the offense of criminal solicitation to commit a crime punishable by death or by life imprisonment shall be punished by imprisonment for not less than one nor more than five years.

(c) It is no defense to a prosecution for criminal solicitation that the person solicited could not be guilty of the crime solicited.

(d) The provisions of subsections (a) through (c) of this Code section are cumulative and shall not supersede any other penal law of this state.

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52 USC 20511: Criminal penalties Text contains those laws in effect on January 3, 2021
From Title 52-VOTING AND ELECTIONS Subtitle II-Voting Assistance and Election Administration CHAPTER 205-NATIONAL VOTER REGISTRATION

§20511. Criminal penalties

A person, including an election official, who in any election for Federal office-

(1) knowingly and willfully intimidates, threatens, or coerces, or attempts to intimidate, threaten, or coerce, any person for-

(A) registering to vote, or voting, or attempting to register or vote;

(B) urging or aiding any person to register to vote, to vote, or to attempt to register or vote; or

(C) exercising any right under this chapter; or

(2) knowingly and willfully deprives, defrauds, or attempts to deprive or defraud the residents of a State of a fair and impartially conducted election process, by-

(A) the procurement or submission of voter registration applications that are known by the person to be materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent under the laws of the State in which the election is held; or

(B) the procurement, casting, or tabulation of ballots that are known by the person to be materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent under the laws of the State in which the election is held,

shall be fined in accordance with title 18 (which fines shall be paid into the general fund of the Treasury, miscellaneous receipts (pursuant to section 3302 of title 31), notwithstanding any other law), or imprisoned not more than 5 years, or both.

( Pub. L. 103–31, §12, May 20, 1993, 107 Stat. 88 .)

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18 USC 241: Conspiracy against rights
Text contains those laws in effect on January 3, 2021
From Title 18-CRIMES AND CRIMINAL PROCEDURE
PART I-CRIMES
CHAPTER 13-CIVIL RIGHTS

§241. Conspiracy against rights

If two or more persons conspire to injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate any person in any State, Territory, Commonwealth, Possession, or District in the free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege secured to him by the Constitution or laws of the United States, or because of his having so exercised the same; or

If two or more persons go in disguise on the highway, or on the premises of another, with intent to prevent or hinder his free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege so secured-

They shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both; and if death results from the acts committed in violation of this section or if such acts include kidnapping or an attempt to kidnap, aggravated sexual abuse or an attempt to commit aggravated sexual abuse, or an attempt to kill, they shall be fined under this title or imprisoned for any term of years or for life, or both, or may be sentenced to death.

(June 25, 1948, ch. 645, 62 Stat. 696 ; Pub. L. 90–284, title I, §103(a), Apr. 11, 1968, 82 Stat. 75 ; Pub. L. 100–690, title VII, §7018(a), (b)(1), Nov. 18, 1988, 102 Stat. 4396 ; Pub. L. 103–322, title VI, §60006(a), title XXXII, §§320103(a), 320201(a), title XXXIII, §330016(1)(L), Sept. 13, 1994, 108 Stat. 1970 , 2109, 2113, 2147; Pub. L. 104–294, title VI, §§604(b)(14)(A), 607(a), Oct. 11, 1996, 110 Stat. 3507, 3511.)

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2 USC 10307: Prohibited acts
Text contains those laws in effect on January 3, 2021
From Title 52-VOTING AND ELECTIONS Subtitle I-Voting Rights
CHAPTER 103-ENFORCEMENT OF VOTING RIGHTS

§10307. Prohibited acts
(a) Failure or refusal to permit casting or tabulation of vote

No person acting under color of law shall fail or refuse to permit any person to vote who is entitled to vote under any provision of chapters 103 to 107 of this title or is otherwise qualified to vote, or willfully fail or refuse to tabulate, count, and report such person’s vote.

(b) Intimidation, threats, or coercion

No person, whether acting under color of law or otherwise, shall intimidate, threaten, or coerce, or attempt to intimidate, threaten, or coerce any person for voting or attempting to vote, or intimidate, threaten, or coerce, or attempt to intimidate, threaten, or coerce any person for urging or aiding any person to vote or attempt to vote, or intimidate, threaten, or coerce any person for exercising any powers or duties under section 10302(a), 10305, 10306, or 10308(e) of this title or section 1973d or 1973g of title 42.1

(c) False information in registering or voting; penalties

Whoever knowingly or willfully gives false information as to his name, address or period of residence in the voting district for the purpose of establishing his eligibility to register or vote, or conspires with another individual for the purpose of encouraging his false registration to vote or illegal voting, or pays or offers to pay or accepts payment either for registration to vote or for voting shall be fined not more than $10,000 or imprisoned not more than five years, or both: Provided, however, That this provision shall be applicable only to general, special, or primary elections held solely or in part for the purpose of selecting or electing any candidate for the office of President, Vice President, presidential elector, Member of the United States Senate, Member of the United States House of Representatives, Delegate from the District of Columbia, Guam, or the Virgin Islands, or Resident Commissioner of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.

(d) Falsification or concealment of material facts or giving of false statements in matters within jurisdiction of examiners or hearing officers; penalties

Whoever, in any matter within the jurisdiction of an examiner or hearing officer knowingly and willfully falsifies or conceals a material fact, or makes any false, fictitious, or fraudulent statements or representations, or makes or uses any false writing or document knowing the same to contain any false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or entry, shall be fined not more than $10,000 or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.

(e) Voting more than once

(1) Whoever votes more than once in an election referred to in paragraph (2) shall be fined not more than $10,000 or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.

(2) The prohibition of this subsection applies with respect to any general, special, or primary election held solely or in part for the purpose of selecting or electing any candidate for the office of President, Vice President, presidential elector, Member of the United States Senate, Member of the United States House of Representatives, Delegate from the District of Columbia, Guam, or the Virgin Islands, or Resident Commissioner of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.

(3) As used in this subsection, the term “votes more than once” does not include the casting of an additional ballot if all prior ballots of that voter were invalidated, nor does it include the voting in two jurisdictions under section 10502 of this title, to the extent two ballots are not cast for an election to the same candidacy or office.

(Pub. L. 89–110, title I, §11, Aug. 6, 1965, 79 Stat. 443 ; renumbered title I, Pub. L. 91–285, §2, June 22, 1970, 84 Stat. 314 ; amended Pub. L. 91–405, title II, §204(e), Sept. 22, 1970, 84 Stat. 853 ; Pub. L. 94–73, title IV, §§404, 409, Aug. 6, 1975, 89 Stat. 404 , 405.)

And yet, as of this writing, there has been only ONE reporting outlet with the gumption to tell it like it is.

POLITICO, which headlined their story “Trump’s pressure on Georgia election officials raises legal questions: In audio from a Saturday phone call, the president is heard urging the officials to reverse his loss,” they wrote in part that, “President Donald Trump’s effort to pressure Georgia officials to “find” enough votes to overturn President-elect Joe Biden’s victory could run afoul of federal and state criminal statutes, according to legal experts and lawmakers, who expressed alarm at Trump’s effort to subvert democracy with less than three weeks left in his term.”

They wrote further that,

“Georgia state law includes two provisions that criminalize “solicitation of election fraud” and “conspiracy to commit election fraud.” Trump’s detractors also pointed to a federal statute that criminalizes “the procurement, casting, or tabulation of ballots that are known by the person to be materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent.”

“Anthony Michael Kreis, a Georgia State University law professor, said: “The Georgia code says that anybody who solicits, requests or commands or otherwise attempts to encourage somebody to commit election fraud is guilty of solicitation of election fraud. ‘Soliciting or requesting’ is the key language. The president asked, in no uncertain terms, the secretary of state to invent votes, to create votes that were not there. Not only did he ask for that in terms of just overturning the specific margin that Joe Biden won by, but then said we needed one additional vote to secure victory in Georgia.”

““There’s just no way that if you read the code and the way the code is structured, and then you look at what the president of the United states requested, that he has not violated this law — the spirit of it for sure,” Kreis continued.

“Kreis added that the phone call could not be divorced from recent episodes in which Trump amplified a false conspiracy theory about Raffensperger’s family and his vows to end the political careers of people like the secretary of state and Kemp for upholding Biden’s victory in the election. He also said Trump’s request for a specific number of votes — just enough to prevail by one — undercut the notion that he was simply asking for the truth.

““If I’m the president of the United States and my pardon power is not — does not extend to state acts, I don’t think that in the last few days of my term that I would want to be engaging in activities that even remotely subject me to the possibility of state criminal prosecution,” Kreis said. “That’s what makes this even more bewildering to me, is because if he had sensible advisers they would just keep him off the phone.”“

Regarding the claims of inaccurate, or otherwise invalid absentee, and mail-in ballots, which require signatures, the Liar in Chief claimed that there were “thousands and thousands” of ballots illegally cast which did not properly have signatures authenticated properly.

Brad Raffensperger, Georgia Secretary of State:

“President Trump, we’ve had several lawsuits, and we’ve had to respond in court to the lawsuits and the contentions. Um, we don’t agree that you have won. And we don’t — I didn’t agree about the 200,000 number that you’d mentioned. And I can go through that point by point.

“What we have done, is we gave our state Senate about one and a half hours of our time, going through the election issue by issue, and then on the State House, the Government Affairs Committee, we gave them about two and a half hours of our time, going back point by point on all the issues of contention. And then just a few days ago we met with our U.S. Congressmen, Republican Congressmen, and we gave them about two hours of our time talking about this past election. Going back, primarily what you’ve talked about here focused in on primarily, I believe, is the absentee ballot process. I don’t believe that you’re really questioning the Dominion machines. Because we did a hand re-tally, a 100% re-tally of all the ballots and compared them to what the machines said and came up with virtually the same result. Then we did the recount, and we got virtually the same result. So I guess we can probably take that off the table.

“Mr. President, the challenge that you have is, the data you have is wrong. We talked to the congressmen and they were surprised.

“But they — I guess there was a person Mr. Braynard who came to these meetings and presented data and he said that there was dead people, I believe it was upward of 5,000. The actual number were two. Two. Two people that were dead that voted. So that’s wrong. There were two.”

 

The GBI (GA Bureau of Investigation) examined signatures (which change over time) on ballots and found no problems.

The entire state’s ballots was recounted at least three times – and once manually – and no problems were found which would have affected the outcome of the race.

The Associated Press reported on Saturday, November 21, 2020 that,

Kelly Loeffler Received Over $3M In Farm Subsidies… And Sits On The Agriculture Committee

Blessed are those who have, for they shall be given more.

That’s not a genuine Bible verse, by the way. And if you’re any kind of decently well-read individual, with more than a perfunctory, or minimal knowledge of the Judeo-Christian collection of holy writings collectively known as the Bible, you would know that already.

And by that same token, of being any kind of decently well-read individual, you would also know that there is an eerie parallel to a saying that Jesus of Nazareth made about a related matter – the Parable of the Talents – as recorded in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. A parable, of course, is a moralizing tale, a story meant to illustrate some matter, and to point out a wrong doing, or type of injustice in an unobtrusive, easy-to-understand manner.

We’re going to get to Georgia’s appointed Republican Senator whose net worth of $500M is BY FAR the wealthiest member of Congress in just a moment, but first you need some background for understanding.

Woodcut from Historiae Celebriores Veteris Testamenti Iconibus Representatae — dated to 1712 — depicts the Parable of the Talents as told by Jesus of Nazareth, in Matthew 25:14–30. Two men bring the money that was entrusted to them back to their master, while a third man searches for his money outside.

The story states that, in preparation for a journey of some duration, an owner/master entrusted and distributed his money to his 3 servants. The unspoken hope, or expectation those days, is that, upon his return, they would have increased the portion with which they were entrusted and charged.

To one, he gave he gave 5 talents (a monetary measurement), to another he gave 2, and to the third, he gave 1 talent. Upon his return, the first two who received 5, and 2, respectively, reported that they’d doubled the money. The third did not, and rather, reported that he buried the money in the ground, and had not gained anything. Upon hearing that news, the owner became enraged, called that servant lazy and wicked, fired him, then ordered that single talent to be taken from him and given to the one with 10.

That’s an important point, which you’ll see later, why.

Jesus of Nazareth, who was telling the story, made a moral assessment, and drew a conclusion based upon the actions of that one who did not return a profit, and reportedly said, “For whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them.”

While the story is simply told, the meaning behind it is uncertain, though there have been many sermons preached about the tale. And yet, the audience hearing that parable then, in the era in which is was told, would have interpreted it quite differently from today’s audience, according to Dr. Richard L. Rohrbaugh, STD, Professor Emeritus of New Testament and Religious Studies at Lewis and Clark College, whose primary scholarly pursuit was establishing proper historical and cultural contexts for Biblical texts.

Dr. Rohrbaugh said that, in the era in which the story was first told, the audience would have understood that the “profit” was made through the exploitative abuse of others, and that the third servant was the one which would have been considered honorable by the standard of the day. Thus, that interpretation of the parable, would mean that the first two servants were shameful, instead of the third. When asked about the matter, Dr. Rohrbaugh said in part that,

“[G]iven the “limited good” outlook of ancient Mediterranean cultures, seeking “more” was considered morally wrong. Because the pie was “limited” and already all distributed, anyone getting “more” meant someone else got less. Thus, honorable people did not try to get more, and those who did were automatically considered thieves: To have gained, to have accumulated more than one started with, is to have taken the share of someone else.”

As he explained in the Biblical Archaeology Society, “In the ancient world, greedy people who did not want to get accused of profiting at someone else’s expense – which was considered shameful – would delegate their business to slaves, who were held to a different standard.” Dr. Rohrbaugh explained that the reasoning was that, “Shameful, even greedy, behavior could be condoned in slaves because slaves had no honor nor any expectation of it.”

Again, in the parable, the master

Banana Republican Newt Gingrich Announces Move To La-La Land

Newt Gingrich, Georgia’s original nutty buddy, all-around hypocrite, liar, and one of the original Banana Republicans, recently used his quill to conjure up an OpEd to the right-wing newspaper Washington Times in which he falsely claimed in part that, “The entire elite liberal media lied about the timeline of the COVID-19 vaccine. They blamed President Trump for the global pandemic even as he did literally everything top scientists instructed. In multiple debates, the moderators outright stated that he was lying about the U.S. having a vaccine before the end of the year (note Vice President Mike Pence received it this week). If Americans had known the pandemic was almost over, that too was likely the difference in the election.”

FACT: Regarding “the timeline of the COVID-19 vaccine,” Moderna had a coronavirus vaccine designed January 13, 2020, TWO DAYS after the genome was published internationally online.

Moderna developed their vaccine only two days after the genetic sequence had been publicized internationally by Chinese researcher Professor Dr. Yong-Zhen Zhangm Ph.D. His humanitarian act of scientific generosity resulted in him being temporarily forced out of his lab.

Moderna’s vaccine design only took one weekend to develop at their Massachusetts facilities.

In fact, Moderna had completed development of their COVID-19 vaccine mRNA-1273 before the Chinese government had acknowledged the disease was transmitted by human-to-human means, and more than a week before the first confirmed coronavirus case in the United States – January 21.

And by the time the first American coronavirus death was reported a month later, on February 29, Moderna’s mRNA-1273 coronavirus vaccine had already been manufactured and shipped to the National Institutes of Health to begin its Phase I clinical trial.

All of that was long before the President had made any announcement about his “Operation Warp Speed,” the public-private partnership to develop a coronavirus vaccine, and yet even 2 months before Bloomberg News reported on April 29 that such a plan was in the works.

Gingrich then falsely claims that,

Georgia Banana Republican Kelly Loeffler Obviously Has A Thing For White Supremacists

“You’re known by the company you keep,”
is a well-known maxim.

In which case, Kelly Loeffler obviously has a penchant favoring White Supremacists.

LEFT to RIGHT: Georgia’s appointed Banana Republican U.S. Senator Kelly Loeffler, Joshua Motes, Arkansas Banana Republican U.S. Senator Tom Cotton, at a Loeffler campaign event September 3, 2020 in Gilmer County, GA

Even her newly-elected U.S. Representative Georgia conspiracy theorist QAnon nutty buddy Banana Republican Marjorie Taylor Green (14th CD) knew who Chester Doles was, and booted him from one of her campaign events.

But Loeffler, whose personal net worth of well over $500 million makes her, by far, the wealthiest Member of Congress, can’t be bothered to hire staff that’s worth a hoot in hell to ID bad apples.

Or, maybe she actually likes them.

Jewish Progressive action group Bend the Arc: Jewish Action recently posted this image to Twitter, and later provided it to HuffPost, which shows Joshua Motes standing between Banana Republicans Kelly Loeffler, and Tom Cotton at a Loeffler campaign event in Gilmer County, Georgia this past September 3, 2020. The image was originally posted by Chester Doles to the Russian social media site VK, a well-known haven for White Supremacists, neo-Nazis, and other right-wing radicals who have been kicked off Facebook, Twitter, and other American-based social media.

Joshua Motes is

What are you calling “socialism,” and where is “socialism” found in our nation?

Look at the money in your pocket… the paper currency and the coinage.

Where was it made, and who made it?

Chances are, you’d say the United States government made it at one of their mints. And if you did, you’d be correct. The currency was printed on government owned paper, with government owned ink, on government owned presses.

“Show me a Roman coin. Whose picture and title are stamped on it?” “Caesar’s,” they replied. “Well then,” he said, “give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and give to God what belongs to God.”
– Jesus of Nazareth, as recorded in Luke’s Gospel, chapter 20, verses 24, and 25

Same thing for the coins. They were made with government owned metals, on government owned dies, on government owned machines.

But you can’t own it. You can’t own the money.

At least not in the narrow sense, in that it belongs to the government, anyway, since it was issued by them, using their materials.

In the broad sense, it’s entrusted to you.

But again, it’s government property, and that’s why it’s illegal to deface or destroy currency. It doesn’t belong to you.

So you might think that’s an example of the dread “socialism.” And if you did, you’d be wrong.

Why?

Because ALL of it – the ink, the paper, the metals, the presses, the dies, the machines – ALL of it came from the Private Sector via publicly bid contract.

Yeah.

Put that in your pipe and smoke it for a little while.

Even the healthcare we give our Military Service Members – AND their first-degree family members (spouse and children) – is not an example of socialism, because

In his last days in office, Trump gives to the rich.

Good-for-nothing bastard.

The late Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. had something to say about such abuse:

Whenever the government provides opportunities in privileges for white people and rich people they call it “subsidized” when they do it for Negro and poor people they call it “welfare.”

The fact that is the everybody in this country lives on welfare. Suburbia was built with federally subsidized credit. And highways that take our White brothers out to the suburbs were built with federally subsidized money to the tune of 90 percent.

Everybody is on welfare in this country. 

The problem is that we all too often have socialism for the rich and rugged free enterprise capitalism for the poor. That’s the problem.”

From a sermon entitled “The Minister to the Valley,” February 23, 1968, from the archives of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

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Scores Of Private Charitable Foundations Got Paycheck Protection Program Money

https://www.npr.org/2020/12/16/946739398/scores-of-private-charitable-foundations-got-paycheck-protection-program-money

Scores of private charitable foundations, set up by some of the nation’s wealthiest people, received money from the federal government’s Paycheck Protection Program, which was created last spring to save jobs at small businesses as the coronavirus tanked the economy.

NPR has identified at least 120 foundations that collectively received more than $7.5 million in PPP funding. That’s a small slice of the overall program, which disbursed about a half-trillion dollars, but some of the foundations are linked to individuals of considerable means: An oil magnate, a cable television tycoon, a dermatologist called the father of modern hair transplantation, and an aviation entrepreneur who founded companies with annual sales of more than a billion dollars.

President Trump speaks as Jovita Carranza, Administrator of the Small Business Administration; Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin; and Ivanka Trump, advisor to the president, listen during a Paycheck Protection Program event in the East Room of the White House on April 28, 2020.

Recipients also include the Walt Disney Family Foundation, the

David Perdue wrote a letter asking the POTUS to import cheap foreign labor.

If you want to know what a person will do, simply look at their past.

That’s a generally good rule to observe, and that principle is found in practically every activity of human life – even in politics.

So, let’s examine Georgia’s Banana Republican Senator David Perdue, who was formerly Dollar General CEO from 2003 to 2007 of the Goodlettsville, TN-based business.

David Perdue has been selling out Americans for a long time. As long as it made a fast buck for him, or whoever hired him, he was okay with that.

A little-known fact about Perdue – but one well worth remembering, and publicizing – who is campaigning against Democratic challenger Jon Ossoff (from whom he also hides and refuses to debate), is that when Perdue was Dollar General’s CEO, he was significantly responsible for driving manufacture of most of the company’s merchandise out of America, to Chinese factories. In a 2004 conference call with investors, he said in part that, “We have opened a sourcing office in Hong Kong, and I can tell you we have had a dramatic impact on our business by having direct contact with our manufacturers.”

Of course, Perdue

Violent Racist 2x Federal Convict Chester Doles & GA Banana Republican Kelly Loeffler Visit

Georgia’s appointed U.S. Senator Kelly Loeffler is seen here with notorious racist bigot Chester Doles, a self-described 4th generation Ku Klux Klansman white Supremacist. Loeffler is THE single wealthiest Member of Congress with an estimated individual net worth of $500 million aside from her husband Jeffrey Sprecher, Founder, CEO, and President of InterContinental Exchange, a firm which literally owns the New York Stock Exchange, and other exchanges. Together they are worth an estimated $1 billion. Her spokesman claims to have not known about Doles’ presence at her rally, yet QAnon conspiracy theorist and Banana Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene in September had kicked Doles out of one of her rallies. This image was posted by Doles on VK, a Russian social media website.

You know the saying.

“Shit draws flies.”

It’ll be up to you to decide which is which.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution wrote this, in part, about their cordial visit:

“The photo shows the Republican smiling from beneath an American flag ball cap next to Chester Doles, a longtime white supremacist who spent decades in the Ku Klux Klan and the neo-Nazi National Alliance. He was sentenced to prison for the 1993 beating of a Black man in Maryland and again on weapons violations in Georgia. He also associated with the Hammerskins, a racist skinhead gang with whom he marched in 2017′s violent United the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.”

The “Hammerskin Nation” members, as they prefer to call themselves, are called one of “the best organized, most widely dispersed and most dangerous Skinhead group known” by the Southern Poverty Law Center’s anti-bigotry Intelligence Report, which “provides comprehensive updates to law enforcement agencies, the media and the general public” on the radical right in the United States. His March 2003 arrest by Federal authorities was for violating Federal law barring convicted felons from possessing firearms.

The Washington Post wrote this in part, about Doles and Loeffler’s friendly tête-à-tête:

“Smiling and sporting a dark green cap with an American flag, Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.) posed side by side with a former Ku Klux Klan leader at a Friday campaign event in Dawsonville, Ga.

“But after the viral photo with Chester Doles drew intense criticism amid a crucial Senate runoff campaign, the senator is distancing herself from any association with the longtime white supremacist. A campaign spokesman told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Sunday that Loeffler was unaware she was posing with a man who spent decades in the KKK and the neo-Nazi National Alliance.

““Kelly had no idea who that was, and if she had she would have kicked him out immediately because we condemn in the most vociferous terms everything that he stands for,” wrote Stephen Lawson, Loeffler’s campaign spokesman, to the Journal-Constitution in a statement Sunday.””[Sunday, 13 December 2020]

But here’s the contradictory part to Loeffler’s story: Even the freakazoid newly elected QAnon conspiracy theorist Banana Republican Congress critter Marjorie Taylor Greene threw him out of one of her rallies in Ringgold, Georgia, Saturday, September 19, 2020 – and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution published a story about the ordeal the following Monday, and told the newspaper that same day that, “Yes, I asked him to be removed. He is not welcome at any events that I attend. Period.”

One should seriously ponder why it is that a low-level weirdo like Banana Republican QAnon conspiracy theorist like Marjorie Taylor Greene would have on-the-ball-staff, while the multimillionairess Loeffler whose net worth is $500 Million at minimum, would not. It just doesn’t make sense.

Another thing that makes no sense is why anyone with at least half an ounce of common sense would know that Loeffler does NOT normally dress like that – trucker cap, checkerboard shirt, boots, jeans, etc. – when she’s relaxing. And yet, she hasn’t figured out that simply wearing the clothes of a “commoner” do not make her one, any more than wearing a welder’s mask and gloves makes her a welder. Folks who are fooled by such low-level attempts at deception are to be pitied. Why, even that blue-and-white checkerboard shirt probably cost well over $500.

Any woman worth a minimum of $500 million like she is, wear garments made by the likes of haute couture houses of Fendi, Prada, Gucci, Chanel, Armani, Vitton,