Wednesday, March 08, 2023

The crazies and the grifters

Ewan Palmer (NEWSWEEK) reports on how some House Republicans refuse to denounce racism:


In a letter to chairman Kentucky Rep. James Comer, ranking Democrat Jamie Raskin urged all Republicans to join committee Democrats in signing a draft pledge denouncing "white nationalism and white supremacy," as well the use of related conspiracy theories, including the "Great Replacement" theory during committee hearings. A spokesperson for the committee Republicans said the letter was an attempt to "distract" from the Biden administration's record on border crossings.


This is not the first time that Republicans have been urged to denounce white supremacy. In 2022, when Democrats were in control of the House, a resolution was brought forward in the wake of a racist mass shooting in Buffalo, New York, to condemn "in strongest terms" the great replacement theory, a far-right claim that white Americans are purposely being replaced as the dominant race in the country by minorities and immigrants for political gain.

Raskin said that during previous meetings discussing immigration at the U.S.-Mexico border, Republican lawmakers expressed "dangerous and conspiratorial" rhetoric which echoed the "racist and nativist tropes" peddled by white supremacists and far-right extremists.

In his letter, Raskin said the GOP now has another opportunity to "take a public stand against the deliberate amplification of dangerous racist rhetoric that has had deadly consequences in this country" and arrives as the GOP-led House looks to further scrutinize the Biden administration's handling of illegal immigration.

While not mentioning them by name, Raskin gave examples of how Republican committee members Lauren BoebertMarjorie Taylor Greene, Chip Roy and Josh Brecheen, have previously described the illegal immigration at the southern border as an "invasion."



They use the crackpot theories to scare people into voting for them so they won't denounce 'the great replacement' theory and other nonsense.  That's just how it is.  How very pathetic and sad of them that they are unable to denounce racism.  They are a danger to the country, that is reality.  Use the link to the NEWSWEEK story to read a full list of the 26 Republicans in the House who refuse to denounce racism.

On the topic of Republicans, S. E. Cupps (CHICAGO TRIBUNE) notes that many are not silently going on with the idiot Tucker Carlson and his nonsense on FOX NEWS:


A number of GOP lawmakers aren’t holding back about the absurdity of Carlson’s revisionist history.

“To somehow put [Jan. 6] in the same category as a permitted peaceful protest is just a lie,” said Sen. Kevin Cramer.

“I think it’s bulls---,” said Sen. Thom Tillis. “I was here. I was down there and I saw maybe a few tourists, a few people who got caught up in things. But when you see police barricades breached, when you see police officers assaulted, all of that — if you were just a tourist you should’ve probably lined up at the visitors’ center and came in on an orderly basis.”

“I thought it was an insurrection at that time. I still think it was an insurrection today,” said Sen. Mike Rounds.

Sen. Mitt Romney was also pointed: “It’s a very dangerous thing to do, to suggest that attacking the Capitol of the United States is in any way acceptable and it’s anything other than a serious crime, against democracy and against our country. And people saw that it was violent and destructive and should never happen again. But trying to normalize that behavior is dangerous and disgusting.”

Even Fox News seems to be shying away from Carlson’s freakish sideshow act. As Mediaite’s Colby Hall pointed out, the rest of the network’s shows completely ignored the revelations, seemingly opting not to boost the lame and embarrassing gimmick.

Then there’s this scathing statement from the family of Brian Sicknick, the police officer who died one day after defending the Capitol against violent insurrectionists:

“The Sicknick Family would love nothing more than to have Brian back with us and to resume our normal lives. Fictitious news outlets like Fox and its rabid followers will not allow that. Every time the pain of that day seems to have ebbed a bit, organizations like Fox rip our wounds wide open again and we are frankly sick of it. Leave us the hell alone and instead of spreading more lies from Supreme Leader Trump, why don’t you focus on real news?”





Glenneth Greenwald loves Tucker.  Tara Reade loves Tucker.  Jimmy Dore loves Tucker.  All the loons and grifters love Tucker.


"Iraq snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):
Wednesday, March 8, 2023.  Joe Biden needs to do his job and stop delegating the presidential role to others, Marianne Williamson needs to get her act and her campaign together or stop wasting everyone's time, does Marjorie Taylor Green really want to live by her interpretation of the Bible, and much more.



As we noted in yesterday's snapshot, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin III made an unannounced trip to Baghdad.




All this time later, US officials have to sneak into Iraq.  REUTERS notes:

US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin, making an unannounced trip to Iraq on Tuesday nearly 20 years after the US-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein, said Washington was committed to keeping its military presence in the country.

The 2003 invasion led to the deaths of tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians and created instability that eventually paved the way for the rise of Islamic State militants after the US withdrew its forces in 2011.

I'm sorry, Lloyd ran for what office?  The American people voted him to be what?

Nothing.

He's nothing.  

Why the hell is he making the announcement?  

He's an appointee, he's not been elected anything by the American people, let alone President of the United States.  That's who an announcement like that needs to come from.

An announcement that US troops are still going to be in Iraq needs to come from the US President, not some flunky that no one ever voted for.  The secretary?  

If DISNEY has a big announcement to make, it's coming from Bob Iger, not Susana Barraza.


The news itself is disgusting, the manner of delivery was shameful.  If Joe doesn't want to get honest with the people himself, I think he's just made clear he shouldn't be running for re-election.


Sadly, there doesn't seem to be much choice on the Democratic side.

What's that?  Oh, well she's going to need a thicker skin.  Marianne Williamson ran for the 2020 Democratic Party presidential nomination.  She did make some strong comments in one debate.  The business woman with no political experience has now announced she is running for the 2024 Democratic Party presidential nomination.  This makes her the first -- and only -- candidate to announce that they're running.  Her name came up in Monday's White House press briefing.  She is not amused.  


She had a lot of words in the news cycle yesterday.

I supposed we could spend time stringing them together into a coherent statement but I don't work for her.


You're begging for jokes, Marianne, and I'm trying to be nice to you.  You make a statement several sentences long?  Then you issue it as a press release.  It's not anyone's job to do the transcription that you and your campaign are too lazy to do.  Do you have campaign workers or are you just farming it out to your assistant?




Let's go to an actual transcript, this is from Monday's White House press briefing:





Q    All right.  And one other topic.  Former President Trump said over the weekend in his CPAC comments mul- — multiple things.  One thing he said to his supporters was, “I am your justice.  And for those who have been wronged and betrayed, I am your retribution.”  Does the White House have a response to that?

MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  As you know, because of — he is a 2024 candidate and we are covered here by the Hatch Act, I’m just not going to comment on those — on the words that he — the speech that he made — the speech this weekend.



Due to The Hatch Act, she's not commenting.  Wise move.  Much later in the briefing, this exchange took place:





Q    Okay.  And then, just real quick —

MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  Yeah.

Q    — I know you’re probably going to say Hatch Act is restricting you in this, but is the President annoyed, frustrated with Marianne Williamson for jumping in the race ahead of him?  Did he want to clear field to run against the Republican nominee in 2024?

MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  Just not tracking that.  I mean, if I had a — what is it called? — a little — a little globe here —

Q    Crystal ball.

MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  — a crystal ball that I can tell you.  But I — I —

Q    A Magic 8 Ball.

MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  A Magic 8 Ball, whatever.  (Laughter.)  If I could feel her aura.  I just — (laughter) — I just don’t have anything.  I just don’t have anything to share on that.

(Laughs.)  Gosh, you guys are making me laugh now.  (Laughter.)


Is it respectful?

No, it's not.  Guess what, SNL mocked you repeatedly in 2020.  No one has to take you seriously.  No one owes that to you.  The spokesperson and the press were being silly.  

It really wasn't the end of the world.  And you should be glad they were talking about things that don't have anything to do with you (you've never spoken or written of crystal balls) and not about your 'medical' belief on AIDS, for example.  I think, honestly, that will kill your campaign if the press decides to go there.  It's all in the head, right, Marianne?  Just need that positive thinking -- COURSE OF MIRACLES and all that.  You're one of Oprah's spiritual advisors -- so was Jeremiah Wright.  Don't think either of you have earned all that much respect in the eyes of many Americans.

You want respect?  Get your act together and issue an actual statement and not a Tweet.  Issue it and post at your campaign website.




If you don't take yourself seriously, don't whine that others refuse to.

Again, I could assemble a statement based upon media reports.  But that's not my job.  And let me make clear for this presidential cycle: I don't care.

"I'm ignored."  "I'm shunted to the side." "I'm . . ."  Just shut up.  Every presidential election cycle I have wasted my time treating everyone equal.  Even handsy John Edwards got treated equal until he dropped out and then I noted it wasn't a surprise that he'd cheat on Elizabeth.  While he was in the race, I hinted but never wrote about the pass that he seemed to think I would enjoy and that he seemed to think was how you 'reward' a donor.  I was not impressed and, in real life, I wasn't silent.  Told Elizabeth she needed to lock him in the backyard and put him on a leash. 

I'm done with pathetic candidates who say they want to be president but go a whole week or two without a single press release, video or even Tweet.  I'm sick of having to dig around to include your campaign when we note other presidential campaigns -- usually daily in the snapshots.  

I'm done.  And I'm also done covering everything equally.  

We're in the midst of a war on LGBTQ+ people.  Saturday, I believe it was Saturday, some vets for Trump sent a press release.  In the past, I would've posted it.  I would've seen it as information people needed to be aware of.  I'm not there now.  Donald attacked the LGBTQ+ community.  

Done with it.  

Don't care about your Libertarian campaigns.  Done with those.  (The only exception being Adam Kokesh.  He did so much with regards to Iraq that I will always note him.) 

Don't care about any Jill Stein campaign.  What a loser. 

We were supposed to, for example, infer that presidential candidate was against wars -- infer since neither she nor her campaign -- in 2012 or 2016 -- could note the ongoing wars.  

I'm not interested in your fake assery.  If I do start to cover a 2024 campaign and they start fake assing, I'm done.  

Not going to cover any WSWS candidate because they don't run serious campaigns.  If you're not talking about real issues and trying to get them into the campaign conversation by using your own media platform, I'm not wasting time doing it for you.  

I've had with these lazy candidates that I'm expected to coddle and baby just because I believe in fairness.

Done.

It's over.

Run a real campaign if you want to be covered.  Jill Steins, Dario Hunters, et al, you can continue to waste your own time but I'll be damned if I'm going to let you ever again waste mine.  You whine very good after the fact, you just don't know how to run.

If Howie Hawkins runs, we'll note it.  
 

He ran a real campaign in 2020.  And find one Green Party candidate that has ever done what he did after the election.

Disappear?

No, that's what all the others did.  

Howie has spent every week raising real issues on YOUTUBE.  He continued his campaign channel and has not tried to play like he's the little brother of the Democratic Party.  He's addressed real issues and he's done that at least once a week -- sometimes more than that.  If the Green Party ever expects to get anywhere in the United States, it needs to have that kind of drive.

Marianne's starting out a joke.  It doesn't help that Krystal Ball felt the need to spit on everyone while screaming, "GROW UP!" You first, Krystal, you first.  People like her never grasp how their drama and flame wars impact their candidate and impact how people see the candidate. 

"Is it about any woman who speaks out of turn."

Marianne's quoted saying that and insisting that she's running as a woman.

Huh?

Were you previously non-binary?  How else would you, a cis gender woman, run for office if not as a woman?

I can't wrap my functional brain around your vast stupidity.

It appears she just kept throwing around the term "woman" because she wanted to draw attention to the fact that while others would take on a political rival for office, she's going to be petty and go after an underling.  If that's not the case, that's why you issue a full statement in text form, so that if you're words are misconstrued -- intentionally or accidentally, your supporters can find out exactly what you were saying.


You clearly jumped the gun announcing a campaign that is non-functional at present.  Stop embarrassing yourself on the national stage -- meaning: Get your act together or drop out of the race.

I thought you were embarrassing, Marianne.  I've just been told, as I dictate this, that on your campaign site on "Issues," you don't even have war listed.  Or peace.  Because you're a [insert curse word of choice here] idiot. 

I have no interest in your race at all.  The US has been starting wars for decades now and not finishing them.  If you can't address that, you're not fit to run as the 'alternative' to Joe Biden -- Joe who at least ended the Afghanistan War.  


If you need another perspective on Marianne, you can refer to THE VANGUARD clip below.
 



Gavin and Zac are trying to make her happen.  I'm not.  If she wants to get her act together and actually run a real campaign, she might be of value.  I'm not aware of how her whining "I am woman" in that inept manner is helping anyone.  Is she calling out the collapse of reproductive rights?  No.  Is she offering a way out of these forever wars?  No.  She's wasting her time.

Let's note her Tweet.



First off, I'm not sure that selective editing of the spokesperson words qualifies as 'respectful.'  But let's note her defender.  She might seem like kind of a joke but so did --

Who do you think your audience is?  I didn't vote for Reagan and I didn't vote for Donald.  Nor would I ever.  So telling me "seriously" that she could be another Donald or Ronnie isn't winning me to your side, they weren't qualified.

Second, Ronald Reagan wasn't "a retired cowboy movie star."  As an actor, you're your most famous role.  That's not a cowboy.  On film, it's BEDTIME FOR BONZO or THE HASTY HEART -- and those aren't cowboys.  Maybe HELLCATS OF THE NAVY.   Certainly, the most watched film he made was his small role in Bette Davis' DARK VICTORY.  

Third, when he ran for the presidency, he was a former two term governor of the state of California.  Though not a film role, that's kind of a big credit to have on your resume.


Marianne's followers are coming off as stupid as she is.

And where there is stupidity, there is MTG.

Yesterday, Majorie Taylor Greene took her sad, unhappy and pathetic life (that divorce really isn't helping) to the floor of the House of Representatives to rage against drag queens because they are, after all, much, much prettier than her.  Sweat dripping from the oversized pores of her pock marked face, Marjorie yelled that God didn't make mistakes.  Prior the emergence of Marjorie Taylor Greene on the public stage, I would've agreed with that statement.  Now?  I mean, look at her.  Poor thing.  If God doesn't make mistakes, Marjorie, what was your marriage?  And if you're so enthralled with the words of the Bible, why are you divorcing?  Doesn't that make you an adulteress, Marjorie? That is what Matthew 5: 31 through 32 says.  And, Marjorie, isn't the Bible very clear on what happens to adulteresses?  Stoning, I believe.  Am I wrong, Marjorie?

You want to bring your interpretation of religion into America's House of Representatives?  Fine.  Let me know when to show up with rocks and pass them out to your peers so they can stone you.  It's what God wants - right, Marjorie?

I expect Marjorie to be a good little Christian soldier and stand there patiently while Lauren Boebert and Marjorie's other fellow Christian illiterates take the time to stone her.  

The Bible is not a buffet, Marjorie.  If you're going to be a strict interpreter of it then live by the page, die by the page.


Of course, she won't.

She's a hypocrite who wants mercy for herself but the harshest punishment for anyone else.  I need to know who the fools  are that keep voting this monster into Congress.  She's not representing you and she's not working for you.  If you honestly embrace the hate she's preaching, you better grasp that the country long ago passed you by.  



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