Short Takes, 3/4/2023

 

(3 minute read.)

 Short takes on a variety of subjects. 

Montana bled dry.

            In Montana the Neo-Republican Fascists (NRFs) tried to make it illegal for people to donate blood if they have been vaccinated for Covid-19.[1]  Their supporting evidence was already-debunked junk science and conspiracy theories.  Not a well thought out plan but they just wanted to make their constituents happy by telling them what they wanted to hear and doing what they wanted them to do.  Turned out other NRFs didn’t go along with crippling the state’s blood supply.

Seemed like a bad idea.

Investigating the dead.

            Neo-Republican Fascist James Comer, Chairman of the House Oversight Committee, is bemoaning the fact that President Biden’s dead son Beau Biden wasn’t charged back in 2008 for campaign contribution violations.[2]  (Beau Biden died in 2015.)  The audio is available here.  The suspect violations were in fact investigated at the time and the decision was that no charges were warranted. 

            Comer is currently investigating Hunter Biden but his real target is President Biden.  The Justice Department is also investigating Hunter Biden.  Hunter Biden has readily admitted that he was/is an addict and here’s a surprise—people on crack don’t make the best of decisions.

            Also Hunter Biden’s laptop will be difficult to use as evidence for anything since so many people have handled it.  They do have the pictures of Hunter naked to look at.

So, there’s that.

Is it the math or vocabulary?

            NRF Marjorie Taylor Greene is upset that more fentanyl is being seized by the Biden administration at the southern border.[3]  Yes, you read that right.  I had to read the article again and watch her again to try and see what I was missing.  But no.

That’s what she’s upset about.

Boebert still praying for Biden to die.

            NRF Congresswoman Boebert is still praying for President Biden to die.[4]  She cited Psalms 109:8.  (KJV)  “Let his days be few; and let another take his office.”  BTW, here’s the next verse.  “Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow.”  Then this.  "Let his children be continually vagabonds, and beg: let them seek their bread also out of their desolate places."  Just like in the church crowd in Colorado[5] attendees at the Texas church laughed.  Nothing says Christian Nationalist like praying for our President to die. 

Quite the knee slapper.

Trolling Dems

            A Florida state Republican introduced a bill[6] to eliminate the Democratic Party in Florida.[7]  When they aren’t trying to sack our Capitol some of them are regular comedians.  They’re just having a bit of government fun because they’re in charge.  So far the bill hasn’t come up for debate. 

So far.

Putinistas Unite!

            A NRF candidate Michigan businessman Perry Johnson that addressed CPAC made a comment about the fascist Putin that was not received well.  He said that he didn’t trust him and was met with stony silence.[8]  If he had said that in Russia he would be in jail now or have a fall from a tall building.  His anti-China comment that he made a second before was applauded. 

China bad.  Russia good.

Tennessee Jokester

            Let me see, meanwhile in Tennessee state Representative Paul Sherril the NRF that previously wanted to change the name of John Lewis Way to Trump Blvd wanted to know if he could add an amendment to a bill permitting capital punishment by firing squad that would also allow hanging by a tree.  He has since apologized for the comment.

Message delivered.

Justice delayed.

            Trump wants his civil trial in NYC delayed 6 months.[9]  This would take him into the campaigning for President season.  This is typical of Trump’s past legal strategies.  He did the same thing with the classified documents that he stole.  He drags out our legal system as much as possible by…

Running out the clock.

 https://yadayadayadablahblah.blogspot.com/

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[1] https://billingsgazette.com/lifestyles/health-med-fit/bill-to-prevent-mrna-vaccine-recipients-from-donating-blood-is-killed/article_732c391e-b7c1-11ed-b68f-43460c375df0.html

[2] https://news.yahoo.com/house-oversight-chair-laments-joe-230228474.html

[3] https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/the-maths-are-hard-marjorie-taylor-greene-mocked-for-not-understanding-what-seized-means/ar-AA184dQD?ocid=winp1taskbar&cvid=f0d1bd8b8e454f78952c50d7b056584b&ei=83

[4] https://news.yahoo.com/lauren-boebert-appears-pray-joe-050621364.html

[5] https://www.salon.com/2022/06/13/lauren-boebert-tells-church-crowd-that-she-prays-for-bidens-demise-may-his-days-be-few/

[6] https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2023/1248/?Tab=BillText

[7] https://www.newsweek.com/florida-gop-eliminate-democrats-cancel-bill-1784695

[8] https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1631484886652420096?s=20

[9] https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-seeks-delay-fraud-trial-143147216.html

Haulin’ Ass Hawley

 

(4 minute read)

Run away, Hawley! Run away!

            I would have loved to have been able to use the video of Senator Hawley running through the corridors of congress to the tune of “Chariots of Fire.”  It would have been perfect.  I was able to find an image that captures the nature of Hawley.  With the heading to this section, I wanted to evoke Forest Gump and a Monty Python sketch.  Did it work?  Not how I would want to be remembered. 

I do think that it’s a tad extreme to call him a coward though.  I mean seriously, did he really think that his buddies that he gave that mighty fist of solidarity salute to that riled them up would be after him as well as wanting to hang President Pence?[1]  Well, obviously he was afraid or he wouldn’t have been running.  When a mob gets all woke up like that they might not be able to tell the rightwing fascists from the pro-democracy leftists.  OMG! Was that a loaded sentence or what?  It might be the beer talking.

Honestly though I think that I would have been afraid if I had been there.  Maybe not.  I was in a riot once.  I didn’t run away.  Truthfully though the crowd I was with hadn’t been that worked up by people like Hawley and President Trump so I’ll go back to my original premise that I would have run away unless of course we had had a holy hand grenade.

Fraidy cats of the world unite.

What they say v. What they mean.

            Being old I am interested on Senator Hawley’s intentions on Social Security.  Now to his credit he is trying to exempt Social Security and Medicare from the Republican led House attempt to hold the nation hostage on the debt ceiling.  So he’s trying to save us from action that his Party initiated.  So, a big thanks to Hawley to for trying to save us from something he supports.[2]  I’m happy. 

Yet sad.

De-righting parents.

            I thought Neo-Republican Fascists were all big on “PARENTAL RIGHTS.”  Sen Hawley introduced a bill limiting access to social media to children under 16.[3]  It seems that he doesn’t believe parents are doing their job of monitoring what’s going on in their own homes and wants the government to step in and act in their stead. 

(“In their stead.”  I’ve used that twice now in this and haven’t used that expression in years.  I should drink beer more often when I’m writing.)

            It’s possible that I agree with Hawley on this.  Emphasis on possible.  I had to ban myself from social media for about a month.  It could have been something I ate.  I’m back on it now.  Perhaps Hawley could get government to step in for all the rest of us to save us from that absolute lying bullshit that the Neo-Republican fascists are distributing on social media including them for their hypocrisy of being for parental rights.

Except for when they aren’t.

Speaking of Big Brother.

            I actually like this quote from Hawley’s Washington Post opinion piece.  (Isn’t it interesting how they call media like the Washington Post fake news but they get their letters printed there.  (PRINTED?  OMG!  Man! I am old.)  Make that digitiled there.  Here’s the quote:

Decades from now, future generations will look back on social media in the 2010s and 2020s as we look back on the days of asbestos in buildings or lead in the water supply. Danger was everywhere; leaders only needed to realize it.

I identify

            You know when push comes to shove, I have to say that I know how he feels. Fascism is on the march once again and what used to be the Republican Party is leading the march.  We’re where 1930s Germany was.

            As an example, Virginia just passed a religious freedom bill.[4]  Sounds good doesn’t it?  Know what it means?  It means that Christian Nationalists can raise legal objections to what their kids are being taught in school along with having to serve LGBTQ people, Muslims or anyone else that they have issues with.  And they have issues with LOTs of things. 

They can use the bill to oppose vaccinations and just really anything else that Christian Nationalists object to like religious freedom for others.  They want the freedom to discriminate against those they consider, you know, different.  I’m different.  Are you?

*Are you sure?

 *Got all serious, didn’t it?

 https://yadayadayadablahblah.blogspot.com/

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[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByWvdGJ8CwM

[2] Kunce on Hawley:  https://twitter.com/j9az/status/1625393890147840002

[3] https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/02/16/children-social-media-protection-congress/

[4] https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/west-virginia-gop-majority-house-oks-religious-freedom-bill/ar-AA180e2r?rc=1&ocid=winp1taskbar&cvid=ca264dab63694467ec90c502990402ab&ei=29

Trust no one.

 

(8 minute read)

Simpler times.

            Some of my fond childhood memories come from those times when I was supposed to be in bed and would sneak to a position where I could overhear the grownups talk.  Listening to my parents or at family gatherings grandparents, aunts and uncles, I would get to hear people that I cared about expressing differing positions on various issues of the times. 

As kids we were just told to be wary of strangers.  Nowadays People of Color have to instruct their children how to be safe in their interactions with police.   Those were simpler times compared to now.  Simpler because so many things were ignored or not known.  Have we gained more than we lost?

The jury is still out.

I can only imagine.

            I often see conservative parents posting comments about telling their children not to trust news media or a wide group of other sources including the government, police, courts, teachers, etc.  They are grooming a generation of children to be just as fatalistic about our society as they are with perceived threats everywhere. 

What do their children think that the world is like?  A world where everyone is suspect; where everyone is out to get them.  The world that they as parents are helping create.

What a sad way to raise children.

It’s a matter of trust.

Back in December of 2020 NPR posted an article that deals with a lot of what I am talking about in this post about trust.[1]  You can click on the link provided in the endnotes.  It’s worth the read.  I pulled the quote below from the article.  It’s one of many.

"We don't trust the government. We don't trust the Congress. We don't trust the Supreme Court. We don't trust now the science. We don't trust medicine. We don't trust the media for sure," Kruglanski said. "So who do we trust? Well, we trust our tribe. We trust conspiracy theories that tell us what we want to hear."

Conservatives don’t trust the government even when Republicans are in charge.  That goes clear back to President Reagan when Republicans started their push to eviscerate our form of government.[2]  Only thirty-five percent of Americans approve of the job that Congress is doing now.[3]  And that’s a 12 year high.  (Dems 61%.  Reps 8%.)  Ironically the people that they vote into office also tell people that government isn’t to be trusted and then through their actions validate what they’re saying about others.

Self-fulfilling prophecy.

Do your own research.

            There’s a funny video called “if Google was a guy” that has been circulating on social media.  In one scene a woman asks if vaccines are safe.[4]  The guy behind the desk puts his hand on a stack of papers and says something about here are a million results saying vaccines are safe and one that says they aren’t.  Guess which one she picked?  Yep.  She picked the one.

That’s what people do.  It’s called confirmation bias.[5]  Essentially it means that people believe what they want to believe and only believe sources that back them up.  I’ll see conservatives sharing a meme or post headlined with “MEDIA ISN’T REPORTING THIS” usually with instructions to be shared with the known world.  Often, I’ll have already seen several factual articles already posted on the subject by traditional media.

Back in 2016 when Clinton was running for President a friend shared an email about all the evil that Clinton had done.  It was repackaged previous submissions of all the evil that the Clintons had done.  Years before that I had spent literally hundreds of hours looking this stuff up to see if any of it was true.  None of it was true.  I even found audio recordings of meetings where I could hear her saying the opposite of what it was claimed that she said.  I provided references and sources.  The friend was uninterested.  Her defense was that it was all stuff that she believed the Clintons were capable of doing.  Facts were of ZERO interest to her.  ZERO.  BTW there is no such thing as alternative facts.

Things haven’t gotten better.

The circle is unbroken.

            I still do fact checking and source checking.  The source is often the easiest way to determine whether something will probably end up being true.  If the source is usually unreliable then there’s a high probability that what they’re reporting needs to be checked for accuracy.

I have written before about how people can check their sources of information. It was a 14 minute read.  I also provided a list of places to check information.  I just finished reformatting it.  It was one of my older posts and I have changed the way I present stuff since then. 

Sadly, what I wrote still holds true today.  The average person isn’t all that interested in being truthful or posting the truth.  It’s bothersome.  It’s easier to say trust no one and just pass along all the input that one would like to be true.

            One quick point that I want to touch upon is that a lot of right-wing fascist sites are their own sources.  In other words, they link to one another the misinformation that they’re sharing as being their source.  They all share the same made-up crap and link to each other as being reliable sources that they got their “information” from.

What goes around comes around.

The truth is out there.

            I don’t really need to do my own research.  I don’t need to become a doctor to know that masking and vaccines work.  Generations of science have taught us the truth of the matter.  The truth really isn’t all that hard to come by.  And yes, mainstream media is reliable and has been for decades.  On a regular basis I check news from left to right and vice versa.  MSNBC was on the left with Fox News on the right and several sources in between.

            Are the sources I use biased?  Sure, but not all of them.  Besides I use right and left biased sites when it’s necessary.  I’m biased.  That doesn’t mean that I use my bias to post false information or lies.  I’m not looking to confirm what I think as being the truth.  I am looking to see if what I believe (think) is the truth.  I use Media Bias Fact Check to see if a source/news outlet is credible.  They provide a detailed analysis of the source being checked.  They also differentiate between opinion and news in their rating.

            If you look up Occupy Democrats at Media Bias here’s what they say, “Overall, we rate Occupy Democrats Questionable due to far left-wing bias, promotion of propaganda and conspiracies, and the publication of fake news as evidenced by numerous failed fact checks.”  Obviously Occupy Democrats is NOT of good source for getting factual information.

            How does Reuters fare?  “Overall, we rate Reuters Least Biased based on objective reporting and Very High for factual reporting due to proper sourcing of information with minimal bias and a clean fact check record.” According to Media Bias.

            Our old reliable news sources that have been around for generations as well as some newer ones are there and are credible without being overly biased.  They rate close to neutral (center/left center/right center) in terms of being biased and highly factual.  These are all trustworthy:  AP, Reuters, NPR, BBC, ABC, CBS, NBC, Pew Research Center, along with hundreds more.  It only takes seconds to look a news source or post up.  Checking a post usually takes me less than 15 seconds.  Anyone can do it.  Doesn’t seem like a huge burden.

LT15

Talking heads.

            Now, I’m talking about news not opinion/commentary.  I stopped checking with Fox News on a regular basis because they ceased being a good source of news.  I don’t expect news from Carlson[6] or Hannity[7].  The same holds true for Rachel Maddow.  I enjoy her “reporting” but don’t use her as a source unless I’ve verified what she presents.

            Why anyone has faith regarding Fox News is beyond me.  In the recent release of their internal communications it’s now a matter of record that Fox knew what their talking heads like Hannity and Carlson were saying is false.[8]  Hannity, Carlson, Ingraham and their other talking heads knew it.  They were telling fascist MAGA heads the lies they wanted to hear. 

            But we have problems these days in that there is more commentary wrapped around what I would call the elements of traditional news.  The 5 Ws of who, what, when, where and why.  (FWIW I had a minor in Journalism.)  It’s where the bias creeps in.  The facts should still be there.

            Neo-Republican Fascists are claiming that we’re losing freedom because of censorship.  They want their lies presented and accepted as facts and truth.  A couple of decades ago they decided that the truth being reported about their goals was unacceptable.  The truth is counterproductive to them accomplishing their agenda.  I covered that in my post about them (Republican Fascists)

saying the quiet part out loud.

 https://yadayadayadablahblah.blogspot.com/

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[1] https://www.npr.org/2020/12/15/946381523/right-wing-embrace-of-conspiracy-is-mass-radicalization-experts-warn

[2] Regan 9 words video:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhYJS80MgYA

[3] https://news.gallup.com/poll/329945/congressional-job-approval-highest-nearly-years.aspx

[4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJD1Iwy5lUY&list=PLuKg-Whduhklge1dMCGsemN1Qr_ODqjtZ&index=3

[5] https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/science-choice/201504/what-is-confirmation-bias

[6] https://www.npr.org/2020/09/29/917747123/you-literally-cant-believe-the-facts-tucker-carlson-tells-you-so-say-fox-s-lawye

[7] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ulx6QozL5DU

[8] https://thehill.com/homenews/media/3863605-five-top-revelations-from-dominions-explosive-court-filing-in-fox-news-lawsuit/