When A Party Hits An Iceberg<\/b><\/p>\n
Back up and ram that sumbitch again!<\/b><\/p>\n
April 23rd<\/sup>, 2022<\/i><\/p>\n Bryan Zepp Jamieson<\/i><\/p>\n For the Republicans, this was a week they would probably love to forget. For the Trump crowd in particular, it was an unmitigated disaster.<\/p>\n It started when the Kansas City Star, one of Missouri\u2019s biggest papers, blasted the disgusting Josh Hawley, who disgraced himself by promoting the blood libel against now-Justice Jackson and liberals in general with loud brays about being soft on child porn. Turns out that when Hawley was Attorney-General in his state, not only did the office do little to chase down child pornographers, but Hawley simply dropped cases when he left office to run for the Senate. The editorial concluded, “Loud. Attention-grabbing. Do-nothing. A lime green leisure suit on a hanger. We challenge Sen. Hawley to take a fresh look at the crimes against children committed in his own state, including allegations against elected officials in his own party, and actually do something to protect kids.” Ouch.<\/p>\n Steven Miller, strutting pink dome of the American fascist movement, publicly admitted on Lou Dobbs that they tried to get tens of millions of votes tossed as part of their campaign to overturn the election. Just another of those \u201coperational control\u201d boasts, I guess.<\/p>\n Then Trump blew up the Ohio primary by ignoring urgent pleas from party members in the state and endorsed the reptilian and unelectable JD Vance. Informed that Vance once referred to Trump as \u201cAmerica\u2019s Hitler\u201d Trump shrugged it off, saying everyone \u201csaid shit\u201d about him. Could it be that Trump has finally grown a thicker hide? Or was he too far gone mentally to come up with anything?<\/p>\n Then, the Republican National Committee voted unanimously on Thursday to withdraw from its participation<\/a> in the Commission on Presidential Debates. Granted, the way the parties conduct those debates has been pretty much a joke since 1960, but at least the Republicans were pretending to care about elections and accountability to the public. That\u2019s drowned in a fascist tide of black and red ink, it seems. The only surprise is that they give up an opportunity to spew the endless hate and lies that they have substituted for public policy.<\/p>\n Florida\u2019s Ron DeSantis, racing toward a sort of a Nazi Disneyland, banned 29 math books for containing \u201ccritical race theory\u201d. People examining the books have absolutely no idea what the hell Florida\u2019s five-and-dime Hitler is talking about. He then unilaterally rewrote the state\u2019s congressional districts, awarding his party four seats and eliminating at least one black district. Having done that, he proclaimed Florida to be a \u201cfree state\u201d because it\u2019s illegal to admit that gays or transgenders exist any place a child might hear it. He made them unpersons, just like Hitler did with the Jews.<\/p>\n The other demented state governor, Greg Abbott, unilaterally decided to have Texas conduct \u201csafety inspections\u201d of trucks that bring produce and other Mexican goods into the state. The resulting line of trucks had to wait up to thirty hours to cross the border while perishable contents rotted. Hundreds of millions of dollars died so the guv could look like he was Doing Something. Abbott, before climbing down from the pose, declared he was just trying to stop drugs and illegal humans from entering the state. There\u2019s no evidence the stops caught any.<\/p>\n The American Accountability Foundation was dragged out from the shadows by Jane Mayer,the author of the acclaimed 2016 book Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right<\/em>. The AAF is dedicated to blocking all<\/b> <\/b>Biden nominees, and fuck what it does to the country. Meyer believes they are the source of the disgraceful \u201csoft on child porn\u201d claims brought to bear by trashier elements of the Senate GOP in the Jackson hearings.<\/p>\n Donald Trump on Easter Sunday wished a “Happy Easter” to everyone, including what he said were “radical left maniacs.” Jesus only died for right wing maniacs, it seems.<\/p>\n Another god-struck clown, one John Carlos, running for school board in Nevada, said, \u201cI believe the Constitution. I believe in our \u2014 our \u2014 the way our founding fathers believed in this country: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.\u201d It was bad enough that he thought the Constitution said that, but he continued, “That means that homosexuals cannot procreate. This goes against our Constitution and this goes against what parents want in the school district, and this is only one book out of thousands.” So apparently this nut thinks if you don\u2019t have kids you are violating the Constitution, or the Declaration of Independence, at least. George III is gonna be so ticked if you don\u2019t pump those kids out for god and the king!<\/p>\n No week of GOP embarrassment is complete without Lauren Boebert weighing in. She said, “comprehensive sex education” teaches that one “can choose your gender” and “abortion is a form of birth control.” Bit surprised she didn\u2019t claim sex ed was child molestation. Perhaps she didn\u2019t want to annoy her husband.<\/p>\n Memphis resident Peter McIndoe<\/a> jokingly invented the Birds Aren\u2019t Real conspiracy theory<\/a> in January 2017. The notion is that all the birds died\u2014wind mills, presumably\u2014and were replaced by drones. In terms of sheer silliness, it\u2019s right up there with the conspiracy theories that JFK Junior and Princess Di are all secretly alive, or that Trump is the Second Coming. It\u2019s making inroads in the GOP, a report Tuesday said.<\/p>\n Then the really big pratfalls began.<\/p>\n US district judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle, in Tampa ruled that public carriers could not mandate masks. The \u201cjudge,\u201d a Trump appointee, heard no arguments and simply wrote the order. It strikes down any effort to ensure reasonable safety of passengers against any sort of communicable disease. The ruling, much like the \u201cjudge\u201d herself, is utterly insane. She was deemed \u201cnot qualified\u201d by the American Bar Association, but McConnell\u2019s GOP whooped this 35 year old nut onto the bench for life on a party line vote.<\/p>\n Hima Kolanagireddy filed to run for Michigan’s 6th Congressional District on Tuesday. Normally that wouldn\u2019t be news outside of Michigan, but Hima, an Indian immigrant, has a unique theory as to how Trump had the election stolen from him. All Chinese look alike, it seems. She said, \u201cI think all Chinese people look alike. So, how would you tell? If some Chow show up, you can be anybody and you can vote,\u201d Um, \u201cChow\u201d? I\u2019m used to hateful GOP idiocy, but on this one I can\u2019t even\u2026<\/p>\n Michigan Republican Lana Theis accused a Democratic state Senate colleague of being a pedophile because she supports LGBTQ+ equality. It\u2019s the usual vicious crap Republicans, fed their two minutes of hate by the American Accountability Foundation, have been spewing for several weeks. But she picked the wrong target in Sen. Mallory McMorrow, a diminutive representative more than willing to stand up for her rights and her personal integrity. In a fiery speech that rocketed around the net, she said, “I sat on it for a while wondering why me? Then I realized… I\u2019m the biggest threat to your hollow, hateful scheme. Because you can\u2019t claim that you\u2019re targeting marginalized kids in the name of ‘parental rights’ if another parent is standing up and saying no. So, you dehumanize and marginalize ME. You say I\u2019m one of THEM. You say she\u2019s a groomer, she supports pedophilia, she wants children to believe they were responsible for slavery and to feel bad about themselves because they\u2019re white. Here\u2019s a little background on who I really am…I learned that SERVICE was far more important than performative nonsense like being seen in the same pew every Sunday or writing ‘Christian’ in your Twitter bio and using it as a shield to target and marginalize already-marginalized people.”<\/p>\n Ted Cruz, always willing to be inappropriate and weird, decided that what Disney cartoons really needed was a spot of the old Rule 34*. He said, \u201cI think there are people who are misguided, trying to drive, you know, Disney stepping in, saying, you know, in every episode now they\u2019re gonna have, you know, Mickey and Pluto going at it. Like, really? It\u2019s just like, come on guys, these are kids, and you know, you could always shift to Cinemax if you want that. Like, why do you have\u2014it used to be, look, I\u2019m a dad. You used to be able to put your kids on the Disney Channel and be like, alright, something innocuous will happen.\u201d He should have suggested Goofy and Pluto \u2018go at it.\u2019 At least they\u2019re the same species. The GOP probably doesn\u2019t approve of interspecies romance.<\/p>\n Trump decided to sue Hillary Clinton for fraud and racketeering in relation to the 2016 election. It\u2019s hard to guess what he hoped to accomplish, but Hillary, no fool, will probably just grin and announce she\u2019s fighting the suit. It makes all of her\u2014and Trump\u2019s\u2014activities in the 2016 election open to discovery, including all the things Mueller couldn\u2019t include in his report.<\/p>\n Tennessee GOP members kicked Trump\u2019s endorsed candidates off the ballot as well. “Morgan Ortagus, Baxter Lee and Robby Starbuck were voted off the primary ballot by the party’s executive committee, Tennessee Republican Chairman Scott Golden confirmed Tuesday. Republican officials last week confirmed official challenges had been filed against the three, which triggered a technical removal from the ballot per party bylaws,” the Tennessean<\/em> reported<\/a>.\u201d Oops.<\/p>\n Abbott had another own goal when the NY Times revealed that he had been lavishly funding the non-partisan group Crime Stoppers, and suddenly their message got a whole lot more partisan. According to a New York Times<\/em> report<\/a>, “Crime Stoppers of Houston has been blasting out a different, more political message: Activist judges are letting ‘dangerous criminals’ out of jail to threaten the safety of law-abiding residents. On television, Twitter and videos, the traditionally nonpartisan nonprofit organization has been condemning more than a dozen elected judges \u2014 all Democrats, four of whom lost primaries last month \u2014 while praising the crime policies of Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas, a Republican.” It\u2019s estimated that Abbott funneled $6.4 million to the group. A pity, really: they used to be a socially valuable outfit.<\/p>\n Well, that would be a pretty disgraceful week in politics, even for the GOP. But no, we\u2019re just getting started.<\/p>\n Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns released a book called This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden and the Battle for America\u2019s Future<\/i>. In it, they claimed Kevin McCarthy and Mitch McConnell, the two top Republican leaders in Congress, privately told associates that they believed Donald Trump<\/a> should be held responsible for the attack. \u201cI\u2019ve had it with this guy,\u201d McCarthy told a group of Republicans<\/a> in the immediate aftermath of the attack. McCarthy immediately and vociferously denied the claims.<\/p>\n But oops. There were tapes. Rachel Maddow, wearing a wide grin, played them on her show that night. We\u2019ve long suspected that McCarthy was a liar and a fool who had lost control of the wingnuts in his caucus, but now we have proof. Typical of Republicans, rather than demand McCarthy resign in disgrace (a few did, but only a few) most are trying to ferret out who released the tapes. At first Liz Cheney was considered a prime suspect, but unlike most Republicans, when she says something, it tends to be the truth. She denied having, or releasing the tapes. Suspicion now rests on Rep. Elise Stefanik, who is rumored to be gunning for McCarthy\u2019s job. She would be no improvement, but that\u2019s neither here nor there. Trump and McCarthy put on a kiss-and-make-up show, but reports are Trump and McCarthy are both furious. Rick Wilson semi-joked that Stefanik might want to invest in a good food taster for the next few months.<\/p>\n Rioters at the 1\/6 \u201cpeaceful demonstration\u201d continued to drop like flies. According to Raw Story, \u201cTwo members of an accelerationist neo-Nazi terror network <\/a>accused of plotting to attack the power grid in preparation for an assassination campaign have pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with the government\u2019s prosecution\u2026Paul James Kryscuk, a former porn actor<\/a> who used the alias \u2018Deacon\u2019 while active in the neo-Nazi group BSN from 2017 through 2020, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to damage an energy facility on Feb. 10, with the possibility of receiving a reduction from a 15-year prison sentence in exchange for \u2018substantial assistance\u2019 in the government\u2019s prosecution in the case.<\/p>\n Following Kryscuk\u2019s plea, Marine Corps veteran Justin Wade Hermanson aka \u2018Sandman\u2019 entered a guilty plea for conspiracy to illegally manufacture, ship, transport and receive firearms on March 8. Like Kryscuk, Hermanson\u2019s plea deal includes an agreement to cooperate with the government\u2019s investigation and testify against his codefendants should they go to trial. Both men pleaded in the Eastern District of North Carolina, where the case is being tried.\u201d A lot of defendants are trying to blame Trump for their misdeeds, claiming the ex-president goaded them into it. It isn\u2019t helping them, but when Trump is eventually tried, they will be an embarrassing impediment to his claims that he wasn\u2019t trying to start trouble. Twelve hundred right wing nuts can\u2019t be wrong, right?<\/p>\n New York Attorney General Letitia James has referred contempt charges against Donald Trump with the Department of Justice. Your move, Merrick Garland.<\/p>\n Now, when people think to the sexual probity of the GOP, they don\u2019t think of saving schools from critical race theory math perverts. They think of Giuliani in drag, or propositioning an underage girl while being filmed by a comedian. They think of Ted Cruz in his assless chaps. (Yes, and I\u2019ve seen the picture. More bleach for my eyes, please.) Madison Cawthorn made headlines a few weeks ago by claiming the GOP leadership kept inviting him to cocaine-and-sex orgies. This week, images emerged of old Maddy, apparently at a wild party that greatly resembled those GOP church meetings, wearing women\u2019s lingerie. While not politically important (Cawthorn\u2019s career is deader than disco) it was a kind of a capstone to the pyramid of Republican hypocrisy and duplicity when it comes to safeguarding the public morality.<\/p>\n Finally, Marjorie Taylor Greene had to testify in a civil suit yesterday about her words and actions in relation to January 6th<\/sup>, facing a suit to have her barred from running again on 14th<\/sup> amendment grounds. It did not go well for her. She flat-out denied that she had called Nancy Pelosi a traitor, and when the lawyer asked for video #5 to be shown, she stammered, wait! Um…I meant she was a traitor because she wasn\u2019t securing the southern border.<\/p>\n Her poor lawyer tried claiming that laws against insurrection applied to Civil War traitors only, and then in a truly bizarre twist, claimed executive privilege on Taylor-Greene\u2019s behalf. Now, I\u2019m not a lawyer, don\u2019t even play one on TV, but I\u2019m pretty sure that the only person who can claim executive privilege is the sitting US president. If you want to get a big grin out of Joe Biden, Marge, you could ask him to claim executive privilege on your behalf. Biden has a good sense of humor\u2014he\u2019ll enjoy hearing that one.<\/p>\n Wow\u20142,500 words, and I had to skip a few rounds from the GOP circular firing squad. Next time some bozo tries saying the two parties are the same, ask them when the last time was the Democrats had a week like this.<\/p>\n And then ask yourself why America hasn\u2019t simply laughed the GOP out of existence.<\/p>\n Rule 34*: \u201cIf it exists, there\u2019s a porn version of it on the web.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When A Party Hits An Iceberg Back up and ram that sumbitch again! April 23rd, 2022 Bryan Zepp Jamieson For the Republicans, this was a week they would probably love to forget. For the Trump crowd in particular, it was an unmitigated disaster. It started when the Kansas City Star, one of Missouri\u2019s biggest papers, … <\/p>\n