Category: Beating Back the St00pid

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Sure, Jan

As you all well know, I'm no fan of Twitter, but…

It's a national embarrassment that this imbecile is the President but it is a national shame that he has NO UNDERSTANDING of the Constitution

The First Amendment reads:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

It is freedom, generally speaking, from the government interfering with you saying anything you want, whenever and wherever you want to say it but there is no First Amendment right to use Twitter or have a Facebook page.

Social media companies are private enterprises and therefore free to adopt policies relating to user content and to remove users who violate such policies without implicating the First Amendment.

The moron in chief keeps declaring that he is directing his administration to "explore all regulatory and legislative solutions to protect free speech and the free speech rights of all Americans" & that they will "strongly regulate or close them down" by which he only means people that agree with him or encourage him.

Any regulatory or legislative action taken by the government, which obviously includes the current corrupt AF administration, would constitute a threat to the free speech rights of all Americans.

It's upside down world in the Cheetohinchief's head but it's a reminder to the rest of us never to give so much power to someone so ill informed on the Constitution.

Source.

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Oh Sah-NAP!

From The Palmer Report:

There is still no one who has any idea what Donald Trump's "Obamagate" scandal is about – least of all Trump himself. But that hasn't stopped Trump's most embarrassing sycophants from trying to prop up the imaginary scandal. That includes Ted Cruz, who never misses an opportunity to humiliate himself.

It all started when Trump incoherently tweeted "OBAMAGATE MAKES WATERGATE LOOK LIKE SMALL POTATOES!" This prompted pundit John Heilemann to ask, "Could you explain again exactly what it is? We'll wait." That's when Ted Cruz decided to get involved, much to his own detriment.

Cruz thought he was being clever when he fired back at Heilemann with "I thought that was a reporter's job?" At that point Heilemann finished him off: "Sorry, I'm still busy reporting out Trump's accusation that your father was involved in the killing of JFK."

Ouch.

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And that's exactly why I won't be able to wear a red cap for the rest of my life.

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Seat Belts, Face Masks, Shirts, Shoes, and Service

From John Gruber:

I'm old enough to recall when wearing seat belts became mandatory. Roughly speaking, these laws spread quickly from state to state, starting with New York in 1984 and becoming the rule rather than the exception within a decade. ("Live free or die" New Hampshire is the only remaining state that doesn't require adults to wear a seat belt.)

I recall a similar sort of opposition to these laws as we see now with mandatory face masks. Opposition to compulsory seat belt laws always seemed crazy to me, because the evidence was so overwhelming that seat belts save lives and greatly reduce injuries that it was clearly worth making an exception to the principle, widely held in America, that the government generally shouldn't tell people what to do. But crazy or not, opposition there was. "Fuck you, I don't want to wear one, it's a free country." Word for word, the same sentiment then about seat belts as now about face masks.

One of the arguments against compulsory seat-belt-wearing was that sometimes wearing a seat belt makes things worse. "What if I'm in an accident and my seat belt gets jammed, trapping me in a burning car?" "I read about a guy who wasn't wearing a seatbelt and he walked away from a terrible accident because he was thrown out of the car before it was totaled."

I don't agree with it, but to some degree I get it: What right does a government that sells you lottery tickets have to tell you that your odds are better if you're wearing a seat belt?

But there's a fundamental difference between wearing a seat belt in a car and wearing a face mask in a store. A seat belt really only protects the wearer. There are tangential arguments that society as a whole benefits from fewer car crash deaths and injuries, but the primary reason we have laws requiring you to wear a seat belt is to protect you from harm. Face mask requirements aren't like that. They're more like laws banning smoking in restaurants and making drunk driving a serious crime — they protect us all from harm.

From earlier in my childhood, I recall ubiquitous signs at the entrances of stores and restaurants: "No shirt, no shoes, no service." There were variants, but that exact phrasing was common. I always considered those signs so strange, as I couldn't imagine why anyone would even want to go into a store or restaurant without a shirt or shoes, let alone need a sign telling them that doing so was not permitted, but I figured it must have been a problem with hippies or something. (There were a lot of old people complaining about hippies long after there were any hippies left to complain about.)

Basically, other than poolside or at a beach, anyone who wants to go into a public establishment barefoot or shirtless is an asshole. It seems pretty clear that the people today angrily objecting to mandatory face masks aren't really concerned with the epidemiological efficacy of masks. They're concerned with asserting their perceived entitlement to be an asshole. You don't need to hang a "No assholes allowed" sign to enforce it as a rule.

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No Apology from Pastor of Butte County Church Where 180 Were Exposed to COVID-19

No apology from pastor of Butte County church where 180 were exposed to COVID-19

This is the reason you are not supposed to be gathering in groups. But don't listen to science you fucking idiots, listen to the raging orange moron in the White House. Because when the fuck has he ever been right about one fucking thing?

So many outbreaks have started in churches and a lot of our elders go to those churches.

And while we're witnessing Charles Darwin in action, be vigilant. Listen to your own self-preservation instinct. Regardless of what may be open, STAY THE FUCK HOME and WEAR A GODDAMNED MASK WHEN YOU HAVE TO GO OUT.

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Propaganda Machine

FOX is a "predetermined narratives" cable network categorized as an entertainment channel.

It's a special interest propaganda machine coordinating with the GOP. It is neither fair nor balanced.

And the Whiner-in-Chief wouldn't be crying about how unfair their polling was if he didn't realize that his base watches that wretched channel almost exclusively.

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Brutal—And Every Word of it the Truth

I'm glad this is finally being said. These words are not hyperbolic. If you do not believe this, I'm surprised you're even reading my blog:

"A moment of unparalleled national humiliation, of weakness—when you listen to the President, these are the musings of an imbecile, an idiot. And I don't use those words to name-call, I use them because they're the precise words in the English language to describe his behavior, his comportment, his actions." ~ Steve Schmidt, former GOP strategist

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This Photo Set My Blood Boiling

Large crowds at the bar last night in Columbus, Ohio. No one social distancing. Not a single mask in the crowd. In fact, the scene was so disturbing police received dozens of emergency calls with people frightened by what they were seeing. [Source]
I'm really starting to believe that what we're going through is the Earth's way of thinning the human herd, using the virus as a catalyst and leveraging our own hubris and stupidity to do the rest.

And I'm okay with that.

It was written a couple thousand years ago that "The meek shall inherit the earth." If you think about it, who are the meek ones? The scientists, the "brainiacs" who sat quietly at the back of the class yet aced every test they were give. The smart ones; not the gun-toting, statehouse-storming Neanderthals wasting oxygen to throw their tantrums.

All the rest of us can do is try and protect ourselves as much as possible, continue to wear masks, practice social distancing and avoid the type of demonstrably selfish, stupid crowds of people like the photo above when we have to be outside of our homes.

Look, I want to sit in a Starbucks, actually eat in a restaurant, and visit with my friends in person. But I also want to see the Republican party utterly and completely destroyed and that orange shit stain on humanity dragged from the White House in January and thrown into prison or strung up, whichever comes first—not to mention see the beginning of the new world we will grow from the rubble left in his wake, and the only way that's going to happen is if I stay safe.

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Quote of the Day

The best thing any of us can do until we vote this imbecile out of office and into jail is stay safe. Wear you mask, practice social distancing, and decontaminate and we will outlive both these dinosaurs and the faltering economy." ~ Dave at Riding On