Category: Beating Back the St00pid

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Quote Of The Day

Well, it finally isn't funny anymore—the grandiosity, the ignorance, the cruelty, the bullying, the racism, the petty insults and incessant stupidity. But especially the non-stop lying. The greatest asset that a president can bring to a crisis is credibility. On Day One of his presidency, Donald Trumpchose to pick a fight with the media about the size of his inaugural crowd … The very next day, Kellyanne Conway let Americans know of the existence of something called "alternative facts." Oh. So, that's how it's going to be, huh? Since then, the lies have come so fast and furious that keeping track has been impossible. How do you remember the last one when three or four equally ridiculous lies are almost certain to follow that day? 'Don't take him literally,' his supporters insisted. 'Take him seriously.' Really? Well, no. What they really were saying was how happy they were that he would be appointing pro-life, pro-corporate Federalist Society judges, cutting taxes to benefit the wealthy, undoing regulations to help corporations exploit their employees and destroy our environment, and pulling us out of the Paris Agreement and the Iran Nuclear Deal. That the President of the United States is a malignant narcissist who could allow no fact to stand that contradicted his insatiable need for self-aggrandizement has been of little concern to establishment Republicans. The stock market was climbing. They were getting richer. And they had cover from the right-wing media to fool enough of his base into believing his limitless dishonesty. At this year's State of the Union, the First Lady bestowed upon Rush Limbaugh the Presidential Medal of Freedom, an honor he now shares with Mother Teresa, Cesar Chavez, and the crew of Apollo 13 … Until this crisis, Trump has paid no real price for his constant, pathological mendacity. Before politics, the man had spent his entire career in a business where, evidently, there was no accountability for inveterate lying. But for this crisis there is accountability. And instead of leading, Donald Trump's focus has been where it always has been—on Donald Trump. 'I give myself a ten out of ten.' 'We are very close to a vaccine.' 'I don't take responsibility at all.' 'Anybody who needs a test can get a test. And the tests are perfect. Like the letter was perfect. The transcript was perfect.' Of course, no leader could have prevented the devastation that this virus has and will continue to exact. But because Trump's focus has been on himself, his reelection, and his fragile self-image, our federal government squandered our most valuable commodity. And the amount of suffering which that lost time will cost our nation is as tragic as it is unknowable. Trump will not step away. He will continue to take the stage and our focus—but he will not be able to claim the credibility he never earned. We are left to proceed despite our president and find the leadership we need elsewhere. From governors and mayors and other civil servants. From health care professionals and scientists and economists. From community leaders and each other. It is time for each of us to step up and fill the vacuum at the top—first by staying home. And for those fortunate enough to weather this storm financially—to help those who cannot. Lest we forget Trump's Houdini-like ability to escape the traps he's set for himself, it is also time for us to commit to his defeat in November. For now, find a way to do that from home. But when it's time to come out into the light, it must be our collective mission to make this godawful human being pay the price for every lie he has ever uttered." ~ Al Franken

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The Bill is Due

From John Pavlovitz:

The bill for MAGA has come due, Trump supporters.

It's time to pay up.

The deferred invoice for you selling your souls is here.

It's time to pay for every incendiary campaign boast you cheered,
every factless diatribe you vigorously applauded,
every nonsensical middle-of-the-night tweet you boosted,
every dehumanizing stereotype and slur you shared,
every callous and cruel rally insult you passionately amen-ed.

Its time to pay for every denial of Scientific evidence,
every terminated qualified conscientious objector,
every attack on factual, responsible journalism,
every vicious assault on objective reality,
every star-spangled dog-and-pony show distraction,
every lazy xenophobic caricature,
every tired racist tirade.

This is how your beloved capitalism works isn't it: someone was always going to pay for services rendered? Nothing is free, isn't that what you've been saying—no handouts? Well, dig deep friend because you are on the hook for this.

Many people have been footing the bill for a long time: migrants and Muslims and transgender people, young black men, refugees, the sick and the poor, already vulnerable communities pushed all the way to the brink—and now past it.

You were paying too of course, you were just too willfully ignorant or intellectually negligent to realize it. Over and over we tried to tell you about the cost: the civil rights you were sacrificing too, the environmental protections you were losing as well as we were, the safety and security you were relinquishing alongside us. We tried to tell you that this hardship was not a partisan expense, that his moral bankruptcy would eventually hit you hard too.

But your Fox News bubble and your white Evangelical echo chamber and your America First, Don't Tread on Me, middle-finger affinity clubs left you certain you were insulated from it all; that the only tears that would fall would be liberal ones, that the only people suffering voted for Hillary, that all of the pain would be isolated to people who vote Blue.

You felt immune from the spreading sickness. You felt invincible, because your messiah told you that you were winning and that was enough for you.

He was lying to you as he always does, but you preferred to believe the lie because it felt warm running through your veins even as it was poisoning you—the intoxicating, cheap high of making America great while owning the Libs. That was a costly drug, that arrogance—and you were slowly going broke in your addiction.

Now, in the middle of a burgeoning pandemic and a precipitous market crash and a hopelessly fractured nation, the bill is coming due.
You can't avoid paying now.
You're here with us.
I think even you realize that now.

This President didn't create this virus,
but he ignored it,
denied it,
minimized it,
joked about it,
weaponized it,
politicized it,
exacerbated it.

He systematically removed qualified people and replaced them with genuflecting, sycophantic traitors, or with no one.

He generated a steady stream of partisan attacks and conspiracy theories and abject lies created in the moment, and the kind of "I am smarter than anyone in the room" sermonizing that cult leaders bellow all the way to the terrible and tragic end.

He is culpable for the chaos and the unnecessary illness, and yes the preventable deaths because of it—and you are too.

This is the human cost of the MAGA cult delusion, and we're all paying for it now equally, however we vote and wherever we live and whatever we value. Pandemics don't choose sides or spare voting blocks or respect affiliations.

He will pay for it in November and in the unflattering, incorruptible light of History.

I hope whatever you received was worth it.

I hope you still feel like you're winning.

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He's Not My First Choice…

…but I'm liking Mike more and more with each passing day, if only because he's getting under the orange Russian Wig Stand's skin and calling him out directly:

 

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Okay, I know that technically this is a false narrative since there is no vaccine for the corona virus yet, but still, the sentiment resonated…

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Donald Trump Loses in New Hampshire

A harbinger?

From The Palmer Report:

The New Hampshire primary isn't set to take place until Tuesday, but the remote locale of Dixville Notch traditionally kicks off the voting the night before, by staying up until just after midnight. The tiny number of voters in the town – just five voters across both parties – usually makes for an entertaining story. This time around, Donald Trump somehow lost the Republican vote in Dixille Notch, to someone who wasn't even on the ballot and isn't even a Republican.

Several major news outlets are reporting that Mike Bloomberg won the New Hampshire Democratic primary in Dixville Notch, by getting two write-in votes. This allowed him to beat out Pete Buttigieg and Bernie Sanders, who got one vote each. But it turns out Bloomberg also won the New Hampshire Republican primary in Dixville Notch by getting one write-in vote, while Donald Trump got zero votes.

All I have to say is

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If You Despise Buttigieg and Think He is the Same as Trump, You've Fucking Lost Your Mind

From BoyCulture:

WAPO: Pete Buttigieg won Iowa, and it has opened a can of LGBTQ-powered whup-ass on his LGBTQ ass. It's absurd how over-the-top the reactions to Buttigieg are, especially within our own community. In no way to I think we have to vote for any LGBTQ candidate just because they're LGBTQ, however: (1) Why do so many jump to the conclusion that his supporters are voting for him only for that reason? It smacks of the same bigotry (even from within!) that was used in an effort to shame black voters and white liberal voters who supported Obama "just because he's black" and (2) if you despise Buttigieg and think he is the same as Trump, you've fucking lost your mind. The guy is an intelligent, thoughtful, dedicated public servant and veteran who has weaknesses like any other candidate, but whose campaign is historic and whose willingness to listen to the party's progressive wing in any eventual White House stay should strike you as exciting. He is not a corporate tool. Who cares if money comes from billionaires? Which billionaires is more interesting, and is anything expected in return? Money is not instantly corrupting. If it is, then Bernie is as corrupt as all the other nominees, and he's clearly not corrupt.

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If Only…

strolling-in-the-moonlight:

5 states in the US have banned abortion from the point of heartbeat detection. Following that logic, I propose two additional policies:

1. Child support starts at the same point, including 50% of all medical bills

2. If the mother dies in mandated childbirth OR the child is stillborn, the father and doctor are charged with involuntary manslaughter.

3. Pregnant women can't be in jail because the fetus would be in jail, and since it's a full human you would be punishing an innocent person

See how keen they are on their "Pro-life" horseshit then.

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So one million moms is off by a factor of 999,999

Hilarious. (And as we always suspected.)

From The WOW Report via Truthspew:

We all witnessed the yo-yo drama with The Hallmark Channel pulling their same-sex kiss Zola commercial (and then reversing their decision) temporarily buying into the threat of the scarily named, One Million Moms. But as many suspected over the years, their numbers were WAY exaggerated. Now we find out it's really just One Meddling Mom with an agenda.

Her name is Monica Cole and according to GLAAD,

She is the one and only person who appears on their petitions, as well as the one and only person who speaks for them to the media. She is the mom. Her. Solo. One person, supposedly representing one million.

One Meddling Mom has issued so many calls and condemnations over the years, it's become easy to tune them out. As GLAAD has arduously detailed, OMM has gone after everything from recent blockbuster Toy Story 4 for including a seconds-long clip of a supposed lesbian couple that quite literally no one but them noticed, to Chips Ahoy for a Twitter ad featuring a Rupaul's Drag Race star. Basically if a company hires, recognizes, features, or in any way supports an LGBTQ person, One Meddling Mom will issue a petition, claim to have millions of supporters behind her, and then start cranking the AFA machine in hopes of getting some sort of press for her campaign-of-the-week. OMM even uses a conservative PR firm, Hamilton Strategies, to help spread this message to a wider public.

But, Ms. Cole and her tiny task force (masquerading as "millions") does get people fired up.

Here's some more evidence GLAAD compiled,

  • The Internet ranking site Alexa (not to be confused with your in-home listening device) gives OneMillionMoms.com a ranking of #1,133,944 in global internet engagement. That is extremely low. For comparison's sake, GLAAD's own page has a ranking that is ten times higher ranking than theirs.
  • One Million Moms has only 4,200 Twitter followers. Sure, not everyone uses social media, and it might even be fair to say that OMM's target audience uses it at a lower rate. But 4,200 followers? For a squad of supposedly one million? That follow rate doesn't add up.
  • Searching social media, it is really hard to find prominent voices speaking out in favor of OMM's campaigns. You can find all kinds of pro-LGBTQ people pushing back against OMM, in ways ranging from funny to snarky to serious to whatever unclassifiable thing Cole Escola does. But even though Social Conservative Twitter is a reliably outspoken bunch, it's pretty tough to find any sort of goodwill support for OMM. That would not be the case if they had anywhere near the support base they claim to have.
  • American Family Association petitions have been skewed for years. Regardless of how you fill out an AFA petition, they will count you as a supporter. So if you weigh in with pushback, thinking you are going to open their eyes and change their minds, you will simply get a "Thank you for supporting us!" and your reply will be counted as support. I still get emails addressed to "Mr. Stop Hating," the name I used for an AFA petition that I "supported" (read: trolled) a full fifteen years ago. So whenever they say they have X number of signatures, you can be sure that a sizable percentage are people who wanted to deliver a message on a forum where the petition is the only open communication channel.

Because of these her "victories" here and there, Mommy Cole and her PR firm's bark is bigger than their bite really. She's able to make her teacup Poodle seem like a Great Dane.

So, it's not an army of Karens who want to speak to the manager, it's just one Monica.

"Sorry, Monica, the manager isn't here. Can I help you…?"