When Real Americans cut off their noses to spite their faces: Donna Knoche made her way up to the podium at the Johnson County Commission hearing on June 6, 2022, her new yellow shirt crisp and her voice steady. It wasn’t something she’d ever thought she’d have to do in her 93 years in the place her grandfather first homesteaded in the 1860s. Calmly setting aside her walker, she looked at the county commissioners arrayed to her left and began to speak. “I never in all my life thought I would stand up here to protect our property rights by being able to use our land legally for the best benefit of our family,” she said. To her right, scores of people were in line behind her. Many of them had other ideas. Some implored the commissioners to vote to allow the so-called West Gardner plan, a utility-size array of solar panels, saying the county needed to commit to clean energy for their children’s future. But others were just as passionately opposed.
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You betcha That is a real post from Donald Trump. last night. From Meidas who watches Trump’s rallies. All of them. So we don’t have to: So it appears that Trump confusing Nikki Haley with his deranged conspiracy about Nancy Pelosi and Trump randomly posting that he looks like Elvis (he does not) has people finally seeing just how delusional, cognitively impaired, and utterly weird Trump’s campaign is. Well, I have been covering all of Donald Trump’s speeches for my reporting with the MeidasTouch Network and it’s just been mind boggling how the media has sought to normalize what can only be described as the strangest and weirdest thing ever. Here is what goes down at a typical Trump speech: 1. He comes out to the playing of the “January 6 Anthem” song which he recorded with some of the most dangerous J6 rioters in jail. 2. He brags how his song with the J6 rioters gets more downloads than Taylor Swift (it does not) 3. He spends a few minutes talking about passing cognitive exams, and how the audience would not pass the exam, but because he is really smart (he is not) he is able to ace the exam. 4.
In case you needed more evidence that Netanyahu and his boys are holding out for a Trump restoration, here it is: Criticism of President Joe Biden by a far-right minister in Israel’s government who said Donald Trump would allow more freedom to fight Hamas sparked outrage there on Sunday, highlighting the sensitivity of relations as Washington provides key support for the offensive against the militants in Gaza. The Biden administration has skirted Congress to rush weapons to Israel and shielded its ally from international calls for a cease-fire in the four months since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack that triggered the war. But the White House has also urged Israel to take greater measures to avoid harming civilians and to facilitate the delivery of more aid to besieged Gaza. Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s national security minister, in an interview with The Wall Street Journal said Biden was hindering Israel’s war effort. “Instead of giving us his full backing, Biden is busy with giving humanitarian aid and fuel (to Gaza), which goes to Hamas,” Ben-Gvir said. “If Trump was in power, the U.S.
Another right wing outrage-fad runs its course What if they held a book banning and nobody showed up? In Florida, where the right-wing Moms for Liberty group was born in response to Covid-19 school closures and mask mandates, the first Brevard County School Board meeting of the new year considered whether two bestselling novels – “The Kite Runner” and “Slaughterhouse-Five” – should be banned from schools. A lone Moms for Liberty supporter sat by herself at the January 23 meeting, where opponents of the book ban outnumbered her. Nearly 20 speakers voiced opposition to removing the novels from school libraries. One compared the book-banning effort to Nazi Germany. Another accused Moms for Liberty of waging war on teachers. No one spoke in favor of the ban. About three hours into the meeting, the board voted quickly to keep the two books on the shelves of high schools.
During World War I, the Ottoman Empire collectively blamed the millions of Armenians in their territory for attacks by Armenian resistance fighters. Around 1M non-combatants were killed by the Ottoman military — in many cases, by forced marches through the Syrian desert without food and water. Denouncing this genocide doesn’t make you an Armenian resistance … Continue reading Taking sides in a genocide
How does anyone take the right seriously? Somewhere on Friday a TikTok video went by (if I find it again, I’ll post it) with a woman complaining that football intruding on her Taylor Swift concert ruined the experience for her. Why, why, she was all about Taylor and yet the camera kept cutting away to shots of Travis Kelce the football player. That’s just wrong! FOUND IT (3 P.M. EDT): She was lampooning the “keep Taylor out of my football game” crowd, obviously. Fox News is having a time of it as well, in a different way. The conspiracy theories Fox is spinning about the power couple are truly something to behold (New York Times): Of course, people are entitled to their opinions on celebrity political speech or the possible existence of a secret Pentagon diva lab. But if Fox News’s hosts truly believe that it’s irresponsible and dangerous to invite celebrities to weigh in on politics, they might want to turn their attention to … Fox News. Over the years, Fox has invited Gene Simmons, the bassist of Kiss, to talk about the handling of an Ebola outbreak.
Insist it’s already bent Donald “91 Counts” Trump famously learned to attack, attack, attack from skeevy attorney Roy Cohn, and to worship himself from Norman Vincent Peale, the positive-thinking guru. Trump has navigated 77 years of his life and scammed his way to celebrity by demanding, whatever the truth of the fine mess he’s created, whatever the dirty deals he was involved in (look, here’s another), that reality bend to his will. He’s always the innocent, always the victim, always the victor. It’s not as if the Republican Party with the aid of its right-wing media allies wasn’t already far along the path to up-is-downism. It’s just that Trump’s natural flair for the scam fit so well with the party’s proclivities that he was able to wholly coopt the conservative movement. Now, with the U.S. economy firing on nearly all cylinders under Joe Biden in 2024, Trump will have to find another gear to sell his marks that it’s all going to shit. Have no doubt. He will. Politico: The U.S. economy just keeps getting better.
There was a time when the right wing railed against Michelle Obama for encouraging kids to eat their vegetables and go outside to play and had a complete meltdown over governments trying to stop kids from drinking so much sugary soda that there is now an epidemic of obesity among children. How dare the government deign to advise Americans about healthy eating. Just a couple of months ago there was a story that health experts were considering telling people that they should cut down on beer consumption and it resulted in this lovely retort: Needless to say, nobody is talking about shutting down the beer or soda pop industry or limiting Ted Cruz from drinking as much as he wants to. Get a load of what the freedom loving right is up to now. Yes, Florida is leading the way, once again: Gov. Ron DeSantis said at a press conference Friday that he opposes the promulgation of lab-grown meat in Florida. Discussing his opposition to implanting an environmental agenda on farmers, the governor noted that lawmakers are working through legislation to ban lab-grown meat production. “You need meat. OK?” the governor said.
Who needs a dog whistle? Some of you may not be fully aware of who Charlie Kirk is and how influential he has become in the Republican Party. He originally started as a right wing youth organizer but in recent years has evolved into a major organizer of right wing activism across the board. Hit Turning Point USA conferences, which are held throughout the year, are major events that attract all the big names in the MAGA word as well as many “establishment” types. His organization is the heir to CPAC which has been losing steam for some time. Here’s a recent dispatch from Dave Weigel at Kirk’s latest gathering: LAS VEGAS – In a Planet Hollywood hotel ballroom, a few steps away from the Criss Angel Theater, around 200 Republican Party activists worked on their battle plans. The Republican National Committee would not save them. They would save themselves. “No more culture of losing,” Turning Point USA CEO and co-founder Charlie Kirk told an audience of RNC members, GOP county chairs, and plugged-in activists. “Embrace Donald Trump. Don’t fight Donald Trump. Embrace what he’s brought to the party.
I wrote recently about Kevin McCarthy’s crusade to take down Nancy Mace and the others who engineered his ouster. Mace is a specific target and for good reason. She is a real piece of work. Just this week this was revealed: According to two reports, as pro-Trump rioters stormed the US Capitol in an attempt to stop Congress from certifying the presidential election on January 6, freshman GOP Rep. Nancy Mace tried to convince her staff to let her get attacked. The Washington Post reports Mace was so incensed at then-President Donald Trump that she brought up the idea of approaching rioters head-on in the hopes she would get punched in the face and become the “face of anti-Trump Republicans.” She’s since endorsed Trump to become the GOP’s next presidential nominee. Hours after the Post published its piece, The Daily Beast seconded the reporting, noting that three sources who personally witnessed the conversations confirmed they happened. Those sources told the Beast that Mace explicitly said she wanted to “get punched in the face” for “media attention.” This report by Abby Phillips says it all.