Can you freakin’ believe this?

2020 Election, , ,
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I’m starting a collection of faces of elected officials, spokespeople, TV talking heads, reporters, etc. going “WTF????” or “did that person just say that thing” or similar, with their faces. Feel free to add your own. These are looks when an insane statement is being made by a colleague or by a guest on a show, or when some totally crazy ass thing like a Q-Anon conspiracy or something a member of the Party of Hypocrisy or their leader Criminal Trump is saying or doing. Sometimes it is about climate change, sometimes about voting, often there is a strong element of racism. These faces are the reactions to the beyond belief over the time crap that has invaded our public conversations and our news cycles.

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59 thoughts on “Can you freakin’ believe this?”

  1. Is the Fauci shot at the top the face he made when trump suggested people use bleach or disinfectant internally to treat covid?

    Probably pretty much any response to the lies he tossed out about covid would be a good source.

    Reply

    2. Fauci said that masks weren’t effective and then he said you should mask up even if you were vaccinated.

      Fauci said that there was no chance COVID leaked from the Wuhan Intitute of Virology now he says he doesn’t know.

      Perhaps Fauci is making that face while looking at his old media appearances?

  2. Rapidly becoming SNAFU given the that the GOP, with a few treacherous Democrats (e.g. gun lobby Manchin), is more interested in stymieing any positive moves at improving the life of most Americans and the image of the country.

    …given Trump’s continuing hold over the shrinking Republican party, any Republican senator who joined with the Democrats in supporting the For the People Act would probably be ending their political career. Profiles in courage make good copy for political obituaries and memorials.

    I’m afraid history will show that, in this shameful era, Republican senators were more united in their opposition to voting rights than Democratic senators were in their support for them.

    The future of American democracy needs better odds.

    American democracy is fighting for its life – and Republicans don’t care I think it more that the GOP do care and they are getting what they want.

    Rapidly moving towards totalitarian politics and repression as the modus operandi, there seems to be allot of it around in the world today. Sadly where the US leads the spineless UK politicians follow.

    Reply

    1. Damn! I missed that. Of course being able to move Earth further away from the sun (or closer if necessary) would of course solve the problem. Why didn’t I think of that! Problem solved.

    1. I’m sure it would be easy to find examples from every public comment he made about it: his lies that it was no big deal, that it would disappear like magic, his pushing fake “cures”, having his family distribute faulty ventilators, having the government intercept and confiscate equipment state governors had purchased, all those events certainly made honest people take on a “you’ve got to be shitting me” face.

      Kind of the face you make every time some intellectually/morally/reality challenged republican defends him on anything.

  6. More in the class of ‘Can you freakin’ believe this?’

    “It is outrageous but not surprising. We have a former president with no regard for the rule of law or for those who enforce the laws. We need to conduct a thorough investigation and hold everybody responsible accountable.”

    Trump DoJ secretly seized House Democrats’ data in crackdown on leaks

    The modern day GOP are the US version of the Taliban given their assault on all departments of government and ultimately the people ensuring most only get a cut down education carrying a biased view of history. Long shadows cast.

    Reply

  7. Interesting that the new GOP hack supporter on here attempts to call out Fauci but gives the serial covid lies of the former ignoramus-in-chief a free pass. I suppose he forgives Trump on the basis of his brazen stupidity, given that Fauci has more intelligence in the fingernail of his little pinky than Trump has in his whole body.

    Reply

    1. As we’ve seen for years with rickA and Mike, the republican party isn’t looking for people who are honest or capable of evaluating and appreciating facts. The more dishonest and bigoted you are the warmer the embrace you receive from the party. The most recent drive by ranter is just more of the same.

    2. Could you provide some evidence that you’ve been fair and even-handed in *your* criticism?

      Who cares about Trump? I’m supporting DeSantis in 2024.

  8. An Ohio woman surfaced this week with testimony that the COVID vaccines make people magnetic — as in causing keys and other metal objects to stick to them.

    Not to be outdone, another woman claimed it had happened to her, and tried to demonstrate that a key actually stuck to her chest. (Then it failed to stick to her neck.) Look for the woman in blue seated behind her on the right side of the screen. Have you ever seen a better example of eye-rolling?

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TvB5NMELFo

    Reply

  9. The right’s favorite nazi- and white-supremacist-supporter, tucker carlson, had their favorite racist and failed statistician, charles murry, as a show guest. This bit of racist garbage went out:

    During an appearance on “Tucker Carlson Today” on Fox News’ spin-off streaming service, conservative social scientist Charles Murray argued “the cognitive demands” of some occupations mean “a whole lot of more white people qualify [to do them] than Black people.”

    Carlson, who often promotes white nationalist viewpoints on his widely watched prime-time Fox News show, allowed Murray to make his claims unchallenged.

    “Essentially, you have registered nurses, and we have data on fairly large numbers of registered nurses, Black and white, and the difference in mean IQ between the two of those is a dozen IQ points, which is a lot,” Murray said.

    “It means you have a whole lot of extremely able Black nurses,” he added. “You have some incompetent white nurses, but it does mean you have a difference in job performance, and that’s eventually going to be reflected in income as well. It’s going to be reflected in the nature of their careers, and the nature of how they end up and so forth.”

    Apparently the shitbag murry has a new book of “research” coming out, written so that bigots like rickA and mikeN can continue to justify their racist views.

    Reply

    1. Yes. Murray’s new book is Facing Reality: Two Truths about Race in America. It came out June 15th. Here’s Amazon’s blurb:

      The charges of white privilege and systemic racism that are tearing the country apart fIoat free of reality. Two known facts, long since documented beyond reasonable doubt, need to be brought into the open and incorporated into the way we think about public policy: American whites, blacks, Hispanics, and Asians have different violent crime rates and different means and distributions of cognitive ability. The allegations of racism in policing, college admissions, segregation in housing, and hiring and promotions in the workplace ignore the ways in which the problems that prompt the allegations of systemic racism are driven by these two realities.

      What good can come of bringing them into the open? America’s most precious ideal is what used to be known as the American Creed: People are not to be judged by where they came from, what social class they come from, or by race, color, or creed. They must be judged as individuals. The prevailing Progressive ideology repudiates that ideal, demanding instead that the state should judge people by their race, social origins, religion, sex, and sexual orientation.

      We on the center left and center right who are the American Creed’s natural defenders have painted ourselves into a corner. We have been unwilling to say openly that different groups have significant group differences. Since we have not been willing to say that, we have been left defenseless against the claims that racism is to blame. What else could it be? We have been afraid to answer. We must. Facing Reality is a step in that direction.

      I’m not sure what he was trying to say in the bit you quoted. But the blurb makes it clear: He’s out to stoke divisiveness by implying that White privilege and systemic racism are mere fictions dreamed up by “woke” progressives.

    1. “…and seeks to find whether students, faculty and staff “feel free to express beliefs and viewpoints on campus and in the classroom,” according to the bill.”

      My Goodness! The authoritarian right actually wants a society where students have a right to free speech? The fiends!

    2. “My Goodness! The authoritarian right actually wants a society where students have a right to free speech? The fiends!”

      They don’t, of course. They want the ability to spread lies about how slavery was “benign” and groups who oppose authoritarianism, racism, bigotry, while supporting rights for the poor and minorities are actually terrorists and a threat to the country. You should get that — that’s the kind of racism fueled hatred you, trump, and desantis push.

  12. Two more “can you effing believe this moments” — both should scare the hell out of people who value freedom of speech (which means both rickA and mikeN will think the actions described were justified).

    This high school teacher was fired because his assignment upset the right (it didn’t paint trump in a good light).

    https://www.wjhl.com/news/local/sullivan-county-teacher-facing-termination-at-school-board-meeting-tuesday-supporters-to-gather/

    In Virginia the GOP has demanded UoV investigate a professor who sent “mean” tweets about trump from his personal (i.e. not school related) account.

    https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/07/professor-larry-sabato-university-virginia-republican-anti-trump-tweets.html#comments

    How can you tell modern republicans are lying when they say they value freedom of speech?

    a) They’re republicans, lying is their norm

    Reply

  13. And today I learned about something that I believe happened some time ago; the timeline isn’t clear. Dr. Michelle Fiscus, vaccine director for the state of Tennessee, was fired for suggesting that minors might be vaccinated against COVID without their parents’ consent. Apparently there’s a provision of the state health code that permits this for children age 14 and older — and Dr. Fiscus checked with the state’s lawyers before acting.

    But still she was fired for emailing that suggestion to health-care providers who had asked. Some state legislators even talked about abolishing the health department. Here’s an interview with Chris Hayes:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iejqbn95c4

    Reply

    2. Yup, and the bottom-feeders in the TN QOP are also trying to prevent the state health department from promoting ANY vaccines to any children — something about (looks at right-wing bullshit talking points) taking rights away from parents.

      These q-anon loving scum on the right aren’t even trying to hide how despicable they are — they’ve basically become trump-following remora. (That’s probably an insult to remora, since those fish have a purpose for what they do.)

  14. …they’ve basically become trump-following remora.

    Indeed, ones that either are too clueless about or don’t care about the increasing evidence that:

    Vladimir Putin personally authorised a secret spy agency operation to support a “mentally unstable” Donald Trump in the 2016 US presidential election during a closed session of Russia’s national security council, according to what are assessed to be leaked Kremlin documents.

    The key meeting took place on 22 January 2016, the papers suggest, with the Russian president, his spy chiefs and senior ministers all present.

    They agreed a Trump White House would help secure Moscow’s strategic objectives, among them “social turmoil” in the US and a weakening of the American president’s negotiating position.

    Kremlin papers appear to show Putin’s plot to put Trump in White House

    Reply

    1. It isn’t like we didn’t know this before, but it’s great to have more data points to support it.

      Equally chilling are the things Milley said about sitting in meetings with trump and the scum trump surrounded himself with.

      Scariest — these aren’t being pointed out seriously on the news. The nazis and white supremacists and other domestic terrorists trump supported and wooed,
      and who still support trump, are still around. The danger to democracy reagan started and trump refined is still here.

  15. As far as I can interpret that mostly unintelligible interview with Sir John, he is equivocal on the Steele dossier — saying “it could be right or it could be wrong.”

    Mr Steele also contributed to a dossier on the Chinese firm Huawei. That dossier seems well respected. And in a sidebar to it there is a sidebar on Christopher Steel which includes this bit:

    When Russian defector Alexander Litvinenko was murdered in London in 2006, the then head of MI6, Sir John Scarlett, turned to Mr Steele, who handled the case with ‘expert professionalism’, it was said.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8498127/China-fury-conspiracy-theories-dossier-spy-claims.html

    So there seems little evidence that Sir John disrespects Christopher Steele. And parts of his dossier on Trump have been corroborated by the FBI.

    As for the Daily Caller piece — well, that’s about as bad as most would expect.

    I don’t even see why you’re still trying. Multiple reports implicate Trump for involvement with Russia.

    Reply

    1. As for the Daily Caller piece — well, that’s about as bad as most would expect.

      Yes, the people who use daily caller as a reference are below zero on their intelligence, integrity, and honesty. Very high on gullibility though.

    2. Scarlett obviously thinks it’s pure junk. He’s just not going to stick his neck out on such a political hot potato lest he have the Fascist Democrats sic their new style brown shirts on him.

      That’s why Scarlett keeps emphasizing that this is “commercial grade” intelligence. When someone is paid to dig up dirt, they’re going to find dirt even if they have to make it up themselves which is exactly what that lying fraud Steele did.

      “who handled the case with ‘expert professionalism’, it was said.”

      Said by whom??? Most likely by Steele himself.

      The Steele Dossier was a fabrication from beginning to end. The Wall Street Journal has identified it’s main sources as two Russians with serious addiction issues.

      https://redstate.com/shipwreckedcrew/2020/10/28/a-key-source-for-steele-dossier-was-an-alcoholic-female-lawyer-living-in-cyprus-who-hed-known-since-8th-grade-n271212

      What exactly has been “corroborated” in the Steele Dossier?

  16. It’s plain you’re out to discredit Steele and anyone associated with him. You try that here by telling us what Sir John is thinking and then claiming he’s afraid of American Democratic Party “Fascists.” He’s a British citizen! What do you think us Yanks might do — call him a poopy-head?

    The Steele Dossier was a fabrication from beginning to end. The Wall Street Journal has identified it’s (sic) main sources as two Russians with serious addiction issues.

    How unfortunate that Steele, with his long experience in intelligence and expertise in Russian society, didn’t twig to this defect in his sources that the WSJ detected so easily. Oh, and two sources are all he had for the dossier?

    What exactly has been “corroborated” in the Steele Dossier?

    I’ve spent several hours going through the Horowitz report. It mentions the spreadsheet, but doesn’t present it. As far as corroboration, all I get is general assessments of Steele’s overall competence and trustworthiness, and some “he said-she said” counterclaims. For example, the FBI identified and interviewed Steele’s “Primary Sub-Source” in early 2017. These interviews “raised significant questions about the reliability of the Steele election reporting.” (page 186)

    * The PSS specifically debunked a) the “pee tape allegations” and Report 134’s claim that Carter Page met with Igor Sechin. (page 187)

    * Questioned again, the PSS cast doubt on the entirety of Steele’s election reporting. (“the Primary Sub-source felt that the tenor of Steele’s reports was far more ‘conclusive’ than was justified.” page 188)

    Now, this can be read two ways. I read it as the Primary Sub-Source aiming to discredit Steele’s election reporting. Why would he do this? Granting that Steele wouldn’t have been fooled by a double agent, I assume that the FSB or the SVR identified this source and paid him off or otherwise subverted him.

    It’s easier to find what parts of Steele’s work have been debunked: Michael Cohen’s trip to Prague, and probably the salacious bits. For now, the rest is “unconfirmed.”

    https://www.npr.org/2019/12/09/785213175/read-doj-inspector-generals-report-on-the-russia-investigation

    Reply

    1. America’s woke fascists have been bullying and intimidating Brits across the pond for a number of years now. Why else are English footballers taking a knee?

      I’m afraid that your defense of Steele is little more than examples of the ipse dixit fallacy. For example mentioning Steele’s “long experience in intelligence” doesn’t mean much. James Jesus Angleton had “long experience in intelligence” and he turned out to be a decades long dumpster fire.

      What’s more your standard for evaluating Steele’s sources is confirmation bias. Sources that say what you like are credible. Sources that contradict your worldview must have been turned by the FSB/SVR.

      Steele is a boob. Just consider this. Steele claimed that the Russian social media campaign was run out of the Russian consulate in Miami.

      There is no Russian consulate in Miami.

  17. Luke Harding is an abominable journalist, as his made-up smear pieces on Julian Assange showed. The article on the alleged meeting between Paul Manafort and Assange was risible nonsense. Excellent work by David Edwards and David Cromwell at Media Lens exposed Harding’s shoddy journalism. I am not necessarily one of the people who necessarily buys all of the arguments linking Trump to Russia. But so what? Trump was the worst POTUS in US history by far. A complete ignoramus. His administration disabled and dismantled one human program after another that were aimed at protecting workers, the young and the environment. And he lost the election despite the big lie.

    That being said, anyone who uses the handle ‘DeSantis2024″ is in serious need of medical attention. DeSantis is an abomination, a right wing loon, who is willing to sacrifice the health and lives of Floridians on the alter of coronavirus to co-opt Trump supporters for his 2024 Presidential bid. Anything to ‘own the liberals’ even if that means ensuring that Florida is a covid hot spot. And one has to laugh at anyone suggesting that Democrats are fascists when the GOP is trying to emulate Viktor Orbán in Hungary by manipulating internal political levers to disenfranchise millions of people who vote ‘the wrong way’. The Republican Party knows full well that minorities vote preferentially for the Democrats, so they are doing everything in their power to make it harder and harder for them to cast ballots. The GOP also knows that they will never ever win another election when there is a high voter turnout, so voter suppression works in their favor.

    One also has to question why a right wing nut thinks his/her views carry any weight on this blog. They don’t. DeSantis2024 has their head so firmly up their butt that they cannot see a sliver of daylight. Clearly, they read so much crap from the likes of OANN, Newsmax, Fox News, Breitbart and The Daily Caller that they have lost any kind of understanding of what the term ‘fascist’ means. Trump and his cult are the fascists.

    Reply

    1. I’m old enough to remember when Democrats spent an entire year trying to prove that Al Gore actually won Florida and hence the 2000 election. Now Democrats decided that Biden won the 2020 election about 14 milliseconds after the polls closed. Funny how that works. Just today there was another story about poll workers altering ballots.

      https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/elections/georgia-ballot-adjudication-spoiled

      Democrats cynically used the excuse of public health to dismantle a number of election safeguards. Now they want to institutionalize their opportunities for cheating and declare opposition to be “voter suppression”. What total nonsense! Needing ID to vote is “suppression”? Then apparently almost all of Europe practices voter suppression.

      https://townhall.com/tipsheet/guybenson/2021/06/04/study-46-out-of-47-european-countries-require-photo-id-to-vote-n2590454

      Democrats and their enablers are pure filth who want to turn America into a one party, third world hellhole simply so they can loot whatever wealth remains.

  18. DeSantis2024, I repeat my advice. Seek medical help. You are a loaf short of a dozen. You are clueless. As Ralph Nader wrote last November:

    ‘The Trump regime gave itself lawless license to do whatever it wanted. Trump operatives dismantled or disabled humane program after humane program, health and safety regulations, and economic protections designed to protect working people, children, the elderly, and people living in poverty. After all, the Trumpsters got the green light from their boss Donald, who when not playing golf, tweeting tantrums, and watching Fox News, believed that “I have an Article II, where I have the right to do whatever I want as president.”

    When the Bidenites take over on January 21, they will find hollowed-out government law enforcement and shelved research projects. They’ll see offices empty after government scientists and other civil servants were forced out. Other public servants will be sitting in what the Japanese call “window jobs,” ordered to stop working on vital matters ranging from limiting climate disruption to stopping Wall Street rip-offs. The Trump administration turned important government jobs into do-nothing positions. Heavily censored federal CDC workers, benumbed from prohibitions on what they can say, and who were ordered not to speak the words “climate change” will receive their rescuers with deep relief. EPA workers who were ordered to repeal or weaken over 100 environmental safeguards – unleashing deadly toxins into people’s air and water – will feel the breaking of the restraints imposed on sound science.

    Specialists who were told to weaken or eliminate about 50 occupational health and safety standards and literally shut down enforcement at OSHA will also start to see the early dawn. Biden’s team will discover destruction or theft of public records, spectacles of looting and plunder of public trust and public property. They will hear stories of corporate lobbyists coming in and out of the agencies as if they owned the government because they did. Trump turned over the federal government to Big Business, as has never before happened, brazenly, openly, and endlessly. His nominee to run the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) into nothingness, marauding Mick Mulvaney, openly said the agency’s mission was to protect Wall Street Big Banks and unscrupulous payday lenders!! Mulvaney abandoned tens of millions of defrauded Americans. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) said Mulvaney proved “he would rather cozy up with payday lenders and industry insiders than listen to consumer advocates who want to make sure hard-working Americans are not cheated by financial scams.” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said Mick Mulvaney had “no intention of putting consumers above financial firms that cheat them.”

    Much of the Trump Administration corruption started at the despoiled White House, which Trump turned into a family business incubator to enhance his Brand. Trump’s crime spree was aided and abetted by his “personal lawyer,” Attorney General, William Barr who twisted government lawyers into ignoring or overturning the rule of law under orders from the political bosses. Shoveling out corrupt, crony contracts, grants, subsidies, giveaways, and bailouts in a frenzy of taxpayer torture will occupy many officials in the new Administration as they attempt to unravel, expose, and if possible, claw back ill-gotten gains’.

    Ralph Nader, Counterpunch, November 2020

    And DeSantis2024 has the unmitigated gall to suggest that the Democrats want to ‘turn the country into a one-party hellhole”. He is right, but with the wrong party. The GOP are doing that with gusto. Under Trump they eviscerated public constraints in the pursuit of private profit. Trump turned over ever major federal regulatory agency to corporate lobbyists, who were instructed to take them apart, brick by brick, to lure back outsourcing corporations that had fled the US because they did not want to pay humane wages or safely treat their toxic wastes. Trump paved the way through his operatives to greatly reduce water quality standards, tear up laws protecting endangered species, make factories much less safe places in which to work, and to cut taxes for the wealthy at the same time. Currently, Trump boot-licker DeSantis is doing all he can to see that the coronavirus rips through his state without any means of slowing the infection. The new daily rate of infections there is setting world records per capita, as the death rate climbs rapidly as well. One in three new infections in the US is occurring in the sunshine state. More like the plague state.

    It seems like we have competition on Greg’s blog for the most risible right wing pundit. MikeN and RickA have met their match for pure stupidity in DeSantis2024.

    Reply

  19. What we get from “DeSantis2024” is assertions that are dubious at best, with occasional links to dodgy right-wing pundits.

    It does seem that Christopher Steele messed up on the Russian consulate in Miami — there is none, as reported in 2016 by Kathleen Kavalec, a long-time State Department employee. This mistake features prominently in stories from conservatives, such as John Solomon’s piece in The Hill and Robert Romano’s in The Ohio Star. Romano is Vice President of Public Policy at Americans for Limited Government.

    The totality of the commentary from DeSantis2024 makes it abundantly clear that he is wasting his time here.

    Reply

    1. Christopher says “The totality of the commentary from DeSantis2024 makes it abundantly clear that he is wasting his time here.”

      I find this a curious opinion. It is DeSantis2024’s time to allocate. He/She chose to spend it here. So obviously DeSantis2024 doesn’t think he/she is wasting their time, or they wouldn’t comment.

      Like DeSantis2024 (and myself), Christopher chooses to spend time commenting here. Christopher – do you think you are “wasting” your time here?

      I also like to occasionally comment at this site also. I do not feel I am wasting my time, or I wouldn’t bother to read and then type a comment.

      Perhaps Christopher is really saying he doesn’t agree with DeSantis2024. And yet, he chose to reply. Hmmm.

      But even so – I don’t see any waste.

      I guess waste is in the eye of the beholder.

  20. Trust far right wing, Trump supporting RickA is to wade in here in an attempt to defend DeSantis2024 whose posts quite literally are cringe-inducing. When he/she wrote-:

    “Democrats and their enablers are pure filth who want to turn America into a one party, third world hellhole simply so they can loot whatever wealth remains”

    …all I could think of was, ‘Oh! The irony’! The truth is that this is exactly what the GOP were doing under the narcissist king/emperor and his attempt to turn the big lie into a coup. Trump gutted environmental regulations and regulations protecting the poor and working classes in order to make the US a sweat shop economy that would lure back corporations that had outsourced under neoliberal capitalism. To entice them back, he promised to cut wealth and corporate tax (which he did) and promote mass deregulation (which he did) to reduce overheads and increase corporate profits. The GOP looted the Treasury and took apart federal agencies tasked with safeguarding human health and environmental quality. Clearly, DeSantis2024 and his fanboy RickA are politically illiterate, which is abundantly clear whenever they post on here. Blinded by right wing ideology, they spew one piece of nonsense after another.

    This is not merely a case of disagreeing with DeSantis2024, it is a case of him/her being egregiously wrong in everything they write.

    Reply

    1. Is questioning Christopher’s opinion that DeSantis2024 is “wasting” his time defending DeSantis2024?

      Curious characterization.

      Is mischaracterizing my post “wasting” time?

      I guess not – because it is our time to waste. Both you to post and me to reply.

  21. Yes RickA, you are defending DeSantis2024 because you agree with him/her. You don’t have to say it; pretty much everything you have ever written up here aligns with the right wing claptrap that DeSantis 2024 spews out. DeSantis2024 is wasting his/her time on this blog because (1) he/she is writing garbage, and (2) virtually everyone, with the possible exception of you (and we all know why that is) sees through it. No doubt their gibberish belongs on a Daily Caller or Breitbart thread or on some loony right wing blog.

    Not here.

    Reply

    1. Whenever a racist, bigoted, misogynistic, white supremacist loving, authoritarian leaning QOP leader is in the news rickA feels vindicated because he has the same traits. Never fails.

  22. In my experience, no one expresses an opinion without hoping to convince others — at least one or two others — that the expressed opinion is correct.

    When I write that DeSantis2024 is wasting his time here, I mean that his chances of convincing anyone Christopher Steel’s dossier on Trump is a tissue of lies are nil.

    DeSantis2024 is free, however, to continue expressing himself bootlessly.

    Reply

    1. … as he or she undoubtedly will.

      But anyone using the handle ‘DeSantis2024’ on blogs should expect their views to be ridiculed. And as you say, aside from RickA perhaps, nobody reading this blog is going to be swayed by anything DeSantis2024 writes. So why does he/she bother?

  23. The utter madness of many Republican leaders and their dim as Toc-H lamps followers is described in this article:

    Republican leaders fiddle while Covid burns through their own supporters

    …Abbott, who has banned mask requirements, is far from an outlier in a Republican party which, having long sought to downplay the climate crisis, is now offering a confusing, incoherent and anti-scientific response to the biggest public health crisis for a century.

    Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida, has also outlawed mask requirements in the state and threatened to withhold the salaries of superintendents and county school board members who issue them for students. As infections soar among children, some of the state’s biggest school districts vowed to flout the governor’s order.

    Kristi Noem, the governor of South Dakota, welcomed hundreds of thousands of people to the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally where no masks or vaccines are required, while Henry McMaster, the governor of South Carolina, declared: “Mandating masks is not the answer. Personal responsibility is the answer, common sense is the answer. And we have an abundance of both in South Carolina.”

    “…an abundance of both in South Carolina…” , you have gotta be kidding Henry. For one thing ‘common sense’ is a shibboleth used by those trying to mislead people. We have heard much from politicians about population common sense over here in the UK in the last couple of years, that it was a flawed concept was shown last year by the crowded beaches at e.g. Bournemouth. Much the same stupidity is on display at that Sturgis Motorcycle Rally mentioned above. That rally and its ilk across the US is also a great display of the ignorance about climate change too, wilful ignorance in many.

    These Republicans should be ashamed of themselves as they regress from being a nation of global leaders to a regressive mode of thinking akin to the Taliban in Afghanistan. Learning is bad, especially the wrong type of learning of science and humanities, of true history rather than over eulogised mythical versions. Note the attempted wiping out of American native history by Kristi Noem.

    See also the article pointed to in the left sidebar of the article linked above:

    While Delta spreads, Republicans deflect and resort to Trump demagoguery

    Reply

    1. The article shows a picture of Kristi Noem aboard her motorcycle at the Sturgis Rally. I can’t tell if it’s a Harley. Seems like it ought to be. But maybe she’s in the same pickle as the woman who sang this:

      I like Sportster Harleys, but I can hardly
      Get ’em to kick over for me.
      Guess I’ll settle for a small bike, won’t put up no big fight
      And just pretend that I’m free.

      She’s not wearing a mask. She IS wearing a helmet. Seems inconsistent.

  24. Tucker Carlson & Laura Ingraham can’t even get the pop-culture mythology right.

    Biden’s effort is also being undercut by prominent conservative media figures including the Fox News hosts Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham, who have challenged the safety and questioned the effectiveness of the vaccine, as well as online conspiracy theories that falsely suggest that it harms fertility, contains microchips or even creates vampires.

    Zombies, not vampires! We should turn Alice Abernathy loose on these two, and on the conspiracy theorists.

    Reply

  27. More on the “can you freakin’ believe this?” front: following on the history of their president suggesting that injecting or drinking bleach could deal with covid, fox news has been pushing the notion that a cow/horse de-worming drug can be used to treat covid — and some people are using it,

    The right wing has been occupied by racists, bigots, white supremacists, science deniers, and nazi supporters for some time: posters here have demonstrated that. It seems that after even after all that we haven’t begun to find the minimum IQ level for these people.

    Reply

    1. It seems that after even after all that we haven’t begun to find the minimum IQ level for these people.

      Well if they go on like this they could make themselves extinct.

    1. Michigan must be a strange state.

      I once exchanged Facebook posts with one from that state from having a shared interest in and experience of Royal Navy F4 Phantoms. I was on Ark Royal with 892 Squadron which had previously been on the USS Saratoga for a work up as Ark’s refit finish was running late. Indeed I joined Facebook because that was the only method of contact after USENET became unusable. We also had a shared interest in photography, he was a pro, I a keen amateur lucky enough to own two good SLRs back in those days, the other guy happened to have used similar and he even posted me a repair manual for one of these beasts. Come the advent of Trump I made some remarks which stepped on his toes. Turns out he was a Trump fanatic and unfriended me because he didn’t agree with my POVs.

  29. Re “Turns out he was a Trump fanatic and unfriended me because he didn’t agree with my POVs.”

    It seems that Trump has become a sort of worship-object and supporters are very much like other cultists. It is not surprising that Trump supporters feel that any denigration of him is akin to sacrilege or that all his utterances are akin to oracular.

    Reply

    1. And do you know what is the worst thing about these Trump fanatics? That they worship a deranged, malignant narcissist who, along with his party, are literally shafting them politically. Trump and his operatives dismantled or disabled one program and policy after another that benefited the young, the poor, and the environment. A large majority of the people who constitute part of his cult are ordinary working class Americans. The GOP prioritize the interests of the corporate elites. But they need these ordinary folk to gain power.

  30. “Michigan must be a strange state.”

    We’ve had infestations of militias for a long time. Terry Nichols, the guy who helped the Oklahoma City bomber was from our thumb area, and there is still a significant number of people there who view both of them as heroes.

    There’s also a large militia infestation starting just south of Muskegon and running north along the Lake Michigan side of the state. It’s quite unnerving having so many domestic terrorists roaming around.

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  31. Some democrats paid to do big pharma’s bidding are as bad as the GOPiban.

    The three conservative Democratic lawmakers threatening to kill their party’s drug pricing legislation have raked in roughly $1.6m of campaign cash from donors in the pharmaceutical and health products industries. One of the lawmakers is the House’s single largest recipient of pharmaceutical industry campaign cash this election cycle, and another lawmaker’s immediate past chief of staff is now lobbying for drugmakers.

    Guess what the three Democrats blocking lower medication prices have in common?

    Reply

  32. An old question is: Do pharmaceutical manufacturers spend more on marketing than on research? The answer appears to be yes.

    Here are three stories that bear this out. They date from 2021, 2016, and 2008 respectively.

    https://www.pharmacychecker.com/askpc/pharma-marketing-research-development/#!

    https://naturalsociety.com/research-development-new-drugs-not-paying-off-6321/

    https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080105140107.htm

    Lately I’ve been wondering if the ads for drugs we see on TV are a way to try and get more bang for their marketing buck.

    Reply

  33. Texas governor once again shows off his lack of a sense of right and wrong with his crazy veto.

    The governor of Texas has pulled a surprise move, vetoing a bipartisan bill that would have provided greater protections for dogs against human abuse.

    The Republican governor, Greg Abbott, vetoed a bill on Friday that would have made unlawful restraint of a dog a criminal offense, sending animal rights activists and legislators on both sides of the aisle into a fray and spurring the hashtag #AbbottHatesDogs.

    Texas governor vetoes bill protecting dogs from abuse

    The man ain’t right in the head.

    Reply

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