MTG

No, We Aren’t Better Than This & The Top Idiot Award


Just when you thought you had seen Marjorie Taylor Greene’s* most despicable demonstration of degeneracy, she somehow went even lower. In a House hearing she declared that only biological moms are real moms. To hell with you do-gooders who open your hearts and adopt or foster kids. You’re not real moms, according to Greene. Neither are the grandmas who raise their kids’ kids.

We’re officially on notice yet again that there is no bottom, no low below which the MAGA/Freedom Caucus/Trump cult won’t go. Their hatred knows no bounds.

John Lewis implored his fellow House members to a higher standard, saying, “We’re better than this.” I didn’t agree with Lewis then and I don’t agree with Randi Weingarten saying that same thing on Nicolle Wallace’s program last Friday. Note that Weingarten was present for Greene’s cruel “real moms” condemnation.

Lewis and Weingarten are wrong because if we were better than this nobody would be saying the dreadful things that Greene, Matt Gaetz, Ted Cruz, Jim Jordan and the rest say. They wouldn’t be denying safety to school children if we were better than this. Over 140 of them wouldn’t have tried to stop the peaceful transfer of power on January 6. They wouldn’t be playing Russian Roulette with our debt ceiling and our economy. Republican state legislators wouldn’t be perverting our states with anti-pandemic lies and allowing over a million people to die. They wouldn’t be stealing education from our children or stealing healthcare from women and demoting them to second class citizenship.

No, we’re not better than this. We are exactly this. We made our choice to be ruled by the heartless minority doing these wicked things. Some of us chose this affirmatively, some did it passively by not voting and some did it unwillingly as victims of voter suppression.

The old saying advises that if we always do what we’ve always done, we’ll always get what we always got. The cousin to that is Einstein’s definition of insanity: doing the same thing and expecting different results.

So, if we continue along our present “We aren’t better than this” trajectory, we will continue to fail to be better than this. But if we do something different, we will change everything.

We aren’t better than this now. But we could be.

The Top Idiot of Last Month Award

Tennessee’s savage practice of capital punishment is on hold due to the cruelty they’ve done via lethal injections. A brain-free solution for moving forward was offered in a committee session and was detailed on March 2 by WPLN News, 90.3FM, Nashville:

The Criminal Justice Committee, earlier this week, passed a measure to add alternative procedures for carrying out executions.

During the hearing, Republican Rep. Paul Sherrell, R-Sparta, suggested another option.

“Can I put an amendment on that that would include hanging by a tree also?” asked Sherrell.

What could be more American than bringing back lynching in the state where the Ku Klux Klan originated?

Consider that madness side-by-side with this hypothetical.

Imagine the convening of a council of the Native American tribes originally from the southeast of this nation, but forcibly moved west on Andrew Jackson’s** brutal Trail of Tears. Picture a council meeting, convened because they are out of patience with the Bureau of Indian Affairs and it is now clear to all that something dramatic must be done.

Imagine further that in an effort to find a path forward one of the council members were to propose a method tor motivating the BIA to do the right things. He would argue that they bring back the practice of some tribes of scalping White soldiers.

What do you suppose lynching proponent Rep. Paul Sherrell and the other Nashville Criminal Justice Committee legislators would say to that?

Rep. Paul Sherrell of Tennessee lynching fame gets our

Top Idiot of Last Month Award
.

That fits him perfectly, as last month he also voted to expel two legislators from the Tennessee House for the grievous offense of protesting for gun safety while Black.

Quote of the Week
  • “Antisemitism has skyrocketed on the @GOP‘s watch because they have tolerated, embraced, echoed & normalized dangerous extremists.”
  •  – Halie Soifer
  • Quote From the Way-Back Machine
  • “One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It is simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.”
  • –  Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
  • Treat yourself to this interview of Sagan, as well as his presentation in a Senate hearing in 1985 on climate warming.

______________________________________

* Even duct tape can’t fix stupid – but it sure does muffle the sound. (Thanks to MZ for that)

** That’s the same Andrew Jackson whose portrait Donald Trump hung on the wall near the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office. It replaced a painting of the arm and torch of the Statue of Liberty. Compare and contrast the meanings.

Today is a good day to be the light.

______________________________

  • Our governance and electoral corruption and dysfunction and our ongoing mass murders are all of a piece, all the same problem with the same solution:
  • Fire the bastards!
  • The days are dwindling for us to take action. Get up! Do something to make things better.

    Did someone forward this post to you? Welcome! Please subscribe – use the simple form above on the right. And pass this along to three others, encouraging them to subscribe, too. (IT’S A FREEBIE!) It’s going to take a lot of us to get the job done.

    And add your comments below to help us all to be better informed.

    Thanks!

    The Fine Print:

    1. Writings quoted or linked from my posts reflect a point I want to make, at least in part. That does not mean that I endorse or agree with everything in such writings.
    2. There are lots of smart, well-informed people. Sometimes we agree; sometimes we don’t. Search for others’ views and decide for yourself.
    3. Errors in fact, grammar, spelling and punctuation are all embarrassingly mine. Glad to have your corrections.
    4. Responsibility for the content of these posts is unequivocally, totally, unavoidably mine.
    5. Book links to Amazon are provided for reference only. Please purchase your books through your local mom & pop bookstore. Keep them and your town or neighborhood vibrant.

    JA


Copyright 2024 by Jack Altschuler
Reproduction and sharing are encouraged, providing proper attribution is given.

SOTU


This was absolutely the best SOTU I’ve seen in terms of both content and style, with strong persuasion value for independents and undecideds. They’re some of the people who will decide the next elections.

I especially loved Biden’s rope-a-dope over Social Security and Medicare. He suckered in the liars/haters/cheaters and showed them to be the dopes who want to end or privatize those enormously popular programs, a move that would infuriate tens of millions of Americans who were watching at that moment.

Biden said,

“Instead of making the wealthy pay their fair share, some Republicans, some Republicans, want Medicare and Social Security to sunset. I’m not saying it’s the majority.”

“Hi, I’m Marjorie and I’m a rude, mean girl. I yelled,’You lie!’ at the SOTU. I sure showed that Biden guy who’s the smart one.”

That’s when the Republican congressional temper tantrum started.

Biden continued,

“Let me give you — anybody who doubts it, contact my office. I’ll give you a copy — I’ll give you a copy of the proposal.”

The proposal to sunset all government programs, including Social Security and Medicare, was written by the former chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, Rick Scott (R-FL),* who somehow, in an act of desperation, denies his own proposal. The crazies knew of that proposal and others even more draconian, but still they booed. They yelled, “Liar!” They were apoplectic. They snarled in anger. They were extremists being extremists.

“You know, it means if Congress doesn’t keep the programs the way they are, they go away.

“Other Republicans say — I’m not saying it’s a majority of you, I don’t even think it’s even a significant — but it’s being proposed by individuals. I’m not — politely not naming them, but it’s being proposed by some of you.

More jeering and heckling.

“Look, folks, the idea is that we’re not going to be — we’re not going to be moved into being threatened to default on the debt if we don’t respond.”

That’s when the apoplectics began to quiet, because they knew they were angering millions of Americans by threatening to default on US debt obligations and not pay our bills. And they couldn’t afford to be seen as the Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid enemies that they really are.

“Folks — so folks, as we all apparently agree, Social Security and Medicare is off the books now, right?” Cheering. “They’re not to be — all right. We’ve got unanimity.”

“Social Security and Medicare are a lifeline for millions of seniors. Americans have to pay into them from the very first paycheck they started.

“So tonight, let’s all agree — and we apparently are — let’s stand up for seniors. Stand up and show them we will not cut Social Security. We will not cut Medicare.”

And everybody stood and applauded! Even the crazies!

“Those benefits belong to the American people. They earned it.”

Rope-a-dope. Genius execution by Biden.

The extremists had displayed themselves to be exactly what they are – rude horribles unmindful of the needs of the American people – and McCarthy looked weak, ineffective and powerless. This was a clear demonstration of truth. The entire event is one of the most lopsided contests I’ve seen.

“Hi. I’m Sarah and I lie. You can tell, because I’m talking.

Nearly as good, Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders delivered the Republican rebuttal with true-to-form dexterity of dystopia speak. She extended her lying streak and sounded both wooden and stupid. She was almost as good a promoter of Democrats as Biden.

She got one thing right, saying, “The dividing line in America is no longer between right or left. The choice is between normal or crazy.” She just doesn’t get that it’s she and the Republican extremists who are the crazy ones.

Sanders spoke to the 11% of voters who are hair-on-fire types, living in the Cave Of Crazy. But she was, I believe, off-putting at best to everyone else. Let’s hope she’s very visible for the next two years.

This SOTU address was a brilliant display of Biden as warrior and Republicans as fools. The energy he marshaled for his presentation is what has largely been missing from many of his prior presentations and likely what has driven his low approval ratings. Those low numbers certainly are not about his programs or policies, as those are extremely popular.

There’s more that gets in the way of progress, like ineffective DNC communication and frequent failure of Democrats to smack down the Republican liars, haters and cowards. But energy – especially from an 80 year old man whose age augers against his continuing in office past 2024 – is what Biden needs to display every time he’s behind a microphone.

Great kudos to Biden’s masterful speech writers and to his 2 weeks of preparation. Both paid off. And kudos, too, to Sarah Huckabee Sanders, lifelong liar, mean girl and new promoter of Democrats.

This was a good night for truth, justice and the American Way. Cue music and waving cape.
.
From the “You’re Not Going To Believe This” File

You’re Not Going To Believe This #1

When I had stopped shaking my head in disbelief, it became clear that you need to know that this goes on.

“Only in Mississippi”: White representatives vote to create White-appointed court system for Blackest city in U.S.
A White supermajority of the Mississippi House voted after an intense, four-plus hour debate to create a separate court system and expanded police force within the city of Jackson — the Blackest city in America — that would be appointed completely by White state officials.

Read in Mississippi Today: https://apple.news/A99E_dva5SleoMi7OnGEJ9w.

Believe it or not, it’s worse than this already looks. Thanks to JN for pointing this out

Yet, this isn’t an “Only in Mississippi” story. This is akin to former White Republican Gov. Rick Snyder of Michigan who, by the powers granted to him by his rights-revoking White Republican legislature, sent a state appointed White city manager to Flint, essentially dissolving all of its city government. That guy eventually poisoned 6,000 – 12,000 Black kids in the city with lead from a changed water supply, a “human made public health crisis.”

Just another White guy imposing cruelty on Blacks.

You’re Not Going To Believe This #2:

Click me

Rollan Roberts II of West Virginia announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination for the presidency last month. He has no governmental experience, but he invokes God and vomits platitudes with the best of them.

More important was his announcement speech, where his pregnant wife fainted, or perhaps collapsed from something far worse. The point is his non-reaction to her being sprawled unconscious on the floor. Watch the video and notice how fast others go to aid her and how long this idiot stood at the podium in glorious self-importance.

Is this really the kind of person Republicans want in the White House?

_____________________________

* You can read Sen. Scott’s 12 Point Plan to Rescue America for yourself and I encourage you to do so. In spite of his denial about attacking Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, he declares,
.
“All federal legislation sunsets in 5 years. If a law is worth keeping, Congress can pass it again.”
.
That’s in his point #6, seventh statement on page 36. If we were to follow his imperative, everything will go away absent a congressional vote to continue. That includes Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid – everything. Never mind the pragmatics of Congress actually being able to handle such a challenge.
.

Scott’s screed is a tour de force of absolutism, pandering and dishonesty and should be celebrated for the idiocy that it is and for his using half-sense as an art form. It will play well to the far right extremists.

You don’t suppose Rick Scott intends to run for president, do you?

_____________________________

Look for a special Valentine’s Day post on Tuesday.

______________________________

  • Our governance and electoral corruption and dysfunction and our ongoing mass murders are all of a piece, all the same problem with the same solution:
  • Fire the bastards!
  • The days are dwindling for us to take action. Get up! Do something to make things better.


    Did someone forward this post to you? Welcome! Please subscribe – use the simple form above on the right. And pass this along to three others, encouraging them to subscribe, too. (IT’S A FREEBIE!) It’s going to take a lot of us to get the job done.

    And add your comments below to help us all to be better informed.

    Thanks!

    The Fine Print:

    1. Writings quoted or linked from my posts reflect a point I want to make, at least in part. That does not mean that I endorse or agree with everything in such writings, so don’t bug me about it.
    2. There are lots of smart, well-informed people. Sometimes we agree; sometimes we don’t. Search for others’ views and decide for yourself.
    3. Errors in fact, grammar, spelling and punctuation are all embarrassingly mine. Glad to have your corrections.
    4. Responsibility for the content of these posts is unequivocally, totally, unavoidably mine.
    5. Book links to Amazon are provided for reference only. Please purchase your books through your local mom & pop bookstore. Keep them and your town or neighborhood vibrant.

    JA


Copyright 2024 by Jack Altschuler
Reproduction and sharing are encouraged, providing proper attribution is given.

Numbers, Masks, Injustice & MTG


Numbers

This is scary.

There are roughly 331 million citizens in the United States, of whom 258 million are adults (identified at least by age, if not by behavior). Only 168 million adults are registered voters. The other 90 million adults either haven’t bothered to register, they’re ineligible to vote, like convicted felons in some states, or they have been removed from voter roles through black hearted partisan purgings.

Currently, 47% of adults claim to be Republican or Republican leaning. 47% of our 258 million adults equals 121 million Americans who identify as Republican or Republican leaning. But here is where the numbers become frightening.

Rachel Gutman of The Atlantic Daily reported about those 121 million Americans that,

“Sixty-eight percent of Republicans do not believe that the 2020 election was free and fair, but few can explain exactly why. “I can’t really put my finger on it, but something just doesn’t feel right,” one Donald Trump voter told Sarah Longwell.”

Applying that data, 68% of 121 million self-identifying Republican Americans equals over 82 million Americans, or 32% of all American adults, who believe The Big Lie even in the complete absence of facts, data or evidence to so much as suggest that fraud took place.

Clearly, for these 82 million Americans accusations alone have superseded the need for the presentation of evidence. No proof is necessary for them to pronounce judgment and sentencing. Let me focus that a bit better:

One-third of American adults “can’t put their finger on it” and have absolutely no evidence for it, but they believe outrageous, completely unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud!

Plus, 57% of Republicans (about 69 million Americans) say that the January 6 insurrection was “patriotism,” not a crime.

I warned you that this is scary.

Unmasked

Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle decided last week that the CDC was just too mean and had overstepped the limitations of a 1944 law that allowed it to create limitations on Americans to keep them from killing one another with disease. Apparently, she felt that interfering with Americans’ right to infect one another was an abridgement of freedom too far. So, thanks to her nationwide quash of the regulation, we may Covid-slay one another at will.

We have two problems. The first is this 34-year-old judge nominated by Trump.

Before her Senate confirmation she was found Not Qualified to be a federal judge by the American Bar Association due to her lack of experience. That was no impediment for Mitch McConnell and she was rammed through the Senate. Before assuming the bench for a lifetime appointment, Judge Mizelle had driven past a courtroom once or twice, but had  never been in one.

Now, without hearing even a single syllable of oral argument about the mask mandate (i.e. without actually trying the case), she’s made a decision that reverses this CDC regulation nationally. I guess her Trump appointment makes her smarter than all the doctors, scientists, legislators and lawyers. Her finding is likely to have huge consequences, as our case and death counts continue to rise and new variants of Covid are wreaking havoc.

The second problem we have is that we’re Americans, which means we’re little cry babies and we want what we want when we want it. If things don’t work to our satisfaction quickly, somebody has wronged us, we’re poor little victims, and somebody – anybody – has to pay big time. For example, “Make those pedophile, weenie-hearted Democrats suffer for the burdens imposed by their socialist CDC!”

But still, will we sacrifice a little comfort for the sake of the our nation, for the well being of our fellow citizens? Don’t get me started. Oh, wait: I’m already started.

Authoritarian Moment

“Despots go after the press first. They seek to poison the discourse and the way we relate to each other because they can’t stand people coming together around a shared sense of the truth—it’s a huge threat to them.”   –  Monika Bauerlein, CEO, Mother Jones

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” – MLK, 1963

Here’s Malcolm Nance from Ukraine. “I’m done talking. It’s time to take action here.”

I’m from the Internet and on some weekends I play fake soldier.

 

Something tells me that all the militia tough guys, the internet testosterone trolls and the badass guys with AR-15s strutting through their local Starbucks and threatening kids carrying posters at protests aren’t in Ukraine with Nance.

So, to all the camo wearing, shaved head burly boys: You whine about your rights; you wail about government stealing your god-given freedom; you bellow about your liberty. But when it’s actually on the line, when children and grandmothers (“babushkas”) are being murdered and cities are being leveled and people need help to keep their freedom, you’re AWOL. You’re nowhere to be seen when someone is shooting back.

In your next tough guy selfie video, please explain what that makes you.

The MTG Mental Infirmity

Click me

Last Friday Marjorie Taylor Greene testified in court, under oath, about her encouragement and participation in the preparation for the January 6 insurrection that was designed to upend our democracy. She responded to questions about what she had said and done, repeatedly claiming some version of, “I don’t remember.” That was a fine ploy to prevent her from committing perjury, but hardly believable, as she had spent years advocating for conspiracy theories, disrespecting the Constitution and encouraging sedition.

But with all her convenient loss of memory, perhaps she is rightly worried about her mental decline and loss of recollection. No worries, because we can provide comfort to her with this simple reassurance:

Marjorie, we understand your cunning testimony about not remembering those unpatriotic things you’ve said and done, but don’t fret. You can check with us any time, because we remember quite well what you’ve done.

And Finally, for Florida Gov. DeSantis
.

Click me for the story from The Onion

————————————

The days are dwindling for us to take action. Get up! Do something to make things better.

Did someone forward this to you? Welcome! Please subscribe – use the simple form above on the right. And pass this along to three others, encouraging them to subscribe, too. (IT’S A FREEBIE!)

And add your comments below to help us all to be better informed.

Thanks!

The Fine Print:

  1. Writings quoted or linked from my posts reflect a point I want to make, at least in part. That does not mean that I endorse or agree with everything in such writings, so don’t bug me about it.
  2. There are lots of smart, well-informed people. Sometimes we agree; sometimes we don’t. Search for others’ views and decide for yourself.
  3. Errors in fact, grammar, spelling and punctuation are all embarrassingly mine. Glad to have your corrections.
  4. Responsibility for the content of these posts is unequivocally, totally, unavoidably mine.
  5. Book links to Amazon are provided for reference only. Please purchase your books through your local mom & pop bookstore. Keep them and your town vibrant.

JA

 


Copyright 2024 by Jack Altschuler
Reproduction and sharing are encouraged, providing proper attribution is given.

 Scroll to top