Top 10 Conservative Idiots #12-2: Orlando Nazis? I Hate Orlando Nazis Edition

[Top 10 Idiots]

Top 10 Conservative Idiots #12-2: Orlando Nazis? I Hate Orlando Nazis Edition

Welcome back to the Top 10 Conservative Idiots! Yo what’s up Salt Lake City? How you guys doing? You doing fucking good? Great! Glad you decided to brave the Omicron variant to listen to my bullshit! But that said this is our second Top 10 of 2022 and we’re still glad that the tour is going on and we’re not confined to the green room of a Burbank comedy club. Well, that aside we’re ready to bring you some unfiltered comedy and commentary on all the batshit crazy stuff in the world. Do we have time for the thing? Of course we do! So normally this would be a People Are Dumb story but I have to talk about this one this week. Golden Corral – you know them of course as the restaurant equivalent of eating directly out of the trough, was in the news this week because a literal food fight broke out at the Golden Corral at Bensalem, PA. And you know me, I love a good fast food rage story. Give me a story about someone burning down a McDonalds because they ran out of chicken nuggets and I’m in! So this particular Golden Corral ran out of steak. To me that begs the question – who the fuck goes to Golden Corral for steak? We’re not exactly talking about a 5 star product here. We’re talking about something that’s probably been overcooked and swimming in grease. That is not steak. But anyway can we show the footage from that?

Oh wait that was Animal House. But I wouldn’t be surprised if Bluto was there actually. OK enough of the intro, we have a lot of idiocy to get to. But first Stephen Colbert discusses Dr. Oz’s senate candidacy:

So where do we begin this week? Well the number one slot this week goes to Spotify (1). I don’t know if you’ve been following the whole Spotify Vs Neil Young vs Joe Rogan feud, but it’s the stuff of insanity and we’re extremely disappointed that Spotify has chosen to stick with Joe Rogan. In the second slot this week is American Nazis (2). Yes, there are fucking literal Nazis on American soil and it’s not just limited to those idiots in Florida, either. They’re real and they are scary! Taking the 3rd slot this week is Canadian Anti-vaxxers (3). Yes, there is a new trend of truckers fucking up the grid in Ottawa and it’s all to protest vaccine mandates. Of course they won’t win and are fighting a losing battle, but who cares? They want their freedoms!!! Taking the fourth slot this week is Vladimir Putin. Yes, Putin is eyeing at expanding his real estate, and the entire world is taking notice, but if he teams up with China, this whole thing could be absolutely disastrous! In the number 5 slot this week is Fox News (5). And we are going to tell you how conservatives are very predictably reacting to the retirement announcement of Justice Stephen Breyer. And if you can guess it’s filled with violent fantasies, lies, and conspiracy theories, you are right! Taking the number 6 slot this week is of course our weekly visit to the Holy Church Of The Top 10 in “Holy Shit” and this week our resident pastor has a recap of all the anti-abortion madness and insanity that went down at the annual March For Life, and there was some next level crazy there! In the 7th slot this week we have a new edition of “People Who Somehow Got Elected” (7) and this week after attempting to pick a fight with actress Bette Midler, we add West Virginia governor Jim Justice to that ever growing list. In the number 8 slot this week we have a new edition of Conspiracy Corner (8), and this week we’re going to go down the rabbit hole on some of Tucker Carlson’s more racist claims that he’s making on his show, and let me tell you – it’s going to get real dark real quick! In the number 9 (NEIN!!!) seed this week, we have a new “I Need A Drink” (9) and this week – there’s two blockbuster video game mergers – Microsoft bought Activision and Sony bought Bungie, but can Microsoft handle Activision’s frat boy culture and their numerous abuse claims? We need a few drinks to sort this madness! Finally this week we have a new edition of our ongoing post-election survey of the MAGA cult in “Red State Diaries” (10) and this week we’re going to tell you what’s going on in Florida and their insane new surgeon general. Let’s put it this way – he’s more like Dr. Spaceman than Dr. Fauci. Plus we have some live music from The Used! Enjoy! And as always don’t forget the key!

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[font size="8"]Joe Rogan
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Unfortunately the COVID-19 pandemic is still very much a thing and is still having an iron grip on societal restrictions as we know them. It’s been two years! And it’s been one year since the vaccine was made publicly available to the entire world! Yet, social media is convincing people in large numbers not to take it, because quack cures like ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine are better (they aren’t). It’s also managed to convince the uber-religious that the mark that the vaccine leaves on your arm is the mark of the beast (it isn’t). And then there’s one person who’s clearly not helping things is Joe Rogan, who commands a podcast that has millions of listeners every day. We called out Mr. Rogan for this madness in Idiots #10-13. But he hasn’t changed since then and is actively making things worse. Not to mention that he’s taking the usual conservative route and attempting to paint himself as the victim of a smear campaign against him (also not happening). But that said it’s set off a firestorm of controversy directed at his employer, Spotify.

Neil Young vs Joe Rogan seems like the strangest of cultural clashes.

Yet the 76-year-old rock star's protest over coronavirus-related content on Rogan's popular Spotify podcast has ignited a hot debate over misinformation and free speech, bruising a streaming service that has become the central way that millions of people around the world experience music.

“Rockin' in the Free World”? Not on Spotify. Not anymore. Here's what's going on.

WHY IS YOUNG UPSET?

His protest came after dozens of doctors and scientists wrote an open letter to Spotify, complaining about Rogan's decision to have a podcast discussion with Dr. Robert Malone, an infectious disease specialist who has been banned from Twitter for spreading misinformation on COVID-19. Malone has become a hero in the anti-vaccination community.

Saying Spotify was complicit in spreading misinformation, Young told the company that it could have his music or Rogan's podcast — “not both.” Spotify agreed to remove his music from the service.
https://www.usnews.com/news/business/articles/2022-01-31/explainer-what-will-neil-youngs-protest-mean-for-spotify

Really? And we don’t need to call out the fact that we could have seen this coming after Rogan talked shit about vaccines because he took ivermectin, which we already did. We also don’t need to point out that ivermectin is a medication that rids large animals of parasites and is not meant for human consumption because it causes the blowout of your intestinal linings. Oh wait, we also did that. But where I’m going with this is that Joe Rogan needs to be held accountable for the things he says. His bullshit stinks and it’s getting a lot of people killed in the process.

Spotify is in the process of removing Neil Young’s music two days after Young posted a letter on his website demanding that his catalogue be removed in response to the “fake information about vaccines” on the platform. “We want all the world’s music and audio content to be available to Spotify users. With that comes great responsibility in balancing both safety for listeners and freedom for creators,” a Spotify spokesman told The Washington Post in a statement.

“We have detailed content policies in place and we’ve removed over 20,000 podcast episodes related to covid-19 since the start of the pandemic. We regret Neil’s decision to remove his music from Spotify, but hope to welcome him back soon.” Young’s letter, which has since been deleted, was addressed to his manager and an executive at his record label and cited Joe Rogan by name as part of his issue with Spotify.

“I am doing this because Spotify is spreading fake information about vaccines — potentially causing death to those who believe the disinformation being spread by them,” he wrote in the letter, according to Rolling Stone. “Please act on this immediately today and keep me informed of the time schedule.”

“I want you to let Spotify know immediately TODAY that I want all my music off their platform,” the letter continued. “They can have Rogan or Young. Not both.” Representatives for Young have not yet responded to The Post’s request for comment. Rogan, who hosts one of the most popular podcasts on the platform, has repeatedly spread misinformation about the coronavirus vaccines. In April, for example, he came under fire for suggesting healthy, young people shouldn’t get vaccinated.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2022/01/26/neil-young-spotify-joe-rogan/

Yeah so it’s unfortunate that all Spotify cares about is the almighty dollar and instead of getting Joe Rogan to do the right thing, they have instead decided to stick to their boy Joe instead of listening to Neil. Oh and by the way Spotify – actions do have consequences. Because that little stunt that Joe pulled on his podcast? Well it’s costing you to the tune of $4 billion dollars. That’s right – I said $4 BILLION with a B. Like it’s the entire GDP of a small country. All because Joe decided that he was against getting the vaccine. You know what you should do? Get the vaccine.

Spotify lost $4 billion in market value this week after rock icon Neil Young called out the company for allowing comedian Joe Rogan to use its service to spread misinformation about the COVID vaccine on his popular podcast, “The Joe Rogan Experience.”

At the end of the day Friday, Jan. 28, shares of Spotify were down about 12% from where they closed last week, according to data from Nasdaq, against a broader index that was flat over the same period. The hashtags #DeleteSpotify and #CancelSpotify also gained traction on social media, with many websites offering step-by-step instructions for users to remove the app from their devices.

Spotify took down nearly all of Young’s music on Wednesday, Jan. 26, two days after the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame musician reportedly issued the streaming service an ultimatum via his management and record company: “They can have Rogan or Young. Not both.”

The controversy erupted after Rogan featured Dr. Robert Malone on his podcast last month. Malone has been banned from Twitter for spreading misinformation, but has become a hero in the anti-vaccine community for falsely suggesting that millions of people had been hypnotized into believing that the vaccines work to prevent serious disease.
https://datebook.sfchronicle.com/music/spotify-loses-4-billion-in-market-value-following-neil-young-controversy

Oh and by the way I’m not even going to get into the absolute plethora of artists who have decided to drop Spotify after Neil Young gave them the heave ho. That includes musicians like India.Arie, Failure, and Springsteen partner Nils Lofgren. Even Neil Young’s former band CSNY reunited to tell Spotify where they can stick it. The bad thing is that Joe Rogan really stepped into it deep and it’s going to take a lot to get out of this mess. Well the bad thing is that while Joe is willing to listen to both sides, the damage has been done. Unfortunately the damage does work both ways because leaving a service like Spotify isn’t exactly an easy decision.

The podcast, which is hosted by comedian Joe Rogan, had been accused by medical professionals of spreading Covid misinformation, and as a result, both Neil Young and Joni Mitchell had pulled their respective libraries of songs from Spotify.

After last week's negative backlash, Joe Rogan also took to social media platform Instagram on Sunday, where in a nearly 10-minute long video he explained that he is open to changes in the show, and will work to book more mainstream health experts.

That video has been seen more than five million times.

Rogan also apologized to both Young and Mitchell, and further praised Spotify for its decision to add content advisories to any material that mentions Covid-19.

"I want to thank Spotify for being so supportive during this time and I'm very sorry that this is happening to them and that they're taking so much heat from it," said Rogan.

"I'm not trying to promote misinformation, I'm not trying to be controversial," added Rogan. "I've never tried to do anything with this podcast other than to just talk to people."
https://www.forbes.com/sites/petersuciu/2022/01/31/spotify-wont-pull-joe-rogan--but-comedian-open-to-change-and-even-issued-apology-to-neil-young/?sh=1fb0b3005c2e

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[font size="8"]American Nazis
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You know that old saying that those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it? Well let’s consider the fact that there’s literal Nazis on American soil. How was this allowed to happen? In all seriousness, I was taught in history classes that the Nazis were bad and evil people. They murdered 3 million Jewish people. Add that to the fact that there’s a Tennessee school board that banned a book about the holocaust (see: previous entry) and we’re living in a country that is about to do some really evil shit. Let’s face it – conservatives are both evil and stupid. That led to white supremacists taking over school boards. That led to a rise in white supremacy and neo Nazism. So what’s their end game? Are they going to finish what Hitler started? And where’s Jake and Elwood when you need them. Let’s take a look at what happened in Orlando. And if you think I’m kidding about Nazis being on American soil, well I will say the door is that way!

Participants at a neo-Nazi rally in Orlando, Florida, on Saturday waved Nazi flags and shouted antisemitic and anti-Black slogans, according to the NGO StopAntisemitism.org.

The rally was organized by the National Socialist Movement (NSM) and was live-streamed on the American Nazi Party’s website.

The live-stream archive was not currently working on the website, but participants chanted, “The Jew is the devil” and “Jews rape children and drink their blood,” StopAntisemitism.org said.

NSM plans to hold other events, including on April 23 in Washington State, a convention of its national chapters and a public protest.

On January 12, NSM said it had opened its own live-streaming capabilities after losing access to the use of BlogTalk Radio, which it blamed on “the Jew.” The platform is still rife with errors, which the webmaster blamed on visitors.
https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/antisemitism/article-694960

Yeah seriously, where is Jake and Elwood when you need them? Orlando Nazis? I hate Orlando Nazis! I guess though, in all fairness I hate all Nazis regardless of location. I mean come on, like I said I grew up being taught that the Nazis were the bad guy! Same with Russia! But now we have actual fucking Nazis on American soil holding protests above freeway overpasses… well that can’t end well for anybody, can it? And of course our old buddy, the king of Florida Men himself, Ron DeSantis, certainly isn’t helping things!

Gov. Ron DeSantis accused Democrats Monday of trying to "smear" him over how his administration's responded to a neo-Nazi demonstration in Orlando over the weekend.

Republican leaders across Florida condemned the neo-Nazi rally, with U.S. Sen. Rick Scott tweeting Sunday that "the hateful & anti-Semitic demonstrations reported in Florida today have no place in our state."

But DeSantis didn't weigh in until asked about it during a press conference Monday afternoon in Palm Beach County, and the governor's press secretary drew attention for a tweet that questioned whether the incident was staged.

"Do we even know they're Nazis?" said DeSantis spokeswoman Christina Pushaw in a tweet that later was deleted. "Or is this a stunt like the 'white nationalists' who crashed the (Virginia Gov. Glenn) Youngkin rally in Charlottesville and turned out to be Dem staffers? I trust Florida law enforcement to investigate and am awaiting their conclusions."
https://www.heraldtribune.com/story/news/politics/2022/01/31/gov-ron-desantis-and-press-secretary-christina-pushaw-over-nazi-rally-response/9293703002/

Oh and by the way before I go any further this happened:



Excuse me a minute… OK. OK. These guys are idiots. But you know who’s even more of an idiot? Let’s go to Tennessee for this story. Yes they are related because I’m sure you heard about this story when it lit up your social media feeds. There was a school board in Tennessee that voted a whopping 10 – 0 to ban a book about the holocaust. Yeah. What year is this? Is this the year 2022 or the year 1939? Nazism isn’t cool guys. And let’s face it, the country that starts banning books is about to do something really terrible and it’s not going to be good.

A Tennessee school board has voted to remove the Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel “Maus” from an eighth grade language arts curriculum due to concerns about profanity and an image of female nudity in its depiction of Polish Jews who survived the Holocaust.

The Jan. 10 vote by the McMinn County School Board, which only began attracting attention Wednesday, comes amid a number of battles in school systems around the country as conservatives target curriculums over teachings about the history of slavery and racism in America.

“I’m kind of baffled by this,” Art Spiegelman, the author of “Maus,” told CNBC in an interview about the unanimous vote by the McMinn board to bar the book, which is about his parents, from continuing to be used in the curriculum.

“It’s leaving me with my jaw open, like, ‘What?’” said Spiegelman, 73, who only learned of the ban after it was the subject of a tweet Wednesday – a day before International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/01/26/tennessee-school-board-bans-holocaust-comic-maus-by-art-spiegelman.html

Yeah seriously, where are those two guys when you need them? But there is some good news, despite the fact that a small portion of Americans have gone completely insane and been flipped to the side of being fucking Nazis, the fact that Maus has been banned from this TN school district has people flocking to read it! Which is good news. Because again I keep saying, those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it!

The Pulitzer prize-winning Holocaust graphic novel Maus: A Survivor’s Tale has become a bestseller on Amazon, after a Tennessee school board banned it.

Last week, according to meeting minutes, 10 school board members in McMinn county agreed to remove Maus from the eighth-grade curriculum, citing “rough, objectionable language” and sketches of naked women they deemed unsuitable for 13-year-old students.

By the American cartoonist Art Spiegelman and first published in 1986, Maus describes the experiences of Spiegelman’s parents in Nazi concentration camps and his mother’s suicide. The book depicts Jewish people as mice and Nazis as cats.

“We don’t need to enable or somewhat promote this stuff,” McMinn county board member Tony Allman said, adding in reference to the murder of 6 million Jewish people in the second world war: “I am not denying it was horrible, brutal and cruel.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jan/31/holocaust-novel-maus-bestseller-after-tennessee-school-ban

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[font size="8"]Canadian Trucker Protests
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Excuse me if I use too much profanity in this entry but I feel that I must. That said, I really give up sometimes. But allow me to say this: Look everyone, we need to get our fucking shit together! It’s been two damn years since COVID was declared a worldwide pandemic. Shit, everyone is bored. Everyone is tired of the restrictions on every day life. We’re all pissed at the way this virus is affecting us and all of its’ mutations. We’re tired of all of this shit. But there’s one thing we really need to address here. Canada, what the fuck are you doing? You are supposed to be better than Americans at this shit. And why are you importing our bullshit like Alex Jones and Tucker Carlson? Let’s keep the Infowarriors confined to the US, OK? So yeah I’m rambling a bit, only because witnessing what went down in Ottawa from across the border really made me pissed off about this. I’ll say that I really hate anti-vaxxers especially after they pull shit like this. Apparently we’re at the “destroying property and flinging feces” phase of the pandemic.

What started as a convoy of truckers protesting Covid-19 mandates has snowballed into a blockade in the Canadian capital and the obstruction of a US-Canadian border crossing.

Some protesters pressured staff at a homeless shelter to give them food, the facility said.

And criminal investigations are underway after the alleged "desecration" of monuments during weekend protests that spilled into Monday.

The protests stemmed from the "Freedom Convoy" of truckers that traveled across Canada for several days before arriving in the capital city of Ottawa on Saturday. The drivers oppose a recent vaccine mandate requiring truckers entering Canada to be fully vaccinated or face testing and quarantine requirements.

Downtown Ottawa remained packed with rigs and cars Monday morning as protesters rallied against Covid-19 mandates and some legislators were set to return to Parliament Hill.
https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/31/americas/canada-covid-19-vaccine-mandate-trucker-protests/index.html

Well there is some good news in this at least is that Canada’s not screwing around with this shit, because they also have competent leaders. It’s understandable where the truckers are coming from – nobody wants to have to quarantine anymore and this is getting totally ridiculous. Especially since we’re in a wave that seems to be affecting everyone. But when you state your claim with violence and poop throwing that’s where you ceased being called civilized humans. Hell even monkeys in cages at the zoo behave better than this.

)The demonstration is tied to the ongoing nationwide "Freedom Convoy" protests over Canada's new restrictions on unvaccinated cross-border truckers.

Some motorists and local residents have reportedly been stuck in standstill since the protest began on Saturday.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Alberta said the event was "unlawful".

They said "extensive efforts" to negotiate with protest organisers had failed and the force has tapped "additional resources" to make arrests or tow trucks if needed.

"While we thought we had a path to resolve this, the protesters chose not to comply," a statement said.

The Freedom Convoy began as a call to end a federal vaccine mandate that would require unvaccinated Canadian truckers returning from across the US border to quarantine and get tested once they are home.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-60218354

Yeah so here’s the thing guys, two years is a long time to not have a properly functioning society, and you know what? There’s one way out of this mess. Take the fucking vaccine! That’s all! Don’t listen to the anti-vaccine morons on Facebook! And no one especially wants to bring a virus this contagious across the border, that won’t end well for anybody, especially as we have seen with the current variant. But protesting with violence and the added bonus of urine and poop in the mix, well, you’re not exactly helping to advance your cause. Also don’t listen to Elon Musk, either.

In a scene at odds with Canadians’ reputation for niceness and rule-following, thousands of protesters railing against vaccine mandates and other COVID-19 restrictions descended on the capital over the weekend, deliberately blocking traffic around Parliament Hill.

Some urinated and parked on the National War Memorial. One danced on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. A number carried signs and flags with swastikas.

In the aftermath of Canada’s biggest pandemic protest to date, the demonstrators have found little sympathy in a country where more than 80 percent are vaccinated. Many people were outraged by some of the crude behavior.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called the Ottawa protesters a “fringe minority” and said they reflected the proliferation of “disinformation and misinformation online, conspiracy theorists, about microchips, about God knows what else that go with the tinfoil hats.”
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/swastikas-and-public-urination-anti-vaccine-protest-draws-outrage-in-canada

Oh and by the way you want to see how far meme propaganda can go? Take that Simpsons episode I just played a clip from. That episode is called “Maximum Homerdrive” – season 10 episode 17. The truckers who are involved in the protests are using this episode to say that it helps prove their cause that they should be doing this. Well guess what? It didn’t. And these so-called patriots should know where they can take this crap and shove it by now. But in all seriousness guys, grow up. Take the damn vaccine and learn to live in a civilized society again. Until that happens – shut the fuck up.

Posts claiming that the animated series The Simpsons predicted the 2022 Freedom Convoys conducted by Canadian truck drivers are misleading. Claims feature an edited clip from two separate and unrelated episodes of the show.

A post from Facebook, seen (here) shows a clip of the show with the text caption: “The Simpsons-1999.” Additional miscaptioned videos from Facebook are reviewable (here) and (here).

The video depicts Homer and Bart Simpson driving down a highway in an 18-wheeler when Homer notices a convoy of semi-trucks approaching in one of the truck’s rear-view mirrors. In the next scene, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau scurries out of an open window walking on two hands as trucks approach the building.

Contrary to social media claims, the video clip is not a 1999 prediction of the 2022 Freedom Convoy but is the edited combination of footage from two separate episodes of the show.

The footage of Homer and Bart is from the 1999 episode, “Maximum Homerdrive” (here). The season 10, episode 17 story features Homer and Bart going on a cross-country delivery as truck drivers (here). The second clip which features an animated version of Trudeau having a Skype conversation with Lisa Simpson can be seen in the 2020-episode, “D’Oh Canada.” The original show aired on April 28, 2019, not 1999, as suggested by some users (here), (here).
https://www.reuters.com/article/factcheck-the-simpsons-freedom-convoy/fact-check-the-simpsons-did-not-predict-2022-canada-freedom-convoy-idUSL1N2UB2WA

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[font size="8"]Vladimir Putin
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Putin may be doing a great job of turning Americans against each other through the power of social media propaganda, but he certainly isn’t doing a good job of keeping the world’s eyes off of him as he is looking to invade the Ukranian border. But he’s definitely playing a game of 4D or 6D or whatever number of Ds you can add to a game of chess. I don’t know how many they are up to now, I don’t speak stupid! So the question on the table is – could Russia’s glorious authoritarian fascist dictator Vladimir Putin invade the Ukraine and start World War III? Well the road to World War II wasn’t exactly Hitler invading Poland. It was a long, slow build that led up to that! What’s happening right now in the road to the Ukraine invasion is more like a cold one than a hot one. We have a long way to go before we even think about sending in the fighter jets. What’s Putin’s latest move? It’s complicated to say the least.

Many former Soviet states like Ukraine are making progress against corruption. Russia is not. Is clean governance a threat to the Kremlin?

Russian troops are poised to invade Ukraine and yet many experts disagree on why. Does President Vladimir Putin want to restore the Russian Empire? Prevent Ukraine from joining NATO? Split Europe from the United States?

Well, now add another theory to the mix. Based on a new report from corruption watchdog Transparency International, seven countries in the former Soviet Union – from Estonia to Uzbekistan – have made significant reforms toward honest and clean governance in the last few years. Not so in Mr. Putin’s Russia. In the report’s ranking of countries on perceptions of corruption, Russia’s score has worsened. A new law, for example, has made reporting on corruption even riskier for pro-democracy activists.

It may be only a matter of time before Russian citizens wonder why so many neighbors are moving toward civic equality, transparent government, and other essentials for curbing corruption. Ukraine’s moves toward democratic ideals since 2014 may be driving Mr. Putin to end its progress. The country has a close association with Russian history, culture, and geography.
https://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/the-monitors-view/2022/0126/A-new-insight-on-Putin-s-moves-against-Ukraine

Ha ha ha ha ha ha, that meme never gets old! So what’s the response going to be to kick Pooty in the tooty? I just want to point out that line was not in the script, BTW! Well he definitely won’t respond to logic or reason in his quest to become supreme overlord of earth. So how would he feel about some good old fashioned American firepower being deployed on his sorry ass? Well it’s a good thing we have a competent president at the helm otherwise things could get absolutely disastrous. And if there’s one thing you never want to do, it’s start a world war on the wrong foot, and we’re watching.

Russia's President Vladimir Putin has accused the US of trying to draw his country into a war in Ukraine.

He said America's goal was to use a confrontation as a pretext to impose more sanctions on Russia.

Mr Putin also said the US was ignoring Russia's concerns about the expansion of Nato, the Western military alliance which Ukraine is seeking to join.

The US and its allies accuse Russia of planning to invade Ukraine, something Russia has repeatedly denied.

On Tuesday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken tweeted that the US was "committed to preventing a conflict that is in no one's interest".

Meanwhile, Spanish newspaper El Pais has released what it says are confidential documents the US and Nato sent to Russia last week - including offers of talks on cutting back on nuclear weaponry and trust-building measures in exchange for reducing tensions over Ukraine.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-60220702

OK so war won’t work. Reasoning with him won’t work. What do we do? We can’t just sit idly by and watch him annex his next door neighbor, can we? And while we’re attempting to do everything we can to prevent this invasion from happening, Putin is looking for any help he can get. And when he seeks allies with the most powerful army and navy in the entire world – China – that will not end well for anybody and everybody involved. Especially us.

As the United States moves to exert maximal pressure on Russia over fears of a Ukraine invasion, the Russian leader, Vladimir V. Putin, has found relief from his most powerful partner on the global stage, China.

China has expressed support for Mr. Putin’s grievances against the United States and NATO, joined Russia to try to block action on Ukraine at the United Nations Security Council, and brushed aside American warnings that an invasion would create “global security and economic risks” that could consume China, too.

On Friday, Mr. Putin will meet in Beijing with China’s leader, Xi Jinping, ahead of the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics that President Biden and other leaders have pointedly vowed to boycott.

Although details of any potential agreements between the two countries have not been disclosed, the meeting itself — Mr. Xi’s first in person with a world leader in nearly two years — is expected to be yet another public display of geopolitical amity between the two powers.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/02/world/asia/russia-ukraine-china-putin-xi.html

So yeah we’re boned all right no matter which way this scenario plays out. So what does Pooty want out of this? What’s in it for Russia? Or the USSR? It seems reuniting the USSR is the hip thing to do. Hey come on, the Beatles wrote one of their best songs about it! But what Russia wants from the Ukraine is definitely not the “they look like dorks” argument. But apparently Pooty isn’t going to let this one go for anything, and whether or not this situation escalates remains to be seen.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that his government was studying the responses from the United States and NATO to his security demands related to Ukraine but that it was clear the Kremlin's main complaints "had been ignored."
For weeks, Putin had said little publicly about the crisis sparked by Russia's buildup of tens of thousands of troops near Ukraine's borders, which has raised fears of a possible invasion.
But speaking at a Tuesday news conference following a five-hour meeting in Moscow with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Putin said: "It is already clear -- I informed the Prime Minister about this -- that the fundamental Russian concerns were ignored. We did not see an adequate consideration of our three key requirements."

Putin added that Russia had not seen "adequate consideration of our three key demands regarding NATO expansion, the renunciation of the deployment of strike weapons systems near Russian borders, and the return of the [NATO] bloc's military infrastructure in Europe to the state of 1997, when the Russia-NATO founding act was signed."

Putin also accused the US directly of attempting to "draw us into armed conflict" over the Ukraine crisis by using the country as a "tool" for NATO operations. He claimed that Washington's main goal is to force "allies in Europe to impose the very tough sanctions against us," or "draw Ukraine into NATO."
https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/01/europe/vladimir-putin-west-ignored-russia-concerns-intl/index.html

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[font size="8"]Fox News
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Well as we were putting together last week’s edition, Justice Stephen Breyer announced his retirement from SCOTUS. It’s probably a good idea that he retires now before a certain someone becomes president again and turns the court even *FURTHER* right. We cannot allow that to happen. Of course we won’t if Mitch McTurtle gets his way and stalls the nomination of the next justice for the next two years. But this isn’t about Justice Breyer’s retirement. This is about how conservatives reacted to the retirement of Justice Breyer. And as you can imagine, they reacted very poorly. I’m of course talking about the usual suspects – Hannity, Carlson, Shapiro, and the rest. Of course we predicted that one of our “People Who Somehow Got Elected”, Susan Collins (see: Top 10 #5-15 ). The Maine Senator of course has some thoughts on this subject and I suspect the quest to nominate his replacement is going to get really ugly really quickly.

After weeks of bruising losses over voting rights and other progressive priorities, Democrats in Washington, D.C., and around the country seemed to be reenergized by the chance to fill a Supreme Court seat.

Democratic leaders are pledging to move fast once President Joe Biden selects his nominee, as Republicans did to get Justice Amy Coney Barrett seated before the Nov. 2020 election. But a rushed process could risk Democrats losing one of the only Republican votes up for grabs – U.S. Sen. Susan Collins of Maine.

Collins made clear the day that news broke of Justice Stephen Breyer’s impending retirement that she doesn’t want the confirmation process rushed.

“I felt that the timetable for the last nominee was too compressed,” Collins told reporters on Tuesday, referring to Barrett’s lightning-fast nomination and confirmation within just five weeks of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death.

“This time there is no need for any rush,” Collins continued. “We can take our time, have hearings, go through the process, which is a very important one. It is a lifetime appointment, after all."
https://www.mainepublic.org/politics/2022-01-28/why-democrats-might-need-susan-collins-vote-to-replace-retiring-justice-stephen-breyer

Well fucking duh, that was the whole point! Trump went down in flames and apparently he took SCOTUS with him! Thank you audience! Yeah fuck Mitch McConnell too. But you’re not here for Susan Collins’ reaction, are you? Oh no! You’re here for the absolutely batshit crazy ones! Because that’s what this whole program is about, right? Well I trust you my fair audience that you will not leave here tonight disappointed! I give you right wing pastor and so called “prophet” Hank Kunneman!

Right-wing pastor Hank Kunneman is a self-proclaimed prophet who resolutely pushes the Big Lie that the 2020 election was stolen rather than admit that his “divine” proclamations that former President Donald Trump would be reelected were false. On Sunday, Kunneman used the services at his Lord of Hosts Church in Omaha, Nebraska, to insist that President Joe Biden has no right to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer because Biden’s presidency is “not legitimate.”

Kunneman said that Christians have no obligation to refer to Biden as president or to pray for him and asserted that Biden has no right to control the military or appoint new justices because “that guy is illegitimate.”

“Father, you know, I know, they that stole the election know, and those who have had their eyes open know that those who are seated in power are illegitimate,” Kunneman prayed. “By acts of treason and lies have they sat upon their seats, lofty with pride! And yet, they would even risk and put our own soldiers upon foreign soil by one who has no authority as president to be acting in such ways of authority to put our troops at risk, or to appoint a Supreme Court justice at the expense of being able to legislate and declare verdicts over the people when no power should have ever been given to a point.”

“This is unjust,” he screamed.

“There’s too much division in the nation for [the election] not to be settled,” Kunneman declared. “It demands that the truth be heard, be represented. And so here’s my point: Let’s just say that that guy is illegitimate—which all signs point to—then why would we even call him president? Why should we even pray for somebody—now you pray for his soul—but why should we pray for him in the context of being president? Why should he also be given the right—this is what infuriates me—why should he be given the right to appoint a Supreme Court justice who judges over the affairs of man if he’s not legitimate?”
https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/prophet-hank-kunneman-says-biden-has-no-right-to-appoint-a-new-scotus-justice-because-hes-illegitimate/

Oh and Hank is not alone in thinking this! Now of course Joe has stirred some controversy by suggesting that he nominate the first black woman to SCOTUS, and we’re all asking – really? What the fuck took so long on that one? Well our old buddy Tucker Carlson isn’t having any of it. Now come on, stop it with the Tucker reaction camera already! That was last year. But no, we don’t need to hear a white supremacists’ opinions on race, do we? Because racists do love them some Tucker Carlson, not surprised at all by his opinion on this!

Fox News’ Tucker Carlson on Wednesday spent 12 minutes railing against President Joe Biden’s vow to nominate the first Black woman to the Supreme Court following reports of Justice Stephen Breyer’s planned retirement.

Carlson sneered at Biden’s promise as “patronizing.”

“Where is Biden’s Pacific Islander nominee?” Carlson facetiously asked. “Why isn’t there an American Indian on the court? Or a genderqueer? Or someone from the chronic fatigue syndrome community or a justice with cognitive disabilities? Why isn’t there an Afghan refugee under consideration?”

Concluding his monologue, Carlson said Biden was ignoring the “obvious choice” of Bridget Floyd, the sister of George Floyd, the Black man killed by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin in 2020.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/tucker-carlson-flips-over-biden-090529008.html

But here’s the thing conservatives – shut the fuck up. No, seriously, shut the fuck up. You got three justices. You don’t need anymore. And remember Pastor Hank from earlier? Well he’s not alone in his ultra-hyperbolic way of thinking. Look conservatives, he wasn’t bullied into retirement. Nobody forced him to do anything. Let us have this one, OK? Trump has already done all the damage he can possibly do, for now. We certainly don’t need a 9 – 0 court appointing him dictator for life.

As soon as the news broke that Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer will retire at the end of the current session, right-wing activists began declaring that Breyer had been “bullied” into stepping down and therefore Republicans must do everything they can to block whomever President Joe Biden nominates to fill that seat.

Carrie Severino of the Judicial Crisis Network and Tom Fitton of Judicial Watch both asserted that Breyer had been forced out of his seat on the court.

Penny Nance of Concerned Women for America declared that Biden must use the vacancy to unify the nation by appointing to the court a “constitutionalist” (which is conservative code for “right-wing ideologue”).

Proclaiming that the Senate is the “our last line of defense against radical leftist SCOTUS justices,” Ohio Republican Senate candidate Josh Mandel used the opportunity to promote his own campaign.

Right-wing activist Brigitte Gabriel openly asserted that it doesn’t even matter whom Biden nominates, “they must be stopped.”
https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/they-must-be-stopped-right-wing-reactions-to-the-news-of-justice-stephen-breyers-retirement/

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[font size="8"]Holy Shit: March For Life Recap
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Gather around my fair brothers and sisters! It’s time to take a seat in the pew and pass the collection plate, for the Holy Church Of The Top 10 has convened and it’s time to remind you that the holiest among us are the most full of:



My fair congregation! Please be seated! You know, unlike other congregations in this country, we don’t really touch on the abortion issue. Except for this week, of course. Ever since the tragic death of one of the longest serving SCOTUS justices in US history, the great Ruth Bader Ginsburg, there’s been talk that abortion in the United States could come to an end. That’s after 45 years of Roe V. Wade. But the fact that the unholy, ungodly Dark One got to pick three lifetime appointments to this court, that’s pretty troubling, don’t you think? Well, many of the most fervent supporters of the Dark One support overturning Roe V. Wade. And the Dark One is a man who you know that I speak of, who is so foul, vile, disgusting, and depraved that his name dare NOT be spoken in my church! That is the one rule we have here at the Holy Church Of The Top 10. Well when you combine toxic politics and toxic anti-abortion rhetoric, you get the March For Life protest in Washington, DC. An event that really does mix religion and politics, and those things should never be mixed together! So here’s exactly what went down in DC and if this is the future of the GOP it’s going to get really ugly really quickly!

The activists who had gathered at the National Mall for the March for Life knew they were winning. With every cheer, every prayer, and every round of applause, the attendees assembled in the shadow of the Washington Monument reminded themselves that this year’s rally and march could be the last one to happen in a country where abortion was at least nominally legal in every state. They waved signs: WE ARE THE POST-ROE GENERATION.

I felt the rally’s triumphant spirit as I traipsed from the Supreme Court down to the march’s meeting spot behind the Smithsonian American History Museum on Friday. After last year’s in-person events had been canceled because of the pandemic, I could see and hear groups of friends reunited, hugging and taking photos in front of the Supreme Court and Capitol Building, and comparing their signs and placards. As I wandered down Constitution Avenue a little before noon, I was surprised at how large the crowds were; despite the below-freezing temperature and threat of the Omicron variant, I saw school groups and religious orders from upstate New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, and Virginia. I recognized logos from a few Catholic universities. Seeing teens in Carhartt beanies and Canada Goose parkas gave me flashbacks to my own education at an all-boys Catholic school.
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2022/01/march-for-life-abortion-protest/621349/

Now here’s where you should be alarmed at this March For Life – the marchers have literally gone full brown shirt Nazi. And that is not something that the good LAWRD JAYSUS would want now, is it? For it says in our Good Book that the government that lies down with fascist authoritarianism shall *NOT* enter the kingdom of heaven! Well at least it says that in our Good Book! Which you can buy outside in the lobby for the low price of $24.95! Shameless plug, I know. But that said, you do not want to go down this route because it is a scary one at that!

The fascist group Patriot Front planned its recent public appearances around anti-abortion “March For Life” rallies, leaked chat messages reveal.

The messages, released by the media nonprofit Unicorn Riot, offer a glimpse into the white supremacist group in late 2021 as it worked to make inroads with the right and rebuild itself in the public eye. Central to the group’s campaign were a pair of March For Life events in Chicago and D.C. this month, where the uniformed fascists walked alongside members of a broader conservative movement.

In messages on the chat platform RocketChat, Patriot Front leader Thomas Rousseau described the March For Life events as outreach to the largely conservative anti-choice movement.

“Our two March For Life events are coming up,” Rousseau wrote in December. “Plans for these will be ongoing as they are largely responsive to the plans of the marchers there. The aim is to be more understated, friendly, in smaller groups, and get as many flyers out as possible. Other more regimented options are on the table as well.”
https://www.thedailybeast.com/leaked-chats-show-patriot-front-fascists-sought-allies-at-march-for-life

What options are there? You’ve practically gone full blown Nazi. You might as well just go a step further and go all the way! But the good LAWRD JAYSUS don’t want that now, does he? But where is this movement ultimately headed? Well obviously they’ve had their sights set on the highest court in the land and with the Unholy Dark One and his supporters now owning a 6 -3 majority they might finally get their wish. And their wish is a dark one indeed! Now don’t boo yet, because their agenda is very dangerous and scary!

Temperatures hovered at around 20 degrees as thousands gathered in Washington, D.C., for the 49th annual March for Life protest.

The march occurs around the anniversary of the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision: Jan. 22, 1973. And this year, there's a growing sentiment among the protesters that it could be the last march before Roe is possibly overturned.

"We are hoping and praying that this year, 2022, will bring us historic change for life," March for Life president Jeanne Mancini said. "Roe is not settled law," she said to cheers from the crowd.

One attendee at the march, Macy Butler, a retired teacher from Silver Spring, Md., tells NPR she had "a little hope" this year that abortion would no longer be protected on a federal level.
https://www.npr.org/2022/01/21/1074814640/march-for-life-protest-roe-v-wade

No prayer warriors, that’s where you are wrong! We don’t want your change! Because your change is taking us backwards, we don’t want to go backwards. We want to move forwards! And how can you say “it’s not settled law”? Imagine the balls that it takes to declare a decision made by the highest court in the land invalid? Well of course none of us are the unholy Dark One. So what’s next for the March For Life movement if it is overturned this year? Well there could be some very disastrous consequences awaiting if it happens!

Abortion rights activists are working to stop that bill, which they say is unconstitutional. Aileen Day, communications director at Planned Parenthood Advocates of Ohio, said her group will continue to fight to protect abortion access. Her group has more than 3,000 people signed up to testify against the bill.

“The citizens of Ohio face some of the most egregious attacks in the country when it comes to preserving the constitutional right to abortion,” she said. “But the facts speak for themselves: Abortion is legal in Ohio and in America, and most Ohioans support safe and legal access to abortion.”

Day’s organization is aware of the March for Life, and she has seen young antiabortion activists return home energized from the trip, but her group won’t send counterprotesters during a pandemic. As the number of coronavirus cases continues to surge nationwide, Day said she is worried that the march will be a superspreader event.

“I think it says everything about the antiabortion movement that they are busing in hundreds of people from Ohio, a state that has been leading the nation in this pandemic surge, to celebrate their false flag of life,” she said.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/01/18/march-for-life-2022/

Now that’s ironic – a March For Life could send hundreds of people to the hospital and or their own deaths! Funny when paths like that cross isn’t it? Well we’ll be keeping an eye on this to see what happens. Mass has ended, may you go in peace! That’s it this week for:




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[font size="8"]People Who Somehow Got Elected: Jim Justice
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Politicians at the state and local levels who are so toxic, you wonder how they’re able to get away with the things they get away with. This is:



This week – West Virginia governor Jim Justice. So governor Justice got elected in 2020 when the country was already in turmoil because of the pandemic and because of the riots relating to the arrest of George Floyd. But he became famous for a rather interesting quirk – unlike other governors in the country – governor Justice brings his dog along to his press conferences. Last week was the annual “State Of The State” address to the people of West Virginia, and what did he decide to bring along this time? His dog. And he decided to pick a fight with a rather peculiar choice of celebrity – Bette Midler – as well as the press. So the dog first made an appearance when Gov. Justice proclaimed that Tampa Bay would win the Super Bowl by a whopping 31 points. Which really didn’t happen but since then the dog has been a regular fixture in local politics. So here’s how the feud with Bette Midler went down. Aside from taking some cheap shots at Joe Biden, you don’t really pick a fight with someone who has a quick wit like Ms. Midler does.

Gov. Jim Justice has a message for singer and actress Bette Midler, who called West Virginians “poor, illiterate and strung out” in a tweet after Sen. Joe Manchin refused to support President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better Act.

The 70-year-old Republican governor ended his televised State of the State address Thursday night by lifting up his English bulldog and flashing its rear end to the cameras and crowd.

“Babydog tells Bette Midler and all those out there: Kiss her heinie,” Justice said, grinning as people applauded and some gave him a standing ovation.

Justice had spent more than an hour touting the state’s accomplishments, including two recently announced economic development projects.

“Absolutely too many people doubted us,” he said. “They never believed in West Virginia. … They told every bad joke in the world about us.”
https://www.siouxlandproud.com/news/national-news/gov-tells-bette-midler-to-kiss-dogs-heinie-and-shows-it/

So yeah you don’t fuck with Bette Midler because otherwise you will get owned hard. As was evidenced by her appearances on classic shows like Seinfeld and The Simpsons. And her many movie and TV appearances. We don’t know why he chose to pick on Bette, what did Bette ever do to him? And in case you’re wanting a comeback, well, you’ve got one! Because Ms. Midler immediately fired back and it was every bit as funny as you might expect!

Bette Midler bit back at West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice on Friday, a day after he held up his dog’s rear end and said she could kiss its "hiney" following his State of the State speech.

"I’d say his dog’s — would make a better Governor than him!" the "Wind Beneath My Wings" singer tweeted, along with an unsourced chart showing the state ranking near the bottom on education, health care, infrastructure and the economy, compared to other states.

Justice's remarks were a response to a previous Midler tweet, in which she called the state "poor, illiterate and strung out" over her frustration with U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, a West Virginia Democrat who essentially sunk his party's voting rights bill by refusing to go around the Senate filibuster. Midler later apologized for the tweet after a backlash.

"I apologize to the good people of WVA for my last outburst," she wrote online Dec. 20. "I’m just seeing red; #JoeManchin and his whole family are a criminal enterprise. Is he really the best WV has to offer its own citizens? Surely there’s someone there who has the state’s interests at heart, not his own!"
https://news.yahoo.com/bette-midler-bites-back-west-054544821.html

So why does the governor bring his dog “Babydog” to his press conferences? That seems quite a bit odd, doesn’t it? Gov. Justice is a guy who apparently doesn’t care what other people think about him or his policies, and it shows. At least the anchors of CNN got a laugh out of it, which shows that they have a sense of humor, even if he doesn’t. But not even Saturday Night Live could make up something this batshit crazy. That said, what’s it really like in West Virginia?

Governor Jim Justice is defending his behavior during Thursday night’s State of the State Address. The governor was touting the state’s latest economic development success, and he took time out to fire back at those who’ve criticized West Virginia as a backward state.

In particular, he and his pet Baby Dog singled out entertainer Bette Midler.



While the governor was criticized by some callers on talk radio today, he says he doesn’t care about that.
Also today, he invited Bette Midler to visit West Virginia and see what it’s really like firsthand.

Midler has since responded to the governor’s stunt on Twitter saying “BTW, here are the state rankings of all the areas and agencies for which the so-called ‘Governor’ of WVA, #JimJustice, is responsible,” she wrote, referring to an attached screengrab from U.S. News and World Report which ranked West Virginia as 47th overall in its 2021 list of “Best States.” “Judging from these rankings, I’d say his dog’s a– would make a better Governor than him!”
https://www.wtrf.com/news/west-virginia-headlines/west-virginia-governor-defends-baby-dog-appearance-at-state-of-the-state-address/

Holy shit! 47th in the whole country! Bravo! Guess someone’s got to rank at the bottom, don’t they? But that said this feud between Bette Midler and Gov. Justice isn’t going to end anytime soon. So we hope you’ve got some popcorn and your favorite beverage of choice, not to mention a Twitter account, because things are definitely going to get interesting between the two! But for this round, and probably other future rounds, definitely advantage Midler on this one!

Bette Midler continued her spat with West Virginia Governor Jim Justice on Friday by saying that his dog's "ass" would make a better governor after the Republican used the animal to criticize her.

Justice, a Republican, displayed his dog's rear end during his state of the state address on Thursday as a rejoinder to critics and said they could kiss his pet's "hiney."

The governor's his fondness for his English bulldog is well-known. He has used the animal—named Babydog—as a means to promote COVID-19 vaccination uptake in his state.

Film legend Midler had apparently angered the governor in a tweet about Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) that was critical of the people of West Virginia.

At the end of his state of the state address, Justice addressed West Virginia's critics.

"They never believed in West Virginia, that we could do it," Justice said.
https://www.newsweek.com/bette-midler-jim-justice-continue-trading-insults-dog-behind-west-virginia-1674276

So picking fights with celebrities using his dog’s butt and running his state into the ground. That’s West Virginia governor Jim Justice, yet another one to add to our ever growing list of:




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[font size="8"]Conspiracy Corner: Tucker Goes Racist
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Welcome back to our segment where we attempt to explain the unexplainable, Conspiracy Corner! We are coming to you live from our underground doomsday shelter deep in the heart of the New Mexico badlands! Undisclosed location of course. Now let me just adjust my tin foil hat for maximum government interference… they are trying to read yours and my thoughts, after all! So this week we’re going to do something a bit different and debunk some of the batshit theories being floated about on the Tucker Carlson show. And why is ol’ Tucker such a hot topic right now? Well it’s because of his stance on Hungary – a nation that’s been taken over by an authoritarian right wing religious fundamentalist regime. And if you’re not extremely frightened by an influential Fox News host sucking up to an authoritarian government, well you absolutely should be. Because this is where the Fox News cult is going with this, and it’s not going to end well.

The film opens with soaring music, footage of white children laughing and playing, beautiful vistas of classical European architecture. Fifteen seconds in, the music turns dark. We see images of dark-skinned youth, chaos, and blood. Then there’s a foreboding black-and-white shot of a man in profile, hunched at a desk, the curvature of his nose prominent in silhouette.

He’s the one responsible for all of this, the brown assault on white tranquility. Europe, we are told, is this predator’s “main hunting area.”

This is the beginning of Tucker Carlson’s new “documentary” for Fox Nation, the right-wing media giant’s streaming service. It is titled Hungary vs. Soros: The Fight for Civilization, and it purports to tell the story of how a plucky little democracy in Central Europe has carved out a conservative model in the face of a relentless assault by the forces of global liberalism personified by George Soros, the Hungarian-American financier.

The story is a lie. Hungary is nominally a democracy but it has made a turn toward authoritarianism in the last decade; Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has painted Soros as a scapegoat whose allegedly nefarious influence justifies Orbán’s anti-democratic moves. The documentary amplifies this propaganda, treating the Jewish philanthropist as the spider at the center of a global web of conspiracy.
https://www.vox.com/22904444/tucker-carlson-hungary-soros-fox-nation-documentary-special

So yeah in case you’re wondering about Viktor Orban’s credentials – he is truly a colossal authoritarian scumbag not too far off from Donald Trump or Tayyip Erdogan or Rodrigo Duterte. So the fact that Tucker is pulling his best Glenn Beck impression and pulling George Soros in the mix should be enough to alarm anyone. The right wing loves to use Soros as their punching bag. But what’s even more insane is their use of the absolutely racist “replacement theory”. This is a theory that’s so extreme that Tucker’s own employers have denounced it.

The Anti-Defamation League is once again calling for Fox News personality Tucker Carlson's ousting.

The "Tucker Carlson Tonight" host is under fire from the organization battling antisemitism and other types of hate for his recent comments on "The Great Replacement" theory.

"It cannot be overstated enough," ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt tweeted Friday. "For @TuckerCarlson, host of one of the most watched news programs in the country, to use his platform as a megaphone to spread the toxic and xenophobic 'Great Replacement' theory, is repugnant and a dangerous abuse of power."

"A reminder: 'The Great Replacement' theory and its racist and xenophobic roots have served as the inspiration for multiple mass shootings and deadly attacks," the official Twitter account for ADL shared the same day.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/tv/2021/09/28/fox-news-tucker-carlson-adl-great-replacement-theory-reactions/5897547001/

So remember way back when the Unite The Right rally happened and there were idiots in khakis and collared shirts, a uniform that screams “come take a look at this used 2005 Kia Optima”, and they were screaming “jews will not replace us”? Well think about that except these guys are elected officials and they actually have the power to do things. Well, the shit is about to hit the collective fan here and everyone should be alarmed that Tucker is going full on racist white supremacist.

Over the past three months, the Fox News meltdown over “critical race theory” and supposed “antiwhite racism” has only intensified. In February, as the right-wing media industry was looking to fill airtime in the post-Trump news era, Fox’s prime-time hosts latched onto the latest culture-war bogeyman and target of Republicans across the country. “In schools they are teaching this. Race hate,” seethed Tucker Carlson on February 19 while bemoaning a school program calling for “white allies” to “acknowledge the reality of racism.” By April, Carlson had moved on to parroting a white nationalist conspiracy theory, warning his audience that the Democratic Party is carrying out a massive racial “replacement” plot to swap America’s majority-white electorate with “more obedient voters from the third world.”

On Thursday night, Carlson took his racial paranoia to its inevitable end point by predicting that America is heading for an all-out race war. After mockingly decrying criticism against “white rage”—a reference to General Mark Milley’s thoughtful congressional testimony that has been derided by the right—Carlson then invoked the Rwandan genocide by asking his viewers, “The question is, and this is the question that we should be meditating on day in and day out, is how do we get out of this vortex, this cycle, before it’s too late? How do we save this country before we become Rwanda?” Given that Carlson discussing was flanked by an onscreen graphic that read “ANTI-WHITE MANIA” during the segment, his choice reference to the East African genocide—which led to the deaths of as many as 800,000 people, mostly of a minority ethnic group—was clearly an implied way of warning his audience that the teaching about systemic racism could result in a similar slaughter of white Americans.
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2021/06/tucker-carlson-white-rage

And by the way it’s no secret that Fox News is going full racist going into the 2022 midterm elections because they really got nothing else. So as the year progresses, expect things to get more racist and sexist and Tucker will provide all of the talking points that your racist and sexist neighbors will start spewing at parties. And if they start going off on immigration reform or the homeless population, just remember where it came from and who’s providing it!

After the Anti-Defamation League renewed its call for Tucker Carlson to be fired from Fox News for voicing the racist “great replacement” theory about immigration, the primetime host had a pithy response: “Fuck them.”

Carlson was speaking to the former Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly on Sirius XM. He made the comments in question on his show on Wednesday, which averages more than 3 million viewers a night.

Claiming the Biden administration was trying “to change the racial mix of the country”, Carlson said: “In political terms, this policy is called ‘the great replacement’, the replacement of legacy Americans with more obedient people from far-away countries.

“They brag about it all the time, but if you dare to say it’s happening they will scream at you with maximum hysteria.”
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2021/sep/25/tucker-carlson-fox-news-anti-defamation-league

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[font size="8"]I Need A Drink
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Hey everyone, I don’t know about you, but I could really use a drink!



Of course you know the idea behind this segment is that we have some drinks and while we’re getting drunk we talk about literally anything in the news as long as it doesn’t relate to politics or COVID. And I recently added COVID because there’s a lot of dark shit in the news right now and drinking is all about having fun! So that’s what we are going to do! So tell me, my fair bartender, what goes well with a story about video games? Hard Mountain Dew? What’s that? No thanks. I’ll just stick to my usual Jack Daniels mixed with Jack Daniels, thanks. I call it “The Double Jack”. This week, the subject on the table is video games. And specifically one company in particular is getting quite the bad rap. And they are the subject of a multi-billion dollar merger with Microsoft. I’m of course talking about Activision. And its’ subsidiary Blizzard Entertainment. The makers of one of my favorite video games ever, Diablo III. But that said, aside from making a video game where the main objective is to kill Satan and vanquish evil from the earth, it seems the company behind this game has a secret they’d rather everyone not know about.

Over the past couple years, employees' public accounts of toxic work environments have led to reckonings around Silicon Valley and promises from management to be better. On Tuesday, Microsoft made a similar pledge, though not for itself. The tech giant pointed to the litany of abuse and harassment allegations at its latest acquisition target, game maker Activision Blizzard, and promised that behavior would no longer be tolerated.

Amid Microsoft's announced plans to buy Activision Blizzard for the eye-popping amount of nearly $69 billion in cash, the tech giant's leaders spoke the usual pomp about how important the deal was. Microsoft would be bolstering its already enormous Xbox video game division with the teams behind some of the most popular franchises in the world, including the online battle games Overwatch and Call of Duty, as well as the fantasy behemoth World of Warcraft and mobile mainstay Candy Crush.

But Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella also quickly pivoted to acknowledge that he isn't just buying a company and its brands. Microsoft will also be taking over a sprawling organization under intense scrutiny over public claims of harassment, discrimination and more, all tolerated for years in an alleged "bro culture" atmosphere. On a conference call with investors shortly after announcing the purchase, Nadella discussed how he's changed Microsoft's cutthroat ways and how his lieutenant Phil Spencer would do the same with Activision Blizzard.
https://www.cnet.com/tech/gaming/microsoft-promises-culture-change-at-activision-blizzard-heres-how/

Ah now that’s my kind of drink! Large and in charge! And that’s exactly what happens when the PR department kills the vibe of a company, but in this day and age that’s almost expected. So yeah there’s a huge problem with the “bros” in the video game world and it’s not limited to Activision. Though many other companies seem to have this problem they all have one thing in common. Let’s look at another video game developer, Riot Games, who makes the popular game “League Of Legends”, who had to pay an absolutely shocking amount of money after their “bro” culture was exposed.

In 2018, following a bombshell exposé from Kotaku, League of Legends developer Riot Games was hit with a lawsuit from California’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) alleging harassment and discrimination amid a toxic “bro culture” working environment. Last week, the Washington Post broke the news that this suit has been settled for $100 million, with $80 million going to current, former, and contract workers employed at the company’s California headquarters from November 2014 to the present. The rest will be used to pay plaintiffs’ legal fees.

“This historic agreement reflects California’s commitment to strategic and effective government enforcement of the State’s robust equal-pay, anti-discrimination, and antiharassment laws,” DFEH director Kevin Kish said in the announcement. “If entered by the court, this decree will compensate employees and contractors affected by sex discrimination and harassment, ensure lasting change in this workplace, and send the message that all industries in California, including the gaming industry, must provide equal pay and workplaces free from discrimination and harassment.”

An initial settlement--proposed in December of 2019--would have seen Riot paying out $10 million to the plaintiffs, but an investigation by California’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) found that they may have been entitled to more than $400 million.

Last week’s $100 million settlement is a far cry from that figure, but attorney Richard Hoeg, managing member of the Hoeg Law Business Law Firm in Michigan, notes that it is still a substantial number, especially in the wake of Activision Blizzard’s $18 million settlement in September.
https://gamedaily.biz/article/2219/riot-games-settles-harassment-suit-for-100-million

But that said, there’s plenty to be pissed off about in the gaming world. Especially if you happen to be female, or someone who is a “party” type person. Because this “bro culture” that’s emerging in the video game world is so toxic that it’s even caused state agencies to take notice. So the owners of Activision Blizzard and Riot Games may be cashing out, there’s going to be some serious reforms needed in the video game industry going forward. But really how bad is it that even the feds are getting involved to stop this kind of thing?

California is taking the lead in cracking down on “bro culture” in video games, with enforcement actions targeting two of the industry’s biggest players, Activision Blizzard, and Riot Games, a unit of Tencent Holdings Ltd.

The California Department of Fair Employment and Housing, empowered by strong state laws on workplace bias, conducted investigations into the two companies, and sued Activision last month over allegations of sexual harassment and discrimination.

The agency’s actions are sending a strong message to the gaming world and to workers eager to publicize troublesome workplace practices, lawyers and industry watchers said. It also provides a template for civil rights and employment regulators in other states to crack down.

It’s unusual for a state agency like the DFEH to pursue such cases itself in court, said Noreen Farrell, executive director of Equal Rights Advocates, a civil rights organization focused on gender in the workplace.

“It is a powerful signal to the gaming industry of the standards it will apply to other cases across California, and it may embolden state agencies elsewhere to do the same,” Farrell said.
https://news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/gamings-bro-culture-faces-crackdown-from-california-regulator

Man we’re going extra hard today! Now here’s where you boo. Despite all of this you know what is going to happen – the bad guys always win! That’s right – you never bet against the house because it’s totally predictable what is going to happen. So while we are fighting amongst ourselves about bro culture and hard partying and sexual harassment, the guys that made it happen are going to take the money and run. When you hear how much this scumbag is getting after all of this, why aren’t more people rioting in the streets about this?

Activision Blizzard Inc's Chief Executive Officer Bobby Kotick has gone from defending his handling of sexual harassment and discrimination claims at the video game maker to preparing to walk away with a windfall of at least $390 million.

The 58-year-old executive stands to receive the payday after clinching a deal on Tuesday to sell Activision to Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) for $68.7 billion, but the vast majority will come from the 3.95 million Activision shares he owns, regulatory filings show.

He will miss out on a change of control payment because he doesn't own any unvested equities, which is uncommon for public company CEOs.

Kotick plans to step down once the deal with Microsoft closes, which is expected in June 2023, a person familiar with the matter said. Had he stayed as Activision's CEO, he would have reported to Microsoft's gaming chief Phil Spencer, a far cry from running a standalone company.

Kotick, who has led Activision since 1991 and turned it into one of the world's biggest videogame giants, said in an interview on CNBC on Tuesday that the company had "worked through" allegations of sexual harassment and discrimination that led to more than 20 employees being fired and 20 more individuals facing other forms of disciplinary action last year.
https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/19/tech/microsoft-activision-bobby-kotick-payday/index.html

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[font size="8"]Red State Diaries
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Welcome back to our ongoing segment of what the MAGA cult is up to now that they don’t have Dear Leader Donny hanging around the White House anymore in Red State Diaries! Last week, we brought you the latest insane COVID cure where people were literally drinking their own urine so they didn’t have to take the vaccine. This week – oh it gets weirder my friends! And of course who could have guessed that Florida was involved in this? I know I did! But Florida Man himself, Ron DeSantis went doctor shopping and he found us a ridiculously batshit insane one. Think of this doctor more like Chris Parnell’s Dr. Spaceman from 30 Rock or the Simpsons’ Dr. Nick than Dr. Fauci. In fact this guy was so nuts and off the rails that the democratic arm of Florida’s government actually staged a walk out prior to his confirmation. But look we all want the pandemic to end, it’s been 2 long years and we’re all sick and tired of this crap. But having doctors like this around? Expect things to get way worse before they get better.

Democrats in Florida’s state senate said, “Aiight, Imma head out,” on Thursday rather than listen to the state’s surgeon general, Dr. Joseph Ladapo, avoid giving direct answers about his beliefs on Covid-19 vaccines.

Ladapo is up for formal confirmation to his post after being appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican who has opposed vaccine and mask mandates, in September. Florida’s legislature is controlled by DeSantis’ party, so there’s little change Lapado won’t be confirmed.

But Democrats in the confirmation hearing weren’t about to sit still and listen to a medical doctor refuse to acknowledge accepted medical science.

That didn’t matter, because the Republicans in the room voted to move his nomination forward anyway. Lapado, a 2008 Harvard Medical School graduate, is famous for taking positions that mock the worst takes of conservative politicians on the Covid-19 pandemic, but which some of his medical colleagues call “strange”.
https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/dems-walk-florida-surgeon-general-173000820.html

You gotta wonder how people like that even have a medical license. That would be like hiring a daredevil who’s afraid of heights. But of course just like Spotify decided to stand by their boy Joe Rogan, DeSantis decided to stand by his boy becoming the surgeon general of Florida. Yes, Florida, the state whose initial response to the pandemic was “eh… fuck it”, has decided to double down and hire a medical doctor that rejects science. So yeah once again leave it to Florida to decide to fuck things up for everyone again.

With long lines and high demand at COVID-19 testing sites, Florida's surgeon general is calling for a change in the way the state is testing for COVID-19. But not all experts agree with the approach.

Hillsborough County's testing site at Progress Village, some people have had to wait over an hour and there have been long lines at testing sites across Tampa Bay.

With that in mind, Florida's surgeon general said he believes the state needs to change to a "high-value testing" approach.

During a news conference with Governor DeSantis Thursday morning, Dr. Joseph Ladapo said his new guidance is to focus on testing only people who are symptomatic, going against current CDC guidance which calls for testing a wider range of the population, based on various factors.
https://www.fox13news.com/news/experts-express-concern-over-florida-surgeon-generals-approach-to-covid-19-testing

In theory yes. But there is science and there is make believe fantasy crazy world. Unfortunately Florida lives in the latter and while many have tried, you can’t wish this virus away. Not to mention when he ducks the hard questions about actual science and starts spewing out batshit insane conspiracy theories, that’s when you got to give him the heave ho. Unfortunately for today’s republican party, you don’t get fired for that, that’s cause for a promotion! The modern GOP: Fail your way to the top!

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is significantly limiting the use of two kinds of COVID-19 treatments, saying they just don't work against the omicron variant.

Regeneron and Eli Lilly's monoclonal antibody drugs are no longer cleared for use. The move has caused a shakeup in some states.

Florida's surgeon general is lashing out at the decision.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now estimates the omicron variant makes up 99% of cases in Florida and the Southeast.

The FDA revised the emergency use authorization for drugs made by companies, saying they likely don’t work against the omicron variant.
https://komonews.com/news/coronavirus/fl-surgeon-general-fires-back-after-fda-pulls-approval-for-monoclonal-antibody-drugs

Pretty sure that if a doctor asked me that I would be finding a new doctor. And big deal! So your cures don’t exactly work despite that you’re being paid by the makers of these cures to promote them. That’s what real science is – they test shit and when it doesn’t work, they test new shit. Rinse and repeat. That is also what happens when a new virus nobody has ever seen before is constantly evolving! And by the way we haven’t seen anything yet. You know what else Florida is up to? well it’s up to a shit ton of crazy new laws. Their surgeon general was just the beginning. Just wait and see what else they have in store!

It has been a long and painful month in the Florida legislature for opponents of the state’s Trumpist governor Ron DeSantis and his loyal band of rightwing Republicans. A slew of bills has advanced attacking everything from diversity rights, abortion protections and free speech in schools, in addition to a proposal that would legally shield white people from feeling “discomfort” over the state’s racist past.

And last Wednesday, an anti-masker physician, hand picked by the governor and apathetic about the value of Covid-19 vaccines, was backed unanimously by a Republican senate panel as the next surgeon-general following a walk-out by Democratic politicians frustrated by Joseph Ladapo’s evasiveness.

To hear DeSantis tell it, the “freedom state” of Florida is merely following the will of a populist citizenry in defying the perceived tyranny of the federal government, determined to protect liberty in the face of a deadly pandemic that has claimed more than 64,000 of their fellow residents, and standing up against the “indoctrination” of children.

Yet as the possible 2024 presidential candidate presses ahead with turning Florida into what critics see as his own conservative fiefdom – a de facto Trumpistan of the south with an “Orwellian-sounding” election police force – DeSantis is finding opposition beginning to harden.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jan/31/florida-republicans-draconian-bills

[font size="4"]And Now This:[/font]
[font size="4"]The Used[/font]

Folks my next guest has a great new album out called “Heartwork”, you can see them at the Kraken Fest in Orlando on Feb. 19th and at the When We Were Young Festival in Las Vegas on October 22nd. Playing their song “Blow Me”, give it up for the Used!

Thank you Salt Lake City! We’ll see you in Milwaukee next Thursday! See you next week!

Credits

Host: Initech
Top 10 Conservative Idiots Recorded In Front Of Live Audience At: Zanies Comedy Club, Salt Lake City, UT
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