Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
Top 10 Conservative Idiots #15-2: I Bet You Look Nude On the House Floor Edition
Top 10 Conservative Idiots #15-2: I Bet You Look Nude On the House Floor Edition
Welcome back to the Top 10 Conservative Idiots! Yooooooooooooooo!!!! What’s up, Burbank? How are you guys doing? You doing fucking good? Great! It’s great to be back in Burbank and not be saddled with the blank, blue void that we had to deal with during COVID and not contemplate our sad, lonely existence! Sold out, too! How about that? This is our last Top 10 in California for a while before we jet off to the Sunshine State as part of our What’s Up With Florida docuseries! I hope we don’t get in trouble for shit talking Ron DeSantis, but you know what? Fuck that guy! But we’ve got a whopping four editions as part of our 7 part What’s Up With Florida docuseries to look forward to! OK do we have time for the thing? Of course we do! OK so you know how there was all that hoopla a few months ago about that movie Cocaine Bear? Well, really, were we that starved for original content because of COVID that’s the first major box office movie we go see? Well, we may have to explore this in a future “I Need A Drink” because this is the stuff of pure insanity. It seems that sharks are eating cocaine off the coast of Miami. Of course it involves Florida. Why am I not surprised? But this new breed of super coked up sharks is the kind of thing that only Florida can dream up. I really can’t wait for the sequel we’ve all been waiting for – Cocaine Shark! Or how about the song? Cocaine shark do do do do do do do Cocaine Shark do do do do do do do do do Cocaine Shark! Shit, now I’m going to have that song stuck in my head for the next several weeks! And also of course after they stop making the Sharknado franchise. Come on, Hollywood! This is what we’re craving! Some exciting shit! We’ve seen enough Marvel sequels! Come on! OK that’s enough of the intro, we have a lot of idiocy to get to. But first Christopher Titus is back and he goes on a tirade on his favorite punching bag:
So where do we begin this week? Well the number one spot this week has to go to the Fox News installed governor of Texas, Greg Abbott (1) and his shockingly evil stunt at the border this week is turning violent, and we can definitely thank Fox and their endless border war hysteria conspiracy theories as to how we got here. In the second slot this week is our old friend Marjorie Three Names (2) because, speaking of Fox News and endless conspiracy theory hysteria, she brought revenge porn to the House Floor, and well, it’s quite the stuff of pure insanity! At the number 3 slot this week, also speaking of conspiracy theories, is the professional gaslighter himself – Robert F. Kennedy Jr (3) and look, RFK Jr, you’re not being canceled. No one wants to listen to you! Big fucking difference! Whine about it to your GOP buddies, we don’t care! In the number 4 slot this week is that guy who we inexplicably used to call president (4) and his cry that there’s fake electors about? Well guess what, Donny? They’re here, and they’re on your side! That’s right! In the number 5 slot this week is also that guy who we inexplicably used to call president (5) – and he’s got a new hobby: threatening people on his social media hidey hole, Truth Social! Yes, it gets real dark really quickly! Taking the sixth slot this week is our weekly visit to the Holy Church Of The Top 10 in “Holy Shit” (6) and this week, we ask the question – is there a religious component to the right wing’s insane war on “wokeness”? Well, judging by the Catholic Church’s recent Pride Month protest at Dodger Stadium, there’s definitely some reverse victimization going on here! At slot #7 is a new edition of Beating A Dead Horse (7). And MAGA country music star Jason Aldean released his new song “Try That In A Small Town”, and well, considering he’s from Macon, Georiga, we’re wondering if he’s ever actually set foot in a real small town or not. In the number 8 slot this week is our weekly venture into the never ending world of online tin foil hat nuttery in Conspiracy Corner (8) and this week we’re going to take a look at some of the recent roundup of January 6th arrests, and there’s some real sob stories here. Did I say “sob”? I meant “stupid”! In the number 9 (NEIN!!!) slot this week, we have a new I Need A Drink! This time, we’re going to have some drinks and find out whether or not the new Barbie movie upsets the Youtube Man-O-Sphere. Calm down, MAGA snowflakes – it’s a movie about a doll that’s marketed to young girls. Shut up. Finally this week we have Pt. 2 of our “What’s Up With Florida” docuseries, and we’re going to take a look at some crazy tales of Florida women, because why not? Everyone is crazy in the Sunshine State! Plus to cap things off, we have some live music from The Used! Buy their new album “Toxic Positivity” or you are no friend of this program! Enjoy! And as always don’t forget the key!
[div style="padding: 20px; background-color: #ffffff; border-radius: 10px; box-shadow: 0px 2px 4px 1px #aaa;"][div style="font-family: arial, helvetica; font-weight: bold; border-bottom: 1px dotted #999; padding-bottom: 8px;"]
[font size="8"]Greg Abbott
[br] [/font] [br]
Before we go any further, I just want to say that it’s been a long standing policy that we don’t make fun of events that are too horrifying to make fun of. But on the other hand, we can absolutely trash Greg Abbott, and his talk show host enablers, can’t we? Because after all, this is a program that makes fun of conservative idiocy. What I’m getting at is that Greg Abbott committed an unusually cruel stunt at the border as part of Fox News’ never-ending hysteria surrounding conspiracy theories about what really goes on at the border. And yes, don’t worry, Fox isn’t getting away with this one either. Because they’re a huge part of the clusterfuck at the border. In fact if Greg Abbott gets dragged before the Hague for this for crimes against humanity, pretty sure Rupert Murdoch and a whole slew of AM hate radio hosts will too. Because this has truly crossed the line and cost some lives, and they won’t stop there. We’re dealing with a particularly bloodthirsty bunch.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott‘s escalating measures to stop migrants along the U.S. border with Mexico came under a burst of new criticism Tuesday after a state trooper said migrants were left bloodied from razor-wire barriers and that orders were given to deny people water in sweltering heat.
In one account, Texas Trooper Nicholas Wingate told a supervisor that upon encountering a group of 120 migrants on June 25 — including young children and mothers nursing babies — in Maverick County, a rural Texas border county, he and another trooper were ordered to “push the people back into the water to go to Mexico.”
The trooper described the actions in an email dated July 3 as inhumane.
Travis Considine, a spokesperson for the Texas Department of Safety, said the accounts provided by the trooper were under internal investigation. He said the department has no directive or policy that instructs troopers to withhold water from migrants or push them back into the river.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/texas-troopers-accounts-of-bloodied-and-drowning-migrants-on-u-s-mexico-border-unleashes-criticism
In one account, Texas Trooper Nicholas Wingate told a supervisor that upon encountering a group of 120 migrants on June 25 — including young children and mothers nursing babies — in Maverick County, a rural Texas border county, he and another trooper were ordered to “push the people back into the water to go to Mexico.”
The trooper described the actions in an email dated July 3 as inhumane.
Travis Considine, a spokesperson for the Texas Department of Safety, said the accounts provided by the trooper were under internal investigation. He said the department has no directive or policy that instructs troopers to withhold water from migrants or push them back into the river.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/texas-troopers-accounts-of-bloodied-and-drowning-migrants-on-u-s-mexico-border-unleashes-criticism
Yeah BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! Hey Greg Abbott, go fuck yourself, and Fox News, you should be ashamed. Fuck you too. This is some seriously cruel and inhumane shit, and it may violate an international treaty or two. But of course the MAGA cult doesn’t care about that, they will twist anything that doesn’t fit their sick and twisted agenda. But this latest stunt is shocking. It is stunningly evil. And it just shows how far that Fox and the MAGA version of the GOP will go to warn people not to fuck with them. But it’s way past time we start doing something about their sheer and unabashed cruelty.
The Justice Department has put Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on notice that it intends to file suit over a floating barrier wall he erected in the Rio Grande River to keep migrants from crossing the border illegally.
“The State of Texas’s actions violate federal law, raise humanitarian concerns, present serious risks to public safety and the environment, and may interfere with the federal government’s ability to carry out its official duties,” the department wrote in a letter to Abbott on Thursday.
The letter, a copy of which was obtained by USA TODAY, gives Texas officials until Monday to commit to removing the barrier. If there is no response, the Justice Department will pursue legal action, the letter warns.
Abbott fired back Friday, writing on Twitter that Texas has "sovereign authority" to defend its border. The humanitarian crisis at the border was created because of Biden's refusal to secure the border and by his policies that encourage migrants to risk their lives by crossing illegally through the Rio Grande, Abbott said.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2023/07/21/texas-floating-border-wall-lawsuit/70444597007/
“The State of Texas’s actions violate federal law, raise humanitarian concerns, present serious risks to public safety and the environment, and may interfere with the federal government’s ability to carry out its official duties,” the department wrote in a letter to Abbott on Thursday.
The letter, a copy of which was obtained by USA TODAY, gives Texas officials until Monday to commit to removing the barrier. If there is no response, the Justice Department will pursue legal action, the letter warns.
Abbott fired back Friday, writing on Twitter that Texas has "sovereign authority" to defend its border. The humanitarian crisis at the border was created because of Biden's refusal to secure the border and by his policies that encourage migrants to risk their lives by crossing illegally through the Rio Grande, Abbott said.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2023/07/21/texas-floating-border-wall-lawsuit/70444597007/
Yes Greg Abbott, you’re a truly evil, vile, despicable person. Go fuck yourself. And hey MAGAs, if you’re afraid of the government – there’s one solution to that. Stop doing evil shit! See how easy that is? But no, no matter how many lawsuits they face, the MAGA cult will continue to do the evil shit that they are known for. And it’s also showing that no matter how over bloated your security budget is, in the end, it will ultimately do more harm than good. This is MAGA America in a nutshell – they will spend billons on security to keep out “undesirables” in the name of racial supremacy. But neglect spending that money on the people who actually need it.
Operation Lone Star, a top priority of Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, has inundated the U.S.-Mexico border with thousands of Texas state troopers and National Guardsmen, started work on a state-controlled border wall and built a new skeleton justice system with its own courts, judges and jails to lodge misdemeanor state trespassing charges against migrants. The program is an explicit challenge to the national government, which by law controls international borders and immigration enforcement.
This week, the program was in the public eye for reports of inhumane treatment of migrants. In a July 3 email, reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, a trooper and medic raised concerns to his superiors, saying troopers and Guard members on the operation were instructed to push a nursing mother back into the river, to deny water to migrants even in extreme heat and to block a 4-year-old who was trying to cross coils of razor wire, from reaching shore. The email, earlier reported by the Houston Chronicle, detailed instances of injury that included a pregnant woman entangled in the wire having a miscarriage and numerous severe lacerations.
The program’s efficacy is also under question. The area of the border most heavily targeted by Operation Lone Star has seen the most rapid increases in illegal border crossings in the state since the operation began. Thousands of arrests by state troopers under the program have been unrelated to border security, and instead netted U.S. citizens hundreds of miles from the border. Arrests of migrants trespassing on private property have generally not affected their immigration cases, and courts have found many of the arrests made in the first two years to be discriminatory and invalidated them.
Despite the flood of resources, the added arrests by Operation Lone Star personnel in that section of the border amount to about 1% of the encounters there by Border Patrol in the same time frame, or about 11,000 added to the Border Patrol’s 850,000. Still, with more than $9.5 billion spent and allocated through 2025, Texas is doubling down on its strategy.
https://archive.is/EdUf6
This week, the program was in the public eye for reports of inhumane treatment of migrants. In a July 3 email, reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, a trooper and medic raised concerns to his superiors, saying troopers and Guard members on the operation were instructed to push a nursing mother back into the river, to deny water to migrants even in extreme heat and to block a 4-year-old who was trying to cross coils of razor wire, from reaching shore. The email, earlier reported by the Houston Chronicle, detailed instances of injury that included a pregnant woman entangled in the wire having a miscarriage and numerous severe lacerations.
The program’s efficacy is also under question. The area of the border most heavily targeted by Operation Lone Star has seen the most rapid increases in illegal border crossings in the state since the operation began. Thousands of arrests by state troopers under the program have been unrelated to border security, and instead netted U.S. citizens hundreds of miles from the border. Arrests of migrants trespassing on private property have generally not affected their immigration cases, and courts have found many of the arrests made in the first two years to be discriminatory and invalidated them.
Despite the flood of resources, the added arrests by Operation Lone Star personnel in that section of the border amount to about 1% of the encounters there by Border Patrol in the same time frame, or about 11,000 added to the Border Patrol’s 850,000. Still, with more than $9.5 billion spent and allocated through 2025, Texas is doubling down on its strategy.
https://archive.is/EdUf6
Yeah Greg Abbott, you suck. And Fox News, go fuck yourself. This isn’t just border security anymore, it’s a crime, a felony, and probably violating an international treaty or two. Wouldn’t it be great to see Abbott and his enablers dragged before the Hague to name drop Fox News? We can dream about this, can’t we? But the Fox News crowd will never be satisfied with any answer that Biden or his administration give them, so they can kindly go fuck themselves. Look, MAGAs – let me spell it out for you. National security is important. Killing people in the name of national security is pure, unfiltered, fucking evil. That’s it, that’s the entry. Again, Greg Abbott – go fuck yourself, you inhumane monster.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott bluntly told President Biden in a letter Monday he's not backing away from his aggressive border security efforts despite the U.S. Justice Department's threat last week to sue on grounds that the state is usurping federal authority.
"You must fully enforce the laws of the United States that prohibit illegal immigration between ports of entry," the Republican governor told the Democratic president. "In the meantime, Texas will fully utilize its constitutional authority to deal with the crisis you have caused. Texas will see you in court, Mr. President.”
The letter comes amid growing criticism from the Biden administration and congressional Democrats nationwide over Abbott's decision to lay miles of coiled razor wire up and down the Rio Grande and a floating barrier of string buoys at a high-traffic section of the river in Eagle Pass.
Last week, Texas congressional Democrats called on Biden to step in to counter Abbott's maneuvers that are part of his $9 billion immigration enforcement the governor calls Operation Lone Star. Later in the week, dozens of other Democrats joined the Texans in a formal letter to the president.
Read more: https://www.statesman.com/story/news/state/2023/07/24/greg-abbott-joe-biden-texas-gov-wont-remove-floating-buoy-barrier-rio-grande-border-security/70456796007/
"You must fully enforce the laws of the United States that prohibit illegal immigration between ports of entry," the Republican governor told the Democratic president. "In the meantime, Texas will fully utilize its constitutional authority to deal with the crisis you have caused. Texas will see you in court, Mr. President.”
The letter comes amid growing criticism from the Biden administration and congressional Democrats nationwide over Abbott's decision to lay miles of coiled razor wire up and down the Rio Grande and a floating barrier of string buoys at a high-traffic section of the river in Eagle Pass.
Last week, Texas congressional Democrats called on Biden to step in to counter Abbott's maneuvers that are part of his $9 billion immigration enforcement the governor calls Operation Lone Star. Later in the week, dozens of other Democrats joined the Texans in a formal letter to the president.
Read more: https://www.statesman.com/story/news/state/2023/07/24/greg-abbott-joe-biden-texas-gov-wont-remove-floating-buoy-barrier-rio-grande-border-security/70456796007/
[div style="padding: 20px; background-color: #ffffff; border-radius: 10px; box-shadow: 0px 2px 4px 1px #aaa;"][div style="font-family: arial, helvetica; font-weight: bold; border-bottom: 1px dotted #999; padding-bottom: 8px;"]
[font size="8"]Marjorie Greene
[br] [/font] [br]
OK game time everybody! Show of hands… let’s see your bingo cards! Who had Marjorie Greene flashing Hunter Biden’s dick pic on the House floor as part of their 2023 MAGA Batshit Insanity bingo card? Anyone? Anyone? Woohoo!!! We got a bingo! I have to admit that I didn’t have this on my bingo card for sure. But this incident just goes to show that the republican party has just gone completely insane and out of their minds. There’s no bridge they won’t burn. There’s no line they won’t cross. No subject is too taboo for them. By the way, there is one thing that I do want to point out before we go further – one is that this entry might get a bit NSFW. The other is that I have a strict limit on the number of penises I need to see in a day, and that limit remains at zero. But Marjorie Greene doesn’t need to be in Congress, she needs to be in a maximum mental institution. Like Arkham Asylum level. Because this is absolutely next level insanity here.
In one of the most shocking congressional hearings in recent memory, Georgia Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene showed partially censored nude photographs of Hunter Biden to witnesses and members of the House Oversight Committee as their investigations into the president's son continue.
The GOP-led committee's investigation has examined potential criminalities involving the Biden family, including purported business dealings involving shell companies and foreign investors.
About 2 1/2 hours into the hearing last Wednesday, Greene delved into Hunter Biden's sex life and different purported payments to escorts and sex workers.
Greene held up a large graphic reading, "Hunter recorded multiple sex tapes with a sex worker he had paid for out of his law firm's bank account," which was accompanied by multiple images of Hunter Biden engaged in sexual acts.
https://www.newsweek.com/did-marjorie-taylor-greene-break-revenge-porn-laws-1815259
The GOP-led committee's investigation has examined potential criminalities involving the Biden family, including purported business dealings involving shell companies and foreign investors.
About 2 1/2 hours into the hearing last Wednesday, Greene delved into Hunter Biden's sex life and different purported payments to escorts and sex workers.
Greene held up a large graphic reading, "Hunter recorded multiple sex tapes with a sex worker he had paid for out of his law firm's bank account," which was accompanied by multiple images of Hunter Biden engaged in sexual acts.
https://www.newsweek.com/did-marjorie-taylor-greene-break-revenge-porn-laws-1815259
Oh come on!!! You know damn well that she broke the law! But nothing will happen to these MAGA cretins. In the political world right now, the bad guys are winning, and Marjorie Shit For Brains is one of the worst of the bunch. But the MAGAs do not shut up. And there’s no low that’s too low for them. This is one of the lowest of lows that has ever happened. Like bottom of the Marianus Trench low. Which of course is the lowest point on earth. But here’s where it gets worse – Marjorie apparently copied the photos and sent them to everyone she knows. Which may have included some underage folks. That’s right. That’s even more illegal. This woman is clinically insane.
In her desperation to prove wrongdoing by Hunter Biden, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene may have sent his nude photos to minors.
The House Oversight Committee heard testimony on Wednesday from two IRS agents who say the Department of Justice dragged its feet on investigating the younger Biden for tax fraud. The hearing produced zero actual evidence, so instead, Greene tried to claim that Biden engaged in sex trafficking and listed payments to sex workers as a tax write-off.
To support her argument, she held up poster-size prints of Biden’s nude photos, which were taken off his laptop. Not only were her actions wildly inappropriate—Oversight Chair James Comer did not reprimand her, though—but she may also have violated D.C. revenge porn law.
And now, Greene may have emailed the nudes to minors. The Georgia representative emailed her constituents Wednesday evening claiming she had confirmed Biden was guilty of sex trafficking and tax fraud (she had not). The email included a video that showed his nudes.
https://newrepublic.com/post/174466/marjorie-taylor-greene-may-sent-hunter-biden-nudes-bunch-minors
The House Oversight Committee heard testimony on Wednesday from two IRS agents who say the Department of Justice dragged its feet on investigating the younger Biden for tax fraud. The hearing produced zero actual evidence, so instead, Greene tried to claim that Biden engaged in sex trafficking and listed payments to sex workers as a tax write-off.
To support her argument, she held up poster-size prints of Biden’s nude photos, which were taken off his laptop. Not only were her actions wildly inappropriate—Oversight Chair James Comer did not reprimand her, though—but she may also have violated D.C. revenge porn law.
And now, Greene may have emailed the nudes to minors. The Georgia representative emailed her constituents Wednesday evening claiming she had confirmed Biden was guilty of sex trafficking and tax fraud (she had not). The email included a video that showed his nudes.
https://newrepublic.com/post/174466/marjorie-taylor-greene-may-sent-hunter-biden-nudes-bunch-minors
Yeah seriously, come on! This is venturing into derangement syndrome territory. Hell, this has to be a derangement syndrome. You know, to paraphrase one of my favorite bands, Arctic Monkeys, I bet you look nude on the house floor. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!! Graphics department does it again, I salute you! But really, this is where someone needs to stage an intervention, take Marjorie aside and put her in a straight jacket and a padded cell. I did like the one video I saw where her testimony was played alongside the song “They’re Coming To Take Me Away, Ha Ha”. But the good news is this may finally be her undoing. I hope.
Greene on Wednesday held up posters featuring blown-up photos of Biden nude and engaging in sexual activities, claiming it was evidence that he was paying for sex and listing those payments as tax write-offs.
In a letter to the Office of Congressional Ethics, Biden’s attorney, Abbe David Lowell, said Greene’s behavior “blatantly violates House Ethics rules and standards of official conduct” and said the representative “has lowered herself, and by extension the entire House of Representatives, to a new level of abhorrent behavior.”
He noted that while the faces of other people in the photos were blurred, Greene and her staff “took great care to ensure Mr. Biden’s face was not blurred for the American public.”
Democrats have widely condemned Greene for displaying the photos, which took place during a House Oversight Committee hearing centered around allegations that the Justice Department mishandled a tax investigation involving President Joe Biden’s son, with Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) telling the Washington Post the images were “completely irrelevant” to the panel’s business.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/willskipworth/2023/07/21/hunter-bidens-lawyer-files-ethics-complaint-against-marjorie-taylor-greene-for-showing-sexually-explicit-photos/?sh=7b854c8248d3
In a letter to the Office of Congressional Ethics, Biden’s attorney, Abbe David Lowell, said Greene’s behavior “blatantly violates House Ethics rules and standards of official conduct” and said the representative “has lowered herself, and by extension the entire House of Representatives, to a new level of abhorrent behavior.”
He noted that while the faces of other people in the photos were blurred, Greene and her staff “took great care to ensure Mr. Biden’s face was not blurred for the American public.”
Democrats have widely condemned Greene for displaying the photos, which took place during a House Oversight Committee hearing centered around allegations that the Justice Department mishandled a tax investigation involving President Joe Biden’s son, with Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) telling the Washington Post the images were “completely irrelevant” to the panel’s business.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/willskipworth/2023/07/21/hunter-bidens-lawyer-files-ethics-complaint-against-marjorie-taylor-greene-for-showing-sexually-explicit-photos/?sh=7b854c8248d3
Yeah so you know how the loudest people in the room are always the dumbest? Well, Marjorie Greene is no exception to that rule. Hell, she is the rule. And she may have gone way too far on this one, and potentially crossed multiple lines. But with this MAGA Congress, which clearly doesn’t give a fuck about the country other than to please their talk show host overlords, won’t do anything about it. This is going to be a long two years, isn’t it? I’m going to need the strongest drinks possible to get me through it, because this is nightmare fuel. The GOP really has sunk to unrepairable levels.
Hunter Biden’s lawyer filed an ethics complaint against Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) Friday, requesting that an ethics watchdog “immediately” initiate a review of Greene’s conduct after she showed sexually explicit photos of Biden at a congressional hearing this week.
In a letter to the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE), Biden attorney Abbe David Lowell slammed Greene’s actions as “abhorrent behavior that blatantly violates House Ethics rules and standards of official conduct.”
“This week, your colleague has lowered herself, and by extension the entire House of Representatives, to a new level of abhorrent behavior that blatantly violates House Ethics rules and standards of official conduct. If the OCE takes its responsibilities seriously, it will promptly and decisively condemn and discipline Ms. Greene for her latest actions,” Lowell wrote.
“Now more than ever, the House has a duty to make loud and clear that it does not endorse, condone, or agree with her outrageous, undignified conduct and brazen violations of the standards of official conduct that do not reflect creditably on the House of Representatives,” he added.
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/4110372-hunter-bidens-attorney-files-ethics-complaint-against-marjorie-taylor-greene-for-showing-sexual-images/
In a letter to the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE), Biden attorney Abbe David Lowell slammed Greene’s actions as “abhorrent behavior that blatantly violates House Ethics rules and standards of official conduct.”
“This week, your colleague has lowered herself, and by extension the entire House of Representatives, to a new level of abhorrent behavior that blatantly violates House Ethics rules and standards of official conduct. If the OCE takes its responsibilities seriously, it will promptly and decisively condemn and discipline Ms. Greene for her latest actions,” Lowell wrote.
“Now more than ever, the House has a duty to make loud and clear that it does not endorse, condone, or agree with her outrageous, undignified conduct and brazen violations of the standards of official conduct that do not reflect creditably on the House of Representatives,” he added.
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/4110372-hunter-bidens-attorney-files-ethics-complaint-against-marjorie-taylor-greene-for-showing-sexual-images/
[div style="padding: 20px; background-color: #ffffff; border-radius: 10px; box-shadow: 0px 2px 4px 1px #aaa;"][div style="font-family: arial, helvetica; font-weight: bold; border-bottom: 1px dotted #999; padding-bottom: 8px;"]
[font size="8"]RFK Jr.
[br] [/font] [br]
You know you fucked up and went too far when your entire family starts speaking out against how much you fucked up. But you know, I really wonder why no one in the Kennedy family is taking RFK Jr aside and saying “NO!”. He’s definitely gone too far in this latest escapade. It was bad enough when he started comparing vaccine mandates to the Holocaust (which ,again, not enough facepalms in the world can accurately justify how I feel about that one). But the thing is, regardless of how you feel about the RFK Jr campaign, it’s way, way, way past time that democrats give him the heave ho and kick him out of the party for good. You’re not going to win friends in the democratic party by going on Newsmax and appearing before Jim Jordan in the House saying that you’re being silenced. We all know that he’s a Steve Bannon primary plant. But here’s where he may have gone too far. No, Mr. Kennedy, the COVID pandemic was not a bioweapon. GTFO.
A number of high-profile Jewish groups are denouncing Democratic presidential contender Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s false remarks that “Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese” people are “most immune” to Covid-19.
Speaking at a dinner in New York City earlier this week, Kennedy said “there’s an argument that it is ethnically targeted,” according to video shared by the New York Post on Saturday.
“Covid-19 is targeted to attack Caucasians and Black people. The people who are most immune are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese,” Kennedy said, adding that “we don’t know whether it’s deliberately targeted that or not.”
Ashkenazi Jews trace their roots to Central and Eastern Europe and represent a majority of the US Jewish population.
The American Jewish Committee told CNN in a statement Saturday that Kennedy’s “assertion that Covid was genetically engineered to spare Jewish and Chinese people is deeply offensive and incredibly dangerous.”
https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/15/politics/rfk-jr-covid-jewish-groups/index.html
Speaking at a dinner in New York City earlier this week, Kennedy said “there’s an argument that it is ethnically targeted,” according to video shared by the New York Post on Saturday.
“Covid-19 is targeted to attack Caucasians and Black people. The people who are most immune are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese,” Kennedy said, adding that “we don’t know whether it’s deliberately targeted that or not.”
Ashkenazi Jews trace their roots to Central and Eastern Europe and represent a majority of the US Jewish population.
The American Jewish Committee told CNN in a statement Saturday that Kennedy’s “assertion that Covid was genetically engineered to spare Jewish and Chinese people is deeply offensive and incredibly dangerous.”
https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/15/politics/rfk-jr-covid-jewish-groups/index.html
Yeah BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! Yeah it’s like all the batshit theories eventually get linked to Neo Nazism. And if there’s one thing we’ve learned in the 7 years of doing this program, is that if you believe one batshit crazy conspiracy theory, no matter how crazy or removed from reality it sounds, you’re likely to believe all of it. The earth is flat? Sure. Vaccines are the mark of the beast? Why not? JFK Jr survived his plane crash and is going to meet us at Dealy Plaza to out the deep state? Oh yeah let me go get my tin foil hat! Well of course republicans are systematically denying that they attract crazy people, and even Fox News is attempting to put the monster they created back in the proverbial closet.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. worked to defend himself Thursday against accusations that he traffics in racist and hateful online conspiracy theories, testifying at a House hearing on government censorship despite requests from outside groups to disinvite the Democratic presidential candidate after his recent antisemitic remarks.
The Republican-led Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government is amplifying GOP claims that conservatives and others are being unfairly targeted by technology companies that routinely work with the government to try to stem the spread of disinformation online. Democrats argued that free speech comes with responsibilities not to spread misinformation, particularly when it fans violence.
In opening remarks, Kennedy invoked his famous family’s legacy in decrying the complaints of racism and antisemitism against him.
https://apnews.com/article/rfk-jr-censorship-house-tech-biden-e261116c27a38f8c7329b5c5990dc8e9
The Republican-led Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government is amplifying GOP claims that conservatives and others are being unfairly targeted by technology companies that routinely work with the government to try to stem the spread of disinformation online. Democrats argued that free speech comes with responsibilities not to spread misinformation, particularly when it fans violence.
In opening remarks, Kennedy invoked his famous family’s legacy in decrying the complaints of racism and antisemitism against him.
https://apnews.com/article/rfk-jr-censorship-house-tech-biden-e261116c27a38f8c7329b5c5990dc8e9
Yeah of course, with friends like these, who needs enemies? No, no one is censoring you, you fucking idiot. You crossed a line that should not have been crossed. Multiple lines in fact. We literally fought an entire World War against this shit and the last thing we need is people like you who are trying to undo all of the progress we’ve made since then. It’s people like RFK Jr that are the reason why websites and companies have policies in place against hate speech. But yeah you can’t attempt to “please disperse” your way out of this one, Mr. Kennedy. We have the videos. We know where you stand.
Thursday Morning, fresh off controversy after claiming that Covid-19 was “ethnically targeted” towards certain races, presidential candidate Robert Kennedy Jr. testified before The House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government.
Earlier this week, more than 100 Democrats filed a letter to the Judiciary Committee calling for Kennedy to be excluded from the hearing. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy himself said he disagreed “with everything [Kennedy] said,” but to exclude him would undermine the topic of the meeting itself: censorship.
Even some arch-conservatives were skeptical of how effective it would be to have Kennedy take the witness stand. Fox Contributor Byron York pointed out that RFK Jr.’s presence at a hearing about the “serious” topic of tech censorship would derail the proceedings given he has “a long history of pretty much crackpot statements about vaccines, and other things, he’s a big conspiracy theorist”
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/rfk-jr-testimony-house-congress-vaccines-anti-vax-1234792491/
Earlier this week, more than 100 Democrats filed a letter to the Judiciary Committee calling for Kennedy to be excluded from the hearing. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy himself said he disagreed “with everything [Kennedy] said,” but to exclude him would undermine the topic of the meeting itself: censorship.
Even some arch-conservatives were skeptical of how effective it would be to have Kennedy take the witness stand. Fox Contributor Byron York pointed out that RFK Jr.’s presence at a hearing about the “serious” topic of tech censorship would derail the proceedings given he has “a long history of pretty much crackpot statements about vaccines, and other things, he’s a big conspiracy theorist”
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/rfk-jr-testimony-house-congress-vaccines-anti-vax-1234792491/
Yeah you don’t get to please disperse your way out of this one. You know we do have freedom of speech in this country, but even the most hard lined democrats know that freedom of speech has consequences and limitations. This sort of thing is not only just out of line, it’s just plain fucking wrong, and it shows what a major insufferable asshole you are. We fought a World War against this sort of thing that cost untold millions of lives. Absolutely no one in the democratic party is thrilled about this campaign and it’s only attracting losers like Joe Rogan. But you know, here’s the thing – the GOP let him say this bullshit and he’s getting away with it. You knew the job was dangerous when you took it, guys.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said Monday he disagrees with “everything” Robert F. Kennedy Jr. reportedly said last week about Covid-19’s being bioengineered “to attack Caucasians and Black people” and about Jewish people’s being "most immune."
But McCarthy, R-Calif., rejected calls by Democrats to cancel Kennedy’s public appearance Thursday before a Republican-controlled House committee. Kennedy, an environmental attorney, has pushed conspiracy theories, some of them about the safety of vaccines.
“I disagree with everything he said,” McCarthy told reporters in the Capitol. “The hearing that we have this week is about censorship. I don’t think censoring somebody is actually the answer here.
“I think if you’re going to look at censorship in America — your first action is to censor him probably plays into some of the problems we have,” he said.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/mccarthy-rejects-rfk-jrs-comments-covid-race-wont-cancel-testimony-rcna94751
But McCarthy, R-Calif., rejected calls by Democrats to cancel Kennedy’s public appearance Thursday before a Republican-controlled House committee. Kennedy, an environmental attorney, has pushed conspiracy theories, some of them about the safety of vaccines.
“I disagree with everything he said,” McCarthy told reporters in the Capitol. “The hearing that we have this week is about censorship. I don’t think censoring somebody is actually the answer here.
“I think if you’re going to look at censorship in America — your first action is to censor him probably plays into some of the problems we have,” he said.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/mccarthy-rejects-rfk-jrs-comments-covid-race-wont-cancel-testimony-rcna94751
[div style="padding: 20px; background-color: #ffffff; border-radius: 10px; box-shadow: 0px 2px 4px 1px #aaa;"][div style="font-family: arial, helvetica; font-weight: bold; border-bottom: 1px dotted #999; padding-bottom: 8px;"]
[font size="8"]2020 Fake Electors Scam
[br] [/font] [br] BOD
Make no mistake that there’s some seriously dark forces at work in this country attempting to undermine the very fabric of American civilization. Fox News already broke this country into two halves, and social media is attempting to divide us even further. That couldn’t have been more evident in the 2020 election. Many of the key swing states including hard blue Michigan, leaning blue Nevada, leaning blue Georgia, and leaning blue Arizona, have had multiple attempts to sabotage the election. Well now we’re learning just how deep the rabbit hole goes. Turns out – wait for it – that some of the electors that were chosen to certify the election may have been fake plants. Gee, I am not at all shocked by this news, not even slightly! Because let’s face it, Trump is a massive criminal, and he’s leading a massive criminal enterprise. Seriously we may never know the level of devastation that he’s caused since he was inexplicably elected president. But we’re just now figuring some shit out.
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announced Tuesday that she has filed charges against 16 people who signed paperwork falsely claiming that President Donald Trump had won the 2020 election as part of a scheme to overturn the results.
U.S. presidents are technically voted in by slates of electors from each state who cast their votes for the candidate selected by their states’ popular vote. In December 2020, as Trump tried to overturn the results of the election, his allies readied alternative slates of electors in several states.
These appear to be the first charges filed against fake electors.
The announcement came the same day Trump said he has been notified that he is the target of an investigation by a Washington-based grand jury examining the Jan. 6 riot and efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
The 16 people being charged in Michigan allegedly met in the basement of the state's Republican Party headquarters and signed multiple certificates claiming they were “the duly elected and qualified electors for president and vice president of the United States of America for the state of Michigan,” Nessel said in recorded remarks.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/michigan-attorney-general-charges-false-electors-efforts-overturn-2020-rcna94838
U.S. presidents are technically voted in by slates of electors from each state who cast their votes for the candidate selected by their states’ popular vote. In December 2020, as Trump tried to overturn the results of the election, his allies readied alternative slates of electors in several states.
These appear to be the first charges filed against fake electors.
The announcement came the same day Trump said he has been notified that he is the target of an investigation by a Washington-based grand jury examining the Jan. 6 riot and efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
The 16 people being charged in Michigan allegedly met in the basement of the state's Republican Party headquarters and signed multiple certificates claiming they were “the duly elected and qualified electors for president and vice president of the United States of America for the state of Michigan,” Nessel said in recorded remarks.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/michigan-attorney-general-charges-false-electors-efforts-overturn-2020-rcna94838
Hooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooly shit! You know we are so damn lucky that Michigan is one of the bluest states in the country. I mean come on, it’s hard to argue when your state school’s motto is “Go Blue!”. Right? But damn this is chilling how close we came to losing our democracy forever. It’s great that Michigan is a state that is lead by people who know shit. But even they are not immune from the MAGA insanity that’s sweeping the nation. However, in the case of one of the leading fake electors, this is what happens when you live in a cult and a bubble. Because you will eventually get duped into doing something potentially criminal if it means pleasing the cult. God forbid anyone else have a non right wing thought.
One of the people charged with acting as a fake elector for former president Donald Trump in Michigan has said she was "duped."
Michigan's attorney general Dana Nessel announced felony charges against 16 Republicans "for their role in the alleged false electors scheme" last week, accusing them of submitting false certificates that portrayed them as legitimate electors in the 2020 election which saw Joe Biden win the presidency.
Nessel, a Democrat, said all 16 people would face eight criminal charges, including forgery, conspiracy to commit election law forgery, and uttering and publishing. The top charges carry a maximum penalty of 14 years in prison.
It marks the first time anyone has been charged in a fake electors scheme to try to overturn the results of the 2020 election. The scheme allegedly took place in several states as part of efforts to keep Trump in power after his loss in 2020.
Read more: https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-fake-elector-duped-scheme-1814804?fbclid=IwAR1j3CFKKDtX3pqhQdOpuXTaK1suvDRjkx-ICH3msSjyx6irmzf9ybwzM3A#:~:text=Lundgren%2C%20from%20Detroit%2C%20told%20a,bigger%20than%20all%20of%20us.%22
Michigan's attorney general Dana Nessel announced felony charges against 16 Republicans "for their role in the alleged false electors scheme" last week, accusing them of submitting false certificates that portrayed them as legitimate electors in the 2020 election which saw Joe Biden win the presidency.
Nessel, a Democrat, said all 16 people would face eight criminal charges, including forgery, conspiracy to commit election law forgery, and uttering and publishing. The top charges carry a maximum penalty of 14 years in prison.
It marks the first time anyone has been charged in a fake electors scheme to try to overturn the results of the 2020 election. The scheme allegedly took place in several states as part of efforts to keep Trump in power after his loss in 2020.
Read more: https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-fake-elector-duped-scheme-1814804?fbclid=IwAR1j3CFKKDtX3pqhQdOpuXTaK1suvDRjkx-ICH3msSjyx6irmzf9ybwzM3A#:~:text=Lundgren%2C%20from%20Detroit%2C%20told%20a,bigger%20than%20all%20of%20us.%22
Well fucking duh!!! Of course you were duped! That’s what happens when you fall for a very obvious cult leader. Look at other cults like Scientology and that NXIVM cult whackjob. Cults go after educated people who have money to donate. You know what they say – fool me once, shame on you. Fool me… you won’t get fooled again! I heard a guy on TV say that once! But we can’t undermine the dangers of what is happening in this country. There are some extremely dark and dangerous forces at work, backed by some dark money sources. We can’t act like this is 2016 anymore. The innocence of that era is completely lost forever. Half the country is under a very dark cloud that will only get worse with time unless we stop it now.
A day after Michigan filed charges against 16 people involved in a scheme to substitute fake electoral votes and shift that state’s 2020 presidential electoral votes from Joe Biden to Donald Trump, Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul said he could not discuss whether a similar case might be underway in the Badger State.
At a news conference Wednesday morning, Kaul was asked about the conspiracy and forgery charges filed Tuesday by Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel against 16 Republicans in that state. The 16 were accused of conspiring to substitute false electoral vote certificates for former President Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election in place of Michigan’s real electoral votes cast for Joe Biden.
Kaul declined to say Wednesday whether a corresponding investigation is underway in Wisconsin, where a similar attempt was made to substitute the state’s 10 genuine Democratic electoral votes for Biden with 10 false Republican electoral vote certificates for Trump.
“I’m not going to comment directly on issues in Wisconsin,” Kaul told reporters. “We generally don’t confirm or deny the existence of investigations at the Department of Justice except in unique public safety circumstances.”
https://wisconsinexaminer.com/brief/kaul-stays-mum-on-whether-state-is-looking-at-wisconsin-fake-electors/
At a news conference Wednesday morning, Kaul was asked about the conspiracy and forgery charges filed Tuesday by Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel against 16 Republicans in that state. The 16 were accused of conspiring to substitute false electoral vote certificates for former President Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election in place of Michigan’s real electoral votes cast for Joe Biden.
Kaul declined to say Wednesday whether a corresponding investigation is underway in Wisconsin, where a similar attempt was made to substitute the state’s 10 genuine Democratic electoral votes for Biden with 10 false Republican electoral vote certificates for Trump.
“I’m not going to comment directly on issues in Wisconsin,” Kaul told reporters. “We generally don’t confirm or deny the existence of investigations at the Department of Justice except in unique public safety circumstances.”
https://wisconsinexaminer.com/brief/kaul-stays-mum-on-whether-state-is-looking-at-wisconsin-fake-electors/
Holy shit! This totally negates the claims that Trump has been making the last 3 years that the election of Joe Biden was fake. In fact, Trump himself was the one who was trying to steal it. Who knows how deep this goes? One thing we do know is that the entire GOP has been compromised from top to bottom from people looking to undermine the United States. The thing is, we have a major presidential election in one year. There are people already looking to compromise it. We cannot assume innocence anymore. We have to assume that everyone is highly suspect. Because if we don’t stop this before it’s too late, our democracy will be over before the end of this segment.
Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes’ office is investigating the transmission of an alternative slate of electors by Trump allies to be included in Congress’ counting of electoral votes on Jan. 6, 2021, a source familiar with the probe said Thursday.
A second source familiar with the matter said prosecutors from Mayes' office have had direct conversations with legal counsel for multiple people who acted as alternate electors, including former Arizona GOP chair Kelli Ward.
A lawyer for Ward has been asked for comment.
Mayes, a Democrat who narrowly defeated a 2020 election denier in November, had previously vowed to investigate the fake electors scheme, which was designed to challenge President Joe Biden's election win in Arizona.
"We have to make sure that it’s clear to everyone it's unacceptable to try to steal an election, to undermine and overthrow an election, and that’s what happened," Mayes told MSNBC this year. "We have to make sure what happened in 2020 never happens again."
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/arizona-attorney-general-probing-alternate-electors-2020-presidential-rcna94113
A second source familiar with the matter said prosecutors from Mayes' office have had direct conversations with legal counsel for multiple people who acted as alternate electors, including former Arizona GOP chair Kelli Ward.
A lawyer for Ward has been asked for comment.
Mayes, a Democrat who narrowly defeated a 2020 election denier in November, had previously vowed to investigate the fake electors scheme, which was designed to challenge President Joe Biden's election win in Arizona.
"We have to make sure that it’s clear to everyone it's unacceptable to try to steal an election, to undermine and overthrow an election, and that’s what happened," Mayes told MSNBC this year. "We have to make sure what happened in 2020 never happens again."
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/arizona-attorney-general-probing-alternate-electors-2020-presidential-rcna94113
[div style="padding: 20px; background-color: #ffffff; border-radius: 10px; box-shadow: 0px 2px 4px 1px #aaa;"][div style="font-family: arial, helvetica; font-weight: bold; border-bottom: 1px dotted #999; padding-bottom: 8px;"]
[font size="8"]That Former President
[br] [/font] [br]
There is a phrase that has been thrown around by both sides a lot in the last 3 years. And that phrase is FAFO – which stands for “fuck around and find out”. The reigning king of FAFO is that guy who we inexplicably used to call president – Donald J. Trump. Yes, he fucked around during COVID and found out by losing the election in a massive landslide. He also fucked around on January 6th when his merry band of lunatics invaded the Capitol and found out by getting slapped with impeachment charges. So where am I going with this you might ask? Well, I answer you good sir or madam, Trump has not exactly been what one might call “happy”. Especially since he can’t barf his brain on any of the major social media sites anymore and has been confined to his own personal hidey hole, Truth Social. Well, as you can guess, it’s a venerable hotbed of racism, insanity, and threats to murder the government. In fact, the MAGA king himself posted a message with that very phrase – FAFO – the other day. So is it an incitement to murder? Well, you tell us.
Former Vice President Mike Pence is convinced that history will not repeat itself.
Appearing on CNN Sunday, the Republican presidential contender was asked about former President Donald Trump's recent claim that indicting him for crimes related to the January 6 insurrection would be "very dangerous" given the "passion" of his supporters.
"It doesn't worry me because I have more confidence in the American people," Pence responded. The former vice president said he was "infuriated" by the violence on January 6 but argued that the ransacking of the US Capitol was carried out by a small minority of Trump supporters.
"I would say not just the majority, but virtually everyone in our movement, are patriotic or law-and-order people who would never have done anything like that," Pence said.
In a radio interview earlier this month, Trump appeared to suggest that some of his supporters would react violently were he to be indicted again. Special Counsel Jack Smith, who has already charged the former president with mishandling classified national security information, recently informed Trump that he's also target of his investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is also investigating Trump's efforts to overturn the results in Georgia.
https://news.yahoo.com/pence-says-hes-not-worried-150919793.html
Appearing on CNN Sunday, the Republican presidential contender was asked about former President Donald Trump's recent claim that indicting him for crimes related to the January 6 insurrection would be "very dangerous" given the "passion" of his supporters.
"It doesn't worry me because I have more confidence in the American people," Pence responded. The former vice president said he was "infuriated" by the violence on January 6 but argued that the ransacking of the US Capitol was carried out by a small minority of Trump supporters.
"I would say not just the majority, but virtually everyone in our movement, are patriotic or law-and-order people who would never have done anything like that," Pence said.
In a radio interview earlier this month, Trump appeared to suggest that some of his supporters would react violently were he to be indicted again. Special Counsel Jack Smith, who has already charged the former president with mishandling classified national security information, recently informed Trump that he's also target of his investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is also investigating Trump's efforts to overturn the results in Georgia.
https://news.yahoo.com/pence-says-hes-not-worried-150919793.html
Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Back up here. Back way the fuck up. OK let’s get this straight. Mike Pence, a guy who almost died at the hands of an unruly and extremely violent and radicalized mob that tried to take over the Capitol on January 6th, is in no way concerned about violent threats on Truth Social. I think this is where people need to stage an intervention for Mike and urge him to get some mental help right away. You might be dealing with some bad hombres, Mikey. Well, as you can imagine, the threats and violent imagery on Truth Social only get worse the more you dig into it. Of course… why wouldn’t it?
Former President Donald Trump claims that he “will do whatever” he can to bring down “the temperature” following last week’s FBI’s raid of his Florida home and club, Mar-a-Lago. But even a glimpse of Truth Social — Trump’s social media company — shows that the MAGA website has been a haven for private, doxxed information not only about authorities involved in the federal raid, but also of their families.
A review of Truth Social postings by Rolling Stone shows Trump supporters have spent the past week doxxing both Judge Bruce Reinhart, the magistrate judge who approved the Mar-a-Lago warrant, and an FBI agent involved in preparing the request, as well as their families. The information includes their purported home addresses, phone numbers, places of worship, private offices, and similar information about the men’s families and junior employees.
Rolling Stone has declined to name the FBI agent targeted out of safety concerns. Spokespeople for Truth Social and Trump did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment for this story.
Former Trump White House aide Garrett Ziegler posted the name of an FBI agent involved in the preparation of the warrant on Truth Social, as well as the names of his wife and child, their social media accounts, and the school the child attends. Truth Social removed the post by Ziegeler but the verbatim text of the post, complete with contact information for the agent and his family, have spread across Trump’s social media in a series of posts with no apparent attempts at moderation by the company.
When a federal court unsealed the search warrant, the court redacted the names of FBI agents involved. But the names became public when the pro-Trump outlet Breitbart obtained a leaked copy of the warrant and posted an article highlighting the agents’ names. In a move that added fuel to the MAGA doxxing push, Truth Social subsequently issued a push notification to its users that linked out to a third-party news article listing the agents’ names, according to CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan.
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/trump-truth-social-fbi-mar-a-lago-violence-1397317/
A review of Truth Social postings by Rolling Stone shows Trump supporters have spent the past week doxxing both Judge Bruce Reinhart, the magistrate judge who approved the Mar-a-Lago warrant, and an FBI agent involved in preparing the request, as well as their families. The information includes their purported home addresses, phone numbers, places of worship, private offices, and similar information about the men’s families and junior employees.
Rolling Stone has declined to name the FBI agent targeted out of safety concerns. Spokespeople for Truth Social and Trump did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment for this story.
Former Trump White House aide Garrett Ziegler posted the name of an FBI agent involved in the preparation of the warrant on Truth Social, as well as the names of his wife and child, their social media accounts, and the school the child attends. Truth Social removed the post by Ziegeler but the verbatim text of the post, complete with contact information for the agent and his family, have spread across Trump’s social media in a series of posts with no apparent attempts at moderation by the company.
When a federal court unsealed the search warrant, the court redacted the names of FBI agents involved. But the names became public when the pro-Trump outlet Breitbart obtained a leaked copy of the warrant and posted an article highlighting the agents’ names. In a move that added fuel to the MAGA doxxing push, Truth Social subsequently issued a push notification to its users that linked out to a third-party news article listing the agents’ names, according to CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan.
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/trump-truth-social-fbi-mar-a-lago-violence-1397317/
OK let’s think about this here. It’s insane, but not in the least bit surprising, that the MAGA criminals are lashing out at the FBI. But at the same time, it really begs to say that those who are speaking out against the FBI, DOJ, and IRS are most likely guilty of crimes that they don’t want the public to know about. I mean come on, Trump, what are you hiding? In addition to the 800,000,000,000 other crimes he has out in the open. Let’s see your poker face! Come on, all cards are on the table! I’m calling it! Well, in attempting to find out if there’s any method to Trump’s madness, naturally, some experts were consulted on the subject.
Donald Trump has repeatedly demonstrated, through the many direct and implied threats of violence that he has made during his decades of public life, that he is a very violent man.
The many recent examples of Trump's violent ways include wishing death upon Hunter Biden and inciting his followers to assassinate former president Barack Obama by sharing what is presumed to be the latter's home address online. One of Trump's followers acted on those de facto commands last month and was apprehended by the Secret Service near Obama's Washington, D.C. home. The would-be assassin was armed with two guns and hundreds of rounds of ammunition.
Just this week, in a post on his Truth Social disinformation platform, Trump shared audio of his 2020 interview with the late right-wing radio host Rush Limbaugh, in which Trump says, "If you f**k around with us, if you do something bad to us, we are going to do things to you that have never been done before."
And of course, Donald Trump attempted a coup attempt on Jan. 6 which included a terrorist attack on the Capitol by his followers. This is in addition to Trump's repeatedly encouraging and outright commanding his followers to attack their "enemies" such as Black Lives Matter protesters, "Antifa," and the news media. His labeling of the press as "the enemy of the people" is Trump's version of the language used by the Nazis in Germany (the "lügenpresse" or "lying press".
https://www.salon.com/2023/07/21/an-inner-drive-for-self-destruction-psychoanalyst-on-cycle-of-and-confessions/
The many recent examples of Trump's violent ways include wishing death upon Hunter Biden and inciting his followers to assassinate former president Barack Obama by sharing what is presumed to be the latter's home address online. One of Trump's followers acted on those de facto commands last month and was apprehended by the Secret Service near Obama's Washington, D.C. home. The would-be assassin was armed with two guns and hundreds of rounds of ammunition.
Just this week, in a post on his Truth Social disinformation platform, Trump shared audio of his 2020 interview with the late right-wing radio host Rush Limbaugh, in which Trump says, "If you f**k around with us, if you do something bad to us, we are going to do things to you that have never been done before."
And of course, Donald Trump attempted a coup attempt on Jan. 6 which included a terrorist attack on the Capitol by his followers. This is in addition to Trump's repeatedly encouraging and outright commanding his followers to attack their "enemies" such as Black Lives Matter protesters, "Antifa," and the news media. His labeling of the press as "the enemy of the people" is Trump's version of the language used by the Nazis in Germany (the "lügenpresse" or "lying press".
https://www.salon.com/2023/07/21/an-inner-drive-for-self-destruction-psychoanalyst-on-cycle-of-and-confessions/
Of course it always comes back to Nazi Germany. As the great Lewis Black said, it’s like six degrees of Kevin Bacon, except there’s just one degree, and Kevin Bacon is Hitler. But in the war against the online content police, why can’t more companies be like Google? Remember, up until 2019, social media and search engine sites had rules about what kind of content can and can’t be posted? Why are we not surprised that when Elon bough t Twitter and started hanging out with Neo Nazis, it caused all the good advertisers to flee the service and we basically got stuck with Cash 4 Gold and bargain basement junk sites? Well, guess what? Concerns about violent content are the reason why Google is being cautious about Truth Social.
Android users still aren't able to see Donald Trump's meltdowns on his Truth Social network because Google still hasn't approved the app for distribution.
Truth Social CEO Devin Nunes claimed last week the decision was "up to Google," but the tech giant said it had notified the social media upstart of "several violations of standard policies," including having effective moderation for user-generated content, before the app could be offered on Google Play, reported Axios.
A source told Axios that Google's concerns were related to content that featured physical threats and incitements to violence, and Truth Social's banners warning of "sensitive content" were insufficient for Google.
A post last week by an account called "TheVictim24," in response to one from former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn, was cited as an example of content Google found objectionable.....................
Read more: https://www.rawstory.com/truth-social-google-play-store/
Truth Social CEO Devin Nunes claimed last week the decision was "up to Google," but the tech giant said it had notified the social media upstart of "several violations of standard policies," including having effective moderation for user-generated content, before the app could be offered on Google Play, reported Axios.
A source told Axios that Google's concerns were related to content that featured physical threats and incitements to violence, and Truth Social's banners warning of "sensitive content" were insufficient for Google.
A post last week by an account called "TheVictim24," in response to one from former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn, was cited as an example of content Google found objectionable.....................
Read more: https://www.rawstory.com/truth-social-google-play-store/
[div style="padding: 20px; background-color: #ffffff; border-radius: 10px; box-shadow: 0px 2px 4px 1px #aaa;"][div style="font-family: arial, helvetica; font-weight: bold; border-bottom: 1px dotted #999; padding-bottom: 8px;"]
[font size="8"]Holy Shit: The Holy War On Wokism
[br] [/font] [br]
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, there’s been a word that the right wing has been floating about the last year that you’ve probably heard your Dark One worshipping friends say about 1,000 times in the last hour: “woke”. And that one word has done far more damage to this country than anything Al Qaeda, the Taliban, or ISIS could ever dream of! Why is that? It’s because the people who say this word more times than they care to admit don’t worship GAWD or JAYSUS, oh no. They worship the unholy, ungodly Dark One! I of course speak of a man so foul, so depraved and disgusting that his name dare NOT be spoken in my church! But lately I’ve noticed something, my fair congregation! I noticed that there’s more to this “war on woke” than you might realize, underneath all the fearmongering headlines and Youtube videos. The word “woke” has apparently spawned it’s own religion within a religion. I guess that might be called “religious inception”? Well anyway it’s a truly bizarre phenomenon and we need to know more!
Long ago and far away in a country where we all seemed to believe in roughly the same reality, many people in a political party that traditionally talked up law and order and guffawed that liberals needed to put on their "big-boy pants" to face the harsh facts of the world lost their minds. How did this happen? Well, they were reminded that there was such a thing as white privilege. They had forgotten about it, possibly on purpose.
They were told that, yes, white privilege is a thing, and it's pretty obvious. They fumed and feigned outrage at this accurate report on the state of the real world until they convinced themselves that it was a huge lie and an outrage. Coached by their favorite enablers in the media, they worked themselves up into an emotional lather until they could act their parts somewhat convincingly, even with all the unrealistic lines. Think of the Stanislavsky Method in acting, except this was the Limbaugh Method of acting out.
Of course it wasn't just about white privilege; that's just the most obvious aspect of the advantages that individuals or groups enjoy (or do not enjoy) in our society, without having to show any particular merit. When the renewed discussion of privilege was extended to male privilege, white men — incongruously led by an obese man-boy in orange makeup sporting a spun-sugar combover — embarked on their White Men's Campaign of Endless Grievances.
....(snip)....
The fight against "woke" (a term with a longer history than most of us may realize) is strikingly similar to the fight the right previously waged against "political correctness": It's an existential battle against allowing people to be awakened — by reading novels and history, by attending plays, by watching and listening to actual news — through open discussion of privilege or systemic racism or, to use a different but related term, the underlying and nearly invisible structures of caste in America. It is a fight to stop people from talking about those social structures, or about the combination of religious zealotry and political ideology at work to foreclose women's bodily autonomy. It's a fight to prevent young people from expressing their sexual and gender preferences, to make it more difficult for certain groups of citizens to vote, and to keep books that might make the most hypocritical and closed-minded evangelical Christian pastors uncomfortable off the shelves of public schools and libraries.
https://www.salon.com/2023/06/25/why-the-right-is-so-terrified-of-woke-there-are-truths-it-just-cant-face/
They were told that, yes, white privilege is a thing, and it's pretty obvious. They fumed and feigned outrage at this accurate report on the state of the real world until they convinced themselves that it was a huge lie and an outrage. Coached by their favorite enablers in the media, they worked themselves up into an emotional lather until they could act their parts somewhat convincingly, even with all the unrealistic lines. Think of the Stanislavsky Method in acting, except this was the Limbaugh Method of acting out.
Of course it wasn't just about white privilege; that's just the most obvious aspect of the advantages that individuals or groups enjoy (or do not enjoy) in our society, without having to show any particular merit. When the renewed discussion of privilege was extended to male privilege, white men — incongruously led by an obese man-boy in orange makeup sporting a spun-sugar combover — embarked on their White Men's Campaign of Endless Grievances.
....(snip)....
The fight against "woke" (a term with a longer history than most of us may realize) is strikingly similar to the fight the right previously waged against "political correctness": It's an existential battle against allowing people to be awakened — by reading novels and history, by attending plays, by watching and listening to actual news — through open discussion of privilege or systemic racism or, to use a different but related term, the underlying and nearly invisible structures of caste in America. It is a fight to stop people from talking about those social structures, or about the combination of religious zealotry and political ideology at work to foreclose women's bodily autonomy. It's a fight to prevent young people from expressing their sexual and gender preferences, to make it more difficult for certain groups of citizens to vote, and to keep books that might make the most hypocritical and closed-minded evangelical Christian pastors uncomfortable off the shelves of public schools and libraries.
https://www.salon.com/2023/06/25/why-the-right-is-so-terrified-of-woke-there-are-truths-it-just-cant-face/
Yes, and that devil, my friends, is whatever right wing insanity got this shit trending in the first place, for it is almost certainly evil! And it’s a clown show at that. But you know, MAGAs, you know who is forcing their agenda on us? It’s you! It’s always been you. Because your hatred is drive n by your talk show of choice and they’re the ones who are keeping us fighting with each other. But go ahead, watch Fox New s and worship the unholy Dark One and see where that gets you. We’ve talked about the dangers of this sort of thing in the past, and you should definitely see the dangers of Christian nationalism and what this “anti-woke” crusade is doing to some people. But the specific event that I want to talk about happened at Dodger Stadium a couple of weeks ago. There really seems to be a “reverse martyrdom” component to all of this.
With “stop anti-Catholic hate” and "God will not be mocked” signs, protesters surrounded the main entrance to Dodger Stadium on Friday hours before The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence were to receive an award on LGBTQ Pride Night.
The appearance of the rights advocacy group, whose members dress in drag as nuns, came after conflicting messages from the Dodgers and amid accusations from Catholics that their faith was being insulted.
The controversy started last month when the Dodgers invited, then disinvited, then re-invited the Sisters to the team's 10th annual Pride night at the stadium in Chavez Ravine.
The Sisters have been at the forefront of LGBTQ rights activism for decades. The group began organizing in the 1970s to support people with HIV/AIDS.
In the end, the Sisters were awarded a Community Hero Award at a brief on-field ceremony held with few fans yet in their seats before Friday’s Dodgers game against rivals San Francisco Giants.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/religious-protesters-gather-dodger-stadium-pride-night-rcna89848
The appearance of the rights advocacy group, whose members dress in drag as nuns, came after conflicting messages from the Dodgers and amid accusations from Catholics that their faith was being insulted.
The controversy started last month when the Dodgers invited, then disinvited, then re-invited the Sisters to the team's 10th annual Pride night at the stadium in Chavez Ravine.
The Sisters have been at the forefront of LGBTQ rights activism for decades. The group began organizing in the 1970s to support people with HIV/AIDS.
In the end, the Sisters were awarded a Community Hero Award at a brief on-field ceremony held with few fans yet in their seats before Friday’s Dodgers game against rivals San Francisco Giants.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/religious-protesters-gather-dodger-stadium-pride-night-rcna89848
Satan’s Boners? No, you want the congregation down the hall. But the point is, this whole reverse victimization shit is the reason why we can’t have nice things. It’s equal parts hilarious and insane that the Catholic Church turned what should have been an innocent celebration of Pride during Pride Month into a reverse victimization complex. No, you are not the victims here, you are the haters! Which, we’re not surprised at all that this “war on wokism” has turned into a holy war of sorts. But that being said, let’s leave it to the king of reverse victimization, Ron DeSatan. Yes, he’s the worst evil bigot of them all and is stunningly evil!
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis appeared on Fox News on Thursday night where he continued his longtime crusade against “wokeness” despite the fact it does not seem to have helped him much in the polls.
Surveys have consistently shown the governor trailing former President Donald Trump by wide margins.
Appearing on Jesse Watters Primetime, DeSantis discussed the recent woes of the stock price of Anheuser-Busch InBev, which produces Bud Light. Earlier this year, conservative media outlets and politicians embarked on a weeks-long outrage campaign after Bud Light sent a personalized can to a transgender TikTok influencer and paid her to promote the beer.
On Thursday, DeSantis sent a letter to the manager of his state’s pension fund, which owns shares of InBev. He urged the manager to consider suing the company because, he said, it “breached legal duties owed to its shareholders” by going woke.
https://www.mediaite.com/tv/desantis-floats-lawsuit-against-woke-bud-light-while-trump-continues-cleaning-his-clock/
Surveys have consistently shown the governor trailing former President Donald Trump by wide margins.
Appearing on Jesse Watters Primetime, DeSantis discussed the recent woes of the stock price of Anheuser-Busch InBev, which produces Bud Light. Earlier this year, conservative media outlets and politicians embarked on a weeks-long outrage campaign after Bud Light sent a personalized can to a transgender TikTok influencer and paid her to promote the beer.
On Thursday, DeSantis sent a letter to the manager of his state’s pension fund, which owns shares of InBev. He urged the manager to consider suing the company because, he said, it “breached legal duties owed to its shareholders” by going woke.
https://www.mediaite.com/tv/desantis-floats-lawsuit-against-woke-bud-light-while-trump-continues-cleaning-his-clock/
OK now you’ve got to be kidding me! This might be one of the most insane cases of reverse victimization of them all. Like really Ron? This whole thing against Bud Light started because Kid Rock shot at a case of Bud as protest. And this whole thing is because of this bizarre anti-woke campaign that is only getting weirder and nuttier every single week. But if you must know what the end result of the right wing’s bizarre “war on woke” is, you know that it cannot be good. For these people worship the unholy Dark One. And if people like Moms For Liberty are any indication, they are a group that is most definitely to be avoided. They are doing more harm than good!
Oklahoma's firebrand "anti-woke" state superintendent has come under fire after a state audit revealed that a nonprofit homeschooling program he was appointed to oversee in 2021 blew massive amounts of public money on things that have nothing to do with children's education, reported The Daily Beast.
Among the items purchased by the program: "Big screen TVs. Washing Machines. Kitchen appliances. Power tools. A 'classic Pokemon video cabinet.'"
There were other problems with the program, per the report, including which families got the money: "The audit determined that there was 'a deliberate operation to give selected private schools and individuals preferential treatment by allowing early access for application submission prior to the date this program was offered to the general public.'" the Beast reported.
All of this comes as Walters, who ran for state superintendent a year later and has vowed to purge wokeness from public schools and even proposed ordering all Oklahoma teachers to undergo religion-based "patriotic education," is set to speak at the Philadelphia convention of Moms for Liberty, an extremist group tied to far-right militias and the QAnon movement.
https://www.rawstory.com/ryan-walters/
Among the items purchased by the program: "Big screen TVs. Washing Machines. Kitchen appliances. Power tools. A 'classic Pokemon video cabinet.'"
There were other problems with the program, per the report, including which families got the money: "The audit determined that there was 'a deliberate operation to give selected private schools and individuals preferential treatment by allowing early access for application submission prior to the date this program was offered to the general public.'" the Beast reported.
All of this comes as Walters, who ran for state superintendent a year later and has vowed to purge wokeness from public schools and even proposed ordering all Oklahoma teachers to undergo religion-based "patriotic education," is set to speak at the Philadelphia convention of Moms for Liberty, an extremist group tied to far-right militias and the QAnon movement.
https://www.rawstory.com/ryan-walters/
I can’t even with this crowd. They are the ruiners of everything that is good and decent in this country, because they stand for the unholy Dark One! Mass has ended, may you go in peace! That’s it this week for:
[div style="padding: 20px; background-color: #ffffff; border-radius: 10px; box-shadow: 0px 2px 4px 1px #aaa;"][div style="font-family: arial, helvetica; font-weight: bold; border-bottom: 1px dotted #999; padding-bottom: 8px;"]
[font size="8"]Beating A Dead Horse: Try That In A Major City
[br] [/font] [br]
You know, folks, the long standing debate between what is better than what is a debate that’s as old as time itself. We are absolutely not going to settle the debate between rock music and country music any time soon. We are also not going to settle the debate between major cities and small towns any time soon. We couldn’t even settle the score between two singers of the same genre (see: Idiots #14-14 ). So what makes you think we’re going to settle the debate between major cities and small towns? We won’t. The latest guy to inject himself in the debate is country megastar Jason Aldean. His new song “Try That In A Small Town” is a huge hit after it got banned from the Country Music Television channel. Man, how toxic does your song have to be to get banned from CMT? The channel that plays Toby Keith. Yeah that sounds about white! Well, his song “Try That In A Small Town” is the sort of toxic conservative, racist, gun toting, fake machismo diatribe that you might come to expect from someone who voluntarily hangs around Mar-A-Lago.
Country music singer Jason Aldean's "Try That In A Small Town" reached number one on the U.S. iTunes chart after Country Music TV pulled the song's music video from the channel.
"Jason Aldean's "Try That In A Small Town" has reached #1 on US iTunes," Billboard Charts tweeted on Wednesday.
The song, which was released in May, saw its music video drop this past weekend, prompting widespread criticism from many on social media for its lyrics and where Aldean shot the video.
"Cuss out a cop, spit in his face. Stomp on the flag and light it up. Yeah, ya think you're tough," Aldean sings. "Well, try that in a small town. See how far ya make it down the road. Around here, we take care of our own. You cross that line, it won't take long. For you to find out, I recommend you don't."
Other lyrics include: "got a gun that my granddad gave me. They say one day they're gonna round up / Well, that s*** might fly in the city, good luck."
https://www.msn.com/en-us/music/other/jason-aldean-song-about-guns-hits-number-1-as-country-music-tv-turns-on-him/ar-AA1e4Fgn
"Jason Aldean's "Try That In A Small Town" has reached #1 on US iTunes," Billboard Charts tweeted on Wednesday.
The song, which was released in May, saw its music video drop this past weekend, prompting widespread criticism from many on social media for its lyrics and where Aldean shot the video.
"Cuss out a cop, spit in his face. Stomp on the flag and light it up. Yeah, ya think you're tough," Aldean sings. "Well, try that in a small town. See how far ya make it down the road. Around here, we take care of our own. You cross that line, it won't take long. For you to find out, I recommend you don't."
Other lyrics include: "got a gun that my granddad gave me. They say one day they're gonna round up / Well, that s*** might fly in the city, good luck."
https://www.msn.com/en-us/music/other/jason-aldean-song-about-guns-hits-number-1-as-country-music-tv-turns-on-him/ar-AA1e4Fgn
I’m pretty sure that’s what foreign visitors think small town Americans must be like! Well here’s the thing, Jason, remember Uvalde? That was a small town. There were 400 police officers. They couldn’t stop one guy with a semi-automatic. So who’s really taking care of their own then? How about this? I think you should try that in a major city! Come on down to Los Angeles, hang out in a bar in Compton, or Inglewood, and start trying to act tough. I bet you don’t last 5 minutes! Yeah it’s this kind of bullshit that’s not winning the culture war debates any time soon. By the way in case you’re wondering why the song is being accused of some blatant racism, it might be because of this.
Just when you thought there couldn’t possibly be anymore dog whistles embedded in the Jason Aldean “Try That in a Small Town” saga, an intrepid, sharp-eyed TikTok user has potentially picked out one more.
Amazingly, this incident doesn’t involve the song itself, or even its controversial video — part of which was reportedly filmed outside a courthouse in Columbia, Tennessee, the site of a 1933 lynching (and features a surprising amount of footage from Canada). Rather, it involves a promotional video shared on TikTok that eventually became the official lyric video. It’s a largely innocuous video with a newspaper theme, but as TikTok user Danny Collins discovered, there’s an actual old newspaper clipping featured in the video — and it’s tied to a Jim Crow-era story about a writer who was harassed for fighting segregation and white supremacy.
The clipping in question appears around the eight-second mark of Aldean’s TikTok. Collins was able to trace it back to an Aug. 30, 1956 article in The Petal Paper, a weekly paper out of Petal, Mississippi (an actual small town, unlike, say, Macon, Georgia, where Aldean grew up). The Petal Paper was run by Percy Dale East, who frequently delivered satirical broadsides against segregation, racism, and white supremacy. (Rolling Stone was able to confirm Collins’ findings.)
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/jason-aldean-try-that-in-a-small-town-tiktok-jim-crow-story-1234794285/
Amazingly, this incident doesn’t involve the song itself, or even its controversial video — part of which was reportedly filmed outside a courthouse in Columbia, Tennessee, the site of a 1933 lynching (and features a surprising amount of footage from Canada). Rather, it involves a promotional video shared on TikTok that eventually became the official lyric video. It’s a largely innocuous video with a newspaper theme, but as TikTok user Danny Collins discovered, there’s an actual old newspaper clipping featured in the video — and it’s tied to a Jim Crow-era story about a writer who was harassed for fighting segregation and white supremacy.
The clipping in question appears around the eight-second mark of Aldean’s TikTok. Collins was able to trace it back to an Aug. 30, 1956 article in The Petal Paper, a weekly paper out of Petal, Mississippi (an actual small town, unlike, say, Macon, Georgia, where Aldean grew up). The Petal Paper was run by Percy Dale East, who frequently delivered satirical broadsides against segregation, racism, and white supremacy. (Rolling Stone was able to confirm Collins’ findings.)
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/jason-aldean-try-that-in-a-small-town-tiktok-jim-crow-story-1234794285/
Hooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooly shit! So let me get this straight. In a time when racial tensions are at the highest they’ve been since the Civil Rights movement, Jason Aldean goes and deliberately films his newest music video at the sight of a historically famous lynching – and we’re supposed to believe he’s not racist? I mean come on, the guy regularly hangs out at Mar-A-Lago and has been photographed with his wife kissing Trump! Yeah there’s an image that I can’t unsee! But the scary thing about this whole thing is that it’s proving once again that hate sells. In the words of Megadeth, hate sells… but who’s buying?
Jason Aldean's latest single "Try That in a Small Town" has ignited a heated debate in the music industry and in the press due to its controversial imagery in the music video and its lyrics. Many have raised concerns about the song, labeling it as racist, as it discusses potential violence in response to certain behaviors that are perceived to be acceptable in the "rest" of America but not in small town America, such as the burning of the American flag or protesting police brutality.
Surprisingly, rather than deterring listeners, the racist categorization is actually having the opposite effect, propelling "Try That in a Small Town" to become a potential chart-topping hit.
Online accounts that predict song sales and chart positions with impressive accuracy have suggested that "Try That in a Small Town" is headed for a significant debut on Billboard's Hot 100, which ranks the most-consumed tracks in the U.S. The song is likely to enter the top 10 and may even make its way to the top five. Some reports even indicate that it's making a serious bid for the No. 1 spot, although it faces fierce competition from BTS's Jung Kook, who recently launched a successful solo career with his debut single, "Seven," and Morgan Wallen's current leader, "Last Night."
https://www.forbes.com/sites/hughmcintyre/2023/07/21/jason-aldean-is-parlaying-his-racism-controversy-into-a-chart-hit/?sh=5bec63de3767
Surprisingly, rather than deterring listeners, the racist categorization is actually having the opposite effect, propelling "Try That in a Small Town" to become a potential chart-topping hit.
Online accounts that predict song sales and chart positions with impressive accuracy have suggested that "Try That in a Small Town" is headed for a significant debut on Billboard's Hot 100, which ranks the most-consumed tracks in the U.S. The song is likely to enter the top 10 and may even make its way to the top five. Some reports even indicate that it's making a serious bid for the No. 1 spot, although it faces fierce competition from BTS's Jung Kook, who recently launched a successful solo career with his debut single, "Seven," and Morgan Wallen's current leader, "Last Night."
https://www.forbes.com/sites/hughmcintyre/2023/07/21/jason-aldean-is-parlaying-his-racism-controversy-into-a-chart-hit/?sh=5bec63de3767
Yeah ‘MURICA!!!! WOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! Now here’s the part in the debate where I say that both sides should take a step back, take a deep breath, and pull their collective heads out of each other’s asses. Because like I said, no side is winning this debate any time soon. But it’s scary to think that the MAGAs are buying this song just based off pure hate. And that they’re proud to be haters. But then I guess that’s what the collective exercise of the last 6 years have been. The MAGAs have their middle fingers proudly extended at civilized society and they’re not going back to normal any time soon. They now have a megaphone to amplify their hate and hostility. And people like Trump and Jason Aldean are trying to make that the normal in society. But I’m glad that no one has taken the bait yet.
Republican politicians are rushing to defend ultraconservative country singer Jason Aldean, whose new song openly calls for violence against Black people.
Aldean released the song “Try That in a Small Town” in May, and the incredibly alarming music video just last week. The song’s lyrics are rife with threats to outsiders, particularly people from the city. The words encourage listeners to resort to vigilantism and gun violence against outsiders.
But the music video is more explicit about whom it considers an outsider. The video includes clips of riots, vandalism, and police encounters. Some of the images come from Fox News’s coverage of Black Lives Matter protests, but some are stock footage, including of demonstrations from other countries. The intended effect is to encourage violence against people protesting racial injustice.
Those clips are spliced alongside shots of Aldean singing outside the Maury County Courthouse in Columbia, Tennessee. The building is the site of a racist attack in 1927, when a white mob lynched an 18-year-old Black teenager by pulling him out of a jail cell and dragging him through the city behind a car. The courthouse was also the site of a race riot in 1946.
https://newrepublic.com/post/174527/republicans-rush-defend-jason-aldean-racist-song-filmed-lynching-site
Aldean released the song “Try That in a Small Town” in May, and the incredibly alarming music video just last week. The song’s lyrics are rife with threats to outsiders, particularly people from the city. The words encourage listeners to resort to vigilantism and gun violence against outsiders.
But the music video is more explicit about whom it considers an outsider. The video includes clips of riots, vandalism, and police encounters. Some of the images come from Fox News’s coverage of Black Lives Matter protests, but some are stock footage, including of demonstrations from other countries. The intended effect is to encourage violence against people protesting racial injustice.
Those clips are spliced alongside shots of Aldean singing outside the Maury County Courthouse in Columbia, Tennessee. The building is the site of a racist attack in 1927, when a white mob lynched an 18-year-old Black teenager by pulling him out of a jail cell and dragging him through the city behind a car. The courthouse was also the site of a race riot in 1946.
https://newrepublic.com/post/174527/republicans-rush-defend-jason-aldean-racist-song-filmed-lynching-site
[div style="padding: 20px; background-color: #ffffff; border-radius: 10px; box-shadow: 0px 2px 4px 1px #aaa;"][div style="font-family: arial, helvetica; font-weight: bold; border-bottom: 1px dotted #999; padding-bottom: 8px;"]
[font size="8"]Conspiracy Corner: What is astroturfing?
[br] [/font] [br]
Welcome back to our segment that attempts to explain the unexplainable, Conspiracy Corner! Of course conspiracies exist when people simply don’t want to read the article past the headlines and just flat out make shit up. We of course are coming to you live from our underground doomsday shelter from deep within the New Mexico badlands. Undisclosed location, of course! Let me just adjust my trusty tin foil hat for maximum government interference. Ah, there we go! They are trying to read yours and my thoughts after all! Well this week I’m sure that you’ve heard about the new Q Anon movie that’s making strides at the box office – Sound Of Freedom. The movie stars guy who not just played Jesus, but is convinced he is Jesus, Jim Caviezel and is about an underground sex trafficking ring. Well, there’s a lot of controversy about this movie – not just because it’s by Q nuts for Q nuts. But apparently there’s a new conspiracy that the movie is playing to empty theaters. So what’s causing that? Well, it has to do with something called “astroturfing”.
The popular movie Sound of Freedom has been making headlines for a while now, mostly for its plot and storyline. However, the movie is now getting a lot of negative criticism after several social media users began pointing out how the makers of Sound of Freedom are faking that the screenings have been sold out.
Accusing the makers of astroturfing, many social media users claimed that they have been hearing that no tickets for the movie are available, but when they reach the theatre, they find the screens and halls to be empty. Taking the same into consideration, a Twitter user, @CyKoore, tweeted and said:
A similar claim was made by another Twitter user, @GeoRebekah, who claimed that when she tried to book the tickets for the movie, the theatres claimed that the tickets were sold out, and none was available. However, when she walked into the screen, she saw that there was not even a single person seated there.
Hence, the question in people’s minds remains the same if the theatres are full and shows are completely sold out, then why is no one seated inside? Many social media users have been claiming that movie makers are just astroturfing, which is a term used when people try to create a buzz around something by giving the impression of public support.
https://www.sportskeeda.com/pop-culture/news-what-astroturfing-video-sound-freedom-fake-sold-screenings-goes-viral-online
Accusing the makers of astroturfing, many social media users claimed that they have been hearing that no tickets for the movie are available, but when they reach the theatre, they find the screens and halls to be empty. Taking the same into consideration, a Twitter user, @CyKoore, tweeted and said:
A similar claim was made by another Twitter user, @GeoRebekah, who claimed that when she tried to book the tickets for the movie, the theatres claimed that the tickets were sold out, and none was available. However, when she walked into the screen, she saw that there was not even a single person seated there.
Hence, the question in people’s minds remains the same if the theatres are full and shows are completely sold out, then why is no one seated inside? Many social media users have been claiming that movie makers are just astroturfing, which is a term used when people try to create a buzz around something by giving the impression of public support.
https://www.sportskeeda.com/pop-culture/news-what-astroturfing-video-sound-freedom-fake-sold-screenings-goes-viral-online
Well here’s the thing – if you’re in the target demographic for Sound Of Freedom, you’re probably already prone to believing that everything is a conspiracy theory. So yeah we’re not going to trust your judgement when it comes to this sort of thing. So here’s exactly what is going on with this movie – the reason why it’s got such high box office numbers for an independent movie that had no distribution model – is using the “pay it forward” business model. Which means that people are buying seats for other people – and no one’s going to see it. So to the MAGA people at home, the theaters don’t care if you show up or not. Because they got your money.
Barbenheimer has been attracting most of the attention at the box office this month, but a story that not a lot of folks are talking about is Sound of Freedom, a movie that crossed the $120 million mark over the weekend and, in its third weekend, beat the second weekend of Tom Cruise’s Mission Impossible film. Paramount Pictures ponied up $300 million to produce Mission Impossible, whereas Angel Studios crowdfunded nearly $20 million to distribute Sound of Freedom.
What the hell, right?
Sound of Freedom stars Jim Caveziel. It was originally produced by 20th Century and completed in 2018. After Disney bought 20th Century, the studio shelved it. The filmmakers bought it back from Disney and approached Angel Studios to distribute it; the studio put it out to their investors, and they raised the money to distribute it.
Where it gets unique, even bizarre, is that Angel Studios and the film’s star have encouraged others to “pay it forward,” which is to say: Purchase a ticket for someone else to see the film. That strategy has been hugely successful, with thousands of tickets being purchased but remaining unused. As a result, in some cases, theaters show nearly sold-out crowds and only a smattering of attendees. That is to say that Sound of Freedom may have sold as many tickets as Mission Impossible over the weekend, but more people actually watched Mission Impossible over the same period.
https://www.pajiba.com/film_reviews/how-shady-is-the-sound-of-freedom-box-office.php
What the hell, right?
Sound of Freedom stars Jim Caveziel. It was originally produced by 20th Century and completed in 2018. After Disney bought 20th Century, the studio shelved it. The filmmakers bought it back from Disney and approached Angel Studios to distribute it; the studio put it out to their investors, and they raised the money to distribute it.
Where it gets unique, even bizarre, is that Angel Studios and the film’s star have encouraged others to “pay it forward,” which is to say: Purchase a ticket for someone else to see the film. That strategy has been hugely successful, with thousands of tickets being purchased but remaining unused. As a result, in some cases, theaters show nearly sold-out crowds and only a smattering of attendees. That is to say that Sound of Freedom may have sold as many tickets as Mission Impossible over the weekend, but more people actually watched Mission Impossible over the same period.
https://www.pajiba.com/film_reviews/how-shady-is-the-sound-of-freedom-box-office.php
Yeah probably! Well, here’s the thing, MAGAs. The movie theater is not botching the screening of your Q Anon sex trafficking movie. You know who is? Your megachurch pastor! Thank you audience! That’s right – just like those copies of Kari Lake’s book that no one apparently seems to be buying, churches are apparently snapping up tickets to these movies and giving them out to their congregations. To which we say “don’t you think it’s time that churches should be taxed?”. Yes, thank you again audience! But this whole “pay it forward” model is definitely something that could definitely be taken advantage of if it’s not done properly.
The Sound of Freedom, a film based on a former government agent’s pursuit to rescue child sex trafficking victims, is a hit at the box office and a darling among right-wing audiences, but it’s also come under scrutiny for its numerous ties to the QAnon conspiracy.
The Sound of Freedom debuted in theaters July 4 and has collected more than $41 million so far, placing third at the box office last weekend behind bigger-budget films, Indiana Jones: Dial of Destiny and Insidious: The Red Door.
The film stars Jim Caviezel as Tim Ballard, a former Homeland Security agent and founder of Operation Underground Railroad, who conducts sting operations to rescue children from sex traffickers.
But OUR was the subject of a Vice investigation that claims the organization has exaggerated its role in sex-trafficking rescues, with multiple law enforcement agencies saying their work with OUR has been “insubstantial.”
Both Ballard and Caviezel have been linked to conspiracy theories associated with QAnon: Ballard previously suggested support for a debunked viral theory that furniture retailer Wayfair was selling children, and Caviezel has reportedly spoken at multiple QAnon events where he promoted one of the most bizarre Q conspiracies, claiming that child traffickers drain their victims’ blood to develop adrenochrome, a chemical theorists believe Hollywood elites inject to stay young.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/conormurray/2023/07/11/box-office-hit-sound-of-freedom-controversy-including-qanon-ties-and-false-claims-theaters-are-sabotaging-screenings-explained/?sh=15328d65688c
The Sound of Freedom debuted in theaters July 4 and has collected more than $41 million so far, placing third at the box office last weekend behind bigger-budget films, Indiana Jones: Dial of Destiny and Insidious: The Red Door.
The film stars Jim Caviezel as Tim Ballard, a former Homeland Security agent and founder of Operation Underground Railroad, who conducts sting operations to rescue children from sex traffickers.
But OUR was the subject of a Vice investigation that claims the organization has exaggerated its role in sex-trafficking rescues, with multiple law enforcement agencies saying their work with OUR has been “insubstantial.”
Both Ballard and Caviezel have been linked to conspiracy theories associated with QAnon: Ballard previously suggested support for a debunked viral theory that furniture retailer Wayfair was selling children, and Caviezel has reportedly spoken at multiple QAnon events where he promoted one of the most bizarre Q conspiracies, claiming that child traffickers drain their victims’ blood to develop adrenochrome, a chemical theorists believe Hollywood elites inject to stay young.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/conormurray/2023/07/11/box-office-hit-sound-of-freedom-controversy-including-qanon-ties-and-false-claims-theaters-are-sabotaging-screenings-explained/?sh=15328d65688c
Yeah probably! So again, MAGAs, if you’re in the target demographic for Sound Of Freedom, we don’t have to reiterate that we already don’t trust your judgement. And if this is what your religion is teaching you, then you should probably find a new religion! And the thing is, no matter how many tickets you buy to this flick, nobody is going to watch it except for your target demographic. There’s no surprise or conspiracy theory here. But the debate over what movie is better, and what movie is “woke garbage” or not is entirely up to you. If you don’t like the movie, don’t go see it. But don’t make up convoluted theories as to why theaters are empty.
Sound of Freedom, the religious, “QAnon adjacent” child-smuggling film that has enthralled conservatives across the US, passed the $100m mark in ticket sales on Thursday.
But as the movie continues to cause controversy – with its star touring conservative media to peddle conspiracy theories about unnamed persons harvesting chemicals from children’s blood and anti-trafficking experts criticizing the film’s entire premise – questions are also being asked about who is actually watching it and whether that many people are watching it at all.
Angel Studios, the film’s distributor, set up a controversial “pay it forward” scheme for Sound of Freedom. There’s a message at the end of the film and a prominent link on the studio’s website urging viewers to buy an extra ticket “for someone who would not otherwise be able to see the film”.
It has clearly been working. On 4 July, the day of the film’s release, nearly 20% of its sales came from people who bought those extra tickets, IndieWire reported. But there are growing suggestions that a lot of those extra tickets aren’t actually being used: that t
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jul/23/sound-of-freedom-qanon-movie-conspiracy-theories
But as the movie continues to cause controversy – with its star touring conservative media to peddle conspiracy theories about unnamed persons harvesting chemicals from children’s blood and anti-trafficking experts criticizing the film’s entire premise – questions are also being asked about who is actually watching it and whether that many people are watching it at all.
Angel Studios, the film’s distributor, set up a controversial “pay it forward” scheme for Sound of Freedom. There’s a message at the end of the film and a prominent link on the studio’s website urging viewers to buy an extra ticket “for someone who would not otherwise be able to see the film”.
It has clearly been working. On 4 July, the day of the film’s release, nearly 20% of its sales came from people who bought those extra tickets, IndieWire reported. But there are growing suggestions that a lot of those extra tickets aren’t actually being used: that t
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jul/23/sound-of-freedom-qanon-movie-conspiracy-theories
[div style="padding: 20px; background-color: #ffffff; border-radius: 10px; box-shadow: 0px 2px 4px 1px #aaa;"][div style="font-family: arial, helvetica; font-weight: bold; border-bottom: 1px dotted #999; padding-bottom: 8px;"]
[font size="8"]I Need A Drink
[br] [/font] [br]
Hey everyone, I don’t know about you, but I could really use a drink!
So of course you know the idea behind this segment is that we have some drinks and we talk about everything and anything as long as it doesn’t relate to politics. Because mixing your politics and your alcohol almost never ends well. Plus there’s a lot of dark shit in the news right now, so it helps to have some humor! And before we forget, my sober brothers and sisters, we got you covered too! Grab a glass of your favorite coffee or energy drink and come get wired with us! So this week, we do have to bend the rules a little bit because it concerns the hit new movie Barbie, and also coincidentally, the hit new Avenged Sevenfold song Mattel. Ha ha ha ha ha! Great clip! So tell me bartender, what goes well with a movie about a plastic doll? A Barbie cocktail? What’s in that? Eh, I’ll stick with my usual Jack Daniels mixed with Jack Daniels. I call it the “Double Jack”. So this week, our story is that there’s some Youtube channels out there, that revolve around men being men and doing man stuff. Man stuff like playing grab ass with Hooters waitresses while drinking cheap beer and stuffing your face with poorly cooked chicken wings. That kind of man stuff. Man stuff! Man stuff! Man stuff! Man stuff! Well, needless to say, the manliest men who’ve ever manned in the history of man, have their underwear in a wad over certain… aspects of the hit new movie.
The Barbie movie celebrates a woman-centric dream world, where little girls are inspired to do and be anything they want. It’s feminine, feminist, and irresistibly fun. So of course, Christian Republicans think it’s demonic.
You’ve probably seen Piers Morgan’s manbaby whine or the comparatively tame takedown issued by Ginger Gaetz, a human woman who married alleged trafficker/Florida congressman Matt Gaetz. She complains about Ken’s “disappointingly low T”, and the fact that a movie about a plastic doll world somehow didn’t focus on “family” and Jesus. But oh boy, this is just the tip of the iceberg of weird right-wing Christian rage against Barbie. When you look into the “controversy”, you’ll start to find things that make Matt and Ginger Gaetz look normal.
Though he’s not the first to make the absolutely wild claim that Barbie is demonic (absurd statements like this do flourish in comments sections across the internet), one man is responsible for the idea spreading like hellfire (sorry) across the extremist Christian internet. Ivan Tuttle, of Tennessee-based Ivan Tuttle Ministries International, felt moved to make a Facebook post warning good Christian families not to take their children to see the movie, claiming that Barbie is “full of demonic influences!”
https://www.themarysue.com/right-wing-christians-think-the-barbie-movie-is-demonic-and-want-you-to-boycott-it/
You’ve probably seen Piers Morgan’s manbaby whine or the comparatively tame takedown issued by Ginger Gaetz, a human woman who married alleged trafficker/Florida congressman Matt Gaetz. She complains about Ken’s “disappointingly low T”, and the fact that a movie about a plastic doll world somehow didn’t focus on “family” and Jesus. But oh boy, this is just the tip of the iceberg of weird right-wing Christian rage against Barbie. When you look into the “controversy”, you’ll start to find things that make Matt and Ginger Gaetz look normal.
Though he’s not the first to make the absolutely wild claim that Barbie is demonic (absurd statements like this do flourish in comments sections across the internet), one man is responsible for the idea spreading like hellfire (sorry) across the extremist Christian internet. Ivan Tuttle, of Tennessee-based Ivan Tuttle Ministries International, felt moved to make a Facebook post warning good Christian families not to take their children to see the movie, claiming that Barbie is “full of demonic influences!”
https://www.themarysue.com/right-wing-christians-think-the-barbie-movie-is-demonic-and-want-you-to-boycott-it/
I don’t think that glass is big enough! The MAGA Christian controversy over this movie is insane. But that’s what happens when you’re fed nearly 50 years of women bashing from right wing AM radio blowhards. And also shun critical thinking. But this is the kind that has the MAGA dude bros’ collective underwear in a wad. Yes, the magical four letter word that has plagued the political landscape the last two years – “woke”. It’s literally all the MAGA dude bros think about, and it’s driving them quite literally insane. So much that your creepy uncle’s creepy son Ben Shapiro, filmed himself destroying Barbie dolls for 45 minutes. I can’t even.
Conservative commentator Ben Shapiro has been mocked for posting a 43-minute review of the Barbie movie which starts with him setting fire to dolls in a trash can.
“My producers dragged me to see ‘Barbie’ and it was one of the most woke movies I have ever seen,” Mr Shapiro tweeted on Friday afternoon. “My full review of this flaming garbage heap of a film will be out on my YouTube channel tomorrow at 10am ET.”
Mr Shapiro shared an image of himself looking sceptical in front of a Barbie poster. Twitter users were quick to note that Mr Shapiro was wearing a black T-shirt with black pants – the exact outfit worn by Ryan Gosling as Ken in the film’s musical performance.
“My brother in Christ. You are wearing a Ken cosplay,” one Twitter user said.
The review starts with Mr Shapiro waving a notepad at the viewers, claiming to have plenty of gripes with the film. The YouTube video is entitled Ben Shapiro DESTROYS The Barbie Movie For 43 Minutes.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/ben-shapiro-barbie-movie-review-b2380881.html
“My producers dragged me to see ‘Barbie’ and it was one of the most woke movies I have ever seen,” Mr Shapiro tweeted on Friday afternoon. “My full review of this flaming garbage heap of a film will be out on my YouTube channel tomorrow at 10am ET.”
Mr Shapiro shared an image of himself looking sceptical in front of a Barbie poster. Twitter users were quick to note that Mr Shapiro was wearing a black T-shirt with black pants – the exact outfit worn by Ryan Gosling as Ken in the film’s musical performance.
“My brother in Christ. You are wearing a Ken cosplay,” one Twitter user said.
The review starts with Mr Shapiro waving a notepad at the viewers, claiming to have plenty of gripes with the film. The YouTube video is entitled Ben Shapiro DESTROYS The Barbie Movie For 43 Minutes.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/ben-shapiro-barbie-movie-review-b2380881.html
One for me… one for my homies! So let me get this straight – he gave Mattel money to go see the Barbie movie, gave Mattel money for Barbie dolls, and all so he could make a video trashing the Barbie movie for social media likes. Yeah I’m pretty sure that qualifies as a derangement syndrome at that point. I think that’s when someone needs to take Ben aside and have him go sit in a room with a straight jacket and a padded cell. But alas, he’s not the only one in the Youtube Woke-O-Sphere…. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha… that’s having a beef with this movie. But let’s think about this here – you’re mad at the social and political undertones at a movie that’s marketed to 7 – 9 year old girls.
Conservative commentator Ben Shapiro drew more than a million views—and internet mockery—for his YouTube video, “Ben Shapiro DESTROYS The Barbie Movie For 43 Minutes,” in which he opens by lighting Barbie dolls on fire and claims the message of the film is: “Either you’re a third wave feminist who hates men, truly hates men, or you’re brainwashed.”
Shapiro also tweeted: “All you need to know about #BarbieTheMovie is that it unironically uses the word ‘patriarchy’ more than ten times,” urging his followers to leave negative reviews for Barbie if polled by CinemaScore, a market research firm that asks audience members on opening night to give a film a letter grade between A and F.
Billionaire and Twitter owner Elon Musk also ridiculed the film’s approach to patriarchal themes, tweeting: If “you take a shot every time Barbie says the word ‘patriarchy’, you will pass out before the movie ends.”
Far-right media figure Jack Posobiec struck a similar tone, calling Barbie a “man-hating Woke propaganda fest,” criticizing the film for portraying the Kens as less intelligent than the Barbies and for its themes about rising up against the patriarchy.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/conormurray/2023/07/21/barbie-largely-praised-for-feminist-themes-but-draws-anger-from-the-anti-woke/?sh=7e95671f58bd
Shapiro also tweeted: “All you need to know about #BarbieTheMovie is that it unironically uses the word ‘patriarchy’ more than ten times,” urging his followers to leave negative reviews for Barbie if polled by CinemaScore, a market research firm that asks audience members on opening night to give a film a letter grade between A and F.
Billionaire and Twitter owner Elon Musk also ridiculed the film’s approach to patriarchal themes, tweeting: If “you take a shot every time Barbie says the word ‘patriarchy’, you will pass out before the movie ends.”
Far-right media figure Jack Posobiec struck a similar tone, calling Barbie a “man-hating Woke propaganda fest,” criticizing the film for portraying the Kens as less intelligent than the Barbies and for its themes about rising up against the patriarchy.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/conormurray/2023/07/21/barbie-largely-praised-for-feminist-themes-but-draws-anger-from-the-anti-woke/?sh=7e95671f58bd
Yeah I kind of need a never ending shot for this one! If only! OK MAGA dude bros, calm down, if your ego is that fragile that you need to lash out at the Barbie movie for not catering to your manly maleness enough, you should seek professional help immediately. Do not pass Go. Do not collect $200. Because you have far greater problems than the Barbie movie itself. OK here’s the real hilarious part – apparently the Barbie movie should have been “less political”. Are you fucking kidding me? The only ones who are making this shit political is Fox News, AM radio, and the MAGA “woke” Youtube sphere. They don’t call this shit an “echo chamber” for nothing. Pass the booze, it’s going to be a long one!
There’s a great scene in the new Barbie movie where Ken (Ryan Gosling) and his fellow Kens all sit around on the beach playing Matchbox Twenty’s Push in order to impress the Barbies in their male-dominated new world order. It’s hilarious, not just because of the setup, but because the song is about an emotionally abusive girlfriend.
It’s pretty much guaranteed that the vast majority of moviegoers who see this film will not know what that particular song is about. The song was controversial even when it came out, in 1997, as a major hit for the band. Feminist groups at the time were outraged, and claimed that the song was about domestic violence and abusing women. Lead singer Rob Thomas clarified that the song was actually about emotional abuse, and sung from the perspective of the abusive girlfriend, but that did little to quell the backlash.
There’s actually a lot to unpack here. Was the song chosen because it’s something that pissed off feminists in the 90s? Or was it chosen because in the Barbie movie, Barbie (Margot Robbie) is actually kind of an abusive jerk to Ken? Does it work on multiple levels? Are we supposed to think about it, and write think-pieces about it, like I’m doing right this very second???
https://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2023/07/22/a-less-political-barbie-movie-would-have-been-better-and-more-effective/?sh=625b3d02f211
It’s pretty much guaranteed that the vast majority of moviegoers who see this film will not know what that particular song is about. The song was controversial even when it came out, in 1997, as a major hit for the band. Feminist groups at the time were outraged, and claimed that the song was about domestic violence and abusing women. Lead singer Rob Thomas clarified that the song was actually about emotional abuse, and sung from the perspective of the abusive girlfriend, but that did little to quell the backlash.
There’s actually a lot to unpack here. Was the song chosen because it’s something that pissed off feminists in the 90s? Or was it chosen because in the Barbie movie, Barbie (Margot Robbie) is actually kind of an abusive jerk to Ken? Does it work on multiple levels? Are we supposed to think about it, and write think-pieces about it, like I’m doing right this very second???
https://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2023/07/22/a-less-political-barbie-movie-would-have-been-better-and-more-effective/?sh=625b3d02f211
[div style="padding: 20px; background-color: #ffffff; border-radius: 10px; box-shadow: 0px 2px 4px 1px #aaa;"][div style="font-family: arial, helvetica; font-weight: bold; border-bottom: 1px dotted #999; padding-bottom: 8px;"]
[font size="8"]What’s Up With Florida Part 2: Meet Florida Woman
[br] [/font] [br]
Hello everyone and welcome back to Part 2 of our docuseries What’s Up With Florida? You know we’re exploring the Sunshine State because it’s the state with the third most electoral votes in the country. It’s the home of space travel. It’s home to such prestigious universities and college teams as the UF-Miami Hurricanes, the University Of Florida Gators, and the University Of Central Florida Seminoles. It’s also home to the World Champion Miami Heat, the Marlins, and the Panthers. It’s also home to some ridiculously batshit crazy stuff. Last week, we brought you some astonishing tales of everyone’s favorite anti-hero, Florida Man. Well this week, we’re going to introduce you to Florida Man’s significant other – Florida Woman. Because this is Florida and in order to better get to know the state before we go head first into the deep end, we’re going to remind you that no one is safe from the insanity! And again, these stories are all real and they are a reminder of how crazy not just Florida, but our entire country is becoming. We’ll start with this story.
A Florida woman was accused of stealing a fire truck and impersonating a firefighter earlier this month.
The Suwannee County Sheriff’s Office said Belinda Delores Waugh, 44, allegedly took off with a fire truck on July 15 after spending the night at the Wellborn Volunteer Fire Department station.
$2 million Powerball ticket sold in Florida
When the fire chief visited the station to respond to a call, he discovered the truck was gone. The sheriff’s office said he received a phone call from Waugh stating the fire truck ran out of gas in Live Oak, which is about 10 miles away from Wellborn.
After deputies tracked down Waugh and the truck, she allegedly claimed to be a volunteer firefighter with Suwannee County. Deputies determined she was not on the official roster and was not authorized to use a fire truck.
https://www.wfla.com/news/florida/florida-woman-steals-fire-truck-after-impersonating-firefighter-deputies-say/
The Suwannee County Sheriff’s Office said Belinda Delores Waugh, 44, allegedly took off with a fire truck on July 15 after spending the night at the Wellborn Volunteer Fire Department station.
$2 million Powerball ticket sold in Florida
When the fire chief visited the station to respond to a call, he discovered the truck was gone. The sheriff’s office said he received a phone call from Waugh stating the fire truck ran out of gas in Live Oak, which is about 10 miles away from Wellborn.
After deputies tracked down Waugh and the truck, she allegedly claimed to be a volunteer firefighter with Suwannee County. Deputies determined she was not on the official roster and was not authorized to use a fire truck.
https://www.wfla.com/news/florida/florida-woman-steals-fire-truck-after-impersonating-firefighter-deputies-say/
Funny, I don’t remember that mission on Grand Theft Auto! Next up -
[font size="4"]Next Week: [/font]
Next week for Part 3, we’re heading to that most MAGA centric of Florida destinations, the Villages, to find out what makes them so crazy! OK look nothing sucks more than when you go out to eat and the restaurant screws up your order. But you know what you don’t do? You don’t use the screwed up food as a weapon. Because then the police will get involved. And you’ll most likely get arrested. So yeah this is generally considered a bad idea all around. But not to Florida Woman on the other hand. Because this is what happens.
A night out at a casual restaurant along Florida’s Gulf Coast turned violent earlier this month, according to the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office.
As per a police report, at a little before 8 p.m. Wednesday, deputies responded to Rick’s Reef in St. Pete Beach, outside of St. Petersburg, in reference to “a female subject” disturbing people and “yelling at customers.”
Upon arrival, the officers made contact with the victim, who said that a woman in question had gotten into a verbal dispute with a man. During the course of the pair’s argument, the suspect threw a burrito, but missed her intended target — hitting this individual in the face.
Read more at: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/state/florida/article277393208.html#storylink=cpy
As per a police report, at a little before 8 p.m. Wednesday, deputies responded to Rick’s Reef in St. Pete Beach, outside of St. Petersburg, in reference to “a female subject” disturbing people and “yelling at customers.”
Upon arrival, the officers made contact with the victim, who said that a woman in question had gotten into a verbal dispute with a man. During the course of the pair’s argument, the suspect threw a burrito, but missed her intended target — hitting this individual in the face.
Read more at: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/state/florida/article277393208.html#storylink=cpy
And then I got this scar sneaking underneath the door of a pay toilet. Next up – in case you’re wondering, why yes, Florida Woman was involved in the January 6th insurrection against the United States government. But this is one of those stories where you fell for a con artist! Don’t be surprised when you get conned. And I love this story because apparently someone on her side tried to say that she’s all these things. But then she goes and enters the Capitol building, looking for people to kill as part of the attempt to overthrow the government. That negates everything else. Don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time!
A Florida music instructor who unleashed an unexpected verbal tirade at prosecutors, the media and the federal government at her court hearing Friday, has been sentenced to six years in prison in her U.S. Capitol Insurrection case. U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta castigated Audrey Southard-Rumsey, 54, as a "one-person wrecking crew" on Jan. 6, 2021, and added a "terrorism enhancement" to her sentence.
Southard-Rumsey was accused of being an agitator who was in front of the mob as it swelled near the House Speaker's Lobby, as members of Congress were hiding inside. She was also accused of screaming vulgar and misogynistic threats about Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and was charged with pushing police, and at one point, using a flagpole to push one officer.
She was found guilty on seven felony charges.
During a dramatic 15-minute statement at her sentencing hearing, Southard-Rumsey pushed aside papers that included a set of prepared remarks. She instead blistered prosecutors, calling them "liars," then accused a Capitol Police officer whom she'd allegedly confronted on Jan. 6 of being "terrified."
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/jan-6-sentence-florida-music-teacher/
Southard-Rumsey was accused of being an agitator who was in front of the mob as it swelled near the House Speaker's Lobby, as members of Congress were hiding inside. She was also accused of screaming vulgar and misogynistic threats about Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and was charged with pushing police, and at one point, using a flagpole to push one officer.
She was found guilty on seven felony charges.
During a dramatic 15-minute statement at her sentencing hearing, Southard-Rumsey pushed aside papers that included a set of prepared remarks. She instead blistered prosecutors, calling them "liars," then accused a Capitol Police officer whom she'd allegedly confronted on Jan. 6 of being "terrified."
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/jan-6-sentence-florida-music-teacher/
Yes, let me play you a sad song on the world’s tiniest violin! The last story for this week is some classic Florida Woman. And it gives new meaning to the phrase “car pool”. Ah, see what I did there? See, I’m from California, and we’ve long had that joke since I was in elementary school. And it was also on Seinfeld. But it’s a crazy story and certainly not out of line for the character we’re going to be exploring for the next 5 parts of this series. But yes, if you get into a car past the airport in Miami, just make sure that you know that everyone is highly suspect.
Officials responded after a car crashed into a pool at an apartment complex in Fort Lauderdale Tuesday afternoon.
Fort Lauderdale Police responded at around 2:30 p.m. to the complex off Oakland Boulevard and Northeast 30th Street.
A silver sedan appeared to have crashed through a wooden gate before going into the pool. Footage from Chopper 6 showed the damage and the car completely submerged in the pool.
People who live at the apartment complex say the woman driving this car lives here and once she crashed into the pool, one of their neighbors ran out and helped her out her car.
https://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/car-crashes-into-pool-in-fort-lauderdale/3065537/
Fort Lauderdale Police responded at around 2:30 p.m. to the complex off Oakland Boulevard and Northeast 30th Street.
A silver sedan appeared to have crashed through a wooden gate before going into the pool. Footage from Chopper 6 showed the damage and the car completely submerged in the pool.
People who live at the apartment complex say the woman driving this car lives here and once she crashed into the pool, one of their neighbors ran out and helped her out her car.
https://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/car-crashes-into-pool-in-fort-lauderdale/3065537/
[font size="4"]And Now This: [/font]
[font size="4"]The Used[/font]
Folks my next guest are a great punk band from Salt Lake City. Their latest album is called Toxic Positivity, you can see them on tour through September 30th. Playing their song “Giving UP”, give it up for The Used!
Thank you Burbank! It was great to be back and in front of a live audience again! We’re off to Miami next week as part of our 5 city Florida tour! See you next week!
Credits
Host: Initech
The Used Appear Courtesy Of: Big Noise Music Group, LLC
Top 10 Conservative Idiots Recorded In Front Of A Live Audience At: Flappers Comedy Club, Burbank, CA
Images: All images copyright belongs to respective copyright holders.
Videos: All videos copyright belongs to respective copyright holders
Articles: All article content copyright belongs to respective copyright holders
Writing: Top 10 Writing Department
Graphics: Top 10 Graphics Department
Research: Top 10 Research Department
Lighting & Stage Props: Top 10 Lighting Department
Legal: Top 10 Legal Department
Advertising: Top 10 Advertising Department
HR: Top 10 Human Resources Department
Initech’s Wardrobe Provided By: JAB Inc.
Wheel Of Corruption By: Studio 1 Stage Props, Burbank, CA
Management: Initech Productions, CCC Management
Follow The Top 10 On Mastodon at: Top10ConIdiots@mstdn.party
Follow The Holy Church Of The Top 10 On Mastodon at: churchoftop10@mstdn.party
Questions? Comments? Complaints? Hate mail? E-mail The Top 10 at: Top10ConIdiots@gmail.com
Initech Productions: Yes, We Got The Memo
