Top 10 Idiots

Top 10 Idiots's Journal

September 25, 2019

Top 10 Conservative Idiots #7-13: You Should See Me In A Crown Victoria Edition

Top 10 Conservative Idiots #7-13: You Should See Me In A Crown Victoria Edition

Welcome back to the Top 10 Conservative Idiots! What’s up Mizzou? How you guys doing? You doing fucking good? Great! So this is the second time that we’ve been to Missouri and our first at Mizzou, and it’s also our first during football season. How’s that going? Not great? Yeah really fuck those guys. And we were supposed to do a show there too. Do we have time for the thing? Yeah so if you saw Blues Brothers trending on Saturday – no, they’re not remaking the movie, than k god! Because the second one was bad enough. But it’s because an SUV drove through Woodfield mall in the Chicago suburb of Schaumberg. Yeah can we show that clip?

Yeah that movie is such a classic. But really is the thought of a Chevrolet Suburban driving through a mall the most horrifying thing ever? Or do you break out the soundtrack to the Blues Brothers? Well if you do the latter then you’re definitely my people. Yes, a lot of space in this mall, thank you sir! But really I can imagine that would be a pretty crazy scene. And… HEY THEY BROKE MY WATCH!!!! OK that’s enough of the intro, we have a lot of idiocy to get to, but first Bill Maher is back and he turns the tables on the definition of “Trump Derangement Syndrome”:

Where do we begin this week? Well in the first slot this week there was so much ridiculous stuff that happened last week – in fact too much to cram into 10 entries this week. So we’re going to combine it into one entry and debut a brand new segment “So That Happened” (1). Which includes a hilarious reason why Milo is no longer invited to parties, or anywhere for that matter. In the second slot this week, is the guy who we currently call president, Donald J. Trump (2) – and what’s his beef with the auto industry? Do cars have “too much junk on them” or is this just a big “fuck you” to California? We think it’s more the latter than the former. In the third slot this week – is Mike Pence (3). Yes, the vice president is in some serious trouble after taking an 8 SUV motorcade through Michigan’s historic Mackinac Island – which has an ultra strict “no car” rule dating back to the 1800s. Taking the fourth slot this week is Ed Buck (4). Wait, isn’t he a billionaire democratic donor? Well, just like Harvey Weinstein and Jeffrey Epstein, this dude might have actual skeletons in his closet and that wouldn’t be too much of a stretch. Taking the 5th slot this week of course is our weekly investigative piece, Top 10 Investigates (5) – and we’re going to take a look at a ticket reselling scam that targeted fans of the band The Black Keys during a sold out fan club only show last week. At slot number 6 this week of course is our weekly visit to the Holy Church Of The Top 10 in “Holy Shit”, and this week, is it your god given right to own a gun? Our resident pastor attended an event on the subject, and well, he’s got some thoughts. At slot #7 – “Beating A Dead Horse” – should Saturday Night Live have fired conservative actor Shane Gillis? Well, it’s really their own fault for being surprised that a Trump voting actor has said some extremely racist and sexist stuff. At slot #8, we have a new edition of “How Is This Still A Thing?” and this week after it’s once again back in the news, we’re going to ask “Clean Coal – How Is This Still A Thing?”. In the number 9 (NEIN!!!) slot this week is a new “I Need A Drink” we’re going to Area 51 to recap all the madness that was the Storm Area 51 Event. But like a Trump rally, it did not attract the crowd that it thought that it was going to. Finally this week it’s the 8th installment of our 2020 Voters Guide “Keeping Up With The Candidates” and this week we’re going to my home state of California to hang out with former senator and current presidential candidate Kamala Harris! Plus we have some live music from… you guessed it, The Black Keys! Buy their new album “Let’s Rock” or you are no friend of this program.Enjoy! And as always don’t forget the key!

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[font size="8"]So That Happened
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It’s time to debut our new segment:

Yes, that happened. There was so much batshit crazy stuff that happened last week that we figured just like your favorite pasta dish, we’d combine all the ingredients into one pan, toss it and then maybe add some salt and pepper to taste. I’ve been watching a lot of cooking videos lately in case you cant tell. To start with, I love to talk about how the Alt Right has been absolutely imploding under this administration to their absolutely boorish behavior. Nobody wants to deal with your racism and sexism anymore and the fights are getting ugly. Take one of our favorite crazy people, Milo Yiannopolous. Who apparently is a furry now. Well, actual furries aren’t having any of it. Seriously, what do you have to do to get rejected as a furry? These people wear animal costumes and usually don’t care what other people think. Well, maybe if you’re a racist and sexist asshole:

Right-wing persona non grata Milo Yiannopoulos announced that he has adopted a “fursona” as a snow leopard and that he purchased tickets to a furry convention; in response, organizers rescinded his event registration.

Yiannopoulos posted an email screenshot to one of the few platforms he has left—his Telegram messaging channel—on Saturday and claimed he registered for Midwest FurFest, a convention “to celebrate the furry fandom” hosted in the suburbs on Chicago this December. “Furries,” as they’re often called, are groups of people who have interest in animal personas with human characteristics; people who participate in the subculture often present themselves as non-human characters via art and costumes.

Yiannopoulos also claimed on Telegram that he had submitted a form to suggest he host a panel called “The Politics of Fur.” He asked his followers who plan to attend Midwest FurFest to message him to arrange “dinner, drinks, photos or anything else.”

After numerous complaints online, Midwest FurFest put out a statement on Twitter: “We have received a number of mentions and support tickets today – we assure all attendees that your safety is of the utmost importance and is not being ignored. We are investigating all concerns being relayed to us.”

In a statement later provided to Right Wing Watch, organizers wrote that they had rescinded Yiannopoulos’ registration for the event and that he would not be welcome to attend Midwest FurFest or any future event.

“Hate is not welcome at Midwest FurFest. We are dedicated to providing a safe, harassment-free convention experience for all, regardless of age, race, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, or personal beliefs,” organizers wrote. “Midwest FurFest can confirm that Mr. Yiannopoulos has registered for the event this year. While the convention generally does not comment on anyone’s registration status, Mr. Yiannopoulos has already stated as much publicly.”
https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/milo-adopts-fursona-but-furries-say-no-thanks/

You know what this means? He’s literally a rejection away from opening up for puppet shows at the local zoo. I’m just saying, Spinal Tap you guys. Next up – remember the good old days when all we had to worry about were Hillary’s e-mails? And Trump talked about how there were like 30,000 e-mails that they needed to find? I mean I get that much a day just in spam. No Jetblue, I do not need to book a rental car with my Vegas flight! That’s why I am flying to Vegas! OK now that I got that off my chest, Ivanka did use a private server for personal e-mails:

Ivanka Trump reportedly violated federal records rules by sending emails to government officials on her personal account in 2017, according to a new report from The Washington Post.

It said that Trump, a White House adviser and the president's eldest daughter, sent hundreds of emails about White House business and her official schedule to administration aides, Cabinet officials and her personal assistants.

White House ethics officials discovered this as they reviewed emails gathered last fall by five Cabinet agencies. The agencies were gathering the emails as they prepared to respond to a public records lawsuit.

In their review, the officials found that Trump discussed business from the White House while using a private email account, the Post said.

The Hill has reached out to the White House for comment.
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/417532-ivanka-trump-sent-hundreds-of-emails-about-government-business-on

Next up – Trump certainly knows how to pick the best people doesn’t he? And when you see the word “MAGA” appear anywhere, you almost instantly know that person is going to be a racist and sexist asshole who will probably say or do something racist. Well, when you’re a judge, you should probably refrain from going full MAGA:

A New York judge has resigned from the bench after he was charged over a social media post that allegedly "conveyed racial and/or political bias," state officials said.

Kyle R. Canning, who was a part-time judge in Altona, N.Y., was charged over a Facebook post that allegedly showed a photo of a noose, along with the statement "IF WE WANT TO MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN WE WILL HAVE TO MAKE EVIL PEOPLE FEAR PUNISHMENT AGAIN,” the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct said in a statement Tuesday. The language used in the post echoed President Trump's "Make America Great Again" campaign slogan.

The commission said that Canning was charged with sharing an image that "conveyed racial and/or political bias."

“The noose is an incendiary image with repugnant racial connotations,” Commission Administrator Robert H. Tembeckjian said in the statement. “It is the very antithesis of law and justice. For a judge to use the image of the noose in making a political point undermines the integrity of the judiciary and public confidence in the courts.”

Canning took office in 2018, and his term was supposed to last until the end of 2021, officials said. He agreed to never "seek or accept judicial office" in the future, they added.
https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/461742-NY-judge-resigns-from-bench-after-allegedly%20posting-make-america-great-again

Yeah pretty much. Finally for all the crazy stuff that happened last week – Mike Pence went to Ireland and stayed at a Trump property. Shocking, I know. But what’s even more shocking is that the powers that be are attempting to interrupt a congressional probe into the visit and it’s backfiring on them spectacularly.

Vice President Mike Pence's trip to Ireland — or more precisely his curious stay at one of President Trump’s hotels — has prompted multiple congressional probes. But the Democrat-led oversight investigations have already drawn complaints and pushback from Trump’s loudest Republican defenders on Capitol Hill, including the ranking member of the House Oversight Committee.

Democrats in both the House of Representatives and Senate have sent official letters of inquiry to the vice president’s office seeking specific information on the costs of Pence's recent stay at Trump International Golf Club in Doonbeg, Ireland. They have imposed a Sept. 19 deadline for the administration and the Trump Organization to turn over relevant documents. Democrats have raised concerns that Pence’s stay at Trump’s resort could have violated the emoluments clause in the Constitution. They’ve asked for details like the cost of the stay, Secret Service protection, and comparable rates for hotels nearby as well as across the country in Dublin, where Pence held meetings with Irish officials and business leaders.

The vice president’s decision to stay at Trump’s resort can hardly be defended as one of convenience, as Pence previously suggested. Doonbeg is in County Clare on the west coast of Ireland, nearly a four-hour drive from most of Pence’s scheduled meetings in Dublin. According to an analysis by the government watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), Pence’s stay cost taxpayers $599,454.36 in limousine service alone.

Before taking office, Trump promised he would step away from his business while in office. Instead, however, he has kept his stake in his companies. So expenditures of public funds like Pence’s stay at Doonbeg directly line Trump’s pockets. According to data collected by CREW, Pence has made more than 20 such visits to Trump properties since taking office. So has Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, while Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross has made 16 visits to Trump properties.
https://www.salon.com/2019/09/18/covering-up-the-corruption-gop-tries-to-block-probe-of-mike-pences-ireland-trip/

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[font size="8"]Trump Vs The Auto Industry
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Once again, Trump is sticking his head where it doesn’t belong. And given the amount of shit he eats, I’m not sure that would be very pleasant. And speaking of eating shit, while the rest of the world is striking against the horrors of climate change, Trump apparently wants to rollback decades of auto emissions standards that nobody asked for, or wanted. But really when you peel back the layers, this is more of a “fuck you” to California for not voting for Trump than anything else. And really, he’s just being an asshole for the sake of being an asshole. I mean really Trump don’t go there, this is a fight that you won’t win.

California sued Friday to stop the Trump administration from revoking its authority to set greenhouse gas emission and fuel economy standards for cars and trucks, enlisting help from 22 other states in a battle that will shape a key component of the nation's climate policy.

Federal law sets standards for how much pollution can come from cars and trucks. But since the 1970s, California has been permitted to set tougher rules because it has the most cars and struggles to meet air quality standards. On Thursday, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration withdrew California's waiver.

The NHTSA action does not take effect for 60 days, but state leaders did not wait to file a lawsuit. Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has clashed with President Donald Trump on several fronts, vowed the state "will hold the line in court to defend our children's health, save consumers money at the pump and protect our environment."

The Trump administration's decision does not just affect California. Thirteen other states, plus the District of Columbia, have adopted California's standards.

A spokesman for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration declined to comment on the lawsuit. But Thursday, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao said the rules "were making cars more expensive and impeding safety because consumers were being priced out of newer, safer vehicles."
https://ktla.com/2019/09/20/mr-president-well-see-you-in-court-ca-sues-trump-over-revoking-states-car-emissions-authority/

There is pretty much a Simpsons GIF for everything. But yeah BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! So is this a fuck you to California or a fuck you to auto makers? Ah, I give up, it’s impossible to decipher Trump’s madness anymore. But according to him, car companies are politically correct and cars are full of junk – yes, this is a thing that was actually said! But there is some good news, we hope – is that states are fighting back!

A group of 23 states on Friday sued to block the Trump administration from undoing California’s authority to set strict car pollution rules, one of the biggest U.S. battles over climate change.

On the day that young people around the world staged protests demanding action on climate, the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Washington was the first round in a legal battle that many expect will outlast Trump’s presidency.

“Mr President, we’ll see you in court,” California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said in a statement.

The legal fight pits a Democratic majority state that has become the U.S. environmental champion against a Republican president who wants to boost the economy by cutting regulation. The debate already is playing out ahead of the presidential election next year.

“Trump’s latest move is bad for our air. Bad for our health. Bad for our economy,” said California Governor Gavin Newsom.
https://www.firstpost.com/world/23-us-states-are-suing-trump-admin-from-undoing-californias-car-pollution-laws-7388711.html

Thankfully we won’t have to go back to those times, but under Trump, we might go back to when cars polluted the atmosphere. You know what? We need it. I can see the LA skyline now! But yeah Trump time and time again, you don’t mess with California or you will get your ass handed to you. I mean seriously, what does Trump want us all to drive Crown Victorias? You should see me in a Crown Victoria. Yeah I threw in a Billie Eilish reference. Sue me! Oh and by the way, completely off topic, we are trying to get her for an upcoming Top 10 edition. Now back on topic.

States across America are ready to hit the accelerator toward limiting carbon emissions from cars and trucks — so why is the federal government putting up a giant roadblock?
On Thursday, the Trump administration, which has repeatedly touted "states' rights" on other issues, moved to take away California's authority on vehicle emissions standards in the state.

In effect, this regressive proposal will immediately affect 13 other states (plus the District of Columbia) that have adopted California's emissions standards. At the same time, the plan would put every state at risk of more pollution by weakening national standards that would have gone into effect over the next few years.

In defense of their right to cleaner cars, 24 states announced a lawsuit Friday challenging the Trump administration's reckless decision, which not only defies science, but also defies public opinion and even market forces. Two in three Americans say the United States needs to do more on climate change, and several leading automakers recently agreed to do their part by following the tough emissions standards set by California.

The aims behind these higher standards are simple: to cut pollution and advance cleaner technology. By implementing higher standards, these states benefit from cleaner air — and from the peace of mind that comes from knowing they're helping America fight global warming.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/23/opinions/trumps-disastrous-reversal-of-tough-auto-emissions-rules-folger/index.html

That’s probably not that far off of what Trump wants for cars and they might all end the same way if he has his way. But there is a silver lining in this complete atrocity – at least California is fighting back and they have a pretty solid majority of states backing them. I mean when we have an EPA that is literally doing the exact opposite of the job it was supposed to do, what’s there to do from there?

The Trump administration has a steep hill to climb before it can revoke a waiver that allows California to set separate rules that govern auto emissions.

The Department of Transportation and the Environmental Protection Agency announced on Thursday that they were doing away with the 2013 carveout, which was one of President Barack Obama’s signature measures to contain climate change.

But legal experts say that California, which formally filed suit alongside 23 other states on Friday, has a strong case that the administration’s move is unlawful. And, they say, there is virtually no way in which the legal fight is over before the 2020 presidential election, meaning voters will also get a say in the matter.

“I would say it’s going to be a very strong case but not necessarily a slam dunk,” said Todd Aagard, a former Justice Department attorney who worked in the agency’s environment and natural resources division.
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/09/20/trump-faces-long-odds-in-california-lawsuit-over-auto-emissions-waiver.html

[font size="8"]Mike Pence
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So this next entry is for the Michiganders in the crowd. Do we have any people from Michigan in the audience here? Yeah I love the one guy in the back who yells “WOOOOOOOOO!!!”. Well, speaking of putting a tail pipe in a place where it is extremely uncomfortable to do so, Mike Pence can join Trump in participating in that activity. Great Photoshop there. What happened for him to deserve that? Well, the super tiny island in Michigan’s Lake Huron is home to Mackinac Island. And it’s pretty well known that vehicles haven’t been allowed on the island since the 1800s. But once again, in an episode of conservatives just being plain douchebags, Vice President Snowflake drove an 8 SUV motorcade through it, proving once again that bad guys drive black SUVs.

Vice President Mike Pence choppered onto a historic Michigan island that has always banned autos in favor of bicycles and horses and was shuttled to a campaign speech in a parade of eight official cars.

Tweeted one Michigander of the grand, gasoline-powered arrival at Mackinac Island’s famous Grand Hotel this weekend:

Most tourists reach the island by ferry, although small aircraft do come in and out, and the island does house a few emergency vehicles at all times. Secret Service for President Gerald Ford had a car waiting in case of an emergency when he and first lady Betty Ford visited in 1975, but the couple used the common mode of getting around during their visit, a horse-drawn carriage.

Pence was on the island to speak to the Michigan Republican Leadership Conference and had alerted officials there to his transportation plans, according to reports.

Michigan was a key state in the 2016 presidential election and is considered a major target for 2020. Pence has visited Michigan 10 times since 2017, the Detroit Free Press said. According to the Michigan Republican Party, Pence is the first sitting vice president to speak at the biennial conference, which has been hosted on the island — home to well-heeled summer people, retirees and fudge-seeking, tandem bike-riding tourists — for more than 60 years.
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/michigans-historic-mackinac-island-bans-cars-the-pence-motorcade-used-8-2019-09-22

Yeah BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! Is nothing sacred to these motherfuckers? It’s almost like they try to come up with the wrong answer to everything? Hmm, let’s drive a car through a place where cars haven’t been allowed for 100 years! Yeah seriously, fail. And the residents of Mackinac Island are pissed and rightfully so. Are they trying to lose Michigan? This could probably do it.

Mackinac Island (pronounced "Mackinaw&quot

draws nearly a million visitors each year and is regarded as one of the most precious natural resources in Michigan. Just 450 people live on the small destination, and they get around by bike.

"Bikes are just our way of life," Mary McGuire Slevin, the executive director of the Mackinac Island Tourism Bureau, told the sustainable-business news site TriplePundit. "They are like a part of our bodies, we don't even think about it. When I see a tourist go out for a bike ride around the circumference of the island, you can just tell the difference when they come pedaling back into town — they are more relaxed and have a big smile on their face."

Even Gerald Ford, the only president from Michigan, traveled by horse-drawn carriage when he visited Mackinac in 1975.

So when Pence broke with tradition over the weekend, controversy ensued. Several current and former Michigan residents reached out to Business Insider over email to share their thoughts.

&quot

This is) a true gem that has been assaulted in plain sight," Skaneateles, New York resident Bitsy Jennings Govern, who grew up in Michigan, told Business Insider.
https://www.businessinsider.com/mike-pence-car-free-mackinac-island-michiganders-react2019-9

Yeah probably. But seriously, Pence crossed a line that shouldn’t have been crossed here. It’s like nothing is scared to these guys. Yeah sure, the powers that be on Mackinac Island have bent the rules before but nothing like this. At least when Gerald Ford visited the island, he had the good sense to leave his car behind when he realized that it might have been a bad idea.

The U.S. Secret Service had an automobile smuggled onto Mackinac Island when President Gerald Ford visited in 1975 — but the car was kept hidden and was never used, says a former longtime Mackinac Island official.

Dennis Cawthorne, a Lansing lobbyist and Mackinac Island resident who served for more than 20 years as chairman of the Mackinac Island State Park Commission, said Ford and his wife, first lady Betty Ford, rode a horse-drawn carriage during their Mackinac visit.

What wasn't widely known at the time, Cawthorne said, was that the Secret Service insisted that a vehicle be quietly brought to the island, so it would be available in case of an emergency.

Cawthorne disclosed the backstory to the Ford visit amid a controversy over whether Vice President Mike Pence will observe the century-old Mackinac Island ban on motorized vehicles when he visits Saturday to address the Mackinac Republican Leadership Conference.
https://www.freep.com/story/news/politics/elections/2019/09/20/mike-pence-mackinac-island-motorized-vehicle/2386562001/

There literally is a Simpsons GIF for everything. By the way, my mom is from Michigan. I’ve been to Mackinac Island, I’ve eaten and stayed at the Grand Hotel. This is what one might call, a sacrilege. I mean seriously, he fucked up. And if you want to see why cars have been banned on the island, take a look at this photo gallery.

Michiganders are furious over Vice President Mike Pence's motorcade on the historic Mackinac Island — and for good reason.

As a native Michigander, Mackinac Island holds a special place in my heart. The quaint town barred vehicles in 1898 over health concerns for the horses that live on the island. Natives tend to bike everywhere, or travel by horse-drawn carriage.

Today, the vehicle ban adds to the "old-school" feel of the area, along with its Victorian architecture and the presence of horse-drawn carriages.

Here are 12 photos that show exactly why Michiganders are so furious with Pence driving on Mackinac Island:
https://www.businessinsider.com/mackinac-island-photos-before-mike-pence-motorcade-2019-9

[font size="8"]Ed Buck
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You’re probably thinking – another billionaire donor is a convicted sex criminal and possible human trafficker? Yes. And you’re probably also thinking – hey wait a minute! Ed Buck is a democratic donor, why is he on the list? Because we’re not taking shit from anybody and we’re giving him the same treatment that we gave Harvey Weinstein, Jeffrey Epstein, and Bill Cosby. That is, sex offenders like these monsters can go fuck themselves. So how did Ed Buck wind up on the list? Well, he’s a demon among the homeless population of Los Angeles. And that’s putting it lightly. Of course this is going to give more fuel to the fire for Qanon aficionados, but really, they can fuck off too.

Stunning new allegations that Democratic donor Ed Buck paid at least 10 men to use drugs for his pleasure have sparked more questions from activists and others about why it took so long to uncover the longtime West Hollywood political activist’s alleged misconduct.

Buck has been the subject of protests and demands for justice since 2017, when a young man was found dead in his home of a drug overdose. Early this year, a second man was found dead inside Buck’s West Hollywood apartment.

Community activists and family and friends of the victims have long questioned whether Buck’s political connections played a role in the lack of law enforcement action after the first death — an accusation authorities deny.

Jasmyne Cannick, who has led community protests about Buck, said she was pleased with his arrest this week but said it took far too long.

“We brought them plenty of witnesses,” Cannick said. “Over the years, I met with victims repeatedly. They didn’t want to be out in the open. One of them is now dead, and sadly he didn’t get to see this day.”

The mother of Gemmel Moore, the man found dead in Buck’s home in 2017, thanked her son’s supporters for not giving up. In a video statement posted on Twitter, LaTisha Nixon said she felt like prosecutors initially treated her like a criminal when she pressed her case.
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-09-20/after-arrest-of-ed-buck-a-k-a-dr-kevorkian-some-ask-what-took-so-long

Holy shit!!! Yeah, if people start comparing you to a tried and convicted serial killer, you definitely have some issues. As if this further delves into “holy shit” territory, it gets worse. You know how I sometimes joke about people who have actual skeletons in his closet? Well, for Ed Buck, that joke may not be that far off from reality here.

When the lifeless body of a 26-year-old man was found two years ago in the apartment of Ed Buck, a small-time Democratic donor and political activist, the authorities described it as an accidental overdose. Then, in January, a 55-year-old fashion consultant died in Mr. Buck’s home in exactly the same way. Once again, he faced no charges.

On Tuesday, after a third man survived a methamphetamine overdose in the apartment, Mr. Buck was finally arrested and hauled away in the back of a police car.

The sordid facts — and Mr. Buck’s seeming double life — are the stuff of crime novels. The West Hollywood apartment building where Mr. Buck lived, with its simple white facade, dirty with stains dripping from air-conditioners, would be easy to miss on another day, the kind of spot that the novelist Raymond Chandler once described as a good place to have bad habits.

Prosecutors have charged Mr. Buck with operating a drug house, administering methamphetamines and battery and accused him of being a “violent, dangerous sexual predator” who targeted vulnerable men. “Buck is clearly a predator with no regard for human life,” the court documents said.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/18/us/ed-buck-west-hollywood.html

Forget Dr. Kevorkian, Dexter Morgan might be a more accurate comparison! This might be one of the darkest entries we’ve ever done, but really, fuck this guy. So how did Ed Buck go this long without getting arrested? I mean did he try and evade the authorities with the same precision that Dexter Morgan got away with? Or just pure laziness? I’m guessing the latter than the former.

Los Angeles County prosecutors say they have charged Democratic donor and LGBTQ activist Ed Buck with running a drug house and other crimes after a man overdosed on methamphetamine at Buck's apartment last week. The man survived, but two other men have died from overdoses at Buck's apartment in the past two years.

Buck was arrested Tuesday night — after months in which activists and relatives of the men who died have called for criminal charges related to the suspicious circumstances around the deaths of 26-year-old Gemmel Moore in 2017 and 55-year-old Timothy Michael Dean in January.

Buck, who is 65, is now facing felony counts of battery causing serious injury, administering methamphetamine and maintaining a drug house.

If convicted, he could face a maximum sentence of five years and eight months in state prison, said Greg Risling, the assistant chief of media relations for the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office.

The most recent overdose took place on Sept. 11. Prosecutors say Buck injected a 37-year-old man with methamphetamine at Buck's apartment on Laurel Avenue in West Hollywood. The man suffered an overdose but survived
https://www.npr.org/2019/09/18/761858659/democratic-fundraiser-ed-buck-is-arrested-after-a-third-man-ods-in-bucks-apartme

No no no no, no need to stab anything here. So you might be wondering what does the far right have to do with this? Well, many right wingers who are followers of the Q conspiracy have alleged that Ed Buck’s arrest is similar to that of Jeffrey Epstein’s and that it may be a smaller part of a much bigger picture. But prominent figures on both sides are going down at a very quick rate. So what will happen when all the dust has been settled? It’s too hard to say really.

Buck’s arrest has caught the attention of many right-wing conspiracy theorists on Twitter, in large part because his story is similar to that of Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced financier accused of sexually abusing dozens of young women who was found dead in his cell last month. Like Epstein, Buck was a wealthy, politically connected white man; also like Epstein, he allegedly targeted members of marginalized communities, and his alleged crimes escaped notice from authorities for years before his arrest, largely due to his wealth and privilege. Perhaps more to the point, from the perspective of far-right conspiracy theorists, both Buck and Epstein had connections to powerful Democratic politicians, and many right-wing trolls on Twitter have leaned heavily into Buck’s links to Hillary Clinton in discussing the case. QAnon followers also made hay with news of Buck’s arrest, suggesting that it was part of President Trump’s larger plan to round up members of the Democratic establishment and send them to Guantanamo, as so-called “drops” from the anonymous 4chan poster Q has intimated.

But the truth is that Buck’s arrest is significant because it does point to a larger conspiracy — just not the one that far-right trolls think. Members of the community have long argued that Buck targeted vulnerable members of the community — men who were HIV-positive or homeless or struggling with drug addiction — for one specific, bone-chilling reason: because he believed he could get away with exploiting them. And if the years of police inaction regarding the allegations against Buck are any indication, he was correct in this belief. The fact that it took the deaths of two men to prove that is a tragic, shameful reminder of just how much power men like Buck still wield, and how little is shared by those our society deems disposable.
https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/ed-buck-arrest-meth-democratic-donor-886516/

[font size="8"]Top 10 Investigates: Black Keys Ticket Scam
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It’s time to investigate beyond the headlines! This is Top 10 Investigates!

What happens when a night out turns into a nightmare? That’s what happened for fans of one of the biggest rock groups out there right now, The Black Keys. The Black Keys played a sold out show at the historic Wiltern Theater in Los Angeles that was supposed to be the kick off party for their forthcoming “Let’s Rock” tour. But the people who were left outside were the ones who were not exactly rocking out that evening. It turns out that the Black Keys have a strict no reselling policy that hundreds of discerning fans out of the show when they realized that their tickets were not valid anymore. But here’s one account from one family who was dejected from the concert because they bought such tickets.

Beatriz Zaragoza and her two children couldn’t wait to see Thursday’s concert at the Wiltern featuring the Black Keys, one of their favorite bands that had been on a years-long hiatus.

They bought tickets through StubHub for more than $700. They fought rush-hour traffic to drive to the venue from Boyle Heights. They paid Koreatown prices for parking and arrived at the Wiltern two hours early, at 5 p.m.

After more than two hours in line, the family made it through security and entered the Wiltern’s foyer, buzzing with pre-concert excitement. Her kids — ages 9 and 14 — were finally going to see the band whose songs they imitate at home on their guitar and drum set.

But one look at Zaragoza’s mobile tickets and a Wiltern employee turned her away. He didn’t even scan them.

Zaragoza was told the Black Keys were not accepting tickets from third-party vendors.
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-09-20/black-keys-wiltern-tickets-ticketmaster

Yes it does. So how does a simple concert ticket buying experience turn into a nightmare? There’s plenty of ways it can go wrong. And who do you blame for this fiasco? Do you blame the band’s ticket reselling policy? Do you blame the venue? Do you blame the people who sold you the ticket – in this case Stub Hub? Well there’s plenty of blame to go around and there’s plenty of ways that this could go wrong.

The Black Keys, who were performing their first live show in four-and-a-half years, went on stage at around 9:20 p.m., but there was also a spectacle outside the venue prior to that because people who had purchased tickets through third party vendors like StubHub, Vivid Seats and SeatGeek discovered their tickets were fake.

The official tickets, which were sold through Ticketmaster, were mobile only with a rotating barcode. Ticketmaster told CBS2 that the tickets were sold “to fans and not transferable.” Some sellers had allegedly posted screen grabs of their tickets on resale sites such as StubHub. People who bought those tickets were then denied entry.

“The presenters of the concert directed that these tickets be made available only to fans and that they be strictly nontransferable,” Ticketmaster said in a statement provided to CBS2. “This was messaged from the beginning with the announcement of the performance and throughout the sales process. Unfortunately, bad actors took advantage of this situation and posted screen shots of tickets that were not valid for entry onto the secondary market. We always recommend purchasing tickets from the official source.”

Many of these customers were told their tickets were not valid — some turned away after waiting in line. Sky9 was overhead as frustrated people poured out of the theater after being denied entry.
https://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2019/09/20/sold-out-black-keys-show-becomes-a-bit-chaotic-when-hundreds-realize-their-tickets-are-no-bueno/

Yes in what seems like a Spinal Tap moment, the reselling policy came back and bit them in the ass hard, and it was a major fiasco. But here’s how it could have happened – there’s a Ticketmaster feature called “Safetix” that generates a random barcode every 15 minutes so that fans can’t randomly generate their own tickets. Also, read the policy before you sell it on a third party site.

Hundreds of fans were left outside of the first Black Keys’ show in five years, after being told their tickets were not valid when they were scanned for entry. Apparently, promoters had shifted to using Ticketmaster’s “Safetix” system – which features barcodes that rotate on a timer to disable the possibility of sending a screenshot of the tickets to friends or after a sale – and made the tickets non-transferrable.

Consumers who had purchased tickets through the secondary ticket market were left on the outside as the band performed, presumably to a half-full building at the Wiltern in Los Angeles.

“Our StubHubs aren’t working,” one fan told LA’s CBS2. “We paid full value for our tickets, and they’re not letting us in.”

Fans locked out took to social media to complain about the fiasco in progress. Many complained that the shift to the “Safetix” system was done at the last minute and without customers being informed of the potential that the tickets wouldn’t work.

Ticketmaster told CBS2 that the tickets sold were “for fans and not transferable,” which directly contradicts what some fans have reported.
https://www.ticketnews.com/2019/09/safetix-hundreds-locked-black-keys-wiltern/

True. there is a lot of that. But again, also, this is a prime example of what happens when you don’t read the terms of sale before buying and selling something like a concert ticket. However, if you want the actual explanation of what happened, look no further than the Black Keys themselves.

The Black Keys kicked off their Let's Rock tour on Friday night (September 20) at Los Angeles' Wiltern Theater with what was supposed to be a special, intimate show for their fans; however, hundreds of ticket-holders were outraged when they were turned down at the door for having invalid tickets. Over the weekend, the duo issued a statement to explain what caused the issue.

“Last night’s concert tickets were $25 and geared toward the fan club,” the band said. “This was our first show in over four years and the kickoff of the Let’s Rock Tour. Because we were playing a venue far smaller than the rest of the venues on the tour as a warmup show, we turned off ticket transferability to ensure that our fans got in the door at the low ticket price we set for them.”

“Unfortunately, scalpers took this opportunity to defraud our fans and steal their money by selling tickets that were ineligible for transfer on scalper sites,” they continued. “The presenters of the concert directed that these tickets be made available only to fans and that they be strictly nontransferable. This was messaged from the beginning with the announcement of the performance and throughout the sales process.”

Ticketmaster also shared in a statement: “Unfortunately, bad actors took advantage of the situation and posted screen shots of tickets that were not valid for entry onto the secondary market. We always recommend purchasing tickets from the official source.”
https://alt987fm.iheart.com/content/2019-09-22-black-keys-share-statement-about-fans-getting-turned-away-from-la-show/

That’s it for Top 10 Investigates. Good day.

[font size="8"]Holy Shit
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Gather around my fair brothers and sisters of Columbia! For the Holy Church Of The Top 10 has convened and it’s time for our weekly reminder that the holiest among us are also the most full of:

My fair congregation!!! You know we live in a society where the firearm is a constant subject of discussion among both sides in this country. As such, the firearm is in the hands of people who do not use them for good. But is it your GAWD given right to own a weapon of choice? Some on the right side may think so, and they’ve been loud and vocal about it recently. However, I along with many members of my fine congregation, attended an event on this subject very recently. But I’ve got some thoughts on this subject and I’d like to let my brothers and sisters on the right know exactly how I feel! But first, let’s let this play out a bit.

Some Second Amendment activists declared Saturday, September 14 to be “Guns and God Appreciation Day” and hoped that “millions of Americans” would gather to “demonstrate their unwavering support for the 2nd Amendment and their love and appreciation for God.”

Polls taken in the aftermath of recent mass shootings suggest that supermajorities of Americans support stronger background checks and other gun control measures. But according to Guns and God Appreciation Day organizers, “No proposed gun control law or Gun Free Zone can prevent murderous intent, and would not have prevented any mass shooting or murder event.” Instead, they say, “The mass murder epidemic in America is directly correlated to our diminishing relationship with God. We have far too many God Free Zones.”

The event’s website says calls on families, communities, culture, schools and the public square to “simultaneously embrace God’s love and maintain a healthy fear in the wrath of God.”

The organizer, Constitutional Rights PAC, organized a Gun Appreciation Day in 2013, which they claim was a “massive success” despite “efforts by leftist media outlets” to delegitimize it. Since then, the group says, National Gun Appreciation Day “has been observed annually on January 19th.”
https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/gun-advocates-promote-guns-and-god-appreciation-day-to-resist-cultural-marxism/

Yes, that is a man of GAWD with a gun! But I don’t remember Ned Flanders screaming that he has a GAWD given right to own a weapon! In fact I don’t remember anywhere in the Bible where JAYSUS said to shoot first and ask questions later. Maybe in the Book Of Harry, followed by the Book Of Rambo! But that’s not in our good book! I mean whose idea was this?

One hundred people die a day from a bullet in this country and twice as many are shot and survive, yet we are unable to pass legislation that would stop or at least slow down the bleeding.

On Aug. 31, Texas experienced its second mass shooting in as little as four weeks. Texas House Rep. Matt Schaefer responded to the call to “do something” on Twitter by saying he has no plans to support legislation that limits access to deadly weapons because it is a “God-given right.” I don’t know what god House Rep. Schaefer is referring to, but as a pastor, I can say it is not the god of Jesus.

Some form of Jesus’ command to love God and love thy neighbor appears in each of the four gospels. When something appears in all four gospels, it clues us in to the fact that this is a primary teaching. We think Jesus wasn’t clear about who we are to love, but he also tells us to love our enemies. This means that everyone is included in Jesus’ command to love. It is impossible to love another human when one is preparing to take up arms against them.

Presbyterian pastor Rev. Jim Atwood writes in his book, “Gundamentalism and Where It is Taking America,” “Millions who claim one of the Abrahamic faiths have added guns to their godhead. They have placed their ultimate trust in firearms and dismissed God’s command to love neighbor, stranger and enemy. They bow before the Second Amendment and reject God’s Second Commandment in Exodus 20:4-5: You shall have no other gods before me.”
https://thehill.com/opinion/civil-rights/460194-what-god-gave-you-the-right-to-guns

I have to say I like this guy! Gundamentalism – yes it’s the marriage of GAWD and GUNS! And it is most certainly an unholy union if there ever was one. By the way you ever notice those bumper stickers on the back of cars that say “Pro GAWD, Pro Gun, Pro Life”? I have had one such encounter. And it’s about as stupid as that. But my favorite part of this is you know how right wingers lecture you about how you shouldn’t talk about politics then proceed to lecture you on politics? This is one of those situations!

Guns and God. These two words would seem to be at opposite ends – deadly weapons and a supreme deity – of our instinctual sensibilities. If Colt 45 or Glock G19 are somewhere in the book of Smith & Wesson, I apologize to any Bible believers.

However, this Saturday is Guns and God Appreciation Day, a national campaign that also caused me to pause for a few seconds when first reading about it. Guns and God. Slowly repeat those three words a few times and let me know if they roll off your tongue or choke on your faith.

“It is time to END GUN FREE ZONES to protect our citizens and heal our One Nation Under God,” states an email I received from the organization.

Guns and God Appreciation Day was created to encourage millions of gun owners to “turn out at state capitals, gun shows, gun shops, in public, and to make sure you shoot off a few rounds at your local gun range in support of the Second Amendment,” according to the Guns & God website.

“Let Congress and President Trump know that you stand with the 2nd Amendment as written and the only solution to the mass murder epidemic is to return America to One Nation Under God,” the site states. “What is the root cause of these mass murders? The wedge the politically correct society has placed between to divide Americans from God.”
https://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/post-tribune/opinion/ct-ptb-davich-guns-and-god-appreciation-day-st-0913-20190912-qs2wn64qa5al5eof5jecfogzla-story.html

Really? I’m pretty sure that GAWD would have a problem with this line of thinking. I don’t remember *ANY* passage in the Bible that indicated that JAYSUS would own a gun! But here’s the thing – how can you rant against gun control and then when you’re in a position to do something about guns, you don’t do it and instead call for prayer? Well, I speak as a man of GAWD, that prayer isn’t solving this!

Texas Republican congressman Matt Schaefer railed against Americans calling for lawmakers to "do something" about mass shootings, arguing via Twitter Saturday that God and prayer are more effective than gun control regulations.

Schaefer, who represents Texas' 6th congressional district, said "NO" to any form of gun restrictions in a Twitter thread in which he touted the "God-given, constitutionally protected" Second Amendment rights of fellow Texans and Americans. Schaefer's series of Saturday tweets proclaiming he will never back any form of weapons bans or background checks came just hours after a shooting left 5 dead in west Texas. Schaefer touted "praying for victims" and downplayed the "evil acts of a handful of people."

"'Do something!' is the statement we keep hearing. As an elected official with a vote in Austin, let me tell you what I am NOT going to do," Schaefer, who was first elected in 2012, tweeted Saturday evening.

"I am NOT going to use the evil acts of a handful of people to diminish the God-given rights of my fellow Texans. Period. None of these so-called gun-control solutions will work to stop a person with evil intent," he continued. Schaefer rejected "red flag pre-crime" law proposals made by President Donald Trump and lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle over the past month.
https://www.newsweek.com/matt-schaefer-texas-republican-congressman-god-prayer-mass-shootings-twitter-victims-1457129

No you moron, your right to own a gun is not a GAWD given right! And if you think that, you need some serious help! Mass has ended, may you go in peace! That’s it this week for:

[font size="8"]Beating A Dead Horse: Cancel Culture
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Everyone’s favorite sketch comedy show, Saturday Night Live, attempted to find an actor who would resonate with conservative Trump voters. And it backfired on them spectacularly. I mean who would have guessed that a white conservative male would say things that are racist and sexist? I mean, seriously… I never!! Well, ever since Shane Gillis became the shortest tenured actor on the longest running late night program, there’s been a debate about “cancel culture”. And people are comparing it to recent standup specials where comedians like Dave Chappelle have said far worse things. But should they be cancelled?

“Cancel culture” is a phrase that’s been lobbed often this past year, as an impulse toward outrage is ever-amplified by the megaphone of social media. But what the hell does it even mean?

At face value, the term refers to what is perceived as a reflexive, unfair ruthlessness. In a society that is increasingly concerned with being politically correct and “woke,” there is no tolerance of anyone whose words, attitudes, or behavior do not adhere to those mores. And as those ideas are most often ascribed to people who hold liberal values, it is often alleged that this applies to anyone who speaks or does anything that works against a utopian lefitst ideal. In other words, say something that upsets a “snowflake” and you’re fired.

In that version of “cancel culture,” we’re a lynch mob of Red Queens, hysterically policing social media for problematic people, screaming “off with their heads!” anytime we encounter an idea we don’t like.

But like many phrases and ideas in 2019, this one has been appropriated, bastardized, and misused to the point of not only betraying its original definition and its usefulness in checking the actual repercussions of reactionary censorship, but in fact has become almost meaningless.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/shane-gilliss-racist-jokes-and-snl-what-the-hell-is-cancel-culture-anyway

Ah, this show aint no good! See, this all goes back to that whole “snowflake” bullshit that alt right trolls and libertarians have been using for the last 4 ½ years to belittle liberals and anyone who doesn’t agree with the far right. Which is a whole hell of a lot of you. Cancel culture is just another form of it. So what did Shane Gillis do to piss us off?

Here we go again... Photos have emerged of Canadian Prime Ministerial pin-up Justin Trudeau in blackface. The former teacher donned dark make-up for an Arabian Nights themed dress up party in 2001. It’s now been confirmed this wasn’t a one off either. The Canadian leader also wore blackface on other occasions. He cannot recall how many.

Nobody will be surprised that social media had rather a lot to say on the subject. There was valid but predictable outrage from some quarters, followed by exaggerated digital eye-rolling from others. The left concluded that Justin Trudeau was "cancelled". That is, his status as one of the good ones was permanently removed. While the right relaxed with a box of popcorn to watch their opponents devour one of their own.

The internet doesn’t exactly have a reputation for nuanced debate. Far less the septic tank of vitriolic shouting that most social media platforms have devolved into. There’s no space to say something like: "This behaviour is hurtful and upsetting from a world leader, even if it did happen in the past. Let’s unpack what the prevalence of blackface says about our community’s attitudes on race more generally”.

Cancel culture is a consequence of that lack of nuance. It illustrates the closed mindedness with which we engage in viral debate. Pack mentality takes over once we identify our prey. Once the beast has been hunted and hounded within an inch of its life, it is devoured. A social media pile on can prompt online articles, radio talk-back calls and even make the nightly news. The person, their show, their music, their network, their film, their work, their very being – is cancelled.
https://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/life-and-relationships/everyone-s-in-on-cancel-culture-but-does-it-really-mean-anything-20190923-p52u54.html

But who’s cancelling who? In this dog eat dog world where nobody talks to each other and we all pass threatening GIFs around on social media, is it really any wonder why cancel culture is a thing? Look, this is America. We have the first amendment, and you can say whatever you want and be the biggest douchebag in the world. But… that said, good luck getting people to agree with you. Just ask Bill Hader, who’s currently starring in one of my favorite shows on TV right now – Barry.

When talking to press after winning the Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Emmy for his work in Barry, Bill Hader addressed the idea that comedy is being stunted by the “cancel culture” that seems to be the talk of the town these days.

He said that something that was okay to have in a comedy set years ago wouldn’t fly today, and maybe that’s for the better. He also brought up not wanting to offend anyone just for a joke, which I think is the problem with the “anti-PC” argument in general. The comedians yelling about “PC culture” are the ones who would most likely want to be offensive in regards to making their commentary. They act surprised that people are offended even though they do it on purpose.

For every Bill Hader, though, you have someone who is completely missing the argument. Now, you have someone like Sarah Silverman, who is spreading the narrative that “cancel culture” is ruining comedy. I disagree. Not only do I think that “cancel culture” does not exist and, but its perceived effects are just society holding you and your comedy to a higher standard. There is always going to be an off-color joke, always going to be someone who doesn’t find something funny. That’s the nature of the game, but when you are outright being racist, homophobic, sexist, or anything else for the sake of a “commentary” that isn’t humorous or doing anything to make the situation better, it reflects poorly on you as the comedian—not us, the audience, for objecting to it.
https://www.themarysue.com/bill-hader-on-comedy/

You know here’s the thing – have you been to a comedy club lately? People get up on stage and say some extremely offensive shit, and other people pay them money to hear it! The idea of “cancel culture” is just another stupid debate in an endless string of stupid debates. Meanwhile, R rated comedies are hotter than ever. So who’s offending who? And when the censors are the offenders, who’s censoring who, exactly? Just ask Sarah Silverman.

Fox censors hit the mute button on Sarah Silverman’s salty comments on Sunday during the network’s coverage of the arrivals carpet from the 71st Emmy Awards. In a wry twist, Silverman’s clipped comment was a critique of today’s “cancel culture” and its smothering effect on truly trenchant comedy.

Silverman was answering a question posed by Kelly Osbourne, one of Fox’s pre-show interviewers, but the last four words of her reply were quickly excised from the broadcast thanks to the broadcast’s slightly delayed feed and the crisp reflexes of a network censor who blanched at Silverman’s use of a word that is only one letter off from “fussy.”

“There’s definitely pressure,” Silverman said. “There’s a kind of righteousness porn going on in this cancel culture. There’s nuance to it. There’s good and there’s bad. As a stand-up, it’s really odd. To talk about what’s really going on or to talk about the world as we decide to see it — or to push to see where the line is and to go past it — is so oddly unacceptable it’s safer to…”

Amateur lip-reading skills suggest that Silverman’s sentiment ended with the four-word phrase “just make p*ssy jokes.” Osbourne, no stranger to ripe language, laughed and agreed with Silverman, who went on to bemoan the fact that this year’s Emmys don’t have a host, eliminating yet another natural forum for comedy and commentary.
https://deadline.com/2019/09/fox-censors-sarah-silvermans-salty-complaint-about-censorship-1202741154/

[font size="8"]How Is This Still A Thing: Clean Coal
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It’s time once again to ask:

This week – Clean Coal: How Is This Still A Thing? When climate change is a constant source of news and people are moving in a direction that produces sustainable energy and renewable sources, there’s one source that is taking us back to the stone ages in terms of energy. And once again the president is sticking his nose where it doesn’t belong and ranting about the myth known as “clean coal”. This is an idea that has been touted since the George W Bush years, and it is back in the news. Really, someone needs to inform the president that he’s spending way too much time watching Tv and needs to come back into the real world.

President Donald Trump on Friday uncorked a strange and nonsensical rant about the virtues of so-called “clean coal” during an Oval Office conversation with Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison.

When asked about the importance of Australia’s mineral industry, the president praised the country for doing so much to extract resources in what he described in an environmentally friendly way.

“Coal, as an example, you’re the leader of safety in coal digging and we’ve actually studied it,” the president said. “We’re doing a lot of coal. You have very little — you have almost no — used to have a thing, black lung disease, and in Australia you almost don’t have it anymore, you’ve got all of the dust down.”

After Morrison touted technological progress that has helped the environment, the president again jumped in with a non-sequitur about digging.

“Environmentally, I have to say — and environmentally, the things they’ve done environmentally with digging. Digging is a, uh, you know, when you talk minerals it’s about digging. What you’ve been able to do with the environment having to do with taking minerals out of the ground, including and I would say even especially because you’re leading on coal… your record is so good in terms of illnesses from digging.”
https://www.rawstory.com/2019/09/trump-uncorks-bizarre-rant-on-clean-coal-in-oval-office-when-you-talk-minerals-its-about-digging/

Yeah unfortunately the president doesn’t see that. In his narrow-minded view, he’s the only one who is right about everything and no one else’s point of view matters. He thinks he is only president of Fox News viewers. And too much of that, when those of us who don’t watch Fox, are looking to end climate change and global warming, the president is going in the opposite direction.

The Trump administration wants to give electric utilities a pass on proving they could finance a hazardous waste cleanup in the event of a Superfund disaster.

The proposed rule from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says electric utilities should not have to make “financial assurances” to cover the risk the industry will produce pollution it cannot afford to clean up.

The rule comes in response to a decade-long push and legal battle with environmental groups, who petitioned the EPA to write the rules during the Obama administration. But under the Trump administration, EPA decided electric utilities do not pose a significant risk and can forego the requirement.

The decision calls into question who will be on the hook to pay for and clean up old waste sites with lagoons of coal ash, the toxic byproduct that is left when coal is burned in power plants to produce electricity. Stored in pits, coal ash can contaminate drinking water or blow into nearby communities. It went largely unregulated until EPA issued rules in 2015 to address the problem.
http://pulse.ncpolicywatch.org/2019/09/24/critics-warn-trump-epas-coal-ash-plan-will-let-polluters-off-the-hook/

Now there’s no way possible to burn coal and then say that there’s such a thing as clean coal. There really isn’t. The concept of Clean Coal dates back to the Bush administration when anti-environment crusaders used the coal industry as a way to shut up people who might have been raising questions about what billionaire coal miner criminals were doing. And it’s much worse.

President Trump briefly stopped by a daylong summit of world leaders meeting to discuss climate change at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York before leaving to address a meeting on the persecution of religious minorities and his administration's efforts to support religious freedom.

Earlier Monday morning, White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham raised the possibility that Mr. Trump might find time to appear at the climate change summit. "His schedule is ever changing, but it wouldn't surprise me if he popped by," she said in an appearance on Fox News.

And Mr. Trump did end up dropping by a morning session, where he was seen listening to the climate discussion inside the General Assembly Hall. Seated with new U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Kelly Craft and Vice President Mike Pence, the president listened intently for about 10 minutes before departing for his religious freedom event.

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, who has been making a push to end new coal plant construction by 2020 to curb greenhouse gas emissions, did not want countries supporting the expansion of coal production to have allotted speaking time at the climate summit, so as a result, the leaders of Australia and Japan will reportedly also not be addressing the summit.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/un-climate-summit-trump-drops-by-climate-meeting-at-start-of-united-nations-general-assembly/

Well, Milhouse’s words are empty, but it’s pretty obvious that the president does not care about the environment. And he probably should because if we lose the environment, he loses his ability to go outside and play at his precious golf courses. But if you want to see how the concept of “clean coal” isn’t working – you don’t need to go any further than Japan in order to see the result.

It may have come as a shock to some when reports surfaced that major economies such as Japan and Australia didn’t get a chance to make a speech at the U.N. Climate Summit held in New York on Monday, allegedly due to their continued support for coal as U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres pushed countries to pledge even loftier climate goals than they did under the Paris agreement.

In spite of heightened calls for phasing out coal, global coal consumption rose nearly 1 percent in 2018, according to the International Energy Agency, due to robust demand for power generation in China and India.

In post-Fukushima Japan, the government has sought to achieve a balanced energy mix and considers coal one of its main energy sources due to its advantage of being cheap, stable and safe from geopolitical risk, as it imports almost all of its oil from the Middle East.

Even as coal continues to draw renewed criticism, why is Japan, which has been regarded as a country espousing eco-friendly values, continuing its push for what it calls “clean coal” energy? Here are questions and answers about the status of Japan’s “clean coal” initiative:
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2019/09/24/business/japan-clean-coal-climate-change-pollution/

So when the most technologically advanced countries on the planet can’t keep up with the technology needed to make “clean coal” work, that’s enough to make you ask – clean coal:

[font size="8"]I Need A Drink
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Hey guys I could really use a drink!

Of course you know by now that the idea of this segment is that we have some drinks, and while we’re cocktailing, we talk about anything in the news as long as it doesn’t relate to politics. You know I don’t mix booze with politics, but during this administration, it certainly helps. So tell me bartender, what goes well with an alien invasion? A mellonballer? Well, it is a green drink. Ah, I’ll just have my usual Jack Daniels mixed with Jack Daniels. I call it the Double Jack. Last Saturday all the crazy people from your social media feeds went to the military base outside of Lincoln County, Nevada known to the rest of the world as Area 51. So what did you get if you went and stormed Area 51?

With lime green alien suits and tin foil face masks, guests of the original Alienstock music festival gave extraterrestrials a run for their money.

One small Nevada town was bracing itself for the original alien-themed music festival that a viral internet joke had birthed, anticipating that anywhere between 5,000 and 25,000 attendees would descend on their tiny desert town of 40-50 residents.

But what happened over the weekend in Rachel, Nevada, wasn’t remotely the catastrophe many had feared.

“It was honestly breathtaking,” says Matthew Carswell, 22, who flew from Miami to Nevada for Alienstock. “It was a really good atmosphere.”

Despite a small handful of arrests, it was mostly an invasion of friendly humankind. Most people came to the gathering in peace.
https://time.com/5681197/area-51-raid-aftermath/

Man why did you say alien love???? But you know if you’re the closest town to Area 51, you got to be prepared to handle the worst. Thankfully that didn’t happen. But given the military’s warning prior to the “Storm Area 51” proposal, that went about as well as it could have expected. Think of it like a weird, less offensive Burning Man with more aliens, and less… Burning Man.

They prepared for 30,000.

But the number of visitors that descended on this Extraterrestrial Highway town 150 miles from Las Vegas to “storm” Area 51 peaked at 3,000, allowing authorities on Saturday to begin scaling back resources.

“We planned for 30,000 with contingencies above that,” said Lincoln County Emergency Manager Eric Holt. “Anything less than that was acceptable.”

In the end, the storm was more of a September shower.

The middle-of-the-night meme that exploded into a viral space spectacle in this far-flung Nevada town served as both a challenge to law enforcement and county leaders with many lessons learned and an opportunity for otherworld seekers to be a part of something they thought could become the next Burning Man or Woodstock.

No aliens appeared. No flying saucer beams illuminated the desert sky. But to the people who showed up to open a new chapter in the extraterrestrial saga, being here was enough.

“Fifty years from now,” said Pahrump resident Stacey Villines, “we can say we were here.”
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/09/21/storm-area-51-how-small-nevada-town-prepared-worst/2406421001/

Well I would certainly hope that you would come in peace sir! Or… I don’t know how genders work in the alien world. Hell, I don’t even know how genders work in the human world. There, I will admit it. But this event just took off, and like your favorite sparkling fire product, just fizzled out. Even some of your favorite brands got in on the alien love. Wait, why did you say alien love? Don’t say alien love!!!

Karl Marx famously said, “History repeats itself, first as tragedy, then as farce.” While the Storm Area 51 “movement” (which itself began as a joke) will hopefully not end in tragedy (hint: do not attempt to enter the Air Force base or rile up residents) the farce is already with us.

Kool-Aid is giving away 900 canisters of its limited-edition “UFO-Yeah Intergalactic Green” in select markets nationwide starting on September 19. To have a shot at winning this Kool-Aid Man special edition (a spokesperson insists the canister “puts the EXTRA in extraterrestrial”), the company says to tweet #UFOYeah and #promo.

If you’re over 21, you can enjoy another alien-themed beverage. Bud Light is sponsoring the Area 51 Celebration, now scheduled for Las Vegas on Sept. 19. Limited edition alien-themed cans will reportedly be available in California, Nevada and Arizona. But fear not; if you live outside those states Bud Light will still let you order alien-themed hats, socks, t-shirts and even a $75 flag to signal the aliens when they are looking for a landing spot.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelgoldstein/2019/09/18/from-arbys-to-kool-aid-marketers-find-area-51-weekend-out-of-this-world/#21b18bef18cf

Oh yeah that’s the stuff! So with marketers getting into that sweet, sweet alien love, they even have their own theme song now! Yes, so you too can rock out while making alien love as you wait for next year’s Storm Area 51 event!

As alien enthusiasts arrive at a remote patch of the Nevada desert, one young hero has already emerged from the legion people who have pledged to invade Area 51, and finally “see them aliens.”

The event, which was given the name “Storm Area 51, They Can’t Stop All of Us,” suggests that people from around the world gather in the Nevada desert to invade the site. The gathering and jokingly “planned” invasion of the secure military site has made headlines around the world as the military and local residents brace themselves for crowds.

One part of the event that has garnered ever so slightly less attention, though, is the proposed method of invasion. The Area 51 invasion originator suggested that everyone pouring into the military base do so as a “Naruto run” inspired by Naruto Uzumaki the Japanese manga character who runs with his head down and arms stretched behind him. (The event creator Matty Roberts did a demo in interviews.)

One young attendee clearly got the Naruto memo, though. When a local news team arrived to report on the scene near Area 51 in advance of the invasion, a kid ran behind the reporter with head down and arms held back Naruto style. The glorious moment was caught on camera by Twitter user @MunaNawabit1 who shared the video clip on the social media site. The kid’s genius was quickly recognized by other Twitter users who shared the clip, ensuring that with one brief jog the kid ran straight into the Area 51 record books.
https://time.com/5681348/area-51-naruto-run/

[font size="8"]Keeping Up With The Candidates Ep. 9: Kamala Harris
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This is our handy 2020 voter’s guide, Keeping Up With The Candidates. Because if we’re going to kick Trump. So far we’ve covered presidential candidates, senate candidates and local candidates. We’ve covered the polls and we’ve covered just about all the relevant news that you need to help you make your decision as the 2020 primaries will be quickly approaching us! But we haven’t really touched on any of the presidential candidates who might, actually, you know have a chance of making it to the primary elections. One such candidate is California’s Kamala Harris. Kamala has had quite a bit of a very rocky summer but it is definitely an indication of how things are going.

It's been an up and down summer for Kamala Harris.

The California Democrat scored the biggest victory of her campaign in June, when, at the first debate, the senator excoriated Joe Biden on his past opposition to busing as a way to desegregate schools. The moment vaulted the California senator in the polls and exposed the vulnerability of the former vice president.

But now, two months later and worlds removed from her campaign's high point, Harris was stuck using the archetypal political cliché this week to fend off questions about her standing in the race and slumping poll numbers.

"I just heard you say polls," she told a reporter in a drab Las Vegas conference room on Wednesday. "I think the only poll that matters is Election Day."

Campaigns are never straight lines and often the high points are followed by striking lows. But Harris' summer has been particularly inconsistent, leaving Democratic operatives and even some Harris aides to question why the senator was unable to seize on her debate moment and firmly plant herself among Biden, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren -- the race's top three candidates.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/31/politics/kamala-harris-highs-and-lows/index.html

Yeah so just like the actual campaigns, Keeping Up With The Candidates is not a straight line either, we’re just kind of winging it and seeing where it goes. Now with the talk of impeachment against Trump ramping up, how does Kamala fall into the group? Well this is where things get interesting!

Sen. Kamala Harris on Monday evening issued her most forceful call to date for the House of Representatives to begin impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump, an escalation sparked by the news that Trump allegedly pressured the Ukrainian president to investigate Joe Biden and his son.

But she did not attempt to shield Biden or members of his family from scrutiny as she competes with the former vice president to win the Democratic presidential nomination, though she initially sought to turn attention to Trump's conduct.

When asked whether she believed either Biden or his son, Hunter, should be investigated for possible abuse of power, she initially deflected the question by saying, "Donald Trump is trying to play politics on this issue."

"He (Trump) is trying to collaborate with -- and conspired with a foreign leader to interfere in our democracy," the California senator said during a visit to Oaxacan restaurant in Los Angeles' Koreatown. "I have absolutely no support for that. And I believe that that this is a political tactic being waged by Donald Trump, because he obviously perceives a threat. That is a political threat, and I have no support for it whatsoever."

There is no evidence of wrongdoing by either Joe or Hunter Biden.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/23/politics/kamala-harris-impeachment-trump-ukraine/index.html

Well, he did rig an election and let’s hope he gets his ass kicked to the curb for it! Since we are literally four months away from the Iowa Caucus, we need to start paying attention to how candidates are treating campaign stops. Like what Harris did during her stop at the Wiltern Theater in Los Angeles last month. Addressing the homelessness crisis is a huge deal in California and around the country, and here’s what happened.

Just over four months from the Iowa Caucus, California Sen. Kamala Harris, who has been polling nationally in the fourth or fifth spot, says she's not worried about the recent surge of Elizabeth Warren or the popularity of former Vice President Joe Biden.

"There are a number of them that have been on the national stage for a long time. We have not," Harris said. "So the challenge of our campaign is to introduce ourselves for the first time to people, and that's what we're doing. If you also look at the national polls, you see that only nine percent of voters have made a decision even though they know the other candidates."

Harris had a packed day of events and fundraisers in Los Angeles, include a stop at Guelaguetza Restaurante on Olympic Boulevard for mole. Harris also weighed in on what the federal government can do to address the homeless crisis.

"We should be receiving support from the federal government around what we need for health and human services, what people need in terms of mental health care. What people need in terms of affordable housing. But yet, he's cut $10 billion in terms of the funding that we would otherwise receive to be supportive of the homeless population," Harris said.
https://abc7.com/politics/kamala-harris-makes-campaign-stops-at-wiltern-guelaguetza/5565068/

Well I hope it doesn’t come to that! But while polls are meaningless let’s talk about them. I mean how does your favorite candidate stand on the issues and where does that land them in the polls? I cannot stress this enough – we are 4 months away from the Caucus! But eh, let’s give it a quick run around, shall we? Not quite that quick, sir!

Poll: Biden holds 12-point lead over Democratic field as Warren edges up to second
© Getty Images

Former Vice President Joe Biden has a 12-point lead over his Democratic presidential primary opponents as Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) moves into second place, according to a poll released Monday.

Biden holds at 32 percent support among registered voters planning to vote in the Democratic primary, a Morning Consult survey reported.

Warren is gaining some steam and follows at 20 percent, up two percentage points from Morning Consult's polling from a week before and now edging out Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) at 19 percent.

Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) and South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg land behind the three front-runners at 6 percent and 5 percent, respectively.

Sanders leads the field in favorability, with 73 percent of respondents holding a favorable view of him, just ahead of Biden's 71 percent.
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/462806-poll-biden-holds-12-point-lead-over-democratic-field-as-warren-edges-up-to

[font size="4"]Next Week:[/font]

Next week we’re going to do something different and tell you why impeaching Trump matters and where your favorite candidate stands on the issue. CONTROVERSY ALERT!!!

[font size="4"]Report Card:[/font]

Key Issues: Homelessness, gay marriage, death penalty
Target Demographic: Progressive voters
Probability Rating: 5:1
Likelihood Of Going Far In Election: Will make it to primaries

Overall Grade: B+

[font size="8"]And Now This:[/font]
[font size="8”]The Black Keys[/font]

Ladies and gentlemen I am super excited to have my next guest on, their new album is out called “Let’s Rock” and it is awesome! You can see them on tour this November. Playing their song “Lo / Hi”, give it up for the Black Keys!

Thank you Mizzou! This was fun! We’re off to the University Of Kansas next! See you next week!

Credits

Host: Initech
Top 10 Conservative Idiots Recorded In Front Of Live Audience At: Houston Improv, Houston, TX
Special Thanks To: University Of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri
Holy Shit Gospel Choir: Bethel Church Choir, St. Louis, MO
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
The Black Keys Appear Courtesy Of: Nonesuch Records LTD
Management: Initech Productions, CCC Management
Follow The Top 10 On Twitter at: @10Idiots
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Questions? Comments? Complaints? Hate mail? E-mail The Top 10 at: Top10ConIdiots@gmail.com

Initech Productions: Yes, We Got The Memo

September 18, 2019

Top 10 Conservative Idiots #7-12: Vaping Death Edition

Top 10 Conservative Idiots #7-12: Vaping Death Edition

Welcome back to the Top 10 Conservative Idiots! What’s up Northwestern? How you guys doing? You doing fucking good? Great! You guys are way too smart to sit here and listen to my nonsense! A few jokes about how insane our political system is followed by one song from a semi-popular band? You guys are doctors and lawyers and Ph.Ds! Well, we could all use a break. And we’re here for Riot Fest too, how awesome is that? So many great bands and bands that are good friends of our program that are on the bill! In fact we may or may not have a Riot Fest exclusive artist for you at the end of this thing! Oh hell why don’t I tell you? We got the Racontuers performing! But don’t take any video of the performance, I hear Jack White hates that sort of thing. But we are moving on! Do we have time for the thing? Yeah so go home, Popeye’s, you’re drunk. We got drunk and discussed this in great detail last week about how people are going nuts for Popeye’s fried chicken sandwich. To the point where guns were pulled and riots were formed. OK maybe not so much the riots but the guns part was definitely real. So how is Popeyes finding a solution to their shortage? Well, they have a new “bring your own bun” policy. Yes, if you have a case of Kaiser rolls in your back freezer, you can bring them to Popeye’s and they will stuff them full of fried chicken and whatever’s in that white sauce that they put on top. We highly suspect it might be mayonnaise but it could be something else entirely. But really who is going to do this? And you could just slap a couple of chicken tenders on a bun with some mayo and pickles, and it might be better. But that’s another subject entirely. But really, is it brilliant or trolling? Or is it brilliant trolling? Either way, Popeyes, you’re drunk. OK that’s enough of the intro, we have a lot of idiocy to get to. But first I have to play Bill Maher’s new rule from last week where he talks about how America’s economy has devolved into a 5 star rating system:

Where do we begin this week? In the first slot this week we’re going to recap all the insanity that went down in the Democratic Debates (1) which included threats of taking away guns, hate for socialism, and why not throw in a death threat or two? Taking the second slot is of course the guy who we currently call president, @realDonaldTrump (2) and this week he made a lot of noise when he moved to ban e-cigarettes because – wait for it – people are dying – but not a peep about guns. Taking the third slot this week is also @realDonaldTrump (3), because apparently there’s more to the Brett Kavanaugh investigation and there might be actual proof that the FBI obstructed justice.. In the 4th slot this week - another Trump firing means another edition of the Trumper Games! And this is a huge one – Tribute Bolton from the 6th District was fired by the president himself via his favorite medium – the tweet! In the 5th slot this week is of course our weekly investigative piece, Top 10 Investigates, and this week we’re going to take a look at what’s going on with the opioid crisis – and there is a lot to take in and it’s all crazy. At slot number 6 is our weekly visit to the Holy Church Of The Top 10 in “Holy Shit” (6) and this week some very strange happenings are afoot at Liberty University and our resident pastor is going to delve into why Jerry Falwell Jr might be going down. In slot #7 we have a new edition of “Beating A Dead Horse” – and this week we’re finally going to address the “are liberals too PC” argument coming from the right and libertarians. Are we too PC or are you just an asshole (hint: it’s you)? In the number 8 slot, after another special election that saw some Trump meddling, we’re going to add North Carolina’s Dan Bishop to the growing list of People Who Somehow Got Elected (9). Finally this week we have a new edition of Keeping Up With The Candidates (10) and we’re going to Atlanta to hang with the guy who might be Georgia’s next senator, John Ossoff! Plus we have some live music from England’s Foals! 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"]Democratic Debate Recap
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Sigh… you know it’s not really the debates that were the key here last week. I want to talk about everything that’s happened *SINCE* the debates. Where do we start? Do we start with the death threats coming from gun nuts against Beto O’Rourke? Or do we talk about Joe Biden’s super creepy old man speech? Or do we discuss socialism derangement syndrome coming from the right? You know what? Fuck that! Before we delve into the madness, I want to discuss this tweet from arguably Twitter’s worst comedian, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee. Really, this is gun nut logic in a nutshell:

https://twitter.com/GovMikeHuckabee/status/1172872062286860288

Why is the word “SKATEBOARD!” in all caps? And if you spend every day complaining about how the government is coming to take your guns away, you probably should have them taken away. As is the case with what happened to Beto this week:

Former Rep. Beto O’Rourke defended his call for mandatory buybacks of certain semi-automatic weapons in an exclusive interview on "Meet the Press" Sunday, pushing back on criticism from Republicans — as well as some from within his own party — who think the Democratic presidential hopeful’s proposal has gone too far.

O'Rourke said the opposition to his proposal shows “how screwed up the priorities in Washington D.C. are” while evoking recent, high-profile mass shootings like the one in his hometown of El Paso, Texas.

“I refuse to even acknowledge the politics or the polling, or the fear or the NRA. That has purchased the complicity and silence of members of Congress,” he said.

“And this weak response to a real tragedy in America, 40,000 gun deaths a year, we’ve got to do something about it and I'm proposing we do something about it.”

O’Rourke's plan would ban weapons classified as “assault weapons” as well as high-capacity magazines and silencers. It would also mandate that people who own weapons that become illegal under the new policy sell their guns back to the government.

When asked why his position shifted from beyond his initial call for an “assault weapon ban” with no mandatory buyback, the Texan pointed to the recent tragedy in his hometown that prompted him to take a break from campaigning before returning as an even more vocal proponent of reforming gun laws.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/meet-the-press/instruments-terror-beto-o-rourke-defends-mandatory-gun-buyback-plan-n1054586

Holy shit!!!! We’ve talked a lot about guns on this program and rightfully so since they’re in the news about once every few hours. But this idea of a national buyback is a great idea in theory but is going to spark violence the likes of which we’ve never seen before. Or will it? Well, the mere fact that you threaten to murder somebody with said weapon, you probably shouldn’t have that weapon in the first place.

Former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke made his support for an assault weapons buyback very clear during Thursday night’s Democratic debate. “Hell yes, we’re going to take your AR-15, your AK-47,” he said at the time.

It was one of the most memorable moments of the night, and it’s since spurred a tweet from a state lawmaker that O’Rourke called a “death threat.” Following the debate, Briscoe Cain, a Republican in the Texas Legislature, posted a response to O’Rourke’s gun comments, which Twitter has since taken down. “My AR is ready for you Robert Francis,” he wrote.

In his response, O’Rourke pointedly noted that Cain’s statement was indicative of why people shouldn’t have assault weapons. According to the Washington Post, O’Rourke’s campaign has since reported the tweet to the FBI.

Briscoe replied to O’Rourke’s comment by calling him a “child,” and posting other tweets that scoffed at concerns that he was promoting violence. A Twitter spokesperson told Vox the original tweet was taken down because it violated the platform’s terms of service and its rules for “violence and wishing harm against others.”
https://www.vox.com/2019/9/13/20864498/beto-orourke-assault-weapons-buyback-democratic-debate

Yes, again threatening to murder someone with a weapon that you own is a pretty clear sign that you shouldn’t have one. Thanks, NRA! Now switching gears, I want to talk for a brief minute about Bernie Sanders and socialism. Yes, socialism fear is the right wing’s drug of choice, and they often use 3rd world dictatorships like Venezuela as a reason that we should not go down that road. And even we can agree on that, or can we?

Pressed on his self-described democratic socialist platform during the third Democratic presidential debate in Houston on Thursday, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders distanced himself from the repressive leftist government of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Sanders argued that his own brand of socialism is starkly different from Maduro's.

In a round of questioning centered on U.S. foreign policy in Latin America, veteran Univision anchor Jorge Ramos, who was briefly detained by the Venezuelan government earlier this year, asked Sanders about the differences between his leftist politics and those of the increasingly authoritarian socialist or communist regimes in Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela.

Sanders smirked repeatedly as Ramos continued his interrogative questions, including one about whether he considered Maduro a dictator. "Let me be very clear: Anybody who does what Maduro does is a vicious tyrant," Sanders replied.

The Vermont Independent said he would back an international campaign to help organize free elections in Venezuela so its citizens can determine which direction to take the country in as it reels from a prolonged economic and political crisis. He pushed back on the notion that his policies are similar to those touted by Maduro, who has managed to remain in power despite his country's precipitous economic collapse and a concerted campaign of sanctions and political pressure from the U.S. and dozens of other countries.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/bernie-sanders-distances-himself-from-venezuela-president-nicolas-maduro-when-pressed-on-socialism-at-debate/

Finally I have to talk about Joe Biden. We love Joe Biden and we all get stories mixed up from time to time, and hell we’ve done that on this program. But seriously Joe, you might want to take a few days vacation from the campaign trail. Because yes, this is the infamous “Corn Pop” speech that got passed around Twitter over the weekend. This is treading into Grandpa Simpson territory:

Former Vice President Joe Biden is being ridiculed over a journalist's retelling of Biden's seemingly heroic tale which he's repeated about taking on a Wilmington, Delaware gang leader named "Corn Pop" in the summer of 1962.

Biden has publicly repeated several stories of him rebuking racial division and has relayed one specific incident detailed in his autobiography of how he supposedly faced down an African-American gang leader for breaking the rules at what he described as an all-black pool. On Saturday, The Root writer Michael Harriot offered his own annotated Twitter version of Biden's "Corn Pop the gangsta" story, calling out several suspicious details and mocking whether he was the "only white lifeguard" at the Brown-Burton Winchester Park swimming pool that summer.

Harriot comically retold Biden's harrowing tale of 1962 racial strife by noting it's "already been demonstrably proven Biden will make stuff up." The Root senior writer and his social media followers joined him in questioning some of the basic facts of Biden's battle against "the Romans" street gang that he says "any black person" would doubt. Harriot repeatedly urges his followers to "STOP LAUGHING" as he relays Biden's own words, primarily taken from his 2008 autobiography Promises to Keep.
https://www.newsweek.com/joe-biden-corn-pop-gang-leader-wilmington-delaware-michael-harriot-lifeguard-root-retelling-race-1459303

[font size="8"]Donald Trump
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Let’s talk about vaping. Or more importantly let’s talk about Vaping Death. Yeah it sounds like a Metallica song doesn’t it? Because Trump’s newly declared war on vaping is so insane that it almost sounds fucking metal. There’s plenty of reasons why vaping and excessive vaping is horrible but we don’t have that kind of time! Before we get into Trump’s ban, I want to talk about this lawsuit that emerged against the vaping compaul Juul, because this exposes the inherent dangers and risks of using vaping products.

A teenager who says vaping gave him lungs “like a 70-year-old” is suing a leading e-cigarettes company.

Adam Hergenreder, an 18-year-old from Illinois, has accused Juul of marketing e-cigarettes to young people with the message that vaping could boost their social status

He underwent hospital treatment at the end of August for nausea and laboured breathing after using e-cigarettes for more than 18 months.

"I'm 18 years old. My lungs are like a 70-year-old's," he told CBS while in hospital. “My lungs will never be the same."

In a statement on Friday, Juul said it had “never marketed to youth” and argued its products were meant to help adult smokers quit traditional cigarettes.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/vaping-teenager-sues-juul-e-cigarettes-lung-damage-adam-hergenreder-a9105211.html

Yeah it’s kind of like Patty & Selma but may be even worse. And of course like just about everything that Trump does, it’s not helping things. As we’ve seen time and time again, bans don’t work. Which means that every time you attempt to ban something there’s products that will appear on the black market which will be way worse than what you could buy previously. File this one under “you’re not helping!”.

President Trump's proposed ban of electronic cigarettes with anything but a tobacco flavor could kill a big part of the vape store business, but it may have a limited effect on curbing use by young people who can already flavor their own cartridges with readily available and attractive dessert tastes, industry experts say.

Trump's move came after new data showed teen vaping increased even as the availability of more kid-friendly flavors decreased. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb last year proposed restricting flavored e-liquids to vape stores that are age-restricted, but Trump's move would go much further.

The announcement came amid an outcry over the mounting death toll and hundreds of serious lung illnesses linked to vaping. Nearly all of the now-public cases involved young men who vaped both nicotine and THC oil.

On Sunday, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced a ban on the sale of flavored electronic cigarettes in the state through an emergency executive action.

Gottlieb told USA TODAY on Thursday that the deaths and illnesses and teen vaping concerns have been "conflated" and calls them "separate actions and separate public health concerns." On CNBC Monday, Gottlieb called for a "federal reckoning" and regulation of cannabis because of its link to most of the reported lung illnesses and deaths.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2019/09/14/trump-proposal-ban-vaping-flavors-amid-lung-illness-limited-impact-experts-say/2309607001/

And of course for those of you keeping score at home, there’s more reason to believe that Trump’s ban on vaping isn’t actually helping things. For one thing, many adults use vaping as a way of helping them quit actual cigarettes. But of course this is the Trump administration that we’re talking about here, facts don’t matter. Only outrage does!

Removing flavors is bad for adult smokers. There is little question that some adults will switch back to their Marlboros and Kools if their preferred flavors are no longer available. Surveys of adult smokers show the vast attraction of switching from cigarettes to a vaping device that uses nontobacco flavor.

As for youths, everyone agrees they should not vape. However, one of the biggest concerns — namely, that teen vaping leads to teen smoking through a so-called gateway effect — is greatly overstated.

Meticulous data analyses show that vaping is more of a “gateway” out of a smoking addiction for teens than it is a passage into a new habit for those who have never smoked. Support for this observation comes from the fact that teen smoking remains on a decades-long downhill slide.

Even if vaping is not a conduit to smoking, teen vaping is going in the wrong direction: Between 2018 and 2019 it rose by a third, from 20.8% to 27.5%. (At least, however, the trend may be slowing as the increase from 2017 to 2018 was steeper at 78%, from 11.7 to 20.8%).

In response, Acting Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Ned Sharpless said in a news release that if there is further “migration to tobacco-flavored products by kids, we will take additional steps to address youth use of these products.”
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2019/09/13/dont-nontobacco-e-cigarettes-adults-more-danger-kids-column/2299006001/

Well, yeah they do call them cigarettes. But what is Trump talking about with a total ban? There’s no evidence to support a ban, and you have a greater chance of dying from a gunshot wound than you do from vaping so why does that matter? Oh and if you guessed that Trump most likely didn’t even read the CDC report and grossly misinterpreted results, you are correct!

(CNN)The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Thursday there are 380 confirmed and probable cases of lung disease associated with vaping across 36 states and the US Virgin Islands. Six deaths have been confirmed in six states: California, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Minnesota, and Oregon.

That's a smaller number of illnesses than the agency had previously stated because it has updated the way it reports cases of lung disease associated with e-cigarette use. It's now reporting confirmed and probable cases, rather than possible cases or cases under investigation.
Last week, the CDC had reported that there are more than 450 possible cases of vaping-related lung disease across 33 states and the US Virgin Islands.

There are hundreds more cases under investigation around the country, according to a CNN analysis of numbers reported by state health departments this week.

The states and territory with confirmed cases are Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Iowa, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina, North Dakota, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, Nevada, New York, Ohio, Oregon, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, West Virginia and the US Virgin Islands.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/13/health/lung-disease-vaping-cdc-new-numbers-bn/index.html

[font size="8"]Donald Trump
[br] [/font] [br]

Can you believe it’s been a year since we went through the Brett Kavanaugh nonsense? Well we’re about to go through it again! One year after sex criminal Boofing Brett Kavanaugh was confirmed to the Supreme Court under ridiculously shady circumstances, he’s back in the news everybody! So what has got Justice Weiner Waver in the news? Well it might be this potentially career-ending article that appeared in the New York Times. But then again this is the Trump-led GOP, they don’t exactly care about owning up to their mistakes.

Several Democratic presidential candidates called for the impeachment of Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh on Sunday after The New York Times published new information about allegations of sexual misconduct against him, while Republican leaders condemned the reporting as irresponsible and defended him.

President Trump on Twitter accused news outlets of trying to pressure the justice into taking more liberal positions and suggested, without elaborating, that the “Justice Department should come to his rescue.”

On Saturday, The Times published an essay in its Opinion section adapted from a forthcoming book, “The Education of Brett Kavanaugh: An Investigation,” by two Times reporters, Robin Pogrebin and Kate Kelly, who helped cover his confirmation hearings.

The reporters wrote that they spent 10 months investigating the allegations of sexual misconduct and assault at the center of the hearings, including one by a former Yale classmate, Deborah Ramirez. She recalled being at a dorm party where participants were drinking heavily and said that Mr. Kavanaugh had thrust his penis in her face, prompting her to swat it away and inadvertently touch it.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/15/us/brett-kavanaugh-allegations-trump-impeach.html

Holy shit!! How did Brett Kavanaugh go through that entire time he was in school and not get a single suspension or expulsion? The hypocrisy is absolutely mind boggling. So the circular circle jerk surrounding the Kavanaugh confirmation couldn’t come at a worse time… for him. Remember – we have a serial rapist currently sitting in the White House, and we also currently have one sitting on SCOTUS. Of course there’s no consequences. None. Zero.

At least five Democratic presidential candidates called for Supreme Court Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh to be impeached after a new report about alleged sexual misconduct from his college years. President Trump, meanwhile, stood by Kavanaugh and said the Justice Department should "rescue" him.

Over the weekend, multiple Democratic presidential candidates, including Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, Julián Castro, Cory Booker and Pete Buttigieg, called for Kavanaugh to be impeached. Kavanaugh has not responded to the latest report, but previously denied all accusations.

"Last year the Kavanaugh nomination was rammed through the Senate without a thorough examination of the allegations against him," Warren tweeted. "Confirmation is not exoneration, and these newest revelations are disturbing. Like the man who appointed him, Kavanaugh should be impeached."

<snip>

In a statement obtained by CBS News, Joe Biden called for further investigation into Kavanaugh and "the truthfulness of his testimony to Senate." "We need to get to the bottom of whether the Trump Administration and Senate Republicans pressured the FBI to ignore evidence or prevented them from following up on leads relating to Justice Kavanaugh's background investigation," the former vice president said.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/brett-kavanaugh-sexual-misconduct-accusation-sets-off-calls-for-supreme-court-impeachment/

Man I am getting my desk wet here. So prominent Dems are calling for Kavanaugh’s impeachment after yet *ANOTHER* criminal allegation against him. You know how republicans keep saying they’re waiting for the shoe to drop? They’ve had a fucking whole distribution warehouse full of shoes drop and they’ve done nothing. Not a damn thing. And nothing will happen to Kavanaugh either, because they want absolute power and they will get it whether we want them to or not.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren became the most prominent Democratic presidential hopeful to join the calls for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh to be impeached following new allegations of sexual misconduct against him. Kavanaugh’s nomination “was rammed through the Senate,” Warren tweeted Sunday. “Confirmation is not exoneration, and these newest revelations are disturbing. Like the man who appointed him, Kavanaugh should be impeached.”

Earlier in the day, Sen. Kamala Harris of California also called for Kavanaugh’s impeachment, saying he was confirmed to the Supreme Court “through a sham process.” Now, Kavanaugh’s “place on the Court is an insult to the pursuit of truth and justice,” Harris wrote. “He must be impeached.”

The first Democratic presidential contender who called for Kavanaugh’s impeachment was Julián Castro. “It’s more clear than ever that Brett Kavanaugh lied under oath,” Castro tweeted Saturday night. “He should be impeached.”

Castro called for Kavanaugh’s impeachment shortly after the New York Times published an explosive report that detailed a new allegation of sexual misconduct against the Supreme Court justice. Although senators and the FBI knew about the allegation, they failed to follow up, according to the Times piece.
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/09/elizabeth-warren-kamala-harris-julian-castro-kavanaugh-impeachment.html

No, no. no one’s guilty yet. But could Kavanaugh serve the shortest time on the bench? Well, there is a possibility. And no I unfortunately do not have time to stop the show to find out who the shortest serving justice in US history is. Make me. Fine. Anyway… since logic takes a holiday in the Trump administration, guess what? He’s claiming that Kavanaugh is the one being assaulted! I think he might confuse “rescue” with “recuse”. Damn you auto correct! Oh wait.

Trump barged into the fray in Kavanaugh's defense, relishing the opening to revive one of the most emotional and GOP-unifying chapters of his presidency.

"Brett Kavanaugh should start suing people for libel, or the Justice Department should come to his rescue. The lies being told about him are unbelievable," Trump tweeted Sunday morning.

The eagerness of both sides to engage reflects the confrontation's potential to fire up base activists and an understanding that the fate of the Supreme Court has rarely been more important to the outcome of political and culture wars following signature decisions on the 2000 election, campaign finance, same sex marriage, abortion and health care.

The reports are reviving the pitched political exchanges that threatened Kavanaugh's confirmation, most notably over allegations by Christine Blasey Ford that he assaulted her when he was drunk at a party when both were teenagers. Kavanaugh vehemently denied the claims.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/16/politics/brett-kavanaugh-donald-trump-supreme-court-democrats-2020-election/index.html

[font size="8"]John Bolton
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Hey everyone I’m baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!!! And it’s been a while since we have had a major resignation from the Trumper Games. But this is one of the biggest ones to date. Yes, the president himself has fired Tribute Bolton from the 1st District via his favorite medium – the Tweet! In fact, the latest developments from the Trumper Games are so fresh that even Tribute Bolton himself was not made aware of this fact until it actually happened Saturday Night! What was I doing Saturday night? I was indulging in some fine adult beverages with my humble man servant Nathaniel. Speaking of which, where is my champagne? Ah there it is. But let us revel. Revel I say!!!

President Donald Trump abruptly announced in a tweet Tuesday that he has asked national security adviser John Bolton to resign, noting that he "strongly disagreed with many" of Bolton's suggestions "as did others in the administration."

"I thank John very much for his service. I will be naming a new National Security Advisor next week," Trump wrote.

The tweet came just one hour after the White House press office said Bolton was scheduled to appear at a Tuesday press briefing alongside Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin.

Asked during the briefing whether he and Mnuchin were surprised that Bolton was fired, given that he was supposed to appear alongside them, Pompeo said, "I'm never surprised."

Bolton, however, maintains he offered to leave his post voluntarily, tweeting minutes after Trump's announcement, "I offered to resign last night and President Trump said, 'Let's talk about it tomorrow.'"
Bolton reiterated the point that he offered to resign to Fox News Tuesday.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/10/politics/trump-john-bolton-out/index.html

Yes, that is the sound of… YOU’RE FIRED! Yes, so the President himself unleashed his disappointment with Tribute Bolton via the Tweet on Saturday night. So what was the firing over? Well there is a lot of speculation that it has to do with a pending war with Iran, for which the war drums have been beating loudly since the Bush administration. So Bolton is fired and Saudi Arabia is attacked the very next day, coincidence? I think not!

Former national security adviser John Bolton’s abrupt departure on Tuesday came after President Donald Trump suggested he might lift some U.S. sanctions on Iran as an incentive for Tehran to come to the negotiating table, according to a person close to Bolton.

This person said Trump raised the idea of lifting sanctions during a discussion with Bolton in the Oval Office on Monday afternoon. Bolton made clear to the president that he strongly disagreed with the idea, this person said.

Bolton was out as national security adviser the following morning, though he and Trump disagree over who made that decision. The president has said he fired him, while Bolton has said he resigned.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

As national security adviser, Bolton was a leading advocate of the Trump administration’s so-called “maximum pressure campaign,” designed to squeeze Iran’s economy until its leadership was forced to curtail its aggression in the region and concede to U.S. demands to dismantle its nuclear program.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/trump-john-bolton-argued-over-iran-sanctions-n1054481

I love it too! And damn it, Nathaniel! Where is my champagne? But I must delight in the firing of Tribute Bolton because he’s a holdout from the George Bush years, and since old conservatives never seem to go away, we’re stuck with him time and time again. Which I believe is expressed under the old adage “meet the new boss, same as the old boss.” So what are Tribute Bolton’s future plans? Well if you said “book deal”, you are correct!

Following his acrimonious departure from the White House, former National Security Adviser John Bolton has insisted that he will have his “say in due course.”

It hasn’t yet been a full week, but it appears he’s found a vehicle for clearing the air. According to two people with knowledge of the situation, Bolton has already expressed interest in writing a book on his time in the Trump administration, and has been in contact in recent days with literary agents interested in making that happen.

“He has a lot to dish,” one of the sources said, adding it was not clear if Bolton had settled on an agency yet.

Reached by The Daily Beast on Monday afternoon, Bolton only replied, “No comment” when asked about discussions with book agents and his potential project. But if he goes down this path, he’d be merely the latest former Trump official to try and turn their noisy exit into bestselling gold.

During the Trump presidency, there have been several occasions in which a former loyalist has published a “tell-all” book or memoir that infuriated the president and his senior staff.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/former-trump-adviser-john-bolton-already-talking-with-book-agents-he-has-a-lot-to-dish

Yes, I love a good crazy straw! Even though I am a liberal I will gladly drink my champagne out of a crazy straw! Because, YOLO! And really, come on Tribute Bolton! You know the president has the most fragile of egos, he doesn’t like it when you spill his secrets. Just ask Bob Woodward. Too soon? Well, in case you’re wondering what Tribute Bolton’s future plans are, he has plenty of them. But being a tribute isn’t one of them, so consider him…. ELIMINATED!

John Bolton wasted no time getting back in the political game Friday, just a few days after being ousted as President Donald Trump’s National Security Adviser.

Bolton has resumed his old job as the head of two political action committees, the John Bolton PAC and John Bolton Super PAC, announcing that he would be donating $10,000 to five Republican incumbent re-election campaigns for 2020.

These include Sens. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) and Reps. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) and Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.).

The website reads, "The John Bolton PAC and John Bolton Super PAC seek a strong, clear, and dependable US national security policy, resting on constancy and resolve.”

“The experience that these incumbent members of Congress have provides them with a remarkable understanding and knowledge of the threats we face from international terrorism and rogue regimes such as Iran and North Korea,” the statement continues.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/09/13/john-bolton-resumes-political-activity-after-leaving-white-house/2313821001/

[font size="8"]Top 10 Investigates: Sackler Family Gets Sacked
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It’s time to investigate beyond the headlines. This is Top 10 Investigates!

America’s opioid crisis has become more than a crisis. It’s an epidemic. And at the center of the opioid crisis sits the Sackler Family. And its’ head Richard Sackler, is quickly becoming the face of the pure evil billionaire. His company, Purdue Pharmaceuticals, is one of the largest manufacturers of the drug known as Oxycontin. So could the manufacturers of oxycontin make the Sackler family pay for their crimes? As we know in the day and age where there’s no accountability whatsoever, the answer to this question is probably not.

Purdue Pharma, the company owned by the Sackler family at the center of the prescription opioid crisis, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, according to The New York Times. The company is the subject of more than 2,600 lawsuits at both the state and federal levels.

“This unique framework for a comprehensive resolution will dedicate all of the assets and resources of Purdue for the benefit of the American public,” Purdue’s board chairman Steve Miller said in a statement to the Times. “This settlement framework avoids wasting hundreds of millions of dollars and years on protracted litigation, and instead will provide billions of dollars and critical resources to communities across the country trying to cope with the opioid crisis.”

Chapter 11 restructuring would mean at least a temporary halt to the thousands of lawsuits against the company by all but two U.S. states as the company’s finances are sorted.

The bankruptcy announcement comes after the New York attorney general announced on Friday that $1 billion from Purdue’s owners were allegedly transferred to hide profits. In August, New York Attorney General Letitia James subpoenaed more than 30 financial institutions for records related to billions of dollars tied to the Sackler family. And that announcement happened only after one financial institution complied with the subpoena.
https://splinternews.com/purdue-pharma-files-for-bankruptcy-1838137276

No, you’re just broke. But the impending bankruptcy from Purdue Pharmaceuticals has brought into question the incredibly shady business practices of the Sackler Family. And while President Trump is currently focusing on the inherent dangers of electronic cigarettes, he might want to instead turn his attention to the opioid crisis which has killed thousands. Yes, thousands.

They are the owners of Purdue Pharma, a pharmaceutical company that produces the opioid painkiller OxyContin.

As a result, the family has been accused of fuelling a deadly opioid crisis in the US that has killed more than 200,000 people in two decades.

Purdue and the Sacklers have denied allegations in lawsuits that they contributed to the opioid crisis, and have pointed to heroin and fentanyl as more significant culprits than prescription painkillers.

The family has also long been known for philanthropy, with museum wings, galleries and even escalators across the world named after them.

On Sunday Purdue Pharma filed for bankruptcy protection, as part of the company's efforts to deal with the thousands of lawsuits it is facing in connection with the opioid crisis.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-49718388

Either way you’re still broke. So let’s put this into perspective – there were a whopping 2600 lawsuits against Purdue and the Sackler family that got mysteriously shut down after the Sacklers transferred, er, stole more than a BILLION DOLLARS from the company. So how are they going to weasel their way out of this one? Well, just combine them all into one settlement. Yeah because that will help offset all the lives that were destroyed.

Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family members who own it have reached a tentative deal with a number of states and a significant portion of the more than 2,000 cities, counties, and tribes that sued over the opioid crisis, which was triggered in part by widespread use of Purdue’s signature drug, OxyContin. Overuse and abuse of the addictive painkiller have claimed hundreds of thousands of lives.

According to the New York Times, which reported on the deal Wednesday, most state attorneys general involved have agreed to the terms of the roughly $10 billion–$12 billion settlement. The deal would have Sackler family members pay $3 billion from their own wealth and relinquish control of the company. The family would also contribute another $1.5 billion from the sale of another company, Mundipharma, which sells pharmaceuticals internationally. (The exact amount and timing of the sale are both undetermined, but the attorneys general said they want the Sacklers to commit to $1.5 billion upfront. It’s unclear if the Sacklers have agreed to the term.) Purdue would likely file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy soon after it makes these payments.

If the deal is finalized, Purdue Pharma will form a new company that continues to sell OxyContin but directs the drug’s proceeds to a public beneficiary company to pay the plaintiffs. Purdue Pharma will also donate drugs for addiction treatment and overdoses. The company will not admit wrongdoing.
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/09/purdue-pharma-sackler-family-opioid-crisis-tentative-deal.html

Yes, that’s what corporations do in this day and age. Weasel out of things. So what does this mean for Purdue Pharmaceuticals and the Sackler Family? Well, they’re broke. And in fact not just broke, they’re also broken. Because like most conservative billionaire industrialists, the Sackler family simply took the money and ran. And we’re stuck with the bill.

The New York attorney general’s office said on Friday that it had tracked about $1 billion in wire transfers by the Sackler family, including through Swiss bank accounts, suggesting that the family tried to shield wealth as it faced a raft of litigation over its role in the opioid crisis.

Earlier this week, thousands of municipal governments and nearly two dozen states tentatively reached a settlement with the Sackler family and the company it owns, Purdue Pharma, maker of OxyContin. It was unclear if the new disclosure would change the thinking of any of the parties that agreed to the settlement.

The attorneys general of a majority of states, including New York and Massachusetts, have already balked at the proposed deal, contending that the Sackler family has siphoned off company profits that should be used to pay for the billions of dollars in damage caused by opioids.

The wire transfers are part of a lawsuit against Purdue and individual Sacklers in New York. Letitia James, now the state’s attorney general, had issued subpoenas last month to 33 financial institutions and investment advisers with ties to the Sacklers in an effort to trace the full measure of the family’s wealth.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/13/health/sacklers-purdue-opioids.html

That’s it for Top 10 Investigates. Good day.

[font size="8"]Holy Shit
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Gather around my fair brothers and sisters of Lansing! For the Holy Church Of The Top 10 has convened and it’s time for our weekly reminder that the holiest among us are also the most full of:

My fair congregation! There is an alarming incident being brought to my attention that happened in one of America’s most prestigious universities… for ultra far right crackpots. I’m of course talking about the one and only Liberty University. But there are strange happenings that are afoot in the conservative Christian campus. Jerry Falwell Jr, you got some explaining to do! Especially because I am not sure that the good LAWRD JAYSUS would approve of what you have been putting your students through. Because I am certain that it is anything but GAWDLY!!

Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr., facing a growing controversy over business dealings at the university, is now facing a backlash over e-mails in which he allegedly belittled a student and staff during the past decade.

Speaking to CNN Friday, Falwell confirmed the emails were authentic, but said they lacked critical context.

"I would have to see the full thread to see what I was talking about," he told CNN.

On Friday, a small band of students protested on Liberty's campus, demanding that Falwell be held accountable. Standing in the rain, the students carried signs that said, "If you won't answer to us, answer to God!" and "Accountability," according to CNN affiliate WSET.

Elizabeth Brooks, a sophomore at the school and a main organizer of the protest, told Religion News Service, that the protest is not aimed at ousting Falwell, but wants to "bring to light the truth of these allegations of various misconduct."
https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/13/us/liberty-protest-falwell/index.html

So the man who claims to be one of the most godly god men in America is under investigation for allegations of misconduct. Now is anyone really shocked by this? I know that I am not. But what are the consequences of Falwell’s actions? Well, apparently Mr. Falwell is giving a preview of what an American dictatorship would look like and it’s not going to end well for him. Because if there’s one thing we learned from history and especially the BAYBLE itself, it’s that people don’t respond well to tyranny.

Based on scores of new interviews and documents obtained for this article, concerns about Falwell’s behavior go well beyond that—and it’s causing longtime, loyal Liberty University officials to rapidly lose faith in him.

More than two dozen current and former high-ranking Liberty University officials and close associates of Falwell spoke to me or provided documents for this article, opening up—for the first time at an institution so intimately associated with the Falwell family—about what they’ve experienced and why they don’t think he’s the right man to lead Liberty University or serve as a figurehead in the Christian conservative movement.

In interviews over the past eight months, they depicted how Falwell and his wife, Becki, consolidated power at Liberty University and how Falwell presides over a culture of self-dealing, directing university resources into projects and real estate deals in which his friends and family have stood to make personal financial gains. Among the previously unreported revelations are Falwell’s decision to hire his son Trey’s company to manage a shopping center owned by the university, Falwell’s advocacy for loans given by the university to his friends, and Falwell’s awarding university contracts to businesses owned by his friends.

“We’re not a school; we’re a real estate hedge fund,” said a senior university official with inside knowledge of Liberty’s finances. “We’re not educating; we’re buying real estate every year and taking students’ money to do it.”
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/09/09/jerry-falwell-liberty-university-loans-227914

Now my fair congregation, here’s where this story gets weird. Because why wouldn’t it? Well apparently Falwell, a man who has discussed HEATHENS in the past apparently is one himself! I mean what an absolute shocker! Not. And why did he go to a nightclub in Miami? That’s one place that is rife with SIN!!!! And SIN!!! Must be punished by the LAWRD OUR GAWD creator of all things good and holy!

Tell a celebrity and social scene photographer you think their photos didn’t capture their best side. Tell them you think they’re no good. Even tell them you weren’t at the club even if they have a photo of you doing a face plant outside the VIP rope.

But tell them they “photo-shopped” an image of you to place you at a scene you say you weren’t at? Hell hath no fury like a photographer with a treasure trove archive of over “5 million photos” and 21 years in the business on their résumé.

He will find five more photos of you and publish them in a rebuke on his company website.

That’s the scene playing out between Liberty University President and evangelical leader Jerry Falwell Jr. and South Florida photographer Seth Browarnik, the founder of the Miami-based celebrity photo agency, World Red Eye.
Politico’s Falwell feature

The fallout started after Falwell Jr. was the subject of a lengthy, unflattering feature published Monday in Politico.

The article’s title — “’Someone’s Gotta Tell the Freakin’ Truth’: Jerry Falwell’s Aides Break Their Silence” — was just one issue the son of the late Jerry Falwell Sr. had with the story that described “a culture of fear and self-dealing at the largest Christian college in the world.”
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/miami-beach/article234923057.html

Yes holy mother of SIN indeed! Because Falwell has committed not one but two of the most egregious of sins – cheating and lying! Yes, Falwell a man who has condemned cheating and lying, is a cheater and liar himself. And he just can’t help himself. I could go on all day about the inherent clusterfuck that he created, but we only have 10 minutes! But you know what? I say those student protests we talked about are justified!

In the wake of reports alleging objectionable rhetoric and conduct by Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr., about 200 students at the evangelical Christian school gathered at a protest on campus Friday (Sept. 13), with student organizers estimating that about 60 of the demonstrators were there to demand an investigation of the president and his administration.

“We are not calling for Falwell to resign right now,” said Elizabeth Brooks yesterday evening (Sept. 12), a sophomore at the school and the main organizer of the student protest. But in a mission statement Brooks wrote, she stated that the official position of the demonstration is to “bring to light the truth of these allegations of various misconduct.”

Brooks did not elaborate on the allegations, only stating that the protest comes in response to an article by Brandon Ambrosino that appeared in Politico this week that quotes current and former members of Falwell’s “inner circle” describing Liberty as a “dictatorship” and more of a “real estate hedge fund” than a university.

The article portrayed Falwell bragging about his sex life with employees, attending a nightclub and later denying it, claiming photos of him at the club were altered. He is also accused in the article of dealing university contracts to friends and family.
https://religionnews.com/2019/09/13/liberty-students-protest-after-new-falwell-revelations/

Well there it is folks, we will keep an eye on this and maybe have more for you to report on next week but in the meantime allow us to engage in a bit of schadenfreude watching the meltdown at Liberty University. Mass has ended, may you go in peace! That’s it this week for:

[font size="8"]Beating A Dead Horse: Too PC?
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Yeah that’s Sebastian Mansacalco’s extremely cringe-worthy monologue opening the MTV VMAs a couple of weeks ago. We missed the opportunity to blast him for it then, so we’re making up for it this week. So the question on the table is – “are liberals too PC?”. We’re going to examine this argument very thoroughly and probably leave you more confused than when we came in. It’s not just Manascalco that’s making this claim. There’s a whole lot of people making claims about liberals and safe spaces, that whole “triggered snowflake” bullshit that conservatives and libertarians have been peddling since about 2015. So where did it come from? Well the term “safe spaces” came from a South Park episode from 2015. And why is it so important to have safe spaces? Well let’s examine this a bit further.

“If you feel triggered or offended they’re providing a safe space backstage where you’ll get some stress balls and a blankie,” he said, joking that Lil Nas X was bringing his horse backstage as a support animal and that ushers could help people out if they wanted to leave.

“Personally I would remove you from the arena, put you in a car and send you home,” Maniscalco to shocked faces and limited applause.

He also said if nominees got upset when they didn’t win an award, MTV wasn’t giving out “participation ribbons” and they needed to “work harder” next year.

“If you feel triggered or offended they’re providing a safe space backstage where you’ll get some stress balls and a blankie,” he said, joking that Lil Nas X was bringing his horse backstage as a support animal and that ushers could help people out if they wanted to leave.

“Personally I would remove you from the arena, put you in a car and send you home,” Maniscalco to shocked faces and limited applause.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/sebastian-maniscalco-triggered-safe-space-mtv-vmas_n_5d6475bae4b0641b2551cfc8

Yeah it was about like that. Now since that was 3 weeks ago, or what seems like an eternity in 2019, let’s fast forward to this week. Which is where we switch gears from safe spaces to fat shaming! Yes, you can no longer call someone fat without facing the wrath of the internet outrage machine. What say you, Bill Maher, about this subject?

James Corden took home three Emmy Awards over the weekend — but he’s currently in the spotlight for a recent monologue that addressed a more serious issue than the Carpool Karaoke star is usually known for. On his Late Late Show with James Corden last Thursday night, the British comedian took the time to take his fellow talk show host Bill Maher to task over recent fat-shaming remarks.

“Fat shaming doesn’t need to end, it needs to make a comeback,” Maher, who is the star of Real Time with Bill Maher on HBO, opined late in August. “Some amount of shame is good. We shamed people out of smoking and into wearing seat belts. We shamed them out of littering and most of them out of racism. Shame is the first step in reform.”

To this, Corden had some thoughts of his own. “Fat-shaming never went anywhere,” he responded. “Ask literally any fat person. We are reminded of it all the time.” He went on: “There’s a common and insulting misconception that fat people are stupid and lazy, and we’re not… We know that being overweight isn’t good for us and I’ve struggled my entire life trying to manage my weight and I suck at it. I’ve had good days and bad months.”

In a follow-up interview with Entertainment Tonight after winning his Emmys, Corden further explained his response, saying he has “nothing but respect” for Maher. “I saw something that I felt like I had experience with,” he explained. “Ultimately, I think I know a little more about what it’s like to be overweight than perhaps some other people do. So, to see someone talk like that made me feel like, ‘Well, this is something I feel like we should talk about.'” So far, Corden’s response has continued to garner a warm response, with the video of his comments racking up nearly two million views.
https://time.com/5678358/james-corden-bill-maher-fat-shaming/

Fat shaming. Safe spaces. Triggered. Snowflakes. Can anyone make a statement about anyone anymore or is this what the new normal is going to be? Really you’re just going around in a circular firing squad at this point. I mean come on, Bill has a point – America is incredibly fat and needs to do something about its’ weight problem. The truth hurts sometimes doesn’t it? And by the way if you want to see a good monologue about snowflakes and safe spaces look no further than Dave Chappelle!

In his new Netflix special “Sticks & Stones,” the objects of Chappelle’s ire are folks ostensibly making their personal tragedies everyone’s problems by using them to perpetrate career death and reputation homicide upon celebrities. These people, he tells us, have made him a “victim blamer.”

He guns for two men at the center of “Leaving Neverland,” who allege that late pop music idol Michael Jackson molested them when they were 7 and 10 years old. And cancel culture advocates who took aim at his personal friends, like Kevin Hart and another A-list comic he was good friends with “before he died in that terrible masturbation accident.”

Then there’s the easily offended “alphabet people,” his shorthand for the LGBTQ community, particularly, as he says, the “confusing” Ts. The #MeToo movement, organizers of school shooting drills — they’ve all gotten out of hand and need to be taken down a peg.

Chappelle even takes a moment to stereotypically mimic Asians, which he defuses later on by reminding the audience that his wife is Asian. The entirety of “Sticks & Stones” is structured around such logic: by signaling to those who are true believers in his genius that it’s all just a joke, only words, this earns his ability to “punch down,” as the parlance goes.
https://www.salon.com/2019/09/05/what-happened-to-dave-chappelle-the-cruelty-of-sticks-stones-is-a-sign-of-the-times/

Yeah just let it all hang out fellas! But here’s the thing about comedy that people aren’t getting – it’s subjective! It’s supposed to offend you! And if you don’t like it, there’s this thing that we invented called a “remote control”. Dave Chappelle has made a living saying some extremely offensive shit! And since we’re on the subject, you know who the real snowflakes in this country are? Right wing patriots! They are triggered at the thought of anything that does not bleed red, white and blue.

The term "patriotism" may be associated with strength, but at least in the United States, the people who crow the loudest about loving their country are often the most fragile when it comes to expressing that love in a healthy way.

This ongoing problem of fragile patriotism — a phenomenon particularly prevalent among Trump-flavored American conservatives — contributes to many of the most persistent injustices that plague our country.

As with love in interpersonal relationships, love of one's country has to encompass the ability to accept criticism. If you love an individual uncritically, you forfeit your capacity for independent thought and leave yourself vulnerable to abusive behavior. Similarly, if you love your country uncritically, you ignore the sins of its past — and make it more likely that they will recur in the future.

This object lesson was demonstrated for me personally on the Fourth of July, when I published an opinion essay pointing out the overt racism and sexism that marred the events that led to the founding of our country, including the writing of the Declaration of Independence. I noted that Thomas Jefferson had initially considered condemning slavery but then refrained from doing so; that Abigail Adams asked her husband to remember the rights of women when creating his new country but was laughed off; and that the language of the Declaration both directly and indirectly demeaned Native Americans. The purpose of the piece was to simultaneously honor what was right about the Declaration of Independence, and the events that surrounded its creation, while acknowledging its shortcomings.
https://www.salon.com/2019/07/13/fragile-patriotism-right-wing-snowflakes-triggered-by-any-criticism-of-america/

[font size="8"]Dan Bishop
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Politicians at the state and local levels who are so toxic, you wonder how they’re able to get away with the things they get away with. This is:

Last week, Trump flew to Fayetteville, North Carolina to endorse Dan Bishop in a North Carolina special election for NC-09. But who is Dan Bishop? If you guessed that he’s one of Trump’s people – you are absolutely correct. And by Trump’s people, we mean that he’s got ties to the ultra far right Proud Boys, he defended North Carolina’s controversial “bathroom bill”, and aligns himself with a group called “Deplorable Pride” – which is an organization aimed at LGBT Trump fans. Yes, these people actually do exsit. Talk about getting someone to vote against their best interests. So what makes Dan Bishop such a controversial choice even for the pro-Trump crowd?

The campaign of North Carolina Republican congressional candidate Dan Bishop has associated with a far-right activist with a history of bigoted rhetoric who has defended the Proud Boys, a controversial neo-fascist outfit. Bishop, a state senator who authored North Carolina’s anti-transgender “bathroom bill,” is competing in Tuesday’s special election in the state’s 9th district.

The activist, Brian Talbert, runs a local organization called Deplorable Pride, a right-wing group that bills itself as a “conservative LGBT voice.” (Talbert said in a video posted this year that he is “against transgenders in the military.”) In June 2017, Talbert, who is gay, made national news when the board of Charlotte’s annual Pride celebration rejected his group’s application to enter a float in its parade, referring to a precedent of rejecting “participation from…organizations espousing anti-LGBTQ religious or public policy stances.” About that time, the White House, according to Talbert, called him with a message of support. According to the Charlotte Observer, the call had been initiated because the White House wanted to praise the group for joining a sit-in staged at a Starbucks, where staff had made fun of a customer wearing a T-shirt supporting President Donald Trump.

The LGBTQ advocacy organization GLAAD condemned Deplorable Pride in 2017, pointing to Talbert’s social media history. One post attributed to Talbert, which is no longer visible but was documented by GLAAD, stated, “Am I the only one pissed it wasn’t a real ban on all muslims? I say get rid of all the camel fuckers. Wipe them from the face of the earth.” (Talbert says this post was fabricated, but after GLADD publicized it, Deplorable Pride wrote in a comment on the GLAAD page, “I fully stand behind all my comments.”) In a 2017 Facebook comment from his personal Facebook profile, Talbert said, “Mohammed sucks cocks in hell.”
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/09/gop-congressional-candidate-has-ties-to-far-right-supporter-of-the-proud-boys/

Yes, how very classy of them. Which makes it natural that Trump would support this kind of candidate since he spouts all the racist and sexist views that have made Trump and his crew popular with well, racists and sexists. In fact if you want to see how toxic Mr. Bishop really is, you do not need to look any further than his record on LGBT people.

Dan Bishop, the man behind North Carolina’s anti-LGBTQ House Bill 2 and now running for the U.S. House, actually has support from one LGBTQ group — a far-right one with a history of anti-Muslim comments and other bigoted rhetoric.

Bishop, a Republican who faces Democrat Dan McCready in a special election today in North Carolina’s Ninth Congressional District, has the endorsement of Deplorable Pride, an N.C. group run by Brian Talbert, which calls itself “a conservative LGBT voice,” Mother Jones reports.

Talbert has posted virulently anti-Muslim comments on social media, including a desire to “kill every single one of them,” a reference to Muslims as “camel fuckers,” and the statement “Mohammed sucks cocks in hell,” as documented by GLAAD. He has called liberal LGBTQ people “vile” and “disgusting” and described abortion as “genocide.” He has voiced opposition to military service by transgender people.

He and his organization have also expressed support for the Proud Boys, designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center for its white nationalist, misogynistic, and Islamophobic statements. Proud Boys members clashed violently with protesters in New York City in 2018 and appeared at the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Va., the previous year. (For the record, Proud Boys leaders say the organization is not racist but simply campaigns for Western values, and they have sued the SPLC over the hate group label.) “Our LBGT organization, Deplorable Pride, will always be an ally to the Proud Boys,” Talbert told Big League Politics last year.
https://www.advocate.com/politics/2019/9/10/north-carolina-bathroom-bill-sponsor-backed-far-right-lgbtq-group

Indeed we do. But the republicans shouldn’t be so quick to celebrate Dan Bishop’s victory in the NC 09 district. Instead they should be terrified. Or at least less than enthusiastic. Because Bishop only won by an extremely narrow margin. Is this a preview of what we can expect in 2020? Can previously unwinnable districts actually come close to flipping? Well the answer is more believable than you might think.

In the hotly contested special election coming up in North Carolina later this month, one thing both sides of the deep political divide agree on is this: The race is a sneak preview of 2020’s blockbuster fight for the White House.

Between the Category 5 Hurricane coming up the coast —and the North Carolina Board of Elections urging people vote early in the rerun of a 2018 race marred by election fraud — it’s possible to dismiss the campaign in NC-09 as an outlier, a sideshow to the presidential race that has captured the country’s attention for nearly a year.

But the plot points of the 2020 contest are clearly evident.

Republicans see the race as a proving ground for their Trump-focused strategy, and they are tripling down. Their nominee Dan Bishop is an unfailing supporter of the president, and Trump is scheduled to rally the troops in the district the night before the September 10 special election.

Republicans are taking their message straight from the Trump playbook, claiming Democrats like Bishop’s opponent Dan McCready favor open borders and want to take away your guns and private health insurance. And, of course, they’ve come up with a derogatory nickname. In this case, it’s “Greedy McCready.”
https://www.insidesources.com/the-nc-09-special-election-is-a-sneak-preview-of-the-2020-blockbuster/

So the GOP resorts to their usual tactic of coming up with derogatory nicknames for their opponents and everyone falls for it. But this election is like when your favorite MLB team trades for a hotly contested player and gets them for half a season and winds up… doing nothing in the playoffs. While the battle may be won, the war is far from over. But how did he win? Because we have unlimited amounts of money pouring in local elections, that’s how!

Only one House special election in U.S. history has seen more outside spending than North Carolina’s 9th Congressional District, where groups are spending more than $10.7 million to blitz the airwaves with ads.

Outside spending significantly favors Republican Dan Bishop over Democrat Dan McCready, according to figures from OpenSecrets. That offsets what had been McCready’s fundraising advantage.

The spending eclipses the nearly $9 million spent in Florida’s 13th District in 2014, though it’s far behind the record-shattering $27 million spent in Georgia’s nationally watched 2017 congressional race between Democrat Jon Ossoff and Republican Karen Handel.

“What this amount of money indicates is how much both parties are willing to truly invest in elections that may not have a governing consequence but have more strategy and symbolism,” said political scientist Michael Bitzer of Catawba College in North Carolina.
https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2019/09/north-carolina-09-spending-fuels-blitz-of-tv-ads/

Vileness, name calling and Citizens United. That’s enough to explain how Dan Bishop is yet another politician to add to the ever-growing list of:

[font size="8"]People Are Dumb
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Hey it’s time for People Are Dumb!

So of course you know by now that people are people and people are dumb. And I love these stories because they are everywhere, and they’re getting to the point where you could almost interchange them and they’d be exactly the same. So who is stupid this week? I want to start with this story out of Mississippi. And that is if you’re going to break into someone’s house, maybe don’t wear the costume of a very easily identifiable costumed superhero.

David Hobbs was arrested after police say he tried to break into a shed wearing a Captain America costume and fairy wings (Source: WREG, Tribune, Clarksdale Police Dept. via CNN)

Tuesday morning, David Hobbs broke into a shed, according to police.

But it wasn't the nature of the crime that has people talking: It was his disguise.

Hobbs was wearing a head-to-toe Captain America costume, and while it's not in the booking photo, he also donned fairy wings to complete the look.

The man police say he tried to rob is a former Marine corrections officer.

The victim didn't want to give his name or do an interview, but he said when he heard his alarm, he grabbed his gun, grabbed the 'uncaped' crusader and held him until police got there.
https://www.wdbj7.com/content/news/Miss-man-dressed-as-Captain-America-caught-breaking-into-shed-560235441.html

Better listen to Cap here. Next up we’re going overseas for this one. Specifically to the country of India, and look, no one wants to pay the full fare for plane travel these days. It’s too damn expensive! And I honestly don’t know if this is dumb or genius, but either way I would have loved to been the airport clerk scanning this dude’s ID. I bet the reaction was hilarious.

It was an impressive disguise: the snow-white beard, the oversized glasses, the wheelchair.

But it was when the seemingly frail and elderly passenger reached security at New Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport -- India's busiest airport -- that he caught the attention of staff. At around 10.45 p.m. on the evening of September 8, the individual was hoping to get on an overnight flight to New York. "He posed as if he was very old and incapacitated," Shrikant Kishore, a senior official with the Central Industrial Security Force, told CNN.

Dressed in a white tunic and trousers, with a white turban and black slippers, the passenger proved reluctant to be frisked. "Our screener asked the person in the wheelchair to stand. He said that he cannot stand. Our screener asked if he would stand with support. He reluctantly stood up."

That's when the officer noticed that while the passenger's beard and hair were white, the roots were black. He also was working hard to avoid the officer's eyes. When asked for his passport, the individual handed over documentation claiming that he was Amrick Singh, born in Delhi in February 1938, making him 81 years old.

"He was definitely not 80 years old. His skin was of a younger person," Kishore told CNN. Upon further questioning, the man told security staff that he was, in fact, 32-year-old Jayesh Patel, a resident of Gujarat state.

As he was holding a fake passport, he was detailed by security and handed over to immigration authorities. Kishore told CNN that he doesn't know what the current status of the case is or the reason behind the impersonation.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/young-man-caught-posing-as-senior-citizen-to-fly-to-us/ar-AAH5yIH?li=BBnbcA1&ocid=HPCOMMDHP15

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha, that was a classic Simpsons scene! Next up – we go to of course our favorite state and America’s most penis shaped state, that is Florida. We can never, ever get enough stories from the Sunshine State on this program. First up we’re going to go to the town of Largo. And if you do drugs, you’re bound to hide them somewhere. But this definitely is not a place you should hide them, because the dogs will find them almost instantly.

A search of a Chicken McNuggets container yielded baggies of methamphetamine and fentanyl that were nestled alongside the McDonald’s fried delights, according to Florida police who arrested an alleged poultry/narcotics enthusiast on felony charges.

During a 3:15 AM encounter yesterday at an extended stay hotel in Largo, a Tampa suburb, cops searched a backpack in the possession of Eric Little, a 34-year-old whose rap sheet includes convictions for assault, narcotics possession, and violating probation.

Investigators found a used syringe inside the backpack, along with a container of Chicken McNuggets. An examination of the container revealed that it “held McNuggets & approx. 7.5 grams of methamphetamine” and “a bag of fentanyl” weighing 1.3 grams, according to court affidavits.

Little, seen above, was arrested on a pair of felony narcotics possession charges and a misdemeanor possession of drug paraphernalia count. He was freed last night from the county jail after posting $4150 bond.
http://thesmokinggun.com/documents/crime/mcnuggets-meth-639502

Ah so that’s what is in the secret sauce! Next up, while on the subject of the Sunshine State, we go to the town of Melbourne for what might be one of the dumbest criminals we’ve seen yet. I have so many questions about this story – what was this guy doing with the spray paint? And why would he just spray paint one word? You’ve got a whole can of stuff, go wild man!

A Florida man who spray painted the word "slur" in a bar bathroom was found with spray cans still in his backpack, according to the Melbourne Police Department.

Police said a witness saw Paul Scott, 24, walk into the men's restroom at Mugs Pub Sunday night with his backpack and when he left, there was wet pink paint on the wall that read, "slur."

When police approached Scott, they said he initially told them he had been in the bar for about 15 minutes and during that time, he had one beer before an employee asked him to leave.

According to authorities, they could hear the sound of aluminum cans coming from Scott's backpack and when they searched it, they found spray paint bottles, and an empty bottle that was still wet, in the same shade of pink as the graffiti inside the restroom.

Scott said he is a painter and spray paints often but denied painting in the restroom.
https://www.clickorlando.com/strange-florida/florida-man-spray-paints-the-word-slur-in-bar-bathroom-police-say?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

Yeah learn from the master there! Next up – we’re going to Nassau County for this one. This is the stupid criminal trifecta here. It’s sex in a cop car, it’s DUI on a bicycle, and it’s indecent exposure. One more crime and they can go for the Superfecta!!!

On Friday night, Nassau County Sheriff’s Deputy Mark Hunter pulled over two bicyclists who were riding around without their lights on and had almost been hit by a vehicle,

<snip>

Although both were then handcuffed in the back of Hunter’s police car, they apparently didn’t let that minor detail stop them from appreciating the romance of the moment.

According to the police report obtained by The Smoking Gun, Hunter was outside of the car when both Thomas and Mondanaro “took their clothes off and started to have sex.”

The officer said that when he “opened up the door to stop them,” Thomas “was naked and [Mondanaro] had her pants down where her vaginal area was visible. I also observed her bra was halfway off and her breasts were fully visible.”

After Hunter removed a naked Thomas from the car, he knocked the deputy to the ground and ran away before being arrested at a Cold Stone Creamery, according to Jacksonville station WJAX-TV.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/florida-couple-sex-in-cop-car_n_5d810349e4b03b5fc88a7ebc

Finally this week – we’re going to go to the Land Down Under, Australia for this one. And this might be one of the most Australia stories ever. Seriously, what could be a basic plotline for the next Wes Anderson flick – a meticulously planned robbery gets foiled by… a seal?

Police launched a raid on Burton Island off the port town of Geraldton last week, finding Frenchman Antoine Dicenta, 51, and British man Graham Palmer, 34, allegedly with 1.087 tonne of methylamphetamine, cocaine and ecstasy in dozens of bags that they had attempted to hide under seaweed.
...
When police arrived, Dicenta and Palmer made a run for their dinghy but were thwarted by a huge sleeping seal, Healy told the broadcaster.

“They woke it up and it jumped up with its big chest out and bellowed at them.

“The guys basically had the choice of going through the seal or getting arrested and they ended up choosing getting arrested.”

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/sep/12/alleged-drug-gang-thwarted-by-giant-seal-in-1bn-australian-drug-bust

That’s it this week for:

[font size="8"]Keeping Up With The Candidates Ep. 7: John Ossoff
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Welcome back to our 2020 voters’ guide, Keeping Up With The Candidates! It’s where we dissect the 2020 mother of all elections to end all elections! We’re taking a look at the entire electoral body from top to bottom whether it’s the state, local, senate, Congress, and presidential candidates. Because there is a lot that is going to turn the country and possibly flip it in a much bluer election than we previously thought. At least we hope. So we’re doing this thing to keep all our voting info in one place. This week, we’re taking a look at the Georgia Senate. Because a guy who got royally screwed out of a previous election is back and he’s not taking no for an answer. That man is John Ossoff. We’re going to reintroduce him now.

Jon Ossoff, the Democrat and former documentary filmmaker who came close to flipping a conservative House district in Georgia in 2017, will challenge Senator David Perdue next year.

Mr. Ossoff made the announcement Monday evening, telling the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that he would “mount a ruthless assault on corruption in our political system.” He will formally announce his campaign on Tuesday.

Mr. Ossoff started his campaign with an endorsement from Representative John Lewis Monday night. “Like the many thousands Jon has already organized and inspired, I am ready to work tirelessly to elect him,” Mr. Lewis, the Georgia Democrat, said. “Georgia and America need Jon.”

With Mr. Perdue up for re-election and Senator Johnny Isakson resigning, Georgia will be home to two of the most closely watched Senate races in the country in 2020, and Democrats are determined not to squander the opportunity. They now need two candidates strong enough to compete in a red state, and Georgia’s biggest Democratic star, Stacey Abrams, has already declined to run and intends to focus her efforts on fighting voter suppression.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/09/us/politics/jon-ossoff-2020-georgia-senate.html

See republicans? You don’t own 2020 like you think you do. OK I’ll take that one, audience! In fact both Ossoff and NC-09 were clear factors that things are changing and the conservative bubble is getting so big that it’s about to burst. And when that happens that’s not going to be pretty. So how did Ossoff nearly win that district and why is his run in GA-SEN important? Well…

With the Republican majority in the U.S. Senate currently standing at 53-47, Democrats need to net four seats in the 2020 election to take control — or three, if they also win the presidency and therefore the vice presidency, the tie-breaking vote in the chamber. Democrats’ opportunities to do so expanded on Wednesday, when Georgia Sen. Johnny Isakson announced that he would resign at the end of the year. Isakson, a Republican who has served in the Senate since 2005, was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2015 and cited his “mounting health challenges” as the reason for his decision.

What happens next is that Republican Gov. Brian Kemp will appoint a new senator to serve until the next regularly scheduled general election (in this case, November 2020), at which point a special election will be held to decide who serves the rest of Isakson’s term. Because Isakson was not scheduled to be up for reelection until 2022, the upshot for Democrats is that one extra Republican-held Senate seat will be on the ballot next year1 — and it comes in a state that could be competitive.

With FiveThirtyEight’s partisan lean2 of R+12, Georgia is still a red state. But the steady growth of the state’s nonwhite population and the defection of voters in well-educated suburbs (such as those around Atlanta) to Democrats in the Trump era have caused it to drift left. In the 2008 presidential election, Georgia was 12.5 points redder than the nation as a whole; in 2012, it was 11.8 points redder; in 2016, it was 7.3 points redder. It is reasonable to expect, then, that Georgia could be even closer to the tipping point in 2020. In other words, a good national cycle for Democrats — or a good Democratic candidate — could be enough to flip the seat blue (or at least come close).
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/georgia-will-now-have-two-senate-elections-in-2020/

That’s pretty much every election there. Unfortunately in 2016, someone terrible did win and he’s utterly destroying the country and everything we hold dear. Which is why we must elect anyone and anyone we can with the intent of stopping this conservative hell hole that our country has become under Trump. And Ossoff has proven that he can be elected too!

Jon Ossoff, who narrowly lost a high-profile Georgia congressional special election in 2017, is running for one of two U.S. Senate seats up in the state in 2020. Ossoff will be challenging incumbent David Perdue, a dollar-store magnate who’s held the office since 2015. The early retirement of Sen. Johnny Isakson has opened a second seat, which will be filled in a special election in 2020.

Ossoff starts the race as the frontrunner. Georgia’s leading democratic figure, Stacey Abrams, has declined to run, and Ossoff told The Intercept he would not have challenged her in a primary if she had decided to make a bid. Rep. Lucy McBath, a Democrat who now represents the congressional district Ossoff lost in, also hasn’t ruled out a run, but may make a bid for the open seat, meaning Ossoff and McBath would run as a ticket of sorts. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has not endorsed in the race; Ossoff said he spoke to Minority Leader Chuck Schumer this summer but did not get a commitment of support.

Ossoff’s 2017 race for Georgia’s 6th Congressional District broke records for spending and organizing, and for the number of small donors involved, though it almost never happened. The seat opened up when Tom Price was nominated to become the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, a position he has since vacated under a cloud of scandal, replaced by a pharmaceutical executive. Price had won reelection in 2016 by more than 20 points, and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee was uninterested in competing in the race, believing that the most likely scenario was that two Republicans would finish at the top of the first round of voting, meaning no Democrat would make it into the general election.
https://theintercept.com/2019/09/10/jon-ossoff-georgia-senate/

That’s kind of where we’re at right now. Just tell us your idea and then we’ll vote for it! But hopefully it doesn’t come to that! But really in the year leading up to the 2020 election we’re going to be featuring a lot of Senate candidates because we can’t stress enough how important it is to kick Mitch McConnell out of office and send him packing. Hopefully in an orange jumpsuit to his cell in Supermax. But for now just vote, vote damn it!! We’ll donate to Ossoff’s campaign as well as many others if we can afford to do so, traveling with a crew is pretty damned expensive after all!

As you might already know, both of Georgia’s U.S. Senate seats will be on the ballot next November.

But questions about who Gov. Brian Kemp will pick to replace Republican Sen. Johnny Isakson on the ballot in 2020 (and, if successful, the governor’s reelection campaign in 2022) has created an unending cascade of speculation and game theory about who will mount campaigns for the elected offices.

One contest will have the winner of a Democratic primary contest facing Republican Sen. David Perdue. The other will be a “jungle” style special election, where all candidates appear on the same ballot and the top two vote-getters – regardless of party – go to a runoff if no candidate gets above 50% of the vote.

What’s at stake

Both Republicans and Democrats have an increased interest in capturing these seats, as the road to control of the Senate appears to take a detour through Georgia. The Republican Senate majority is currently 53-47, and Democrats would need to win only three seats if they win the presidency and the vice president casts the tie-breaking vote.

Historically speaking, the “double-barrel” Senate races end up with the same party winning both seats. In 2018, Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota won her third term, and recently-appointed Democratic Sen. Tina Smith won the race to serve out the rest of Sen. Al Franken’s term after he resigned due to allegations of sexual harassment.
https://www.gpbnews.org/post/who-running-georgia-s-us-senate-seats

[font size="4"]Next Week:[/font]

We’re going to our home state of California to hang out with another presidential challenger, Kamala Harris!

[font size="8"]And Now This:[/font]
[font size="8”]The Raconteurs[/font]

Ladies and gentlemen, their latest album is called “Help Us Stranger”. They just played Riot Fest. You can see them on tour through November 10th. Playing their song “Bored And Razed”, give it up for the Raconteurs!
https://media.pitchfork.com/photos/5cdd979cfa43fd2f23067e64/1:1/w_320/TheRaconteurs_HelpUsStranger.jpg

Thank you Northwestern! This was fun! We’re off to the University Of Missouri, or Mizzou next! See you next week!

Credits

Host: Initech
Top 10 Conservative Idiots Recorded In Front Of Live Audience At: Northwestern University, Chicago, IL
Holy Shit Gospel Choir: Our Lady Of Bethel Church Gospel Choir, Gary, IN
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Initech Productions: Yes, We Got The Memo

September 11, 2019

Top 10 Conservative Idiots #7-11: This Is The Story Of A Hurricane Edition

Top 10 Conservative Idiots #7-11: This Is The Story Of A Hurricane Edition

Welcome back to the Top 10 Conservative Idiots! What’s up Michigan State? How you guys doing? You fucking good? We are back everybody! We are baaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!!! Wooooooooooooooooo!!! And I appreciate you guys fitting in our bullshit in between your busy class schedules. So let me check – is @realDonaldTrump still our president currently? What? He’s attacking Chrissy Tiegan and John Legend? Sigh… really there is nothing that will please this guy. I want to start by talking about some football this week. Whew! Man it was a batshit crazy week for teams not named the New England Patriots. Yeah, even then we still boo them because, why not! But we can all laugh at the Browns right? Holy shit that might be the single biggest epic fail that has ever failed. I mean not even last week every sports pundit in the country was pegging the Browns as a Super Bowl contender. But then not only do you lose… you lose that badly to a last place AFC South team? Yeah. And then there’s the Miami Dolphins. I don’t use this phrase enough, but the phrase “dumpster fire” most certainly applies here. I mean not only do you lose to the Ravens by 49 points, you have half the team threatening to be traded. Seriously, as much as we hate them, just give it to New England already. What’s the point of this season? Well, plenty and we will be monitoring the season as it is going on. But really, I am an Angels fan and I thought my team was a dumpster fire, but we ain’t got nothing on Miami! OK enough of the intro, we got a lot of idiocy to get to. But first John Oliver is back and he delves into another dumpster fire of an organization – the United States Senate.

Whew, where do we begin this week? As always, whenever we take an extended break we like to play Catch Up On Stuff We Missed (1) which includes the Straight Pride Parade in Boston, Trump being an armchair weather warrior, and more! In the second slot this week, we’re going across the pond to Merry Old England, where prime minister Boris Johnson (2) is seeing his fellow Torries jump ship after finding out how toxic his Brexit plan really is – and really it’s a failed experiment at this point already. In the number 3 slot this week – is of course the guy who we currently call president, Donald Trump (3), and I couldn’t love his stubborn assholishness surrounding Hurricane Dorian more, and his insistence that he was right about it hitting Alabama, but no, not really. In slot number 4 is the Alt Right (4) and they have been getting arrested and losing trials – from Alex Jones getting banned on Youtube to Milo Yiannopolous going for broke, we got it covered! For the 5th slot this week – we have a new edition of our weekly investigative piece, Top 10 Investigates, and this week we’re sending our journalism team to cover the controversial remodel of Michigan's controversial Fruitport High School which would “make it harder for mass shooters”. Because banning guns is so much easier. In the number 6 slot this week, is of course our weekly visit to the Holy Church Of The Top 10 in “Holy Shit” – and really, why are Christians so crazy? Our resident pastor is going to take a look at some of the crazy stories coming out of the religious right lately. At slot number 7, we have a new edition of “Beating A Dead Horse” – and we need to break out the world’s tiniest violin to play a sad song for Moscow Mitch – he’s complaining that his nickname is discrimination, but really… go blow it out your ass and do you r job, Mitch! Taking the number 8 slot this week, sorry, we got to play devil’s advocate here with a new edition of “NO!!!”. Is Will & Grace star Debra Messing’s controversial plan to blacklist Hollywood Trump supporters in a new era of McCarthyism what we really need right now? NO! In the number 9 (NEIN!!!!) slot this week we are going to partake some cocktails in “I Need A Drink” and this week – fried chicken sandwiches are all the rage, and enraging people due to their lack of availability! So we are going to get drunk and find out why! Finally this week our handy 2020 voter’s guide “Keeping Up With The Candidates” is going to examine the latest casualties of the insanity surrounding the 2020 election – Kristen Gillibrand and Jay Inslee! And to top it off, we’ve got some live music from Australia’s King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, they have a pair of albums out now and both are amazing! Enjoy! And as always don’t forget the key!

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[font size="8"]Catch Up On Stuff We Missed
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We had to take an unexpected break the last couple of weeks when our Syracuse show got cancelled, and also the Labor Day holiday. And in the world where Donald J. Trump is currently at the helm, 2 weeks can feel like an absolute eternity. Which means that we missed a hell of a lot of stuff including the latest mass shooting in Odessa, Texas. And something that I have been very much looking forward to discussing – the Straight Pride Parade in Boston. If you were expecting the SPP to be a category 5 shit storm, you weren’t too far off. The real shit storm is coming. Because the scene at the SPP was so out of control that there were arrests from the people protesting the event. But one of my favorite comments came from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Really, what did you expect?

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) on Saturday called out participants in Boston's "Straight Pride Parade," saying it should have been called the "I-Struggle-With-Masculinity" parade.

"For men who are allegedly so 'proud' of being straight, they seem to show real incompetence at attracting women to their event," Ocasio-Cortez said in a tweet accompanied by a video showing marchers. "Seems more like a 'I-Struggle-With-Masculinity' parade to me."

"Hope they grow enough over the next year to support / join LGBTQ fam next #Pride," the freshman lawmaker added.

In a subsequent tweet, she asked for contributions to a bail fund for "activists who put themselves on the line protecting the Boston community."

The Straight Pride Parade was reportedly organized by a group of three men as a way to respond to the festivities that coincided with LGBT Pride Month in June. The Saturday parade drew a massive contingent of counterprotesters and a heavy police presence, according to reports.

The video Ocasio-Cortez linked to showed mostly men walking along the street waving American flags and holding signs that said "Make normalcy normal again."
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/459554-ocasio-cortez-mocks-boston-straight-pride-parade-as-a-i-struggle-with

I mean seriously, AOC, did you not get the pamphlet before hand? It’s the Straight Pride Parade – it’s the showcase for boorish white male snowflakes who are offended by everything. And then there was this thing, I don’t know about you but I think that the SPP organizers could take a page from the Queer Eye guys and use some decorating tips:

Oh that’s not at all shocking. At least they spelled it correctly so I guess that counts? And don’t worry – we’re saving the hurricane and Sharpie gate for entry #3 this week. And then as far as the Straight Pride Parade goes and I could talk about the colossal shit show that was all week. But there was some great news on the gun front – Wal-Mart has had enough of mass shooters and gun nuts targeting their stores, so what happened?

Supermarket and pharmacy chains across the U.S. have begun asking customers to not openly carry firearms in their stores, including in states where open carry is legal. It’s a trend that appears to have been sparked by Walmart, whose CEO Doug McMillon announced the decision on Tuesday following a string of mass shootings around the country — including the Aug. 3 shooting in which 22 were killed at a Walmart store in El Paso, Tex.

McMillon announced on Tuesday that Walmart would stop selling handguns and military-style rifles. In the same statement, he requested that customers no longer openly carry firearms into Walmart stores. Several other chains have followed suit. As of Friday, Kroger, CVS, Walgreens and Wegmans had all issued similar statements of their own.

Given the potential ambiguity of their language — that the chains are “requesting” customers leave guns at home, and “prefer” not to see weapons carried — the statements bring into question exactly how store employees will go about enforcing their new guidelines. “Asking customers not to openly carry firearms in stores isn’t exactly a policy,” says David Yamane, a sociologist at Wake Forest University and expert in American gun culture and policy. “You haven’t prohibited [it] from happening.”
https://time.com/5670809/walmart-kroger-cvs-open-carry-gun-ban/

So to extrapolate this – while this is a victory in the world of gun activism – some guns good, other guns… eh, we’ll leave you to your own devices. But this is the kind of horror that the NRA has wrought – that they might not actually be able to ban guns. Now, speaking of home grown terrorists, Trump attempted to setup a meeting with Taliban leaders on the 19th anniversary of 9/11. Yeah that would be like celebrating at an open bar on the 19th anniversary of your sobriety. Just don’t do it!

President Trump says peace talks with the Taliban are "dead," after he called off a meeting with the Taliban and Afghan government leaders that was supposed to take place at Camp David over the weekend.

"They're dead, they're dead. As far as I'm concerned, they are dead," Mr. Trump told reporters on the White House South Lawn Monday.

Critics chastised the president after he announced a meeting with the Taliban and Afghan leaders scheduled for Camp David was called off — but it was the fact that a meeting with the Taliban had been scheduled at Camp David just days before the anniversary of the 2001 terrorist attacks many found shocking. The president reiterated to reporters on the White House South Lawn Monday that it was his plan to hold the secret talks, and his plan to cancel them.

The president said he called off the talks because the Taliban had killed a U.S. soldier and others a few days before the planned meeting.

"You can't do that. You can't do that with me," the president told reporters.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-says-peace-talks-with-taliban-are-dead-after-scrapped-camp-david-meeting/

And the final thing that I wanted to touch on in catching up on stuff we missed – remember hedge fund douchebag Jacob Wohl? Yeah the guy running the world’s worst intelligence agency is back in the news for – wait for it – selling fraudulent securities! I mean could this guy be anymore of a low life criminal scumbag? It’s not possible to sink lower than these guys do on a daily basis. Almost kind of like Barney on the Simpsons.

Conservative operative Jacob Wohl is wanted on a felony arrest warrant in California, a development that could hamper his spree of bizarre, blundering political schemes.

Wohl and former business partner Matthew Johnson were both charged with the unlawful sale of securities in a Riverside Superior Court criminal complaint filed on Aug. 19.

Wohl has not been arrested yet on the charge, according to the court docket. Prosecutors recommended $5,000 bonds for both Wohl and Johnson.

The allegation that Wohl and Johnson unlawfully sold securities centers on one of Wohl’s financial companies, Montgomery Assets. A warrant application filed by the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office notes that the three-year statute of limitations on the case was set to expire at the end of August 2019, meaning prosecutors had to file by the end of last month if they wanted to pursue charges.

Exclusive from the Daily Beast: https://www.thedailybeast.com/jacob-wohl-wanted-on-felony-arrest-warrant?ref=author

[font size="8"]Boris Johnson
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Meanwhile, in London!!! Yes, we’re going across the pond to merry old England because I can’t get enough of how much an absolute loser Trump’s doppleganger, Boris Johnson is. So Brexit has taken a turn for hopefully the worst, and it couldn’t happen to a more deserving asshole. We’ve discussed Brexit on this program tons of times. But in what might be the worst episode of Deal Or No Deal ever, Boris Johnson is absolutely insistent that he could indeed shut down Parliament until he delivers a No Deal Brexit. The implications of which could an economic nightmare. Worse, it could usher in a second Great Depression, the likes of which would be unrecoverable. So what’s he up to this week?

Boris Johnson has retreated from threats to break the law in order to force through Brexit in October, indicating to senior colleagues that he would accept a three-month delay if it was forced on him by the courts.

In private conversations with colleagues, Johnson has assured senior colleagues that he will "abide by the law," according to the Times.

Downing Street's initial threats simply to break the law and refuse to seek an extension now appear to have vanished, with senior cabinet ministers including Robert Buckland, the justice secretary, and Nicky Morgan, the culture secretary, thought to be ready to resign if Johnson did refuse to uphold the rule of law.

Buckland was compelled to intervene publicly and say he had reminded Johnson of his obligations not to act illegally.

"I fully support the Prime Minister and will continue to serve in his Cabinet," Buckland tweeted.
https://www.businessinsider.com/boris-johnson-retreats-threatening-to-break-law-to-force-brexit-2019-9

But there’s nothing about Brexit that’s been law abiding! It’s the opposite of what a law and order society would be. What’s happening in England is really happening all over the world. Same shit, different country. Since the Brexit vote, the UK has been an absolute dumpster fire of an organization – they’ve gone through PMs at about the same rate that people go through shoes. So could Boris Johnson last? Probably not.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson insisted Monday a new Brexit deal could be reached to ensure Britain would leave the European Union by the Oct. 31 deadline, as he acknowledged that withdrawing without one would be a “failure” for which he’d be partially to blame.

Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar warned Johnson that “there’s no such thing as a clean break,” and if Britain crashed out, it would “cause severe disruption for British and Irish people alike.”

The two leaders met in Dublin as a showdown between the British government and lawmakers was reaching a climax in London. An opposition-backed measure designed to rule out a no-deal Brexit on Oct. 31 became law after receiving the formal assent of Queen Elizabeth II, hours before legislators were set to reject Johnson’s demand for a snap election to break the political deadlock engulfing the government.

Later Monday, the government is due to suspend Parliament for five weeks to try to curb rebellious lawmakers who have played havoc with Johnson’s Brexit plans.
https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2019-09-09/boris-johnson-to-suspend-parliament-as-his-brexit-plans-stall

Yeah it sounds about right – Brexit is a flaming pile of garbage and that’s going to impact not just England but the entire world could be affected because of this. There’s so much secrecy and hoopla surrounding this shit show that it may be impossible to unravel. And in fact there’s more to this than you might think. There’s actually some secret legislation that Parliament is trying to get out in the open that could show the true impact of a hard Brexit. Which might explain why Boris is trying to suspend Parliament.

The United Kingdom could face food, medicine, and fuel shortages when it splits from the European Union on October 31, according to a government report leaked to British newspaper The Sunday Times.

The report, entitled "Operation Yellowhammer," outlines a laundry list of ways life on the British Isles could be disrupted if politicians can't reach a trade deal with the EU in the next 11 weeks. The yellowhammer is a small bird that is on track for extinction.

According to one BBC report, the document was leaked to the press by a former government minister hoping to influence negotiations with the EU.

Starting on November 1, trade with Britain's neighbors could slow to a trickle as Britain's main route into Europe gets blocked.

"On Day 1 of No Deal, 50%-85% of [trucks] travelling via the short straits may not be ready for French customs," according to the report, which would cause them to be turned back at the French border. It goes on to add that: "The worst disruption to the short Channel crossings might last 3 months before flow rates rise to about 50%-70%."
https://www.newsweek.com/brexit-u-k-economy-chaos-operation-yellowhammer-government-documents-1454906

Yeah so there are some serious risks. This is nothing to joke about. Oh and in case you’re wondering who is actually still supporting this, well, prepare to put on your shocked face. Because it’s the same crap no matter where you go. And when the Nazi party – you see where I’m going with this, makes a reappearance, you know things are fucked up.

The leader of Change UK, Anna Soubry MP, says she had to cancel a speech at a pro-EU rally because she was too intimidated by far-right protesters. Ms Soubry claims a ‘large group of protesters’ with ‘yellow vests and the EDL’ had gathered, as pro-EU demonstrators began their protest and speeches. Ms Soubry was due to speak alongside Peter Tatchell as well as the co-leader of the Green party, Sian Berry, where she was expected to repeat her calls for a ‘people’s vote’ to break the Brexit deadlock. She says that a group of people went on to ‘give Nazi salutes’ and ‘sing in praise of Boris Johnson’, LBC reported. It is estimated that around 200 people joined a pro-Brexit rally which was organised by the Democratic Football Lads Alliance (DFLA) that took place on Saturday at Parliament square.

Read more: https://metro.co.uk/2019/09/08/anna-soubry-saw-nazi-salutes-pro-brexit-rally-cancelled-speech-10706642/?ito=cbshare

[font size="8"]Donald Trump
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This is the story of a hurricane… well, this is the story of Donald Trump and his stubbornness with a hurricane that is currently ravaging the Caribbean and the Bahamas in particular. While we won’t make fun of the hurricane, we will make fun of Donald Trump and his use of a sharpie to illustrate the point he was trying to make about the hurricane hitting Alabama. Which in no way was true. But when he’s already in a hole, he’s attempting to dig himself further into a hole with his Alabama situation.

When Brad Parscale, Donald Trump’s campaign manager, started peddling a Trump-branded Sharpie pen on Friday morning, things for a moment seemed to be returning to what passes for normal now: The frenzied commander in chief was finally steering away from a desperately earnest fight against admitting he inaccurately warned of Hurricane Dorian’s threat to Alabama and back toward a favorite pastime: trolling. Unfortunately, the message—that this branded pen “has the special ability to drive @CNN and the rest of the fake news crazy!”—came much too late. The key to trolling is jeering indifference: You win because you don’t care. To a troll, caring is hilarious and (should you make the mistake of doing it) fatal.

By that metric alone, Trump cannot be said to have won the week. During this astonishing #Sharpiegate news cycle—a throbbing tumor attached to the real news of a Bahamas devastated by the storm—Trump, who typically lies with fluency and ease, cared so deeply about being fact-checked on this particular matter that his handlers warned the press he’d keep it going as long as they did. Trouble was, Trump cared much more than the press did. Maybe pathologically. He spent the better part of a week doubling down like a hangry gambler on this single claim, sharing old maps of obsolete weather forecasts to find something that would make him right—while Alabama went unaffected and the Bahamas mourned and the Carolinas battened down. He persisted until almost everyone ended up mystified and astounded, shaking their heads the way one does when someone has well and truly lost it.
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/09/trumps-sharpie-defense-hurricane-dorian.html

Yeah so we had a lot of fun collecting memes and videos with the sharpie as you can plainly see on the monitors behind me and we’ll post a couple of the best ones through this entry. But what motivated this bizarre display? Was it political? Was it just Trump’s massive ego on display thinking that he was right and everyone else is wrong? Or was it a cat?

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1170546650651271169

Seriously is he just punking us at this point? Is this the cat game from Super Troopers? Not so funny meow is it? Well getting back on topic – what caused this?

The chief scientist of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said he is looking into "potential violations" of scientific integrity in the way the agency responded to President Trump's claims that Hurricane Dorian posed a threat to Alabama. Craig McLean, NOAA's acting chief scientist, wrote an email to colleagues that said the agency's statement Friday backing up Mr. Trump's claims was "political" and a "danger to public health and safety."

"I am pursuing the potential violations of our NOAA Administrative Order on Scientific Integrity," McLean wrote in the email, which was obtained by CBS News. The letter was first reported by the Washington Post.

At the White House last week, Mr. Trump held up a NOAA map that appeared to have been altered with a black pen to show a projection of the storm possibly striking Alabama. On Friday, NOAA backed up the president's ongoing assertions that the state appeared initially to be in the path of the hurricane — contradicting the findings of the agency's own meteorologists.

"From Wednesday, August 28, through Monday, September 2, the information provided by NOAA and the National Hurricane Center to President Trump and the wider public demonstrated that tropical-storm-force winds from Hurricane Dorian could impact Alabama," a NOAA spokesman said in a statement Friday.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/noaa-hurricane-dorian-statements-president-donald-trump-claims-being-investigated-by-chief-scientist/

That’s straight from the NOAA chief himself! I mean here’s why having a president who shoots his mouth off daily at social media is a bad idea – he could potentially be committing a whole lot of crimes and a whole lot of national and international law violations. Really this is one case where Donny needs a good dose of “shut the fuck up”.

In the week since President Trump asserted incorrectly that Alabama was likely to get hit &quot

much) harder than anticipated" by Hurricane Dorian, he has fired off many tweets insisting he was technically correct, doctored a weather map with a Sharpie, got his homeland security adviser to back him up, and earned an odd unsigned statement from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration saying the National Weather Service's Birmingham office had been wrong to correct him.

A story that could have died discreetly with one admission of error has now prompted several investigations focused on NOAA's statement. The inspector general of the Commerce Department, which includes NOAA, is looking into whether NOAA compromised the NWS's "standards of scientific integrity," endangering its "ability to communicate accurate and timely weather warnings and data to the nation in times of national emergency," according to documents reviewed by The New York Times.

NOAA's acting chief scientist, Craig McClean, also informed staff in an email Sunday that he is "pursuing the potential violations of our NOAA Administrative Order on Scientific Integrity," explaining: "My understanding is that this intervention to contradict the forecaster was not based on science but on external factors including reputation and appearance, or simply put, political." The New York Times reported Monday that Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross had threatened to fire NOAA's acting director and other top political appointees if they didn't bolster Trump's incorrect claim; Commerce denied the firing threat but not that Ross ordered NOAA to back Trump.
https://theweek.com/speedreads/863829/amazingly-trumps-weekold-hurricane-tweet-now-spawned-several-federal-investigations

So even the NOAA admits that this was a partisan hit job. But here’s where it gets weird. Because this si the Trump administration – so why wouldn’t it get weird? Not only is Trump insisting that he’s right on this, he’s sending Ivanka to the supposed “affected area” to confirm that he’s right. I mean shit, 25th amendment already and end this madness!

President Donald Trump's daughter/adviser Ivanka Trump has reignited the furor around her father's "Sharpiegate" snafu after announcing plans to visit Alabama, the state her father erroneously claimed was likely to be hit by Hurricane Dorian.

A week ago, the president had warned that Alabama, along with the Carolinas and Georgia, was "most likely to be hit harder than anticipated."

The National Weather Service (NWS) in Birmingham, Alabama, was quick to correct the U.S. leader's claim, asserting in a tweet that "Alabama will NOT see any impacts from Dorian" as "the system will remain too far east."

Despite the NWS's assertions, Trump insisted throughout the week that his claim had been accurate, with the U.S. leader even bringing out a map that appeared to have been modified with a Sharpie to show an altered projection of Hurricane Dorian's path.

On Sunday, Ivanka Trump learned that her father's "Sharpiegate" blunder had yet to be forgotten by the American public after she tweeted out plans to visit Alabama, which was not affected by Hurricane Dorian despite the president's early predictions.
https://www.newsweek.com/ivanka-trump-twitter-sharpiegate-alabama-hurricane-dorian-1458231

[font size="8"]The Alt Right
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The Alt Right has not been having what one would call a “banner year”. People are waking up to the mess that the Proud Boys are leaving in Portland, the Straight Pride Parade was a complete and utter disaster, and now some of their idols are eating some much deserved shit. Like Alex Jones, for instance – you know what a dumpster fire Infowars has been since the Parkland shooting. But let’s go way back to the Sandy Hook shooting – which is still causing headaches for the alt right brand. How bad is it? Well, Alex can go talk to his tin foil hat, probably while he’s in prison. And well, may he rot.

Infowars founder Alex Jones has lost another legal battle against families who lost loved ones in the Sandy Hook Elementary School mass shooting.

Jones must now pay all costs associated with an appeal filed against a parent of a Sandy Hook Elementary School victim, says the Texas Court of Appeals.

Neil Heslin’s six-year-old son Jesse Lewis was killed during the mass shooting in 2012. Heslin filed a motion of contempt against Jones when he refused to release internal Infowars documents and emails related to Sandy Hook. Heslin’s attorney Bill Ogden says the refusal brought the case to a standstill.

“As soon as he filed his notice of appeal the case stopped. We never got the discovery, we never got the answers to our questions for deposition, we never got any documents,” Ogden said. “They objected to everything and said the court doesn’t have this power.”

Lawyers for Jones did not immediately respond for comment. His claims that the Sandy Hook shooting was staged led several families of Sandy Hook victims to file defamation lawsuits against Jones.
https://www.kut.org/post/alex-jones-loses-appeal-sandy-hook-lawsuit-moves-forward

And by the way since we haven’t heard from or checked in with Alex for a while, what’s he been up to lately? Oh yeah he’s pushing a theory about weather balloons being used to turn the weather into a weapon. I mean dude, really, you know that Geostorm was just a movie, right?

Alex Jones’ Infowars outlet is pushing conspiracy theories that claim Hurricane Dorian is being controlled by weather weapons, possibly in an attempt to cause problems for President Donald Trump. While Infowars’ weather-themed conspiracy theories are often humorous, they also represent how leading conspiracy theorists use weather events to indoctrinate their followers into believing that climate change is a hoax.

During a broadcast this week, after Hurricane Dorian ravaged the Bahamas and continued to approach the United States, Jones took a call from a woman who put forth a theory that someone used weather control to park Dorian over the Bahamas so that they could blackmail Trump “to play ball” otherwise they would “take out several thousand people over the Eastern Seaboard” and hit Mar-A-Lago in Florida. Jones gave a rambling response, referencing his belief that the technology to control hurricanes exists and his infamous comments about tornadoes that hit Oklahoma in 2013. He then praised the caller’s theory and said, “It’s very legitimate to say that, very legitimate to question that, so I appreciate your call. Really powerful subject you brought up.”
https://www.mediamatters.org/infowars/alex-jones-infowars-pushes-weather-weapon-conspiracy-theories-about-hurricane-dorian

Wouldn’t it be great if we could just make a movie nothing but disasters? Cut out the crappy story and unnecessary side characters and just focus on the destruction? Oh one can dream. But remember when Alex got banned from Youtube? Well, he and a few other alt right personalities saw their Youtube bans lifted, even if they were brief, but Alex lasted a little over an hour:

YouTube head Susan Wojcicki announced earlier this week that the video-sharing site would allow some content that was "outside the mainstream, controversial or even offensive." So, Alex Jones' InfoWars took that as a positive sign.

InfoWars' afternoon show The War Room relaunched its YouTube channel with a video titled "Breaking! YouTube CEO says 'Alex Jones' and 'Infowars Ban Is Over.'" War Room host J. Owen Shroyer uploaded 13 videos before YouTube pulled them. In a video posted on the InfoWars site, he angrily denounced both Google and Wojcicki. Shroyer also confronted Google employees on camera at the company's offices in Austin, Texas about its decision.

"Everyone sees the double-standard at YouTube," Shroyer said, echoing complaints of political conservatives who claim tech platforms censor their views.

According to the Washington Post, War Room violated YouTube's terms of service by circumventing the 2018 InfoWars ban by the site for violating its policies against hate speech. As I noted before, Alex Jones relies on associates to spread his message on social media where he is unable to operate. I reached out to Shroyer on social media and through the InfoWars site and haven't heard back.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jonathanberr/2019/08/31/why-infowars-still-isnt-welcome-on-youtube/#396533f855f7

Now speaking of alt right losers, let’s head over to Pennsylvania where the town of Haverford recently found out that a leader of a nearby fire department was forced to close after one of its’ leaders alleged ties to the organization known as the Proud Boys. Yeah, they’re not exactly a group one should be associating themselves with right now.

A Pennsylvania fire company that was closed after its leadership refused to address that one of its volunteer members had been affiliated with the "Proud Boys" group has apologized and accepted the member’s resignation.

The move paves the way for the Bon Air Fire Company in Haverford Township, a township with about 48,400 residents west of Philadelphia, to reopen, the local government said in a statement Monday.

"The initial decision to refuse the resignation was a mistake," the Bon Air Fire Company said in a statement.

The fire company said it focused on its relationship with the firefighter, who has not been identified, but the community’s response “makes clear that the faith of many of the community members in the Fire Company has been undermined. It is our responsibility to restore this trust."

The Proud Boys has been called an extremist organization and labeled a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. The fire company acknowledged the designation of the SPLC and the Anti-Defamation League in announcing its reversal.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/pennsylvania-fire-company-was-closed-over-proud-boys-ties-reopen-n1051786

Yes, the Proud Boys do suck. The final one of the favorites of the Alt Right that I want to talk about this week may have hit rock bottom, and that’s once mega popular hatemonger Milo Yiannopolous – who was famously kicked off Twitter last year – is broke. Yeah times are tough without that social media money coming in, aren’t they?

Silicon Valley appears to have blown up Milo Yiannopoulos’s business model.

The disgraced right-wing troll is complaining that the major social media companies have effectively cut off his alt-right audience — and crushed his ability to make a decent living.

The former Breitbart tech writer shared the complaints on Telegram, a messaging app where some alt-right allies have set up shop after getting the boot by larger tech platforms. Yiannopoulos was banned from Twitter in 2016 for directing racist abuse at the comedian Leslie Jones, losing nearly 400,000 followers. He was banned from Facebook in May.

“I spent years growing and developing and investing in my fan base, and they just took it away in a flash,” wrote Yiannopoulos, who’s previously rubbed shoulders with neo-Nazis and white nationalists. “It’s nice to have a little private chat with my gold star homies but I can’t make a career out of a handful of people like that. I can’t put food on the table this way.”
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/59n99q/milo-yiannopoulos-says-hes-broke?utm_source=vicenewstwitter

[font size="8"]Top 10 Investigates: Inside Fruitport High
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It’s time to investigate beyond the headlines! This is Top 10 Investigates!

Mass shootings are at an all time high. There have been over 200 this year and we’re only in the 9th month of the calendar year 2019. As such, mass shooting hysteria has been at an all time high. Which makes sense – nobody wants to die needlessly. And since banning guns flat out, or voluntarily disarming in this country is taboo subject matter, thanks to those in the National Rifle Association, new extremes are being taken to prevent what should normally be something that people shouldn’t have to worry about, but thanks to mass shootings America is resorting to extreme measures in the name of protection and safety. One such is the controversial $50 million building that will become Michigan’s Fruitport High School. It’s being designed with mass shootings in mind.

Curved hallways, protective "wing walls," impact-resistant windows, doors that lock with a touch of a smartphone.

These are some of the design elements Fruitport High School in western Michigan's Muskegon County will implement in its new building, set to open summer 2021.

Fruitport Community Schools Superintendent Bob Szymoniak said the measures, which were supplemented by a $404,707 grant from Michigan State Police, can potentially save lives in an active shooter situation.

"So often, we feel like we’re going to be hapless victims – that there’s nothing that we can do until after it (a shooting) happens," he said. "But what I’m learning is there’s a lot we can do on the front end."
Illustrations of concrete wing walls in the new Fruitport High School building. The walls are designed to allow for students to take cover and to cut down the line of sight of an active shooter.

Szymoniak said the idea to design the new building with non-traditional safety measures came after a group of parents in the community advocated for a new high school building to replace the one built in the 1950s. It was agreed that a new facility will be built around the old one, and to do this, the hallways had to be curved.
https://www.freep.com/story/news/education/2019/09/06/fruitport-high-school-michigan-active-shooters/2213687001/

So, since banning guns is out of the question, constructing a $50 million school that resembles something of a correctional facility is just one of many possibilities. But is it really safe? Is having all this extra technology really going to help in the long run or is just a temporary solution to an even greater problem? Well the greater problem is guns but it’s much more complicated than that.

Engineers in World War I dug through the earth to build serpentine trenches borne from horrifically clear logic.

If enemy soldiers ever breached it, the zigzagging pattern would prevent them from shooting in a straight line down the length of the trench — leaving only a relative few exposed to gunfire or shrapnel.

That concept has been reinvigorated a century later, in a sense, for a western Michigan high school, to dampen the killing potential of a mass shooter.

A $48 million major construction project at Fruitport High School will add curved hallways to reduce a gunman’s range, jutting barriers to provide cover and egress, and meticulously spaced classrooms that can lock on demand and hide students in the corner, out of a killer’s sight.

“If I go to FPH and I want to be an active shooter, I’m going in knowing I have reduced sightlines,” Fruitport Superintendent Bob Szymoniak told The Washington Post about the curved hallways. “It has reduced his ability to do harm.”

The major overhaul of an existing building was driven by the ubiquity of mass shootings in the United States, Szymoniak said, citing the El Paso killings at a Walmart this month, along with notorious school shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut and Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2019/08/22/new-high-school-will-have-sleek-classrooms-places-hide-mass-shooter/

Let’s examine the keyword in that sentence there – “reduced”. That does not mean “completely eliminated”. There’s no guarantee that a school designed to prevent mass shootings would actually do so, especially if you give away the floor plans via the Washington Post article! It’s almost like they’re inviting it. But really what kind of generation are we creating when we can expect more of this and are actually inviting it?

The K-12 team at TowerPinkster is aiming to physically slow down school shooters through its $48-million renovation and addition to Fruitport High School in Western Michigan. The 189,822-square-foot project recently garnered national headlines because of its push to enhance safety within the 64-year-old institution, which previously featured narrow corridors and cramped gathering spaces.

TowerPinkster, an architecture, engineering, and interiors firm with expertise in educational spaces, worked with the National Institute of Crime Prevention to learn the most effective ways to secure the school’s campus, which is slated to reopen in 2021. By building on 143,879 square feet of new space that connects to the older structure, the design team was able to create a two-story, curved academic wing designed to reduce the sightlines of a potentially armed attacker. Each teaching space was conceived with “shadow zones” along the door-side walls where students and faculty can hide without being seen. Shatter-proof safety film was specified to cover the few windows that do look into the classrooms. In addition, cement block “wing walls” were added to stick out next to all doors and act as further barriers.

Currently under construction, this build-out is the fourth attempt to update the school since its opening in 1963. TowerPinkster has envisioned a new set of offices, an auditorium, media center, woodshop, cafeteria, and common area for Fruitport HS as well. The entry experience is also changing. Located at the opposite end of the classroom corridors, and looking directly at the parking lot, a staff member at reception would be able to see anyone walking into the school at any given time. They would also have the ability to lock down all classrooms, the vestibule door to the office, and the office door to the school using a three-button system.
https://archpaper.com/2019/08/fruitport-high-school-towerpinkster-renovation/

And good luck remembering how that three button system works in a time of crisis like a mass shooting, where you might have literally a few seconds to think on your feet. It’s really scary to think that this is the new normal. That there’s nothing we can actually do about guns or mass shootings but to instead design ridiculously expensive buildings to prevent a few less casualties.

Amid reports indicating shootings are becoming more common at U.S. high schools, Bob Szymoniak says it's time to start designing school infrastructure to maximize the safety of students and staff.

Szymoniak is a school superintendent in west Michigan, where a $48-million US construction project is underway at Fruitport High School. The building is specially designed to make it harder for a potential shooter to get at their targets — and it's a type of school design that architects in other areas of the U.S. are starting to experiment with.

According to the Washington Post, more than 228,000 students have been exposed to gun violence since the Columbine High School shooting in Colorado in 1999.

Classes will begin at Fruitport High School on Sept. 3, but the construction is not expected to be finished until 2021.
https://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/as-it-happens-tuesday-edition-1.5261253/the-new-norm-high-school-designed-to-protect-students-in-potential-mass-shooting-1.5260035

That’s it for Top 10 Investigates. Good day.

My fair congregation! Why are our brothers and sisters on the right so completely off the wall batshit crazy? is someone… why yes we are allowed to swear in my church! The only rule we have here is that we do not mention the Unholy Dark One by his name! But this week since we have no central topic of discussion, we’re going to instead examine some incidents over the last week and let you draw your own conclusions. But is GAWD really to blame for these atrocities being committed? Or is it something else entirely? Well, let’s start first by discussing this incident from West Virginia where two pastors’ wives settled their arguments with… the gun! Cause that’s how we settle arguments here in ‘Murica! Yee haw!

A pastor's wife in West Virginia has been charged with reckless endangerment after allegedly firing a gun in a church parking lot.

Melinda Frye Toney, 44, is accused of pulling out a pistol that accidentally discharged during an argument with another pastor's wife at New Life Apostolic Church in Oak Hill on May 11.

Toney is the wife of New Life pastor Earl Toney while the other woman, Lori Haywood, is married to New Life's youth pastor, David Haywood,

Fayette Sheriff's Detective Kevin Willis told the Beckley Register-Herald the animosity between the two women had been simmering for some time. Their husbands had thought the women should publicly bury the hatchet to avoid additional strife.

"The pastor and the youth pastor had thought, 'Maybe we could get them together, we can hash this out and fix this before it escalates,' " Willis said Wednesday. "Of course, it just made it worse, I think."

According to Willis, "the straw that broke the camel's back" was an argument over a t-shirt Haywood had was wearing.
https://www.newsweek.com/pastors-wife-gun-parking-lot-1457652

Yes, listen to the good reverend! Because I don’t remember the part in the Bible where JAYSUS shot first and asked questions later. Maybe he prayeth six times or only five? Well, you could blame overzealous pastors and youth pastors for the woes in society or you could blame – wait for it – Harry Potter! Yes, that’s what one Catholic church is doing in Tennessee. I mean really why think rationally when you can just ban things you don’t agree with?

A Roman Catholic school in Tennessee has banished JK Rowling's universally popular series of Harry Potter novels from its library shelves after its pastor took exception to their portrayal of magic, warning the spells and curses the author describes are real and “risk conjuring evil spirits” when read.

The Reverend Dan Reehill explained his decision in an email to the parents of students at St Edward Catholic School in Nashville, declaring that he had consulted with exorcists in the US and at the Vatican before outlawing the seven-volume tale of the boy wizard’s career at Hogwarts and his battle against Lord Voldermort and the forces of darkness.

“These books present magic as both good and evil, which is not true, but in fact a clever deception. The curses and spells used in the books are actual curses and spells; which when read by a human being risk conjuring evil spirits into the presence of the person reading the text,” the Reverend Reehill wrote, apparently in all seriousness.

Rebecca Hammel, the superintendent of schools for the Catholic Diocese of Nashville, told The Tennessean that the Reverend Reehill had indeed sent the email and has the final say on the matter, since the Catholic Church does not have an official position on Ms Rowling’s best-selling series.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/harry-potter-banned-school-library-nashville-tennessee-exorcist-a9087676.html

Yes, you wish indeed! But why are my fellow zealots on the right so crazy? There’s plenty of reasons why you could say that they are crazy. But let’s examine the issues at hand – demons. Yes, DAYMONS are among us! And they are everywhere! Because let’s face it, in the eyes of those on the other side, they have more morals and values than those who don’t! And that’s just bullshit.

The deadly massacre, which began at a traffic stop between Odessa and Midland on Saturday afternoon, has intensified pressure on GOP lawmakers to enact stricter gun control measures. The attack came just weeks after a gunman opened fire in Dayton, Ohio, killing nine with an assault weapon and another stormed a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, leaving 22 dead and dozens more injured.

During a Fox & Friends segment discussing the West Texas massacre on Sunday, Tony Perkins — a former police officer who's currently president of the Family Research Council, a Christian conservative policy and lobbying organization — attempted to blame America's allegedly dwindling morality for the country's uptick in mass shootings.

"It's tragic and at some point we have to realize we have a problem as a nation, and the problem is not the absence of laws. It's an absence of morality," Perkins said, "[which is] really the result of a decades-long march through the institutions of America, driving religion and God from the public square."

"What do we need to do as a country?" the show's host asked Perkins.

"I'm willing to sit down with the left who say, 'I don't want to hear anymore about your prayers,'" the former police officer replied. "Well, I agree. Praying alone is not enough, it's time to act. It's not just about having a conversation about restricting those who should not have guns — criminals — but it's also a discussion of the absence of a moral core in our culture today."
https://www.newsweek.com/after-texas-shooting-fox-friends-guest-blames-gun-violence-decline-christianity-no-morality-1457138

And that’s certainly true, sir! No one is saying those things! But… what if I told you that amidst all the craziness in our country that the Mormons would be the most sane and rational of us all? Yes, while Christians are fighting amongst themselves over who is the more holier than thou holiest person on the planet, the Mormons are the ones actually telling us to put our pieces away while you are worshipping the LAwRD!

Most members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints already knew they were discouraged from taking their guns to church on Sunday, but it is making sure that message is crystal clear by tweaking the policy to prohibit all lethal weapons.

The previous policy called it inappropriate to have weapons on church property. It still includes an exception for law enforcement officers.

The clarification comes one year after a fatal shooting inside one of its churches in rural Nevada and as religions around the country grapple with how to deal with gun violence that has spread to places of worship.

The change went into effect the first week of August and a letter explaining it was first sent to local leaders in Texas and shared with members there, said church spokesman Daniel Woodruff. The impetus was a new Texas law that takes effect soon that makes it clearer in state law that licensed handgun holders can carry weapons in churches, synagogues and other houses of worship.

The same letter will be sent elsewhere to local leaders, who will be responsible for sharing it with their congregations, Woodruff said.
https://www.kgw.com/article/news/regional/mormon-leaders-change-rules-now-prohibit-all-lethal-weapons-in-church/277-20671077-0385-47d0-b693-2cdb7c0a3e48

Actually this is one instance where the Devil doesn’t walk among us! Mass has ended, may you go in peace!! That’s it this week for:

[font size="8"]Beating A Dead Horse: Moscow Mitch
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We’ve all had terrible nicknames. Just ask anyone who’s ever been through grade school. I mean remember in grade school when kids used to just call kids “Poopyhead McBoogerface” and that would be the end of it? Thank god we’re not kids in the social media era, where you can get called about 600 racist slurs on Twitter and not get in trouble for it. But you know what? We get over it. And also, we’re not the Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell. So in case you don’t follow the social media sphere, Mitch McConnell has been given the nickname “Moscow Mitch” for his inability to act on gun reform legislation that is designed to save lives and get guns out of the hands of the extremely dangerous. So why does Mitch have his underwear in a wad over this subject?

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., complained to right-wing radio host Hugh Hewitt on Tuesday that "Moscow Mitch," the nickname given to the top Republican by critics of his decision to block election security legislation despite documented evidence of Russian interference in the 2016 elections, was "over the top" and a form of "modern-day McCarthyism."

After Hewitt referred to the disparaging moniker as "McCarthyism," the Senate Majority Leader responded that "I mean, it’s modern-day McCarthyism. Unbelievable for a Cold Warrior like me who spent a career standing up to the Russians to be given a moniker like that. It’s an effort to smear me. You know, I can laugh about things like the 'Grim Reaper,' but calling me 'Moscow Mitch' is over the top."

Hewitt agreed, telling McConnell that "it is simply an assertion that you’re doing the bidding of Moscow, which is, of course, pure McCarthyism. I thought we were past that in this country. I really did, and especially if you’ve overseen the biggest defense spending hikes out of the Congress in a decade."

Historically speaking, McCarthyism did not refer merely to politicians who were viewed as being soft on Russia but rather those who were specifically perceived as being sympathetic to communism. McCarthyists attacked liberals by implying that their progressive politics meant they were emotionally aligned, if not outright betraying America toward, authoritarian states like China and the Soviet Union. The term "Moscow Mitch," by contrast, is not used to disparage McConnell's ideology but instead to call him out for his opposition to take up election security legislation that would prevent Russia from further meddling in America's democratic process, as it did in the 2016 elections.
https://www.salon.com/2019/09/04/mcconnell-really-really-really-does-not-like-it-when-you-call-him-moscow-mitch/

Yeah boo fucking hoo, Mitch! And you know what? If you can dish it out, you can almost certainly take it! So our Senate Majority Leader is as much of a crybaby as @realDonaldTrump is. I say let’s keep calling him that, and if he would ever come out of his shell and do his job he might actually I don’t know, be respected? Ah who are we kidding! This is the Trump administration we’re talking about here, the Senate is as corrupt as the White House. So who’s mocking who, Mitch?

Sticks and stones may break his bones, but poor Mitch McConnell thinks words hurt him, too.

The Senate majority leader is distressed that people are calling him names. First there was “Moscow Mitch” (because he refuses to do anything significant to stop Russian interference in U.S. elections), and then there was “Massacre Mitch” and even “Murder Turtle” (because he refuses to take up gun-violence legislation despite massacre after massacre). At the risk of hurting the Kentucky Republican’s tender feelings still further, I suggest another moniker: Muzzle Mitch.

McConnell, who styles himself a champion of free speech, has lately not been such a fan of free speech directed against him. The psychological boo-boos done to his thin skin have stirred him to hypocrisy.

On radio host (and Post contributor) Hugh Hewitt’s show this week, McConnell renewed his complaint that calling him Moscow Mitch is unacceptable — “modern-day McCarthyism,” he said. “You know, I can laugh about things like the Grim Reaper, but calling me Moscow Mitch is over the top.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/a-new-nickname-for-mcconnell-muzzle-mitch/2019/09/04/ad078212-cf47-11e9-8c1c-7c8ee785b855_story.html

Come on, Mitch!! Time to come out of your shell already! I’m sure he’s probably still pissed about getting called a turtle from way back when on the Jon Stewart Show. Although McCarthyism, do you really want to go there? And did you even know what McCarthyism is? I can give you a history lesson because you probably slept through that history class. But this is neither the time nor the place. Instead we’ll just continue to make fun of you until you do your job. I mean come on, even Nancy Pelosi is taking some jabs at you!

“I was called unpatriotic, un-American and essentially treasonous by a couple of left-wing pundits on the basis of bold-faced lies. I was accused of aiding and abetting the very man I’ve singled out as an adversary and opposed for nearly 20 years, Vladimir Putin,” McConnell said in a speech on the Senate floor.

McConnell accused critics in the media, specifically The Washington Post and MSNBC, of engaging in "unhinged smears," calling it "modern-day McCarthyism.”

The Washington Post, at the time, published an opinion column headlined "Mitch McConnell is a Russian asset," while MSNBC's Joe Scarborough called McConnell "Moscow Mitch" and attacked his decision to block the election security bills as "un-American."

The bills blocked by McConnell would require the use of paper ballots and direct candidates or campaigns to notify the FBI about offers of assistance from foreign governments.
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/457419-pelosi-refers-to-mcconnell-as-moscow-mitch

Moscow Mitch is nothing compared to the kind of insults that guy can dish out! And by the way if you think there’s a republican double standard on nicknames, well, I got news for ya! There’s republican double standards on everything, and it’s always the worst kind of discrimination – it’s the kind against them! These fuckers can dish it out, but they sure as hell can’t take it!

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell doesn't like it when you call him #MoscowMitch. He hates it so much that he'll accuse you of being a McCarthyist for doing so. If the accusation was untrue — that is, if McConnell, President Donald Trump and other Republicans weren't empowering Russia at the expense of America for their personal benefit — then #MoscowMitch and talk of collusion in Trump's 2016 presidential campaign would be unfair, even unjust. As the facts currently stand, however, it is a perfectly fair label.

They still are not McCarthyist, though, because McCarthyism wasn't really about hating Russia — it was about hating liberals.

A quick history lesson. Joseph McCarthy was a United States senator from Wisconsin who served between 1947 and 1957. His political heyday, however, lasted from 1950 to 1954. On February 9, 1950, he delivered an infamous speech in Wheeling, West Virginia in which he claimed without evidence that he had "a list of 205 [State Department employees] that were known to the Secretary of State as being members of the Communist Party and who nevertheless are still working and shaping the policy of the State Department." Notice that he did not say "Russians" or "traitors to Russia." This isn't because the Soviet Union (the empire controlled by Russia during the bulk of the 20th century) wasn't America's primary geopolitical enemy at the time, or that there wasn't a valid and widespread fear of that nation. Rather it is because the assumption wasn't simply that people would betray America to Russia, but that they would do so because the Soviet Union's authoritarian left-wing ideology was being conflated with all forms of liberalism. When McCarthy warned of "Communists," he was using a dog whistle to vilify anyone whose beliefs were to the left of what he and his supporters deemed acceptable.
https://www.salon.com/2019/08/11/keep-calling-him-moscowmitch-mcconnell-is-finally-running-scared/

[font size="8"]NO: Hollywood Blacklisting
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OK look, I get it. The political climate in this country is so toxic that it’s literally driving everyone absolutely batshit crazy. But is this what we really need right now? I’m talking about of course Trump’s feud with Will & Grace star Debra Messing. Look, look. As long as we keep giving conservatives things to complain about, they will complain about them. Because as we’ve seen time and time again on this program, conservatives only have two settings: Complain mode and say batshit crazy stuff mode. Yeah that’s a setting, look it up! But does that mean that we should make them go away completely? No! They may be boorish and unrelenting crazy people but we can’t blacklist them from an entire industry, after all, Hitler was a failed artist you know!

Donald Trump has launched a renewed attack on Will and Grace actor Debra Messing, calling her racist for retweeting an controversial image, as a powerful hurricane continued tearing into regions along the US east coast.

The president's attacks came just a day after the actor apologised for expressing support for a church sign that claimed "a black vote for Trump is mental illness." The actor had retweeted an image of the sign, which was in Alabama, writing, "Thank you Alabama".

"Bad 'actress' Debra The Mess Messing is in hot water," the president wrote on Twitter on Thursday.

Mr Trump continued, amplifying claims that were originally made by comedian Terrence K Williams, who was seen in a video scolding Ms Messing for supporting the sign in the since-deleted tweet. Mr Williams had encouraged his followers to use the hashtag "#RacistDebraMessing", which became a trending topic on Twitter on Wednesday.

The president also claimed, in apparent reference to comments by Whoopi Goldberg about Ms Messing's tweet, that the actor was attempting to employ the methods of Joseph McCarthy, who made wild claims of treason against his political enemies in the 1940s and 1950s. Those methods, known today as McCarthyism, resulted in blacklists for professionals believed to be communists or communist sympathisers.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-debra-messing-tweet-racist-blacklist-will-grace-roseanne-barr-a9093101.html

That’s a good question sir! Yeah, there’s nothing about this story that is good – whether President Tweets-A-Lot is trying to get her fired, to the Russian trollbots, to a suggestion of a new era of McCarthyism. You know what, seriously both sides need to take a step back and pull their heads out of each others’ asses. Yeah, I do realize that we lean heavily to the left, but you know what? I don’t want Trump trolls banned from society! As Ann Coulter said, we need to keep a couple of them around to remind us what they stood for.

In the latest round, the president called the 'Will and Grace' star a "racist" and claimed she was trying to create a "blacklist" of his famous supporters.

The Twitter feud between President Donald Trump and actress Debra Messing continued Thursday with Trump again attacking the Will and Grace star, who had previously asked that a list of attendees for an upcoming fundraiser in Beverly Hills be made public.

In the latest round, Trump called the Will and Grace star a "racist" and claimed she was trying to create a "blacklist" of his famous supporters.

“Bad ‘actress’ Debra The Mess Messing is in hot water," he began in what would become a two-tweet ramble. "She wants to create a ‘Blacklist’ of Trump supporters, & is being accused of McCarthyism. Is also being accused of being a Racist because of the terrible things she said about blacks and mental illness. If Roseanne Barr said what she did, even being on a much higher rated show, she would have been thrown off television. Will Fake News NBC allow a McCarthy style Racist to continue? ABC fired Roseanne. Watch the double standard!”

The previous day, Messing apologized after she "liked" a photo of a church sign that called black Trump voters “mentally ill," and subsequently led to the hashtag #RacistDebraMessing.

Trump's "blacklist" comment comes two days after Whoopi Goldberg called out Messing and her co-star Eric McCormack for calling on The Hollywood Reporter to print the names of those attending the fundraiser after THR reported that the event would be taking place.
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/donald-trump-accuses-nbc-double-standard-debra-messing-feud-1236896

No that’s not a joke here, none of this in fact! Really Debra Messing, you don’t go around even joking about blacklisting people. And considering that our president is the world’s biggest Twitter troll, don’t go around giving him fuel for the fire. I mean look at what he’s doing to John Legend and Chrissy Tiegan! Yeah there’s that.

The spat between Debra Messing and President Trump is heating up, with POTUS on Thursday calling the actress a “McCarthy style Racist.” He also wonders whether NBC will give the actress the boot, a la ABC and Roseanne Barr, for her recent Twitter activity supporting both the listing of Trump donors and a church sign that name-called both black and white Trump supporters.

On Twitter, #RacistDebraMessing trended Wednesday after the actress apologized for liking a Baptist church’s sign that called black Trump voters “mentally ill” and white votes for the president “pure racism.”

“Bad ‘actress’ Debra The Mess Messing is in hot water,” Trump tweeted Thursday. “She wants to create a ‘Blacklist’ of Trump supporters, & is being accused of McCarthyism. Is also being accused of being a Racist because of the terrible things she said about blacks and mental illness. If Roseanne Barr said what she did, even being on a much higher rated show, she would have been thrown off television. Will Fake News NBC allow a McCarthy style Racist to continue? ABC fired Roseanne. Watch the double standard!”

Messing apologized Wednesday for liking the church sign and defended herself to a critic.

“NUMBER 1– I apologized for liking that church sign. I said I regret it. I shud have thought before recklessly suppprting,” Messing said in a series of tweets. “You won’t accept this but black people are targeted by Trump’s GOP for voter supression. Charlottesville was about Trump supporters hating POC and Jews. THAT is where my support of a sign at a southern black church came from. The use of the term ‘mentally ill’ was wrong & hurtful. NUMBER 2 I NEVER NOR WOULD I EVER call for a blacklist of anyone for any reason. The info is publicly available.”
https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/tv/story/2019-09-05/debra-messing-trump-eric-mccormack-blacklist-racist

[font size="8"]I Need A Drink: Fast Food Wars
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Hey everyone! We’re back from two weeks off and already I need a drink!

Of course you know the idea behind this segment is that we all need a break from talking too much politics, and booze and politics do not mix, like the phrase “business casual” and whatever Kevin Smith happens to be wearing. This week we’re going to talk about the fast food craze being launched by Popeye’s Chicken. Tell me bartender, what goes well with a fast food chicken sandwich? A 40 Oz of Mickey’s? What? I guess Old English is too classy? Ah you know what we’ll do a couple of 40s for this segment. Yeah in case you’re living under a rock, Popeye’s Chicken has broken fast food with the launch of their first ever chicken sandwich.

Unless you've been living under a pile of KFC's new Beyond Meat-collab chicken, you've probably heard rumblings about Popeyes' latest chicken sandwich in the United States. So what's the deal?

It's late on a Friday night, you can't be bothered to cook and you feel you deserve a cheat day. Your first solution to this issue probably isn't Popeyes, the franchise after all only has 26 restaurants in the UAE right now compared to McDonald's' 158. Across the pond in the U.S. on the other hand, there's Popeyes mania as far as the eye can see.

Popeyes is an American chain of fried chicken fast food restaurants founded in 1972 in New Orleans, Louisiana and is headquartered in Miami, Florida. It has about 3,000 branches worldwide compared to McDonald's' 37,855.

On August 12, 2019, the Popeyes Chicken Sandwich went on sale across the majority of its American branches. Fast-forward to August 27 and Popeyes announced that the sandwich was sold out everywhere and it'll take an undisclosed amount of time to restock.
https://www.esquireme.com/content/38529-the-popeyes-chicken-sandwich-craze-explained

Oh yeah that’s good stuff! Although unfortunately we didn’t get to try a Popeye’s fried chicken sandwich, so we had our sous chef Fernando whip us up a couple of very similar tasting breaded chicken sandwiches prepared exactly the same way that Popeye’s does it. Oh yeah these are good! Excellent work Fernando! I just wish we could have tried one the same way that Diplo did, because why the fuck not?

Popeyes really, really wanted Diplo to give its new, sold-out chicken sandwich a shot.

After the famous DJ, whose real name is Thomas Pentz, apparently expressed interest in trying the wildly popular menu item, the chain, which is formally known as Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen, sent the “Close to Me” songwriter a private jet filled with plenty of chicken sandwiches to go around.

“Popeye’s heard I wanted to try their sandwich so they sent me some in a jet,” the 40-year-old wrote on Instagram on Sunday, September 1.

He later added: “Wendy’s your move,” seemingly referencing the fast-food fight that played out after Popeyes’ sandwich made its big debut last month.

In the accompanying photo, the Grammy winner can be seen exiting a Popeyes-branded private plane with a Popeyes bag (presumably filled with chicken sandwiches) in each hand.

Though it’s not exactly clear how or when Diplo received the special delivery, he did share an Instagram Story of himself eating the sandwich aboard the private plane. According to Delish, a fellow passenger could be heard saying, “We got ’em, man,” in the background.
https://www.usmagazine.com/food/news/popeyes-sends-diplo-its-sold-out-chicken-sandwich-via-private-jet/

Ah nothing goes better than the combination the combination of booze and greasy fast food, so why not chug? At least Diplo got to try it with a private jet. This dude from Texas not only didn’t get to try it, he pulled a gun on a poor unsuspecting Popeye’s clerk. Yeah that’s where we are at as a society – don’t have what I want? Bam! Gun in the face!

A man pulled a gun at a Popeyes restaurant in Houston after being told they were out of chicken sandwiches, police say.

Houston police Lt. Larry Crowson says officers were called to the restaurant Monday night after a group of people tried to order a chicken sandwich.

Crowson says, "When the manager told them they were out, one of the males became upset and pulled a pistol and demanded a chicken sandwich. The manager again informed them they were out of sandwiches."

Crowson says the group then left and no one was injured. He says police are reviewing surveillance footage.
https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/weird/Gunman-Demands-Chicken-Sandwich-From-Texas-Popeyes-Leave-Empty-and-Hungry-559250061.html

So if you can’t get one of these Popeyes’ chicken sandwiches any time soon, either you can get them by gun or you can get them by private jet. Oh wait, my producers are telling me you can’t get them with a gun. But you can eat them if you win the Little League World Series. What? Come on!!! Enough with treating champion athletes with fast food!!! We got it when Trump did it the first time but this is getting old!!

The Eastbank All-Stars, the Little League champions from Louisiana, took a special visit Sunday to the Governor's Mansion where they had an even more exclusive meal.

Governor John Bel Edwards surprised the boys with sold-out Popeyes chicken sandwiches, both spicy and mild.

The sandwiches and the baseball team caught international attention around the same time. While the sandwiches were selling out at stores around the world, the boys were beating other Little League teams from around the world.

Both made countless headlines.

"The only place in the world that you can get a Popeyes Chicken sandwich is at the Governor's Mansion tonight," Edwards tweeted. "Only the best for Louisiana's own 2019 Little League World Series Champions! #LouisianaProud."
https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/multimedia/photos/collection_ce11cfb4-d2a6-11e9-a2a3-f36d87e364d1.html#1

But in case you’re wondering if the elusive sandwich will make an appearance, never fear! We have a generic corporate PR press release for you! Because nothing says “we care” than a generic corporate PR press release. And really, I’m just going to keep eating these sandwiches that Fernando made, because fuck fast food.

Across the nation, Popeyes locations are hung with homemade signs reading “no chicken sandwiches

” and “do apologize we out [sic] chicken sandwich” and simply “SANDWICH SOLD OUT.” The fried chicken chain is very sorry, but it has no more sandwiches to sell.

Popeyes announced the shortage on Twitter on August 27, eight days after a tweet from rival Chick-fil-A (and a pointed “...y’all good?” in response) set off a social media melee that pitted chicken sandwich against chicken sandwich and sent customers to the restaurants in droves. For Chick-fil-A, the spike in demand from the so-called #ChickenWars wasn’t an issue — apart from french fries and soft drinks, sandwiches are the company’s (brioche) bread and butter and have been since the recipe was introduced in 1967.

But for Popeyes, the sandwich is a new menu item, released only two weeks before the supply ran dry. It was in development for two years, according to the Wall Street Journal, as the company’s chefs tested various iterations of buttermilk batter, boneless chicken breast filets, sour pickles, and buttered brioche buns. In planning for its launch, Popeyes “aggressively forecasted demand through the end of September,” the company said in a statement, but ultimately it blew through the inventory of chicken filets a month ahead of schedule.
https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2019/9/6/20852676/popeyes-chicken-sandwich-chick-fil-a-sandwich-wars

[font size="8"]Keeping Up With The Candidates Ep. 6: The Dropouts
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Welcome back to our handy 2020 voters’ guide which puts all of your info about your favorite candidates, dropouts, has beens, almost rans and front runners – Keeping Up With The Candidates, because we all want to kick Trump to the curb and get our country back on track. But this week there’s been a shakeup! Not one but two candidates have left the race. The herd is thinning and soon we will have our challenger to @realDonaldTrump. In fact he’s scared folks that one might have been emerging but in fact he uses her dropout to just be a colossal horse’s ass.

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, who presented herself in the presidential race as a champion of women and families, said Wednesday that she was withdrawing from the Democratic primary after failing to qualify for a third debate next month — a development she described as fatal to her candidacy.

Ms. Gillibrand said in an interview that she would endorse another candidate in the primary but had not yet picked a favorite. Though she stopped short of saying she would endorse a woman, Ms. Gillibrand, who has made electing women to Congress a personal cause, said the next president had to be capable of uniting the country and suggested that a woman might be best suited for the job.

“I think that women have a unique ability to bring people together and heal this country,” Ms. Gillibrand said, adding, “I think a woman nominee would be inspiring and exciting.”

But she added: “I will support whoever the nominee is, and I will do whatever it takes to beat Trump.”

Ms. Gillibrand, 52, had anchored her candidacy in issues of women’s equality, with a strong emphasis on abortion rights. She pledged to screen nominees for judgeships based on their support for the Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion, and held rallies in two Republican-leaning states, Georgia and Missouri, where conservative lawmakers recently passed new restrictions on the procedure.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/28/us/politics/kirsten-gillibrand-2020-drop-out.html

Al Franken says hi by the way! Too soon? Well Gillibrand may be out but that doesn’t give Trump an excuse to act like a horse’s ass. Oh wait, who am I kidding? Trump doesn’t need an excuse to act like a horse’s ass. Hell, he doesn’t even need to act. He just naturally is a horse’s ass, and I really shouldn’t keep saying that because that’s just insulting to the horses. Horses’ asses produce something useful – fertilizer. Trump just produces… shit.

President Trump mocked Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) less than an hour after she dropped out of the Democratic presidential primary race.

“A sad day for the Democrats, Kirsten Gillibrand has dropped out of the Presidential Primary. I’m glad they never found out that she was the one I was really afraid of!,” Trump tweeted Wednesday.

President Trump mocked Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) less than an hour after she dropped out of the Democratic presidential primary race.

“A sad day for the Democrats, Kirsten Gillibrand has dropped out of the Presidential Primary. I’m glad they never found out that she was the one I was really afraid of!,” Trump tweeted Wednesday.

Trump's remarks came shortly after Gillibrand announced she was ending her campaign, leaving the field with 20 candidates.

Gillibrand's decision also came hours before the deadline to qualify for the September primary debate. The New York Democrat had not met the criteria to appear on next month's debate stage.

“I know this isn't the result we wanted. We wanted to win this race," Gillibrand said in a video posted to Twitter. "But it's important to know when it's not your time and to know how you can best serve your community and country. I believe I can best serve by helping to unite us to beat Donald Trump in 2020.

Gillibrand, who has long advocated for victims of sexual assault, faced backlash over her past calls for former Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) to resign amid allegations of sexual misconduct. The New York senator similarly took on Trump, calling for his resignation over allegations of sexual assault.
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/459215-trump-mocks-gillibrand-after-exit-she-was-the-one-i-was-really-afraid

Damn straight! Since we’ve been off too, our last profile Jay Inslee dropped out of the race. The Washington governor decided that he would be more useful serving the people of Washington than running a campaign where he was in… well… last place. And nobody wants to spend the time and money it would take to do that.

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee is dropping out of the 2020 presidential race, he announced Wednesday night on MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show.”

Inslee had centered his campaign around climate change, calling it “the most urgent challenge of our time.

“This is our moment to put the greatest threat to our existence, to our economy, to our health, at the very top of the nation’s agenda,” Inslee said in March at his campaign’s kickoff event in Seattle.

He put out a detailed 10-year plan on how he’d move the country to clean energy, spurring other candidates to put out their own plans. Butting heads with the Democratic National Committee, he demanded that the organization hold a debate focused on climate change.

The DNC rebuffed his pleas in June, but CNN announced soon afterthat it would hold a town hall on the issue with the 2020 candidates in September. Inslee, however, did not meet the polling criteria the network used for the event — a minimum of 2 percent in four DNC-recognized polls — and was not on the list of attendees the network announced on Tuesday.
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/08/21/jay-inslee-drops-out-of-the-2020-presidential-race.html

Oh and switching gears, by the way we talk a lot about what’s going on in the election because it needs to be stressed how important it is to kick Trump to the curb, and while we have to report on every single candidate and issue that might come up, there’s one thing that has @realDonaldTrump running scared. It’s that one thing that republicans are so afraid of – socialism! Yes, it’s gaining in popularity folks!

This year, Trump has repeatedly told friends and donors that running against “socialism” in a general election may not be “so easy” because of its populist draw, according to four Republicans and sources close to Trump who’ve heard him say this over the past several months.

(snip)

That Trump has been conceding that socialism could be politically potent didn’t catch Sanders’ campaign by surprise.

“One of the reasons I feel so strongly about Bernie’s ability to beat Trump is because we know that the Democratic nominee will have to credibly explain that Trump betrayed the working class with false promises and that he does not put forward real solutions to help struggling people,” said Faiz Shakir, Sanders’ 2020 campaign manager. “Bernie can and will do that successfully. We’ll have a national debate about policies that help the one percent versus policies that lift the 99. I get the sense Trump knows the reckoning is coming and is worried about being exposed as a fraud. No Sharpie edits will save him.”

For Sanders to get to the point of having a national debate with Trump over the merits of socialism, he must first survive the Democratic primary. But even if he doesn’t make it through that gauntlet, the Senator will have managed to move the contours of the debate. Four years ago, Sanders and his team were warning liberals that they shouldn’t underestimate Trump’s appeal, precisely because it spoke to the desire for voters to have government side with them over the elites.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-2020-president-privately-tells-confidants-that-socialism-wont-be-so-easy-to-beat

[font size="4"]Next Week:[/font]

Next week we’re going to Georgia’s 6th District to hang out with the guy who could be a key vote in turning the Senate blue – John Ossoff!

[font size="8"]And Now This:[/font]
[font size="8”]King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard[/font]

Ladies and gentlemen, my next guest are an awesome psychedelic experimental band from Melbourne, Australia. Their latest album is called “Fishing For Fishies”, you can see them on tour now through the end of October. Playing their song “This Thing”, give it up for King Gizzard &The Lizard Wizard!
https://img.discogs.com/v3rcTKhx_giYtPbaSh2AS1ZLLHk=/fit-in/300x300/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(40)/discogs-images/R-13586474-1562061072-7841.jpeg.jpg

Thank you Michigan State! This was fun! We’re off to Chicago and Northwestern next! See you next week!

Credits

Host: Initech
Top 10 Conservative Idiots Recorded In Front Of Live Audience At: Michigan State University, Lansing, MI
Special Thanks To: MSU
Holy Shit Gospel Choir: Elevate Church Band, Grand Rapids, MI
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Videos: All videos copyright belongs to respective copyright holders
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Initech Productions: Yes, We Got The Memo

September 4, 2019

Top 10 Conservative Idiots Best Of #9: Labor Day Edition

Top 10 Conservative Idiots Best Of #9: Labor Day Edition

Welcome back to the Top 10 Conservative Idiots! I know, right? I can’t believe it’s already September, man has this year flown by! Yeah we’ve had some bumps and bruises along the way when we started season 7, and it’s usually season 7 when producers make drastic changes to a show or a formula that would otherwise win. Like in It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia, where Mac got fat, or season 7 of New Girl, where she was no longer the New Girl. And don’t get me started on that either. But we’ve got a lot to go to finish out 2019 and our college tour. And our Texas Roadshow was a rousing success and we hope to do it again in 2020 when we hit the campaign trail when whoever of the 1,000,000 registered democrats takes the iron throne in the quest to dethrone President Golfs A Lot. But that said, we have some big announcements for seasons 8 and 9 heading down the stretch commemorating our fifth year as a series and some big plans to expand the brand. But we don’t have any new tour dates planned as of yet, we will be announcing those closer to Thanksgiving. OK that’s enough of my rambling, we have a lot of idiocy to get to for this best of edition. But first I have to play John Oliver’s brilliant rant from a couple of weeks ago where he brilliantly trolls the prime minister of Turkmenistan by offering the world’s largest cake with a picture of him falling off a horse:

&t=2s

So where do we begin for this Best Of edition? Well in the first slot from Idiots #7-3, we took an alarming look at history and where current events are leading us in a segment that we called “Keeping Up With The Nazis” and the parallels are scarier than you think! President Caligula golfs while America burns! In the second slot, from Idiots #6-17, we have another quitter! Yes, Tribute Rod Rosenstein (2) has effectively resigned from the Trumper Games! Meaning there can only be one thing, he’s back everybody!!! In the third slot from Idiots #6-17, Trump held another one of his absolutely insane rallies in Madison, Wisconsin, and whew, there was a lot of his usual batshit nonsense to unpack from that mess of a rally. Taking the fourth slot this week, from Idiots #7-7 is everyone’s favorite basement bunker troll site 4chan (4) – did they have something to do with the murder of a teenage social influencer? Well the answer is not at all shocking, but a fine example of the horrible behavior coming from that site. For slot #5 this week is our weekly investigative piece Top 10 Investigates, and this week from Idiots #6-18, why are anti vaccination crusaders using an old episode of the Brady Bunch (5) to back their claims about measles being just a day off school? Their stupidity is clearly showing. In slot #6 from Idiots #7-8 it’s our weekly visit to the Holy Church Of The Top 10 in “Holy Shit”, and our resident pastor is going to take a look at Kanye West’s attempts to make some money off his latest venture into religion in a segment that we’re calling “Jesus Merches”. Taking the 7th slot, from Idiots #7-5, we have our favorite segment of “Beating A Dead Hose” – OK conservatives, we get it! You hate Nike! You really, really hate Nike! No need to beat us over the head with it! For the 8th slot, from Idiots #7-3, after he sues a Twitter account for being nothing more than about his cow, we add California’s Devin Nunes (8) to that ever-growing list of People Who Somehow Got Elected. In the number 9 (NEIN!!!) slot is a healthy dose of our free-floating segment on Idiocy – People Are Dumb (9) which includes stories of naked dudes, airplane sleepers, and a store in Florida called “Rockhard Lovestuff” that in no way sells anything that is rock hard or love stuff. Finally from Idiots #7-8, our handy 2020 voter’s guide introduces you to the woman who is running against a member of Trump’s famed “The Squad” – Ilhan Omar, and if you guessed that she is one of Trump’s people, you are correct! Plus we have some live music from that time that 311 stopped by – really buy their new album Voyager! Enjoy! And as always don’t forget the key!

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[font size="8"]Keeping Up With The Nazis
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From: Idiots #7-3

It’s very easy to make comparisons to what Adolf Hitler did in regards to what the current American political climate is doing. In fact it’s so easy that Hitler comparisons have become their own logical fallacy. It’s a real thing, in fact go to Wikipedia and look up Ad Hitlerum. Still not convinced that it’s a real thing? Well, after Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez made the comparison that the camps running along the border are likened to Nazi concentration camps, And there’s no making fun of this so as is Top 10 policy, we won’t try. So for this piece, we thought we’d take a minute to unpack all the Nazi references coming from both sides. See – conservatives are there to remind you that they’re not Nazis, until they start doing things that are horrifying. Let’s call this piece “Detention camps are not concentration camps”, or to use the parlance of our times, “Keeping Up With The Nazis”. So just how close are we?

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez accused President Donald Trump's administration of running "concentration camps" in its detention of migrants at the southern border.

Conservatives quickly slammed the New York Democrat for her use of the term, which is most commonly associated with Nazi death camps during the Holocaust.

"The United States is running concentration camps on our southern border, and that is exactly what they are -- they are concentration camps," Ocasio-Cortez told an Instagram Live audience Monday evening. "And if that doesn't bother you ... I want to talk to the people that are concerned enough with humanity to say that we should not, that 'never again' means something," a reference to a phrase commonly invoked by Jews about the Holocaust.

"The fact that concentration camps are now an institutionalized practice in the home of the free is extraordinarily disturbing, and we need to do something about it," she added.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/18/politics/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-concentration-camps-migrants-detention/index.html

Holy shit!!! As if that’s not horrifying enough, there was the possibility of SS-like ICE raids that Trump was going to start last week but delayed it because it will allow even more time to blame the democrats on this issue. Yeah I said it – that’s all they care about – owning the libs, they’re not good for much of anything else at this point.

President Donald Trump announced Saturday that he's delaying for two weeks US Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids that were planned to take place Sunday in 10 major US cities, saying deportations will proceed unless Congress finds a solution on the US-Mexico border.

The President's pullback was an about-face in a matter of hours on enforcing his signature immigration policy, following deep criticism from the cities' mayors, top Democrats and immigration activists who called the coordinated arrests and deportations on targeted migrant families "heartless."

"At the request of Democrats, I have delayed the Illegal Immigration Removal Process (Deportation) for two weeks to see if the Democrats and Republicans can get together and work out a solution to the Asylum and Loophole problems at the Southern Border,'" Trump said on Twitter Saturday. "If not, Deportations start!"

A senior immigration official had told CNN on Friday that ICE was planning on arresting and deporting about 2,000 migrant families with court-ordered removals in 10 cities beginning Sunday.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/22/politics/ice-raids-sunday-10-cities-donald-trump-defends-arrests/index.html

Wow, just… fucking wow. In one corner we literally are having a debate about whether or not US detention centers are concentration camps and it’s only because not enough people died in those camps to warrant that status. Now in the interest of this piece, according to the US Holocaust Museum, here’s where we are at right now.

1933–1938

Following the appointment of Adolf Hitler as German chancellor on January 30, 1933, the Nazi state (also referred to as the Third Reich) quickly became a regime in which citizens had no guaranteed basic rights. The Nazi rise to power brought an end to the Weimar Republic, the German parliamentary democracy established after World War I. In 1933, the regime established the first concentration camps, imprisoning its political opponents, homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and others classified as “dangerous.” Extensive propaganda was used to spread the Nazi Party’s racist goals and ideals. During the first six years of Hitler’s dictatorship, German Jews felt the effects of more than 400 decrees and regulations that restricted all aspects of their public and private lives.
https://www.ushmm.org/learn/timeline-of-events/1933-1938

So let’s make one thing clear – the holocaust didn’t start with death camps. They started out very much like what we’re seeing now, and AOC is absolutely correct here. So we have round ups and internment camps a very real part of the Donald Trump administration – and it’s absolutely frightening. But why aren’t we doing enough to educate people about the holocaust? You might recall that those who forget history are doomed to repeat it. And here’s where that might lie.

Oregon became the 11th state in the nation to mandate that public schools teach students about the Holocaust and other genocides, just last month. As an American Jew who attended public school in the late 1970s and 1980s, I was surprised to hear that learning about a defining piece of world history apparently requires specific legislation. As a resident of Oregon — a state founded as a white utopia, with both a history of structural racism and an all-too-current glut of emboldened white nationalists — I was fascinated to read that the bill was a collaboration between a nonagenarian Holocaust survivor and a 14-year-old public school student.

As a person who has witnessed the sharp rise of American anti-Semitism in the past decade, I worry that the bill is too little and too late.

Yesterday, the absurdist game of Mad Libs that is the national news brought us a Twitter faceoff between Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., sparked by the former’s assertion that the Trump administration’s detention facilities at the U.S.-Mexico border are “exactly like concentration camps” and the latter’s subsequent finger-wagging reprimand of Ocasio-Cortez that the comparison trivialized the 6 million Jews who died in such camps.

Before you could ask “war profiteer’s daughter says what?” Twitter had become a pedantic Hydra of arguments that were less about the actual existence of such camps than about what we should be calling them. (For the record, concentration-camp historians agree that using the general term “concentration camp” to describe conditions at the border is accurate.)
https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/aoc-was-right-compare-trump-s-border-internment-camps-concentration-ncna1019381

[font size="8"]The Trumper Games
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From: Idiots #6-17

Hey everyone I’m baaaaaaaaaaaaack!!!! Oh yes my pretties, it has been a while. All has been quiet on the presidential front! Until last week when Tribute Rosenstein from the 2nd District resigned! And that is significant because the president was just going to straight up fire his ass anyways! But as long as supporters of the president are still supporting him, we will keep doing this. And where is my champagne? What? You mean Charlie left? Damn it! So who is my new assistant? Oh hello, this is my new assistant Nathaniel. Say hello to the people! Now bring me some champagne! I don’t care if it’s the cheap stuff. So why did Tribute Rosenstein resign? Well there’s plenty of reasons.

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who appointed special counsel Robert Mueller to investigate Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, submitted his resignation letter to the White House Monday.

It is effective May 11.

"We enforce the law without fear or favor because credible evidence is not partisan, and truth is not determined by opinion polls," Rosenstein wrote. "We ignore fleeting distractions and focus our attention on the things that matter, because a republic that endures is not governed by the news cycle."

Rosenstein often found himself the target President Donald Trump, especially after hiring Mueller in 2017. Shortly after being confirmed as deputy attorney general, Rosenstein wrote a memo criticizing former FBI Director James Comey amid Comey's investigation into Russia's 2016 actions, which Trump used as part of his reasoning in firing Comey.

After Comey was fired, Rosenstein brought Mueller in as special counsel to continue the investigation, and Mueller also looked at the question of obstruction of justice.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/29/politics/rod-rosenstein/index.html

Oh I am sorry I didn’t hear you over the sound of “you’re being fired”. It’s resigned? Damn it Charlie!! I think I am starting to see why Charlie left. I must be nicer to my new assistant. Nathaniel may you bring me a glass of libations please? Graci! Now that Tribute Rosenstein has been released from the Games, what’s next for the Mueller Report? Well the GOP currently is in “nothing to see here, please disperse” mode.

On Wednesday, Attorney General William Barr testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee about his handling of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report. The hearing was the first opportunity for the public to understand Barr’s legal reasoning for exonerating Donald Trump of obstruction of justice, after Mueller explicitly stated that the special counsel could reach no such conclusion. Barr had previously explained his reasoning in a four-page summary letter released weeks before the full report, in which he suggested that no obstruction could have been committed because the probe did not uncover enough evidence to establish an underlying criminal conspiracy to cooperate with the Russians in their election interference. This argument is a clearly incorrect interpretation of the obstruction statute; it’s possible to obstruct justice even if no underlying crime is discovered, and there were many other underlying crimes uncovered by the probe that reached into the president’s inner circle. The line of thinking was also supplemented by Barr’s remarkable press conference prior to the Mueller report’s release, in which he further argued that the president’s actions were all fine because they were motivated by legitimate frustrations with the probe.

During his testimony on Wednesday, Barr repeated that “legitimate frustration” defense of the president. He also spoke extemporaneously and precisely about his reasons for clearing the president in one of the most damning incidents of likely obstruction of justice described in the report: Trump’s efforts to get former White House counsel Don McGahn to have Mueller fired, and subsequent efforts to cover up that attempt. In doing so, Barr made clear that he has ignored Mueller’s own legal analysis and mischaracterized Mueller’s evidence. Here’s how Barr’s comments contradict Mueller’s own version of several of the allegations of obstruction of justice.
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/05/william-barr-testimony-ignores-mueller-evidence.html

Yes, Tribute Barr – the replacement for Tribute Sessions – has been quietly working to bury the report that could indict the President ! I mean what’s next? You know think of this like the school bully who hires the nerdy kid to write the book report that gets him an “A”. That’s exactly what Trump is paying Barr to do! So what happened with Russian hacking? It’s only the tip of the ice berg!

Special counsel Robert Mueller's report raises fresh questions about Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein's dual roles as both witness in and supervisor of the special counsel investigation into possible obstruction of justice by President Donald Trump.

The report, a redacted version of which the Justice Department released Thursday, disclosed a previously unknown episode in which Rosenstein, resisted Trump's efforts to get him to take the blame for the firing of FBI Director James Comey.

That event was examined as a key piece of Mueller's investigation of Trump's possible obstruction of justice, meaning Rosenstein was an important witness in a criminal probe he oversaw beginning in early 2017.

On the night of May 9, 2017, hours after Trump fired Comey, officials in the White House press office called the Justice Department to say the White House "wanted to put out a statement saying that it was Rosenstein's idea to fire Comey," according to the report.

Rosenstein told Justice Department officials that he wouldn't participate in putting out a "false story," he told the special counsel's office.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/18/politics/rod-rosenstein-trump-mueller/index.html

Yes, yes it does! Especially here, am I right audience??? But Rosenstein claims that he’s trying to “land the plane”. Don’t try to land the plane when the passengers are steering it right into the mountain! Horrible analogy I know! But that doesn’t matter when every good mob boss, like our president, for instance, has a cleaner. Yes, they are trying to change the ship and doing a very bad job of it. But for now, consider Tribute Rosenstein… ELIMINATED!!!

Rod Rosenstein, again, was in danger of losing his job. The New York Times had just reported that - in the heated days after James Comey was fired as FBI director - the deputy attorney general had suggested wearing a wire to surreptitiously record President Donald Trump. Now Trump, traveling in New York, was on the phone, eager for an explanation.

Rosenstein - who, by one account, had gotten teary-eyed just before the call in a meeting with Trump's chief of staff - sought to defuse the volatile situation and assure the president he was on his team, according to people familiar with matter. He criticized the Times report, published in late September, and blamed it on former deputy FBI director Andrew McCabe, whose recollections formed its basis. Then he talked about Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation of Russia's interference in the 2016 election and told the president he would make sure Trump was treated fairly, people familiar with the conversation said.

"I give the investigation credibility," Rosenstein said, in the words of one administration official offering their own characterization of the call. "I can land the plane."

The episode illustrates the political tightrope Rosenstein has had to walk in his two years as the Justice Department's second-in-command. To keep his job, the deputy attorney general has worked to mollify an often angry Trump, while at the same time protecting the special counsel's investigation of the president and his campaign. Rosenstein's actions have come under renewed scrutiny, as he has played a key role in releasing Mueller's findings in a way even some of his supporters say has been overly favorable to Trump.
https://www.philly.com/politics/rosenstein-trump-mueller-report-russia-investigation-20190427.html

[font size="8"]Donald Trump
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From: [link https://www.democraticunderground.com/100212062949 | Idiots #6-16]

Whew. There was so much to unpack at his insane campaign rally last week that I’m going to need a breather after this one. Or at least a nice tall glass of Jack Daniels. You know that abortion is one of the trickiest subjects to navigate in this country, at least since about 1973. But this week things have taken a hard turn in the abortion debate, and not in a good way. Yeah we got to unpack what Trump said in Wisconsin last week, because that was whew, my god. I literally have no words to accurately describe how or what to feel after seeing this. You know what? Fuck it, let’s roll the clip first.

That escalated quickly! Seriously, that never happens, fucking anywhere!!! So why is this so alarming? Well…

President Donald Trump made an incendiary remark at a rally Saturday night, veering from criticism of Wisconsin's Democratic governor to a false claim that mothers and doctors have the option to "execute" babies.
Speaking at a rally he hosted in Green Bay, Wisconsin, on Saturday, Trump pointed to former Wisconsin Republican Gov. Scott Walker, who was in attendance, and said Walker's successor, Democratic Gov. Tony Evers "shockingly stated that he will veto legislation that protects Wisconsin babies born alive."
According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Evers planned to veto a GOP-backed state bill that could have meant life sentences in prison for doctors who intentionally did not provide medical care to babies born alive after a failed abortion.
Trump continued on the theme after his initial comment to claim that mothers and doctors are given the choice to "execute" a baby.

"The baby is born," Trump said. "The mother meets with the doctor. They take care of the baby. They wrap the baby beautifully, and then the doctor and the mother determine whether or not they will execute the baby. I don't think so."
https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/28/politics/trump-rally-wisconsin-abortion/index.html

Wow, that escalated quickly! We wen t from abortion straight to infanticide. Holy shit. Way to play to extremes there, Trump! Oh wait, except that doesn’t happen anywhere, ever. I mean they didn’t even practice this in Darfur! Jesus, he is certifiably insane. And he’s probably going to get someone killed over this, if he hasn’t already.

In full campaign mode, President Trump urged loyal supporters in Wisconsin -- a key battleground state which Democrats hope to win back in 2020 -- to help him secure a second term and repeat his surprise electoral triumph in 2016.

"You took back your country," he told thousands of boisterous supporters at a campaign rally in Green Bay Saturday night, suggesting that his election three years ago signaled a tectonic shift in American politics.

"You have always been loyal to your nation. Now you finally have a president who is loyal to you," he reassured the crowd, which erupted in chants of "four more years!"

In his third "Make America Great Again" rally of the year, which he held on the same night as the annual White House Correspondents' Association dinner, Mr. Trump stuck to his signature campaign rallying cries, denouncing the now-complete Russia investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller and bragging about devising the highly controversial proposal of sending migrants apprehended near the southern border to so-called "sanctuary cities," which limit their cooperation with federal immigration authorities.

"That was actually my sick idea," the president said.
https://www.cbsnews.com/live-news/donald-trump-green-bay-rally-watch-live-stream-today-2019-04-27-live-updates/

At least Trump admits that his ideas are sick. And certainly not in a cool way. His ideas are quite literally sick in every way. That brings up one of my favorite GOP talking points “We’re going to take our country back!!!”. What are you taking it back from? Where are you taking it back to? We may never know the answer to these questions. By the way, if you want to know what actual doctors think of this, you would be (well, not) at all surprised at how wrong Trump is on this subject:

Dr. Kristyn Brandi, an obstetrician-gynecologist and a board member from Physicians for Reproductive Health, said that Trump is not describing a situation in which a licensed doctor would ever participate.

“To be clear, there is never a scenario where a baby is delivered and we decide to execute the baby. That is grossly inflammatory and really insulting to doctors, nurses and everyone else that takes care of people that go through this stuff,” she told TIME.

Trump was referencing Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers’ opposition to a Republican-backed bill that could put doctors in prison for life if they don’t do everything in their power to save infants born alive after failed abortion attempts.

But Evers has previously explained that he won’t back the bill because he thinks it’s unnecessary. Doctors who don’t help ailing infants clearly in need of medical help would face repercussions for that choice whether or not the bill was passed. “I think those protections already exist,” he told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
http://time.com/5579685/trump-late-term-abortion-false-claims/

[font size="8"]Scary 4Chan, Bianca’s Dead
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From: Idiots #7-7

Normally the Top 10 policy is that we don’t joke about things like murder or mass shootings or the situation going on at the border because it’s really too horrifying to make fun of. And this next story is about a murder. But when 4chan is involved… no really, fuck 4chan. And fuck 8chan too. And 16chan, and 32chan, and 64chan, and 128chan. Really, fuck all the Chans at this point. Except for our assistant producer Harold Chan, he can stay. Now the title of this entry comes from an old Psych episode called “Scary Sherry, Bianca’s Dead”. So for this piece, let’s call it “Scary 4chan, Bianca’s Dead”. And for this entry, we will channel our inner Shawn Spencer and Burton Guster. So before we dive into trashing this horrid excuse for an internet forum, what happened exactly?

A young woman active on social media was brutally murdered, with gruesome photos of her body posted to Instagram and other platforms.

Horrific images of 17-year-old Bianca Devins were posted on Instagram early Sunday, after she went to a concert in Queens with Brandon Andrew Clark.

Clark, 21, reportedly called police on himself, according to Lt. Bryan Coromato. When he was discovered in his car in Utica, Clark reportedly slit his own throat and posted pictures of his bleeding neck on Instagram as well.

Devins, who was a popular "egirl" on Tik Tok, was was found dead outside the SUV. Clark was rushed to the hospital, where he underwent surgery. The two reportedly met online, and had been seeing each other for about two months before the night of the concert, by Canadian musician Nicole Dollenganger.

Bianca's sister, Olivia Devins, later called Clark a "close family friend."
https://www.newsweek.com/bianca-devins-murder-discord-1449363

Yes, stay creepy 4chan! And really what an age we live in where evidence of a fucking murder can be posted online in messaging forums. And how is 4chan not being monitored by the FBI and CIA as being a terrorist group? Well, maybe terrorism is a harsh word to use for a group of incels who live in their mom’s basement and spend the whole day chain smoking and pooping their pants. I assume that’s what incels do all day. But what drove them to murder?

"Here comes Hell. It's redemption, right?"

Brandon Andrew Clark posed that question, taken from a rock song, to his Instagram followers in a temporary 24-hour story posted before dawn last Sunday.

The next image he shared was far more disturbing. A blurry photograph captioned "I'm sorry Bianca" appeared to show a woman's bloodied torso.

Before then his Instagram account, which we have chosen not to name, was mostly used to catalogue selfies and posts about music and art. Police believe the 21 year old had met Bianca through the platform two months earlier and their relationship had progressed in person since.

On Saturday, he drove Bianca to New York City from Utica, where she lived, to see Canadian singer Nicole Dollanganger perform. Police said they believed the pair had got into an argument on the way back, possibly about her kissing someone else, and he had fatally attacked her with a knife.

Police said the suspect shared an even more graphic photograph of Bianca's body on Discord - a popular messaging platform for gamers. This image showed the extent of injuries to Bianca's throat and made clear her wounds had been fatal.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-49002486

Obviously. Look, passionate romance is nothing to joke about. And for an Incel who was lucky enough to score, that shit should be taken seriously! So what happens when a murder like this goes viral? And going viral is probably the worst thing you can say about someone’s murder. Oh pictures of her fatally stabbed body just.. went viral. Yeah that doesn’t sound good at all does it?

Like most mornings, Jared, who lives in a small town in southern Utah, logged in to Bianca’s group chat on Sunday to see what he’d missed overnight.

There, posted 15 minutes earlier, was a photo of Bianca’s body. From the gaze in her eyes and the extensive injuries, it was obvious she was dead.

The image, posted under a username associated with Clark, was accompanied by a message: “Sorry fuckers, you’re going to have to find someone else to orbit.”

On his own social media accounts, Clark was busy telling a story seemingly calculated for maximum exposure. He uploaded pictures of himself and Bianca’s body and declared his intention to kill himself. As police arrived to apprehend him on a secluded street in Utica, he continued to snap photos and post them online.

He even left a message at the scene, police said: The words “May you never forget me” were spray-painted on the pavement, an apparent reference to a manga about a toxic relationship that both he and Bianca liked.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/bianca-devins-death-internet_n_5d2e382ae4b0a873f6431763

Holy shit! I think we might have found the worst possible use for Instagram here. This is where toxic masculinity takes a very ugly turn. And toxic masculinity is ugly to begin with! Just adding the word “toxic” to anything makes it ugly. Like… toxic unicorns. Yes, the word “toxic” can make the most innocent things sound horrible. Like for instance I literally just turned something as innocent as a unicorn into something extremely horrifying and terrible. You can’t get that image out of your head now, can you? And here’s where social media gets really ugly.

After Bianca Devins’ brutal murder, incels and trolls gleefully circulated photos of her mutilated body across the internet. But within days, the #RIPBianca hashtag and her tagged Instagram photos were transformed into an endless stream of bubblegum pink, fluffy white kittens, candy hearts, and glittery pink clouds.

The dreamy imagery is coming from a vast community of “e-girls,” an online subculture influenced by video games, anime, and grunge that Devins had belonged to.

For these girls and young women, many of whom face harassment and threats on a regular basis, Devin’s brutal murder hit way too close to home.

“Finding out about Bianca was terrifying,” said Ashley Eldridge, a 19-year-old e-girl. “I worry about stuff like that happening all the time. I’m constantly scared that someone is going to recognize me in real life and follow me.”

The e-girl community was almost instantly privy to the incredible violence Devins suffered in the final moments of her life, sometime in the early hours of Sunday morning. Her killer stabbed her to death and then shared pictures of her dead body on social media, including her Discord server. Police suspect her boyfriend, a 22-year-old online influencer Brandon Clark who police say she’d met through Instagram about two months earlier.
https://news.vice.com/en_us/article/pajn58/the-e-girl-community-is-a-world-of-glittery-pink-clouds-harassment-and-now-murder

[font size="8"]Top 10 Investigates: Brady Bunch Vs Anti Vaxxers
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From: Idiots #6-18

It’s time to investigate beyond the headlines. This is Top 10 Investigates.

Measles outbreaks are happening all over the country. As such, scientists and doctors are tracing the origins of the resurgence of this horrifying disease. While the anti-vaccination crowd is largely to blame, people are trying to figure out what’s fueling anti-vaccination hysteria. But would you ever guess that an episode of the classic sitcom the Brady Bunch was fueling the hysteria? Anti-vaccination crusaders may be upping their game when it comes to the hysteria and harassment, but this takes things to whole new levels of extreme. And it’s hard to take them seriously when you find this out.

“If you have to get sick,” Marcia Brady bellows. “Sure can’t beat the measles!” Marcia delivered the line in an episode of The Brady Bunch that aired in 1969. Fifty years later, it's echoing through Facebook antivaxxer communities.

If you ignore the sitcom context, it does sound like a peppy mid-century advertising slogan for the disease, the sort of thing a feverish Don Draper might have come up with after his eighth Old Fashioned. So, naturally, that’s how antivaxxers are taking it.

Marcia’s pro-measles platform has been a staple of the antivax community for a while now—it’s a popular meme, which means that it’s also T-shirt. Screengrabs of blonde-pigtailed Marcia grinning at the thought of measles are so common in anti-vaccine forums that Maureen McCormick, who played Marcia, got on NPR and asked to be excluded from this narrative. She’s quaintly scandalized that strangers would use her face for their own ends without her permission, without asking her whether she believes in vaccines or not. The antivaxxers do not care.

To them, whether or not Maureen McCormick vaccinated her children, which she did, is irrelevant, as is McCormicks’ discomfort with becoming the face of measles. (“Boo hoo,” read several Facebook comments.) So is the fact that the creator of The Brady Bunch, Sherwood Schwartz, was also a known child vaccinator. Everyone involved can wave their vaccination records all they want and it won’t deter anybody from buying a T-shirt that informs the world that the titular family of a sitcom failed to die of measles on daytime television. This meme is not about Marcia or any of the Brady bunch: It’s about having a slice of 1969.
https://www.wired.com/story/the-brady-bunch-measles-episode-is-now-a-viral-menace/

Ha ha ha, measles are so much fun! It’s just a day off school don’t you know? Now this brings up an interesting question – should we trust all of our medical advice to sitcoms? Well if you even have to ponder the answer to this question, you’re an idiot. But then again anti-vaccination crusaders are the kind of people who take what’s said on TV way too seriously.

Some anti-vaxxers – those misguided people who believe vaccines do more harm than good despite overwhelming scientific evidence to the contrary – are using “The Brady Bunch” to make their case.

In an episode from the 1969 TV show, the Brady kids come down with the measles, skip school and hilarity ensues.

“If you have to get sick, you sure can’t beat the measles,” says Marcia Brady, played by actress Maureen McCormick, in a clip circulated by anti-vaxxers.

Nearly fifty years after that episode first aired, the United States has the highest number of measles cases since the disease was declared eliminated in 2000.

McCormick told NPR she isn’t happy that Marcia has become an unwitting spokesperson for the pro-measles, anti-vaccination crowd.
https://www.independenttribune.com/news/should-sitcoms-dictate-our-medical-treatment/article_7cd09c68-6dd7-11e9-a4b6-d31fc4670ee3.html

Well if you give someone the measles you probably wont get any friends. In fact the number of cases of the measles is so severe that it’s a few hundred away from reaching epidemic proportions. But really this is something to be concerned about, and anti-vaccination people should be absolutely ashamed of themselves.

The number of confirmed U.S. measles cases this year has climbed to 764, more than double the number a year ago and the highest total in 25 years, federal health officials announced Monday.

Sixty additional cases were reported last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. Most of those were in New York City and its suburbs.

Pennsylvania became the 23rd state where measles cases have been confirmed.

Ogbonnaya Omenka, an associate professor and public health specialist at Butler University, found some encouraging news in the report. He noted that the number of cases rose about the same in the past two weeks, less than previous gains. But authorities dare not get complacent, he said.

"This outbreak is an indication that the traditional methods of addressing measles outbreaks in the United States may not suffice any longer," Omenka told USA TODAY. "Public health authorities need to quickly recognize this and adapt accordingly."
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/05/06/measles-outbreak-disease-booming-reaching-764-cases-23-states/1118412001/

Yes in fact that’s the reaction that you should give someone who says that they don’t believe in vaccines and that they won’t get their children vaccinated because of fears of autism. In fact this is so outrageous and stupid that you can’t begin to fathom the ire that is coming from the creators and stars of the actual Brady Bunch. They aren’t having any of it.

As the number of measles cases nationwide rises to levels not seen since before the virus was declared eliminated in 2000, some people who oppose vaccines cite an odd cultural reference as evidence that the concern about measles is overblown: a 1969 episode of The Brady Bunch.

Some former Brady Bunch cast members aren't happy about it.

The episode "Is There a Doctor in the House?" features the whole family sick with measles. First, Peter gets sent home from school. Mother Carol Brady, played by Florence Henderson, describes his symptoms as "a slight temperature, a lot of dots and a great big smile," because he gets to stay home from school for a few days.

Once the rest of the six kids come down with measles, the youngest two Brady siblings fool around, with Bobby trying to color Cindy's measles spots green.

"If you have to get sick, sure can't beat the measles," sister Marcia says, as the older Bradys sit around a Monopoly board on one of the kid's beds. All the kids are thankful they don't have to take any medicine or, worse, get shots, the thought of which causes Jan to groan.
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2019/04/28/717595757/brady-bunch-episode-fuels-campaigns-against-vaccines-and-marcia-s-miffed

That’s it for Top 10 Investigates. Good day.

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[font size="8"]Holy Shit
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From: Idiots #7-8

Let’s spin it to win it!!! Oh hey look it’s a clip without context!

Really? The most racist senator in the world switched parties and somehow became less racist? Shut up. And look at that suit - is he peddling conspiracy theories or auditioning to be in a barber shop quartet? Thank you! Spin it again! Oh hey it’s time for Holy Shit!

Gather around my fair brothers and sisters of Austin! 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!!! Today we are going to answer a question that is as old as time itself – is it OK to monetize the good LAWRD JAYSUS? And by monetize, I mean merchandise! Yes, that is where the real money is made. It’s all about the merchandise and the bling bling! Well, our brother Kanye is looking to make some money off his recent venture into religion. And what would JAYSUS say about that? well, JAYSUS merchandises himself that’s what! I mean he is the world’s greatest salesman! People say that Kanye West is the greatest hip hop musician of all time. So why is Kanye trying to be among the godliest among us? Well, he is friends with the unholy Dark One, who claims to be a man of GAWD, so why not?

Kanye West is taking the fashion industry to church.

On July 19, West reportedly applied to trademark the phrase “Sunday Service,” a reference to his series of invite-only, sermon-like concerts. The application was filed by Mascotte Holdings, Inc., the rapper’s intellectual property holding company. Should his application be approved, he will be able to produce Sunday Service bottoms, tops, dresses, headwear, footwear, jackets, loungewear, scarves, shirts, and socks.

Beginning on the first Sunday in January, West’s church-inspired gospel performances, called Sunday Service, have garnered media attention for their spectacle and religious ambiguity. In an April appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, the Kardashian sisters awkwardly stumbled through questions about Kanye’s Sunday Service. Kim rebuffed Kimmel’s description of the experience as church, explaining, “We didn’t really have a name for it because it is more of a healing experience.”

Khloe expanded on the difference between a house of God and the House of West. “We have so many friends that maybe feel a little too judgmental when they go to church,” she said. “When they come here, they feel so free and safe.” According to Kim, there is no praying, though Kourtney definitively clarified, “It is Christian.” With a smirk, she added, “They sing ‘Jesus Walks,’” referring to West’s 2004 hit song endorsing Christianity.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/kanye-west-wants-to-hawk-church-clothes-to-the-masses-is-he-exploiting-religion-for-profit

Why yes, yes it does good sir!!! So what we’re asking this week – is it OK to make a profit off the Almighty LAWRD? Well, we do. I mean you bought tickets to our low-rent dog and pony Sunday service! Sure, we don’t have the budget that Kanye does or do we have his influence. But we do have the good LAWRD JAYSUS on our side! So why is Hollywood getting into the JAYSUS game? Because, hipster churches, that’s why!

This week, thousands of teenagers and twentysomethings mustered excitedly about London’s O2 Arena eagerly anticipating the evening’s entertainment. Sporting tattoos and scantily dressed in the summer heat, they might have been queuing for any pop concert. Instead, it was to meet an evangelical church pastor.

Inside the arena, a packed audience, nearly 15,000-strong, cheered breakdancers, rap artists and rock guitarists all espousing the worship of God. And then, at the moment of maximum rhapsody, out strode Hillsong’s lead pastor and founder Brian Houston, wearing a red checkered blazer and declaring: “Jesus, what a beautiful sight…”

As the 65-year-old Australian preached, those in the exultant crowd closed their eyes and raised their arms to the lights. One teenage boy in a tracksuit opposite me wiped a tear away from his cheek.
Brian Houston, the founder and lead pastor of the Hillsong movement
Brian Houston, the founder and lead pastor of the Hillsong movement Credit: Jeff Gilbert

Chances are you may not have heard of Hillsong, an evangelical movement founded by Brian and his wife, Bobbie Houston, in Sydney in 1983. Now spanning more than 15 countries, its mega-churches are the centre of the fastest-growing religious movement in the world: Pentecostalism, which boasts more than 500m adherents.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/family/life/inside-hillsong-hollywoods-evangelical-megachurch-taking-london/

Well I feel like Kanye does have that kind of power, bro! It’s about information, and JAYSUS. But hey maybe that’s how we get more viewers for the Holy Church Of The Top 10. Let’s get rappers and skateboarders here and have a charismatic con artist play the preacher. Well I do sort of play that part already! But so… is Kanye trying to sell a show based on his Sunday sermon or not? I’m not gonna lie, kind of want to see this thing.

Kim Kardashian has responded to claims that Kanye West is trying to ‘sell’ his Sunday Service as a TV show and it looks like it won’t be coming to screens any time soon. The Keeping Up With the Kardashians star has been keeping fans in the loop with Kanye’s church services most Sundays since earlier this year, with more celebrities attending each week.

The Gold Digger rapper even managed to perform at this year’s Coachella on an actual mountaintop. A source recently claimed that Kanye had been pitching Sunday Service as a TV series but Kim says there are currently no plans to broadcast. Responding to the reports in a tweet, Kim simply stated: ‘Not true.’ Radar Online had previously said that Kanye was ‘extremely passionate about his faith’ and wanted to ‘share it more regularly with people’.

‘Say what you want about Kanye, but he really does want to help people who need support.’ They added: ‘He understands brokenness and the need for healing, probably more than most people. ‘He believes in the healing powers of music, but also believes that God can step in and heal people’s brokenness and their issues.’

Read more: https://metro.co.uk/2019/07/04/kim-kardashian-responds-claims-kanye-west-trying-sell-sunday-service-tv-show-10114115/?ito=cbshare

You know if there’s one thing a good televangelist understands, it’s not that they want to help people, because televangelists don’t do that. You know what a good televangelist understands? He understands the power of the almighty dollar! Can I get an amen??? And there’s no one better for that than Kanye is, because he understands the power of the almighty dollar! After all, he is married to Kim Kardashian! And here’s where the money making side comes in!

The 'Bound 2' rapper is keen to launch his own religious organisation based on his weekly concerts, which he calls Sunday Service, and has reportedly bought a plot of land near his home in Los Angeles so that he can build "pods" for his followers to stay in for a "few weeks at a time" while they focus on his new modern faith.

A source told The Sun newspaper: "Kanye wants to develop a Church which introduces a new way to celebrate faith, bringing religion into the 21st century.

"His faith is massively important to him and he thinks this is the way to engage young people. He thinks it will surpass Hillsong, which has churches in 21 countries and is hugely popular in Los Angeles with the likes of Justin Bieber.

"He wants to build temporary habitable pods where followers of his church can live for a few weeks at a time. They are insanely intricate and expensive but it would give ease of access for his Sunday Service."

And the 42-year-old star's new idea will no doubt go down well with his wife Kim Kardashian West as she recently praised his weekly service and said the musical gathering is intended to be healing for the participants, rather than "preaching."
http://www.music-news.com/news/UK/123063/Kanye-West-to-set-up-his-own-church

There it is folks, modern church isn’t about money making it’s about the almighty dollar! And Kanye is a better kind of preacher! Mass has ended, may you go in peace! That’s it this week for:

[font size="8"]Beating A Dead Horse: Nike II
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From: Idiots #7-5

OK conservatives – we get it! You hate Nike! You really hate Nike! Now I want you to show me on the doll where the swoosh hurt you. Just in your mind? That’s it? Stop it already. What’s the latest conservative beef with the shoe company? Well, Nike had planned to roll out a shoe featuring the Betsy Ross flag on it. And well, their boy Colin Kaepernick had some concerns about it. Which of course got the conservatives’ underwear in a wad over who is the more rootin’ tootin’ ‘Murica worshipper than the next guy. Because in addition to hating Nike, they really hate Colin Kaepernick!

Nike pulled an American-flag-themed shoe design after the former NFL player Colin Kaepernick, who endorses Nike, said he and others found the specific flag design offensive, associating it with the time of slavery in America, according to a new report from The Wall Street Journal.

The company had meant for the Air Max 1 USA to go on sale this week in tandem with the Fourth of July. The heel of the shoe featured a version of the US flag with 13 white stars, which was created circa the 1770s during the American Revolution and is commonly referred to as the Betsy Ross flag.

Citing unnamed sources, The Journal said Kaepernick contacted the company after images of the shoe started appearing online and said that people, himself included, considered the Betsy Ross flag an "offensive symbol because of its connection to an era of slavery."

As The Journal noted, the flag also sparked controversy back in 2016 after students waved it at a high-school football game in Michigan. Some parents and students left the game "unsettled," as the flag was seen by some as a symbol of white supremacy and white nationalism, according to the local news outlet Mlive.com.
https://www.mysanantonio.com/technology/businessinsider/article/Nike-faces-backlash-on-social-media-after-pulling-14065729.php

That’s a good question and I’m sure that conservatives are probably thinking that right now! I mean if you hate them, then you must hate Jesus! But we get it conservatives, you love your flag more than you love life itself. And that’s not a bad thing, but really, lighten up guys. You know why Nike pulled the Betsy Ross shoe? Well if you don’t then you’re part of the problem.

The decision caused an instant backlash among conservatives who accused Nike of denigrating U.S. history, with Arizona Governor Doug Ducey tweeting that he is asking the state's Commerce Authority to withdraw financial incentives promised to Nike to build a plant in the state.

Others expressed surprise that the symbol known as the Betsy Ross flag, so named after the beloved Philadelphia woman credited with designing it, could be considered offensive. Although some extremist groups appear to have appropriated the flag, it is not widely viewed as a symbol of hate, and is used in museums that focus on 18th century U.S. history.

The Anti-Defamation League does not include it in its database of hate symbols. Mark Pitcavage, a senior research fellow for the ADL's Center on Extremism, said extremist groups have occasionally used it, but the flag is most commonly used by people for patriotic purposes.

"We view it as essentially an innocuous historical flag," Pitcavage said. "It's not a thing in the white supremacist movement."

Nike said in statement that "it pulled the shoe based on concerns that it could unintentionally offend and detract from the nation's patriotic holiday." The company pushed back against criticism that the decision was being "anti-American."
https://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-biz-nike-kaepernick-betsy-ross-flag-20190703-53bqcmqhkzh7dad5dgvpcopkqi-53bqcmqhkzh7dad5dgvpcopkqi-story.html

Oh come on conservatives, lighten up and have a sense of humor. Seriously, Nike only committed the worst kind of discrimination – the kind against you. It’s not about the American flag – it’s about you personally. Nike hurt your feelings. But your ego is so big that you think that Nike hurting your feelings is hurting America’s feelings.

Nike’s sales have only grown since it seized attention with its ad campaign featuring former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick. So, the shoemaker deferred to its star endorser when he raised concerns over a sneaker featuring an early American flag.

Nike pulled the Air Max 1 USA shoe, which included a Revolutionary-era U.S. flag with 13 white stars in a circle on the heel. Kaepernick reached out to Nike after learning they planned to release the sneaker to explain that the flag recalls an era when black people were enslaved and that it has been appropriated by white nationalist groups, a person familiar with the conversation told The Associated Press.

The person requested not to be named because the conversation was intended to be private.

Nike decided to recall the shoe after it had been already sent to retailers to go on sale this week for the July Fourth holiday, according to the Wall Street Journal.

<snip>

Others expressed surprise that the symbol known as the “Betsy Ross” flag, so named after the beloved Philadelphia woman credited with designing it, could be considered offensive. Although some extremist groups appear to have appropriated the flag, it is not widely viewed as a symbol of hate, and is used in museums that focus on 18th century U.S. history.
https://www.rochesterfirst.com/news/national/report-nike-pulls-flag-sneaker-after-kaepernick-complaint/

OK so white supremacists adopted the Betsy Ross flag as a symbol of modern white supremacy. You know, they’re not like your dad’s white supremacists. They’re the hip, trendy white supremacists you see on social media. Conservatives love to fight weird battles. And they’ll get pissed about a pair of sneakers before they get mad about children sitting in concentration camps. Yeah it’s that fucked up isn’t it? Oh and by the way, conservatives, keep up the Nike boycotts. Because guess what? While you’re complaining and moaning about Nike, they’re busy doing that thing called making money!

Nike's controversial decision to stop selling a patriotic Betsy Ross shoe at the behest of Colin Kaepernick has had a significant impact on the athletic company's market value.

While the company is taking a beating in the public relations department, Nike's market value increased significantly this week after the controversy boiled over, TMZ reported.

As of market close on Friday, Nike shares were up 2 percent in just three days, which added a whopping $3 billion to Nike's market value, which closed at $136.38 billion on Friday.

Kevin O'Leary, an investor on "Shark Tank," told TMZ he believes Nike manufactured the controversy as a marketing ploy.

This is not the first time Nike has capitalized on controversy with Kaepernick.
https://www.theblaze.com/news/nike-market-value-betsy-ross

[font size="8"]People Who Somehow Got Elected: Duncan Hunter
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From: Idiots #7-3

Politicians at the state and local levels who are so toxic, you wonder how they’re able to get away with the things they get away with. This is:

This week – San Diego, California representative Duncan Hunter (R – Obviously). You might recall Rep. Hunter from when he famously tried to get his pet rabbit a seat on a Southwest flight (see: Idiots #5-10 ) that cost taxpayer money to the tune of $600. For his rabbit. And that’s not all – Rep. Hunter is in some seriously deep doo doo that is costing him big time. And when your wife says “she’s talking to prosecutors”, that’s never a good thing now is it? But for some reason, San Diego not only elects Duncan Hunter, they keep reelecting him time and time again.

California GOP Rep. Duncan Hunter's wife Margaret pleaded guilty on Thursday to conspiring with her husband to "knowingly and willingly" convert campaign funds for personal use. She has agreed to cooperate with prosecutors.

Both Hunters previously pleaded not guilty to federal charges that they had stolen a quarter of a million dollars in campaign funds to furnish a lavish lifestyle that was beyond their means.

Margaret Hunter's agreement to cooperate with prosecutors was a huge development in the federal case that poses a legal and political threat to her husband, the sitting congressman.

Margaret Hunter appeared alone with her lawyers in a federal district court in San Diego before Judge Thomas Whelan, where she changed her plea in the high-profile case. The congressman did not appear with his wife on Thursday.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/13/politics/margaret-hunter-duncan-hunter-california/index.html

So Duncan Hunter may have stolen a small fortune of campaign contributions and used it to live the high life. Who wouldn’t? Oh that’s right, most of us have this thing called “integrity”, which you must lack in order to be a member of today’s republican party. So just how deep does this Duncan Hunter scandal go and how much worse could it get? Well, a whole lot worse. Think of this like Arrested Development.

Margaret Hunter, wife of Rep. Duncan D. Hunter (R-Calif.), pleaded guilty to charges in the campaign finance case she and her husband were indicted in last summer, saying that she — and the congressman — used campaign funds for personal use, including a $10,000 trip to Italy.

Margaret Hunter, 44, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring with her husband to using $25,000 in campaign funds for personal use, according to an agreement she signed with federal prosecutors Tuesday and read out in court on Thursday. She is scheduled to be sentenced in September and faces up to five years in prison for the one charge. Prosecutors dismissed the other charges she was facing.

The plea agreement represents a potentially awkward split with her congressman husband, who has pleaded not guilty to the four charges against him. As part of the deal, she has agreed to cooperate with prosecutors as they continue to work their case against her husband, and to testify in any grand jury proceedings or trial that she is asked to. Prosecutors said that the congressman obtained a credit card tied to his campaign funds for his wife, “recognizing that she would spend campaign funds for the Hunters’ personal benefit.”

“I am deeply remorseful, and I apologize,” Margaret Hunter said in a statement. “I am saddened for the hurt I have caused my family and others. I understand that there will be more consequences stemming from my actions but, as demonstrated by my plea today, I have taken the first step to face them.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/06/13/rep-duncan-hunters-wife-admits-couple-misused-campaign-funds-she-may-have-testify-against-him/?utm_term=.aa1006243527

Well yeah if you have the worst attorneys, you probably should be aware that a husband and wife can be charged with the same crime. That’s law 101. So what would be the implications if Mr. Hunter is indicted for these crimes? Well, Margaret Hunter flipping on her husband could have serious implications for Mr. Hunter himself – and that can’t be a good thing. Remember that Arrested Development episode? Well, she might wind up sharing a cell with him.

Downtown attorney Jeremy Warren had work to do Thursday, but he took time to comment on what transpired in the federal courthouse a few blocks away.

A veteran criminal defense lawyer, Warren opined on Margaret Hunter changing her plea to guilty in the corruption case enveloping herself and her husband, Rep. Duncan D. Hunter.

“This deal gives her an excellent chance of not going to jail as long as she continues to cooperate against her husband,” he tweeted several hours after the 9-minute morning hearing.

Federal prosecutors recommended in a plea agreement that she get a far lighter sentence than the 5-year maximum for the single count she admitted. (She also confirmed that the couple illegally spent $200,000 in campaign funds on personal goods and travel).

The deal Hunter signed Tuesday drops her sentencing range into Zone B of the federal guidelines, Warren told Times of San Diego in a phone interview.
https://timesofsandiego.com/politics/2019/06/13/flipping-on-congressman-husband-may-spare-margaret-hunter-any-prison-time/

No, no light treason here. Just massive greed on a massive scale. You can’t just steal $250K – that’s a quarter of a million dollars. So Duncan Hunter threw his wife under the bus, and now she got behind the wheel and is driving it. This is what we believe one would call a “circular firing squad”, and things could get that much worse for the embattled San Diego representative.

Margaret Hunter, the wife of longtime East County Congressman Duncan D. Hunter who was co-indicted with her husband last summer, has agreed to change her plea of not guilty and is scheduled to appear in federal court Thursday morning.

The announcement was posted on the U.S. District Court docket late Wednesday morning without any supplemental documentation.

“Notice of hearing as to defendant Margaret E. Hunter,” the docket entry states. “Change of Plea hearing set for 6/13/2019.”

Both Hunter and his wife were indicted in August on 60 criminal counts related to what prosecutors allege was a years-long misuse of campaign donations to the congressman’s re-election fund. Each of the defendants pleaded not guilty to all charges last year.
https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/watchdog/story/2019-06-12/margaret-hunter-pleads-out-in-case-against-congressman-husband

Apparently they can. And in case you’re wondering how Hunter repeatedly gets elected in San Diego, yeah, you don’t really need to look far. In today’s republican party all you have to do is talk about how much you hate Islam and you’re in. In fact they’ll elect you to the highest levels of government. It really is that easy – if you’re a republican.

Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA), who ran a 2018 reelection campaign rooted in Islamophobia, said Saturday that he had posed for pictures with dead combatants during his time as a Marine in the Middle East.

Hunter was defending Navy SEAL chief Eddie Gallagher, one of several servicemen charged with war crimes who may soon receive a pardon from President Donald Trump.

Gallagher is currently awaiting trial for numerous acts allegedly committed during his time in Iraq, including firing a machine gun haphazardly into residential neighborhoods and killing a young girl and an old man with targeted sniper fire. Gallagher also allegedly stabbed a wounded teenage ISIS fighter who had been taken prisoner, and shared photos of himself holding the dead boy’s head later, boasting that he “got him with my hunting knife.”

“Eddie did one bad thing that I’m guilty of too, taking a picture of the body and saying something stupid,” Hunter said over the weekend.
https://thinkprogress.org/congressman-with-history-of-islamophobia-says-he-took-pictures-with-dead-combatants-as-a-marine-98a38c048063/

So war crimes, fraud, high crimes and other misdemeanors, that’s just a day in the life of San Diego’s Duncan Hunter. Yet another in the ever-growing list of:

[font size="8"]People Are Dumb
[br] [/font] [br]

From: Idiots #7-9

Hit it!

Of course you know by now that people are people, and people are dumb. And I love these stories and this segment, I could talk about stupid people all day. Wait – I do talk about stupid people all day! So who is dumb this week? Well I want to start with this story out of Bettendorf, Iowa, because this is multiple levels of crazy. You’ve got casinos, you’ve got boats, and you’ve got a very poorly planned scheme gone horribly wrong. And really, if you’re going to steal a boat, maybe, I don’t know, learn how to navigate the waters or you might accidentally steer your boat into a construction zone where there’s cops everywhere!

A naked man was arrested after he stole a boat and floated into the I-74 bridge construction area Sunday night.

Tobias Hartsfield, 43, from Bettendorf, was naked when he took a boat from the Isle of Capri marina and floated towards a barge in the new bridge construction area on August 11, before 11 p.m. according to a statement from Lauran Haldeman, a spokeswoman for the city.

Hartsfield got onto the barge and untied ropes, causing the barge to shift, before he went back to the stolen boat where he was arrested by police.

Upon arrest, police were unable to find Hartsfield's clothing, according to the statement. A tug boat was also called to move the barge back into place.

Hartsfield was given clothes at the jail. He was charged with theft, trespassing and first degree and second degree criminal mischief.
https://wqad.com/2019/08/12/naked-bettendorf-man-stole-a-boat-arrested-near-isle-casino/

Next up – don’t look a gift car in the mouth. We go to Indiana for this story. So what happens if you ask for a Jaguar and get a BMW? I don’t know anyone who would choose a Jaguar over a BMW but whatever floats your boat I guess. And in what seems like a page from Homer Simpson’s playbook, this guy tried to plunge his car into the river and got caught doing it. Really, this is a great one for the “Simpsons Did It” file:

An Indian man apparently angered at getting a BMW for his birthday - instead of a Jaguar - pushed the new vehicle into a river.

Video posted on social media shows it floating away on the river in the northern Indian state of Haryana.

It later got stuck on a bank of tall grass and the man, said to be the son of a local landlord, tried to rescue it.

Police are investigating the incident, local media report.

BMW cars cost around 3.5m rupees (£41,400; $49,000) locally, with Jaguars costing about 4-5m rupees.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-49305126

Next up we go to Nashville for this story. I have so many questions about this story. A flight attendant hid in the overhead bin on a flight from Nashville to Philadelphia. And I’m not sure who’s stupider – the person hiding in the overhead bin or the crew who didn’t discover this person until after they land? I mean come on, I have to check my bag when the overhead bin is too full!

Overhead space is at a premium on most planes, but passengers on a recent Southwest Airlines flight from Nashville to Philadelphia found their carry-ons crowded out by a flight attendant who had climbed inside the overhead compartment.

The incident, which occurred before the plane doors were closed, was filmed by passenger Veronica Lloyd, who returning home to Pennsylvania.

In the clip, the unnamed female attendant can be seen on her side and then rolling onto her stomach. It appears she was starting to say something when the video cut off.

Lloyd told Fox News she was "perplexed" by the attendant's impromptu hide-and-seek, noting she was up there for at least 10 minutes. "It was very interesting. I think she was doing it to try and be funny and make the passengers laugh."

"Southwest Employees are known for demonstrating their sense of humor and unique personalities. In this instance, one of our flight attendants attempted to have a brief moment of fun with customers during boarding. Of course, this is not our normal procedure, and Southwest crews always maintain safety as their top priority."
https://www.newsweek.com/southwest-airlines-flight-attendant-overhead-compartment-1451892

I like when a news story that they just can’t get enough words to meet the bare minimum has the generic PR copy at the bottom. Next up you know we make a lot of jokes about America’s most penis-shaped state, the Sunshine State, you know them better as Florida. And we may have reached Peak Florida with this story. Rather than intro it, I will let the story do the talking!

Surveillance video captured a man driving a golf cart through a Hillsborough County Walmart.

On Thursday afternoon, deputies were called to the Walmart at 9205 Gibsonton Dr. for reports of a man on a golf cart blocking the liquor store entrance, refusing to leave and demanding to speak with a manager.

This is the same Walmart where a Walmart worker's son was arrested for threatening to shoot up the store days ago.

Deputies began speaking to the man on the golf cart, Michael Hudson.

While speaking with deputies, Hudson suddenly accelerates through the heavily congested pedestrian area in front of the store toward the main entrance nearly striking numerous pedestrians who ran to avoid being hit.
https://www.abcactionnews.com/news/region-hillsborough/florida-man-drives-golf-cart-into-walmart-as-deputies-chase-him-with-a-taser

That is a good question, sir! And yes I do think this story requires the Benny Hill theme! Next up – staying in the Sunshine State, what the hell do they sell at a store called “Rockhard Lovestuff”? No wait don’t tell me – I’m guessing they sell sex toys and porno? And really if you’re that mad at a store, at least maybe, I don’t know, get dressed before leaving the house?

The man angrily tore off his clothes in front of a Wilton Manors restaurant, got on his bicycle and rode nude to a store called RockHard Lovestuff. It was early evening with rush-hour traffic passing the man.

“It was like he was mad at them,” said Skip VandeLinde, who was driving by at the time. “It was just strange.”

The man went in, took an article of clothing from the store and put it on, police said. He said he was trading his bike for it and walked out.

When officers found him, he was once again nude and walking up and down the block, exposed to passersby, police said.

He was arrested and charged with lewd and lascivious exhibition and obstruction by disguised person. He wouldn’t give his name. Later, police put out the man’s mug shot — he was booked under the name John Smith — in hopes of identifying him.
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/crime/article233730927.html

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!!! Don’t show that one again! finally this week – hey a story from the state we’re in, Kentucky! And was Florida woman visiting the Bluegrass State or something? Because this story has Florida written all over it, and it was from Kentucky!

While handcuffed behind her back in the rear of a Kentucky squad car, a suspect removed a bag of narcotics from her vagina and snorted the white powder inside, according to police who arrested the woman on drug possession and other charges.

Responding to a report about an intoxicated couple preparing to drive a car, cops in Winchester, a city 20 miles east of Lexington, encountered Kathryn Ahlers, 28, and her boyfriend outside a vehicle on Main Street around 11:30 PM Friday.

Upon determining that Ahlers’s 17-month-old son could not be properly cared for since his mother was “manifestly under the influence and a danger to herself and others,” a Winchester Police Department officer arrested Ahlers around 2 AM Saturday and placed her in his cruiser.

Pictured above, Ahlers was handcuffed behind her back when she somehow “pulled a clear plastic baggie from her vagina cavity” and “dumped some white substance on the seat.” Ahlers then “began to inhale it through her nose.”
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/bizarre/kentucky-houdini-739825

That’s it this week for:

[font size="8"]Keeping Up With The Candidates Ep.
[br] [/font] [br]

From: Idiots #7-8

Let’s give the wheel a final spin for the week. Oh and it lands on another clip without context!

I bet Thanksgiving is real fun at his house! "Can I have some gravy?" "Yes, and GOD WILL STRIKE YOU DOWN FOR YOUR EXCESSIVE GLUTTONY!!!! YOU HEATHEN!!!". I have so many questions about this! Spin it again! And it lands on… Keeping Up With The Candidates!

Welcome back to Keeping Up With The Candidates – your one stop source for all things relating to the 2020 MOTHER OF ALL ELECTIONS TO END ALL ELECTIONS: Electric Boogaloo Die Harder. Last week we introduced you to the craziness that are the Republican challengers to Alabama’s Doug Jones, and the return that nobody asked for - Roy Moore is turning the entire thing into a massive shit show. This week, we’re going to Minnesota. Of course you know that Trump is doubling and tripling down his attacks on the women in Congress known as “The Squad”. Well, one of those members of The Squad, Ilhan Omar (D, MN-5), has a challenger! We are going to introduce you to that challenger, and you might be shocked by what you find. OK, not really that shocking.

Danielle Stella, a Republican candidate seeking to unseat Rep. Ilhan Omar from the U.S. House of Representatives in 2020, firmly supports the QAnon conspiracy theory, according to someone identifying themselves as communications volunteer who responded to Right Wing Watch’s inquiry.

QAnon is a Trump-era phenomena centered on a conspiracy theory that alleges that Trump administration insiders have been dropping clues, in the form of cryptic riddles posted on anonymous imageboards, about a supposed secret plan to take down the “deep state” and a worldwide network of satanic pedophiles said to include A-list Hollywood figures and top-level Democrats. Believers, who call themselves “anons,” dedicate themselves to decoding the posts. Early on, QAnon adherents claimed that Trump was secretly working with then-Special Counsel Robert Mueller to expose the Satanists.

People who believe in QAnon are increasingly frequent fixtures at Trump rallies. At a campaign rally in North Carolina last week, President Donald Trump praised a baby wearing a onesie emblazoned on the back with the “Q” emblem sometimes worn by adherents to the theory.

Travis View, co-host of the “QAnon Anonymous” podcast (which takes a critical look at the Q phenomenon), noticed today that Stella had responded to pro-QAnon Twitter users on her account and had used the hashtag “#WWG1WGA” popularized by QAnon believers online. A closer review of her Twitter account reveals that Stella has not been shy engaging with QAnon content.
https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/this-gop-challenger-to-ilhan-omar-100-stands-with-qanon/

Seriously? I’m sick of seeing this horseshit on twitter. There’s no way I would want to see that crap leaving its’ stink on Congress. Oh and by the way, in a not at all shocking twist to this story, Stella is wanted for several counts of robbery. And in a typical Trump fan fashion – where he always recruits “the best people” (read: worst), Stella is attempting to “yada yada” her way out of the situation.

A Republican challenger to Democratic U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar is accused of shoplifting 279 items from a suburban Target earlier this year.

A criminal complaint says Danielle Stella stole items valued at more than $2,000 from Target during one visit on January 8. She allegedly told police she doesn’t remember anything after arriving at Target, due to post-traumatic stress disorder.

The Star Tribune reported that Stella was arrested again in April after allegedly stealing $40 in cat food from a Cub grocery store. A police report says she told an officer she forgot to pay.

In a text to the Guardian, a British newspaper, Stella said she’s innocent until proven guilty, and if she were guilty, she would never run for public office.

Stella is a 31-year-old special education teacher and supporter of President Donald Trump. She has gained attention for social media posts referencing QAnon, a far-right conspiracy theory. Last week InfoWars broadcast an interview in which she described Minneapolis as the “crime capital” of America.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2019/07/29/ilhan-omars-challenger-accused-of-stealing-279-items-from-target/

Seriously Target, fool you once, shame on you. Fool you 279 times, well, shame on whoever failed to catch her 278 of those times. And can we stop treating Qanon crap like it’s national news? It originated in the sewage pit of internet message boards. And I would think that Ms. Stella, being a special education teacher, would recognize that this stuff is bullshit, but I guess that anyone can become a member of the Trump cult. But guess what? Her criminal record won’t stop her from challenging Omar.

Minnesota congressional representative Ilhan Omar has only been in office since January. But already the Somali-American lawmaker, who made history by wearing a hijab during her swearing-in, has a challenger for her seat: a 31-year-old special education teacher named Danielle Stella who promises to be tough on crime but herself has a criminal record and a pending felony theft charge.

On June 19, Stella filed a statement of candidacy (pdf) with the Federal Election Commission despite her own legal woes. Stella was twice charged with theft this year, once in January for allegedly stealing 279 items worth more than $2,300 from a Target store. After she failed to appear in court on that charge on April 4, a warrant was issued for her arrest. That warrant was executed on April 28, when Stella was caught purportedly shoplifting $40 worth of items from a grocery store, including tick spray for cats.

“I am not guilty of these crimes. In this country I am innocent until proven guilty and that is the law,” Stella told the Guardian recently. “If I was guilty of crimes, I would never run for public office, putting myself in the public eye under a microscope to be attacked by all political sides.”

Stella’s response is technically correct—she is innocent until proven guilty under American criminal law. But it doesn’t reflect the full extent of her liberty. Even if she is proven guilty and convicted of a felony, the conviction wouldn’t bar her from running for or ultimately holding the federal public office she seeks.
https://qz.com/1676423/criminal-record-wont-stop-danielle-stellas-bid-for-ilhan-omars-seat/

Now you might be asking – what about her popularity? Well Trump is not only doubling down on his attacks on Omar, he’s tripling down. They hate her! They really hate her. Yeah you can cite polls about how Omar has a 20% rating in the nationwide polls. But anyone who takes politics more seriously than we do, will tell you that those polls are a steaming load of bullshit. And guess what? Trump’s attacks on Omar have made her more popular than ever!

But in the city of Minneapolis, many of Omar’s constituents are standing fiercely behind their congresswoman. Many say they believe she has been unfairly maligned, her words twisted because of her background and religious faith. They are proud of how Omar has fought Trump and his allies while pushing far-left policies like student loan forgiveness.

Omar is a symbol of everything Minneapolis’s progressives want to project — and now that she’s in office, battered by the president and his party, Omar has been boosted by the fact that she has become a symbol of everything Trump hates.

Omar is the only member of "the Squad,” the group of four Democratic women of color targeted by Trump, to represent a district that is mostly white — just under two-thirds. That still makes the 5th District the most diverse district in Minnesota, a heavily white state with some of the country’s worst racial disparities and a stubbornly persistent wealth gap.

“Part of the reason I voted for her is to have representation of the people that Trump is demeaning in office,” said Braden Eliason, a medical tech executive in Minneapolis who stopped at Omar’s booth at the street fair Sunday.
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/mollyhensleyclancy/trump-says-minnesota-cant-stand-ilhan-omar-his-attacks-have

[font size="4"]Next Week:[/font]

The Top 10 is off next week but when we come back we’re going to talk about the latest Democratic debate and the lesser performing candidates.

[font size="4"]Report Card:[/font]

Key Issues: Qanon something something
Target Demographic: Trump supporters
Probability Rating: 0 / 100
Likelihood Of Going Far In Election: Not far at all

Overall Grade: F-

[font size="8"]And Now This:[/font]
[font size="8”]311[/font]

Ladies and gentlemen I am extremely excited to have my next band on, their latest album is called “Voyager”, you can see them on tour with the Dirty Heads and the Interrupters, August 3rd in Tampa and August 4th in Orlando. Playing their song “What The?!” give it up for the one, the only 311!

Thanks for bearing with us in our unscheduled absence! The Top 10 will return next week with an all new edition live from Michigan State University! See you next week!

Credits

Host: Initech
Top 10 Conservative Idiots Recorded In Front Of Live Audience At: University Of Florida, Gainesville, FL
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Special Thanks To: University Of Florida
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This is the official DU account for the new format Top 10 Conservative Idiots separate from the host account Initech. The new format Top 10 will launch June 13th, 2018 and all posts related to the Top 10 (promos, etc) will be posted from this account only. The Top 10 is posted once a week on Thursdays at 2:00 PM. There is a full archive of all past, present and future Top 10 editions that can be found here: https://www.democraticunderground.com/100218599098\ Announcements for our current season schedule are posted in our Best Of editions that appear at the end of each season. Updates are posted regularly on the official Top 10 Mastodon account and the official Holy Shit Mastodon account. The Mastodon accounts are used to announce what's going to be in next week's edition, new content, advertising our segments, and so on. This account will post official Top 10 editions, and any related content including our spinoff series: Holy Shit The Sunday Sermons. If you wish to contact the Top 10 you may do so here: E-mail (all questions, concerns, suggestions, and hate mail welcome): Top10ConIdiots@gmail.com Follow the Top 10 on Mastodon: Top10ConIdiots@mstdn.party Follow The Holy Church Of The Top 10 on Mastodon: ChurchOfTop10@mstdn.party **This account will ONLY be used to post official Idiots editions, promos, and things related to the Top 10. No other posts will come from this account** Top 10 Wiki: https://www.democraticunderground.com/100211322508