It seems to be the considered opinion of a super-smart ex-president with a great brain, a lot of Republican senators, and a host of well-paid lawyers, so it must be true!
So all I have to do is rob my bank and dart out the door, and then I’m scot-free? If I try it, you’ll all quote Ayn Rand and various billionaires in my defense, right?
Rebecca Watson makes a good point in this video, that we shouldn’t overlook the failings of those who put themselves in the same group as us. She takes a few potshots at familiar targets, like Bill Maher, but focuses in on Naomi Wolf. Wolf is terrible — I remember wondering what the hell was wrong with Bill Clinton, that he appointed her to be his advisor on women’s issues. For me, it was the first crack in the facade, and hoo boy, did all the flaws in that man come pouring out.
Lately, Wolf has come out as a dangerous proponent of pandemic pseudoscience, as Rebecca explains.
Also noteworthy is this comment from Lipzig Schweitzer.
Just as an aside, my younger brother is a deeply conservative Mormon public school English teacher, and he uses Naomi Wolfe books as a teaching tool for how stupid the feminist movement is. The admin let it fly because they think, due to her “reputation” that he’s teaching the exact opposite lesson. She’s being weaponized against you, THAT’S how stupid she is and how crucial community self- policing is. And believe me, he’s not smart enough to come up with this lesson plan on his own, someone he’s listening to told him to do this because on his own, he’d never have even known her name. He did not seek out controversial characters to demonize
That’s how bad Naomi Wolf is.
You know what’s nice? My in-box and Twitter feed are no longer filled with noise about Donald Trump. I have no interest in watching the current impeachment proceedings, which will be full of posturing airheads and bad lawyers making arguments in bad faith. I get a brief distillation of all stupid chatter in the morning, and then I ignore it the rest of the day. It feels good!
So the impeachment trial began yesterday. It went badly for the ol’ orange asshole, with the senate deciding that sure, they could go ahead and impeach him. That’s about it. Now the question is whether they’ll actually do it.
The Democrats are decisive (there’s a phrase I never thought I’d write): yes, they will.
The Republicans are in a dither. What they do is not going to depend on their conscience, or an objective assessment of the evidence, but entirely on the basis of the polling, because they’re all amoral conniving cowards. A substantial number of Republican voters are still in the Cult of Trump, so they’re afraid that voting to impeach will trigger an angry backlash against them…but at the same time, they’re concerned that the ongoing prosecution is going to make such a strong public case that they’ll get a backlash if they don’t vote to impeach. Squirm, you creeps, squirm. I hope they’re all sweating profusely right now.
As for Trump himself, the reports are mixed. The New York Times says he’s furious.
On a scale of one to 10, with 10 being the angriest, Mr. Trump “was an eight,” one person familiar with his reaction said.
And while he was heartened that his other lawyer, Mr. Schoen, gave a more spirited performance, Mr. Trump ended the day frustrated and irate, the people familiar with his reaction said.
I’m a terrible person who likes to hear that the ex-president is suffering, but it is the NYT, and I do not trust the NYT. The Washington Post says something different: he’s sanguine.
But Trump’s seeming quietude, said one confidant who recently spoke with the former president, is less the result of newfound discipline and more a consequence of Twitter’s decision to ban Trump, who no longer has an instant public forum to blast out his latest grievances.
Both papers conclude, unfortunately, that the impeachment is not likely to succeed, so maybe he’s got good reason to relax. About the trial, at least. His financial empire is crumbling around him and he’s got a future of lawsuits to shred his declining years.
That’s a wrap. Now I have to think about genetics all day long.
Can someone explain this to me, because I don’t get it.
It’s from a right-wing Christian site, which explains how they don’t understand the words patriotism, socialism, and racism, but why is there a woman in a bikini pointing out the big stupid sign? And do they really think their critics confuse racism and patriotism?
There’s a guy I follow on Facebook — regrettably, he’s an old, old friend, but he’s gone off the cliff edge with conservative BS — who was recently outraged that the government spends $40 million a year on the retirement pensions for politicians. I don’t know where he got that number, but it’s not scary at all, since there are probably a few thousand retired politicians who had contracts for a retirement package. Numbers add up!
But here’s what he isn’t complaining about, the conservative estimate of the cost of Trump’s lies.
Those are only the expenses since he lost the election and started vomiting up lies to throw the nation into chaos — he had 4 years before that where he bled us dry with nonsense, and we still have to deal with the legacy of all the garbage he littered on our government.
So yeah, $40 million in retirement expenses sounds cheap to me. I wouldn’t squeak if we were coughing up $400 million in legit retirement costs. I wonder if my poor deluded old friend has retired, and whether he thinks he is entitled to social security and a pension or a 401K, and how he’d feel if we declared him old and useless so we can take that money away?
Donald Trump has been kicked out of the Screen Actors Guild! Boo-hoo. You can tell it burns him, though, since he felt compelled to write back with a “you can’t fire me, I quit!” letter. It’s so pathetic and petty, just like Donald himself.
I write to you today regarding the so-called Disciplinary Committee hearing aimed at revoking my
union membership. Who cares! [You do, Donald, you do]
While I’m not familiar with your work, I’m very proud of my work on movies such as Home Alone 2,
Zoolander and Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps; and television shows including The Fresh Prince of
Bel-Air, Saturday Night Live, and of course, one of the most successful shows in television history,
The Apprentice – to name just a few! [He just has to pat himself on the back. His little cameos were’t that impressive]
I’ve also greatly helped the cable news television business (said to be a dying platform with not much
time left until I got involved in politics), and created thousands of jobs at networks such as MSDNC
and Fake News CNN, among many others. [He thinks that because he was such an asshole that news agencies had to report on all of his lies, he deserves credit for their work]
Which brings me to your blatant attempt at free media attention to distract from your dismal record as
a union. Your organization has done little for its members, and nothing for me – besides collecting
dues and promoting dangerous un-American policies and ideas – as evident by your massive
unemployment rates and lawsuits from celebrated actors, who even recorded a video asking, “Why
isn’t the union fighting for me?”
These, however, are policy failures. Your disciplinary failures are even more egregious.
I no longer wish to be associated with your union.
As such, this letter is to inform you of my immediate resignation from SAG-AFTRA. You have done
nothing for me.
Poor baby. Even better, though, is SAG-AFTRA’s reply, which is short and sweet.
It’s so nice to see every little cut delivered as Trump falls.
Oh, get stuffed with your ludicrous “free speech” whining.
It’s not all good news, though.
The House of Representatives has voted to strip Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of her committee assignments, following uproar over her past incendiary comments and apparent support of violence against Democrats.
Thursday’s vote was 230-199, with 11 Republicans joining with all Democrats to back the resolution.
Almost 200 Republicans refused to condemn her remarks, and thought it was just fine to have a treasonous conspiracy theorist serving their agenda. This was just a vote to kick her off the budget and education committees, not to repudiate her and kick her out of congress, as she deserves.
I’d like to see Cruz and Hawley booted off their committees, but I predict nothing will be done there.
The Republican party really must be destroyed.
Every Fall, as I travel around, I’m mystified by all the freshly harvested fields, black with exposed soil, and I wonder…isn’t that a bad idea? Isn’t that nice rich dirt going to wash away when the snow melts and the spring rains arrive? But what do I know? I’m not a farmer. I never studied agriculture, so I’m just going to trust the experts whose livelihood depends on their land.
Of course, my confidence tends to be eroded by all the Trump signs on those fields.
But good news! For once, the giant food corporations are trying to do something for the environment. They’re giving farmers incentives to practice something called regenerative agriculture.
Still, the companies’ moves have the potential to expand the use of unconventional farming practices known as regenerative agriculture. The movement represents a fundamental change to the way mainstream farmers manage their fields.
Regenerative principles call for reducing or even eliminating such mainstays of farming as tilling the soil before sowing seeds. Other regenerative techniques include planting cover crops, so soil is never bare; expanding plant diversity; adding livestock to an operation; and reducing or eliminating the use of chemicals.
The system has benefits such as storing more climate-altering carbon in the soil, improving water quality by preventing runoff, and reducing the need for pesticides by increasing insect biodiversity. Research shows it can also make farms more profitable by reducing the cost of chemicals and fertilizer and spreading price risk among many crops instead of just corn and soybeans.
“It’s not just about carbon. It’s not just a water benefit,” Sirolli said. “You get all of these different benefits that you stack together that benefit the community, that benefit the planet, while at the same time making sense for the farmer.”
See? I am learning something about farming. Although to be fair, if I’d been asked, I would have made suggestions along those same lines, although having to be admittedly vague about how to implement them.
I was probably thinking selfishly, though. Fewer pesticides → more plant and insect diversity → MORE SPIDERS. Also all those agricultural pollutants are just bad for us.
Overall, the Minnesota River is unhealthy. Sediment clouds the water, phosphorus causes algae, nitrogen poses risks to humans and fish, and bacteria make the water unsafe for swimming.
Wow. You just have to read this account of a last ditch desperate meeting in the White House.
Four conspiracy theorists marched into the Oval Office. It was early evening on Friday, Dec. 18 — more than a month after the election had been declared for Joe Biden, and four days after the Electoral College met in every state to make it official.
“How the hell did Sidney get in the building?” White House senior adviser Eric Herschmann grumbled from the outer Oval Office as Sidney Powell and her entourage strutted by to visit the president.
President Trump’s private schedule hadn’t included appointments for Powell or the others: former national security adviser Michael Flynn, former Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne, and a little-known former Trump administration official, Emily Newman. But they’d come to convince Trump that he had the power to take extreme measures to keep fighting.
That’s the beginning. That’s the sane part. Then the screaming begins.
Oh, and Giuliani shows up. And it goes on for about 6 hours until midnight.
It was remarkable that the presidency had deteriorated to such an extent that this fight in the Oval Office between senior White House officials and radical conspiracists was even taking place.
Yeesh, and I still see fanatics defending the Trumpkins.
There was a military coup in Myanmar — the generals didn’t much care for who the people elected with a democratic vote, so they just rolled in and changed the results, deposing Aung San Suu Kyi and installing Commander in Chief Min Aung Hlaing to run the state. I am relatively happy that the military has a good policy to stay out of politics and wasn’t involved in our recent insurrection.
We need something surreal now and then, though. Here’s a video of a woman in Myanmar doing her workout routine while the coup quietly unrolls behind her.
