The thin veneer of republican integrity has completely flaked away, leaving a think patina of rot where responsibility and ethics should live. That rot serves to cover up a party empty of all principles and any ideas that emerged after the Enlightenment.
Crackpot conspiracy theories have replaced coherent, cohesive statements of policy positions.
Loud-mouthed, know-nothing cretins have replaced dedicated public servants.
And, most tellingly, constant outrageous deceit has become their only means of communication.
It’s gotten to the point that whenever they fuck up one of their favorite wet dreams, all they can do is whine and complain that George Soros is living in their heads.
Their malefactors run the gamut from Abbot to Zinke. With shining lights like Gaetz, Greene, Boebert, Jordan, Biggs, Gohmert, McCarthy, McConnell, Paul, Koch, Murdoch, Hannity, Carlson, Ingraham, Jones, DeSantis, Abbott, Noem, Reynolds the entire Former Guy family, and the rest of the Reich Wing cesspit, it’s no wonder that their popularity is waning among anyone with at least two brain cells that still function.
I am thankful that we outnumber them; that we are strongly committed to moving forward against their opposition; and that we have learned that we can beat them.
2018 was not a fluke. 2022 will be more of the same. They crossed a line in Texas and we won’t let them wriggle out of it.
Keep your heads up and keep working together. We’ve got this.
Up the Resistance
(to continuing republican depredations)
And it’s on to the news, (we’re a little light this morning as I slept in during the time I normally gather news, so please help out in the comments).
Fighting Back
Looks like we’re not going to run away and surrender to the American Taliban (aka the republican Party). I don’t think the backlash is just going to blow over anytime soon. They’ve gone too far and it’s going to cause them great pain at the ballot box.
Mother Jones: Ali Breland: TikTokers and Coders Are Trying to Spam This Texas Anti-Abortion Site Into the Ground
Users are flooding a website designed for reporting people who violate Texas’ new anti-abortion laws with fake tips. The website was set up by Texas Right to Life to help enforce the new and draconian restrictions on abortion that the US Supreme Court refused to halt.
The new law bans all abortions—including in cases of rape or incest—after six weeks, a period in which many women aren’t even aware that they’re pregnant. It also circumvents many legal challenges by allowing abortion providers and anyone who aids someone seeking an abortion to be sued by private citizens, who can potentially be rewarded with $10,000 plus legal fees.
The Texas Right to Life organization created a website for those reports. But instead of citizens reporting on, say, the Uber driver who brought a woman to a clinic, critics of the law are spamming it with a barrage of fake information. Gov. Greg Abbott and Marvel’s Avengers are among those being reported receiving abortions, according to the New York Times.
Cosmic Colorado Comeuppance for a Demented Q-Crazy Insurrectionist
I really, really, really look forward to saying good riddance to this idiot.
Raw Story: Tom Boggioni: Lauren Boebert faces major roadblock on path to re-election: redistricting
According to a report from the Denver Post, controversial Rep. Lauren Boberet's path to re-election received a setback on Friday after a non-partisan redistricting committee shoved her home into a much more liberal district.
In June, Politico reported that Boebert was already losing favor with voters in her district, with some supporters feeling she was more interested in building up her image than doing the job voters sent her to Washington D.C to do.
As the Post notes, unless the Colorado Republican lawmaker packs up her family and moves, her re-election hopes may be an uphill battle.
"Colorado's nonpartisan redistricting commission has proposed a congressional map that would create a new swing seat in the northern Denver suburbs and lump conservative firebrand Rep. Lauren Boebert into a Boulder-based solidly Democratic seat currently held by liberal Rep. Joe Neguse," the Post's Nicholas Riccardi wrote.
The Dust Biters Hall of Shame
Part of the karmic cost for promoting the death of others through misinformation and denial is taking down some of the offenders. Perhaps, some good can come, if their newfound eternal silence can inspire their followers to take precautions. I am beyond outraged at the behavior of the anti-vax, anti-science, anti-rationality crowd. A pox on all their megaphones.
Vanity Fair: Caleb Ecarma: Anti-Vax Radio Hosts Keep Dying From COVID
Conservative radio hosts all across America are losing their lives for the cause. In the past month alone, five talk radio personalities who were vocal COVID-19-deniers, anti-vaxxers, or anti-maskers have all died after contracting the virus. Most recently was WNDB’s Marc Bernier, a late Daytona, Florida, talk radio host who dubbed himself “Mr. Anti-Vax” in December while assuring his listeners “I’m not taking it.” True to his word, Bernier contracted COVID-19 roughly three weeks ago and his death was announced over the weekend by his radio station––which had awkwardly acknowledged his on-air “anti-vaccine” commentary just before his passing. (WNDB was contacted for clarification regarding its COVID-19 safety policies but the station did not respond.)
Though it might be assumed some right-wing media figures are simply feeding into the anti-vax frenzy to gin up outrage and ratings, the spate of recent deaths makes clear that, for a number of them, opposition to safe, effective vaccines and other pandemic mitigation efforts isn’t just talk. Such radio rants against efforts to stop the pandemic come as Republican men, a large segment of the talk radio audience, have been shown to be particularly resistant to getting vaccinated.
On August 4, Newsmax fill-in host and longtime conservative talker Dick Farrel died from a “severe damage” from COVID-19 after spending the last weeks of his life claiming that the vaccine is “Bogus Bull [Shit],” referring to the pandemic as a “SCAM DEMIC,” and suggesting that the delta variant is an elaborate ruse orchestrated by Anthony Fauci to keep Americans fearing for their lives. “Why take a vax promoted by people who lied [to you] all along about masks, where the virus came from and the death toll?” he wrote in a July 3 Facebook post. Upon contracting the virus, Farrel was suddenly not willing to die for his previously held convictions, as one of his close friends, Amy Leigh Hair, claimed that he encouraged her to get the shot shortly before his death, saying that COVID-19 “is no joke and then he said: ‘I wish I had gotten [vaccinated]!’”
Borowitz Rocks
New Yorker: Satire from the Borowitz Report: Florida Judge Rules That Residents Have a Right to a Smarter Governor
TALLAHASSEE (The Borowitz Report)—In what many have seen as a legal setback for Governor Ron DeSantis, a Florida judge has ruled that the state’s residents have a right to a smarter governor.
“The Constitution does not grant you the right to yell ‘fire’ in a crowded theatre,” Judge John Cooper, of Florida’s Second Circuit, wrote. “Similarly, it does not grant you the right to govern a state like a blithering idiot.”
“The Declaration of Independence enshrines the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” Cooper continued. “All three are imperilled in a state run by a blazing bonehead.”
mRNA Is the Future
Good News Network: Andy Corbley: New Cancer Treatments May Be on The Horizon – Thanks to Success in mRNA Vaccine Trial
A personalized, mRNA vaccine, given to patients with particular kinds of aggressive cancers could leverage the immune system of the patient to kill the cancer on its own, and in doing so usher in a new epoch of cancer treatment.
Messenger RNA (ribonucleic acid) vaccines were what sparked the COVID-19 vaccine drives, as Pfizer and Moderna adapted the technology to create an emergency treatment to train the body to fight off the viral spike protein.
What most of us won’t know however, is that the mRNA vaccines were originally in development for aggressive cancer types.
Musical Interlude
WineRev’s History Lesson
Our resident history professor’s always interesting history lesson will appear here as soon as I notice he’s posted it in the comment section. Until then look for it in the comment section.
Take it away, WineRev!
>>>>>Jim Acosta of CNN went there, naming names and identifying the Truth so clearly that TRVTH has to be spelled Roman-style with a middle “V”. The other day he said on the air, live: “It’s the far right, not Afghan refugees, posting a threat to democracy,” Then, for added hot mustard on the Hot Dog of TrVth Telling, Acosta named names…..or at least one name: (Faux Noise Goebbels Award Winner) Tucker (Carlson) is a “human manure spreader.” Nice to have saloon talk (from the good saloons) make the national news.
>>>>>>>Not only is COVID the Delta sending people to the grave these days by an 8-1 ratio of GQPers to Democratic voters (in a study I can’t find right now) it is driving GQP Q-ANON voters to manly feed stores across rural America to line up to buy ivermectin, the great horse de-worming paste. No, it doesn’t work on COVID. No, its not for humans. Yes, these idiots think they know better. Yet, the science is the science. Kossack polecat is up with a diary HERE that has a scientific study (there’s that science word again…..dealing in facts you know) that shows ivermectin in humans…..causes male sterility! Worth recommending ivermectin to all all the fur-faced MAGA hats you encounter. Future generations of non-GQP voters will thank you.
September 7ths that have had their turns recovering from Labor Day celebrations, with good memories of a blackened grill, one end-of-summer session of various liquid libations, and the Good and Goofy excitement that comes with the start of the school year for all the little Good and Goofy moments heading off with new backpacks and fresh notebook paper.
1726 Dreux, France Birth of François-André Danican Philidor, composer, chess master. Several generations of musicians in his family (his father was a professional, sometimes Royal Orchestra member, playing the oboe and the crumhorn (!) Andre (he usually dropped the Francois) was already in a youth choir by age 6, a good one. By age 11 he was already trying his hand at song writing. The choir sang once or twice a week for the King of France, and the boys would often play chess to pass the time waiting for his Highness to arrive. He began touring (voice) about age 16, not only in Paris but also the Netherlands and England. At about age 30 he settled back in Paris; over the next 20 years he composed about 20 operas, nearly all of them of the comic sort, that were well received at Court. His sideline in chess became a mainstay for income (playing at the hotbed, the Café de la Regence in Paris) and he was considered one of the world’s best at the time. (In the 1770s he would spot Paris visitor Benjamin Franklin a rook or a pawn and let Ben play white (so getting the first move) and still beat him.) In 1749 (so age 23) he published Analyse du jeu des Échecs (“Analysis of the Game of Chess”), which he revised twice in his lifetime. It became THE standard for the game, was translated into English, German, Italian, Spanish and Russian, and went through over 70 editions in the next 100 years. Opera composing and chess…..not the usual combination…..
1630 Massachusetts Bay. A local Puritan, William Blaxton, liked his privacy, so he moved north from Salem (founded by the Mayflower group in 1621) to the Shawmut Peninsula, which was noted for three hills. In 1630 John Winthrop arrived with several ships of Puritans from England. After some negotiation they bought a large portion of Blaxton’s land and also from the local Massachusett tribe. At first, the new settlers thought of calling the place Trimonataine after the “three ‘mountains/hills” but this day settled on Boston, the same as the town in England several of them hailed from.
1813 Troy, New York The local (weekly) Post newspaper had an op-ed page. In this week’s piece from the local editor he used (for the first time) the nickname "Uncle Sam" as a symbolic reference to the United States (matching initials.) The term went into common circulation by the Civil War.
1860 Greenwich, New York Birth of Anna Mary Robertson, housewife, farmer, artist. Third of 10 children she showed early interest in art (painting landscapes with colors she made from grape juice or lemonade.) She worked for several wealthy families near Bennington, VT, then at age 27 she married a hired hand, Thomas Moses. They moved and set up in as a couple in Staunton, VA. She sold enough homemade potato chips that they bought a cow. She kept selling potato chips but now churned the milk into butter and sold that as well, enough so that they bought their own farm. Thomas died of a heart attack in 1927 (Anna was age 67) but one of their sons moved to the farm so his mom could keep it. In 1938, at age 78, she took up painting and had success. Grandma Moses produced 1500 paintings over the next 20+ years, many of her farm life, and was an inspiration to the elderly everywhere to remain useful and contributing long into elderhood. Died in 1961 at 101.
1888 Ward’s Island, New York. Ward’s was used (like several other islands) as processing centers for immigrants (Ellis Island is the best known). On this day Edith Eleanor McLean was born at the State Emigrant Hospital and was sickly. Later this day she became the first baby in the world to be placed in an incubator, recently installed. It helped her survive.
1914 East of Paris. The Battle of the Marne has been raging for five days. The Germans touched off the War, driving to seize Paris, a major industrial city and the hub of the French railway network, risked passing through Belgium (drawing England into the war) for the sake of trying to win the war in its first 40 days. This is day 39 on their schedule. German General Von Kluck senses French resistance weakening and makes a final lunge for Paris. Commander of the Paris garrison, General Gallieni, is called on for quick reinforcements. He commandeers 600 taxicabs of Paris and their drivers, stuffs six men in each one, and has them driven to the front. They make 2 round trips and the 6000 fresh troops (they didn’t have to march, unlike the Germans) are enough to tip the balance, fend off Von Kluck and force a German retirement. They fell back and entrenched …. for the next 4 years. The Kaiser never did get to Paris.
1927 San Francisco. While many inventors, scientists and engineers contributed to the invention of television, Philo Farnsworth stands out as the key figure. On this day he makes a public demonstration, transmitting a still image from one location to another using only radio waves, no wires. In the next year he worked out the problem of motion (without, as we would say, getting a smearing of the pixels.) Progress was steady; parts of the 1936 Olympic Games from Berlin were broadcast by television (a world first) to the athletes in the Olympic Village (an Olympic first) and the few other TV receivers out there (including one near the constellation Vega……which sent a return signal and embedded plans for a machine…..to make CONTACT with Jodi Foster….)
1940 Great Britain. Another war, another capital. The German Luftwaffe scales up its final effort to clear the British skies for invasion (Operation Sea Lion). They move to round-the-clock bombing, attacking the RAF and military targets by day, and British cities by night, starting this night for the next 57. On this day the British shoot down 40 of the 300 German bombers (with crews of 4 or 5 each), a “shot down” number that does not change for weeks…..and even Goering starts to feel the loss of 180 airmen a day, killed or captured. The daylight fight builds to a climax on September 15, with the RAF being reinforced by pilots from the Commonwealth, Poland, Czechoslovakia and some American volunteers. (British farmers and villagers called the police whenever someone parachuted onto their turf; they held them at pitchfork or hunting rifle distance until the Bobbies arrived to sort out which of the “foreigners who didn’t speak proper English” were Germans and who were “the East European blokes on our side…..whose English is as bad as those American chaps…..”.)
1979 Across America Bill Rasmussen and son Scott stand off camera in a TV studio, all smiles. On this day, their idea and dream, the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network (ESPN) goes live on cable systems in several cities. For the next 40+ years it is a hit, broadcasting some inspiring, cheer-able, courageous, amazing moments in human sports……
May all your News be Good, comforting and inspiring.
Shalom.
On the Lighter Side
Quote(s) of the Day
Hypocrisy: prejudice with a halo. — Ambrose Bierce
I have a suggestion that I think would help fight serious crime. Signs. There are lots of signs for minor infractions: No Smoking, Stay Off the Grass, Keep Out, and they seem to work fairly well. I think we should also have signs for major crimes: Murder Strictly Prohibited, NO Raping People, Thank You for Not Kidnapping Anyone. It's certainly worth a try. I'm convinced Watergate would never have happened if there had just been a sign in the Oval Office that said, Malfeasance of Office Is Strictly Against the Law, or Thank You for Not Undermining the Constitution. — George Carlin
Repetition does not transform a lie into a truth. — Franklin D. Roosevelt
Misogyny is ingrained in people from the time they are born. So to me, feminism is probably the most important movement that you could embrace, because it's just basically another word for equality. — Taylor Swift
Required Pet Photo
Look, it’s a furry Easter Egg!
Pressley’s Picks
These buttons should be required in all private homes and public places. I’m tired of depending on that slacker, NNNE, for sustenance.
After seeing this video, I tried do this with NNNE. His hand wasn’t up to the task.
Closing Notes
Thanks for slogging on through to the end of another Roundup. Remember to stay active and involved, while also looking out for your health. Your country needs you!
hpg keeps on keeping on. Last night’s Evening Shade: PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN---DAY229---Evening Shade-Monday
We’ll close it out with Jerry and the fellas covering Robbie Robertson’s anthem.
Disclaimer: They really don’t have any idea how badly they just screwed up.