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Top 10 Conservative Idiots #16-10: Wheel Of Corruption: Dead Reckoning Edition
Top 10 Conservative Idiots #16-10: Wheel Of Corruption: Dead Reckoning Edition
Welcome back to the Top 10 Conservative Idiots! Yoooooooooooooooooooooo!!! What’s up San Francisco? How you guys doing? You doing fucking good? Great! Can you believe that we’ve only got four more editions before we wrap this season up in a nice, neat little package? Totally insane, am I right and man does time fly! You know last time we were here, we broke out the famous Wheel Of Corruption and this week we’re back with the Wheel! And I don’t know if you saw our announcement on Mastodon or not, but yes we did address the rumors about the long-term future of our program. The truth is that we don’t know what’s going to happen. But the events of the 2024 election will determine what our long-term future is, if that makes any sense! Do we have time for the thing? Of course we do, it's my show, damn it! So anyone here fans of the movie Idiocracy? OK a few of you! Anyone remember that scene where they go into a giant Costco that’s the size of Kansas? Well what if I told you that is about to become a reality? In Frenso, that’s just down the highway from San Francisco, they’re set to open the world’s largest Costco – a whopping 240,000 square feet! It’s larger than the current record holder in Salt Lake City, by 5,000 feet. Yeah welcome to Costco, I love you! Welcome to Costco, I love you! It really does seem like we’re living in that movie, doesn’t it? Pretty soon it’s just going to be 2 stores – Costco and Amazon. Anyone who wants to become a lawyer better start applying to Costco’s law program! Yeah my dad was an alumnus, he pulled some strings! OK that’s enough of the intro, we have a lot of idiocy to get to. But first John Oliver is back and he delves into the topic of Medicaid scammers, of which there are plenty to choose from:
So where do we begin this week? Well the number one slot has to go to the MAGA Qongress (1). What does one do when they get their asses handed to them on the Ukraine spending bill because Congress actually decided to do the right thing and side with reality over conspiracy theory insanity? They go on Fox News to complain about it incessantly! In the second slot is that guy who we inexplicably used to call president (2) and his ongoing hush money trial in New York. And wait until you hear his latest hair-brained excuses for getting out of testifying or facing any responsibility for his actions! Cue the world’s tiniest violin! Taking the third slot this week is Fox News (3) who came dangerously close to doxxing and outing two jurors in the trial, but wait until you see one of their replacements! Why we can’t have nice things in this country! In the number 4 slot is premier Russian warlord Vladimir Putin (4), and speaking of Ukraine, some internal memos from Moscow that were recently leaked on Russian state TV suggest that Putin is intentionally weakening Ukraine’s allies through use of highly weaponized propaganda – something we’ve been suspecting all along! In the number 5 slot this week is a new edition of our segment that cuts through media fearmongering, We’re All Gonna Die (5)! And this week, keep denying that climate change is real, people! National Geographic is sounding the alarm about what’s going to happen if we keep going down this road, and it’s not good! In fact, our future may look more like Mad Max: Fury Road than Back To the Future Part II if we keep this up! In the number 6 slot this week is of course our weekly visit to the Holy Church Of The Top 10 in “Holy Shit” (6) and this week, you know what? Forget about separation of church and state. We need a separation of church and MAGA cult, because it seems like more Christians are siding with the Dark One than is adequately comfortable. It’s downright disturbing, actually! In the number 7 slot this week is a new Beating A Dead Horse! Taking the number 8 slot this week is our weekly venture into the never ending world of online tin foil hat nuttery in Conspiracy Corner (8) and this week, the state of Tennessee voted to ban chemtrails, because… reasons. In the number 9 (NEIN!!) slot this week is a new I Need A Drink (9) and we need to have some drinks and talk about the great Red Lobster disaster of 2024, and it nearly bankrupted the popular seafood chain! How much shrimp did people eat? Only one way to find out! Finally this week it’s time for Stupidest State 2024 (10)! And this week, it’s Round 2 Week 2 which means it’s the Family Values Conference Championships! Alabama. Oklahoma. One of these two teams will punch their ticket to the Final Four, the other goes home! We’re live in Denver with all the exciting action! And to close things out, we have the legendary industrial collective KMFDM stopping by! Buy their new album Let Go or you’re no friend of this program! Enjoy! And as always don’t forget the key!
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[font size="8"]The MAGA Qongress
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Hey everyone, say it with me! It’s time for the WHEEL OF CORRUPTION! YAY!!!!
Of course you know the rules by now – I spin the wheel and we have to talk about whatever the subject it lands on. Of course if it lands on the guacamole option, you know that it costs $1.50 extra. And the wheel is all new with lots of items on it! I want to preface that we are no longer featuring the A Random Tweet option. Yes, we are actively boycotting content from Elon’s X / Twitter platform. That’s going to be replaced with clips from one of my favorite shows, Curb Your Enthusiasm. So if you see the Larry David option, you know what’s coming! Here’s what is on the wheel this week:
- Guns
- Crime
- Abortion
- Poverty
- Congress
- The Insurrection
- Russia
- Buy A Vowel
- Donald Trump
- Midterm Elections
- Clip Without Context
- 5,000
- Nazi Germany
- Fox News
- ‘Merica
- My Pillow
- Bankrupt
- Chance
- Fox News
- Something Random In The News
- Whammy
- Community Chest
- Death
- Homosexuality
- The US Constitution
- We’re All Gonna Die
- Greed
- Clip Without Context
- Top 10 Investigates
- Beating A Dead Horse
- This Fucking Guy
- Intermission
- Holy Shit
- Larry David
- MAGA Cult Cringe
- Double Whammy
- Buy A Vowel
- Conspiracy Corner
- Random Movie Reference
- Guacamole
- 10,000
- People Are Dumb
- I Need A Drink
- Infowars
- Go Directly To Jail
- Random TV Reference
- T-Shirt Cannon
- Infowars
- People Who Somehow Got Elected
- COVID-19
- Lightning Round
- Bonus Spin
Let’s give the wheel a good, strong spin, shall we? Come on no whammy no whammy no whammy no whammy… STOP! It’s time for one of our patented Clips Without Context!
Awwwwwwwwwwwww…. Little Nazi Nick has a sad? Wanna cry about it? That’s what happens when you get your own bullshit confused. Anyway fuck Nazis. Spin it again! And it lands on… Congress!
Let’s start this week off with some good news for once! We don’t want you to think this whole show is about negativity, because what kind of hosts would that make us? Not very good ones! For years, YEARS now, we were told not to question MAGA’s ties to Russia. But lately, more and more it seems like their worst motives are becoming clear. Last week, we reported on Marjorie Three Names and her fight to unseat Mike Johnson as the Speaker Of The House because of some bullshit involving the border and the Ukraine bill, neither of which have anything to do with each other. Well, this week, the MAGA Qongress got their asses handed to them over this fight. Yes, how about that, ladies and gentlemen? Well we’re definitely glad that some members of the MAGA Qongress decided to side with reality over internet conspiracy theories. Which, look, it’s a rare win for our side, so we’ll take it! Gotta take it one step at a time, am I right? Well let’s take a look at the bill and what’s in it. Biden is supposed to sign it into law today since it passed the Senate too. This is why elections matter, and why you have to vote at every single level. But the fact that this bill passed the house and senate in spite of Fox News and conspiracy theorists is a truly massive win.
The U.S. House of Representatives on Saturday with broad bipartisan support passed a $95 billion legislative package providing security assistance to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, over bitter objections from Republican hardliners.
The legislation now proceeds to the Democratic-majority Senate, which passed a similar measure more than two months ago. U.S. leaders from Democratic President Joe Biden to top Senate Republican Mitch McConnell have been urging embattled Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson to bring it up for a vote.
The Senate is expected to pass the measure next week, sending it to Biden to sign into law. A dozen or so Democratic lawmakers waved small Ukrainian flags as it became clear that element of the package was headed to passage. Johnson told lawmakers that was a "violation of decorum." Johnson this week chose to ignore ouster threats by hardline members of his fractious 218-213 majority and push forward the measure that includes some $60.84 billion for Ukraine as it struggles to fight off a two-year Russian invasion.
The unusual four-bill package also includes funds for Israel, security assistance for Taiwan and allies in the Indo-Pacific and a measure that includes sanctions, a threat to ban the Chinese-owned social media app TikTok and the potential transfer of seized Russian assets to Ukraine.
Read more: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-house-vote-long-awaited-95-billion-ukraine-israel-aid-package-2024-04-20/
The legislation now proceeds to the Democratic-majority Senate, which passed a similar measure more than two months ago. U.S. leaders from Democratic President Joe Biden to top Senate Republican Mitch McConnell have been urging embattled Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson to bring it up for a vote.
The Senate is expected to pass the measure next week, sending it to Biden to sign into law. A dozen or so Democratic lawmakers waved small Ukrainian flags as it became clear that element of the package was headed to passage. Johnson told lawmakers that was a "violation of decorum." Johnson this week chose to ignore ouster threats by hardline members of his fractious 218-213 majority and push forward the measure that includes some $60.84 billion for Ukraine as it struggles to fight off a two-year Russian invasion.
The unusual four-bill package also includes funds for Israel, security assistance for Taiwan and allies in the Indo-Pacific and a measure that includes sanctions, a threat to ban the Chinese-owned social media app TikTok and the potential transfer of seized Russian assets to Ukraine.
Read more: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-house-vote-long-awaited-95-billion-ukraine-israel-aid-package-2024-04-20/
Yes! It’s about damn time that sanity prevailed! And look, we do have to applaud Mike Johnson for doing the right thing and siding with reality and not caving to the demands of the conspiracy theorists and Fox News / AM talk radio hosts that are currently polluting the GOP. Well, of course, the ring leader of the 3 ring MAGA circus that’s infecting the House Of Representatives, Marjorie Taylor Greene (Q – Batshit), aka Marjorie Three Names, aka Marjorie Shit For Brains, from crying about how America First isn’t being respected enough. But really, we have zero respect for these bizarre cultists anymore, so we’re still celebrating this one!
Meanwhile, upon leaving the Capitol on Saturday, Greene told reporters: "This is the sellout of America today. When we had members of Congress in there waving the Ukrainian flag on the United States House of Representatives floor while we're doing nothing to secure our border, I think every American in this country should be furious."
When asked if she will call for a vote to oust Johnson, Greene said, "I'm actually going to let my colleagues go home and hear from their constituents because I think people have been too obsessed with voting for foreign wars and the murder industry here in America to actually understand how angry Americans are."
So far, Representative Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican, and Representative Paul Gosar, an Arizona Republican, have joined Greene's effort to oust Johnson.
Meanwhile, Johnson has said he's not resigning and called any attempt to oust him as speaker "absurd."
https://www.newsweek.com/marjorie-taylor-greene-ukraine-aid-passes-reaction-1892521
When asked if she will call for a vote to oust Johnson, Greene said, "I'm actually going to let my colleagues go home and hear from their constituents because I think people have been too obsessed with voting for foreign wars and the murder industry here in America to actually understand how angry Americans are."
So far, Representative Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican, and Representative Paul Gosar, an Arizona Republican, have joined Greene's effort to oust Johnson.
Meanwhile, Johnson has said he's not resigning and called any attempt to oust him as speaker "absurd."
https://www.newsweek.com/marjorie-taylor-greene-ukraine-aid-passes-reaction-1892521
Yeah seriously, Marjorie. Take the L on this one. You lost! Get over it! That’s what you guys are always telling us, right? Yes, and we have the talk radio and Fox News footage to prove it! Speaking of Fox News, that didn’t stop them from complaining that Ukraine flags were being waved on the House floor, and that there was one MAGA Qongress person who is proposing banning any flag waving that isn’t 100% American. Sheesh, these people really have a symbolism complex, don’t they? And do they not know how diplomacy works? But one thing is for certain – it’s great to know which of our Congressional representatives are on Vladimir Putin’s payroll!
The House of Representatives finally passed a $61.8bn (£49bn) aid package for Ukraine after a tense few months of negotiation between politicians.
The Republican-controlled House passed the bill by a comfortable margin of 311-112 after the speaker of the House Mike Johnson allied with Democrats to get the bill through Congress.
Democrats and Republicans who did vote for the bill to pass could be seen celebrating by waving flags and chanting "U-kraine, U-kraine" on the House floor.
Representatives were swiftly told off for their conduct before the House moved on to other business.
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/senate-approves-nearly-61b-ukraine-122515786.html
The Republican-controlled House passed the bill by a comfortable margin of 311-112 after the speaker of the House Mike Johnson allied with Democrats to get the bill through Congress.
Democrats and Republicans who did vote for the bill to pass could be seen celebrating by waving flags and chanting "U-kraine, U-kraine" on the House floor.
Representatives were swiftly told off for their conduct before the House moved on to other business.
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/senate-approves-nearly-61b-ukraine-122515786.html
Now here’s the thing – you might be wondering – why aid Ukraine? Well let’s look at history for a minute. Especially South Korea. You know how close we came to losing South Korea during the Korean War? Closer than you would actually think. And that would have made North Korea an even bigger nuclear power. So picture that. Now picture Russia taking over Ukraine and wiping that country off the map. Yeah it would make Russia an even bigger nuclear power. While we aren’t close enough to seeing Vlad hauled off in chains, this is a major victory, and one that should be celebrated with revels!
President Joe Biden on Wednesday signed into law an aid package providing crucial military assistance to Ukraine, capping months of negotiations and debate.
The aid package, passed by the Senate late Tuesday evening and worth $95 billion in total, includes nearly $61 billion in aid to Ukraine, $26 billion for Israel and $8 billion for the Indo-Pacific. The package also includes a bill that could eventually lead to the banning of TikTok in the United States - giving Chinese parent company ByteDance roughly nine months to sell it or else it will be banned from app stores in the United States.
The signing of the aid package was the culmination of months of tense negotiations, personal lobbying from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and a split in the House Republican conference that continues to threaten the leadership position of House Speaker Mike Johnson. Hardline House conservatives opposed further US funding to Kyiv and threatened to oust Johnson over his handling of the negotiations. Conservatives in Congress have opposed additional assistance for what they view as an unwinnable war.
Biden had spent months lobbying Johnson to move forward with aid to Ukraine, enlisting top administration officials and CIA Director Bill Burns to lay out the stakes for Ukraine - and ultimately democracy in Europe and across the world - if Russia continued to make inroads in its military campaign there.
Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/24/politics/biden-signs-foreign-aid-bill/index.html
The aid package, passed by the Senate late Tuesday evening and worth $95 billion in total, includes nearly $61 billion in aid to Ukraine, $26 billion for Israel and $8 billion for the Indo-Pacific. The package also includes a bill that could eventually lead to the banning of TikTok in the United States - giving Chinese parent company ByteDance roughly nine months to sell it or else it will be banned from app stores in the United States.
The signing of the aid package was the culmination of months of tense negotiations, personal lobbying from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and a split in the House Republican conference that continues to threaten the leadership position of House Speaker Mike Johnson. Hardline House conservatives opposed further US funding to Kyiv and threatened to oust Johnson over his handling of the negotiations. Conservatives in Congress have opposed additional assistance for what they view as an unwinnable war.
Biden had spent months lobbying Johnson to move forward with aid to Ukraine, enlisting top administration officials and CIA Director Bill Burns to lay out the stakes for Ukraine - and ultimately democracy in Europe and across the world - if Russia continued to make inroads in its military campaign there.
Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/24/politics/biden-signs-foreign-aid-bill/index.html
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[font size="8"]Donald Trump
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Let’s spin it to win it! Come on… no whammy no whammy no whammy no whammy no whammy… STOP! And it lands on Larry David! You know all season long we’re celebrating the series finale of the classic show Curb Your Enthusiasm with some classic Larry David insanity!
Ha ha ha… we’ve all been there! Spin it again! And it lands on… Donald Trump. Ugh, really? Fine.
Yes… I know. The Top 10 has put a moratorium on covering anything to do with the shit show currently related to that guy who we inexplicably used to call president. But now that is trial in New York is currently underway, we are going to lift that moratorium! Temporary, though! We’re still not covering his Nazi rallies. Here’s the thing – this is an ongoing story and we’ll do our best to cover everything, and not like Trump covering up his farts in the courtroom. Yes, that was a thing that happened. We really do live in the strangest timeline. It’s the first trial of its’ kind of a former US president in United States history. Well probably the best news coming out of this trial so far is that Trump is going on Fox News and claiming that “thousands” of his most fanatical supporters are showing up. The truth? You want the truth? You can’t handle the truth! Yeah come on, I had to get that reference in there. Sue me. Wait, don’t sue me. But the truth is nobody is showing up.
Donald Trump claimed dubiously on Tuesday that thousands of his supporters were being prevented by police and other security measures from turning out to support him as he undergoes his high-profile criminal hush money trial in New York City.
“Thousands of people were turned away from the Courthouse in Lower Manhattan by steel stanchions and police, literally blocks from the tiny side door from where I enter and leave,” Mr Trump wrote on Truth Social on Tuesday. “It is an armed camp to keep people away.”
He made similar comments that morning at the courthouse in Manhattan, claiming that “great Americans” seeking to show their support for him want to assemble outside the trial, but “for blocks you can’t get near this courthouse.”
Observers at the trial Tuesday morning noted that the main street along the courthouse is open to traffic and that only a small number of Trump supporters appeared to be present.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-trial-court-room-attendance-supporters-b2533623.html
“Thousands of people were turned away from the Courthouse in Lower Manhattan by steel stanchions and police, literally blocks from the tiny side door from where I enter and leave,” Mr Trump wrote on Truth Social on Tuesday. “It is an armed camp to keep people away.”
He made similar comments that morning at the courthouse in Manhattan, claiming that “great Americans” seeking to show their support for him want to assemble outside the trial, but “for blocks you can’t get near this courthouse.”
Observers at the trial Tuesday morning noted that the main street along the courthouse is open to traffic and that only a small number of Trump supporters appeared to be present.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-trial-court-room-attendance-supporters-b2533623.html
Thank you Nelson! Oh man does that feel good! Trump didn’t get the success he wanted as a president because nobody likes his ideas. Now he’s trying to make himself a martyr for the cause, and that’s not exactly panning out as he had planned. But I love when Trump supporters show those stupid memes of him being Superman or Rocky or Batman or Bruce Wayne, and instead what they get is a sad, overweight, angry, definitely malnourished and disheveled looking old man who falls asleep and *allegedly* farts in the courtroom. Allegedly! You don’t know, man! But the truth is that the trial is definitely backfiring on his supporters who think he’s a superhero.
Donald Trump is already in jail. He is pressed into confinement every weekday, except Wednesdays, beginning bright and early, no excuses, at 9.30 in the morning, in the dreary courtroom in Manhattan, where his impulse to mouth off wearies and worries his lawyers, and he must listen, for the first time since his father slapped him down, to an authority telling him to gag himself. He had more leeway when Fred Trump shipped the problem child to the New York military academy where Donald bullied his classmates.
Day after day, Trump slumps in his chair, his eyes narrowing and closing, his facial features sagging, until he suddenly jerks to life, once muttering a seemingly veiled threat to a potential juror that earned him a rebuke from Judge Juan Merchan that if he persisted he would be in contempt for witness intimidation. Without self-discipline, Trump invites being disciplined. Lacking control, he fails to control himself. Time and again, he falls asleep, “appeared to nod off a few times, his mouth going slack and his head drooping onto his chest”, Maggie Haberman reported in the New York Times.
...But the action hero can’t move without permission. “Sir, would you please have a seat,” the judge ordered when he stood up to walk out before adjournment. Superman can’t fly. He may dream of racing like Batman through Gotham, but he is facing the judge on the high bench issue a ruling about his contempt for violating the gag order.
He has lost more than his ability to articulate; he is becoming disarticulated as a figure. “It is a shame,” he whined. “I am sitting here for days now, from morning until night in that freezing room. Everybody was freezing in there! And all for this. This is your result. It is very unfair.” Under the weight of the trial, he is decaying, “haggard and rumpled, his gait off-center, his eyes blank”, according to the Times.+
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/apr/23/trump-trial-superhero-shadow
Day after day, Trump slumps in his chair, his eyes narrowing and closing, his facial features sagging, until he suddenly jerks to life, once muttering a seemingly veiled threat to a potential juror that earned him a rebuke from Judge Juan Merchan that if he persisted he would be in contempt for witness intimidation. Without self-discipline, Trump invites being disciplined. Lacking control, he fails to control himself. Time and again, he falls asleep, “appeared to nod off a few times, his mouth going slack and his head drooping onto his chest”, Maggie Haberman reported in the New York Times.
...But the action hero can’t move without permission. “Sir, would you please have a seat,” the judge ordered when he stood up to walk out before adjournment. Superman can’t fly. He may dream of racing like Batman through Gotham, but he is facing the judge on the high bench issue a ruling about his contempt for violating the gag order.
He has lost more than his ability to articulate; he is becoming disarticulated as a figure. “It is a shame,” he whined. “I am sitting here for days now, from morning until night in that freezing room. Everybody was freezing in there! And all for this. This is your result. It is very unfair.” Under the weight of the trial, he is decaying, “haggard and rumpled, his gait off-center, his eyes blank”, according to the Times.+
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/apr/23/trump-trial-superhero-shadow
Oh come on, man! Not in court! Stop it already! But you know the trial is going to go south when teenagers know more than the defense attorney does. And come on, it’s well documented that Alina Habba doesn’t exactly have the best credentials. Also that Trump’s attorney of choice has been a revolving door since he fired Rudy Giuliani. Who you know, went from being America’s Mayor to wallowing in his own crapulence at Mar-A-Shithole. But I do love that these teenagers in New York crashed the trial and noticed how shitty the defense was, and it’s insane that it didn’t take that much, Trump really does hire the best people!
A pair of students in New York City took it upon themselves to attend the first criminal trial of a former U.S. president on Tuesday, with one telling MSNBC afterwards that it was especially “funny” to see Donald Trump’s lawyer, Todd Blanche, get “annihilated” by Judge Juan Merchan.
On Chris Jansing Reports, Hope Harrington and Owen Berenbom shared their experience in the courtroom. In addition to continued testimony from former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker, Tuesday’s proceedings saw Merchan grill Blanche, who struggled to defend what prosecutors say were Trump’s repeated and willful violations of the gag order in the case. Merchan has not yet ruled on a potential punishment for Trump.
Harrington in particular recalled the moment Merchan told Blanche that his discursive responses to his questions meant that he was losing all credibility” with the court.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/nyc-teens-attending-trumps-trial-laugh-at-his-lawyers-missteps-really-funny
On Chris Jansing Reports, Hope Harrington and Owen Berenbom shared their experience in the courtroom. In addition to continued testimony from former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker, Tuesday’s proceedings saw Merchan grill Blanche, who struggled to defend what prosecutors say were Trump’s repeated and willful violations of the gag order in the case. Merchan has not yet ruled on a potential punishment for Trump.
Harrington in particular recalled the moment Merchan told Blanche that his discursive responses to his questions meant that he was losing all credibility” with the court.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/nyc-teens-attending-trumps-trial-laugh-at-his-lawyers-missteps-really-funny
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[font size="8"]Fox News
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Spin it to win it! Come on, no whammy no whammy no whammy no whammy no whammy… STOP! CHANCE!
Sweet! A Get Out Of Jail free card! I’ll just put that away for later. Spin it again… and it land on… Fox News!
You know, one of the great things about living in the United States of America is that everyone has the right to a fair trial, and it’s enshrined in the US Constitution. Who doesn’t seem to get that, no matter how hard they try, is Fox News. Yes, the “We Report, You Decide” network is going through some things because their man is on trial. And they are ruthless in stopping at nothing to blow up this trial so they can get back to their main mission of destroying the United States through weaponized propaganda. So when you have a doxing problem on your hands, how do you deal with it? Well if you don’t know what doxing is, it’s when your personal details are leaked out in public forums with the intent of harassment and intimidation. Yes, your guy is on trial. You picked the worst man possible to be president of the United States. Deal with it. It’s not a good look for Fox right now, and they’re not the only ones out there trying to blow up this trial. Particularly Jesse Watters, the guy who took over the 8:00 PM slot formerly occupied by Russian asset Tucker Carlson.
Fox News reported this morning that "Judge Juan Merchan excused one of the seven jurors who had been confirmed and sworn in on Thursday after she shared concerns that she could no longer be impartial in the case. The juror told Merchan that she had been contacted by friends and family members who guessed that she had been one of the jurors based on information released by the press. As a result, she feared she would no longer be able to be impartial."
Missing from its report is that fact that it was Fox News itself who described Juror #2 in sufficient detail for her identity to be correctly guessed. On Tuesday night, Jesse Watters said the juror was "a nurse from the Upper East Side with a Masters degree. She's not married, has no kids and lives with her fiancé who works in finance. She gets her news from The New York Times, Google and CNN."
That did not sit well with Watters.
Fox also neglected to report that the juror told the judge that in addition to friends and family, her colleagues were also able to identify her as a juror.
https://boingboing.net/2024/04/18/fox-news-leaks-juror-details-forcing-resignation-in-trump-case.html
Missing from its report is that fact that it was Fox News itself who described Juror #2 in sufficient detail for her identity to be correctly guessed. On Tuesday night, Jesse Watters said the juror was "a nurse from the Upper East Side with a Masters degree. She's not married, has no kids and lives with her fiancé who works in finance. She gets her news from The New York Times, Google and CNN."
That did not sit well with Watters.
Fox also neglected to report that the juror told the judge that in addition to friends and family, her colleagues were also able to identify her as a juror.
https://boingboing.net/2024/04/18/fox-news-leaks-juror-details-forcing-resignation-in-trump-case.html
Um… yeah we actually do need lawyers here, sorry. But make no mistake – there are going to be multiple attempts to blow up this trial. And as we’re sitting here in the first week, we’ve already seen that before it even began. It’s not just a private citizen we’re talking about here. We’re talking about a former president who currently has a massive cult following. So there’s going to be a lot of interference in this trial from some of his more absolutely fanatical followers. Yes, the terrorism, harassment, and intimidation against the jurors who are going to be deciding the fate of that guy who we inexplicably used to call president, is only going to get worse. Because MAGA is drunk with power and out of control, and they won’t give it up easily.
Donald Trump's estranged niece Mary Trump warned of "disturbing" interference by media outlets such as Fox News in the former president's hush money trial.
On Monday, jury selection began in the criminal case against Trump, who is the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. The full 12-person jury and one alternate has been chosen, but the selection of another five alternate members continued on Friday.
Following an investigation by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office, Trump was indicted in March 2023 on 34 counts of falsifying business records relating to $130,000 in hush money payments made to adult film star Stormy Daniels during Trump's 2016 presidential campaign. Daniels alleged that she had an affair with Trump in 2006, which he has denied.
Trump has maintained his innocence, pleading not guilty to all charges and claiming the case is politically motivated.
https://www.newsweek.com/mary-donald-trump-jesse-watters-hush-money-trial-jury-1892214
On Monday, jury selection began in the criminal case against Trump, who is the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. The full 12-person jury and one alternate has been chosen, but the selection of another five alternate members continued on Friday.
Following an investigation by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office, Trump was indicted in March 2023 on 34 counts of falsifying business records relating to $130,000 in hush money payments made to adult film star Stormy Daniels during Trump's 2016 presidential campaign. Daniels alleged that she had an affair with Trump in 2006, which he has denied.
Trump has maintained his innocence, pleading not guilty to all charges and claiming the case is politically motivated.
https://www.newsweek.com/mary-donald-trump-jesse-watters-hush-money-trial-jury-1892214
Couldn’t you just see Trump trying to pull that? Donald J. Trump, aka Miguel Sanchez, aka Dr. Nyguen Phan Thouc… yeah because he looks like he’s from Southeast Asia, right! Ha ha ha ha ha ha! OK, getting off topic here. But this is about those who are seeking to end this trial before it begins. It’s absolutely insane how much the cult is going to cult. Fox News already has their talking points prepared on the trial and they’re going to defend their man until they’re blue in the face. It’s propaganda in its’ most basic form here, folks. Not only that, it’s highly weaponized and targeted propaganda, and they’re going to use it against the jurors.
It didn’t take long after the general outlines of seven jurors in Donald Trump’s New York criminal trial were made public Tuesday for Fox News host Jesse Watters to suggest that, based on that information alone, Trump wouldn’t be acquitted.
While on air Tuesday night, Watters went through each juror, whose identities will remain anonymous in light of the potential for threats directed at them.
The second juror, Watters described, is “a nurse from the Upper East Side with a Masters degree.”
“She’s not married, has no kids and lives with her fiancé who works in finance,” Watters said, chuckling for some reason. “She gets her news from The New York Times, Google and CNN.”
https://www.thedailybeast.com/jesse-watters-goes-juror-by-juror-to-sow-doubt-in-trump-hush-money-case
While on air Tuesday night, Watters went through each juror, whose identities will remain anonymous in light of the potential for threats directed at them.
The second juror, Watters described, is “a nurse from the Upper East Side with a Masters degree.”
“She’s not married, has no kids and lives with her fiancé who works in finance,” Watters said, chuckling for some reason. “She gets her news from The New York Times, Google and CNN.”
https://www.thedailybeast.com/jesse-watters-goes-juror-by-juror-to-sow-doubt-in-trump-hush-money-case
Good question, and I am sure that there’s a lot! Even the judge in this case has warned people not to intimidate the jury! The fact that Jesse Watters got dangerously close to doxing one of the jurors in the case – only for them to be replaced with a MAGA / Fox bootlicker (shocker, I know), is seriously alarming and disturbing. The good news is that the jurors and alternates all got seated without incident, but they’d better have good protection as this trial progresses. Because there’s going to be swatting, doxing and targeted harassment aimed at the jurors. All because MAGA can’t, won’t, and doesn’t want to live in a civilized society. Why we can’t have nice things, people!
The judge in Donald Trump’s hush money trial ordered the media on Thursday not to report on where potential jurors have worked and to be careful about revealing information about those who will sit in judgment of the former president.
Judge Juan Merchan acted after one juror was dismissed when she expressed concerns about participating in the trial after details about her became publicly known.
The names of the jurors are supposed to be a secret, but the dismissed juror told Merchan she had friends, colleagues and family members contacting her to ask whether she was on the case. “I don’t believe at this point I can be fair and unbiased and let the outside influences not affect my decision-making in the courtroom,” she said.
Merchan then directed journalists present in the courthouse not to report it when potential jurors told the court their specific workplaces, past or present. That put journalists in the difficult position of not reporting something they heard in open court.
Some media organizations were considering whether to protest having that onus placed on them. Generally, the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution bars judges from ordering journalists not to disclose what they hear and see in courtrooms open to the public, though there are exceptions, such as when military security is at stake.
https://apnews.com/article/trump-hush-money-trial-media-jurors-anonymity-f858be6648fa2df7d2ab69efd30a524c
Judge Juan Merchan acted after one juror was dismissed when she expressed concerns about participating in the trial after details about her became publicly known.
The names of the jurors are supposed to be a secret, but the dismissed juror told Merchan she had friends, colleagues and family members contacting her to ask whether she was on the case. “I don’t believe at this point I can be fair and unbiased and let the outside influences not affect my decision-making in the courtroom,” she said.
Merchan then directed journalists present in the courthouse not to report it when potential jurors told the court their specific workplaces, past or present. That put journalists in the difficult position of not reporting something they heard in open court.
Some media organizations were considering whether to protest having that onus placed on them. Generally, the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution bars judges from ordering journalists not to disclose what they hear and see in courtrooms open to the public, though there are exceptions, such as when military security is at stake.
https://apnews.com/article/trump-hush-money-trial-media-jurors-anonymity-f858be6648fa2df7d2ab69efd30a524c
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[font size="8"]Vladimir Putin
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Come on let’s spin the wheel! Wheel goes round… wheel goes round… wheel goes round… and it lands on… Clip without context!
Fucking what??? That’s not how this works! That’s not how any of this works! Keep that crap confined to religious schools, please! Spin it again! And it lands on… Russia!
For the last 8 years, we’ve known that Vladimir Putin is the supreme evil on this earth. He’s annexed countries, declared war on innocents, accused others of being Nazis, and used culture war propaganda to pit entire nations against each other. Yeah there’s a lot of competition for that title. Yeah you could say that China’s Xi Jianping is that man, or North Korea’s Kim Jong Un. Or India’s Narajendra Modi. But the reign of all of these men can be traced back to Vladimir Putin and his vast, vast populist propaganda network. The thing is, when Russia annexed Crimea back in 2015, we should have seen that as a wakeup call that something really, really terrible was going to happen. But we may not have even hit that point yet. At this point in World War II nearly 100 years ago, the Nazi party was in its’ infancy. With the recent revelations by the premier Russian warlord himself, it’s almost like the bad guy in a video game or a movie revealing the truth about the entire quest just before the final battle.
A secret Kremlin foreign policy document calls for Russia to leverage the war in Ukraine and exploit weaknesses in "unfriendly states" in order to forge a new global order in which the U.S. no longer plays a leading role, the Washington Post reported on April 17.
According to the paper, the document is a classified addendum to a public document titled "Foreign Policy Concept of the Russian Federation" and was obtained via a European intelligence service.
The secret part of the document calls for an "offensive information campaign" covering multiple spheres, including "the military-political, economic and trade and informational psychological" against what the Kremlin perceives as a "coalition of unfriendly countries" led by the U.S.
"We need to continue adjusting our approach to relations with unfriendly states," it reads, adding: "It's important to create a mechanism for finding the vulnerable points of their external and internal policies with the aim of developing practical steps to weaken Russia's opponents."
https://kyivindependent.com/wp-secret-kremlin-document-outlines-plan-to-weaken-ukraines-allies/
According to the paper, the document is a classified addendum to a public document titled "Foreign Policy Concept of the Russian Federation" and was obtained via a European intelligence service.
The secret part of the document calls for an "offensive information campaign" covering multiple spheres, including "the military-political, economic and trade and informational psychological" against what the Kremlin perceives as a "coalition of unfriendly countries" led by the U.S.
"We need to continue adjusting our approach to relations with unfriendly states," it reads, adding: "It's important to create a mechanism for finding the vulnerable points of their external and internal policies with the aim of developing practical steps to weaken Russia's opponents."
https://kyivindependent.com/wp-secret-kremlin-document-outlines-plan-to-weaken-ukraines-allies/
Yeah BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! Damn right! So this totally confirms what we’ve been saying all along. The online misinformation war that Putin has been waging has been almost as damaging as the actual battles being fought in Ukraine. Of course, while Putin is reaping his ill gotten gains, we’re fighting each other over nonsense because they don’t want us to discover who the real bad guys are. But here’s the thing – it’s called “diplomacy”, and that’s something that the Infowars crowd absolutely fails to understand. When countries like each other, they help each other out. But not playing nice could have serious consequences.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on Sunday stressed the urgency of support to Ukraine, warning Russian President Vladimir Putin “will not stop,” even if successful in Russia’s war with Kyiv.
“Here’s what I will tell you. If you give Putin Ukraine, he will not stop,” Graham said during an interview on “Fox News Sunday.” “This is not about containing NATO, and if you give him Ukraine, there goes Taiwan, because China’s watching to see what we do.”
Graham, a vocal supporter of Ukraine, was discussing the Senate’s two-year reauthorization of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act’s (FISA) warrantless surveillance program. The legislation extends the government’s ability to spy on foreigners located abroad for another two years. The process has faced some scrutiny from privacy hawks as it also sweeps up communications of Americans they are in contact with.
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/4609349-graham-warns-putin-will-not-stop-if-successful-in-ukraine/
“Here’s what I will tell you. If you give Putin Ukraine, he will not stop,” Graham said during an interview on “Fox News Sunday.” “This is not about containing NATO, and if you give him Ukraine, there goes Taiwan, because China’s watching to see what we do.”
Graham, a vocal supporter of Ukraine, was discussing the Senate’s two-year reauthorization of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act’s (FISA) warrantless surveillance program. The legislation extends the government’s ability to spy on foreigners located abroad for another two years. The process has faced some scrutiny from privacy hawks as it also sweeps up communications of Americans they are in contact with.
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/4609349-graham-warns-putin-will-not-stop-if-successful-in-ukraine/
Well fucking duh!!! It took you this long to figure that out Lindsay? We’ve known this for years that Vladimir Putin is out for world domination. Despite all of his flaws, it’s at least good to know that Lindsay Graham hasn’t succumbed to the pro-Putin conspiracy theory propaganda that’s been floating around on social media. But in case you’re wondering why Putin keeps upping the ante despite that the entire world, people who aren’t engrossed in the Murdoch sphere of propaganda, are against him, is because of the fact that Putin has nukes, and he’s threatened to use them if there’s any retaliation. Yeah just imagine that.
President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia said the West faced the prospect of nuclear conflict if it intervened more directly in the war in Ukraine, using an annual speech to the nation on Thursday to escalate his threats against Europe and the United States.
Mr. Putin said NATO countries that were helping Ukraine strike Russian territory or might consider sending their own troops “must, in the end, understand” that “all this truly threatens a conflict with the use of nuclear weapons, and therefore the destruction of civilization.”
“We also have weapons that can strike targets on their territory,” Mr. Putin said. “Do they not understand this?”
The Russian leader alluded to comments by President Emmanuel Macron of France this week raising the possibility of sending troops from NATO countries to Ukraine, a scenario the Kremlin said would lead to the “inevitability” of a direct conflict between Russia and the Western alliance.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/29/world/europe/putin-speech-ukraine-nuclear-conflict.html
Mr. Putin said NATO countries that were helping Ukraine strike Russian territory or might consider sending their own troops “must, in the end, understand” that “all this truly threatens a conflict with the use of nuclear weapons, and therefore the destruction of civilization.”
“We also have weapons that can strike targets on their territory,” Mr. Putin said. “Do they not understand this?”
The Russian leader alluded to comments by President Emmanuel Macron of France this week raising the possibility of sending troops from NATO countries to Ukraine, a scenario the Kremlin said would lead to the “inevitability” of a direct conflict between Russia and the Western alliance.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/29/world/europe/putin-speech-ukraine-nuclear-conflict.html
Yeah people, we got to get our shit together! There’s a mad man in Moscow who has nukes, and he’s not afraid to use them! And he’s out for world domination! So we need to come together and realize there’s a far greater threat to this planet than each other. Crimea was just the beginning. He’s not stopping at Ukraine. Stop listening to Fox. Stop listening to Infowars. The sooner Putin’s dragged before the Hauge in chains to answer for his crimes against humanity, the better. While the passing of the Ukraine funding bill was a step forward, we still have a long way to go before the war is won!
Putin begins the press conference by saying that Russia’s sovereignty is under threat and that “the very existence of our country without sovereignty is impossible ... the whole country cannot exist without sovereignty.”
He is quickly given a question about the war in Ukraine, and Pavel Zarubin, a state television anchor, asks: “When will there be peace?”
“There will be peace when we achieve our goals,” Putin said. “They haven’t changed. Denazification of Ukraine, the demilitarisation of Ukraine.”
Those are some of the more aggressive terms that Putin used at the beginning of the war in Ukraine, before Russia suffered a series of military setbacks last year. But with the failure of Ukraine’s counteroffensive, Putin indicates that Russia is still seeking a full capitulation.
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2023/dec/14/russia-ukraine-war-live-vladimir-putin-latest-updates
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[font size="8"]We’re All Gonna Die
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Let’s give the wheel a good, strong spin shall we? Come on no whammy no whammy no whammy no whammy no whammy… STOP! No! A whammy!
Spin it again! Hey guess what? We’re all gonna die! Woo! Yeah I’m not just saying that!
Hey everyone, guess what? We’re all gonna die!!! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! WOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! WOOOOOOOOOO. WOOOOOO. WOO. So what’s going to kill us all this week, you might ask? Why it’s decades of climate change denial! Yes, while Earth Day was just a couple of days ago, we can’t help but wonder what the long term future of this planet is. Especially considering what the weather is like so far. In 2024, it’s only 4 months into the year and we’ve already had extreme weather conditions like fires, floods, and hurricanes. But you know what the source of this might be, you might ask? Well I answer you – your job! And not only might your job be killing you, it might be killing you on the job! What goes around, comes around, am I right? Yeah you know the classic Tennessee Ernie Ford song “16 Tons”, right? I oweeeeeeeee myyyyyyyyyyyyyy souuuuuuuuuuuuuul… to the company store! But if you ignore all the media’s constant fearmongering on the climate change issue and focus on the facts, there’s definitely something there!
More than 70% of workers around the world face climate change-related health risks, with more than 2.4 billion people likely to be exposed to excessive heat on the job, according to a report released Monday by the United Nations.
Climate change is already having a severe impact on the safety and health of workers around the world as excessive heat, extreme weather, solar UV radiation and air pollution have resulted in an alarming increase in some diseases, according to the findings from the International Labour Organization, a U.N. agency.
An estimated 18,970 lives are lost each year due to occupational injuries attributable to excessive heat, and more than 26.2 million people are living with chronic kidney disease related to workplace heat stress, the report states.
More than 860,000 outdoor workers a year die from exposure to air pollution, and nearly 19,000 people die each year from non-melanoma skin cancer from exposure to solar UV radiation. "Occupational safety and health considerations must become part of our climate change responses, both policies and actions," Manal Azzi, a team lead of occupational safety and health at the ILO, stated.
Read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/climate-change-earth-day-2024-un-worker-health-risk/
Climate change is already having a severe impact on the safety and health of workers around the world as excessive heat, extreme weather, solar UV radiation and air pollution have resulted in an alarming increase in some diseases, according to the findings from the International Labour Organization, a U.N. agency.
An estimated 18,970 lives are lost each year due to occupational injuries attributable to excessive heat, and more than 26.2 million people are living with chronic kidney disease related to workplace heat stress, the report states.
More than 860,000 outdoor workers a year die from exposure to air pollution, and nearly 19,000 people die each year from non-melanoma skin cancer from exposure to solar UV radiation. "Occupational safety and health considerations must become part of our climate change responses, both policies and actions," Manal Azzi, a team lead of occupational safety and health at the ILO, stated.
Read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/climate-change-earth-day-2024-un-worker-health-risk/
Calm down, people! We’re all not gonna die! At least not yet! Now you might be wondering what the highest recorded temperatures on the planet are. And I answer you – it’s surprisingly not in the United States! Yes, one of the hottest temperatures in human history was recorded last year in my home state of California, in the desert region known as Death Valley at 121 degrees Fahrenheit (that’s 49’ in Celsius for our European friends). But while it may seem like things are getting much hotter in this country, elsewhere in the world, things are getting that much worse. So if someone asks you “is it hot in here or is it just me?” and the answer is a resounding yes!
Last year Europe experienced its joint warmest or second warmest year on record, depending on the dataset, while the average sea surface temperature across Europe was the warmest on record. The 2023 edition of the Copernicus Climate Change Service’s (C3S*) European State of the Climate (ESOTC) report, produced jointly with the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) for the first time, paints a sombre picture. Along with record temperatures came drier-than-average surface soil moisture, wildfires, droughts, and flooding. Here, we take a closer look at some of the main findings from ESOTC 2023. For a comprehensive review of the state of the climate in Europe, the Arctic, and globally in 2023, read the full report , or you can get a detailed snapshot in the ESOTC 2023 summary.
The 2023 ESOTC report, published on 22 April, provides descriptions and analysis of climate conditions and variations from across the Earth system. This year, in addition to examining key events and their impacts, it also discusses climate policy and action, with a focus on human health. The data in ESOTC 2023 sound a warning bell for urgent coordinated global action to mitigate climate change.
Europe is the fastest warming continent, with temperatures rising at around twice the global average rate. According to ESOTC 2023, the three warmest years on record for Europe have all occurred since 2020, and the ten warmest since 2007.
https://climate.copernicus.eu/widespread-floods-severe-heatwaves-esotc-2023-puts-europes-climate-focus#:~:text=Europe%20is%20the%20fastest%20warming,the%20ten%20warmest%20since%202007.
The 2023 ESOTC report, published on 22 April, provides descriptions and analysis of climate conditions and variations from across the Earth system. This year, in addition to examining key events and their impacts, it also discusses climate policy and action, with a focus on human health. The data in ESOTC 2023 sound a warning bell for urgent coordinated global action to mitigate climate change.
Europe is the fastest warming continent, with temperatures rising at around twice the global average rate. According to ESOTC 2023, the three warmest years on record for Europe have all occurred since 2020, and the ten warmest since 2007.
https://climate.copernicus.eu/widespread-floods-severe-heatwaves-esotc-2023-puts-europes-climate-focus#:~:text=Europe%20is%20the%20fastest%20warming,the%20ten%20warmest%20since%202007.
No, nobody is dying just yet! Now here’s the question on the table – who benefits from climate change and what do they stand to gain? Well for one thing, you would not be at all surprised to find that climate change denial propaganda originated in what country, ladies and gentlemen? Survey says – Russia! Yeah and Vladimir Putin would have got away with it too, if it wasn’t for those meddling kids! I can never resist a good Scooby Doo joke! But this didn’t happen overnight, it’s a steady stream of 2 decades of 24/7 misinformation to get here. And we are at a tipping point, we have to act now before it’s too late, because there’s a good chance a lot of us could die!
Scientists say halving climate-damaging greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 is crucial to stop a rise in temperatures of more than 1.5 Celsius that would unleash more extreme weather and heat.
Yet last year, the world's energy-related CO2 emissions increased to a record high. Current commitments to fight climate change would barely cut global emissions at all by 2030.
Simon Stiell, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change said the next two years are "essential in saving our planet".
"We still have a chance to make greenhouse gas emissions tumble, with a new generation of national climate plans. But we need these stronger plans, now," he said.
Speaking at an event at the Chatham House think-tank in London, Stiell said the Group of 20 leading economic powers - together, responsible for 80% of global emissions - urgently needed to step up.
https://www.usnews.com/news/top-news/articles/2024-04-10/u-n-climate-chief-says-two-years-to-save-the-planet#:~:text=April%2010%2C%202024%2C%20at%209%3A36%20a.m.&text=LONDON%2FBRUSSELS%20
Yet last year, the world's energy-related CO2 emissions increased to a record high. Current commitments to fight climate change would barely cut global emissions at all by 2030.
Simon Stiell, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change said the next two years are "essential in saving our planet".
"We still have a chance to make greenhouse gas emissions tumble, with a new generation of national climate plans. But we need these stronger plans, now," he said.
Speaking at an event at the Chatham House think-tank in London, Stiell said the Group of 20 leading economic powers - together, responsible for 80% of global emissions - urgently needed to step up.
https://www.usnews.com/news/top-news/articles/2024-04-10/u-n-climate-chief-says-two-years-to-save-the-planet#:~:text=April%2010%2C%202024%2C%20at%209%3A36%20a.m.&text=LONDON%2FBRUSSELS%20
There is hope, though! We don’t want you to think that all hope is lost. What kind of hosts would that make us? Not very good ones! The good news is that, while Fox News and right wing sources have spent the last two decades convincing their viewers and subscribers to deny that climate change and global warming were things that were happening, survey says that Fox News policies and ideas are woefully unpopular outside of the Murdoch bubble. So yeah, all our problems can once again be traced back to that piece of shit network! Turn off Fox, ladies and gentlemen! It’s slowly killing you!
Record heat, hurricanes, wildfires all have been making news in recent years. And while not everyone agrees events like these are the direct result of climate change, they do connect to peoples' opinions about it: a big majority of Americans feel the U.S. needs to address climate change, with those who report experiencing extreme weather more likely to say we should do so right now.
Views on climate change have long been associated with partisanship, and they still are, but age is a factor, too. Younger Americans, including younger Republicans, are even more likely to say the U.S. needs to take steps to at least try to slow it.
There's a sense of urgency from many in the public, too. A large majority think it needs to be addressed at least in the next few years, including half who think it needs to be addressed right now.
There's the sense that we should address climate change, and there's also some belief that we can.
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100218882211
Views on climate change have long been associated with partisanship, and they still are, but age is a factor, too. Younger Americans, including younger Republicans, are even more likely to say the U.S. needs to take steps to at least try to slow it.
There's a sense of urgency from many in the public, too. A large majority think it needs to be addressed at least in the next few years, including half who think it needs to be addressed right now.
There's the sense that we should address climate change, and there's also some belief that we can.
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100218882211
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[font size="8"]Holy Shit
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Let’s spin it to win it!!! Wheel goes round, wheel goes round wheel goes round… hey it’s another Clip Without Context!
That ain’t the devil that’s trying to take him out, Lance. It’s called “elections”, we used to have them in this country, remember? Sigh, I can’t even with these morons. Spin it again! Hey it’s time for Holy Shit!
Gather around my fair brothers and sisters! It’s time to take a seat in the pew and pass the collection plate, for the Holy Church Of The Top 10 has convened and it’s time to remind you that the holiest among us are the most full of:
My fair congregation! Please be seated! You know, we say time and time again that the United States was founded on principles relating to the separation of church and state. But lately, it seems like those lines – lines that were not once dared to be crossed – are now becoming increasingly blurred. Especially if you look at recent rulings in states like Arizona and Alabama. Now it might seem like all hope is lost, and to me it’s absolutely criminal that churches are latching themselves onto this man. You know, the unholy, ungodly Dark One! I of course speak of a man who is so foul, so profane and disgusting, that his name DARE NOT be spoken in my church! Well, forget what you know about the United States and our country’s separation of church and state! What we really need is a separation of church and the far right authoritarian cult that has taken over half of this country. If you don’t know what I am talking about, let’s look at the situation in Arizona. And how it started. Supporters of the unholy Dark One literally prayed on the floor before the vote. Yeah that’s some scary shit there!
A far-right Arizona state senator led a prayer circle speaking in tongues on the chamber floor Monday, a day before the state Supreme Court upheld a Civil War-era law banning nearly all abortions.
In a video now making the rounds on social media, state Sen. Anthony Kern, a Republican from Glendale, guided the kneeling prayer group in English while several unidentified worshippers babbled. “Let it be so, Father God,” he said. “Let it be so, let it be so.”
The provocative act caught the attention of Jeanne Casteen, the executive director of Secular Arizona, a group that advocates for the separation of church and state.
Kern poked back at Casteen and Democrats.
“Looks like our prayer team stirred up some god-haters ... Not to worry though...prayer over our state at the State Senate is way more powerful,” he wrote on X, the former Twitter.
Kern is being investigated for falsely claiming to be an Arizona elector for Donald Trump in the 2020 election, The Arizona Republic noted.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/arizona-state-senator-leads-prayer-111314503.html
In a video now making the rounds on social media, state Sen. Anthony Kern, a Republican from Glendale, guided the kneeling prayer group in English while several unidentified worshippers babbled. “Let it be so, Father God,” he said. “Let it be so, let it be so.”
The provocative act caught the attention of Jeanne Casteen, the executive director of Secular Arizona, a group that advocates for the separation of church and state.
Kern poked back at Casteen and Democrats.
“Looks like our prayer team stirred up some god-haters ... Not to worry though...prayer over our state at the State Senate is way more powerful,” he wrote on X, the former Twitter.
Kern is being investigated for falsely claiming to be an Arizona elector for Donald Trump in the 2020 election, The Arizona Republic noted.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/arizona-state-senator-leads-prayer-111314503.html
Now even our Good Book doesn’t have that many books in it! But yeah isn’t this absolutely insane? And no shit are the “god haters” pissed in this equation! They deliberately broke the rules and sent this country back 100 years in the process! And of course we’re not the least bit surprised that these are supporters of the unholy, ungodly Dark One! But further digging and not only will you realize that these hideous people are not on our side, but it actually gets worse the more you read into it, and it seems like the people who claim to be the godliest among us aren’t exactly on our side. We’re pretty sure they’re not on GAWD’s side, either!
A state legislator on Monday used his time delivering a sermon that said a holiday to celebrate trans people was “dark,” proof of America being “unrighteous,” and then denounced non-Christians.
The sermon was given as the House of Representatives opened its daily floor session, during which lawmakers convene to vote on bills passed through committees. Every day, the House and Senate open their floor sessions with a prayer that is meant to be non-denominational, but Republicans who control both chambers have long only used Christians to speak.
But Rep. Lupe Diaz (R-Benson), who is also a minister, went a step further in his opening prayer Monday, and spent nearly five minutes on a fire-and-brimstone-styled sermon against non-Christians: “Eternal life is not available just to everybody, it is available just to those that acknowledge Jesus Christ,” Diaz said on the House floor.
The evangelical speech was given as a reaction to International Transgender Day of Visibility, which happened to be at the same time as Easter Sunday this year. (Easter changes yearly, whereas the Day of Visibility has been recognized on March 31 every year since 2009.)
https://azmirror.com/2024/04/03/lupe-diaz-called-the-us-unrighteous-because-of-lgbtq-people-and-non-christians/
The sermon was given as the House of Representatives opened its daily floor session, during which lawmakers convene to vote on bills passed through committees. Every day, the House and Senate open their floor sessions with a prayer that is meant to be non-denominational, but Republicans who control both chambers have long only used Christians to speak.
But Rep. Lupe Diaz (R-Benson), who is also a minister, went a step further in his opening prayer Monday, and spent nearly five minutes on a fire-and-brimstone-styled sermon against non-Christians: “Eternal life is not available just to everybody, it is available just to those that acknowledge Jesus Christ,” Diaz said on the House floor.
The evangelical speech was given as a reaction to International Transgender Day of Visibility, which happened to be at the same time as Easter Sunday this year. (Easter changes yearly, whereas the Day of Visibility has been recognized on March 31 every year since 2009.)
https://azmirror.com/2024/04/03/lupe-diaz-called-the-us-unrighteous-because-of-lgbtq-people-and-non-christians/
Wait, so this whole thing is retribution for Joe Biden declaring that March 31st was Transgender Visibility Day and it also happened to be Easter too? Do they not know how calendars work? Or even how their own holiday works? TVD has always fallen on the same day every year. Easter will fall on a different day next year. Yet there was that colossal meltdown on social media. But in case you’re wondering why MAGA churches are all in on a guy who represents everything that is soulless and wrong with this country, and well, the world, well, maybe it’s because he allows them to unleash their inner asshole, like this guy.
Last night, MAGA cultist pastor Shane Vaughn used his broadcast to ask his audience to collectively pray that God will embolden just one juror to refuse to convict former President Donald Trump, who has been charged by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg with falsifying business records in order to hide hush money payments made to cover up adulterous affairs that he feared might hurt his 2016 presidential campaign.
Vaughn, who has openly declared that he does not care about Trump’s alleged infidelity and law breaking, said last night that he has been “led by the spirit” to begin a prayer campaign for Trump in this case.
After falsely claiming that even if Trump is found guilty, he can just pardon himself when he is reelected president (presidents cannot issue pardons for state crimes), Vaughn urged his viewers to join him in praying that “the will of God” will be done on Earth by having one juror “mess up the whole thing.”
“You need one juror that does the right thing and it shuts all the other jurors down because in a criminal verdict, it has to be unanimous,” Vaughn said. “I’m praying, whoever right now in jury selection—listen to me by the Spirit of God—we need to be praying right now for the will of God on Earth as it is in Heaven.”
https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/maga-pastor-shane-vaughn-prays-for-one-juror-to-mess-up-the-whole-thing-in-trumps-hush-money-trial/
Vaughn, who has openly declared that he does not care about Trump’s alleged infidelity and law breaking, said last night that he has been “led by the spirit” to begin a prayer campaign for Trump in this case.
After falsely claiming that even if Trump is found guilty, he can just pardon himself when he is reelected president (presidents cannot issue pardons for state crimes), Vaughn urged his viewers to join him in praying that “the will of God” will be done on Earth by having one juror “mess up the whole thing.”
“You need one juror that does the right thing and it shuts all the other jurors down because in a criminal verdict, it has to be unanimous,” Vaughn said. “I’m praying, whoever right now in jury selection—listen to me by the Spirit of God—we need to be praying right now for the will of God on Earth as it is in Heaven.”
https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/maga-pastor-shane-vaughn-prays-for-one-juror-to-mess-up-the-whole-thing-in-trumps-hush-money-trial/
Yeah seriously, why don’t the sane members of congregations start calling out the behavior of those who worship the ungodly Dark One? It’s absolutely maddening! But don’t worry, because apparently those of us who are the most devout are the ones who will tell you that it’s no big deal. What? Of course the merging of religion with far right authoritarianism is a big deal! And of course anyone who believes the bile, garbage and filth being spewed by online conspiracy theorists is a good thing, well, that’s more fucked up than anything that you could believe in! And yes, Dark One supporters, we are absolutely calling you and your crap out!
The Christian nationalist pseudo-historians at WallBuilders dedicated Monday’s episode of their “WallBuilders Live” radio program to dismissing concerns about Christian nationalism. They did so by intentionally misrepresenting what Christian nationalism actually is, with David Barton, who is in many ways the intellectual father of the modern Christian nationalist ideology, creating a definition that was so broad as to be meaningless.
“They say that if you believe that there is a difference between men’s and women’s sports, you’re a Christian nationalist,” Barton claimed. “If you think that Roe v. Wade should be overturned, you’re Christian nationalist. If you believe that you should place constitutionalists on the Supreme Court rather than social activists, you’re a Christian nationalist. If you believe that there should be a border wall, you’re a Christian nationalist. If you believe in enacting tax cuts, they say that’s a characteristic of Christian nationalists is they want tax cuts. If you want to reduce welfare spending … Here’s what they said that Christian nationalists oppose: They oppose critical race theory, they oppose pornographic books in schools, they oppose embryonic stem cell research, they oppose gun control. This sounds like most Americans.”
While these are certainly things that Christian nationalists believe in, believing in them does not necessarily make one a Christian nationalist, and that is because Christian nationalism is less about what sorts of specific policies ones supports than about how one views the role of Christians in society and government.
https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/the-christian-nationalists-at-wallbuilders-insist-christian-nationalism-is-nothing-to-worry-about/
“They say that if you believe that there is a difference between men’s and women’s sports, you’re a Christian nationalist,” Barton claimed. “If you think that Roe v. Wade should be overturned, you’re Christian nationalist. If you believe that you should place constitutionalists on the Supreme Court rather than social activists, you’re a Christian nationalist. If you believe that there should be a border wall, you’re a Christian nationalist. If you believe in enacting tax cuts, they say that’s a characteristic of Christian nationalists is they want tax cuts. If you want to reduce welfare spending … Here’s what they said that Christian nationalists oppose: They oppose critical race theory, they oppose pornographic books in schools, they oppose embryonic stem cell research, they oppose gun control. This sounds like most Americans.”
While these are certainly things that Christian nationalists believe in, believing in them does not necessarily make one a Christian nationalist, and that is because Christian nationalism is less about what sorts of specific policies ones supports than about how one views the role of Christians in society and government.
https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/the-christian-nationalists-at-wallbuilders-insist-christian-nationalism-is-nothing-to-worry-about/
Yes, the Dark One and their supporters think that they’ve got it made, but I can assure you, my fair congregation, that their days are numbered! And they will get theirs! Mass has ended, may you go in peace! That’s it this week for:
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[font size="8"]People Who Somehow Got Elected: Bill Lee
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Now entering the spin cycle! And it lands on…. Wait for it……. intermission! OK we can take a break. Go on, watch some clips of whatever interests you on your phone. Grab a drink. Relax for a few. I’ll just sit here and play Freecell on my phone. Here’s some intermission music.
OK we’re back! Spin it again! And it lands on… People Who Somehow Got Elected!
Politicians at the state, local and national levels that are so toxic, you wonder how they got elected, or in some cases reelected. This is:
This week – it’s the Fox News installed governor of Tennessee, Bill Lee. How did this guy get elected? He speaks MAGA, of course. Appears on Fox News and other right wing propaganda sources nightly. And he also appeals to the hardcore religious fundamentalist sect. And not only that, he also appeals to the white Christian nationalist sect. In fact one of Bill’s most recent endeavors involved making the Aitken Bible an official state book. Yes, this is the version of the Bible that was the most common in the revolutionary war days. If anything, the United States needs less religion in government, not more. But when you ask the question – “Why can’t we have nice things in the United States?”, then always point them to things like what Bill Lee is saying and doing. The fact that MAGA politicians are proposing things like “Christian Heritage Month” is really just an absolute slap in the face to the principles that the United States was founded on. And yes, MAGA governors like Bill Lee are behind these evil pieces of legislation that are being proposed.
The Aitken Bible, along with nine other works, including George Washington's "Farewell Address" and Alex Haley's "Roots," became Tennessee's first officially-designated state books under legislation signed into law Tuesday by Gov. Bill Lee.
Lawmakers last month passed House Bill 1828, sponsored by Sen. Paul Rose, Covington, and Rep. Gino Bulso, R-Brentwood, making the Aitken Bible — the first edition of the Bible printed in the United States during the Revolutionary War — an official state book, along with the nine works with varying degrees of connection to the Volunteer State. Legislation passed along party lines, with Democrats objecting with constitutional concerns.
The Aitken Bible is now the only religious text designated by law as an official state book. With Lee's signature, it joins the exhaustive list of state symbols, including the state amphibian (the Tennessee Cave Salamander), the state rock (limestone), and the state dog (bluetick coonhound).
Separate legislation that would designate November as "Christian Heritage Month," and "encourage citizens to learn more about Christian heritage in this state" is on the governor's desk awaiting his signature.
https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/politics/2024/04/16/tennessee-bible-bill-legislation-making-aitken-bible-official-book-signed/73347739007/
Lawmakers last month passed House Bill 1828, sponsored by Sen. Paul Rose, Covington, and Rep. Gino Bulso, R-Brentwood, making the Aitken Bible — the first edition of the Bible printed in the United States during the Revolutionary War — an official state book, along with the nine works with varying degrees of connection to the Volunteer State. Legislation passed along party lines, with Democrats objecting with constitutional concerns.
The Aitken Bible is now the only religious text designated by law as an official state book. With Lee's signature, it joins the exhaustive list of state symbols, including the state amphibian (the Tennessee Cave Salamander), the state rock (limestone), and the state dog (bluetick coonhound).
Separate legislation that would designate November as "Christian Heritage Month," and "encourage citizens to learn more about Christian heritage in this state" is on the governor's desk awaiting his signature.
https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/politics/2024/04/16/tennessee-bible-bill-legislation-making-aitken-bible-official-book-signed/73347739007/
People, stop voting for this crap! It doesn’t end well and isn’t what this country was founded on, despite what right wing media might be telling you! And that isn’t the only piece of pro-MAGA Taliban legislation that Bill Lee is proposing. He’s also siding with the anti-LGBT crowd, and especially the anti-trans conspiracy theorists. Because there’s a new bill being proposed that would require teachers to essentially out trans students to their parents. What could possibly go wrong there? And that’s something that is not only grossly unconstitutional, it should also be highly illegal and potentially a first amendment violation.
Tennessee would join the ranks of states where public school employees have to out transgender students to their parents under a bill advancing in the Republican-supermajority Legislature.
GOP House lawmakers gave near-final passage to the bill on Monday, putting Tennessee just a few hurdles away from joining states such as Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana and North Carolina with similar laws. Virginia has such guidance for school boards, as well. The bill goes back for another vote in the Senate, which had already passed a version of it, before it can go to Gov. Bill Lee’s desk for his signature.
The bill’s progression comes as Tennessee Republican lawmakers have established the state as one of the most eager to pass policies aimed at the LGBTQ+ community as Republicans pursue legislation nationwide.
During Monday’s limited but heated House floor hearing, Democrats took turns alleging that their Republican colleagues were constantly finding new ways to bully LGBTQ+ kids.
https://apnews.com/article/tennessee-transgender-student-bill-2d31c306628049a26fde2f47c90b8b11
GOP House lawmakers gave near-final passage to the bill on Monday, putting Tennessee just a few hurdles away from joining states such as Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana and North Carolina with similar laws. Virginia has such guidance for school boards, as well. The bill goes back for another vote in the Senate, which had already passed a version of it, before it can go to Gov. Bill Lee’s desk for his signature.
The bill’s progression comes as Tennessee Republican lawmakers have established the state as one of the most eager to pass policies aimed at the LGBTQ+ community as Republicans pursue legislation nationwide.
During Monday’s limited but heated House floor hearing, Democrats took turns alleging that their Republican colleagues were constantly finding new ways to bully LGBTQ+ kids.
https://apnews.com/article/tennessee-transgender-student-bill-2d31c306628049a26fde2f47c90b8b11
You want to know another insane bill that’s being passed? Apparently there’s a conspiracy theory being floated about that’s suggesting that vaccines could be put into a head of lettuce. Which, there’s absolutely zero evidence of this happening anywhere in the country or the world. But apparently in Tennessee, because they’ve solved all the important issues, are deciding to go after internet bullshit, because MAGA politicians went to the school of I Did My Own Research, which really isn’t a thing, anywhere. But this probably will get passed in Tennessee, because they’re further right in this country than Florida is. And Bill Lee looks poised to sign it.
A bill that would prohibit vaccines to be put on food has passed the Senate and will be sent to Governor Bill Lee for his signature.
On Thursday, the Tennessee Senate cast the final vote on HB1894, which would add a new definition to the word “drug” in Tennessee Code. HB1894 states drugs are also “food that contains a vaccine or vaccine material.”
The bill was brought in the legislature in response to concerns about scientists putting vaccines in the produce purchased at grocery stores, according to Republicans in the House.
Rep. Scott Cepicky (R-Culleoka) said people at the University of California Riverside (UCR) could “put a vaccine into a head of lettuce.” If they did that, Cepicky said, that would be fine, but the state of Tennessee would treat that vaccine-laden head of lettuce as a drug and not as a food item.
“You would have to get a prescription for that to make sure that we know how much of the lettuce you have to eat based off of your body type so we don’t under-vaccinate you, which leads to the possibility of the efficacy of the drug being compromised, or we overdose you based off how much lettuce is [eaten],” he said during a House committee meeting in February. “All this does is [say] we’re going to classify these types of food sources as pharmaceuticals, so if you want to consume them you would go to your doctor and get a prescription.”
https://www.wate.com/news/politics/tennessee-vaccine-lettuce-bill-heads-to-gov-bill-lees-desk/
On Thursday, the Tennessee Senate cast the final vote on HB1894, which would add a new definition to the word “drug” in Tennessee Code. HB1894 states drugs are also “food that contains a vaccine or vaccine material.”
The bill was brought in the legislature in response to concerns about scientists putting vaccines in the produce purchased at grocery stores, according to Republicans in the House.
Rep. Scott Cepicky (R-Culleoka) said people at the University of California Riverside (UCR) could “put a vaccine into a head of lettuce.” If they did that, Cepicky said, that would be fine, but the state of Tennessee would treat that vaccine-laden head of lettuce as a drug and not as a food item.
“You would have to get a prescription for that to make sure that we know how much of the lettuce you have to eat based off of your body type so we don’t under-vaccinate you, which leads to the possibility of the efficacy of the drug being compromised, or we overdose you based off how much lettuce is [eaten],” he said during a House committee meeting in February. “All this does is [say] we’re going to classify these types of food sources as pharmaceuticals, so if you want to consume them you would go to your doctor and get a prescription.”
https://www.wate.com/news/politics/tennessee-vaccine-lettuce-bill-heads-to-gov-bill-lees-desk/
So you might be asking how did Tennessee get so red? Weren’t they a blue state at one point? Well the answers are yes and no. Yes, Tennessee has Memphis, Knoxville, and Nashville, but in between the major cities, there are a lot of farm communities, and a lot of Fox News viewers. Republicans rode the Glenn Beck inspired Tea Party wave back in the 2010s and they haven’t looked back. Which is why Fox News controls that state, and they also control their governor Bill Lee. Most things that are being passed are things that are talked about on Fox News. And in case you’re wondering if things are getting any better, the answer is no they aren’t. Not only did Tennessee ban drag shows, under the guise of homophobic conspiracy theories about kids and porn, they are also allowing the police to get even more corrupt than they are!
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed legislation this week dissolving independent oversight boards meant to investigate police departments in the state.
The law will replace the community-led boards with "review committees" that will be comprised of members appointed by a mayor. Those members will then only be able to refer complaints to law enforcement internal affairs, according to the Associated Press.
Nashville residents voted to form one of these boards in 2018, a year after the shooting of Jocques Clemmons. The 31-year-old Black man was shot and killed by a white police officer — identified as Joshua Lippert — during a traffic stop, WZTV, a local Nashville Fox affiliate, reported.
Lippert was not charged in connection to the incident after arguing self-defense. Police claimed that when Clemmons fled from the scene, he had a gun in his possession, the Tennessean reported. The decision not to charge Lippert sparked protests in the community, and residents called on local officials to take action.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/tennessee-governor-quietly-signs-law-140338784.html
The law will replace the community-led boards with "review committees" that will be comprised of members appointed by a mayor. Those members will then only be able to refer complaints to law enforcement internal affairs, according to the Associated Press.
Nashville residents voted to form one of these boards in 2018, a year after the shooting of Jocques Clemmons. The 31-year-old Black man was shot and killed by a white police officer — identified as Joshua Lippert — during a traffic stop, WZTV, a local Nashville Fox affiliate, reported.
Lippert was not charged in connection to the incident after arguing self-defense. Police claimed that when Clemmons fled from the scene, he had a gun in his possession, the Tennessean reported. The decision not to charge Lippert sparked protests in the community, and residents called on local officials to take action.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/tennessee-governor-quietly-signs-law-140338784.html
That’s the Fox News pro-MAGA Taliban governor of Tennessee, Bill Lee. Yet another one of the toxic politicians to add to the ever-growing list of:
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[font size="8"]Conspiracy Corner
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Let’s give the wheel a good strong spin, shall? And the wheel lands on……… wait for it… Go directly to jail? NO!!!!!
Wait, I’ve got that Get Out Of Jail Free card! Yes! I’m out! Spin it again! It’s time for Conspiracy Corner!
Welcome back to our segment that attempts to explain the unexplainable, Conspiracy Corner! Of course conspiracies exist when people simply don’t want to read the article past the headlines and just flat out make shit up. We of course are coming to you live from our underground doomsday shelter from deep within the New Mexico badlands. Undisclosed location, of course! Let me just adjust my trusty tin foil hat for maximum government interference. Ah, there we go! They are trying to read yours and my thoughts after all! So this week, with all of the important things going on this country and all of the problems Americans are facing, what does the state of Tennessee decide to do? They decide to ban chemtrails based on baseless internet conspiracy theories. But this is one of those things where the more you dig into it, the weirder it gets. Here’s the thing – the chemtrail conspiracy has been around as long as conspiracy theories have existed. So why now? Well there’s several theories behind this and they’re all insane. Why I do believe I’m getting the vapors!
The “chemtrails” conspiracy theory is enjoying its moment in the clearly visible, not blocked by government-released toxic chemicals, sun, after the Tennessee state senate passed a bill this month targeting the baseless concept.
Legislation banning the “intentional injection, release, or dispersion, by any means, of chemicals, chemical compounds, substances” swept through the Republican-dominated senate, and will now be considered by the Republican-dominated house, before then being weighed by Tennessee’s Republican governor. There is also a movement to pass a similar law in Pennsylvania.
The Tennessee bill, introduced in the senate by Republican Steve Southerland, does not use the term “chemtrails”. The language in the bill, however – there is talk of the government “intentionally dispersing chemicals into the atmosphere” – directly evokes a decades-old conspiracy theory.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/mar/31/chemtrails-tennessee-bill-conspiracy-theory
Legislation banning the “intentional injection, release, or dispersion, by any means, of chemicals, chemical compounds, substances” swept through the Republican-dominated senate, and will now be considered by the Republican-dominated house, before then being weighed by Tennessee’s Republican governor. There is also a movement to pass a similar law in Pennsylvania.
The Tennessee bill, introduced in the senate by Republican Steve Southerland, does not use the term “chemtrails”. The language in the bill, however – there is talk of the government “intentionally dispersing chemicals into the atmosphere” – directly evokes a decades-old conspiracy theory.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/mar/31/chemtrails-tennessee-bill-conspiracy-theory
Seriously, do they not know how insane they sound? Of course they don’t! And do they not know that there’s no such thing as a machine that controls the weather? I mean what is this, Geostorm? Come on, that was a movie and it was regarded as a pretty shitty movie when it was first released. Not to be taken seriously by any stretch of the imagination. But, I digress, my fair audience, that Tennessee is not the only state who’s succumbing to this conspiracy theory nonsense. There’s… *checks notes* 4 states in the United States with legislation to ban chemtrails currently in the works!
Republicans in the Legislature, including Senate assistant minority leader Justin Eichorn, R-Grand Rapids, have introduced legislation (HF4687/SF4630) inspired by the “chemtrails” conspiracy theory.
The bill contains a mishmash of conspiratorial pseudoscience, including references to made-up phenomena like “xenobiotic electromagnetism and fields,” with just enough parroting of actual science to give it a veneer of credibility.
It requires county sheriffs to investigate citizen complaints of “polluting atmospheric activity,” and grants the governor the authority to call up the National Guard and ground any aircraft suspected of spreading pollutants.
To professionals who study and understand atmospheric science, the legislation bears all the hallmarks of the “chemtrails” conspiracy theory, which posits that airplane exhaust is deliberately laced with harmful chemicals for various nefarious purposes, including forced sterilization and mind control.
https://minnesotareformer.com/2024/04/05/minnesota-republicans-introduce-legislation-inspired-by-the-chemtrails-conspiracy-theory/
The bill contains a mishmash of conspiratorial pseudoscience, including references to made-up phenomena like “xenobiotic electromagnetism and fields,” with just enough parroting of actual science to give it a veneer of credibility.
It requires county sheriffs to investigate citizen complaints of “polluting atmospheric activity,” and grants the governor the authority to call up the National Guard and ground any aircraft suspected of spreading pollutants.
To professionals who study and understand atmospheric science, the legislation bears all the hallmarks of the “chemtrails” conspiracy theory, which posits that airplane exhaust is deliberately laced with harmful chemicals for various nefarious purposes, including forced sterilization and mind control.
https://minnesotareformer.com/2024/04/05/minnesota-republicans-introduce-legislation-inspired-by-the-chemtrails-conspiracy-theory/
Yes, Minnesota, the bluest blue state of them all, has people who believe in one of the oldest known conspiracy theories, despite that it’s been debunked more times than you can count! But here’s the thing I want to ask MAGA conspiracy theorists – do you guys know that you cannot modify the weather no matter how much you try? They probably don’t know that! There is one guy who is modifying the weather and that’s Rupert Murdoch! Yes, he’s been doing it through decades of climate change denial, but we’ll save that for another topic. Pennsylvania is another state with a chemtrail ban on the books, seriously WTF!
A state senator who was the 2022 GOP nominee for Pennsylvania governor has proposed legislation to outlaw experimental weather modification techniques falsely associated with the “chemtrail” conspiracy theory.
The false belief that condensation trails left by high flying aircraft are actually trails of chemicals released by the government for nefarious reasons has become conflated with techniques being explored to reduce the amount of solar radiation absorbed by the atmosphere.
In a memo seeking support for his bill, Sen. Doug Mastriano (R-Franklin) said new technology and a proliferation of weather modification patents “owned by a combination of Federal Government Agencies, Non-Governmental Organizations, and large multinational corporations” have brought forward the need to update Pennsylvania’s law.
Mastriano notes the Pennsylvania Constitution guarantees the “right to clean air, pure water, and to the preservation of the natural, scenic, historic and esthetic values of the environment.”
https://penncapital-star.com/energy-environment/mastriano-proposes-bill-to-combat-chemtrails-rooted-in-conspiracy-theory-and-climate-science/ [div]
So you might be asking – where’s this shit coming from? It’s what happens when the Alex Jones wing of the GOP takes office. Well apparently now that the GOP has solved all the world’s important problems like crime, the economy, immigration, poverty… guess there’s nothing left to tackle but insane online tin foil hat nuttery! But in the process of banning chemtrails and weather modding machines, it looks like they could ban most forms of transportation. Yeah trains, planes, boats, whatever the fuck this is… this could be just the beginning!
The false belief that condensation trails left by high flying aircraft are actually trails of chemicals released by the government for nefarious reasons has become conflated with techniques being explored to reduce the amount of solar radiation absorbed by the atmosphere.
In a memo seeking support for his bill, Sen. Doug Mastriano (R-Franklin) said new technology and a proliferation of weather modification patents “owned by a combination of Federal Government Agencies, Non-Governmental Organizations, and large multinational corporations” have brought forward the need to update Pennsylvania’s law.
Mastriano notes the Pennsylvania Constitution guarantees the “right to clean air, pure water, and to the preservation of the natural, scenic, historic and esthetic values of the environment.”
https://penncapital-star.com/energy-environment/mastriano-proposes-bill-to-combat-chemtrails-rooted-in-conspiracy-theory-and-climate-science/ [div]
So you might be asking – where’s this shit coming from? It’s what happens when the Alex Jones wing of the GOP takes office. Well apparently now that the GOP has solved all the world’s important problems like crime, the economy, immigration, poverty… guess there’s nothing left to tackle but insane online tin foil hat nuttery! But in the process of banning chemtrails and weather modding machines, it looks like they could ban most forms of transportation. Yeah trains, planes, boats, whatever the fuck this is… this could be just the beginning!
Pennsylvania State Senator Doug Mastriano made headlines recently when he floated legislation that would ban chemtrails, which aren’t real and only exist in the minds of unhinged conspiracy theorists. His bill wasn’t entirely original, though, as it was modeled after a similar bill that recently passed the state senate in Tennessee. As Substack’s Radical Reports reports, these are far from the only chemtrail bills being introduced around the country, and wouldn’t you know it, the sponsors are all Republicans.
In Rhode Island, State Senator Elaine Morgan introduced SB 2540, which would “prohibit stratospheric aerosol injection (SAI), solar radiation modification (SRM) experimentation, and other hazardous weather engineering activities.” And in Kentucky, State Representative Steve Rawlings introduced HB 506, which would ban “any form of geoengineering activities,” including “intentional manipulation of the environment, through an atmospheric polluting activity, to effect changes to the earth’s atmosphere or surface.”
There’s also Minnesota State Representative Jeff Dotseth’s HB 4687, which would ban “polluting atmospheric activity or use an unmarked or unidentified aircraft or other vehicle or facility.” In New Hampshire, State Representative Jason Gerhard’s HB1700 would outlaw the “intentional release of polluting emissions, including cloud seeding, weather modification, excessive electromagnetic radio frequency, and microwave radiation.” And in South Dakota, State Senator Tom Pischke’s SB 215 would ban the “intentional release of polluting emissions into the atmosphere by cloud seeding, weather modification, excessive electromagnetic radio frequency and microwave radiation.
https://jalopnik.com/chemtrail-bans-introduced-in-7-states-now-that-republic-1851381331
In Rhode Island, State Senator Elaine Morgan introduced SB 2540, which would “prohibit stratospheric aerosol injection (SAI), solar radiation modification (SRM) experimentation, and other hazardous weather engineering activities.” And in Kentucky, State Representative Steve Rawlings introduced HB 506, which would ban “any form of geoengineering activities,” including “intentional manipulation of the environment, through an atmospheric polluting activity, to effect changes to the earth’s atmosphere or surface.”
There’s also Minnesota State Representative Jeff Dotseth’s HB 4687, which would ban “polluting atmospheric activity or use an unmarked or unidentified aircraft or other vehicle or facility.” In New Hampshire, State Representative Jason Gerhard’s HB1700 would outlaw the “intentional release of polluting emissions, including cloud seeding, weather modification, excessive electromagnetic radio frequency, and microwave radiation.” And in South Dakota, State Senator Tom Pischke’s SB 215 would ban the “intentional release of polluting emissions into the atmosphere by cloud seeding, weather modification, excessive electromagnetic radio frequency and microwave radiation.
https://jalopnik.com/chemtrail-bans-introduced-in-7-states-now-that-republic-1851381331
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[font size="8"]I Need A Drink
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Come on… hit the spin cycle! Come on, big bucks! No whammy! Big bucks! No whammy! Big bucks no whammy! Stop! Another Clip Without Context!
Yeah…. That’s why you don’t trust anyone who calls themselves a “prophet”. And really if you have that ability, that’s the guy you’re going with? For the people who claim god should not be mocked, they’re doing it themselves daily! Yeah thank you San Francisco! Spin it again! Hey it’s time for I Need A Drink!
Hey everyone, I don’t know about you, but I could really use a drink!
Of course, you know that the idea behind this segment is that we have some drinks, and while we are drinking, we talk about literally anything in the news as long as it doesn’t relate to politics. Because I don’t know if you’ve been paying attention or not, but there’s a lot of really dark shit in the news right now, so usually we feel the best escape is to belly up to the bar and have a cold one or two and turn off reality for a bit. And don’t worry, my sober brothers and sisters – we got you covered, too! Just grab a glass of your favorite coffee, tea or energy drink and come get wired with us! Only rules we got in this bar – no fighting, no cussing, and no politics. Some mild swearing is allowed, as long as it’s never at someone, only with. This week, the story on the table is Red Lobster. How many people have ever eaten at a Red Lobster? OK a lot of you have! Well, after their latest promotion went absolutely off the rails crazy, Red Lobster might be filing for bankruptcy. So tell me bartender, what goes well with a story about Red Lobster? Shrimp cocktails? With actual booze? Ah I’ll just stick to my usual Jack Daniels mixed with Jack Daniels. I call it the Double Jack. Well, in this country, where Americans love their food – in some cases a little too much, is an all you can eat promotion really the best thing to do? In retrospect, we’re going to say no. But Red Lobster went ahead and did it anyways, and now it’s going to come back to bite them in the ass hard!
Red Lobster is considering a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing, according to news sources.
The restaurant chain is considering filing for bankruptcy amid growing debt, sources with knowledge on the matter told Bloomberg.
The restaurant has been finding it difficult to make money with their current leases and labor costs, and are currently seeking advice from commercial law firm King & Spalding in order to figure out how to restructure to cut costs, the outlet also reported.
The sources said that Red Lobster still hasn’t made a final decision when it comes to whether or not to file for bankruptcy, but noted that it would help the business continue to operate while they figure out their next plan, which may include renegotiating some leases and removing some contracts.
Red Lobster did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
https://people.com/red-lobster-is-considering-bankruptcy-partly-due-to-11-million-loss-from-endless-shrimp-deal-report-8635031
The restaurant chain is considering filing for bankruptcy amid growing debt, sources with knowledge on the matter told Bloomberg.
The restaurant has been finding it difficult to make money with their current leases and labor costs, and are currently seeking advice from commercial law firm King & Spalding in order to figure out how to restructure to cut costs, the outlet also reported.
The sources said that Red Lobster still hasn’t made a final decision when it comes to whether or not to file for bankruptcy, but noted that it would help the business continue to operate while they figure out their next plan, which may include renegotiating some leases and removing some contracts.
Red Lobster did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
https://people.com/red-lobster-is-considering-bankruptcy-partly-due-to-11-million-loss-from-endless-shrimp-deal-report-8635031
So come on, when you’re in dire straits, and you need to bring in income, is an all you can eat promotion really the best idea? Look, I don’t know a lot about restaurant management, but I do know that you’re not exactly going to break even there! But look, we get it – the restaurant industry was totally decimated because of COVID-19 and it’s taken a couple of years to rebuild, and some parts of it may never fully recover. We get that. But when bringing your customers into the restaurant nearly bankrupts you, you probably got to place your failures on something other than the promotion itself.
Seafood restaurant chain Red Lobster is reportedly considering filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after significant financial blows, including an $11 million loss on endless shrimp.
The national restaurant chain, best known for its famous cheddar biscuits and seafood entrees, has been in talks with law firm King & Spalding to discuss Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection that would help it “shed some long-term contracts and renegotiate a swath of leases,” Bloomberg reported Tuesday.
Sources, who were not named, told Bloomberg that while Red Lobster has not decided to file for bankruptcy yet, the move could help the chain continue business operations “while it works on a debt-cutting plan.”
Earlier this year, Thailand-based seafood company Thai Union Group PCL announced its plan to end its investment in Red Lobster following low financial gains in 2023. In a statement, Thai Union Group cited the pandemic, rising interest rates, material and labor costs as some of the major financial hurdles Red Lobster has faced.
https://www.sfgate.com/food/article/red-lobster-considers-filing-bankruptcy-19412558.php
The national restaurant chain, best known for its famous cheddar biscuits and seafood entrees, has been in talks with law firm King & Spalding to discuss Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection that would help it “shed some long-term contracts and renegotiate a swath of leases,” Bloomberg reported Tuesday.
Sources, who were not named, told Bloomberg that while Red Lobster has not decided to file for bankruptcy yet, the move could help the chain continue business operations “while it works on a debt-cutting plan.”
Earlier this year, Thailand-based seafood company Thai Union Group PCL announced its plan to end its investment in Red Lobster following low financial gains in 2023. In a statement, Thai Union Group cited the pandemic, rising interest rates, material and labor costs as some of the major financial hurdles Red Lobster has faced.
https://www.sfgate.com/food/article/red-lobster-considers-filing-bankruptcy-19412558.php
Yeah well… digging deeper, you know we’re seeing this a lot with some really big companies lately – they’re not paying their bills! So what happens when you don’t got no money? Well, as we’re seeing with some major chains and even some large distributors like EVGA, they’re in a very slow free fall and it’s crazy what’s happening right now. At some point we’ll predict that the alarm will be sounded on the financial crisis in this country and around the world. But again, we don’t want to get into politics – no politics at the bar! That’s our one rule here! However, don’t blame the shrimp. Never, ever blame the shrimp.
Red Lobster has seen it's share of struggles since the original Lakeland, Florida, restaurant opened in 1968, and perhaps none have been more imposing than its current situation. After 55+ years in business and more than 700 worldwide locations, the once family-owned enterprise may have reached a tipping point amidst a growing accumulation of unpaid bills. Current owners Thai Union Group are potentially on the road to bankruptcy protection, according to Bloomberg News, with the company receiving debt restructuring advice through the law firm King & Spalding.
Thai Union Group has long been feeling the pinch from economic factors such as labor costs and burdensome leases, but now its creditors are suffering as well. Vendors such as Paint Folks, a commercial painting company who spruced up about 40 Red Lobster locations in 2023, report nonpayment of roughly $500,000 of work, which carried out-of-pocket costs for them personally. They're apparently not the only ones; data from Creditsafe shows an increasing trend of late payments, almost doubling from 26-day delays in January to 48 days behind in March.
It's hardly surprising given Red Lobster's reduced overall sales of 8% in 2023, as reported by Technomic data. By February 2024, Thai Union Group was writing down the equivalent of U.S. $500 million of investment losses tied to its Red Lobster holdings.
Read More: https://www.tastingtable.com/1566794/red-lobster-unpaid-bills/
Thai Union Group has long been feeling the pinch from economic factors such as labor costs and burdensome leases, but now its creditors are suffering as well. Vendors such as Paint Folks, a commercial painting company who spruced up about 40 Red Lobster locations in 2023, report nonpayment of roughly $500,000 of work, which carried out-of-pocket costs for them personally. They're apparently not the only ones; data from Creditsafe shows an increasing trend of late payments, almost doubling from 26-day delays in January to 48 days behind in March.
It's hardly surprising given Red Lobster's reduced overall sales of 8% in 2023, as reported by Technomic data. By February 2024, Thai Union Group was writing down the equivalent of U.S. $500 million of investment losses tied to its Red Lobster holdings.
Read More: https://www.tastingtable.com/1566794/red-lobster-unpaid-bills/
Look we get how business works. It’s no secret that Red Lobster is a large corporation. They have hundreds of restaurants and hundreds of products and a massive supply chain with a huge distribution network. But when you don’t pay your bills, that’s when things go south quickly. So is the great Endless Shrimp Disaster fixable? It’s possible. But it would take a truly massive undoing. But one thing you definitely shouldn’t do – if you’re blaming the shrimp for your losses, maybe… don’t try the same promotion with one of the most expensive meats you can use. You know the old saying – fool me once, shame on you. Fool me, you won’t get fooled again. I heard a guy on TV say that once!
Red Lobster is in trouble. Its solution: all-you-can-eat lobster, just months after an endless shrimp promotion led to deep losses that the company is still trying to dig out of.
In celebration of its annual Lobsterfest, Red Lobster is giving 150 winners an “Endless Lobster Experience,” a two-hour complimentary feast of unlimited lobster, two sides and Cheddar Bay Biscuits.
The Florida-based chain is hardly the first retailer to use these kinds of stunts to get attention. But the Endless Lobster Experience comes at a tumultuous time: Red Lobster reported a record $12.5 million operating loss in the fourth quarter of 2023.
And in January, minority investor Thai Union Group announced its intent to exit Red Lobster, citing a $19 million loss from Red Lobster across the first nine months of 2023. The Covid-19 pandemic, high interest rates, rising costs and industry headwinds ultimately caused Red Lobster to have “negative financial contributions to Thai Union and its shareholders,” said Thiraphong Chansiri, the CEO of Thai Union Group, in a January 16 statement.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/21/business/red-lobster-endless-lobsterfest-price/index.html
In celebration of its annual Lobsterfest, Red Lobster is giving 150 winners an “Endless Lobster Experience,” a two-hour complimentary feast of unlimited lobster, two sides and Cheddar Bay Biscuits.
The Florida-based chain is hardly the first retailer to use these kinds of stunts to get attention. But the Endless Lobster Experience comes at a tumultuous time: Red Lobster reported a record $12.5 million operating loss in the fourth quarter of 2023.
And in January, minority investor Thai Union Group announced its intent to exit Red Lobster, citing a $19 million loss from Red Lobster across the first nine months of 2023. The Covid-19 pandemic, high interest rates, rising costs and industry headwinds ultimately caused Red Lobster to have “negative financial contributions to Thai Union and its shareholders,” said Thiraphong Chansiri, the CEO of Thai Union Group, in a January 16 statement.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/21/business/red-lobster-endless-lobsterfest-price/index.html
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[font size="8"] Stupidest State 2024: Family Values Conference Finals
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Lets’ spin the wheel one last time this week! And it lands on… wait for it… T-SHIRT CANNON! Yeah all of you in the audience are getting our special Top 10 Podcastfest shirt! How awesome is that? We also have some other shirts in the lobby for sale including our Stupidest State 2024 shirt! To make distribution easier, our t-shirt cannon has been upgraded to a t-shirt gatling gun!
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Spin it again! It’s time for Stupidest State 2024!
16 states will enter and only one state will become the new Top 10 Conservative Idiots Stupidest State!
Folks, last week, Texas became the first state in the 2024 Stupidest State contest to punch their ticket to their 4th consecutive Final Four appearance! Could they go all the way? Only one way to find out! This week, it’s the Family Values Conference championships! Heavily favored #1 Alabama is facing a strong challenge from red hot #3 Oklahoma to advance to the Final Four to play Texas for the Layover League championships! We’re live in Denver at the home of the Denver Nuggets, the Ball 1 Arena in Denver, Colorado, with all the exciting action! Let’s go to the floor, shall we?
[font size="4"]Family Values Conference Finals: Alabama Vs Oklahoma [/font]
[font size="4"]Oklahoma [/font]
Oklahoma is a fan favorite in this conference and they were one of the hottest states in the league in the regular season. Perhaps the biggest reason to fear what’s going on in the Sooner State right now is their continuing war on education. Right now, they have a Fox News plant, who’s the state superintendent of Oklahoma schools. And like Florida, for some reason the right wing’s whole “war on woke” bullshit (whatever that is) is rearing its’ ugly head in the Sooner State. But what you need to pay particular attention to is the relation between Ryan Walters – who runs the OK school system, and Chaya Raichik – a professional Twitter / X troll who runs the now infamous account “libsoftiktok” – an account that’s famous for doxing and harassing teachers and doctors over their allegiance to the LGBT, and particularly the T community.
Heading into the 2022 school year, Oklahoma school administrators directed local teachers to remove any books that could cause a student to “feel discomfort, guilt, anguish or any other form of psychological distress on account of his or her race or sex.” This was in accordance with HB 1775, a newly adopted bill prohibiting race and sex discrimination in public schools.
Instead of complying with the mandate, Summer Boismier, then a high school English teacher, chose to cover her classroom bookcases with red butcher paper adorned with the words, “Books the state doesn’t want you to read.” She also posted a QR code for her students to the Brooklyn Public Library’s Books Unbanned project. Reflecting on her choice, Boismier now says, “I understood that doing my job as an educator could cost me my job, but unlike many others in similar positions, I could afford to take such a risk.”
Following Boismier’s choice to protect her students against censorship, Walters took to his official account on the social media platform X to publicly call for the Oklahoma State Board of Education to revoke Boismier’s teaching certificate, claiming that she provided “access to banned and pornographic materials to students.”
At the time, Walters was the state secretary of education. Boismier says she was immediately inundated online with threats of violence. She subsequently sued Walters for defamation, slander, libel and false representation. Her lawsuit is among seven that have been filed against Walters since 2022, when he was electedsuperintendent of public instruction, the state’s chief education officer who advises the Board of Education.
https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2024/04/23/everything-not-ok-oklahoma-public-schools
Instead of complying with the mandate, Summer Boismier, then a high school English teacher, chose to cover her classroom bookcases with red butcher paper adorned with the words, “Books the state doesn’t want you to read.” She also posted a QR code for her students to the Brooklyn Public Library’s Books Unbanned project. Reflecting on her choice, Boismier now says, “I understood that doing my job as an educator could cost me my job, but unlike many others in similar positions, I could afford to take such a risk.”
Following Boismier’s choice to protect her students against censorship, Walters took to his official account on the social media platform X to publicly call for the Oklahoma State Board of Education to revoke Boismier’s teaching certificate, claiming that she provided “access to banned and pornographic materials to students.”
At the time, Walters was the state secretary of education. Boismier says she was immediately inundated online with threats of violence. She subsequently sued Walters for defamation, slander, libel and false representation. Her lawsuit is among seven that have been filed against Walters since 2022, when he was electedsuperintendent of public instruction, the state’s chief education officer who advises the Board of Education.
https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2024/04/23/everything-not-ok-oklahoma-public-schools
Yes that’s a good question! What the hell is wrong with these psychos? You know, that’s got to be a miserable experience – being that hateful and angry to the point where you run for office to make things worse for others based on your hatred. But the good news is that the people of Oklahoma are fighting back against this book banning bullshit. Ever since libsoftiktok got accused of having a hand in the murder of a non-binary student, it seems like people are fighting back against Walters and Fox News for this.
On Wednesday morning, a TUPSA college field rep sent an email to students who RSVP’d to what was advertised as a “town hall.” But the message noted that “Ryan will be giving a 20 to 30-minute speech with questions at the end if time permits.”
“So that’s not a town hall and pretty undemocratic for it to be presented that way,” Farrow told The Daily Beast, adding that TPUSA instead had certain people ask prepared questions.
“We extensively prepared to have a dialogue, but he was unwilling to hear us out,” she said.
That changed protesters' original plans, which included asking researched questions about Ryan’s policies. They weren’t planning on staging any disruption until they learned the “town hall” was actually just a right-wing lecture.
“We have questions about the way that he is operating as state superintendent, because that is taxpayer dollars from all of us,” she said.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/anti-woke-oklahoma-schools-boss-event-labeled-a-pr-stunt/ar-AA1ng9OY
“So that’s not a town hall and pretty undemocratic for it to be presented that way,” Farrow told The Daily Beast, adding that TPUSA instead had certain people ask prepared questions.
“We extensively prepared to have a dialogue, but he was unwilling to hear us out,” she said.
That changed protesters' original plans, which included asking researched questions about Ryan’s policies. They weren’t planning on staging any disruption until they learned the “town hall” was actually just a right-wing lecture.
“We have questions about the way that he is operating as state superintendent, because that is taxpayer dollars from all of us,” she said.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/anti-woke-oklahoma-schools-boss-event-labeled-a-pr-stunt/ar-AA1ng9OY
Again, good question, we don’t know. But in case you’re wondering what an even bigger piece of utter dog shit Ryan Walters is, there was this story out of Oklahoma earlier this year, when a principal of a Tulsa area school was found to have a side gig as a drag queen. Well, given the right wing’s utter hysteria over drag queens, he was practically celebrating. In fact he’s on a warpath aided by Fox News and whatever he calls “god” to rid Oklahoma schools of anything that might, you know, constitute an independent thought free from the MAGA cult. You know, cults hate that sort of thing.
In his first year as head of Oklahoma’s public schools, State Superintendent Ryan Walters has taken on what he describes as “radical leftists” indoctrinating students. He has sought to ban certain books from school libraries and gone after efforts to promote diversity, equity and inclusion in the classroom.
Now, the Republican who has fully embraced so-called culture war issues has a new target in his sights: Tulsa Public Schools, which is Oklahoma’s largest school district and has a student body of more than 33,000 students, nearly 80% of whom aren’t white. It’s a notable shift for Walters to move beyond conservative rhetoric by taking substantive action against a district viewed as more liberal, and it mirrors takeover actions by leaders in other Republican-led states such as Texas that Democrats see as driven by politics.
While every other Oklahoma school district had its accreditation routinely approved by the state school board last month, Walters singled out Tulsa’s for a separate review, castigating the district as failing its students because of poor performance on standardized tests and a recent embezzlement scandal, and saying publicly that “all possible actions” were being considered, including the revocation of the district’s accreditation.
https://apnews.com/article/oklahoma-tulsa-public-schools-culture-war-ec7e4e279be125fb0cae5d2113f5f71f
Now, the Republican who has fully embraced so-called culture war issues has a new target in his sights: Tulsa Public Schools, which is Oklahoma’s largest school district and has a student body of more than 33,000 students, nearly 80% of whom aren’t white. It’s a notable shift for Walters to move beyond conservative rhetoric by taking substantive action against a district viewed as more liberal, and it mirrors takeover actions by leaders in other Republican-led states such as Texas that Democrats see as driven by politics.
While every other Oklahoma school district had its accreditation routinely approved by the state school board last month, Walters singled out Tulsa’s for a separate review, castigating the district as failing its students because of poor performance on standardized tests and a recent embezzlement scandal, and saying publicly that “all possible actions” were being considered, including the revocation of the district’s accreditation.
https://apnews.com/article/oklahoma-tulsa-public-schools-culture-war-ec7e4e279be125fb0cae5d2113f5f71f
[font size="4"]Alabama [/font]
The Yellowhammer State is always a favorite in this conference. But this year, they absolutely dominated the competition and shocked the pundits, fans and detractors. Why? Since the 2020 death of celebrated SCOTUS justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and the devastating 2022 overturning of Roe V Wade, Alabama delivered one of the most shocking, controversial and absolutely batshit crazy, completely off the rails rulings on abortion. But you know what that ruling really did? It showed how insane the anti-abortion movement has become and what their long-term end game is on it. They’re not stopping at simply outlawing abortion. They want to outlaw anything having to do with sex other than for creating new babies.
The long arm of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization recently grasped another area of reproductive health care: in vitro fertilization (IVF).
On February 16, 2024, the Alabama state Supreme Court issued a first-of-its-kind decision that overruled a lower court’s dismissal and held that stored embryos are afforded the same legal protection as children under the state’s Wrongful Death of a Minor Act of 1872. The practical impact of the decision is that it allows legal action to be taken against medical professionals performing in vitro fertilization, which involves a series of medical procedures that can potentially lead to a pregnancy. The decision sparked outrage across the country. That outrage encouraged the Alabama Legislature to pass a bill that is narrow in scope to protect IVF providers from civil and criminal liability for embryo loss or damage during IVF treatments. On March 7, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey (R) signed the legislation into law.
https://www.americanprogress.org/article/how-the-alabama-ivf-ruling-is-connected-to-upcoming-supreme-court-cases-on-abortion/
On February 16, 2024, the Alabama state Supreme Court issued a first-of-its-kind decision that overruled a lower court’s dismissal and held that stored embryos are afforded the same legal protection as children under the state’s Wrongful Death of a Minor Act of 1872. The practical impact of the decision is that it allows legal action to be taken against medical professionals performing in vitro fertilization, which involves a series of medical procedures that can potentially lead to a pregnancy. The decision sparked outrage across the country. That outrage encouraged the Alabama Legislature to pass a bill that is narrow in scope to protect IVF providers from civil and criminal liability for embryo loss or damage during IVF treatments. On March 7, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey (R) signed the legislation into law.
https://www.americanprogress.org/article/how-the-alabama-ivf-ruling-is-connected-to-upcoming-supreme-court-cases-on-abortion/
And of course, like most of the reason why we can’t have nice things in this country, this once again is tied to right wing hysteria. It’s also a classic cause and effect. Like this wouldn’t have even been considered had Roe V. Wade been in effect. But nope, the worst president in American history got three SCOTUS justices out of it, which is what the right wing wanted in the first place. And we really hope they sleep easier with their ill gotten gains, knowing that they are destroying the country for partisan bullshit, we really do.
An Alabama Supreme Court ruling that decided frozen embryos are children, and those who destroy them can be held liable for wrongful death, shows a new way in which the overturning of Roe v. Wade can affect how embryos are viewed under certain state laws.
The ruling, released this month, stems from two lawsuits in which three sets of parents who underwent in-vitro fertilization (IVF) allege that several frozen embryos at a Mobile hospital were dropped on the floor and destroyed in December 2020. The parents sued for damages. A trial court originally dismissed their claims, finding that the embryos were not people, but the state Supreme Court ruling, reversing that decision, said that the destruction of the embryos falls under the state’s Wrongful Death of a Minor law.
That decision is the first known case in which a US court has ruled that frozen embryos are human beings. But several separate actions have led up to that decision, creating an unprecedented foundation for the ruling to take place – with the most significant being the US Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade in 2022.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/24/health/alabama-ivf-roe-v-wade/index.html
The ruling, released this month, stems from two lawsuits in which three sets of parents who underwent in-vitro fertilization (IVF) allege that several frozen embryos at a Mobile hospital were dropped on the floor and destroyed in December 2020. The parents sued for damages. A trial court originally dismissed their claims, finding that the embryos were not people, but the state Supreme Court ruling, reversing that decision, said that the destruction of the embryos falls under the state’s Wrongful Death of a Minor law.
That decision is the first known case in which a US court has ruled that frozen embryos are human beings. But several separate actions have led up to that decision, creating an unprecedented foundation for the ruling to take place – with the most significant being the US Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade in 2022.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/24/health/alabama-ivf-roe-v-wade/index.html
There is some good news though is that we hope that cooler heads will be prevailing in this fight, because they will. Just like the Ukraine funding bill, we got to take it one victory at a time. Thankfully there are people in the Democratic party like California governor Gavin Newsom, who are going to places where a lot of democrats would fear to tread. We definitely need more people in the Democratic party like Gov. Newsom, and we need people to start calling out conservative BS before it’s too late, come on save yourselves!
In Gov. Gavin Newsom’s new political advertisement, two anxious young women in an SUV drive toward the Alabama state line.
The passenger says she thinks they’re going to make it, before a siren blares and the flashing lights of a police car appear in the rearview mirror.
“Miss,” a police officer who approaches the window says to the panicked driver, “I’m gonna need you to step out of the vehicle and take a pregnancy test.”
The fictional video is the latest in a series of visceral advertisements the California governor has aired in other states to call out a conservative campaign to walk back reproductive rights since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the nationwide right to abortion two years ago.
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-04-21/newsom-calls-out-gop-abortion-policies-in-alabama-ad
The passenger says she thinks they’re going to make it, before a siren blares and the flashing lights of a police car appear in the rearview mirror.
“Miss,” a police officer who approaches the window says to the panicked driver, “I’m gonna need you to step out of the vehicle and take a pregnancy test.”
The fictional video is the latest in a series of visceral advertisements the California governor has aired in other states to call out a conservative campaign to walk back reproductive rights since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the nationwide right to abortion two years ago.
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-04-21/newsom-calls-out-gop-abortion-policies-in-alabama-ad
[font size="4"]And The Winner Is: [/font]
Wow, what a game we have going here folks! It’s tied going into the last minute of the game, Oklahoma has the ball. Score is 91 - 91. Timeout called by Alabama. Alabama now has the ball and they’re going to force a foul. Ooh, denied! Oklahoma now has the ball, 15 seconds left… for three… IT’S IN!!!! Holy cow, do you believe in miracles? Oklahoma sinks Alabama, they are going on to their first Final Four in state history! They are celebrating on the court! The Alabama fans are stunned! Cut that net, guys! You earned it! Final score 94 – 91! What a game!
[font size="4"]Next Week: [/font]
It’s Round 2 Week 3 which means it’s the Batshit Conference finals! It’s one of the most controversial matchups of the tournament so far as #2 Arizona, which eliminated winner #1 Florida from the competition due to the cheating scandal, is facing a strong challenge from #3 Louisiana! We’re live at the home of the San Antonio Spurs, the Frost Bank Center, in San Antonio, Texas for all the action! The Final Four is shaping up!
[font size="4"]And Now This: [/font]
[font size="4"]KMFDM[/font]
Folks, my next guest has a great new album called Let Go, you can see them on tour through the end of May, check kmfdm.com for tour dates. Playing their song called “Push!”, give it up for KMFDM!
Thank you San Francisco! This was fun, great to be back at SF Podcastfest! We’re off to Tallahassee next as part of our Florida makeup shows! See you next week!
Credits
Host: Initech
KMFDM Appears Courtesy Of: Metropolis Records, LLC
Top 10 Conservative Idiots Recorded In Front Of A Live Audience At: Moscone Center Hall 305, San Francisco, CA
Special Thanks To: San Francisco Podcastfest
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
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Initech’s Wardrobe Provided By: JAB Inc.
Wheel Of Corruption By: Studio 1 Stage Props, Burbank, CA
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