Sunday School 1/3/21

Want to play a game? It's called "invite a Republican to your classroom." 

It seems Chuck Todd remembers how much fun it was, and how much praise he got for doing his job and stuff that time back in 2019 when he interviewed Trump-loving Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI). Johnson is notorious for (a) spending a Fourth of July in Moscow, and (b) being a particularly bad interview. Here's an example of the latter from August when Dana Bash made a valiant effort at trying to get him to answer a question.

Today, Todd and Johnson had another go-round. It started with a question on why Johnson is now on "the side of questioning the results of this election." Johnson said he and the others are not acting to "thwart" our democratic process, they're trying to "protect it."

The fact of the matter is that we have an unsustainable state of affairs in this country where we have tens of millions of people that do not view this election result as legitimate. We've just come off of four years where the other side refused to acknowledge the legitimacy of President Trump. And here we are again. And what we're saying is we need transparency. And you do not -- when you're trying to investigate wrongdoing in elections, you don't have very much time. And so what we're suggesting is let's set up a commission, as they did -- I know it's a long time ago, 1877 -- but let's take a look at it, a bipartisan commission, to organize all the allegations -- certainly what I did in my hearing.

Johnson's hearing was "three-and-a-half-hour hearing" in which they "barely scratched the surface." 

Let's put out -- take off the table the ones that have been explained but also acknowledge the problem areas that have not been explained so that we can restore confidence in our election system. This is an unsustainable state of affairs right now. And that's all we're saying is, as long as someone's going to be objecting to this and we're going to be taking a vote, let's propose a solution in terms of, you know, transparency, investigation with a commission.

OK, so, there are obvious differences, that anyone can see, between Trump/Clinton and Trump/Biden, but the Rs love to pretend that what's happening now is the same as what happened then. And they love to ignore the fact that, by his own words and deeds, Trump proved himself to be an illegitimate president, all on his own.

Todd next suggested that by making an allegation of widespread fraud without evidence, and demanding an investigation, Johnson is "the arsonists."

You've started this fire. And now you're saying, "Woah, look at this. Oh my God. All these people believe what we told them," because you didn't have the guts to tell the truth that this election was fair.

Johnson, though, reached back into the history books, saying that the fire started back when Trump took office when "people like Mark Zaid" tweeted "The coup has started. First of many steps. Rebellion and impeachment to follow ultimately."  (Who is Mark Zaid?  I had no idea - had to Google him. He's a DC attorney, it seems, and I can assure you, no one outside the beltway knows - or cares - about his tweets.)

Who else started the fire, according to Johnson? 

This was started when the mainstream media stopped, dropped any pretense of being unbiased and actually chose sides during this election. This fire was started when you completely ignored, for example, our investigation of Hunter Biden. You know, no evidence of wrongdoing there. And now we find out after the election, no, there is a fair amount of evidence to the point that we have a real FBI investigation. So --

And here goes Chuck, wearing his new "I'm interviewing Ron Johnson" tie or something, getting all up in arms about criticism of the media. Chuck is standard font, Johnson is italicized. 

Senator. All right, I've had enough -- It’s the bias of the media -- of hearing this. All right. No, listen. I've had enough of this, too. No, Senator. It is -- It’s the bias in the media that has created a situation -- You've spent, you have spent the last two years -- where Republicans and conservatives do not trust -- No -- the mainstream media. And that is what, that is what has destroyed the credibility of the media and our institutions and really -- Right, no, the destruction of the institutions -- shaken confidence in this election result. So I didn't start this.

Say what you want about media bias, but literally no Republicans and conservatives - at least, not the kind Johnson is talking about - watch the mainstream media. Just ask the president - he'll tell you. He's the one who told them to stop watching Fox and turn to OAN and Newsmax.

Back to the classroom. Todd suggested that Johnson has been "carrying a lot of this crazy conspiratorial water" - blaming Ukraine for election interference, voter fraud, and what not - and he wondered why Johnson was doing it. 

You're not trying to overturn the election, you just said. Are you simply trying to curry favor with constituents of the president? Is that what this is all about, is this a cynical political ploy?

Johnson said he was trying to be "transparent," and he said (as an example of transparency, I guess) that the allegations of voter fraud "kind of fall into three categories."  Todd interrupted to point out that an allegation doesn't mean it happened. And, he said, "you don't get to make these allegations that haven't been proven true."

Here's what I don't understand. You understand how our government was set up. The reason we have a judiciary is because partisans like yourself weren't going to be trusted by the public to decide who won or lost an election. Let me ask you this: Who carried the state of Wisconsin?

Johnson said that Biden won by 20,000 votes, but that "there are also issues in Wisconsin." He said he didn't criticize the Dems back when they were concerned about voting machines, 

But now it's quackery? Now it's conspiracy theory? That's the problem, Chuck. There's a double standard here, and we are not being transparent, and we are dismissing the concerns of tens of millions of Americans. Again, I didn't, I didn’t light this fire.

Cue the Billy Joel song.  The fire was lit years ago, Johnson said, 

And we've destroyed the credibility, you have destroyed the credibility of the news media by your bias. And of course people like James Comey, Andrew McCabe, John Brennan destroyed the credibility of the FBI and our justice system as well. We have an enormous problem in this country. It's unsustainable. And the only way you solve it is with information, and transparency, and hearings, and investigations --

Here comes the sparring again.

So you believe -- It's not quackery -- You believe in -- It's not conspiracy theory ---You believe -- It's what's going to be required. Let me ask you this. Then why didn't you hold hearings about the 9/11 truthers? There's plenty of people who thought 9/11 was an inside job. So you're basically saying is -- I mean, Chuck -- if there's enough people who believe a conspiracy theory -- I could have held hearings on all kinds of things. I held hearings on -- If there's enough people who hold -- what I figured was the most relevant issues -- Are you going to do a -- how about the Moon landing -- And obviously this election -- Are you going to hold hearings on that?

And then he said that, while there are all kinds of things he's like to have hearings on, but that you have to pick your battles.

Right now, we have this election. We've got tens of millions of Americans that think this election was stolen. We need to get the bottom of it. Again, what's explained, we need to explain it, get that off the table. We also have to acknowledge there were some real problems here --

There was another splashy exchange.

You've got to ask yourself, when you tell people a million times that something was stolen or something was fraud and then they believe it, I think you need to look in the mirror and ask yourself why so many people believe this. Well, Chuck, you need to look at your mirror because you carried the Democrats’ water on - Senator Johnson, I've got to go. I appreciate you coming on -- the whole Russian collusion with the Trump campaign hoax -- I’ve let you, I’ve let you say plenty of -- That is what you did in the media. You carried that water for years. You destroyed the credibility of the press -- You can -- Senator Johnson -- not me.

So, what did we learn in today's interview? That, when it comes to interviewing Sen. Johnson, Chuck Todd brings his A-game, and when it comes to everyone else, he brings his "Both Sides Now' game. But I'm just a Sunday School teacher. What do I know?

See you around campus. I'm looking forward to seeing all of the new masks you all got for Christmas and Kwanzaa.

Trump in Transition (v48)

Watching people argue on Twitter about which presidential candidate won more counties - not more votes, more counties - is both comical and disheartening.

The self-proclaimed "proud supporters of the Constitution" seem to believe that counties vote...? And, without irony, they also believe that counties - particularly counties in red states - cheat, make up ballots, and round up dead people to vote against Trump.

The same people believe that wearing a Black Lives Matter t-shirt when observing ballot-counting is both a crime against humanity and indicative of cheating, while wearing a MAGA hat is indicative of patriotism and truthfulness, which is itself untruthful, if the judges who've reviewed the 'evidence' from said 'red heads' are correct.

And, it would seem, many of them apparently think that a mythological Scandinavian sea monster is going to save the Trump presidency. That would appear to be a completely un-American approach, don't you think? An illegal immigrant from a country governed by a monarch swimming in to save the American republic? Stop it.

Donald Trump feeds off the people who idolize him and can't imagine that someone wouldn't; it's impossible for him to believe he is unlikeable. Even in the face of evidence that people dislike him, he denies the possibility.

To sit where he sits - he acts like he's in a booth in the back in the corner in the dark, except he's in the White House, and we can see him - and repeatedly tell us and the world that he won, that he got more votes than Obama!! and more votes than any sitting president ever!!!, and that there's no way anyone could have gotten more votes than him since he got more than anyone before him!!!!! is insane. It's delusional. It's narcissistic.

And, sadly, it's completely consistent with what we have been forced to put up with throughout his presidency. He has not transitioned an inch, not even a hair. He is now who he was then, who he has been and will be forever, except that he was elected president. Once.

He denies my existence, and the existence of millions of people like me, over 81 million of us, who did not vote for him. He denies the existence of people who had the audacity to like someone better, or to dislike his opponent less than they dislike him.

The millions who showed our displeasure, our distaste, our dislike, he cannot or will not comprehend. Our exhaustion, he cannot comprehend. How annoyed we are, how sick we are of his constant self-promoting, the embarrassing tweets, the grifting, the cast of characters by whom he is surrounded, that he foists upon us, that he honors and celebrates, he cannot comprehend.

Equally incomprehensible is that, as he pretends all of this isn't happening, didn't happen, isn't true, he continues to roil the waters in which his devout supporters swim, working them into a frenzy of martial-law supporting, havoc-wreaking, our-country-has-been-stolen fanatics. They are insisting he will be president, he will have his second-term inauguration come January 20th, and they don't care what it takes to make that happen.

• Let's send separate slates of Trump electors. Let's have a nationwide recount - in the states he lost this time that he won last time, because that is the nation, that handful of states. That is the height of the resistance against him, and against which devout rage must be directed.

• Let's have a separate inauguration for him, at noon on January 20, 2021, an online inauguration. It'll be the biggest crowd for any online inauguration in history, it surely will - the zoomiest Zoom call EVER! We'll bring Sean Spicer back, grab him from the studios of Newsmax and have him count all the little faces on the screens to validate the count! Obama never had a zoom inauguration this big - we'll show him, that Muslim race-baiting worst president ever- we'll SHOW HIM!

• Let's fight the acceptance of the Electoral College vote! Let's dispute it on the floor during the Joint Session, and make the Vice President deal with that! (Insert Howard Dean scream here.)

And Trump sits in our house, huddling with the China-loving fraudster Steve Bannon; with the indescribable Sidney Powell, the lawyer who's not his lawyer, but who spends an awful lot of time at the White House lately; with Rudy Giuliani, the lawyer who IS his lawyer but who spends a lot of time telling people that Sidney Powell is nuts; with twice-confessed lying pardoned disgraced General Michael Flynn, and his other usual suspects - RINOS one and all - because these folks are not representative of the majority of Republicans. They cannot be.

Trump and his followers would have you believe that Republicans in charge of elections in red states are RINOS for not declaring him the winner, but they are actually Republicans, sharing their disappointment at the outcome of the election (however misplaced that disappointment is, in my opinion) and at the same time supporting the rule of law and the processes that are in place.

They are being turned on (no, not like that), the Republicans are, by the man they chose, the one they said was a lunatic, unstable, a racist, not like them, not good for the country, a con man, and more. He is turning on them, not just privately, but pitting one against the other, pitting the many against the one, whoever the one is that is drawing Trump's ire at any particular moment.

The majority of Republicans don't have the cojones to put themselves in the Stevie-Rudy-Sidney-Mikey crowd, right? They prefer to cower in the face of these folks. Complicitly, most of them silently, but still cowering, instead of using their precious microphone and camera time talking about what their constituents need, regardless of what Trump wants, or heaven forbid, talking about what the country needs.

And they surely don't have the cojones to stand up to Trump, unless it's on their way out of office. That seems to be the time when courage, and cojones, are found aplenty. (Well, a couple, maybe; not really aplenty. I mean, they're not hanging like ornaments on a tree or anything.)

All of this - the ignorance, the insistence, the convincing, the convicted, the complicit, the true believers, the treasonous - all of this creates a giant, flaming bullseye showing us exactly where we are, and how far we need to go.

We don't need a cult leader, raking in money hand over fist from the faithful. We don't need a grifter, enriching his businesses and his family off the taxpayers. We don't need a liar, a tweeter, a shouter, a screamer, a cranky two-year-old having a temper tantrum.

We surely don't need more people coming to the White House wearing their criminal convictions on their sleeves; we need people who have the courage of their convictions, their principles, their ethics, their love of country.

We don't need a person, we need a plan, for the entire country.

The 'real' transition cannot happen soon enough.

Ranting and Raving (v5): Pandemic Pandemonium

Boy, don't you love a good pandemic and the pandemonium it causes? I sure do. We've got the quote-unquote #fakenewews reporting actual data and actual news and we've got people who don't know the difference between news reporting and opinion columns conflating the two and losing their minds over the WRONG thing when the right thing is sitting right in front of them, and we've got the president reporting #fakenews and his feelings and his #stablegeniousity and the rumblings in his gut and that's what his supporters are hanging on to and EVERYTHING IS GREAT because there are FACTS when the are none and the are LIES when there is truth and those people (yes, I said 'those people') are now promoting #FireFauci on Twitter because the virus-fighting doc who has served not one, not two, not three, not four, not five but SIX six presidents (and no, the best was not saved for last), is doing doctor-talk and science-speak and truth-telling and mostly because he had the audacity to correct the #fakenewspresident, the #Trumpeters are trumpeting that THE DOC HAS TO GO and there's a chance that he will be fired because as we know, the #celebritypresident likes nothing better than bigly good numbers on social media - he's #1 on Facebook and ratings for his daily failed #socialdistancingexercises are through the ROOF! - he has to do what his Keyboard Kops tell him to do especially if #FauxNews aka #TNN (Trump News Network) picks it up and oh by the way, someone apparently told Trump if he #wenttoJared and dragged him out on the rally stage the heat would be off, which it was, and that allowed Trump cover to fire the ICIG who said that the #whistleblower was telling the truth and provided proof that it was (but I digress) so NOW, we have Pence and Jared and Navarro and Gaynor and Adams and SnittySnittyBillBarr (what the hell was HE doing up there?) and people think the GOVERNORS are being childish because they're complaining about not being able to get straight answers???? Dear Lord, this really low bar administration sure can raise the bar on chaos, can't it? (Takes breath and stiff drink) And SPEAKING of the governors, most of whom (all of the Blue State ones for sure) are doing a better job than the point people and the president, some of them (Red State ones for sure) are getting MORE supplies than they request, and they're getting more, MORE THAN ONCE and meanwhile, the governors and the county execs and town supervisors and mayors ('mares' as the president calls them - time for him to take a 'Bare' aspirin or something) are doing one helluva job trying to keep their people safe and not feeding us a boatload of BS from a rotating cast of characters on a stage where social distancing apparently doesn't apply. They tell us what we need to know, and they explain why they're making decisions and yet - AND YET - there's crap like what a semi-local radio host posted, that our Sonofa Gov Andrew Cuomo (I'm very more often not a fan of his, so don't start with me) is apparently doing everything he can to make sure that the folks who are dying from or with the #coronavirus are people who VOTED FOR HIS OPPONENT - I kid you not - because Cuomo said he was going to sign an executive order and have the National Guard take PPE, supplies and yes, probably 500 or so ventilators, maybe less, that are less likely to be needed upstate, or not needed right now, and deliver them downstate where the people are dying in numbers that are horrifying, that are are mind-numbing, that are stomach-turning and somehow we're supposed to get on board with the radiojerk's theory that he's signing our death certificates and committing EXECUTIVE HOMICIDE by working to figure out where people have things that they don't currently need (and may not need for the pandemic) and moving those to the place of greatest need IN THE ENTIRE COUNTRY -- but that's wrong? #WTF is he supposed to do, just let people downstate die? Would that make all of the haters happy? I mean, it's mostly just those immigrants (legal or otherwise) that are getting sick and dying, right? It's not like they're humans who had jobs and families and aspirations and dreams and birthdays and upcoming weddings and family reunions and what not, right? "Those people" that's who they are, right? Because here's the deal (as the radiojerk says all the time), the deal is, the morgues are full, people - FULL - and there are dozens and dozens of refrigerated trucks parked on the streets in NYC stacked high with bodies of the dead and we are anticipating that another 85 TRUCKS are going to be coming to NYC to hold more bodies of the dead and if you think that's happening here where we sit, let's put on our cloth facial coverings and go for a ride and SHOW ME THE BODIES piling up in Buffalo and Syracuse and Rochester and Watertown and Albany and Auburn and Oneonta and Penn Yan and Herkimer and Saratoga and Cortland and Webster and Henderson and Oswego and Cooperstown, show me the trucks full of bodies and convince me that the supplies are better sitting here, just in case, than they are down there where, literally (not just Joe Biden Literally) the bodies are piled high and THEN tell me that if the situation were reversed and it was up here where all those trucks were parked in neighborhoods near our hospitals and the morgues were full and every bed was full and every hallway was full of patients and the parking lots were all full of medical tents, you tell me that you wouldn't want said Homicidal Maniac Executive er, Executioner, sorry to do WHATEVER IT TAKES including sending in the National Guard to get whatever supplies we could get our hands on, for Pete's sake are you even listening to yourselves? And why is it I keep noticing that the same people spitting this stuff, include many Republican politicians,  are the ones echoing the 1,000,000,000% partisan political hack that we have as president telling us we all have to set politics aside and come together and blahdittyblahblahblah because we know he is mentally and morally incapable of doing that - and won't even try, doesn't even care enough for one Pearl Harbor Moment - but because HE says it THEY all say it and wave their flags in our faces? (Takes breath and stiff drink) Could the Sonofa Gov had done this differently? Sure, there's always a better way to do something, and he SHOULD have done it differently, but is he taking every last mask, face shield, pair of gloves and ventilator and wandering through hospitals checking voter registration data on downstate patient bracelets looking to buy one last vote and screw the Republicans who can't find a halfway decent candidate to run for anything in this state - ANYTHING - when he's not up for re-election until 2022? Stop it. Just. Stop. It. Is Cuomo the greatest thing since sliced bread? Of course not: everyone knows that Reese's Peanut Butter Cups are the greatest thing since sliced bread but oh -- by the way-- for the most part, ALL of the governors are doing the same thing, getting supplies from place A in their state and moving them to place B in their state, because what good are the supplies if they're not being used or are likely to not be needed to the same degree as they are needed NOW in other areas? And you know what else? Those other governors are SENDING SUPPLIES TO US and they're sending medical professionals to us, because THEY understand that the place of greatest need is where we need the greatest good, and because they know that New York would do the same for them, under the same circumstances, whether upstate folks like it or not, whether Republicans like it or not and honestly a Republican NY gov (yes we've had them before) would do the same thing, or he'd be called out for not doing the same thing by EXACTLY the same people who are bitching about the Sonofa Gov and you KNOW I'm right. So yes, regular readers, at this moment I'm actually siding with the politicians and yes, there's a chance that a little bit of hell might actually have just frozen over, but have no fear - there's more than enough hatred and fear and ill will to thaw it out pretty darn quickly and now I'm going out in my garden and getting the heck away from all this BS and pulling the weeds I can pull, vs. staying inside trying to pull the ones I can't control. (Takes breath and stiff drink).  Have a nice day. And don't forget to wash your hands.

No Filter? No Problem

Remember back when people on the Right were all upset that conservative topics were not being appropriately included in Facebook's 'trending topics'? Here's a refresher, from back in May:

If you've ever used Facebook, you've noticed the list of trending topics on the vertical navbar along the right side of the page. You may have even clicked one or two of them to see what's happening or why the topic is trending. What you probably didn't know is that Facebook apparently blacklists certain topics from showing up, or certain news outlets from having their coverage seen by Facebook's audience.

The article, which appeared on a conservative website, The Federalist, went on to describe how some of Facebook's "news curators" told people at Gizmodo how their process worked

... and it turns out that Facebook's new coverage isn't based on fancy, unbiased algorithms at all. Nope. Facebook's news service is instead run by people who want to make sure not of that icky right-wing coverage finds its way in front of people's eyeballs...

Including, apparently, protecting all of us poor, incapable-of-making-our-own-news-reading-choices users from sites like The Blaze, WorldStarHipHop (uh, not sure how this fits as an "icky right-wing" kind of thing...?) and Breitbart. The Federalist article uses the example of the (doctored and debunked) Planned Parenthood videos, and ends with this statement.

Facebook's deliberate blacklisting of conservative content and conservative outlets, as revealed by its own news curators in charge of the process, shouldn't come as any surprise. The only thing surprising is why conservatives would trust organizations like Facebook to provide honest and unbiased accounts of what's happening in the world.

Facebook denied the allegations of trending topic censorship, and then a couple of weeks after the Gizmodo report, changed their process, to clarify that topics shouldn't be selected on the basis of "politics or ideology. And because nothing is more important for Congress to address than a social media site being accused of bias against conservative ideology and hip hop guns-and-booty videos, Facebook communicated directly with Senator John Thune, chair of the Senate Commerce Committee, who seemed placated, if not completely satisfied.

The seriousness with which Facebook has treated these allegations and its desire to serve as an open platform for all viewpoints is evident and encouraging and I look forward to the company's actions meeting its public rhetoric.

Facebook eventually decided to fire the humans and let the machines do it. Computer algorithms will identify the topics, and humans will have some limited oversight role, they announced.

But that wasn't good enough, either. Topics appeared in the wrong category (the horror) and a fake story about Megyn Kelly (calling her a traitor, no less) appeared in the navbar. And there was that story about a man and his, um, 'love' for his McChicken sandwich. And apparently, Siri will wash your dishes or something if you buy the new iPhone 8 when it comes out..

Which brings us to where we are now: the day before the 15th anniversary of 9/11, we've got a trending conspiracy theory that the Twin Towers were taken down by bombs planted in the buildings.

Given that conspiracy theorists are prominent members of the "icky right wing" - and, apparently, they're very close to Donald Trump - is there really any surprise that a conspiracy theory would appear as a trend, even one about 9/11?

Nope.

Some of the right wing media folks, and politicians, have been known to say things out loud more than a few times that conservatives really wish they hadn't; Trump's position on punishing women for having abortions was a classic example. The 9/11 article (which has apparently been removed by Facebook) might well be another one.

The icky right wingers are all for outrage when their views and ideology are suppressed; it will be interesting to see how loudly they complain about this situation, when their views are presented front and center for a billion or so users to see.

Wondering, on Wednesday (v29)

A whole lot of wondering about foreign affairs going on tonight.  Here goes:

You remember the big to-do when Israel prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu came to chat with his friends in Congress, without the President being involved, while he was in the middle of a big-time fight to win re-election?  And when he made a sharp turn to the right in the last couple days before the vote, declaring that if he stayed in power there would be no Palestinian state, and suddenly his party came out on top? Well, today he managed to pull together his coalition government by the slightest possible margin - one - just before the deadline. So small a margin, so late in the game, and with so many concessions to those on his right flank, many are wondering how long he'll be able to hold things together. And that has me wondering, if I were a Republican running for President, how interested would I be in seeking out Crying John Boehner's support?

"Oh to be in England," as Robert Browning wrote. No, I'm not talking about the news of the birth of Her Royal Highness Charlotte Elizabeth Diana of Cambridge, the newborn daughter of Wills and Kate. Rather, I'm thinking back and wondering, was it really at the end of March that England's Prime Minister David Cameron announced that the British elections would happen a mere 20-some-odd business days later, on May 7th? Can you even imagine the US having that short an election cycle, instead of the almost two-years-in-advance cycle we have?

And with so many folks already in the race on the Republican side -- 15 declared candidates, according to The Politics and Elections Portal - and another seven on the Dem side - we are almost guaranteed to have more people running for President than Britain has days in the campaign.  I have to wonder, are we really better off? (And yes that's a total of 22 declared candidates so far).

One last thing I'm wondering about that, I think, qualifies as a 'foreign' affair: this happened: Texas Governor Greg Abbott ordered the Texas National Guard to 'monitor' a joint training exercise of the Navy Seals and Green Berets, because, some folks thought, President Obama was going to take over Texas.

Now some of us might think that this is outlandish and out there, but it was so serious that even Walmart had to issue a statement stating that tunnels were not being built under their stores as part of the grand scheme, according to reports. I kid you not.

And I'm left wondering, does anyone doubt that Walmart would almost have to be involved for any takeover of this sort to be successful?

All Our Problems Solved (in One Post)

Politicians make things so much harder than they need to be.

Instead of spending so much time flying back and forth between Washington and their home districts, they should spend more time on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. If they did, they'd have answers to all of our problems.

I mean, check this out.  In only a few minutes, I was able to sketch out the plan below, using information I've seen passed around on the web. Of course, I had to use a little creative thinking to get it all pulled together. But it was really quite easy to go from what's out there to what's in here.

Watch me solve all of our problems, including unemployment; welfare and disability cheating; illegal immigration; money-sucking retired teachers, cops and firefighters; our lousy educational system; increased revenue and lower taxes; and gun control, in one fell swoop:

First, take all of the unemployed government workers (including the union members who destroyed our country) that are now sucking the life out of us on unemployment, and get them whipped back into shape.  After they are re-energized, they will be responsible for rounding up anyone receiving any welfare-type benefit including subsidized housing, WIC, food stamps, Medicaid, or similar benefit.

The former government workers go out and round up everyone on welfare, and we immediately confiscate the all of the creature comforts those scumbags got with our tax dollars. Cars, smart phones, clothes, gold jewelry, gold teeth, guns. giant TVs -- the whole nine. Take the steak and lobster right out of their refrigerators, dammit!

Everyone rounded up will undergo a physical and mental health exam to determine any limitation to them working. If they truly can't work, they get put on disability.

Those with no limitations other than laziness go to a medium security 'shock camp', (high walls and razor wire required) with a bunch of crazy retired military drill sergeants running the show, who will teach the deadbeats the skills they need so they can to work. You know, things like how to get up on time each morning; do simple chores; how to listen to and respect authority; how to dress like a normal human being; and how to speak basic English. They will take daily drug tests too. This will help grow medical labs and makers of little plastic cups, which will then become vital businesses for our growing global economy. 

The growth in privately owned and operated medium-security shock camps (for a second there, I almost said 'prisons') will also be good for our growing global economy.  It may put some government prisons out of business, but that's also good, because we want smaller, non-unionized government and lower taxes. It will also cut hundreds and hundreds of pages of now unnecessary federal and state regulations, because we don't need the government sticking their nose in our private businesses or making it harder for businesses to be successful.

The welfare women will be sterilized and the men vasectomized, so there's no chance for them to have more babies to get more benefits. This growth in anti-reproductive procedures is good for our gynecologists and surgeons, and our medical records business, and it will wipe out the need for abortion and those complicated vaginal ultrasound procedures that are so costly to administer. The intrusive ultrasound business will take a hit, but that's OK. I'm sure there's other stuff for them to probe buried somewhere in the 3,000,000 regulations that are included in President Obama's health care reform legislation.

The benefits these lazy bastards were getting will now go directly to the shock camp folks, for administrative costs including feeding everyone three square meals of nutritious grains, vegetables, and fruit each day. No soda allowed. No fried food allowed. No candy allowed. No cable TV, alcohol, tobacco, firearms or lottery tickets allowed. Certainly no drugs for Low-T, which if used could make people aggressive. We don't want aggressive, we just want people who know how to get out of bed and go to work.

If the welfare folks have kids, we'll put them to work doing age-appropriate tasks. These kids won't go to school, won't get anything other than skills training, because formal schooling is only allowed for the children of tax-paying people.

We'll need a boatload of accountants and investigators to keep track of all the government money flowing into the new growth businesses, so we'll be able to re-employ all of the skilled, over-50 workers who can't find jobs, and make them productive again. Which will raise revenue; and when that happens, we can lower taxes for the rich people, like the prison owners and the little plastic cup makers, and that will also be good for our economy and our American psyche. 

Next, we need to round up everyone collecting disability; they'll have a physical to find out of there's any kind of work they can do. If they are able to work they go to the shock camp for daily training up to their capacity. For example, 50% disabled, then 50% of their time is in the shock camp. The rest of time, and 100% of the time for those who are totally disabled, they spend in specially designed group homes. These folks will also take a daily drug test, get three square welfare-style meals a day, and only have amenities (cable, alcohol, tobacco, firearms, lottery tickets, fried food, soda, candy and sex) available equal to their percentage of non-disability. Benefit payments continue, but they all go to the group home.

The group home industry now becomes a large and growing part of our new global economy. They'll need some low-paid employees to do menial tasks, of course, but more than that they'll need team leaders and counselors and therapists and stuff like that. There are thousands of new college grads living in basements all across the country, most with tens of thousands of dollars of debt who would probably jump at the chance to work at one of these homes. I'm thinking especially those with worthless liberal arts or education degrees. So, not only do we get control of the disabled, but we put all those snot-nosed college brats to work, and get them paying taxes and paying off their debt to the rest of us. 

Now, we need to take all of the retired police officers and firefighters, who usually start grabbing their taxpayer-funded pensions around the ripe old age of 45, get them off their lazy asses and have them go out and round up all of the people who look like immigrants.  Well, not all immigrants, just the ones who look Muslim or Hispanic. 

(No need to worry about the Asians, Indians, or Pakistanis, as they're all smarter than the rest of immigrants, and we need them to become doctors, engineers, etc. because regular Americans aren't smart enough because our education system sucks. And we also need the nail salons, Chinese restaurants, Arab corner markets and cheap hotels, Chinese laundries and so on which are run by the second-tier Asian, Indian and Pakistanis. They're not smart enough to become doctors and engineers, but they're really industrious running small businesses. And we all know now that small businesses are the backbone of our new global economy.)

After we round up everyone who's not like us, who doesn't make us look nice, or who doesn't sell us Big Gulps, we send the welfare and partially disabled out into the workforce, replacing the immigrants. Planting and picking food. Cleaning bathrooms at state fairs, office buildings, and hotels. Gardening and landscaping. Washing dishes. Working in laundries. Being day laborers.  Yes, the invisible jobs that were done by invisible people will now be done by our welfare scumbags and disability cheaters. Which is as it should be. And, all the trouble employers used to have to go through to make sure they were not employing illegals will be a thing of the past, because low-life Americans will be doing those jobs.  And once that happens, we slowly wean them off their welfare benefits. Say, in 24 hours or so.  That seems fair, right? We stop paying, and they start paying!

So all Muslims and Hispanic looking folks we rounded up, we put them into the shock camp, where they will wander along the path to citizenship for years and years.  And where did that path to citizenship come from, you ask?  We had the welfare people build it when they were in the shock camps.  Pretty neat, huh?

And when the Muslims and Hispanics write home to family -- we will make them do that, in between drug tests and Bible-reading-- they'll be able to tell everyone that they're on the path to citizenship, but that it's a winding path inside prison walls with razor wire on top, and clearly that will discourage folks from coming here illegally (or otherwise).

We still have millions of retirees to deal with - the ones just sitting around collecting their pensions and Social Security. Since many of them are retired teachers, who sucked us dry when they were working their part-time jobs for full time pay and now they have these exorbitant pensions and benefits, we should put these folks to work teaching skills to the welfare kids (that's a great thing for the retired art teachers to do), or teaching basic English to folks in the shock camps. Simple things that will make them feel better, and keep their minds sharp.

OK, so who's left? Oh, that's right. The good immigrants, the smart immigrants. The ones who get those coveted American diplomas where we staple their green cards.

Once the good immigrants are officially doctors, engineers, scientists, etc. and have their green cards, they will be required to spend five hours a week administering the citizenship test to current US citizens - starting with federal politicians, then rich idiots like Donald Trump, then everyone in state elected office, then all of the local elected officials, then government appointees, then regular government workers, and then eventually the regular folks like minimum wage earners and bloggers.  This'll certainly separate the wheat from the chaff, don't you think?

The test is essential; we need to make sure that those of us who are already taking part in the American dream are actually qualified to receive our God-given rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And gun ownership and abortion and free contraception and marriage between one man and one woman -- all of which fall in the LLATPOH buckets. And because of course, mandatory testing is a critical component of our new global economy. Just ask any school-aged child.

Those Americans who pass the test are free to continue on their merry way. And they get some of the spoils from the welfare round-up -- jewelry, cars, gold teeth, smart phones, guns, all that yummy steak and lobster, the large-screen TVs...

But if you fail the test, well, things are going to change for you really quick. Because the last thing we need is a bunch of idiots wandering around who think they know what America stands for, but who can't prove it. We need to keep America safe from those people.  We surely can't have them holding jobs and guns and Viagra and cigarettes and beers and Bibles and having sex with only one man and one woman for the purposes of procreating and furthering our American values. And voting, for cripes' sake. We sure as hell can't have them vote.

Since so many of the people who will fail the citizenship test come from families that have been here for generations, we can't send them back to their country of origin. Well, except the African-Americans. They can all go back to Africa. 

That larger population of white, non-Hispanic origin, the ones who have come up through the sucky American education system?  Well, since we can't send them back, off to the shock camps they go. 

See? All our problems solved.

What Scares You More?

The bombs that went off near the finish line at the Boston marathon, or the people who believe that the government did it?  For me, it's the latter - definitely.

I've written before about rabid Palinites who believe that President Obama killed a Navy Seal. But I've never invested a whole lot of energy into conspiracy theories.  I try not to quickly judge people, and admit that I could be better at that than I am today. But in all honesty,  I don't have any use for people who actually believe, or pretend to believe, that our government is running around willy-nilly killing Americans in order to push an agenda.

Particularly when the person who's considered the "killer in chief "is the only one of our elected federal officials who has a term limit and who must get his agenda past Congress.  The idea of him being the one to put this kind of action into motion is beyond absurd.  But he must be the one, because it's all over the Internet, right?

Here's a sampling from comments on various articles at infowars.com, one of the strangest web sites I've ever visited.

I believe this is a “false flag” The end goal to me would be the need for Martial Law. It is tragic that we have such a low stooping government. But ‘rightwing” as Obama and his cronies like to say have more patriotic sense in one little toe, than Obama does in his entire body. This also giving an opportunity to cast doubt or blacken the name of republican conservatives.

If it were Tea Partiers, they would not attack innocents, they would go after politicians and they won’t miss and won’t cause that kind of collateral damage. The fact that it was at an event like this eliminates them as a possibility and certainly implicates the government. Qui Bono? How would this benefit any right wing group or Tea Party? It does benefit the police state. Don’t be fooled folks. 

A supernatural prophetic warning appeared in the BOSTON GLOBE in 2001, a pix of Tom Ridge & George W Bush in front of a flag and what appeared was not an American flag but a swastika - a warning about the fascist spirit behind DHS (that's the Department of Homeland Security) and also that 911 was a FALSE FLAG. Both 911 and this bombing were psy ops to traumatize the public to bring in martial law...BUT I predict there will be a new revolution against this martial law starting in Boston. This happened on TAX DAY - and the Boston Tea Party started the American Revolution against an unfair British Tax, in Boston with Paul Revere's Ride...Also the Illuminati social engineers who want martial law are trying to label patriots as terrorists - they have been doing it -- this bombing happened on PATRIOTS DAY - so it is a psy op to conflate in the public's mind the word PATRIOT with Terrorist - to mind control them to support this slander.  

And there's this, from NaturalNews.com, a site I've never visited before:

The bottom line in all this is that the mainstream media has already decided who's guilty for everything bad that happens in America. It's right-wingers...gun owners...white people...patriots...veterans...conservatives. Sure, there's no logic to it, but the leftist media doesn't operate from logic. It simply picks a group to vilify and goes on the attack. Somehow, they will find a way to blame patriots for the bombings, even it means fabricating evidence and ignoring reality. If for some reason they can't blame patriots because overwhelming evidence points to a foreign terror cell, they will still exploit the tragedy to call for DHS agents on the streets of America, with police state security at every sporting even from here forward. When it comes to the rise of tyranny, the left is blind. They literally can't see it unfolding right before their eyes. In their minds, there's never enough "security" and there's always too many "rights" in America. Their utopia is an Orwellian 1984 military police state where everyone is kept safe because the entire country is transformed into a "Constitution-free zone" where TSA agents reach down your pants and no citizens are allowed to own weapons of any kind. 

And that's from the article, not the comments. Here are some of those:

...actually I refuse to live in fear. Fear is a tactic used by governmental terrorist control freaks to break the American spirit and force us to cry TAKE AWAY OUR RIGHTS, PLEASE MR. PRESIDENT! If you think Pearl Harbor, 9/11, Aurora, Sandy Hook and now Boston happened without prior knowledge of or direct involvement with the US government, you need to turn Off fox and CNN and stop drinking fluoridated water. Wake up fellow American, Obama is NOT your daddy.

Someone that is not in tune to certain manipulative tactics would just think it is a coincidence. I have also observed that multiple times (coincidence or not) when some false flag attacks happen there seems to be a drill of the same scenario going on in the vicinity that the false flag occurs. 9/11(NORAD Drill) and Sandy Hook(safety drill) to name a few. I see people focusing on the fact, that bomb squads and bomb sniffing dogs are always used at the Boston Marathon(since 9/11). That may be a fact, on the other hand "Drills" being performed on the same day of the event seems to be an ongoing "coincidence". Drills should be performed to their fullest extent prior to and leading up to the specific events so that at the time of the event the parties involved(law enforcement, military etc.) can be on alert and ready to go.  What happened yesterday was a tragedy. Unfortunately these events will continue because they are needed to push a certain agenda. One of them being "National Security", which has become a multi billion-dollar industry. That comment will not sit right with a lot of people but it is a seed that needs to planted. 

And then there's this: all the news you can imagine about how the Sandy Hook killings were orchestrated by the government and the media, or didn't exist or whatever...

Sadly, these people are not alone. In a recent press release, Public Policy Polling offered these delightful statistics:

• 29% believe aliens exist; 
• 28% believe in a secret power elite looking to create a new world order;
• 20% of Republicans, 13% of Independents and 6% of Democrats think Obama is the Anti-Christ;
• 7% think the moon landing was a fake;
• 6% of voters think Osama bin Laden is alive;
• 5% think that Paul McCartney died back in 1966;
• 4% think shape-shifting reptilians in human form control our world.

No, these folks will never be alone.  And if I can possibly help it, I'll never be alone with any of them.

Obama kills Navy SEAL.

Retired Navy SEAL and author Chris Kyle was killed Saturday at a Texas shooting range by another former soldier, Eddie Ray Routh, who reportedly suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Until this morning, I I had never heard of Chris Kyle, never heard of his storied military career, never heard of his book, "American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in US Military History" and didn't know that he had over 150 confirmed kills.  Highly decorated (two Silver Stars and five Bronze Stars with Valor), after leaving the military Kyle formed Craft International (a security training company) and helped start the FITCO Cares Foundation to help fellow former service men and women who suffer (ironically) from PTSD.  He also apparently was one of the favorites on the TV show "Stars Earn Stripes" (which I didn't watch).

I learned about Chris Kyle this morning when a friend shared Sarah Palin's Facebook post on his passing. Here's her heartfelt post, which at the time I read it this morning had around 41,000 likes and now has over 77,000:

Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family and many friends of former Navy SEAL Chris Kyle tonight. Todd and I first met Chris in Pella, Iowa, when he helped out with security for the premiere of the film "The Undefeated."  And later we became friends with Chris when he was on "Stars Earn Stripes" with Todd.  Chris was a wonderful man, a good friend, and a true American hero who loved our country and served honorably.  He was loved and admired by so many, and he will never be forgotten. -Todd and Sarah Palin 

There was nothing political in Palin's comments. Not so, however, some of the comments posted in response. There are apparently a number of people who are convinced that Kyle's murder was a government action, ordered by President Obama (and his faithful sidekick Hillary Clinton).

I'm going to protect the people who made these comments, but you can see them for yourself on Palin's page.  There were a whole mess of general conspiracy theory posts, and then there were these specific to Obama and Clinton:

Obama minions at work they are prepping us. Tell us about all the military actions across the U.S in cities. It's coming!

And he was murdered by a President and Secretary of State.

Someone needs to check into whether this was a hit from the Obama administration. Sounds like Chicago to me. 

I agree I wouldn't be surprised if Obama's administration had something to do with it.

Probably one of Obama's Islam hit men. 

I feel this is a conspiracy by the Obama administration.

I agree Obummer had his hands on this somewhere.

Do we have another Whitewater scam going on here?  

Some folks went a little more into the weeds with their comments, men (and women) offering these gems for our consideration: 

We need an investigation into these executions of so many anti-Obama Patriots. Breitbart, Noveske, gun shop owner of FPSRussia, and now Kyle.  

I'm proud of all the soldiers past and present and future they stand for what this country is and OBAMA is ruining it which is I feel all these deaths of these soldiers are all because of him if he ain't behind it he knows something about it or its because of what he is doing to our country we as AMERICANS need to stand up and fight together just as our military does to get this so-called president out of our country where he belongs. 

Governor Palin, you seem to be the only one with balls in this pussified nation anymore. The SEALS are being murdered and I believe it has to do with the fake Bin Laden job and Obama and Clinton are behind it.  

Our Navy SEALS are being murdered, who do you think has ordered these murders? I am sick to think that our own government is probably behind these events. Think about how many have been killed and how many generals are being relieved of their duty. We need answers.  

I agree...sounds like another planned killing from the Feds...too many people getting killed lately.  Makes me wonder if Sandy Hook and that movie theater was in that planned killing from the Feds to have everyone agree with them to eliminate our guns.

I'm not so sure this was accidental. He was heavy against the government and they are really digging in on those who speak against the current administration. Just sayin.

His family deserves to know who the shooter met with prior to the incident and his political affiliations.  Too many SEALS are being eliminated.  

As I stated on a veteran's site, sounds like a set up to me with this Gun Ban issue. A top lethal sniper just killed on a Saturday practice at a Gun Range... Come ON.

Clearly this man along with other outspoken Americans have been gunned down in the last two months. What are YOU and the rest of the Tea Party going to do. ENOUGH already...take a real stand...call for action Sarah PLEASE.  The American people need someone to bite the bullet and stop what we all know is going on.

His death is very suspicious with the very timely opening of the movie just out...smells like a hit to me and our government is not above doing just that. The truth will probably never come out.  

Right. "The truth will probably never come out." Nor will a statement from me announcing I understand what the hell these people are thinking.