Have I mentioned Matt Gaetz paid underage hookers?
Because Matt Gaetz paid underage hooker.
All the MAGA bleating about pedophiles is raw, steamy projection.
Former US House Rep Matt Gaetz has been nominated by Trump to be Attorney General despite not being qualified and despite showing sex videos on the floor of Congress -- sex videos of himself with women and girls. Matt stepped down from Congress this week. Because of the nomination? No.
Because the House Ethics Committee was about to release their report on their investigation into Gaetz and sex trafficking and drugs and sex with minors. So CNN reports that Joel Leppard went public today with the fact that his client testified to the House Ethics Committee that, while she was underage, Gaetz took her to a party, drinking, assault. Note this from the article:
Asked Friday about the testimony, first reported on by ABC News, a spokesperson for Gaetz told CNN that “Merrick Garland’s DOJ cleared Matt Gaetz and didn’t charge him.”
Did he ever do a damn thing?
I wasn't impressed with him before Trump became president. In fact, I was shocked that some so useless and wishy washy was being nominated for the Supreme Court by Barack Obama.
Apparently as a consolation prize, Joe Biden had to make Merrick the Attorney General.
And we suffered. Donald Trump did not face the prosecutions he should have. Merrick did nothing. Just like he did nothing on Matt Gaetz.
He is a f**king idiot and he's the idiot of the week and if you're angry about the election results -- I am -- let history record that at every money when the legal nets should have closed around these crooks, Merrick prevented it from happening.
He didn't do his job and he betrayed us and he betrayed America.
He is the idiot of the week.
By the way, dump Twitter and get on Threads or BlueSky. I'm using C.I.'s BlueSky right now to see how I like it.
Friday, November 15, 2024. Donald Trump wants to make America a
s**thole country, as many do the right thing and leave Twitter note that
racist Katrina vanden Heuvel feels perfectly at home there, Tulsi
Gabbard is a threat to national security, and much more.
Trashy Garbage aka Tulsi Gabbard. Donald Trump wants to make her the Director of National Intelligence. Let's note this:
Catholics Against Cults
As
Catholics in THE COMMON ILLS community, we lodge a strong objection to
the notion that two term Congress woman Tulsi Gabbard is qualified to be
the next Director of National Intelligence.
We
are troubled by her reported appearance on a governmental watch list
and that this resulted from members of the National Guard complaining
about her priorities being something other than the United States.
We are troubled by her conspiracy theories that can be found all over her Twitter feed.
We
are troubled by her cozying up to Bashar al-Assad, the butcher of
Syria. She met face-to-face with him when he was designated as an enemy
of the United States. That would concern us less if she were an
individual member of Congress currently. But someone who wants to be
the Director of National Intelligence is not someone who should be
making her own self-determined 'diplomatic' missions with someone the US
is at war with.
The
former congresswoman has also been dogged by her long-standing ties to
the Science of Identity Foundation and its founder, Chris Butler. The
Science of Identity Foundation is an offshoot of Hare Krishna that
former members have described as a cult.
Within
minutes of the announcement of Gabbard’s nomination, national media
outlets like CNN predicted that her selection and the choice of Florida
Rep. Matt Gaetz to be U.S. attorney general would set up major confirmation fights.
The position Trump nominated her for, director of national intelligence,
requires Senate confirmation. The director leads the U.S. intelligence
community, which oversees and directs implementation of the National
Intelligence Program.
There are more
than enough problems with Tulsi Gabbard. But when Donald I'm A
Christian Trump thinks he can get away with installing a member of a
cult as our Director of National Intelligence, we object. And we think
many Christians would join us in that objection. We realize, as well,
that the cult objects to Islam and would argue that if the Jill Stein
Freaks could buy a clue, even people in Hamtramck and Deerfield would
object to the nomination as well (though we are aware that this is a
group of people who struggle to ever call Donald Trump out).
Chris Butler, son of a communist anti-war activist, had entered the spiritual counterculture in 1960s, while enrolled at University of Hawaiʻi.[1][2] Soon, he joined the burgeoning Hare-Krishna movement as a guru, taking the name Sai Young, and amassed a group of disciples.[1]
However, after being publicly denounced by Swami Prabhupada, the leading exponent of the movement in U.S.A, Butler initiated under Prabhupada himself, joined the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), and received the name Siddhaswarupananda Paramahamsa.[3][2][4] But
in a few years, their relationship turned sour as he deviated from
ISKCON's ways, choosing to marry and allowing his disciples to keep
their heads unshaved.[3][2] After
the death of Prabhupada in 1977, Butler broke away from ISKCON and
founded SIF, then known as the Hari Nama (lit. Holy Name) Society.[5] Simultaneously, he began to deemphasize ISKCON's rigid adherence to Vaishnava texts and promoted a range of eclectic views.[1][3]
In
1976, SIF's disciples launched a new political party — called the
Independents for Godly Government — presenting themselves as a
"multifaith coalition of conservative-minded reformers", and ran for the
House of Representatives and Mayoral elections; the candidates did not
disclose their links with SIF and explicitly claimed to have no
affiliation with any religious organization including the Hare Krishna
faith.[1] The
party was funded by a variety of businesses, including two local
newspapers and a health-food store chain, run by the disciples
themselves.[6]
In the 1980s, he ran a late-night television show called "Chris Butler Speaks" on Channel 13.[7] Since the 90s, Butler has kept a low profile, rarely speaking in public; in 2017, The New Yorker reported that Butler presents himself less as a Hare Krishna dissident and more as a member of a worldwide Vaishnava movement.[1] Butler's wife Wai Lana has received acclaim for popularizing yoga through the Wai Lana Yoga show; in 2016, she was conferred with the Padma Shri award by the Government of India.[8]
But
scratch beneath the surface and another mysterious backstory emerges —
Gabbard and hubby Williams' ties to a shady Hindu offshoot cult that's
for decades sought a back door into mainstream politics.
Critics
have branded the secretive group, called the Science of Identity
Foundation (SIF), as intolerant of women, gays, and Muslims, while
treating its reclusive leader Chris Butler as some kind of all-powerful
deity.
Murky ties to Butler's group, which straddles Hawaii and
New Zealand, could well complicate Gabbard's bid to secure
congressional backing for a senior cabinet-level post as Trump's top
advisor for his key decisions on national security.
Williams,
a part-Māori, part-Samoan filmmaker and surfer from Auckland, New
Zealand, reportedly met Gabbard, a former Army officer, during her first
run for Congress in 2012, when he volunteered to shoot her campaign ads.
That year, Gabbard made history by becoming the first American Samoan and practicing Hindu in Congress.
The pair bonded over their shared love of watersports and started dating about 18 months later.
But most importantly:
In a damning tell-all interview with The Independent in
2022, Gabbard's aunt, Dr Caroline Sinavaiana Gabbard, lifted the lid on
what insiders call a homophobic, often anti-Islamic and misogynist
cult.
She
told the publication that her niece's career is all about the pursuit
of power, and her bid for the presidency in 2020 was the culmination of
four decades of Butler's efforts to seek political influence.
'Once
again I find my niece's apparent penchant for parroting extremist
toadies such as Tucker Carlson and vile strongmen such as Vladimir
Putin, to be problematic and deeply troubling,' said the retired
University of Hawaii professor.
'It
gives me no pleasure to note that Tulsi's single governing principle
seems to be expedience, which is in effect no principle at all.'
Tulsi
Gabbard is free to belong in a cult. But her international cult
membership should disqualify her from serving as the Director of
National Intelligence. And when you add everything up, she does not
belong anywhere near US government intelligence.
Paul Eaton, a retired U.S. Army major general and a senior adviser to VoteVets,
said
in a statement that "putting Tulsi Gabbard in charge of our
intelligence, which keeps Americans safe here and abroad, is dangerous
and reckless. In Gabbard, Trump has a complete and total loyalist who
will use and wield our intelligence to Trump's benefit, not to protect
America and our Constitution."
"In combination with many of Trump's other appointments and
nominations, we see a picture coming together of an administration made
up of unqualified, marginal zealots who will constantly be trying to
please their leader rather than fulfill their oath to put the
Constitution and the safety of the American people above the president's
ego," he added. "Many warned that Trump would dispense of all
guardrails in a second term, so every whim of his would be carried out
without question or protest. We are now seeing exactly what that looks
like."
All of Trump's choices are lousy but there's no one lousier than Tulsi.
And if you don't grasp that, you may be to young to remember 9/11.
Donald
Trump wants this raging incompetent who is also a security risk to be
the DNI. That post was created after the US government determined
intelligence failures led to 9/11.
Most
of us pray never again to a terrorist attack on US soil like 9/11;
however, a number of Americans who are terrorist experts maintain such
an attack is highly likely.
If you think the
outrage over Tulsi's mere nomination is big and wide -- and it is -- and
for good reason -- imagine another 9/11 under her watch. And it won't
just be her that the American people will be out for, it will be Trump
as well, the idiot so stupid to nominate her in the first place.
Donald
Trump, with his nominations, is demonstrating that the last thing he is
interested in is making American anything but a s**thole country. For
Health and Human Services, for example, he wants to install the
non-medical nut job Robert Kennedy Junior who will wreck healthcare
because he's a nut job.
He wants a man the House Ethics Committee believes assaulted a 17-year-old woman to be Attorney General (Matt Gaetz).
As for the awful Secretary of Defense nominee, let's just include ZETEO.
President-elect
Donald J. Trump sent shockwaves through the Pentagon this week, after
announcing his pick for secretary of defense: Fox weekend host Pete Hegseth, who has zero experience in government.
But
frankly, it’s not the lack of experience or his association with
right-wing media that should worry people the most – it’s his clear love
for war, war crimes, and war criminals.
With apologies to Donald Rumsfeld, he may be about to become the most extreme defense secretary in American history.
Watch the short video above to
see Mehdi unpack six of Hegseth’s insanely war-mongering views and
ideas, all of which are bound to break Trump’s ridiculous promise to
bringing lasting peace – to the Middle East, or anywhere else!
If Trump installs the
unqualified Tulsi as DNI and there's a terrorist attack that she fails
to protect the country from, that's on him. She is not qualified and
there are too many issues that go to the fact that the American people
can't trust her. We don't need members of any cult serving in our
government.
An
e-mail to the public account states that I am trying to rush people
into action. I'm not trying to do any such thing. With one exception
and I'll get to that.
The writers is Black and a
lesbian so she's targeted by Donald on three levels (race, sexuality
and gender). I'm not telling anyone to "suck it up" as the writer
states and "You don't feel you have anything to lose."
Let's
start with that last part. Friday was not a good day last week but I
made it through. At the end of the day, I was headed home with a friend
and realized I needed to stop and grab some artificial tears. I'd had
shots in one eye and the other got cauterize -- I've never had that
before, it hurt like hell and it seemed to never end -- it was like a
strobe light that repeatedly went off, then I'd have a blink a few
times, hold my eye open again and the process repeated over and over. So
I go in and I always try to be nice to people. And people coming up on
one side of me, got nice. Yeah, I'd do selfie, yeah, I'd sign
something for them. On the other side? I had no peripheral vision on
that side. And I was spooked over and over and about the seventh time, I
just wanted to get out.
So, yeah, I know
what it's like to be scared and were it not for Satan being voted back
into the White House, I don't think I would have been as bothered. But
there, in my city that went for Kamala by a huge margin, with impaired
vision, I was bothered and scared.
So I think we all know what it's like to be scared.
I
was kidnapped and raped as a child. The only way I survived that was
by focusing on getting out. And that's what I do in life. If it gets
too dramatic, I go cold and go into planning mode. Don't deny it, never
have.
Another tale, I didn't deal with my
mother's death until seven years after. I wanted to initially but then
everyone else was falling apart and I had to hold it together to make
sure every funeral request came off and that warring family members
didn't act out. And I was successful on the latter except for one
family member who showed up stoned and then began to sob loudly
throughout the ceremony and then, of course, skipped out. "It's so hard
on _____," I had to hear from one relative after another. And, yes, I
was pissed. It was my mother and I loved her and the drama queen who
didn't even make it to the burial? If she was crying for any reason, it
was guilt. She'd stabbed my mother in the back and they hadn't spoken
in seven years. But I just had to nod along with these idiots and get
through the day because my mother loathed a scene (which is probably the
main reason _____ put on such drama).
So my
natural mode is to move forward. For me. I didn't expect that from
anyone else in the family and, to those I was close to, I encouraged
them to grieve and feel what they were feeling.
We were stabbed in the back by racists. Some of those racists are on the left.
We're
always asked -- excuse me, we're always expected to turn out and we do
in election after election and then one of us has the presidential
nomination and she's attacked over and over and over -- on the left. By
Gaza Freaks and Jill Stein nuts. And by DEMOCRACY NOW!, THE NATION, IN
THESE TIMES, THE PROGRESSIVE, and many, many more.
Their
actions depressed turnout -- bad enough. It also trashed those of us
excited to see someone like us with a chance of becoming president.
We were spat and we were stomped on.
I don't expect anyone to ever get over that.
And
those who need to check out, do so. Take care of you. THE NATION,
DEMOCRACY NOW!, Jill Stein, Gaza Freaks, IN THESE TIMES and THE
PROGRESSIVE sure didn't worry about taking care of us.
So
you take all the time you need. If that's a month, if that's four
years, if that's longer, you take it. In fact, you don't ever have to
come back to giving your free labor to the Democratic Party. Whatever
you want, I am fine with.
I get it, in the 21st century we saw racism win and it didn't win just because of the right wing, the left helped it a lot.
And that's why --
Let me get to the one thing I'm asking.
What I'm asking is that we leave Twitter. (See Marcia's "Death to Twitter.")
Jamie Lee Curtis is. Applause to her. I mean that sincerely. But I'm
saying that those of us hit the hardest leave Twitter. Danielle's
transferring to BLUESKY and others are going to THREADS or elsewhere.
Musk is a racist who was born under apartheid and only left South Africa
as apartheid was crumbling and he'd have to deal with Black people as
free people. That scared him.
Jamie Lee's
leaving and, again, applause for her. But notice who isn't leaving?
Racist Katrina vanden Heuvel who used her magazine to rip apart Kamala
every day. She's upset that people are calling her a a racist and noted
her grandfather's long history of racism that enriched the family.
That bothers her.
Supporting Elon Musk by using
Twitter doesn't bother racist Katrina. She, in fact, embraces racism
and the only thing that bothers her about racism is when people notice
how racist 'left' Katrina really is.
All I'm
asking is for you please leave Twitter. I'm asking you to reject
racism. Black women can and are doing that. They're not the only
ones. Again, Jamie Lee Curtis, thank you. Her decision is based on her
child Ruby who is now a target in a Trump administration but she's
doing it to show her support for equality across the board. I thank her
for that.
But Katrina vanden Heuvel, a
'leftist' who owns THE NATION and presents herself as the last word in
NYC lefties? She isn't leaving Twitter. She's a racist. She doesn't
care about Black people. That's why she lives on the money her
grandfather stole from Black artists and it's why her White ass lives in
a Harlem mansion. She is no friend to Black people.
Trump
is on a drive to destroy our country and, watch closely, we see what
happened in the election as White 'leftists' are too concerned about
their social media stature to do the right thing and leave Twitter.
I
was shocked Saturday night to learn that Alyssa Milano had not left
Twitter. I was doing that post and typed hold on while I went to
check. She loathes Elon. She made such a big deal about getting rid of
her Tesla. But she didn't get off Twitter. Under Elon, it is the home
of racism, misogyny and homophobia.
But that
doesn't bother her. She self-presents as a social justice warrior but
the reality is that she won't stand with Black people. Or LGBTQ+
people. Or women. It's more important to her that she be on Twitter
than that she take a real stand.
As Catholics in THE COMMON ILLS community, we lodge a strong objection to the notion that two term Congress woman Tulsi Gabbard is qualified to be the next Director of National Intelligence.
We are troubled by her reported appearance on a governmental watch list and that this resulted from members of the National Guard complaining about her priorities being something other than the United States.
We are troubled by her conspiracy theories that can be found all over her Twitter feed.
We are troubled by her cozying up to Bashar al-Assad, the butcher of Syria. She met face-to-face with him when he was designated as an enemy of the United States. That would concern us less if she were an individual member of Congress currently. But someone who wants to be the Director of National Intelligence is not someone who should be making her own self-determined 'diplomatic' missions with someone the US is at war with.
The former congresswoman has also been dogged by her long-standing ties to the Science of Identity Foundation and its founder, Chris Butler. The Science of Identity Foundation is an offshoot of Hare Krishna that former members have described as a cult.
Within minutes of the announcement of Gabbard’s nomination, national media outlets like CNN predicted that her selection and the choice of Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz to be U.S. attorney general would set up major confirmation fights.
The position Trump nominated her for, director of national intelligence, requires Senate confirmation. The director leads the U.S. intelligence community, which oversees and directs implementation of the National Intelligence Program.
There are more than enough problems with Tulsi Gabbard. But when Donald I'm A Christian Trump thinks he can get away with installing a member of a cult as our Director of National Intelligence, we object. And we think many Christians would join us in that objection. We realize, as well, that the cult objects to Islam and would argue that if the Jill Stein Freaks could buy a clue, even people in Hamtramck and Deerfield would object to the nomination as well (though we are aware that this is a group of people who struggle to ever call Donald Trump out).
Chris Butler, son of a communist anti-war activist, had entered the spiritual counterculture in 1960s, while enrolled at University of Hawaiʻi.[1][2] Soon, he joined the burgeoning Hare-Krishna movement as a guru, taking the name Sai Young, and amassed a group of disciples.[1]
However, after being publicly denounced by Swami Prabhupada, the leading exponent of the movement in U.S.A, Butler initiated under Prabhupada himself, joined the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), and received the name Siddhaswarupananda Paramahamsa.[3][2][4] But in a few years, their relationship turned sour as he deviated from ISKCON's ways, choosing to marry and allowing his disciples to keep their heads unshaved.[3][2] After the death of Prabhupada in 1977, Butler broke away from ISKCON and founded SIF, then known as the Hari Nama (lit. Holy Name) Society.[5] Simultaneously, he began to deemphasize ISKCON's rigid adherence to Vaishnava texts and promoted a range of eclectic views.[1][3]
In 1976, SIF's disciples launched a new political party — called the Independents for Godly Government — presenting themselves as a "multifaith coalition of conservative-minded reformers", and ran for the House of Representatives and Mayoral elections; the candidates did not disclose their links with SIF and explicitly claimed to have no affiliation with any religious organization including the Hare Krishna faith.[1] The party was funded by a variety of businesses, including two local newspapers and a health-food store chain, run by the disciples themselves.[6]
In the 1980s, he ran a late-night television show called "Chris Butler Speaks" on Channel 13.[7] Since the 90s, Butler has kept a low profile, rarely speaking in public; in 2017, The New Yorker reported that Butler presents himself less as a Hare Krishna dissident and more as a member of a worldwide Vaishnava movement.[1] Butler's wife Wai Lana has received acclaim for popularizing yoga through the Wai Lana Yoga show; in 2016, she was conferred with the Padma Shri award by the Government of India.[8]
But scratch beneath the surface and another mysterious backstory emerges — Gabbard and hubby Williams' ties to a shady Hindu offshoot cult that's for decades sought a back door into mainstream politics.
Critics have branded the secretive group, called the Science of Identity Foundation (SIF), as intolerant of women, gays, and Muslims, while treating its reclusive leader Chris Butler as some kind of all-powerful deity.
Murky ties to Butler's group, which straddles Hawaii and New Zealand, could well complicate Gabbard's bid to secure congressional backing for a senior cabinet-level post as Trump's top advisor for his key decisions on national security.
Williams, a part-Māori, part-Samoan filmmaker and surfer from Auckland, New Zealand, reportedly met Gabbard, a former Army officer, during her first run for Congress in 2012, when he volunteered to shoot her campaign ads.
That year, Gabbard made history by becoming the first American Samoan and practicing Hindu in Congress.
The pair bonded over their shared love of watersports and started dating about 18 months later.
But most importantly:
In a damning tell-all interview with The Independent in 2022, Gabbard's aunt, Dr Caroline Sinavaiana Gabbard, lifted the lid on what insiders call a homophobic, often anti-Islamic and misogynist cult.
She told the publication that her niece's career is all about the pursuit of power, and her bid for the presidency in 2020 was the culmination of four decades of Butler's efforts to seek political influence.
'Once again I find my niece's apparent penchant for parroting extremist toadies such as Tucker Carlson and vile strongmen such as Vladimir Putin, to be problematic and deeply troubling,' said the retired University of Hawaii professor.
'It gives me no pleasure to note that Tulsi's single governing principle seems to be expedience, which is in effect no principle at all.'
Tulsi Gabbard is free to belong in a cult. But her international cult membership should disqualify her from serving as the Director of National Intelligence. And when you add everything up, she does not belong anywhere near US government intelligence.
Thursday, November 14, 2024. Carville goes crazed, Donald learns the US
Senate does not work for him, a cult member is nominated for National
Intelligence, and much more.
First up, this.
BlueSky,
Threads, anything, get off Twitter if you're able to. BlueSky actually
sounds better from the video above. Danielle Moodie is going with
BlueSky, for example. But if you're able to, take your free labor off
Twitter. We know who Elon Musk is, let's not be working on the
plantation for him.
And let's make sure that we
understand every day that he is a racist. He was born in raised under
apartheid. He was taught to look down on Black people. And though he
fled South Africa when apartheid was crumbling, he carried his belief in
racism with him. It's who he is, it's who he will always be.
Now let's move over to another person who would make the world a better place by dying, James Carville.
80 years old and still a disgusting vile man, James Carville.
And
a know nothing. He trashed Kamala's campaign early on, we need to
remember that. This is someone who wants us to fall in line -- that's
people of color and all women regardless of race -- but when it mattered
most refused to fall in line himself.
He was
out there trashing Kamala, trashing her campaign. A far cry from when
CNN broke with him in 2008. Is that what's made you even more bitter,
James?
We were going to highlight another
Roland Martin video -- and may this snapshot, otherwise we'll do it in
tomorrow's snapshot -- it went up here last night. I'm sure Roland does
a fierce take down of James but I was just told about this video and
all I've heard is James' nonsensical ravings and maybe a minute of
Roland. If I'm repeating Roland, my apologies.
First
off, my state still has 13% of the vote to count. Kamala won it,
that's not the point. The point is that right now the official count of
the popular vote is still Kamala 48.2% and Donald Trump 50.2%. That's
not a landslide, that's not a mandate. That's not even a big difference
so grasp that first of all.
James Carville is what Sam Seder's going to grow into if Sam's not careful.
He's
an idiot who never built a thing and who only won by hurting others.
He refused to invest in the work and time needed to build the Democratic
Party, all he ever wanted was -- bean counter that he is -- a campaign
that could appeal to swing voters. And if used racism? All the better
for James.
It didn't matter that James signed
off on racism, not to him. He didn't care about the effect on the
country or the direct impact on people's lives.
He also didn't give a damn about growing the Democratic Party. There was no push on that from him either.
Now you can argue that last one was a mistake this time.
Some people are arguing it. Colin Allred, for example, wasted resources in Texas.
It would have been wonderful to have seen Beto get that kind of funding from the national party in 2018, for example.
Beto
got voters. Colin didn't. That's reality. And reality is that Colin
should have done better but he was a James Carville -- he caved.
Fighters win. Bill Clinton grasped that, Carville never did. You can't
run on weakness. And that's all Colin did once his political spine
collapsed.
That said, Texans were really glad to see advertisements on TV.
There
was one about an old couple talking about their Social Security -- I
haven't seen it. But I've heard about it in roundtables, I've read
about it in e-mails.
Imagine being that forgotten by your own party that you're grateful for a Social Security spot.
That's the James Carvilles, they starved Texas and other states like it.
They don't want to do the building and the work.
They're
just bean counters trying to figure out the easiest way to do
anything. They plant the crop in same plot of land over and over and
strip the soil. They have no clue how to actually build or grow.
You do it through investments. And that's too much for old man Carville.
He
did nothing to help Kamala's campaign, he did nothing to help her.
Hey, 80 year old useless old man, go away. No one needs you. No one
wants you.
In 2008, Barack Obama supporters
doctored a documentary to take out Hillary. They altered footage from
THE WAR ROOM. On it, they insisted, some Clintonite was using the
N-word. And this story moved quickly through the media. When I heard
about it, I thought, "Damn it, Carville." Because it easily could have
been him. Fortunately, it was no one. The clip was doctored.
But
that's the reality of James Carville, you hear someone used the N-word
in the Clinton campaign and you immediately think Carville.
That's is his legacy.
That and the trailer tramp labels he pushed on all the women who said Clinton propositioned them or harassed them.
That's his legacy.
He's built nothing.
He will die a loser because that's all he's ever been.
"We didn't have a process!" (To select the presidential nominee after Joe dropped out.)
Joe Biden was dead in the water after the debate.
That's reality.
He goes on ABC a week later and seems steady but still weak and he's unable to pivot so he's getting pummeled with questions.
It is July. The election is in November. The polls in early July showed much worse results then what we got last week.
He had to step down. He could not fight the media. People rarely grasp that. To his credit, Joe did.
You really think there was time for a campaign for the nominee?
First
off, if it was the Biden-Harris ticket. So if he was going to drop out
after the primaries, yeah, it would go to her. That's what's logical.
Second,
Dean Phillips and Marianne Williamson never got traction and nobody
liked them -- excuse me, people who got married with Marianne as a
wedding guest liked her -- and those YOUTUBERS -- Kyle and Krystal --
tried to pimp her off on us. But America never took to her or to
Dean.
We'd never had this happen in the
Democratic Party -- a presidential candidate drops out weeks before the
convention -- and things needed to move quick because we wouldn't have
months to come together after the primaries. That's generally what
happens, the primaries generally are over -- in terms of knowing who has
the nomination -- by May. That gives June and July for the losers to
get over it before the convention and August, September and October
before the general election.
And in my
lifetime, only one candidate I supported in the presidential primary
ever got the nomination (2004, John Kerry). You cannot do a primary --
even a mini-one -- in August and expect to deliver in November.
We were damn lucky, as a party, that Joe stepped aside.
There is no mandate, there is no landslide. Trump -- and the media (see Stan's "Why does NEWSWEEK need to lie?") can keep lying, but the country remains split and that's what the official count demonstrates.
We're damn lucky Kamala was the
nominee. She was strong and she was surefooted. Can you imagine
Marianne simpering around the press as they asked her about crystals,
her difficult relationship with the gay community due to her snake oil
AIDS' 'cures,' her difficult relationship with everyone who's ever
worked for her, her 'brand' that long ago cratered and her inability in
the last two decades to adapt . . .
Kamala gave the best debate performance of any presidential candidate in modern times.
"It's the economy, stupid" -- James said it in the 90s.
The
economy under Joe Biden was great. He turned it around. And Trump
could coast on that if he weren't an idiot and determined to impose
tariffs but history will show that Joe saved the economy.
For
too many people, though, and this was before Kamala became the nominee,
there was a feeling that the economy was not better because they
continued to see price hikes. Prior to general election, one of the few
people noting this was Senator Elizabeth Warren. She didn't just press
release it and leave it alone. She talked about. Every Democrat
should have been talking about that, the price gouging.
Everyone in Congress should have been on message.
But they weren't.
Credit to Elizabeth Warren for doing what everyone else should have done.
In
addition, Joe should have issued -- I stated this in 2023, at the start
of it -- a stimulus. Now James Carville mocked me on that behind my
back. I said people needed money and you could call it a post-COVID
stimulus.
That didn't happen.
That could have made a difference.
But we didn't get that.
And
so it was an economy election with a lot of stupid people. If you
don't know that a tariff is paid by the people in the country imposing
the tariff then you are stupid. Hopefully, you'll learn and be less
stupid. Doesn't help the country now, but maybe you'll learn.
Economics for most people is what they can put on the table.
If Congressional Democrats had made that a unified message, it might have made a difference.
If
THE NATION, IN THESE TIMES, THE PROGRESSIVE, DEMOCRACY NOW!, et al had
stopped attacking Kamala daily and covered the economy seriously, it
might have made a difference.
But remember, Amy
Goodman thinks her DEMOCRACY NOW! audience is too stupid to understand
economics. She told that to the late Danny Schechter who immediately
told me. I told him to do a blind item at NEWS DISSECTOR and that I'd
pick up on it and carry it to THIRD, which I did.
So there's a lot going on.
People made decisions and we have to live with them now.
We
don't need James Carville and his garbage. It was a very close
election. No one's ever done what Kamala did. Probably no one else
could have.
The Gaza Freaks had already shut
her out -- don't give me your b.s. that a speaker at the DNC would have
mattered. Not only could it not have happened, but it wouldn't have
mattered. Everything the Gaza Freaks did after to poison the well made
that clear.
Let's stay with the Gaza Freaks but move on.
Gaza Freaks are yet again destroying support for their goals. Courtney McGinley (NEWSWEEK) reports
that the University of Rochester was the site of an 'action' in which
posters of professors and staff went up with slogans like "Wanted:
Connection to War Crimes." Students can do whatever they want -- if it
was students -- and I'm not going to clutch the pearls. But I will
point out that's a lousy way to win support for your cause. I will
point out that support for these actions cratered at the end of last
spring. If they want press attention, they'll need to try something
different -- because campus protests was the story of last spring. But
an action like this might please a freak like Michelle Shocked
look-alike Linda Sarour but it doesn't move the needle on those in the
middle and it actually pushes some of those in the support camp away.
It's
a failing move. Kind of like protesting outside the White House.
Yawn. The media needs new angles and, too bad, none of the non-college
student leadership knows a damn thing about a media friendly moment.
Grasp that Susan Benjamin (stage name "Medea") is forever pulling stunts
and hoping one of them will get her the attention she is always starved
for. If she truly knew how to create a media moment, she would get actual
moments. Instead, she's just the crazy and pathetic woman who smells
and people laugh at.
Repeating,
the protests you enjoyed under Joe Biden's presidency may be
criminalized under Trump's so now's not really the time you need to be
pushing more supporters away. But, then again, if anyone in that camp
knew how to strategize, they wouldn't have spent six months attacking
Kamala. You're in Ralph Nader land now where no one wants to know your name
and no one feels they owe you anything.
The
Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group on Wednesday published a
propaganda video of hostage Sasha Trufanov, which his family authorized
media outlets to publicize.
After
a year in captivity, Trufanov describes a shortage of food, water,
electricity, and basic hygiene products in the Gaza Strip, adding that
he now has a skin condition that he did not have before being abducted.
Like in several other hostage videos released by terror groups, Trufanov
urges citizens to demand the government reach a deal for their release,
and says that the Israel Defense Forces operation only puts them in
more danger.
It
is unclear exactly when the video was made, though it appears to be
recent, as Trufanov mentions Israel’s ground incursion in Lebanon, which
was announced on October 1. Though he says in the clip that he is aged
28, the video was released two days after he turned 29, his second
birthday in captivity.
Not
a good look for the 'movement.' Or do they think keeping someone away
from their family and friends is a good look? Netanyahu is a War
Criminal. But so is someone who holds a person hostage for a year and
counting.
It's
going to be
interesting to watch the Linda Sarour's try to navigate this minefield
and maintain public support. Too bad they're probably on their on their
own now. So they'll scream in horror at each other -- unable to
communicate with the larger, needed group -- and the body count will
only increase.
Didn't have to be that way.
Yesterday,
shock!!! Shock!!! And more shock!!!! That the US Senate refused to
play . . . Donald Trump's bitch. Honestly, you're surprised by that?
You don't understand human nature?
Oh,
wait, the country's full of idiots. Like the ones who thought people
screaming they wouldn't vote for Kamala Harris had a right to
have someone on stage at the Convention.
The
DNC pageant is about rewarding the old boys' club and setting up the
next one. Women who are actually Democrats and are names have a hard
time getting on that stage due to all the egos. But, sure, whine for your little
nobody that has no national stature and is not anyone the DNC plans to
turn into a national star (they planned to turn Barack Obama into one
and that's why he spoke at the 2004 convention).
You
are so filled with stupidity and with conspiracy talk that sometimes
you miss the most basic things in the world. From Tuesday's snapshot:
From ALL ABOUT EVE -- Bette Davis played Margo,
Thelma Reed played Birdie. It's after a performance and Margo's
assistant Eve (Anne Baxter) has picked up the costume and headed off
from the dressing room.
Birdie: May I be so bold as to say something? Have you ever heard of the word "union"?
Margo: Behind in your dues? How much?
Birdie: I haven't got a union. I'm slave labor.
Margo: Well?
Birdie: But the wardrobe women have got one and, next to a tenor, a wardrobe woman is the touchiest thing in show business.
Margo: Oh, oh.
Birdie: She's got two things to do: carry clothes and press 'em wrong. And don't let anybody try to muscle in.
You know what's touchier than a wardrobe woman? A sitting US senator.
After
17 years in the hot seat, McConnell is expected to exit his post at the
top of Senate Republican leadership on Wednesday, ending his run as the
longest serving Senate party leader in U.S. history.
At
the top of the billing to replace the 82-year-old are South Dakota
Senator John Thune and Texas Senator John Cornyn, two establishment
conservatives and longtime McConnell allies who have not always seen eyeto eye with the president-elect.
Meanwhile,
a gamut of Trump’s key allies, including Elon Musk, Tucker Carlson,
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Vivek Ramaswamy, and Charlie Kirk, are
aggressively lobbying for Florida Senator Rick Scott to take the helm.
(Trump, notably, has so far avoided endorsing any of the contenders.)
But the overzealous pressure campaign—which is also being pushed along by some far-right social media influencers and their harassment tactics—is on the verge of combusting, according to Politico.
That’s
because most of the Senate Republican conference won’t have to face
reelection until 2028 or later. On top of that, the vote is by secret
ballot, ensuring that no one—from their constituents to MAGA’s top
brass—will know if they voted for or against Trump’s candidate.
“Senators
do not take kindly to having an army of social media trolls attack
them,” one unnamed aide told Politico on Sunday, noting that the effort
was only “pissing off senators whose votes Rick needs” to win.
And
sitting US senators do not take kindly to anyone outside the Senate --
that includes a president -- attempting to tell them what to do. Now
pair that with Kaia Hubbard (CBS NEWS) reporting:
As Senate
Republicans prepare to vote Wednesday on new leadership for the
upcoming Congress, President-elect Donald Trump is already weighing in
with demands for the new majority leader regarding his Cabinet.
After a decisive victory in the 2024 elections, Trump is returning to the White House with a GOP-led Senate at his side. Senate Republican leaders are expected to ease the way for the president-elect's agenda and
his Cabinet and judicial nominees. Trump has made it clear that he'd
like his nominees to be installed immediately, suggesting that he may
want the option to bypass the Senate's advice and consent role
entirely.
Please
note, that would be the Constitutionally assigned role of advice and
consent. For the ignorant -- like Donald Trump -- let's not the
Constitution:
Article II, Section 2, Clause 2:
He
shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to
make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and
he shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate,
shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges
of the supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States, whose
Appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be
established by Law: but the Congress may by Law vest the Appointment of
such inferior Officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in
the Courts of Law, or in the Heads of Departments.
When the most recent US senators were sworn in back in January of 2023 -- two years ago -- the median age was 65.3 years.
Wait.
We have MAGA drive bys and you know they were homeschooled so let me
explain median. Think of it as the midpoint. So half the US Senate,
in 2023, was composed of senators under the age of 65.3 and half was
composed of senators over the age of 65.3 -- 65.3 is the mid point.
And
US senators are very territorial. And that's before you get to over
half being over 65. So he wants to bypass them on advice and consent
and he wants to be able to determine who will be the next Majority
Leader -- something the Senate traditionally does all by itself.
Pushy and stupid, that's Donald Trump.
A
Senate campaign? That's much more difficult than a House campaign
(except in Alaska which has two senators and one member of the House of
Representatives). They work very hard in those runs -- or at least hard
for them -- and it being the upper house and it being a six year term,
they tend to think they know better than others -- and that's before you
factor in the issue of incumbency.
US
senators do not like to be pushed around or talked to like their
children. But there goes the idiot Trump antagonizing the Senate --
Republicans and Democrats -- before he even gets into the White House.
Where's the popcorn, right?
Get it?
No,
the US Senate -- GOP members -- made Donald Trump their bitch. He'll
have to curry favor with them. Lindsey Graham will crawl into bed and
spoon with Donald but the others have a little more self-respect. And,
if we're being honest, Lindsey's always one of the first to stab Donald
in the back when talking to other senators.
The
GOP in the Senate will fall in line with Trump . . . when he flatters,
when he grasps that they're not going to be ordered around. This is a
turf war.
You saw it with
Samuel Alito making clear this week that Donald might like him to step
down from the Supreme Court but that he will only do that when he is
good and damn ready. (See Marcia's "Trying again.")
Idiots
like Glenneth Greenwald lost it ahead of Trump's taking the oath of
office in January 2017 because Senator Chuck Schumer noted that the
intelligence committee had "six ways from Sunday to get back" at
someone. Drama Queen and chronic masturbator that he is, Glenneth went
into a shrieking panic: Schumer was threatening Trump!!!
No, drama queen. Chuck was noting the reality of turf wars.
Could
Donald Trump be the Newt Gingrich of presidents? Someone with grand
plans whose hubris and ego destroy it all? We can only hope.
And those ready to fight? We may want to focus on Tulsi Gabbard.
Group post I participated in ("Trashy Tulsi talks"). As we completed it and were about to post, Betty realized we forgot something important: Tulsi is a cult member.
Donald
Trump is nominating a member of a cult to be Director of National
Intelligence. Guru Chris and that relationship need to be explained.
We should be demanding that news outlets actually cover what the cult Tulsi is a member of practices.
We wouldn't turn national intelligence over to a Moonie.
In addition, Tulsi visited with Bashar al-Assad. A butcher. Is she stable enough to hold this position?
Those
serving in the reserves with her sounded the alarm on her to the
government reportedly resulting in her being on a watch list.
This is a nomination that needs to seriously explored.
