The Elon-Trump twitter love-fest that had been promoted for weeks finally happened this past week. Basically two billionaires willing to say and do whatever it takes to get one of them into office so that they can be granted lots of tax breaks that the rest of us will end up paying for.
It got delayed because the twitter servers could not cope and of course on the basis of no evidence at all, Elon claimed it was a DDoS attack. His own IT people confirm “Nope, that’s a lie“.
Things those listening in learned …
- They speculated that WW III might be imminent (what is scary is these guys could end up being responsible for starting it)
- Trump promised (again) to “close the Department of Education” (which is also a Project 2025 proposal that he claims to know nothing about)
- “Immigration is a problem” … says the guy who single handily killed the toughest border bill ever last Feb
- They also mulled over the Climate issue. Experts listening in labelled it … ‘The dumbest climate conversation of all time’
Really?
OK, digest this. At one point Trump said …
“The one thing that I don’t understand is that people talk about global warming or they talk about climate change, but they never talk about nuclear warming,”
Yes, “WTF!” is indeed the correct response to that.
Another epic “WTF!” moment was when Trump claimed that rising sea levels would create “more oceanfront property”.
So how did the Harris campaign respond to it all?
- I’m really loving this new on-going “when they go low we mock them,” vibe.
Others also had a few thoughts on it …
While it was happening, this was also happening …
- The Harris social media team deserve an Olympic gold for trolling the troller on his own platform.
As always, actions do have consequences – I’ve noticed many migrating off twitter and on to Threads this past week. I don’t have any hard statistics for this, it is just a personal subjective observation. If you hang out on either, have you also noticed any movement?
- I’m not the only one noticing this, it is making the news within some outlets.
- However, TechCrunch reports … “app store and website traffic data don’t yet reflect any significant changes between the two platforms“
OK, so let’s move on now and once again laugh at some of the deeply weird stupidity that has popped up during the past seven days.
The Cult of Trump
Let’s start with the Cult of Trump.
Apparently the USA is for sale when the price is right…
- I must admit that it is a hell of a campaign message for Republicans. Trump appears to be advising that he will let anyone screw over Americans for the right price.
- It’s not like those stolen classified documents pay for themselves … or … that his son-in-law gets $2 billion from the Saudis for no reason at all … or … that China and others paid him millions while he was president for no reason at all.
- For those playing the “That’s not what he meant” card, I shall simply point out that past experience is an indicator of future behavior. Everything with him is transactional and is driven by what he can personally get out of it.
As an example, ask yourself this – how much is the Bible worth to Trump?
The latest answer from this past week is $300,000. That was his income from his money making Bible scam …
- I’d place good money on a bet that some of those that bought his $1,000 signed bibles are also the same people who complain about how tough the economy is and that they can’t afford groceries.
Criticism such as the above is claimed by his cult to not be fact based (and yet it is). Take for example pseudo-historian Tim Barton, son of David barton, complaining this past week on his program that people are unwilling to vote for former President Donald Trump because Democrats “villainized their political opponent.”
- It can be argued that since the year dot politicians have verbally demonised their opponents, but the Orange-liar-in-chief is different.
- In his case, it goes way beyond the normal rhetoric, so …er … no Tim, your beloved convicted felon did it all to himself. He faces the legal consequences of his own actions, and was convicted by a jury of 12 randomly selected individuals (and had the right to veto any during the trial). He is now a convicted felon, not because of the Democrats, but because of the verified objective evidence that he committed fraud.
- You know how that plays out. “The Trial was rigged” is the claim. If true then the democrats managed to rig the jury selection that he and his lawyer agreed upon.
Denial of who he really is simply confirms membership of the Cult of Trump.
Trump really is also very very stupid. Take this for example from the past week …
- Putting aside his blatantly false claim that all new jobs go to immigrants …what we have here is his complete lack of understanding of what the term 100% refers to and how you can’t go beyond that in this context.
- For those struggling with this, you best ask a friend who is not in the cult of Trump to explain it to you using crayons.
- Side Note: Apparently all those “lazy criminal migrants who suck up all the welfare” are also working 14.8 million jobs … so how does that work?
This past week we have also seen that he appears to be quite determined to create some rather exciting campaign ads for the Democrats to run on …
OK, so let’s move on now to briefly review what one Kamala’s “fans” was saying this past week.
The Kamala Harris Fan Club
Being afraid of Kamala Harris …
- Trump is afraid of her, so it’s not that hard to imagine.
- Side Note: Diplomacy is not about fear, that’s really not how it works. For example, diplomacy is telling people people like Jeanine to “go to hell” in a manner that results in her to be actually looking forward with lots of enthusiasm to going on that journey.
Christian Nationalism
Suffixing the word “Christian” with the word “Nationalism”, does not identify them as Christians, but instead as Fascists who strive to impose their crazy religious beliefs on us all. Much of their foundation is built upon the utterly crazy and completely false idea that the US was founded as a Christian nation and has been especially chosen by God.
Here is what some of them have been saying this past week.
Why do Christian nationalists like Richard Harris know so little about history? No, the Founders did not “put religious freedom the first of the first of the first” in the Bill of Rights. They actually put no establishment of religion first and even that was an accident of history.
- The answer is that it is because they think David Barton, the guy who just makes up stuff and declares it to be history, is a credible historian.
- Mr Barton does have one achievement, a big success – He has managed to firmly establish the the concept of “Pseudohistory” as a core justification for Christian Nationalism. This was only made possible by successfully conning literally millions of people, a task that was perhaps made easy by their Conformation Bias being coupled with a willingness to never ever fact check.
- Why is it like this? It can be very uncomfortable to face up to historical quotes we really like being fake. Example: Madson is supposed to have said “The purpose of separation of church and state is to keep forever from these shores the ceaseless strife that has soaked the soil of Europe in blood for centuries.“. It is common to find that quote doing the rounds. I love that “quote”, it plays into my own personal bias and so there is a strong temptation to pass it on as his. I can’t. There is no actual evidence that he ever wrote or said this – it’s a fake quote (see second bullet point here). In a manner similar to that, Christian nationalists lap up Bartonism because it panders to what they deeply desire to be true and so Confirmation Bias is the driving force.
- What is quite real of course is the establishment clause, but you already knew that.
If you are in any way familiar with far Right Pastor Joel Webbon and his beliefs, then I suspect that you will not at all surprised to learn that he he has “grown to despise democracy” because it allows women to vote: “I think the 19th Amendment should be repealed. I think that because, first and foremost, I’m a Christian. That is the Christian position.“
- The scary part here is not what he believes, but rather that he longs to impose all his beliefs on everybody.
- We should start a go-fund-me to buy him a ticket to go move to Afghanistan. He would clearly be a lot happier there.
- Not all that long ago this same guy was proudly declaring himself to be a Christian Nationalist
- His sudden pivoting is being driven by the realisation that “Christian Nationalism” is not as popular as he once thought it might be.
- His latest stance is classic gaslighting: it’s as if the arsonist, caught red-handed with matches and gasoline, turns to the crowd and says, ‘It’s not me who’s setting fires—it’s your mind that’s playing tricks on you!‘. He speaks of mind control as if it’s a foreign concept, all the while being the very purveyor of the manipulative tactics he condemns.
Eric Metaxas complains that Christian nationalism is “an evil term” because “it’s trying to silence God’s voice in the nation.”
- The Constitution grants total freedom to all religions. When one strand of belief attempts to inject itself by force into everybody’s lives, then labelling it with an accurate term, Christian Nationalism, is not “silencing God’s voice“, but rather is calling it exactly what it is.
- This attempt to claim that specific words “silence God’s voice” is just another example of the age-old religious ploy of gagging criticism by claiming, “You are not opposing me, you are opposing God“. The degree of delusional arrogance in play is truly jaw-dropping.
- “Christian Nationalism” is actually a rather polite term. If he really dislikes it, then we can of course drop it and go for the far more accurate term of “fucking self righteous assholes”
Evangelicals for Harris
Yes, “Evangelicals for Harris” really is a thing and landed with a bit of a thud into the wider social awareness this past week. While it is true that 80% of Evangelicals consistently support the convicted felon and sexual predator, the other 20% don’t, and never did … and that’s a lot of people. As you might guess, becoming aware of their very existence motivates the 80% to fall upon the ground in a frenzy and froth at the mouth.
Here are a few from this past week.
Lance Wallnau, yes him again, also claimed on twitter that the well-known evangelicals, David French and Russell Moore, work for the devil.
- Their “crime” is that they don’t support the idea of voting for a convicted felon and sexual predator, and much prefer the lady who is a devoted Baptist that actually cares about people.
We also have William Wolfe who declares that Evangelicals for Harris are “essentially Nazi Regime theologians.”
- … and people like him then proceed to wonder why so many are leaving organised religion.
Then we have Sean Feucht who says “the fact that there is even such a thing as ‘Evangelicals for Harris’ that pastors/influencers join shows you just how apostate much of the American church has become.”
- … er … no Sean, that would be you, not them, making that case. Anti-poor, anti-immigrant, pro-rich … that plank in your eye Sean is called Trump.
Jackson Lahmeyer also joins in and gripes that Evangelicals for Harris represents “godless globalism”: “No true Christian supports 304 @KamalaHarris.”
- If you are wondering what he means by “304”. That’s his ever so “True Christian” way of calling her a hoe. – 304 are the letters “HOE” in a mirror.
- Jesus rather famously is quoted as follows: “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.“-Matthew 7:1-2. OK then, let’s do that now, let’s apply his “standard”.
- The cryptic “hoe” is a supposed reference about her once having a relationship with a guy who was married (but had at that point been separated for 10 years and none of that was ever secret and was over 30 years ago), yet the sexual history of his preferred convicted felon candidate includes the rape of 13 year olds, and multiple instances of sexual assault. Mr Lahmeyer’s hypocrisy is truly on an epic scale here. There is no polite way of saying it, so let’s just be blunt – he can take his utterly false and deeply hypocritical claim, roll it up very tight, and then proceed to stick it right up his own ass.
This complaint also popped up …
- Republicans are angry because weaponizing Christianity has been their whole thing for decades, and so what has happened now breaks their monopoly on this.
- The big win for the Democrats is that the Republican Jesus and the Republican gospel is deeply intolerant, hate filled, and very very hypocritical. They have a far better alternative.
Vance is still being Creepy and Weird
It’s not new with him, he has always been weird (somebody found a clip during the past week for 2020) …
- The true genuis of JD Vance is that he takes sentiments that *could* be totally normal, like “intergenerational caregiving is good,” and somehow makes them incredibly creepy
- If you mom or mom-in-law helps, as they often do in many families, I’d place good money on a bet that the word “postmenopausal” does not come up in conversation … ever.
- To put it all another way and give it the full Burt Ward rinse … “Holy fucking misogyny Batman“.
Some False Profit$ had a go at being “Historians”
Self-proclaimed “prophet” Amanda Grace claims that “Aaron Burr was a deep state operative.”
- Yea, she is indeed banging on about the Aaron Burr who had a duel with Hamilton. This is a guy who was born in 1756. Apparently, within her alternative universe, we had a “Deep-State” in 1804.
MAGA Pastor Shane Vaughn asserts that the Civil War could have been prevented if the federal government has simply agreed to purchase all the slaves in the South.
- This is the sort of argument made by someone with absolutely no understanding of history. It’s a very old claim that has been doing the rounds for quite some time. Here, for example, is it being debunked over a decade ago.
Weird
It’s rather challenging to have a distinct “Weird” section in the context of almost everything being weird. However, some do manage to be so utterly weird that they make other weird people almost normal by contrast.
So let’s start this sub-section with Mark Meckler claiming that “England has fallen”: “It’s now a totalitarian state, primarily run by a Muslim theocracy.”
- That’s a cue for every single Brit reading this to pop up with “News to me“.
Moving on, we have a GOP candidate who complained about her opponent trying to win. The charge she levels at her opponent is wild …
- So yes, this Republican just discovered how elections are supposed to work and she’s horrified by it.
- She is basically accusing her opponent of “Election interference!” … by trying to persuade more people to vote for him.
Over in Oklahoma, we learn from Ryan Walters that apparently the Republican Oklahoma Supreme Court is Marxist …
- (*makes notes) New “Marxism” definition: This is where a Republican State Supreme Court follows the law and doesn’t permit this guy to fund a virtual Catholic school with tax dollars.
- I have lots more on Walters coming up within the next subsection.
Meanwhile, Hitler Loving Nick Fuentes, who famously attended thanksgiving dinner with Trump, is now trying to blackmail Trump into embracing some policies and also fire his campaign people, by threatening to get his followers to not support Trump …
- far right vs alt right will indeed be interesting.
- So how has his “all-out war” against Trump worked out so far? They decided to wage it on Trump’s Truth Social on Monday morning. By Wednesday, despite furiously posting, they were not trending because they had been shadow banned by the mods. It’s really not going all that well for them.
Oh and yes, we also had Glenn Beck pop up with his traditional election offering. No election year could ever be complete without the now traditional Glenn Beck fear porn that if we don’t vote the way he wants, then America is lost …
- When I say “traditional”, I really do mean that.
- Here he is in 2016 saying that if we don’t elect Ted Cruz as president then “This is your last call, America.“.
- Here he is in 2012 saying that the country would be destroyed if Barack Obama was reelected: “Last call, America!“
Stew Peters warns that soon “anyone deemed an ‘antisemite’ will be in a boxcar on their way to a concentration camp.”
- It’s a really weird statement to hear coming from a Holocaust denier.
Charlie Kirk’s attempt to prove that the United States was founded as a Christian nation is not nearly as clever as he thinks it is: “If the Founding Fathers were not Bible-believing, church-attending Christians, why did they put Leviticus on the Liberty Bell?”
- The Liberty Bell was commissioned in 1751, decades before the American Revolution and the drafting of the Constituion, and when most of the Founding Fathers were young men or not even born.
- Liberty Bell is a reminder of just how gullible some people can be. In 1996 Taco Bell announced via ads and press releases that it had purchased the Liberty Bell and changed its name to the Taco Liberty Bell. Despite the date of that announcement being April 1, many outraged people fell for it. This forced the park service to call a press conference to explain that it had just been an April 1 joke by Taco Bell. It did work because Taco Bell sales rose that week.
Megachurch Pastor Josh Howerton announces that he finds little girls to be ever so tempting …
- This creepy and weird guy is literally telling on himself.
- Parents … if you see this guy, grab your kids and run.
- A salute to anybody who puts Morals and Country, over party!
Actions Really do have consequences for Ryan Walters
OK, so I promised a lot more on this guy, and here it is.
It is not just you are me that are sick of all the Ryan Walters religious BS, apparently the Oklahoma state Republicans now feel the same way.
Least you wonder why, then let me give you a quick list of the notable “successes” of the elected Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction …
- Missing deadlines for federal grants
- Ghost hires of political allies
- Crony contracts w/ PR firms to get him on national TV
- Using state money to pay for him to go to things like CPAC
- Hiring Prager U to rewrite the state history standards
- Attacking LGBTQ students/staff
- Stonewalling Open Records requests & state legislative oversight
- Blocking schools from accessing $$ for school safety after Uvalde
- Requiring teaching the Bible in school
- Trying to found the first state-sponsored religious school
- etc…there is plenty more of the same.
You don’t need to take my word on any of this, just check out his Wikipedia page that links to it all, or if you prefer, just google his name.
So this now appears to really be happening …
- Hat tip to state Democrats in Oklahoma for fighting the good fight on this guy from day one, and managing to persuade their Republican colleagues to get on board with them on this
- He will of course play the “Christian Persecution” card. Nope, sorry Ryan, that’s really not it, this is about your corruption and incompetence.
Will it actually happen?
The best I can suggest is “perhaps”, but this is not yet a done deal. The best hope is that in an election year, many do see him as an individual that has given them a great deal of negative press, and that just might motivate quite a few more to sign up for this and thus distance themselves from him.
Reality check: it might also go the same way that it did with Ken Paxton in Texas. The Texas House impeached Ken Paxton because of his very blatant in-your-face corruption, and then the Texas Senate acquitted him.
The Harris Campaign Press Releases continue to be excellent
Somebody is having a lot of fun trolling Trump …
You might wonder if the above is satire.
Nope, this is them, they really did it.
As always the Political Cartoons continue to be excellent
Here is my random selection from the past week.
Bill Bramhall, The New York Daily News @BillBramhall …
Adam Zyglis retweets his cartoon from 2022 that works rather well for this past week …
Finally…
Guy rips off his Bud Light shirt because he does not like Bud Light. When asked why, he says they are un-American. When asked what they did that was un-American, he does not actually know …
Selling Trump Bibles at a Trump Rally …
Bonus Item
Be encouraged. She really is a decent person who strives to do what is right. It’s not political theatre, she has always been like this …
She is going to be a great president.