Why is there so much raw stupidity?
To use propagandist Steve Bannon’s oft quoted explanation of his strategy from 2018, one that has been adopted by the religious, the political right, and other bad actors, it is all about “flooding the zone with shit“. The goal is that by bombarding people with lie after lie after lie, you exhaust and demoralise many, drive them out of the conversation, and so enable the lie to prevail.
What should we do, is giving up an option?
Hell no, flag up the lies, push back, and expose the liars for who they really are. Spotlight the promoters as bad unreliable untrustworthy agents.
OK, let’s work an example. Here is Jasmine …
However … (yea, I bet you knew that a reveal was coming) …
Was she Pro-Trump prior to Feb 8?
Of course she was, because the above is a deliberate lie …
So who is she really?
Well, if you look, you discover that she is a Sirius radio co-host and also a retired marketer. In other words she knows how to sell shit and make it taste yummy even if it really is pure shit …
So yes, deliberate deceit and manipulation.
Ah but wait, because you need to keep going and peel back the onion layers a bit more here. All is not as it appears to be even at this level.
Dig forensically and what you then reveal, via an image search, is that this is not a real person at all. She does not exist and is actually a Russian bot account that is there to bombard us all with shit …
Twitter and multiple other social media platforms are awash with accounts that are 24×7 Trump Trump Trump, banging away flooding the zone with pure shit, and it’s only February, still a long way to go until November.
We are literally being flooded with shit that has been designed to manipulate. This is a divide and conquer strategy.
(Hat tip to @FluteMagician for the above reveal).
Below you will once again find my usual selection of some truly bizarre and extreme claims that have popped up during the last 7 days. Each is laced with my snarky commentary.
With my usual hat tip to my various sources, let’s once again dive into this very murky pool of absurdity and raw stupidity.
Christian Nationalism
Christian nationalist Mark Gonzales claims that “two-thirds of our Founding Fathers were ordained ministers” who founded the Constitution and Bill of Rights “on scriptures straight out of the Bible.”
- Literally none of that is true. I guess he hopes that his gullible MAGA marks don’t actually read any books.
- His imaginary friend appears to motivate him to embrace and promote an imaginary history.
- Meanwhile the Bible enters stage left to advise … “The lord detests lying lips…” – (Proverbs 12:22)
Everett Piper is promoting the bogus claim that the Founding Fathers relied on the Bible, particularly Deuteronomy, in creating this nation and its government.
- Do these people truly fail to grasp that when they lie about suff that is demonstrably false, it completely blows their credibility.
Lance Wallnau tweets: “These anti-Christian anti-Nationalist’s all belief in a thing they call “New Apostolic Reformation” (NAR) an underground dominionist organization taking over the world. It’s hilarious. They mock Q followers but they are the Q-ANON-NAR’s of the Trump Deranged Lunar Left.”
- Indeed yes, where would people get such an idea? Maybe it comes directly from the videos that he, Lance Wallnau, Posts. More or less the same day he declared that “we are now royal priesthood” with the authority of a king & a prophetic priesthood to take over society and “bring Heaven down into the realm that we’re invading.”
Christian nationalist Andrew Wommack says that while he doesn’t want to see the US descend into civil war, he thinks it “would it be worth it to turn this nation back” to God and the Constitution.
- I don’t think he appears to grasp the thought that if it happened, his side would not win?
Oklahoma’s Christian nationalist state Sen. Dusty Deevers proclaims that “because the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever, the chief end of civil government is to honor and uphold the purpose of man by protecting the innocent, punishing the evildoer, and promoting that which is good.”
- Surface Translation: Dusty thinks he was elected to impose a Theocracy
- Real Translation: The chief end of Dusty Deevers is to glorify and promote Dusty Deevers.
- Meanwhile: He has introduced a bill for an absolute abortion ban with no exceptions; a bill for a total porn ban; oh and let’s not forget his bill to ban divorce. His anti-porn bill is weirdly very explicit and goes into a lot of detail. If you are looking for a Margaret Atwood villain then this is your guy.
- Irony Alert: When it comes to COVID, he was deeply concerned about government “overreach”
Christian nationalist Mark Gonzales falsely claims that it was pastors in the “Black Robe Regiment,” not the military, that won the American Revolution: “It wasn’t the American army, it was the church that did that.”
- Literally none of that is true.
- As I’m sure we all appreciate, one side claimed the divine right of a king to rule and tax people, and the better side said “nope” – most people on both sides also held some variation of religious belief.
Christian nationalist state Rep. Josh Schriver defends his promotion of the racist “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory.
- To truly grasp just how deeply bizarre the “Great Replacement” actually is, you need go no further than the details laid out on it within Wikipedia.
- It was his posting of the below that he now strives to defend. Even on the surface it is deeply weird because the meme appears to claim that Siberia, China, UK, Ireland, Western plus Central Europe, and New Zealand are all populated exclusively by black people who are part of a conspiracy to replace white people in Iceland, Canada, the Northern parts of the US, Eastern Europe and Australia…
The Cult of Trump
The “Dilley Meme Team” continues to produce absolutely vile content in support of the Trump campaign.
- Dilley is famous for explaining that he just makes stuff up and all that matters is that it goes viral.
- Dilley quote: “You don’t have to fact check me because I don’t give a fuck,” Dilley added. “I fucking make up shit sometimes, from time to time. I don’t care. I don’t care. Democrats know it. Republicans know it. I don’t mind admitting it. I don’t give a shit … When I get a chance to shit on the left, I don’t mind making shit up. No, not at all.”
- When it comes to Dilly, it is also important to expose how overtly racist, unapologetically misogynistic, and gleefully amoral he is.
SCOTUS Corruption
Christian “Weirdness”
“Grifters must grift…” tweets Pastor Jackson Lahmeyer
- This is the same guy who was handing out COVID religious exemptions to anybody who donated to his church (You can think of that exemption, an indulgence, as a personally signed Darwin Award).
Far-right pastor Jack Hibbs produced a video telling Christians they should care about the “invasion” of “bad guys” coming across the southern border by asking, “When they’re across the street, looking at your house with an AK-47 or sword in hand and there’s 7 of them, what are you gonna do?”
- Bible Jesus: “Turn the other cheek”; Republican Jesus: “Grab your AR15 and take them out”
- There is also of course their standard response to all shootings … “thoughts and prayers”.
- This is an old game, the deployment of Christian Fear Porn to rile up the mob.
- Also … perhaps he needs to go have a chat with all the Republicans who voted against the draft legislation that would have gone a long way towards addressing the border crises.
Homophobia on Steroids
Outraged that a new Netflix series accurately portrays Alexander the Great’s sexuality, Stew Peters and Isabella Moody blame the Jews.
- The word “bizarre” does not even begin the scratch the surface here.
- Apparently “Historical Accuracy” is now deemed “LGBT Propaganda”
Christian hate-preacher Robert Larson says that gay people who have sex “should get the electric chair” because it’s “a little more painful” than lethal injection.
- The one positive here is the observation that these IFB churches tend to be tiny cabins in strip malls with only a handful of members.
Even Weirder stuff
Laura Loomer now claims that she is glad she is happy that her multiple bids for Congress failed “because I’d be miserable in Congress surrounded by sell out traitors and morons. It would be a shame to die someday and have my name attached to the clown show known as the 118th US Congress.”
- If elected it would indeed have made the 118th even more “interesting”. She makes Boebert and MTG look sane, serious, and capable.
- Reminder: Laura collects bans like some collect stamps. She has been banned from almost ever social media platform out there. She has also been banned by Uber and Lyft, by Paypal, GoFundMe and Venom. She is in reality so toxic that even CPAC has banned her.
- Reminder-2: When twitter banner her, she handcuffed herself to Twitter’s HQ entrance in NY and threw away the key on a very cold day. So they said, “OK, no problem“, used the other door and simply left her there … until she eventually pleaded to be cut free.
Stew Peters is now literally posting clips of Charles Manson to promote his insane conspiracy theories.
- Stew appears to be claiming that Charles Manson was prophetic and insightful, and just had a bit of bad press. I’m not sure he grasps that his Manson stance tells us absolutely nothing about Manson, but instead tells us just how mangled Stew’s brain really is.
- Side Note: I don’t need to tell you this because most of you reading it already know, but for those that don’t, I will. Manson was a classic psychopath who could very successfully manipulate others within the cult he ran into committing at least nine murders, and that includes the murder of eight-month pregnant actress Sharon Tate. He had no remorse, no feelings at all, for what he did. If Manson is your hero that that’s a rather glaring red flag.
Also, Stew Peters, who once compared providing free rides to get COVID-19 vaccines to sending people to death camps, attacks Taylor Swift for having supposedly compared people who refused to take the vaccine to Nazis.
- The ever so tiny problem with this claim is that it’s a lie, Taylor Swift never said anything like that. But hey, this is Stew, a guy that just makes stuff up, so no real surprise then. It’s a more or less a rock solid guarantee that if he said something then its not true.
It must be exhausting to be Lauren Witzke and see conspiracies behind anything that happens.
- The above is a link to a tweet with an image of a storm and the caption “Looks like they turned the weather machines back on again“
- Reminder: If there is a whacky conspiracy claim out there then you can more or less guarantee that she is into it as “fact” … QAnon, Flat Earth, 9/11, etc… She is relevant to flag up because she was the official GOP Senate candidate for Delaware. They literally looked at her and thought, “Yep, she represents us and our interests“.
Michigan state Rep. Josh Schriver (yes, the great replacement nut from above) also this past week declared that “the Bible is the most historically accurate book of all time.”
- Indeed yes, the entire universe is just 6,000 years old, the earth was created a few days prior to the sun and the rest of the universe, snakes and donkeys talk, and a 600 year old guy built a boat, took every animal ever onboard, and remembered drop off the penguins and kangaroos on the other side of the planet … all solid historical and 100% accurate facts … right?
Christian pastor Mark Driscoll offers his review of the Apple Pro Vision: “… I think this is actually a massive next step into the Antichrist and into the second coming of Jesus Christ before humanity ends itself… I’m devastated and I feel like crying.”
- That’s how some of the deeply religious also felt about the arrival of Radio, Movies, TV, PCs, Smart Phones, Cars, Planes, etc… every single step we take, it’s the same old rhetoric. Utterly terrified of change, so he copes by rejecting it … until he can eventually work out a way to use it to grift with.
- Actually, I strongly suspect he is devastated with the discovery that VR porn does not currently work on the Apple Vision Pro $3,500 device.
- Meanwhile, if it devastates Marc Driscoll and makes him cry, then yes, I’m on board with it.
Andrew Anglin says that women deserve to be replaced by AI because “they decided they want to be nasty whores. All they do is whine, complain, abuse, divorce, exploit, etc.”
- Translation-1: Women who hook up with this guy give him a very hard time when they discover that he is a wholly committed Nazi who just loves Hitler.
- Translation-2: He has failed to hook up with any women, so has to make do with plastic dolls instead.
The False Profit$
Christian preacher (and self-described prophet) Hank Kunneman says God has a message for Donald Trump’s critics: “He has prayed. He has spoke to me!… Because you have not been walking with him, you have not heard his prayers, and you have not known his heart!”
- Sorry Hank, that message was for you, not us.
Kenneth Copeland’s Eagle Mountain International Church is launching a “call to fasting and prayer” for the 2024 election: “The 2024 elections are fast approaching. We know the thief comes to steal, kill and destroy. But the Word says to catch him, rebuke him, resist him, bind him and cast him out. Through this fast, we will be strengthened in the weapons of our warfare, standing fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free, allowing no devil to steal our freedom.”
- Kenneth is clearly talking about himself … “the thief comes to steal, kill and destroy“
- If you are stupid enough to give this grifter a “donation” then be aware that all you are doing is paying for his $10 million Jet that he uses for ski trips, and his $6.3 million house
Republican Satanic Bills
So this has been happening in AZ …
- It is actually quite an impressive bit of draft legislation. What they have managed to propose is a bill that violates the Establishment Clause, the Free Exercise Clause, and the Free Speech Clause all at the same time.
- Quote: “For an actual senator to write and/or sign such a hopelessly illegal, petty and futile bill is to announce utter and complete ignorance as to the function of their office, and total disregard for the services they are expected to perform as public representatives.”
An Iowa Republican has also filed a bill to ban “Satanic displays or the practice of Satanism on state property.” The bill contains text that goes after groups that “reference Satan or Satanism.”
- Well gosh, this is fast becoming a thing now to push back against the trolling being done by the secular group using Satanic imagery to criticise them.
- Of note is that the text of the bill bans groups that “reference Satan or Satanism” … hey that would be all the Christians right, those are the groups that this would effectively ban?
- Will they also be banning all documents that make a reference to Satan as well, for example, the Bible, or in fact the legislation itself that enacts the ban?
Tennessee Update
Karma delivers …
The GOP Impeachment Vote that failed
Well yes, we all know how it played out for them when they tried to impeach Alejandro Mayorkas …
MTG truly is the queen of stupidity
AI Robocalls declared Illegal
Do you remember that recent Fake Biden AI generated Robocall scam run in New Hampshire during the primary? Well, it has had an impact, it provoked the FCC to step in. This has now thankfully happened …