Cult of Fools Weekly (Nov 24, 2024) – “What just happened to Matt Gaetz?” • Skeptical Science

You will never guess where Matt Gaetz has just ended up.

It has been one hell of a week, so here is a quick summary for this potential AG.

Nobody loved the idea (except Gaetz and Trump). Even the NYT ran with a reveal of a document prepared by federal investigators that bolsters claims by women who say they were hired for sex by Matt Gaetz … to be precise, this document …

The guy on the right there is sex trafficker Joel Greenberg. He was Gaetz’s wingman. And pimp. And Greenberg is in prison for what he did.
The IRS has announced that any service payments made through Venmo must now be reported as income. This seems unfair. Haven’t the vast numbers of Matt Gatez’ sex workers suffered enough?

Anyway, what we all know is that on and off since 2021, the House Ethics Committee had been investigating Gaetz over various allegations, including the claim that he had sex with an underage girl, used illicit drugs, accepted bribes, misused campaign funds, and shared inappropriate images on the House floor. Then, just a few day’s from the release of their report, he quits congress because Trump has nominated him for AG.

After he quit the committee was divided 50/50 with the democrat half wanting to release the report, and all the Trump sycophants refusing to do so.

That more or less confirmed that it was all true.

If indeed Gaetz truly was fit for office and none of the accusations were true, then a clean report would indeed confirm that – the fact that they refused to release it confirms that what it would have revealed was indeed very damning.

We all know he is guilty and not fit for office. Joel Leppard, who represents the then-minor with whom Gaetz is accused of having sex, has called for the report’s release. He said the then-minor testified to the committee that she had sex with Gaetz while “she was a high school student, and there were witnesses“.

His colleagues also know he is guilty, and so being forced to very blatantly cover it all up was a bridge that was politically just too damn toxic for even them to cross, so they explained to him in private that he did not have the support needed to be confirmed, so he backed out.

I speculated in last week’s posting that this is more or less how it would play out, and so it has. He has in effect ducked the house ethics report, and so the decks are cleared for him to run for FL Gov in 26.

As usual the self-appointed “Prophets” were of course once again making the wrong call just a couple of hours before Gaetz withdrew …

Will we now learn from them next week that Gaetz really is AG, but only in heaven, or perhaps his AG appointment was stolen and God didn’t see that coming.

So where has Gaetz now landed?

He is now grifting on Cameo.

OK, let’s move on now and see what other crazy stuff has popped up during the past week.

More Whacky and Totally Inappropriate Appointments

So we learned that the AG candidate is now Pam Bondi (breath a small bit easier now, it’s not the utterly corrupt Texas AG Ken Paxton who was pushing for it). However … speaking of corruption …

Bondi is really not a surprise. When she was AG of Florida, the Trump foundation illegally “donated” $25k to her reelection campaign and she VERY COINCIDENTALLY dropped out of being part of the investigation into Trump University. Yes, she really is that blatantly corrupt.
Let’s also remember the time she convinced the governor to reschedule an execution so she could attend a campaign fundraiser …

For more on this Florida AG, here is the NY AG commenting on what happened with Trump University …

The REAL story on Pam Bondi, Trump University, and Trump's $25,000 payment to Bondi:

1/ In August 2013, I was at the NY AG, and Bondi was Florida AG.

On August 24, 2013, I filed the NY AG's prosecution of Trump University and Donald Trump, for $42 million in fraud. 🧵
— Tristan Snell (@TristanSnell) November 22, 2024

Let’s also mull over the fact that Trump nominated Brendan Carr for FCC Chair

He wrote the FCC chapter of Project 2025 – Ban TikTok; rewrite section 230 of the communications act to make providers and users liable for third-party content. For example, the law has been applied to protect online service providers like social media companies from lawsuits based on their decisions to transmit or take down user-generated content; etc… basically alter the entire social media landscape and give it a distinct right-wing bias for disinformation.
Carr has also backed Trump’s call for licenses to be stripped from all three major broadcast networks for coverage choices that Trump disliked
Carr also seeks to test the legal limits of the FCC’s power by pushing for it to oversee companies like Meta and Google. This is setting the stage for a fierce battle with Silicon Valley.
His appointment is going to be potentially impactful to the shape and form of the torrent of disinformation we will face in the years to come.

Dr Oz (yes really, he got nominated), is named to head Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

So what’s the “thinking” here, get Elon to abolish all the real Medicare and Medicaid and then have Dr Oz replace it all with the utterly worthless pseudoscientific BS that he spent years promoting on daytime TV? – The fact that much of the stuff he promoted is BS is not an opinion, it’s a well established fact – See BMJ study from 2014 that established this.
Reminder: Dr Oz is the guy who suggested that the death of 4% of kids was a price worth paying for some economic benefit. Really, this is him during height of covid: “Schools are a very appetizing opportunity. I just saw a nice piece in The Lancet arguing the opening of schools may only cost us 3% in terms of total mortality. Any life lost is a life lost, but that might be a tradeoff some folks would consider“
Seriously now, the jokes more or less write themselves these days – Reality TV President appoints daytime TV Doctor
It may be funny to some to see these ridiculous and deeply stupid nominations, but the people who will be so incredibly fucked by this are disabled people. So. Incredibly. Fucked.

Try this, which of these is true and which is fake?

Trump picks WWE co-founder Linda McMahon for education secretary
Trump picks ex-wrestler Hulk Hogan for Secretary of Labor

My point is this – both are utterly absurd, and yet also totally believable these days. The only way you could really know is to goggle it. So for the record, yes, the first is actually true, but you probably knew that, he really has picked WWE co-founder Linda McMahon for education secretary, and the second is (as I write this) totally fake … but it’s still early days yet, and some are still willing to suggest it happened as a prank.

The one bonus of his choice of Linda is that it will seriously piss off Ryan Walters in Okla who was after the job and has been frantically using state funds to buy Trump bibles for schools to try and get nominated.
As is the case with other picks, she has exactly zero experience in education. She is however notable for being named in a recent lawsuit (Oct 2024), where she is accused of allowing years of sexual abuse of young boys by a WWE ringside announcer, so I guess she can now swap notes with her new boss on how to handle sexual abuse lawsuits.

Here is a very weird Pete Hegseth update. He is the Fox News host nominated to run the Department of Defense. This past week this is what he was doing …

So yea, the guy lined up to run the Dept of Def is not only a Fox News host, but also a religion fanatic with looney Cult leader ambitions.
I guess this reveal aligns with his white supremacist “Deus Vult” tattoo and sexual assault history.

Oh, and let’s not forget the token African American nomination …

For Surgeon General he once again dips into the Fox News pool (will there be anybody left to actually run Fox News, I mean seriously now, how many is it that he has plucked from there 20 or 30 perhaps) …

As one commentator pointed out regarding this one … “We’re so screwed for the next pandemic. The government will offer prayers instead of vaccines and white evangelicals will embrace it and all critics will be deemed anti-Christian and I hate this entire timeline.“

The following might have been mocked up as a joke, but the reason the joke works is because it is actually true … (For those seeing the image below outside the US and not getting it, in the US it is possible to for members of the public to track the location of registered sex offenders on a map) …

The Walk of Shame

There has been a lot of coverage about this, and yet it was so surprising that I can’t not mention it – Joe and Mika from MSNBC’s Morning Joe traveled to Mar-a-Lago to kiss ass, a trip you might expect from some … but not Joe and Mika, so yes, WTAF!

Great way to alienate loyal viewers.
If they thought this would be a bit of positive PR, then they need to rethink that. They earned heavy criticism from both the left and the right for this little charade.
Meanwhile AdWeek now reports “Morning Joe Ends the Week With a Ratings Slide“. Their argument that doing something different appears to have worked out well then.

Project 2025

So yea, I hate to say it, but there it is just like many of us have been telling you all … Project 2025 was and always has been the plan … when he claimed he knew nothing about it, he was lying …and now this is apparently news to NBC, but not for the rest of us who already could see it very clearly.

All we can do now is sit back and watch the destruction unfold, and perhaps console ourselves a bit with the thought that MAGA are just as screwed by this as the rest of us are.

Christian “Love”

Here is this week’s offering from the guy with the very very very small …. church … and so he uses provocative YouTube clips to earn a salary …

This week it is basically his take on Jesus saying “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven” (Matt 5:10-12).
It’s this verse that motivates some Christians to be as obnoxious and as offensive as they can possible be to ensure that they get their “reward in heaven“.
The thing is this, often people deploy terms like “Nazi”, “Racist”, etc… not to insult, nor as a false claim, but as a fact based observation of an actual behaviour they are seeing. Bottom line: If those that believe really are going to say stupid shit, then they are going to get called out on it.

Comparing Trump’s election win to David killing Goliath, Christian nationalist pastor Terri Copeland Pearsons (Daughter of King Grifter Kenneth Copeland) says America will not be safe until Christians “take up the enemy’s sword and cut his head off with it.“

Christians really are a blood thirsty lot these days. What ever happened to peace and love?
It’s also rather absurd for her to suggest that a billionaire fraudster, rapist, and convicted felon, along with the help from his other billionaire X buddy, managing to swing an election on a platform of lies, is like a poor shepherd boy defeating a giant.

It was the five year anniversary of this on Nov 20 …

For those not up to speed, “good Christian” Josh Duggar, the executive director for the Family Research Council, is currently serving 12 years and seven months in prison for child porn and will not be out until 2032.
While Lori (The Transformed Wife) might not have been able to believe it, the FBI did because they followed the evidence.

LGBTQ+ Phobia

Christian nationalist Ben Zeisloft doesn’t necessarily believe in the separation of church and state but he does believe that “in our day, we need separation of sodomy and state.“

You know how this usually plays out. It’s always the ones that scream the loudest. One day Ben will take his laptop in for repair and wish he hadn’t.
I’m not expressing an opinion, studies have confirmed that strong homophobia is associated with homosexual arousal.

Rep Nancy Mace and the Capital Bathroom …

Her degree of bigotry driven obsession in play is quite frankly astonishing.
It’s one hell of a job she has in Congress. I really can’t think of any other workplace, where you can use ALL of your time to post on X.
Some further insights from AOC …

And here is a bit more on the bathroom war …

The False Profit$

The Council of self-appointed “prophets” (all grifters) are deeply upset that somebody in their ranks said something negative about their beloved orange messiah …

Via here about the success rate of these “prophetic elders” : From the moment Donald Trump first ran for president in 2016, various self-proclaimed “prophets” issued countless prophecies guaranteeing his reelection in 2020. when those prophecies failed to come to pass, these “prophets” refused to admit that they were wrong and instead spent the next four years issuing increasingly outlandish prophecies that President Joe Biden would be removed from office in the middle of his term and Trump would be reinstated. Those prophecies likewise failed to come to pass
Basically a council of grifters determined to pander to the idiot-in-chief in exchange for influence.

OK, so why are they so alarmed, you want to know … right?

It turns out that one of their own “prophets”, Emma Stark in Scotland has been calling them out for their Trump BS …

“You have an emperor’s religion,” Stark declared. “You now have cultural Christianity, America, with an empire and with an imperial leader. You happen to call him Donald Trump and what he is playing with you and why he is releasing chaos …

Self-proclaimed “prophet” Hank Kunneman claims that it will soon be revealed that Joe Biden has been dead for years and was replaced by a body double.

That would mean Kamala Harris is president now but he doesn’t quite get there.
With “intellect” like this, is he making a pitch to become a cabinet member, because if they picked him, he would blend right in.

Self-proclaimed “prophetess” Kat Kerr continues to insist that she has been directly texting with Trump.

Kat is generally nuttier than most fruitcakes. The cherry on her specific cake consists of the descriptions of heaven that she comes out with on a regular basis … Jesus is a tattooed biker with his own brand new Harley Davison motor bike, Almighty God and Jesus regularly play golf up there, etc… totally nutty stuff, and yet people lap it all up.

Lance Wallnau claims that Trump is hard at work “setting up the deliverance and exorcism of the demons out of institutions of the federal government.“

Old Lance has a bit of a typo there … it’s “Into” rather than “out of” … as in … “setting up the insertion of demons [The human kind] into institutions of the federal government.“

Weirdest of the Weird

Mark Meckler proudly declares himself to be “a radical, right-wing, Tea Party, Bible-thumping, gun-toting conservative.“

Er … yes Mark, we had sort of noticed that.

Apparently if you are not having sex for breeding, then it’s gay …

His church appears to be a fetish fertility cult

The Catholic League says “the Biden-Harris administration is the most anti-Catholic in American history.“

Remind me again what religion Biden is?

Insightful Thread of the Week

What Musk and Ramaswamy are about to do is a very very bad idea (you do of course already know that).

This thread by Cory Doctorow explains exactly why …

He also has it in essay form. Let’s make it more accessible. Here below is the opening bit to temp you into going to Cory’s non-twitter ad-free paywall free essay version …

Since Trump hijacked the Supreme Court, his backers have achieved many of their policy priorities: legalizing bribery, formalizing forced birth, and – with the Loper Bright case, neutering the expert agencies that regulate business

What the Supreme Court began, Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy are now poised to finish, through the “Department of Government Efficiency,” a fake agency whose acronym (“DOGE”) continues Musk’s long-running cryptocurrency memecoin pump-and-dump. The new department is absurd – imagine a department devoted to “efficiency” with two co-equal leaders who are both famously incapable of getting along with anyone – but that doesn’t make it any less dangerous.

Expert agencies are often all that stands between us and extreme misadventure, even death. The modern world is full of modern questions, the kinds of questions that require a high degree of expert knowledge to answer, but also the kinds of questions whose answers you’d better get right.

You’re not stupid, nor are you foolish. You could go and learn everything you need to know to evaluate the firmware on your antilock brakes and decide whether to trust them. You could figure out how to assess the Common Core curriculum for pedagogical soundness. You could learn the material science needed to evaluate the soundness of the joists that hold the roof up over your head. You could acquire the biology and chemistry chops to decide whether you want to trust produce that’s been treated with Monsanto’s Roundup pesticides. You could do the same for cell biology, virology, and epidemiology and decide whether to wear a mask and/or get an MRNA vaccine and/or buy a HEPA filter.

You could do any of these. You might even be able to do two or three of them. But you can’t do all of them, and that list is just a small slice of all the highly technical questions that stand between you and misery or an early grave. Practically speaking, you aren’t going to develop your own robust meatpacking hygiene standards, nor your own water treatment program, nor your own Boeing 737 MAX inspection protocol.

Markets don’t solve this either. If they did, we wouldn’t have to worry about chunks of Boeing jets falling on our heads. The reason we have agencies like the FDA (and enabling legislation like the Pure Food and Drug Act) is that markets failed to keep people from being murdered by profit-seeking snake-oil salesmen and radium suppository peddlers.

…

To keep reading, and I really do encourage you to do so because it is time well-spent gaining a rather important insight, then you can find the rest of his essay-formatted surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog of it here.

I always find that anything Cory says is deeply insightful, hence I will happily promote him (without being asked to do so).