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Boebert Gropes The Bottom of the Barrel

Agreed, Boebert is Dead Bimbo Walking when it comes to re-election. She’s done. I watched some of the bogus House GOP “impeachment inquiry” and when it finally was her turn to speak, the moment her face came on screen, I couldn’t help but think about what a joke she was after what she did in that theater. While I didn’t stay tuned to watch her, I have to imagine that many CO voters in her district likely feel the same way and she’s disqualified in their minds.

When she tries to pontificate about her moral outrage now on this issue or against that Democrat, it’s so empty and I’m sure tuned out. Once you become a joke, a hollow hypocrite in the eyes of the public, you’ve lost everything if you’re a politician, your words aren’t listened to and your power is drained.

I’m as certain as you, among other wins I think Dems will have, throwing BimBoebert (and Santos) out of The House will be a nice bonus.

» Posted By AdLib On September 29, 2023 @ 1:53 pm

Sometimes the best thing you can do with reprehensible narcissists is give them the spotlight they crave and let their hubris destroy them. It’s happening with Trump right now, it’s happening with Boebert, and throughout history, it’s nearly always worked.

The problem of course is the damage these ignorant narcissists can do to others and the country while they’re still in a position of power.

Boebert is as much a reflection of today’s GOP as Trump, MTG, and MAGAs are, crass and selfish with no moral compass and no mission professionally or personally other than to gratify themselves.

Boebert’s damage control efforts and her pathetic moralizing speeches in The House following this incident, trying to use hollow words and playacting performances to look morally responsible will fool no one. She is toast, she’s over as is Trump and the GOP’s fragile grip on power in The House. With Boebert, Santos, Gaetz, and MTG “leading” the House Repubs, they’re a walking advertisement to voters to “VOTE FOR SANITY. VOTE DEMOCRAT!”.

You can take the Boebert out of the trash but you can’t take the trash out of the Boebert.

As to comparing Bill Clinton’s affair with Boebert’s public indecency (she’s indecent whether public or private), I think it’s kind of a different thing. I’m not a big fan of Bill as a man or president and I agree with you that his affair and Boebert’s actions were just flat-out stupid. But Clinton was vilified and impeached for lying about an affair which the public saw as pretty hypocritical and outrageous (so many politicians had and have affairs and lie about it as do many regular people) and the heavy-handed persecution actually drove more sympathy and support for Clinton, leading to his re-election.

With Boebert, she won’t even get an ethics investigation in The House for committing an actual crime in public thanks to unethical Repubs being in power there (there were kids in that audience where she and her “date” groped each other, she illegally vaped and blew smoke into the air, and made a ruckus when they tried to get her to leave). But in her case, voters will not sympathize with attacks on her because her behavior was truly offensive and degrades our government.

If Dems do take over The House in 2024 (and keep The Senate and WH as I think they will), it would be after an electoral “Housecleaning” that sees Boebert and other indecent MAGAs gone forever, with ethics and substance returned to The House.

Then Boebert can fill her days and nights with acting like the trash she is and no one will care anymore. I guess she could become the spokeswoman for Glad Garbage Bags?

» Posted By AdLib On September 23, 2023 @ 11:54 am

Racism is Strong in the U.S. And Tim Scott Is Lying About It

If Tim Scott actually did believe in the Eisenhower/Reagan Republican Party, that seems to be well over now. Like the rest of the unprincipled Repubs, his focus is solely on winning over the radical extremists that make up at least half of their party and a majority of their activists.

Like any politician running for office, you have to pick a unique lane for yourself to appeal to voters in a way the other candidates may not. Unfortunately for Repubs, there is only one lane so all you can do is be a different flavor of authoritarian.

In Scott’s case, he’s chosen to pour his cup of MAGA Authoritarianism into a mug with GW Bush’s face on it. The “Compassionate Conservative” mug but it still holds the same intolerant and oppressive MAGA brew.

He talks about “bringing the country together” then spills his mug of madness and declares that as president, he would be a dictator over blue states on abortion and declare what women can and can’t do in those states.

As to his embrace of racism and his rejection of Affirmative Action, recognizing institutional racism, recognizing the racism and bigotry of his party and their cult leader, Scott has chosen to be the “special” person of color to the white Republican leaders and base, along with Vivek Ramaswamy, Byron Donalds, etc. who see the niche of espousing the same bigotry against minorities that the white Republicans do but as a person of color, as a rewarding role that puts them on the RW pedestal.

Of course, they are just exploiting that desire of racists in the GOP to have a facade to hide behind, “I can’t be racist, I like Tim Scott!”

But going back to MLK Jr.’s familiar quote about the content of character being what one should be judged on instead of skin color, if you strip away the racial identity of Scott and the others, they are simply regurgitating the same racist arguments as their white colleagues. Their history and experience and the insight that they should have as growing up in a society with institutionalized racism, has been packed up, buried in a hole deep in their psyche and buried because it is an obstacle to their greed for power and money.

I don’t think Scott actually believes the majority of racist policies he espouses, I think he sees it all as a means to an end to keep ignorant Repub voters re-electing him and fulfilling his greed for attention, money and power.

What’s hard for most Americans who are reasonable people, is to look at people who present themselves as one thing, due to how consumed they are by greed, and recognize that they are just opportunists who only say things and represent themselves one way or another, insincerely and only for personal gain.

Just as most Repub politicians secretly moan about Trump but publicly praise him, the GOP is filled with dishonest and “performing” people who say and do what they say and do purely to get what they want, they have no principles and no genuine philosophies in life other than to benefit themselves.

To me, Tim Scott is just another one of these Repubs but worse to the extent that he has leveraged being black to attack what’s in the best interests of America and people of color, because it makes him a novelty.

» Posted By AdLib On September 1, 2023 @ 6:54 pm

I Believe in God But I Hate Religion

Welcome back, Khirad and Satan passes along the following, “Where the hell were you?”

Your description of your odysseys through the mazes of religions and dogma is fascinating. I’ll leave Tim to respond to the question asked of him but just wanted to say hi, hope all is well and welcome back!

» Posted By AdLib On June 29, 2024 @ 2:41 pm

TW, I think this is a very bold and thoughtful piece, well done!

What your article brings to my mind is a recognition and respect for what each of us choose to believe about God and religion and an honest conversation about how it is not always easy to understand why someone else believes the way they do.

You lay out many strong arguments against viewing religion in a blanket way as something “always good” (or possibly, often destructive) yet demonstrate through the beliefs you express that you don’t dismiss belief in something greater than us.

A problem that religion has is the same as any situation where human beings organize themselves, there is always the flaw that some human beings want to exploit others to grab power. If you look back historically to the early days of human society, there was not only a great deal of fear and superstition about then-incomprehensible things like the Sun rising and setting and thunderstorms but there was also a constant threat to survival for tribes of people. Whether it was a need to find food and water, shelter, or protect themselves from the elements and disease, tribes of people lived in desperate times. Along with these concerns were the concerns of other tribes attacking them and taking their resources (as well as trying to build a bigger and more dominating tribe) and vice versa, tribes aggressively trying to usurp other tribes for what they had or the threat they represented.

In these early days, whatever superstitious or religious beliefs floated around, tribal leaders understood the importance of having a structure to build greater control and dominance over the existing tribe and “incentives” for others to grow their tribe and power along with disincentives to leave the tribe or refuse to join the tribe.

So while there surely would have been those people who organically developed beliefs about God (or gods), spirituality, and mystical reasons for things they couldn’t otherwise explain, tribes crafted uniform religious beliefs for multiple reasons but among the primary reasons, as a system of control. It was tribe against tribe back then so a tribe that had beliefs that their tribe was the only righteous one under God had the moral authority to destroy or usurp/convert/absorb other tribes. And the confidently-expressed belief that those who did not join their tribe would spend eternity in Hell being tortured in agony was as strong an argument against resisting joining that tribe as could be imagined.

So historians can solidly represent that religion and tribalism were intertwined very early on and that the authoritarian nature of religion had a legitimate purpose back then in pursuing survival and building a flourishing society.

Putting aside everything else about religion and spirituality for the moment, the tribal nature of religion positions it, in general, as a potential threat to equality and freedom. As we’re seeing with the Trump cult, their tribe defines and energizes itself through hatred of all who are not members and believers in their “religion”. Racism, homophobia, misogyny, fascism, and theocracy, are all pillars of their “religion” and their religious mission is to strike down, disempower and dominate all who are not part of their cult.

The history of religion, whether in The Crusades, Nazi Germany, etc. displays that it can be and will be used at some time as a harmful system of control and destruction.

This is absolutely not to say that all those who belong to religions are participating in wanting to control and dominate those who don’t belong to their religion. There are many members of religions who reflect the love, kindness, and spirituality that one might expect from well-intentioned human beings. So they need to be separated from the wrongs that can be and are often woven into religions, especially by leaders who are focused more on power and self-gratification.

So IMO, the issue is not in anyone choosing to follow a religion or hold their own spiritual beliefs, the individual is not in the wrong, it is the organization that, like all organizations, attract and inspire people to grab power and exploit it in the name of that organization, to rally its followers against “enemies” who are “different” to conform, energize and strengthen them as a more uniform tribe…a more useful and powerful “army” that brings greater power and control to the leaders.

So the moral of my story is that religion would be just fine if only there weren’t leaders, if religions were genuinely run to be about believing in something bigger and greater than all of us and that love, respect and peace were the only things that mattered, that power, control and wealth concentrated in the hands of the few who become a religion’s leaders is corrosive to the very soul of that religion, dispensing of the hatred, bigotry, and conflict with the “others” as a system of control, we would have a much better world and few reasons to have reservations about religion as a whole.

» Posted By AdLib On August 17, 2023 @ 1:43 pm

Payton Gendron Deserves The Death Penalty

Hey TW, your article really inspires a lot of thought. I have mixed feelings about how society should deal with mass-murdering racists but to start off, I oppose the death penalty. That doesn’t mean I don’t have intense anger toward racist murderers like Gendron and Roof nor does it mean that I don’t sympathize with what you write about, that it would not only be justice but thinning the herd of an unsalvagable monster.

I have similar feelings. Emotionally, I’m close to your view on this.

In films and shows, I root for the hero to overcome the monster who is killing and terrorizing innocent people, defeating and often killing the villain. I don’t feel it is wrong in the world of fiction but something gnaws at me about that in real life. I think it is the slippery slope concept, I don’t trust the haters on the other side of the fence not to use that kind of power unjustifiably to kill good and innocent people.

I can’t say I haven’t imagined the death of horrible people in real life either who represent hatred and destruction in this country, or at least the satisfaction of punching them in the face. But in the real world, what holds me back from supporting any type of government violence or execution against its own citizens is the precedent it sets for horrible, conscience-lacking people to turn it against innocent people if they gain a position of power.

Consider Trump who has stated that he would have the state murder drug dealers and it’s not a leap to imagine that sociopath justifying the murder of those who protest against him, the press, whoever he saw as an enemy and deemed “a danger to America”.

I don’t believe the state should ever have the power to kill citizens because that power will be abused as it has in every nation where state killings are accepted (in Russia, they sure fall out of windows a lot).

My proposition is that despite how justified it may feel, giving into that understandable feeling to have deranged murderers face the same kind of total destruction that they wreaked on others due to their hatred and bigotry, it will end up with the deaths of more innocent people.

If Gendron dropped dead tomorrow, that would be fine with me. I don’t approach this with the sensibility that he deserves to be alive. I just think that giving government the power to kill citizens is a dangerous power that inevitably can be and has been used to kill innocent people. It is the principle of that “right” of the government to kill that I oppose, not the feeling I share with you that Gendron and Roof have no reason to remain in a society they only want to destroy.

As you know, there are innocent people and likely innocent people who have been killed via the death penalty and many of them have been people of color. That is horrible in a different way but it is also driven by the blind hatred of racism. That needs to stop just as racist lone wolf murders do along with the spread of racist stochastic terrorism.

I think the DoJ should create a division that aggressively goes after those who promote the kind of racist hatred that is spread publicly and convinces people like Gendron to murder others. Those people should also be hunted down and charged as accessories to murder for spreading the volatile propaganda that brainwashes defective people into becoming racist murderers.

The bottom line for me is that racial violence in this country needs to be smothered overall and my concern is that support for violence, including the death penalty, only justifies the concept of using violence to right wrongs. In the deluded minds of racists who see whole races as “wrong”, I think it ends up only increasing the cycle of violence and feelings that it is justified.

So, as I said at the beginning, a very thought-provoking piece. Well done, my friend!

» Posted By AdLib On February 23, 2023 @ 7:43 pm

Georgia’s Choice: Competence or Unmitigated Ignorance!

Congrats TW on a brilliantly written article. It is so thought-provoking that I began writing a comment that grew into an article-length reply so I am turning it into a post that I’ll publish as a companion piece to your excellent article.

The short version now, Hershel Walker is the loud and blatant statement by the GOP that their party is just about using puppets to grab power for the wealthy who own the party and the religious extremists who they need to keep as their army of voters and mercenaries.

There is no moral or ethical reason to elect Walker, the only purpose is the pursuit of power by the elite who own the GOP. That’s it. He is a detestable human being like Trump, a compulsive liar, abuser of women, deadbeat dad, ignorant and uninterested in truth. The only desirable factor Republicans can offer for his election is to steal some power from Democrats by electing an idiot liar who will be a puppet of the Republican elite.

While racist Republican voters also love the idea of voting for a black Republican pawn to chuckle at those who see their racism, they show their own emptiness of morality by supporting a man who only has crimes, lies and misdeeds as his track record as a human being (playing a sport is not a reflection of one’s social values).

This race has stripped the GOP bare of its facade, that it is a political party simply having different views from Democrats on how to make life better for Americans. Their candidates are nothing more than puppets of wealthy plutocrats. It is a scheme dressed up as a political party, to use democratic elections to place their puppets in position of power so this tiny minority can undemocratically pull the strings of governing the nation.

The runoff in GA shouldn’t even be close. A contest between a smart, accomplished, compassionate man and an unstable, abusive, idiot. If elections were about choosing the best person to represent the people, Warnock should win by a massive margin. But most likely, he won’t (though I do think he could win by 3%-4%…when in a sane world with a genuine democracy, he should win by 30%).

But democracy has been so corrupted that electing a proven criminal to the presidency or a proven reprobate to The Senate is very viable.

Stay tuned for a companion article to be published today which you inspired me to write. Thanks for inspiring me with such a thoughtful and well-written article!

» Posted By AdLib On December 5, 2022 @ 12:14 pm

Herschel, You Need To Stop Embarrassing Yourself

There is one item in your examination of Walker that is immensely enlightening to why this is all happening.

He kneeled to Trump to teach him how to be like him. Walker took Trump’s advice to heart and became a compulsive liar, lying big and often. He was, in Trump’s eyes, the perfect pawn. He was famous, a devoted liar and fraud, and subservient to Trump. So Trump wound him up and let him march like a defective toy soldier into the GA Senate race.

What is similarly disgusting is that Repubs want to win no matter the cost that they are supporting Trump’s wind-up-toy even though he is violent, deranged, a blatant fraud and liar, and self-admittedly mentally ill.

But how different is that description from Trump?

All of this is only possible, this Trumpification of the GOP, if the GOP is in fact a cult following their cult leader Trump.

The Founders could never have imagined that one of our two major political parties could become a fascist cult and that a quarter to a third of our nation would drink the Kool-Aid.

This is why Dems need to crush the GOP and all their followers this Nov. Dems look to be in good shape to add the Senate seats they need, keeping The House is urgent too and if they do, passing the election bills they failed to get past the filibuster and corrupt tools like Manchin and Sinema, could be a huge disempowerment of the MAGA GOP. If fair elections are required and gerrymandering ended, Repubs could never win another national election until they veered back to being a pro-democratic and rational party. The MAGAs would be exterminated from positions of power.

And before that, judicial reform and expanding the SCOTUS must be done so that protecting our democracy can’t be overturned.

We have to fight our hardest to GOTV this November and we could turn the corner on this Trump/MAGA fascist movement.

» Posted By AdLib On August 19, 2022 @ 5:44 pm

Weekend Music Thread – Number One

As long as we’re going to let it fly…

» Posted By AdLib On July 18, 2022 @ 4:40 pm

Here’s a comparably newer one from their last cd, The Endless River:

» Posted By AdLib On July 18, 2022 @ 4:30 pm

After the revolution…when I’m 64.

» Posted By AdLib On July 16, 2022 @ 7:00 pm

I’ll see your Floyd Four and raise Floyd One.

» Posted By AdLib On July 16, 2022 @ 6:57 pm

One is actually the loneliest number I’ve heard.

» Posted By AdLib On July 16, 2022 @ 6:56 pm

What to Wear When Attending the Overthrow of Your Democracy

Also, here is The MO Governor’s official statement that passing this law will only allow for abortions if there is a medical emergency:

https://governor.mo.gov/press-releases/archive/governor-parson-signs-proclamation-end-elective-abortions-missouri-response

» Posted By AdLib On July 7, 2022 @ 8:55 pm

Certainly, here is the MO law for example: https://house.mo.gov/billtracking/bills181/hlrbillspdf/4392H.01I.pdf

There are no exceptions in it for rape or incest, as with many other Repub states including OH and other Repub run states.

Now that you have proof, wouldn’t you agree that this is barbaric?

» Posted By AdLib On July 7, 2022 @ 8:49 pm

The Theocratic Takeover of U.S. Democracy – What Dems Should Be Doing Now to Fight It

I enjoyed your anecdotes, especially the basil oil pentagram, that’s pretty funny.

I would assume first that your soup chef is not a woman and thus the oppression of women is irrelevant to him and his misogynist Fox News mentality. Now, if a federal law was passed that forced men to put up a $100,000 bond whenever a man impregnated a woman as a down payment on paying the costs of a forced pregnancy and birth, he might start to care.

I’ve considered the issue of debating politics in work and social situations and my conclusion is that when one considers that there is a 99% chance that you can’t change their mind and a 100% chance that you’ll have to see each again and again, it’s not as much worth it to get into the inevitable frustrated stalemate.

As I always say, you can’t use reason to convince people out of beliefs that they didn’t use reason to adopt.

That said, your co-worker sounds like a good guy with a good sense of humor so conversations with him are no doubt a good thing.

Some people just don’t deserve the gift of clever and thoughtful conversation. They’re the ones who lose out.

Look forward to your thoughts on this article. Today I heard state propositions are moving forward in states, MI first, to allow the popular vote decide on abortion instead of gerrymandered fascists. If it works there, I expect that tactic to be used in many of the less intensely red states that are banning abortion.

And maybe the $100,000 bond thing should be attempted in those states at the same time, driving up support for the abortion amendment?

» Posted By AdLib On June 29, 2022 @ 7:48 pm

Weekend Music Thread – Get Up Stand Up

Did you see that they reunited and came at the SCOTUS?

» Posted By AdLib On July 11, 2022 @ 5:59 pm

Perfect!

» Posted By AdLib On July 4, 2022 @ 11:15 am

Great choice for multiple reasons as I’m sure you know.

» Posted By AdLib On July 4, 2022 @ 11:14 am

We could have a protest music thread with just Rage Against The Machine songs. Good pick.

» Posted By AdLib On July 4, 2022 @ 11:12 am

Since there’s been so much to protest the last 6 years, it’s tough to find songs I’ve never used before. But I try to mix it up.

Seems like there’s a big market right now for new protest songs, it’s at least a better investment than crypto.

» Posted By AdLib On July 4, 2022 @ 11:11 am

Hey JJ, nice to see you!

To compliment this song…

» Posted By AdLib On July 3, 2022 @ 2:16 pm

Weekend Music Thread – Father and Son

Very good comment, amazing that you remembered it!

I thought the same way but once you set the framework as having a fascist in the WH, where the militias are fighting FOR the people in power, the dynamics are far less one-sided.

We came so close to a fascist overthrow of our country and the GOP has been institutionalizing the levers to pull it off successfully in 2024.

They must be stopped.

» Posted By AdLib On June 29, 2022 @ 7:51 pm

Right, I figured.

» Posted By AdLib On June 25, 2022 @ 8:32 pm

Hey Due! Good to see you!

TO/OT was simplified as Short Post, there’s a button to go there on every page in the right column.

KT hasn’t been around lately, I know he was dealing with taking care of his mom.

Which comment of his did you come across?

» Posted By AdLib On June 25, 2022 @ 8:31 pm

JOIN OUR LIVE CHAT TONIGHT AT 5:00 PM PDT: The 1/6 House Committee’s First Public Hearing

Here’s the opening speech for tonight’s hearing:

» Posted By AdLib On June 9, 2022 @ 3:36 pm

“Pro-Life” Must be De-Orwellianized: The GOP is Pro-Death

Agreed. It is now so obvious, every mass killing “triggers” this repulsive and cynical game from Repubs. Distract, defend, delay.

“It’s schools and doors that should be regulated, not guns. Sure, we’ll discuss preventing more mass murders of school kids but it’s too early and you’re just coming to take our guns so we won’t compromise but sure, we’ll talk until the attention dies down then we’ll bury gun control bills like schoolchildren because all we really care about Is keeping the extremists voting for us and NRA contributions flowing.”

The disgusting bottom line is that these monsters don’t care about murdered children, they only care about keeping their seats and their bloody hands full of money.

» Posted By AdLib On June 6, 2022 @ 1:10 am

Weekend Music Thread – The Rain Song

Would that make this style of music, Golliard?

» Posted By AdLib On March 29, 2022 @ 10:43 am

Nice pick! Really enjoy this song!

It just rained all day yesterday and I was happy. Sunny day today, like someone turning on the light while you’re sleeping. Though something nice about a blue sky while the remnants of puddles are still around in the morning.

Ah…Spring!

» Posted By AdLib On March 29, 2022 @ 10:41 am

Indeed, he was solid and I’ve really liked his and Grohl’s music.

This phenomenon of rockers in their 50s and 60s overdosing is unexpected. Tom Petty ODed at 66, he had broken his hip while on tour and didn’t want to disrupt the tour so loaded up on drugs to kill the pain…and unfortunately, himself.

I get it when young rockers were ODing, they felt invulnerable, on top of the world and wanted to live to the extreme…or just developed terrible heroin addictions.

Hawkins had ODed before though and possibly couldn’t shake his addiction. So many aspiring musicians dream of having the kind of success Hawkins had but here too, from the outside, you don’t always see what the life’s really like.

And once again, the question, would you rather have your dreams come true but die prematurely or not have them come true and live a full life?

» Posted By AdLib On March 29, 2022 @ 10:38 am

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