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People who will never be president, part 1

Tuesday, December 14, 2021

The reigning king in this category is definitely Chris Christie, and if it wasn’t for the fact that the alternatives on the Republican side are all – and this should be unbelievable – even worse, that would be a great thing.

It’s still a good thing, by the way.

Christie is trying to walk a fine line that only the media wants to buy, just like nobody wants to buy his book that the media has endlessly hyped.

He actually (says he) thinks it would have been a good idea to put Jim Jordan on the January 6th committee, which is like-how does it go- putting the fox into the henhouse. That’s unfair to foxes, which are all smarter than Jordan, but you get my drift. His reasoning? Why it affects the credibility of the committee in the eyes of the Republicans who would never accept factual findings in the first place:

“It does affect to some extent in my party the credibility the committee has,” he opined. “In the end, the facts are going to come out. But let’s not kid ourselves, this was a driven-from-the-top process executed by C-team players and that’s why it looks like a Keystone Cops operation because it was.”

Do I detect a strategy on Christie’s part to avoid directly accusing Trump of having a hand in the insurrection, given that it was “executed by C-team players”?

He’ll never be president because he is looking to be the anti-Trump Republican while trying to appeal to the Trumpists, or as many of them as he can seduce with gobbledegook.

It still never ceases to amaze that he can go on television as the voice of Republican reason, and is never confronted with his history of Trumpist sychophancy.

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The Deep State Goes Even Deeper!!!

Friday, December 10, 2021

This is really scary:

In Pittsburgh, Memphis and Los Angeles, massive billboards recently popped up declaring, “Birds Aren’t Real.”

On Instagram and TikTok, Birds Aren’t Real accounts have racked up hundreds of thousands of followers, and YouTube videos about it have gone viral.

Last month, Birds Aren’t Real adherents even protested outside Twitter’s headquarters in San Francisco to demand that the company change its bird logo.

The events were all connected by a Gen Z-fueled conspiracy theory, which posits that birds don’t exist and are really drone replicas installed by the U.S. government to spy on Americans. Hundreds of thousands of young people have joined the movement, wearing Birds Aren’t Real T-shirts, swarming rallies and spreading the slogan.

It might smack of QAnon, the conspiracy theory that the world is controlled by an elite cabal of child-trafficking Democrats. Except that the creator of Birds Aren’t Real and the movement’s followers are in on a joke: They know that birds are, in fact, real and that their theory is made up.

What Birds Aren’t Real truly is, they say, is a parody social movement with a purpose. In a post-truth world dominated by online conspiracy theories, young people have coalesced around the effort to thumb their nose at, fight and poke fun at misinformation. It’s Gen Z’s attempt to upend the rabbit hole with absurdism.

At the center of the movement is Peter McIndoe, 23, a floppy-haired college dropout in Memphis who created Birds Aren’t Real on a whim in 2017. For years, he stayed in character as the conspiracy theory’s chief believer, commanding acolytes to rage against those who challenged his dogma. But now, Mr. McIndoe said in an interview, he is ready to reveal the parody lest people think birds really are drones.

…

“Dealing in the world of misinformation for the past few years, we’ve been really conscious of the line we walk,” he said. “The idea is meant to be so preposterous, but we make sure nothing we’re saying is too realistic. That’s a consideration with coming out of character.”

A parody, really? I think not! The New York Times is so easily deluded.

Think about it.

Isn’t it obvious?

Lets say you are a deep state actor who has just replaced all the birds with drone replicas. Let’s say you wanted to make sure that your nefarious act was not discovered and you wanted people to go on believing that birds are real. What could work better than getting the word out through someone who claims he’s just goofing on conspiracy theorists? That way, no one would believe the truth because the guy revealing it would upfront say he is lying. It’s fiendishly clever.

So, as we all sit back, secure in our mistaken belief that birds are real, the drones can go about their business spying on us and tracking our every movement! If you think I’m paranoid, then explain why there are constantly flocks of birds in my yard, hanging around with every opportunity to use their secret electronic sensors to report my movements to the deep state! Some people might say that they are real birds and are swarming around because of the birdfeeders, but those are the same people who will tell you that Ivermectin won’t cure COVID. Besides, there’s always crows out there too, and they don’t feed from birdfeeders, and they’re big enough to contain a vast amount of high tech surveillance systems. It all couldn’t be more obvious, so long as you engage in the type of critical thinking that the situation demands.

McIndoe is clearly a government agent, running a highly sophisticated disinformation program by pretending to run a disinformation program. He is spreading lies by telling the truth! He may be able to fool the New York Times, but he can’t fool me. Now I know for sure that Birds Aren’t Real!

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A sure fire prediction

Saturday, December 4, 2021

It’s a great thing that the parents of the school shooter in Michigan are being held to account, or, more accurately, that the state is seeking to hold them to account. Based on the facts that have been put out there by the prosecution, there were warning signs aplenty about this kid. The fact that he had a gun was known to the parents, and not made known to the school as the parents were shown proof of his serious mental imbalance and the direction that might take him.

But, alas, this is the United States of America, the land in which Kyle Rittenhouse was found not guilty of murder after he committed murder. I don’t think the Crumbleys need worry that much. They’ll likely get off, though who knows, maybe they will be victimized by having a judge not clearly biased in their favor.

They each have to come up with a $500,000.00 cash bond. Red Painter at Crooks & Liars doubts that GoFundMe will let them use its platform to raise the money, but, unless I’m mistaken, that’s how Rittenhouse raised his bail money and his lawyers fees. It would seem that one sorely needed reform in our judicial system would be modifications to bail requirements that would assure that the defendant has his or her own money at risk in any bail setting.

In any event, to make myself clear, the sure fire prediction is that the parents will eventually walk, though at least their son will do time. I earnestly hope I’m wrong, but I doubt it.

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Some good news

Monday, November 29, 2021

I know it’s not much, but it’s the best I can do, good news-wise:

It’s hard to recall a former politician who was showered with more free media attention than Chris Christie this month as he peddled his new book, “Republican Rescue.” Invited to appear on a carousel of shows, Christie was all-present as journalists lined up to interview him. CNN even dedicated an entire primetime hour to him, treating the in-your-face Republican as one of the most important political voices in the country.

Consumers aren’t buying it.

A senior publishing source with access to the industry’s BookScan tabulations tells me that “Republican Rescue” sold just 2,289 copies during its first week in stores, which constitutes a colossal publishing flop. That figure does not include digital copies of the book, but based on industry sales patterns, given Christie’s weak showing in stores he likely sold only a few hundred digital ones. (On Sunday, “Republican Rescue” was ranked 15,545th at Amazon’s Kindle Store.)

…

It confirms that the deeply unpopular former New Jersey governor remains, first and foremost, a media creation. For years, he’s been propped up by the press as a populist Straight Shooter, but he left office with an approval rating in the teens, and failed spectacularly when he tried to run for president in 2020. That explains why CNN’s Christie special was a ratings disaster, coming in a distant third place among the three cable news channels that night. (During the show, CNN’s Dana Bash never once asked Christie about the BridgeGate scandal that ended his political career.)

It says a lot that the media turned to Christie, who was a sycophant of the first order during the Trump years, to serve as their new Republican anti-Trump. As to the book sales, who could have known that thinking people on the left wouldn’t buy what Christie was selling, and that there aren’t enough Republicans waiting to be rescued to make a dent in the Amazon best seller list. Most people who buy books are reasonably well informed, except the people who buy and don’t read the books from right wing imprints. Unlike the media (apparently) they are fully aware that Christie is a hypocrite of the first order. Unfortunately, it seems likely that Christie got a huge advance from some idiotic publisher, so he’ll likely do okay money-wise, though this can’t be good for his massive ego.

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It’s contagious!

Saturday, November 27, 2021

I thought this kind of crazy was confined to Republicans here in the States, but apparently it’s as contagious as the latest COVID variant:

A British member of Parliament claimed this week that men are being forced into committing crimes because fictional male characters like James Bond and Doctor Who are being replaced by women.

During prepared remarks on Thursday, Tory MP Nick Fletcher made the assertion that “men need to have their own identity.”

“Everywhere, not least during the cultural sphere, there seems to be a call from a tiny yet very vocal minority that every male character or good role model must have a female replacement,” he complained. “One only needs to look at the discussions surrounding the next James Bond.”

“And it’s not just James Bond,” the MP continued. “In recent years, we have seen Doctor Who, Ghostbusters, Luke Skywalker, the Equalizer all replaced by women.”

Fletcher went on to insist that most male role models are now villains.

This sort of crazy started here, but it’s spreading to the Mother Country!!! Who knows where it will go next! Back in the olden days, when I was just a lad, sickness of this sort only spread by personal contact. It was the nature of contagion back then. Now it apparently spreads via Facebook and Twitter. You have to hand it to Fletcher. Lauren Boebert and Marjorie Taylor Greene have nothing on him. Stay tuned to see if the infection spreads to the rest of the Tories, as it has spread to all the Republicans. My sources tell me that developing a vaccine for this affliction will make the development of the COVID vaccine look like a piece of cake.

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Some things won’t fit in a memory hole

Monday, November 22, 2021

At the dawn of 2020 I made some predictions about the coming year. Some of them have stood the test of time, others have come true, but not in the way I predicted. For instance I predicted that Chuck Shumer and Joe Biden would preserve the filibuster. I didn’t see Joe and Krysten coming. On the other hand, in the same paragraph I accurately predicted that the failure to deliver on a truly progressive agenda would wind up costing the Democrats.

But ever since January of 2021 I’ve felt the prediction I felt most confident about was precisely the one where I erred the most, to wit:

On January 21, 2020 Donald Trump will be consigned to the memory hole, like his most recent Republican predecessor, and the media will rush to proclaim that the Republican Party has been purged and is now, once again, the responsible party they knew and loved before the Trumpian aberration came along. Lindsay Graham won’t remember anything about the man. Both siderism, which has begun to be in a bit of a bad odor lately, will see a new rebirth.

Note that I committed a typo on the original quote, I meant January 21, 2021.

I couldn’t have been wronger, and I know that “wronger” is not a word. About the memory hole, that is, both siderism is running strong.

But today I read over at the Palmer Report that at least some Republicans are belatedly trying to shove Trump down that very memory hole.

While plenty of Republicans have embraced Donald Trump because they support his hateful agenda, others have gone along for the ride mainly because of political calculations. However, with the political climate changing and the midterms less than a year away, many from this latter group are desperate to figure out a way to distance themselves from Trump without drawing attention to the fact they have skated on the wrong side of history for years.

A new strategy taking hold is about looking toward the future. This sounds good if you say it fast. The problem is these Republicans who have closely associated themselves with Trump are now trying to have it both ways, requiring everyone to look forward with selective amnesia about the past, as if the recent horror show of the Trump administration and the continuing threat to democracy is of no consequence. How convenient.

“I think… people are in the present and want to vote on what they see going on now,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told attendees at an event in Kentucky on November 8. “So, I think the election will be about the future, not about the past,” he added.

I’ve seen rumblings about this elsewhere as well. The question is, can they shove him into the memory hole at this point? I’ve complained ad nauseum in these pages about the Democrats failure to learn from the Republicans ability to all sing from the same hymn book, but the fact is that when it comes to Trump, any Republican attempt to sing in harmony will be unsuccessful if that song ignores the genius. Had they shoved him into the hole in January of 2021, and for that matter had they made clear prior to that date that he was fated for that destination, it likely would have worked. But they chose instead to acquiesce, in one form or another, to his attempts to steal the election, and that carried with it the subsequent need to cater to the true believers.

So, it’s a bit late in the game now. They’re stuck with him. If people are actually allowed to vote he will likely be a liability, which is one of the many reasons Republicans are working so hard to suppress the vote. Still, the Republicans can’t distance themselves from the guy, for if they do, a lot of the true believers will just stay home. The real question is whether the Democrats will figure out a way to truly turn the situation to their advantage.

Alas, we all know the answer to that question.

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Is he a grifter, or is he crazy?

Wednesday, November 17, 2021

We learn at Crooks & Liars that Mike Lindell is mad at the Nazis at Fox (his characterization) for not covering his latest fever dream:

Mike Lindell went on Steve Bannon’s podcast to piss and moan because the media, not even Faux News, is covering the lawsuit he wants to take to SCOTUS on the day before Thanksgiving. Lindell apparently wants us to forget all his other predictions about the election being overturned, because this time it’s for real or something like that.

…

Lindell also claims that some Democratic Attorneys General have also signed on to his lawsuit, but refused to name them. Most likely because they don’t exist except in his swamp-fevered brain.

I’ve written about Lindell before, here and here, and I’ve always assumed that he was simply a grifter, using his Trumpian activities as a way to sell pillows to the Trump crowd. But at this point it’s hard to believe that he’s doing pillow sales much good.

Assuming he’s somewhat sane, he must realize that the Supreme Court is not going to do as he’s predicting, and in a week he’s going to have to acknowledge that. I suppose it could be the case that the faithful will believe whatever pivot he comes up with after nothing happens by Thanksgiving. After all, I understand that the folks who waited for JFK Jr. to appear in Dallas still believe that he will resurrect in some other fashion. But what I haven’t seen is any indication that Lindell has been able to monetize this grift, so you have to wonder: if the best he can do is get on Steve Bannon’s podcast, what’s the point?

Alternatively, he may be seriously mentally ill and believe all this stuff, but I’m of the opinion that some enterprising journalist should do some research and let us know how much Lindell is siphoning out of the pockets of the brain dead.

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Another one bites the dust?

Sunday, November 14, 2021

It would be awful if I were to say that I wouldn’t mind at all if this guy ended up coming home in a box.

So I won’t say it.

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An easy prediction

Friday, November 12, 2021

The Republicans who voted for the infrastructure bill, a piece of legislation that would have been considered uncontroversial 20 or 30 years ago and at any time in any sane country, are receiving death threats, said death threats being encouraged by their fellow Republicans in Congress.

Liz Cheney has been vocal about the need to get to the bottom of the insurrection, an insurrection that was planned and encouraged by her fellow Republicans. She claims to believe that Donald Trump represents a threat to democracy. She’s even come out for censuring Paul Gosar for his tweet threatening AOC. She’s well aware that should the investigation into the insurrection be delayed by court actions, etc., it will be stifled should the Republicans take back the house in 2022.

It goes without saying that threatening the lives of Democrats and any Republican who strays from the party line will become standard operating procedure on the right. In fact it already is. Finally, it is already clear that the Republicans are ready, willing, and probably able to steal the 2024 presidential election, which, by any definition, is a threat to democracy. In fact, it’s more than a threat, it’s a death blow.

So, imagine a situation in January 2023. Liz Cheney is, surprisingly, still in Congress, as are some of the Republicans who voted for the infrastructure bill. The party split is close. The Republican outliers could be the Joe Manchin’s of the Republican Party, threatening to vote to keep Pelosi in charge or simply threatening to not vote at all when the vote for Speaker is held.

What are the chances that they would do the right thing and vote to save democracy. If you answered “no chance at all” you are right on the money.

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Where we are headed

Friday, November 12, 2021

I have read about this particular story before, but it is definitely not widely known, and, as the linked article points out, it should be a story that is widely publicized.

It demonstrates the increasing predominance of the right in our courts, and the failure of our media to cover abuses perpetrated by both our courts and the corporations to which those courts defer:

Famed indigenous human rights lawyer Steven Donziger had already been under house arrest for over 800 days when he reported to prison on October 27 to begin a six-month sentence. His crime: winning the largest single pollution judgment in history, $9.5 billion, for the Cofan people of the Amazon rainforest in Ecuador.

Was the human rights hero jailed in Brazil or China? No, he was sentenced to prison in the USA.

Just a sample of the egregiousness of what happened to this man after he asked that :

When the judge ordered Donziger to turn over his personal computer to Chevron — the company claimed Donziger was was hiding funds — Donziger asked for an unbiased expert to protect confidential information about his clients.

For Donziger’s temerity, the judge charged him with criminal contempt and placed Donziger under house arrest — an unprecedented punishment for an attorney.

It gets worse: when the Justice Department failed to prosecute Donziger, the judge hired, at public expense, a private lawyer to prosecute Donziger. And still worse: the attorney worked for a firm that that represented Chevron!

Once again, Donziger, despite facing jail time, was denied a jury trial.

Read the whole thing. Once again, the New York Times, our paper of record, failed to cover this story as it should have, but that’s to be expected.

We are now well stocked with Trumpian judges, and I think the sort of judicial misbehavior (we’re seeing it on the state level in the Rittenhouse case) will become the norm, with the press carefully looking the other way. In a few years, I’d guess, we’ll have courts going after the media (except Fox) and the press will openly wonder how things ever came to such a pass.

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