I’ve opined enough for one week and my poor brain needs a rest, so let’s hop over to TokyoSand’s Political Charge where she has uncovered the best of the political cartoons from the past week! Thank you, TS … much appreciated!!!
Tag Archives: Alex Jones
January 6th Committee And More …
Yesterday I watched what I presume will be the final televised hearing of the January 6th Committee. At a few points I felt tears welling up, at other points rage took over. I must commend the committee for they have done an excellent and thorough job, despite the obstacles they have had to overcome. As Ms. Cheney said in her opening remarks, their job is not to bring charges, but to investigate and make referrals. It now falls to the Department of Justice to bring those charges and make them stick, to ensure that the name “Donald Trump” is not ever on a ballot in this nation again.
Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution clearly states that no person who took an oath in a public office and then participated in any way in an insurrection against the nation can ever be allowed to hold public office again. Bennie Thompson and his January 6th committee have clearly presented evidence of Trump’s involvement in the insurrection/attempted coup of January 6, 2021. Now, it is up to Merrick Garland to stop pussyfooting around and bring those charges!
A couple of other thoughts from Filosofa’s bouncy mind …
A sentence for life may be worse
For the record, I do not believe in the death penalty. Oh, I used to. I once thought it was not right for taxpayers to have to provide food, shelter and clothing for decades for a convicted murderer who would never be an asset to society. But, while I was doing post-graduate work many years ago, I took a course by The Innocence Project and my views changed. I learned about the times that people have been proven innocent, sometimes decades after being found guilty by a jury, and … well, what if we had executed them? It’s bad enough to think of an innocent man spending 20-30 years in prison for a crime he did not commit, but if we executed him … there can be no remedy or reparations.
That said, I was momentarily taken aback last night when I read the jury’s decision in the case of Nikolas Cruz, the young man who murdered 17 people at Majorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida in 2018. The jury was fully expected to hand down a death sentence, but instead went with life in prison without the possibility of parole. Understandably, families of the victims were horrified and angry. My first thought was that this might be the one time I would make an exception to being against the death penalty, for Cruz pleaded guilty on all 17 counts and there was no possibility that he would later be found innocent. But then I thought a little bit about it and …
I think Cruz will come to the point of wishing he had received a death sentence. Life in prison. He is only 24 years of age, so he could quite reasonably spend 50 years or more behind bars. And given his crime, the brutal murder of children, he will not be treated kindly by either fellow inmates or prison staff. Imagine never taking a walk in the woods, cooking your own food, going to bed and getting up at your own will again. Never. For decades. Oh yes, I think life in prison will end up being a much worse punishment than a quick execution would have been. In many ways, he will already be dead, yet still feel the pain with none of the joy of being alive. It is good enough for him.
And speaking of school shootings …
Another trial for Alex Jones, the man without a conscience, whose blatant lies and cooked up conspiracy theories led families of the murdered children in Sandy Hook Elementary School through a living hell. Yesterday, a jury ordered Jones to pay just short of $1 billion to the families of the victims. One lawyer called it “probably one of the largest defamation verdicts in U.S. history.” Deservedly so.
But do you think that for one minute Mr. Jones displayed grief or remorse for his actions? Think again. Jones pumped his fist in the air and said, “This is hilarious. Do these people actually think they’re getting any money?” What a slap in the face to the twenty children and six teachers who were killed in the 2012 shooting. What a knife to the heart of their surviving families. But wait … there’s more!
In the hours after Wednesday’s verdict, Jones’ supporters collectively donated no less than $185,000 to Mr. Jones, claiming that “left wing radicals are attempting to destroy Alex via the court system.” The people who donated even so much as one dollar to Jones need serious psychiatric counseling! Mr. Jones is the definition of cruelty and not worthy of the air he sucks up on this planet. There are far more worthy causes that I could find to donate money to than a man who attempted to make a mockery of the deaths of children!
Humour In The Snippets!
Sometimes snarky snippets can be humorous, too.
A bit of a disappointment, I guess
A man named Shahram Poursafi started planning to murder former national security advisor John Bolton in October in likely retaliation for his involvement in a drone strike that killed Qassem Soleimani. Poursafi, a member of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, attempted to pay people in D.C. or Maryland up to $300,000 to carry out the murder, but was thus far unsuccessful and the FBI is currently attempting to locate him.
John Bolton was interviewed by Wolf Blitzer on CNN’s “Situation Room” on Wednesday. Blitzer asked …
“The suspect put a $300,000 price tag on your head. What goes through your mind, ambassador, hearing the details of this plot, as explained today in great detail by the U.S. Justice Department?”
I don’t know what sort of response I might have expected, but it wasn’t this one …
“Well, I was embarrassed at the low price. I would have thought it would have been higher. But I guess maybe it was the exchange rate problem or something.”
Okaaaay …
A costly – but funny – venture
In Miami, Florida, a dude named Thomas Kennedy and his friends spent $1,800 to commission a plane to fly over Mar-a-Lago for three hours with this banner …
Says Kennedy …
“It brought me a lot of joy to do so. I would do it again.”
Kennedy said the message was for Trump and his supporters who had gathered on the Southern Boulevard Bridge near the property for a third day this week.
“Honestly, go do something better with your time.”
I wouldn’t have spent $1,800, but I have to admit I got quite a kick out of this!
The drama ‘king’
Oh the drama! If you ever doubted that Sean Hannity of Fox is an actor, not a newsman, wonder no more. After the search warrant was executed at Mar-a-Lago, Hannity went on a tangent, saying …
“The FBI is blatantly targeting our fellow Americans for their political beliefs. The bureau’s reputation has been shattered. My faith in an organization — I’ll be honest, I had two family members. They were a deity in my family because they worked for this organization. I revered this organization for decades of my life. If you listen to my radio show, watch this show, you know my love of law enforcement, it has now been pretty much utterly destroyed.”
As dramatic a speech as any I’ve heard! Grow up, Sean … pull up those big-boy pants and get over yourself, ‘k?
Well, folks, that’s all the humour I could find in the news tonight, so will you settle for a few cartoons to round things out?
Snarky Snippets For A Sunday Afternoon
Ahhhhh … nothing like a peaceful, lazy Sunday afternoon, right? Curl up with a good book, maybe have a little bit of a kip, take a look at the news and BOOM … the peace is shattered, the nerves are jangled, and the snark finds its way into a blog post!
Sorry, no books today!
In the small town of Jamestown, Michigan, population 9,630 as of the 2020 census, the library may soon close. Lack of interest? No way! The people in this town love their library, but the taxpayers voted against funding the library earlier. Why? A handful of residents – less than 50 – complained about books in the library written by or about LGBTQ people, saying their intent was to ‘groom’ children. The library director was harrassed to the point that she finally resigned, as did the next in line for her job.
Larry Walton, the library board’s president, said “We, the board, will not ban the books.” And thus, the voters voted 62% to 37% against a measure that would have raised property taxes by roughly $24 in order to fund the library. This is, as I see it, yet another step toward the dummying down of American youth … making it harder for them to learn the truth about the culture of the nation they live in, as well as its history.
And along those same lines, in Florida, Collier County Public Schools added warning labels to more than 100 books, many of which touch on issues related to race or the LGBTQ community. WTF???
The books carrying this ‘warning’ include ones by Maya Angelou, Toni Morrison, Ibram X. Kendi, and John Updike. If this trend continues … I don’t hold out much hope for the humanity of future generations. This, my friends, is what we are up against … if your skin isn’t white, if you don’t attend the right church, if you love someone who ‘society’ deems inappropriate … you don’t belong. Not only that, but your story will never be told. Our history … our true history which includes our horrid treatment of the Indigenous People who lived her long before European settlers arrived, Africans who were brought here in chains and sold into slavery, and many more atrocities based on race, will never be told to the next generation. What a sad … nay, tragic … ending for what was once a nation filled with hope for a brighter future.
There may not be books in schools, but there will damned well be guns!
In Ohio, the state legislature passed and governor Mike DeWine signed into law a bill that allows teachers to carry a gun into their classrooms with only 24 total hours of firearms training. In North Carolina, one school system is putting AR-15 rifles in every school. Nationwide, at least 29 states allow individuals other than police or security officials to carry guns on school grounds. This, my friends, is the Republican’s response to the Uvalde school shooting in May that killed 19 students and two teachers. They don’t respond with a ban on assault weapons such as the one that was used in Uvalde, and they don’t respond by calling for stricter gun measures. Nooooooo … their answer, just as it has always been, is to put more guns in the hands of unqualified people!
What could possibly go wrong with AR-15s in the classrooms? Surely there would never come a time when a teacher might step out of the classroom for just a moment and a student might get the gun and … well, use your imagination. Surely that would never happen, right? Right?
The strategy is fiercely opposed by Democrats, police groups, teachers’ unions and gun control advocates, who say that concealed carry programs in schools — far from solving the problem — will only create more risk. Past polling has shown that the vast majority of teachers do not want to be armed. But … the Republican Party is so entwined with the gun manufacturers and the NRA that they are bought … lock, stock, and barrel. Uvalde just gave them the excuse they had been waiting for. Ban the books but bring on the guns! Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr …
Just a couple of decent guys … NOT!
I think ol’ Roger Stone just likes attention, so he’s back in the news. This time, he’s seeking assistance for his buddy, Alex Jones, who has been ordered thus far by the courts to pay a total of $49.3 million for the lies he told about the 2012 Sandy Hook school massacre. Now, Alex Jones doesn’t appear to actually have $49.3 million, as his net worth is only an estimated $40 million, so … enter Roger Stone, he of many crimes who would be in prison today, were it not for the pardon he received from the former guy.
Stone has called for contributions to support Jones, saying that …
“Alex Jones is a good and decent man. He is a God-fearing Christian…and right now he needs our support.”
Excuse me a moment while I go throw up my breakfast …
There is not one shred of human decency in either Roger Stone or Alex Jones! Both are the definition of evil and belong in a prison cell for the duration of their nasty lives!
And on that note, I now return you to your peaceful, lazy Sunday afternoon …
Big Fat Liar
Well, ol’ Alex Jones, America’s #1 conspiracy theorist, finally had his day in Court and … it did not go well for Jones! I was going to write about it, but Clay Jones (no relation to Alex!) of Claytoonz has done it far better than I could have, and he even has a cartoon! Thanks, Clay — great job as always!
If you’re a gaslighting conspiracy theorist with a national platform spreading bullshit that defames, libels, and tears apart democracy, you better have good lawyers. Alex Jones, fortunately for the rest of us who hate lies, conspiracy theories, and bullshit, does not have good lawyers.
Alex Jones is a conspiracy theorist as it’s his business. He knows the bullshit he’s spreading is fake. Conspiracy theories are his business but lying is his nature. He’s also not intelligent enough to get away with it. Yesterday, Alex Jones was busted during cross-examination of not just being a liar, but of withholding evidence. And, the revelations came from his own legal team. Oopsies.
Jones (no relation to yours truly) is currently defending himself from defamation lawsuits brought by the families for lies he had spread about the 2012 school shooting. For years, he’s been telling lies that the shootings never happened. From his conspiracy…
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January 6th Anniversary — Demand Accountability!
Today is January 6th 2022, exactly one year after the insurrection, riots, attempted coup, or whatever terminology you choose to use, at the U.S. Capitol in an attempt by Trump and his mindless followers to overturn the election that was won, fair and honestly, by President Joseph Biden.
Much has been discovered about who, how, and why the horrific, nightmare-inducing events of that day occurred, but as yet, far too much remains shrouded in mystery as damn near every person subpoenaed to give evidence in front of the committee investigating the day has refused or ignored the subpoena, and as conflicting tales come from the likes of Steve Bannon, Peter Navarro, Mike Pence, and countless others. Others who have been subpoenaed to testify have appeared before the committee and then pleaded the Fifth Amendment, the right not to incriminate oneself by one’s testimony. I break here for my thoughts on that …
If you have to plead the Fifth Amendment, the right to ‘remain silent’ rather than to tell the truth and incriminate oneself, then you obviously have something to hide. It’s not rocket science, folks! If I say I refuse to answer your question on the grounds that my answer will incriminate me, then I am obviously guilty! This has got to be just about the dumbest amendment to the U.S. Constitution that exists!
“Did you kill your husband?”
“I refuse to answer on the grounds that it may incriminate me.”
Duh … it really doesn’t take a high-paid lawyer, a judge or jury to know that this person did, indeed, kill her husband!
And so, when the likes of Alex Jones, Mark Meadows and Roger Stone “plead the fifth”, it becomes obvious they have something … more likely many somethings … to hide! And just in case pleading the fifth isn’t enough to cover their vulnerabilities, several are suing the committee. Alex Jones, Mike Flynn and eight other major right-wing figures and Trump advisers have sued over the committee’s investigation, including the former guy, his former chief of staff Mark Meadows, outside lawyers John Eastman and Cleta Mitchell. Obstruction, distraction, or both … take your pick.
The goal of those who are doing their level best to slow the investigation is to drag it out beyond the 2022 midterm elections, when Republicans hope they will control both chambers of Congress and will call off the investigative committee. That CANNOT BE ALLOWED to happen!!! There MUST be accountability for any and all involvement in the events of and leading up to that day, no matter how minor.
There is plenty of guilt, and the guiltiest are the ones crying the loudest, doing their damndest to delay and obstruct. But make no mistake, my friends … if there is not harsh punishment for every person even remotely involved, it will open the door to a far more violent, far more successful coup in 2024. Note, please, that I did not say it “might”, but that it WILL. The groundwork is already being laid, plans made, and lessons learned from the failure in 2020.
Instead of thoughts and prayers on this one-year anniversary, let’s renew our determination to NOT allow the perpetrators to go unpunished and to consistently demand that Congress support the January 6th Committee in its effort to get to the bottom of the attempted coup and to punish the perpetrators to the fullest extent of the law. DO NOT let this fade into the background amidst all the other distractions … it will be either the continuation or the death of the United States as we have known it. The Republican Party has redefined itself … don’t let them redefine the nation.
Additional Note: The former guy has cancelled his intended “press conference” that was initially scheduled for today. It is reported that his ‘advisors’ warned against it, said it could turn on him and on those Republicans running for congressional seats in the mid-terms. Surprisingly, the former guy heeded their advice. I’m pleased to know we won’t be seeing his ugly mug or hearing his lies and false accusations, but … it ain’t over yet, folks.
The echo chamber feedback loop
Once again, our friend Keith is spot-on with his analysis and advice. Thanks, Keith!
“Everyone is talking about this,” says the outgoing president on more than a few occasions.. “Everyone knows this is true” or “Everyone knows” he might use as an alternative or add-on to the above, as he is prone to repeat himself. These are intentional phrases used to make the listener or reader skip past them and assume the statements are true. When you hear or read these comments, do yourself a favor and assume the opposite.
Why? Because you are hearing an echo chamber feedback loop. The echo chamber occurs when the same piece of information, rumor or conspiracy theory is repeated within limited sources of information. In fact, this is how disinformation is so easily shared, especially with an untruthful, unrelenting and unaware user in the White House. In fact, when a Russian, Iranian, Chinese or American troll hears the outgoing president repeat what they made up, it is…
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Filosofa Is A Bit Rant-y
I am rather rant-y tonight, for I am tired of so many things … tired of the divisiveness in this country, tired of the lies that regularly emit from our government, tired of the sheer ignorance of some people and the cruelty of others, and just tired in general, I suppose. So, bear with me while I let off a bit of steam …
I expect conspiracy theorists like Alex Jones to say ignorant things like he thinks a White House staffer poisoned Trump’s Diet Coke and then told him he had the coronavirus. Ol’ Alex thinks we aren’t smart enough to see the lunacy in his theory. But I mistakenly credited the people of this nation, even Trump’s loyal base, with having a bit more intelligence, being a bit more discerning. Some of Trump’s base who were interviewed had some lovely things to say …
- “It’s a hoax. There’s no pandemic. As Trump said, how many millions die of flu?”
- “If he’s sick, then they planted it when they tested him. It’s what they did to me when I went to hospital for my heart beating too fast. Two weeks later I got a cold. It’s political. I don’t trust the US government at all. Who are they to mandate personal safety? I listen to Trump.”
- “Yes, it’s highly contagious. So are the measles. But I’m a firm believer that if you get it, it’s not a death sentence.” Oh really, ma’am? Try telling that to the friends and families of the 214,000+ people who have died in this country alone and the more than 2.5 million who are still suffering from the disease!
Of course, it doesn’t help that the doctor in charge of Trump’s case at Walter Reed hospital, Dr. Sean Conley, can’t give a straight answer to a simple question during a press conference, and is apparently yet another bootlicker telling the public what Trump has told him to tell us, so we cannot believe anything we are told. It doesn’t give people free license to start stupid rumours that are likely to further divide the people of this nation.
Just to put the conspiracies to bed: Donald Trump contracted the coronavirus because he thought he knew more than the experts, and so shunned the precautions that most of the rest of us are taking, such as wearing a mask when in public, avoiding crowded venues, and keeping a 6-foot distance from other people when in public. He broke those rules time and time again, and now he’s paying the price. There was no poison, no chemical plant, no nothing beyond Trump’s own stupidity.
And, in addition to stupidity, there is the big lie … the one where he claimed to have tested positive late Thursday night or early Friday morning, but in truth had tested positive and displayed symptoms a full day before! On Wednesday, he attended a rally in Minnesota, and on Thursday, knowing that he had the virus, he attended various public events on a fund-raising trip to New Jersey. Potentially, he could have infected thousands of people, yet his only concern was his re-election bid.
Due to his inept and intentional bungling of the pandemic, more than 214,000 people in this country have died, and that number is likely to double by early next year. And now, he willfully exposed others, both within and outside his administration. So no, I have no empathy for him. No, I don’t wish death on him, however whether he recovers or not is unimportant to me beyond the effect it will have on the upcoming election. If you think that makes me hard-hearted, think again … I have a great deal of empathy for those who lost a loved one this year due to the pandemic, for Black people who must fear for their lives, for migrant children separated from their parents at the southern border, for the homeless and those barely making ends meet … yes, I have empathy, but not for a narcissistic megalomaniac who is paying the price of his own perfidy.
I also have no empathy for his wife, who on Tuesday night sauntered into the debate venue wearing a mask, then immediately took it off for the rest of the evening in violation of rules that both candidates had agreed to in advance. The rest of his family also sat maskless throughout the debacle. As for his trophy wife, I say to her what she said to the world …
And I have no compassion for those who are so blindly enamoured of Trump that they will literally follow him off this cliff he has taken us to the brink of. Those who shun wearing a mask because Trump mocked mask-wearers, who go into crowded venues such as bars, clubs, arenas, and churches, deserve no compassion. They risk not only their own lives, but the lives of their families, friends, co-workers … every one of us.
Save your sympathy for those who deserve it … the Trump family does not.
If people like conspiracy theories, why not look at real ones
Conspiracy theories abound and most do not bear repeating, for to do so is to give the one spewing the lies just what he sought: attention. However, there are some actual conspiracies, both past and present, as our friend Keith notes in his very excellent post this evening!
There has been a lot of press about Marjorie Taylor Greene, an advocate of the conspiracy theory website QAnon winning a GOP primary in Georgia. Unless the GOP finds its conscience, she will become a member of Congress. Getting less press is Madison Cawthorn who is the GOP candidate running for now Chief of Staff Mark Meadows’ old seat. Cawthorn has some social media references to white nationalists and has bragged on visiting the Hitler bunker in Germany. In this case, the GOP leadership supported his opponent in the primary.
Some folks are unfamiliar with QAnon, but the president is not one of them. He often parrots conspiracy theories and it is nirvana for a conspiracy author to hear their words come out of his mouth. My favorite QAnon story is Hillary Clinton was running a Satanic child pornography ring out of a pizza parlor in Washington DC to raise…
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Dangerous Words …
These days, I generally don’t give Alex Jones much space or consideration here, for he is naught more than a two-bit carnival hawker, and we have more important things to talk about. His radio show, InfoWars, has been dropped by Facebook and Twitter, and while he still has a loyal following of the ignorant who are willing to believe every conspiracy theory they hear, he is pretty much washed up.
Jones has gotten himself in trouble of late, has numerous lawsuits against him as a result of his claim that the Sandy Hook shooting that took the lives of 20 first graders and 6 teachers in 2012 was all a hoax, that it never happened, that the parents were paid actors. Well, some of Jones’ viewers believed him and in the years since, some parents have received threats and even had to relocate to ensure the safety of their remaining children.
His latest is so strange that I was all set to ignore it … why give him the attention he craves … until I thought about the potential ramifications, rather like the Sandy Hook fiasco. We can shrug off the conspiracy theorists and their theories, can ignore them and hope they go away, but the real danger comes from left field, from the ignorant who, lacking education or common sense, will believe and act on the conspiracy theories.
Remember Pizzagate? A rumour, started by a Reddit user and picked up by Alex Jones and others, made the rounds. The rumour was that Hillary Clinton and her campaign chief, John Podesta were kidnapping, molesting and trafficking children in tunnels beneath the Comet Ping Pong pizzeria in Washington, D.C. The restaurant’s staff and owner began receiving online threats against themselves and worse yet, their children. And then one day, Edgar Maddison Welch walked into the restaurant armed with two assault weapons and opened fire … a regular Bugsy Malone.
There is a very real danger in the fact that there are more guns in this nation than there are people, many of them assault weapons that can kill hundreds inside of a minute or two. There is a very real danger in that this nation is a tinderbox waiting for someone to light a match. Enter Alex Jones, claiming that the United States will soon have to resort to cannibalism and he is fully prepared to eat his neighbors. Yes, friends, that’s what he said.
In a video clip from one of his recent broadcasts that is currently circulating across social media, Jones graphically expounds about how the food supply challenges of the current crisis could require extreme measures, including cannibalism. I will not play the video here, but this is what he said …
“I’ll admit it. I will eat my neighbors. I’m not letting my kids die. I’m just going to be honest. I have extrapolated this out. I won’t have to for a few years, because I have food and stuff. But I’m literally looking at my neighbors now, going, ‘Am I ready to hang them up and gut them and skin them and chop them up?’ And you know what, I’m ready. My daughters aren’t starving to death. I’ll eat my neighbors. … I’ll eat your ass, I will. I’m combat model. Optimum self-efficiency. Probably the leader. My point is, have you thought about this yet? Because I’m somebody that thought I could fix this, and I’m starting to think about having to eat my neighbors. You think I like sizing up my neighbor, how I’m gonna haul him up by a chain? Chop his ass up? I’ll do it. My children aren’t going hungry.”
Now, ol’ Alex is likely just trying to get attention … that’s what he does. But think of one of those gun-toting white supremacists who have been instrumental in some of the recent protests demanding that cities and states re-open for business, despite the continued threat of further spread of the disease and tens of thousands more deaths. Picture one of them, already filled with anger and hate, listening to Mr. Jones’ podcast. Is it a stretch of the imagination to picture him cleaning his precious guns, oiling them, and loading for bear … waiting for the first time he cannot find chicken or potatoes at his local supermarket?
Given that farmers are plowing under their crops, fruit is being left on the trees to rot, and meat-processing plants are denizens for the coronavirus, it isn’t a stretch that there may be periodic shortages of certain foods over the course of the next year. But, this is not the Donner expedition and there is literally no danger that we will run out of food. But, for the diehard fools who will believe the likes of Alex Jones over reason and common sense …
Personally, I see these words as incitement, and while I am a long-time defender of freedom of speech, I have always said there must be limits. In my book, Mr. Jones has stepped over the line and has set this nation up for an extremely dangerous situation. With any right, whether it be free speech or the right to bear arms, comes responsibility. Alex Jones has taken his rights and shunned the accompanying responsibility. There need to be consequences for stirring a pot that is already about to boil over. Even if people don’t start threatening to eat their neighbors, I will not be surprised to see that Jones’ words lead to a new wave of hoarding, or people using guns to fight over that last pack of chicken legs.
It’s going to be a long, hot summer, folks. According to the guys at the National Weather Service, the hottest on record … ever. We will still be under threat from a devastating pandemic, we will continue to have high unemployment and periodic business shutdowns due to a resurgence of the virus. We don’t know quite what to expect, and tensions are already running high. The last thing this country needs is a loud-mouthed jackal telling us to be prepared to eat our friends and neighbors. The FCC needs to shut Mr. Jones down, for he has ceded his 1st Amendment rights by putting lives in danger.
Filosofa's Word 