I decided that these mini-snippets of snark should be called ‘snarklets’, and today I have limited time, but a number of these little snarklets bouncing about in my head.
A nice little vacation?
Well, as you all know, Prime Minister Liz Truss resigned under duress yesterday morning after taking only 45 days to practically destroy the economy of the UK. So now comes the big question: who will replace Ms. Truss? From what I’m reading, there are three main possibilities and guess who heads the list? Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson who has only been out of office for the same 45 days that Ms. Truss occupied it. So … what this looks like to me is Boris, not-so-affectionately known as BoJo, wanted a little vacation, so the Tories hired Ms. Truss to fill in for him so he could have a month-and-a-half to spend cruising about the Caribbean, catching some rays, eating good food and drinking fine wine. Must be nice. And if they think Boris will be any better leader after his little vacation … think again.
Bye Steve!
Well, it looks like a small bit of justice has been handed down and Steve Bannon is actually going to prison for defying a subpoena to appear before the January 6th committee. He was convicted back in July on two charges of Contempt of Congress – one for failing to appear for a deposition and the other for refusing to provide documents requested by the committee. This morning, Judge Carl Nichols handed down a four-month prison sentence – about four years less than he deserves, but at least it’s something. Or is it? The judge ‘paused’ the sentence until Bannon’s appeal can be heard. Welcome to another episode of “Drag Our Feet”, for Bannon will likely be long dead before he sees the inside of a prison cell.
Boomerang LePage
Some politicians, usually the worst of the worst, just won’t go away … they keep coming back like a boomerang or more aptly, a bad penny. Just one example is former Maine governor Paul LePage, a blatant racist who was voted out in 2016. You can read some of LePage’s lunacy in my two 2016 posts about him: Another Unsavory Politician … LePage and Time For A Change In The Governor’s Mansion!. Suffice it to say that the man is one brick short of a dozen, is a cruel and bigoted excuse for a man, and yet he has the unmitigated gall to run for his old position yet again? Fortunately, it doesn’t look like he’s doing too well against incumbent Janet Mills. Which of these two people would you want for governor …
Okay, folks, that’s all the snarking I’ve got time for today but you know there’ll be more soon! Have a great weekend ahead!
Proving once again that in addition to being a great cartoonist he is an astute social and political observer, Clay Jones of Claytoonz gives us his take on the new Prime Minister in the UK, Liz Truss. Ms. Truss reminds me too much of our former guy in too many ways. However, I must commend the United Kingdom for not being afraid of women in positions of power as the men here in the U.S. are! Truss is the third female Prime Minister to have served in the UK, following in the footsteps of Margaret Thatcher and Teresa May. Once again, thank you Clay Jones for a humorous and yet chilling take on this!
If our system to choose a president was like the United Kingdom’s in selecting a prime minister, then in 2023, the Republicans would most likely install Trump as president if they retake the House this November.
In the United States, the Republican Party consists of sycophants and Donald Trump chooses who will be the nominees in most elections. In the UK, the Tories made Liz Truss grovel for their votes.
Voters don’t directly elect their prime minister in the United Kingdom (which is made up of four nations, England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland). The majority party selects the prime minister and at this time, the Tories are the majority. The Tories are the conservatives.
Another difference between is that the United Kingdom isn’t simply a two-party system like ours. While Tories and Labour (liberals) are the two largest parties, the party in control usually needs help from one of…
I’m only a day or two late re-blogging TokyoSand’s excellent collection of political cartoons from last week! Predictably, the topics were women’s rights, human rights, mass shootings, and Boris Johnson’s resignation. Be sure to follow the link at the end to see the rest of the ‘toons over at TokyoSand’s Political Charge! Thank you, TS!
I have often noted the similarities between Boris Johnson of the UK and Donald Trump, starting with the creepy things each wear upon their heads, the mysterious way in which each has garnered an almost cultist following, the way each seems to think their office is created for their own personal gain, and more. In all my comparisons, though, I have felt that Johnson was the less dangerous of the two, that he lacked the utter cruelty and vileness of Trump. And now, I have been proven right. While Trump has spent more than two years railing that his defeat was illegitimate, calling for violence by his followers, throwing the nation under the bus, and is by all accounts planning further demolition by throwing his hat in the ring yet again in 2024, Johnson did finally resign. Max Boot, writing for The Washington Post takes the comparison further, looking at the difference in the systems as well as the two players.
Tories awaken to the cost of being led by an entertainer. The GOP still hasn’t.
Max Boot, Columnist
July 8, 2022
Every stage of Boris Johnson’s political progression has been utterly ludicrous and farcical — and that extended to his downfall, or “clownfall,” as the Economist dubbed it. Suddenly, in the past few days, there was a mass exodus from the British government among cabinet ministers who professed themselves to be shocked by the prime minister’s duplicity. “A decent and responsible Government relies on honesty, integrity and mutual respect,” thundered Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis in his letter of resignation.
Well, yes. But it’s hardly news that Johnson possesses none of those qualities. Dishonesty wasn’t a bug in the BoJo operating system, it was the system itself. “People have known that Boris Johnson lies for 30 years,” says Rory Stewart, a former Conservative member of Parliament. “He’s probably the best liar we’ve ever had as a prime minister.”
In this respect, Johnson was very much like former president Donald Trump. The difference, of course, is that while Trump continues to exercise an inexplicable hold on his political party, Johnson’s grip has finally been broken. The questions are: How could Conservatives have ignored for so long what was so blindingly obvious? And how can Republicans still stay in denial?
Until this week, the Conservative Party chose to overlook Johnson’s pathological mendacity because he was so popular. The secret of his popularity was that he was terrifically entertaining. Like a certain orange-tinted former U.S. president, he did not present as a normal politician. He made a virtue of his lack of seriousness to make it seem as if he was just a regular bloke despite his posh background. He bumbled his way to the top.
But the joke wore thin when Johnson actually had to govern. He promised to miraculously make Britain stronger and wealthier by exiting the European Union; he’s achieved just the opposite. Johnson’s management of the covid pandemic was no more successful. A House of Commons committee found that Johnson “made a serious early error” by flirting with the crackpot theory that allowing people to be infected would lead to “herd immunity.” The result was “many thousands” of avoidable deaths.
Eventually, Johnson instituted a strict lockdown, but he failed to abide by it. The result was the “Partygate” scandal, as evidence emerged of Johnson and his aides illegally partying at 10 Downing Street. Johnson was finally felled by one scandal too many. His chief deputy whip, Chris Pincher (a name straight out of Dickens), had to resign after being caught groping men in a bar. Johnson professed shock, until it emerged that he had been informed of similar misbehavior in the past when he had brought Pincher into the Foreign Office.
The lessons of Johnson’s rise and fall are simple and old-fashioned: Don’t treat politics as a branch of the entertainment industry; it’s too serious for that. Knowledge and competence are important in leaders; their lack is not a virtue. And character counts above all: Someone who can’t be trusted to tell the truth can’t be trusted to govern. It’s staggering that it’s taken the Tories this long to accept those basic home truths.
What’s even more staggering is that Republicans in the United States still have not, even though Trump’s political sins are far more serious. Johnson did not, after all, incite a mob to ransack Parliament in order to stay in power. His offenses are political misdemeanors compared to Trump’s major felonies.
Why, then, is the BoJo show closing while the Trump show rolls on? In part it’s because British politics is less populist and Tories are less radicalized than Republicans; there are Murdoch-owned newspapers but no Fox “News” Channel in the U.K. It’s also because British political parties are more powerful. While Tory parliamentarians don’t choose their leader, they do winnow the field down to two candidates for a vote by the party rank and file. Even if the winner becomes prime minister, that person can be, and often is, toppled by colleagues in the cabinet and the House of Commons.
If the United States had a similar system, with the Republican establishment in control of the primaries, the likely GOP nominee in 2016 would have been Jeb Bush, not Donald Trump. And if it were routine for Congress and the Cabinet to evict underperforming presidents, Trump might not have lasted long in office.
But our political parties are too weak and our standards for evicting an incumbent are too high: The president has to commit either “high crimes and misdemeanors” or be unable to discharge “the duties of his office.” Of course, Trump did commit high crimes and he was unable to discharge his duties. But Republicans feared the wrath of their rabid base if they were to make him the first president ever removed under either the Constitution’s impeachment clause or the 25th Amendment. (Richard M. Nixon resigned before being impeached.)
Now, despite everything, Trump could still make a comeback, because he retains a Svengali-like hold on the Republican base. It’s a tribute to the British political system that Boris Johnson is finally being removed from office, and a terrible indictment of the U.S. political system that Trump — who has done far worse — could still return to it.
It’s been a while since I’ve done a ‘snarky snippets’ post. Actually, I’ve started a few, but then the first snippet as often as not turns into a full-length post on its own. So, let me try again …
Biggest story of the day …
The biggest news of the day yesterday was not about gas prices, President Biden, the January 6th Committee, or the former guy … what’s his name again? It wasn’t even about Ukraine, though there is important news on that front. Nope, the biggest story of the day was the resignation of UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, aka BoJo. What’s funny about this was that the day before, I would have bet the farm that he would tough it out and, just like our own former guy, would be willing to stoop to unimaginable depths to retain his power. Then yesterday morning I woke to breaking news from at least four media outlets that Johnson had resigned. So … he has a bit more sense and a bit more intelligence than the former guy … what is his name?
I watched a short clip of Johnson’s resignation speech, and it was almost too … meh. Not the passion or sorrow I would have expected, and in fact the clip ended with him saying …
“I want to tell you how sorry I am to be giving up the best job in the world. But them’s the breaks.”
Perhaps it’s just that ‘stiff upper lip’ we always hear attributed to the Brits, but he seemed to lack any real feelings or passion. I wonder if perhaps he was actually relieved to be putting this all behind him? Either way, it was certainly a welcome relief as compared to … our former what’s-his-name. If Johnson’s resignation had not been forthcoming, I strongly suspect he would soon have been ousted by a vote of no confidence after a number of his cabinet ministers had recently resigned (I count 6 cabinet members and a total of 53 MPs and other officials on one single day, July 5th) as a result of a statement by the Prime Minister, in which he confirmed that he had been aware of sexual misconduct allegations against Chris Pincher before appointing him to the government.
And now comes the big question … who will replace him? I’ve asked several of my friends in the UK if there is some bright, shining star waiting in the wings, but just like here in the U.S., there seem to be none. It bears watching …
Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr …
There is a person, and I use that term loosely, by the name of Elijah Schaffer, who has flown onto my radar and he really, really shouldn’t have.
When I read his words, the first thing that came to my mind was a term I hadn’t heard or used in probably a half-century: male chauvinist pig! Think I’m exaggerating? Here are a few snippets of what he and his ‘producer’, Josiah David, had to say in a recent podcast …
“When women lead, it’s a sign of a curse on a country because if men are strong and they’re leading the country, well, women do not feel the need to lead.”
“Yeah. A woman is only as strong as her husband. If a woman is as strong or if she’s a bitch or whatever she’s doing, it’s because her husband isn’t leading her properly.”
“Your wife is your post and you have to make sure that you’re leading her and telling her what to do, because she’s not the leader of the household.”
Is it any wonder I’m growling? These two ‘men’ need the Lorena Bobbitt treatment to ensure they don’t pass their chauvinist genes on to anyone!
Against all odds
The odds of being audited by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) are about 1 in 30,600, in other words, negligible, slim-to-none. So how odd is it, then, that two people the former guy considered to be his enemies, were both selected randomly to be audited by the IRS? The two are former FBI Director James Comey who was fired by the former guy in the early days after refusing to swear an oath of fealty to Trump, and former Deputy Director, Andrew McCabe, both of whom incurred the wrath of the former guy and since then he has attempted everything from attempting to prosecute them both to accusing them of treason.
Yesterday, the IRS said its commissioner had asked the Treasury Department’s inspector general for tax administration to look into the audits after the New York Times raised questions about them. The chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Senator Ron Wyden, said …
“Donald Trump has no respect for the rule of law, so if he tried to subject his political enemies to additional I.R.S. scrutiny, that would surprise no one. We need to understand what happened here because it raises serious concerns.”
Time will tell, but it is definitely a bit too much of a coincidence that both Comey and McCabe were audited under the former regime.
Ha ha … guess who has the last laugh, and it is NOT Jeff Bezos!
Remember back in February when I wrote in yet another snarky snippets post about Jeff Bezos having a huge yacht built by a Dutch firm in Rotterdam? Turned out, once built there wasn’t an easy way to get it out of the city, so Bezos threw some money around and convinced the city of Rotterdam to remove the middle section of an historic bridge in order that his yacht could be transported out to sea. Initially, as of my first writing, the city had agreed, but … not so fast …
There was such an uproar in the city of Rotterdam that now the boat’s builder, the Dutch company Oceanco, has decided to refrain from applying for a permit. No word on whether there’s a “Plan B”, but I’m having a good laugh over this one … see, I told you that money has value only so long as all parties involved agree to its value. Now Mr. Bezos has a huge yacht that I’m sure cost him a pretty penny and all he can do is fly to Rotterdam and stand gawking at it. I love seeing the rich brought down a peg or two!
Shinzo Abe …
Late last night, just before midnight, the former Prime Minister of Japan, Shinzo Abe, was shot while giving a campaign speech on behalf of Kei Sato a current member of the Upper House running for reelection in the city of Nara near Kyoto. As of this writing, details are sketchy and contradictory, with one outlet saying he had no vital signs, and another saying he was merely injured, while still others were not certain any shots had hit him. The latest from the live feed of the New York Times is that he is suffering cardiopulmonary arrest. My understanding is that this means the patient is no longer alive but has not yet been officially declared dead. But again, it is too soon to know, and I shall keep my fingers crossed despite the odds.
From everything I know of Mr. Abe, he is/was a good man and was a good Prime Minister until he resigned in 2020 due to health concerns. It should be noted that Japan has a zero gun tolerance policy — guns are simply not allowed in the hands of civilians, and that the gun that was used appears at this time to have been a homemade weapon.
I think that sometimes when we can make our points with humour, they are more likely to be listened to and pondered. Our friend Keith has made a few points today with a bit of ‘windy’ humour and it makes for a fun post! Overall, Keith … like all of us … just doesn’t want to see our nation become “Dust in the Wind” 😉 Thank you, Keith, for a fun and at the same time thoughtful post.
Using one of my favorite Lynyrd Skynyrd songs, “Tuesday’s gone” one more time, let me offer some more windy remarks. This is in deference to many politicians who tend to be big bags of wind with contrived and exaggerated truths.
I know everyone is anticipating the Roe v Wade impacting ruling from the Supreme Court, but another major ruling will affect jurisdiction over corporations, making it easier on these entities to cut corners. I have said before, the primary reason Republicans like conservative judges is not things like Roe v Wade, it is to help companies avoid having to be held liable for their misdeeds. Everything else is window-dressing to that primary purpose.
The Wizard of Oz-like actions of the most recent former president is underway to get people not to look behind the January 6 insurrection curtain. If they do, they will see a person pulling everyone’s levers to…
Apparently, someone asked the question on social media, “Why don’t the Brits like Donald Trump?” Nate White, an articulate and witty writer from the United Kingdom wrote the following response:
“A few things spring to mind. Trump lacks certain qualities which the British traditionally esteem. For instance, he has no class, no charm, no coolness, no credibility, no compassion, no wit, no warmth, no wisdom, no subtlety, no sensitivity, no self-awareness, no humility, no honor and no grace – all qualities, funnily enough, with which his predecessor Mr. Obama was generously blessed.
So for us, the stark contrast does rather throw Trump’s limitations into embarrassingly sharp relief. Plus, we like a laugh. And while Trump may be laughable, he has never once said anything wry, witty or even faintly amusing – not once, ever. I don’t say that rhetorically, I mean it quite literally: not once, not ever. And that fact is particularly disturbing to the British sensibility – for us, to lack humour is almost inhuman. But with Trump, it’s a fact.
He doesn’t even seem to understand what a joke is – his idea of a joke is a crass comment, an illiterate insult, a casual act of cruelty. Trump is a troll. And like all trolls, he is never funny and he never laughs; he only crows or jeers. And scarily, he doesn’t just talk in crude, witless insults – he actually thinks in them. His mind is a simple bot-like algorithm of petty prejudices and knee-jerk nastiness. There is never any under-layer of irony, complexity, nuance or depth. It’s all surface.
Some Americans might see this as refreshingly upfront. Well, we don’t. We see it as having no inner world, no soul. And in Britain we traditionally side with David, not Goliath. All our heroes are plucky underdogs: Robin Hood, Dick Whittington, Oliver Twist. Trump is neither plucky, nor an underdog. He is the exact opposite of that. He’s not even a spoiled rich-boy, or a greedy fat-cat. He’s more a fat white slug. A Jabba the Hutt of privilege. And worse, he is that most unforgivable of all things to the British: a bully.
That is, except when he is among bullies then he suddenly transforms into a snivelling sidekick instead. There are unspoken rules to this stuff the Queensberry rules of basic decency & he breaks them all. He punches downwards – which a gentleman should, would, could never do and every blow he aims is below the belt. He particularly likes to kick the vulnerable or voiceless – and he kicks them when they are down.
So the fact that a significant minority – perhaps a third – of Americans look at what he does, listen to what he says, and then think ‘Yeah, he seems like my kind of guy’ is a matter of some confusion and no little distress to British people, given that: Americans are supposed to be nicer than us, and mostly are. You don’t need a particularly keen eye for detail to spot a few flaws in the man. This last point is what especially confuses and dismays British people, and many other people too; his faults seem pretty bloody hard to miss.
After all, it’s impossible to read a single tweet, or hear him speak a sentence or two, without staring deep into the abyss. He turns being artless into an art form; he is a Picasso of pettiness; a Shakespeare of shit. His faults are fractal: even his flaws have flaws, and so on ad infinitum.
God knows there have always been stupid people in the world, and plenty of nasty people too. But rarely has stupidity been so nasty, or nastiness so stupid. He makes Nixon look trustworthy and George W look smart. In fact, if Frankenstein decided to make a monster assembled entirely from human flaws – he would make a Trump. And a remorseful Doctor Frankenstein would clutch out big clumpfuls of hair and scream in anguish: ‘My God… what… have… I… created? If being a twat was a TV show, Trump would be the boxed set.”
In addition to finding it humorous, I found that I couldn’t disagree with a single word of it! The Brits have far more history than the United States has, far more experience in humanity and governance. We are relative newcomers, still in the puberty stage of our growth as a nation and feeling the growing pains every day. We might do well to listen to them on this one. And then again … they have Boris!
Snarky? Moi? Surely you jest! Okay, yeah, I admit that I am just a bit on the snarky side these days. Perhaps it is just a product of my old age, or lack of sleep. Or, perhaps it is … PEOPLE! Just when I think I’ve heard it all, somebody flits across my radar to show me I haven’t. And just when we think humans can go no lower, somebody comes along to prove to us that there are new lows being dug every day.
Say WHAT???
Charlie Gerow is a Republican running for governor of Pennsylvania in next year’s election. Sadly, the incumbent, Tom Wolfe, is term limited and cannot run again, for he has been, from everything I know, a good governor. But back to Charlie Gerow …
Gerow is under investigation in connection with an accident between a car and a motorcycle accident on July 21st on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. The motorcyclist, Logan Carl Abbott, died. Now, Gerow claims he wasn’t involved in the accident and didn’t hit Abbott, but … a funny thing happened just a few miles down the highway from the scene of the accident. Construction workers were working on the highway when they saw Gerow’s car go by ‘at a high rate of speed’, making a horrible racket with sparks flying everywhere … because … there was a motorcycle stuck to the front grill of Gerow’s car!
A few miles further up the highway, State Police were watching for speeders and pulled Gerow over. Gerow claims he is innocent, and his lawyer has decided … with no evidence, mind you … that the disabled motorcycle must have been lying on the highway and Gerow hit it with his car, without realizing it. Now … I have a problem with this scenario, and I seriously hope the Pennsylvania State Police have the sense to see the problem. First … if you hit a motorcycle, especially at a high rate of speed, you know it. It will make a horrible noise. It will jerk your vehicle and throw you forward and rattle your brains a bit. And the construction workers said that it was making a horrible noise, dragging the ground and causing sparks to fly … and this was several miles from where the accident happened, so ol’ Charlie must have been deaf and blind, in which case he shouldn’t be driving anyway.
Charlie’s lawyer must have been grasping at straws … I’m surprised any honest lawyer would even take this case! Oh wait … ‘honest lawyer’ — what an oxymoron! The most logical answer is that Charlie was under the influence of something … alcohol or drugs. One person who attended the fundraiser from which Charlie had just come claims she never saw him drink a drop, and one of his associates claims he doesn’t drink alcohol. Sorry, folks, it isn’t adding up for me. And there is no way in hell … no matter what the circumstances … that this guy should become the governor of Pennsylvania. NO WAY!!!
Oops, Marco!
Republicans don’t miss too many opportunities to mock or denigrate members of the Biden administration, and Marco Rubio, Republican senator from Florida, grabbed for the golden ring … and missed … last Thursday.
Responding to a video of Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin arriving in the Philippines – masked and wearing a face shield – Rubio tweeted …
“Our @SecDef is vaccinated. But he arrives in the Philippines wearing a mask AND a face shield. Embarrassing COVID theatre.”
But guess what, Marco? As Politico editor Dave Brown posted in response:
From the embassy: “The Philippine government has mandated that everyone must wear full-coverage face shields together with face masks while in public places. Local governments continue to implement additional requirements to slow the virus’ spread”
Hmmmm … is that egg I see on Marco’s face?
Uh-oh … the rent is due
Congress failed to pass legislation that would have extended the moratorium on housing evictions yesterday … actually, it didn’t seem that they even tried all that hard. Even congressional Democrats didn’t go the extra mile to get this done, and now Congress is on summer break for the month of August. More than seven million households owe back rent and could face eviction this month.
One Democratic Senator, Cori Bush, tried on Friday night to convince her colleagues to get off their collective arses. She actually slept on the steps of the Capitol on Friday night, saying …
“How are we on vacation when we have millions of people who could start to be evicted tonight? I am dirty, sticky, sweaty. I still have on what I had on last night. This is how people will have to live if we don’t do something. Seven million, 6 million, 11 million, however many it is, they deserve human dignity and deserve for people that represent them to show up, do the work, to make sure basic needs are met today.”
A noble gesture, and I do applaud her efforts, but they were all for naught. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi blames the president for not giving them more notice, but the truth is they were all aware of the Supreme Court ruling a month ago that said the moratorium would only be allowed to be extended by an act of Congress. It isn’t rocket science, folks!
The New York Times has published an interactive map that enables you to see how many people in a given county are likely to be subject to eviction. In my own neighborhood, it is only about 14%, but in some areas, especially South Carolina, Georgia and Mississippi, it can be as high as nearly 30%! A few states and cities, like California, New York and New Jersey, have enacted their own temporary eviction bans that last a bit longer, but they are too few.
Today, with the surge in the Delta variant of the coronavirus, experts are predicting that there will yet again be closings and layoffs, and many people still have not been able to return to work. One of my readers argued the other day that they are too lazy to return, but that is not the case at all. Some companies closed their doors for good last year, as the pandemic drove them into bankruptcy, and other companies have brought only a portion of their workers back at this point.
Remember, my friends, the pandemic is NOT over, nor is it likely to be anytime soon, given the resistance of far too many to being vaccinated. Some have been unable to return to work due to their health or their childcare providers being closed due to the pandemic. There are many reasons, but the sad fact is that the majority of those who are vulnerable to eviction are families with children. Landlords, for the most part, are only concerned with their profit, not humanity.
Bumbling Boris … or … Brollygate!
Last but not least, I thought you might enjoy a bit of humour from ‘cross the big pond! Boris is often a bumbling figure, and learning to use an umbrella, or a ‘brolly’, is worthy of at least a few chuckles.
Tonight’s min-rants have me growling, my ulcer flared up, and I will probably need a few hours of winding down before I can sleep. But, rather than jump straight into a rant, let’s start out with something I found at least mildly humorous …
A bit of humour …
One of my many daily newsletters had this paragraph in talking about the comparison between the former guy and the UK’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson, affectionately called BoJo in the UK …
There’s been talk about how Biden and Johnson — whom the President’s predecessor referred to as “Britain Trump” — won’t get on. After all, Johnson, like the 45th US President, is a populist who won power by courting blue-collar grievance, had an itinerant love life, a distant acquaintance with the truth and a blond edifice on his head that defies gravity.
That last part about the hair especially made me laugh. At least, though, Boris doesn’t wear ugly orange makeup! And … he can speak in full sentences … I’ve HEARD HIM!
Where did she get her medical license?
Sherri Tenpenny is allegedly a medical doctor based in Cleveland, Ohio, though if she does, in fact, have a license to practice medicine it should be immediately revoked. She is known for her anti-vaccination campaigns and conspiracy theories and in May she put out a video claiming that the Covid vaccine would cause infertility in males and birth defects in a fetus if the mother received the vaccine. She claimed this is all linked to a conspiracy by “the globalists and the de-population eugenicists, the stated Satanists who are out to destroy the world”. I wonder if she’s been hanging out with ol’ Margie Greene? Why would a doctor … someone the public is supposed to be able to trust, tell her patients bald-faced lies? But wait, you haven’t heard the latest.
For some reason that I will never understand, this fruitcake was invited to testify as an “expert” witness Tuesday to a hearing in the Ohio House Health Committee in regards to a bill that would prevent businesses or the government from requiring proof of vaccination. Her testimony was bizarre, to say the least, as she claimed that the vaccine turns people into magnets …
“I’m sure you’ve seen the pictures all over the Internet of people who have had these shots and now they’re magnetized. They can put a key on their forehead. It sticks. They can put spoons and forks all over them and they can stick, because now we think that there’s a metal piece to that.”
Gee … I scan the internet 12 hours or so every day and not once have I seen a person with keys or silverware attached to them! In fact, having recently received my first dose of the Pfizer vaccine, I decided to try this at home. Nope, the butcher knife did not stick to me, though it did almost cost me a toe or two as it fell rapidly to the floor! If you live in or around Cleveland, Ohio, please stay as far away from this quack as possible! Meanwhile, I am writing to the State Medical Board to request that her license to practice medicine be immediately revoked … she’s a bigger nutcase than even Rand Paul!
Tenpenny also vaguely suggested that somehow the vaccine interfaces with 5G towers (those cellular towers that everyone seems to have some conspiracy theory about). Now, you and I can blow this woman off, see her for the psycho that she is, but apparently Ohio legislators aren’t as intelligent as we are, for there was almost no pushback against her lunatic ramblings. In fact, Representative Jennifer L. Gross, a nurse who co-sponsored the bill, told Tenpenny …
“What an honor to have you here.”
Say WHAT??? I’m moving out of this damn state!!! My daughter’s company has its headquarters in New York … perhaps she can request a transfer!
It should come as no surprise to learn that Tenpenny is an anti-vaxxer who authored a book titled “Saying No to Vaccines” in 2008. What does come as a surprise is that she’s still allowed to practice medicine. And you wonder why I have a difficult time trusting the medical community? Here we are trying to convince people to get the vaccine so that we can all be safer and freer, and this loon is perpetuating all these frightening lies to people who probably believe her and will continue being a walking germ tree.
What are they teaching their children? What is this nation becoming?
People all across this nation and around the globe have found the brutal murder of George Floyd by police officer Derek Chauvin to be a horrific crime. We have all mourned Mr. Floyd’s death, it has led to massive rallies by Black Lives Matter groups, and there has been nothing even remotely humorous about it. Until three high school boys … racist juveniles … thought it would be funny to re-enact the murder.
It happened at Mead High School in Longmont, Colorado when a trio of male students there published an image of them re-enacting Floyd’s murder in the school’s parking lot last month. Two of them had their knees on their classmate’s neck and back. The teen who was supposed to be Floyd was in blackface and lying motionless on the ground. “Bye bye senoirs [sic],” the caption read, with a hand-waving emoji to the class of 2021. They cannot even f*cking spell the word ‘seniors’ and they are in high school doing this disgusting, criminal sort of thing!
What the hell sort of values are we teaching our children? Apparently in Longmont, Colorado, parents are teaching them to be racist jerks! Just yesterday morning I wrote about young people seeing a need and reaching out, starting charities to help people, and now THIS!
To their credit, most students were sickened and outraged by the episode, and some claimed there has long been a culture of racism at the school. The school’s principal of the last 12 years, Rachael Ayers, resigned as a result.
Folks … this story has literally made me ill. I hold the parents of these three teens responsible for failing to even attempt to teach them values or kindness to others. If we, as a nation, continue to allow these sort of incidents, then we are signing the death warrant of the nation. The three students were each suspended from school for five days … big fat deal … they probably enjoyed those five days, rather than seeing them as punishment. At the risk of sounding radical, I would like to see every parent of these three in jail for 50 days each and then forced to attend parenting classes, for they’ve obviously got it all wrong!
I’ll end as I began, with a bit of (dark) humour …
How many more times must we be embarrassed … nay, humiliated … by the ‘man’ in the Oval Office? The latest …
Just call on Dr. Trump …
As you likely know, Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom was hospitalized on Sunday after battling coronavirus in isolation for ten days, when he took a turn for the worse. Since Monday, he has been on oxygen. While not a fan of Mr. Johnson, in comparison to our own evil despot he is nearly a genius, so I am certainly hoping for his recovery. Enter Dr. Trump …
Continuing on his previous myth that he is a “stable genius”, knows more than all the experts in the world, and so forth, he decided to help PM Johnson …
“We’ll see if we can be of help. We’ve contacted all of Boris’ doctors, and we’ll see what is going to take place, but they are ready to go. We’re working with the [U.S. Food and Drug Administration] and everybody else, but we are working with London with respect to Boris Johnson.”
More than 435,000 cases in his own country, nearly 15,000 deaths, Trump having not a shred of medical background, and he’s going to help Boris??? Now you’ve got to really feel sorry for Boris! It would be funny, except this is a person who is supposedly the leader of a nation of 330 million people, and he obviously has the mentality of a four-year-old child! Please, people, vote this asshole out! Meanwhile, our apologies to both Prime Minister Johnson and the good people of the UK … we will try to keep him on a shorter leash.
The pot calling the kettle …
On Tuesday, at his dog-and-pony show, Trump criticized the World Health Organization (WHO) for a slow response to the coronavirus (note the hypocrisy here?) and then claimed …
“We’ll be looking into that very carefully. And we’re going to put a hold on money spent to the WHO. We’re going to put a very powerful hold on it and we’re going to see.”
I do wish he wouldn’t say “We”, for really, most of us are not part of, nor supportive of, those things he says we are doing. It gives the wrong impression, makes us all look just as ignorant as he is. Anyway …
16 minutes later he was asked if it was really such a good idea to freeze WHO funding in light of the current pandemic, and he said he didn’t say he was going to. Challenged, he replied …
“No I didn’t. I said we’re going to look at it.”
No, he didn’t … he plainly said, for all to hear, and captured on tape, that he is going to freeze funding. How in hell much stupidity can fit into one body? Well, it is a rather large, flabby body.
Trump isn’t the only idiot …
Ol’ Jerry Falwell Junior seems to be in competition with Trump for Idiot of the Year Award! According to an article in Politico …
“Jerry Falwell Jr., the president of Liberty University, said on Wednesday that arrest warrants had been issued for journalists from The New York Times and ProPublica after both outlets published articles critical of his decision to partially reopen Liberty’s campus amid the coronavirus pandemic.”
Say WHAT???
Since when is it a crime for a reporter to make a critical statement??? YO, Falwell! Ever hear of the 1st Amendment right to “Freedom of the Press”?
“Falwell and Liberty, one of the most high-profile evangelical schools in the country, have come under fire for welcoming students back to campus after the school’s spring break despite the pandemic, while nearly every other college in the country has ordered students off campus.”
Falwell is an asshole extraordinaire, and not surprisingly a big fan of Donald Trump, one of those idiots who claim “god sent Donald Trump” to fulfill some nefarious mission. And like most everything else happening today, it would be funny, but … the press is our last bastion against a full-blown dictatorship.
“Both articles by the Times and ProPublica quoted students or professors who suggested that social-distancing guidelines, designed to prevent the spread of the highly transmissible virus, were not being adequately practiced on campus.”
Falwell is risking the lives of people, and risking the very core of our freedoms, our rights. Somebody seriously needs to remove this bozo from society! Surely there is a prison cell and an orange jumpsuit with his name on it just waiting?
Need a little something lighter to finish up? How about Seth Meyers bringing you “the kind of story we need right now”?
Filosofa's Word 