Winners and Losers From Last Week

Winners from Last Week

**Yesterday President Biden signed an executive order renewing a White House initiative charged with advancing "equity, justice, and opportunity for Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders," including coordinating a "comprehensive" federal response to the rise in anti-Asian violence and discriminations.

**The Biden administration approved a crucial element of the Gateway project - an environmental impact statement for the Hudson Tunnel Project - in an effort to repair tunnels that were damaged by Superstorm Sandy and expand rail capacity between New York and New Jersey.

**It was a surprise to see the Senate quickly confirm Biden's Cabinet nominee Eric Lander to lead the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy on Friday.

Losers from Last Week

**The American people lost after Mitch McConnell pleaded (as a personal favor to him) with GOP senators to block the Jan. 6 Commission legislation on Friday.

It worked. Hope for a bipartisan investigation into the assault on our Capitol was smashed.

Those GOP Senators that sold out their country should be embarrassed and ashamed. Especially this weekend as we honor the heroes who served in the military defending our constitution and democracy since it's inception. 

**Once respected New York mayor, Rudy Giuliani, whose morphed into a full-time conspiracy wackaloon, is being sued for inciting the Jan. 6 riot with his rhetoric. 

Rudy - now a Trump puppet - told the judge no reasonable person would believe what he was saying and take it literally.

That would explain why the Trumpies and militia members attacked Capitol Hill police, but it's hardly a defense.

**The biggest loser in The House of Representatives, Marjorie Taylor Greene, was up to her usual hateful rhetoric when she compared wearing a mask to the holocaust!

Meanwhile Kevin McCarthy is waiting for Trump to tell him what to do with Greene who is embarrassing a lot of her fellow Republicans and generating unflattering media for the party to deal with.

        ENJOY YOUR HOLIDAY WEEKEND

AND STAY SAFE!

Indicted Republicans Novel Court Defense: No Reasonable Person Would believe Their Lies

Some of the craziest Republicans who are being sued for inciting the assault on the Capitol are depending upon their lawyers argument that no reasonable person would have acted on their speeches.

The most recent example is Rudy Giuliani's court case. 

His lawyers are taking the laughable route by claiming Rudy didn't mean for everyone to take him seriously when he urged a mob of #MAGA followers to engage in "trial by combat" on Jan.6 minutes before they stormed the Capitol. 

He was "clearly hyperbolic" Rudy's lawyer claimed, despite the fact that's exactly what the violent crowd of thousands did after his urging.

The former mayor morphed into a conspiracy wacko was responding to a lawsuit filed by Rep. Eric Swalwell who accused him and Trump of inciting the riot to prevent Congress from doing its constitutional duty of certifying the election results.

Giuliani is not the only GOP wacko trying to subvert justice with a paper-thin plead to ignore their actions leading up to the riot.

Sidney Powell, a right-wing lawyer whose facing multiple lawsuits doesn't think it's fair that Dominion Voting Systems' filed a $1.3 billion defamation lawsuit against her.

Her lawyers have also taken the laughable route of claiming "no reasonable person" would have believed her assertions of fraud.

She was, according to her lawyer, just giving "her opinion" and the public could reach "their own conclusions."

Trump-inspired Powell was launched into right-wing superstardom for her repeated lies about Dominion and that Trump won the election.

Like Giuliani, Powell is trying to get her case dismissed for a variety of claims, but the "reasonable person" defense is a flimsy excuse that I expect judges will laugh at.

Think about that for a moment.

These extremist, so-called Republicans, expect courts to give them a pass because no sane person would believe their lies.

The conclusion from that defense is that Trump's rabid followers were NOT REASONABLE people. 

Now that's something I can agree too.

Fake Audit Update: The Blight On Beautiful Arizona May Be Coming To An End

             Arizona is a beautiful state.

Anyone who has ever visited the majestic Grand Canyon National Park will attest to that. The state's geography features a fantastic diversity of landscapes and areas of geological interest.

I use to go to the annual Gem and Mineral Show in Quartzsite where exhibits for rocks and gems, mineral specimens and fossils could be found.

Lately, I've been embarrassed for Arizonians who have had to stand by and watch a fake election audit (more like a fundraiser) while the rest of the world laughs.

It's an unearned blight on the scenic state.

You may have heard about some of the conspiracy stories spurred on by members in the Arizona State Senate. The audit was getting so bad that stories were leaking out about Trump acolytes examining ballots to see if they were made out of bamboo... why?

Are you sitting? Because there might have been fake Chinese ballots printed on - what else? - bamboo paper.

State Republicans are are rightly mortified by the whole embarrassing fiasco and want it to stop.

They may be in luck. Turns out Cyber Ninja's (a woefully unqualified Florida outfit run by a fringe conspiracy theorist) hired by the Arizona state Senators, hired a contractor - Wake TSI who was running the day-to-day audit.

The company recently announced it no longer wants anything to do with the partisan debacle. 

That's going to create a problem for the die-hard conspirators doing their best to perpetuate the Big Lie for Trump.  

TSI told reporters it's original contract ended May 14th, and the last thing they wanted to do was to stay involved with the farce.

Last week, the Republican-dominated Maricopa County Board of Supervisors urged the GOP-led state Senate to put a stop to the madness, calling the outlandish process a "spectacle that is harming all of us," adding "Our state has become a laughingstock."

No Arizona, your beautiful state has not become a laughingstock - it's only the idiots in it putting on a partisan charade to raise money - who are worth laughing at.

California Recall: Cox Incorporates Art of Circus Campaigning With Drugged Grizzly

The Republican minority in California was able to cobble up enough voters to qualify for a recall of Gov. Gavin Newsom recently.

One of the Republican candidates running against Newsom is John Cox, a circus performer politician whose been dragging around a drugged 1,000 pound grizzly bear on the campaign trail.

Pause.

Californians of a certain age may remember a famous used car huckster named Cal Worthington  who used to feature exotic animals in his TV commercials. It worked for Cal and he ran a very profitable business while becoming a California icon.

It's not clear who inspired Cox to feature a grizzly bear in his campaign, as he's never mentioned Cal.

I suspect Cox is trying to combine symbolism and a meme that will carry him to victory. Consider the following:

Cox has said he's "roaring through California gaining BEASTLY momentum" as "Newsom's top challenger."

The grizzly bear is a sideshow with the motto; "Big Beastly Changes to Save California." From what, is not clear.

Cox's three-ring circus includes a bear-themed bus with ringmaster Cox casting himself as a "Beast" to Newsom's "Beauty."

Apparently Cox's circus tour hit a snag and went to far while campaigning in Shelter Island and San Diego. 

Animal rights group Animal Protection and Rescue League, Inc. has filed a lawsuit against Cox and others, claiming they illegally "held events "with a captive, 1,000-pound bear who has been drugged and abused for the purpose."

Specifically, the lawsuit cites a San Diego Municipal Code provision which prohibits individuals from bringing "any lion, tiger, or bear" into the jurisdiction, "irrespective of their actual or asserted state of docility, tameness, or domesticity." 

Cox ran against Newsom once before, losing by three million votes. Perhaps he figured a more robust and entertaining campaign will carry him to a win this time.

It looks like he's is going to have to get rid of his star performer. That's all right. There's still plenty of clowns left in his campaign to run a two-ring circus.

America's Political Twilight Zone: 'You Are Now Entering Another Dimension'

"Your travelling through another dimension, a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind; a journey into a wonderous land whose boundaries are that of imagination. That's the signpost up ahead - your next stop, the Twilight Zone." The Twilight Zone

Some Americans have descended into a Twilight Zone where up is down, where lies are bountiful, and nothing is as it seems.

We're witnessing a tear in reality, suspicion of truth, and an all out assault on democracy daily.

One plus one no longer equals two in the Trump Zone, aka the Republican Party. Rationality is a causality of extreme partisanship that has seeped into Congress and across the land.

Politics has always been a dirty profession where truth can fall victim to conspiracies' and populists with no scruples.

But after four year's of Trump's depredations against our freedoms and the law of the land, we've entered into a regular series of Twilight Zone moments.

Trumpies in the zone have no shame and no concern for America's welfare. It's all about absolute power for one man seeking to become America's first king.

This new dimension under Trump is a reflection of racism, white supremacy, and the Big Lie. There are no limits or laws in the Political Twilight Zone.

Unfortunately Americans can't just change the channel and ignore the extremists trying to dismantle our Constitution. They are very real and a threat to democracy.

No rational American wants to enter this dimension where reality gives way to an authoritarian existence.

It's time we cancel this show and move on to the real world where there are consequences for lying and subverting justice.

Handbook on 'New' Republicans Released

After careful research, and encouragement in journalistic circles, I've agreed to share the "New Republican" Handbook.

First

You Know Your A New Republican If:

1. You believe Trump is still president.

2. The 2020 election was stolen

3. You don't believe in Climate Change

4. You don't believe woman should have control over their own bodies

5. You think Josh Hawley and Marjorie Taylor Greene are rising stars in the party

6. You think the EPA is your enemy

The Handbook (Condensed version)

A. Members must all agree on living in an alternate reality where Trump is the King of America

B. Never compromise with the libs or anyone else.

C. Never agree with scientists and proven science

D. All members must genuflect every time they see Trump, or a photo of him

E. Blatant lies are encouraged as long as they benefit the party

F. Members must hate the mainstream media

G. Conspiracy theories are encouraged

H. Party policy permits members to work with America's enemies in disinformation campaigns

I. Goals of the party run from continued racism to dividing the country using fear

-------------------------------------

The new handbook comes with lots of pictures because party members strive to be illiterate like their leader Trump.

Keep your eyes peeled as the right-wing media ramps up hate rallies with Trump pursuing the demise of democracy.

'Lost' White Evangelicals Adopting QAnon Conspiracy Theories

"Something disturbing has happened to white Evangelicals," Pastor David Rice told his congregation at Markey Church in Roscommon County one Sunday morning.

His parishioners in the rural region of 25,000 residents voted 2 to 1 for Trump.

But Pastor Rice wasn't worried about who his people voted for in politics. No. He was worried about something so sinister that it was perverting religions.

He was referring to QAnon theories that were infecting small churches across America.

Details emerging from investigations into hundreds of Capitol rioters have cast an unsettling light on the toxic roles that fringe religious beliefs and QAnon conspiracy theories are playing in this nation.

Pastor Rice's fears are matched by recent data.

The American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank, reported in February that more than a quarter of white evangelicals believe in QAnon lies.

Apparently white evangelicals are the highest of any religious group to adopt QAnon as their new gospel.

Another poll from Nashville-based Lifeway Research, an arm of the Southern Baptist Convention, indicated that 49 percent of Protestant pastors often hear congregants repeating conspiracies' about national events.

The disturbing trends led a group of more than 500 influential evangelical pastors, thinkers and faith leaders to publish an open letter recently condemning "radicalized Christian nationalism" and "the rise of violent acts by radicalized extremists using the name of Christ."

It's important to note that the spread of disinformation isn't exclusive to religious groups and is widely seen as a scourge of the internet.

The damage that QAnon and other extremist voices from the pews is testing the power of the preacher against conspiracy theories and outright lies.

This battle for souls will continue to challenge rational people with the devil's advocates as long as they're given a voice.