Saturday, January 21, 2023

Is Trump Too 'Mainstream' for Today's GOP?

It's unthinkable. 

The godfather of political chaos, Trump, may be too mainstream for the Republican Party!

When the crazy caucus took over the House a new dynamic developed within the lairs of GOP lawmakers. Trump was rejected by a group of extreme crazies during the battle for Speaker of the House.

Top GOP loon tunes have turned their eyes away from Mar-a-Lardo and focused instead on their own core of head cases to come up with a new supreme leader for the party.

As evidence I point out Tim Miller, a onetime Republican National Chairman who recently told the press that Trump has certain weaknesses that are going to derail his 2024 campaign. 

Perhaps the most surprising flaw Trump faces is the perception that he went along with the establishment and pushed to develop a vaccine for COVID-19 and mitigation measures such as lockdowns in the early months of the pandemic.

Miller explained that Trump could get positioned as "Oh you went with the establishment, with the medical establishment, and the elites, when Ron DeSantis went in the other direction and listened to the people."

That's scary.

Who for even a moment thought the Great Grifter would become second banana (or worse) in his own cult? 

The former president who urged Americans to use hydroxychloroquine for off-label use to treat the coronavirus just isn't extreme enough for the new wave of insurrectionists now holding the House hostage.

This isn't a conversation I ever expected to see come up. The idea that there are GOP house members with that much power who are actually crazier than Trump takes a while to process.

It appears segments of Trump's cult has turned on him in search for a more extreme successor. 

As it stands, it's not good news having lunatic lawmakers searching for new lows to surpass their one-time mentor of chaos.

Friday, January 20, 2023

McCarthy Throws More Raw Meat to GOP Radicals and Makes Smoking Tabacco Great Again at the Capitol

The halls in Congress are reeking once again with the foul smell of cigarette smoke.

Reminiscent of the days of smoking in high school bathrooms and teacher lounges, House Republicans are allowing lawmakers to stink up their offices while sucking on their cancer sticks.

The new stench in the Capitol's hallways is evidence that GOP lawmakers have a majority in the House who want to turn the clock back and make tobacco great again.

Think about it. This makes the US Capitol one of the handful of places in Washington, DC, and among the few remaining office buildings in the country where smoking is allowed.

Since President Clinton signed an executive order in 1997 restricting smoking in federal buildings the cloying reek of nicotine had all but disappeared.

Smoking stinky cigars and cigarettes evokes recent memories of the old guard Republican House leadership back in the 1990s. 

Remember when the former House Speaker John Boehner smoked so many cigarettes that new carpets, a fresh coat of paint and an ozone machine were required when Paul Ryan took over his office?

The irony is as thick as a brick. The majority of Americans want clean air indoors.

But the minority extremists now squatting in the House are flipping off health experts and organizations like the American Lung Association and are now puffing away in the Capitol. 

It's just another example of a minority within the Republican Party holding the real reins of power in the House and their agenda to burn it down. 

As it stands, smoking in the Capitol is a sure sign of future fires.

Thursday, January 19, 2023

Bigly Fox News Alert: Hunter Biden Has Been Visiting His Dad's House - and even Sleeping There - for Years

The cable TV network where truth dies daily - Fox News - released a stunning expose about Hunter Biden today.

You might want to check if kids are around before reading this shocking article. 

It turns out that in Hunter Biden's memoir published in April 2021, the president's son said he and other close family members spent election night on Nov. 3, 2020, at the Wilmington, Delaware home.

Okay. Then what?

Hunter recalled spending several days there with his parents - Melissa and the baby, his girls Natalie and Ashley and Howard.

"More than waiting together, we were also quarantined together. There was no escaping one another." 

Wait a minute!

Did you read that? It appears the family voluntarily quarantined together during the height of the pandemic sweeping the nation.

What depravity! Luckily Fox staffers Thomas Catenacci and Peter (the douchebag) Doocy uncovered the scandal last night. 

You may understandably be puzzled about what crime was committed.

The Fox narrative is that Hunter who is facing wide-ranging probes into his business dealings once noted (remember the memoir?) that he and family members QUARANTINED at his father's home where classified documents were recently found...

So? By insinuating Hunter was hiding classified documents with his name on them because he was there... is downright stupid and defamatory.

News flash for MAGA readers!

It's quite common for a son to visit his parents and family. Full stop. As a matter of fact, he's done that for years.

Twisting facts? You bet. Check out the lurid headline online:

Hunter Biden 'Quarantined' at Delaware House Where Classfied Docs Found: 'There was no escaping.'

It's obvious they tried to give a negative impression by just taking words from Hunter's book - "quarantined" and the line about "There was no escaping," and making them somehow appear sinister.

And that was just the headline. As you can imagine the following article was another MAGA fever dream full of falsehoods and nasty inuendoes.

In other words, just another daily dose of bullshit from the shameless network brought to you by an Australian billionaire who hates America.

As it stands, what would really be shocking is for Fox News to tell a straight news story without lying and catering to MAGA morons.

Wednesday, January 18, 2023

Insurrection Alert: Facebook and Twitter Looking at Restoring Trump to their Platforms and There's Nothing You Can Do to Stop Them

Elon Musk re-opened Twitter's door to traitor and insurrectionist Donald Trump last year.

Initially Trump told his minions that he wouldn't go back on Twitter even if he's invited because he has his own social media platform TRUTH Social. 

He also told his followers TRUTH Social was going to stand up to the tyranny of Big Tech.

The problem is TRUTH Social is close to financial collapse and is facing several investigations by federal prosecutors and security regulators. 
So, the chance that Trump throws his own company under the bus is increasing daily, especially for the opportunity to get back on one of the two biggest social media platforms in the country.

It would just be another example of Trump's lack of loyalty and impunity to his own cult members.

Meanwhile.

More bad news. Facebook-parent Meta is preparing to announce one of the most consequential decisions in the company's history, a landmark move that will set a precedent for online speech and could affect the course of the 2024 presidential election.

Should they restore Donald Trump to Facebook and Instagram, or not? 

A Meta spokesman today told reporters the decision will be announced in the coming weeks.

Both platforms banned Trump in the aftermath of the Jan. 6 coup attempt. At the time top tech executives felt Trump would incite more violence.

Finally.

There's nothing you can do about it if they both choose to release Donny boy on their platforms.

Why? The best explanation is because of Section 230's shield wall protecting bad actors. 

Section 230 is a section of Title 47 of the United States Code that was enacted as part of the United States Communications Decency Act and generally provides immunity for website platforms with respect to third-party content.

At its core, Section 230(c)(1) provides immunity from liability for providers and users of an "interactive computer service" who publish information provided by third-party users:

"No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider." - Wikipedia

Congress is afraid of Big Tech. All the lawmakers' efforts to hold them accountable have failed because of their powerful lobbies.

As it stands, we better hope democracy prevails in stopping domestic terrorists like Trump from using public platforms to spread insurrection and promote extreme right-wing ideology.

Tuesday, January 17, 2023

Hemp High Breakthrough: Delta-8 THC Converted from CBD's - Good or Bad?

Have you heard of delta-8 THC?

The product emerged in the last couple of years among consumers as an alternative choice to getting high from legal and illegal marijuana.

Delta-8 THC is a component of the cannabis plant. Consumers are increasingly taking advantage of the fact it's listed under hemp and therefore legal. It's also cheaper than legal cannabis.

You can even order delta-8 THC via the mail making it an attractive alternative to buying THC-9 cannabis from the illegal market.

So far everything sounds groovy for consumers, right? Not so fast. There are always two sides to a story.

There's a question of safety involved. 

It takes a proficient and experienced chemist to ensure the safe conversion of CBD molecules into THC molecules. Inappropriate or imprecise techniques could potentially result in dangerous impurities in the final product.


In a recent report from the Brightfield Group, a marijuana analytics company, the demand for hemp-driven products has skyrocketed.

The new super star - delta-8 - has created a $2 billion-dollar industry in the last two years. It's also created problems.

Some retailers of the product avoid clarifying to buyers that the compound is derived from hemp and the possibility of something bad happening is greater than buying legal delta-9 products.

In addition, the report warns that the rising popularity of delta-8 THC in areas where cannabis is still illegal could negatively affect potential support for cannabis reform.

The fact of the matter is there's an unregulated, psychoactive hemp-driven product flooding the cannabis market.

The Food and Drug Administration and Center for Disease Control have issued warnings to companies illegally selling delta-products online.

The key to this gray area lies in the passage of the 2018 federal Farm Act that legalized hemp. Delta-8 hasn't had to deal with the same testing requirements as cannabis. The result was a legal loophole.

As it stands, the Farm Act is up for renewal this year and we'll find out if this legal loophole lasts or is closed.

Monday, January 16, 2023

Is There Anything Americans Are United About?

Some Americans celebrated Martin Luther King's birthday yesterday and his legacy of fighting for freedom and equality.

Some didn't. 

The question is what are American's united over?

We're certainly not united in protecting democracy against the rising tide of fascism embraced by the MAGA cult.

We can no longer agree on what's fact or fiction.

The gap between Americans who live in the real world, or an alternative universe continues to get wider.

Right-wing politicians use the power of the Big Lie without feeling shame. They've normalized lying to the point it's no longer a problem, but actually an asset in Trump world.

Americans are so divided over climate change that we'll never be able to take the right actions to mitigate it.  

Polls show how politized the Supreme Court has become under the conservative majority of justices. 

The majority of people in the country don't trust the Supreme Court and see it as corrupted. But there are others who are pleased to see their radical agenda getting closer to reality.

There was actually a time when the majority of Americans wouldn't hesitate to defend freedom in countries across the world. 

But now we are divided over supporting Ukraine in the fight for democracy against Russian invaders.

Division over wearing face masks during the height of the pandemic resulted in over 1 million Americans dying... and counting.

I have to admit that I can't think of one thing Americans are united over. If you have a suggestion, please share. 

As it stands, it feels strange calling us the United States of America when clearly, we're not!

Sunday, January 15, 2023

'Wokeism' Turns into a Republican Fever Dream

If you ask a Republican to define wokeism they will have trouble giving you a straight answer.

The fact is wokeism is a disparaging term that conservatives have appropriated and polluted to avoid talking about real history that makes whites look bad. 

Since the political term wokeism oozed out of the dark corners of the internet propaganda machine Republicans have tried to change the original meaning into an attack adjective.

The dictionary defines wokeism as promotion of liberal progressive ideology and policy as an expression of sensitivity to systemic injustices and prejudices.

Those Republicans who can read the dictionary carefully avoid looking up the term because it exposes what hypocrites they are.

It's much easier to live in a fever dream where wokeism is misused in right-wing circles and bubbles. Where equality only applies to whites. Where social injustices are ignored to further Trumpism/aka fascism.

Some Background.

In some varieties of African American English, woke is used in place of woken, the usual past participle form of wake. The term first came up when used by folk-singer-songwriter Lead Belly in 1938 in his song "Scottsboro Boys." It was a story about nine black teenagers who were falsely accused of raping two white women.

Examples.

The newly elected GOP governor of Arkansas Sarah Huckabee spent her first day on the job signing executive orders attacking wokeism (spelled out in the documents) and the popular use of Latinx to describe Hispanic women in the LGTBQ community.

In Florida Governor DeSantis has made a name for himself by corrupting the state education system with anti-woke bullshit. The history students in Florida are now only getting selected parts of American history that favor whites.

As it stands, it's no wonder why so many Americans consider Republicans domestic terrorists seeking to destroy our democracy. They've earned the sobriquet by their actions.

Blog Break Until Presidential Election is Over

I finally hit the wall today. I can't think of what to say about all of the madness going on in this country right now. I'm a writer...