Bear Pit: now the sole domicile of politics at LuLa

[Robert Roaldi]

QAnon, northern style. Did you know that Canada has a new Queen? Her name is Romana, https://theconversation.com/how-the-self-proclaimed-queen-of-canada-is-causing-true-harm-to-her-subjects-185125, another in the growing number of anti-government movements around the world. Her followers are funding a new RV for her, according to this article.

I bet there's a flat earth in there somewhere.

[digitaldog]

Classic Fox/GOP hypocrisy in 2022. Only 43 seconds needed:
https://youtu.be/82H27rlXavc

[Robert Roaldi]

The drug trade, corporate-style, https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2022/08/02/1115003825/american-cartel-scott-higham-opiod-epidemic-big-pharma.

From the page blurb: "In the new book, American Cartel, Higham and co-author Sari Horwitz make the case that the pharmaceutical industry operated like a drug cartel, with manufacturers at the top; wholesalers in the middle; and pharmacies at the level of "street dealers." What's more, Higham says, the companies collaborated with each other — and with lawyers and lobbyists — to create legislation that protected their industry, even as they competed for market share."

"Most people think it's the political parties that run the show or it's the White House that runs the show, but it really is the companies that run the show," Higham says. "People were dying by the thousands while these companies were lobbying members of Congress ... to pass legislation and to lobby members of the Department of Justice and try to slow down the DEA enforcement efforts."

Next time you see a news story about the evils of "foreigners" bringing drugs to the streets of your city, try not to laugh out loud. As quoted in the podcast, there are still 40,000 people in US jails on marijuana convictions.

[TechTalk]

Classic Fox/GOP hypocrisy in 2022. Only 43 seconds needed:
https://youtu.be/82H27rlXavc

That's a keeper!

[PeterAit]

Classic Fox/GOP hypocrisy in 2022. Only 43 seconds needed:
https://youtu.be/82H27rlXavc

FOX and the GOP being hypocritical? Lord have mercy, what's next--frogs eating flies?

[digitaldog]

Cookie Jar?

Trump didn’t take the cookies. Nope. Never. Why ask?
Too funny:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/16/george-conway-mar-a-lago-search-trump/

[digitaldog]

This weeks Trump comics:
https://theweek.com/political-satire/1015968/5-cartoons-about-trumps-rage-over-the-mar-a-lago-raid
My favorite below but hard to pick just one.

[TechTalk]

The Few. The Proud. The Sane. A vanishing breed — Republican office holders who aren't certifiably nuts or gutless cowards — can say goodbye to one of their own...

Colorado GOP senator becomes Democrat, cites vote falsehoods

Associated Press (AP) - James Anderson - August 21, 2022

https://apnews.com/article/2022-midterm-elections Colorado GOP senator becomes Democrat

Citing alarm toward the Republican Party’s widespread embrace of 2020 election conspiracies, a moderate GOP Colorado state senator has switched his affiliation to Democrat, enhancing that party’s prospects to retain its majority in the chamber in the November midterms.

Kevin Priola, who represents Adams County in Denver’s suburbs, said in a letter Monday he was horrified by the Jan. 6 insurrection on the U.S. Capitol and had waited in vain for his party to repudiate it as well as former President Donald Trump, who continues to insist that it was stolen.

“It never came,” Priola said. “To my dismay, brave and honorable Republicans like Mike Pence, Liz Cheney, Mitt Romney and Adam Kinzinger have fought to defend the Constitution and the rule of law only to be met with ridicule and threats.”

“I cannot continue to be part of a political party that is okay with a violent attempt to overturn a free and fair election and continues to peddle claims that the 2020 election was stolen,” Priola said.

[More at Link Above]

[Robert Roaldi]

Here's a good podcast interview with Adam Schiff from NPR's Fresh Air, https://www.npr.org/2022/08/16/1116948823/rep-adam-schiff-weighs-in-on-the-raid-at-trumps-mar-a-lago-home. Topics are wide-ranging mostly to do with the current US political scene about which he makes some caustic comments, especially about the gutless GOP members who know the Big Lie is a con but won't say so in public.

What I found the most interesting was the discussion about threats to politicians and their families. It might be a good thing if more people were aware of this, but on the other hand that kind of reporting can invite copy-cats too. It leaves me with the impression that there seem to be a lot of people who are in favour of confrontation politics, that threatening opponents is a good thing. It reminded me of armed militia ominously hanging around political rallies and the casual acceptance of that as more or less normal. It's not a good look.


Incidentally, all the reports of Big Lie believers getting into positions where they have some control over elections makes me think more and more that maybe United Nations observers should be called in to supervise upcoming US elections. This description, also from Fresh Air, of what's happening in Arizona is sobering, https://www.npr.org/2022/08/15/1117535757/arizonas-anti-democracy-experiment.

[Robert Roaldi]

A Guardian article about Rusty Bowers in Arizona, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/aug/20/rusty-bowers-interview-trump-arizona-republicans?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other. His opponent made the claim that the 2020 was satanically snatched from Trump.

When these stories were isolated tales about village idiots, you could laugh them off. Now the psychos are being elected.

Why haven't the Dems spent the last 2 decades getting out the vote? Had they done more work, there might be a nation-wide abortion rights law, among other things. While everyone was watching their screens and listening to libertarians tell them that government is a waste of time and money, the levers of government were being taken over by whackadoodles.

It's kind of fun making fun of this nonsense, but it isn't really funny, is it. From what I read, the government is forcing young girls to carry babies they don't want to term. What century is this? You can't even be bothered getting the guns out of the hands of psychopaths. What's worse is that a lot of this shit-for-brains claptrap is being exported to Canada. We have nitwits here who are still talking totalitarian government wrt Covid masking. Sometimes stupid is just stupid.

[Robert Roaldi]

Can it be? Can one of Trump's businesses not be doing well? Reports are that his social media company isn't paying its bills, which sounds kind of familiar. https://www.foxbusiness.com/features/trump-social-media-app-facing-financial-fallout.

Has this guy ever had a business success? I do remember stores that his reality TV thing did well.

[PeterAit]

Has this guy ever had a business success? I do remember stores that his reality TV thing did well.

I think his document flushing business is doing OK.

[digitaldog]

I think his document flushing business is doing OK.

If all goes well, the next money making scheme is “Trump Makeup” for his fellow inmates; used for matching their jumpsuits. 

[Robert Roaldi]

So first Trump says that the FBI planted the stuff and later he claims he declassified it. This twit still has support?

[BernardLanguillier]

So first Trump says that the FBI planted the stuff and later he claims he declassified it. This twit still has support?

I don't believe that many of Trump's supporters still believe that what he says is true. They are too smart for that.

But, just like him, they have gone too far to admit they were wrong for such a long time.

Cheers,
Bernard

[digitaldog]

I don't believe that many of Trump's supporters still believe that what he says is true. They are too smart for that.

Meanwhile, just yesterday the “less smart ones”:
National Archives hit with threats after Trump search
The National Archives and Records Administration has faced a spike in threats and vitriol in the weeks since the FBI's search of former President Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence.

Why it matters: The National Archives isn't the only federal agency facing a deluge of threats. The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security have also seen a surge in threats toward law enforcement after the Mar-a-Lago search.

What they're saying: “NARA has received messages from the public accusing us of corruption and conspiring against the former President, or congratulating NARA for ‘bringing him down,’” acting archivist Debra Steidel Wall wrote in an email to staff on Wednesday, the Washington Post reported.
And:
This portrait of an agency under siege by a former president and his supporters is based on interviews with 14 current and former Archives employees, Trump advisers, historians and others familiar with the escalating dispute, many of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to reveal internal discussions.

[digitaldog]

As to “they are too smart for that” in the same article we see insight into the other supporters or just their brainwashed kids?:

In June, around the time the Justice Department stepped up its hunt for documents at Mar-a-Lago, Trump assigned two new Archives representatives who focused on publicizing documents they claimed would vindicate Trump and damage the FBI: Kash Patel and John Solomon.
Patel, a former White House and Pentagon aide, has sought for years to discredit the investigation into the Trump campaign’s ties to Russian interference in the 2016 election. He recently has been promoting a children’s book about the scandal that features himself as a wizard who unravels a plot against “King Donald.” He also sells “K$H”-branded swag to raise money for a legal “offense” fund.

[Robert Roaldi]

Meanwhile, just yesterday the “less smart ones”:
National Archives hit with threats after Trump search
The National Archives and Records Administration has faced a spike in threats and vitriol in the weeks since the FBI's search of former President Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence.

Why it matters: The National Archives isn't the only federal agency facing a deluge of threats. The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security have also seen a surge in threats toward law enforcement after the Mar-a-Lago search.

What they're saying: “NARA has received messages from the public accusing us of corruption and conspiring against the former President, or congratulating NARA for ‘bringing him down,’” acting archivist Debra Steidel Wall wrote in an email to staff on Wednesday, the Washington Post reported.
And:
This portrait of an agency under siege by a former president and his supporters is based on interviews with 14 current and former Archives employees, Trump advisers, historians and others familiar with the escalating dispute, many of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to reveal internal discussions.

Threats against Archives?!? Is there a more benign government function than Archives. What kind of freaking loonies have you got roaming the streets down there in the US? Is it the heat?

[digitaldog]

Threats against Archives?!? Is there a more benign government function than Archives. What kind of freaking loonies have you got roaming the streets down there in the US? Is it the heat?

Good summary of where “we” are at:
https://thehill.com/opinion/3620498-press-no-defense-for-gop-defense-of-trump-document-theft/

No defense for GOP defense of Trump document theft

[Robert Roaldi]

Good summary of where “we” are at:
https://thehill.com/opinion/3620498-press-no-defense-for-gop-defense-of-trump-document-theft/

There's an astonishing line in that linked article, something about how raiding the ex-Pres's home makes the country look like a banana republic. WHAT? It's exactly the opposite, it's letting politically powerful people get away with stuff that makes a country a banana republic.