Abraham Lincoln observed that you can fool all the people some of the time, some of the people all the time, but you can't fool all the people all the time. Thanks to the corruption and incompetence of the Trump regime, that second group is growing smaller by the day.
"My hope over the past decade was that the Democratic Party would eventually become so beaten down and desperate that it would at least partly embrace ends-justify-the-means politics and the in-group dominance that animates the American Right. I don’t know if that holds much appeal for so-called independent voters who flip and flop between the parties every election cycle or two."
Those independent voters can fuck themselves in the neck with a sharp stick
"These researchers claim there are “viable solutions” to the intentional and unintentional spread of misinformation..."
As a fellow social sciences researcher, I want to believe in their viable solutions as well but unfortunately, the folks that are amenable to those types of solutions are not the problem that needs addressing.
I will give the authors one out in that no academic journal would publish an article that has the conclusion 'I don't know, man. We're fucked!'
Example. The Repubs are trying to ban abortion (again) in Missouri, by a constitutional amendment. The ads they are running in support of it don't mention abortion at all, they have realized that that is a losing message, instead they claim that the radical leftists want to set up a pipeline that starts with Drag Queen Story Hour and ends up with kids being transitioned, which is already banned. They also claim that the opposition is funded by New York millionaires, triple brackets optional. Although the ad is apparently run by an independent PAC, the Governors wife is shown as the Treasurer of the PAC.
>>>This explains why the backlash to the Black Lives Matter movement has been so severe and sustained — because for a moment, white people in the US were told that they were atop the hierarchy of oppression, that this was something that needed to be addressed and, eventually, fixed.
It was also because it was white kids that they saw recognized this and were out there protesting for BLM, scared their little white panties off.
Judge Luttig has warned that winning in Novemeber isn’t enough because he fears that the Nazi Republicans will pull out all the stops to trigger another 1/6 to keep newly elected Democrats from taking office.
A former conservative federal judge has sounded the alarm on the possibility of Republicans carrying out “another Jan. 6” after the midterm elections.
Judge J. Michael Luttig, who was nominated by former President George H. W. Bush to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, tore into the GOP and President Donald Trump in a scathing op-ed for The New Republic warning of “The Final Battle for America’s Democracy.”
Luttig, 72, said a “catastrophic end” for American democracy could come on Jan. 3, 2027—the start of a brand new House.
“Today’s congressional Republicans took a blood oath six years ago not just to put their party before their country, but to put Donald Trump before their country,” he wrote. “And so it is that only weeks before the midterm elections, House Republicans have already sworn their allegiance to Donald Trump and doomed the U.S. to another Jan. 6 next Jan. 3.”
“So unalterably subjugated to Trump is today’s Republican House that even a decisive victory for Democrats and a resounding repudiation of Trump and the MAGA Republicans at the polls in November will not guarantee that a Democratic majority-elect will be seated in the 120th Congress on Jan. 3,” he continued.
Luttig predicted that congressional Republicans would refuse to seat Democratic members-elect, triggering a legal battle that could reach the Supreme Court.
The conservative judge speculated that, just before his term expires at noon, House Speaker Mike Johnson would replace House Clerk Kevin McCumber with “a person loyal to Johnson and House Republicans.”
“The first moment of constitutional crisis will come when, sometime before the 120th Congress has been gaveled into session, the loyal temporary clerk refuses to list Democrat representatives-elect on the clerk’s roll of representatives-elect that determines who may participate in organizing the new Congress,” Luttig wrote.
“Judicial review of the House’s decision not to seat Democratic representatives-elect in the 120th Congress would take weeks, if not months, during which time the United States would be in the throes of a paralyzing constitutional crisis, helplessly vulnerable to all the world’s evil, as it would have been in January 2021 had Mike Pence not thwarted Donald Trump’s plan to overturn the 2020 presidential election,” he added.
We cannot let our guard down after November 3rd. If the Republicans pull off what Judge Luttig fears this country as we know it is finished.
If Great Grandpa Wobblie Joe were still around he’d be agitating and organizing for a general strike starting in cities and spreading across the nation to shut the country down to stand up to the Nazi Republicans.
While I'm neither a sociologist or a historian, I have to think that this is not the first time in American politics where one group (it's always conservatives, or whatever you might call them through the ages) have decided that they will do anything, say anything to keep there little circle of chums at the top of the hierarchy. I know many of you are more pessimistic than I (and you'll not doubt come at me), but the arc of justice has swung wide before and will again. It's frustrating and disheartening that we must put the time and effort into course correction, particularly when it seemed like so many of those battles were settled and need to be fought again. Still, I would prefer never to be like those lying cheats on the right and I really hope we don't need to resort to their dirty games.
I often think of Gandalfs words to depressed Frodo:
“I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo.
"So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”
Who needs any prescriptions when Gawd's Infallible Word in the King James Bi-Bull says if you're sick have the elders of the church anoint you with oil and lay hands on you?
Hint folks--My Jesusbot sister did that repeatedly when she was diagnosed with breast cancer...and...it didn't heal her...
We can't really compete on mud-slinging BS. All of our slinging is constrained by reality. We won't just make shit up out of thin air ("They're eating the cats!). Which is odd because liberals are very creative, dominating in art, music, literature, film...
However, there is a bright side. Liberals are cooperative. We form mutually supportive groups, we help each other. We organize.
Many of these people are born who they are and won't change. No matter how much exposure they get to others, education, etc. It is hardwired into their damned brains with their overgrown amygdalae.
Abraham Lincoln observed that you can fool all the people some of the time, some of the people all the time, but you can't fool all the people all the time. Thanks to the corruption and incompetence of the Trump regime, that second group is growing smaller by the day.
"My hope over the past decade was that the Democratic Party would eventually become so beaten down and desperate that it would at least partly embrace ends-justify-the-means politics and the in-group dominance that animates the American Right. I don’t know if that holds much appeal for so-called independent voters who flip and flop between the parties every election cycle or two."
Those independent voters can fuck themselves in the neck with a sharp stick
I hate their fucking guts
But lookit that nose on that puppet. HUBBA HUBBA why wouldn't you like to lie, if it consistently achieved THAT kind of wood!
"These researchers claim there are “viable solutions” to the intentional and unintentional spread of misinformation..."
As a fellow social sciences researcher, I want to believe in their viable solutions as well but unfortunately, the folks that are amenable to those types of solutions are not the problem that needs addressing.
I will give the authors one out in that no academic journal would publish an article that has the conclusion 'I don't know, man. We're fucked!'
Liar liar, your pants are on fire, you nose is longer than a telephone wire.
"THEY'RE EATING THE DAWGS!"
I'm not sure how we compete with that.
THEY'RE EATING HUMANS!
THEY'RE EATING THE EAGLES!
Example. The Repubs are trying to ban abortion (again) in Missouri, by a constitutional amendment. The ads they are running in support of it don't mention abortion at all, they have realized that that is a losing message, instead they claim that the radical leftists want to set up a pipeline that starts with Drag Queen Story Hour and ends up with kids being transitioned, which is already banned. They also claim that the opposition is funded by New York millionaires, triple brackets optional. Although the ad is apparently run by an independent PAC, the Governors wife is shown as the Treasurer of the PAC.
>>>This explains why the backlash to the Black Lives Matter movement has been so severe and sustained — because for a moment, white people in the US were told that they were atop the hierarchy of oppression, that this was something that needed to be addressed and, eventually, fixed.
It was also because it was white kids that they saw recognized this and were out there protesting for BLM, scared their little white panties off.
Judge Luttig has warned that winning in Novemeber isn’t enough because he fears that the Nazi Republicans will pull out all the stops to trigger another 1/6 to keep newly elected Democrats from taking office.
A former conservative federal judge has sounded the alarm on the possibility of Republicans carrying out “another Jan. 6” after the midterm elections.
Judge J. Michael Luttig, who was nominated by former President George H. W. Bush to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, tore into the GOP and President Donald Trump in a scathing op-ed for The New Republic warning of “The Final Battle for America’s Democracy.”
Luttig, 72, said a “catastrophic end” for American democracy could come on Jan. 3, 2027—the start of a brand new House.
“Today’s congressional Republicans took a blood oath six years ago not just to put their party before their country, but to put Donald Trump before their country,” he wrote. “And so it is that only weeks before the midterm elections, House Republicans have already sworn their allegiance to Donald Trump and doomed the U.S. to another Jan. 6 next Jan. 3.”
“So unalterably subjugated to Trump is today’s Republican House that even a decisive victory for Democrats and a resounding repudiation of Trump and the MAGA Republicans at the polls in November will not guarantee that a Democratic majority-elect will be seated in the 120th Congress on Jan. 3,” he continued.
Luttig predicted that congressional Republicans would refuse to seat Democratic members-elect, triggering a legal battle that could reach the Supreme Court.
The conservative judge speculated that, just before his term expires at noon, House Speaker Mike Johnson would replace House Clerk Kevin McCumber with “a person loyal to Johnson and House Republicans.”
“The first moment of constitutional crisis will come when, sometime before the 120th Congress has been gaveled into session, the loyal temporary clerk refuses to list Democrat representatives-elect on the clerk’s roll of representatives-elect that determines who may participate in organizing the new Congress,” Luttig wrote.
“Judicial review of the House’s decision not to seat Democratic representatives-elect in the 120th Congress would take weeks, if not months, during which time the United States would be in the throes of a paralyzing constitutional crisis, helplessly vulnerable to all the world’s evil, as it would have been in January 2021 had Mike Pence not thwarted Donald Trump’s plan to overturn the 2020 presidential election,” he added.
https://www2.thedailybeast.com/bush-appointed-judge-j-michael-luttig-warns-of-another-jan-6-after-midterms
Jesusbot Johnson is no Mike Pence.
We cannot let our guard down after November 3rd. If the Republicans pull off what Judge Luttig fears this country as we know it is finished.
If Great Grandpa Wobblie Joe were still around he’d be agitating and organizing for a general strike starting in cities and spreading across the nation to shut the country down to stand up to the Nazi Republicans.
The General Strike isn't planned until 2028.
By then it may be too late.
This country is weak fucking sauce.
While I'm neither a sociologist or a historian, I have to think that this is not the first time in American politics where one group (it's always conservatives, or whatever you might call them through the ages) have decided that they will do anything, say anything to keep there little circle of chums at the top of the hierarchy. I know many of you are more pessimistic than I (and you'll not doubt come at me), but the arc of justice has swung wide before and will again. It's frustrating and disheartening that we must put the time and effort into course correction, particularly when it seemed like so many of those battles were settled and need to be fought again. Still, I would prefer never to be like those lying cheats on the right and I really hope we don't need to resort to their dirty games.
I often think of Gandalfs words to depressed Frodo:
“I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo.
"So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”
OT: hmmm ... maybe some late season Atlantic hurricane action: https://hurricane.terrapin.com/text/1212793283059187719
Looks like it could potentially affect the "Gulf of America." So at least no real places at risk.
Terrapin suggests it could affect Maryland.
Xanth could be in trouble.
https://xanth.fandom.com/wiki/Xanth
TL,DR
Heidi Overton just started her opening statement at her confirmation hearing by thanking her lord and savior Jesus Christ
https://bsky.app/profile/garnethenderson.com/post/3mwbj3cycik23
This is the asshole Trump picked to further fuck up the FDA.
Overton is Trump's nominee to be the next head of the FDA. She just said Trump's mandate for her, if confirmed, is to "go fast."
As a reminder, the FDA is currently conducting a "review" of the abortion drug mifepristone. Overton has called abortion pills "dangerous."
https://bsky.app/profile/garnethenderson.com/post/3mwbj7gpq2c23
Jesus saves on prescription medication by negotiating prices in bulk.
He's the Deity of Discounts.
Who needs any prescriptions when Gawd's Infallible Word in the King James Bi-Bull says if you're sick have the elders of the church anoint you with oil and lay hands on you?
Hint folks--My Jesusbot sister did that repeatedly when she was diagnosed with breast cancer...and...it didn't heal her...
She didn't pray hard enough? (/s) (I hope your sister sought out actual medical attention)
Hah!
Still have my little button from the 80s: "JESUS SAVES... by shopping wisely and using coupons"
"JESUS SAVES...but Gretzky taps in the rebound!"
My favorite person in college had that same button on her backpack in the 90s!
This Jew replies--Jesus Saves--Moses Invests...
One hopes that Overton is defenestrated
Bonus points if it takes place in Prague, Oklahoma.
I was gonna say, "Find that Overton window and push her out of it," but I like yours better.
Shut the fuck up with your performative Christianity, you Ilse Koch fascist sucker.
Trump White House refusing to comply with a judicial order. What a surprise.
Citizen's arrest his fucking centaur ass.
Did anyone expect Poopy Pants to comply with a judicial order that he doesn't like?
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/24/business/media/trump-white-house-press-ban-order-cnn-msnow-politico.html?unlocked_article_code=1.DlE.wIGH.spM2liw0Hiz1&smid=url-share
We can't really compete on mud-slinging BS. All of our slinging is constrained by reality. We won't just make shit up out of thin air ("They're eating the cats!). Which is odd because liberals are very creative, dominating in art, music, literature, film...
However, there is a bright side. Liberals are cooperative. We form mutually supportive groups, we help each other. We organize.
Democrats won't learn that when Nazi Republicans go low they have to go lower.
And this is why I'm starting to think much of these traits are nature and not nurture. :(
There have been brain studies that are beginning to confirm nature vs. nurture on this subject.
That's partially what I was going on. Some of the imaging studies with enlarged amygdalae and right wingers.
Genetics?
That's what I think. Probably the majority of it.
Many of these people are born who they are and won't change. No matter how much exposure they get to others, education, etc. It is hardwired into their damned brains with their overgrown amygdalae.
I can feel myself not wanting to think/ explore this idea! Therapy & research is indicated ; ]
An independent is just an easily embarrassed Republican.