We've made progress despite Repugnantans

Repugnantans are always on the wrong side of history. (Except in the distant past, like Teddy Roosevelt and Eisenhower.) Just shows how much progress we've made despite their rancid opposition.

• Conservatives tried to retain slavery, but they lost.
• They tried to block voting by women, but lost.
• They tried to prevent couples from using birth control, but lost.
• They tried to obstruct Social Security pensions for oldsters, but lost.
• They tried to outlaw labor unions, but lost.
• They tried to prevent unemployment compensation for the jobless, but lost.
• They tried to keep stores closed on the Sabbath, but lost.
• They banned alcohol during Prohibition, but eventually lost.
• They tried to sustain racial segregation, but lost.
• They supported government-mandated prayer in school, but lost.
• They tried to continue throwing gays in prison, but lost.
• They tried to defeat Medicare and Medicaid, but lost.
• They fought to halt sex education in schools, but lost.
• They opposed food stamps for the poor, but lost.
• They banned mixed-race marriage, but lost.
• They forbade teaching of evolution in schools, but lost.
• They fought against equal human rights laws, but lost.
• They tried to censor sexy magazines, books and movies, but lost.
• They sought to jail girls and doctors who end pregnancies, but lost.
• They tried to block liquor clubs and lotteries, but lost.
• They tried to prevent more health insurance through the Affordable Care Act, but lost.
• They tried to halt same-sex marriage, but lost.
• And now they’ve lost their effort to fire gays from jobs.
• Even though conservatives win elections, they gradually lose the deeper culture war over public values.

Grandma is just trying to help out

Bless her heart.

McGrath wins Kentucky Dem Primary

I was hoping that the progressive Booker would win but there it is. It was a close race. The main thing now is voting Moscow Mitch out, much like the main thing is defeating Twitler. Hence I'll be rooting for McGrath come November despite my candidate losing. It's what adults do.

"Retired Marine fighter pilot Amy McGrath will face off against Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell this fall, after winning a closer-than-expected primary against progressive challenger Charles Booker."

Greenpeace influencing DNC climate platform

Hartmann interviews Charlie Jiang from Greenpeace, who sees significant progress on influencing the platform. You won't see anything like this on the Repug side, and certainly not from Twitler. Here is the DNC's climate platform statement. Also see Biden's agenda statement on this issue. We the people must also keep up the pressure on the Party to implement these policies. It is the only Party that we have any chance of pressuring to do something about it.

Supreme Corp defangs CFPB

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is designed to be an autonomous government agency to protect we the people from fraud. And yet the Corp ruled that the Presidunce can fire its Director at his discretion, thereby turning it into yet another tool of corruption. Hence the name Supreme Corp.

Twitler knew about the Russian hit squad in February

And confirmed by an intelligence briefing. Just the latest of many incidents that Dump is a traitor and tool of Russia. But people with a functioning brain have long known that.

"American officials provided a written briefing in late February to President Trump laying out their conclusion that a Russian military intelligence unit offered and paid bounties to Taliban-linked militants to kill U.S. and coalition troops in Afghanistan, two officials familiar with the matter said."

Luca & Alessandra on World of Dance

Sneak preview of an upcoming battle performance. Some sizzling samba.

Fake Christians every one

False equivalence

Sometimes there's right and wrong, and no amount of negotiating in the middle makes any sense.

Scotland has the best Twitler insults

Joe's right on this one

Joe is and always has been against racists and white supremacists. No comparison here.

Yeah, let's open wide our economy

And kill even more people. Repugnantans knew this would happen and they do not give a shit. Remember that come November.

Annie Jones on AGT

She gets the judges and crowd dancing.

Sophie Lloyd: Boston - More Than a Feeling

As usual this virtuosa nails the shred.

Maher's monologue

He covers Twitler's failed Tulsa rally that spread pandemic, Dump again complaining about not being able to walk down a ramp, his idiotic quote about reducing testing to reduce reporting, Biden is up by 14 points, and the fake claim about rigged mail-in ballots.

We got the money all right

It just ain't going to we the people. Wait a minute, that was our money in the first place! We're the only ones who pay taxes. WTF is up with that? Theft is what it is. That ought to be illegal. Oh yeah, it is illegal. But apparently not for those who are above the law. America, ain't it just great again?

So much for the fake Repugnantan argument

That better pay and benefits prohibitively increases the cost of products.

Pence: Die for us

See this article about Pence defending Twiter's rallies and the suffering and death that will be the result. He hides all that under the pretense of freedom of assembly. People to them are nothing but sacrificial lambs to a false idol. Yeah, Pence said as much. Die for us. Vote first of course. Then die. You are nothing but cannon fodder in our war on democracy.

Reich: Pox Views and the pandemic

Continuing this post, Robert Reich discusses 3 studies showing Pox Views likely increased the severity of the pandemic. His FB post follows commenting on the studies.

"Three new studies suggest that Fox News’ coverage of the coronavirus pandemic, riddled with outright lies and dangerous misinformation, may have increased the severity of the pandemic:

— One of the studies found that respondents who relied on conservative news sources were more likely to believe in conspiracy theories about the virus, including that it was a creation of the Chinese government and that its severity was being exaggerated “to damage the Trump presidency."

— Another found that a 10 percent increase in Fox News viewership within a Zip code reduced its residents’ likelihood of staying home in compliance with public health guidelines

— The third study found that viewers of Sean Hannity (who repeatedly downplayed the threat of the virus until early March) changed pandemic-related behaviors, like hand washing and canceling travel plans, four days later than other Fox News viewers

It’s important to note that none of these studies imply causation, and that two out of the three are working papers — meaning they haven’t gone through the peer-review process yet. But initial reviews of the studies from other academics indicate their methodology and findings hold water. Fox News’ lies and propaganda are dangerous in normal times; in the middle of an unprecedented public health emergency, they’re downright deadly."

Conspiracy theories gone wild

Not even a stretch from the actual paranoia going around.

Brooks: Our 5 crises

I disagree with him on one point: The social justice movement is indeed engaging in politics. We are voting for candidates who represent us who will engage in direct legislation. And more of them are winning primaries. We are also constantly harassing our politicians to enact such legislation. It's far, far from just woke virtual signalling; that is a Repugnantan narrative that conservative Brooks buys.

Exactly the cognitive process of a child

See this on Piaget's egocentric stage. A stage that neither Twitler nor his Dumpsters have gone beyond.

Another Republican for Biden

The tide is turning. Be integrally trans-partisan and work with them to defeat Twitler.

Krugman: Blame Repugnantans for pandemic spikes

From his recent article. Repugnantan ideology and programming refuse to take their head out of the sand on this. Thanks Twitler and Pox Views.

"The immediate answer is that many U.S. states ignored warnings from health experts and rushed to reopen their economies, and far too many people failed to follow basic precautions like wearing face masks and avoiding large groups. But why was there so much foolishness? [...] So the really bad news is coming from Republican-controlled states, especially Arizona, Florida and Texas, which rushed to reopen and, while some are now pausing, haven’t reversed course.[...] Voters over all strongly favor giving control of the pandemic priority over reopening the economy — but Republican voters, presumably taking their cue from the White House and Fox News, take the opposite position."

Not even the ambulance chasers will represent these idiots

Said the at least semi-progressive Republican

I know, nowadays there ain't no such thing.

Coalspeak

This is a local northeastern Pennsylvania dialect where I grew up. There's a whole dictionary of it here. Below are a few examples.

H.E.R. - I Can't Breathe

Recent release, lyrics here. 

"And generations of supremacy resulting in your ignorant, privileged eyes."

Rocky Mountain Mike - Dumbtown

His parody of Petula Clark's hit song Downtown about Twitler's idiotic superspreader events.

Handmaid's Tale season 4 preview

Looking forward to this.

Krystal on progressive wins

She's right that the Dem establishment is rightfully fearful of this increasing trend. And that they try in vain to frame it away with excuses that fewer are buying. Krystal highlights that these wins will indeed influence that establishment to start making concessions to progressive policies. Progressives are on the march and we will become the majority.

Is Jamaal Bowman the next AOC?

We need a lot more AOCs in Congress until we are the majority. From the article:

"In what could be one of the biggest progressive upsets of the year, Jamaal Bowman, an African American former middle school principal, appears headed to victory over 16-term Democratic Congressmember Eliot Engel in Tuesday’s New York primary election. The race has not been called, but Bowman has a large lead over Engel, the powerful chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee known for his support of Israel. Bowman supports a Green New Deal, Medicare for All and defunding the police." 

The story of our reality

Interesting article on how what we perceive isn't always the reality. We make up stories that shape our perceptions.

"'It’s really important to understand we’re not seeing reality,' says neuroscientist Patrick Cavanagh, a research professor at Dartmouth College and a senior fellow at Glendon College in Canada. 'We’re seeing a story that’s being created for us.' Most of the time, the story our brains generate matches the real, physical world — but not always. Our brains also unconsciously bend our perception of reality to meet our desires or expectations. And they fill in gaps using our past experiences."


"Why are we seeing a story about the world — a story — and not the real deal? It’s not because evolution made our minds flawed. It’s actually an adaptation."

"'The dirty little secret about sensory systems is that they’re slow, they’re lagged, they’re not about what’s happening right now but what’s happening 50 milliseconds ago, or, in the case for vision, hundreds of milliseconds ago.' If we relied solely on this outdated information, though, we wouldn’t be able to hit baseballs with bats, or swat annoying flies away from our faces. We’d be less coordinated, and possibly get hurt more often.So the brain predicts the path of motion before it happens. It tells us a story about where the object is heading, and this story becomes our reality.

There is a vaccine for this one

Vote!

Each day there's more of them

And they will turn the tide in November.

Twitler's AZ superspreader event

Spreading the pandemic far and wide in spiking OK wasn't enough for this death merchant. Yesterday he was determined to infect as many people as possible in spiking AZ.

"Images from the event showed a large crowd tightly packed together, with almost no one wearing protective masks. There were no temperature checks for the estimated 3,000 cheering attendees who, like many of Trump’s staunchest fans, ignored a new local ordinance requiring them to wear a mask, despite a public-health plea from the Democratic mayor on Monday."

Progressive primary wins

Here are some results from yesterday. AOC handily won with 73% against some serious establishment money. Bowman beat incumbent Engel with 62%. Patel is in a dead heat with incumbent Maloney with no winner as yet declared. In Kentucky Booker is currently trailing McGrath by about 10 points.

Twitler's post-rally walk of shame

More satire from the Colbert Show.

Colbert: Twitler's Oklahoma bust

The show does a song about it.

Haque: Twitler will try to steal the election

"And if he succeeds American democracy will cease to exist."

From someone who has lived through this scenario before. See the link for examples.


"While no one much has noticed, Trump has gone right on doubling down on making America an authoritarian-fascist state is more committed to that project than ever. He isn’t acting like someone who’s about to give up power. His behavior is that of someone who’s consolidating power. Who’s amassing it. Who’s doubling down on long-term, generational projects, to reshape a society along authoritarian lines."

"Any pretense of being a functioning democracy will die, probably for good, at least for a generation, as Trump builds a dynasty to rule America. He will finish the job of building the institutions of a fascist-authoritarian society — camps, bans, raids, purges, Gestapos, paramilitaries on the streets — and Americans will have to live under their thumb, for a generation or more, subjugated, abused, and cowed into submission, by the man who, improbably enough, became their sneering, hateful dictator, in just four short years."

Fauci optimistic about covid vaccine trials

His optimistic hope, given current trials, is that we'll have a vaccine by the end of this year or early next year.

Reich: The myth of American exceptionalism

Demagogues, nationalists and fascists like Twitler make pretend we are a great nation and exceptional in every way. Robert Reich debunks that fake spin with the truth of our situation. We certainly can make America better again but we'll have to defeat the Twit and his cronies if we are ever to get there.

For my dance friends

I know we're starving to dance again. In the meantime, may this feed you some.

Biden's new Twitler ad

Good one Joe.

Hartmann nails it as usual

On voting and its suppression. From his FB post:

"Will Democrats Turn Out Enough Votes this Fall to Overwhelm the Republican Anti-Democracy Machine?

George W. Bush and Donald Trump both lost the popular vote, by a half-million and 3 million votes respectively, yet occupied the White House even though a majority of Americans didn’t want them there.

Similarly, in 2012 Democrats got 1.4 million more votes nationwide for the House of Representatives, yet that body was controlled by Republicans with a 33 seat “majority.”

There are numerous states where the majority vote goes for Democrats, producing a Democratic governor, but, because of gerrymandering, the state legislatures and their congressional delegations are still controlled by Republicans.

Fully 59 million Americans, in fact, live under such “minority rule“ in states where Republicans control their legislatures even though a majority of the legislative votes in the past election were cast for Democrats.

And now, according to reporting in the Guardian, corporations like Chevron and Citigroup are pouring money into Republican operations to not only maintain minority rule, but to expand it.

And billionaire-funded rightwing groups like Freedomworks are actively reaching out to millions of Americans saying that allowing us to vote by mail during this pandemic would amount to “voter fraud,” the largely nonexistent bogeyman they have used for years to throw tens of millions of Americans off voting rolls and prevent people from voting.