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Top 10 Idiots

(592 posts)
Wed Sep 18, 2019, 05:00 PM Sep 2019

Top 10 Conservative Idiots #7-12: Vaping Death Edition


Top 10 Conservative Idiots #7-12: Vaping Death Edition

Welcome back to the Top 10 Conservative Idiots! What’s up Northwestern? How you guys doing? You doing fucking good? Great! You guys are way too smart to sit here and listen to my nonsense! A few jokes about how insane our political system is followed by one song from a semi-popular band? You guys are doctors and lawyers and Ph.Ds! Well, we could all use a break. And we’re here for Riot Fest too, how awesome is that? So many great bands and bands that are good friends of our program that are on the bill! In fact we may or may not have a Riot Fest exclusive artist for you at the end of this thing! Oh hell why don’t I tell you? We got the Racontuers performing! But don’t take any video of the performance, I hear Jack White hates that sort of thing. But we are moving on! Do we have time for the thing? Yeah so go home, Popeye’s, you’re drunk. We got drunk and discussed this in great detail last week about how people are going nuts for Popeye’s fried chicken sandwich. To the point where guns were pulled and riots were formed. OK maybe not so much the riots but the guns part was definitely real. So how is Popeyes finding a solution to their shortage? Well, they have a new “bring your own bun” policy. Yes, if you have a case of Kaiser rolls in your back freezer, you can bring them to Popeye’s and they will stuff them full of fried chicken and whatever’s in that white sauce that they put on top. We highly suspect it might be mayonnaise but it could be something else entirely. But really who is going to do this? And you could just slap a couple of chicken tenders on a bun with some mayo and pickles, and it might be better. But that’s another subject entirely. But really, is it brilliant or trolling? Or is it brilliant trolling? Either way, Popeyes, you’re drunk. OK that’s enough of the intro, we have a lot of idiocy to get to. But first I have to play Bill Maher’s new rule from last week where he talks about how America’s economy has devolved into a 5 star rating system:



Where do we begin this week? In the first slot this week we’re going to recap all the insanity that went down in the Democratic Debates (1) which included threats of taking away guns, hate for socialism, and why not throw in a death threat or two? Taking the second slot is of course the guy who we currently call president, @realDonaldTrump (2) and this week he made a lot of noise when he moved to ban e-cigarettes because – wait for it – people are dying – but not a peep about guns. Taking the third slot this week is also @realDonaldTrump (3), because apparently there’s more to the Brett Kavanaugh investigation and there might be actual proof that the FBI obstructed justice.. In the 4th slot this week - another Trump firing means another edition of the Trumper Games! And this is a huge one – Tribute Bolton from the 6th District was fired by the president himself via his favorite medium – the tweet! In the 5th slot this week is of course our weekly investigative piece, Top 10 Investigates, and this week we’re going to take a look at what’s going on with the opioid crisis – and there is a lot to take in and it’s all crazy. At slot number 6 is our weekly visit to the Holy Church Of The Top 10 in “Holy Shit” (6) and this week some very strange happenings are afoot at Liberty University and our resident pastor is going to delve into why Jerry Falwell Jr might be going down. In slot #7 we have a new edition of “Beating A Dead Horse” – and this week we’re finally going to address the “are liberals too PC” argument coming from the right and libertarians. Are we too PC or are you just an asshole (hint: it’s you)? In the number 8 slot, after another special election that saw some Trump meddling, we’re going to add North Carolina’s Dan Bishop to the growing list of People Who Somehow Got Elected (9). Finally this week we have a new edition of Keeping Up With The Candidates (10) and we’re going to Atlanta to hang with the guy who might be Georgia’s next senator, John Ossoff! Plus we have some live music from England’s Foals! Enjoy! And as always don’t forget the key!

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[font size="8"]Democratic Debate Recap
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Sigh… you know it’s not really the debates that were the key here last week. I want to talk about everything that’s happened *SINCE* the debates. Where do we start? Do we start with the death threats coming from gun nuts against Beto O’Rourke? Or do we talk about Joe Biden’s super creepy old man speech? Or do we discuss socialism derangement syndrome coming from the right? You know what? Fuck that! Before we delve into the madness, I want to discuss this tweet from arguably Twitter’s worst comedian, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee. Really, this is gun nut logic in a nutshell:




Why is the word “SKATEBOARD!” in all caps? And if you spend every day complaining about how the government is coming to take your guns away, you probably should have them taken away. As is the case with what happened to Beto this week:

Former Rep. Beto O’Rourke defended his call for mandatory buybacks of certain semi-automatic weapons in an exclusive interview on "Meet the Press" Sunday, pushing back on criticism from Republicans — as well as some from within his own party — who think the Democratic presidential hopeful’s proposal has gone too far.

O'Rourke said the opposition to his proposal shows “how screwed up the priorities in Washington D.C. are” while evoking recent, high-profile mass shootings like the one in his hometown of El Paso, Texas.

“I refuse to even acknowledge the politics or the polling, or the fear or the NRA. That has purchased the complicity and silence of members of Congress,” he said.

“And this weak response to a real tragedy in America, 40,000 gun deaths a year, we’ve got to do something about it and I'm proposing we do something about it.”

O’Rourke's plan would ban weapons classified as “assault weapons” as well as high-capacity magazines and silencers. It would also mandate that people who own weapons that become illegal under the new policy sell their guns back to the government.

When asked why his position shifted from beyond his initial call for an “assault weapon ban” with no mandatory buyback, the Texan pointed to the recent tragedy in his hometown that prompted him to take a break from campaigning before returning as an even more vocal proponent of reforming gun laws.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/meet-the-press/instruments-terror-beto-o-rourke-defends-mandatory-gun-buyback-plan-n1054586




Holy shit!!!! We’ve talked a lot about guns on this program and rightfully so since they’re in the news about once every few hours. But this idea of a national buyback is a great idea in theory but is going to spark violence the likes of which we’ve never seen before. Or will it? Well, the mere fact that you threaten to murder somebody with said weapon, you probably shouldn’t have that weapon in the first place.

Former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke made his support for an assault weapons buyback very clear during Thursday night’s Democratic debate. “Hell yes, we’re going to take your AR-15, your AK-47,” he said at the time.

It was one of the most memorable moments of the night, and it’s since spurred a tweet from a state lawmaker that O’Rourke called a “death threat.” Following the debate, Briscoe Cain, a Republican in the Texas Legislature, posted a response to O’Rourke’s gun comments, which Twitter has since taken down. “My AR is ready for you Robert Francis,” he wrote.

In his response, O’Rourke pointedly noted that Cain’s statement was indicative of why people shouldn’t have assault weapons. According to the Washington Post, O’Rourke’s campaign has since reported the tweet to the FBI.

Briscoe replied to O’Rourke’s comment by calling him a “child,” and posting other tweets that scoffed at concerns that he was promoting violence. A Twitter spokesperson told Vox the original tweet was taken down because it violated the platform’s terms of service and its rules for “violence and wishing harm against others.”
https://www.vox.com/2019/9/13/20864498/beto-orourke-assault-weapons-buyback-democratic-debate




Yes, again threatening to murder someone with a weapon that you own is a pretty clear sign that you shouldn’t have one. Thanks, NRA! Now switching gears, I want to talk for a brief minute about Bernie Sanders and socialism. Yes, socialism fear is the right wing’s drug of choice, and they often use 3rd world dictatorships like Venezuela as a reason that we should not go down that road. And even we can agree on that, or can we?

Pressed on his self-described democratic socialist platform during the third Democratic presidential debate in Houston on Thursday, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders distanced himself from the repressive leftist government of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Sanders argued that his own brand of socialism is starkly different from Maduro's.

In a round of questioning centered on U.S. foreign policy in Latin America, veteran Univision anchor Jorge Ramos, who was briefly detained by the Venezuelan government earlier this year, asked Sanders about the differences between his leftist politics and those of the increasingly authoritarian socialist or communist regimes in Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela.

Sanders smirked repeatedly as Ramos continued his interrogative questions, including one about whether he considered Maduro a dictator. "Let me be very clear: Anybody who does what Maduro does is a vicious tyrant," Sanders replied.

The Vermont Independent said he would back an international campaign to help organize free elections in Venezuela so its citizens can determine which direction to take the country in as it reels from a prolonged economic and political crisis. He pushed back on the notion that his policies are similar to those touted by Maduro, who has managed to remain in power despite his country's precipitous economic collapse and a concerted campaign of sanctions and political pressure from the U.S. and dozens of other countries.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/bernie-sanders-distances-himself-from-venezuela-president-nicolas-maduro-when-pressed-on-socialism-at-debate/




Finally I have to talk about Joe Biden. We love Joe Biden and we all get stories mixed up from time to time, and hell we’ve done that on this program. But seriously Joe, you might want to take a few days vacation from the campaign trail. Because yes, this is the infamous “Corn Pop” speech that got passed around Twitter over the weekend. This is treading into Grandpa Simpson territory:

Former Vice President Joe Biden is being ridiculed over a journalist's retelling of Biden's seemingly heroic tale which he's repeated about taking on a Wilmington, Delaware gang leader named "Corn Pop" in the summer of 1962.

Biden has publicly repeated several stories of him rebuking racial division and has relayed one specific incident detailed in his autobiography of how he supposedly faced down an African-American gang leader for breaking the rules at what he described as an all-black pool. On Saturday, The Root writer Michael Harriot offered his own annotated Twitter version of Biden's "Corn Pop the gangsta" story, calling out several suspicious details and mocking whether he was the "only white lifeguard" at the Brown-Burton Winchester Park swimming pool that summer.

Harriot comically retold Biden's harrowing tale of 1962 racial strife by noting it's "already been demonstrably proven Biden will make stuff up." The Root senior writer and his social media followers joined him in questioning some of the basic facts of Biden's battle against "the Romans" street gang that he says "any black person" would doubt. Harriot repeatedly urges his followers to "STOP LAUGHING" as he relays Biden's own words, primarily taken from his 2008 autobiography Promises to Keep.
https://www.newsweek.com/joe-biden-corn-pop-gang-leader-wilmington-delaware-michael-harriot-lifeguard-root-retelling-race-1459303





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[font size="8"]Donald Trump
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Let’s talk about vaping. Or more importantly let’s talk about Vaping Death. Yeah it sounds like a Metallica song doesn’t it? Because Trump’s newly declared war on vaping is so insane that it almost sounds fucking metal. There’s plenty of reasons why vaping and excessive vaping is horrible but we don’t have that kind of time! Before we get into Trump’s ban, I want to talk about this lawsuit that emerged against the vaping compaul Juul, because this exposes the inherent dangers and risks of using vaping products.

A teenager who says vaping gave him lungs “like a 70-year-old” is suing a leading e-cigarettes company.

Adam Hergenreder, an 18-year-old from Illinois, has accused Juul of marketing e-cigarettes to young people with the message that vaping could boost their social status

He underwent hospital treatment at the end of August for nausea and laboured breathing after using e-cigarettes for more than 18 months.

"I'm 18 years old. My lungs are like a 70-year-old's," he told CBS while in hospital. “My lungs will never be the same."

In a statement on Friday, Juul said it had “never marketed to youth” and argued its products were meant to help adult smokers quit traditional cigarettes.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/vaping-teenager-sues-juul-e-cigarettes-lung-damage-adam-hergenreder-a9105211.html




Yeah it’s kind of like Patty & Selma but may be even worse. And of course like just about everything that Trump does, it’s not helping things. As we’ve seen time and time again, bans don’t work. Which means that every time you attempt to ban something there’s products that will appear on the black market which will be way worse than what you could buy previously. File this one under “you’re not helping!”.

President Trump's proposed ban of electronic cigarettes with anything but a tobacco flavor could kill a big part of the vape store business, but it may have a limited effect on curbing use by young people who can already flavor their own cartridges with readily available and attractive dessert tastes, industry experts say.

Trump's move came after new data showed teen vaping increased even as the availability of more kid-friendly flavors decreased. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb last year proposed restricting flavored e-liquids to vape stores that are age-restricted, but Trump's move would go much further.

The announcement came amid an outcry over the mounting death toll and hundreds of serious lung illnesses linked to vaping. Nearly all of the now-public cases involved young men who vaped both nicotine and THC oil.

On Sunday, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced a ban on the sale of flavored electronic cigarettes in the state through an emergency executive action.

Gottlieb told USA TODAY on Thursday that the deaths and illnesses and teen vaping concerns have been "conflated" and calls them "separate actions and separate public health concerns." On CNBC Monday, Gottlieb called for a "federal reckoning" and regulation of cannabis because of its link to most of the reported lung illnesses and deaths.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2019/09/14/trump-proposal-ban-vaping-flavors-amid-lung-illness-limited-impact-experts-say/2309607001/




And of course for those of you keeping score at home, there’s more reason to believe that Trump’s ban on vaping isn’t actually helping things. For one thing, many adults use vaping as a way of helping them quit actual cigarettes. But of course this is the Trump administration that we’re talking about here, facts don’t matter. Only outrage does!

Removing flavors is bad for adult smokers. There is little question that some adults will switch back to their Marlboros and Kools if their preferred flavors are no longer available. Surveys of adult smokers show the vast attraction of switching from cigarettes to a vaping device that uses nontobacco flavor.

As for youths, everyone agrees they should not vape. However, one of the biggest concerns — namely, that teen vaping leads to teen smoking through a so-called gateway effect — is greatly overstated.

Meticulous data analyses show that vaping is more of a “gateway” out of a smoking addiction for teens than it is a passage into a new habit for those who have never smoked. Support for this observation comes from the fact that teen smoking remains on a decades-long downhill slide.

Even if vaping is not a conduit to smoking, teen vaping is going in the wrong direction: Between 2018 and 2019 it rose by a third, from 20.8% to 27.5%. (At least, however, the trend may be slowing as the increase from 2017 to 2018 was steeper at 78%, from 11.7 to 20.8%).

In response, Acting Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Ned Sharpless said in a news release that if there is further “migration to tobacco-flavored products by kids, we will take additional steps to address youth use of these products.”
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2019/09/13/dont-nontobacco-e-cigarettes-adults-more-danger-kids-column/2299006001/




Well, yeah they do call them cigarettes. But what is Trump talking about with a total ban? There’s no evidence to support a ban, and you have a greater chance of dying from a gunshot wound than you do from vaping so why does that matter? Oh and if you guessed that Trump most likely didn’t even read the CDC report and grossly misinterpreted results, you are correct!

(CNN)The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Thursday there are 380 confirmed and probable cases of lung disease associated with vaping across 36 states and the US Virgin Islands. Six deaths have been confirmed in six states: California, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Minnesota, and Oregon.

That's a smaller number of illnesses than the agency had previously stated because it has updated the way it reports cases of lung disease associated with e-cigarette use. It's now reporting confirmed and probable cases, rather than possible cases or cases under investigation.
Last week, the CDC had reported that there are more than 450 possible cases of vaping-related lung disease across 33 states and the US Virgin Islands.

There are hundreds more cases under investigation around the country, according to a CNN analysis of numbers reported by state health departments this week.

The states and territory with confirmed cases are Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Iowa, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina, North Dakota, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, Nevada, New York, Ohio, Oregon, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, West Virginia and the US Virgin Islands.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/13/health/lung-disease-vaping-cdc-new-numbers-bn/index.html





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[font size="8"]Donald Trump
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Can you believe it’s been a year since we went through the Brett Kavanaugh nonsense? Well we’re about to go through it again! One year after sex criminal Boofing Brett Kavanaugh was confirmed to the Supreme Court under ridiculously shady circumstances, he’s back in the news everybody! So what has got Justice Weiner Waver in the news? Well it might be this potentially career-ending article that appeared in the New York Times. But then again this is the Trump-led GOP, they don’t exactly care about owning up to their mistakes.

Several Democratic presidential candidates called for the impeachment of Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh on Sunday after The New York Times published new information about allegations of sexual misconduct against him, while Republican leaders condemned the reporting as irresponsible and defended him.

President Trump on Twitter accused news outlets of trying to pressure the justice into taking more liberal positions and suggested, without elaborating, that the “Justice Department should come to his rescue.”

On Saturday, The Times published an essay in its Opinion section adapted from a forthcoming book, “The Education of Brett Kavanaugh: An Investigation,” by two Times reporters, Robin Pogrebin and Kate Kelly, who helped cover his confirmation hearings.

The reporters wrote that they spent 10 months investigating the allegations of sexual misconduct and assault at the center of the hearings, including one by a former Yale classmate, Deborah Ramirez. She recalled being at a dorm party where participants were drinking heavily and said that Mr. Kavanaugh had thrust his penis in her face, prompting her to swat it away and inadvertently touch it.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/15/us/brett-kavanaugh-allegations-trump-impeach.html




Holy shit!! How did Brett Kavanaugh go through that entire time he was in school and not get a single suspension or expulsion? The hypocrisy is absolutely mind boggling. So the circular circle jerk surrounding the Kavanaugh confirmation couldn’t come at a worse time… for him. Remember – we have a serial rapist currently sitting in the White House, and we also currently have one sitting on SCOTUS. Of course there’s no consequences. None. Zero.

At least five Democratic presidential candidates called for Supreme Court Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh to be impeached after a new report about alleged sexual misconduct from his college years. President Trump, meanwhile, stood by Kavanaugh and said the Justice Department should "rescue" him.

Over the weekend, multiple Democratic presidential candidates, including Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, Julián Castro, Cory Booker and Pete Buttigieg, called for Kavanaugh to be impeached. Kavanaugh has not responded to the latest report, but previously denied all accusations.

"Last year the Kavanaugh nomination was rammed through the Senate without a thorough examination of the allegations against him," Warren tweeted. "Confirmation is not exoneration, and these newest revelations are disturbing. Like the man who appointed him, Kavanaugh should be impeached."

<snip>

In a statement obtained by CBS News, Joe Biden called for further investigation into Kavanaugh and "the truthfulness of his testimony to Senate." "We need to get to the bottom of whether the Trump Administration and Senate Republicans pressured the FBI to ignore evidence or prevented them from following up on leads relating to Justice Kavanaugh's background investigation," the former vice president said.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/brett-kavanaugh-sexual-misconduct-accusation-sets-off-calls-for-supreme-court-impeachment/




Man I am getting my desk wet here. So prominent Dems are calling for Kavanaugh’s impeachment after yet *ANOTHER* criminal allegation against him. You know how republicans keep saying they’re waiting for the shoe to drop? They’ve had a fucking whole distribution warehouse full of shoes drop and they’ve done nothing. Not a damn thing. And nothing will happen to Kavanaugh either, because they want absolute power and they will get it whether we want them to or not.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren became the most prominent Democratic presidential hopeful to join the calls for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh to be impeached following new allegations of sexual misconduct against him. Kavanaugh’s nomination “was rammed through the Senate,” Warren tweeted Sunday. “Confirmation is not exoneration, and these newest revelations are disturbing. Like the man who appointed him, Kavanaugh should be impeached.”

Earlier in the day, Sen. Kamala Harris of California also called for Kavanaugh’s impeachment, saying he was confirmed to the Supreme Court “through a sham process.” Now, Kavanaugh’s “place on the Court is an insult to the pursuit of truth and justice,” Harris wrote. “He must be impeached.”

The first Democratic presidential contender who called for Kavanaugh’s impeachment was Julián Castro. “It’s more clear than ever that Brett Kavanaugh lied under oath,” Castro tweeted Saturday night. “He should be impeached.”

Castro called for Kavanaugh’s impeachment shortly after the New York Times published an explosive report that detailed a new allegation of sexual misconduct against the Supreme Court justice. Although senators and the FBI knew about the allegation, they failed to follow up, according to the Times piece.
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/09/elizabeth-warren-kamala-harris-julian-castro-kavanaugh-impeachment.html




No, no. no one’s guilty yet. But could Kavanaugh serve the shortest time on the bench? Well, there is a possibility. And no I unfortunately do not have time to stop the show to find out who the shortest serving justice in US history is. Make me. Fine. Anyway… since logic takes a holiday in the Trump administration, guess what? He’s claiming that Kavanaugh is the one being assaulted! I think he might confuse “rescue” with “recuse”. Damn you auto correct! Oh wait.

Trump barged into the fray in Kavanaugh's defense, relishing the opening to revive one of the most emotional and GOP-unifying chapters of his presidency.

"Brett Kavanaugh should start suing people for libel, or the Justice Department should come to his rescue. The lies being told about him are unbelievable," Trump tweeted Sunday morning.

The eagerness of both sides to engage reflects the confrontation's potential to fire up base activists and an understanding that the fate of the Supreme Court has rarely been more important to the outcome of political and culture wars following signature decisions on the 2000 election, campaign finance, same sex marriage, abortion and health care.

The reports are reviving the pitched political exchanges that threatened Kavanaugh's confirmation, most notably over allegations by Christine Blasey Ford that he assaulted her when he was drunk at a party when both were teenagers. Kavanaugh vehemently denied the claims.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/16/politics/brett-kavanaugh-donald-trump-supreme-court-democrats-2020-election/index.html





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[font size="8"]John Bolton
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Hey everyone I’m baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!!! And it’s been a while since we have had a major resignation from the Trumper Games. But this is one of the biggest ones to date. Yes, the president himself has fired Tribute Bolton from the 1st District via his favorite medium – the Tweet! In fact, the latest developments from the Trumper Games are so fresh that even Tribute Bolton himself was not made aware of this fact until it actually happened Saturday Night! What was I doing Saturday night? I was indulging in some fine adult beverages with my humble man servant Nathaniel. Speaking of which, where is my champagne? Ah there it is. But let us revel. Revel I say!!!

President Donald Trump abruptly announced in a tweet Tuesday that he has asked national security adviser John Bolton to resign, noting that he "strongly disagreed with many" of Bolton's suggestions "as did others in the administration."

"I thank John very much for his service. I will be naming a new National Security Advisor next week," Trump wrote.

The tweet came just one hour after the White House press office said Bolton was scheduled to appear at a Tuesday press briefing alongside Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin.

Asked during the briefing whether he and Mnuchin were surprised that Bolton was fired, given that he was supposed to appear alongside them, Pompeo said, "I'm never surprised."

Bolton, however, maintains he offered to leave his post voluntarily, tweeting minutes after Trump's announcement, "I offered to resign last night and President Trump said, 'Let's talk about it tomorrow.'"
Bolton reiterated the point that he offered to resign to Fox News Tuesday.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/10/politics/trump-john-bolton-out/index.html




Yes, that is the sound of… YOU’RE FIRED! Yes, so the President himself unleashed his disappointment with Tribute Bolton via the Tweet on Saturday night. So what was the firing over? Well there is a lot of speculation that it has to do with a pending war with Iran, for which the war drums have been beating loudly since the Bush administration. So Bolton is fired and Saudi Arabia is attacked the very next day, coincidence? I think not!

Former national security adviser John Bolton’s abrupt departure on Tuesday came after President Donald Trump suggested he might lift some U.S. sanctions on Iran as an incentive for Tehran to come to the negotiating table, according to a person close to Bolton.

This person said Trump raised the idea of lifting sanctions during a discussion with Bolton in the Oval Office on Monday afternoon. Bolton made clear to the president that he strongly disagreed with the idea, this person said.

Bolton was out as national security adviser the following morning, though he and Trump disagree over who made that decision. The president has said he fired him, while Bolton has said he resigned.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

As national security adviser, Bolton was a leading advocate of the Trump administration’s so-called “maximum pressure campaign,” designed to squeeze Iran’s economy until its leadership was forced to curtail its aggression in the region and concede to U.S. demands to dismantle its nuclear program.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/trump-john-bolton-argued-over-iran-sanctions-n1054481




I love it too! And damn it, Nathaniel! Where is my champagne? But I must delight in the firing of Tribute Bolton because he’s a holdout from the George Bush years, and since old conservatives never seem to go away, we’re stuck with him time and time again. Which I believe is expressed under the old adage “meet the new boss, same as the old boss.” So what are Tribute Bolton’s future plans? Well if you said “book deal”, you are correct!

Following his acrimonious departure from the White House, former National Security Adviser John Bolton has insisted that he will have his “say in due course.”

It hasn’t yet been a full week, but it appears he’s found a vehicle for clearing the air. According to two people with knowledge of the situation, Bolton has already expressed interest in writing a book on his time in the Trump administration, and has been in contact in recent days with literary agents interested in making that happen.

“He has a lot to dish,” one of the sources said, adding it was not clear if Bolton had settled on an agency yet.

Reached by The Daily Beast on Monday afternoon, Bolton only replied, “No comment” when asked about discussions with book agents and his potential project. But if he goes down this path, he’d be merely the latest former Trump official to try and turn their noisy exit into bestselling gold.

During the Trump presidency, there have been several occasions in which a former loyalist has published a “tell-all” book or memoir that infuriated the president and his senior staff.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/former-trump-adviser-john-bolton-already-talking-with-book-agents-he-has-a-lot-to-dish




Yes, I love a good crazy straw! Even though I am a liberal I will gladly drink my champagne out of a crazy straw! Because, YOLO! And really, come on Tribute Bolton! You know the president has the most fragile of egos, he doesn’t like it when you spill his secrets. Just ask Bob Woodward. Too soon? Well, in case you’re wondering what Tribute Bolton’s future plans are, he has plenty of them. But being a tribute isn’t one of them, so consider him…. ELIMINATED!

John Bolton wasted no time getting back in the political game Friday, just a few days after being ousted as President Donald Trump’s National Security Adviser.

Bolton has resumed his old job as the head of two political action committees, the John Bolton PAC and John Bolton Super PAC, announcing that he would be donating $10,000 to five Republican incumbent re-election campaigns for 2020.

These include Sens. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) and Reps. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) and Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.).

The website reads, "The John Bolton PAC and John Bolton Super PAC seek a strong, clear, and dependable US national security policy, resting on constancy and resolve.”

“The experience that these incumbent members of Congress have provides them with a remarkable understanding and knowledge of the threats we face from international terrorism and rogue regimes such as Iran and North Korea,” the statement continues.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/09/13/john-bolton-resumes-political-activity-after-leaving-white-house/2313821001/





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[font size="8"]Top 10 Investigates: Sackler Family Gets Sacked
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It’s time to investigate beyond the headlines. This is Top 10 Investigates!



America’s opioid crisis has become more than a crisis. It’s an epidemic. And at the center of the opioid crisis sits the Sackler Family. And its’ head Richard Sackler, is quickly becoming the face of the pure evil billionaire. His company, Purdue Pharmaceuticals, is one of the largest manufacturers of the drug known as Oxycontin. So could the manufacturers of oxycontin make the Sackler family pay for their crimes? As we know in the day and age where there’s no accountability whatsoever, the answer to this question is probably not.

Purdue Pharma, the company owned by the Sackler family at the center of the prescription opioid crisis, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, according to The New York Times. The company is the subject of more than 2,600 lawsuits at both the state and federal levels.

“This unique framework for a comprehensive resolution will dedicate all of the assets and resources of Purdue for the benefit of the American public,” Purdue’s board chairman Steve Miller said in a statement to the Times. “This settlement framework avoids wasting hundreds of millions of dollars and years on protracted litigation, and instead will provide billions of dollars and critical resources to communities across the country trying to cope with the opioid crisis.”

Chapter 11 restructuring would mean at least a temporary halt to the thousands of lawsuits against the company by all but two U.S. states as the company’s finances are sorted.

The bankruptcy announcement comes after the New York attorney general announced on Friday that $1 billion from Purdue’s owners were allegedly transferred to hide profits. In August, New York Attorney General Letitia James subpoenaed more than 30 financial institutions for records related to billions of dollars tied to the Sackler family. And that announcement happened only after one financial institution complied with the subpoena.
https://splinternews.com/purdue-pharma-files-for-bankruptcy-1838137276




No, you’re just broke. But the impending bankruptcy from Purdue Pharmaceuticals has brought into question the incredibly shady business practices of the Sackler Family. And while President Trump is currently focusing on the inherent dangers of electronic cigarettes, he might want to instead turn his attention to the opioid crisis which has killed thousands. Yes, thousands.

They are the owners of Purdue Pharma, a pharmaceutical company that produces the opioid painkiller OxyContin.

As a result, the family has been accused of fuelling a deadly opioid crisis in the US that has killed more than 200,000 people in two decades.

Purdue and the Sacklers have denied allegations in lawsuits that they contributed to the opioid crisis, and have pointed to heroin and fentanyl as more significant culprits than prescription painkillers.

The family has also long been known for philanthropy, with museum wings, galleries and even escalators across the world named after them.

On Sunday Purdue Pharma filed for bankruptcy protection, as part of the company's efforts to deal with the thousands of lawsuits it is facing in connection with the opioid crisis.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-49718388




Either way you’re still broke. So let’s put this into perspective – there were a whopping 2600 lawsuits against Purdue and the Sackler family that got mysteriously shut down after the Sacklers transferred, er, stole more than a BILLION DOLLARS from the company. So how are they going to weasel their way out of this one? Well, just combine them all into one settlement. Yeah because that will help offset all the lives that were destroyed.

Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family members who own it have reached a tentative deal with a number of states and a significant portion of the more than 2,000 cities, counties, and tribes that sued over the opioid crisis, which was triggered in part by widespread use of Purdue’s signature drug, OxyContin. Overuse and abuse of the addictive painkiller have claimed hundreds of thousands of lives.

According to the New York Times, which reported on the deal Wednesday, most state attorneys general involved have agreed to the terms of the roughly $10 billion–$12 billion settlement. The deal would have Sackler family members pay $3 billion from their own wealth and relinquish control of the company. The family would also contribute another $1.5 billion from the sale of another company, Mundipharma, which sells pharmaceuticals internationally. (The exact amount and timing of the sale are both undetermined, but the attorneys general said they want the Sacklers to commit to $1.5 billion upfront. It’s unclear if the Sacklers have agreed to the term.) Purdue would likely file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy soon after it makes these payments.

If the deal is finalized, Purdue Pharma will form a new company that continues to sell OxyContin but directs the drug’s proceeds to a public beneficiary company to pay the plaintiffs. Purdue Pharma will also donate drugs for addiction treatment and overdoses. The company will not admit wrongdoing.
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/09/purdue-pharma-sackler-family-opioid-crisis-tentative-deal.html




Yes, that’s what corporations do in this day and age. Weasel out of things. So what does this mean for Purdue Pharmaceuticals and the Sackler Family? Well, they’re broke. And in fact not just broke, they’re also broken. Because like most conservative billionaire industrialists, the Sackler family simply took the money and ran. And we’re stuck with the bill.

The New York attorney general’s office said on Friday that it had tracked about $1 billion in wire transfers by the Sackler family, including through Swiss bank accounts, suggesting that the family tried to shield wealth as it faced a raft of litigation over its role in the opioid crisis.

Earlier this week, thousands of municipal governments and nearly two dozen states tentatively reached a settlement with the Sackler family and the company it owns, Purdue Pharma, maker of OxyContin. It was unclear if the new disclosure would change the thinking of any of the parties that agreed to the settlement.

The attorneys general of a majority of states, including New York and Massachusetts, have already balked at the proposed deal, contending that the Sackler family has siphoned off company profits that should be used to pay for the billions of dollars in damage caused by opioids.

The wire transfers are part of a lawsuit against Purdue and individual Sacklers in New York. Letitia James, now the state’s attorney general, had issued subpoenas last month to 33 financial institutions and investment advisers with ties to the Sacklers in an effort to trace the full measure of the family’s wealth.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/13/health/sacklers-purdue-opioids.html




That’s it for Top 10 Investigates. Good day.




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[font size="8"]Holy Shit
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Gather around my fair brothers and sisters of Lansing! For the Holy Church Of The Top 10 has convened and it’s time for our weekly reminder that the holiest among us are also the most full of:



My fair congregation! There is an alarming incident being brought to my attention that happened in one of America’s most prestigious universities… for ultra far right crackpots. I’m of course talking about the one and only Liberty University. But there are strange happenings that are afoot in the conservative Christian campus. Jerry Falwell Jr, you got some explaining to do! Especially because I am not sure that the good LAWRD JAYSUS would approve of what you have been putting your students through. Because I am certain that it is anything but GAWDLY!!

Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr., facing a growing controversy over business dealings at the university, is now facing a backlash over e-mails in which he allegedly belittled a student and staff during the past decade.

Speaking to CNN Friday, Falwell confirmed the emails were authentic, but said they lacked critical context.

"I would have to see the full thread to see what I was talking about," he told CNN.

On Friday, a small band of students protested on Liberty's campus, demanding that Falwell be held accountable. Standing in the rain, the students carried signs that said, "If you won't answer to us, answer to God!" and "Accountability," according to CNN affiliate WSET.

Elizabeth Brooks, a sophomore at the school and a main organizer of the protest, told Religion News Service, that the protest is not aimed at ousting Falwell, but wants to "bring to light the truth of these allegations of various misconduct."
https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/13/us/liberty-protest-falwell/index.html




So the man who claims to be one of the most godly god men in America is under investigation for allegations of misconduct. Now is anyone really shocked by this? I know that I am not. But what are the consequences of Falwell’s actions? Well, apparently Mr. Falwell is giving a preview of what an American dictatorship would look like and it’s not going to end well for him. Because if there’s one thing we learned from history and especially the BAYBLE itself, it’s that people don’t respond well to tyranny.

Based on scores of new interviews and documents obtained for this article, concerns about Falwell’s behavior go well beyond that—and it’s causing longtime, loyal Liberty University officials to rapidly lose faith in him.

More than two dozen current and former high-ranking Liberty University officials and close associates of Falwell spoke to me or provided documents for this article, opening up—for the first time at an institution so intimately associated with the Falwell family—about what they’ve experienced and why they don’t think he’s the right man to lead Liberty University or serve as a figurehead in the Christian conservative movement.

In interviews over the past eight months, they depicted how Falwell and his wife, Becki, consolidated power at Liberty University and how Falwell presides over a culture of self-dealing, directing university resources into projects and real estate deals in which his friends and family have stood to make personal financial gains. Among the previously unreported revelations are Falwell’s decision to hire his son Trey’s company to manage a shopping center owned by the university, Falwell’s advocacy for loans given by the university to his friends, and Falwell’s awarding university contracts to businesses owned by his friends.

“We’re not a school; we’re a real estate hedge fund,” said a senior university official with inside knowledge of Liberty’s finances. “We’re not educating; we’re buying real estate every year and taking students’ money to do it.”
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/09/09/jerry-falwell-liberty-university-loans-227914




Now my fair congregation, here’s where this story gets weird. Because why wouldn’t it? Well apparently Falwell, a man who has discussed HEATHENS in the past apparently is one himself! I mean what an absolute shocker! Not. And why did he go to a nightclub in Miami? That’s one place that is rife with SIN!!!! And SIN!!! Must be punished by the LAWRD OUR GAWD creator of all things good and holy!

Tell a celebrity and social scene photographer you think their photos didn’t capture their best side. Tell them you think they’re no good. Even tell them you weren’t at the club even if they have a photo of you doing a face plant outside the VIP rope.

But tell them they “photo-shopped” an image of you to place you at a scene you say you weren’t at? Hell hath no fury like a photographer with a treasure trove archive of over “5 million photos” and 21 years in the business on their résumé.

He will find five more photos of you and publish them in a rebuke on his company website.

That’s the scene playing out between Liberty University President and evangelical leader Jerry Falwell Jr. and South Florida photographer Seth Browarnik, the founder of the Miami-based celebrity photo agency, World Red Eye.
Politico’s Falwell feature

The fallout started after Falwell Jr. was the subject of a lengthy, unflattering feature published Monday in Politico.

The article’s title — “’Someone’s Gotta Tell the Freakin’ Truth’: Jerry Falwell’s Aides Break Their Silence” — was just one issue the son of the late Jerry Falwell Sr. had with the story that described “a culture of fear and self-dealing at the largest Christian college in the world.”
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/miami-beach/article234923057.html




Yes holy mother of SIN indeed! Because Falwell has committed not one but two of the most egregious of sins – cheating and lying! Yes, Falwell a man who has condemned cheating and lying, is a cheater and liar himself. And he just can’t help himself. I could go on all day about the inherent clusterfuck that he created, but we only have 10 minutes! But you know what? I say those student protests we talked about are justified!

In the wake of reports alleging objectionable rhetoric and conduct by Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr., about 200 students at the evangelical Christian school gathered at a protest on campus Friday (Sept. 13), with student organizers estimating that about 60 of the demonstrators were there to demand an investigation of the president and his administration.

“We are not calling for Falwell to resign right now,” said Elizabeth Brooks yesterday evening (Sept. 12), a sophomore at the school and the main organizer of the student protest. But in a mission statement Brooks wrote, she stated that the official position of the demonstration is to “bring to light the truth of these allegations of various misconduct.”

Brooks did not elaborate on the allegations, only stating that the protest comes in response to an article by Brandon Ambrosino that appeared in Politico this week that quotes current and former members of Falwell’s “inner circle” describing Liberty as a “dictatorship” and more of a “real estate hedge fund” than a university.

The article portrayed Falwell bragging about his sex life with employees, attending a nightclub and later denying it, claiming photos of him at the club were altered. He is also accused in the article of dealing university contracts to friends and family.
https://religionnews.com/2019/09/13/liberty-students-protest-after-new-falwell-revelations/




Well there it is folks, we will keep an eye on this and maybe have more for you to report on next week but in the meantime allow us to engage in a bit of schadenfreude watching the meltdown at Liberty University. Mass has ended, may you go in peace! That’s it this week for:




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[font size="8"]Beating A Dead Horse: Too PC?
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Yeah that’s Sebastian Mansacalco’s extremely cringe-worthy monologue opening the MTV VMAs a couple of weeks ago. We missed the opportunity to blast him for it then, so we’re making up for it this week. So the question on the table is – “are liberals too PC?”. We’re going to examine this argument very thoroughly and probably leave you more confused than when we came in. It’s not just Manascalco that’s making this claim. There’s a whole lot of people making claims about liberals and safe spaces, that whole “triggered snowflake” bullshit that conservatives and libertarians have been peddling since about 2015. So where did it come from? Well the term “safe spaces” came from a South Park episode from 2015. And why is it so important to have safe spaces? Well let’s examine this a bit further.

“If you feel triggered or offended they’re providing a safe space backstage where you’ll get some stress balls and a blankie,” he said, joking that Lil Nas X was bringing his horse backstage as a support animal and that ushers could help people out if they wanted to leave.

“Personally I would remove you from the arena, put you in a car and send you home,” Maniscalco to shocked faces and limited applause.

He also said if nominees got upset when they didn’t win an award, MTV wasn’t giving out “participation ribbons” and they needed to “work harder” next year.

“If you feel triggered or offended they’re providing a safe space backstage where you’ll get some stress balls and a blankie,” he said, joking that Lil Nas X was bringing his horse backstage as a support animal and that ushers could help people out if they wanted to leave.

“Personally I would remove you from the arena, put you in a car and send you home,” Maniscalco to shocked faces and limited applause.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/sebastian-maniscalco-triggered-safe-space-mtv-vmas_n_5d6475bae4b0641b2551cfc8




Yeah it was about like that. Now since that was 3 weeks ago, or what seems like an eternity in 2019, let’s fast forward to this week. Which is where we switch gears from safe spaces to fat shaming! Yes, you can no longer call someone fat without facing the wrath of the internet outrage machine. What say you, Bill Maher, about this subject?

James Corden took home three Emmy Awards over the weekend — but he’s currently in the spotlight for a recent monologue that addressed a more serious issue than the Carpool Karaoke star is usually known for. On his Late Late Show with James Corden last Thursday night, the British comedian took the time to take his fellow talk show host Bill Maher to task over recent fat-shaming remarks.

“Fat shaming doesn’t need to end, it needs to make a comeback,” Maher, who is the star of Real Time with Bill Maher on HBO, opined late in August. “Some amount of shame is good. We shamed people out of smoking and into wearing seat belts. We shamed them out of littering and most of them out of racism. Shame is the first step in reform.”

To this, Corden had some thoughts of his own. “Fat-shaming never went anywhere,” he responded. “Ask literally any fat person. We are reminded of it all the time.” He went on: “There’s a common and insulting misconception that fat people are stupid and lazy, and we’re not… We know that being overweight isn’t good for us and I’ve struggled my entire life trying to manage my weight and I suck at it. I’ve had good days and bad months.”

In a follow-up interview with Entertainment Tonight after winning his Emmys, Corden further explained his response, saying he has “nothing but respect” for Maher. “I saw something that I felt like I had experience with,” he explained. “Ultimately, I think I know a little more about what it’s like to be overweight than perhaps some other people do. So, to see someone talk like that made me feel like, ‘Well, this is something I feel like we should talk about.'” So far, Corden’s response has continued to garner a warm response, with the video of his comments racking up nearly two million views.
https://time.com/5678358/james-corden-bill-maher-fat-shaming/




Fat shaming. Safe spaces. Triggered. Snowflakes. Can anyone make a statement about anyone anymore or is this what the new normal is going to be? Really you’re just going around in a circular firing squad at this point. I mean come on, Bill has a point – America is incredibly fat and needs to do something about its’ weight problem. The truth hurts sometimes doesn’t it? And by the way if you want to see a good monologue about snowflakes and safe spaces look no further than Dave Chappelle!

In his new Netflix special “Sticks & Stones,” the objects of Chappelle’s ire are folks ostensibly making their personal tragedies everyone’s problems by using them to perpetrate career death and reputation homicide upon celebrities. These people, he tells us, have made him a “victim blamer.”

He guns for two men at the center of “Leaving Neverland,” who allege that late pop music idol Michael Jackson molested them when they were 7 and 10 years old. And cancel culture advocates who took aim at his personal friends, like Kevin Hart and another A-list comic he was good friends with “before he died in that terrible masturbation accident.”

Then there’s the easily offended “alphabet people,” his shorthand for the LGBTQ community, particularly, as he says, the “confusing” Ts. The #MeToo movement, organizers of school shooting drills — they’ve all gotten out of hand and need to be taken down a peg.

Chappelle even takes a moment to stereotypically mimic Asians, which he defuses later on by reminding the audience that his wife is Asian. The entirety of “Sticks & Stones” is structured around such logic: by signaling to those who are true believers in his genius that it’s all just a joke, only words, this earns his ability to “punch down,” as the parlance goes.
https://www.salon.com/2019/09/05/what-happened-to-dave-chappelle-the-cruelty-of-sticks-stones-is-a-sign-of-the-times/




Yeah just let it all hang out fellas! But here’s the thing about comedy that people aren’t getting – it’s subjective! It’s supposed to offend you! And if you don’t like it, there’s this thing that we invented called a “remote control”. Dave Chappelle has made a living saying some extremely offensive shit! And since we’re on the subject, you know who the real snowflakes in this country are? Right wing patriots! They are triggered at the thought of anything that does not bleed red, white and blue.

The term "patriotism" may be associated with strength, but at least in the United States, the people who crow the loudest about loving their country are often the most fragile when it comes to expressing that love in a healthy way.

This ongoing problem of fragile patriotism — a phenomenon particularly prevalent among Trump-flavored American conservatives — contributes to many of the most persistent injustices that plague our country.

As with love in interpersonal relationships, love of one's country has to encompass the ability to accept criticism. If you love an individual uncritically, you forfeit your capacity for independent thought and leave yourself vulnerable to abusive behavior. Similarly, if you love your country uncritically, you ignore the sins of its past — and make it more likely that they will recur in the future.

This object lesson was demonstrated for me personally on the Fourth of July, when I published an opinion essay pointing out the overt racism and sexism that marred the events that led to the founding of our country, including the writing of the Declaration of Independence. I noted that Thomas Jefferson had initially considered condemning slavery but then refrained from doing so; that Abigail Adams asked her husband to remember the rights of women when creating his new country but was laughed off; and that the language of the Declaration both directly and indirectly demeaned Native Americans. The purpose of the piece was to simultaneously honor what was right about the Declaration of Independence, and the events that surrounded its creation, while acknowledging its shortcomings.
https://www.salon.com/2019/07/13/fragile-patriotism-right-wing-snowflakes-triggered-by-any-criticism-of-america/





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[font size="8"]Dan Bishop
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Politicians at the state and local levels who are so toxic, you wonder how they’re able to get away with the things they get away with. This is:



Last week, Trump flew to Fayetteville, North Carolina to endorse Dan Bishop in a North Carolina special election for NC-09. But who is Dan Bishop? If you guessed that he’s one of Trump’s people – you are absolutely correct. And by Trump’s people, we mean that he’s got ties to the ultra far right Proud Boys, he defended North Carolina’s controversial “bathroom bill”, and aligns himself with a group called “Deplorable Pride” – which is an organization aimed at LGBT Trump fans. Yes, these people actually do exsit. Talk about getting someone to vote against their best interests. So what makes Dan Bishop such a controversial choice even for the pro-Trump crowd?

The campaign of North Carolina Republican congressional candidate Dan Bishop has associated with a far-right activist with a history of bigoted rhetoric who has defended the Proud Boys, a controversial neo-fascist outfit. Bishop, a state senator who authored North Carolina’s anti-transgender “bathroom bill,” is competing in Tuesday’s special election in the state’s 9th district.

The activist, Brian Talbert, runs a local organization called Deplorable Pride, a right-wing group that bills itself as a “conservative LGBT voice.” (Talbert said in a video posted this year that he is “against transgenders in the military.”) In June 2017, Talbert, who is gay, made national news when the board of Charlotte’s annual Pride celebration rejected his group’s application to enter a float in its parade, referring to a precedent of rejecting “participation from…organizations espousing anti-LGBTQ religious or public policy stances.” About that time, the White House, according to Talbert, called him with a message of support. According to the Charlotte Observer, the call had been initiated because the White House wanted to praise the group for joining a sit-in staged at a Starbucks, where staff had made fun of a customer wearing a T-shirt supporting President Donald Trump.

The LGBTQ advocacy organization GLAAD condemned Deplorable Pride in 2017, pointing to Talbert’s social media history. One post attributed to Talbert, which is no longer visible but was documented by GLAAD, stated, “Am I the only one pissed it wasn’t a real ban on all muslims? I say get rid of all the camel fuckers. Wipe them from the face of the earth.” (Talbert says this post was fabricated, but after GLADD publicized it, Deplorable Pride wrote in a comment on the GLAAD page, “I fully stand behind all my comments.”) In a 2017 Facebook comment from his personal Facebook profile, Talbert said, “Mohammed sucks cocks in hell.”
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/09/gop-congressional-candidate-has-ties-to-far-right-supporter-of-the-proud-boys/




Yes, how very classy of them. Which makes it natural that Trump would support this kind of candidate since he spouts all the racist and sexist views that have made Trump and his crew popular with well, racists and sexists. In fact if you want to see how toxic Mr. Bishop really is, you do not need to look any further than his record on LGBT people.

Dan Bishop, the man behind North Carolina’s anti-LGBTQ House Bill 2 and now running for the U.S. House, actually has support from one LGBTQ group — a far-right one with a history of anti-Muslim comments and other bigoted rhetoric.

Bishop, a Republican who faces Democrat Dan McCready in a special election today in North Carolina’s Ninth Congressional District, has the endorsement of Deplorable Pride, an N.C. group run by Brian Talbert, which calls itself “a conservative LGBT voice,” Mother Jones reports.

Talbert has posted virulently anti-Muslim comments on social media, including a desire to “kill every single one of them,” a reference to Muslims as “camel fuckers,” and the statement “Mohammed sucks cocks in hell,” as documented by GLAAD. He has called liberal LGBTQ people “vile” and “disgusting” and described abortion as “genocide.” He has voiced opposition to military service by transgender people.

He and his organization have also expressed support for the Proud Boys, designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center for its white nationalist, misogynistic, and Islamophobic statements. Proud Boys members clashed violently with protesters in New York City in 2018 and appeared at the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Va., the previous year. (For the record, Proud Boys leaders say the organization is not racist but simply campaigns for Western values, and they have sued the SPLC over the hate group label.) “Our LBGT organization, Deplorable Pride, will always be an ally to the Proud Boys,” Talbert told Big League Politics last year.
https://www.advocate.com/politics/2019/9/10/north-carolina-bathroom-bill-sponsor-backed-far-right-lgbtq-group




Indeed we do. But the republicans shouldn’t be so quick to celebrate Dan Bishop’s victory in the NC 09 district. Instead they should be terrified. Or at least less than enthusiastic. Because Bishop only won by an extremely narrow margin. Is this a preview of what we can expect in 2020? Can previously unwinnable districts actually come close to flipping? Well the answer is more believable than you might think.

In the hotly contested special election coming up in North Carolina later this month, one thing both sides of the deep political divide agree on is this: The race is a sneak preview of 2020’s blockbuster fight for the White House.

Between the Category 5 Hurricane coming up the coast —and the North Carolina Board of Elections urging people vote early in the rerun of a 2018 race marred by election fraud — it’s possible to dismiss the campaign in NC-09 as an outlier, a sideshow to the presidential race that has captured the country’s attention for nearly a year.

But the plot points of the 2020 contest are clearly evident.

Republicans see the race as a proving ground for their Trump-focused strategy, and they are tripling down. Their nominee Dan Bishop is an unfailing supporter of the president, and Trump is scheduled to rally the troops in the district the night before the September 10 special election.

Republicans are taking their message straight from the Trump playbook, claiming Democrats like Bishop’s opponent Dan McCready favor open borders and want to take away your guns and private health insurance. And, of course, they’ve come up with a derogatory nickname. In this case, it’s “Greedy McCready.”
https://www.insidesources.com/the-nc-09-special-election-is-a-sneak-preview-of-the-2020-blockbuster/




So the GOP resorts to their usual tactic of coming up with derogatory nicknames for their opponents and everyone falls for it. But this election is like when your favorite MLB team trades for a hotly contested player and gets them for half a season and winds up… doing nothing in the playoffs. While the battle may be won, the war is far from over. But how did he win? Because we have unlimited amounts of money pouring in local elections, that’s how!

Only one House special election in U.S. history has seen more outside spending than North Carolina’s 9th Congressional District, where groups are spending more than $10.7 million to blitz the airwaves with ads.

Outside spending significantly favors Republican Dan Bishop over Democrat Dan McCready, according to figures from OpenSecrets. That offsets what had been McCready’s fundraising advantage.

The spending eclipses the nearly $9 million spent in Florida’s 13th District in 2014, though it’s far behind the record-shattering $27 million spent in Georgia’s nationally watched 2017 congressional race between Democrat Jon Ossoff and Republican Karen Handel.

“What this amount of money indicates is how much both parties are willing to truly invest in elections that may not have a governing consequence but have more strategy and symbolism,” said political scientist Michael Bitzer of Catawba College in North Carolina.
https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2019/09/north-carolina-09-spending-fuels-blitz-of-tv-ads/




Vileness, name calling and Citizens United. That’s enough to explain how Dan Bishop is yet another politician to add to the ever-growing list of:




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[font size="8"]People Are Dumb
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Hey it’s time for People Are Dumb!



So of course you know by now that people are people and people are dumb. And I love these stories because they are everywhere, and they’re getting to the point where you could almost interchange them and they’d be exactly the same. So who is stupid this week? I want to start with this story out of Mississippi. And that is if you’re going to break into someone’s house, maybe don’t wear the costume of a very easily identifiable costumed superhero.

David Hobbs was arrested after police say he tried to break into a shed wearing a Captain America costume and fairy wings (Source: WREG, Tribune, Clarksdale Police Dept. via CNN)

Tuesday morning, David Hobbs broke into a shed, according to police.

But it wasn't the nature of the crime that has people talking: It was his disguise.

Hobbs was wearing a head-to-toe Captain America costume, and while it's not in the booking photo, he also donned fairy wings to complete the look.

The man police say he tried to rob is a former Marine corrections officer.

The victim didn't want to give his name or do an interview, but he said when he heard his alarm, he grabbed his gun, grabbed the 'uncaped' crusader and held him until police got there.
https://www.wdbj7.com/content/news/Miss-man-dressed-as-Captain-America-caught-breaking-into-shed-560235441.html




Better listen to Cap here. Next up we’re going overseas for this one. Specifically to the country of India, and look, no one wants to pay the full fare for plane travel these days. It’s too damn expensive! And I honestly don’t know if this is dumb or genius, but either way I would have loved to been the airport clerk scanning this dude’s ID. I bet the reaction was hilarious.

It was an impressive disguise: the snow-white beard, the oversized glasses, the wheelchair.

But it was when the seemingly frail and elderly passenger reached security at New Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport -- India's busiest airport -- that he caught the attention of staff. At around 10.45 p.m. on the evening of September 8, the individual was hoping to get on an overnight flight to New York. "He posed as if he was very old and incapacitated," Shrikant Kishore, a senior official with the Central Industrial Security Force, told CNN.

Dressed in a white tunic and trousers, with a white turban and black slippers, the passenger proved reluctant to be frisked. "Our screener asked the person in the wheelchair to stand. He said that he cannot stand. Our screener asked if he would stand with support. He reluctantly stood up."

That's when the officer noticed that while the passenger's beard and hair were white, the roots were black. He also was working hard to avoid the officer's eyes. When asked for his passport, the individual handed over documentation claiming that he was Amrick Singh, born in Delhi in February 1938, making him 81 years old.

"He was definitely not 80 years old. His skin was of a younger person," Kishore told CNN. Upon further questioning, the man told security staff that he was, in fact, 32-year-old Jayesh Patel, a resident of Gujarat state.

As he was holding a fake passport, he was detailed by security and handed over to immigration authorities. Kishore told CNN that he doesn't know what the current status of the case is or the reason behind the impersonation.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/young-man-caught-posing-as-senior-citizen-to-fly-to-us/ar-AAH5yIH?li=BBnbcA1&ocid=HPCOMMDHP15




Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha, that was a classic Simpsons scene! Next up – we go to of course our favorite state and America’s most penis shaped state, that is Florida. We can never, ever get enough stories from the Sunshine State on this program. First up we’re going to go to the town of Largo. And if you do drugs, you’re bound to hide them somewhere. But this definitely is not a place you should hide them, because the dogs will find them almost instantly.

A search of a Chicken McNuggets container yielded baggies of methamphetamine and fentanyl that were nestled alongside the McDonald’s fried delights, according to Florida police who arrested an alleged poultry/narcotics enthusiast on felony charges.

During a 3:15 AM encounter yesterday at an extended stay hotel in Largo, a Tampa suburb, cops searched a backpack in the possession of Eric Little, a 34-year-old whose rap sheet includes convictions for assault, narcotics possession, and violating probation.

Investigators found a used syringe inside the backpack, along with a container of Chicken McNuggets. An examination of the container revealed that it “held McNuggets & approx. 7.5 grams of methamphetamine” and “a bag of fentanyl” weighing 1.3 grams, according to court affidavits.

Little, seen above, was arrested on a pair of felony narcotics possession charges and a misdemeanor possession of drug paraphernalia count. He was freed last night from the county jail after posting $4150 bond.
http://thesmokinggun.com/documents/crime/mcnuggets-meth-639502




Ah so that’s what is in the secret sauce! Next up, while on the subject of the Sunshine State, we go to the town of Melbourne for what might be one of the dumbest criminals we’ve seen yet. I have so many questions about this story – what was this guy doing with the spray paint? And why would he just spray paint one word? You’ve got a whole can of stuff, go wild man!

A Florida man who spray painted the word "slur" in a bar bathroom was found with spray cans still in his backpack, according to the Melbourne Police Department.

Police said a witness saw Paul Scott, 24, walk into the men's restroom at Mugs Pub Sunday night with his backpack and when he left, there was wet pink paint on the wall that read, "slur."

When police approached Scott, they said he initially told them he had been in the bar for about 15 minutes and during that time, he had one beer before an employee asked him to leave.

According to authorities, they could hear the sound of aluminum cans coming from Scott's backpack and when they searched it, they found spray paint bottles, and an empty bottle that was still wet, in the same shade of pink as the graffiti inside the restroom.

Scott said he is a painter and spray paints often but denied painting in the restroom.
https://www.clickorlando.com/strange-florida/florida-man-spray-paints-the-word-slur-in-bar-bathroom-police-say?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter




Yeah learn from the master there! Next up – we’re going to Nassau County for this one. This is the stupid criminal trifecta here. It’s sex in a cop car, it’s DUI on a bicycle, and it’s indecent exposure. One more crime and they can go for the Superfecta!!!

On Friday night, Nassau County Sheriff’s Deputy Mark Hunter pulled over two bicyclists who were riding around without their lights on and had almost been hit by a vehicle,

<snip>

Although both were then handcuffed in the back of Hunter’s police car, they apparently didn’t let that minor detail stop them from appreciating the romance of the moment.

According to the police report obtained by The Smoking Gun, Hunter was outside of the car when both Thomas and Mondanaro “took their clothes off and started to have sex.”

The officer said that when he “opened up the door to stop them,” Thomas “was naked and [Mondanaro] had her pants down where her vaginal area was visible. I also observed her bra was halfway off and her breasts were fully visible.”

After Hunter removed a naked Thomas from the car, he knocked the deputy to the ground and ran away before being arrested at a Cold Stone Creamery, according to Jacksonville station WJAX-TV.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/florida-couple-sex-in-cop-car_n_5d810349e4b03b5fc88a7ebc




Finally this week – we’re going to go to the Land Down Under, Australia for this one. And this might be one of the most Australia stories ever. Seriously, what could be a basic plotline for the next Wes Anderson flick – a meticulously planned robbery gets foiled by… a seal?

Police launched a raid on Burton Island off the port town of Geraldton last week, finding Frenchman Antoine Dicenta, 51, and British man Graham Palmer, 34, allegedly with 1.087 tonne of methylamphetamine, cocaine and ecstasy in dozens of bags that they had attempted to hide under seaweed.
...
When police arrived, Dicenta and Palmer made a run for their dinghy but were thwarted by a huge sleeping seal, Healy told the broadcaster.

“They woke it up and it jumped up with its big chest out and bellowed at them.

“The guys basically had the choice of going through the seal or getting arrested and they ended up choosing getting arrested.”

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/sep/12/alleged-drug-gang-thwarted-by-giant-seal-in-1bn-australian-drug-bust




That’s it this week for:




[div style="padding: 20px; background-color: #ffffff; border-radius: 10px; box-shadow: 0px 2px 4px 1px #aaa;"][div style="font-family: arial, helvetica; font-weight: bold; border-bottom: 1px dotted #999; padding-bottom: 8px;"]
[font size="8"]Keeping Up With The Candidates Ep. 7: John Ossoff
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Welcome back to our 2020 voters’ guide, Keeping Up With The Candidates! It’s where we dissect the 2020 mother of all elections to end all elections! We’re taking a look at the entire electoral body from top to bottom whether it’s the state, local, senate, Congress, and presidential candidates. Because there is a lot that is going to turn the country and possibly flip it in a much bluer election than we previously thought. At least we hope. So we’re doing this thing to keep all our voting info in one place. This week, we’re taking a look at the Georgia Senate. Because a guy who got royally screwed out of a previous election is back and he’s not taking no for an answer. That man is John Ossoff. We’re going to reintroduce him now.
Jon Ossoff, the Democrat and former documentary filmmaker who came close to flipping a conservative House district in Georgia in 2017, will challenge Senator David Perdue next year.

Mr. Ossoff made the announcement Monday evening, telling the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that he would “mount a ruthless assault on corruption in our political system.” He will formally announce his campaign on Tuesday.

Mr. Ossoff started his campaign with an endorsement from Representative John Lewis Monday night. “Like the many thousands Jon has already organized and inspired, I am ready to work tirelessly to elect him,” Mr. Lewis, the Georgia Democrat, said. “Georgia and America need Jon.”

With Mr. Perdue up for re-election and Senator Johnny Isakson resigning, Georgia will be home to two of the most closely watched Senate races in the country in 2020, and Democrats are determined not to squander the opportunity. They now need two candidates strong enough to compete in a red state, and Georgia’s biggest Democratic star, Stacey Abrams, has already declined to run and intends to focus her efforts on fighting voter suppression.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/09/us/politics/jon-ossoff-2020-georgia-senate.html




See republicans? You don’t own 2020 like you think you do. OK I’ll take that one, audience! In fact both Ossoff and NC-09 were clear factors that things are changing and the conservative bubble is getting so big that it’s about to burst. And when that happens that’s not going to be pretty. So how did Ossoff nearly win that district and why is his run in GA-SEN important? Well…

With the Republican majority in the U.S. Senate currently standing at 53-47, Democrats need to net four seats in the 2020 election to take control — or three, if they also win the presidency and therefore the vice presidency, the tie-breaking vote in the chamber. Democrats’ opportunities to do so expanded on Wednesday, when Georgia Sen. Johnny Isakson announced that he would resign at the end of the year. Isakson, a Republican who has served in the Senate since 2005, was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2015 and cited his “mounting health challenges” as the reason for his decision.

What happens next is that Republican Gov. Brian Kemp will appoint a new senator to serve until the next regularly scheduled general election (in this case, November 2020), at which point a special election will be held to decide who serves the rest of Isakson’s term. Because Isakson was not scheduled to be up for reelection until 2022, the upshot for Democrats is that one extra Republican-held Senate seat will be on the ballot next year1 — and it comes in a state that could be competitive.

With FiveThirtyEight’s partisan lean2 of R+12, Georgia is still a red state. But the steady growth of the state’s nonwhite population and the defection of voters in well-educated suburbs (such as those around Atlanta) to Democrats in the Trump era have caused it to drift left. In the 2008 presidential election, Georgia was 12.5 points redder than the nation as a whole; in 2012, it was 11.8 points redder; in 2016, it was 7.3 points redder. It is reasonable to expect, then, that Georgia could be even closer to the tipping point in 2020. In other words, a good national cycle for Democrats — or a good Democratic candidate — could be enough to flip the seat blue (or at least come close).
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/georgia-will-now-have-two-senate-elections-in-2020/




That’s pretty much every election there. Unfortunately in 2016, someone terrible did win and he’s utterly destroying the country and everything we hold dear. Which is why we must elect anyone and anyone we can with the intent of stopping this conservative hell hole that our country has become under Trump. And Ossoff has proven that he can be elected too!

Jon Ossoff, who narrowly lost a high-profile Georgia congressional special election in 2017, is running for one of two U.S. Senate seats up in the state in 2020. Ossoff will be challenging incumbent David Perdue, a dollar-store magnate who’s held the office since 2015. The early retirement of Sen. Johnny Isakson has opened a second seat, which will be filled in a special election in 2020.

Ossoff starts the race as the frontrunner. Georgia’s leading democratic figure, Stacey Abrams, has declined to run, and Ossoff told The Intercept he would not have challenged her in a primary if she had decided to make a bid. Rep. Lucy McBath, a Democrat who now represents the congressional district Ossoff lost in, also hasn’t ruled out a run, but may make a bid for the open seat, meaning Ossoff and McBath would run as a ticket of sorts. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has not endorsed in the race; Ossoff said he spoke to Minority Leader Chuck Schumer this summer but did not get a commitment of support.

Ossoff’s 2017 race for Georgia’s 6th Congressional District broke records for spending and organizing, and for the number of small donors involved, though it almost never happened. The seat opened up when Tom Price was nominated to become the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, a position he has since vacated under a cloud of scandal, replaced by a pharmaceutical executive. Price had won reelection in 2016 by more than 20 points, and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee was uninterested in competing in the race, believing that the most likely scenario was that two Republicans would finish at the top of the first round of voting, meaning no Democrat would make it into the general election.
https://theintercept.com/2019/09/10/jon-ossoff-georgia-senate/




That’s kind of where we’re at right now. Just tell us your idea and then we’ll vote for it! But hopefully it doesn’t come to that! But really in the year leading up to the 2020 election we’re going to be featuring a lot of Senate candidates because we can’t stress enough how important it is to kick Mitch McConnell out of office and send him packing. Hopefully in an orange jumpsuit to his cell in Supermax. But for now just vote, vote damn it!! We’ll donate to Ossoff’s campaign as well as many others if we can afford to do so, traveling with a crew is pretty damned expensive after all!

As you might already know, both of Georgia’s U.S. Senate seats will be on the ballot next November.

But questions about who Gov. Brian Kemp will pick to replace Republican Sen. Johnny Isakson on the ballot in 2020 (and, if successful, the governor’s reelection campaign in 2022) has created an unending cascade of speculation and game theory about who will mount campaigns for the elected offices.

One contest will have the winner of a Democratic primary contest facing Republican Sen. David Perdue. The other will be a “jungle” style special election, where all candidates appear on the same ballot and the top two vote-getters – regardless of party – go to a runoff if no candidate gets above 50% of the vote.

What’s at stake

Both Republicans and Democrats have an increased interest in capturing these seats, as the road to control of the Senate appears to take a detour through Georgia. The Republican Senate majority is currently 53-47, and Democrats would need to win only three seats if they win the presidency and the vice president casts the tie-breaking vote.

Historically speaking, the “double-barrel” Senate races end up with the same party winning both seats. In 2018, Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota won her third term, and recently-appointed Democratic Sen. Tina Smith won the race to serve out the rest of Sen. Al Franken’s term after he resigned due to allegations of sexual harassment.
https://www.gpbnews.org/post/who-running-georgia-s-us-senate-seats




[font size="4"]Next Week:[/font]

We’re going to our home state of California to hang out with another presidential challenger, Kamala Harris!



[font size="8"]And Now This:[/font]
[font size="8”]The Raconteurs[/font]

Ladies and gentlemen, their latest album is called “Help Us Stranger”. They just played Riot Fest. You can see them on tour through November 10th. Playing their song “Bored And Razed”, give it up for the Raconteurs!
https://media.pitchfork.com/photos/5cdd979cfa43fd2f23067e64/1:1/w_320/TheRaconteurs_HelpUsStranger.jpg




Thank you Northwestern! This was fun! We’re off to the University Of Missouri, or Mizzou next! See you next week!

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