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KesArt
The Ring of Fire
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Comments by "KesArt" (@kesart8378) on "The Ring of Fire" channel.

The Ultimate Oxymoron: Linking the names Boebert and Taylor-Greene with the word "intelligence."
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Or the ability to read and comprehend anything more complex than a kindergarten primer.
30
Respectfully, I would argue that the Trumps are not "galactically stupid," but amoral, extremely calculating, and lacking in even an iota of empathy. They care not a whit if their rhetoric promotes corrosive divisiveness and, indirectly, leads to loss of life. Their agenda of remaining relevant and retaining power over their supporters--while fleecing the faithful of their last dollar--precedes all other concerns.
15
Friends don't let friends ride on the Republican death train.
12
Bless Ted Cruz for never failing to deliver the belly-laughs as he continually, and shamelessly, parades his own fatuity, irrelevance and wholly unjustified smugness on the biggest platforms he can find. Never give up, Theodore/Raphael, for stardom waits around the corner...admittedly a corner several thousand kilometres away.
9
Taylor-Greene's supporters, just as Trump's supporters, favour entertainment value in those whom they support. Actual ability as a legislator--or president--takes a distant back seat to "charisma." Far too often I have heard Trump/ Taylor-Greene boosters explain their support with the words "She/he speaks her/his mind no matter whom they offend." Or, "She/he has so much energy; Biden is boring. " My five year old granddaughter speaks her mind with little consideration as to the ramifications of doing so. And while I applaud her fierce, articulate, independent streak, I am not compensating her with a six-figure salary, nor do I, nor her parents, give her tasks upon which the success of the household rests. Isn't it time for all Americans to set the bar higher and to demand far more of politicians than they employ the verbal filter that every stable adult learned the value of long ago. Lastly, the true madness of Taylor-Greene became fully apparent to me when I watched a tape of her calling out the President of the United States with the words, "Joe Biden, you're a piece of s**t!" Her true derangement never shone clearer than in that moment, which given her catalogue of demonstrably unstable, patently offencive behaviour, is no mean feat.
9
@morbidlyoppressed9038 More than a year passed during the period when McConnell refused to consider any nominee to replace Justice Scalia, who died unexpectedly during Obama's tenure. This vacancy, which continued into the first year of Trump's tenure, left the high court at eight--not nine--members till then Judge Brett Kavanaugh, a Trump nominee, was confirmed and appointed to the seat on the Supreme Court left vacant by Scalia's passing. So, no, there were not nine members when Trump entered, though there were nine when he left.
7
Such fun to watch as DeSantis robustly demonstrates just how terribly unfit he is to occupy America's Oval Office.
6
Out of his alleged mind.
6
@CharlesSmith-io9fp Just as with Biden's executive order, employees may opt out of getting vaccinated as long as they agree to submit to weekly testing (though daily testing would, to my way of thinking, make greater sense).
5
@BlackMammoth25 Rather a bit of a sweeping generalization, eh, mate?
5
@TheInfiniteSheldon "That bird is bloody dead, deceased, expired, extinct." "Naw, he's just resting." The Art of the Con. Some are born to it, others mere pretenders. Cheers
5
No one should harbour any illusions about the present situation vis-a-vis Russia and Ukraine: The United States is already in this war, already a participating party. The issue is not one of involvement, but the degree of that involvement. And at present, NATO nations consider a "no-fly zone" too provocative and escalatory a degree of involvement. That assessment may or not change in the very near future, but regarding the issue of involvement or non-involvement, that die has already been cast.
5
Actually, the profit is greater for corporations mean to recoup diminished profits from the height of the pandemic and add those to expected profits. Their shareholders suffered losses during the height of the pandemic and corporations stand determined to make up for that loss and add a big fat cherry on top, one made from insupportable price hikes. Cheers
4
@choccolocco Right you are, mate. I still remember what my Economics professor said (decades ago) regarding corporate reports on profits: When they tell you that they suffered a loss last year it merely means that they didn't make as huge a profit as they'd predicted--but they still made a ton of money. Cheers
4
@bawkray With respect, Biden's executive order allows employees to opt out of being vaccinated by agreeing to weekly testing. Cheers
4
'Grifters grifting grifters' sounds positively incestuous.
4
Perhaps shorter terms for United States Senators should come under consideration, not merely term limits: Every member of the House of Representatives is, in essence, running for their re-election from the moment that they enter their first term--and at the start of any subsequent term. Yet Senators, having six--not two--year terms, have breathing space, a time to provide reason, through their accomplishments, for any argument to re-elect them to another term.
4
Joe Biden and the majority of Americans.
4
Mayab Akhal Unless it's the state of Florida where the sign reading, "No shoes, no shirt, no service," is just considered a suggestion.
4
And covered in canine excrement.
4
Seriously, how long should one expect a prominent Arizona Republican, such as Ms. Taylor- Robson, to maintain the guise of being a rational participant. Surely after all the sheer insanity seen so far one should know better.
4
@waynegnarlie1 Pastor Niemoller's now famous prose clearly implies that silence equals complicity. When moral people fail to oppose evil, they are in effect condoning it, and that through their failure to oppose said evil they may well find themselves prey to that same evil. Perhaps in a fashion Niemoller's mea culpa can be viewed as a an appeal to both humankind's better angels, as well as to self-interest: When people speak out against that which they clearly know to be wrong, they are, through their opposition, helping to limit the spread--and hopefully ending the influence--of the malignancy that they have chosen to repudiate, for hate, when left unchecked, often proves insatiable in that once it has a foothold it seeks out other targets to conquer. Niemoller has, as a clear predecessor the writer John Donne whose poetical Meditation, remembered for the "No Man Is An Island" section, cautioned readers to remember that we are all parts of a greater whole, all interconnected, and that what ill befalls one affects all. Thus, those who excused the near ceaseless bigotry, racism and nativism of Trump did, through their permissiveness, smooth the path for other haters, such as Representative Gosar.
4
"He tried to strangle his wife and severely beat his child?!? "Good grief, I thought you were going to say he's a socialist- communist-liberal! Don't scare me like that."
3
@carelgoodheir692 Please do repost your insightful comment, a comment that places the issue in an historical continuum and trounces the assertions that the health measures in question are Marxist, or communistic, or whatever other nonsense the anti-science crowd bellows. And repost it on every platform to which you have access. Cheers
3
@bawkray With respect, to an objective other, your post reads as though your vehicle has decidedly veered into ConspiracyLand. Cheers
3
@bawkray My apologies for bot replying sooner. I assume that workers will be tested at their place of employment, but this is my assumption. The devil, as they say, is in the details. It seems that scanning everyone with a thermometer each workday would not impose a monstrous hardship. And the government should fund anything that through its actions places an additional burden on businesses. Cheers
3
Senator Ron Johnson: I felt safe around these truckers 'cause they obviously weren't members of BLM or Antifa.
3
@nicholasmaude6906 Decidedly well put, mate. Cheers
3
Dear Press; Stop saying, "Joe Manchin lives on a houseboat." He lives on a bloody yacht moored in the Potomac. A real man of the people.
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@GALACTICS7 I do not mean to seem argumentative, merely curious: Given the brevity of your reply, I am wondering what exactly you saw that--given the only inference that I can make from your terse comment--differs from what the other post asserted.
3
Depression, by itself, is not synonymous with a failure of one's critical faculties. Many adults who do suffer from depression still manage to maintain their dignity, maturity and their ability to accept disappointment and frustration without flying into a rage at every additional perceived slight, or imagined wrong. Unfortunately, people who place their faith in fables and insupportable narratives will suffer grave disappointment when said myths and fictive narratives crumble. In an epoch in which change occurs at a rate far more rapid than of previous ages, people can experience a not unreasonable sense of insecurity. And an age of anxiety provides fertile ground for a demagogue. Trump, and his minions, recognized the vast reservoir of flammable white male grievance and sense of victimhood--and its concomitant anxiety over the predicted coming diminution of White Christian male hegemony--out in America and they gleefully tossed a match upon it. Trump did not create "the rage on the right"--which January sixth showed the entire world was not a pathology solely the province of rural, undereducated Whites--but he supercharged it. But before Trump's normalizing of incivility and aggressivity towards one's opponents came his attack upon facts, upon essential American institutions, such as the free press, the intelligence services, and the "liberal judiciary," as well as uponTruth itself. And once you can convince your disciples that all their worries and disappointments spring not--even part--from themselves, but from a network of formerly trusted Judases now revealed to have been the source of their woes all along...that can prove quite frightening and depressing...unless you provide a saviour, a bringer of the REAL TRUTH, someone who will convince the fretful, fearful masses not to place their faith in their own deceiving eyes and ears, but in him. Again, this willingness of those on the American right to embrace an autocrat evolved over time; it did not start with Trump. And the erosion of the American educational system, the rise of the Internet, the decline of traditional, formerly trusted sources of information, the slide into a post-textual/post-literate age did not happen overnight. But Republicans found in Donald Trump the perfect avatar with which to capitalize upon the racism, xenophobia, "replacement theory" fears, misogyny, and degraded powers of discernment that led to an inability to recognize the real sources of America's problems, and a pronounced exuberance in welcoming the "Chosen One" with his crusade intent on overturning comity, traditions, decorousness, even established laws and time-honoured policies all to dismantle American institutions--indeed, democracy, itself--in order to keep real the fantasy of returning to that Great America, Again, that whitewashed, heavily edited, ahistorical version still alive in the minds of true believers. Yes, so when your "Chosen One" falls from power, through treachery (read: "rigged elections"), just as he had predicted--"One of you will betray me...the one who dipped his hand into the bowl with me will betray me."--do you not--as a faithful disciple--have the right to grieve/be depressed, and, post-bereavement period, seek vengeance. " You have to fight like hell or you won't have a country anymore " And when one legal attempt to overturn the election after another fails, and your legal crusaders-Lin Wood, Rudy Giuliani, Sydney Powell- labour under ridicule, sanctions and lawsuits, and the holy audit of Maricopa County has yet to yield the desired results after all this time, , and even the "patriotic" attack upon the Capitol failed to achieve its intended ends, anger grows and depression deepens, depression and anger deepened by the radical-liberal-socialist cabal trying to usurp your "rights" as a parent with mask mandates, and vaccination requirements. And you'll be damned if you will let THEM make you feel powerless. (And damn this pandemic that don't want to call it quits--though I'm sure not getting any DNA altering vaccine, I just want to return to life as it was pre-COVID.) So I'm going to plant my flag at the school board meeting so those fascist board members--and anyone who sees the resulting video, will know just how angry and tired (read: depressed) I truly am.
3
I'm a fan of all your directorial efforts, Sir Smithee.
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@waynegnarlie1 Glad to, mate. Cheers
3
Who the bloody hell is Jenna Ellis and why is this stripling murderer still being interviewed?
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The man has long had a thuggish air about him (recall how he put hands on a female reporter and pushed her during a Trump rally, later claiming that he was just trying to keep her from impeding traffic flow). As some Trump supporters said, in The Donald's defence, after the release of the Access Hollywood tapes, "Boys will be boys." Yes, and latent rapists will be physically and verbally assaultive.
2
Ah, a man of the people, future yacht owner and performance artiste, Matt Gaetz. While so many Americans deal with food insufficiency and wonder if they will be able to satisfy the next rent/mortgage payment, Mattie appears to have had his plan to acquire a yacht dashed. Oh, cruel fate! My eyes shed copious tears for dear Mattie. C'est tres tragique.
2
We need to take a breath and pause lest, in our rush to judgment, we disenfranchise those Trump voters who suffer from Dissociative Personality Disorder: If the dominant personality of an individual afflicted with DPD happens to be pro-Trump, then said individual must verify, through the unimpeachable sworn testimony of a highly credentialed mental health expert, that they suffer from DPD (formerly referred to as Multiple Personality Disorder). If such certification does pass muster, so to speak then election officials must weigh the possibility of allowing said individual(s) to vote more than once. Furthermore, the determinant of how many times each person afflicted with DPD should rest with a panel of preeminent scholar/practitioners from the field of Psychiatry whose speciality resides within the study of Dissociative Personality Disorder. To assuage skeptics reading this, we wish to remind said skeptics that those plagued by this disorder act as vessels for personalities that usually differ considerably in temperament and, thus, quite likely in political outlook. So while all this may prove a wash, we must remember Mitch McConnell's highly garbled exhortation--translated by scientists intimately familiar with the vocalizations of amphibians, specifically frogs--that "PresidentTrump is 100% within his rights to look into allegations of 'irregularities' and to weigh his legal options." Thus the obscene carnival rolls on.
2
@alicewoodard2373 May I extend my regrets; my sense of the absurd can manifest itself in the form of humor fed by too many episodes of Benny Hill and Monty Python's Flying Circus, among other lunatic productions. So as Alex said in Clockwork Orange, "Appypologies." Cheers
2
@alicewoodard2373 It's got a bit of Irish pathos thrown in for good measure. Take care. Be safe. Cheers
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@pimphandduke8447 I reckon that you are correct. "The base" has. submitted to such extensive and ongoing indoctrination, that breaking from the received dogma/canon would amount to grave heresy. And excommunication from the High Church of Trumpism would surely follow. Cheers
2
@andrew_owens7680 Amen to that, mate. Well said.
2
@jnagarya519 Does the phrase you employed, "another bullsh***er" refer to Andy Owens, or to Donald Trump. (This is not implied snark, just a request for clarity.) Cheers
2
Yes, attorney-client privilege--NOT executive privilege. Yuge difference.
2
Governor Ron DeathSentence.
2
This decision must be appealed. But, more importantly, Judge Nichols should suffer suspension while his previous rulings undergo review. And removal from the bench should not be taken off the table.
2
All one need do is pronounce the name of Mississippi and no matter how great the aberration, people nod resignedly.
2
We are watching a minority of ill-informed, verbally--and, at times, physically--assaultive, grossly selfish, wildly irresponsible citizens tyrannize the majority. Hysteria over science. Veiled death threats over reasoned argumentation. Blind obedience to partisan propaganda over faith in science. God bless democracy in action.
2
@aggressiveattitudeera887 Congratulations, mate, for the nostalgic reference to a more innocent time when the biggest concern of network censors and lawyers was whether or not to cover up Barbara Eden's navel. Cheers
2
@QuakerLady Precisely.
2
The need for a national Truth and Reconciliation Commission cannot be ignored. This would be a national reckoning, a time for laying bare past sins, as well as their present iterations, and the unconstrained examination of the corrosive ripples that the Original Sin of slavery have sent--and continue to send--to each successive generation whose antecedents began their Smerican journey as slaves.
2
Saints preserve us and the Lord shield us from wild-eyed, mendacious zealots.
2
Ron DeSantis, the quintessential bully, has finally met a foe, in the COVID-19 virus, that remains indifferent to his bully-boy tactics. But his mental rigidity prevents him from adopting new strategies. So he bangs on with his strongman routine.
2
The end of the reign of the Lyin' Queen.
2
American military bases, whether in the Black Sea region, or in South Korea, protect both the host states as well as American strategic interests. Farron Cousins makes such relationships sound totally exploitative when they are mutually beneficial.
2
How is it permissible for American Supreme Court justices to endorse political candidates, as in the case of Justice Thomas backing Herschel Walker? And how is it proper for Justice Alito to deliver the keynote speech to The Religious Liberty Summit in Rome, Italy, last week, particularly when his remarks land him in the same camp as Christian Nationalist conspiracists such as Marjorie Taylor-Greene: Alito asserted that religious freedom and traditional religious views are under attack from secular forces. The subtext of Alito's speech argues not for equal rights for an embattled group, but for said group to retain the considerable privileges it has enjoyed historically. Does this not reveal a very subjective and biased interpretation of matters, an embrace of views counter to the "separation doctrine" and the "establishment clause", and thus disqualifying for a Supreme Court justice?
2
The "trucker freedom convoy" provides an outlet for intellectually stunted children kitted up as adults. Without such an outlet, these truckers would lack the imagination to find better uses of their time and would resort to congregating on street corners and catcalling at passing bookworms, smoking in non-smoking zones, and mummifying automobiles with rolls of toilet tissue.
2
'I pick my clients after calculating how much attention and favourable publicity I will receive on truth- averse right-wing media outlets.'
2
@spiceyhotpot Exceedingly well put. Cheers
2
Farron Cousins offers too facile an explanation. He misses the real potential dangers from Trump's refusal to concede and from the concrete measures he [Trump] has already taken to diminish the possibility of a smooth transition, one that would enable the Biden/Harris team to "hit the ground running" on the very first day of their administration. The other reality that clears eludes Farron Cousins is the fact that each day that passes with no conclusion, but filled with lies, baseless attacks upon the system, and death threats to workers intent on doing an honest job, is another day in which hate and anger grow and a bad emotional climate threatens to veer into deadly territory.
1
But of course: It's Alabama. No more need be said.
1
Apropos Michael French's comment: Cognitive decline of a degree that clearly impacts one's functionality and objectivity can occur earlier than seventy. Should Americans consider age limits for other matters--such as the right to gun ownership and to operate a motor vehicle--subject to such temporal standards? I'm just presenting an argument/question, not advocating for a position. I do believe that elderly motorists should be subject to more frequent testing than younger, though the same should be asserted for the youngest of licensed motorists. Yet residents of several states seem quite comfortable in returning late septuagenarians, octogenarians, and even nonagenarians to Congress. "Why changes horses if the nag isn't dead yet?" Ultimately, the infusion of new blood and fresh ideas ranks as a positive. But the retention of real institutional knowledge and expertise must be weighed, too. P.S. The American "Founding Fathers" never envisioned membership in Congress as a lifetime occupation, but a position held for a limited--though unspecified--duration.
1
Sergeant-Major, I must respectfully decline your order to advance upon the enemy's encampment for I believe that doing so would prove injurious to my health.
1
Boebert and Taylor-Greene should have suffered public censure on the floor of the House for their truly disgraceful conduct during Biden's State Of The Union address. Their caustic theatrics brought dishonour to the institution that they swore an oath to defend, an oath they have shattered essentially since their first day in office.
1
The Ken doll of Anerican politics struggles to remain relevant and falls further into self-caricature.
1
@RobertEmery P.S. You ought to check your invention of the verbal form "gaslit", unless you meant to compare me to a heater or stove. Cheers
1
Ron DeSantis is an unreconstructed authoritarian: He successfully championed legislation that promotes vigilantism: Floridians now have the legal right to use their motor vehicles to mow down protesters if they perceive said protesters as "threatening." DeSantis has vowed not to allow Florida's children (read: White kids) to learn of America's legacy of slavery and the ramifications of the institution of slavery that still resonate today, for he fears that the reaching the truth will create a generation of citizens lacking sufficient patriotism and plagued by "White guilt" for crimes if their antecedents. He wants a sanitized version of American history taught in Florida schools. Myth, not truth. And now he vows to intrude upon the decisionmaking of communities and parents by punishing masking children indoors. The man described as a "mini-Trump" has made it quite clear that he is a master of "executive overreach" and that he is willing to impose his will upon all Floridians by whatever means necessary.
1
@bawkray Quite right, mate. I was engaged in wild speculation. My son is a critical care neurologist in the state of Florida and he tells me that Florida has drastically reduced testing, which makes it rather difficult for doctors, journalists, tourists, etc., to gauge the incidence of COVID in the state and to know which counties are faring better. It sounds rather a jumble. Take care. Cheers
1
It would seem appropriate to revise upward the estimate that "...only a few bad apples" are responsible for tainting the reputation of American law enforcement. And at least in this instance, the bad apple in question represents/speaks for an orchard of fellow apples. Farron Cousins should hesitate before assuming that the full rationale for the FBI raid has been made public and that nothing more remains to be disclosed. His assumption seems a bit premature.
1
Sinema plans to depart Congress to become a full-time triathlete/sommelier through the funding of TGP Investments, one of her fave big-money donors.
1
So forty-one percent of Americans polled believe in accountability and the foundational principle that "no person exists above the law," while near the same percentage are diametrically opposed, and roughly twenty percent would seem indifferent. Sounds rather schizoid, or highly polarized. But the larger question stands, "What is necessary to persuade the 'mugwumps' to get off the fence and take a position?" (This assumes that the "nays" are impervious to reason, though perhaps that is a bit harsh.) Perhaps live One-Six committee hearings--but how to force FOX, OANN, NEWSMAX to carry said hearings--might galvanize the fence-sitters.
1
No worries: Trump will simply run another con and fleece true believers out of more of their hard-earned money. "Don't do the crime if you can't do the time," or pay the legal fees.
1
@Assistint A reasonable proposition if one can ascertain that the great majority of the population possesses the competence--a fair degree of literacy, as well as a knowledge, and familiarity, of the issues of the day. If not, then in this "post-literate" age you are ceding far too much power to a poplace, far too many of whom cite Facebook as their top source for the news, as the arbiters of what is right, fair, practicable, and necessary for the nation. And that constitutes a giant, and risky, experiment. The problem in these highly polarized times lies in convincing politicians-arguably, particularly Republicans--to vote in concert with the people's wishes and not along partisan lines: While the majority of Americans clearly approve of Biden's infrastructure plan- especially when they learn that the plan proposes funding itself through greater taxes on the richest Americans and the largest corporations--most Republicans are following McCarthy's and McConnell's lead and opposing the plan--thus directly flouting the will of the majority of the people.
1
@MrMeow-iq7kq One term is too finite a time. Most legislators need time to acclimate, to learn the ropes, as it were. Given time consumed by learning arcane procedures, and various protocols, they will have little room left to accomplish anything of worth in one term. Furthermore, the law of unintended consequences may creep in the door: Those who are by nature easily corruptible may well conclude that given but one term they will need to accelerate their grifting to make the most of their very limited time. ( "Gather hay while the sun shines.") Cheers
1
@MrMeow-iq7kq This sounds like the "throwing the baby out with the bathwater," scenario , a saying with its roots in Medieval times, but still applicable today. If you want people to buy into your idea of mandatory term limits, a tough sell in itself, then you have to accept that a single term will prove unacceptable to many Americans, people who return the same hacks time after time largely due to their fear of the unknown ("Better the devil you know than one unfamiliar to you."). Also, you may well find yourself facing a deficit of candidates as interest in a one term elective office will prove to hold very limited appeal to those possessed of the ambition--arrogamce even--required to compete in such a blood sport.
1
Poetic justice, or, Karma is a bitch.
1
" Don't do the crime if you can't do the time." ("Baretta's theme") It rather sounds as though this woman's children might well benefit from a hiatus from Mum considering her lack of discernment, her inability to weigh possible consequences versus benefits, and her childish conviction that she deserves to be exempt from the consequences of her terribly ill-considered choices. Definitely not a candidate for Parental Role Model.
1
He is also attempting to taint the potential jury pool.
1
If in fact some of the items removed from the White House were indeed on loan from museums, and those removing them intended to return them to the lenders, why weren't such precious objects packed in crates with protective padding round them? These disingenuous tales do not hold up to scrutiny. Any lending institution would demand that robust precautions be taken during the return process of objects d'art. This wasn't a group of people returning toys to Amazon via UPS. And the pillaging and venality continues.
1
There is no issue too small, no cause too insignificant for DeSantis to weaponize it and dramatize it into the outrage du jour. And those who suffer as a result of his terrible ambition are, to him, collateral damage unworthy of his attention.
1
Does taking action against entities and persons who are actively endangering public health-as well as threatening the economy and placing children's educational future at risk- constitute censorship under American law? Or does it rank as a wholly legitimate response to forces and individuals that are inarguably a clear threat to public health, the common good, and to the very lives of so many Americans?
1
Any social media site that incorporates the word "truth" and the name "Trump" dwells in the swamp of the oxymoronic.
1
@pimphandduke8447 With respect, those Americans who are still very much in denial over the events of January sixth and the larger purpose behind said events very much need this special committee to lay bare the truth in such overwhelming detail as to be irrefutable to all but the most self-deceiving, immune-to-all-reason diehard supporters. Also, Trump backers need to behold the rank hypocrisy of their beloved FOX idols, and of Don Jr., as well as the true conscienceless nature of Donald Trump. Lastly, we did not all see the same account of that fateful day: Outlets such as FOX, OANN, NEWSMAX, and other far-right platforms, aired a carefully curated version of January sixth. Scenes of police opening barriers for protesters, joking with such fine people, and posing for pictures with them received much attention and rebroadcasting, but the assaults on police, the smashing of windows, the crowd chanting, "Hsng Mike Pence,: etc., such damning visual evidence received scant if any coverage on the far-right, aggressively pro-Trump airways.
1
Marco Rubio, much like Lindsey Graham, is a politician flailing about desperately attempting to remain center stage and prove that he remains relevant to current events. "Feckless," a pejorative term, often finds itself linked to Marco Rubio. Much like some attention-starved adolescents, or some has-been "influencer," Rubio's neediness compelled him to tweet out pics of a Zoom conference between himself and President Zelenskyy-- plus more than two hundred other congresspeople and staffers--to his social media followers. Rubio, as is often his wont, expressed a dismissive attitude when asked about his defiance of security protocols. But the simple fact remains that Rubio, as a veteran politician with years of experience in foreign affairs and intelligence, knew better--and did not let that knowledge stop him.
1
As the American poet Carl Sandberg said, "If the facts are against you, argue the law. If the law is against you, argue the facts. If the law and the facts are against you, pound the table and yell like hell."
1
@mickeysmyspiritanimal223 I stand corrected. Please accept my apologies, mate. Cheers
1
@jameshershberger1168 There are the issues of "dark money" and a media empire--plus its competitors and imitators--dedicated to promulgated lies, propaganda and disinformation, not to mention the deep tribalism in the states, that complicate matters. Would that it were a simple matter of the electorate voting for the most qualified candidate, and voting out the unfit.
1
Maestro, cue the world's tiniest violin...or perhaps The Miracles singing their hit, "The Tears Of A Clown"?
1
File this under: "How To Provide One's Children With A Model Of 'Adult' Behaviour At Its Most Grotesque, Shameless And Infantile Form."
1
Giuliani was a "useful idiot" for Putin, not for Trump.
1
Gungurl continues to supply fuel for the argument that any candidate for the American Congress must possess a baccalaureate degree at the least. Boebert traffics in lies with utter abandon...of course the possibilty exists that she actually believes the idiocy that she spouts with such frequency. Lauren Boebert: Locked and loaded with lies and lunacy.
1
Where's Jack Nicholson when you need him: "You want the truth; you can't handle the truth!"
1
My momma always said, "Stupid is as does does." If these stunning eighteen wheel intellectuals weren't pissed off before...
1
I would suggest that DeSantis is an aspiring totalitarian, a greater danger than a mere autocrat.
1
With respect, Farron Cousins' logic eludes me. Republicans are concerned with the optics, the appearance that their party welcomes the seriously mentally ill; that theirs is a party of lunatics. The very idea that the serial liar and fabulist, Madison Cawthorn, might actually be telling the truth lacks any real credibility.
1
Ron DeSantis, the science-mocking, history-denying, vigilantism-loving, authoritarian-to-the-core partisan calculates his every action and decision in light of whether it will advance his odds of gaining the Republican nomination for the American presidency. And Donald Trump Jr., the eternal manchild, too frequently appears to be "coked-up" whenever he delivers his mindless, hateful, senseless screeds. The undereducated boyo and his main squeeze, who appears to be channeling the late Eva Peron in the barnburner speeches that she delivers with mucho gusto, would make the perfect First Couple...of an insane asylum. Should Americans choose to elect either DeSantis or Donnie Jr., the rest of the world will know that the end of the American experiment will have arrived. The election of either would be the equivalent of a parent placing their wee baby in a pushchair and shoving it down a steep hill toward roaring traffic.
1
@RobinHerzig And make sure that said thrown book is hardcover and a minimum of 700 pages--not counting miscellaneous matter--in length. (I need some humour in these dark and parlous times.) Cheers
1
@ajs11201 The American Second Amendment clearly grants the right to arm bears...especially those bears with bare arms! Cheers
1
While I unreservedly support prosecuting Trump for his many crimes against the American people and their government, I would hesitate to suggest that any prosecutor forge ahead at speed like some invincible, utterly fictive movie hero. Very real danger exists in pursuing the prosecution of Trump, as demonstrated by the insanity of how common truly vile and explicit death threats against officials and their families--from school board members to poll workers to the very governor of Michigan to the Vice President, himself--have become. People have quit their employment and gone into hiding rather than place themselves and their loved ones in peril. The heart of the problem lies in the fact that local and state law enforcement and federal agencies lack the tools and, particularly in the case of police and county sheriffs' departments, the desire to deter and apprehend these pro-Trump terrorists. So I would reserve judgment before suggesting that these state and local prosecutors lack the nerve required and should proceed with vigour or get out of the way.
1
As the French say, "Quelle surprise!" What a shock. How unexpected that a sexual harasser and racist worked for such a tolerant, compassionate, genteel man as Donald Trump. Wait? What? The Earth is round?!? NO!!!
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@donhosmer8159 Just out of curiosity, are your misspellings an intentional stylistic choice, and do you know the difference between systematic and systemic (hint: the phrase you are looking for is "systemic racism")? Cheers,
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The Democrats who flew from Texas to Washington D.C. did so out of a sense that theirs was a morally imperative mission: They, as Texas state legislators, hoped to convince President Biden to fully support their efforts to protect the voting rights of their constituents in Texas. As for Ted Cruz, when he fled the freezing, shutdown Lone Star state for Cancun, Mexico, he did not do so for moral reasons, but for purely self-serving ones. He did not travel cross borders in search of assistance for his constituents. No he fled dire conditions leaving his fellow Texans to suffer and, in some cases, to die.
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DeSantis spoke--vis-a-vis the FBI search of Mar A Lago--of "the Regime" going after its enemies. "The Regime"?!? This from a man who is an aspiring totalitarian who has his footprint and hands in every aspect of citizens' lives and who attacks, demonizes and punishes his critics, and he has the towering gall to refer to the Biden administration as "the Regime."
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Perhaps no one explained to this MAGA. toddler that he would have to act like an adult once seated in Congress...or perhaps he is simply incapable of doing so.
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There must be a profound price paid for this crime.
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Obviously, Republicans such as Representatives Taylor-Greene and Boebert, and Senators Ron Johnson and Rand Paul, among others, need to amplify their misinformation campaigns in light of their failure-though not for lack of effort- to land on "The Disinformation Dozen" list.
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He either bores them to death, or induces incapacitating nausea and vertigo.
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Mark Meadows was a whingeing tosser when he served in the American House of Representatives. He has most certainly not improved with age.
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Bloody grandstanding pure and simple.
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Given that many American municipalities now require law enforcement officers to show proof of vaccination, or submit to regular COVID testing, why aren't congresspeople being held to the same standard? Shouldn't said legislators serve as an example for the rest of America?
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Alert the guardians of the dustbin of history: tell them to prepare a space for America, a once great--though hardly perfect--democracy, one that inspired many other nations, but now teeters on the brink of extinction as a democratic (small "d" democratic) entity. And notify the minders of the realm of authoritarianism that a new member shall soon fall into their midst thanks to the strenuous labors of American Republicans (aka, unfailingly loyal acolytes of The Cult Of Trump).
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Corporations may place a temporary pause on donations to the most ideologically offensive Republicans as a form of "virtue-signaling" (to use another in vogue neologism), but such action will be short-lived. In fact some of these "woke"-a word in need of swift retirement due to overuse and gross misuse- corporations have already resumed donating to politicians whom they most recently criticized.
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And in the corridors of America's powerful petrol industry, oil barons, and baronets, sing the praises of these gas-guzzling patriots, true freedom fighters whose stature has been elevated through meetings with Senators Ted Cruz and Ron Johnson (the Dumb and Dumberer of the American Republican party).
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Why is Farron Cousins near always angry, no matter the issue? Given that the Democrats have yet to conduct their primary in the state of Florida, one must ask, How has Nancy Pelosi doomed Democrats-- and the state of Florida--to four more years of the seething autocrat and peddler of hate and division who is Ron DeSantis?
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Though the woman is inarguably dumber than a sack of hammers, she still poses a very real threat to American democracy and should not be dismissed as a pathetic subject of derision, for to do so is to underestimate her reach into the darker corners of America's bitter, grossly underinformed, bigoted segment of the states' electorate.
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The Florida legislature, with the blessing of Governor DeSantis, enacted legislation that allows citizens to use their motor vehicles to mow down protesters if they feel threatened by said protesters. Now given that this new law intends to address the traffic-jamming racial justice protests that occurred in some American cities during the summer of 2020, I assume that DeSantis and his Republican colleagues would be nonplussed were citizens to exercise their newly granted rights to commit vehicular assault against the "trucker freedom convoy"...unless a convoy solely compromising drivers of colour were to appear. Naturally, Florida cannot claim sole ownership of this endorsement of right wing terrorism: Several other Republican-dominated legislatures-- such as those in the states of Iowa and Oklahoma--have enacted similar laws, laws that, essentially criminalize protest and absolve those who engage in "crowd control" with their vehicles. Estimates place the number of vehicular assaults/rammings, during the post George Floyd murder protests, at greater than one hundred and possibly as high as one hundred and forty. And while a small percentage of such assaults were committed by police officers, the prosecutorial arm of American law enforcement has shown no great interest in pursuing those who committed such attacks, with just less than forty percent of such crimes resulting in prosecution. The "arc of the moral universe" is indeed long, but such pro-terrorism legislation makes one wonder if said arc does always "bend toward justice." https://www.vice.com/en/article/88n95a/florida-anti-rioting-law-will-make-it-much-easier-to-run-over-protesters-with-cars https://www.businessinsider.in/policy/news/a-boston-globe-investigation-found-cars-have-rammed-into-protests-at-least-139-times-since-george-floyds-death/articleshow/87447427.cms
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DeSantis may be in trouble? Couldn't happen to a more deserving totalitarian.
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Perhaps Ted Cruz is telling the truth in part An author does not receive any royalties till profits from sales of their book exceed the amount paid to said author as an advance. Personally, I quite doubt that enough naifs and tossers purchased Teddy boyo's book to push it over the aforementioned threshold...unless multitudes bought his book as a joke gift to wind up progressives and watch the horror on their faces once the gift wrap fell away and revealed the contents within.
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@Bill Beaton With respect, I expect that you have a valid point to make, but the grammatical gaffes and unnecessary verbiage muddle your message rather markedly. Cheers
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@aggressiveattitudeera887 Perhaps some conscientious citizen to report the good Major and his comments, and said comments were removed by YouTube editors for review. (Sadly, I cannot claim credit for such a possible scenario.)
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@jimbob3030 With respect, any attempt to pour all religions into the same bowl ranks as far too broad a generalization. Religion has its utility in near all societies. But, unfortunately, the corrupt elements and leaders within every religion can cause outsiders to condemn the whole enterprise, thus allowing the good to be interred with the malicious aspects/bones. We must mind that we don't cast out the baby with the bathwater.
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@gerardflynn3899 And lest we forget, other descriptors-bloody idjit, wanker, tosser, punter, yobo, etc..- can prove quite apt, too. Cheers
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@Bill Beaton I must apologize for not replying at greater length in this message, but the press of time prohibits my doing so: I am rushing about so as not to be late for "pickup time" at my grand daughter's pre-kindergarten. I will reply later, after hours of chasing her about her favourite playground. (Ah, the enviable energy of the very young.) Again, please accept my regrets. Cheers
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@Bill Beaton Please accept my apologies for the tardiness of my reply. Family responsibilities must, of a necessity, take priority...But I do feel compelled to answer your comment out of respect for your interest (as evidenced by the fact that you took time to reply). But to do so I must copy and past your previous statement in order to discuss it. an action I hope you will not find objectionable. Your opening remark, "As a well-educated and adequately intelligence gifted person, it’s amazing..." sets things off on a difficult path: Clearly you intend to reference yourself in the clause, "As a well-educated and adequately intelligence gifted person..." yet you follow that clause with the word, "it's." Given that the subject of said clause is you, the pronoun "I" must follow the modifying clause. Thus, it should read, "As a well-educated and adequately intelligence gifted person, I find it amazing..." However, the phrase, "adequately intelligence gifted person," is fraught with problems: Everyone possesses intelligence. One might be "gifted with above average intelligence, or one might be designated as "gifted" (i.e.: of above average intelligence, or possessed of an above average I.Q.), but one may not be "intelligence gifted." Furthermore, while the term "gifted" signifies an intelligence above average the adverb, "adequately," stands in direct contrast: Adequately--meaning performing sufficient to the task, but no more--cannot reside in the same category as "gifted," a term used by educators to describe those whose I.Q. registers above 115 (as measured by such widely used testing protocols as the Stanford-Binet and/or Wechsler scales). Therefore, the phrase, "adequately intelligence gifted," presents an oxymoron and seems a bit self-condemnatory (i.e.; damning with faint praise). Thus, you might choose to write, "As a well-educated and intellectually competent person, I find it amazing..." or, "As a well-educated person possessed of an above average intellect, I find it amazing..." (The latter may seem a bit too much like "blowing one's own horn," or a bit of braggadocio, but at least it would make sense grammatically.) As for the passage, "...amazing that CINOs (Christian {should be plural, as in "Christians," since "CINOs" is plural} in Name Only) are incapable of allowing any verifiable form of truth and fact to ever pass their lips," it succeeds as gross generalization and hyperbole given that you cannot provide any verification--which both truth and fact require--to support such a sweeping claim. Besides, unless you wish to assert that "CINOs" entirely lack the capacity to distinguish between truth and fiction, which demands a psychiatrist's diagnostic ability, then you are left condemning an enormous cohort as truly mendacious, habitual liars who can distinguish truth from lies, but choose not to. And that is a bridge too far, an overstatement too grand. Additionally, the statement that, "NewsOne’s existence is defacto an extremely strong argument of either abolishing freedom of religion..." leaves me puzzled: NewsOne began, and continues, as an online news organ intended for Black Americans. Such a gaffe--misspeaking typographically--weakens your thesis considerably for it raises the question: "If you can get such an important detail wrong, what else is faulty in your presentation?" (Though the vast majority of YouTube commenters clearly lack any journalistic background, fact-checking and proofreading still matter, particularly if one hopes to convince others of one's point of view.) (Do consider reviewing the meaning of "de facto," for its use in the copied passage only diminishes your argument further given the inappropriate adjectival use of the phrase, and the muddled sentence leaves unclear whether you meant "de facto" to modify the word, "existence." or the phrase, "an extremely strong argument.." In either case, "de facto" is inappropriate.) How does the existence of what you assumedly consider a far less than truthful, secular news outlet amount to a "...strong argument of either abolishing freedom of religion..."? And how does an American come to propose the abolition of one of the core tenets of the American republic: freedom of religion--particularly on such an exceedingly slim argument? My apologies, but I'm a bit knackered, so I will have to conclude by asking if the phrase, "...otherwise standard responses to situations which should otherwise ignore any related belief systems," makes any sense when read aloud? How can one ignore "...any related belief systems," for the fact that such systems are "related" renders them worth consideration? Such wordy reasoning may seem impressive if only a cursory scan occurs. But further examination--which seems appropriate given the gravity of the situation under consideration--reveals a sentence crammed brimful with words that don't track, that leave a whole that is less than the sum of its parts. Do forgive me if the above seems overly pedantic and possibly patronizing. As a retired professor (and published author), I find it difficult not to slip into old habits: When I sense that someone sincerely wishes to make a heartfelt statement--and not indulge in throwaway snark, or trolling--but has clearly missed the mark in communicating their concepts, I feel compelled to comment. I did not mean this to evolve into a dissertation, and I most certainly did not intend to give offence. Rather, my hope is that you will read your writing aloud before posting/publishing, and that you will ask yourself, "Would this make sense to that other with whom I wish to communicate?" Cheers, mate.
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Low-rent intellects married to towering arrogance and hypocrisy: that best describes your typical FOX entertainer.
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I find it curious that Taylor-Greene's statement employs the phrase, "...war and rumours of war..." a phrase lifted from the Book of Revelations in the New Testament, wherein Matthew advises followers not to worry about such omens for "...the end is not yet." I assume that the choice of expression is quite deliberate, but what this most unChristian harridan means to signal to her fans is unclear. However, she would be well counseled to remember two far more relevant passages from the Bible: "(S)he that is without sin among you, let him(her) first cast a stone..." and Timothy's cautionary statement, "For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil."
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This makes even more imperative the need to abolish America's Electoral College. And then scrutiny should fall upon the United States Senate and the fact that every state has the same number of Senators regardless of size. This outdated gesture towards equality, made as a compromise at the very start of the American republic, has, at times, led to the tyranny of the minority: Small states-in terms of population- choose to vote in opposition to the interests of the larger states, who possess far greater populations, and, thus, in their combined numbers of senators, the small states succeed in defeating the large states, even though the latter represent a far greater percentage of the American population.
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The burnished Hollywood image of the rugged American individualist, resorting, when morally necessary, to acts of justifiable violence, "moral" violence in service of protecting good people and lawful institutions, has transmogrified into bloody violence--preferably by high calibre firearms--as a legitimate means of dissent, of protestation. Gone are the days when high regard followed a scholarly, articulate, elegantly designed argument, as one can imagine happening during the Lincoln v. Douglas debates. Today, differences of opinion escalate to threats of violence, bloody and shattering, in the wink of an eye as though we suddenly found ourselves bereft of the power of speech and our desperation at this impotence demolished our self-control, that barrier evaporating before this new powerlessness, only to be replaced by a form of communication far more direct than the verbal: The physical language of rage. And so we find white working class people, with their blue camo collars, perceiving themselves as patronized and passed over. And while they may lack the lexicon of the highly educated, they suffer no such lack of the latest and finest of military-grade hardware. And its assertions cannot be deterred by reasoned argumentation, no matter how compellingly well reasoned and handsomely presented.
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During the Trump years, Peter Navarro displayed a degree of preening arrogance in his on camera interviews that qualified as breathtaking. His sheer presumptuousness and patronizing manner, as well as his supremely sycophantic, idolatrous regard for Donnie T. made Navarro a nauseating standout in an administration overbrimming with reptilian hucksters ever willing to debase themselves for their lord and master. Navarro, an economist considered an outlying loon by real economists, ran for elective office five times and lost each time...and now, shameless gobsh**e that he is, he busies himself with wild-eyed propaganda rants and hawking a witless board game about sedition....only the best people.
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"I only hire the best people."
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DeSantis, a true authoritarian, intends to appeal to the worst elements of the Trump base for he fervently desires to gain the throne by supplanting Trump. Beware the man whose political ambitions totally eclipse his sense of ethics, morality and basic decency.
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His ongoing lies amount to incitement.
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Both Elizabeth Warren and Robert Reich, among other notable scholars, have spoken long and loud against Jerome Powell's plans, yet he forges on. Madness.
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@jembozaba4864 I assume that you are referring to a second booster, yes? Ideally, the time elapsed since your first booster should be the determinant and not your age. Again, ideally, you should receive a vaccination every six months. Cheers
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The Colorado harridan reduces every argument to a test of whether her opponent(s) do or do not support her interpretation of the Second Amendment. (If they don't, then they are branded as Nazis.) And according to this most unchristian woman, America's founders intended--mountains of evidence to the contrary--for the constitutional republic of the United States to be a theocratic nation. Gobsmackingly ignorant.
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Ted Cruz is a millstone round the neck of America and the state of Texas.
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Maybe now Bill Hemmer has an inkling of what people of color have to experience when attempting to vote in many American states.
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They wish to compound the deleterious effect that Facebook has on society and politics. Hey, why not let health misinformation return, after all we've served as a home for terribly divisive groups promoting hateful doctrines and lunatic conspiracy theories, right?
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Every man a knave, and every knave fancies themselves scholars.
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The Dunning-Kreuger Effect-- "People with low ability at a task over- estimate their ability", also phrased, "truly stupid people often don't realize just how truly stupid they are."--on full, inglorious display;. Crikeys, Jim "Coach" Jordan and Loony Gohmert must be gnashing their terrible teeth and roaring their terrible roars for failing to beat Mattie to the gate. Little wonder that Republicans such as Gaetz, Jordan and Gohmert-to name but three of Trump's stooges- disdain mask-wearing: it impedes boot licking. (Yes, the facility and speed with which said stooges can proceed in osculating Trump's rump must be weighed when deciding whether to mask up.)
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Never underestimate a true zealot's sheer gobsmscking capacity for self- delusion. Farron Cousins' suggestion that the rioters/insurrectionists perhaps viewed themselves as "MLKs" is far too glib--and worse, it sullies the memory and accomplishments of the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., a man many consider a secular saint. And it also paints the insurrectionists in a wholly undeserved flattering light. Those who gleefully engaged in violence against people and property--property previously regarded as inviolable--terrorized those who worked inside the Capitol, the heart of American democracy. Ergo, they are terrorists, as in those who invoke terror in others for political ends. And, yes, as terrorists they believed their "mission" righteous for they, as good disciples, were following the instructions of their idols: Trump and "Q", who--with able assists from apostles Lin Wood, Rudy Giuliani, Mo Brooks, Josh Hawley, et. al.--radicalized the sheeplike followers through unrelenting repetition of THE BIG LIE. And the disciples, particularly those who had been training for years in anticipation of such an opportunity--one in which a prominent secular, or religious figure gave them permission to proceed with their mission. And on that terrible day in January they received an unambiguous, full-throated message to proceed.
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COUNT THE POTS! SENT TO COUTH! ECHO TOP NUTTS! SHOUT TENT COPS! THEN OUT SPOT! Trump is a three-dimensional chess player. We must decode the true meaning of "STOP THE COUNT!" We know that such a stable genius did not mean his words be taken literally, right? Only a complete nutter would say such a thing. Where's Dan Brown when you need him.
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Other than such matters as the war in Ukraine, inflation, threats from North Korea, Iran, China, and Russia, catastrophic climate change, increasing polarization among the American people, as well as the rise of the militant lunatic fringe on America's political right, the real possibility of another COVID-19 surge, the multiple threats to voting rights, race-based inequality in the American justice system, the mushrooming wealth gap, etc., ad infinitum, President Biden certainly has time to spend with an adolescent vigilante.
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Does the American legal system contain no remedy, no sanctions, no antidote that can be deployed to halt the brazen lying from America's far-right, lying that has so politicized a health issue as to threaten the health of so many in the states. It is imperative that some action be taken against those whose incendiary rhetoric poses a terribly real threat, a threat to the health of citizens, and to the health of the union of states.
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Beautifully put, Master Stephens. Dead brilliant. Cheers
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Pursue an investigation into Pam Bondi.
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Did Trump check under his bed at Mar A Lago? One never knows where those pesky documents will hide.
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