4 XI 2022: M.T.G. + D.J.T.

My suspicion of a close liaison between Marjorie Taylor Green and Donald J. Trump is re-awakened by M.T.G.’s latest declaration that when the Republicans seize power, they will cancel all aid to Ukraine and shift those resources to our Southern border, perhaps to complete the building of the Great Wall of Trump. Marjorie’s and Donald’s thinking coalesce in an America-First, Pro-Putin MAGA party line. Of course, I may be reading too much into this, and the affinity of these two is no more that the attraction of one bimbo for another.

2 XI 2022: Laced with truth serum

When I was a boy we heard from time to time scary Halloween atrocity stories passed on by word of mouth, e.g., that hate-filled people were inserting razor blades into trick-or-treat apples or were dropping burning-hot pennies into trick-or-treaters hands. So I found something nostalgic in reports that various far right figures have been claiming online that immigrants were putting fentanyl into Halloween candy.

Hence came my fantasy of putting truth serum in the Big Macs, fries, Diet Coke, and other junk foods favored by the MAGAs. Talk about chaos! The Christian Right movement would fall completely apart if people started telling the truth, and the Republican Party would never be able to recover if its people would begin telling the truth even for a week.

31 X 2022: Misinformation, abroad and at home

I read that the Russian government, in its attempts to conceal the very poor performance of its air, land, and naval forces, has resorted to massive campaigns of misinformation. Of course, this is nothing new. Spreading disinformation has been a constant in Russian propaganda, Tsarist, Communist, and neo-monarchist.

Of course, Trump and MAGA have also made disinformation the centerpiece of their propaganda. Did they borrow this from the Russians, or did they think it up all on their own?

31 X 2022: Pigs in the parlor

Well, the MAGAs got what they’ve been calling for, a violent attack on Nancy Pelosi. It is obvious to anyone that a significant portion of the MAGA base is to some degree insane. So did the MAGA stars think they could constantly call for violence against Nancy Pelosi without someone of the crazies taking them up on it?? To their disappointment, Nancy wasn’t at home, so her husband, Paul, had to take the hit. But that does not at all slow down the MAGA wits. Hence, headlines on CNN today: 

“Devin Nunes Posts Appalling Quip About Hammer Attack on Paul Pelosi” 

“Donald Trump Jr. Mocks Paul Pelosi With ‘Despicable’ Halloween Post”

Nunes and Donny Jr. are only the most recent MAGA grotesques to try to gratify the base-of-the-base with tasteless jokes. All I can do is quote from Pogo:  “That’s what you gets when you invites a pig into the parlor.”

17 X 2022: Victimology

Marjorie Taylor Green is claiming that she was a victim of the Jan 6th Insurrection. If MTG is a victim at all, she is victim of her own ambition and stupidity.

No doubt she learned to play the victim card from Donald Trump whose current complaint is that he is a victim of Jewish ingratitude. MTG is going through a divorce and will be free to marry Trump when Melania can’t stand him any longer, unless Ron Johnson gets to her first.

Ron Johnson is another GOP victim. He asserts that he was laughed at during a debate at Marquette University by some students who were “let in” to the audience. The students, he claims, are “being taught leftist propaganda,” and this explains their laughter at his claim to have been a victim of an FBI plot. No, Johnson is, as always, the victim of his own unfailing stupidity.

10 X 2022: Pot calling the kettle “terrorist”

Another instance of the affinity of Trump and Putin. Trump habitually accuses enemies of the very crimes he himself commits. So Vladimir Putin is denouncing the explosion on his signature Russia-Crimea bridge as a terrorist attack. He is seeing in this explosion a reflection of himself, for he is at this time the world’s leading terrorist.

7 X 2022: “Former House Speaker” at his best

I’ve read a report about Newt Gingrich’s dodge for Herschel Walker. The report begins, as do all reports about Newt, “Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich ….” The story is “Speaking on Fox News, Gingrich hailed Walker as ‘the most important Senate candidate in the country’ due to his ‘deep commitment to Christ.’” “deep commitment to Christ” Really? Newt would gild a turd. 

3 X 2022: Let’s enforce the Federal Code

I took a look at the Federal Code as it bears on recent and current efforts to destroy the government in the United States. I find that our democracy does, in fact, have the means to defend itself. All that is required is the ruthless enforcement of the law on all offenders.

§2383. Rebellion or insurrection

Whoever incites, sets on foot, assists, or engages in any rebellion or insurrectionagainst the authority of the United States or the laws thereof, or gives aid or comfort thereto, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States.

§2383Is applicable to all who participated in any way in the Jan. 6 Rebellion.The small fry are being prosecuted, but there seems to be a reluctance to prosecute the big bugs, the politicians and their camp followers who instigated, abetted, and perpetuate the Rebellion. 

§2384. Seditious conspiracy

If two or more persons in any State or Territory, or in any place subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, conspire to overthrow, put down, or to destroy by force the Government of the United States, or to levy war against them, or to oppose by force the authority thereof, or by force to prevent, hinder, or delay the execution of any law of the United States, or by force to seize, take, or possess any property of the United States contrary to the authority thereof, they shall each be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than twenty years, or both.

§2384 seems applicable to those who tried to interfere with the lawful transition of power, to those who conspired up to Jan. 6 as well as those who continue this conspiracy by promoting the Big Lie. Support for the Big Lie is not a mere difference of opinion. For some of Trump’s jihadists this may be due to invincible ignorance, but for more it is complicity in support of a pernicious falsehood that is in an attempt to hinder the lawful processes of government.

§2385. Advocating overthrow of Government

  Whoever knowingly or willfully advocates, abets, advises, or teaches the duty, necessity, desirability, or propriety of overthrowing or destroying the government of the United Statesor the government of any State, Territory, District or Possession thereof, or the government of any political subdivision therein, by force or violence … Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than twenty years, or both, and shall be ineligible for employment by the United States or any department or agency thereof, for the five years next following his conviction.

§2385 is applicable to public figures, Roger Stone, Steve Bannon, slap-stick politicians, et al., and to organizations like the various militias, clubs like the Proud Boys, and to politicians who lie to these people, encouraging their belief that they have a right and duty to rebel against the American government.

2 X 2022: Ginni Thomas, a case of wishful thinking?

Ginni Thomas continues to proclaim the Big Lie. Why? I think she really believes with all her heart that the election was “stolen.” If so, what a pity and what an embarrassment to her “best friend”! But Ginni lives and moves, has her being and public persona in the reactionary fantasyland. So, whatever she may believe, she needs to keep asserting her belief in the Big Lie if she’s going to maintain her position of leadership among right-wing conspiracyholics.

As to her denial that she talked about the Big Lie with Clarence, I cannot believe that an unrestrained motor-mouth like Ginni would not have discussed her idée fixe with her Best Friend.