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A Worthy Purpose - GNR for Bluesday, August 23rd [1]
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Date: 2022-08-23
Quite literally, oceans of words have been written about finding purpose in life. You probably need an advanced degree in philosophy to even begin to scratch the surface of them. Rather than following Cervantes and spending our time tilting at the madness of cancer causing windmills, we’ve got republicans to joust with.
There are a lot of different ways to find purpose. Many don’t get a real choice. Finding food and shelter takes up so much time, there’s no bandwidth left for a higher calling. Then there are those who pervert the idea of purpose and deny their humanity.
Some of them find their purpose through the cynical manipulation of others as a means for their own unethical aggrandizement. We know them as titans of industry, prosperity preachers, con artists, scammers, and republican office holders.
Others delight in forcing their narrow antediluvian views on the gullible and naïve. We know them as white supremacists, religious zealots, Nazis, and members of The Federalist Society.
Still others are content to go through life without purpose, often lost in a haze of drugs or alcohol.
Then there are the rest of us. We find part of our purpose in standing up to injustice, cruelty and bigotry. We fight against the evils in the world, wherever we find them. We want to make the world a better place. It’s not a particularly easy thing to do, but it is most certainly the right thing to do.
We fight against a writhing mass of base emotion, lacking depth or substance, addicted to cruelty, incapable of empathy, and fueled almost entirely by anger. Look into the faces of the dullard’s ardent disciples. Bigotry and hate ooze from their pores, coating their skins with the stench of their malevolent corruption. Their empty eyes, a window into a soulless world of treason against the world, founded in deceit, dedicated to greed, and worshipping at the altar of hatred. Their red hats serve as a badge of dishonor and stupidity.
It is a worthy purpose.
GET OUT THE VOTE!
We have the power. We have the ability. We can and we will do this.
Slava Ukraini!
Remember the Children
Screw you, Samuel Alito
Late Night was on hiatus, so here’s some parody to get us started.
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There’s some news to share:
Oops
There’s stepping on your junk and then there’s running your junk through a meat grinder, beating it with a hammer and throwing it on a bonfire. I am thankful they are such idiots.
Raw Story: Bob Brigham: ‘Yikes': Experts stunned after Trump's late-night release of incredibly incriminating NARA document
Former President Donald Trump reportedly released a new document very late Monday night that legal experts believe is incredibly damning. Far-right writer John Solomon, who is one of Donald Trump's official representatives for the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), released a May 10 letter on his JustTheNews.com website. Solomon released a letter from NARA to Trump's lawyers. "As you are no doubt aware, NARA had ongoing communications with the former President’s representatives throughout 2021 about what appeared to be missing Presidential records, which resulted in the transfer of 15 boxes of records to NARA in January 2022," the letter read. "In its initial review of materials within those boxes, NARA identified items marked as classified national security information, up to the level of Top Secret and including Sensitive Compartmented Information and Special Access Program materials. NARA informed the Department of Justice about that discovery, which prompted the Department to ask the President to request that NARA provide the FBI with access to the boxes at issue so that the FBI and others in the Intelligence Community could examine them."
But Wait, There’s More
The Tangerine Turd Sack has been a very naughty shit stain. And, looks like he’s finally going to get wiped.
Huffington Post: Nick Visser: Trump Had 300 Classified Documents At Mar-A-Lago, Called Boxes ‘Mine’: Report
Former President Donald Trump had more than 300 classified documents at his Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago, that have since been recovered by the federal government, The New York Times reported Monday. The figures represent three batches of documents that federal officials have recovered in recent months amid growing concern Trump had absconded with the files after he left the White House. About 150 documents marked classified were handed over to the National Archives in January, a large number that prompted concern from officials there that Trump may have had additional sensitive material in the bowels of the resort. Trump reportedly went through those boxes himself late last year before they were turned over. Officials at the Justice Department later went to the Florida estate in June with a subpoena for any additional classified material. But reviews of security footage and information from interviews with Trump’s aides led them to believe there were even more documents that hadn’t been turned over.
They Just Won’t Take No for an Answer
The forced birthers aren’t going away, so it behooves us to make sure we know about the kind of dishonest crap they are attempting. Forewarned is forearmed and all that.
Salon: Amanda Marcotte: Pink wave: Women rise up for reproductive rights — and Big Lie supporters scramble to stop them
The ballot referendum on abortion rights in Kansas wasn't just a test of public attitudes about reproductive rights — it was a test of democracy. The Republican organizers behind the bill were no doubt aware of the robust polling that shows that strong majorities of Americans support abortion rights, and thus did everything in their power to make sure the general public did not turn out to vote on the question of banning abortion in the state. So they scheduled the ballot initiative during an August primary election, when few Democrats turn out to vote, even though other ballot initiatives are scheduled for November's election. They made the language of the ballot initiative confusing, so pro-choice people might accidentally vote for the ban. And they blanketed the airwaves with misleading ads meant to trick pro-choice voters into voting for the ban. ✂️ What began with Republicans hand-waving away the election as somehow not a true reflection of voter desires, soon became conservatives reskinning Donald Trump's Big Lie, that the 2020 election was "rigged" against him, to argue that something fishy must have happened in order for Kansas result to occur. They forced a recount of the abortion vote. Recounts, which are expensive and time-consuming, tend to occur only when an election is close. The abortion ban, however, lost by an 18-point margin, so there was zero chance that a recount would change things. Still, as the Kansas City Star reports, the recount was authorized at the request of Melissa Leavitt, a Big Lie advocate who pushed Trump's conspiracy theories to the Kansas state legislature in 2020. Along with Mark Gietzen, a hardline opponent of reproductive rights, they raised nearly $120,000 for the recount. Unsurprisingly, it did nothing to change the outcome. Yet Leavitt and Gietzen are using the recount effort as the foundation for what appears to be a larger push to harass anyone who dared vote against the abortion ban in the state.
Running Out of Time to Run Out the Clock
Lindsey’s not happy about this. Too bad.
Raw Story: Sky Palma: Judge sets expedited schedule for Lindsey Graham testimony to ensure he can't stall for months
A federal appeals court temporarily blocked a lower court's ruling that mandated Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) testify before a Georgia grand jury in its investigation into Donald Trump and his allies' attempts to sway the state's 2020 election results in his favor.✂️ But this morning, District Court Judge Leigh Martin May ruled that Graham has until 9am this Wednesday "to file a Motion as to exactly as to which questions and/or categories he is requesting the Court to address in an Order to partially quash the subpoena." Following this, the Fulton County DA's Office will have until next Monday to respond, after which Graham must respond by Wednesday, August 31st.
The Tiny Handed Wannabe Tyrant Fails Some More
Hmm. Seems like the rest of the country doesn’t think it’s a witch hunt.
Mother Jones: Jackie Flynn Mogensen: Poll: A Majority of Voters Want the Trump Investigations to Go On
In recent months, Donald Trump has found himself buried in a growing pile of lawsuits and investigations. Officials are probing his company’s finances, his attempt to overturn the 2020 election, his role in inciting a mob on January 6, and, most recently, his alleged possession of classified documents. And from the outset, Trump and his supporters have claimed that the various investigations into his alleged wrongdoing are political hit jobs, rather than legitimate legal inquiries. Now, a new NBC News poll suggests that a majority of American voters disagree. According to the poll, 57 percent of voters said they thought investigations into Trump’s conduct should continue “because he needs to be held accountable,” while 40 percent said they should not continue “because they are politically motivated and divide the nation.” Perhaps unsurprisingly, there were stark differences along party lines: While 92 percent of Democrats and 61 percent of independents approved of the investigations, just 21 percent of Republicans thought the same.
The Stupid — It Burns
They are free to be dumb. It must be awful to go through life aspiring to make it up to just being stupid.
The News & Observer: Sarah Pequeño: An NC candidate’s Banana Republic blunder is a reminder that we should retire the term
NC-13 Republican candidate Bo Hines said something laughable. On a conservative radio show last week, Hines and host John Fredericks talked about the FBI search of Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home. Republicans say the search makes the United States look like a “banana republic.” “I think that’s an insult to Banana Republics across the country,” Hines said. “I mean, at least the manager of Banana Republic — unlike our president — knows where he is and why he’s there and what he’s doing.” I can’t lie; the video is funny. I don’t know how Fredericks was able to keep from laughing at a potential member of Congress thinking everyone has been talking about the preppy clothing store this entire time. It’s akin to Dan Quayle misspelling “potato” at an elementary school spelling bee. But now the phrase “banana republic” is everywhere, even more than it had been in the days prior. And I’m tired of seeing it.
A Double Dose of Andy
I couldn’t make up my mind which one to use, so you get them both.
New Yorker: Satire from the Borowitz Report: Trump Enraged After Drunken Giuliani Calls Wyoming Vote Rigged and Demands Recount
CHEYENNE, WYOMING (The Borowitz Report)—Donald J. Trump became enraged after a visibly inebriated Rudolph Giuliani held a press conference in which he called the G.O.P. primary in Wyoming “rigged” and demanded a recount. Trump had been celebrating the defeat of his nemesis, Representative Liz Cheney, when Giuliani popped up on TV, claiming “widespread fraud and abuse” in the Wyoming vote. Giuliani, wobbling from side to side and slurring his words, made the allegations in the parking lot of Ritz-Carlton Total Cattle Feed, an establishment on the outskirts of Cheyenne. As the former mayor of New York spewed his tirade, Trump threw a bottle of ketchup at the TV screen, turning Guiliani’s televised image into a hideous mélange of dripping red condiment and dark-brown hair dye.
New Yorker: Satire from the Borowitz Report: Marjorie Taylor Greene’s Status as Most Ignorant Person in Congress at Stake in Alaska Election
WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s status as Congress’s most ignorant member is at stake in Alaska’s special election, Greene’s aides have acknowledged. Greene, who has fended off challenges to her crown of dimness from such formidable contenders as Lauren Boebert and Rand Paul, will face her stiffest test to date when Alaskans go to the polls. An aide to Greene, Harland Dorrinson, said that the congresswoman will be watching the returns from Alaska “nervously.” “Ignorance is Margie’s brand,” he said. “Obviously, she’s concerned about anything that could jeopardize that.”
Let’s End the News on a High Note
I wish science didn’t have to come riding to the rescue quite so often, but I am eternally grateful that it does what it does.
Good News Network: Breakthrough Might Finally Destroy the Harmful ‘Forever Chemicals’ in Our Water
FAS, a group of manufactured chemicals commonly used since the 1940s, are called ‘forever chemicals’ for a reason. Bacteria can’t eat them; fire can’t incinerate them; and water can’t dilute them. And, if these toxic chemicals are buried, they leach into surrounding soil. Now, Northwestern University chemists have done the seemingly impossible. Using low temperatures and inexpensive, common substances, the research team developed a process that causes two major classes of PFAS compounds to fall apart—leaving behind only benign end products. The simple technique potentially could be a powerful solution for finally disposing of these harmful chemicals, which are linked to dangerous health effects and may be common in your water supply.
Musical Interlude
A song from Robert Bradley and Playing for Change
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Proposed as a new national anthem for France, shortly after the end of the Second World War, The Chant of the Partisans is gathering new meaning in Ukraine.
Friend, do you hear the dark flight of the crows over our plains?
Friend, do you hear the muffled clamor of a country in chains?
Hey, partisans, workers and peasants, this is the signal
tonight the enemy will know the cost of blood and tears...
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On the Lighter Side
x January 6th Committee targets Donald Trump Jr, Ivanka Trump, Eric Trump, and Melania Trump
Trump children: "your honor in our defense we're dumb and don’t know any better" pic.twitter.com/J1KISdd98l — Alicia Smith 💙🌊🌊 #FBR (@AliciaSmith987) August 26, 2021
x Dr Pepper, Dr Dre, Dr Scholl, Dr Spock, Dr Suess, Dr Frankenstein, Dr Frankenstone (The Flintstones), Doogie Howser, House (tv show), all of the pretend Drs on ER, all of the Drs on Grey's Anatomy, all of the pretend Drs on ALL of the Soaps ever aired, and Dr Pol (Animal Planet)
https://t.co/GPx5SkK2j9 — Regina Thompson (@Theyaskedforit) July 20, 2022
Closing Notes
They used to close out the first set with this.
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[END]
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