Top 10 Conservative Idiots #9-12: Death Or Taxes, But Mostly Taxes Edition

[Top 10 Idiots]

Top 10 Conservative Idiots #9-12: Death Or Taxes ,But Mostly Taxes Edition

Welcome back to the Top 10 Conservative Idiots! How’s everybody doing? Are you guys doing fucking good? I know, right? Yeah fuck COVID. So anyways last week we got postponed and the reason is because California is opening things back up a bit! Yes, we are moving back into our Burbank studio and we will be there for at least the next month, and who knows what could happen in that time? But we are glad to be back and we will be until the election and beyond. Hopefully we will get back to doing the live Top 10 you all know and love soon. But anyways, we are back everybody! Do we have time for the thing? Of course we do! I say this as someone who loves punk rock music and everything it stands for. OK how the fuck can Johnny Rotten be on Team MAGA? Yes the guy who is the ring leader of a little band called the Sex Pistols, is officially all in on the Trump Train. Did he get some coaching from Morrissey who’s also on team MAGA on the subject? I mean seriously this is the guy who told the Royals to go fuck themselves on “God Save The Queen”. Hmmm… could punk music actually be against itself now? Are they raging for the machine? This is seriously worrisome. I mean come on, the 1970s Johnny Rotten would kick the ever-loving shit out of the 2020 Johnny Rotten. This is just unbelievably sad and depressing. But then again we do live in a world where Kanye West is now a televangelist and releasing Christian rock albums. OK that’s enough of the intro, we have a lot of idiocy to get to, but first John Oliver is back and he delves into what’s going to happen surrounding SCOTUS, and trust us, it’s not pretty:

Well another week under this virus but we have 5 weeks now until the election and we’re going all in for Biden! Well, you knew that right? In the #1 slot this week we have of course the guy who we currently call president, and that’s Donald J. Trump (1) and his ass is broke! Yes, the New York Times got a hold of Trump’s tax returns, and let’s just say that not only is he not qualified for security clearance, he’s barely qualified for a credit card application. In the second slot, unfortunately Ruth Bader Ginsburg has passed, and that hasn’t stopped conservatives (2) from immediately nominating her replacement, and this is one doozy of a pick! In the third slot this week is MAGA Aficionados (3) and if there’s a Black Lives Matter protest in your neighborhood, you can bet there’s a flock of MAGAs not too far behind wanting to start some shit! Taking the fourth slot this week is Kanye West (4). Unfortunately we were off last week, and we didn’t get to cover Kanye’s absolutely batshit crazy tirade on various shoe manufacturers and hip hop personalities, and that’s causing his poorly planned presidential campaign to swirl the drain! In the number 5 slot this week is our weekly investigative piece, Top 10 Investigates, and this week, could virus sniffing dogs be the key to normal societal activity resuming? Well it’s entirely possible and the canines could provide the way! Taking the sixth slot this week is of course our weekly visit to the Holy Church Of The Top 10 in “Holy Shit” and this week – Amy Coney Barrett is Trump’s pick to replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg, but what is “People Of Prayer”? Our resident pastor is going to spill the beans on the super secret Catholic Club Mrs. Barrett belongs to! Taking the seventh slot this week is a new “Beating A Dead Horse” (7) – does the Andy Samberg cop comedy Brooklyn 99 need a reality check? Show star Andre Braugher, who plays the precinct boss Captain Holt has one idea, but the producers have another! In the #8 slot this week – we have a new edition of “Conspiracy Corner” – and everyone’s favorite fake spy agency Project Vertias is at it again – what do they have on Ilhan Omar? Or don’t they? And in the number 9 (NEIN!!!) slot this week we have a new People Are Dumb, because of course they are! Finally this week in “Road To The White House” (10) – what would happen if Trump refuses to accept the election results? There’s plenty of ways this scenario could play out – ranging from “mildly horrible” to “extremely horrible”. Enjoy! And as always don’t forget the key!

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[font size="8"]Donald Trump
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We need some music for this one!

Eh. Maybe this would be better!

I know! This is perfect!

Yeah let’s go with Cardi B! I love this so fucking much and it broke just in time for us to include it this week! Donald Trump, our 45th president of the United States, is fucking broke! Yes, his ass don’t got no money! You heard me! Just how broke is he? Well the New York Times broke the story that Trump has a history of chronic monetary losses. So what did you expect from a guy who is hawking shitty product after shitty product? He’s a real life Krusty The Klown! Think of this like the two things that are inevitable in life – death and taxes, but mostly taxes. But yeah, this is insane and it explains so much about why our current president has such a stick up his ass!

On Sunday, The New York Times published a blockbuster report on the President’s tax returns, revealing details from decades of confidential filings and information related to Trump’s businesses. The report paints a picture of a president whose business interests are in financial distress and whose looming money challenges could push him into bankruptcy in the near future. The findings pose a troubling, but important, question to ask:

Is President Trump actually broke?

The explosive reporting by The New York Times is based on a review of two decades of Trump’s personal and corporate tax record, ranging from his days as a high-profile real estate developer to the beginning of his tenure as President. In publishing their findings, the Times explained the rationale behind their decision.

“We are publishing this report because we believe citizens should understand as much as possible about their leaders and representatives — their priorities, their experiences and also their finances. Every president since the mid-1970s has made his tax information public,” the Times wrote in an editor’s note accompanying the report. “Mr. Trump, one of the wealthiest presidents in the nation’s history, has broken with that practice.”
https://www.forbes.com/sites/sethcohen/2020/09/28/new-report-details-decades-of-presidents-taxes-and-financial-failures/#64ebebd62e7a

Yup, everything burns and Trump has burned through more cash than one could shake a stick at! And this is something I didn’t know until last week is that the White House does a very thorough background check on applicants before you can get Level 1 security clearance. And what’s baffling is that Trump isn’t even qualified for this! Hell, he’s barely qualified for a credit card application!

A New York Times reckoning of President Trump's finances suggests that he could be hard-pressed to cover hundreds of millions in debt coming due over the next few years, a prospect that national security experts say raises serious alarms about Trump's motives and vulnerabilities to foreign influence.

"Someone with a mountain of debt like President Trump is a national security risk and would be unable to get a security clearance if he were any other government employee," former U.S. attorney and national security law expert Barb McQuade told Salon. "When someone is desperate for cash, they are susceptible to blackmail or bribery. For that reason, people with massive debt or in bankruptcy are not permitted access to our nation's secrets."

Indeed, national security authorities tell Salon that debt is one of the most common reasons that the government rejects security clearances. Creditors can exert undue influence over borrowers with large debts, as can someone with knowledge that an individual is strapped for cash. A prominent leader positioned as Trump is — he is deeply in debt, and has refused to detach himself from his businesses, which rely heavily on overseas income — makes a perfect mark for foreign intelligence agencies and corporate entities.
https://www.salon.com/2020/09/29/trump-could-be-more-than-1-billion-in-debt--thats-a-national-security-risk-experts-say/

Hey don’t do that! Trump might need that! Seriously, you know you’re a bad credit risk when it affects the security of the entire country! And hell, Trump’s reckless spending would barely qualify him for a loan from Capitol One at this point! Shit, he’d barely qualify for the discount payday loan service with the bars on the windows! And Trump made most of his money through his reality TV show appearances, after he blew it all on bad investments.

"The Apprentice" didn't just give US President Donald Trump a platform. It threw him a financial "lifeline," according to the New York Times.

In a new report Monday, the newspaper laid out how Trump's career was transformed by the hit reality show on NBC, which turned him into a household name, helped him earn hundreds of millions of dollars, and opened the doors to major licensing deals.

The report is the latest installment in a series from the Times based on the deepest dive yet into the US president's finances. The newspaper has cited detailed tax records that reveal how Trump paid little or no federal income taxes for years, as well as significant losses at some of his businesses.
A White House spokesperson told the Times that the latest article was "fake news" and "yet another politically motivated hit piece full of inaccurate smears," without disputing specific claims.

Trump on Sunday denied the New York Times story and claimed that he pays "a lot" in federal income taxes. A lawyer for the Trump Organization, which manages the president's family businesses, told the Times that "most, if not all, of the facts appear to be inaccurate."
https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/29/business/trump-the-apprentice-nytimes-intl-hnk/index.html

Yeah I don’t think Trump has done that yet. I think the only thing left to do is for Trump to declare himself a god, because that’s probably the only way he can get himself out of this tax situation, and it’s becoming clear why he’s the narcissistic asshole we’ve always suspected he was. Seriously, I know teenagers who work at McDonalds who pay more taxes than he does. Maybe death is the better alternative in this case? I don’t know. I would rather have neither.

President Donald Trump’s businesses have hemorrhaged hundreds of millions of dollars over the last two decades, allowing him to minimize his federal income tax bill to $0 or nearly $0 for many of the years in that period, according to a bombshell report published on Sunday by The New York Times.

Trump paid just $750 in federal income taxes in 2016 and another $750 the following year, the newspaper reported, and none at all in 10 of the previous 15 years.

The losses also strained Trump’s finances, according to the paper. He is personally responsible for more than $420 million in debt, most of which is coming due within the next four years, according to the Times.

The report, which comes just two days before Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden meet for the first general election debate of the 2020 contest, appears to be based on the most complete collection of the president’s recent tax returns assembled to date.

The Times said that the story is the first of several, with more to be published in the coming weeks. Two of the reporters who authored the story won the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for an investigation of the president’s finances based on earlier tax records.
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/09/27/trump-paid-little-to-no-federal-income-taxes-over-several-years-nyt-.html

&t=26s


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[font size="8"]Mitch McConnell
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Yes, the Top 10 had to go dark last week, and I wish I could say it was to honor the memory of the late great SCOTUS justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a woman whose death could very well spark the country’s turn to the hard right and make it easy to install a conservative dictatorship. And the one person standing between us and sanity is Mitch McConnell. So remember back in 2016 when Antonin Scalia died and he said that the next president gets to fill the SCOTUS seat? Well guess what? We’re 36 days away from the 2020 election and the precedent has been set! There is no way that the conservatives get to fill RGB’s seat without a fight.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has made it clear that Republicans intend to fill the Supreme Court vacancy as quickly as possible, even as party strategists acknowledge it could hurt vulnerable GOP incumbents in blue-leaning states such as Colorado and Maine.

The high-speed, high-stakes fight on the eve of the election has the potential to put Mr. McConnell’s top priorities—confirming conservative judges and protecting his Senate majority—into conflict with each other. But for Mr. McConnell and other Republican senators, the chance to replace a liberal justice with a conservative on the nation’s highest court is an opportunity that can’t be squandered, no matter the political risks, according to Josh Holmes, a former chief of staff and campaign manager for Mr. McConnell.

“Most of them believe this is the lasting legacy of the first Trump term,” Mr. Holmes said.

Mr. McConnell views his role in navigating a volatile confirmation process on the eve of the election as important as anything he has ever done in the Senate, Mr. Holmes said. “He believes this will be the toughest confirmation battle they’ve ever had. But he sort of relishes that.”
https://www.wsj.com/articles/mcconnell-plan-to-fill-court-seat-carries-electoral-risks-rewards-11601295643

Yeah where’s that guy when you need him? YOU WILL NOT FILL THIS SEAT, JACKASS!!! Oh and in case you’re wondering, yes, there are protests going on outside Mitch McConnell’s home. And yes they are tied directly to the untimely passing of the Notorious RBG. So yes Mitch, this will follow you and your hypocritical judgement wherever you go! So take that, jackass!

About a dozen protesters gathered outside Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's Louisville home on Saturday afternoon.

It's the second consecutive Saturday protesters have been there, and one said they plan to return every Saturday until the election in November.

The dozen or so protesters used spoons to hit pots and pans while they chanted "Vote him out" and "Say her name," referring to Breonna Taylor, the 26-year-old killed by police in March.

Melissa Beckham Born said she lives in the neighborhood and they want to remind McConnell about his stance on not filling a U.S. Supreme Court vacancy during an election year.

"He's got a second set of standards when it comes to the Republicans and (President) Donald Trump and we're tired of it," she said. "We're tired of injustice. We're tired of inequality.

"It's time for him to do the right thing. It's time for people in Kentucky to do the right thing and vote him out of office."
https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/politics/2020/09/26/protest-outside-mcconnells-home-supreme-court-nomination-nears/3548133001/

Yeah that is a good point! So why is this nominee getting pushed through? Well we’re being run by psychopaths who are out for global domination and one party rule. Yes, I periodically check Infowars and this is where we are headed. We’re being run by a very small, completely deranged group of individuals. And this is the nominee they’ve chosen – a woman who belongs to a super-secret Catholic sect!

Judge Amy Coney Barrett met privately with several Republican senators on Tuesday, as they kickstarted the process of trying to confirm her controversial nomination to the Supreme Court before the November election.

Barrett, nominated by President Trump last week to fill the seat left vacant by the Sept. 18 death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, did not take any questions as she arrived on Capitol Hill with Vice President Mike Pence for the meetings.

Instead, GOP senators itching to rubber-stamp Barrett’s nomination did the talking for her.

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz claimed it’s crucial to confirm Barrett as quickly as possible so that the Supreme Court has nine justices in the event that it must consider challenges to the results of the Nov. 3 election — a complete flip-flop from his reasoning for helping block President Barack Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland in 2016.
https://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/ny-amy-coney-barrett-senators-supreme-court-20200929-xvi2smkhmbfjrdzytqu4v3xx64-story.html

Strap in folks, we’re going full on fascism. The fix is in, and Mitch McConnell is the last thing standing between you and autocratic rule. OK I think I’ve used up all the campaign cliches that I can. But in case you’re wondering – and this is where it gets shockingly evil – is that they’ve got the votes to ram through Barrett’s nomination and they’re going all in on this pick! Yes, this is the conservatives leaving their middle finger on the pulse of America!

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell reiterated his plans to move forward on President Trump's nominee to fill the vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court left by the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

"The Senate will vote on this nomination this year," McConnell, R-Ky., said Monday on the Senate floor. He didn't say whether the vote would come before the election, or in a lame duck-session of Congress that occurs after the November election and before the start of a new session in 2021.

Trump told reporters he would probably announce his pick on Saturday. He is considering a group of five female candidates. Trump repeated his preference that the Senate vote on the nominee before the Nov. 3 election.

McConnell pushed back at those who argued that with just weeks left before the election the Senate can't complete the confirmation process, saying there are 43 days until the election and 104 until the end of this session of Congress.
https://www.npr.org/sections/death-of-ruth-bader-ginsburg/2020/09/21/915383957/mcconnell-reiterates-pledge-to-vote-on-trumps-supreme-court-nominee-this-year

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[font size="8"]Donald Trump Supporters
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We need some music for this entry too!

Nah, how about:

Better, closer. Warmer. I know!

Yes, fire your guns! Because protests are breaking out in your city and they’re coming to your neighborhood! At least that’s what my brother’s wife’s sister’s best friend’s cousin’s nephew who knows this guy who knows this kid who told this to me on Facebook last night! Yeah, that’s the level of paranoia that you can come to expect from the Trump humpers. They are angry, they are pissed, and well, they don’t really know what they are angry at or why they are pissed. Let’s start with Portland for instance, where the Proud Boys continue their brawling with Antifa because, reasons. And they’re dressed like they’re fighting at your local Medieval Times, also because reasons.

About 200 people, dozens of them wearing militarized body armor, gathered in Portland for a right-wing rally Saturday — far fewer than the thousands expected to show to support President Trump and his “law and order” reelection campaign as tensions boil over nationwide following the decision not to charge officers in Louisville, Kentucky, for killing Breonna Taylor.
A view from above of the crowd at the Proud Boys rally at Delta Park, September 26, 2020 (Zane Sparling/Pamplin Media)

A picture from above shows the actual crowd size is much smaller.

Dozens began to show up two hours before the rally that began at noon, some packed into the beds of pickup trucks. Many were wearing some sort of militarized body armor, including helmets and protective vests. Many flew American flags or black flags bearing the logo of the Three Percenters, another far-right group and some wore Make America Great Again hats.

Around 1 p.m., some Proud Boys unloaded “American Wolf” shields from a box truck. When asked what they were for he sarcastically said, “We’re going to play baseball.” A short time later, men with “American Wolf” shields, multiple paint guns were seen riding in the back of a pickup during the Proud Boys rally at Delta Park.

“I think where the line has to be drawn and there should be zero tolerance is when people commit acts of violence on other people because of their political views,” said Enrique Tarrio, the chairman of the Proud Boys who lives in Miami. He traveled to Oregon for this because he feels “like Portland is the epicenter for all the issues we’re having across the country.”
https://www.koin.com/news/protests/proud-boys-anti-fascists-black-lives-matter-protests-portland-09262020/

Yes, if this is your first night of being a Proud Boy, you have to fight! Now this is like, you ever wonder how groups like Al Qaeda, the Taliban, and ISIS got started? Well wonder no more, because we have the Proud Boys, the III%ers, and Q Anon! And unlike those other guys, our home grown terrorist groups are wearing plastic armor that has TMNT logos on it because, why not? And even the designer of the unofficial uniform of the Proud Boys has issues with them:

Clothing company Fred Perry has announced it has stopped selling a signature polo shirt that has been co-opted by the far-right group the Proud Boys, worn as a sort of unofficial uniform.

"Fred Perry does not support and is in no way affiliated with the Proud Boys. It is incredibly frustrating that this group has appropriated our Black/Yellow/Yellow twin tipped shirt and subverted our Laurel Wreath to their own ends," a statement from the company read.

"That association is something we must do our best to end. We therefore made the decision to stop selling the Black/Yellow/Yellow twin tipped shirt in the US in 2019 and we will not sell it there or in Canada again until we’re satisfied that its association with the Proud Boys has ended."

The company explained that before it was worn by Proud Boys, the laurel wreath symbol and polo shirt symbolized "inclusivity, diversity and independence."
https://thehill.com/homenews/news/518676-fred-perry-retires-polo-design-embraced-by-far-right-group-proud-boys

And by the way, even local protests are getting ugly. This happened in my hometown of all places, and yes, we have our fair share of racists and Trump humpers here too. Remember way back in the early days of the Top 10 when I commented about a KKK rally taking place in Orange County (see: Idiots #1-18 )? Well this is that, version 2.0 and yes, it’s getting seriously ugly out there!

A woman was arrested Saturday on suspicion of attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon after driving her car into a crowd during a demonstration in Yorba Linda involving protesters against police brutality and counter-demonstrators, authorities said.

Tatiana Turner, 40, of Long Beach was being held at the Orange County Jail Intake-Release Center in Santa Ana in lieu of $1 million bail, according to jail records. Investigators believe she was part of a group that planned the protest, the Orange County Sheriff’s Department said.

Two people were injured in the incident, said Sgt. Dennis Breckner of the Sheriff’s Department.

One man suffered two broken legs and was hospitalized, and one woman suffered major and moderate injuries throughout her body, he said.

The original protest was advertised as a march against police brutality, social injustice and systemic racism, according to a flier posted on Instagram by the Urban Organizers Coalition.
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-09-26/woman-driver-arrested-for-attempted-murder-at-yorba-linda-protest

He says, as the buildings blow up behind him! So if there’s a protest going on in your local community, you might want to look up who’s organizing it, because it could get seriously ugly. And speaking of ugly, these things aren’t going to end anytime soon for those of you who are getting really sick of the conflicts between the two groups. In fact, they’re just getting started!

The protest began around 7 p.m. and around 100 protesters marched.

They ended at the Federal Courthouse where there were speeches.

Around 8:30 p.m., most people dispersed and went home, but a smaller group stayed behind calling for more.

They began marching again and defaced Johnson Hall at the University of Oregon.

We spoke with a Black activist who was at the first march.

He declined to comment on this specific incident, but said he prefers to protest peacefully.

Isiah Wagoner is a Black activist in Eugene pushing for national change.

"The fight will never stop," he told us. "My grandmother's fight, I'm fighting, my daughter will fight, her daughter might fight."
https://kval.com/news/local/the-fight-will-never-stop-eugene-activist-speaks-out-on-protest

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[font size="8"]Kanye West
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Yeezy wants to be the president of the United States. Well, his quest to become president is about the same as Wiley Coyote attempting to catch the Road Runner. So what happened? Here’s the thing, Kanye, and let me spell it out for you. America is already dealing with one absolutely batshit crazy tyrant with a god-like complex who’s bent on world domination. The last thing we need is another! But Kanye is taking his turf war to… sneakers! Yes, the world’s greatest shoe salesman is trying to start a beef with two prominent shoe manufacturers, and he went on an absolutely batshit crazy tirade that nearly broke Twitter last week.

It’s another week and another Kanye West-dominant news cycle. The last few months have been anything but smooth sailing for the esteemed rapper, who not only launched his presidential campaign but also shocked fans and audiences alike with his first rally that, in true Kanye fashion, proved controversial. You have to admire Kanye West’s tenacity, though. Never one to go down quietly or retreat into obscurity, the rapper continues to make headlines for using his voice – regardless of the political cause or motivation. Now, West is taking aim at Universal Music Group, the parent company to his label G.O.O.D. Music and Def Jam Recordings. In a new Twitter spat, the rapper is threatening a lawsuit.

Fans were rather shocked to see that West had expressed his desire to buy back his master recordings from the company, with the rapper claiming that such efforts had been obstructed by several contracts he signed. Of course, West didn’t stop there with a simple defiant explanation. Rather, he proceeded to tweet images of what he claimed to be 10 recording contracts between himself and Universal, captioning the thread: “I need every lawyer in the world to look at these.”

The tweets are just the latest revelation to come out of West’s spat with Universal. Prior to sharing the documents, West expressed a desire to speak with people at Vivendi, the media conglomerate that owns the majority of UMG. Initially he wanted to meet with CEO Arnaud de Puyfontaine, before saying he’d meet with the company’s president Vincent Bollore.

Whether Universal has since reached out to West remains to be seen, but it didn’t stop the rapper from calling out others in the industry in the hope of galvanising the forces behind music’s biggest hits in an effort to spark collective action. He tweeted: “Bono can I get a retweet Love you Paul [McCartney] can I get a retweet love you Drake Kendrick even Taylor.”
https://www.gq.com.au/entertainment/music/heres-the-rundown-on-kanye-wests-contractleaking-grammypeeing-twitter-rant/news-story/4e40e19bbc69e25a973bf69eb2da5486

Really? This fucking guy wants to be president? A guy who posts a rant on Twitter that ends with him urinating on his Grammy Award and giving the middle finger to capitalism? I mean seriously the greatest comedy writers in the world couldn’t come up with a character as batshit insane as Kanye is. And believe me they tried. So how is this affecting his poorly planned run for president?

The Fourth of July holiday in 2020 was a solemn day for a nation in turmoil. Among the countless distressing political events on the minds of many Americans, rapper, billionaire, and husband to Kim Kardashian Kanye West announced on Independence Day that he would throw his hat in the ring of the 2020 presidential race. West made the announcement via Twitter, calling for the nation to “realize the promise of America by trusting God, unifying our vision and building our future.” He received immediate support from his most loyal fans.

It would be generous to say that West’s chances of success are dubious. The Federal Election Commission looked into his declaration, investigating whether West’s filings constituted a “false or fictitious claim” without the necessary paperwork to make the run official. West’s campaign also missed filing deadlines to get on the ballot in many states.

Many popular media outlets chose to largely ignore West in the first weeks of his run. The New York Times ran their first, heavily skeptical, coverage on July 16, and the Washington Post published a similarly incredulous op-ed. However, over the past few months, as the campaign sputters along, the run has mobilized investigative reporters to allay confusion and skepticism.
https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2020/9/29/wthh-kanye-is-still-running-for-prez/

Yeah I think that baseball bat in your hand says otherwise, Kanye. But here’s what is so crazy about this whole campaign. Think of it like the show LOST – it started out with good intentions. There were limitless possibilities. But the actual plot was very thin, and the writers wound up phoning in the ending because even they didn’t know where it was going. And in the midst of it all, this is like that internet video from a few years ago – Too Many Cooks.

In less than three months, rapper Kanye West's surprise presidential bid has transformed from a viral tweet into a briefly serious political effort, before sputtering out with mediocre results.

As the embattled musician’s campaign struggled to meet deadlines and form a cohesive identity, it also raised concerns he would aid President Donald Trump's re-election in the process.

At the moment — six weeks from the November 3 election between Trump and Democratic nominee, former Vice President Joe Biden — West’s name will appear on the ballot in 12 states: Arkansas, Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Vermont, and Utah.

One former campaign operative who helped West’s efforts early on tells PEOPLE there are “too many chiefs” within West’s campaign, causing disorganization and resulting in the failure to get the independent candidate’s name on the ballot in at least 38 states.

That former operative would only speak with PEOPLE on the condition of anonymity while others have refused interviews, citing non-disclosure agreements with the campaign. West’s political operatives have most often avoided interview requests, while his music representatives have largely refrained from commenting about his politics.
https://people.com/politics/how-kanye-west-2020-presidential-campaign-fell-apart/

OK dude, seriously! That is too much information! So Kanye’s campaign is, like most things he does, completely off the rails and has no chance of salvation. Except that Kanye is now a hipster televangelist and is spreading the good word of the lord. Sort of. And by the way does anyone want Kim Kardashian to be first lady? I don’t even think she herself wants to be first lady! And don’t be shocked to see divorce papers the day after the election, Yeezy.

Kim Kardashian West and her husband Kanye West have been going through quite a few relationship issues lately. To make matters worse, their problems have been displayed front and center for all of the world to see. Lately, Kanye has been open about a number of issues on Twitter and hasn’t held anything back. Will Kim stay with him despite his constant airing out of their personal business?

Shortly after Kanye announced that he was running for president, he revealed that he and Kim almost aborted their oldest daughter, North. After that admission, he took to Twitter to call out his wife.

“Kim tried to bring a doctor to lock me up with a doctor,” he wrote in a now-deleted tweet. “If I get locked up like Mandela… Ya’ll will know why.”

“Kriss don’t play with me,” he continued, speaking to Kim’s mom. “You and that Calmye are not allowed around my children. Ya’ll tried to lock me up.”

He also claimed that the film Get Out, in which a white family scouts and hunts black people to take over their bodies, was about him.
https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/celebrity/is-kim-kardashian-west-leaving-kanye-west-after-his-latest-twitter-rant.html/

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[font size="8"]Top 10 Investigates: Virus Sniffing Dogs
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It’s time to investigate beyond the headlines! This is Top 10 Investigates!

Dogs are man’s best friend. They could also be man’s most important key to fighting the deadly coronavirus known as COVID-19 and helping us to get back to the reality that we were used to before all this transpired. How does this work? The airport in Helsinki, Finland, has been using trained dogs to sniff out sick passengers on arrival to the Scandinavian country. And not only this, but even better news is that a dog’s nose is capable of performing smell tests that could surpass the current virus testing methods – many of which are flawed. And if successful, this method will be deployed nationwide and could have a lasting impact on the world if we are to resume normal, everyday life.

Dogs that have been trained to detect the coronavirus have started working at Helsinki Airport this week in a pilot project, with the hope that their sensitive noses can speed up the process of identifying potential carriers of the virus.

The director of Finland’s Helsinki-Vantaa airport, which is run by Finavia, said it was one of the first airports to pilot the project that has seen a handful of dogs trained to sniff out Covid-19 stationed at the airport, alongside standard testing procedures.

“We are among the pioneers. As far as we know no other airport has attempted to use canine scent detection on such a large scale against Covid-19. We are pleased with the city of Vantaa’s initiative. This might be an additional step forward on the way to beating Covid-19,” Ulla Lettijeff said, according to a statement from Finavia.

There have been several studies that have found that dogs are able to smell the virus with almost 100% accuracy, and can even detect the virus before any symptoms are present. Preliminary tests conducted by a research group at the Veterinary Faculty of the University of Helsinki in May that found that trained scent detection dogs might “even perform better than
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/09/24/dogs-that-are-trained-to-sniff-out-the-coronavirus-are-being-deployed-at-helsinki-airport.html

Yes, the same nose that Dug uses to detect nearby squirrels can also help security guards detect who has the new coronavirus. So man’s best friend can help ease the transition from pandemic life back into real life. And how? Can any breed do this? Why yes they can. So while dogs might be man’s best friend, they can so also be a COVID tracer’s best friend.

It is simple and pain-free, could be used to test for coronavirus in care homes, airports and schools, and might just be more realistic than the UK government’s £100bn “Operation Moonshoot” mass screening plan. Its name? Fido.

Around the world – from the UK to Finland, Spain, Brazil, Lebanon and Australia – teams of researchers are training dogs to sniff out Covid-19. And some say the idea of training hundreds of thousands of canine noses to check for coronavirus is not as far-fetched as it may sound.

How do dogs do it? At Finland’s Helsinki airport, where four Covid-19 sniffer dogs have begun work in a state-funded pilot scheme, passengers dab their skin with a wipe, which is placed in a beaker next to others containing control scents. If the dog detects the virus – shown by yelping, pawing, or lying down – the passenger takes a free swab test to verify its verdict.

Speaking to the Guardian, scientists said any breed could in theory be trained – a process that takes between two and 10 weeks – raising the prospect of pet canines joining an army of Covid sniffers.

Prof Dominique Grandjean, of the national veterinary school of Alfort in France, who is leading a research team using bomb detection, cancer detection and search and rescue dogs, said the canines were not sniffing the virus itself but rather tell-tale volatile chemicals produced when the virus infects cells, and released by the body.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/sep/25/any-breed-could-do-it-dogs-might-be-covid-testers-best-friend

Actually yes, Rover might be suspectful of everyone these days especially since this is a virus that anyone can get. So since this started out in Europe naturally it has trickled to the states. Dogs have a smell receptor that is 3 million to one human. And that’s why they might be mankind’s best friend for helping detect the deadly coronavirus. If we want to get back to traveling and enjoying sports and theme parks, this is where we might want to start.

Three hundred million to 6 million. That’s how many more smell receptors dogs have compared to humans.

That’s why we humans often turn to our most loyal friends and their incredible noses to detect nefarious scents like drugs, bombs, accelerants, insects, diseases and more.

Nothing has been more nefarious lately than the worldwide spread of the coronavirus known as COVID-19. More than 200,000 dead here just in the United States alone and that’s doesn’t even account for the rest of the globe.

The spread of this virus has made many things in our world unsafe. That includes travel. But dogs might be able to take just a little bit of the worry out of it.

Last week, The Washington Post reported on a brand new pilot program in Finland. The country’s main airport in Helsinki has brou
https://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2020/09/28/furry-tails-coronavirus-sniffing-dogs-airports/

Let’s just hope that the dog isn’t sniffing out the virus on Bart! So just how good are the dogs at detecting the virus? In Japan they are reporting a false positive rate of 2% and that is simply stunning when you think about it in long term effects. And that’s having an impact in the United States and everywhere around the world. If you want to resume the life you had before the pandemic, look no further than your best friend.

A handful of European airports are implementing trials of quick-fire coronavirus tests, working with airlines to push technologies still being developed as a way to revive stunted international air travel.

The tests, which can be carried out in 30 minutes, are seen as the best hope for the aviation industry to overcome new travel curbs that have brought a modest traffic rebound over summer to a shuddering halt. Other initiatives include a Finnish experiment with dogs that can sniff out the virus.

Rome’s Fiumicino hub became the first worldwide to introduce rapid screening, while London Heathrow, Europe’s busiest airport, has trialed three rival technologies. The International Air Transport Association is backing mandatory checks on departure to unlock flights before the arrival of a COVID-19 vaccine, and Deutsche Lufthansa AG wants to use tests to reopen the trans-Atlantic market.

The aviation industry is turning to a do-it-yourself approach after earlier efforts to rally global authorities around a united plan fell flat. A recent surge in virus cases triggered a haphazard set of fresh restrictions, upending a recovery in air traffic. Now companies are working to get pre-fligh
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2020/09/26/world/airports-deploy-rapid-virus-tests-sniffer-dogs-unlock-travel/

That’s it this week for Top 10 Investigates. Good day!

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[font size="8"]Holy Shit
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Gather around your computer monitors my fair brothers and sisters! It’s time to take a seat in the virtual pew make an online donation in the LAWRD’s VENMO collection plate, for the Holy Church Of The Top 10 has convened and it’s time to remind you that the holiest among us are the most full of:



My fair virtual congregation! Unfortunately we are unable to gather to mourn the passing of the late, great Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Justice Ginsburg was someone who truly fought for human rights and understood what was right in this otherwise dark world. Unlike the unholy, ungodly dark one, whose name shall not be mentioned in my church – real or virtual. Now conservatives as you can imagine are very eager to replace Justice Ginsburg. And now her replacement has been named, Amy Coney Barrett, and Judge Barrett belongs to a super-secret society called “People Of Prayer”. Now what is People Of Prayer and what is their mission? Well, we’re about to find out and it’s something that what one might refer to as a “cult”.

President Donald Trump’s nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court has close ties to a charismatic Christian religious group that holds men are divinely ordained as the “head” of the family and faith. Former members of the group, called People of Praise, say it teaches that wives must submit to the will of their husbands.

Federal appeals judge Amy Coney Barrett has not commented publicly about her own or her family’s involvement, and a People of Praise spokesman declined to say whether she and her husband are current members.

But Barrett, 48, grew up in New Orleans in a family deeply connected to the organization and as recently as 2017 she served as a trustee at the People of Praise-affiliated Trinity Schools Inc., according to the nonprofit organization’s tax records and other documents reviewed by The Associated Press. Only members of the group serve on the schools’ board, according to the system’s president.

The AP also reviewed 15 years of back issues of the organization’s internal magazine, Vine and Branches, which has published birth announcements, photos and other mentions of Barrett and her husband, Jesse, whose family has been active in the group for four decades. On Friday, all editions of the magazine were removed from the group’s website.
https://apnews.com/article/new-orleans-donald-trump-amy-coney-barrett-us-supreme-court-courts-1be61f7c3427e41326038e5cdab54839

Of course there’s always something controversial when the Dark One runs things! He really has a habit of picking people like this doesn’t he? Now the city that’s the most affected by this super secret Catholic cabal is that home to one of the most holiest of universities, the gods of the gridiron, Notre Dame University and South Bend, Indiana. Yes, the People Of Praise helped shape that town, and not exactly ni the best of ways!

SOUTH BEND, Ind. — In 2002, when Amy Coney Barrett moved here to begin her academic career, she joined the faculty at the law school where she’d been a student, attended Notre Dame football games and eventually joined a Primal Fitness gym where she’s currently known for her fierce pullup workout. She also connected with one other local community: People of Praise, a charismatic Christian group founded here in 1971.

Many aspects of her life dovetail with a typical high-achieving résumé: the summa cum laude law degree, the steady stream of academic papers, the family’s picturesque 3,800-square-foot brick home and the legendary Mardi Gras parties they’ve hosted over the years, bringing a little flair from her native suburban New Orleans to Indiana.

Her spiritual group, however, has drawn more questions. People of Praise is one of a number of groups that rose up in the 1960s and '70s to offer intense, highly supportive religious communities, in the style of evangelical churches, within the Catholic tradition. The group, though mostly Catholic, is outside control of the church itself. The group has a website, but doesn’t let reporters visit its worship center. When Barrett was nominated for her federal judgeship in 2017, she didn’t disclose her involvement. Critics, even those wary of making religion an issue in a judicial appointment, have questioned what role its member agreements—it’s “neither an oath nor a vow, but it is an important personal commitment,” the website notes—plays in her legal philosophy. Former members have called it “secretive” and a “cult”—and, above all, it has remained something of an opaque chapter attached to the life of an increasingly public figure.

What’s difficult to understand outside South Bend, however, is just how deeply integrated this group is into the local community. Though the group has only a few thousand local members, and keeps a low profile as an organization, its influence and footprint in the city are significant. That influence, and its resistance to liberal changes in the wider culture, are likely to arise as issues in her Supreme Court nomination hearings, expected to begin Oct. 12.
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/09/27/how-amy-coney-barretts-religious-group-helped-shape-a-city-422329

Yes, surrender your will, my fair congregation! Join a group that wants to take America back to the 14th century! Can witch burnings be far behind? I’m sure that’s what the Good LAWRD JAYSUS would want now is it? Now the question on the table is – should Americans be worried about this? Should they be terrified that a woman who could be deciding the supreme law of the land be a member of a brainwashed cult? And I answer you: probably.

“Secretive”, “cult”, “small religious group”: these are the kinds of words found in media articles describing the “People of Praise” – the Charismatic Christian group of which United States Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett is a member.

Founded in 1971 in South Bend, Indiana, the People of Praise is a community of about 1700 members with a presence in 22 cities across the US, Canada and the Caribbean.

With contemporary media’s religious literacy at low levels and the hyper-partisan context of the US election, this Christian community is coming under intense scrutiny.

“Trump’s pick is a member of a ‘covenant community’ that faces claims of a ‘highly authoritarian’ structure,” declares Australian news outlet The Guardian – scary language that screams “extremism!” to the average reader, no doubt.

But for most practising Christians, the term “covenant” isn’t at all unfamiliar or concerning language. And the accusation of an organisation “facing claims of a ‘highly authoritarian’ structure” could be levelled at almost any organisation on earth – be it a political party, large corporation or a sporting club.
https://www.eternitynews.com.au/world/who-are-supreme-court-nominee-amy-coney-barretts-people-of-praise/

Now it’s not Moses’ fault, now, is it? But here’s where the real worry lies – is that People Of Praise might, you know, subjugate women in particular. And women’s rights are on the table if this judge gets nominated to the highest of high courts. Reproductive rights too. That’s the big prize among the fundamentalist evangelicals. In fact this group has been compared to as the group behind the inspiration for the TV series “The Handmaid’s Tale”!

Coral Anika Theill, a former member of a branch of the group in Corvallis, Oregon, told Newsweek that women are expected to be "absolutely obedient" to their husbands and the men in the group. According to Theill, those who aren't are "shamed, shunned, humiliated."

Members of the People of Praise are also assigned advisers of the same sex, called a "head" for men and a "handmaid" for women—until the latter phrase apparently became too charged following the release of Hulu's television adaption of Margaret Atwood's dystopian novel The Handmaid's Tale. The novel portrays a totalitarian, theocratic regime where women are considered property of the state.

The term "handmaid" is rooted in the Bible. Mary, the mother of Jesus, described herself as "handmaid of the Lord." But the negative connotations from the show prompted People of Praise to start referring to female advisors as "women leaders," according to reports.

For a married women, her husband is her "head"—he makes the decisions for the family and serves as her moral compass. "Total discipline is imposed upon those who submit themselves to their head," said Theill, "and this includes submission of your will, your desire, your actions."

Regarding the allegations by Theill, Sean Connelly, communications director for People of Praise, told Newsweek: "Neither the men nor women leaders in the People of Praise Corvallis branch are aware that there were ever any allegations of physical or mental abuse concerning Ms. Thiell and her husband at the time.

"Her charges of the mistreatment of women, insularity, lack of privacy and shunning are contradictory to our beliefs and our practices as a community."
https://www.newsweek.com/role-women-amy-coney-barrett-people-praise-1534033

I’m not sure that’s how that works there, sir! But that’s why we should be worried about People Of Praise – they are of the believe that the wife is submissive to the husband, and there can be no alternative relationships! So you might wonder how they inspired people, well they inspired the novel and show “The Handmaids Tale”. So they go from secret underground society to potentially running the world! That is a scary thought!

Members of People of Praise are assigned to personal advisers of the same sex—called a "head" for men and "handmaid" for women, until the rise in popularity of Atwood's novel and the television series based on it forced a change in the latter.

Atwood herself has previously referred to the practices of a charismatic Catholic group motivating her to write The Handmaid's Tale, set in the fictional Gilead, where women's bodies are governed and treated as the property of the state under a theocratic regime.

"I delayed writing it for about three years after I got the idea because I felt it was too crazy," Atwood told The New York Times Book Review in 1986.

'Then two things happened. I started noticing that a lot of the things I thought I was more or less making up were now happening, and indeed more of them have happened since the publication of the book."

She added: "There is a sect now, a Catholic charismatic spinoff sect, which calls the women handmaids. They don't go in for polygamy of this kind but they do threaten the handmaids according to the biblical verse I use in the book—sit down and shut up."

While Atwood has not elaborated on which sect she was referring to, a New Yorker profile of the author in 2017 mentions that in a box of newspaper clippings the author collected while writing the novel, there is "an Associated Press item reported on a Catholic congregation in New Jersey being taken over by a fundamentalist sect in which wives were called 'handmaidens'—a word that Atwood had underlined."
https://www.newsweek.com/amy-coney-barrett-people-praise-group-inspired-handmaids-tale-1533293

Hopefully not but that’s what we are up against folks! 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: Brooklyn 99 Vs Reality
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Pop quiz hot shot! So you’re the stars and producers of one of the hottest shows on TV. And said TV show happens to be a comedy about police. And we’re living in an era where there is a lot of hostility towards police. Now the question I put to you, my faithful audience – what do you do? Do you write it in the show or do you ignore it and carry on with the comedy? Well star Andre Braugher, who plays the precinct’s boss Captain Holt has one idea, and the producers of the show have another. This could be one of the defining moments in the show. Or it could not. Again, there’s a number of different ways that this scenario could play out. But for now there’s one way where this could play out.

Given the current political climate, it feels impossible to envision a world in which we go back to enjoying Jake Peralta’s antics on Brooklyn 99. In fact, it’s hard to imagine a police comedy existing at all.

As police TV shows try to grapple with how to continue in the wake of 2020’s racial reckoning, Brooklyn 99 has already made their intentions to tackle police brutality clear.

Star Terry Crews previously revealed that the writers have already scrapped the four episodes they had written and plan to start over.

This was recently confirmed by both star Andre Braugher and creator Dan Goor, who said he just wants “to make sure we get it right.”

But as Braugher discussed the future of the show, it became clear that he wasn’t so sure they could pull it off. In an interview with Variety, he said,

“Brooklyn 99 has to commit itself, as a comedy, to telling the story of how these things happen, and what’s possible to deal with them. I don’t have any easy answers, nor do I have a window into the mind bank of this writing staff. Can you tell the same story? Can anyone in America maintain any kind of innocence about what police departments are capable of?”
http://www.femestella.com/can-brooklyn-99-survive-black-lives-matter-andre-braugher-respondds/

I hope not! Because this show happens to be a comedy, not a drama! Any drama could easily get away with making a piece on the protests because you can make it super dramatic. But how do you make an ensemble comedy and have it be relevant? Well that’s the biggest challenge. And what makes this even more interesting is that Andre Braugher had another role on a far more serious show that was also at the forefront of some serious social change when it was airing. So yeah for him it’s a case of same shit different year!

Well-known as the beloved Capt. Raymond Holt in Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Andre Braugher is now reflecting on his roles as cops amid the Black Lives Matter Movement and the ongoing protests against police brutality.

Prior to joining the cast of the popular NBC sitcom that follows a group of NYPD detectives in Brooklyn's fictional 99th Precinct, Braugher also donned a badge as Det. Frank Pembleton on another NBC hit, Homicide: Life on the Street. In 1998, that role won him the Emmy for outstanding lead actor in a drama series.

“I look up after all these decades of playing these characters, and I say to myself, it’s been so pervasive that I’ve been inside this storytelling, and I, too, have fallen prey to the mythology that’s been built up,” Braugher, 58, recently told Variety.



"It’s almost like the air you breathe or the water that you swim in. It’s hard to see. But because there are so many cop shows on television, that’s where the public gets its information about the state of policing," he continued. "Cops breaking the law to quote, ‘defend the law,’ is a real terrible slippery slope. It has given license to the breaking of law everywhere, justified it and excused it. That’s something that we’re going to have to collectively address — all cop shows."
https://people.com/tv/brooklyn-nine-nine-star-andre-braugher-reflects-on-his-cop-roles-amid-black-lives-matter-movement/

Now this is where it gets tricky. Terry Crews – you know him as the trigger happy, WWE star President Camacho from the movie Idiocracy – they had four episodes written before the death of George Floyd that dealt with this very subject! So what do you do with that information? Well those episodes rightfully got scrapped and I’m sure that you can find the scripts somewhere out there on the interwebs.

Terry Crews said Brooklyn Nine-Nine scrapped several new episodes of the NBC cop comedy in the wake of George Floyd's death and the protests against police brutality that followed.

Crews, 51, who stars as Lieutenant Terry Jeffords on the show, told Access Daily that the cast and crew members of the show have been having frank conversations about racism and how the current events will impact the series.

"We've had a lot of somber talks about it and deep conversations and we hope through this we're going to make something that will be truly groundbreaking this year," Crews said. "We have an opportunity and we plan to use it in the best way possible."

"Our showrunner Dan Goor, they had four episodes all ready to go and they just threw them in the trash. We have to start over," he continued, adding," This is an opportunity right now for us all to united and get together and understand what this is and that we have to battle this together."
https://people.com/tv/terry-crews-says-brooklyn-nine-nine-scrapped-episodes-after-george-floyd-death/

Don’t celebrate just yet sir! But there is some good news – the man himself, Mr. Andy Samberg, has addressed the issue and says that Brooklyn 99 will in fact address current events in the show’s forthcoming 8th season! And how? Well he’s not revealing just yet. Well the good news is that there will be a balance between addressing heavy issues and still providing the comedy. Something that we still haven’t figured out in 4 years of doing this!

Andy Samberg said in a new interview with GQ that upcoming seasons of "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" will balance issues like police brutality with the show's signature brand of comedy.

"We've always seen the show as a fantasy of what we would like the world to look like," Samberg said. "Wouldn't it be amazing if there was a precinct like the Nine-Nine, this core group of detectives that has the moral compass you would wish for, and is truly diverse and represents a lot of different people?"

But the comedian recognized that things have gotten much more complicated for cop-centered shows like "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" in the wake of mass protests against police brutality and the death of George Floyd.

"We don't have the answer yet. I'll tell you that," Samberg said. According to the actor, the show's writers have scrapped original plans for the eighth season in order to "to give it a beat, and feel what's going on a little more, and read more."
https://www.insider.com/andy-samberg-brooklyn-nine-nine-police-brutality-2020-7

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[font size="8"]Conspiracy Corner
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Hello everyone! And welcome back to my underground “layer”. Of course in our attempts to explain the unexplainable we are changing locations every few days to ward off the feds! This week we are coming to you live from our new location in the alkalai flats of the New Mexico badlands! Yes, the same mountain region where Walter White disappeared to. Oh come on. That episode is 6 years old now! We don’t need a spoiler alert anymore! Well now that we got that out of our system our favorite conspirators, Project Veritas, or as I like to call them, the world’s worst intelligence agency, has struck again. Before I explain let me adjust my tin foil hat for maximum government interference. OK… just about done! Well, they’re accusing Minneapolis rep Ilhan Omar of something called “ballot harvesting” when it’s really just them being racist dicks. Well here’s more.

Project Veritas has claimed Democratic Representative Ilhan Omar is engaging in illegal ballot harvesting and a cash-for-ballots scheme in her district in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

The group, which has targeted mainly liberal groups with "sting" operations, posted a video late on Sunday showing what it claims is evidence of an illegal effort to harvest absentee ballots.

The group's founder, James O'Keefe, alleged on Twitter that Omar's team may have bribed voters in Minnesota's 5th congressional district, which she has represented since 2019.

Liban Mohamed is shown in a Snapchat video commenting on the ballots. He is the brother of Minneapolis city council member Jamal Osman.

Newsweek originally reported that Mohamed was an Omar campaign worker. However, a spokesperson for Omar clarified that he does not work for the congresswoman.
https://www.newsweek.com/project-veritas-ilhan-omar-illegal-ballot-harvesting-1534555

So what is ballot harvesting? Well it’s a conspiracy that goes all the way to the president! Yes, the president has accused various precincts – mainly those that did not vote for him – of harvesting ballots from citizens who he deems undesirable (read: anyone who’s not a rich white male). How deep is this conspiracy you might ask? Well it’s pretty deep and like I said, it goes all the way to the president! Cue the horror music!

As President Trump seeks to erode trust in mail-in voting, he has latched on to “ballot harvesting”—a loaded term that is essentially another way of saying “ballot collection”—as proof voting by mail is rife with fraud, though the process is legal in 26 states and the president actually utilized the maneuver himself earlier this year.

There is no proof of widespread fraud when it comes to voting by mail, but that hasn’t stopped the president from pointing to one-off examples to support his claim that the process is rife with fraud.

On Monday, Trump called for an investigation into an unsubstantiated report from Project Veritas—a right-wing activist group that has a track record of publishing misleading stories—that claimed Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) was connected to a cash-for-ballots harvesting scheme (Omar’s office has denied the report).

Ballot collection, or “ballot harvesting,” is a process in which a voter fills out an absentee ballot, seals it and completes the necessary security checks before handing the ballot off to another person to be submitted at a polling/drop-off location.

The process is legal in 26 states, but a dozen of those states restrict the number of ballots a person can collect, while 10 states mandate the collection process can only be completed by the voter’s family member.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jackbrewster/2020/09/28/trump-has-turned-ballot-harvesting-into-a-rallying-cry-against-mail-in-voting-heres-what-it-is/#20d590131de2

That’s probably true. And in some cases, it ranges from “fully legal” to “you must be fucking crazy if you think this is happening”. So here’s where Project Veritas goes completely off the rails. Voter fraud is something that rarely happens. Now one man in New Hampshire not only got trolled, but realized that what happened to him was a sting operation setup by Project Veritas in an effort to out voter fraud. And yeah, Project Veritas can go eat a bag of dicks.

Vincent Marzello didn’t expect to be chatting with a stranger. The 65-year-old from West Lebanon, New Hampshire, sat at a computer in his local library, where he could get 30 minutes of internet, his only real online access. As Marzello remembers it, a youngish, blonde man struck up a conversation: he was from California, had just moved to the area. Then the man suddenly pivoted, musing aloud that he might have voted twice. An odd thing to mention to someone you’d just met; a confession to a crime, really. Marzello got the man’s phone number but never saw him again.

In hindsight, it was preposterously weird. A little over a year earlier, in 2019, Marzello had met with investigators who’d accused him of voting twice in the 2016 general election. He told almost no one about it. Of course, it wasn’t mere coincidence. It was the latest ham-fisted stunt from right-wing activist outfit Project Veritas; Marzello later identified the blonde Californian as Christian Hartsock, a longtime operative with the group (who’s recently been spotted in Wisconsin trawling for voter fraud). That strange meeting in the library was just the beginning of the attack by Veritas—with its billionaire funders and multimillion-dollar budget—targeting a transgender senior citizen living paycheck to paycheck on fast-food wages.

That attack has now reached its climax. Last week, Project Veritas had an on-camera meeting with New Hampshire’s deputy attorney general and the head of the state’s Election Law Unit. James O’Keefe, the organization’s founder and CEO, presented a hidden-camera video of Marzello describing how he’d voted twice in 2016. Later that same day, the attorney general’s office reportedly decided to prosecute Marzello. State police arrested him the next day.
https://jezebel.com/inside-project-veritass-cynical-transphobic-outing-of-1844978487

No, that was Breaking Bad again! But here’s the thing though, Project Veritas operators – we’re onto you! Yeah you can badger us and hound us into oblivion, but your half-assed espionage attempts aren’t going unnoticed! In fact they’re getting noticed and they’re making you an even bigger laughing stock of the whole country! So yeah you might want to sit down and leave the spying to the adults, OK?

This summer, a mystery man named James Fortune began approaching voting rights groups in North Carolina.

Fortune, who claimed to be the operator of a progressive-minded North Carolina gym called “Equality Gym,” donated a few thousand dollars to the groups. Then he started asking whether they could illegally register undocumented immigrants to vote.

As the groups became suspicious, Fortune vanished—leaving behind only a blurry picture of himself, no proof that his gym actually existed, and suspicions that he was using an alias. But the wired money came from a Georgia group with ties to a QAnon House candidate and a network of other Republican figures, raising suspicions among the groups that Fortune was working for right-wing undercover prankster James O’Keefe or an O’Keefe imitator.

Right around the same time that Fortune was attempting to infiltrate progressive North Carolina groups, a so-called documentary film crew called “Zeitgeist Pictures” began interviewing six liberal groups in Wisconsin for what they claimed was a documentary about voting rights. The groups became suspicious, though, after the filmmakers began asking whether the groups were willing to break the law to illegally register voters.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/liberal-groups-fear-james-okeefe-election-sting

Again I say…. Probably! Because here’s the thing about voting rights that you need to know – there’s no voter fraud happening anywhere! The only reason why you’re hearing about is that Trump will claim that any vote against him is voter fraud. I mean seriously this is like that scene in the Dictator where Sascha Cohen gets 95% of the vote. Gee, I wonder how that happened?

Half a dozen liberal groups in Wisconsin say they were deceived by a longtime member of the conservative group Project Veritas this summer in an apparent attempt to get damaging footage of Democrats in a battleground state.

Black Leaders Organizing for Communities, Voces de la Frontera and others on Friday asked Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul to investigate the matter, according to a letter the groups provided to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Kaul has not said what he will do.

Project Veritas for years has misrepresented itself to get an inside look at how Democratic campaigns and liberal groups operate in Wisconsin and around the country. Its secretly recorded videos have hurt some entities, but some of the group’s claims about improprieties have fizzled when independently investigated.

Veritas' founder, James O’Keefe, in 2010 pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor for unlawfully entering federal property as part of an undercover operation at the office of then-U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, a Democrat from Louisiana.
https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/2020/09/16/wisconsin-liberal-groups-tell-attorney-general-they-believe-they-were-targeted-undercover-group-proj/5807312002/

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[font size="8"]People Are Dumb
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Hit it!

Of course you know by now that people are people, and people are dumb. So who is dumb for these last two weeks? Well a whole lot of stupid people! I want to start with this story out of Queensland, Australia, and while it isn’t necessarily a “people are dumb” story but it has some ridiculously dumb reactions to it. And it’s weird enough that it makes this segment because it’s just dumb. So what happened here? Well a semen explosion hit a bull artificial insemination facility. Yes, that happened – that is a sentence that was written. Oh and by the way Semen Explosion – awesome band, I saw them at the Troubadour last year. Just keep them away from the groupies!

A huge fire at a cattle breeding facility in Australia has caused thousands of dollars in damage after at least 100 cylinders containing bull semen were destroyed.

Emergency services were called to the blaze in the early hours at Yarram Herd Services in Gippsland, Victoria.

According to ABC, it took 10 fire crews more than two hours to fully extinguish the fire after it broke out around 3 a.m. local time.

A spokesman from the Country Fire Authority told Daily Mail Australia that the fire had "completely shredded the building."

Country Fire Authority Gippsland commander Chris Loeschenkohl said the crew had to be wary of "projectiles" coming at them while they tackled the blaze.
https://www.newsweek.com/fire-bull-semen-explosion-farm-australia-1459673

Yeah it was kind of like that. Next up – remember those douchebags Jacob Wohl and Jack Berman, who might be in the running for the world’s stupidest spies? Well they make the People Are Dumb file this week for impersonating FBI officers! Yes, Mr. Wohl staged a fake FBI raid on his own partner, allegedly for a “production video”. I mean come on, even the baby in American Sniper can see bullshit from a mile away!

A supposed FBI raid on the home of an infamous Republican dirty trickster appears to have been a ruse—one that began falling apart even as its perpetrators managed to dupe a major national newspaper.

On Monday, a Virginia man who responded to a Craigslist ad seeking actors to play FBI agents for a television pilot came forward to say that he’d been roped into the latest hoax orchestrated by bumbling right-wing smear merchants Jack Burkman and Jacob Wohl.

Tommy Abraham told The Daily Beast in an interview on Monday that the Craigslist ad offered $400 cash payments to white male actors who agreed to don FBI badges and windbreakers and film a series of scenes at Burkman’s home in Arlington, Virginia. In the pre-dawn hours of Monday morning, Abraham said that he and a handful of others who responded to the ad converged on Burkman’s home and were filmed acting out an FBI raid there. Abraham supplied documentary evidence to back up his assertions, including emails from an address bearing the name of a company Wohl once ran.

By Monday afternoon, news of the fake raid had already been reported as genuine by The Washington Post, and Burkman was insinuating that high-level government officials were retaliating against him for his efforts to root out corruption in Washington. A person going by the name Bev Donahue sent a series of photos and video clips of the “raid” to reporters, and shared them on an eponymous Twitter account created in August. But there’s evidence that “Donahue” is just a pseudonym for Wohl. That Twitter account is associated with an email address beginning with “ja” and a cell phone number that, like Wohl’s, ends with the digits 91.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/jacob-wohl-staged-fake-fbi-raid-on-business-partner-actor-hired-for-production-says?ref=wrap

Just remember that if the truck says “Flowers By Irene” it’s most likely the FBI! Next up in People Are Dumb – dumb animals! Actually it’s the people who are dumb in this story. But really don’t fuck with parrots. I cannot emphasize that enough! Because parrots can actually imitate human speech. So when you see a parrot, maybe don’t teach it swear words. It might be funny for a minute but… think of the children!!!

A wildlife park has been forced to removed five newly adopted parrots from public display after they started swearing at customers.

Bosses at Lincolnshire Wildlife Park said they accepted the new flock of bird on August 15. And the group taught each other to swear while in quarantine together.

The park’s chief executive officer Steve Nichols said the naughty antics made the staff laugh, which only encouraged the birds even more.

But swift action had to be taken after the parrots began shouting profanities in front of guests - and then laughing about it - reports LincolnshireLive,

He said: “For the last 25 years, we have always taken in parrots that have sometimes had a bit of blue language and we have really got used to that.
https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/uk-news/foul-mouthed-parrots-removed-uk-19015228

Yeah you might want to turn down the philosophy there, Homer! Next up – of course we have to go to America’s most penis shaped state. The state of Florida. The Sunshine State. And you know that the COVID-19 pandemic is still a thing and not going away anytime soon. But when you refuse to follow the rules, don’t be surprised when you’re kicked out of Disneyland. After all, even the Mouse House has to make a profit too!

Florida man misquotes 'A Bug's Life,' after getting booted from Disney World for not wearing a mask

A guest at Disney’s Hollywood Studios was seen attempting to rally onlookers for support by incorrectly quoting the movie “A Bug’s Life,” while security escorted him out of the park for refusing to wear a face mask.

In a video originally posted to social media on Sept. 15 by Disney fan site WDWT, a man is seen screaming to onlookers about “A Bug’s Life,” in a last ditch effort to drum up support for not wearing his mask.

“Remember the movie that came out at Walt Disney World?,” yells the man. “It was called A Bug’s Life! Remember Hopper? If one guy stands up, one ant stands up, then they’ll all stand up and they’ll lose control.” ..............(more)

https://www.orlandoweekly.com/Blogs/archives/2020/09/16/florida-man-misquotes-a-bugs-life-after-getting-booted-from-disney-world-for-not-wearing-a-mask

Wrong Disney movie. And speaking of the COVID-19 pandemic, there’s acceptable ways to wear a mask, and then there’s what this guy did in the UK. OK wearing a mask made out of snakeskin… that’s mildly acceptable. Wearing the actual snake on the other hand? Definitely not acceptable!

A passenger who was spotted wearing a snake as a mask while travelling on a bus has been warned it is not a legitimate face covering.

The man was seen with a light brown serpent with diamond-shaped markings on its skin wrapped around his mouth and neck on a bus from Swinton to Manchester on Monday.

One passenger, who asked not to be named, said at first she thought the man was wearing a "funky mask" before she spotted the creature slithering over the hand rails.
...
"While there is a small degree of interpretation that can be applied to this, we do not believe it extends to the use of snakeskin - especially when still attached to the snake."

https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-bus-passenger-uses-snake-as-a-face-mask-12072957

Finally this week – congratulations to the Tampa Bay Lightning for winning the 2020 Stanley Cup and you guys earned it during this unbelievable and insane year. But that said, everyone is alarmed about guns, but maybe, I don’t know, read the room before getting the police involved? Yeah don’t call the cops in this scenario please!

A neighbor called sheriff’s deputies on some rabid Tampa Bay Lightning fans who were screaming “shoot! shoot!” as they watched Game 3 of the Stanley Cup final on television Wednesday night.

The call prompted several Hillsborough County Sheriff’s deputies to show up at Devon Garnett’s apartment door. He and two friends had gathered to watch the game at Garnett’s Radius Palms apartment.

In the first period, the trio began screaming for a goal, prompting the 911 call.

The caller told dispatchers someone was yelling loudly in the apartment above just before 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, according to Hillsborough County Sheriff’s spokesperson Natalia Verdina.
https://ktla.com/news/nationworld/florida-man-calls-911-after-neighbors-yell-shoot-shoot-during-hockey-game/

That’s it this week for:

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[font size="8"]Road To The White House
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Welcome back to our ongoing coverage of the 2020 election to end all elections! Yes, the future of America hangs in the balance as Joe Biden looks to unseat Donald J. Trump, who’s bent on going full fascist in the second term! So yes the rumors are true that he might not accept the election results, which would put the United States in uncharted territory. How do you deal with a wannabe tyrant who’s bent on becoming a full bore tyrant? Well it’s entirely possible that Trump will go full bore tyrant and refuse to leave office. And there’s a number of scenarios that it could play out. So why is this scenario even in play?

President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign is looking less like a run for office and more like an operation to justify disputing the election result in the event Trump loses in November.

At a rally in Newport News, Virginia, on Friday night, Trump again refused to say whether he would peacefully transition out of the White House if he loses the presidential election this November, suggesting he would only do so if he was convinced Democrats and their presidential nominee, Joe Biden, did not cheat.

“We’ve gotta watch this ballot scam, because they’re scamming us. And then they say, ‘He doesn’t want to turn over [power].’ Of course I do. But it’s gotta be a fair election,” Trump told the rally crowd.

This scam — which does not exist — became apparent, Trump told his audience, “when they’re losing ballots all over the place, when they’re losing ballots that just happen to be Trump ballots.”

This was an apparent reference to an incident earlier this week in which nine mail-in ballots were found discarded in the trash in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, at least seven of which were cast for the president. While the Justice Department and FBI have opened investigations into the incident, there’s no initial evidence of malfeasance, either locally or nationally. This has created the appearance of a politically motivated investigation, as Vox’s Andrew Prokop explained:
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2020/9/26/21457193/trump-leave-office-loses-election-ballot-scam

So yeah Trump’s paranoia is complete, 100% total bullshit. But why is it gaining traction? Even the Constitution of the United States guarantees that a new leader will be chosen once ever four years, and that leader will be inaugurated on January 20th the following year. But then again we’re also still in the middle of a raging pandemic and that’s not going away anytime soon. But this is what could possibly transpire:

For months now, President Trump has carefully planted the seed that he might not leave the office of the presidency willingly if he loses.

Whether it’s tweeting that the election should be delayed as it “will be the most inaccurate and fraudulent election in history” or that there will be widespread voter fraud because of the expected uptick in mail ballots due to the coronavirus, Trump seems intent on undermining the electoral process.

This, in turn, raises a rather thorny and unprecedented question: What happens if Trump won’t go? The answer is bleak. Experts tell me that the president actually has a lot of power at his discretion to contest the election, and some of the scenarios that could bring us to the edge of a crisis are actually very plausible.

Consider this one: It’s late on Election Day, and hundreds of thousands of votes in key battleground states still have to be counted due to the increased use of mail and absentee voting because of the pandemic. As a result, media outlets have largely avoided calling the race, but based on the votes that have been counted, Trump leads in enough states to reach at least 270 electoral votes, which would be enough to win the election if his election-night lead holds. Trump claims victory, but because Democrats were much more likely to vote by mail than Republicans, Joe Biden eventually pulls ahead because of the Democratic lean of the remaining votes — a phenomenon known as the “blue shift.”
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/what-if-trump-loses-and-wont-leave/

If you’re talking about Trump that is most definitely true! But just how ugly could this very real scenario get? Well it could very well be an act of war against the United States. And if that happens you will see the shit hit the proverbial fan! And that’s not going to be good for anybody involved. War is most definitely not the answer, but then again neither is Donald Trump.

The peaceful and voluntary presidential transition is one of the enduring glories of American democracy. The precedent was established by George Washington, who refused to run for a third term despite pressure to do so in 1797.

No American president has ever sought to retain the presidency after losing an election. There have been many close elections in presidential history such as the Kennedy-Nixon race in 1960 and the Bush-Gore contest in 2000.

In the 1960 race Nixon supporters groused that voter fraud they alleged was orchestrated by Lyndon Johnson supporters in Texas and Mayor Daley's Democratic machine in Chicago tilted a very close race to John F. Kennedy. Despite these suspicions, Nixon swiftly dropped any fraud challenge and graciously accepted Kennedy's ascension to the presidency.

Al Gore did the same thing when the Supreme Court ruled George W. Bush the winner by a razor thin majority of contested Florida votes in the 2000 election.

Both losing candidates earned the respect of the nation for what appeared to be a selfless decision to unite behind a new president rather than demand a prolonged voter fraud investigation.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/17/opinions/if-trump-loses-and-refuses-to-leave-callan/index.html

That is a good point! So things could get really ugly really quickly if Trump decries that his loss is fake news and goes and retreats to Sean Hannity. But hopefully Biden is correct that Trump will concede if he loses. Because you don’t want to be on the receiving end of that, and it’s something that could really throw the nation into turmoil that hasn’t been seen since the Civil War.

Democratic nominee Joe Biden called President Trump's refusal to commit to a peaceful of transfer of power if he loses the election "a typical Trump distraction."

"I'm confident that [despite] all of the irresponsible, outrageous attacks on voting, we'll have an election in this country as we always have had," Biden said in an interview Friday with MSNBC. "And he'll leave."

The former vice president also said "it will be clear from the beginning where this is going," a contrast with the warnings of many election experts who say the public should brace for days of uncertainty if the election is close.

Biden said he is confident in the courts, Congress, the military and national security agencies to carry out the rule of law.

"The last thing we need is the equivalent of a coup," Biden said. "I mean, this is not who we are. No one's going to back him when that occurs, if that were to occur. I think ... the whole notion of him talking about this ... is to take our eye off the ball, not to talk about what's happening to the people dying."
https://www.npr.org/2020/09/25/916932484/biden-says-hes-confident-trump-will-leave-office-if-he-loses

See you next week!

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