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Top 10 Idiots

Top 10 Idiots's Journal
Top 10 Idiots's Journal
July 29, 2020

Top 10 Conservative Idiots #9-6: Person. Woman. Man. Camera. TV. Edition


Top 10 Conservative Idiots #9-6: Person. Woman. Man. Camera. TV. Edition

Welcome back to the Top 10 Conservative Idiots! How’s everybody doing? Are you guys doing fucking good? I know, right? Now you might be asking “Where is the Wheel Of Corruption”? Well, that’s one of those things that is meant for a live audience and we’ll bring it back when we can have live audiences again. But since we’re stuck at home it would be impossible to put the wheel and all its’ various controls and setup is not meant for a home audience, it is currently lying dormant in a large warehouse next to the Arc Of The Covenant. But it will be back, that is one thing we can assure you! And we might feature some clips of religious conservatives saying and doing stupid things from time to time. Do we have time for the thing? Of course we do! Man we are so bored right now that the news is literally repeating itself, and how do I know this? Because way back in Idiots #3-8, I reported on the creepy clown motel in Tonopah, Nevada. Well, this hotel is back in the news because since COVID has made people afraid to fly on planes right now, people are talking about bringing back a long lost American tradition - the road trip. And what better road trip than to relieve something that looks like it could be stolen out of a horror movie? Well come on it’s a creepy clown hotel that’s located right next to a cemetery! What’s creepier than that? Hey kids, you want to see a dead body? Well, COVID might take care of that one but I’m not touching that one with a 10 foot pole. 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 some actual human trafficking in China, and well, it’s more horrifying than you could ever possibly imagine:



Where do we begin this week? Another crappy week under COVID, of course. But in the #1 slot this week is the DOJ (1)! Yes, Trump’s DOJ has employed a secret police to Portland and is actively rounding up citizens. This is the government that your creepy, conspiracy theory loving uncle has been warning you about this whole time! Taking the second slot this week is of course the guy who we inexplicably still call president, Donald J. Trump (2), and he went on Fox News and took a cognitive test, and subsequently proved that he is a literal conservative idiot! At slot #3, is Kanye West (3), and he has lost his shit big time in his “run” for president, even though we know it’s secretly a plot to plug his new album which drops next week! Taking the 4th slot this week, is the Maskholes (4), and what is happening in the beach community of Newport Beach? I think the Sheriff Of Malibu might want to have a word with these idiots! Taking the 5th slot this week is of course our weekly investigative piece, Top 10 Investigates (5) and this week we’re going to update you on the latest on COVID vaccines and treatments – and answer the question “when can we get back to normality?” Hopefully sooner than later! Taking the sixth slot this week, is our weekly visit to the Holy Church Of The Top 10 in “Holy Shit” and this week, speaking of COVID, our resident pastor is going to present to you some churches attempting to make their own miracle cures for this dreaded virus! Don’t drink the Kool-Aid! At slot #7, is a new edition of “People Who Somehow Got Elected” and this week, after making some absolutely hideous comments about schools reopening, we’re going to add Missouri governor Mike Parson (7) to our ever-growing list! Taking the 8th slot this week is a new edition of Conspiracy Corner (8), and this week, after Q Anon fans targeted home furniture manufacturer Wayfair in their sex trafficking scheme, Twitter has finally announced that they’ve had enough! Break out the tin foil hats! In the number 9 (NEIN!!!) slot this week is a new “I Need A Drink” (9), and we welcome the return of baseball (sort of) but one team is noticeably absent from the season – the Toronto Blue Jays! Our friends to the north are nowhere to be found and we will get drunk and get to the bottom of this mystery! Finally this week, is our Road To The White House (10) coverage, and this week former president Obama sits down with future president Joe Biden, and we will bring you the highlights! Man, I miss presidents who could speak in complete sentences! Enjoy! And as always don’t forget the key!

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[font size="8"]Donald Trump
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So in case you’re wondering what some good old fashioned iron-fist style autocracy will look like when it comes to the United States Of America, well guess what? It’s already here! Because we got a glimpse of what it would look like in Portland last week. See, the protest zone in downtown Portland is only two blocks long and two blocks wide. But if you saw Fox News last week you’d think the whole damn city was burning down and that the Taliban was taking over! AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! We’re all gonna die by protestors!!! Well maybe not really, but while the rest of us are staring in horror, here’s the real shit that went down that Fox won’t tell you.

Attorney General William P. Barr forcefully defended the federal response to long-running protests in Portland on Tuesday, telling the House Judiciary Committee that the protests had become violent. The federal intervention has been condemned by state and city officials, but Mr. Barr argued it was necessary to prevent violence from spreading to other American cities.

The nightly protests in Portland, which began in late May as a response to the police killing of George Floyd, have become the backdrop for a conflict between federal officials and local leaders. Mr. Barr and other federal officials have drawn attention to vandalism and other reckless behavior on the part of the protesters, while city officials have said that federal agents dispatched to the district court in downtown Portland have exceeded their authority and harmed peaceful protesters.

There are currently 114 federal law enforcement officers in Portland, according to a legal filing from the U.S. attorney’s office, drawn from various agencies including Customs and Border Protection and the Federal Protective Service. Their presence has reinvigorated tensions that had been subsiding, local officials said. Several peaceful protesters have been seriously injured, including a Navy veteran whose hand was smashed by officers and a man who was shot with a projectile that fractured his skull.

“As I’ve said from the beginning, these peaceful protests are being hijacked by a very hard core of instigators, violent instigators,” Mr. Barr said. “Police casualties far exceed anything on the civilian side.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/28/us/portland-protests-violence-tactics-barr-fact-check.html




Yeah so picture it like the USSR returning and that’s what you get. But the truth is even more frightening about what Trump and his cabal are doing. Unfortunately we won’t get to cover the Barr hearings until next week but definitely stay tuned for that! But that was just a preview, think of it like the sneak trailer because we don’t have movie theaters right now, so no trailers. That was just a taste. The real festivities will be going nationwide!

President Donald Trump said Thursday that he's willing to send as many as 75,000 federal agents into American cities to quell violent crime, a recent campaign theme for the President.
Speaking in a telephone interview on Fox News, Trump began by saying he was ready to dispatch "50,000, 60,000 people" into American cities.

But eventually he upped the figure to 75,000 -- but said it would require local authorities asking for help.
"We have to be invited in. At some point we'll have to do something much stronger than being invited in," Trump said.

"We'll go into all of the cities, any of the cities. We're ready," he added.
Deploying 75,000 officers would mark a significant portion of all federal officers in the country. According to a 2019 report from the Bureau of Justice Statistics, there were approximately 100,000 federal law enforcement officers in the entire United States in 2016, the last year for which data was available.

Trump's comments come as he has tried to make federal policing a campaign issue, portraying cities as violent and out of control in an appeal to suburban residents. The President said Wednesday that he will "surge" federal law enforcement officers to Chicago and other American cities, despite resistance from local leaders, as he adopts a hardline "law and order" mantle ahead of November's election.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/23/politics/trump-federal-agents-us-cities/index.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fcnn_allpolitics+%28RSS%3A+CNN+-+Politics%29




Hey clean that up! But the shit is definitely about to hit the fan, my friends! Oh yes. We haven’t seen anything yet. Right now it’s contained to a two by two block radius in downtown Portland. But it will be coming to a city near you. Imagine this being deployed in Seattle, San Diego, Los Angeles, Denver, Dallas, Miami, Washington DC, New York City… Trump could do some serious damage here. And he’s not done yet!

About 1,000 demonstrators returned to downtown streets Monday for the 61st consecutive day after a weekend featuring the largest protest crowds in weeks and numerous clashes with federal police.

Monday again brought waves of tear gas from federal officials who labeled the gathering “unlawful” in response to repeated fireworks and a volley of trash thrown over a fence surrounding the federal courthouse.

Portland protesters have shown up every night for two straight months after the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd. Crowds have rallied against police brutality, anti-Black racism and, in recent weeks, the federal government’s response to the city’s protests.

Federal officials have repeatedly said officers who use tear gas and shoot riot munitions on protesters are embedded in the downtown courthouse to protect it. On Monday, officials placed concrete barriers on both sides of the fence surrounding the building to stabilize the structure.
https://www.oregonlive.com/portland/2020/07/portland-protests-return-for-61st-day-after-weekend-of-large-crowds-clashes-with-officers.html




Yeah the real Doomsday Device is currently sitting at the Resolute Desk inside the Oval Office at the White House. That’s another joke that would kill in front of a live audience! So our president is currently sitting on the batshit level somewhere between spy movie supervillain and supreme overlord of the entire universe. He wants to be there. But he’s barely an Ernest Stavo Blofeld. Hell, he’s barely even Dr. Evil yet, but you know that he wants to be!

A predominantly white city tucked away in the northwest corner of the USA hardly seems the logical spot to emerge as the new flashpoint of the protests against racism and police brutality that have raged across the country for nearly two months.

Then again, both Portland and its home state of Oregon have a troubled past that animates the demonstrations, in their eighth week.

Add to that a president sinking in the polls and eager to rally his base behind a vow to “dominate the streets” in an election year, and suddenly, Portland has been thrust into the national spotlight for something other than quirkiness.

Experts said the unrequested and unwelcome arrival of federal law enforcement agents in recent weeks and their violent confrontations with protesters in the city’s downtown rekindled a movement that had been simmering down.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/07/21/portland-protests-fueled-oregons-very-dark-history-racism/5483884002/





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[font size="8"]Donald Trump
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Oh my fucking god. This man is the current leader of the free world. I’m too embarrassed to even begin to comprehend this segment. You know what? Let’s roll the damn tape.



That guy is our current president. That guy. The guy who thought drinking a glass of water was a test of coherence now thinks that being able to name five things is a test of cognitive ability. Well guess what, jack? We can name five things too! How about jackass, idiot, asshole, douchebag, jerkoff? See that’s the kind of joke that would kill in front of a live audience right now! Man, I miss live audiences. But really I think Trump might be losing it. If this is what he thinks is a good thing, I would really hate to picture what he thinks is a bad thing.

Donald Trump, the president of the United States, has insisted that a cognitive test he took recently was “difficult”, using the example of a question in which the patient is asked to remember and repeat five words.

“Person, woman, man, camera, TV,” Trump explained, saying that listing the words in order was worth “extra points”, and that he found the task easy.

“They said nobody gets it in order, it’s actually not that easy. But for me it was easy. And that’s not an easy question,” he told Fox News medical analyst and New York University professor of medicine Marc K Siegel.

Trump said that a year ago he asked former White House physician Ronny Jackson whether there was “some kind of cognitive test” he could take, he said, “Because I’ve been hearing about it. Because I want to shut these people up. They’re fake news. They’re making up stories.’”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jul/23/person-woman-man-camera-tv-trump-insists-cognition-test-was-difficult




Seriously, MI-6 had better cognitive tests than that! I mean this whole thing is certifiably insane. So one minute, President Stable Genius goes on one of the most unhinged rants you’ve ever heard in your entire life. And the next minute? Well he’s claiming that nobody likes him and that Dr. Fauci has a higher popularity rating than he does! Hey, that’s why you were given the test, dipshit!

"It’s interesting. He’s got a very good approval rating, and I like that. It’s good," Trump said during a press briefing at the White House. "Because, remember, he’s working for this administration. He’s working with us. We could’ve gotten other people. We could’ve gotten somebody else. It didn't have to be Dr. Fauci. He's working with our administration, and for the most part, we've done pretty much what he and others ... recommended."

"He’s got this high approval rating, so why don’t I have a high approval rating ... with respect to the virus?" Trump wondered aloud.

The president cited the administration's increased production of masks, gowns, ventilators and other equipment after hospitals and state leaders warned in the early weeks of the pandemic that they were lacking those critical supplies. Trump also highlighted the sheer volume of testing the U.S. has performed, another area where the administration was slow to ramp up.

"It sort of is curious," Trump said. "A man works for us, with us, very closely, Dr. Fauci and Dr. [Deborah] Birx, also highly thought of, and yet they're highly thought of, but nobody likes me. It can only be my personality. That’s all."
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/509464-trump-questions-how-fauci-has-a-high-approval-rating-but-nobody-likes#.XyClMeNDRpA.twitter




Well, President Simple Jack does have one point – if you want to see the test of one’s cognitive ability don’t look at popularity ratings, look at how well it can form a password. Because the strength of one’s password can count as an IQ test. So could he have been trying to remember his password or was it something else? I mean come on, even President Skroob in Spaceballs could remember a 5 digit suitcase combination!

When President Trump used ‘Person Woman Man Camera TV’ during a recent Fox News interview with Mark Siegel, it didn't take long for the phrase to become an internet sensation.

Twitter joked that President Trump was probably trying to remember his new password by repeating 'Person Woman Man Camera TV' but the math reveals why that would be a terrible idea.

Sarah Cooper recorded a lip-sync video spoof that has had millions of views, The Late Show and The Daily Show hosts also saw the comedy routine potential of what had quickly become an internet meme.

Twitter users were equally quick to humorously suggest that maybe Trump had made it the new nuclear code or the presidential email password. Others tweeted they had changed their passwords from 'Correct Horse Battery Staple' to 'Person Woman Man Camera TV.'

The cybersecurity geek in me feels compelled to explain why doing so would be a very bad idea, and not just because the phrase is so well-known now. In fact, I got a couple of well-respected password math geeks to help with that explanation, so strap in as here we go.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/daveywinder/2020/07/26/how-math-reveals-person-woman-man-camera-tv-doesnt-ace-the-password-test-trump-meme/#55432a01378c




Yeah really! By the way if you want a real test of one’s cognitive ability, why don’t you just take a good look at the people who they call “experts”. Because you know that Trump is going all in on his bullshit hydroxychloroquine “cure” for COVID-19, despite the fact that it’s been dangerously unproven by the FDA and AMA. But if these are the “experts” then who are the idiots? And don’t think I won’t tear into this in full next week!

A Houston doctor who praises hydroxychloroquine and says that face masks aren’t necessary to stop transmission of the highly contagious coronavirus has become a star on the right-wing internet, garnering tens of millions of views on Facebook on Monday alone. Donald Trump Jr. declared the video of Stella Immanuel a “must watch,” while Donald Trump himself retweeted the video.

Before Trump and his supporters embrace Immanuel’s medical expertise, though, they should consider other medical claims Immanuel has made—including those about alien DNA and the physical effects of having sex with witches and demons in your dreams.

She alleges alien DNA is currently used in medical treatments, and that scientists are cooking up a vaccine to prevent people from being religious. And, despite appearing in Washington, D.C. to lobby Congress on Monday, she has said that the government is run in part not by humans but by “reptilians” and other aliens.

Immanuel gave her viral speech on the steps of the Supreme Court at the “White Coat Summit,” a gathering of a handful of doctors who call themselves America’s Frontline Doctors and dispute the medical consensus on the novel coronavirus. The event was organized by the right-wing group Tea Party Patriots, which is backed by wealthy Republican donors.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/stella-immanuel-trumps-new-covid-doctor-believes-in-alien-dna-demon-sperm-and-hydroxychloroquine?





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[font size="8"]Kanye West
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Speaking of absolutely batshit crazy, mentally unwell people, I don’t know about this one, do we continue shaming Kanye for his bizarre run for president when we’re less than 100 days out from the real, actual election or do we get him the help that he so desperately needs? I think we still need to shame him. So he failed to get on the ballot in South Carolina, one of the last states that still needs to have their presidential primary, which was pushed back because of the current COVID crisis. But it appears that batshit crazy billionaires are a special breed, since they seem to only interact with each other and not the general public. But should Kanye just postpone until 2024? Yeah probably!

Elon Musk has some advice regarding Kanye West's 2020 presidential bid: Wait four more years.

In a wide-ranging interview with The New York Times published Saturday (July 25), the Tesla and SpaceX founder gave his thoughts on West's plans to run for president and touched on the rapper and fashion mogul's recent Twitter rants.

After West tweeted on July 4 that he was running for president, Musk quickly responded, "You have my full support!" Musk believes, however, that 2024 might be a better time for the rapper's ambitious political run.

“I’ve done my best to convince him that 2024 would be better than 2020,” Musk told The Times, explaining that he wouldn't want West to be accused of splitting the Black vote for presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden.

During the interview, Musk, who said he's known West for "at least 10 years," also noted that he checked up on the rapper following his recent "tweet rampage," during which Ye accused his wife, Kim Kardashian, of sending a doctor to Wyoming to "lock me up" and claimed that the 2017 horror movie Get Out was about him, among other seemingly unconnected topics.
https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/9424676/elon-musk-kanye-west-president-2024




Uh… you sure about that Kanye? This hasn’t exactly been what one would call a “great year” by any stretch of the imagination! Hell, it hasn’t even been a mediocre year! But do we really need an unstable narcissist like Kanye becoming commander in chief? Would he be any better than the one we have in office currently? No. Fuck I need a boring leader to come back! Please, Kanye please!

Yeezy wants to do Jersey.

Kanye West filed petitions Tuesday to be on the ballot as an independent presidential candidate in New Jersey.

The superstar rapper, who announced that he was making a bid for the White House on July 4, needs to file 800 valid signatures to be included on the Garden State’s general election ballot alongside President Trump, Democrat Joe Biden and others in the deep blue state.

Currently, he’s on the ballot in Oklahoma, filed in Missouri, and has until Thursday to file paperwork for New York’s election.

West denies that his presidential run is a publicity stunt for his new album.
https://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/ny-kanye-west-president-new-jersey-20200728-xdy54ans3fdzdj4juwitcsmvle-story.html




Well there’s two things from 2020 that I want to go away permanently – Coronavirus and Kanye’s presidential campaign. So you might be asking, why the hell is he doing this? And as long as this is going to be a thing we are going to keep covering it! In fact Kanye is so serious that he’s already on the ballot in five states. I wish I were making this up. Fuck why can’t I time travel out of this year?

On July 4, Kanye West tweeted that he was running for president. It was treated as one of his typical grandiloquent pronouncements. The tweet sparked a lot of opinion pieces, cable news segments, and even a question in an Oval Office interview with Donald Trump. But most people brushed it off. In a follow-up interview with Forbes, West pledged, if elected, to run the White House like the nation of Wakanda from Black Panther. That remark seemed to reinforce the notion that this was just a lark. After all, West had previously compared himself to figures varying from God to Willy Wonka without attempting to establish the Kingdom of Heaven or manufacture an Everlasting Gobstopper.

But this time may — at least for a moment — be different. According to multiple campaign professionals who spoke with Intelligencer, West took early steps last week toward getting his name on the ballot in Florida and other states as a third-party candidate running against Joe Biden and Donald Trump.

On Wednesday, July 8, around the time West tweeted and deleted an image of a fetus at the six-month mark of gestation with the caption “these souls deserve to live,” I was connected with a source who had been approached to work for the rapper’s presidential campaign. The source, who asked not to be named, was a political operative who had experience in this kind of work. I was extremely skeptical — but after talking with this person and others, I was convinced that West (or someone close to him) was at least toying with a real-life plan to build a campaign operation.
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/07/kanyes-short-lived-attempt-to-get-on-the-2020-ballot.html




Not sure about that one there, slick. Because here’s the one underlying issue why you shouldn’t vote for a fringe candidate like Kanye. Not only would it make Kim Kardashian our first lady, he is batshit fucking insane. And he’s got some serious issues. That’s not the kind of guy who we want leading the free world right now. Especially in a time of crisis like we’re currently dealing with.

Take Kanye West's illness more seriously than his presidential ambitions
Readers — and prospective voters — need context and subjects need dignity when they are vulnerable.
Sally Satel
Opinion contributor

On the Fourth of July, Kanye West, the billionaire hip hop star, tweeted that he was running for president. He quickly paid $35,000 to qualify for the ballot in Oklahoma and then filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission.

The media rushed in. West, is an uber-celebrity married to uber-celebrity Kim Kardashian and a man given to wild, often amusing pronouncements. And so, his early riffs were treated as a humorous curiosity, a relief from the COVID-19 epidemic.

But what was happening here was not the least bit funny. You don't have to be a psychiatrist (as I am) to know that West is not in a rational frame of mind. The proper reaction is neither to take him seriously nor to laugh at him.
Kanye is not being rational

Consider the following bizarre things West said during a meandering four-hour phone interview that Forbes distilled into a July 8 article and that has so far garnered more than 3.1 million hits.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2020/07/22/kanye-west-running-president-serious-bipolar-illness-column/5479679002/





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[font size="8"]The Maskhole Files
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Holy shit, people! How hard is it to wear a god damn mask in the middle of the worst pandemic in a century? These people have lost their fucking minds. Look, we all want some kind of normal in this weird pandemic world that has been unleashed upon us. No one likes this socially distant hell that we’ve been forced to endure since the Coronavirus outbreak. But people just don’t seem to fucking get what dire straights that we are in. Take for instance a beach town that is not too far from my own – Huntington Beach. God damn motherfucking Huntington Beach. Why have you become the symbol of mask tyranny during the Great Pandemic?

As Brad Colburn whisked his metal detector over the tan sands of Huntington Beach, a rejection of Orange County’s spiking coronavirus infection rates surfaced.

“I don’t believe it. I don’t believe the rates are rising,” Colburn said. “They’re inflated. It’s another way of shutting everything down … of the Democrats trying to get what they want.”

The 58-year-old Huntington Beach resident said he has yet to wear a mask outside of shopping. Standing by a beach path as cyclists and in-line skaters zoomed by, he offered his own alternative policy to restrictive coronavirus health orders.

“If you don’t want to go outside, don’t go outside,” Colburn said.

More than any other place in California, Huntington Beach has come to symbolize resistance to many of the coronavirus safety rules government officials have imposed in recent months. It’s not as though no one in the city is wearing masks and social distancing.
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-07-22/doubts-about-dangers-of-covid-19-linger-in-huntington-beach




Seriously where is the Sheriff of Malibu when you need him? Maybe that’s not in his jurisdiction? But anyway here’s what is coming next. There’s a lot of Maskholes out there and remember in a pandemic, one with an extremely contagious disease at that, everything – even the most banal, mundane tasks that would otherwise not be a problem - becomes a life or death situation. And by the way who is more likely to refuse to wear masks? Well it’s pretty obvious.

Two recent studies looked at the relationship between personality traits and reactions to restrictions put in place to slow the spread of the coronavirus COVID-19. Researchers found that people possessing so-called "Dark Triad" traits—narcissism, psychopathy and Machiavellianism—were less likely to comply with restrictions or engage in preventative measures against the pandemic. However, researchers also emphasized the small role personality traits have in the overall response to pandemic restrictions, like face-mask mandates and social-distancing requirements.

Both studies, which, combined, surveyed more than a thousand people in Poland, were published in the peer-reviewed academic journal Personality and Individual Differences.

In "Adaptive and maladaptive behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic: The role of Dark Triad traits, collective narcissism, and health beliefs," researchers Bartłomiej Nowaka and Paweł Brzóska of the SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities in Poland, along with co-authors at other universities, surveyed 755 people between the ages of 18 and 78 in the second half of March—in the third and fourth weeks of government pandemic restrictions.

The study used a combination of existing diagnostic tools for evaluating Dark Triad traits and a "Health Belief scale" modified to evaluate people's perceptions regarding the severity of, and their susceptibility to, COVID-19. Finally, the researchers asked questions to determine how likely participants were (on a one-to-four scale, from "definitely not" to "definitely yes&quot to engage in both preventive measures like decontamination and hoarding measures like stockpiling food.
https://www.newsweek.com/narcissists-psychopaths-face-mask-requirement-mandate-social-distancing-covid-19-coronavirus-1519732




Of course that’s pretty obvious. In fact we might do a feature where we ask for your personal stories of Maskholes out in the wild. But in a pandemic with a highly contagious disease, you’re not just putting yourself in danger when you venture out in public, you’re putting everyone they come across in danger, and you’re putting everyone those people come across in danger. It’s exponential math. But even Wal-Mart is taking precautions now. Wal-Mart! Well… sort of.

Walmart and other major retailers made headlines last week with a new requirement for customers to wear masks in its US stores. But the new rules only go so far.

Walmart, Home Depot, Lowe's, Walgreens, CVS and others say they still won't prohibit customers who refuse to wear a mask from shopping in stores. The issue, they say, is they want to avoid confrontations between angry customers and employees.

Retailers and their employees are finding themselves playing the uncomfortable role of mask police. The increase in coronavirus cases is prompting concern over how to protect both customers and workers in crowded stores from infecting each other.

There is no federal mandate to wear a mask, and many state and local governments have not required wearing one. This has forced retailers to navigate a patchwork system and left them in the position of having to create their own policies.
https://wrex.com/2020/07/25/walmart-and-others-will-still-serve-customers-who-refuse-to-wear-masks-despite-new-rules/




Really, I had no idea that Homer was a Wal-Mart greeter. Next he might be a buyer for Amazon because you know that’s how they roll. But if you do encounter people who refuse to wear masks in public don’t be an asshole. That’s not a good look. Because if it backfires on you, then you’re the asshole. And I’ve said time and time again that shaming and doxing is never a good idea, no matter what the situation – it’s a two way street!

Costco Karen; Walmart Karen; Starbucks Karen; Target Karen. Name a US retail establishment and there’s probably a viral video of a “Karen” (internet slang for an angry white woman) fuming about face masks in it or getting chased out of the store for refusing to wear one. “Mask meltdown” videos have become a feature of the pandemic, part of a larger trend of mask-shaming. Sneering at people who refuse to wear face coverings has become a particularly viral form of virtue signalling.

Britain is a few months behind parts of the US in terms of masks. In New York, where I live, they’ve been compulsory in most public places since April. But with face coverings becoming mandatory for English shoppers this week (and already compulsory in Scotland) I’m sure it won’t be long before mask-shaming is as rampant in the UK as it is over here.

Yes, people who refuse to wear face masks are selfish. Yes, they’re putting lives in danger. But do they deserve to be vilified and publicly shamed? I don’t think so. Not just because public shaming is often ineffective but because they’re not the biggest villains here: the people who truly deserve our anger are the public figures and authorities – everyone from the US’s surgeon general to representatives of the World Health Organization – who, until fairly recently, told us that masks were useless if not dangerous, before doing a U-turn and insisting we all wear one.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jul/22/shaming-people-who-refuse-to-wear-face-masks-isnt-a-good-look





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[font size="8"]Top 10 Investigates: Vaccine Latest
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It's time to investigate beyond the headlines! This is Top 10 Investigates!



As the 2020 Coronavirus pandemic rages on and ravages North America and the rest of the world, people are wondering when we will be able to have treatments and cures available that will combat this virus and we can get on with our lives? Well, there’s several scenarios that can happen and we will even discuss what happens if there’s no vaccine found that can cure this thing. One of the biggest vaccine trials is happening at the University Of Oxford. That’s of course in England. There, they have developed what is probably the most advanced vaccine for COVID that is known around the world right now and it is entering the proverbial phase 3 of its’ human trials. So how does that work? And what has to happen for the vaccine to be approved ? There are many possibilities.

Andréa Barbosa was thrilled to be jabbed in the arm. The 46-year-old ophthalmologist is one of the 5,000 volunteers in the clinical trial in Brazil of a COVID-19 vaccine candidate, ChAdOx1. The vaccine is being developed by the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom in collaboration with the biopharmaceutical company AstraZeneca.

In May, Soumya Swaminathan, the head scientist of the World Health Organization, called ChAdOx1 the most advanced COVID-19 vaccine candidate.

Phases one and two of the clinical trial took place simultaneously in April in southern England, when safety and immune responses were checked in more than a thousand healthy volunteers ages 18 to 55. The vaccine is now in the third and final development phase: testing volunteers in Brazil at the Federal University of São Paulo’s Reference Center for Special Immunobiologicals, as well as at two locations run by the D'Or Institute for Research and Education.

That makes Brazil an important proving ground as this vaccine candidate continues its rapid march toward approval by the U.K.’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). Eventually, the ChAdOx1 clinical study will also take place in the United Kingdom, the United States, and South Africa, aiming to recruit up to 50,000 volunteers. Preliminary results from all these trials will be collected through November, and if they confirm that the vaccine is effective, the Oxford team will submit it for an initial registration with MHRA by the end of the year.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2020/07/oxford-vaccine-enters-final-phase-of-covid-19-trials-in-brazil-cvd/




Wherever these wonderful drugs are, we need them! Because everyone wants to get back to the lives we had before this nightmare pandemic started and the bizarre world that we live in right now has become to disappear. So even if a vaccine is created and it’s proven to be successful in combating COVID, then who gets it first? Where are the priorities? Well, again that is also something that could play out in a number of different ways.

MILWAUKEE (SPECTRUM NEWS) — Across the world, scientists are racing to craft an effective coronavirus vaccine, with more than 160 candidates in various stages of development. Researchers in the U.K. and the U.S. recently published promising results, and government officials have projected that a vaccine will be available by the end of the year.

But with demand for vaccine doses spanning the entire world, the distribution will mean more time will pass before many Americans actually get their shot. So, when the first limited doses arrive, who gets dibs?

The short answer: No one really knows yet. It’s a debate that is currently getting underway in Wisconsin and just about everywhere else, bringing in public health officials, bioethicists, epidemiologists, and more to weigh in.

“It's important because of what's at stake,” says Paul Kelleher, a professor of bioethics and philosophy at UW-Madison. “And it's also important because no individual should have the sole say in how this unfolds.”
https://spectrumnews1.com/wi/madison/news/2020/07/24/who-will-get-a-coronavirus-vaccine-first---and-who-decides-




Yes, it could be contraband. Getting doses of a vaccine could be the kind of thing that starts wars if we’re not careful about distribution. So while the UK is working on the vaccine that could possibly save the world from the dreaded COVID-19 virus, what about efforts on North American soil? The promising vaccines from Johnson & Johnson and Moderna are not to be forgotten though.

The first large study of the safety and effectiveness of a coronavirus vaccine in the United States began on Monday morning, according to the National Institutes of Health and the biotech company Moderna, which collaborated to develop the vaccine.

A volunteer in Savannah, Ga., received the first shot at 6:45 a.m., Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said at a news briefing.

The study, a Phase 3 clinical trial, will enroll 30,000 healthy people at about 89 sites around the country this summer. Half will receive two shots of the vaccine, 28 days apart, and half will receive two shots of a saltwater placebo. Neither the volunteers nor the medical staff giving the injections will know who will get the real vaccine.

Researchers will then monitor the subjects, looking for side effects. And their main goal will be to see if significantly fewer vaccinated people contract Covid-19, to determine whether the vaccine can prevent the illness. The study will also try to find out if the vaccine can avert severe cases of Covid and death; if it can block the infection entirely, based on lab tests; and if just one shot can prevent the illness.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/27/health/moderna-vaccine-covid.html




Yes, there is a Simpsons GIF for everything. But every government on earth is scrambling to find answers as it has literally affected every government on earth, and 2020 is considered to be a year lost to a major pandemic – one we haven’t seen in an entire century. So how do you get involved? What’s there out there for you? The answer might lie in Houston, where they are looking for 5,000 volunteers for a new COVID vaccine.

The cure to COVID-19 may be here in Houston.

Researchers with the Texas Center for Drug Development are still looking for participants for several trials happening here but with volunteers starting the study this week, health leaders believe we are on track for an early 2021 vaccine.

In America: Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, Novavax and Moderna are getting a lot of attention for having vaccine candidates almost ready to go.

“It appears safe. In the phase 1 studies, it appears safe and the most important thing I think people need to know is that the vaccine is actually not the coronavirus,” Frederic Santiago, MD, with the Texas Center for Drug Development, explained when speaking about Moderna’s vaccine.

He said the Moderna vaccine is re-programming the virus' genetic code, meaning the immune system can naturally develop antibodies.
https://www.click2houston.com/health/2020/07/28/houston-trials-need-your-help-to-have-coronavirus-vaccine-ready-for-2021/




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




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[font size="8"]Holy Shit
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Gather around my fair brothers and sisters! It’s time to take a seat in the virtual pew make an online donation in the LAWRD’s virtual 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! You know this pandemic has meant that we cannot bring you the full and proper Holy Shit that you deserve, but we will as soon as we can! Until then, don’t fall for bullshit! And yes, we are allowed to swear in my church! Everyone wants answers and cures for the dreaded virus that is plaguing the landscape. And I do too! No one wants it more than me! But there are some that are determined to make a dollar off the pandemic, and that’s not what the good LAWRD JAYSUS would want now, is it? Of course not! Can I get an amen? Like for instance, don’t take bleach! That’s not exactly what it says on the bottle! And it’s not intended for that purpose! But some on the other hand don’t see it that way, and they are certifiably EVIL!

In April, when President Trump mused whether injecting patients with disinfectant could kill the novel coronavirus, perhaps no one was more thrilled about the suggestion than Mark Grenon.

Grenon runs a fake church with his sons in Florida that sells people a life-threatening toxic bleach product he calls the Miracle Mineral Solution (MMS), federal officials say, which he fraudulently claims cures everything from covid-19 to cancer.

“Trump has got the MMS and all the info!!! Things are happening folks!” Grenon, 62, wrote on Facebook on April 24, linking to Trump’s comments. “Lord help others to see the Truth!”

Grenon had made $500,000 in 2019 alone selling his solutions to thousands of vulnerable, sick people across the country, according to the Justice Department, even though the Food and Drug Administration had warned for years that people could die if they drank MMS products, which are essentially bleach..
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/07/09/fake-coronavirus-cure-bleach/




Of course he does! But really in the form of those ultra-far right preachers who are preying off the less fortunate! Because that’s not what the good LAWRD JAYSUS would want. And bleach isn’t the only cure being peddled by these purveyors of bullshit. There was one leader in the state of Florida (obviously) that took the idea of selling a miracle bleach-based cure to the next level! And really, don’t try this at home kids! Or don’t try it anywhere!

A Florida father and sons have continued to sell a potentially deadly bleach product billed as a miracle cure for COVID-19 through a fake church, despite a federal judge ordering them to stop, federal officials said in filing criminal charges against them.

Mark Grenon and three sons — Jonathan, Jordon and Joseph — are charged with conspiracy to defraud the U.S. and distribute mislabeled drugs, according to the suit filed in the Southern District of Florida on Wednesday.

According to the criminal complaint, the four allegedly pitched "Miracle Mineral Solution," or MMS, a toxic bleach, as a cure for COVID-19.

"They sold this dangerous product under the guise of Genesis II Church of Health and Healing ("Genesis&quot , an entity they allegedly created in an attempt to avoid government regulation of MMS," according to a statement detailing the allegations.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration "has received reports of people requiring hospitalizations, developing life-threatening conditions, and dying after drinking MMS," noted the U.S. attorney's office for the Southern District of Florida, which did not elaborate further.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/feds-charge-phony-church-with-selling-toxic-bleach-mms-as-covid-19-cure/




Was there a Los Pollos Hermanos involved in this one? Yes, I get that reference! But you know what people? If your church is hawking a cure that you might think is bullshit? Guess what? It most likely is bullshit. The only cures that we should be allowing are ones based on actual science. And we support science in my church! But really, don’t take anything unless you read about it first. I mean come on we have access to this thing called Google.

If your church remains shuttered for fear of contracting or spreading the COVID-19 virus, I just might have the answer to your problems: Ionization.

Or bleach.

Or Silver Solution.

Or none of the above.

Maybe it’s just because all of us have been cooped up way too long for our own good, but due diligence and rational caution are giving way to delusion and just plain goofiness. Worse yet, a lot of it is coming from institutions that dare to call themselves churches.

Ionization is the latest crackpot preventative for coronavirus, promulgated by the folks at Dream City Church in Phoenix. Which is in Arizona. Which is in a desert where, if you do not drink enough water or spend too much time in the oppressive heat, you start seeing things and saying things that make no sense.
https://www.thetimesherald.com/story/news/2020/06/29/churches-wacky-solutions-coronavirus/3263599001/




You shouldn’t do that with bleach either! But you know who above all else you should never, under any circumstances listen to? The unholy, ungodly Dark One whose name shall not be mentioned in my church! For he is not a smart man, and he is definitely not a wise man! His ideas are not sound, and you should never try any of the things that he suggests at home, or anywhere. They are bad ideas and not something that the good LAWRD JAYSUS would approve of!

A Florida “church leader” and three of his sons were charged in Miami federal court on Wednesday for selling toxic bleach as a fake miracle cure for coronavirus.

The man had taken credit last April for President Trump making the public suggestion at a press conference that injecting disinfectants into the body may cure COVID-19.

According to officials, 62-year-old Mark Grenon and his sons, 34-year-old Jonathan Grenon, 26-year-old Jordan Grenon, and 32-year-old Joseph Grenon, all from Bradenton, Fla., are charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States as well as conspiracy to violate the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act.

In addition, they are faced with criminal contempt of court related to a civil case that was filed by the federal government earlier this year.

Federal prosecutors charged the four family members for the sale of a product called Miracle Mineral Solution (MMS), which they sold through Genesis II Church of Health and Healing, a “religious organization” being operated out of a Bradenton home.
https://www.850wftl.com/fl-church-leader-took-credit-for-trumps-bleach-idea-charged-for-selling-covid-cure/




So fake huckster preachers selling fake cures, what else do you need to know? If it’s bullshit, it’s most likely 99% a big steaming pile of it! Virtual mass has ended, may you go in peace! That’s it this week for:




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[font size="8"]People Who Somehow Got Elected: Mike Parson
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Politicians at the state and local levels who are so toxic, you wonder how they’re able to get away with the things they get away with. This is:



This week, Missouri Governor Mike Parson. Here’s the thing, we are all looking for some resemblance of normal life to resume during the deadliest pandemic in over a century. But that line of thinking has switched to schools. How do you safely open schools up back to where kids, high school, and college students can learn and interact with each other safely? School districts across the country are scrambling to find answers to these questions. And then there’s Missouri’s republican (obviously) governor who’s come up with an absolutely draconian response to the burning questions that are on everybody’s mind.

Missouri Governor Mike Parson, a Republican, downplayed the risk for children who may contract the coronavirus from classrooms during school reopenings, insisting “they’re going to get over it.”

“These kids have got to get back to school,” Parson said in an interview Friday with radio host Marc Cox on KFTK. “They’re at the lowest risk possible. And if they do get COVID-19, which they will — and they will when they go to school — they’re not going to the hospitals. They’re not going to have to sit in doctor’s offices. They’re going to go home and they’re going to get over it.”

“We gotta move on,” he continued. “We can’t just let this thing stop us in our tracks.”

Some experts have expressed concerns about returning to classrooms because of the risk students could carry the virus home to older relatives. Education professionals have also expressed worry they may be in harm's way.

State Auditor Nicole Galloway, the state's Democratic candidate for governor, said Parson's comments on coronvirus and children displayed “stunning ignorance.”

She also stated the virus "doesn’t stop with our children. The teachers, bus drivers, janitors, food service workers, parents, grandparents and neighbors who our children see every day are susceptible to this virus, too. We need a plan that keeps all Missouri families safe.”
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/07/20/missouri-gov-mike-parson-says-kids-get-over-covid-19/5474557002/




Yes, in a time when teachers and students alike are preparing their wills and preparing their worst case scenarios during this virus catastrophe, Gov. Parson has literally the wrong answer to the question that is on everyone’s mind. But just how bad can things possibly get in the Show Me State? Well, let’s never mind that St. Louis just posted a record high number of cases. Seriously, Mr. Parson might want to see what’s going on in his state before he makes an assumption like that.

As Missouri again broke the record for new cases of the coronavirus, officials warned that disparities based on age, race and health status continue to influence who is infected and who dies of COVID-19.

On Friday, the state reported that there have been 39,352 confirmed cases here throughout the pandemic — an increase of 1,652 for the day, breaking the previous record for the fourth day in a row.

Before this week, the state had never reported more than 958 new cases in a day. Then it identified 1,138 cases on Tuesday, 1,301 on Wednesday and 1,637 on Thursday.

The St. Louis Metropolitan Pandemic Task Force released data Friday showing that in the St. Louis metro area, Black individuals are more than four times as likely to test positive, nearly 2.5 times as likely to be hospitalized, and nearly 1.5 times as likely to be admitted to the ICU than the rest of the population.

“The burden on the Black community is larger,” said Dr. Alex Garza, chief medical officer with SSM Health and head of the task force.
https://www.stltoday.com/lifestyles/health-med-fit/coronavirus/missouri-sees-record-high-number-of-new-covid-19-cases-again/article_d6b4b57a-d478-54eb-924d-c8a4a593446b.html




So the state has a record number of cases and Mike Parson wants to open schools anyway. How could that possibly go wrong you might ask? Well, the masks and temperature taking are providing a lot of security theater for the virus, but if you let your guard down for one second, the slightest slip up could make things go really south really fast. But Coronavirus isn’t the only problem plaguing Missouri at the moment. Remember the husband and wife team who were brandishing guns at protestors? They haven’t been forgotten.

JEFFERSON CITY — Missouri’s top lawyer acknowledged Tuesday his intervention in a high-profile unlawful use of a weapon case involving a St. Louis couple is unusual.

“It doesn’t happen every day,” Attorney General Eric Schmitt told the Post-Dispatch in an interview in the Capitol.

But, he said his controversial decision to seek to have gun charges against Mark and Patricia McCloskey dismissed is rooted in the state’s long-held interest in the right to bear arms.

“There is a common law interest if the attorney general feels that the broader interest of Missourians are affected, like the chilling effect that this might have with people exercising their Second Amendment rights,” Schmitt said.

“I felt it was appropriate that I weigh in,” Schmitt added. “We felt it was important to get it in and make the state’s position known early.”
https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/missouri-attorney-general-defends-intervention-in-mccloskey-prosecution/article_b8bcf1c2-8e49-5f78-a9b5-a2d1190d4989.html




So there’s Coronavirus and the McCloskeys. Both extremely terrible problems for a state to have. But as unhinged as Mike Parson is, is he really the guy who needs to be leading the Show Me State at this trying time? Well, no. Especially when they have to clarify the comments and they’re even worse than what the original statement is. Just remember, when it’s time to elect your next governor, do your research!

Missouri Gov. Mike Parson is clarifying comments he made in a radio interview in which he said children returning to school will come down with the coronavirus but will “get over it,” remarks that drew criticism from several Democrats as well as the head of a state teachers union.

The Republican governor made the comments Friday during an interview on “The Marc Cox Morning Show” on 97.1 FM in St. Louis. Democratic State Auditor Nicole Galloway, Parson's likely opponent in the November general election, said on Twitter that the governor showed “stunning ignorance” about how COVID-19 affects children.

Parson's comment came as new reported coronavirus cases have multiplied since the Fourth of July weekend. On Wednesday, the state again broke its record for highest single-day increase in confirmed illnesses, with 1,301 new cases reported by the state health department. The previous record was set Tuesday.

Missouri National Education Association President Phil Murray said Parson's comments showed “a callous disregard for the suffering of children and the safety of the parents, grandparents, educators, and students that will be put at risk if schools are reopened with improper plans and protections.”
https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/missouri-governor-clarifies-comments-school-kids-virus-71921102




So Coronavirus and gun toting maniacs are both plagues in your state, that’s Missouri governor Mike Parson, yet another one to add to the ever growing list of:




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[font size="8"]Conspiracy Corner
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Welcome back to the segment that attempts to explain the unexplainable! It’s Conspiracy Corner! Oh hello, I am broadcasting the inner most thoughts from deep inside my brain from an underground bunker in the vast cornfields of the rural Iowa farmlands! Of course it’s an undisclosed location! Just let me adjust my tin foil hat for maximum government blockage. They are trying to read my thoughts and your thoughts after all. So this week, an extra dose of crazy happened as Trump’s favorite cult Q Anon attempted to dig up some dirt on furniture purveyor Wayfair, and not only did it backfire on them spectacularly, they have lost one of their biggest social media hangouts where they can wreak their brand of conspiracy theory havoc!

The claim: Expensive products on Wayfair are coded listings for missing children being sold in a human-trafficking scheme

The internet has been gripped with a conspiracy theory this month as thousands of viral posts allege that online furniture firm Wayfair is involved in a child sex-trafficking operation.

“So wayfair has third party vendors that are HUMAN SEX TRAFFICKING on their website,” various social media posts have alleged. “There are items like throw pillows, cabinets etc. priced at 10-20,000 dollars and named after missing girls. PLEASE BE CAREFUL!!”

Posts point to the high prices of items like pillows and dressers as evidence that the products are secretly fronts for child trafficking. Theorists further note the names of some of the dressers, which are allegedly the same children who have gone missing over the past few years.

Some users also allege similar activities occur on other e-commerce sites like Amazon, Etsy and Walmart. Others claim the scandal can only be tracked by using the Russian search engine Yandex.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2020/07/22/fact-check-wayfair-not-involved-child-sex-trafficking/5460739002/




Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!! Put a warning label on that one! But seriously, Q Anon has gone full batshit, and in a world where we currently don’t have anything to do, can we at least get something to do for the Q Anon nuts? Because they clearly need a hobby, and this one ain’t it. So who started this insane conspiracy theory? And why are they so convinced? Yeah right now we’re trying to survive a horrible pandemic and retailers might be going a little overboard with price gouging, but not this.

Last weekend, an unsubstantiated conspiracy theory that online furnishings retailer Wayfair is trafficking children through listings of products with inflated prices and human names erupted on social media.

An Arizona couple helped fuel the rumor by posting on Instagram that they had purchased a $17,000 desk from Wayfair and would share their experience with their followers.

The theory that pillows and cabinets being sold at wayfair.com for thousands of dollars is somehow evidence of a child trafficking scheme has been debunked by independent fact-checking publication Snopes. It gained traction through a July 9 Reddit post on a forum dedicated to discussing conspiracy theories, Snopes notes.

Maddie and Justin Thompson, of Gilbert, are not convinced.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/07/16/wayfair-human-trafficking-conspiracy-arizona-couple-spread-instagram-rumors/5449777002/




Well I guess that’s one way to go furniture shopping right now! But yeah sure, buy a $17,000 desk and it contains a… child? How did that one get past the loading docks? Really, these people are fucking batshit crazy, and they really need to find a hobby. But you know what is not to be done? Don’t overload the national child sex trafficking hotline with bullshit conspiracy theories, OK? This is a fake crisis, don’t make it a real one!

A national organization fighting to end human trafficking says the believers in the unfounded Wayfair human trafficking conspiracy theory are overwhelming the organization with reports and making it harder to do its work.

Polaris, a non-profit that runs the National Human Trafficking Hotline, said in a press release on Tuesday that "the extreme volume of these contacts has made it more difficult for the Trafficking Hotline to provide support and attention to others who are in need of help."

Polaris said that the reports included no information "beyond what has been widely shared online. Nor have any of these reports been made by someone who has a specific connection to any alleged missing children."

Believers in the conspiracy theory think that the furniture company is selling human children who have gone missing by disguising them as pillows and other goods. The theory went viral in the last few weeks after being spread by QAnon believers on Twitter and Facebook, though both platforms told Insider they had removed certain posts containing this misinformation.
https://www.insider.com/wayfair-human-trafficking-conspiracy-theory-national-hotline-call-2020-7




Yes, we get it, this is one of the worst crimes imaginable. But why the fuck are you so obsessed with it right now? I get that we don’t have anything to do. Really, don’t waste Wayfair’s time, and don’t waste the time of actual officials who are trying to find real sex traffickers. And by the way this can have some real world consequences for you if you get caught trying to do this. So really, shut the fuck up and keep the batshit insanity to yourself.

Twitter (TWTR) has removed thousands of accounts linked to QAnon, a group known for spreading conspiracy theories and disinformation online.
"We've been clear that we will take strong enforcement action on behavior that has the potential to lead to offline harm," Twitter's safety team said late Tuesday in a tweet. "In line with this approach, this week we are taking further action on so-called 'QAnon' activity across the service."

More than 7,000 accounts have been removed in the last several weeks, according to Twitter. It also expects that additional actions it is taking to limit the reach of QAnon activity on its platform could affect 150,000 accounts worldwide.
QAnon began as a single conspiracy theory. But its followers now act more like a virtual cult, largely adoring and believing whatever disinformation the conspiracy community spins up.

Its main conspiracy theories claim dozens of politicians and A-list celebrities work in tandem with governments around the globe to engage in child sex abuse. Followers also believe there is a "deep state" effort to annihilate President Donald Trump.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/21/tech/twitter-qanon-crackdown/index.html





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[font size="8"]I Need A Drink
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Hey everyone I could really use a drink right now!



So of course you know by now that the idea of this segment is that we cocktail and while we cocktail we talk about anything in the world that does not relate to politics. Of course in a world right now where there’s nothing to do thanks to Coronavirus, there’s really not much to talk about other than these two things. But last I checked we still had a baseball season right? But one mystery still dumbfounds me about this season. So tell me oh virtual bartender, what goes well with a story about the Toronto Blue Jays? A bottle of Crown Royale? OK fine that’s what I got for this bit. So of course the Blue Jays are the only team that doesn’t have a home for the 2020 season because, coronavirus. And Canada. Well it’s turned into quite the shit show as you can imagine.

The Toronto Blue Jays are a team without a home. Actually they are more like a team without a country, based on the fact that Canada ruled over the weekend they would not be able to play in the country in 2020.

The team does have some options, with the latest report being that the team is going to play at PNC Park in Pittsburgh, home of the Pirates.

The rumors have also put the team in Buffalo, or possibly Dunedin, Florida which is where the Jays hold spring training.

Check out the video above for the latest on where the Jays may wind up playing as their "home" field in 2020.
https://www.si.com/mlb/indians/news/where-will-the-toronto-blue-jays-call-home-in-2020




So the Blue Jays have no home or no country right now and they are currently what one might call in limbo, and it’s not a good situation. But really, are we still sure that there might be a baseball season this year? Hell there may not be one after the end of this segment. I just need a few more bottles of this so I can time travel out of this year and into next. So if Toronto isn’t a possibility, and Pittsburgh is a definite no, where else could they go?

The Major League Baseball season is set to begin July 23, but the Toronto Blue Jays still aren't sure what city they'll be calling home.

The Blue Jays are seeking an exemption from travel restrictions imposed by the Canadian government to allow the team to play home games at the Rogers Centre in Toronto.
A team spokesperson provided CNN with details of the situation.

Previously, the Blue Jays were able to get an exemption allowing the team to hold summer workouts in Toronto by agreeing to have all players remain in a "modified cohort quarantine" within a footprint that included the Rogers Centre and an adjoining hotel. This essentially eliminated the team's exposure to the general public.

That exemption only applied to summer workouts, however. The team is working with Canadian authorities on a new exemption under a similar quarantine system that would apply to the MLB regular season. The Blue Jays expect a government decision on the team's fate by the weekend.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/14/us/canada-mlb-blue-jays-spt/index.html




I don’t think that I am drinking fast enough because the 2020 baseball season still exists. But it looks like as of right now they’re playing in Buffalo, New York for the time being. Although… does the 2020 season still exist? I’m being told yes. And the Blue Jays aren’t the only ones who are wading through the coronavirus disaster of 2020. The rest of the other teams might have to call it a day too. And we’re only one week into the season.

The Toronto Blue Jays 2020 season may be in jeopardy following a COVID-19 outbreak in Philadelphia affecting the Miami Marlins.

According to Jeff Passan of ESPN, the Miami Marlins have 11 players and two coaches that have tested positive for COVID-19. The Marlins just wrapped up a series in Philadelphia and were scheduled to play in Baltimore tonight.

MLB has canceled the contest between the Marlins and Orioles as well as the Phillies and Yankees games tonight. The Phillies cancellation is presumably precautionary as all their players will need to undergo tests in light of this latest outbreak.

Hopefully. this is an isolated incident, however, with the pandemic not being contained in the United States, there is a very good chance the pandemic continues to spread across the league

The Blue Jays are currently tabbed to begin a series with the Phillies in Philadelphia this coming Friday while the Marlins were to be in Buffalo for a three-game set on August 11th.
https://jaysjournal.com/2020/07/27/blue-jays-baseball-season-circling-drain-amidst-covid-19-outbreak/




Now if we’re comparing this season to 1918, the last time we had a pandemic of this magnitude that fucked up life as we knew it, the 1918 baseball season only lasted until September before they had to call it a year, but they did inexplicably have a World Series. Will this season make it that long? Maybe as long as it will take me to finish this bottle of Crowne. But for now the season is on very thin ice.

One series into their coronavirus pandemic-shortened season and the Toronto Blue Jays are already dealing with a serious dose of adversity.

After winning their season-opening game in Tampa Bay on Friday night, the Blue Jays lost on Saturday and Sunday, the latter of which included more than just a drop in the standings.

Closer Ken Giles was forced to leave Sunday’s series finale with right elbow soreness while he tried to close the door on a 4-2 lead in the bottom of the ninth inning, while outfielder Randal Grichuk left in the sixth inning with what the team called a “right SI joint irritation” — a.k.a., a sore back.

Despite losing the final two games of the series, the Jays played the Rays really tough and they can take a couple of positives away from their visit to Tropicana Field.

New ace Hyun Jin Riu, who arrived in Toronto as a free agent after spending his first six big league seasons with the Los Angeles Dodgers, was good in his Blue Jays debut on Friday — giving up three runs over 4 2/3 innings in a 6-4 win over T-Bay.
https://globalnews.ca/news/7219049/coronavirus-rick-zamperin-blue-jays-disaster/





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[font size="8"]Road To The White House
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Welcome back to our coverage of the mother of all elections! Yes, we are counting down the days until the 2020 election. And in case you’re lost in all the craziness of the news right now, where it’s just a constant, never-ending stream of dark shit, we have less than 100 days and we need to get this going, people! We are on the home stretch. And it’s time to unseat Trump once and for all and make him a one term president. And how do we do that you might ask? Well for one thing uniting the party and setting aside all the bullshit is what will do it. I really want to talk about some good news this week because for the most part, the news is all bad. But this week, Joe Biden sat down with former president Barack Obama for a one on one interview and it was great.

Former President Barack Obama touted presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden's readiness for the presidency and ability to "reassemble the kind of government that cares about people and brings people together" in a video clip of a recent conversation provided first to CNN.

In the clip from their socially-distanced conversation, Biden slams President Donald Trump, saying that there are "two ways in which presidents motivate people" -- through important actions or by doing "something really bad."

"This guy has generated a sense out there that people are waking up to that he ran by deliberately dividing people from the moment he came down that escalator. And I think people are now going, 'I don't want my kid growing up that way,'" Biden says in the video.

Obama doesn't directly address Trump in the clip. Instead, he touts Biden's experience in policy-making and on the world stage and the former vice president's character.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/22/politics/barack-obama-joe-biden-social-distance-meeting/index.html




I don’t know about you, but I miss having a president who speaks in complete sentences, pronounces words correctly, and oh yeah, isn’t a raging asshole! And I don’t know about you all, but in a world where the news is literally all bad all the time, this is something good that is happening! Like I said, I am tired of all the bad news and wanted to talk about good things. They even slammed Trump’s mishandling of COVID.

Showcasing the online campaigning tactics that are likely to dominate the final months of the 2020 presidential race, former Vice President Joe Biden and his old boss, former President Barack Obama teamed up for a socially distant conversation to discuss the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the steps they believe need to be taken to right the American economy and the nationwide push for racial justice in the wake of the death of George Floyd.

The in-person discussion, filmed last week at the Obama Foundation’s office in Washington, D.C. features both Obama and Biden clad in black face masks as they arrive for the conversation, as the two discuss their incredulity at President Donald Trump's handling of coronavirus.

"Can you imagine standing up when you were president and saying, ‘It's not my responsibility. I take no responsibility.' Literally. Literally," Biden said.

"Those words didn't come out of our mouths when we were in office," Obama said as the shot of him exiting his car is seen.
https://abcnews.go.com/US/biden-obama-reunite-socially-distanced-conversation-slam-trumps/story?id=71914983




Maybe calling people “Beardo” isn’t the way to get votes. But even they get it – it’s almost like Trump tries to come up with the absolute worst response to everything. My personal favorite thing about the entire Trump administration is the underlying irony that Trump can relate to the common man. But guess what? The guy literally lives in a gold and ivory tower! He does not relate to you or me!

Presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden teams up with his old boss, former President Barack Obama in a new video that draws a sharp contrast between President Donald Trump’s approach to voters and Biden’s style.

Biden and Obama met at Obama’s Washington office. After sitting down across the room from one another, Biden asks Obama whether he could imagine standing up as president and saying, “It’s not my responsibility, I take no responsibility,” as Trump has previously done.

“Those words didn’t come out of our mouths when we were in office,” Obama says in the video clip from the Biden campaign. The full-length video will be released Thursday.

Biden criticizes Trump for “his inability to get a sense of what people are going through.”

“He just can’t relate in any way,” says Biden.
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/07/22/obama-and-biden-criticize-trump-coronavirus-response.html




Maybe that’s why so many Americans can’t vote – they can’t fit in the damn booths! But what lies ahead for America after enduring the worst pandemic in an entire century? Well, for one thing the rebuilding process is going to be long and difficult. At least with competent leadership at the helm, we will be able to remake America. Or we can have four more years of this. I know which one I would choose! And keep in mind that someone terrible could win (Trump)!

Former President Obama and former Vice President Joe Biden recently took part in a socially distanced conversation to discuss Biden's presidential bid and the future of the U.S. amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Video of the conversation, which will be released in its entirety on Thursday, shows the former president and vice president arriving in masks for a sit-down conversation and talking about how the Trump administration has handled the COVID-19 outbreak.

"Can you imagine standing up when you were president and saying, 'It's not my responsibility. I take no responsibility.' Literally. Literally," Biden said in a preview of the conversation released by his campaign, taking an apparent dig at President Trump.

"Those words didn't come out of our mouths when we were in office," Obama responded.

"No. I don't understand his inability to get a sense of what people are going through," Biden said. "He can't relate in any way."
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/508455-obama-biden-discuss-countrys-future-in-socially-distanced-conversation







See you next week!

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July 22, 2020

Top 10 Conservative Idiots #9-5: Beans, Beans The Musical Fruit Edition


Top 10 Conservative Idiots #9-5: Beans, Beans The Musical Fruit Edition

Welcome back to the Top 10 Conservative Idiots! How’s everybody doing? Are you guys doing fucking good? I know, right? Yeah unfortunately we got shut down again here in California because of this god forsaken virus so we’re being forced to do yet another home edition. Sigh, one day we will be able to venture out in public again but we are sitting here stirring in our own juices until then. Yeah, just go ahead and picture that mentally. OK so while there’s no new good or fun news to report about for the foreseeable future, I got to talk about a kid who’s way more badass than I am. Bridger Walker is a 6 year old from Cheyenne, Wyoming. And his 4 year sister was about to be mauled by a dog, and he stepped in front of that dog and endured the attack while his sister got away unscathed. He endured some 90 stitches at the hospital after the attack was done. But what makes him really bad ass? He said he’d gladly do it again! Well, this got the attention of Captain America himself, Chris Evans. Who really could be a real life Captain America / Steve Rogers. He posted an encouraging video message for Bridger and made him an official Captain America. Now how cool is that? I got to admit that kid is way more braver than I am, and I could see him… yeah SON!! Just don’t!! OK we got a lot of idiocy to get to this week, but first John Oliver is back and he delves into the more ridiculous side of COVID – the conspiracy theories, and they are out there and plentiful:



Ed. Note: Unfortunately we will not be able to cover what’s going on in Portland because that happened while we were putting together this week’s edition, but we will go head first next week!

Sigh another week under this shitty virus and I don’t see it getting better any time soon. So where do we begin this week? Taking the top spot this week is the real 45th president of the United States, Vladimir Putin (1). So Russia got caught attempting to steal vaccine research, and well, none of it is particularly good and could be extremely dangerous. The second slot of course goes to Donald J. Trump (2). His endorsement of the Mexican food brand Goya is getting some very controversial remarks, and let’s just call Trump a pandejo and get it over with! In the third slot this week, is our old buddy Kanye West (3), and while we were off he announced he was running for president, then quickly retreated when people told him what a bad idea this was, lasting approximately 1 Scaramucci! In the fourth slot this week is the Anti-Maskers, or as we’re calling them Maskholes (4), and they are stepping up their game from canceling meetings to throwing things at supermarket clerks, whew, it’s crazy. Taking the 5th slot this week is of course our weekly investigative piece, Top 10 Investigates (5), and this week, another unwelcome visitor is coming back – the Black Plague! Really, Mother Nature is determined to get rid of us right now. In the sixth slot this week is our weekly visit to the Holy Church Of The Top 10 in “Holy Shit” (6), and after a number of right-wing pastors have made the claim that Obama is Satan’s Greatest Human Proxy, our resident pastor will offer a different theory! In the 7th slot this week, we have a new Beating A Dead Horse (7), and controversial country music group Lady Antebellum announced they are dropping the “Antebellum” from their name and going with “Lady A”, but who is the rightful owner of the stage name Lady A? It’s a circular firing squad as old as time for sure! In slot #8, after racist monuments and statues are getting pulled from public spots all over the country, we have to ask how the original monument to racism and the Klan – Georgia’s Stone Mountain, “How Is This Still A Thing?”, the answer might surprise you! In the number 9 (NEIN!!) slot we have a new People Are Dumb, because of course they are! Finally this week, in Joe Biden’s Road To The White House (10), we have the classic Goofus & Gallant scenario as to how each candidate is handling the COVID crisis, and do what one guy does, don’t do what the other one does! Enjoy! And as always don’t forget the key!

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[font size="8"]Vladimir Putin
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We need some music for this one:



Yeah! Look, look, look. Everyone wants to know when this nightmare is going to be over and when we can get back to living our lives like we planned before the pandemic. And while the world is searching for cures and vaccines to end the nightmare, there’s one guy who is attempting to steal it all for himself. I’m of course talking about the 45th president of the United States, Vladimir Putin. So, in a “please disperse, nothing to see here” moment, let’s take a look at the current timeline of events after Russia got caught stealing. Cue Jane’s Addiction.

Russian hackers are attempting to steal coronavirus vaccine research, the American, British and Canadian governments said Thursday, accusing the Kremlin of opening a new front in its spy battles with the West amid the worldwide competition to contain the pandemic.

The National Security Agency said that a hacking group implicated in the 2016 break-ins into Democratic Party servers has been trying to steal intelligence on vaccines from universities, companies and other health care organizations. The group, associated with Russian intelligence and known as both APT29 and Cozy Bear, has sought to exploit the chaos created by the coronavirus pandemic, officials said.

American intelligence officials said the Russians were aiming to steal research to develop their own vaccine more quickly, not to sabotage other countries’ efforts. There was likely little immediate damage to global public health, cybersecurity experts said.

The Russian espionage nevertheless signals a new kind of competition between Moscow and Washington akin to Cold War spies stealing technological secrets during the space race generations ago.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/16/us/politics/vaccine-hacking-russia.html




Yeah that’s pretty much what it is like right now. So how did Russia get caught? And who are they going after? Well it’s no secret that AstraZeneca is clearly the front runner in a race to find a cure for this wretched virus that has absolutely wrecked and destroyed our way of life. So do they go after the University of Oxford? Or do they put their eggs in more than one basket?

The UK security minister James Brokenshire has said Britain is “more than 95%” sure that Russian state-sponsored hackers targeted UK, US and Canadian organisations involved in developing a coronavirus vaccine.

Brokenshire said the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) and its counterparts in the other countries were confident “Russian intelligence agencies” were responsible for the attacks on drug companies and research groups.

During an interview with BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Brokenshire also said he supported the Conservative chief whip’s decision to expel the new chairman of parliament’s intelligence and security committee, Julian Lewis, from the party.

“The National Cyber Security Centre [NCSC] are 95%-plus satisfied, as are our US and Canadian counterparts,” he said. “We are very careful in terms of calling these things out, ensuring that we can have that confidence in attribution. We do believe that we have this here.

“I think the Russian government is being so hypocritical claiming to support responsible behaviour in cyberspace while secretly conducting cyber-attacks like this and others.”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jul/17/russian-hackers-steal-coronavirus-vaccine-uk-minister-cyber-attack




There’s a lot of that going around these days! But of course Russia is going to deny that this is happening, because that’s what happens when you live in a world where one side is constantly blaming the other side for their own faults. But just remember since this edition is all about poop-themed nursery school rhymes, because you knew it would be, just remember this – he who denied it, supplied it!

Russia's ambassador to the UK has rejected allegations that his country's intelligence services tried to steal coronavirus vaccine research.

"I don't believe in this story at all, there is no sense in it," Andrei Kelin told the BBC's Andrew Marr Show.

However, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said it is "very clear Russia did this", adding that it is important to call out this "pariah-type behaviour".

Mr Kelin also rejected suggestions that Russia had interfered in UK politics.

Earlier this week, Mr Raab said Russians almost certainly sought to interfere in the 2019 UK election through illicitly-acquired documents.

The papers, which emerged online, detailed UK-US trade discussions and were used by Labour in its election campaign.

"I do not see any point in using this subject as a matter of interference," Mr Kelin said.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-53458122




Yeah probably. I mean can we stop pretending like Russia are the good guys here? They’ve always been the bad guys, and during this pandemic, they’ve proven to be even worse guys with the number of cases trailing at just #3, behind the US and Brazil. But yeah, maybe this will be enough to get Mother Russia denounced from the rest of the world? I would certainly hope so! But all AstraZeneca seems to care about is money, so…

Last week, Western intelligence officials pegged Russian hackers with an attempt to rip off leading research for a COVID-19 vaccine, linking the would-be thieves with the country's intelligence services.

Russia itself denies involvement in any of those attacks—and with a new licensing deal for AstraZeneca's COVID-19 shot, the country says it doesn't need the secrets anyway.

Russian drugmaker R-Pharm has signed a licensing deal with Britain's AstraZeneca to produce and distribute doses of its University of Oxford-partnered adenovirus-based COVID-19 shot, AZD1222.

As part of the agreement, R-Pharm will export Oxford's shot to markets in the Commonwealth of Independent States—a nine-country economic group including Russia and post-Soviet republics—the Middle East and the Balkans, an AstraZeneca spokesman said.

The number of doses included in the deal has yet to be determined, AstraZeneca said.
https://www.fiercepharma.com/pharma/astrazeneca-signs-covid-19-shot-deal-russia-days-after-hacking-accusations-surface





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[font size="8"]Donald Trump
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Donald Trump is the Krusty The Klown of presidents. You can find him all over the TV, he once hosted a show that got progressively worse as it went on, and he’s hawked a ton of incredibly poor quality merchandise over the years, to varying degrees of success. Not to mention he lives in a giant house with his name on it, and flies around in a jet with his name on it. But the difference – Krusty isn’t the one who is the leader of the free world! And of course, Trump’s true goal is not being president of the United States, but selling out. So why should we be surprised when he hawks products while he’s sitting in the Oval Office? He’s already hawked My Pillow numerous times, but now we can add Goya Mexican Foods to the list.

President Donald Trump took to Twitter Wednesday morning as he sought to undermine the backlash Goya Foods has been facing from core Latino consumers after the company's chief executive, Robert Unanue, said "we are all truly blessed" to have Trump as a leader last week.

"Goya Foods is doing GREAT. The Radical Left smear machine backfired, people are buying like crazy!" Trump tweeted.

Trump's response led to more fresh calls from Latino consumers to boycott Goya, which says it's the nation's largest Hispanic-owned food brand.

Unanue's words praising Trump's leadership at a time when Latinos have been disproportionately hit by the health and economic consequences of the coronavirus pandemic did not sit well with many people who went online to post videos of themselves trashing Goya products or sharing homemade "adobo" and "sazón" recipes under the hashtags #BoycottGoya and #goyaway.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/trump-tweets-his-support-goya-now-there-s-more-fresh-n1233881




Seriously, you know the series finale is coming up when the characters start hawking products on the show! Beans, beans, the musical fruit! The more you eat, the more you toot. The more you toot, the better you feel! Let’s have beans for every meal! That joke would have killed in front of a live audience by the way. I miss live audiences. But getting back on topic, it seems Ivanka is hawking products too, and why not? This is 2020, yo!

The Trump family has long struggled in their promotion of food products — and even their efforts to make menu items look vaguely edible — but that didn’t stop Ivanka Trump from endorsing a can of Goya Foods black beans on Tuesday night. In elementary Spanish, she provided the latest entry in the uncanny genre of Trump-food pictures, clocking in on the horror scale somewhere between “GOP candidate eats bucket of chicken with a fork on a private plane” and “president turns the White House East Room into the fast-food Overlook Hotel.”

After Goya Foods CEO Robert Unanue appeared at the White House last week and said that the country was “blessed to have a leader” like President Trump, some consumers of the country’s largest Hispanic-owned food company said they would boycott the brand’s pantry staples. Gustavo Arellano, a Los Angeles Times reporter and the author of Taco USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America, told the New York Times that the comments were a betrayal for many Latinx consumers: “To see something that represents nurture and community and family and most importantly the kitchen? That’s where it’s a stab in the heart. Or the stomach.”

In her effort to make a can of beans the latest totem of the culture war, the tweet from the senior adviser to the president also appears to violate the ethical standards for executive-branch employees, who may not use public office for private gain or “for the endorsement of any product.” Past examples of White House officials endorsing products — specifically, Trump-family products — include Kellyanne Conway telling a Fox News audience to “go buy Ivanka’s stuff” and the president’s advertising of his Doral resort as the potential site of the G-7.
https://www.thecut.com/2020/07/ivanka-trump-promotes-goya-violates-ethical-standards.html




Ethics. Trump keeps using that word, I do not think it means what he thinks it means. So why is this so controversial? Because Trump just opened up a whole new can of worms turning the Resolute Desk into a Price Is Right game. So what’s the boycott really about? It’s not just about buying one brand of canned beans over the other, it’s about politics and privilege. Just ask real Latino folks!

When Ricardo Alvarado went grocery shopping this week, he had a list of items to buy, but he steered clear of anything from Goya Foods. “I was using their beans, but I found a different brand," he said. "I switched olive oil, too, and I bought my own spices, not theirs."

A performing artist based in New York City, Alvarado is boycotting Goya Foods. “As long as I’m helping my community, I will do my part. It’s important that we show unity and solidarity.”

The CEO of Goya Foods, Robert Unanue, plunged the company into turmoil last week when he praised President Donald Trump at an event announcing the White House Hispanic Prosperity Initiative. “We’re all truly blessed, at the same time, to have leader like President Trump who is a builder,” Unanue said. He compared the president to his grandfather, a Spanish immigrant who founded the company in 1936.

News of Unanue’s words spread quickly, and hashtags like #Goyaway and #BoycottGoya trended on social media.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/latinos-boycotting-goya-say-it-s-not-about-politics-it-n1234052




Don’t buy that device, it will cause severe burns! And by the way if you pick sides in this battle, if your neighbor has a can of Goya beans in their cupboard, could be trouble. And if you side with an increasingly unpopular president, be prepared for the backlash, because it can sink your popularity faster than Superman can leap a 30 story building. Even if it sounds seemingly innocent.

Goya Foods is facing backlash following flattering comments made by the company's CEO in a show of support for President Trump, but a local church in South Florida is standing by the producer of Latino cuisine.

Though many are calling for boycotts of Goya products, the leaders at Alpha & Omega Church on 7800 Miller Drive in Miami told NBC 6 their partnership with the company will continue.

"We really like Goya because they have been helping us for years," said Pastor Esther Jivanjee. "They are not doing it now because of what's going on."

Last week, Robert Unanue, the CEO of Goya Foods, publicly praised President Trump during a press conference at the White House. Some consumers who were critical of Unanue's comments said they would stop buying Goya.

Jivanjee, however, does not think that Unanue's political beliefs make a difference as far as the company's operations are concerned. "We're proud that they have been helping," she said. "We say, 'If it's Goya, it has to be good.'"
https://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/miami-church-stands-by-partnership-with-goya-foods-despite-backlash-after-ceos-trump-praise/2264301/





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[font size="8"]Kanye West
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So is this a case of art imitating life, or life imitating art? Either way, if the life of Kanye West were a sitcom, which it most certainly could be, the episode where he decides to run for president could be considered one of the best of the series. Or it could also be the one where Kanye quite literally jumps the shark. My guess is that it’s more the latter than the former. Because Kanye running for president is quite literally batshit insane. And he’s certainly more unstable than Trump is. Really in the worst pandemic in a century, this is quite literally the last thing we need right now is these two guys duking it out. And we need a real leader to lead us out of this pandemic and economic crisis. So would any sane, rational person vote for Kanye?

Kanye West has officially launched his campaign for the 2020 US presidential election, with an unorthodox rally in Charleston, South Carolina.

West, 43, is running as a candidate for his self-styled "Birthday Party".

At the event, the rapper seemed to make policy decisions off-the-cuff and made several rants, including on abortion and on abolitionist Harriet Tubman.

Fans have questioned whether his last-minute bid for the White House is actually a promotional stunt.

The Charleston rally did little to clarify whether his run is genuine. But a now-deleted tweet sent from West's account on Saturday, appearing to show the song list for a new album, added to the speculation.

The event, held at a wedding and conference hall in the city, was said to be open to registered guests only - but West's campaign website had no function for people to register or RSVP.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-53467658




Yeah that’s kind of what it sounds like, but is Kanye’s approach to running for president a real thing or is it just a promotional stunt? Like what would cause someone to choose Kanye over voting for Trump or voting for Biden? Well, I also ask what would cause someone to choose Trump? Well, for one thing, sane, logical campaign promises like this are the reason why.

"I almost killed my daughter. I love my daughter. … God wants us to create," said West, who has four children with Kim Kardashian West.

"No more Plan B -- Plan A," he said, to a mixed response from the audience.

West clarified that he thinks abortion should be legal, but that there should be more support for those who need it.

"The maximum increase would be everybody that has a baby gets a million dollars or something in that range," said West.

West also said that marijuana "should be free" and took questions from the audience before the hour-long event ended.
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/kanye-west-kicks-off-1st-presidential-campaign-event/story?id=71869069




OK, Kanye! We get it, you’re not a fish stick! You’re a genius! But those sound like perfectly logical, campaign promises. And I could totally see people taking advantage of the million dollars per kid that Kanye is promising. Remember that Futurama where Bender adopts an entire orphanage to take advantage of tax breaks? Yeah it’s kind of like that. But then here’s where the whole thing really jumps the shark.

Kanye West has claimed that he asked Jay-Z to be his vice president.

Appearing on Kris Kraylin’s radio show on Sunday (19 July), the rapper, who is running to be the next president of the United States, revealed that he was considering Jay-Z, Jade Simmons and Michelle Tidball to be his second-in-command.

“We have Michelle Tidball, who is a Christian pastor out of Wyoming, who is my running mate. But she would be open to taking another position if we found another running mate,” West said.

Describing Jay-Z as his “favourite candidate” for the role, he continued: “I reached out to Jay to possibly be my vice president, my running mate.”

While the pair haven’t spoken for a while, West said that he had been inspired to choose Jay-Z after realising that the initials of his real name, Sean Carter, were the same as South Carolina, where he hosted his first rally.
https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/kanye-west-jay-z-president-rally-south-carolina-a9629601.html




Now that is jumping the shark! But yeah do we need a paranoid conspiracy theorist who reads way too much into bullshit to be the president of the United States? Wait a minute, that sounds like our president right now! Do we have a president who is making some absolutely batshit crazy campaign promises that he’ll never deliver on? Wait, that sounds like right now. Do we need… yeah I am not going to answer that question, because it sounds like right now!

US rapper Kanye West's chaotic launch of his unlikely campaign to oust Donald Trump in November's presidential election has sparked anger, concern for his mental health and questions about whether he is seriously running.

Wearing a bullet-proof jacket marked "security," West broke down in tears during a rambling speech in Charleston, South Carolina on Sunday that was supposed to kickstart his White House bid.

Instead, controversial comments about renowned American abolitionist Harriet Tubman enraged attendees, provoked scorn online and left political analysts scratching their heads about the mercurial musician's true intentions.

For Jeffrey McCune, who teaches a course on West at Washington University in St. Louis, the topsy-turvy nature of the event was typical of the hip-hop star.
https://news.yahoo.com/kanye-wests-presidential-run-real-show-220614244.html





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[font size="8"]The Maskholes
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Before we get into the heart of this entry, I have to play this video that’s been going around Youtube because it is brilliant:



And that’s why we’re not going back to normal anytime soon. But as long as Coronavirus is still a thing, we have to talk about the people who have come to be known as the Maskhole. And I define the term “Maskhole” as an asshole who refuses to wear a mask, gets called out on it, and then goes absolutely apeshit. And there have been hundreds of these kinds of stories lately. So many that we could do an entire edition devoted to the Maskhole, but we don’t have that kind of time! We also had a graphic and intro to go with this segment, but our censors rejected it. So what defines a Maskhole? Well about the same as what defines a Karen, someone who goes crazy in public when confronted.

Face masks, apart from social distancing and hand sanitising, is the only known way o stay safe from coronavirus. However, despite the simplicity and feasibility of this precaution, people seem to be getting it all wrong.

Guidelines and advises on how to wear a mask have also failed as many people still don't wear one or wear it the wrong way. Step out at any point of the day and there will be people with the mask covering just their mouth, or chin, or it graces their neck (just for the heck of it). Photographs on social media even show people having tied them at the back of the head. Four months into the lockdown and continuous messages on how to be safe, the mask is still not finding its place. And now we do have a word for such people who defeat the purpose of masks. Maskhole is the word that The New Yorker has devised for such individuals.

A woman in Kentucky who cut a hole in her mask to breathe can be called a maskhole too. The mind-boggling video of the woman, a maskhole, was viral on several social media platforms. Originally shot by the store clerk Joe Samman, the clip has garnered more than 4.7 million views on TikTok.

Another maskhole example from India could be the Pune man who got a face mask made of gold which had a hole in it to make it breathable, hence defeating the entire purpose of a mask.
https://www.news18.com/news/buzz/maskhole-after-covidiots-is-the-best-word-to-define-people-with-reckless-behaviour-in-pandemic-2720227.html




You tell ‘em sir! We had the Karen, then the Karen morphed into the Covidiot, and now the Covidiot has morphed into the Maskhole. Now how do you spot a Maskhole out into the wild? No, we’re not going to do the Mutual Of Top 10 Wild Kingdom, that bit kind of fizzled. But you can spot a Maskhole very easily, like take this example for instance. This kind of thing isn’t helping and actually makes you look like an asshole, where the term comes from!

When authorities and healthcare professionals are at the frontline in the war against Covid-19, the number of covidiots keeps on increasing.

The term has been coined in popular culture during the pandemic to club all the reckless people, who with their idiotic behavior and actions spread the rate of infection, together.

A woman was captured at a gas station in Kentucky, the United States with a morphed mask. The cover was conveniently cut at the front. When asked the reason, the woman said it was to help her breathe better.

The mind-boggling video of the covidiot is going viral on several social media platforms. Originally shot by the store clerk Joe Samman, the clip has garnered more than 4.7 million views on TikTok.

The caption read, “Check this mask out”.
https://www.news18.com/news/buzz/this-covidiot-woman-has-cut-a-hole-in-her-mask-to-help-her-breathe-2606931.html




Yeah no, you failed. And generally failing so hard that you wind up the subject of a news article and a subsequent Youtube video is a good rule of thumb to avoid in normal times, but right now, since these are not normal times, this is something that you absolutely do not want to do. And this is not just an isolated incident either. There are *HUNDREDS* of pages of these on Google and Youtube. Like this story from Colorado for instance.

A liquor store in Colorado received threatening phone calls after a woman that refused to wear a face mask inside the store filmed her ejection from the business.

Ruby Musso, the woman who shot the video and refused to wear a mask, was shopping in a liquor store when other customers began shaming her for not wearing a mask and putting them at risk of catching the coronavirus. At one point, a woman shoves her shopping cart towards Ms Musso.

-snip-

Fox8 News reported that the liquor store has received threatening calls since the video went viral.

"People calling us telling us we're Nazis and destroying the American dream or something like that," Rufus Nagel, the liquor store's owner, said. "Honestly we're just trying to do the best we can."

The store has since cut off its phone service.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/colorado-store-receives-threats-video-201709413.html




Yeah probably! But seriously don’t threaten the store that bans you because you’re too stupid to follow their policy. Do you threaten Steam when you get banned for posting racist stuff on their message boards? I would assume the Trumpsters would try something like that. We will be featuring the Maskholes from time to time during the duration of the pandemic. But here’s another one, from time to time. But really don’t be like these people. Just don’t.

We’ve seen a lot of confrontations involving masks, including verbal fights, physical altercations and even coughing fits. But this one might top it all when a regular day at work turned into quite a show at the Verizon store off Galleria Boulevard in Roseville.

In a 911 call, you hear a dispatch operator tell an officer three people are “refusing to leave, not wearing a mask… they’ve asked several times and she refuses.” About three minutes later the operator tells the officer, “They’re calling back and advising that that female is pulling down her pants and is now urinating inside the business.”

Roseville Police got to the scene and confirmed the incident to CBS13. Spokesperson Rob Baquera says officers arrested the woman after finding several stolen items from a nearby Dick’s Sporting Goods store in her vehicle.

Verizon spokesperson Heidi Flato says the company is requiring all customers to wear masks in their stores. Flato told CBS13 the incident wasn’t just about the company’s mask policy but wouldn’t comment further about what happened.

https://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2020/07/17/roseville-urination-verizon-arrest/





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[font size="8"]Top 10 Investigates: Return Of The Plague
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It’s time to investigate beyond the headlines! This is Top 10 Investigates!



The Coronavirus has consumed nearly every aspect of life right now. But there’s the possibility of another plague that has been dormant for decades, even centuries. The Bubonic Plague. Yes, there is a very real possibility of the plague returning. It seems mother nature is finally ready to get rid of all humans in the world and she is taking us out with a vengeance. But the return of the plague is not just an isolated incident, there’s been a couple of resurgences all over the world – in humans and in animals, and that was one of the biggest fears of the Coronavirus. The plague though, could be a different story altogether if it returns.

A squirrel in Colorado has tested positive for the bubonic plague.

The squirrel tested positive on July 11 in the town of Morrison, marking the first case of plague in the county this year, according to a news release from the Jefferson County Public Health (JCPH) department.

The disease has been around for centuries and is responsible for the deadliest pandemic in human history. An estimated 50 million people in Europe died during the Black Death pandemic of the Middle Ages.

JCPH warns the public that it can infect both humans and animals if proper precautions are not taken.

The disease can be transmitted from flea bites and infected animals. While modern antibiotics can prevent complications and death if treated quickly enough, it's still a major threat to both humans and animals.
The disease can cause painful, swollen lymph nodes. Fever, chills and coughing are also symptoms humans can experience.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/14/us/bubonic-plague-squirrel-scn-trnd/index.html




That might be the squirrel that we need to worry about instead of Plague Squirrels. And Plague Squirrels, by the way, would make an awesome band name. But while China is coming to grips with the Coronavirus unleashed on the world, they may also have to deal with the fact that they’ve unleashed the return of the Black Plague, which has been confirmed in both China and Mongolia.

In the Chinese region of Inner Mongolia, a city is on high alert. On Tuesday, they confirmed a case of a disease that has persisted centuries after it caused the most deadly pandemic in human history -- the bubonic plague.
The case was first discovered in the city of Bayannur, located northwest of Beijing, according to state-run Xinhua news agency. A hospital alerted municipal authorities of the suspected case on Saturday. By Sunday, local authorities had issued a citywide Level 3 warning for plague prevention, the second lowest in a four-level system.

The warning will stay in place until the end of the year, according to Xinhua.

The case was confirmed and officially diagnosed by doctors on Tuesday. The patient is being isolated and treated in hospital, and is in stable condition, Xinhua reported.

Plague, caused by bacteria and transmitted through flea bites and infected animals, killed an estimated 50 million people in Europe during the Black Death pandemic in the Middle Ages. Modern antibiotics can prevent complications and death if administered quickly enough.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/06/asia/china-mongolia-bubonic-plague-intl-hnk-scli-scn/index.html




So don’t eat bats, or rats, or anything with “at” in the name. But why should you be alarmed by the return of a virus that nearly caused the end of humanity back in the early 1300s? Well it is very easily treatable with vaccines and medications, but the Chinese government has a history of reacting to terrible diseases, which is why Coronavirus got out like it did. Needless to say they would be the worst to deal with a pandemic on their hands.

The Chinese government’s response to this month’s outbreak of plague has been marked by temerity and some fear, which history suggests is entirely appropriate. But not all fear is the same, and Beijing seems to be afraid of the wrong things. Rather than being concerned about the germs and their spread, the government seems mostly motivated by a desire to manage public reaction about the disease. Those efforts, however, have failed—and the public’s response is now veering toward a sort of plague-inspired panic that’s not at all justified by the facts.

On Nov. 3, Li Jifeng, a doctor at Beijing Chaoyang Hospital, the capital’s key infectious diseases treatment and quarantine center, attended to a middle-aged man who was struggling to breathe and his wife, who was also running a high fever and likewise gasping for air. The couple had been ailing for at least 10 days by the time Li saw them. They had initially sought care some 250 miles north of China’s capital in Inner Mongolia, a frigid cold region that straddles the borders of China, Mongolia, and North Korea, before being sent to Beijing for observation.

So far, so good, for China’s response. More ominous, however, was what happened next. Li’s WeChat social media posting describing the couple was quickly deleted. Meanwhile, the government officially informed the World Health Organization (WHO) about the cases, as it was required to do, but only on Nov. 13—after they were already reported by journalists around the world.
https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/11/16/china-bubonic-plague-outbreak-pandemic/




Bring out your dead!!! But the real reason why we should be worried about the return of such deadly disease and why our current situation could be burning out of control for a long time? Anti-vaccination crusaders. Yes, anti-vaxxers and conspiracy theorists are responsible for a lot of bad in the world, and they could make a bad situation like a disease burning out of control last forever. But thankfully this is one we do have a cure for. Unfortunately, there’s currently no cure for stupidity.

It follows two brothers being diagnosed with the plague after eating marmot meat in neighbouring country of Mongolia last week.

The killer bacterial infection, which is often spread by flea-ridden rodents, may also have spread to a second patient in the city of Bayannur in China, sparking an epidemic warning.

Alarmingly, this isn't the first time that plague has broken out in recent years - and it's not the only medieval disease to return from the shadows and claim new victims in the 21st century.

Here, we reveal how gruesome practices like 'corpse dancing' and barmy anti-vaxx conspiracists have seen some of the world's most feared viruses spring back to life.
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/12042579/ancient-diseases-plague-black-death-anti-vaxx-conspiracies-corpse-dancing/




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 my fair brothers and sisters! It’s time to take a seat in the virtual pew make an online donation in the LAWRD’s virtual 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 online congregation! You know unfortunately we’re stuck inside and unable to bring you the full program that we deserve. But until then, we must fill that void! Because we’re religion but we’re also here to entertain! And boy do we need entertainment right now when we’re all locked in our homes until it is safe to go outside again. But this week, some of my parishioners have tipped me off to a new book by Robert Maginnis who says that former president Obama – a man whose name I am allowed to mention in my church, and the conservatives’ favorite boogeyman George Soros, are “Satan’s Greatest Human Proxies. Let’s delve into this, because this man has a warped view of SAYTAN and his minions, doesn’t he?

Family Research Council senior fellow and right-wing conspiracy theorist Robert Maginnis appeared on “The Jim Bakker Show” yesterday to promote his latest book, “Collision Course: The Fight to Reclaim Our Moral Compass Before It Is Too Late.”

During the interview, Maginnis said that a chapter in his book exposes “Satan’s greatest human proxies,” among whom he includes former President Barack Obama and billionaire philanthropist George Soros.

Among “Satan’s proxies” in history, Maginnis named Mao Zedong, Joseph Stalin, and Adolf Hitler. But among “today’s modern proxies of Satan, people that are true anti-Christs,” Maginnis named North Korea’s Kim Jong-un, China’s Xi Jinping, and George Soros.

“I would argue in our culture today, George Soros—who of course funds antifa and Black Lives Matter and other radical groups—is a major Antichrist,” Maginnis said.

Maginnis then cited a document from the right-wing organization WallBuilders that characterizes Obama as “America’s Most Biblically-Hostile U.S. President” as proof that Obama is also a modern-day proxy of Satan.
https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/robert-maginnis-ranks-barack-obama-george-soros-among-satans-greatest-human-proxies/




Of course not, SAYTAN, because no one can do that! But really, he’s right about Adolf Hitler, Kim Jong Un, Xi Jianping, and Josef Stalin, but do Obama and Soros really belong on that list? Hell no! Let’s take a look at some real proxies of SAYTAN, because I am sure that’s what the good LAWRD JAYSUS would want, isn’t it? So who are SAYTAN’s greatest human proxies? How about these QAnon morons?

“God sent me,” Angela Stanton-King, the Republican candidate in Georgia’s 5th Congressional District, claimed in a tweet Wednesday night. Stanton–King is among the congressional candidates identified by Media Matters and news outlets as having promoted QAnon-related conspiracy theories.

At the beginning of July, Stanton–King denied being a QAnon believer, telling the Associated Press that linking to a QAnon video was about “questioning the movement” and that using QAnon hashtags was an effort to extend her social media reach. But since then, she has published a number of tweets that appear to support QAnon. On July 11, she tweeted, “How many of you think this is still about Trump being a racist and not the Globbal elite pedophiles trafficking children…THE GLOVES ARE OFF!!!” On Thursday morning, she tweeted what she described as a “truth bomb”: “This isn’t about COVID 19 or BLACK LIVES MATTER. This is a major cover up for PEDOPHILIA and HUMAN TRAFFICKING.”

Stanton–King is vehemently anti-choice. Last week, she tweeted, “Calling all Christians,” adding, “Remember that scripture in Ecclesiastes, the one that says, ‘There’s a time for peace and a time for war.’ Well this is the war! Save the children and the babies in the womb.”

After authoring a series of tweets detailing her strident anti-LGBTQ views in March, Stanton–King faced a wave of criticism. Blogger Alvin McEwen called her out for sending a tweet “implying that LGBTQ people are violent pedophiles” on the day she launched her campaign. On July 9, she tweeted, “First they stole the rainbow now they wanna steal the church.”
https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/god-sent-me-claims-%e2%80%8bqanon-promoting-congressional-candidate-angela-stanton-king/




No, you were more likely chosen by SAYTAN than by GAWD! Because the LAWRD does not like the Dark One, and I will not allow his name to be mentioned in my church! Even if it is not the real church right now at the moment. And speaking of Satan’s Human Proxies, these Q Anon idiots are obsessed with pedophiles. I mean really obsessed. And I’m sure that’s not something that the good LAWRD JAYSUS would want, now is it?

“Diehard QAnon conspiracy theorists Liz Crokin and Ann Vandersteel appeared together on Friday’s episode of Vandersteel’s “Steel Truth” program, during which Vandersteel declared that Crokin deserves to be awarded the Medal of Freedom for her supposed efforts to save children from the alleged global satanic pedophile ring that exists at the heart of the QAnon conspiracy theory.

Despite the fact that Crokin seemingly does little beyond spreading baseless conspiracy theories on YouTube and Facebook, Vandersteel spent a good portion of Friday’s program heaping praise on Crokin, saying that Crokin is a blessing to the United States and the world, adding that she hopes Crokin will one day receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom (the Medal of Freedom is awarded to “individuals who have made exceptional contributions to the security or national interests of America, to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors”).

“You’ve mangaed to just stay clean and pure, and your heart is so good,” Vandersteel told Crokin. “I see so much of President Trump in you, frankly, trying to save the children, which is amazing.”

Vandersteel and Crokin then decided to copy former national security adviser Michael Flynn by taking the the QAnon oath, which is essentially the normal oath of office with the QAnon slogan “where we go one, we go all,” added to the end. To accomplish this, Vandersteel played the video of Flynn and friends taking the oath while she and Crokin awkwardly added their own voices to create a cacophonous mess.
https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/ann-vandersteel-says-liz-crokin-deserves-medal-of-freedom-for-having-saved-millions-of-children-from-satanic-pedophiles/




Yes, thank you SAYTAN for unleashing these godless heathens upon us! You know how does the Dark LAWRD SAYTAN feel about the protests against police brutality? It’s some truly awful shit happening all around the country as people finally stand up to the horrors of what is happening? Well, apparently Christians think they are persecuted because they can’t say certain phrases! Gee, where have I heard this nonsense before?

Trump-loving right-wing pastor and die hard birther conspiracy theorist Carl Gallups appeared on “The Jim Bakker Show” last Wednesday, where he complained that Christians are being censored and criticized for insisting that “all lives matter.”

Right-wing activists and Christian conservatives who oppose the Black Lives Matter movement have responded to the phrase “Black lives matter” by asserting that “all lives matter” and falsely insinuating that the phrase “Black lives matter” means that only Black lives matter, which is obviously not the case.

During his appearance on Bakker’s show, Gallups used this false framework to argue that Christians are not allowed to say that “all lives matter” because Satan “has convinced the whole world that we cannot say that” as a way of preventing them from spreading the Gospel.

“Because of Jesus Christ, all lives matter,” Gallups said. “And Jesus said, ‘God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believes in him [shall not perish, but have eternal life].’ Paul said, ‘In Jesus Christ, there is no Jew, there is no Gentile’—those are racial and cultural differences—’there is no male, there is no female, there is no slave, there is no master.’ Now there were slaves, and there were masters. There were men, and there were women. They were Jews, and there were Gentiles. So what’s Paul saying? He’s saying in Jesus Christ, all lives matter.”
https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/carl-gallups-warns-satan-has-convinced-the-world-christians-cant-say-all-lives-matter/




Sheesh, stop being so persecuted my fellow brothers and sisters! These are the people who are really the spawns of SAYTAN! 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: Lady A Vs Lady A
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Pop quiz, hot shot! You’re in a super popular country music group, and you’re under fire for having a racist name in a time when racism is finally getting scrubbed from the annals of American history! So what do you do? What do you DO???? Well, the Dixie Chicks recently dropped the “Dixie” from their name and are going by “The Chicks”. Now here’s the conundrum. Country music’s controversial group Lady Antebellum, dropped the southern moniker “Antebellum” and is going with the name Lady A. But… but… there’s already a singer with the name Lady A, who is from Seattle, and has had that stage name for over 20 years! How did that happen, and why has Lady A not fired their manager yet? Instead, Lady A, the band, is taking a much different and way more American route than Lady A the singer is. See if you can guess what that is!

Let the games begin. The band formerly known as Lady Antebellum announced in June that they were changing their name — but the transition hasn’t been easy.

Band members Hillary Scott, Charles Kelley and Dave Haywood confirmed that they would be taking the country group in a new direction after acknowledging the dangerous history of the word “antebellum” amid nationwide Black Lives Matter protests.

“As a band, we have strived for our music to be a refuge … inclusive of all,” the Grammy winners declared via a lengthy Instagram statement on June 11. “After much personal reflection, band discussion, prayer and many honest conversations with some of our closest Black friends and colleagues, we have decided to drop the word ‘antebellum’ from our name and move forward as Lady A, the nickname our fans gave us almost from the start.”

Scott, 34, Kelley, 38, and Haywood, 37, admitted that they felt “regretful and embarrassed” about not being more aware of the meaning behind the word and its connection to slavery. “We are deeply sorry for the hurt this has caused and for anyone who has felt unsafe, unseen or unvalued,” they added.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/music/celebrity/singer-lady-a-reacts-to-bands-name-change-lawsuit-everything-to-know/ss-BB16AVEV?li=BBnbfcL




Yeah probably. But it’s not racism here that’s the problem. The problem is that one group has apparently felt that money is a far more important issue and they need a lot more of it, which is also a very American thing to do. But like Coronavirus, expect this lawsuit to sting and linger in the air for a very long time to come. It’s basically a battle of money vs reputation, and money usually wins out in this day and age.

Singer Anita White, also known as Lady A, released a statement over the weekend saying that the country group of the same name — formerly known as Lady Antebellum — “has used their wealth and influence to intimidate and bully me into submission without offering any real recompense for appropriating my name.”

Says White, “It is now clear that their apologies, friendly texts, and playing on my love of God were just insincere gestures aimed at quieting me. Well, I will not be quiet any longer.”

White had made her views clear earlier in the week in interviews with Vulture and Rolling Stone, but the 790-word statement represents her first full expression of her feelings about the breakdown in negotiations with the band in her own words.

Although the group Lady A had sought an agreement in which both artists could freely use the name, the singer Lady A explains why she has resisted that, and says in her statement that “co-existence will simply not work.”
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/lady-singer-claims-band-used-wealth-influence-bully-me-says-n1233648




Good question! Why? Well, money, and bullshit. Plus there’s no way that the members of the group formerly known as Lady Antebellum thought this through. So, like Eminem says, will the real Lady A please stand up? Please stand up? Please stand up? OK I got a little carried away here. But the fact of the matter is that it’s way more complicated than you might think.

Intellectual property attorneys say the country act may have a good case for using its longtime nickname.

There is only one Beatles for a reason. Acts rarely, if ever, share a name. And although Seattle-based blues singer Anita White believes that the country trio formerly known as Lady Antebellum is trying to “erase” her by adopting the more culturally appropriate moniker Lady A -- which has been White’s stage name for more than three decades -- intellectual property experts say the Nashville group likely has the upper hand in a new lawsuit because of a trademark filing from 10 years ago.

On June 11, the Nashville act announced its name change to shed the pre-Civil War association with slavery implied in the word Antebellum -- meaning “before the war” -- drawing a swift response from the 62-year-old Black singer, who said she has used the Lady A name since 1987.

“It’s not right that they can come and decide that they want to use this name and take it from me, because now it feels like another knee on my neck," she told CBS affiliate WUSA in Washington, D.C., a reference to the police-related death of George Floyd, who died in May after a white Minneapolis officer held his knee on Floyd's neck for nearly nine minutes. After talks between White and the band broke down, the country trio -- Hillary Scott, Charles Kelley and Dave Haywood -- filed a lawsuit in Nashville on July 8 claiming White's team delivered an "exorbitant monetary demand" of $10 million to turn over the trademark rights to the name.
https://www.billboard.com/articles/business/legal-and-management/9416649/lady-a-who-has-rights-to-name-experts




Maybe don’t hire that guy. But in addition to being a trademark and lawsuit nightmare, this reimagining of Lady Antebellum as Lady A has also been a PR nightmare! Yes, in addition to lawsuit headaches, they are also dealing with bad press. That’s a thing that nobody wants to deal with. But that can hurt a music act’s reputation no matter what genre it is. Seriously, ask Michael Jackson. What? Too soon? Well this does not appear to be going away any time soon.

Last week, they sued Anita White, a Black blues artist who has gone by the name "Lady A" for more than 20 years, seeking to enforce a trademark they have had for the name since 2011. In choosing to pick this fight now, the band showed us all the limits of our national moment of reckoning around race.


Put another way, plenty of public figures and companies presented themselves as racial progressives in the days during and following the protests. For many, that progressiveness seems to stop as soon as dollars are involved.

According to their court filing, the band formerly known as Lady Antebellum (I'll just call them "TBFKALA" for short) has sold 18 million album units and 34 million tracks and been streamed some 5 billion times. They have won seven Grammys and countless other honors.

In contrast, Ms. White started going by "Lady A" at karaoke nights in the 1980s. She has a day job working for Seattle Public Utilities. At the time of the filing of the lawsuit, the band's Spotify page had over 7 million monthly listeners. Ms. White's had 166.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/13/opinions/lady-a-lawsuit-anita-white-terrible-williams/index.html





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[font size="8"]How Is This Still A Thing: Stone Mountain

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It’s time once again to ask:



This week: Georgia’s Stone Mountain, how is this still a thing? We live in an era right now where, since the death of George Floyd at the hands of murderous police forces, has awaked everyone to the dangers of racism in society. Racist monuments across the country and even around the world are getting taken down in solidarity. But one still reigns supreme – the original home and monument to the racist organization known as the Ku Klux Klan, Stone Mountain, Georgia. The monument attracts some 100,000 visitors a year. But now people are questioning its’ very existence. In fact, it may be in jeopardy of no longer being a thing.

The mother of all Confederate monuments looms in Georgia. It’s etched on the side of a 280-some-million-year-old monadnock: Stone Mountain, seven miles around at the base and covering 1,000 acres. The Confederate memorial carving—Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, and Jefferson Davis on horseback—is on the north face, comprising 3 acres in area. It’s 400 feet above the ground; it’s the largest bas-relief carving in the world—blah, blah, blah, this thing is big.

The armed, mostly Black protesters who peacefully marched in Stone Mountain Park demanding the removal of the carving on the Fourth of July hit social media hard, but the idea that the carving, big (and legally protected) as it may be, needs to go has been gaining traction in recent years. In 2017, Stacey Abrams, then running for governor of Georgia, called for the carving to be removed. Richard Rose, president of the Atlanta chapter of the NAACP, interviewed by the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Debra McKinney in 2018, called the carving “the largest shrine to white supremacy in the history of the world,” and said it should be brought down.

Looking at the history of this piece of public art, which is rich with twists and turns, it becomes clear that the carving is a monument to many kinds of 20th-century white supremacy—the overt racist violence of the second Ku Klux Klan; the decades-long tolerance of the Southern Jim Crow regime by Northerners, who wanted badly to look the other way in the name of “unity”; and later, the consumption-oriented “Lost Cause” nostalgia that reframed all of Southern history as a playground for pleasure seekers. A removal of this particular monument would truly be a victory. It would be hard to do, both physically and legally, but boy, would it be satisfying.
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/07/stone-mountain-georgia-confederacy-history.html




Yes, maybe don’t call your special the “Krusty Komedy Klassic”. Because usually anything associated with the KKK is bad. But Stone Mountain is normally attracting tourists, though this year it’s attracting another kind of visitor. And that visitor is armed, angry, white males. Who you can naturally imagine are pissed at their monuments getting torn down. Yup, these are the kinds of protestors that you do not want at your monument.

About 1,000 heavily armed militia, all of whom were Black, marched through Georgia's Stone Mountain Park on Saturday, challenging white nationalist groups in the area to either come out and fight or join them in demonstrating against the government.

Stone Mountain State Park officials said the Black militia group was peaceful, orderly and escorted by police as they called for the removal of the country's largest Confederate monument near Atlanta.

Videos posted to social media show the group, the "Not F**king Around Coalition" (NFAC), meeting at the massive nine-story quartz sculpting that depicts former Confederate president Jefferson Davis and Southern generals Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson.

NFAC Founder Grand Master Jay told Newsweek via phone Sunday that the militia members at Stone Mountain on Saturday were "100 percent Black" and they are not affiliated with Black Lives Matter. "We are a Black militia. We aren't protesters, we aren't demonstrators. We don't come to sing, we don't come to chant. That's not what we do," he said.
https://www.newsweek.com/armed-black-demonstrators-challenge-white-supremacist-militia-georgias-stone-mountain-park-1515494




Yes, probably! So how did the original monument to the KKK and the Civil War stand the test of time? In a post Civil War America, there are still people who hang onto the idea of secession and slavery and are looking to restore America’s glory days. Stone Mountain is the southern version of the Mt. Rushmore monument in South Dakota. But as you can imagine, there’s both lots of arguments why the monument should exist and why it shouldn’t.

It’s 1,683 feet high, with a circumference of 3.8 miles. It’s the largest mass of exposed granite in the world. It’s been the site of everything from family picnics to Klan rallies for nearly a century. It looms, literally and figuratively, over the ongoing Confederate statue debate.

It’s Stone Mountain, and it’s an enormous, indelible monument to the Confederacy.

Located just east of Atlanta, Stone Mountain is an easily identifiable landmark when flying into the world’s busiest airport. An egg-shaped mass that’s only the uppermost tip of a miles-wide swath of rock, its distinctive granite graces everything from the steps on the East Wing of the U.S. Capitol to the Panama Canal to the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo. It’s also hosted generations of tourists, drawn both to the awe-inspiring size of the mountain and the gargantuan carving of Confederate leaders Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis and Stonewall Jackson carved on its face.

The “Memorial Carving,” as it’s dubbed on the park’s website, is 400 feet above the surrounding ground and extends as much as 42 feet into the rock. It’s the largest bas-relief (i.e. carved from surrounding rock) sculpture in the world, 90 feet by 190 feet. Lee is the size of a nine-story building, and an adult could stand up inside the mouth of one of the horses.
https://sports.yahoo.com/the-story-of-stone-mountain-the-worlds-largest-confederate-monument-160915895.html




Yes, probably. And why is it allowed to continue to exist? Despite being the target of pro-racism and anti-racism arguments all over the world, maybe if the protestors were better organized, Stone Mountain might come down. Or it might stay up. Either way, it all comes down to permitted protestors, and Stone Mountain may have found a loophole in which to keep them out. And this could set precedent throughout the country.

City of Stone Mountain officials are reexamining policies after a large group of demonstrators parked in the city and marched into Stone Mountain Park over the weekend - many of them armed.

While the demonstration was peaceful and no one was arrested, 11Alive has learned the group did not have a permit to be there. The event may soon have an impact on how the park handles future demonstrations.

“When you take a city as small as Stone Mountain with our 15 officers and they are confronted with 200-plus individuals who have obviously outgunned us ... to do a peaceful demonstration we're not gonna start talking about permits and, ‘You can't come here without permits’," Public Safety administrator Thomas Brown said.

Brown said the armed protesters on Saturday at Stone Mountain did not have a parade permit. And the Stone Mountain Association said they didn't have a parade permit for the park either. However, Brown said they weren't going to risk an altercation over the issue at the time.

"That's a conversation we must have much later down the line," he said.
https://www.11alive.com/article/news/local/stone-mountain/stone-mountain-park-permitting-questions/85-10341bef-c98e-4ce5-847c-9bd5366501ef




So, poorly planned protests and a dash of hardcore racism and America’s incredibly poor history with the subject. And that sweet tourism revenue. That’s enough to make you ask – Georgia’s Stone Mountain:




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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. And even the worst pandemic in an entire century has certainly not derailed people’s natural ability to be as stupid as possible. First off, let’s start with this story out of the great state of Kentucky. So here’s the thing, if you’re going to do mushrooms, do them in an area where there’s no possibility of the police showing up at your door. And if you do, also maybe come up with a better excuse than this. I’m sure that Jesus probably has better things to do right now than to take hallucinogenic mushrooms with you. Or maybe he does, that’s God for you.

After breaking into a Kentucky home, a naked man explained to police that he had “used mushrooms with Jesus and that they were playing a virtual reality video game together” before his apprehension, police say.

While en route to a 911 call about a “male subject running down the roadway completely nude and hitting passing vehicles with his hands,” cops early today got a second call about a residential burglary in progress in the same Owensboro neighborhood.

Upon arriving at the home around 1:30 AM, officers encountered John Stefanopoulos “standing in the residence.” The 41-year-old Stefanopoulos--who does not live in the property--was “completely nude and had a substantial amount of blood and mud on his body.”

When Stefanopoulos rushed cops after ignoring orders to get on the ground, he was tasered and handcuffed following a brief struggle.
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/bizarre/shrooms-with-jesus-783062




Yes, that is true! Next up – remember that episode of Seinfeld where Jerry accused his accountant of abusing drugs because he went to South America? Well, this next story might actually prove that theory true. I mean, I go to Starbucks all the time and I don’t remember getting this with my coffee! Yup, imported Columbian coffee beans to Italy contained… *drum roll* drugs! How did that one get mixed up in the process?

Police in Italy have intercepted a package containing hundreds of coffee beans that were hiding illegal drugs inside them.

Around 500 beans had been cut open, stuffed with cocaine, and carefully taped closed again with dark brown tape.

While the method of transportation appears to have been carefully thought out, the name on the package may have given the smugglers away.

Police said suspicions were initially raised when they saw the name "Santino D'Antonio" on the packets — a mafia boss in the American action film John Wick.

Police intercepted the beans after they had been sent from Medellin in Colombia to Milan's Malpensa airport.

The 2kg package contained 150g of cocaine powder.
https://www.euronews.com/2020/07/17/italian-police-intercept-coffee-beans-stuffed-with-cocaine




Yeah next time maybe don’t use the name of a John Wick character on your shipping reference! Next up – we got to go to the State of Florida now. With Miami becoming the COVID-19 capital of the world (hey! It’s a retiree! Hey o! ), it’s no secret that Florida Man is out and doing stuff and he’s dumber than ever! First off, if there’s one thing you should know, it’s that nothing good ever comes out of a dare. Nothing!

A Florida Man arrested for “running in the street unclothed” at 2:45 AM told police that he went for the naked jog yesterday after being “dared by a friend,” according to an arrest affidavit.

Konrad Tucker, 58, “did not seem bothered by the fact that he was nude while in public view,” a Pinellas Park Police Department officer reported.

Seen at right, Tucker reportedly “could not advise where he was staying or who his ‘friend was.’” Additionally, Tucker “did not have access to any clothing.”

Tucker, who is listed as a transient in arrest records, was charged with exposure of sexual organs, a misdemeanor. He is being held in lieu of $150 bond at the Pinellas County jail.

Tucker’s rap sheet includes convictions for disorderly intoxication, passing a bad check, resisting arrest, and driving with a suspended license.
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/buster/florida/nabbed-for-naked-run-714205




Seriously that was right from the Simpsons Movie! Next up – dumb clerks! OK so this is a fad that is happening because of the COVID-19 pandemic. See, in normal times you would be asked to show your ID before you score alcohol. But in the world where everyone should be required to wear face masks, and most of us are doing so, you can’t tell who’s hiding behind the mask. And teenagers are taking advantage of the situation!

In a pandemic, no one knows you’re underage.

That’s what Gen Z has discovered as they’ve updated the fake ID for the COVID-19 era, hitting up liquor stores dressed as elderly grandmas wearing coronavirus face masks.

The “prank” has taken social media platform TikTok by storm, with videos of users bedecked as boozehound bubbies — seemingly victorious, bottles in hand — racking up millions of views.

That you get liquor before you turn 21 is, we’re sure, just a bonus.

“PSA: use ur fakes as much as possible bc if you wear a mask they can’t see ur whole face lol,” one adolescent posted to her not-of-legal-age brethren.

“Now that we have to wear masks, this is the best time to buy alcohol with a fake ID since the early 80’s …,” standup comedian Jason Lawhead posted on Twitter.
https://nypost.com/2020/07/14/teens-are-dressing-up-as-mask-wearing-grandmas-to-score-alcohol/?utm_campaign=SocialFlow&utm_source=NYPTwitter&utm_medium=SocialFlow




Finally this week – I’ve seen a lot of strange Florida stories over the years, but I will admit that I did not have “goat paternity tests” on my Florida Man Bingo Card. We go to the town of Odessa for this story, and it’s every bit as strange as you might imagine. And come on, what’s a Florida story without some goats involved? And no, it doesn’t stand for “greatest of all time”.

A Florida woman has filed a lawsuit seeking either a paternity test on her goats or a refund — and she's not kidding.

Kris Hedstrom filed the suit against her neighbor, Heather Dayner, last month seeking DNA for the goats she purchased. Hedstrom paid Dayner $900 for five Nigerian dwarf goats in December.

According to the lawsuit, Hedstrom believed the goats — Bella, Gigi, Rosie, Zelda and Margoat — could be registered with the American Dairy Goat Association, a group that records goat pedigrees. Registered goats have higher values than unregistered goats.

Dayner, who has been selling goats at Baxter Lane Farm for about 10 years, typically provides information to her clients so they can register their animals themselves.

She said the father goat was registered, but the Tampa Bay Times reports the American Dairy Goat Association rejected Hedstrom’s application to register the babies because Dayner is not an active member.
https://www.nwitimes.com/news/weird/florida-woman-sues-for-paternity-test-on-goats-and-more-of-this-weeks-weirdest-news/collection_16eb374a-6b65-50b0-8beb-6aaee10915d2.html#1




That’s it this week for:




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[font size="8"]Road To The White House: Biden Vs Trump Rallies
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Welcome back to… cue reverb… THE ROAD TO THE WHITE HOUSE!!! Ooh, that was some good reverb there! Of course you know that the 2020 Road To The White House is no ordinary campaign. No sir, no madam, we are as you might be aware, currently in the worst pandemic not seen in an entire century, so of course it happens to be in THIS election cycle! Of course everyone wants to get rid of this pandemic so we can get on with the lives we were supposed to have prior to the outbreak. How’s that affecting the campaign though? There’s two different camps. Biden is taking the smart approach to campaigning in a pandemic, so let’s call him Gallant and Trump is taking the ridiculously stupid way. So let’s call Trump, Goofus.

Florida’s top political minds think President Donald Trump and the Republican Party will go through with their Jacksonville conventions plans amid a worsening pandemic. But that doesn’t mean they think it’s a good idea.

In a survey of 220 of Florida campaign operatives, political party leaders, organizers, fundraisers, elected leaders, political scientists and other Insiders, 72 percent agreed that holding the Republican National Convention in Florida is a public health risk.

“I do think the Republican Party will be hell bent on this convention and it will happen,” one GOP consultant said. “The questions is ‘Will it be like Tulsa?' Only time will tell. As of now, you couldn’t pay me to attend that convention. Too much risk for silly hats and bourbon.”

One Democrat suggested that Trump, Gov. Ron DeSantis and Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry have a lot to gain if the convention is a success, but also quite a bit to lose “if virus numbers spike in Jacksonville afterward.” But like 93 percent of respondents, he thinks the quadrennial confab is going to commence.
https://www.tampabay.com/florida-politics/buzz/2020/07/01/florida-insiders-fear-trumps-jacksonville-convention-is-a-public-health-risk/




Well duh indeed! Of course Trump is a public health risk. The man is a walking heart attack waiting to happen, and we’ve all seen what he likes to do in the bedroom. Yeah the man wants his balloon drop and his big parade, but guess what? We’re in a pandemic right now that has upended society as we know it and has turned the whole world upside down and inside out! But you know what? He’ll cancel his rally, but not because of the virus!

Poll after poll has shown former Vice President Joe Biden with a growing lead over President Trump, and with COVID-19 cases surging again, the president's approval level is sinking as well. It's all leading Trump to claim "the polls are all fake" and, when he does believe them, beg for advice to turn it all around, Vanity Fair reports.

In recent days, Trump has appeared "down in the dumps," Republicans who have spoken with him tell Vanity Fair. "People around him think his heart's not in it," one Republican close to the White House said of his campaign. Trump is reportedly stuck between appealing to his base and suburban voters, leading him to even call Fox News' Tucker Carlson last week and beg "What do I do? What do I do?"

In other instances, Trump has appeared in denial of his sputtering campaign and claimed "the polls are all fake," a Republican in touch with Trump tells Vanity Fair. But at other times he reportedly believes the polls — and blames them on his son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner. But the reported blame games haven't stopped the bad news from pouring in, namely when it comes to the resumption of campaign rallies where Trump usually thrives. With coronavirus spreading throughout Florida and a mandatory mask policy now in place in Jacksonville, the Trump campaign is reportedly ready to cancel his 15,000-person rally at the Republican National Convention next month "so that Trump doesn’t suffer another Tulsa–like humiliation," Vanity Fair writes.
https://theweek.com/speedreads/923605/trumps-campaign-reportedly-ready-cancel-convention-rally-avoid-tulsalike-humiliation




Seriously, that would make a great campaign ad. Just Trump as the Sad Hulk after his big rallies in Tulsa and Jacksonville turn out to be the shit shows we all predicted they would be. But now let’s switch gears from Goofus, and how is Gallant handling this? Well of course he’s going the virtual route, and of course I know we are all going to be sick of Zoom when this is over. But this is life until we get a handle on this thing.

Former Vice President Joe Biden's presidential campaign got a $7.6 million boost on Tuesday after former President Barack Obama joined him for a virtual fundraising event.

The event was the first Biden fundraiser to feature Obama, who had formally endorsed his former running mate in April. The campaign said 120,000 people had logged on for the fundraiser, which was viewable after donors contributed any amount.

"There are over 175,000 grassroots supporters that have contributed to tonight's event, which makes it the largest fundraiser certainly we have had on the campaign and really highlights the power of the grassroots movement behind VP Biden to take on Donald Trump," Jen O'Malley Dillon, Biden's campaign manager, said in a statement.

The event featured a video stream of Biden and Obama speaking and taking questions for over an hour. Obama told the audience that defeating President Donald Trump is "serious business," saying that whatever they had done so far was "not enough," while praising the former vice president as a "dear friend."
https://www.newsweek.com/biden-virtual-campaign-fundraiser-featuring-obama-brings-76-million-1512956




This might be an actual money fight! Joe is playing it safe and venturing indoors, while Trump is going outdoors and it’s costing him big time. In fact, his Tulsa rally was not only a political and personal disaster for Trump, it was also a financial disaster! Tulsa will be paying for this little shindig for a very long time to come, and well, let’s just say you get what you pay for!

President Trump's June campaign rally in Tulsa, Okla., which sported a significantly lower turnout than expected, cost the president's campaign roughly $2 million.

The campaign rally was Trump's return to in-person campaigning, with the coronavirus pandemic forcing most traditional campaigning efforts for both Democrats and Republicans to take place online.

In order to just reserve the BOK Center in downtown Tulsa for the rally, the campaign had to pay more than $500,000, campaign filings submitted Monday reveal.

Then, almost $1 million was spent on "event staging," paying more than $670,000 to Arcus Group; a company named LMG also received more than $425,000 for “audio visual services."

The filings don't explicitly say that the expenses are tied to the Tulsa rally, but the president didn't have any other large, in-person political events the rest of the month.
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/508370-trump-campaign-paid-about-2-million-for-june-rally-in-tulsa-filings-show




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

We’re going to take a look at 3 progressives not named Kamala Harris who are being considered for Biden’s VP pick. Stay tuned!



See you next week!

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July 15, 2020

Top 10 Conservative Idiots #9-4: The Top 10 Hot 10: The Americans Edition


Top 10 Conservative Idiots #9-4: The Top 10 Hot 10: The Americans Edition

Welcome back to the Top 10 Conservative Idiots! How’s everybody doing? Are you guys doing fucking good? I know, right? Well we have completed ½ of this horrid, wretched year that is 2020 and we still have half to go. Man I cannot wait for 2021 to get here. So this is our first ever Top 10 Hot 10 edition and I haven’t been this excited in a long time. So you might be asking why are we doing this? Well it’s easy – boredom. And man have I been sick and tired of non-stop talking about COVID-19. I know it’s all that is in the news right now and we can’t help it, but yeah that’s part of it. If you think about it, since March 25th, nearly 2/3 of our segments have been about Coronavirus, and I really need something else to talk about. Also two, there’s a lack of material out there for all the various segments that we do. A lot of our material is designed to be performed in front of a live audience, and since we can’t do that for a while, we’re regulated to this white background empty void. Eventually we’ll get that freedom back. But also, I’ve been wanting to do something like this for quite some time. This week, we’re completely throwing out our usual format and giving you the first ever Top 10 Hot 10. And this will be one of 3. This Top 10 Hot 10 is going to be strictly limited to the United States leaders, politicians, celebrities and various groups. While the second Hot 10 is coming in August and it will focus on world leaders (I’m looking at you, Putin). The third Hot 10, coming in September, will focus on right-wing personalities in the sports and entertainment world (think Ted Nugent and Kid Rock). And finally the fourth one will be in November and we will be using it to discuss members of the right wing blogosphere and punditry, such as Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Pat Robertson. Oh, and there’s a twist – unlike our format which is 1 – 10, this edition will be… BACKWARDS!!! YAY!! The kids love that one, don’t they? OK that’s enough of the intro, we have a lot of idiocy to get to. But first, with Hamilton back on the Disney + streaming service, I have to post Weird Al’s insane polka rendition of the entire musical in 5 minutes:



So since this edition is going to be completely backwards, and in a countdown style format, we are going to count down from #10 to #1! We’ve been scouring the depths of the Top 10 going all the way back to #1 to find the worst of the worst. Taking the number 10 slot is of course the state known as the Sunshine State, the State Of Florida (10), America’s most penis-shaped state. Ruiner of elections and pandemics, keeper of the most guns, and residence of some of the craziest people on the planet. In the number 9 (NEIN!!!) slot is the Right Wing Blogosphere (9), and it comes in all flavors, whether you prefer Alex Jones’ conspiracy theories, Ben Shapiro’s whining about safe spaces, or the absolute batshit religious “prophecies” coming out of Mark Taylor’s mouth, there’s something for everybody! Taking the 8th slot is Liberty University (8). Yes, the school founded by Jerry Falwell is a never-ending source of conservative idiocy, bad policies, cheap diplomas, evolution denial, and of course some old time fire and brimstone religion! Taking the 7th slot is the White Male Groper’s Club (7) which includes everyone from Boofing Brett to Bill O’Reilly to stand-up comedians and movie stars and our own president, these perverted dipshits have got caught with their pants down – literally! In the number six slot, we can’t forget about our weekly visit to the Holy Church Of The Top 10 in “Holy Shit”, and we asked our resident pastor to come up with some contributions to this list, and he’s got some doozies! In the number 5 slot this week is Fox News (5), oh and don’t think I have forgot about Rupert Murdoch’s hideous contributions to society including our 43rd and 45th presidents, imagine where we would be without them! Taking the fourth slot this week, is Brett Kavanaugh (4). There’s the conservative SCOTUS, but Kavanaugh takes a special place among America’s elite justices for the absolute colossal shit show surrounding his controversial nomination, and if Trump gets another justice to replace Ginsburg, we are fucked.In the number 3 slot this week, is none other than American Police (3). Yes, you can talk all the shit you want about the Po-Pos, but police brutality is way in the news right now and it’s a very uniquely American feature, which is why American cops are among the highest on the list. Taking the second slot this week is – you guessed it - our current Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell! The Kentucky Senator is known for his signature move of stopping short any bill that comes across his desk, and it’s led to some absolute disasters. Which means that the number 1 slot on our Top 10 Hot 10 is our current president, Donald J. Trump! The bumbling buffoon who can’t spell basic words that everyone knows, fucked up the worst pandemic in a century, put migrant children in cages, and turned a border wall project into an easily-sawed through fence, is our number one on this Top 10 Hot 10 edition! Enjoy! And as always don’t forget the key!

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[font size="8"]The State Of Florida
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Taking the 10th spot on the list is none other than the great state of Florida. America’s most penis-shaped state. The Sunshine State. Look, we kid. We love Florida, and prior to the pandemic we were going to take a trip through the Sunshine State similar to the Texas trip we took last year at the start of season 7. But what is up with Florida? Why are the people there so batshit fucking crazy? And why do they continue to be that way? And where do we even begin to tackle the sheer stupidity coming out of the Sunshine State? I’m not going to talk about coronavirus because there’s way too much out of Florida and it’s all super depressing. But let’s talk about the Florida governor Ron DeSantis for a minute.

In what may be one of the most disgraceful comments made by a Florida Governor in our collective decades of observing Florida politics, Gov. Ron DeSantis mused Thursday that the media likes the spiking coronavirus numbers.

His statement, clearly meant as political cover, ignored the humanity that exists in all jobs, especially in the media.

Think for a moment what those in the media do. Some cover gruesome, heartbreaking crime or accident scenes. Some flock to natural disasters to ensure the public is informed, even as others are running for their lives. We have hard conversations with grieving parents whose child’s life was snuffed out by gun violence.

As a world in crisis amid a global pandemic, we follow every death. Every illness. Every business closure. Every financial hardship.

Our industry is being decimated by this pandemic, much like other industries. Newsrooms across the nation are laying off workers.

Journalists live in fear day in and day out — fear for losing their jobs because of an economic crisis, but fear also for contracting a monster of a virus as we march into battle to keep the public informed of a minute-by-minute onslaught of information.
https://floridapolitics.com/archives/346165-gov-desantis-latest-media-bashing-is-the-closest-well-come-to-telling-him-to-go-to-hell




Yeah Bugs Bunny had the right idea! But in all seriousness, we love Florida here, and we kid because we love. And once this pandemic is over I hope to do a trip to Florida the way we did Texas last year, just tour the state and find out… what’s up? But we also can’t talk about Florida without talking about our good friend Florida Man. Yes, whether launching a rocket into the sun or going on a crystal meth bender and winding up driving his car in a ditch, you can always count on Florida to bring the crazy.

Can 2020 get any weirder? These Florida Man headlines say “yes”

We’re all in agreement that we need to turn off 2020 and restart it, right? No matter what month you look at, 2020 has just been a straight bed of chaos so far. Remember the murder hornets? What happened to those?

But you know what’s still crazier than 2020? Florida man. Don’t worry if you thought Florida Man was taking a nap yet this year, as he’s still going crazy on his adventures. Don’t believe us? All these Florida Man headlines are ripped from the news in 2020.

Florida Man beats up a gator to save his dog

It’s summer, which means not just the people are out, but the gators in Florida too. But this gentleman wasn’t having it when a gator went for his precious pupper, and took down a gator with his own hands.

Florida Man encases himself in concrete to protest prison conditions

We’re all for freedom of speech and getting better conditions in prisons, especially with COVID-19 running rampant. But this man basically locked himself in concrete outside of Florida’s Governor’s home as part of his protest. He’ll see you more as a security threat than a citizen speaking your mind.
https://filmdaily.co/news/florida-man-headlines-2020/




Maybe Florida is so crazy because it looks like a giant penis? That’s the only thing I can think of. And OK I lied, I said I wouldn’t talk about Coronavirus, but I do have to bring up Florida’s stupidity and the sheer reason why they’re on this list. Florida right now is the absolute worst state in the country in terms of the pandemic – and they don’t care. In fact just look at what they have actually tried to argue, and I pointed this out in the last edition – this is so stupid that I don’t even know where to begin.

A video of a Florida woman ranting about conspiracy theories on face masks, 5G, Hilary Clinton, and the deep state has gone viral on social media. The woman was speaking at the Palm Beach County Commissioners Workshop on Tuesday and the video has more than 6.6 million views at the time of writing.

Another video featuring shorter clips of four speakers at the same event, in which one suggests "they want to throw God's wonderful breathing system out the door" and another asking them to go back to school and "get educated."

The woman begins her speech by saying: "You literally cannot mandate somebody to wear a mask knowing that that mask is killing people, it literally is killing people."

The Palm Beach County commissioners' meeting was discussing a new mandate about wearing face masks, which after three hours of debates and residents' remarks, passed with a unanimous vote.

On June 22, Florida's Surgeon General Scott Rivkees recommended that the state's residents wear face masks in public. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommend wearing masks to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
https://www.newsweek.com/florida-woman-conspiracy-theory-coronavirus-5g-hilary-clinton-deep-state-1513337




Florida Man literally is all of Florida right now. Hell they even elected a governor who is the embodiment of Florida Man – Ron DeSantis. He is every bit as stupid, crazy, senile, and insane as the people of the state of Florida. And during the worst pandemic in an entire century, he really is showing the entire world that Florida is becoming the new epicenter of the virus, and it’s not leaving there any time soon.

Florida state Rep. Shevrin Jones (D) on Tuesday blasted the state’s contact tracing efforts as “a joke,” saying his own attempts to provide contact tracers information after he contracted the virus were unsuccessful.

“Unfortunately, the contact tracing that we have here in the state of Florida is a joke,” Jones said in an appearance on CNN’s “New Day.”

“Last Thursday when I got the call from the Health Department, it seemed as if she was reading off of a questionnaire, and as she was reading the question, there was no question that she was asking that would have led her to the point of who I had probably come in contact with.”

Florida state Rep. Shevrin Jones (D) on Tuesday blasted the state’s contact tracing efforts as “a joke,” saying his own attempts to provide contact tracers information after he contracted the virus were unsuccessful.

“Unfortunately, the contact tracing that we have here in the state of Florida is a joke,” Jones said in an appearance on CNN’s “New Day.”

“Last Thursday when I got the call from the Health Department, it seemed as if she was reading off of a questionnaire, and as she was reading the question, there was no question that she was asking that would have led her to the point of who I had probably come in contact with.”

Jones added that around the time the tracer reached her third question, the phone disconnected and he had not heard back since.

“So, if we are doing contact tracing, the contact tracing is a joke, and we’ve already contracted with a company that we’ve paid $61 million to who said they were doing contact tracing, I want to know what happened to the $61 million,” he added.
https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/506132-state-rep-contact-tracing-in-florida-is-a-joke




Batshit Rating: 8 / 10
Sentence:



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[font size="8"]The Right Wing Blogosphere
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We could do an entire Top 10 Hot 10 based on members of the Right Wing Blogosphere, because we really do not have the time to list all of them. But whether you prefer the old tried and true formula of Rush Limbaugh, or the modern college aged approach of Ben Shapiro and TP USA, or the systemic misogyny of Joe Rogan, or Ann Coulter’s chronic liberal bashing, or the insane conspiracies of Glenn Beck, Mark Taylor and Alex Jones, the right wing has something for everybody. Like I said, there is way too much out there to list them all, so that’s why we lumped them into one category. And the religious right podcasters are way the fuck out there. Like take Glenn Beck for instance who’s literally gone full on televangelist. Should we be surprised that his little gathering got canceled? I’m not!

A year ago, Glenn Beck announced that he intended to hold an event in the summer of 2020 during which he and those who gathered with him would renew America’s covenant with God.

“We have to repeat [George] Washington and [Abraham] Lincoln,” Beck said in July 2019. “We have to do it right and we, as a people, need to gather together and do it. So, next summer, we are going to do it.”

In December 2019, Beck announced that this “Restoring The Covenat” event would take place in Gettysburg, PA, on July 4, 2020, provided that God would perform some unnamed “miracle” that Beck said was needed to ensure the event could take place. Beck wouldn’t say what this miracle was, because that was all part of God’s master plan.

“I know I am supposed to do another Restoring event and that event is Restoring The Covenant, and it’s supposed to happen in Gettysburg, and it’s supposed to happen on July 4,” Beck said. “It’s just going to take a miracle. Pray for a miracle. I don’t want to tell you what it has to be because I think God wants me to understand, ‘It has nothing to do with you.’ And he wants, I believe, to show his power. So pray.”

Beck eventually got his undisclosed miracle and started planning for the event, but then the world was engulfed by the COVID-19 pandemic and the entire thing was canceled.
https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/glenn-becks-plan-to-restore-americas-covenant-with-god-thwarted-by-covid-19/




Well maybe you’re old school and you prefer the old school AM radio format. Well guess who is still the king of that? Rush Limbaugh. And ever since his cancer diagnosis back in February, he’s just as batshit crazy as he ever was. In fact some of the stuff that he’s saying now is even crazier than what he was saying during the Bush years! I honestly had no idea that that was possible! In fact it’s people like Rush that are the reason why we can’t have nice things!

RUSH LIMBAUGH (HOST): Let's get into some COVID-19 news and — folks, are you asking yourself what of any of this is true, and what isn’t? It’s almost like the tale of two viruses.

We have an entire group of stories that are about how much worse the virus is. “Oh, my God, it’s worse than we thought. We haven’t even gotten to the second wave. Dr. Fauci says — ” Dr. Fauci says. Dr. Fauci says. Whatever Dr. Fauci says, it gets amplified.

We are told how so many more people are getting it. The number of cases is skyrocketing. But then deaths are down, and we demonstrated this yesterday.

The number of deaths associated with COVID-19 are way down. It’s why they’re not being reported. The game here is to scare you into siding up with a new lockdown. They want you to hear all these brand-new numbers of cases
https://www.mediamatters.org/coronavirus-covid-19/rush-limbaugh-dismisses-coronavirus-case-increases-whatever-dr-fauci-says-it




Well maybe Rush Limbaugh is too old for you, and you’re a young, strapping conservative white male looking to go to college this year or next year. And you’re afraid that the university that you just got accepted to doesn’t represent your point of view. Well, there’s this group called Turning Point USA, that is a favorite of Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr. And Trump himself has even retweeted the group’s founder. This could get rather dangerous.

A conservative student group at Worcester State University that was fighting to get recognized after the Student Government Association refused to approve the club now has most privileges of an official student group, according to a leading national First Amendment group that helped defend the student chapter.

The Worcester State University chapter of Turning Point USA can now recruit members and plan events for the upcoming semester, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education confirmed on Thursday.

The group does not yet have access to student fees, but will be afforded all privileges if approved for recognition in the fall.

“This is a win for students’ free association rights at Worcester State,” Katlyn Patton of FIRE’s Individual Rights Defense Program said in a statement. “But students shouldn’t have to enlist the help of an outside organization for months simply to exercise their rights to form a political student group.

“I encourage student government representatives across the country to take a good look at this case and think twice before denying a student group because they don’t agree with its political viewpoint,” she said.
https://www.bostonherald.com/2020/06/18/turning-point-usa-student-group-at-worcester-state-university-can-recruit-on-campus-first-amendment-group/




Yeah that’s pretty much what life is like teaching these racist, misogynistic right wing dude bros in modern society. And they will grow up to be your kids’ future bosses, and that’s going to suck when your kid finally leaves school and enters the workforce! Well, that’s a conspiracy theory. And maybe that’s your thing. Well, there’s Alex Jones, or Glenn Beck, or Liberty University’s Mark Taylor. But Alex Jones – he’s a special breed of crazy! And nothing says “tyranny” like driving around in a giant armored tank screaming from a megaphone!

Don’t mask with Texas.

Right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones didn’t let rising COVID-19 infections in the Lone Star State deter him from heading an anti-masker rally Sunday, while Vice President Mike Pence, also in Texas, expressed advocacy of wearing face masks to contain the growing pandemic.

Arriving in an armored vehicle and carrying a bullhorn, Jones spoke to a group of roughly 150 like-minded protesters, according to the Austin-American Statesman. Jones’ message to “globalists” was that he was willing to fight for his right to ignore the advice of the scientific community.

“We’re not your slaves, we’re not in your cult,” he raged. “If you want war, you better believe you got war.”

His supporters chanted “U.S.A!” One follower held a sign reading, “I will not submit to medical tyranny.”
https://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/ny-alex-jones-anti-mask-rally-texas-20200629-njazdttkerhtfh5jxoa4uycea4-story.html



Batshit Rating: 7.7 / 10
Sentence: Regulated To Safe Spaces


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[font size="8"]Liberty University
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The Republicans have been at war with education since the 1980s. They upped their war on education with the Bush administration’s still controversial “No Child Left Behind” law. But in the Trump administration, their war has escalated to all new heights, and it’s taking the entire country down with them. However, in the GOP’s war on education, there has been one school that has withstood the test of time, defied the odds, and became the epicenter of conservative batshit insanity. Especially in the Donald J. Trump administration – which currently has very few allies. But they do have one – Liberty University, and its’ current president, Jerry Falwell Jr.

The leaders of the grassroots movement known as VEXIT today announced the next steps for Virginia counties to abandon the radical policies of Democrat Party leaders in Richmond by joining the free state of West Virginia.

The steps, announced by Rick Boyer, a Rustburg, Virginia attorney and the President of VEXIT, include a new effort to gather signatures on petitions to local governments, the distribution of key new information about the inability of the Virginia government to intercede in the process, and the appointment of Jerry Falwell, Jr., the President of Liberty University, as the Honorary Chairman of VEXIT.

VEXIT plans to increase its outreach to citizens to encourage them to demand a vote in their local county (or independent city) this fall to become a county in West Virginia. More information is found on VEXIT's website, https://vexit2020.com/.

"This movement can't be stopped by Richmond because Virginia's Constitution already gives local communities the right to do this," said Falwell.

"Patriots across Virginia are ready for a change, which is why we are especially pleased to welcome the leadership of Jerry Falwell, Jr. as our new Honorary Chairman," Boyer added.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/vexit-leaders-announce-next-steps-144200119.html




Yup – in a much simpler time, Jerry Falwell Jr was actively involved in a campaign to annex parts of Virginia and give them to West Virginia, because guns. And also you know how school shootings are still a thing? Well we went back to one of the very first Top 10s and found that while most schools are banning guns and preventing students from owning them, apparently anything goes at Liberty University!

5 p.m. Saturday update: While Friday’s convocation may have ended, the applause and criticism that came after Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr. urged students to get permits to carry concealed weapons has not.

The Washington Post, CNN, NBC, Esquire, Politico and several other news sources from around the country have picked up the story this weekend after Falwell’s remarks starting trending.

In a 2½-minute address before dismissing the students, Falwell urged students to take advantage of the university’s free class for concealed-carry permits as a way to counter attacks similar to the bloodshed in San Bernardino, California, on Wednesday.

“Let’s teach them a lesson if they ever show up here,” Falwell told the students.

http://www.newsadvance.com/news/local/liberty-convocation-remarks-draw-applause-and-criticism/article_beb5db52-8efb-55fe-8320-7a69710c6dff.html




Seriously, who still has that kind of toilet in this day and age? And also, “show them a lesson?”. Who are they showing a lesson to? I don’t think that was ever made clear. Oh and in case you’re wondering why Liberty University is an all time Top 10 Hall Of Famer, they have a history of silencing students who may have that thing called “independent thoughts”. Yes, last year, they got caught censoring and silencing student opinions in their school newspaper – something they accuse far more credible schools of doing!

For years, The Liberty Champion has been subject to an increasingly rigorous censorship regime, reportedly instigated by University President Jerry Falwell Jr. This censorship has culminated in a strict, multi-step editing process.

Jerry Falwell Jr. is president of Liberty University (LU), which was previously led by his evangelist father, and a staunch supporter of President Donald Trump. He has been accused of running the university in a dictatorial manner, including his reported censorship of The Liberty Champion, the school’s student-run newspaper.

Writers and editors for The Liberty Champion have cited numerous instances of their articles being censored. On April 27, 2018, the university instituted a new editing and approval process that required pieces to be reviewed by a faculty adviser, a faculty panel, and then, possibly, by Falwell himself, according to reports from World Magazine, a Christian publication.

Will Young was the editor-in-chief of The Champion and wrote an article for The Washington Post in July 2019 detailing ways in which Falwell edited articles or pulled stories altogether, often eliminating views he disagreed with.
https://freespeechproject.georgetown.edu/tracker-entries/liberty-university-accused-of-censoring-its-on-campus-newspaper-the-liberty-champion/




Batshit Rating: 8.1 / 10
Sentence: 7th Circle Of The Fiery Pit Of Hell


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[font size="8"]The White Male Groper’s Club
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OK, here’s my whole deal, and I will probably get the popular opinion on this one, because I feel like I have to say it – sexual harassment is bad, OK? And the Groper’s Club has flavors of all kinds in it, from Harvey Weinstein and Bill Cosby to Kevin Spacey to Roy Moore to even recent outs like Chris D’Elia, and Danny Masterson, these scumbags are getting taken down one by one. And there is nothing that is good for you if you get caught. In fact if you get caught, there’s also plenty of ways that it can go horribly wrong too. So take for instance long time criminal scumbag Harvey Weinstein, who was finally taken down two years ago. We’ll be hearing about the Weinstein trial for the next several years, as it was that prolific.

The women will also be released from any nondisclosure agreements they have signed.

An $18.875 million settlement fund will be created as part of a deal to resolve a class action complaint against Harvey Weinstein and The Weinstein Co.

The settlement resolves a 2017 class action from women alleging Weinstein "engaged in a pattern of sexual harassment and abuse" as well as a 2018 lawsuit from the New York Attorney General's Office that alleged he created a hostile work environment and the conduct was aided and abetted by the company in violation of the state's human rights laws.

New York Attorney General Letitia James praised the settlement on Twitter, writing, "After all the harassment, threats, and discrimination, these survivors are finally receiving some semblance of justice. I thank them for bravely sharing their stories."

Defendants still deny all allegations, but the parties agree its in everyone's interest to resolve the claims. The accusers will forever release the defendants, who include TWC board members, execs and Bob Weinstein, from claims arising from the alleged sexual misconduct, and James' office will be barred from prosecuting any related action.
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/harvey-weinstein-sexual-misconduct-class-action-settles-188m-1301290




Ah, got to love Quagmire, everyone’s favorite grab asser! Let’s examine the other extreme of this argument – Roy Moore. Yes, the man who ran one of the most insane elections of the last 4 years when he attempted to run for Senate in Alabama. Because you know the Senate doesn’t have enough fire and brimstone religion for you! Well now he’s going after… Sascha Cohen? After his infamous interview with last year. Dude, it’s Sascha Cohen. You should know what you were getting into when you signed up!

Sacha Baron Cohen is good. Damn good. He's spent this entire century fooling people into giving interviews, and his subjects hardly know they are targets of the man's unique brand of satirical comedy. And while he's been repeatedly sued, he's got an excellent track record in court. That's due to the First Amendment, of course, but it starts with the consent agreements that interviewees sign.

But for Showtime's Who Is America?, Cohen has run into a bit of a hiccup named "Yerushalayim TV."

Roy Moore, the former Alabama Supreme Court justice who infamously lost a U.S. Senate race following allegations of sexual misconduct, is suing after appearing on the program. He's unhappy with a segment that featured Cohen using a fictional device meant to detect pedophiles.

Before Moore was interviewed, he signed a consent agreement with Yerushalayim TV. Moore agreed to waive any legal claims, but he now argues that Yerushalayim is a fictional entity, and that Cohen's misrepresentation voids the deal. While this case got bounced from D.C. to New York, Moore is now going to be able to move to at least limited discovery in the case.

Last week at a court hearing (the transcript became available yesterday), U.S. District Court Judge Andrew Carter Jr. denied a motion to dismiss filed by Cohen, Showtime and CBS.
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/roy-moore-advances-suit-sacha-baron-cohen-1302147




Seriously, don’t listen to Roy Moore or Borat, you will only get into further trouble. Now, what about recent accusations against sexual harassers? You might have heard a thing or two about the world of the seedy underbelly of standup comedy being exposed now for what it is. Look, I love good standup comedy, don’t get me wrong, and now it’s starting to seem like every profession has these crooks in their ranks.

Ron Jeremy, one of the most iconic figures in the adult entertainment industry, was charged Tuesday with sexually assaulting four women in West Hollywood, where investigators say he prowled the Sunset Strip looking for vulnerable victims.

Jeremy, whose legal name is Ronald Jeremy Hyatt, was charged with forcible rape, forcible oral copulation and sexual battery, according to a criminal complaint.

Prosecutors allege Jeremy, 67, attacked a 25-year-old woman at a West Hollywood home in 2014. Prosecutors also accuse Jeremy of sexually assaulting two women at a West Hollywood bar in 2017 and raping a woman at the same bar in July 2019.

Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Cmdr. Carlos Marquez said Jeremy became the focus of an investigation after a rape allegation was levied last July. Jeremy would frequent the Abbey and the Roxy looking for women, according to Marquez.
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-06-23/ron-jeremy-charged-with-four-counts-of-sexual-assault-in-los-angeles




And man how many times do I have to tell you not to listen to Quagmire? But here’s the thing – if you think that we’ve heard the last of sexual harassers in Hollywood, you are wrong! They are everywhere, and it’s not just limited to Hollywood. If you are a grab asser, no matter what your political persuasion is, you will get caught. The founder of the Me Too movement will make sure it’s incredibly painful for you, both in your wallet and elsewhere.

What Tarana sees as a victory for Me Too is helping people not blame themselves for sexual violence committed against them and lead fuller lives.

"What we need to be talking about is the everyday woman, man, trans person, child and disabled person. All the people who are not rich, white and famous, who deal with sexual violence on everyday basis.

"We need to talk about the systems that are still in place that allow that to happen."

Tarana says it's about dismantling the misuse of power and privilege which can also lead to racism and sexism.

This is something, she believes, recent Black Lives Matter protests have been addressing.

Tarana says there are similarities between Black Lives Matter and Me Too.

"They're about fighting against injustice. Both movements are predicated on undoing systems of oppression."
https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-53269751




Batshit Rating: 8.0 / 10
Sentence: One Night Stand With Quagmire


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[font size="8"]Holy Shit
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Gather around my fair brothers and sisters! It’s time to take a seat in the virtual pew and pass the 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! You know we cannot meet in person and until we’re allowed to do that again, we must meet in this blank void of a background. I’ll admit it – I miss the pageantry, the stage props, the gospel choir. But this week, as we do our Hot 10 edition, I am going to bring you my additions to the list from the world of religion. Because there are some batshit insane lunatics in this profession of mine. The first on my list of Christian right hall of famers is Kenneth Copeland. We have covered him many different times and he’s most famous for recently fleecing his congregation for a $42 million private jet. And now it appears that he’s not afraid of the DEVIL virus known as COVID-19.

Televangelist Kenneth Copeland said Tuesday that his faith in God is shielding him from the new coronavirus, which he dismissed as a “creep” and the “flu.” He also urged born-again Christians to put their angel to work by activating their faith against the disease.

“I’m talking now to Holy Spirit born-again, Holy Spirit baptized, Holy Spirit speaking in other tongues, healing, believing Christians that don’t watch anything but COVID-19 on the television. Your faith is idle and dumb,” Copeland said in a clip from his ministry’s Victory Update.

He warned that repeatedly watching news reports about the pandemic instead of feeding their minds with faith-building content is leading them to make covenants with wrong spirits like fear, leaving them vulnerable to attacks from the devil and little work for their guardian angel.

“Your angel has nothing to do because all you’re listening to is the news broadcast, and you’re exalting this creep that you have authority over,” he said.

“‘Oh yes but brother Copeland what happens if I get it?’ Well, get healed, dear God!” he declared.
https://www.christianpost.com/news/televangelist-kenneth-copeland-says-his-faith-is-protecting-him-from-creep-coronavirus.html




Yes, and the DEVIL is the pastor who fleeces his congregation for private jets, not like he needs them to do his preaching! And especially now with all the travel restrictions in place! Next up – the spiritual advisor to the unholy, ungodly Dark One, whose name shall *NOT* be mentioned in my church, even if it is virtual, Paula White! Yes, she is a particularly crazy one, and now is certifiably dangerous!

"Our doors are opened at City of Destiny! Join us in-person for service this Sunday 10 a.m.," White wrote in an email Saturday morning, alerting her flock that the East McCormick Road church opened for Godly business on July 5. That was the day after Florida reported our highest increase in new cases, with 11,458. The second-highest increase just came on Friday, with 11,433 reported. On Saturday, state health officials reported 10,360 new cases, the third-highest same-day total since the pandemic began, and 212 new hospitalizations.

Florida this week was called the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic, with the virus spreading in Florida faster than anywhere else except Arizona. The state on Thursday reported a record-high 120 deaths, and on Saturday reported 95 new fatalities. The state's total stands at 254,511 infections, with 4,301 people who have died statewide.

In Orange County, where White's church is located, there were 482 cases reported Saturday and two new deaths, a 62-year-old man and a 67-year-old woman. That's reason enough not to bring a bunch of possibly sick people together for an in-person worship session, but at least White appears to be taking the threat more seriously than Donald Trump, with "a three-fold approach for making the in-house worship experience at the City of Destiny safe, sanitized, and secure."

The first is the use of "cutting edge" Continuous Infectious Microbial Reduction technology in their air ventilation system that White says "immediately decontaminates and eliminates all pathogens, viruses, and germs, by continuously producing safe levels of hydrogen peroxide."
https://www.orlandoweekly.com/Blogs/archives/2020/07/11/trump-advisor-and-local-pastor-paula-whites-apopka-church-is-back-open






Yes, Paula White is someone who is very EVIL and a tool of SAYTAN himself! That is not what our lord and savior JAYSUS would want in this time of national emergency! Next up – an old favorite of ours, Jim Bakker. Yes, the man who sold his soul for doomsday prepper merchandise is a long standing favorite among the Holy Shit worship team. Well, Jim is in a whole, heaping world of trouble thanks to his bogus miracle cures!

Late Tuesday Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge announced a lawsuit against Jim Bakker, his mid-February show guest Sherrill Sellman and the Jim Bakker Show.

The news came barely a week after the disgraced Branson-area televangelist sued the state of Arkansas, the city of Los Angeles and two California counties over investigative demands by those jurisdictions related to Bakker's on-air sales of a colloidal silver product that Bakker and Sellman claimed could "eliminate" coronaviruses from the human body "within 12 hours" during a broadcast four months ago.

Two drugs have been endorsed by scientists to treat the novel coronavirus: the anti-viral remdesivir and an inexpensive steroid, dexamethasone, announced by health authorities on Tuesday.
Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge

Colloidal silver products are not Food and Drug Administration-endorsed drugs; the Trump administration says "evidence supporting health-related claims is lacking" in regards to them and that "colloidal silver can be dangerous to your health."
https://www.news-leader.com/story/news/local/missouri/2020/06/16/arkansas-sues-televangelist-jim-bakker-over-false-coronavirus-cure-sales/3202431001/




Unfortunately there’s no miracles here. You know why America isn’t getting out of this crisis any time soon? It’s because of American churches! No one does religion like we do, and now no one does death like we do! Finally, last on my list is Mark Taylor. You know how we covered Liberty University earlier in this show? Mark Taylor is the guy who they credit as being a “firefighter prophet”. Though this guy ain’t no prophet, he’s just a tin foil hat lunatic who thinks he is one, and remember what the good LAWRD JAYSUS said about false prophets!

It is difficult to be a modern-day prophet, especially when the things one has prophesied frequently fail to come true. Such is the dilemma facing radical right-wing conspiracy theorist and so-called “firefighter prophet” Mark Taylor, who has repeatedly predicted and prophesied things that never materialized, most notably his multiple guarantees in 2018 that the midterm elections would result in a “red tsunami” that would sweep Republicans into office all across the nation.

That was not what happened, which forced Taylor to retroactively revise his predictions in order to claim that he had actually been correct.

At first, Taylor claimed that the resignation of former Attorney General Jeff Sessions would unleash a wave of arrests in which dozens of Democratic members of Congress would be taken down, resulting in their seats being filled by Republicans and therefore confirming the red tsunami that he had promised.

When that didn’t happen, Taylor changed course and began to insist that the red tsunami he had prophesied had come true when Republicans gained control of six new governorships during the 2018 elections. Unfortunately for Taylor, that claim was false, as the GOP actually lost control of several states when the Democrats picked up seven gubernatorial seats.
https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/mark-taylor-continues-to-stand-by-his-failed-red-tsunami-prophecy/




Yeah so he might not be the guy who you want to go to for spiritual prophecies, or any kind of prophecies. Those are my pics everybody! Virtual mass has ended, may you go in peace! That’s it this week for:



Batshit Rating: 8.2 / 10
Sentence: Smited


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[font size="8"]Fox News
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You know I fought with the writing staff on this one, because I wanted to make this entry just about Sean Hannity, who in the time of the Trump administration, has become the Joseph Goebbels to Trump’s Adolf Hitler. But we decided to include the whole damn network because nearly all of their commentators are insane. And Fox is literally calling the shots in the Trump White House right now, and they won’t give up their power that easily. Fox News right now is in a whole heap of trouble, a lot of it stems from the sexual harassment allegations against Rupert Murdoch and Roger Ailes, which was documented in the movie Bombshell. But new allegations are surfacing that the networks’ misinformation on COVID is causing it to make the virus that much worse:

In a lawsuit filed by a nonprofit group, Washington League for Increased Transparency and Ethics (WASHLITE), Fox News has been accused of violating Washington State’s Consumer Protection Act by falsely stating in February and March broadcasts that the novel coronavirus was a hoax, downplaying the crisis in a way that potentially undermined efforts to slow the spread of the disease. While many might dismiss this lawsuit in the same manner that Fox News has, it presents interesting questions of law for news outlets.

The lawsuit, originally reported on by the Times of San Diego last week, is proceeding under the Washington State Consumer Protection Act (CPA), which provides: “Unfair methods of competition and unfair or deceptive acts or practices in the conduct of any trade or commerce are hereby declared unlawful.” That Act permits injunctive relief and payment of a civil penalty for violations. Notably, the Act has a reference to television broadcasting stations saying that it does not apply to those entities that distribute information “in good faith without knowledge of its false, deceptive or misleading character.”

The lawsuit cites two examples of misconduct, though untold others may be uncovered and introduced as supporting evidence. One example involved Fox News personality Sean Hannity saying, “They’re scaring the living hell out of people, and I see it as, like, ‘Oh, let’s bludgeon Trump again with this new hoax.” The second example involved Trish Regan delivering a monologue next to a graphic that read, “Coronavirus Impeachment Scam.” In the monologue, Regan accused liberals of creating mass hysteria over the virus to shut down the economy and claimed that COVID-19 wasn’t as significant as other recent disease outbreaks such as SARS and Ebola.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/legalentertainment/2020/04/10/covid-19-lawsuit-against-fox-news/#48e95c415739




Yeah that’s pretty much what passes for 99% of the content on Fox News, with a +-1% margin of error for when they do produce any actual news. But when you watch Fox, all you need to know is that we liberals are bad and want to indoctrinate your kids! We don’t, but who does is their current late night hosts Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson, both of which have been accused of some pretty serious doings, like being racist on air, for instance!

The top writer for Fox News host Tucker Carlson has for years been using a pseudonym to post bigoted remarks on an online forum that is a hotbed for racist, sexist, and other offensive content, CNN Business learned this week.

Just this week, the writer, Blake Neff, responded to a thread started by another user in 2018 with the subject line, "Would u let a JET BLACK congo n****er do lasik eye surgery on u for 50% off?" Neff wrote, "I wouldn't get LASIK from an Asian for free, so no." (The subject line was not censored on the forum.) On June 5, Neff wrote, "Black doods staying inside playing Call of Duty is probably one of the biggest factors keeping crime down." On June 24, Neff commented, "Honestly given how tired black people always claim to be, maybe the real crisis is their lack of sleep." On June 26, Neff wrote that the only people who care about changing the name of the NFL's Washington Redskins are "white libs and their university-'educated' pets."

In a memo sent to employees Saturday afternoon, after this story was first published, Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott and President Jay Wallace condemned "horrific racist, misogynistic and homophobic behavior."

"Neff's abhorrent conduct on this forum was never divulged to the show or the network until Friday, at which point we swiftly accepted his resignation," Scott and Wallace wrote. "Make no mistake, actions such as his cannot and will not be tolerated at any time in any part of our work force."
https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/10/media/tucker-carlson-writer-blake-neff/index.html




That’s pretty much where we are headed if Fox News continues on the path that it’s on. Remember I said Sean Hannity was in trouble? Well, since Hannity is a BFF of Trump and the president’s official mouthpiece, criticism of him is completely off the table. So much that fake news Hannity is suing a real news outlet – the New York Times. Yes, they’ve been Trump’s favorite punching bag since he first announced he was going to be running for president. But still, fail.

Sean Hannity, whose Hannity show is the highest-rated program on cable news, has threatened to sue the New York Times and columnists Ben Smith, Kara Swisher, and Gina Bellafante over their criticisms of his coronavirus coverage.

A post on Hannity's website demands an apology and a retraction over what it described as the newspaper's "irresponsible and shameful misreporting."

A letter sent to the Times Monday from Hannity's attorney Charles Harder accuses the newspaper of unfairly singling out the Fox host while “disregarding numerous statements minimizing the pandemic by Democratic Party politicians and Democratic Party-friendly media outlets.”

A Times spokesperson told The Wrap that its coverage of the Fox broadcaster was fair and that an apology wouldn't be forthcoming.

Fox News has also reportedly cut ties with social media personalities Lynette "Diamond" Hardaway and Rochelle "Silk" Richardson for promoting conspiracy theories and misinformation about the coronavirus pandemic, according to The Daily Beast.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jonathanberr/2020/04/28/sean-hannity-threatens-ny-times-lawsuit-as-fox-drops-diamond--silk/#5f526e0545d3




I always love how much the Simpsons makes fun of Fox News and Fox. And by the way, you know how conservatives are always crying about free speech when newspapers won’t print their editorials in their opinion columns? Or broadcast their racist and sexist bullshit to the masses? Well, Fox News is planning to take that to the next level, by suing people who they don’t agree with! Yup, so much for that free speech they’re always clamoring about. It works both ways!

Are cable news channels protected by the First Amendment?

That’s the question teed up in a little-noticed lawsuit against Fox News for its COVID-19 coverage, which the plaintiff claims discounted the threat of the pandemic and led viewers to fail to protect themselves. The plaintiff, a small Washington state nonprofit called the Washington League for Increased Transparency and Ethics, or WASHLITE, is suing Fox for what it claims are violations of the state’s consumer protection laws.

Fox and WASHLITE have already gone back and forth on the consumer protection claim, but the nonprofit filed an extraordinary brief last week in response to Fox’s motion to dismiss, arguing that cable news channels, indeed all cable content producers, are wholly unprotected by the First Amendment when that content is distributed over a third-party cable operator’s system. The plaintiff is misstating the law and doing so in such a way that would impair speech and press protections for everyone.

In fact, the argument — if taken to its logical conclusion — would strip First Amendment protections from content distributed over the public internet, including this blog post. To understand why, one needs a bit of background.
https://www.rcfp.org/fox-news-washlite-lawsuit-analysis/




Batshit Rating: 9.1 / 10
Sentence: Cancel their culture


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[font size="8"]Brett Kavanaugh
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You know, the right wing has a history of picking bad justices. And while Brett Kavanaugh could just be another member of the White Male Groper’s Club, he is, I don’t know, DECIDING THE SUPREME LAW OF THE LAND!!! Of course he’s going to be put under the most scrutiny of any judge in the country and he’s going to be vetted as much as possible! But conservatives are mad because “Ooh, we meanie liberals made him cry!”. Ooh……. Well, you can dish it out, but you sure as hell can’t take it! Whew, I needed to get that off my chest. But no figure made famous by Trump in the last four years has been made to be in the biggest shit show surrounding his nomination in history.

This weekend, in an essay adapted from a forthcoming book, the New York Times broke the story that Supreme Court justice Brett Kavanaugh is facing a third allegation of sexual misconduct. Then, almost immediately, the paper plunged itself into controversy over a tweet it used to promote its scoop.

“Having a penis thrust in your face at a drunken dorm party may seem like harmless fun,” said the official Twitter account of the paper of record’s Opinion section. “But when Brett Kavanaugh did it to her, Deborah Ramirez says, it confirmed that she didn’t belong at Yale in the first place.”

The Times broke the news in a “news analysis” essay adapted from a book on Kavanaugh by Times reporters Robin Pogrebin and Kate Kelly. The essay focuses on a previously reported accusation from Deborah Ramirez, who says that Kavanaugh nonconsensually thrust his genitals toward her face during a party when they were both students at Yale, but it adds a new accusation.

According to the essay, witnesses also saw Kavanaugh’s friends push his penis into the hands of a female student at a different party at Yale, an action that Pogrebin and Kelly argue establishes a pattern of behavior on Kavanaugh’s part. (According to an update made to the essay, the female student declined to be interviewed, and friends say she does not remember the party, but Pogrebin and Kelly discussed the incident with government officials who found it credible.)
https://www.vox.com/culture/2019/9/18/20868499/brett-kavanaugh-allegations-deborah-ramirez-niobe-way


https://media1.tenor.com/images/829268452201bd9a28f504f9be9759b4/

Of course boys will be boys. And boys will also be sexual harassers. I know, I have been around many of them in my life. No, I’m not one of them. I can guarantee that I’m scandal free. Come on, seriously, Brett Kavanaugh is such a danger to American justice that even the woman who voted to confirm him is having second thoughts about her decision. Yes, we’re looking at you, Susan Collins. Kavanaugh will be allowed to wreak havoc as long as he sees fit!

But it’s hard not to think of Susan Collins, of Aroostook County, without an accompanying sense of loss. In a poll released in January, 52 percent of registered voters in Maine said they disapproved of her. Fewer than half (42 percent) approved. She was the least popular senator in the country, even more loathed than Mitch McConnell. Which is saying something.

It wasn’t always this way. In 2015, her statewide approval rating was 78 percent — the highest of any Republican senator. That made her the nation’s second-most-popular senator among constituents; the first was Bernie Sanders.

What accounts for the change? In large measure, it’s her failure to stand up to Donald Trump, a man whom she described in 2016 as “unworthy of being our President.” This was “based on his disregard for the precept of treating others with respect,” she wrote, “an idea that should transcend politics. Instead, he opts to mock the vulnerable and inflame prejudices by attacking ethnic and religious minorities.”

And yet, at so many moments of truth over the past four years, Senator Collins has voted to enable the man whom she described as incapable of change or growth. His actions leave her concerned. And dismayed. And disappointed.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/08/opinion/susan-collins-maine-trump.html




And by the way, Brett Kavanaugh’s seat on SCOTUS is costing him big time and it’s also costing his friends, because as I mentioned, Susan Collins had a 78% approval rating in the Maine Senate prior to the Donald J. Trump administration, which points her in the direction of having one of the highest approval ratings of any senator in the country behind Bernie Sanders. Now? Eh… I think her popularity is only slightly behind Trump! Yes, that’s right, this thing has cost her big time!

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, trails leading Democratic challenger Sara Gideon by four points in her re-election race as her support continues to sag.

Gideon, the speaker of the Maine House of Representatives, leads Collins 46-42 in a new Public Policy Polling survey, which sampled more than 1,000 Maine voters and has a margin of error of 3.1%.

Gideon held a similar four-point lead in a PPP poll in March and edged out Collins by a single point in a Colby College poll from February, meaning this is the third straight poll to show Collins behind. She led the race by 16 points when it was first polled in June 2019.

Gideon is considered the prohibitive favorite in her Democratic primary race against lobbyist Betsy Sweet and attorney Bre Kidman, according to the Bangor Daily News.

The poll shows that Collins, who earned the title of the most unpopular senator in the country earlier this year, has an approval rating of just 36%. Though Collins won her previous races with a mix of Democratic and independent support, the poll shows that just 39% of independents and only 13% of Democrats approve of her job performance. Though the overall approval rating is on par with other recent polls, it has fallen by more than 30 points since President Donald Trump took office in 2017. Her approval rating towered at around 67% at that time.
https://www.salon.com/2020/07/06/susan-collins-trails-democratic-challenger-after-approval-rating-plummets-by-31-points-under-trump/




But those allegations aren’t going away. Back in a much simpler time – last year, Brett Kavanaugh was *STILL* facing some really heinous allegations from his personal life even before all this became a thing, and yeah he’s basically the worst person to be on a bench right now. Especially with the ongoing crisis that’s affecting the entire planet, and it’s about to get ugly. Really ugly.

Seven months after he joined the US Supreme Court, the cloud of Christine Blasey Ford's sexual assault allegations still hangs over Justice Brett Kavanaugh, recalled in media reports across the political spectrum and unresolved in the US judiciary's own process for handling related ethics claims.

The names of Kavanaugh and Ford were repeatedly invoked in news stories as former Vice President Joe Biden entered the 2020 presidential race last week and began addressing his treatment of Anita Hill in the 1991 Supreme Court hearings for Clarence Thomas -- a point of comparison with the Ford-Kavanaugh face-off in the Senate last fall.

Stephen Moore, President Donald Trump's newly withdrawn nominee to the Federal Reserve, said his media critics were "pulling a Kavanaugh" against him with complaints related to his regard for women.
At the same time, formal ethics grievances filed against Kavanaugh based on his testimony in response to the Ford sexual-assault allegations are moving to a higher level of the judicial misconduct process.

The Ford connection was reinforced when Time Magazine recently named both as among the "100 Most Influential Americans," a move that itself generated a flood of public commentary, for and against. One of those comments, from actress Jessica Chastain, triggered a separate round of media coverage. She wrote on Twitter: "You put her on the same list as the man she said assaulted her. So disappointing @TIME."
https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/03/politics/brett-kavanaugh-christine-blasey-ford-stephen-moore-supreme-court/index.html




Batshit Rating: 9.2 / 10
Sentence: Boofed (whatever that is)


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[font size="8"]The American Police
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That might go down in history as one of the single greatest theme songs in TV show history. Too bad the show that it’s attached to, COPS, is no longer a thing (see: Top 10 #9-1 ). But why is the show Cops no longer a thing? It’s because it made police brutality cool. And it showed the raw power of the American police. Nobody does policing like the Americans do policing. Sure, other countries have tried and imitated. But really, no one does it like we do. Hell, even Saudi Arabia, a country that still has beheadings, is jealous of our fire and brimstone punishment system. But as I said, nobody does policing and prisons, quite like the United States Of America!

Arthur Rizer is a former police officer and 21-year veteran of the US Army, where he served as a military policeman. Today, he heads the criminal justice program at the R Street Institute, a center-right think tank in DC. And he wants you to know that American policing is even more broken than you think.

“That whole thing about the bad apple? I hate when people say that,” Rizer tells me. “The bad apple rots the barrel. And until we do something about the rotten barrel, it doesn’t matter how many good fucking apples you put in.”

To illustrate the problem, Rizer tells a story about a time he observed a patrol by some officers in Montgomery, Alabama. They were called in to deal with a woman they knew had mental illness; she was flailing around and had cut someone with a broken plant pick. To subdue her, one of the officers body-slammed her against a door. Hard.

Rizer recalls that Montgomery officers were nervous about being watched during such a violent arrest — until they found out he had once been a cop. They didn’t actually have any problem with what one of them had just done to the woman; in fact, they started laughing about it.
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2020/7/7/21293259/police-racism-violence-ideology-george-floyd




That’s the thing about the American police that they don’t tell you when you sign up for the police academy. You are viewed as the worst person on earth when you sign up. It’s not all fun and games, either. Policing is a very serious job and has very serious consequences when you screw up. But what about those of us who watch the horror from the sidelines? Well guess what? Our policing and prison systems can have an affect on you personally!

Adults aren’t just working to deal with the stress from COVID-19, but also the stress of racial inequality. Mental health experts say it’s important you learn how to cope with it all.

For generations, racism has plagued society, but the death of George Floyd in May has once again brought racism into the national conversation and triggered worldwide protests.

It’s putting a mental strain on those watching closely.

“Exposure to traumatic content can be triggering even for individuals who are not experiencing it,” Brittany Patterson, an assistant professor at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, said.

During a two-part series about mental health and institutional racism, Patterson said there are three types of racism that exist: individual, institutional and structural.
https://baltimore.cbslocal.com/2020/07/13/how-to-cope-with-stress-police-brutality-racism-covid-19-mental-health/




Man you might want to watch where you point that gun, chief. So when you get arrested – where do you end up? Well, you end up in jail. And just like nobody does policing like America does, nobody does jail like America does. American prisons are places you don’t want to be, and it doesn’t matter what level they are at. There might be white collar resort prisons, like Office Space or Arrested Development, but those are places you wouldn’t want to be either.

In the 1988 presidential race, Michael Dukakis, the technocratic governor of Massachusetts, had a wide early lead over George H.W. Bush, only to lose badly. Massachusetts had a weekend furlough program for state prisoners. One prisoner, William Horton, had been sentenced to life without parole for murder. Horton was released for a weekend furlough and never came back. He committed assault, armed robbery, and rape before he was captured.

An independent-expenditure campaign ran now-famous ads that featured a mug shot of Horton, a Black man. The ads called Horton “Willie,” although Horton had always gone by “William.” Jesse Jackson and other Democrats charged that the ads were racist. The racism charge just seemed to make matters worse.

The first question to Dukakis in the second presidential debate was whether he would still oppose the death penalty, his long-held position, if his own wife was raped and murdered. Dukakis seemed dazed by the question and robotically gave his prepared, impassive answer on the death penalty.

The 1992 Democratic nominee, Bill Clinton, was determined to avoid the same fate as Dukakis, and the same “soft on crime” attack. He said Democrats should not “feel guilty about protecting the innocent.” Clinton interrupted his campaign to return to Arkansas for the execution of Ricky Ray Rector, an African American who murdered two people. Rector suffered serious brain damage from a suicide attempt after the murders. The brain damage did not affect Rector’s culpability, but his ability to assist in his own defense was doubtful in the extreme. The execution was controversial around the world. Clinton offered no pardon and no reprieve.
https://prospect.org/politics/confessions-of-a-tough-on-crime-progressive/




Yeah no, that’s exactly what prison is like. Look, we support the police here. I know cops, I’m related to cops. And they will tell you exactly how they feel about the job and what they get wrong. But like take for instance, Joe Arpaio, who many call the worst cop in the nation, maybe one of the worst in American history. Well guess what? He’s a product of white supremacist infiltration in law enforcement. Which has been going on for the last 20 years!

On Sunday morning, CNN’s Jake Tapper asked President Trump’s National Security Advisor, Robert O’Brien, whether he thinks “systemic racism” is a problem in law enforcement agencies in the United States. O’Brien responded: “I don’t think there is systemic racism. I think 99.9 percent of our law enforcement officers are great Americans,” said O’Brien. “But … there’s a few bad apples.”

There are two flaws in O’Brien’s response. First, O’Brien ignores the well-documented support by law enforcement officers of alt-right extremist ideology throughout the country. Second, O’Brien misunderstands the nature of systemic racism—a term that means that institutions we have in place produce racially disparate effects on minority populations—in his discussion of individual officers.

An FBI intelligence assessment—titled “White Supremacist Infiltration of Law Enforcement” and published in 2006 during the administration of President George W. Bush—raised alarm over white supremacist groups’ interest in “infiltrating law enforcement communities or recruiting law enforcement personnel.” The report, based on FBI investigations and open sources, warned, for example, that skinhead groups were actively encouraging their members to become “ghost skins” within law enforcement agencies, a term the report said white supremacists use to describe members who “avoid overt displays of their beliefs to blend into society and covertly advance white supremacist causes.”
https://www.justsecurity.org/70507/white-supremacist-infiltration-of-us-police-forces-fact-checking-national-security-advisor-obrien/




Batshit Rating: 9.5 / 10
Sentence: Defunded, fired, replaced with cops who care


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[font size="8"]Mitch McConnell
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Make no mistake. The guy who’s currently in charge of the Senate is one of the most evil motherfuckers alive. Coming from my dad’s home state, the great state of Kentucky, the man is certifiably evil. While Americans are dying, he has shown absolutely no remorse. And he was part of the reason that we have our number one pick on this list in the White House. In fact, Moscow Mitch, as he’s been known, is so unpopular in his home state of Kentucky that his approval rating is even worse than his boss’ is! Yes, Amy McGrath could defeat Moscow Mitch in an absolute landslide! That’s how we are going to start this entry right here!

Democratic candidate Amy McGrath and Republican incumbent Mitch McConnell are set for a tight race for Kentucky's Senate seat, with the latter facing a popularity crisis ahead of November's vote.

In McConnell, McGrath faces one of the most recognizable faces on Capitol Hill, as the Senate Majority Leader and a figure in Congress for decades.

While that familiarity could help against a lesser known candidate, it also has its downsides with McConnell currently suffering a bleak favorability rating-even lower than President Donald Trump's nadir in popularity.

According to Real Clear Politics' average of favorable/unfavorable polls, Trump has a net unfavorable rating of 14.6, compared to McConnell who is almost 10 points worse, with 23.5.

In the latest The Economist/YouGov polling, 27 percent of respondents said they had a favorable view of McConnell, with 47 percent unfavorable and 26 percent stating they did not know.
https://www.newsweek.com/amy-mcgrath-mitch-mcconnell-approval-rating-trump-1514587




So why is Mitch so vastly unpopular? Well we’re in the midst of the biggest public health crisis not seen in an entire century and he flat out doesn’t care. But here’s the thing guys, either everyone gets a stimulus check, or you might as well have nobody get a stimulus check. You know how Europe was able to contain this thing in most countries? They gave everyone a stimulus!!! So people had an incentive to stay home!! That’s how it works!

More Republicans in Congress are signaling a willingness to get on board with another round of $1,200 stimulus checks for Americans as lawmakers debate what should be included in another economic relief package.

For months, GOP lawmakers have expressed alarm about the substantial amount of government spending to confront the coronavirus pandemic. This time, however, Republicans are weighing whether to sharply limit the number of recipients eligible for the government payout, The Washington Post reported on Thursday.

In March, Congress authorized a wave of direct $1,200 payments for individuals earning up to $75,000 a year, plus $500 for each dependent child. The cash amount diminished until phasing out for those making above $99,000. Married couples earning up to $150,000 a year also qualified for the full payment.

The health and economic environments haven't improved dramatically since the spring. The economy remains weak, and the pandemic is still raging, dampening the prospect of a speedy recovery. Many experts have said another infusion of federal cash would keep struggling people afloat during a period of high unemployment and scarce jobs.
https://www.businessinsider.com/mcconnell-stimulus-checks-income-cutoff-trump-economy-payments-second-round-2020-7




Yeah and that message is “fuck all y’all!”. You know what the most infuriating thing about the GOP is out of all of this? They’ve managed to convince people that free fucking money is somehow a bad thing! I mean how stupid can you be?? Europe has free health care and they gave people generous stimulus packages, and guess what? They’re beating this virus! Us on the other hand? We don’t give a shit, and it shows! Ah!!!

A new plan under development by the White House and Senate Republicans to deal with the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic is expected to include financial incentives to push schools to reopen while also shielding health care workers and companies against lawsuits, Republicans said Monday, a move that will spur a fight with Democrats.

Senate GOP leaders and senior administration officials have been privately trading proposals and exchanging plans before formally introducing a Republican proposal as soon as next week, with just three weeks before Congress adjourns for its summer recess. The measure, expected to cost around $1.3 trillion, would amount to the GOP's latest response to the crisis -- after roundly dismissing House Democrats' $3 trillion-plus plan that passed their chamber two months ago.

But to get to Trump's desk, it would require the two parties in both chambers to resolve major differences -- over the size and scope of the plan as well as the details in it -- in the heat of an election year, meaning many are skeptical a deal can be reached with the number of days dwindling before the August recess.

"We're obviously out of session this week, but when my members come back next week we'll start socializing it with them, begin to discuss it with the Democrats and start the legislative process," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said in Corbin, Kentucky, on Monday. "I think you can anticipate this coming to a head sometime within the next three weeks, beginning next week."
https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/13/politics/covid-aid-congress-mitch-mcconnell/index.html




Ha ha! I miss Jon Stewart, and man do we need him now more than ever! But as long as Mitch is enjoying the majority, all things must come to an end. And Coronavirus has pulled back the curtains and exposed the GOP for the real cowards that they are. Also how broken all of our systems really are, and that he was the one who broke them! Better get used to losing, Mitch! You are going to be seeing a lot of GOP defeats in the future!

On Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell went public with what has long been suspected: He has no plans to leave the Senate even if his party loses its majority in November.

"I do," McConnell tersely responded to Politico when asked if he would seek to stay as the highest-ranking Republican in the Senate no matter what happens in the 2020 election. (All of that assumes that McConnell is reelected to a seventh term in November, and his colleagues are willing to support him as leader going forward. Both seem likely at least at the moment.)

Obviously, McConnell would prefer to spend his next few years in the Senate as the majority leader. But if Republicans lose the majority this fall -- a prospect that looks decidedly plausible at the moment -- then McConnell seems likely to spend much of his eighth decade as the head of the minority rather than the majority.

The reason for that reality is simple: While the 2020 Senate map isn't great for Republicans, the 2022 map is far worse -- making it extremely likely that if the GOP loses the majority this fall they may not have a real chance to regain it for at least two more election cycles.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/17/politics/mitch-mcconnell-senate-2020-senate-2022/index.html





Batshit Rating: 9.7 / 10
Sentence: Defeated, Knocked on back with no chance of getting up


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[font size="8"]Donald J. Trump
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Donald J. Trump, the 45th president of the United States, is one of the most colossally fucked up things that the United States has ever forced upon the world. Just… just… where do I even begin? He’s a constant embarrassment. He sits in bed all day and watches and live tweets TV. He can’t spell, he can’t understand basic math, he cheats, lies and steals, has no taste in interior decorating, and every business he’s ever ran is a failure. Which is why we’re in the predicament that we’re in now. Even in the last three months he’s just gone off the rails. I remember I predicted that he’d go full Howard Hughes by the end of his term. Well, we have six months to go, and I might be right.

There’s a wave coming. A blue wave like the one in 2018. Only bigger. Much bigger. Big enough to sweep away President Trump and the Republican majority in the Senate.

We’ve seen wave elections before. There was a Democratic wave in 1964; Republican Barry Goldwater ended up carrying just six states (five in the Deep South and his own state of Arizona). He got 38 percent of the popular vote. 1972 saw a Republican wave; Democrat George McGovern carried only one state (Massachusetts) and the District of Columbia. He got 38 percent of the popular vote. At this point in 1992, the first President Bush was at 38 percent job approval. A few months later, he lost his bid for-re-election. What’s Donald Trump’s latest job approval rating in the Gallup poll? You guessed it — 38 percent.

The anti-Trump wave is building. Every national poll taken over the past month shows Democrat Joe Biden leading Trump; the average margin is approaching ten points. Yes, Hillary Clinton was leading Trump in the polls at this stage of the 2016 campaign. But by smaller margins. Moreover, Biden is leading in all of the battleground states, including Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — where Trump won razor-thin victories in 2016.

Moreover, Biden is not as unpopular as Hillary Clinton was. Clinton’s negative ratings in June 2016 averaged 55 percent. The public’s view of Biden is more neutral (45 percent favorable, 46 percent unfavorable in June polling). That’s better than the public’s view of Trump (56 percent unfavorable).
https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/506929-theres-a-big-blue-wave-coming




Man, I can’t wait to say on November 3rd, Donald Trump, you’re fired! It has been four very long, very painful, and very frustrating years watching this asshole wreck every government protocol, roll back every Obama era protection and basic right, and just generally fuck things up. He put a billionaire in charge of the US Treasury, and he put a billionaire in charge of education. And how well is that working out for everybody?

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is holding three virtual meetings this week with members of the conservative Federalist Society, prompting the nation's largest teachers union to criticize her for spending time on political events rather than plans for reopening schools shuttered by the pandemic.

The organization announced that she and high-level staff are holding virtual meetings on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday with its chapters in Alabama, Ohio and Arizona to discuss her recently published Title IX regulation governing sexual misconduct in schools and colleges. It will go into effect on Aug. 14.

The meetings are closed to the press and are not listed on her public schedule. DeVos has no events on her public schedule this week. On Sunday, she appeared on two news shows to defend the Trump administration's push to fully reopen schools for the coming academic year, as a national debate rages over whether it's safe to send kids back to classrooms.

The National Education Association, the nation’s largest union, says she needs to cancel the events and focus on helping parents, health experts and educators reopen schools safely.
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/07/13/devos-conservatives-meetings-school-reopening-359792




Yes, you too Betsy are fired! As if things couldn’t possibly get any worse right now, Trump attempted to hold a rally in Tulsa in the pandemic! Well guess what happened? The virus is following Trump everywhere and well, I think it’s trying to send a message. That message is if you hang out with Trump, you’re gonna get a virus. Too bad we all have to suffer for this one.

Oklahoma health officials reported record number of COVID-19 cases in the state this week, three weeks after President Donald Trump held a controversial rally in Tulsa, Okla., on June 20.

On Saturday, the Oklahoma State Department of Health (OSDH) reported 687 new COVID-19 cases had been confirmed in the last 24 hours. It was the second highest increase only coming after Tuesday’s 858 confirmed cases, per the Oklahoman. As of Saturday afternoon ET, Oklahoma had at least 19,779 confirmed cases of the virus, according to OSDH.

According to a reporter for local news channel KOCO 5, the seven-day average of COVID-19 cases is nearly six times what it was in early April. Officials also reported five new COVID-19 related deaths on Saturday. There have been at least 421 confirmed deaths in total from the virus in the state, according to OSDH.

Oklahoma began re-opening its economy in late April and entered phase three in early June. Retail stores, restaurants, bars and entertainment venues are open under certain guidelines.
https://time.com/5865890/oklahoma-covid-19-trump-tulsa-rally/




You tell ‘em, Arnold. Even Schwarzenegger himself doesn’t like Trump. And if you want a list of some of the most embarrassing things that Trump has done, Salon has compiled a great list. Whether it’s his infamous Covfefe tweet, or serving McDonalds food to championship football players, or confusing two of Ohio’s largest cities, I could spend all day listing them, but we’re running out of time and I don’t have that kind of time! I’ll just leave this here. This might be my favorite of his most embarrassing moments.

On May 22, 2017, President Donald Trump, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi, and Saudi Arabia's King Salman touched a sinister-looking glowing orb, yielding numerous memes suggesting they were evil supervillains launching a plan to end the world.

The world leaders had actually been in Riyadh, the kingdom's capital, to inaugurate the new Global Center for Combatting Extremist Ideology, and putting their hands on the orb started a film about the center.

But the orb's use did not stop that day, according to "MBS," a new book about Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, written by New York Times reporter Ben Hubbard. Business Insider obtained a copy the book before its March 10 release.

American diplomats had been so fascinated with the orb that Saudi authorities gifted it to the US Embassy in Riyadh, the book said.
https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-saudi-orb-gift-us-embassy-riyadh-hidden-mbs-book-2020-3




Batshit Rating: 9.7 / 10
Sentence: 864511320 (if you can’t decode this look it up)



Thanks for indulging me with this Top 10 Hot 10 edition! We’ll be back with our regular format next week! See you next week!

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July 1, 2020

Top 10 Conservative Idiots #9-3: Nobody Expects The Democratic Inquisition Edition


Top 10 Conservative Idiots #9-3: Nobody Expects The Democratic Inquisition Edition

Welcome back to the Top 10 Conservative Idiots! How’s everybody doing? Are you guys doing fucking good? I know, right? We’re taking a break for the July 4th holiday next week but when we come back on the 15th I have a bit of a sneak preview for Top 10 #9-4: We’re going to deviate from our standard format a bit and just tear into the top 10 biggest douchebags, assholes, and psychopaths in the world of all time (or at least the last 4 years), and I can guarantee that you will like this edition. Much like a Time or People Hot 100, it’s going to get very real very fast! There will even be a special edition of Holy Shit that will tackle the biggest religious asshats of all, like Kenneth Copeland, Paula White, Rick Wiles, and Jerry Falwell Jr. So that’s what you can expect in the next two weeks. Now, do we have time for the thing? Of course we do. Look people, we are all bored and we hate not having the freedoms we used to have before COVID showed up. And I want to get to touring and getting the Top 10 back on the road as much as the next person. I’m tired of talking about the virus too. But don’t risk your life going to a concert right now, and who the fuck is Chase Rice? Seriously, there’s far more important things that you can do right now, but shot gunning beers and line dancing at a country music concert definitely isn’t one of them. Hey look, I love live music too, it’s one of my favorite things in life. But it can definitely wait, and if you do this now, the virus is going to have the last laugh. I need to get that off my chest. OK enough of the intro, we have a lot of idiocy to get to, but first John Oliver breaks down the forthcoming economic collapse caused by Coronavirus:



Where do we begin this week? Well this week, the top slot again goes to the guy who inexplicably is still our president, Donald J. Trump (1). So the word from intel is that Trump may have been involved in a deal with Russia that cost the lives of American soldiers in Afghanistan! Gee, Trump In the second slot this week, maybe there’s some aspects of humanity that just aren’t worth saving, like the White Male Groper’s Club (2) and there are a lot of these stories lately, and they range from completely disgusting to absolutely horrifying! At the third slot this week is right wing COVID deniers (3). If COVID is the Spanish Flu, version 2.0, then we have our own version of 1918’s anti-mask league, and their arguments are literally like something out of a deranged Youtube comments section. At the fourth slot this week, we’re going to play a game of “Is It Racist?” (4) featuring everyone’s favorite pancake syrup mascot, Aunt Jemima, and is it racist? You bet your ass it is! Taking the fifth slot this week is our weekly investigative piece, Top 10 Investigates (5) and is it really time for theme parks like Disneyland to reopen? This could possibly be a very bad and very dangerous idea given that coronavirus hasn’t really gone away yet. Taking the 6th slot this week is our weekly visit to the Holy Church Of The Top 10 in “Holy Shit”, and this week our resident pastor is going to follow the Dark One to the one time he actually goes to a church, and well, it’s anything but religious! In the 7th slot this week, is a new “Beating A Dead Horse”, and after a popular right wing meme maker gets the heave ho after a retweet from Trump, Trump fans are flocking to a new free-speech friendly social media site called “Parler” and we will tell you about it. In the 8th slot this week, in a world with no sports, people are starved for entertainment and flocking to extremely dangerous unregulated ones like cockfighting, and we’re going to ask: “Underground Cockfighting: How Is This Still A Thing?” (8). In the number 9 (NEIN!!!) slot this week we’re going to have another edition of our favorite segment, “People Are Dumb” (9) because even the deadliest pandemic in a century hasn’t stopped people from being stupid! Finally this week, is the Road To The White House (10) and this week we’re going to talk about a potentially untapped voter base – Joe Biden is actually winning with evangelicals and may flip congregations for the first time in almost 40 years! How does he do it? Enjoy! And as always don’t forget the key!

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[font size="8"]The GOP
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Since last year, even way before COVID-19 was discovered and the shit hit the fan, the Trump brand was already becoming toxic. Well, as we are putting this together, Kentucky and Colorado and Utah are finishing up their primaries, and it may be a while before we see the results. But it seems that while the Trump brand is becoming as toxic as your local sewage treatment plant in the middle of a hot summer day, it seems that Trump is losing on multiple levels. I don’t want to say that the GOP is done, finished because that would be getting too ahead, but it definitely feels like people have had enough of their bullshit. And it’s showing too! Nobody expects the Democratic Inquisition!

A 24-year-old political newcomer will defeat President Donald Trump's endorsed candidate in the North Carolina GOP congressional primary for the seat vacated by the President's chief of staff, Mark Meadows, CNN projects.

Madison Cawthorn will beat Lynda Bennett, a stunning upset in the race for the Republican nomination in the state's 11th Congressional District.

Cawthorn -- who was partially paralyzed in a 2014 car crash -- is a "constitutional conservative" who is "committed to defending the values of faith, family and the freedom that have made America great," according to his website.

He is the owner of a real estate investment company and a motivational speaker.

Cawthorn will turn 25 in August, the constitutionally required age to serve in the House. If elected in November, he would become the youngest member in Congress, a title currently held by Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, who is 30.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/23/politics/north-carolina-primary-madison-cawthorn/index.html




Yeah how awesome is that? Oh and what’s even more awesome? It seems that people aren’t buying Trump’s hard-in stance on the 2nd amendment either! The 2nd amendment people have been turning up at protests and that’s been causing people to really see how toxic right wing politics can really get. So by now you’ve probably seen the husband and wife team that pointed guns at protestors? Well actions do have consequences!

A Democrat running for a state Senate seat said Monday his campaign won’t keep a contribution he received last year from a St. Louis attorney who confronted protesters with a firearm on Sunday.

Mark McCloskey, with his wife Patricia McCloskey, made national news when they pointed guns and shouted at protesters in their Central West End neighborhood over the weekend.

Mark McCloskey contributed $250 to the campaign of state Rep. Steven Roberts, D-St. Louis, on Oct. 17, according to Missouri Ethics Commission records.

Roberts told the Post-Dispatch Monday he would send the $250 to Moms Demand Action, an organization that describes itself as a “grassroots movement of Americans fighting for public safety measures that can protect people from gun violence.”
https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/st-louis-state-senate-candidate-not-keeping-gun-toting-lawyer-s-campaign-contribution/article_d5646fbd-df82-5fd1-9683-0b90369825a6.html




Yes, totally rejected! So Trump is toxic, the 2nd amendment is toxic, is there anything associated with the GOP that is not toxic? Well, money maybe. But even that’s becoming toxic depending on what causes it’s being spent on. And if you’re expecting or dreading a Trump tweet, be aware that it can hurt or help both sides equally. If Trump supports you, you know that person is going to be one of the caliber of character that supports him, and that’s not good!

Like many Americans, President Donald Trump starts his day scrolling through Twitter and then tweeting and retweeting posts he finds interesting. Attacks against a political opponent, endorsements for a Republican politician and sharing the favorable opinions of a political pundit are all part of the norm.

But in the past two mornings, retweets by the president were seen by politicians and some in the news media as endorsing hate speech and gun violence. Were those conclusions fair and should retweets by the commander in chief be seen as an endorsement?

Early Monday the president retweeted a video of a white man and a woman pointing firearms at protesters who appear to peacefully pass what is reportedly the couple’s St. Louis mansion enroute to the mayor’s residence. The man, armed with military-style rifle, points the muzzle at protesters, while the woman directs a small, silver pistol at the marchers. At 4:55 a.m. Monday, without any additional comment, Trump shared the video with his more than 82 million followers.
https://www.deseret.com/indepth/2020/6/29/21307058/president-donald-trump-tweets-twitter-protests-white-supremacy-politics




Oh and by the way, if you think that Trump is done, in his mind, he is definitely not. But he thinks that he is. The coronavirus has put his sheer incompetence on display for the entire world to see. While other countries are starting to enjoy things like travel again, we’re only wishing what that was like. Instead, the real virus is sitting in the White House, and it’s going to take a lot to knock him out. His endorsements are being seen as a huge lie!

Three weeks ago today, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany started her briefing by bragging about the primary elections held the day before. "President Trump has now endorsed candidates and has a 64-to-0 record in congressional, special, and primary election races since the midterms," she said, "demonstrating the strength of and support for the president's agenda across the country as evidenced in the 64 consecutive congressional, special, and primary elections over the past 13 months."

A week later, in the wake of another round of GOP primaries, the Republican National Committee's Steve Guest went a little further, boasting on Twitter that Donald Trump has an "undefeated 73-0 record of candidate endorsements in congressional primary and special elections this cycle." Guest added that this record was "an emphatic reminder" of the "enthusiasm" surrounding the president.

As talking points go, this was a narrow one. Trump-backed candidates suffered plenty of defeats in 2018 and 2019, and his "undefeated 73-0 record" was built almost entirely on the results of primary elections.
https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/president-loses-talking-point-trump-backed-republicans-lose-n1231976






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[font size="8"]The White Male Groper’s Club
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Story time, kids! Gather around! Not too close, we must adhere to the guidelines. Let me tell you a story. Wayyyyyyyyyy back in the year 2018 – which was a much simpler time before coronavirus, the big plague infecting the land was the White Male Groper’s Club. Yes, some huge names in show business – primarily white male celebrities like Kevin Spacey, Jeremy Piven, Bryan Singer, and Harvey Weinstein were caught sexually harassing young women (and also men) and engaging in some serious criminal activity. Now the White Male Groper’s Club is back and rebooted for version 2.0. This time it’s younger actors and stand up comedians who are being exposed for the criminal grab assers that they are! First up – the star of Baby Driver, one of my favorite movies of the last few years, Ansel Elgort!

On Friday, a Twitter user posted a note accusing Baby Driver star Ansel Elgort of sexually assaulting her right after she turned 17 (via ScreenRant). She says he was 20 at the time and they met after she reached out to him on social media just to say she was a fan (and not expecting a response, because she was “just a kid”). She says they eventually had sex, and even though she was “sobbing in pain,” she says he made her think “this is how sex was supposed to be.” She says she has since suffered panic attacks and PTSD from the alleged assault but wanted to tell her story because it’s time to “finally heal” an to “tell other girls who have been through the same shit as me, you’re not alone.”

The post has since been deleted, but Elgort has now released a statement of his own (via Variety) in which he denies the allegation of sexual assault and says that his relationship with the accuser was “brief, legal, and entirely consensual.” He adds that he “did not handle the breakup well” and just “stopped responding to her,” which he says was an “immature and cruel thing to do.” He says his post is a “belated apology” for that specifically (though a breakup was never mentioned in the accuser’s original post) and that he’s “disgusted and deeply ashamed” for the way he behaved when he “disappeared.”
https://news.avclub.com/ansel-elgort-responds-to-sexual-assault-allegations-1844110784




Seriously, Kevin Spacey *AND* Ansel Elgort? How the hell did they manage that one? But what is really becoming of the entertainment industry is the world of standup comedy. Yes, the world once made popular by the likes of Jerry Seinfeld and Rodney Dangerfield is currently populated with some real pieces of shit, like Chris D’elia and Jeffrey Ross, for instance. Let’s get into that. And Chris D’elia is a friend of Trump’s BFF Joe Rogan too.

On June 20, the LA Times reported that comedian Chris D'Elia allegedly sent sexually inappropriate messages and emails to teenagers, following a viral Twitter thread from SheRatesDogs compiling alleged conversations that D'Elia had with girls when they were underage. The thread started after a woman noted the irony of D'Elia playing a pedophile in the TV show You, because he'd messaged her when she was still in high school. In response, D'Elia's team disclosed emails to Page Six meant to "paint a fuller picture" of three of these incidents. In a comment to TMZ, D'Elia claimed he's "never knowingly pursued any underage women at any point."

Chris D'Elia was a regular at the Comedy Store in Los Angeles and regularly featured on the podcasts of other comedians who work out of the store, many of whom have made public statements about their colleague and friend. Callen and Brendan Schaub were two of the first to comment on D'Elia's accusations on their podcast The Fighter and The Kid on June 17. A tearful Schaub was unable to speak, and Callen said he "always knew Chris as a lady's man" but he'd never "heard or seen him do anything illegal," and explained how difficult it was to hear the news about their friend. Whitney Cummings issued a statement about Delia displaying "a pattern of predatory behavior" based on "the information I have learned about Chris." Theo Von said he hoped Chris would "get the help he needs." Andrew Santino called it "awful and shocking," and Bobby Lee said, "I feel like I lost a friend." But of all the comedy podcasts making statements about D'Elia, one large exception is the Joe Rogan Experience, one of the most popular podcasts in the world.
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/qj4jnm/joe-rogan-has-said-nothing-about-chris-delia-sexual-misconduct-allegations




I really hope cats aren’t involved! So we’re currently fighting two pandemics – COVID-19 and serial womanizing. How is it that these creeps are able to get away with the crap that they are able to get away with? Well they’re rich white males for one thing. And if you’re a rich white male in showbiz that happens to be in a popular TV show or movie, man, you got it made! Oh , and then there’s Danny Masterson. Yeah fuck that shit. And he’s got the Church Of Scientology on his side!

Danny Masterson, who made a wisecracking name for himself on “That ’70s Show,” was arrested and charged June 17 on multiple counts of rape against three women. But it’s not just the actor who is on trial.

The accusers are all former members of the Church of Scientology, to which the 44-year-old actor is said to be devoted. Previously, four women, including the three from the criminal charges, filed a civil suit against Danny and the church, accusing the church of harassing them for having reported the ­alleged assaults to authorities.

One of the attorneys for the civil suit, Stewart Ryan, said: “It is alleged [in the suit] that our clients reported the sexual assaults to Scientology at the times that they happened. It is alleged in the suit that Scientology attempted to cover up the sexual assaults.”

In a response to The Post, the church denied all claims against it from the civil suit.

The sole victim identified by name in the criminal filing, Chrissie Carnell Bixler, dated Danny from 1996 until 2001 and claims to have been drugged and raped, multiple times, in the actor’s Hollywood Hills home.
https://pagesix.com/2020/06/27/church-of-scientology-tried-to-silence-danny-mastersons-alleged-rape-victims-suit/




Seriously guys, send him to Sea Org, or that weird branch of Scientology that kidnaps and tortures people. Oh I’m sorry, they *ALLEGEDLY* kidnap and torture people. What? No, I am not apologizing to the Church Of Scientology. But it does seem that sexual harassers are a dime a dozen and it doesn’t matter what industry they are involved in. They’re everywhere. What about the owners? Oh yeah there’s that.

A short-lived Columbia blog that allowed anonymous accusations of sexual misconduct led to the departure of a co-owner from a West Columbia comedy club.

Comedy Closet partner John Gibson confirmed he resigned over unspecified accusations posted to True Colors Cola, according to a statement issued to Free Times through a lawyer.

“Though Mr. Gibson has no recollection of these incidents either generally or specifically and denies that they occurred, he also recognizes the effect of such allegations on the long term viability of The Comedy Closet,” the statement reads, “and he was more than willing to remove himself from the operation and ownership of the club without pause in order to allow for the continued success of a club that he worked passionately and tirelessly to build.”

Joe Coughlin, who has become the club’s primary investor and sole proprietor, says Gibson offered to leave the day after the allegations broke before they even had a discussion about his future.
https://www.postandcourier.com/free-times/arts/co-owner-of-west-columbia-s-comedy-closet-exits-after-allegations-posted-on-blog/article_520bbf7a-ba58-11ea-b891-57be3207f910.html





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[font size="8"]COVID Deniers
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Hey anti-maskers, there’s something that I’ve been meaning to get off my chest for the last two months so excuse the all caps. WE HATE WEARING MASKS TOO!!!! It’s not a political statement, though Trump and his goons would most certainly like to make it one. But as long as Coronavirus is still a thing, we either all have to abide by the rules, or we all don’t. And you know what? Just roll the fucking tape, this is beyond insane.



Seriously, that reminds me of the town hall meetings from Parks & Rec. Look, no one likes wearing masks, and we all want this fucking virus to go away. So the sooner we all do it, the sooner we can all get rid of this beast. Get how that works?

Steve Vernon needed a haircut and his barber required that he wear a mask, so he complied.

If businesses want to require customers to wear masks, that’s their right, Vernon said. People can choose to shop elsewhere if they disagree.

But if the government starts mandating masks, Vernon is prepared to engage in “civil disobedience.”

“I will not comply,” said Vernon, the president of the Lakewood Ranch Republican Club. “You can have your mask edict, resolution, whatever it is. I will not comply.”

Wearing masks to limit the spread of the coronavirus has become the latest hot button issue in the culture wars, and the debate is heating up in Florida as the state experiences a big spike in coronavirus cases.
https://www.tcpalm.com/story/news/newswire/2020/06/29/mask-mandates-face-gop-resistance-across-florida/3277836001/




OK, dude. Don’t wear the mask. But when you get COVID, leave the ICU beds for the people who actually need it, OK? And Florida is not the only state in the country where this debate is heating up, my own county – Orange County, CA, is having this insanity. Really folks, don’t come here right now, we’re the Florida of California. And it pains me to say that. But really, shut the fuck up.

The battle over wearing a face mask is intensifying in Orange County, even after the state issued new guidelines last week mandating face coverings in high-risk settings.

Groups for and against the use of face masks have formed in the county.

Orange County Labor Federation held a news conference at 11 a.m. on Monday, calling on county supervisors to enforce Gov. Gavin Newsom's mask order.

Anti-mask protesters interrupted a planned press conference held by a pro-mask group last week.

At the news conference, union representatives called on local authorities to enforce the governor's mask order, pointing to recent increases in coronavirus infections in Orange County.

Orange County Labor Federation says many people are not complying with the order and it is not being enforced.
https://abc7.com/face-mask-covering-california-gavin-newsom/6259698/




Sigh……….. fucking idiots like this are why we can’t have nice things, like a world where Coronavirus doesn’t exist. Better get used to the virtual world everybody, you might not be seeing the real one for a very long time thanks to these morons. Where’s the Matrix simulator when you need it? But why is this even a debate? If you want things to go back to normal, you should get on this. If not, you’re part of the problem!

Forgive the American people if they're in a fog about face masks. President Donald Trump and the federal government have done a number on them.

First there was the don't-do-it phase. Then the nice-but-not-for-me dissonance. Followed by the local-rules-don't-apply exceptions. Topped off by Trump's stated suspicion that some people wear masks just to troll him.

It has all added up to a murky message about one of the critical tools in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic. And the politicization of the to-wear-or-not-to-wear debate is clear in recent public polling.

To be clear: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that people wear cloth face coverings in public settings where other social distancing measures are difficult to maintain. Some states and local communities require them.
https://fortune.com/2020/06/27/should-i-wear-face-mask-coronavirus-covid-19-cdc-guidance-republicans-us-outbreak/




Yeah probably. So mask, no mask, what’s the difference? it’s your own fucking health, and to stop a very easily transmittable virus from exploding exponentially! Doesn’t matter what state you live in, every single state has their fair share of these people, and we’d run out of time trying to list them all. You don’t have to like wearing a mask, just don’t act like a fucking idiot when you’re asked to have some common courtesy in public during this pandemic.

Masks or face coverings, and whether to wear them in public during the coronavirus pandemic, have become one of the biggest points of contention in the crisis.

Mask advocates believe the decision is a simple one. They help prevent the spread of the virus and everyone should be wearing them. But opponents say being forced to wear one is an infringement on their civil liberties.

"We get ourselves wrapped around what symbols mean," said Dr. Robin Henderson, chief executive of Behavioral Health at Providence Health & Services. "The masks have become a symbol. It's a symbol of care-taking our fellow neighbor and for some it's a symbol of freedom."

Health officials across the world have now advocated for the use of masks or face coverings. But a lack of consensus early on, and constantly changing advice, may have contributed to a distrust of masks, according to Dr. Henderson.

"The CDC puts out different guidance every day and that creates what we call change fatigue," said Dr. Henderson. "Change fatigue sets in when these habits can't get established and finally people just kind of throw their hands in the air and go, 'I don't care. I'm not doing any of it.'"
https://katu.com/news/local/psychologists-say-changing-rules-lack-of-control-and-politics-to-blame-for-mask-debate





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[font size="8"]Is It Racist?
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Hey everyone! It’s time to play the hot new game that’s sweeping the nation!



And the answer to that question? If you have to ask, it’s probably racist! Wait, no, you shouldn’t be cheering for that one. But there’s a been a lot of racism in the news this week with the fallout from the protests stemming from the death of George Floyd last month. One of the biggest changes in the world of racism is coming in your supermarket breakfast aisles. Yes, two of America’s most beloved products – Uncle Ben’s Rice, and Aunt Jemima syrup, are both products of the Davis Milling Company, originally from St. Joseph, Missouri. That product was then bought by the Quaker Oats Company, and the character remained. But guess what? That character might be a bit racist. But this might be an overtly stupid portrayal of the original character.

A speaker at President Donald Trump's Arizona event is being criticized over comments she made calling Aunt Jemima a "picture of the American Dream."

Reagan Escudé, a Turning Point USA ambassador who Trump invited to speak on stage Tuesday over her personal experience with "cancel culture," told the Students for Trump crowd in Phoenix how "Aunt Jemima was canceled," a reference to the syrup brand's decision to rebrand after admitting its more than 130-year logo was racially insensitive.

Escudé, who announced on Twitter earlier this month she had been fired from her job "for giving a Biblical response to social issues," said, "Nancy Green, the original, first Aunt Jemima, she was the picture of the American Dream."

"She was a freed slave who went on to be the face of the pancake syrup that we love and we have in our pantries today. She fought for equality, and now the leftist mob is trying to erase her legacy," Escudé added. "And might I mention how privileged we are as a nation if our biggest concern is a bottle of pancake syrup."

The remarks, specifically saying Green represented the American dream, were met with a swift backlash on social media Wednesday.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/24/us/aunt-jemima-trump-phoenix-trnd/index.html




Seriously, that happened! Miss, you might want to use that thing called “Google” or even that thing called “Wikipedia” before you say something that stupid again. Really, this is why we can’t have nice things people! And no, it’s not cancel culture that’s coming for your beloved advertising mascot, it’s common sense. But what about a complimentary product of Aunt Jemima, Uncle Ben’s rice? Yup, that’s getting retired as well!

The parent company of Uncle Ben’s rice said Wednesday that "now was the right time to evolve" the brand, including visually, but did not release details of what exactly would change or when. The move follows a similar announcement earlier in the day by Quaker Oats, the company that owns Aunt Jemima’s syrup.

Mars Inc., the parent company, said in a release that as a global brand, "we know we have a responsibility to take a stand in helping to put an end to racial bias and injustices."

“Racism has no place in society. We stand in solidarity with the Black community, our Associates and our partners in the fight for social justice,” Mars said. “We know to make the systemic change needed, it’s going to take a collective effort from all of us — individuals, communities and organizations of all sizes around the world.”

Uncle Ben’s was founded as Converted Brand Rice by co-founders Erich Huzenlaub and Gordon Harwell, according to the brand’s website. The name “Uncle Ben’s” began being used in the 1940s after Harwell and his business partner discussed a famed Texas farmer, referred to as Uncle Ben, known for his rice.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/uncle-ben-s-change-its-branding-part-parent-company-s-n1231329




Gee, ya think? Although it’s great to see a company like ConAgra Brands take a stand against racism by retiring or changing the name of some of its’ most beloved advertising characters. Even Mrs. Butterworth is getting the axe. But not to be outdone, while we must present equal viewpoints here, the family of the woman who portrayed and was the basis for the Aunt Jemima character is speaking out, and they’re not happy!

Quaker Oats announced earlier this month it's rebranding Aunt Jemima pancake mix and syrup because of its racist history.

But descendants of Lillian Richard, who portrayed Aunt Jemima for years, say the company decided to rename the brand without consulting the families of the women who brought the character to life

While Vera Harris, Richard’s niece, supports the decision and the Black Lives Matter movement, Aunt Jemima represents a part of history for her family and the town of Hawkins, Texas.

“Erasing my Aunt Lillian Richard would erase a part of history,” says Harris, who serves as family historian for the Richard family of Hawkins. “All of the people in my family are happy and proud of Aunt Lillian and what she accomplished.”

Aunt Jemima portrays the white, romanticized notion of an Antebellum “mammy,” detached from the cruel reality of enslavement during the late 19th century. The inspiration for the character came from the song “Old Aunt Jemima.” Starting at the World's Fair in 1893, a formerly enslaved woman named Nancy Green was the first to travel around the country wearing an apron and bandana as Aunt Jemima.
https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2020/06/29/aunt-jemima-quaker-oats-rebrand




Yeah probably! So don’t get too comfortable when questioning racism, because as I say if you have to ask, it’s probably racist. However, even some of your favorite bands might be getting in the mix – like the Dixie Chicks recently dropped the “Dixie” from their name, and now the country rock group Lady Antebellum appears that it will be changing its’ name. So is it racist? Yeah probably!

Seattle blues singer Lady A had just gotten off of work on Thursday when a bombardment of phone messages from friends, fans and producers came in all shouting the same thing: Her name had been stolen.

Earlier that day, Grammy-winning country trio Lady Antebellum — whose name had been criticized for its associations with romanticized ideas of the pre-war, slavery-ridden American South — announced they were changing their name to Lady A in light of a heightened national conversation about racism. Lady Antebellum made the changes swiftly on social media and distribution platforms including Spotify and Apple Music, and the group’s website also announced their rechristening as Lady A. But according to Seattle’s Lady A, neither the band nor any members of their team reached out to her before making the change.

This Lady A — a 61-year-old black woman whose real name is Anita White — has been playing the blues under the name for more than 20 years. She began singing as a gospel performer at church and started going by Lady A for karaoke nights in the Eighties. She’s released multiple albums with the name, and on top of her day job working with Seattle Public Utilities, she’s gearing up to release another album, Lady A: Live in New Orleans, on her birthday on July 18th.
https://www.rollingstone.com/pro/news/lady-antebellum-lady-a-country-blues-1013919/





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



There isn’t any aspect of life that hasn’t been changed by the Coronavirus pandemic. And if you’re like most of us, you’re most likely bored, angry, and pissed off. But where do you go to relieve those frustrations with the changing world around you and how do you get out to have fun in the day and age of the virus? How about going to the Happiest Place On Earth, Disneyland? Well, while Disneyland has reopened in Shanghai to a somewhat rousing success, getting the wheels turning on the Happiest Place On Earth back on track is proving to be way more difficult than it has been anticipated. So how is life going to operate at Disneyland in Florida and Anaheim as it starts getting back to where it was before the pandemic?

Disney is delaying the phased reopening of Disneyland and Disney California Adventure, the company's flagship theme parks in California, the company said on Wednesday.

The resort, located in Anaheim, California, was set to welcome back guests on July 17 after being closed for months because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Disney (DIS) did not give a new reopening date for the Disneyland resort.

The company said that the State of California had indicated it would not issue theme park reopening guidelines "until sometime after July 4," according to a statement. "Given the time required for us to bring thousands of cast members back to work and restart our business, we have no choice but to delay the reopening of our theme parks and resort hotels until we receive approval from government officials."

The news of Disneyland's delayed reopening comes as coronavirus cases are spiking across the country, especially in California.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/24/media/disneyland-reopening-postponed/index.html




So Disneyland in California may not happen for at least the foreseeable future. What about Disneyland in Orlando? The home of Epcot Center could also be the home of Coronavirus as the cases in Northern Florida are starting to resurge and show no signs of slowing. But if you’re headed to the Happiest Place On Earth in 2020, then you should be prepared to face a reality check.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has no intention of interfering with Walt Disney World's July reopening, despite a petition from concerned employees and a surge in novel coronavirus (COVID-19) cases in the state.

Last month, the Orlando theme park announced July 11 as the start of a phased reopening process after a months-long closure during the ongoing pandemic.

As the state began to lift its lockdown, however, Florida experienced a spike in coronavirus infections, including several days of record-breaking numbers of new cases recorded, reaching more than 9,500 in a day on June 27.

On Wednesday, Disneyland in California, another state seeing rising cases. announced that it had "no choice but to delay" its intended July 17 reopening date. The decision came as the state government did not grant approval and guidelines in time to arrange the opening.
https://people.com/travel/florida-governor-has-no-plan-to-halt-disney-world-reopening-despite-petition-from-concerned-employees/




Hey wait, we still have 7 more continents to get through! Although if you are on the fence about all the restrictions being put in place in Disneyland, maybe consider an alternative, like the State Fair. Yes, most state and county fairs have shut down because of the pandemic, but one is defying expectations and going on anyways! Just don’t be disappointed if you don’t get to go to the petting zoo this year.

The fifth annual Horry County Fair is set to open this weekend, in stark contrast to most other fairs around the country that have been canceled or postponed due to coronavirus. The 10-day fair, held at Myrtle Beach Speedway, was originally scheduled April 24-May 3, but organizers postponed it until July 3-12 after restrictions were put into place by S.C. Gov. Henry McMaster to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Steve Zacharias, general manager of the 45-acre venue, said that organizers never considered canceling the fair. “They’ve been fearful,” Zacharias told the board, “and they’ve dragged their feet, didn’t want to pull the trigger because of (COVID-19) ...”. Special precautions will be in place, including intense cleaning of all rides after each use, hand sanitizer stations set up throughout the area and altering the layout to discourage large gatherings and allow for proper social distancing.

The Horry County Fair will be Strates Shows’ first event since at least mid-March, according to the company’s events calendar, which shows all its other fairs either canceled or postponed. Jim Strates, a co-owner and operations manager, said a lot of the fairs that were canceled are in states with more strict guidelines ...

Strates expressed concern about a lack of people wearing face masks in the Horry County area, but said all his employees will wear them, and they have the ability to isolate employees if any begin showing symptoms. “We’re going to take a crack at this thing,” he said. “I don’t think we have any other choice.”
https://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/article243871137.html




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




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[font size="8"]Holy Shit: The Dark One Goes To Church
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Gather around my fair brothers and sisters! It’s time to take a seat in the virtual pew make an online donation in the LAWRD’s virtual 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 online congregation! You know with churches going online and not congregating in public for the foreseeable future due to coronavirus, we’re kind of running low on material right now. But thankfully last week that SAYVED! For the unholy, ungodly Dark One whose name shall not be mentioned in my church – even if it is an online and virtual one, actually went to a church. He is a SINNER, who does some absolutely unspeakable things, yet he views himself as the godliest of the godly! And among that crowd, he can do no wrong! So why is he pandering to the holiest among us? Well, also why not? Because screw everyone that he doesn’t agree with, that’s why!

After a disappointing showing at his campaign rally over the weekend, President Donald Trump renewed his performance for a packed crowd of students on Tuesday, telling his Arizona audience that they were guardians in a cultural war over the heritage of the country.

“We’re here today to declare that we will never cave to the left wing and the left-wing intolerance,” the president said at a Students for Trump event in Phoenix.

The appearance, at the Dream City megachurch, was one of his first rallies since taking a three-month hiatus because of the coronavirus pandemic. Images from the event showed a large crowd tightly packed together, with almost no one wearing protective masks. There were no temperature checks for the estimated 3,000 cheering attendees who, like many of Trump’s staunchest fans, ignored a new local ordinance requiring them to wear a mask, despite a public-health plea from the Democratic mayor on Monday.

The coronavirus is out of control in the Grand Canyon State after its governor lifted a stay-at-home order last month, and the president is polling relatively poorly here against his presumptive Democratic rival, former Vice President Joe Biden.
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/06/23/trump-rally-arizona-336565




Yes let’s wait two weeks to see where this is heading and it cannot be good. For the commander in chief is doing an absolutely terrible job of setting such an example of what to do during these trying times, he is failing on every level! But how is his second in command doing? Well he’s not doing much better, and he was the guy who was picked to lead us in charge to tackle this forsaken virus!

A choir of about 100 performers sang at a megachurch campaign event featuring Vice President Pence on Sunday. They did not wear masks while they sang.

Many epidemiologists and singing experts currently fear that singers may be superspreaders of COVID-19, due to aerosolization of the virus. Singing involves much more forceful and deep breathing than simple talking.

The choir was performing at the Celebrate Freedom Rally, which took place at Dallas' First Baptist Church and was billed as an event "to celebrate our freedom as Americans and our freedom in Christ with you through worship." According to CNN, about 2,200 people attended the rally at the Texas megachurch, which can hold about 3,000 people. The singers reportedly wore face coverings between their selections.

Last Thursday, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced a "pause" on his state's reopening after saying that Texas is facing a "massive outbreak" of the coronavirus.
https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/06/29/884614249/cdc-says-singers-could-be-virus-super-spreaders-but-100-sang-unmasked-with-vp-pe




Seriously guys, this isn’t the 1980s, this is 2020 and there is a deadly virus roaming the landscape, and it is not stopping! It’s going to get worse. And you shouldn’t be going to church right now. But no one is canceling church, and I’m sure that the good LAWRD JAYSUS would back me up here! If you want to get back to your old life and I know we all do, real change starts at the top! Of course I still won’t mention his name in my church, even if it is virtual!

One month after President Donald Trump ordered the nation’s governors to immediately reopen churches, his administration is facing a difficult dilemma.

Clusters of Covid-19 cases are surfacing in counties across the U.S. where in-person religious services have resumed, triggering questions about whether his administration should reassess its campaign to treat houses of worship the same as other essential businesses, or leave them alone and risk additional transmission of the deadly coronavirus — including in communities that are largely supportive of the president.

An outbreak at a Pentecostal church in Oregon, where hundreds of worshipers resumed gathering over Memorial Day weekend, forced an entire county to return to phase one of its reopening after local officials traced 258 cases of Covid-19 back to the facility. In West Virginia, six health departments across the state have reported coronavirus outbreaks linked to churches. One of them, a Baptist church in Greenbrier County, had 34 congregants test positive for the virus. And in Texas, which hit an all-time high of new cases last week, health officials have received numerous reports of church-related exposures.
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/06/28/trump-coronavirus-spread-churches-342296




Yes, churches are the biggest problem that the unholy, ungodly Dark One and his DAYMONS are facing at the moment. But he’s not going down without a fight. For his network is actively encouraging people to defy orders and defy the LAWRD, you’ve got another thing coming! And you are most definitely not welcome in my church – online or in person – until you get a grip on reality! But this is not the kind of thing you want to hear in a sermon, and you won’t hear it in my church! I won’t allow it!

Watching from home, at first it was hard to say which moment in Donald Trump’s rally at a Phoenix megachurch on Tuesday was the ugliest. Was it when the president of the United States repeated the racist joke he told last weekend in Tulsa, calling Covid-19, the viral disease that emerged in China last year, the “Kung Flu;” or was it a split second later, when thousands of his young supporters erupted in cheers?

Watching from home, at first it was hard to say which moment in Donald Trump’s rally at a Phoenix megachurch on Tuesday was the ugliest. Was it when the president of the United States repeated the racist joke he told last weekend in Tulsa, calling Covid-19, the viral disease that emerged in China last year, the “Kung Flu;” or was it a split second later, when thousands of his young supporters erupted in cheers?

Watching from home, at first it was hard to say which moment in Donald Trump’s rally at a Phoenix megachurch on Tuesday was the ugliest. Was it when the president of the United States repeated the racist joke he told last weekend in Tulsa, calling Covid-19, the viral disease that emerged in China last year, the “Kung Flu;” or was it a split second later, when thousands of his young supporters erupted in cheers?
https://theintercept.com/2020/06/24/trump-made-racist-joke-phoenix-megachurch-crowd-went-wild/




So do not take any medicine offered by the Dark One, for he is the virus! 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: Safe Spaces
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We’ve been talking a lot of shit about right wingers needing safe spaces. So many editions that it would take me forever to list them all, so I am not even going to try to attempt to do that. And with high profile internet services like Reddit and Twitch and several other platforms banning far right personalities and chat rooms, it’s easy to see why the right has taken such a beating lately. You want to know why? It’s easy to see: NOBODY WANTS TO HEAR YOUR MESSAGE OF HATE, DOUCHEBAGS! OK, I needed to get that off my chest. But if you’re a far right personality that has fans and followers, where do you go when you get kicked off the major websites? Well, first they had Gab, now they have Parler. Want to know the kind of content that gets passed around on Parler? Well…

Jim Jordan, Elise Stefanik and Nikki Haley all have something in common, other than a strong affection towards President Trump.

The three Republican politicians joined social media app Parler this week, adding their profiles to a site that’s emerged as the new digital stomping ground for anti-Twitter conservatives. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas arrived earlier this month and Rep. Devin Nunes of California started in February, while Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky has been a member since 2018, the year the app launched.

“It’s about time y’all joined me on @parler_app,” Paul tweeted on Wednesday. “What’s taking the rest of you so long?!”

To be fair, Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale has also been on Parler since 2018. Eric Trump, the president’s son, and his wife, Lara, joined on the same day last month. Like Twitter, the app lets users share comments, photos and news stories with their followers.
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/06/27/parler-ceo-wants-liberal-to-join-the-pro-trump-crowd-on-the-app.html




Yeah blah blah blah. Let’s not underestimate the irony here – conservatives are using Twitter to promote a direct competitor to Twitter, to complain that their voices aren’t being heard! I don’t know about you but I have had enough of this bullshit! And I think the entire world has had enough of the far right, and it’s time to start flushing them out. In case you’re wondering the kind of lax content that Parler is known for, well, it has some people up in arms.

The most prominent difference between the social media sites, apart from their size, is their attitudes towards content on their platforms.

Parler is more tolerant of speech that other platforms would deem offensive.

In its guidelines, it references the FCC’s definition of obscene content which asks if the work is sexual in nature, if it “ is offensive,” and “Whether the work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.”

Parler advises users not to “use language/visuals which is sexual in nature” and not to “use language/visuals that are offensive and offer no literary, artistic, political, or scientific value”

Twitter, by comparison, has been repeatedly criticised for not doing enough to curb racism, sexism, homophobia, and other issues on its platform.
https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/parler-app-mps-right-wing-twitter-katie-hopkins-a9579241.html




So racists, first off there’s something that I have been meaning to say for a long time. Hear me out here, because listen up. There are no safe spaces in the real world. You are all a bunch of pathetic snowflakes, so suck it up, buttercup! Yeah people don’t want to hear your racist bullshit. And if you think that doesn’t have consequences, well it can cost you sponsors. Just look at what’s happening to Facebook and their refusal to police bullshit.

The campaign against Facebook has metastasised, as big brands increasingly decide all social media is too toxic for them.

This is a period of unprecedented crisis for social media, which is saying something. What started as an apparently politically motivated attack on Facebook has snowballed, such that most major brands are now having a rethink about advertising on any social media, regardless of their censorship policies, due to the inherently uncontrollable nature of the content they host.

For some reason the corporate world seems to have suddenly realised that social media is different from traditional media and that the content you find on it is, by design, impossible to control. Social media companies increasingly try to censor their users in a futile bid to ensure only advertiser-friendly content appears, but it now appears their efforts have been in vain.

One after another major US advertisers are deciding that, in the current cultural environment, they’re not prepared to risk their brand being positioned next to contentious content. While Verizon singled out Facebook, massive consumer-facing companies such as Unilever, Diageo and Starbucks have announced a wholesale move of their advertising spend towards regular media, which they presumably find easier to control.
https://telecoms.com/505246/major-advertisers-flee-from-social-media-as-parler-use-goes-exponential/




Seriously, you’re just now figuring how toxic social media is? You guys really need to do some research here. Don’t get me wrong, it’s great that we’re finally addressing the systematic, unfiltered racism in this country that’s been running rampant for decades since the Civil War, and the online racism that allowed Trump to become president. But would anyone want to debate these assholes? Conservatives don’t need equal footing, they have 3 24/7 cable news networks and nearly all AM radio stations at their disposal, they don’t need more platforms to fling their bullshit!

In a time when pundits and protesters can’t seem to go two minutes without getting into some form of heated debate, one social media platform is offering a cash prize to find the right opponent for some constructive civilc discourse.

The libertarian or conservative-leaning social media platform Parler is now offering $20,000 to any progressive pundit, commentator or writer willing to join Parler and engage in an open debate on the platform. The original amount for the challenge was $10,000 three weeks ago. When no one stepped forward to accept, Parler doubled down.

According to Parler’s statement, the challenge is to “produce a series of Parleys, constructive and thoughtful discussions to search for common ground on difficult issues.”

Parler Strategic Investor Jeffrey Wernick says it’s time for liberals and conservatives to have discourse on equal footing without censorship.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnscottlewinski/2020/06/20/conservative-social-media-network-parler-makes-20000-progressive-debate-challenge/#357a58404b14





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[font size="8"]How Is This Still A Thing: Underground Cockfighting
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It’s time once again to ask:



This week: Underground cockfighting, how is this still a thing? In a world run by COVID-19, where no sports, recreation, or fun of any kind is to be had until we deal with this virus, people have to make their own fun. And one sport that’s equal parts dangerous, illegal, and banned in over 50 countries is on its’ way to making a comeback. And it’s an unwanted comeback too, as it not only puts the lives of the competitors at stake, it puts the fans and spectators at stake too. That sport is cockfighting, the sport that pits dangerously large roosters against each other in a battle for supremacy. The sport is so controversial that it is not shown on TV and even Vegas won’t take bets on it. But now, thanks to COVID, and a world without real professional sports, it’s making a comeback.

178 people are facing charges after a cockfighting ring was busted in Emanuel County over the weekend.

According to the Southern District of Georgia, the raid happened Saturday at a property in Midville owned by 48 year-old William Shannon Scott. Scott has been charged with sponsoring or exhibiting an animal in an animal fighting venture.

The SDOG also says several other events had taken place at the property this year, which was equipped with a fighting ring, management office, concession stand and stadium bleachers.

The raid resulted in 178 people processed for charges related to animal fighting or gambling. Nearly 800 roosters were seized, tens of thousands of dollars in gambling proceeds were confiscated as well as firearms and illegal drugs.
https://www.cbs46.com/news/raid-at-cockfight-nets-178-people-nearly-800-roosters-seized/article_43f0a75c-b61b-11ea-9fdc-6b188f946173.html




Supposedly the sport of cockfighting was canceled in 2002 when Oklahoma officially outlawed it, but it’s not just rampant in Oklahoma and Alabama, cockfighting is everywhere. But it’s not necessarily the birds who are being abused, they’re also being exported. It turns out that the US territory of Guam is also a hot bed for illegal cockfighting. And how were these illegal breeders caught? Through a series of contact tracings.

According to an investigation by an animal welfare advocacy group, Alabamains are among the top traffickers of chickens to the tiny Pacific island of Guam, for the purposes of illegal cockfighting.

Animal Wellness Action (AWA) and the Animal Wellness Foundation (AWF) today asked U.S. Attorney Jay E. Town to investigate allegations of ongoing cockfighting activity in Alabama, including trafficking of game birds to Guam, a U.S. Territory.

The request for action follows an investigation that allegedly revealed that several Alabama farms are among the top shippers of fighting birds to Guam.

Nine breeders in central and north Alabama, whose names were turned over to authorities but are not being publicly released because they haven't been formally charged, allegedly breed and train birds and ship them around the world for the purpose of cockfighting.
https://abc3340.com/news/local/investigation-alabamians-among-top-traffickers-of-birds-to-guam-for-illegal-cockfighting




That’s definitely not the use of birds you want them for. What are the consequences of cockfighting if you are caught participating or breeding roosters for the illegal purposes? Well, the fines are pretty stiff and you can also face some serious jail time, and that’s something that you do not want to do in 2020. But with the illegal cockfighting ring comes another illegal component with it – gambling. Yes, not only can you bet on the outcome of the fights, that is also illegal!

Police have arrested three men for illegal cockfighting at an open space in Pulau Kerto near here on Friday (June 19).

Sibu Deputy OCPD Supt Collin Babat said a team from its Anti-Vice, Gambling and Gangsterism unit (D7) nabbed the suspects, aged between 32 and 34, during the 4.30pm incident.

"The team managed to arrest the three suspects while some others ran away," he said.

Supt Collin said the suspects were two construction workers and a jobless man.

He added that police also seized a live rooster, a dead rooster, RM60, a cockfighting spur and a notice board.
https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2020/06/20/trio-detained-over-illegal-cockfighting-in-sibu




And guess what? Cockfighting isn’t just a uniquely American problem. It’s also an international one, and countries all around the globe are cracking down on cockfighting. And the people who engage in this sport are not exactly the kind of people who are looking to make a legitimate dollar. Instead they are teeming with all kinds of illegal activity, and it’s not exactly limited to what the roosters are doing in the fighting ring.

POLICE uncovered a clandestine cockfighting pit in a house in Almeria City during a raid in an illegal drug sales operation.

Investigations into the goings on at the two-storey property in the Chanca neighbourhood of the city began in December last year. Surveillance of the house showed there were an awful lot of comings and goings.

Further investigations revealed there was almost certainly an indoor marihuana plantation in a warehouse connected to the house by a covered yard.

Police carried out searches in both properties plus the home of one of the detainees. That was when they found the cockfighting pit between the warehouse and the house used as a drug sales point. Officers also discovered some 100 roosters in cages in what police said were highly unhealthy conditions.
https://www.euroweeklynews.com/2020/06/18/clandestine-cockfighting-pit-uncovered-on-spains-costa-almeria/




So illegal gambling, drugs, and guns – all around the sport of two roosters fighting. That’s enough to make you ask – underground cockfighting:




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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 this week? I want to start with this story out of Trump’s rally in Arizona. Yeah we usually don’t bring politics into People Are Dumb segments but this one is a fucking classic. So the virus isn’t going away any time soon, and it’s really making people crazy. But where this falls into the “stupid” category is that two guys claim that they have an air conditioner system that filters out pathogens, much like the one on the USS Enterprise on Star Trek. But in reality, something tells me that I wouldn’t trust these guys with a cheapo $99 air conditioner from Costco.

The pastors of an Arizona megachurch that is holding an event featuring President Trump on Tuesday is claiming the church's air filtration system can kill "99.9% of COVID within 10 minutes." Dream City Church Senior Pastor Luke Barnett and Chief Operations Officer Brendon Zastro make the erroneous claims in a promo video that has been circulating online this week. The video has been removed from the church's Facebook page.

"We have exciting information about what we're doing to fight COVID-19 here at Dream City Church," Barnett says in the video. Zastro then says the church has installed a system from Clean Air EXP, a Phoenix-based company that uses technology developed by members of the church.

"We've installed these units and it kills 99.9% of COVID within 10 minutes," Zastro says.

"When you come into our auditorium, 99% of COVID is gone, killed, if it was even there in the first place," Barnett says. "Thank God for good technology."
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/dream-city-church-arizona-megachurch-trump-rally-air-purifier-covid-19-coronavirus/




Yeah I think even God is sighing on this one. Next up – of course we have to go to our favorite state, the Sunshine State, America’s most penis-shaped state of Florida. Ah, Florida, can you ever go one day without doing something batshit crazy? Well there’s a lot of Florida this week so let’s go through some of the crazier ones. Here’s the thing – if you’re going to make a Godfather reference, at least get the reference correct!

Florida cops allege that James Ransom--carrying open containers of Natural Light beer and Captain Morgan rum--caused a disturbance Thursday night on the boardwalk at Indian Rocks Beach, just west of St. Petersburg.

Ransom, 54, was allegedly seen accosting and “yelling loudly at citizens,” according to a sheriff’s deputy.

After being detained, Ransom repeatedly told cops that his name was “Michael Corleone.” But when deputies did a computer check on the name, they came up empty. It was only after Ransom was “submitted to a fingerprint scan” that investigators confirmed he did not actually share a name with Al Pacino’s character in the “Godfather” movies.

In addition to being charged with providing a false name to law enforcement, Ransom was also cited for disorderly intoxication. Ransom yesterday pleaded no contest to both misdemeanor counts. After entering his plea, Ransom was released from the county jail after serving two days in custody.
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/stupid/godfather-fan-jailed-583902




Yeah maybe don’t go against the Family there! Next up – we go to the Florida town of Cocoa Beach, and why does the weirdest shit in Florida always happen in beach communities? Well this is something that maybe you don’t want to see in a bakery right now, or maybe ever. Remember the emotional support animal craze of the last couple of years? When we lived in much simpler times. Well, I don’t remember you being allowed to bring one of these in an establishment!

COCOA BEACH, Florida – A Florida man was spotted picking up his pet alligator named “Sweetie” and bringing it into a Florida Key Lime Pie store in Cocoa Beach, Florida.

A video of the Florida man casually picking up the alligator near Ron Jon Surf Shop was posted online on June 8, 2020, and has since gone viral with over 6 million views.

“Sweetie sends her love and gratitude to all of her fans. Thank you!” the Florida Kely Lime Pie company wrote on its Facebook page.

According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission, pet alligators are allowed in Florida if the person obtains a Class II Personal Pet License which requires not convictions of certain wildlife-related violations and the person must demonstrate 1 year and 1,000 hours of substantial practical experience in the handling, husbandry, and care of alligators or other crocodilian species. ............(more)

http://www.brevardtimes.com/2020/06/florida-man-takes-5-foot-alligator-into-florida-key-lime-pie-store/




Damn those gators! Next up – sticking with the Sunshine State, do you know that old expression “is there a bottle of wine from your pants or are you just happy to see me?”. Well, first the answer to that question is always yes. And second, yeah sometimes there might actually be a bottle of wine stuffed down your pants. And wine that is crazy expensive at that!

It was a vintage theft ... literally.

A man who visited the Total Wine & More outlet in Estero on Thursday allegedly took nearly $800 in wine, using multiple trips to spirit the spirits out in his pants.

In a request to try to identify the accused wine thief, the Southwest Florida Crime Stoppers provided a surveillance photograph of the man, who was wearing a mask.
A man who visited the Total Wine store in Estero store Thursday made off with nearly $800 in wine, using multiple trips to spirit the spirits out, smuggling the bottles out in his pants.

His triple-visit, seven-bottle theft took fewer than 15 minutes.

He first sauntered into the store at 2:43 p.m., allegedly hijacking two bottles of cabernet, the report suggests.
https://www.news-press.com/story/news/crime/2020/06/15/florida-man-accused-stuffing-wine-pants-total-wine-more-estero/3193402001/




That damn Merlot, it ruins everything doesn’t it? Next up – even the DEA is dumb. You know that whole good cop – bad cop routine? Well what if there was a bad cop – even worse cop? Well, the even worse cop got caught being, well, even worse than usual. And if it’s a fraud scheme that you got caught for, well, there’s no coming back from that. And this guy got caught in maybe the worst way possible.

A former Drug Enforcement Administration spokesman admitted in court on Thursday to creating an elaborate scheme where he posed as a covert CIA agent.

Garrison Kenneth Courtney, 44, pleaded guilty to a fraud charge in Eastern District of Virginia's federal court Thursday morning.

He admitted to duping public officials and companies into believing he worked with the CIA and ultimately defrauded a dozen companies of more than $4 million, according to his plea.

Courtney took extraordinary steps to convince public officials and companies he was working for the CIA undercover, including by implying to the companies he was a secret agent on a classified US defense and intelligence "task force" that had been established by top officials like the president or the attorney general, according to his statement of offense.
https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2020/06/11/politics/dea-cia-fraud/index.html




Damn right!!! Man I miss that show. Finally this week – of course we end with Florida. But maybe this time don’t let your kid drive! Ever! There’s no excuse for that, and yeah I get that kids love cars, especially young boys. I know, I was one at one point. But there’s no excuse for this stupidity, but then again I am reminded of what state this is in.

A Florida man is facing felony charges after police said he let a 12-year-old girl drive his SUV and told her to speed because he wanted to be a “cool father” — even though he is not her dad.

Shaun Michaelsen, 41, told the arresting officer Monday he is friends with the girl's mother and that the girl and her friend were staying with him for a few days, according to court records.

He said the girl had asked earlier in the day if she could drive his Jeep, so he thought “it would be cool" and that he was trying to be a “cool father,” the police report said. Michaelsen also told officers he had been drinking.

Jupiter Officer Craig Yochum said in his arrest report that he spotted the Jeep make an illegal U-turn and then speed away at about 12:10 a.m. Monday. He followed and the Jeep reached speeds of 85 mph in a 45 mph zone before he was able to pull it over. He said that when he asked the 12-year-
https://www.kwqc.com/content/news/Police-Florida-man-lets-12-year-old-drive-Jeep-85-mph-571135401.html




That’s it this week for:




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[font size="8"]Road To The White House
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Welcome to our segment where we are documenting Joe Biden’s road to the White House! Yes, it’s been quite the tumultuous time here in the states because of the COVID-19 pandemic. But things are getting better and gradually progressing. Of course it happens to be an election year. Maybe god is trying to send us a message? Last week we talked about the rising blue tide in the Lone Star State of Texas, this week – we’re talking about Biden’s support among the holier-than-thou crowd. Yes, my people, the tide might finally be turning in America’s congregations. It seems 40 years of toxic conservatism is finally starting to grate on America’s evangelicals.

“Lord have mercy,” he replied with a chuckle when Clout asked why it was necessary to compile a collection of essays in a book titled The Spiritual Danger of Donald Trump: 30 Evangelicals on Justice, Truth and Moral Integrity.

Sider is an emeritus professor of theology, holistic ministry, and public policy at Palmer Theological Seminary in Montgomery County. He said white evangelical voters overwhelmingly supported President Donald Trump in 2016 even though he “is clearly racist, repeatedly says awful things about women, [and] has policies on questions of racial justice, economic justice, and environmental issues that fundamentally contradict biblical norms.”

The book Sider edited arrived this month, when racial strife has been thrust once again to the forefront of public life, following the deaths of African Americans at the hands of police in Minneapolis, Louisville, and Atlanta.

Sider calls on white evangelicals to confront racism.

"Donald Trump, instead of uniting the country, is stoking that racism,” he said. “They want Jesus to be lord of their politics. I don’t think they’ve thought very much about that.”
https://www.inquirer.com/politics/clout/donald-trump-racism-white-evangelicals-gop-spirituality-20200619.html




Yes, the Ned Flanders types are finally coming around to being liberal after nearly 40 years of supporting ultra-hard right policies and fantasies. Gee, you think that may be bad for business? Well while normally Democrats don’t touch the evangelical vote, Biden is embracing them with open arms. Well I hope they turn a blind eye to Trump because you know that some won’t change their opinions no matter how hard you try.

A Sunday report from Politico claimed that U.S. President Donald Trump’s allies are worried that Joe Biden’s rising evangelical support may pose a threat to the president’s reelection in November. According to the report, Biden is following in former President Barack Obama’s footsteps and reaching out to the evangelical community — a strategy that allegedly worked by doubling Democratic support among young white evangelicals and increasing support from the overall demographic by three points in the 2004 presidential election.

“Such an outcome could deal a fatal blow to the president’s reelection, which largely hinges on expanding his support with religious voters to compensate for enthusiasm gaps elsewhere,” the report reads.

According to David Brody, chief political analyst at the Christian Broadcasting Network, Trump needs 81 percent support or more from this demographic to win reelection.

As reported by The Washington Post, approximately one-third of Trump’s support in 2016 came from evangelicals. According to Pew Research Center data from last year, 77 percent of white evangelical Protestants identify as Republican or Republican-leaning. Despite this overlap between religion and party, Public Religion Research Institute data released earlier this month suggests that Trump has lost 20 points in support from evangelical voters since March, with a similar loss observed among white Catholics.
https://www.inquisitr.com/6123851/trump-biden-evangelical-support/




if you don’t want to feel bad about yourself, don’t vote for Donald J. Trump! See how simple that is? We need someone who is going to try to unite America, and man we need someone like this now more than ever especially in the face of the worst pandemic in over a century. Even Catholics – Catholics!!! Are starting to turn the tide towards Biden, and they’re the kind of people who won’t change their mind for anything!

White evangelicals and white Catholics still overwhelmingly support President Donald Trump over former Vice President Joe Biden, even though both groups have slightly pushed back from Trump in the past three months.

Trump holds a 12-point advantage over Biden among white Catholics, 50 percent versus 38 percent, despite the Democratic presidential candidate being a white Catholic himself, a new Data for Progress tracking poll finds. Several surveys of voters released during the coronavirus pandemic and the George Floyd protests revealed that white evangelical support for Trump dropped by about 10 points - but pollsters and political analysts say an overwhelming majority of the group will come out in support of the Republican Party candidate on November 3.

Eastern Illinois University associate professor and pastor Dr. Ryan Burge told Newsweek Tuesday he believes the double-digit decline in white evangelical support for Trump between May and June was a "blip." Trump will still win at least 75 percent of their vote this year, he maintains. Trump pulled in 75.8 percent of the white evangelical vote in 2016.

Despite another election cycle effort by the news media to portray white Christians as walking away from the Republican Party, Burge says, they aren't going anywhere.
https://www.newsweek.com/vast-majority-white-catholics-evangelicals-support-trump-over-biden-polls-1512840




But the biggest mystery of the 2020 election overall – while Christians are still overwhelmingly voting in favor of Trump, could this be enough to finally give him the heave ho? Even the once heavily GOP favored born again segment is finally starting to realize that supporting Trump and dangerous republican, white supremacist ideologies might finally be bad for business.

One in Four American adults identify as a born-again or evangelical Christian. At 22 per cent of the population, Roman Catholics are almost as numerous. An insidious US Christian nationalism is abroad. Religious influences amongst almost half the voting population in November 2020 will matter.

Exit polls at the 2016 Presidential election, commissioned by the respected Pew Foundation, showed 81 per cent of evangelical Christians voted for Donald Trump; disaggregated, 60 per cent were White Catholics and 21 per cent Hispanic Catholics. Compared with Obama in 2012, Hillary Clinton lost between 3-5 per cent of such voters. Overall, Trump’s White Christian vote was older, poorer and less educated. His support increased with reported frequency of church attendance.

How, you might ask, can this be? Does the Christianity of White America make no difference to the kind of person sought as President? Not entirely. Two thirds of White Catholics in a March 2020 Brookings survey thought that the statement Trump “fights for what I believe in” corresponded well, or fairly well, with their beliefs, notably about abortion and gay marriage. They also believed they were winning the “culture wars”, but unsurprisingly had mixed feelings about Trump’s personal conduct. But evangelicals tended to discount his conduct on grounds that God often chose flawed people for his purposes. Some, echoing Israel’s Netanyahu, compared Trump to Cyrus the Great, who liberated the Jews from their Babylonian captivity 2,500 years ago.
https://www.thearticle.com/will-americas-christians-give-trump-a-second-term




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

We’re taking a couple of weeks off but when we come back we’ll explore some states that are heavily pro Joe and heavily pro Trump.


We are taking a short break next week, we’ll be back on July 15th with our first ever Top 10 Hot 10 Edition! See you in two weeks!

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