Mallory McMorrow is a Democratic state senator in Michigan, who brilliantly stood up to right-wing hatred today. I hope everyone watches the (under 5 minute) video of her in the Michigan senate.
Even James Carville, who recently, and famously complained about Democratic wokeness, had strong praise for McMorrow, saying “Enormously effective piece of communication. There’s really no comeback to it.”
I swear, you can’t possibly make shit like this up. According to The Guardian, Florida has rejected “54 math textbooks because they contain ‘prohibited topics’ including Critical Race Theory” (CRT).
Last year, Florida banned the teaching of CRT in public schools. In response, many people pointed out that CRT has never been taught in any public schools (it has only been a subject in some universities). In order to justify their actions they are making up examples of CRT and banning some textbooks.
But math textbooks? Why would any math textbook have anything about race in it? Maybe a computer textbook talking about “race conditions”, or a physics textbook talking about “black body radiation”, but those don’t have anything to do with CRT.
In the novel 1984, George Orwell coined the term doublethink, which requires people to accept two conflicting beliefs as truth, despite them contradicting each other, their own memory, or even their reality. In the book, people accept doublethink due to peer pressure, to “fit in”, or to be accepted as a loyal Party Member. Sound familiar?
In order to be a member of the Republican Party, politicians have to accept the doublethink that Trump won the 2020 election, and that evil Democrats are forcing schools to teach CRT. Any contradiction with the party line is akin to blasphemy, and will get the politician instant social disapproval, or even primaried. Even if they know it is a lie, they have to repeat the lie over and over.
SNL welcomes Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court with a quick trip through history.
Obama gave a speech today at the White House, the first time he has been back there since he was president. The occasion was celebrating the passage of the ACA (also known as Obamacare). But he threw in a few jokes just for fun.
It seems like Donald Trump’s main purpose in life now is to repeatedly claim that the 2020 election was stolen from him (in particular by evil Democrats). But here’s more evidence of the hypocrisy of that. It turns out that one of Trump’s former aides, Matt Mowers, voted twice during the Republican primaries in 2016 that resulted in the nomination of Trump as the Republican candidate for president. He voted once in New Hampshire, and then later again in New Jersey. Ironically, when he voted in New Hampshire, he was working for former governor of New Jersey Chris Christie’s presidential campaign.
Mowers is now running for Congress in New Hampshire, trying to unseat one of those pesky, election stealing Democratic Congresspersons.
I usually take a very dim view when celebrities try to stick their noses and personal views into politics, especially celebrities who are famous mainly because they are actors. But two separate things happened today that totally surprised me.
The first was Arnold Schwarzenegger posting a video to Twitter (and other social media channels). Yes, I realize that Schwarzenegger is mainly famous as an actor, but he was also the Republican governor of California, which might give him credibility to speak about politics, but the main reason he was elected was because he was a celebrity actor, and in the end he wasn’t a particularly good politician.
But he did something amazing today, posting a personal and heartfelt message to the people and soldiers of Russia to help stop the war against Ukraine. Many people in Russia love him, and grew up watching his movies. I’d like to think that this might be able to cut through Putin’s propaganda. Maybe only a little, but every bit helps.
Many reposts of this video have shortened it, but the whole thing is only 9 minutes long and is definitely worth it:
The second thing that happened today is in some ways the opposite of the first. [Spoiler alert!] Today was the season finale of Star Trek: Discovery, and (once again) they have saved the galaxy. At the end, they greet the President of United Earth, who is played by politician Stacey Abrams, an amazing advocate for voting rights and currently running for governor of Georgia. It turns out that Abrams is not just a politician (who is widely credited with flipping Georgia for the Democrats in the 2020 election), she is an avid Star Trek fan, has written several novels, and acted in and directed plays in high school and college. She has also talked extensively about how Star Trek has shaped her perspective. Who better to play the leader of a United Earth?
Here’s the entire scene with Abrams:
Someone out there should start making T-shirts and buttons saying “Stacey Abrams for President of United Earth” — let’s get to it!
Russia announced that they are sanctioning top US administration officials, including Joe Biden, Antony Blinken, Lloyd Austin, Mark Milley, Jake Sullivan, William Burns, Jen Psaki, Daleep Singh, Samantha Power, Wally Adeyemo, and Reta Jo Lewis. Just for good measure, they also sanctioned Hunter Biden, and Hillary Clinton (who are not currently part of the administration, but are popular right-wing boogeymen). All this means is that they are not allowed to enter Russia.
That prompted Hillary Clinton to respond with a great burn:
Apparently, I’m not the only person who noticed that the Republican story is, um, evolving rapidly.
And Critical Race Theory to combat in our schools, even though it isn’t actually taught in any schools. But it seems that the sheeple are more than happy to become enraged at anything, even if it is totally made up.
First, two quotes from former ambassador Nikki Haley. I can visualize her talking out of both sides of her mouth simultaneously.
Putin knows it’s costly, and he knows he can’t do it. This is him leveraging to see what he can get. He doesn’t want to expand… I don’t think Russia wants to go to war.
— In an interview with Brian Kilmeade on January 26, 2022
When an evil dictator thug says they’re going to do something, we need to believe them. Putin said he was going to take Ukraine, and he is.
— in an interview with Dave Rubin on March 7, 2022 (just 40 days later)
Either way, I’m sure the GOP will blame everything on the Democrats. After all, they are already doing crazier things. For example, on a UFC podcast Donald Trump was asked how he sees the war in Ukraine unfolding, and he went off on a rant about windmills and “green energy”. Seriously.
Speaking of people who seem morally unbalanced, giving a speech to Republicans last weekend, North Carolina Congressperson Madison Cawthorn seemed to blame the invasion of Ukraine on (wait for it), Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskyy and “woke ideologies”:
Remember that Zelenskyy is a thug. Remember that the Ukrainian government is incredibly corrupt and is incredibly evil and has been pushing woke ideologies.
This is also a pretty stupid thing to say, as 61% of Republicans have a favorable opinion of Zelenskyy, compared to 6% with an unfavorable opinion. In fact, the North Carolina house just passed a resolution in support of Ukraine (unanimously, 112-0) put forward by the GOP House Speaker.
This is a photo taken during a recent protest in Berlin, in front of the Brandenburg Gate. The gate itself is showing the Ukrainian flag colors.
There is some irony here, since when he killed himself in a bunker, Hitler was the leader of Germany. But the ironic change is welcome.
Vladimir Putin is being blasted by almost all of the countries of the world, including people in Russia. But here in the US there are a few (seemingly insane) people who are cheering Putin on in his invasion of Ukraine. And ironically, Joe Biden’s popularity ratings have jumped up 8% since his State-of-the-Union address, where he condemned Putin. Even Republicans think that Biden is doing a good job supporting Ukraine. That can’t be good news for Putin’s useful idiots in the US.
Not with a bang, but a whimper. SNL discusses the ultimate Covid questions.
Personally, I wish more people had worn masks and been fully vaccinated. Considering that around 6 million (and counting) people have died from Covid-19, it was obviously incumbent on us to do everything we could to combat it. After all, when 6 million people died from the Holocaust, we didn’t wonder afterward whether or not we should have fought the Nazis.
Lauren Boebert is a Republican far-right congressperson from Colorado who loves Donald Trump, QAnon, conspiracy theories. She is famous for insulting people who hold religious beliefs different than hers, and she supported the rioters who stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. She regularly carries a firearm to her workplace in the Capitol, and rails against gays, abortion, sex education, “critical race theory”, and immigration.
So how do you defeat someone like Boebert in the upcoming election? Alex Walker is running against her, and his advertising frankly fights fire with fire, in an attempt to put an end to her constant jetstream of bullshit.
Warning, definitely not safe for work!
Who knew that the latest arms race would center around social media disinformation?
Sometimes, you just can’t make this stuff up. Here is the first section of a model bill produced by the American Legislative Exchange Council.
Of course they are doing this to help the poor! And did you know that our fossil fuel companies, including oil companies whose tankers create massive spills, and gas companies that do fracking, “are among the most socially and environmentally responsible companies in the world”? Who knew?
These selfless companies need protection against discrimination! This must be why we already heavily subsidize them with tax breaks and other corporate welfare to the tune of around $20 billion per year.
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