What's New

First, The Bad News

May 30, 2021

You know it’s bad news when it deals with Ted Cruz. In the latest of countless efforts to further tarnish his image, Texas twit Ted Cruz who never served anyone but himself, let alone the military, retweeted a Russian military propaganda video as part of his effort to denigrate the diversity of what Cruz decried as the “woke, emasculated” U.S. military. It is unknown whether Red Ted launched his tweet from Cancun or while cowering in his basement full of canned goods and adult diapers.

Cruz and Abbott: Scum and Dumber

Not to be outdumb, the brain-dead governor of Cruz’s home state of Texas, Greg Abbott is poised to sign a bill making it legal to carry a handgun in the Lone Braincell State without a permit, registration or any training whatsoever. Unsurprisingly, Texas wants to make it easier to shoot people for any or no reason than to exercise the right to vote. Texas Republicans are calling it a “constitutional carry” law; others are calling it “carry-to-kill” law. What could possibly go right?

In better news…

In a stunning and wholly unexpected move, yoga will no longer be outlawed in Alabama schools after being banned for 27 years – along with meditation. However, just to play it safe, only English names for poses may be spoken, and uttering the word Namaste ist verboten. There is no truth to the rumor that Republicans supported the change because they were desperate to learn how to to become limber enough to pull their heads out of their asses. It remains unclear if cogent thought and sensibility were officially banned or simply deemed unnecessary by the bulk of Alabama’s populace, and whether these also are poised to make a comeback in the Cotton State. Just so we’re clear, yoga and meditation were outlawed but public displays of Confederate affection were the order of the day.

Trae Crowder, Liberal Redneck - Confederate Memorial Day

In even better news…

The professional racist formerly known as senator, and darling of the Christian Right Rick Santorum has finally been fired by CNN after one too many ignorant, racist remarks, this time against this land’s original inhabitants, who the Frothy One described as essentially worthless before the arrival the giant, deadly parasites known as Europeans (who just happen to be the ancestors of the deadly traitors who defiled the Capital on January 6^th; go figure). And I quote, “We birthed a nation from nothing. I mean, there was nothing here. I mean, yes, we have Native Americans, but candidly, there isn’t much Native American culture in American culture.”

In the best news…

The Washington Post reports that Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance has convened a special grand jury to determine whether or not the Orange Gas Cloud and/or any or all of his fellow criminals should be indicted. Vance has been investigating Turmp for more than two years, and it is believed that he would not convene a grand jury without having a high degree of confidence in his ability to ultimately obtain a conviction.

In prison, no one can hear you tweet

For his part, Turmp emitted his usual lie-encrusted denial of any wrongdoing, which is amusing since everyone knows that wrongdoing has been his life-long default setting. You may want to stock up on popcorn.

I. Mangrey, with a side of hopeful. 

An Error Of Commission

Joe Manchin - Overzealous Unicorn Hunter

May 28, 2021

So, when is Joe Manchin going to admit that his fever-dream of bipartisan negotiation to pass legislation is no more likely than lassoing a giant unicorn? Or netting a mermaid? Or Jared Kushner brokering a lasting peace in the Middle East?

Is Manchin just tilting at windbags? Or is the Man of LaManchin just completely ignorant of recent history? Does he have amnesia? Does he not remember self-described "Grim Reaper" of legislation Mitch Fucking McConnell less than one month ago saying “One hundred percent of my focus is on stopping this new administration.”? Does Manchin know what 100% means?

Now that McConnell has cajoled his caucus into opposing the January Sixth Truth Commission “as a personal favor” to him, and Republicans have technically filibustered justice, what will bi-partisan-curious Manchin do? McConnell once favored looking into Turmp’s insurrection where his thugs intended to hang Mike Pence and murder Nancy Pelosi, where they actually caused the death of Capital police officer Brian Sicknick while attempting to overturn an election and make America Turmp’s again. If McConnell is willing to kill the proposed bipartisan investigation into Turmp’s coup attempt for political purposes what does Manchin think McConnell will negotiate on?

The American people are wildly in favor of much, if not all, of what Democrats are trying to do. That is why McConnell can never agree to anything. Most Americans disagree with McConnell, even though a large number of them are simply too ignorant and/or just plain stupid to vote Democratic.

Republicans are the party that went from paying lip service to:

To the party that is capable of nothing other than:

There is something very wrong with Joe Manchin. When asked if he would support ending the filibuster (which someone should remind him, is NOT in the Constitution) if McConnell kills the investigation, the soon-to-be ex-senator from West Virginia replied, “I'm not ready to destroy our government. I'm not ready to destroy our government, no.”

Buy Partisanship

Manchin has it all backwards, or at least stupid. If Manchin and fellow Republican with a “D” after her name, Kyrsten Sinema want to avoid destroying our government they need to stop Mitch McConnell holding it hostage with the Jim Crow filibuster. McConnell has proven more than willing to destroy our government…by using the very filibuster that Manchin is protecting.

Brian Sicknick’s mother just spent a whole day on Capital Hill personally begging GQP senators to vote in favor of the bipartisan commission. If the Senate cannot see its way to stop destroying our government, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority Leader Chuck Schumer should convene Benghazi-style commissions  – where Republicans will have no say in proceedings – and get on with exposing the truth of the January 6^th insurrection. If forced to go it alone, Democrats should be sure to drag these hearings out through the 2022 mid-term elections.

Joe Manchin said, “There is no excuse for any Republican to vote against this [January 6] commission since Democrats have agreed to everything they asked for.” Finally, Joe Manchin said something that made sense. So, when almost every senate Republican does vote against it, Joe Manchin has no excuse for allowing the party that continues to deny that our current president is in fact our current president to destroy our country any further. 

After Fucking McConnell and fellow travelers filibustered the commission, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer vowed to hold another vote when the time is right. Six Republicans voted aye, while nine cowardly, anti-American Republicans did not bother to show up for the vote. As for the six who voted in favor, it would not be inappropriately cynical to wonder whether they voted their conscience or because they got permission from Fucking McConnell to do so.

Joe Manchin was “very disappointed, very frustrated.” He is reportedly back out hunting for his Moby Unicorn.

Joe Manchin wouldn’t know a unicorn if it poked his fucking eye out.

I. Mangrey, in search of reality.

PAYING ATTENTION SPECIAL UPDATE EDITION

CORRECTION? APOLOGY? DON'T COUNT ON IT

May 26, 2021

Yesterday, we at Paying Attention might have been a bit harsh on Marjorie Taylor Goon (R-Psych Ward) after her tone-deaf, idiotic, anti-Semitic oral flatulence. Then again, it is entirely possible that we were not harsh enough. However, when it comes to not being harsh enough, it would be difficult to out-not-do the leadershit of the Ratpublican Party.

It took five days, and the fascist firebrand doubling and tripling down on the brainless banshee's latest verbal vomit, for House Minority Leader and Silly-Putty-brained Turmp-licker Kevin McCarthy to pretend that he was upset by Taylor Goon’s indecently insensitive, insanely ignorant, atrociously anti-Semitic, mouth-breathing with words.

Heil, Heil, The Gang's All Here

As it turns out, Taylor Goon’s excuse for comparing the need to protect ourselves and each other by simply wearing masks during a deadly worldwide pandemic was that she is just too fucking stupid to know that by comparing mask mandates to the torture and death of 6,000,000 Jews during the Nazi Holocaust, she was comparing mask mandates to the torture and death of 6,000,000 Jews during the Nazi Holocaust.

This has been your Paying Attention Thought For The Day.

You're welcome.

What is your thought for the day?

Fascism, It’s Not Just For Foreigners Anymore

Fascism, It's What's For Breakfast

May 25, 2021

Many have touched on today’s topic to varying degrees. It is surely time to approach this issue with the urgency it demands in all caps. No, it’s not the dire climate crisis*, though that is undoubtedly at the top of my list on almost any given day. Fortunately, unlike the disloyal opposition, most of us are able to process conflicting views as well as walk and chew gum at the same time, the time to call a fascist a fascist without hesitation or reservation or the mincing of words, is past due.

Copyright 2017

The republican party will simply not be satisfied with anything other than permanent absolute power. They have proven themselves unwilling to accept elections that do not turn out the way they want. They have proven themselves willing to sell themselves to a criminal, racist, authoritarian cult leader who was impeached twice, currently under criminal investigation in several states, and was soundly defeated at the ballot box (twice in fact). It matters not that he is the fatted goose that laid the giant goose-egg. The giant orange goose-egg.

Republicans have a long history of stacking the deck at every point in the electoral process, whether it be through gerrymandering, purging voter rolls, closing polling places, frightening voters with threats of arrest, sabotaging the Constitutionally-mandated United States Postal Service to interfere with the collection of mail-in ballots, caterwauling about rampant voter fraud that does not exist, and of course when all else failed, the ultimate gambit of having the Supreme Court stop the counting of votes and outright appointing the loser of an election as president. Right now, they are shamelessly at work, at a pace that is stunning even for them, cutting off access to the ballot box in what the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled “target[ed] African Americans with almost surgical precision.”

Naturally, this did not stop Republicans from their primary mission – permanent, absolute power – and under the watchful eye, fitful “hair” and tiny thumb of Donald Turmp. The party of Turmp continues the tradition by desperately and relentlessly continuing their insane** attempt to steal elections with which they disagree. The latest of course, the long-ago-decided and repeatedly verified and certified election of Joseph Biden that features their malignant Orwellian mantra, “Stop the Steal!”

Orwell - Earliest known mic drop

Republicans tried to steal the 2020 election with every single one of the aforementioned dirty tricks, dastardly deeds and alternative facts. But after once again losing the popular vote, and this time losing the Electoral College as well, that was not enough for some, who decided it was time to up the ante. Though holding nothing more than a pair of twos, the fascist party of Turmp staged an unprecedented assault on the Capitol Building in an attempt to assassinate Turmp’s vice president, the Speaker of the House, and any other elected officials Turmp and his thugs deemed insufficiently compliant to the soundly defeated as part of a coup d’état.

In response to the deadly insurrection, Ratpublicans are fighting with all their hypocritical might against efforts to convene a commission to get at the truth of the attempted coup. Even though the commission would be completely bipartisan. Nonetheless, they are whining at the tops of their lungs that any such investigation would be horribly partisan.

What about the murderous mob that trashed the Capitol? Were they bipartisan? Or were they just following orders from their twisted leader, and therefore wholly and irrevocably on one side? Or simply as the attorney for the Shameful Shaman told Talking Points Memo, “A lot of these defendants — and I’m going to use this colloquial term, perhaps disrespectfully — but they’re all fucking short-bus people. These are people with brain damage, they’re fucking retarded, they’re on the goddamn spectrum… Fuck, they were subjected to four-plus years of goddamn propaganda the likes of which the world has not seen since fucking Hitler.” Class A lawyer f’sure.

Or did we simply witness a bunch of disgruntled tourists, apoplectic at not being able to gain access to the Capitol gift shop? How can we ever know when the “alleged” criminals have the power to stop any investigation before it starts? I bet Derek Chauvin is jealous as hell.

Naturally, all this happy horseshit, coupled with the all the MAGAnon followers, who ironically are not all that dissimilar to the description laid out by the Q Shaman’s lawyer, leaves us with nearly two-thirds of Republican voters still convinced that Joe Biden is not the legitimately elected president of the United States – at this point, not so much united as untied.

So Many Nazis, So Little Time

Ratpublicans are flagrant fascists who would just as soon stop wasting time with elections, and particularly have no problem with blatantly and consistently purging people of color from voter rolls for no reason whatsoever (well, one reason), but insist that wearing masks to protect people from a deadly virus is just like the Nazi Holocaust.

Witness this actual quote from a sitting member of the U.S. House of Representatives: “We can look back at a time in history where people were told to wear a gold star, and they were definitely treated like second class citizens, so much so that they were put in trains and taken to gas chambers in Nazi Germany. And this is exactly the type of abuse that Nancy Pelosi is talking about.” The smarmy shit-for-brains who came up with this asinine analogy, Marjorie Taylor Goon, decided her best move was to double down by dialing the anti-Semitism up to 11, “And I think any rational Jewish person didn't like what happened in Nazi Germany, and any rational Jewish person doesn't like what's happening with overbearing mask mandates and overbearing vaccine policies.” I think I liked her better when she was only blaming the California wildfires on Jewish space lasers.

So, did Ratpublican leadership demand she apologize? Censure her? Take away her committee assignments? Oh wait, she already lost those for saying Nancy Pelosi deserved “death” for “treason” several months ago. Did they demand her resignation? Did they threaten to expel this anti-reality, anti-Semitic psycho from Congress? Or did they just ignore the whole thing because the Ratpublican Party is the party of fascist, neo-Nazi racists like Donald Turmp? Take a wild guess.

And for the Nazi icing on the fascist cake, Republican voters in North Carolina elected an actual Hitler aficionado, Twenty-five-year-old Madison Cawthorn whose bucket list included visiting his Führer’s winter retreat (he’s already managed to check that one off). Cawthorn recently vied for dumbest motherfucker in Congress when he stated, “Imagine if you had George Washington when he was trying to get the British to capitulate at Yorktown, except he had a mask on his face. That’s not who we’re descended from. We’re descended from men and women of valor who stood up for their own personal liberty, and that’s what my friends and I were doing on the House floor…[yada, yada, yada].” We’re also descended from apes, except some of us are still barely en route.

So, in closing, we must fuck these fascists before they fuck us…any further. they will not stop on their own. 

*

Gratuitous plug for the environment

**Literally; if you subscribe to the definition of insanity as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.

I. Mangrey, not following orders, as usual.

Who's Their Daddy?

Death To America, By Americans

May 22, 2021

In a turn of events as unexpected as the sky being above and the ground below, Mitch Fucking McConnell and Kevin “Turmp’s Little Bitch” McCarthy have come out against the formation of an independent, bipartisan commission devoted to getting at the truth of what happened in Washington, DC on January 6, 2021 when hundreds of TrumpAnon supporters attacked the Capital at the behest of their hero – a mentally and morally defective, narcissistic conman – who incited his disturbed hordes to overturn the legitimate election of Joseph Biden and to execute a violent coup of the duly elected government of the United States of America (and perhaps execute Nancy Pelosi, Mike Pence and any number of elected officials in the bargain).

The McDickless Brothers are concerned that the process will be politicized and that they will not be the ones doing it. Most Ratpublicans are also worried that the truth of what occurred on January 6^th will make them look bad. To be fair, the truth of most situations makes them look like horrible people who support corporations over people, profits over planetary survival, racism over civil society and more and more with each passing day, fascism over democracy.

“Mein führer, I can walk!”

Both McConnell and McCarthy made statements shortly after Turmp’s insurrectionists stormed and defiled the Capital, placing blame and responsibility exactly where everyone outside of MAGAnon World knew it belonged.

If I didn’t know better, I might think these two fascist dirtbags had something to hide. Oh wait, but I know better.

“The mob was fed lies, they were provoked by [Trump].” McConnell said in an uncharacteristically honest statement on the Senate floor on January 19^th. Breaking further wind with his mouth on February 13^th he added, “President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day.”

McCarthy also took to the House floor soon after Turmp’s bloody insurrection to call out the recently, humiliatingly defeated Oversized Orange Colostomy Bag With Fake Hair for instigating the most deadly and disgusting day in domestic politics in more than a century. McCarthy mewled, “He should have immediately denounced the mob when he saw what was unfolding. These facts require immediate action by President Trump to accept his share of responsibility, quell the brewing unrest and ensure President-elect Biden is able to successfully begin his term.” But that was way back in January, before Daddy Turmp spanked McCarthy’s sorry ass.

McCarthy, sent his deputy to negotiate terms with Democrats for the creation of a bipartisan commission, and got everything he wanted, because Democrats believe in democracy and reality. In our two-party system, they are alone in this. McCarthy and McConnell both claimed to be open to the idea of a bipartisan committee, presumably until they got the phone call from Mor-on Lago. There are apparently some in DC and the beltway media who actually took these lying sacks of shit at their word. As if they would ever do anything that did not serve their own interests and/or those of their lord and slaver.

The Swining

The McDickless Brothers issued a joint statement:

“We are not generally opposed to bipartisan, or especially grossly partisan commissions to politicize investigate untoward activities such as Bill Clinton having an affair, or completely fabricated scandals like Hillary Clinton’s heinous deeds in Benghazi, or Hillary Clinton’s dangerous emails, or Hunter Biden doing whatever it is that Herr Turmp and Mr. Giuliani say he did. But we must draw the line somewhere. And that line runs right down the aisle we have sworn an oath to never cross for any reason, even the fate of America’s very democracy. It should be crystal clear by now that we do not have, nor have we ever had, even the slightest allegiance to any such nonsense.

When we get the great and glorious Donald Turmp re-elected, either this August or in 2024, we will make January 6^th an annual celebration of the great patriot/tourists who tried to reclaim the Capital in the name of making America great again.

Needless to say, we would be happy to investigate Black Lives Matter, or the rampant voter fraud that removed the greatest president this country has ever known, or try once again to ruin Hillary Clinton’s life with a few more glorious Benghazi hearings, even though we got what we wanted out of the first 10 hearings* – ruining her election chances. And obviously we would gladly rehash her fake email scandal. Those were the good old days.”

The assholes doth obstruct too much methinks.

* Kevin McCarthy, circa 2015: “Everybody thought Hillary Clinton was unbeatable, right? But we put together a Benghazi special committee, a select committee. What are her numbers today? Her numbers are dropping.” And just in case anyone is keeping score, Benghazi: 4 Americans dead; Turmp’s Capital Riot: at least 5 Americans dead and democracy on the brink.

Bruce Cockburn - Call It Democracy

I. Mangrey, still phrasey after all these years. 

Gone, But Not Forgiven

Too Many Kooks Fuck Everything Up

May 19, 2021

The most recent ex-president, currently a little-read blogger languishing in Florida, may be exercising undue influence on the carcass of the Ratpublican Party, as he continues grabbing the party writ large by the pussy. He is desperately attempting to remain relevant and seems well positioned to hold the lily-livered party hostage, on the wings of the Qanon movement. There is one main problem with Pouty McFuckface being out of office and therefore relatively removed from public view, because after all, no one with more than a single-digit IQ really gave a shit what he did or said other than when we had to pay attention on account of him occupying the White House and all.

I’m so happy I beat Joe Biden

The problem is, now that the Orange Gas Cloud has finally begun dissipating, it is much easier to see, hear and become violently ill from the myriad malevolent, misguided morons that were (and still are) at his bark and call. The rancid rolodex of knuckle-draggers, like psychotic fruitbat Rep. Marjorie Taylor Goon (R-Cuckoo’s Nest), heat-packin’ human hemorrhoid Lauren Boebert (R-NRA), alleged pedophile/sex trafficker/druggie Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), Hitler aficionado Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-E. Berlin), Paul Gosar (R-Middle Ages) who saw six of his siblings campaign against him and who now want him kicked out of Congress, single-digit-IQ Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Alternate Reality), Turmp-castrated Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Turmp’s Butt) and of course, Rudy “Four Sleazins” Giuliani*, are sickeningly more discernable now that there is better contrast in which to view this quivering mass of maggots on which Demented Don has been crowd surfing.

But Wait, There’s Moron…

It would be irresponsible not to mention the latest non-compos mentis member of the malignant mob formerly known as the Republican Party – Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-WTF). Clyde publicly insisted that the treasonous MAGA insurrection of January 6, 2021 was nothing more than a “normal tourist visit” of the nation’s Capital. Soon after Clyde’s tone-deaf, brain-dead assertion, images of this corrosive clown emerged from that fateful day. You, yourself may have seen other images, and perhaps hours of video footage that you, being of sound mind and body, in no way mistook for a “normal tourist visit” of Congress.

Clyde (circled) et al, apparently barricading the House chamber to

prevent pleasant tourists from observing Congress in action;

just another normal day of barricading at the Capital

Clyde being protected (presumably by a good guy with a gun) from

normal tourist visitors hell bent on getting his autograph (one assumes)

It appears that Rep. Clyde has an irrational fear of children and other normal citizens who tend to tour the Capital. There is no known example of Capital tourists smashing windows to gain entrance, as they always use doors (or risk being disinvited). I have searched, but was unable to find a single instance of tourists using the halls of Congress for bathroom activities, or chanting “Hang Mike Pence” or building gallows just outside before beginning their perfectly “normal tourist visit”. No previous group of tourists trashed the Speaker’s office or searched for legislators to kill, or murdered Capital Police. Either Clyde knows something no one else knows, or knows nothing everyone else knows. Bet on the latter. When later challenged by a reporter, Clyde claimed that he was taken out of context, though his insane, alternative facting of the event was the context. 

It is also possible that Clyde does not know the difference between a tourist and a terrorist.

*Not to mention the usual horde of Turmp-flip-flopping fuck-ups who the Orange Ogre humiliated and now owns lock-stock-and-bullshit, like Lindsey Graham, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and a majority of the Supreme Court. And too many others too stupid to mention.

I. Mangrey, on offense and often offended.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

Death By A Thousand Nuts

Guns And Buttheads

May 16, 2021

Lying Ratpublican shitheads like F*&ker Swanson McNear Carlson and Ron “Yes, I Am As Dumb As I Look” Johnson are wracking their little brains, wringing their little hands, and their little…whatevers, over the alternative fact that hundreds and hundreds of people are dying from COVID-19 vaccines.

Even if the completely fabricated story was true, before their faithful phalanx turns to Jell-o and fret that the deadly vaccine will decimate our population, let’s do a little math. But first, it should be noted that these brainless bastions of bullshit were never worried that the actual fucking virus might kill them, but they are ass-over-empty-tin-cups apoplectic about the killer vaccine. Anyway, according to Carlson, who likely has been vaccinated but is unwilling to tell his fact-free, Turmpified audience of anthropoids, “Between late December of 2020 and last month, a total of 3,362 people apparently died after getting the COVID vaccine in the United States … The actual number is almost certainly higher.” And Carlson’s double-digit IQ number is almost certainly lower.

F*&ker Carlson often looks like he just took a crap in his own mouth, which

1) is not as hard as it sounds since his head is well positioned for this, and

2) explains why so much of what comes out of his mouth is pure, unadulterated shit

F*&ker undoubtedly knows he is lying since that is the underlying essence of his White Lives Madder Hour, not to mention his entire life. Well, that and the wholly unwarranted arrogance…and the white supremacy. The Swanson frozen foods trust funded twit recently had to weasel his way out of a slander lawsuit. Fox’s lawyers, representing their precious ratings king told the judge that the “‘general tenor’ of the show should then inform a viewer that [Carlson] is not ‘stating actual facts’ about the topics he discusses and is instead engaging in ‘exaggeration’ and ‘non-literal commentary.’” For you non-lawyers out there, Carlson’s own defense lawyers (well, Fox’s lawyers who F*&ker presumably does not have to pay for) implored the court to ignore the charges against their wretched, sniveling client since everyone knows he is full of shit, lies like a rug, and should not in any way be mistaken for either a source of reality-based information, or for a human being of any value whatsoever. And surely everyone wasting time they could otherwise be engaged in more useful pursuits, like playing Russian Roulette with a full chamber, knows this.

But, I digress.

With all this addled angst about the (fake) deadly vaccine, what about other causes of death in America? Gun murders leap to mind. At least with vaccines, each person is able to weigh the risk/benefit and decide to get or not get a shot. Murder victims, particularly those gunned down by the seemingly endless supply of weapons of death, ammunition and crazed gunmen typically get shot without a possibility of opting out.

In 2019 Texas had the highest number of gun deaths, with 3,683. California followed with 2,945 and Florida with 2,872. That is just three states, one of which posted more gun deaths than the fake number of COVID vaccine deaths.

Here are the 10 states with the highest rates of gun death in 2019 according the CDC:

Alaska (23 per 100,000 people)
Alabama (21.4 per 100,000 people)
Louisiana (21.2 per 100,000 people)
Mississippi (19.8 per 100,000 people)
Oklahoma (19.6 per 100,000 people)
Montana (19 per 100,000 people)
Missouri (18.8 per 100,000 people)
New Mexico (18.2 per 100,000 people)
Arkansas (17.7 per 100,000 people)
South Carolina (17.7 per 100,000 people)

Anyone care to guess how many of these states were red in 2019? If I were you, I’d guess 10.

Meat Kills

According to a new study published recently in the Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, every year an estimated 12,700 deaths are connected to air pollution resulting from the production of animal-based foods. This of course does not count the thousands of meat-related murders that occur post-production, when unwitting/uncaring consumers inhale their daily dose of fast food or home-made mountains of meat. Anyone want to venture a guess as to how many vaccines a cow destined for the drive-thru window at McDonald’s gets before being slaughtered and wolfed down by people who won’t contaminate their otherwise chemical-ridden bodies with a vaccine?

I didn’t think so.

Thank God Joe Biden is cancelling meat.

I. Mangrey

They Come To Bury Cheney, Not To Praise Her

Pinhead Puppets Just Following Orders

May 13, 2021

Well, it looks like the virulently hypocritical and staunchly anti-cancel-culture cabal of Florida blogger Donald Turmp has just cancelled Liz Cheney, formerly the third-highest-ranking Ratpublican. That is, until the Angry Rotting Pumpkin warned his minions that anyone not man enough to defraud the American people and usurp the United States for the sake of Turmp must be purged for all to see. The next step in the Grand Qanon Party’s mission to excise truth and reality from their ranks is the removal of Liz Cheney from her leadership position.

Donald Turmp has “bought” (the only thing he ever pays is hush money) and sold the soul of the party-that-was-never-of-Lincoln just to keep the cameras pointed in his direction. Since he was unable to financially bankrupt the country, he had to settle for effecting moral bankruptcy.

Team Turmp is ridding itself of a dangerous infection that would surely spell its demise – truth-telling. The sniveling little shit-weasels did not even have the guts to make their votes public. In fact, after holding their cowardly voice vote to axe Cheney, the request for a recorded vote was denied. Just another day that is the dungheap of Ratpublicanland.

Some among the GQP refuse to accept the Big Lie that Turmp is still president, and not just of Mor-on Lago. They are few, far between and dead pols walking.

Liz Cheney, the most high-profile and high-ranking truth junkie in the GQP, continues to insist that someone named Joseph Biden is currently President of the United States. Of America.

The younger Cheney is being lauded by some for standing up against Turmp’s Big Lie. For this reporter, having to agree with any Cheney for even one nanosecond, is as painful and distateful as having to admit that George W. Bush is only the second worst president in American history.

Given her historically unprincipled father Dick Cheney, one cannot help but wonder just how principled the younger, dickless Cheney would be had there not been a longstanding animus between the Cheney family and Turmp.

Daddy’s little Dick

Daddy’s little carbon-copy-neo-con-war-monger told reporters, after being cast aside, “We must be true to our principles and to the Constitution.” Principles? Like lying the nation into an illegal war? Like shooting a man in the face while hunting purposely crippled, caged birds? Like outing a crucial CIA asset to get revenge for her husband telling the truth? So suddenly a Cheney is fighting against a lie?

And to his little princess (not the gay daughter who this one threw under the bus for political expediency) who suddenly felt a twinge of very un-Cheney-like decency, to quote Dick Cheney, “Go fuck yourself.”

Meanwhile, Turmp’s ventriloquist dummy Kevin McCarthy, after following orders and dumping Cheney, told reporters, “No one is questioning the legitimacy of the presidential election.” Certainly not the guy with his hand up McCarthy’s ass making his mouth move.

A real dummy, and a ventriloquist who can’t keep his mouth shut

I. Mangrey, crunching the numb-ers.

Meet The McCarthys

Wretched Wrepublicans

May 10, 2021

The Republican party likes to pretend that they are the party of Lincoln. Laughable. Not only because Lincoln’s Republican Party is today’s Democratic Party. Plus, there is one other minor detail – not all Republicans are racists, but almost all racists are Republicans, so Lincoln would be drummed out of today’s group without a second (or first) thought, that is, if one of their progenitors hadn't already blown his brains out.

Republicans would like you to imagine that they are not the party of Nixon. You remember Nixon; he’s the guy who quit like a quitting quitter to avoid the impending impeachment that would have removed him from office. 

Republicans actually were the party of Reagan for a while. Not that there’s anything right with that. And that was one score, one decade and three years ago. around the time when all of Reagan's men were found guilty of trading arms for Iranian hostages. It is in this regard that today’s Republicans are directly and irrevocably descended from Reagan. That, and an almost fanatical devotion to taking money from the poor and giving it to the rich, while claiming to be champions of the middle class, and claiming that trickle-down economics was a real thing.

Never stand behind Turmp when he's farting…or talking

All of those days are over. Republicans are irrevocably, and for the foreseeable future the wholly owned subsidiary of psychotic conman Don Turmp. Ratpublicans are also the party of Joseph McCarthy and his empty-headed dummy Kevin.

Meet The McCarthys: Dumber and Dummy

Republicans are so Turmp-addled that wannabe-Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy, along with many other neo-fascist/Amerika Firsters are poised to eliminate ultra-conservative, and third highest ranking Republican Liz Cheney from their ranks. Cheney, whose father once shot a man in the face just to watch him publicly apologize, and did his part to destroy American democracy during his time, dared question Turmp's big lie. Turmp continues to campaign to win the 2020 election while relentlessly flogging the lie that he defeated Joe Biden last November.

May they all rot in hell and, more importantly, the annals of history.

I. Mangrey reporting?

Joe vs. Joe

Perfect Phone Calls Done Dirt Cheap

May 6, 2021

Sen. Joe Manchin (?-WV) recently told USAToday, “I got along well with Donald Trump. We had a good rapport. He called me all the time. We talked back and forth.” Really? Did he call to ask you to nullify the 2020 election for him? Did he ask you to march on the Capitol on January 6^th?

For my money, Manchin’s by-the-by comment on his “relationship” with the psychotic conman Turmp speaks volumes about just who Joe Manchin is. What kind of people have a good rapport with Turmp do you think? Steve Bannon who was indicted for scamming loyal MAGAts by making off with contributions that were supposed to be for their beloved border wall? Convicted felon Michael Flynn, a general who does not know the Pledge of Allegiance? Convicted felon Roger Stone? Crazed ex-crack addict and shitty pillow and conspiracy theory pitchman Mike Lindell? How about feverishly loyal neo-Nazi, racist, ghoul Stephen Miller? Are we expected to consider these to be very fine people? They're barely people. Not even Don, Jr. has a good rapport with the elder Don. Certainly, Eric doesn’t. after all, the boys do not bring what their sister Ivanka brings to the bedroom…I mean table. No one really knows exactly what kind of rapport she has with dear old dad.

Does Turmp call you all the time?  Did Tyrannosaurus Wrecks call any actual Democrats all the time? No. he barely spoke to most Ratpublicans.  

Do you know anyone who does, or might, or would even consider having any kind of rapport with the disgraced, twice-impeached, insurrectionist-inspiring, Putin-canoodling, Bloated Orange Dung Beetle? I didn't think so.

I cannot for the life of me understand why Manchin prefers to call himself a Democrat. Manchin sees himself as the voice of reason. And he is the voice of reason – the reason Ratpublicans continue to exert undue influence over everything that goes on in this country, despite the fact that by the raw numbers, they represent a considerable minority across the country. The anti-democratic (and anti-Democratic) party cannot with the presidency without purging voters, gerrymandering on steroids, and/or the help of the Supreme Court or the Russians.

Joe Manchin, Mental Munchkin

Manchin stands opposed to (as he does with so many other issues important to the rest of the Democratic party and its electorate) to statehood for Washington, DC. This, despite the fact that Manchin represents West Virginia, which was the only state to form by separating from a Confederate state, and is now one of the whitest states in the Union. Washington, DC it should be noted has a population that is nearly 50% African American. Could it be that this is all about states’ racists’ rights?

This is not a racist country. Just a country with an abundance of racists. And a good deal of systemic racism. And a major political party who will stop at nothing to make it difficult for people of color to vote.

While Manchin is patiently holding out for good old fashion bipartisan negotiation, in order to keep the filibuster intact, his other good buddy, in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, has made it clear that he and his Ratpublican horde will have nothing to do with negotiating in good faith.  Fucking McConnell told reporters, “One hundred percent of my focus is on stopping this new administration.” Manchin insisted he would not agree to any changes in Senate rules (which happen whenever a party in power wants to change them, seeing as they are etched neither in stone nor Constitution) because changing rules like how the filibuster is used does not engender cooperation across the aisle. One cannot help but wonder just how announcing that there will be absolutely zero cooperation of any kind, let alone compromise, engenders such cooperation. I am patiently awaiting Mr. Manchin’s explanation. But I will not be holding my breath.

Manchin has steadfastly defended the Jim Crow filibuster (totally not in the Constitution) against any meddling, insisting instead that Democrats capitulate, I mean compromise with Ratpublicans, who will never compromise. Ever. Yet Manchin and McConnell both complain that Joe Biden, who actually won the presidency convincingly is not being bipartisan enough. Democrats also won both houses of Congress because most Americans want them to govern and implement the policies they ran on. But someone will not allow Democrats to have their day in the sun.

Meanwhile, Manchin’s oversized orange buddy is still running for president in 2020.

I. Mangrey rapporting.

Thought For The Day

Got Gaetz?

May 4, 2021

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Turmp) moronically mocks masks, poo-pooing pandemic

Gaetz, another entitled trust fund Ratpublican, has been fingered by long-time close associate Joel Greenberg for having sex with a minor and crossing state lines with her, which is considered sex trafficking. Greenberg has apparently ratted out Gaetz in a written affidavit/confession (possibly as part of an effort to obtain a pardon from the previous president, via pardoned, convicted felon Roger Stone), as he attempts to keep himself out of jail under the weight of nearly three dozen serious charges. Matt The MAGA Mouth is also under investigation for campaign finance irregularities.

Gaetz denies ever paying for sex. Does anyone seriously think there was a time when this demented douchebag did not pay for sex?

I rest my case

This has been your Paying Attention Thought For The Day.

You're welcome.

What is your thought for the day? 

Questions For May Day

Ask And They Shall Recede

May 1, 2021

It is the first day of May, when the thoughts of some (not nearly enough) turn to workers’ rights, unions, and the state of the working class. In America, one party, the Democratic Party, has at least a tentative relationship with and affinity for workers. The not-so-loyal opposition, the Republic Party, is now almost perpetually the minority party in terms of actual votes, not only on the national level, but across many states as well, and they are consistently beating the working class of this country over the head with a figurative lead pipe, while literally pushing them into more and more desperate straights, while funneling the nation’s wealth from those with little to those with too much. Yet the Republic Party’s faithful minority continues to provide enough support to keep the party in much greater power than they deserve. Despite the clear and constant preference of the electorate, this party has been able to rig the system in its favor by hook and by crook, giving them a degree of control over both dialogue and legislation, which they very richly do not deserve. Nonetheless, the struggle must continue and questions must be asked, whether there be answers or not.

Why do so many Americans insist on voting to have themselves shot in the foot by their elected officials? Why do they prefer leaders who want to send jobs overseas? Leaders who at best let them languish under the crushing COVID-19 pandemic – telling them it was a hoax, then that they should ingest disinfectant? Leaders who don’t want to build safe roads, bridges and other critical infrastructure?

How is it that we see a severe distrust of authority on so many fronts, particularly from supporters of the Republic Party, yet so many of those who scream their distrust of government the loudest are the same people who crave fascism – whether knowingly or otherwise?

If these damaged dimwits fear the “deep state” so much, how are they okay with their beloved Republic Party making laws in state after state – like Georgia's Orwellian-named Election Integrity Act – that allow these states to literally reverse election results of which they do not approve? What if the boot was up the other ass?

How is it that these self-described patriots support a party that perpetually and rabidly raises up the wealthy at the expense of the working class?

How the hell should I know?

These have been your Paying Attention Questions For May Day.

You're welcome.

What are you wondering on May Day?