100 Comments
May 17, 2023Liked by Roy Edroso

I hate that bitch. I mean, I really, really hate that bitch.

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Hear hear!

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May 17, 2023Liked by Roy Edroso

I hate the willfully siloed dumb sons of bitches in her district who voter for her.

As I live among folks like that (I mean, they elected Waffen Jungend Cawthorn, and Holy Mark Meadows): I know how deep the silo (more a missile than a grain one) the MAGA mind has dug.

And I'm trying not to consign Anderson Cooper to the cancellation I have given A. Sullivan, B. Maher, and Cooper's network..

One wonders what T. Turner makes of it all.

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May 17, 2023Liked by Roy Edroso

Obligatory reminder that MTG’s district is the part of Georgia that inspired “Deliverance” (the book).

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May 17, 2023·edited May 17, 2023Liked by Roy Edroso

Sigh. Actually, the congresscritter for that area is loathsome gunhumper Andrew Clyde, he of those cute AR-15 pins all the hip congressional fascists are wearing.

Deliverance was written by J. Dickey in his cabin in Ellijay after he and some urbanite buddies canoed the Coosawattee river(soon to be submerged into Carters Lake) and ran into some moonshiners, who in real life were friendly, after a few tense moments.

I mean, the story is they sold 'em some booze. It's his imagining of what might have happened if it went wrong, working out his own considerable manliness/agency issues.

It was filmed some 20 air miles away from where I grew up (and am sitting, now) over on the Toccoa Wild and Scenic River (on the SC boundry, on the opposite side of Georgia.) It's midway between me and where Lindsey Graham grew up.

You have no idea the consternation it caused when it played locally at the Henn Theater (with a neon chicken on the marquee). I wonder if it didn't fire up the area's already virulent homophobia.

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May 17, 2023Liked by Roy Edroso

(Nods) MTG's district includes Rome (formerly Etowah, a capital city of Cherokee Nation before the Cherokees were expelled) and Dalton, both in Carpet Country. She's literally a carpetbagger, being born, raised and sent to seg academies in Forsyth County.

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May 17, 2023·edited May 17, 2023

Yup, yup: the NW corner of the state: extends from suburban Chattanooga to suburban Atlanta: the racist attack on "oriental masseuses" was in that district.

Dalton, the Carpet Capitol, has a considerable Black and Latino population, and should be a Dem stronghold.

The best I can say about Rome is "all roads don't lead there": Berry College used to be a fine institution, and they have the copy of the Capitoline Wolf (w/much later bronze babies) that Mussolini gave 'em in the 1920s.

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"The statue’s first years in Georgia’s Rome were not without controversy. While most people appreciated the statue and considered it a work of art, many others were offended by it and felt it was shocking and not something to be viewed by ladies and children. Often, when important events were scheduled at the City Auditorium, the twins were diapered and the wolf was draped."

https://romegeorgia.org/attraction/capitoline-wolf/

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Thanks for that, RWAlex--if I'd ever heard that story about Dickey and the moonshiners, I'd forgotten it.

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Sorry if I triggered you.

Thanks for the info dump.

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May 17, 2023·edited May 18, 2023

Well, despite my best efforts, Deliverance has had much more influence on my life than I care for. I have heard "squeal like a pig" too damn often., and as a gay guy I find it entirely depressing how many idiot dudes think it's some kind of viable erotic scenario.

It fixed the trope of the Scary Depraved Hillbilly, which turns out to have considerable 19th cent. roots, and when folks find out where I'm from, they seem to want some evidence of that in me...

I had admired Dickey's poetry (and can still declaim a fair bit of "Kudzu"), but after seeing him at a poetry forum (for I was the editor of the campus literary quarterly once at my alma mater) drunk as a skunk and being an abusive jerk, the bloom was off.

I was unable to finish any of his late novels. His son's biography showed him to be a man who invented much of his own backstory.

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Thanks for the additional info.

Legit thoughts and prayers that your life down there as good as possible, specially in these times.

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Careful, or the Dianne Feinstein Defense Squad might stop by to lecture us on All The Sexisms. (It’s been a real eye-opener seeing some people turn second wave feminism into a parody of itself.)

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I saw a piece in Slate (or maybe Salon) of an encounter with Feinstein, who told them she had so been voting while gone. I was moved to pity, but...

I was never a total Feinstein fan, learning of her existence on the death of Moscone and Harvey Milk, and was aware her suppression of the "White Riot" by gays was considered heavy handed to say the least.

Her subsequent career as a Business-friendly Democrat, and moderate conservative kept me hoping a liberal Dem might successfully challenge her...

What sticks out recently is the terrible optics of her telling kids concerned about Climate Change to get of her Senatorial Lawn, and her truly awful performance at the Brown Jackson Supreme hearing. I can honor her actual career and pioneering as a woman and civil rights advocate, and still think she has clearly stayed way too long...

I got yelled (so to speak) at for suggesting this in blog comments by just such second wavers...

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Friend o'mine was across the hall when Twinkie Boy unloaded on Moscone.

Losing Harvey was a blow; losing George was for my money even worse. Either way, SF went mad for quite awhile...

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Oh, come one: who else was _born_ to play Diana Moon Glampers in the next adaptation of "Harrison Bergeron" (or, for that matter, "G-d Bless You, Mr Rosewater")?

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"Excuse me , I thought I was getting a cold sore" is crazy fucking funny and I really don't know why.

How can this person have any say in anything? There needs to be minimum standards. They don't have to onerous- like, "ignorant psychopaths shouldn't be lawmakers." would be ok. That would help a lot !

I can't believe we're having these conversations in a time of cataclysmic climate distress. In a thousand years Aliens will pick through the detritus of our ruined civilization and when they figure out what we were on about they will laugh until they do whatever the Tralfamadorian equivalent of "piss themselves" is.

Good column!

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May 17, 2023Liked by Roy Edroso

In a one party state -- even a de facto one -- there’s a standard for elected officials: being a member of the correct party.

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As a South Dakota resident, I can confirm. Way too many people here would vote for Satan as long as he had an R by his name (and of course he would).

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Oy! I meant state as in nation.

This one party thing won’t scale *down* to local elections, I don’t think.

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Sadly, you’d be surprised.

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I expect the further down one goes, the likelier there may be some sort of electoral choice. I don’t think the nation is hardwired to implement the control of the masses as in any “normal” anti-democratic authoritarian nation. I expect two parties will remain to maintain the illusion of democracy: The party in power and the party incapable of any victory that matters.

Of course, it’s also possible albeit unlikely that come 2024 enough people will vote like their lives depend on it with the understanding that Republicans are viable alternatives. As they say, time will tell.

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You’re right: the more local the election, the more it matters that people know the person. However, the mush-brained right-wing gibberish has oozed down to the local level on some issues, unfortunately. (Did you know Biden is doing a power grab on local zoning? I heard it so IT MUST BE TRUE.)

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Me, I'm wondering if 9/11 somehow unhinged Americans in general, and we're seeing something like cultural PTSD.

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Ha ha, goddamn Substack will not allow editing comments. Anyway, now that I think about it, the 9/11 Truthers are probably a big cause, as well as shitty journalism combined with those in power being all "you don't really need to know, just go along and play, there's a good child". Throw in active misinformation and (as Timothy Snyder puts it) the politics of eternity, and it'd be surprising if America WASN'T going nuts.

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Our comments here can be corrected on the website.

Yes, it’s weird.

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May 17, 2023Liked by Roy Edroso

– and all that implies! –

3 marks!

Also too: [GREENE holds a manila envelope in front of her mouth; a voice is heard that is clearly GREENE trying to sound like James Earl Jones.]

Poor Jimmy Earl – his spokesworman done went full loon.

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Greene, also in the voice of James Earl Jones: "I find your lack of faith disturbing..."

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Glad to be of service!

If I, enterprising young wingnut inflamer, can disturb the Lean Mean Preening Machine Greene then I've done my bit for the day.

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“THIS… is MTG.”

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May 17, 2023Liked by Roy Edroso

Marge is really living her best life. If she had been born in a different era the most success she could ever hope to achieve would be as a carnival barker running a rigged Balloon and Dart or Ring Toss game. She’s a perennial American archetype with the savvy to know there’s a sucker born every minute and the skill required to exploit them.

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May 17, 2023Liked by Roy Edroso

I see it more as a period in which the insane and sociopathic are controlling the nation.

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May 17, 2023Liked by Roy Edroso

Likewise with Madison Cawthorn, George Santos , Paul Gosar and many others. 330 million Americans have to put up with this shit so the worst 0.0001% of Americans can have the time of their lives.

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I don't think she's running a con, I think she is a genuinely stupid psychopath who would be convinced she's the only 100% correct person in a room of thousands. Could be a room of astrophysicists and she wouldn't doubt she knows better than they do about the Scorpio and Leo and all that stuff. And if she has to lie to prove it, well so be it, Jesus would!

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You may be correct -- thankfully I have no insight into the workings of MTG’s mind. But I’ll say that in my opinion the best conmen are the ones who come to at least half believe their own bullshit. Sincerity is the hardest quality to fake.

And you make an excellent point about her confidence in her own expertise, but I think that can largely be attributed to narcissism. Just like with Trump, not being a brainiac doesn’t mean someone can’t possess low cunning.

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May 17, 2023·edited May 17, 2023

Excellent point. Recent years have really answered the question "But how did the Nazis get *popular* in Germany?" Turns out they must've spent the 1930s running a bullshit carnival where the funnest part is everyone present agrees let's never slow down to wonder if we're actually right --heck, we know we've got some details wrong, wink wink! -- till after we've won and it doesn't matter.

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Sadly, I'm pretty sure that at least a third of any population would happily go for fascism at any time, no matter the circumstances. Still, a fascist movement has to be built, a fascist leader has to come to the fore, but when these things do happen, popular support is never lacking.

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May 18, 2023·edited May 18, 2023

“Say what you want about [insert crazed worldview here], Dude, at least it’s an ethos.”

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That's the big surprise though -- nazism and fascism generally are not an ethos, and I always thought they were. I always thought they meant policies that people backed, when really they are just a primitive urge to win, to be the loudest, to not have to listen to anybody else. Whatever tenets the fascists claim, they only claim so long as it does not inconvenience them. Smaller govt, responsible spending, religious freedom? Tenets all -- until the very first second we can get our way by using bigger govt., spend money carelessly on things *we* want, religions other than ours start to get a say and need to be smacked down. The Nazis had no real ethos except being in charge, and same with the Republicans today.

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The price of bread might also been a factor.

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May 17, 2023Liked by Roy Edroso

"Margie in a corner!" is the new "Three-handed Mother of God!"

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It even rivals a friend’s unwitting mangling of the quote as, “Nobody paints Bunny in a closet.”

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Duly noted and added to the lexicon. Buy your friend a beer.

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Nobody puts Margie in the corner!

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May 17, 2023Liked by Roy Edroso

And "the Leprechaun" is a Simpson's reference, no?

Telling Ralphie Wiggen (surely a man of our time) to "burn it all"?

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author

Of course!

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[Marjorie Trailer Greene, wearing a giant cinnamon roll on each ear] “I’m a Star Wars!”

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"so much they tried to keep the Biden Crime Family Head Joe Biden from being named President by an elitist College"

That's better than Homer Simpson telling Apu that in order for Apu to pass his citizenship test, he'll need to go back to the "Electrical College."

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May 17, 2023Liked by Roy Edroso

Curse you – Volt, Watt and Amp!

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Weren't those the Deadly Bulb's sidekicks?

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Ya got me there, pal...

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May 17, 2023·edited May 17, 2023

No lie, the syndicated column in today’s local paper was by some nitwit named Parker Bono, on the theme “Joe Biden and his family have been incredibly corrupt for many years.” The level of grifting, I just can’t even. But sure, Anderson Cooper, *I’m* the one in a silo who never hears any conservative voices!

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"Parker Bono" is totally a name a Russian propaganda hack would have assigned to them...

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Back when Sonny Bono was running for Senate in California, I had great fun saying "Senator Bono" out loud in my best Foghorn Leghorn voice, "Mah distinguished colleague, Senator BONO". Sometimes I really crack myself up.

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Ah say, Ah say – Hold on, Sonny!

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I couldn't let a name like "Parker Bono" go unsearched. Turns out he's the Virgin Ben Shapiro of his time, having written 6 books from the time he was 13 (he's all of 18 now). It's all right-wing claptrap, the kind of thing Jonathan Krohn (remember him?) spewed before he grew up. He's currently listed as an "author" for AMAC, the Association of Mature American Citizens. Imagine if AARP merged with "The American Thinker" and you've got the AMAC, which seems to be an insurance and lobbying grift aimed at older wingnuts.

https://amac.us/author/parker-bono/

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So glad our decent, locally-owned paper is wasting money to pay for this syndicated drivel. There are a dozen homegrown nuts who’d gladly write similar copy for free!

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There's a reason it's called the Piddle and Diddle

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Not for me to heart, but how is it an 18 year old is a member in good standing of the Association of Mature American Citizens...?...oh, I get it – the grifter bit.

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May 17, 2023Liked by Roy Edroso

I’m scared that somehow this some sort of jinx.

Otherwise, funny AF. Amazing that that MTG, who is a living parody, can be parodied.

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Marge as artwork: “Ceci n’est pas une parodie” beneath a photo of her flailing around doing “CrossFit”

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Also unheartable.

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May 17, 2023Liked by Roy Edroso

What I find most interesting about the Biden Crime Family is how confined it has remained to just the most intense fever-swamp people. I, unfortunately, get to rub up against a whole lot of conservative types who are more than happy to tell me that Joe Biden is senile, or that the election was questionable, or that vaccines are part of the One World Government plot. But I have not heard any of them talk about Hunter's laptop since about 2 years ago. This part of the program just doesn't seem to be gaining traction even among the believers in other fantastical nonsense.

I have to wonder if there's starting be to a falling away of Republicans. They loved and still love Donald Trump, but over the last 5 years, they have been asked to believe some really far-fetched stuff. And a substantial chunk of that stuff has been demonstrably, undeniably wrong. Prime example: JFK, Jr. is not dead and will be popping up ANY MINUTE NOW to prosecute all the Democrat groomers. There are dozens of other things they've been asked to believe that they now try mightily to forget were ever topics of discussion. But you can only take so much of this kind of thing before you start dismissing it all.

I think the only thing they have left that's got widespread traction is immigration, and even that is starting to come apart. One rather rabid conservative I know started ranting about how there are tens of thousands of Mexican young men sleeping on the streets in all the southern border towns, and all of these guys are rapists who don't want to work. This was the same guy who was telling me just a few weeks ago that Democrats love illegal immigrants so much that we give each illegal $5,000 cash a week, free housing, free healthcare, free cars, and other perks. So I had to ask: Why aren't these Mexican rapists living in their free housing or driving to other places in their free cars? He had no answer.

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May 17, 2023Liked by Roy Edroso

Big spenders, maybe...?

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May 17, 2023Liked by Roy Edroso

"He had no answer."

My guess is he had forgotten all about the first thing by the time he said the second thing.

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May 17, 2023Liked by Roy Edroso

My default explanation is “religion.” If millions of people around the world can believe in the many obviously made-up religions, some to the point of killing each other over them, it’s not surprising “Mexican rapists with $5000 handouts” - much less “Biden Crime Family Head Joe Biden” - are accepted as true in the face of all evidence to the contrary. Is there some evolutionary advantage to creating an alternative universe from the one we actually inhabit? I get how it benefits the leaders, whether clergy or políticos, but what do the benighted masses get out of it that they couldn’t better achieve by embracing reality?

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May 17, 2023·edited May 17, 2023Liked by Roy Edroso

Except that reality sucks, and who wants to embrace that? Consider the deal they're offered: No candidate you support will ever lose an election (because if they do "lose" we all know it was stolen) and you will never be wrong about anything, because look, here's the "evidence" that proves your stupidest and most bigoted beliefs are 100% true, and if other facts come to light calling your beliefs into question, those will be quickly disappeared. Deal?

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Whereas our side has a dedicated phalanx yelling “shut up you purity ponies, the leadership is doing everything perfectly, and anyway they had no choice, what could they do, they’re powerless, plus they’ve tried nothing and they’re all out of ideas, so shut up and vote harder you stupid children!” Inspiring stuff!

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Don't forget--these immigrants lying around collecting benefits are also "stealing our jobs!"

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They steal your job on Monday, Wednesday and Friday and collect welfare on Tuesday Thursday and Saturday. On the seventh day they rest.

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Look at the response to the Durham investigation - for months they've kept asserting that he had The Smoking Gun, the undeniable facts that would bring down the Cabal... and in the end, he just criticized the FBI. Now they're talking about investigating HIM.

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Ah, I was wondering how they'd handle it. Just brazen it out, claim his report was a BOMBSHELL, never say what was actually in it, knowing none of their viewership would (or could) read the report? Or claim Durham is now proven to be a member of the Deep State himself? They're balanced on a precipice of awfulness, and could go in either awful direction.

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Third option: They GOT to him! Threatened to put him and his family on the Biden kill list. Bribed him with ((tainted)) Soros money. Something.

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Gee, I dunno, that seems might be too heavy a lift, maybe it's just easier to say "That Durham Report has some revelations that would curl your hair!" and then just never get around to telling anyone what they are? I think you can be sure the loyalists aren't going to press too hard for details.

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May 17, 2023Liked by Roy Edroso

I admit that I am working my way thru the many links the boss posted in the strange missive above, and in the first one I find that the main point of contention is the adherence to Form 1023. Yes. The fascisti apparently are complaining that the form has not been appropriately followed. Grasping at forms replaces grasping at old white guy domination...

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May 17, 2023Liked by Roy Edroso

If you've got the courage to click on "as I said on Rumble" you're a better man than I am.

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May 17, 2023Liked by Roy Edroso

At last! My chance to scribble on the blackboard Bern>SteveB!

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May 17, 2023Liked by Roy Edroso

Bernie Sanders condemns this appalling example of inequality.

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He then should consider donating his salary. Equalize THIS!

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May 17, 2023Liked by Roy Edroso

Expected the "J6 Anthem" to be the Horst Wessel Lied.

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May 17, 2023Liked by Roy Edroso

You mean the Ashli Babbit Lied, don't you?

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Give them time...

(hell, I was predicting that on 1/6)

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Face it, writing folk songs about our martyrs is one area where the left has a big lead on the right, probably because we have so many more martyrs.

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Who Framed Ashli Rabbit?

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"-except-real"

Greene is the cold sore on America's lip, right before the homecoming dance.

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May 17, 2023Liked by Roy Edroso

Everybody Run!

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Everybody wang chung tonite

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May 17, 2023Liked by Roy Edroso

So much hysteria about generative AI and how "deep fakes" will make it impossible for any of us to know what's real and what's not, meanwhile the reality is Margorie Taylor Greene talking behind a manila folder. C'mon, we're Americans, you don't need no fancy technology to fool us.

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May 17, 2023Liked by Roy Edroso

I can smell corruption a mile away

Talk about the pot calling the kettle black.

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It's all about forcing reality to conform to your belief. It's almost magic, you loudly proclaim what you want to be real, and you see your reality amplified back at you in media. When you're a big shot like Marge, you see it on television and newspapers, but any Jane Q. Public can do the same on Facebook or Twitter. Seeing it reflected back to you means it's real. You've always had friends at work, or church, the bar or the gun range, to bounce your belief off of and hear it back, but media is different. It's separate from your life and independent, and it agrees with you. It's a good feeling, being told you're right. So good that you can ignore the voices calling you wrong or bad, because media says you're right.

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Not to make everything about That Man, but think in this connexion of the Positive Thinking sermons the Trump family sat through every Sunday for years. I'm sure they were realistic enough to understand (and be glad) that 'envisioning it makes it happen' doesn't work for The Poor, but for the LORD's obvious favourites….

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Oh yeah, once you know about Ttump and Peale, everything about him clicks into place. The Prosperity Gospel is just a dumbed-down version of the Power of Positive Thinking. It's not so much about excluding the Poors (their donations are as welcome as anyone's) but you simply have to Believe hard enough. If it fails you, that simply means you didn't believe hard enough. If it works for you, you are no longer a Poor, proving that God loves you.

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Maybe I'm wrong, but to me the modern trend that most firmly matches Positive Thinking is 'The Secret', which evidently is responsible for all that 'put it out there in The Universe' stuff that deranges my digestion more than does creeping old age.

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Kudos for 'the-Holocaust-but-real'.

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