politics – Page 2

Anti-Vaxxers Are Literally Dying To “Own The Libs”

August 25, 2021 By John DeProspo 8 Comments

Is there anything more enjoyable to Republicans than to “own the libs”? Oh, how they love to mock, infuriate or just get under the skin of those snooty liberals with their awesome, uncompromising conservatism!

To “own” someone is to dominate and humiliate them, and the “libs,” as described by Rolling Stone magazine, can loosely be defined as “anyone to the left of Sean Hannity.”

“Owning the libs” became a mantra of conservatism long before Trump came along. But since Trump’s ascension to the White House, to “own the libs” is less an identifiable act or set of policy goals than an ethos … a way of life; a civic religion, if you will.

Unfortunately for those who refuse to get vaccinated (predominantly Republicans of the red state variety), with the arrival of the coronavirus, “owning the libs” has taken a deadly turn.

I’m sure you’ve seen videos of those anti-vaxxers hooked up to respirators proudly claiming they do not regret not getting their vaccine shot. Heck it’s all about personal freedom, isn’t it, they tell you.

So now the “if liberals are for it, I’m against” line of thinking (I use the word loosely) has resulted in some Republicans actually accepting death over ever admitting they were wrong?

God help those poor, lost souls!

Interestingly, Urbandictionary.com defines “owning the libs” as: To inflict significant harm upon oneself, or significantly benefit the libs, out of a misguided attempt at spite.

Perhaps Ralph Waldo Emerson said it best, “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.”

If Emerson were around in today’s Covid-19 world, he might have added, ”and it could kill you.”

Photo| nydailynews.com

Despite Evidence To The Contrary, Ron DeSantis Tries To Assure Floridians “All Is Well”

August 2, 2021 By John DeProspo 6 Comments

Taking a page from a character in National Lampoon’s Animal House, Florida governor Ron DeSantis is attempting convince the good people of his state that the recent spike in Covid-19 cases is nothing to be worried about.

“It’s a seasonal virus and this is the seasonal pattern it follows in the Sun Belt states,” DeSantis told reporters at a press conference about one week ago. He also said that he expects Covid cases to decline soon.

He might as well be telling his fellow Floridians to “Remain calm. All is well.”

If you remember, “Remain calm. All is well” are the immortal words uttered by Kevin Bacon during the climax of Animal House, as his character – the Delta Tau Chi antagonist, Chip Diller – helplessly attempts to address a fleeing mob of shrieking parade-goers.

Today the Florida Hospital Association reported 10,389 Covid-19 hospitalizations, the most statewide during any point in the pandemic. This follows Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reporting over the weekend that Florida had more than 21,000 new coronavirus infections on Friday. It was the highest one-day total for the state, which now makes up roughly one and five new cases nationally.

As Florida’s coronavirus infections continue to spike, public health officials and local elected leaders have urged DeSantis to take more drastic measures to get the virus under control. DeSantis, however, has stubbornly maintained a strict “no-mandate” approach to the virus, including touting an executive order last week that prohibits districts from requiring masks in schools. He also vowed to fight any city or municipality that tries to institute Covid restrictions, including mask mandates or lockdowns.

DeSantis has been sucking up to Donald Trump, and his loyal base, ever since the start of the pandemic, downplaying the severity of the virus, in hopes of furthering his presidential ambitions.

If cases continue to soar in Florida will people remain accepting of DeSantis, or will this preventable surge, a direct result De Santis’s failed leadership, crush his dreams for 2024?

Things did not work out well for Kevin Bacon.

Photo | Butler Street Consulting

Dr. Fauci Hits Dr. Paul With A Respectful “Va Fungool”

July 21, 2021 By John DeProspo 4 Comments

He couldn’t take any more nonsense coming from the eye doctor at yesterday’s congressional hearing on the coronavirus pandemic.

The man who has advised seven Presidents on HIV/AIDS and many other domestic and global health issues; the man who is universally recognized as a leading immunologist, esteemed clinician and dedicated administrator in his position as Chief of the Laboratory of Immunoregulation and as Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases basically told Rand Paul to go f*** himself.

“Senator Paul, you do not know what you’re talking about, quite frankly. And I want to say that officially. You do not know what you are talking about” responded Fauci after the Kentucky ophthalmologist, turned U.S. Senator, accused Fauci of lying to Congress.

Fauci continued, “If anybody is lying here, senator, it is you.”

Of course, Paul’s attack on the good doctor had nothing to do with facts and everything to do with playing to an audience on the right, where Fauci has been turned into a political punching bag by conservative media and subjected to “lock him up!” chants at Trump rallies.

The hapless Dr. Paul from Bowling Green, Kentucky, known for his anti-science stances, learned a lesson ‘bout a-messin with a feisty man … if you attack a kid from Brooklyn, New York, be prepared to have your arse handed to you.

Screenshot | abcnews.com

“The Great Trumpini” Dodges Another Bullet!

May 7, 2021 By John DeProspo 7 Comments

Just when you think he can’t possibly get out of this one … he does! He’s the world’s greatest escape artist, “The Great Trumpini!” You can wrap him in chains, stuff him in a trunk and throw it into the deepest lake and, voila, the master performs his death-defying escape act once again.

Today we learned the Federal Election Commission (FEC) has dropped its inquiry into Donald Trump’s hush-money payment to porn star, Stormy Daniels, made just days before the 2020 presidential election.

The bipartisan commission was evenly split with the two Democrats voting to continue the investigation into Trump’s payment to Daniels made through his personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, while the two Republicans voted to drop the case.

Cohen can’t understand why he paid the price for being the bagman in the obvious illegal scheme, having served jail time, while his boss escapes without any consequences.

“The hush money payment was done at the direction of and for the benefit of Donald J. Trump,” Cohen said in a statement after the decision. “Like me, Trump should have been found guilty. How the FEC committee could rule any other way is confounding.”

Michael, we’re talking about “The Great Trumpini.” After escaping two impeachment trials, where he was guilty as sin, did you think he would not get out of the FEC jam?

Won’t it be fun and exciting to see how your old boss gets out of all the other legal troubles he’s still enmeshed in?

Photo | politico.com

When The Going Gets Tough, Gaetz Gets Going!

April 11, 2021 By John DeProspo 8 Comments

Taking a page from his idol’s playbook on crisis management, Matt Gaetz has threatened to sue any journalist who has the audacity to report on his sex scandal.

The Florida representative, one of Donald Trump’s fiercest defenders, has hired a Villanova law school graduate, and former contestant on “The Apprentice,” to do damage control as his political and legal troubles heat up.

Politico reports, “A boutique conservative consultancy group working on behalf of Rep. Matt Gaetz is threatening to sue journalists for their coverage of the embattled congressman. The entity, Logan Circle Group, is run by Harlan Hill, a former Democrat who became a top Trump surrogate during the 2016 presidential election. The official behind the recent legal threats is Erin Elmore, a colleague of Hill’s at the Washington-based consulting firm and a Season 3 contestant on ‘The Apprentice.'”

Another tactic Gaetz has borrowed from the “man-who-once-occupied-the-White-House” is to deny, deny and then deny some more. No doubt this defiant stance will appeal to the Trump base Gaetz so desperately courts. But, in the end, courts tend to have the final say!

Following reports that Gaetz was under investigation by the Department of Justice for a sexual relationship with a minor, the Trump brownnoser denied the allegations, saying he would not “be intimidated by a lying media … The truth will prevail.”

Perhaps without seeing the irony of his statement, Gaetz’s bold prediction just might come true … the truth will prevail.

The investigation into Gaetz, according to sources, began during the Trump administration, with approval from former Atty. Gen. William Barr. It is linked to the sex-trafficking indictment of former Seminole County, Fla., tax collector Joel Greenberg, who is accused of meeting women through websites that connected them with men willing to provide gifts, fine dining and travel in exchange for sex. Among those whom Greenberg is accused of trafficking is a 17-year-old girl, according to the indictment.

If Greenberg turns on Gaetz in order to save his skin, Gaetz’s bluster will be seen as pathetic as that of a former president who denied his own sex scandal.

“I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky” said an audacious Bill Clinton before being impeached.

As we found out with Clinton, and most likely will find out with the many lawsuits against Trump, in the end, the truth, more often than not, prevails. Oh, in case any journalist feels threatened by possible legal action from Gaetz’s hired guns, the truth is an absolute defense to any libel claim. Report away!

Photo |aljazeera.com/Mandel Ngan/Pool via AP

Trump’s Post-Presidency Priority Is To Work On Election Integrity! (No, This Is Not Satire)

January 23, 2021 By John DeProspo 9 Comments

I have to admit, it was a challenge writing satirical pieces about Trump and his administration over the last four years. What started out as an attempt at light-hearted humor often ended up as Trumpian reality.

The highlight of my efforts to make fun of the-man-who-no-longer-occupies-the-White-House was a story I wrote about Trump’s deranged pardons. The article was titled, “Trump Pardons Charles Manson.”

What made that story memorable was that it was picked up by then-presidential candidate Marianne Williamson who did not realize it was “fake news.” She tweeted to her 2.8 million followers, “There is something deeply sinister about Trump pardoning Charles Manson, even posthumously. Dog whistles of the very worst possible kind …”

The brouhaha that arose over Williamson’s faux pas made its way into many media outlets. The story even found its way into Jimmy Fallon’s monologue on the Tonight Show! Williamson withdrew her candidacy weeks later. Coincidence? Ha!

So, when I read an article today in the very conservative townhall.com, titled, “Key Advisor Reveals Trump’s Post-Presidency Plans,” I was shocked to learn just what those plans were! In any other publication the linking of Trump with election integrity would, no doubt, be parody.

Here is part of the very real piece written by Beth Baumann:

Now that President Donald Trump has left the White House, many Americans are wondering what he plans to do next. There have been rumors about him starting a new political party, known as the Patriot Party. But, according to one of his key advisors, Jason Miller, Trump plans to focus on something bigger and far more important: election integrity.

Just one day after boarding Air Force One with the Trump family on their venture from Washington, D.C. to Mar-a-Lago, Miller told “Just the News AM” that the former president has a couple of goals over the next few years, including “winning back the House and the Senate for Republicans in 2022 to make sure that we can stop the Democratic craziness.”

“You’re also going to see him emerge as the nation’s leader on ballot and voting integrity,” he said.

According to Miller, Trump wants to focus on voter integrity but that work will never take place in Washington, D.C. because Democrats don’t believe there is a threat to America’s elections. Instead, Trump is likely to work with individual states and state legislatures to create reforms.

If you have the time, read the comments of some of Trump’s more ardent supporters. The belief that Trump had the election stolen from him, and that he is right to fight for “fair elections,” is all too real to those wackadoodles.

Sorry, President Biden, but there can never be normalcy again in our great country until a writer’s attempt at political satire is no longer at his peril.

Photo | Forbes.com

We Won The Cold War, Right?

January 19, 2021 By John DeProspo 3 Comments

When Vladimir Putin invested a small fortune to try and get Donald Trump elected in 2016, he knew he might be flushing his rubles down the crapper.

But with Russia’s help, Trump shocked the world and won the presidency (well not the popular vote but the antiquated Electoral College vote).

Now that Trump is about to leave office, it’s safe to say Putin could never have imagined how successful his investment to smear Clinton and promote Trump would turn out to be!

And while Trump did not win a second term, for Vladimir, the chaos, division, violence and mockery Trump wrought on the United States is priceless, far outweighing the billions spent on conventional weaponry like nukes, tanks and planes.

But we did win the Cold War, right?

Photo | nbcnews.com

No Unity Is Possible Until Republicans Renounce Their Support Of The “Big Lie”

January 13, 2021 By John DeProspo 3 Comments

During today’s impeachment hearing, many House Republicans called for national unity. A good number of those Republicans are the same ones who fanned Trump’s false claim that the presidential election was stolen from him … that Joe Biden was not the lawfully elected next president of the United States.

How can we come together as a nation when nearly 70% of Republicans believe the “Big Lie?” How can we move on with the business of the country when a large number of Republican representatives and a handful of senate Republicans are still peddling the “Big Lie?” How can we restore faith in our democracy, and the Constitution, when 197 out of 207 Republican House members refused to honor their oath and vote for Trump’s impeachment?

Democratic Rep. Jim McGovern, chair of the House Rules Committee, said today during his closing remarks, “We will never have unity without truth and also without accountability.” He chided his Republican colleagues for their hypocritical pleas for unity.

“Some of my Republican friends have been trying to lecture us about unity here today — unity after they voted to overturn a free and fair election in the United States of America, but also preaching unity and not acknowledging that for four years many of them gave oxygen to Donald Trump’s conspiracy theories,” McGovern said.

The fact is that a majority of Republican voters firmly … and fervently … believe the election was rigged. They accept the false notion that Trump votes were not counted or somehow changed to Biden votes. They believe scores of dead people voted for Biden. Many are pledging to never accept or acknowledge Joe Biden as their duly elected president.

It will be hard to dissuade these Trump voters of the many conspiracy theories fed them by Trump and his willing accomplices … Congressional Republicans and right-wing media outlets. Many believe so strongly in the “Big Lie” that they traveled miles to be part of the mob that stormed the Capitol last week, some claiming they were the true patriots willing to die for their country and the Constitution.

A necessary first step in bringing about national unity is for us all to be on the same page when it comes to the essential truth about the 2020 election.

The 2020 presidential election was “the most secure in American history.” This assessment was put out in a joint statement by the Election Infrastructure Government Coordinating Council (GCC) and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).

Those Republican senators (I’m looking at you Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley) and House Republicans (yes, you Jim Jordon and Mo Brooks) need to do the right thing and speak the truth to those misguided and misinformed Republican voters. Fox News has to do some soul searching and try to walk back some of its loyal viewers from the ledge. They all have to own up to their role in spreading the “Big Lie” which led directly to the January 6 attack on the Capitol.

I know, I know, keep dreaming!

The said truth is that even if this were in the realm of possibility, it might not be enough to get through to those ardent Trump loyalists who would no doubt brand any Republican who dares tell the truth, and attack the “Big Lie,” as a traitor or a RINO.

Yet, do you see any other way?

Photo | AP/J.Scott Applewhite

Trump’s Seditionists Include Both The Poorly Educated And The Highly Educated

January 8, 2021 By John DeProspo 8 Comments

We all know a good chunk of Trump supporters aren’t very bright. One might say they’re not the sharpest tools in the shed.

During Wednesday’s storming of the U.S. Capitol by the MAGA mob, many were seemingly unaware they were committing a crime. They thought of themselves as patriots. They entered the building maskless, making themselves easily identifiable. They posted to social media photos and videos of themselves breaking the law. Really, how dumb can one be!

Some are already facing immediate consequences for their actions such as being fired from their jobs. And in the not-too-distant future, many will be arrested and charged with a whole host of crimes, including: seditious conspiracy, damage to federal property, use of explosives, crossing state lines to commit a crime … just to name a few.

As abhorrent as those ill-informed and misguided seditionists may be, they occupy a lower rung on the ladder of despicableness than those more intelligent traitors who know better than to try and subvert the workings of our democracy.

Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz are two United States senators with impeccable educational pedigrees. Both brag of their education as constitutional lawyers — Cruz at Harvard, Hawley at Yale.

Both Hawley and Cruz know that their attempt to stop the certification of the Electoral College vote count, making Joe Biden president, was against the Constitution. They both know that Trump’s false claims of election fraud went nowhere in the courts, even when they came before judges Trump appointed.

Yet the two Ivy Leaguers have been blinded by raw ambition. Both have their sights set on the 2024 presidential race. Each wants to be the heir to Trump’s rabid base.

Their votes on Wednesday to overturn the results of the Electoral College were made even more loathsome as they came after many of their fellow Republican senators backed down from challenging after the mob of rioters stormed the Capitol, forcing evacuations.

While many on both sides of the aisle are blaming Hawley and Cruz for helping to foment the destructive riot … with some even calling for their resignations … will they pay a price like the one being paid by the more poorly educated MAGA crowd?

Yes, it’s just quite possible. Hawley’s hometown newspaper, The Kansas City Star, issued an editorial accusing him of having blood on his hands. The Dallas Morning News denounced Cruz for abetting sedition and inspiring pro-Trump rioters by resisting Biden’s victory.

Of course, it’s just as possible Hawley and Cruz’s disgraceful gambits may carry them to the front of the line of possible Republican presidential contenders in 2024.

Photo | nationalreview.com

2020 … The Year We Came To See

December 29, 2020 By John DeProspo 2 Comments

A New Year's Poem And Prayer

2O2O, the year we came to see
How divided a nation we’ve come to be
Is this the end of a once great nation
Or was the year an aberration?
 
2O2O, the year we came to realize
How many of our neighbors believe in lies
Or is it just a different reality they see
After twenty-five years of Hannity?
 
2O2O, the year that finally brought home
How democracy isn’t so sacred to some
They’d rather have an autocratic commander
One who deals in malevolence and slander
 
2O2O, the year that saw a divisive election
With 74 million favoring an incompetent’s selection
Nothing more defines a splintered nation
Than such a vote count that defies explanation
 
2O2O, the year that saw Republican leaders
Shun their Oath and become conspiracy breeders
Not adhering to the Constitution
They thought a bloodless coup was the solution
 
Now, as 2O2O comes to an end 
What’s in store, around the bend?
Will America rediscover what’s true and right
Can it come together and reunite?
 
2O21 will usher in a new president
But will the year be kind to the White House resident?
Will he be able to heal the nation’s wounds
Or is American democracy irrevocably doomed?
 
So let us say a New Year’s prayer
That a sense of renewal will fill the air
That we will be as we once were then
And truly make America great again

Photo | amazon.com