Scorched

Today's Rachel

Rachel Maddow - 08-21-2023

BTW, to all my acquaintances, friends or bosom buddies - or anybody else who flies the MAGA freak flag, and who may be one of the dipwads, or who're in sympathy with the dipwads who like to threaten us all with some kinda terrorizing violence if we don't go along with their fucked up ideas:

Here I am, assholes - Come and get me.

Ya buncha whiny-butt pussies

Ultra - Episode 1

All the Jan6 shit, and the probability that people in our government - federal and state and other - are not the 'patriots' they crow about being. And this is not the first time we've been through this kinda shit.

I can't believe it took me so long to get around to digging into this.

Here's your homework assignment.

Rachel Maddow - Ultra. Episode 1

Episode 2

Episode 3

Episode 4

Episode 5

Episode 6

Episode 7

Episode 8

Jan6 Stuff

A lot of folks are wondering why these bozos recorded their plotting and planning. Some of these goons went so far as to have documentarians follow them around with video cameras to catch every move.

Stop wondering. This is one of the hallmarks of authoritarianism, and it fits very well with Timothy Snyder's list of things we need to watch out for ("On Tyranny"):

Obeying in advance

Much of the power of authoritarianism is freely given. Individuals think ahead about what a repressive government will want, and then start to do it without being asked.

Trump will never give anyone a direct order to commit some crime for him. But every member of the cult knows he wants all manner of fuckery to happen. And they know they'll be rewarded in some way for it. So they hatch all kinds of weird schemes, and they need to have their valiant efforts documented so they can show the boss what good little devotees they've been.

There's a reason we know so much about the horrendous events that occurred under regimes like Pol Pot and Sadam and Hitler, et al. The Daddy State always develops a very good bureaucracy to keep track of the shit they do - they have to be able to show the boss.

Rachel Maddow: (thru about 20:40)

BTW - These assholes had hand grenades!?!

BTW 2 - "I don't fucking care that they have weapons - they're not here to hurt me..."

This is a guy who's always yammering about "false flag" and "AnitFa in disguise". Why is he not at all concerned that one of "his people" is in fact not one of his people and is in fact there to hurt hm? This is of course also part-n-parcel of the Daddy State bullshit about taking your fantasy version of reality and twisting it and smash-fitting it, so it serves your immediate political need.

Rachel

Angry Rachel Maddow is often the best Rachel Maddow.

Let's stop pretending we don't know the motive behind these murders, and let's stop pretending we can simply ignore the Stochastic shit that's going on every fucking minute of every fucking day at DumFux News, and in GOP strategy sessions.

Kevin McQarthy

... is a gutless wonder among gutless wonders. And try as he might to play that stoopid game of Newspeak, he just kinda sucks at it - like he kinda sucks at just about everything.

(translating): "That audio recording of my own exact words in my own voice is totally false and wrong. Only the biased liberal media would report on what I said, rather than relying on what my PR team says I said. To play my own words in my own voice to a TV audience is fake news at its worst."

Rachel last night, citing Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns.

Kevin McCarthy is a straight-up flat-out bald-faced fuckin' liar.

And can we stop a minute to notice the audio starts with a reference to a previous conversation of the 25th Amendment?

While there's never an overwhelming surplus of honesty flowing from our government, it has to be acknowledged that these Republicans have created a kind of black hole that tries to suck in every tiny particle of truth while emitting a steady stream of pure low-grade bullshit.

Rachel's Highlights

From last night - the A block is all about the weird fixation the GOP has on running around calling everybody a pedophile.

And yes, there's a very strong projection thing going on - "Every accusation is a confession" - but when we look just a bit closer, it's clearly a tool to tear down your opposition.

And I'm not talking about wanting to look seriously at the possibility that Matt Gaetz may have paid an underage girl for sex. Or that Republican after Republican is being charged with &/or going to prison for Child Porn or Sexual Assault On A Minor or or or.

Legit is legit is legit.

What this is about is the fact that the GOP plays this shit a lot, and so far, it's not had any bearing on the truth of the matter - but also, that the GOP is going almost page-by-page according to the Putin Playbook. 

Plus a new-ish American wrinkle: The American Accountability Foundation.

Ukraine & Russia

Ol' Doc Maddow with a look at how some Russians insist on their freedom to speak out against Mr Putin's war.

The A Block ends at about 6:20

And the culprit?

Artist Sasha Skochilenko glued anti-war price tags in stores. She faces up to 10 years in prison because of "fake news" about Russian army. "As a person with a conscience, she couldn't help but react"-her colleagues told. What a pity that such people are a tiny minority in Russia pic.twitter.com/TkyWKGSY5z

— Oleksandra Matviichuk (@avalaina) April 17, 2022

Here's another look at just how wide and deep Russian corruption is - the labels say "TNT".

The Ukrainians unwrap them and find nothing but wood.

Welcome Back, Alex

...but painting with a broad brush seems like a pretty good idea right now, so -

Republicans are fuckin' crooked!

Alex Wagner - filling in for Rachel

Jan6 Stuff

Talk openly about the shit you'd like to see happen - making no reference to anyone or even anything in particular - and someone will take it upon himself to do something he thinks fits with what you want.

Stochastic Probability.

Timothy Snyder's #1 admonition from his work "On Tyranny"

1. Do not obey in advance. Much of the power of authoritarianism is freely given. In times like these, individuals think ahead about what a more repressive government will want, and then start to do it without being asked. You've already done this, haven't you? Stop. Anticipatory obedience teaches authorities what is possible and accelerates unfreedom.

Rachel Maddow:

USAmerica Inc is nine kinds of fucked up.

More Rachel

She's killin' it lately.

Ol' Doc Maddow - Starting with Stochastic Terrorism and Nazi assholes, and the bullshit "reasoning" they base their actions on:

On Rachel Last Night

Ol' Doc Maddow - Nazi assholes in Orlando

Yeah - Florida - whooda thunk it.

The kicker:

"People are alarmed and scared..." 

We've been trying to tell you people this is what's coming. Where the fuck you guys been?

BTW - DeSantis went on the TV box to "denounce" the Nazi assholes, and then spent way more time shit-talking Straw Man Democrats than he did actually denouncing the actual Nazi assholes.

Which kinda pushes the question - why is it that when somebody brings up Nazi assholes, everybody (including DeSantis) immediately thinks "DeSantis"?

The Holocaust Center Of Central Florida

Jan6 Stuff

There are times when Rachel Maddow is a national treasure.

Ol' Doc Maddow:

Jan6 Stuff

Mike Pence did his job. He's no fuckin' hero, but then again, sometimes just doing what you were hired to do qualifies as an act of heroism - so maybe - in this one very small way, in this one very huge instance (?)

Rachel Maddow, on a change of script:

Jan6 Stuff

Coupla things just got a little clearer for me:

1. The apparent involvement of several Poodles at DumFux News, and the heat they may be about to feel, could remove a lot of the wonder as to why Chris Wallace suddenly bolted.
2. Devin Nunes has also made an abrupt career change - saying he'll leave Congress before the end of this year, in order to take the top job at Trump's new "media company". I'm thinking that's because Nunes is about to be implicated (again - this time officially, and this time without cover), and his only shot is to try to propagandize his way out of this mess.

18 U.S. Code § 1505 - Obstruction of proceedings before departments, agencies, and committees

Whoever, with intent to avoid, evade, prevent, or obstruct compliance, in whole or in part, with any civil investigative demand duly and properly made under the Antitrust Civil Process Act, willfully withholds, misrepresents, removes from any place, conceals, covers up, destroys, mutilates, alters, or by other means falsifies any documentary material, answers to written interrogatories, or oral testimony, which is the subject of such demand; or attempts to do so or solicits another to do so; or

Whoever corruptly, or by threats or force, or by any threatening letter or communication influences, obstructs, or impedes or endeavors to influence, obstruct, or impede the due and proper administration of the law under which any pending proceeding is being had before any department or agency of the United States, or the due and proper exercise of the power of inquiry under which any inquiry or investigation is being had by either House, or any committee of either House or any joint committee of the Congress—

Shall be fined under this title, imprisoned not more than 5 years or, if the offense involves international or domestic terrorism (as defined in section 2331), imprisoned not more than 8 years, or both.

Ed Note: You don't really think Herschel Walker or David Perdue are in any way a match for Raphael Warnock, do ya?

Rachel Last Night

Sometimes, the scariest thing you can do is to watch one hour of Rachel Maddow.

Here's the link to Bart Gellman's piece in the Atlantic. (limited freebies),

And it's a long one - there's an audio version embedded that goes for about 90 minutes.

Technically, the next attempt to overthrow a national election may not qualify as a coup. It will rely on subversion more than violence, although each will have its place. If the plot succeeds, the ballots cast by American voters will not decide the presidency in 2024. Thousands of votes will be thrown away, or millions, to produce the required effect. The winner will be declared the loser. The loser will be certified president-elect.

The prospect of this democratic collapse is not remote. People with the motive to make it happen are manufacturing the means. Given the opportunity, they will act. They are acting already.

Who or what will safeguard our constitutional order is not apparent today. It is not even apparent who will try. Democrats, big and small D, are not behaving as if they believe the threat is real. Some of them, including President Joe Biden, have taken passing rhetorical notice, but their attention wanders. They are making a grievous mistake.

“The democratic emergency is already here,” Richard L. Hasen, a professor of law and political science at UC Irvine, told me in late October. Hasen prides himself on a judicious temperament. Only a year ago he was cautioning me against hyperbole. Now he speaks matter-of-factly about the death of our body politic. “We face a serious risk that American democracy as we know it will come to an end in 2024,” he said, “but urgent action is not happening.”

- more - and it just gets worse.

The Scores

Doctor Maddow knows her shit.

Quick note: Dave Bratt taught economics, with a hardcore Unfettered Free Market bias, at Randolph-Macon (a branch office of Koch Brothers Universities Inc) before winning his seat in 2014. The guy's as phony as chicken lips.

Scary Shit

Rachel's whole show last night felt like I was stuck in the part of an old monster movie from the 50s where the 2 plucky teenagers are trying to tell the friendly local sheriff about seeing something really weird and dangerous, and holy crap why won't the grownups listen!?!

The Big Turnaround

Here's the visual from the Rachel Maddow thing I posted yesterday - worth repeating a few times.

Watch for it starting at about 6:50 - Rachel lays out the probability that the GOP will use the very heavy layers of guilt as a shield. DumFux news has already started putting up the "Don Jr is the real victim here" defense.

Cult45* is employing a variation on a basic tactic of the Daddy State: Accusation = Confession.

It can work the other way as well. You can use your confession as a weapon against your opponent - turning it into an accusation.

The shitty part is that the rubes will buy it.

The really shitty part is that the Press Poodles will give the rubes reason to think it's legit by covering it in that Both-Sides bullshit way.

The really really shitty part is that this is fucking dangerous.

And the really really really shitty part is that this is prob'ly not as dangerous as it gets.

Fake Lord have mercy.

Rachel

Ol' Doc Maddow's podcast (audio only) at Stitcher:

She's careful to remind us that even with all that smoke, there's no real fire yet.  Which plays to 45*'s default M.O. He operates at the margins; always looking for the grey areas; the loopiest of loopholes - "If it doesn't specifically say I can't do it, then that's what I'm gonna do".

And that works against us as a 4th-n-5th-Amendment-Kinda-Joint - which is what works to the advantage of the 45*s and the Putins of the world. And the rubes will never bail on those guys, because they just wanna think, for once in their whole miserable existence, they're in on the real deal - the inside; the right sight; the winning side.

In 1972, the movie smash of the year was The Godfather - a story of the good guy criminals versus the bad guy everybody else.

And Dick Nixon was re-elected in an historic landslide.

And Ford sold 350,000 Pintos.

And the CMA's #1 single was "The Happiest Girl In The Whole USA", Donna Fargo.

Nobody ever failed by underestimating the taste or intelligence of the American rube.