Top 10 Idiots

Top 10 Idiots's Journal

December 19, 2018

Top 10 Conservative Idiots #5-24: 2018 Year In Review Edition

Top 10 Conservative Idiots #5-24: 2018 Year In Review Edition

Welcome back to the Top 10 Conservative Idiots! I know, right? It’s the end of the year for the Top 10 and what a year it’s been! Now don’t be sad, we will be back in January with the start of, holy shit, I can’t believe it’s our 6th season and our 4th year in operation. Yes, next year the Top 10 will turn 4! But in Trump years it feels like we’re 237 doesn’t it? Well we’ve got some big plans for 2019 that I cannot wait to unveil including our big Texas road show for the start of season 7. Yes, we have not one, not two, not three, but a whopping 5 shows planned through the Lone Star State. We are going to go through the state of Texas to find out not only what the political landscape is like, but if liberals really do exist in the Lone Star State, and they must because a whole lot of them voted for Beto in the election! There’s also planned shows in Montana, Alaska and Vancouver! We’ve also got a whole slew of new content being planned and some of our old favorites will keep coming back like How Is This Still A Thing and People Who Somehow Got Elected, and This Fucking Guy. So of course just like last year, this year is our 2018 year in review and man there was a lot of crazy shit that happened this year. Even going into the new year things are still fucked up, which means we won’t get to cover things like Michael Cohen’s sentencing and Trump’s use of the phrase “smocking gun”, and more excuses for ultra paranoid conservatives to bash social media sites because they don’t get to float their tin foil hat conspiracy theories, or Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer throwing Trump in front of a brick wall. OK that’s enough of the intro, we have a lot of idiocy to get to. But first we have to play the awesome cold opener from Saturday Night Live that really pissed off a certain someone who we will be discussing later:

Here we go, folks! It’s our second annual YEAR IN REVIEW!!!! Oh that was some good reverb right there, guys! So in the first slot is the months of January and February (1) we had stable geniuses, shithole countries, secret societies called “Secret Society”, and Sean Hannity’s epic fail, among other atrocities being committed. The second slot this week is March and April (2) – where Trump went golfing after one of the worst mass shootings in a school since Columbine. And it was also when Rex Tillerson got fired. In the third slot this week is May and June (3). May – when Trump turned around the dialogue on gun rights, claiming that gun were not to blame for shootings, while he nearly brought the world to the brink of Armageddon opening the US embassy in Isreal, while conservative snowflakes faced the humiliation of eating in public while conservative. Next up in the fourth slot is July and August (4) - where we got introduced to space Nazis, Duncan Hunter got busted by the feds, and we had lots of stories of white people calling the cops on black people, because they’re black. Also, Trump is still a dick and that’s not surprising. In the fifth slot this week is September and October (5) – where we had the horrifying murder of Jamal Khashoggi, Alex Jones screamed at a pile of poop, and we got introduced to Brett Kavanaugh, and his insane schedules and Boofing, whatever that is. Finally for the sixth slot this week we have November and December (6) – where Trump got his *ASS* handed to him in the midterms, California is on fire, and Trump fired Jeff Sessions and replaced him with a real life Mr. Clean. Now that that’s out of the way, at number 7, we’re going to forgo our weekly investigative piece this week “Top 10 Investigates” (don’t worry, it will be back in January) and we were going to have a piece on sex robots, but that will be shelved and put on the next Idiots Best Of. But then Trump had to attack Saturday Night Live, so we’re bringing back “Explaining Jokes To Idiots!” (7). Then for the 8th slot, we haven’t forgot our weekly visit to the Holy Church Of The Top 10 in “Holy Shit” (8), where our resident pastor is going to tell you some of his favorite stories of the ultra far right religious nutbags this year. And in the number 9 (NEIN!) slot we have People Are Dumb where we’re going to tell you all of our favorite stories of stupid people throughout 2018 – and there were plenty of them! And the final segment of Deep State Diaries is going to explore the organization that Trump trolls love to hate – the IRS! Yes, we came all this way just for an IRS joke! And we’re going to wrap it up with a guest I can’t wait for – the one, the only 30 Seconds To Mars! Enjoy! And as always don’t forget the key!

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[font size="8"]January – February
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So this is our second annual year in review and man it was a batshit crazy year, and of course like all horrible things Trump and Fox News had a hand in it. Where do we even begin to cover the beginning of the year at the end of the year? I know! Let’s start with that time when Trump called himself a “stable genius” and when he referred to countries as “shithole countries”. I mean hell we totally stopped our world tour in the middle of it and went with a “shithole” world tour!

UPDATED | Senator Lindsey Graham responded Monday to tweets from President Donald Trump touting himself as "a very stable genius" amid questions of his mental fitness while serving in the White House's top role.

"Trump called himself 'like really smart and a stable genius.' So, do you think he's like really smart and a stable genius?" The View host Bette Midler asked the South Carolina Republican to audience laughter.

"I think this: if he doesn't call himself a genius, nobody else will," Graham responded to applause.
http://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-genius-lindsey-graham-774238

I mean really is he Simple Jack from Tropic Thunder? Or maybe he’s Homer Simpson?

But then of course we’re only in the second week of January! I mean do I really have to remind people of when Trump referenced certain countries in Africa and called them “shitholes”? Yes, a PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES IS ON RECORD calling countries in Africa and South and Central America shit holes, just let that sink in for a moment.

WASHINGTON ― Most news networks reporting on President Donald Trump’s remarks about restricting immigrants from “shithole countries” notably didn’t shy away from using the vulgar word, and called the president’s insult what it was ― racist.

But over at Fox News, Trump’s network of choice, hosts and panelists were defending the president’s crude comments before shifting to other topics.

After The Washington Post on Thursday afternoon first reported Trump’s remarks at a White House meeting with lawmakers, “The Five” co-host Jesse Watters shrugged off the slur as the way ordinary Americans talk about “Haiti people.”

“If it’s true, this is how the forgotten men and women in America talk at the bar,” Watters said. “This is how Trump relates to people. If you’re at a bar, and you’re from Wisconsin, and you’re thinking, ‘They’re bringing in a bunch of Haiti people, or El Salvadorians, or people from Niger.’ This is how some people talk.”
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/fox-news-trump-shithole_us_5a58aaa4e4b0720dc4c64a73

Yes, the denial is strong with this one indeed! Oh and then there was one of my favorite things of the year – remember when the results of Trump’s physical were released and people were demanding to see his long form girth certificate? Yeah that happened. I mean Trump’s doctor might as well have gone to Hollywood Upstairs Medical College. Seriously, baby, I can prescribe anything I want!

A White House physician declared Tuesday that President Donald Trump is in “excellent” overall health and that he performed “well” on a cognitive screening exam, while noting the commander in chief could benefit from a low-fat diet and additional exercise.

“All clinical data indicates that the president is currently very healthy and that he will remain so for the duration of his presidency,” Dr. Ronny Jackson said at the daily White House news briefing during a nearly hourlong question-and-answer period with reporters.

Jackson added that during the physical on Friday at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, he performed some cognitive testing at the president's behest and that Trump “did well on it.” He noted the exam was limited to a screening for cognitive impairment and was not part of a larger psychological examination.

Trump, according to Jackson, is 6-foot-3, 239 pounds. The doctor said that he and Trump discussed losing weight and exercising, which he recommended, and that the president expressed “he would like to lose 10 to 15 pounds.”
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/01/16/trump-health-physical-medical-341485

And that’s true! Oh and anyone else remember when Vince McMahon announced that he was going to announce a Trump friendly version of the NFL called the XFL? I think people must have forgot about that, I mean when the league actually launches will anyone really care?

Television ratings for the N.F.L. have fallen 17 percent over the past two seasons. The league is embroiled in a continuing crisis over concussions, and youth participation rates are falling.

All of this suggests a difficult future for the sport, yet the N.F.L.’s most notorious competitor, Vince McMahon’s X.F.L., has a comeback in the works.

McMahon, the chairman and chief executive of World Wrestling Entertainment, announced on Thursday that he would take a second crack at professional football, with play scheduled to start in early 2020.

McMahon first tried to reimagine pro football 17 years ago. The old X.F.L. was a joint venture between the World Wrestling Federation (W.W.E.’s former name) and NBC, which had lost rights to broadcast N.F.L. games.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/25/sports/football/vince-mcmahon-xfl.html

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[font size="8"]March & April: Mass Shootings & Gun Nut Apologists
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Yeah so at the end of February we had the horrifying mass shooting at Parkland High School in Florida, and for those of you who aren’t from America and don’t know how the mass shooting cycle works, we have the mass shooting no matter where it is, there’s usually a month long conversation that follows where we make some completely asinine excuses as to why we should continue to mass produce weapons of mass destruction. While mass shootings are nothing to joke at, we can joke at the mass stupidity of our elected representatives. Now just to set the record straight, we are in no way, shape or form making fun of tragedy. We’re just making fun of the excuses to blame everyone and everything but the gun!

The Texas lieutenant governor, speaking two days after 10 people were killed in a school shooting in his state, said abortion, divorce and violent video games and movies show that 'we have devalued life,' which he pointed to as a cause of school shootings.

Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick told ABC News Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos on "This Week" Sunday, "We have devalued life, whether it's through abortion, whether it's the breakup of families, through violent movies, and particularly violent video games."

Patrick continued, "Psychologists and psychiatrists will tell you that students are desensitized to violence, may have lost empathy for their victims by watching hours and hours of video violent games.”

He said, “the problem is multifaceted. It's not any one issue. But we, again, we have to look at our culture of violence, just our violent society, our Facebook, our Twitter, the bullying of adults on adults, and children on children. We have to look at ourselves, George, it's not about the guns, it's about us.”
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/guns-part-nation-texas-official-shooting-victims-dad/story?id=55300369

Yes that’s the lieutenant governor of Texas literally saying that the reason that mass shootings happen is because schools have too many exits. But did we really need Killer Mike from Run The Jewels literally shooting his mouth off about guns? I can guarantee that answer is a definite “no”.

One half of Run The Jewels, Killer Mike has taken to social media to clarify controversial points he made in an interview with the National Rifle Association of America.

The interview was released while marches against gun violence took place in US, and saw the rapper discuss his gun ownership stance while debating the marches and National Walkout Day.

“I told my kids on the school walkout, I love you, [but] if you walkout that school, walkout my house,” he said to NRATV.

“We are not a family that jumps on every single thing an ally of ours does because some stuff we just don’t agree with.”

Killer Mike also said he was “very pro-Second Amendment”.

“And before you say ‘What about the children,’ my daughter goes to Savannah State University. There was also a shooting on that campus. Talked to my wife and daughter after that, the decision was we’re gonna go to Savannah, she’s gonna get a gun and train more.”
http://themusic.com.au/news/all/2018/03/26/run-the-jewels%E2%80%99-killer-mike-responds-to-backlash-from-controversial-pro-gun-interview/

Well you could just call it “Run The Jewels Live From Uranus”. Yes, we at the Top 10 are not above making poop jokes! But of course you know politics makes for strange bedfellows and those that survived the shooting went on a rampage of their own targeting the NRA. Of course we were introduced to David Hogg, a 18 year old who is going places and makes gun nutters frothing at the mouth crazy.

National Rifle Association board member and classic rocker Ted Nugent slammed survivors of the Parkland, Florida, school shooting, calling them "liars" and "poor, mushy-brained children."

Nugent made the comments during an interview on "The Joe Pags Show," a nationally syndicated conservative radio program.

"All you have to do now is not only feel sorry for the liars, but you have to go against them and pray to God that the lies can be crushed and the liars can be silenced so that real measures can be put into place to actually save children's lives," Nugent said about the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School students.

"These poor children, I'm afraid to say this and it hurts me to say this, but the evidence is irrefutable, they have no soul," he added.

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/31/politics/nra-member-calls-parkland-survivors-liars/index.html

Yes that’s everyone’s favorite draft dodging pants shitter Ted Nugent openly mocking mass shooting victims on national TV. And in case you’re wondering if the GOP couldn’t be anymore cruel and heartless when it comes to this sort of thing, remember when Crisis Actors were a thing? Oh and guess what? That was named “lie of the year” by Politifact!

The conspiracy theories that labeled the Parkland student activists “crisis actors” has been named the Lie of the Year by prominent fact-checking web site PolitiFact.

“In another year of lament about the lack of truth in politics, the attacks against Parkland’s students stand out because of their sheer vitriol,” PolitiFact said in the story announcing the decision, published Tuesday.

The website notes that in the immediate days after the Feb. 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, there was a sense of potential unity, especially after President Donald Trump said that unlike in the past, this time the response wouldn’t be just talk.

“But in the shadows, the internet engine of hoaxes and smears had started,” PolitiFact noted, highlighting the claim that student leader David Hogg and the other students were “crisis actors” and not actually students from the school.
https://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/broward/parkland/florida-school-shooting/fl-ne-politifact-biggest-lie-parkland-20181211-story.html

[font size="8"]May – June
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Ah, Armageddon days are here again! Of course we go from mass school shooting to seeing what we’re all gonna die in the rapture looks like. And you know that one of the biggest groups of Trump supporters is end times apocalypse worshippers, and you know they just love him, and they’re actively encouraging President T to bring about the apocalypse to placate their own fantasies, because reasons. And hey you know what? A nuclear apocalypse isn’t going to favor you, you will probably die too! But Trump did his best to escalate the situation with an incredibly ill advised move to take the US embassy to Jerusalem, which caused a whole lot of people to die in the process.

The US officially relocated its Embassy to Jerusalem on Monday, formally upending decades of American foreign policy in a move that was met with clashes and protests along the Israeli-Gaza border.

At least 43 Palestinians were killed in Gaza as deadly protests took place ahead of and during the ceremony in Jerusalem — making it the deadliest day there since the 2014 Gaza war.

President Donald Trump did not attend the ceremony in Jerusalem's Arnona neighborhood, but in a video message broadcast at the event he congratulated Israel, saying the opening had been "a long time coming."

"Today, Jerusalem is the seam of Israel's government. It is the home of the Israeli legislature and the Israeli supreme court and Israel's prime minister and president. Israel is a sovereign nation with the right like every other sovereign nation to determine its own capital, yet for many years, we failed to acknowledge the obvious, the plain reality that Israel's capital is Jerusalem," Trump said in the pre-recorded remarks.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/14/politics/jerusalem-us-embassy-trump-intl/index.html

Yeah we can imagine the rapture will be kind of like that. But then the summer time was also the time that Melania picked to launch her anti-bullying campaign called “#BeBest”. Anyone remember that? I mean who perfect to pick to launch an anti-bullying campaign than the wife of one of the biggest bullies in the world?

Melania Trump, nearly 16 months into her tenure as first lady, has at last revealed her formal platform: "Be Best." The comprehensive program will focus on three main points -- well-being, fighting opioid abuse and positivity on social media -- and is the culmination of the past several months of Trump's various public events, all of which centered around helping children.

"As a mother and as first lady, it concerns me that in today's fast-paced and ever-connected world, children can be less prepared to express or manage their emotions and oftentimes turn to forms of destructive or addictive behavior such as bullying, drug addiction or even suicide," she said during a Rose Garden event Monday.

"I feel strongly that as adults we can and should be best at educating our children about the importance of a healthy and balanced life," the first lady said.
Trump has in recent weeks experienced a significant surge in support, a new CNN poll revealed Monday, including among women and Democrats.

In a poll conducted by SSRS last week, 57% say they have a favorable impression of Trump, up from 47% in January. This is the biggest number Melania Trump has experienced in any CNN polling, and higher than any favorability rating earned by President Donald Trump in CNN polling history going back to 1999.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/07/politics/melania-trump-unveils-platform-be-best/index.html

That’s right – it took 16 months for Melania to finally unveil her plan to end bullying! Of course it’s kind of hard to do that when you’re a bully yourself! Must we forget that Melania, oh and by the way what a fine example she’s setting! And remember when Sean Hannity committed multiple on air felonies by telling anyone involved in the Trump campaign to destroy their phones? So much better than her emails, they tell us!

Fox News host Sean Hannity on his show Wednesday night sarcastically advised witnesses in special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation to "follow Hillary Clinton's lead" and destroy their personal phones before handing them over to prosecutors.

Hannity's comments — he said he was kidding during the same telecast — followed a report by CNBC that Mueller's team had asked witnesses in its probe to turn over their personal phones for examination of encrypted messaging apps like WhatsApp, Dust and Signal.

The Fox host lambasted Mueller's "pitbull" team for the tactic of demanding that witnesses turn over phones and all encrypted apps, along with the messages and emails within them.

Hannity then made a comparison to Clinton, whose use of a private email server when she served as secretary of State prompted an FBI investigation and has been the subject of frequent criticism on his show.
http://thehill.com/homenews/media/391115-hannity-advises-witnesses-in-mueller-probe-smash-their-phones-to-little-itsy

And then speaking of Melania, remember when Trump decided that the border was his own personal play toy? And when he started locking children in cages and separating them from their parents in some truly evil, Hitler-esque shit? Yeah, and then we had Melania’s famous jacket:

A day after first lady Melania Trump stirred controversy by wearing a jacket that read "I really don't care, do u?" on a trip to visit a children's shelter on the U.S.-Mexico border, people are still scratching their heads.

What did it mean? And how did something like this happen?

On his late-night show, comedian Stephen Colbert asked a version of the question reverberating around political Washington: "How many people would get fired for this at a normal White House? One? Five? The entire executive branch? . . . People who were supposedly on her side let her get on a plane with a jacket that said, 'I really don't care, do you?'"

Whether the first lady anticipated - or was warned - that her outerwear would divert attention from what her staff described as a humanitarian mission, her choice to wear it in public seems to be deliberate.

Her small staff has described her as a decisive first lady who values loyalty and privacy.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/politics/ct-melania-trump-jacket-analysis-20180622-story.html

Oh and we can’t end discussion of this summer without mentioning Sarah’s night out at the Red Hen restaurant and the resulting shit show that followed with conservatives telling liberals that we really need to be more civil to each other. Really? We don’t call the cops on black people for sitting at park benches.

Stephanie Wilkinson was at home Friday evening — nearly 200 miles from the White House — when the choice presented itself.

Her phone rang about 8 p.m. It was the chef at the Red Hen, the tiny farm-to-table restaurant that she co-owned just off Main Street in the small city of Lexington, in the western part of Virginia.

Sarah Huckabee Sanders had just walked in and sat down, the chef informed her.

“He said the staff is a little concerned. What should we do?” Wilkinson told The Washington Post. “I said I’d be down to see if it’s true.”

It seemed unlikely to her that President Trump’s press secretary should be dining at a 26-seat restaurant in rural Virginia. But then, it was unlikely that her entire staff would have misidentified Sanders, who had arrived last to a table of eight booked under her husband’s name.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/local/wp/2018/06/23/why-a-small-town-restaurant-owner-asked-sarah-huckabee-sanders-to-leave-and-would-do-it-again/?utm_term=.090174e7e647

Although if you want to talk about civility, you conservative snowflakes, you couldn’t even get the right fucking Red Hen restaurant correctly! Yeah you wound up harassing and sending death threats to Red Hen restaurants all over the country! Civility my ass!!!!

Several restaurants named the Red Hen said they were harassed over the weekend after press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was asked on Friday to leave an unrelated Lexington, Virginia, eatery of the same name.

Stephanie Wilkinson, who owns the restaurant where Sanders tried to dine, told The Washington Post that she asked the press secretary to leave because several of her staffers are gay and were concerned about serving Sanders, who has defended an administration that has supported anti-LGBTQ policies.

The incident has sparked backlash, and hundreds of people have contacted the restaurant or posted on its social media pages to express their feelings.

Though Sanders’ tweet about the incident specified that the restaurant she had visited is in Lexington, President Donald Trump added to the confusion on Monday when he slammed the Red Hen on Twitter without identifying which Red Hen restaurant he was referring to.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/red-hen-sarah-huckabee-sanders-harrassment_us_5b30f092e4b00295f15f0d82

[font size="8"]July – August
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You really don’t need to watch Fox News for more than an hour to know what an impact they have on the Trump administration. I mean he watches Fox News so much that you can literally hear the 1-800-EMPIRE commercial jingle in the background on Air Force One:

Yeah that happened! And remember when Trump put Scott Pruitt in charge of the EPA and then he was replaced by a Fox News host? Fox News has basically created a bullshit pipeline that leads them direct to Trump’s White House. Who’s really running the country now?

WASHINGTON -- Scott Pruitt, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency who was key to implementing President Trump's conservative agenda but came under intense scrutiny for a series of questionable ethical decisions, resigned Thursday afternoon. Pruitt's deputy at the EPA, Andrew Wheeler, will serve as the agency's acting administrator starting Monday, President Trump said in a tweet.

"I have no doubt that Andy will continue on with our great and lasting EPA agenda," Mr. Trump tweeted. "We have made tremendous progress and the future of the EPA is very bright!"

Pruitt had been the subject of a seemingly endless deluge of stories about his behavior and spending practices. It began earlier this year when it was revealed that Pruitt had rented a room at a favorable rate from a well-connected energy lobbyist. Pruitt's lavish spending on his own security then came under scrutiny, as did his decision to install a $43,00 private phone booth in his office. There were also allegations that Pruitt had created an toxic professional atmosphere at the EPA that penalized his critics.

Pruitt said his decision to leave the EPA was a hard one in his resignation letter to Mr. Trump.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/scott-pruitt-resigns-epa-andrew-wheeler-interim-today-2018-07-05-live-updates/

I think that’s going to happen next. But then of course after the Peter Strzok shit storm Trump got sent to see Putin, like the 5th grade kid getting sent to the principal’s office in Helsinki. We need that GIF of Putin riding on the Ritz cracker.

Following a day of discussions between Presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, Finland, Mr. Trump left Monday's summit neglecting to hold Putin accountable for Russia's role in interfering in the 2016 presidential election -- saving most of his criticism for America itself.

"I hold both countries responsible. I think that the United States has been foolish. I think that we've all been foolish. We should have had this dialogue a long time ago, a long time, frankly, before I got to office," Mr. Trump said during a joint press conference with Putin.

Offered multiple chances to denounce Russia's actions, Mr. Trump instead placed blame on the FBI and said that he had "confidence" in both parties -- the intelligence community and Russia.

"All I can do is ask the question - my people came to me, Dan Coats came to me and some others, they said they think it's Russia. I have President Putin he just said it's not Russia. I will say this, I don't see any reason why it would be but I really want to see the server but, I have confidence in both parties," Mr. Trump said.
https://www.cbsnews.com/live-news/trump-putin-meeting-us-russia-helsinki-finland-summit-live-updates-today-2018-07-16/

And this might be one of my favorite stories of the entire year so far. Remember when vandals got a hold of one of Betsy DeVos’ $40 million yachts and set it afloat in Lake Huron? Oh yeah let’s not forget that the DeVos family owns a James Bond villain-esque fleet of yachts and private jets. You know, because reasons.

A $40 million yacht belonging to Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos was untied from its mooring at a Lake Huron marina, police said.

The SeaQuest, a 164-foot luxury yacht, registered under a Cayman Islands flag, was set adrift at the Huron Boat Basin, where it was docked.

"Around sunrise the crew woke to find the boat had been untied from the dock and was adrift," according to a vandalism report filed Sunday by the Huron Police Department.

The crew was able to regain control, but not before the ship struck the dock, suffering several scratches and scrapes, the report said.

The captain estimated that the collision caused between $5,000-$10,000 in damages.
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/secretary-education-betsy-devos-40-million-yacht-set/story?id=56840039

And then of course something sad happened – the woman, the myth, the legend that is the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin passed away. Of course, Trump loving conservatives couldn’t find it in their, what passes for hearts, to say something about the legend. I mean Trump couldn’t even book an Aretha Franklin impersonator!

As we all have learned, Aretha Franklin wasn’t just the Queen of Soul, she also fought for justice. Ms. Franklin was close to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and sang at his funeral. She offered to post bail for Angela Davis in 1979, saying, “I’m going to see her free if there is any justice in our courts, not because I believe in communism, but because she’s a Black woman and she wants freedom for Black people.” Franklin also sang at three inaugurations: Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. However, there is reportedly one inauguration she refused to lend her voice — Trump’s. And a new report claims he was begging the Queen of Soul.

Franklin “hated” the rise of Trump. Tom Barrack, the chairman of the Presidential Inaugural Committee, was attempting to book Aretha, The Daily Beast reports, writing, ” Trump had long considered the legendary singer a friend, and wanted the offer framed as an opportunity to help bring the country back together after a brutal, bruising presidential election.”

A “source” told The Daily Beast that Franklin said “no amount of money” would persuade her to perform for him at the inauguration. Also, “Another knowledgeable source described her as ‘despising’ everything he stood for, as an avowed Hillary Clinton supporter.”

The Daily Beast said Barrack’s spokesman declined to comment on the story.

Of course this should be no shocker. Unlike Omarosa, Ms. Franklin was able to clearly see who Trump was.
https://newpittsburghcourieronline.com/2018/08/19/trump-was-begging-to-get-aretha-franklin-to-perform-at-his-inauguration-and-her-reported-reaction-was-priceless/

And then Fox News had an epic fail when they posted a picture of Patti LaBelle!

https://twitter.com/BadFoxGraphics/status/1030158341883002881

And then of course there’s Trump’s completely ridiculous plan to create a sixth branch of the government called “Space Force”.

Vice President Pence laid out an ambitious plan Thursday that would begin creating a military command dedicated to space and establish a “Space Force” as the sixth branch of the U.S. military as soon as 2020, the first since the Air Force was formed shortly after World War II.

Pence warned of the advancements that potential adversaries are making and issued what amounted to a call to arms to preserve the military’s dominance in space.

“Just as we’ve done in ages past, the United States will meet the emerging threats on this new battlefield,” he said in a speech at the Pentagon. “The time has come to establish the United States Space Force.”

But the monumental task of standing up a new military department, which would require approval by a Congress that shelved the idea last year, may require significant new spending and a reorganization of the largest bureaucracy in the world. And the idea has already run into fierce opposition inside and outside the Pentagon, particularly from the Air Force, which could lose some of its responsibilities.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/pence-details-plan-for-creation-of-space-force-in-what-would-be-the-sixth-branch-of-the-military/2018/08/09/0b40b8d0-9bdc-11e8-8d5e-c6c594024954_story.html?utm_term=.f723d108096a

Just keep Pence away from the equipment!

It’s like Peter Griffin is in charge!

[font size="8"]September – October
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In the GOP, sexual harassers and serial perverts tend to attract their own kind. Which is why they elected and continue to support Donald J. Trump. We covered extensively last year the #MeToo movement. And they had to go and nominate this fucking guy to judge the highest law in the land, yes, that guy. Brett Kavanaugh. The guy who gave us boofing, the 4F club and of course his bizarre high school calender. Hey if you still have a calendar from high school, you are not a SCOTUS justice, you’re a hoarder.

As multiple accusers have come forward with allegations of sexual misconduct against Supreme Court Justice nominee Brett Kavanaugh, his defenders are taking predictable steps to defend him. They have tried trotting out conservative talking heads to smear Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, Kavanaugh’s initial accuser, as a “troubled” liar (though she first made the allegations to a therapist in 2012 and has since passed a polygraph test administered by a former FBI agent) and a Democratic political operative. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, has called newer allegations by Deborah Ramirez, simply "phony."

Equally predictable has been the defenses related to Kavanaugh’s youth and level of intoxication at the time of the alleged incidents. There seems to be the unfortunate belief among Kavanaugh's defenders that “boys will be boys” and should not be held responsible for their youthful "indiscretions" or crimes.

But most men and boys are not one drink too many away from perpetrating sexual abuse. Anyone who has ever drank alcohol in excess has probably done something they later regretted, but few commit sex crimes. Alcohol doesn’t cause sexual violence; if it did, it should be illegal. Rather, alcohol is often used by predators as a tool against victims and convenient excuse for their actions.
https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/defenses-brett-kavanaugh-s-alleged-sexual-misconduct-expose-double-standards-ncna912691

Oh please, if you think “boys will be boys”, you probably shouldn’t be parents of boys, or parents of girls for that matter. This whole thing just made me angry, the only reason they nominated him was to “own the libs”. But you know what? SCOTUS justices have to side with the constitution, assholes! Oh and if you want to know the state of this country, just look at how we treat sexual harassment victims, like our idiot president did!

President Donald Trump for the first time directly mocked Christine Blasey Ford's testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee by casting doubt on her testimony during a campaign rally.

Before the crowd Tuesday night in Southaven, Mississippi, Trump imitated Ford during her testimony, mocking her for not knowing the answers to questions such as how she had gotten to the high school party where she says Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her.

"I had one beer. Well, do you think it was -- nope, it was one beer," Trump said, mimicking Ford's testimony last week to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

"How did you get home? I don't remember. How'd you get there? I don't remember. Where is the place? I don't remember. How many years ago was it? I don't know."

Trump's comments were met with laughter and applause from the crowd.
"I don't know. I don't know," the President continued. "What neighborhood was it in? I don't know. Where's the house? I don't know. Upstairs, downstairs -- where was it? I don't know -- but I had one beer. That's the only thing I remember."
https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/02/politics/trump-mocks-christine-blasey-ford-kavanaugh-supreme-court/index.html

Yeah that’s kind of how I feel about that one. But we don’t really need to relive that whole bullshit argument, so let’s skip ahead to fun things! Like when Melania went to Africa to promote her “#BeBest” campaign and really showed the kind of shining example she is to promote an anti-bullying campaign!

First lady Melania Trump said in an interview that aired Thursday that she is the most bullied person in the world, which has led her to create her anti-bullying "Be Best" initiative, before softening her comments slightly to say she is one of the most bullied.

"I could say I'm the most bullied person on the world," Trump told ABC News in an interview during her first major solo trip to Africa last week when asked what personally made her want to tackle the issue of cyberbullying.

"You're really the most bullied person in the world?" ABC News' Tom Llamas asked during the exchange.
"One of them, if you really see what people saying about me," Trump said.

Asked how bullying could affect children, including her son Barron, Trump said that is why her initiative is focused on social media and online behavior.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/11/politics/melania-trump-be-best-initiative-bullying/index.html

Womp womp! Oh and then we had one of the absolutely craziest incidents of the year happened that pretty much made us forget about Brett Kavanaugh and boofing. Yes, the MAGABomber. The guy who Bill Maher called “peak Florida” might be one of the dumbest fucking criminals alive. I mean this story was completely insane.

A man arrested on suspicion of being the MAGA bomber has been named as Native American Trump supporter Cesar Sayoc, 56. Sayoc, of Fort Lauderdale, is belived to have been arrested in Plantation, a suburb of Miami, Florida, Friday on suspicion of sending 12 pipe bombs to top Democrats and high-profile figures critical of Donald Trump. Online records show Sayoc has owned companies called Native American Catering & Vending, as well as Proud Native America One Low Price Drycleaning.

Bodybuilder Sayoc is said to have been traced by DNA and phone records, and was flagged as a suspect after making previous terror threats to judges. Meanwhile, photos have emerged of a van linked to Sayoc covered in pro-Trump and anti-Hillary Clinton stickers.

Read more: https://metro.co.uk/2018/10/26/police-seize-van-covered-in-donald-trump-stickers-after-arresting-suspected-maga-bomber-56-8078782/?ito=cbshare

Can we show the van?

I think that van might be held up by the stickers! Which of course the right used to refer to their favorite conspiracy, the false flag. I mean if you listen to these morons, everything is a false flag!

Just hours after the news broke this week that explosive devices had been sent to Bill and Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and other prominent Democrats, a conspiracy theory began to take shape in certain corners of conservative media.

The bombs, this theory went, were not actually part of a plot to harm Democrats, but were a “false flag” operation concocted by leftists in order to paint conservatives as violent radicals ahead of the elections next month.

“These ‘Suspicious Package’ stories are false flags, carefully planned for the midterms,” tweeted Jacob Wohl, a pro-Trump internet troll who writes for Gateway Pundit, a right-wing news site.

By nightfall, as more explosives were discovered addressed to Representative Maxine Waters, a California Democrat, and Eric H. Holder Jr., an attorney general under Mr. Obama, the fact-free explanation had gelled: The bombs were props, planted by Democratic operatives and amplified by a biased liberal media. A woman arrived at a debate between the two candidates for Florida governor, Ron DeSantis and Andrew Gillum, with a sign that read “Democrats Fake News Fake Bombs.” Lou Dobbs, the Fox Business host and confidant of President Trump, echoed that line in a tweet that he later deleted.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/25/business/false-flag-theory-bombs-conservative-media.html

[font size="8"]November – December
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We are almost done with our year end recap everybody! Yeah whew! Come on, I just want to see 30 Seconds To Mars, that’s what this is all about, right? I mean I can see Jared and the guys hanging out backstage! You just have to sit through a little more of my bullshit and then we can call it a year and enjoy the show! But I love this that the republicans just got their asses handed to them in the midterm election. Well we didn’t get the senate but we did take back the house! And Putin’s favorite Congressman got fired!

Dana Rohrabacher, a Republican known for his unapologetic pro-Russia stance, is projected to lose against Democrat Harley Rouda in California's 48th congressional district race.

As a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Rohrabacher has advocated for a better relationship with Russian President Vladimir. He has voted with President Trump nearly 84 percent of the time, according to nonpartisan analysis from FiveThirtyEight. He also has been known to back Trump's stance on immigration.

Rouda, a businessman and lawyer promising to protect health care coverage and reduce gun violence, appeared to take the win Wednesday morning after midnight data showed a near tie between the two candidates. Rouda held over 91,000 votes and Rohrabacher had 89,068.

Democrats won the majority in the House of Representatives as midterm election results finalized. This ends unified Republican rule of Washington and opens the possibility that Trump could be investigated when they take power in January. They could demand Trump’s tax returns, subpoena his Cabinet members and investigate alleged corruption across the executive branch.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2018/11/07/election-results-2018-dana-rohrabacher-harvey-rouda/1917374002/

And then one of my favorite stories of the year has to be the story of Surefire Intelligence. Yes there were two guys who were rabid Trump fans and complete douchebags – 20 year old stock broker wunderkind Jacob Wohl – who was actually banned from the practice due to shady dealings (what a shocker, I know!

), and his business partner Jack Berkman. They tried to use #MeToo as a weapon to take down Robert Mueller, and well, it backfired spectacularly.

Jacob Wohl’s introduction to Washington politics and reporting in the real world—as opposed to the Twitter universe—went sideways on Thursday during a press conference that Wohl attended with conspiracy theorist and lobbyist Jack Burkman.

The pair held their show in a Holiday Inn just across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C. The premise of this press conference was to “present a credible witness” who would accuse Robert Mueller of sexual assault. But any credibility Burkman and Wohl had hoped for was gone before they ever walked into the Rosslyn-area hotel in Arlington, Virginia.

They were scooped on their own story by the Atlantic when the outlet reported that Burkman was behind a scheme to pay women to falsify allegations against Mueller. We even knew the dollar amount that Burkman was offering— $20,000.

Wohl was implicated when it was revealed that he was behind the company, Surefire Intelligence, that had published the official-looking documents outlining the allegations. Surefire’s LinkedIn pages also featured photos of stock models. The profile for an employee in Tel Aviv used a photo of actor Christoph Waltz. The phone numbers listed on Surefire’s website were registered to Wohl’s mother’s name.
https://www.dailydot.com/layer8/jacob-wohl-surefire-intelligence-press-conference/

Thank you Master Yoda! And then we had a huge shakeup in the Trump administration as Tribute Sessions left the wild insanity of the Trump administration and he also had a great sendoff. But yeah the Trump administration has basically become a revolving door and we can expect more Trumper Games stories in the near future! Although I don’t really want to relieve the horror at the border, I do want to show how the Proud Boys imploded!

In a video posted to YouTube on Wednesday, Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes publicly claimed to have quit the far-right group.

The move came two days after the Guardian exclusively revealed that the FBI had categorized the Proud Boys as “an extremist group with ties to white nationalism”, in a briefing to Washington state law enforcement.

In a sometimes rambling video, McInnes referenced the Guardian story and the prosecution of seven group members over a street brawl in New York city in October, as he offered reasons for resigning from the group.

“As of today … I am officially disassociating myself from the Proud Boys,” he began.

Referencing the New York group as the “NYC Nine”, McInnes said: “I am told by my legal team and law enforcement that this gesture could help alleviate their sentencing.”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/nov/22/proud-boys-founder-gavin-mcinnes-quits-far-right-group

And then of course on January 3rd when the new Congress gets to work, I can’t wait to see what is going to happen to Michael Cohen and Paul Manafort. Of course you know Trump only hires “the best people” so what happens when the best people do the best squealing? Well we will find out!

The special counsel Robert Mueller's office has told defense lawyers in recent weeks that it is "tying up loose ends" in the investigation into Russia's interference in the 2016 election and whether members of President Donald Trump's campaign colluded with Moscow, Yahoo News reported Monday.

The news is not entirely unexpected. Last month, CNN reported that the special counsel had begun drafting his final report in the Russia investigation.

And this week, prosecutors are set to file several court documents that could reveal major new details about three key players in the Russia investigation: the former national security adviser Michael Flynn, the former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, and the former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen.

All three men have pleaded guilty and have been cooperating with prosecutors.
https://www.businessinsider.com/mueller-sentencing-memos-manafort-cohen-flynn-2018-12

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By the way if you really want to see Trump’s presidency in action just look at him boarding Air Force One!

And that’s our 2018 year in review everybody!

[font size="8"]Donald Trump
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Yes it’s the segment where we in the comedy profession explain the concept of humor to people who just quite don’t get it. And you know who doesn’t get humor? The guy who we currently call president, Donald J. Trump. Trump has a hate-hate relationship with everyone’s favorite sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live, and you know he’s got a fourth monitor 10 inches from his bed so he can hate-watch the show. And boy that sketch on Saturday Night Live must have really left a mark. If you haven’t seen that sketch go back to the beginning of this edition and watch it again. Because if there’s one thing that really pisses off Donald J. Trump, it’s when he gets trolled. And this sketch trolled him hard, and it is really getting under his skin.

Have you noticed that Saturday Night Live cracks a lot of jokes at Donald Trump’s expense? The president has, several times—decrying Alec Baldwin’s goonish impersonation of him on multiple occasions and, in September, calling the venerated sketch show “a political ad for the Dems.” But on Sunday, as if awakening from an amnesiac slumber, the president became aware of the phenomenon once more. And wouldn’t you know it, he is not amused.

S.N.L. took its last shot at the president for the year in its midseason finale on Saturday, with a spoof on It’s a Wonderful Life in which Baldwin’s bumbling Trump found out what the world would be like, had he never been elected. (Spoiler alert: everyone, including the president himself, would have been better off.) On Sunday, after a weekend of bashing the press and calling attention to any matter of intrigue that was not his former attorney going to prison for three years, the president fired an angry tweet NBC’s way like clockwork.

“A REAL scandal is the one sided coverage, hour by hour, of networks like NBC & Democrat spin machines like Saturday Night Live,” the president wrote. “It is all nothing less than unfair news coverage and Dem commercials. Should be tested in courts, can’t be legal? Only defame & belittle! Collusion?”

The president has fumed over S.N.L.‘s alleged one-sidedness before; back in 2016, soon after his electoral victory, he exploded over an episode of the show before asking, “Equal time for us?” As Baldwin pointed out at the time, that rule only applies to candidates. And Trump also seemed to conveniently forget that he hosted the show himself back in 2015 when he was on the campaign trail—a move that inspired no shortage of outrage on the left. Still, given this administration’s oft-demonstrated disinterest in facts, it’s hard to imagine what else any of us should have expected.
https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2018/12/donald-trump-snl-unfair-should-be-tested-in-courts

To which we say – “good luck with that!”. I mean come on it’s a fucking comedy show, if they’re not mocking your ridiculous behavior 24 hours a day, they’re doing it wrong! Seriously when SNL comes back after the break, they should just mock this mercilessly. And here’s the thing, if Trump thinks SNL is bad, he probably shouldn’t turn on the TV when he goes to Europe!

It’s time for Christmas gifts in Europe, and comedy sketch writers here have rarely considered themselves to be so fortunate. As the continent’s very own Brexit drama is turning into a dark comedy, President Trump is a gift that keeps on giving to satirical shows.

Europe’s star comedians are doing their best to return the favor. Last week, Germany’s top-rated “Heute Show” satirical broadcast awarded Trump its so-called Goldener Vollpfosten (Golden Idiot) award for the fourth-consecutive time — a keenly anticipated decision by the public broadcaster that made its way into the nation’s more serious news outlets. Trump shares this year’s award with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, among others.

Meanwhile, in Brexit-distraught Britain, viewers appeared relieved that things may still look messier in the White House than on 10 Downing Street and picked a Trump joke as their annual favorite. Some 2,000 Brits followed a call for action by British comedy channel Gold and picked the following line as 2018?s most hilarious one: “What does Donald Trump do after he pulls a cracker? Pays her off.” Pulling a cracker, according to Urban Dictionary, is a British “phrase used during the festive season to describe going out with a view to hooking up with an attractive person” — a not-too-subtle reference to the hush money payments by Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2018/12/17/if-trump-doesnt-like-snls-sketches-about-him-he-really-shouldnt-turn-european-tv/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.75f6a50fd4ef

You really know things are fucked up when the Germans get humor and you don’t! NEIN!!! My favorite thing too is that conservatives were whining big time about the fact that Trump is being called an idiot in Google searches, and I think the Germans are on to something here! And here’s the thing, Mr. Trump – we get it! You’re a TV guy! But you don’t have to find literally every mention of your name in the media. You know who does that? Weird Al. And least Weird Al is funny about it, whereas we know you hate-watch SNL. I mean what do you have like a Google alert for every time your name is mentioned in a late night program?

It looks like Donald Trump was not impressed with the way Saturday Night Live lampooned his administration (again) this week.

This week's cold open imagined what Washington might be like right about now if Trump had not won the presidency in 2016, with Alec Baldwin returning to deliver his signature mouth-squinch as the POTUS in the It's a Wonderful Life-themed black-and-white short guided by Kenan Thompson's Clarence the Angel.

The segment features Sarah Huckabee-Sanders (Aidy Bryant) as a PR rep to a slew of other controversial companies, Kellyanne Conway (Kate McKinnon) feeling pretty radiant about the lack of lies in her life, Eric Trump (Alex Moffat) having earned a few new IQ points, Melania Trump (Cecily Strong) as a real estate mogul in her own right, Michael Cohen (Ben Stiller) as a much peppier attorney-slash-fixer who's free to proceed on that Trump Tower Moscow project, Mike Pence (Beck Bennett) enjoying a post-political life as a spirited DJ. After seeing their happiness on parade, NotTrump concludes, "Wow, so everyone is better off without me being president."

The night's host, Matt Damon, also reprised his role as Brett Kavanaugh — only this time, his love of beer and childhood friends named "Squi" is endearing — and, last but not least, Robert De Niro arrived again as Robert Mueller, who was happy to have so much more time to spend with his grandson in retirement.
https://www.tvguide.com/news/donald-trump-reacts-to-saturday-night-live/

Yeah probably! And you know you’re thin skinned when John Legend’s wife Chrissy Tegen can shut you down with just 3 words. Can we show that tweet?

https://twitter.com/chrissyteigen/status/1074326877261578240

Someone call the burn ward because you just got burned! I mean for the party that loves to rail on snowflakes, they sure are a bunch of snowflakes aren’t they? Really no one is more thin skinned than the white Christian conservative. But the day you can have my late night sketch comedy is the day you pry it from my cold dead hands, OK?

CNN’s Alisyn Camerota is serious about her political comedy.

After Saturday Night Live opened its final show of 2018 this weekend with an It’s a Wonderful Life parody that imagined a world in which Donald Trump was never elected president, the actual president of the United States tweeted, “A REAL scandal is the one sided coverage, hour by hour, of networks like NBC & Democrat spin machines like Saturday Night Live.”

“It is all nothing less than unfair news coverage and Dem commercials,” Trump added. “Should be tested in courts, can’t be legal? Only defame & belittle! Collusion?”

As her co-anchor John Berman read that “official statement” aloud to New Day viewers on Monday morning, Camerota interrupted to him to point out that SNL is “actually not news,” it’s a “comedy show.”
https://www.thedailybeast.com/cnn-goes-off-on-trump-for-snl-tweet-do-not-mess-with-our-comedy

[font size="8"]Holy Shit
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Gather around, my fair brothers and sisters, it’s time to take a seat in the pew and pass the collection plate! For the Holy Church of the Top 10 has convened and it’s our weekly duty to remind you why the holiest among us are also the most full of:

My fair congregation! This is the last week of the year for us, we are going to take the holy high holidays off and come back next year rested and refreshed and ready to take on all the batshit being flung at us by our brothers and sisters on the right! But… before we go, we are going to look back on the year that was because they were up to their usual bag of tricks. Of course you know there has been an ongoing war between those in the spiritual world who support the unholy, ungodly Dark One – whose name shall not be mentioned in my church – and those that do! They even made a movie about it!

Mark Taylor is sure he knows why Donald Trump became president.

Forget Hillary hatred, white anger, Russian interference or voter turnout. Trump’s victory was God’s will, said Taylor. Taylor said he knows this because God told him so.

In 2011, while watching an interview with Trump on TV, Taylor says he heard a voice saying, “The Spirit of God says I’ve chosen this man, Donald Trump, for such a time as this.”

And the Almighty is just getting started, said Taylor, a former firefighter who has published 23 “prophetic words,” many about Trump’s presidency.

The presidential prediction is detailed in “The Trump Prophecy,” a new film produced with the help of faculty and students at Liberty University — some of whom later rejected its message — that will be shown in some 1,200 theaters on Oct. 2 and 4.
https://www.sltrib.com/religion/2018/09/25/new-trump-prophecy-film/

I mean really, I love that the Christian right has a guy who thinks he’s a firefighter, a guy who thinks he’s a coach, and a guy who thinks he’s a sea captain. Really, they’re only a Native American chief short of the Village People! But you know this is also the year that the uber religious opened their own theme park!

Northern Kentucky's Noah's Ark replica attracted one million visitors during its second year of operation, officials said.

Answers in Genesis (AIG), which owns the Ark Encounter and the Creation Museum, reported a 20 percent jump in attendance year over year for the ark.

The structure, literally of Biblical proportions, opened to the public in July 2016 and drew about drew over 1 million visitors to Williamstown during its first year of operation as well. Answers in Genesis initially projected 1.2 million would attend.

By most accounts, the ark draws more visitors than its sister attraction. AIG does not release yearly attendance numbers for the Creation Museum, according to spokeswoman Melany Ethridge, however, organization leaders said in 2016 they were hoping the museum would draw 600,000 that year.

New additions are planned for the Ark Encounter grounds including the Answers Center, more zoo space, restaurants and a children's play area. The center will house a 2,500-seat auditorium and a 36,000-square foot basement with classrooms.
https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2018/07/05/ark-encounter-reports-1-million-visitors-2nd-year/759704002/

Yes so there is a giant ark and it’s quite possibly the worst theme park ever. But then of course I love delving into the world of conspiracy theories and there were quite a lot of them in this administration from the get go, but then they combine their street preaching and reckless conspiracy theories into a fight club known as Patriot Prayer. I mean that just sounds horrible doesn’t it?

Fresh off another violent street brawl in Portland, Patriot Prayer is planning a pair of college campus visits to talk about guns -- but now is turning its attention to its home turf of Clark County.

Members of the right-wing group plan to be at Clark College on Oct. 22 and Washington State University Vancouver the next day to protest a state ballot initiative that would raise the minimum age of semi-automatic rifle purchasers to 21 from 18.

Joey Gibson, a Vancouver resident and Patriot Prayer's leader, said about three dozen supporters will hand out fliers encouraging students to oppose Initiative 1639, which would also impose a 10-day waiting period for semi-automatic purchases and require buyers to take firearms training.

Several campus groups at WSU Vancouver this week published an open letter to urge students and faculty not to attend class during Patriot Prayer's visit, citing the group's propensity for physical confrontations and its history of drawing white nationalists and other controversial participants to its events, The Columbian reported.

Clark College spokeswoman Hannah Erickson told the paper the school also had concerns about the group coming to its campus, which Gibson dismissed.

"They're not going to stop us talking to students. It's not going to happen," he told The Columbian, adding that Initiative 1639 was "fascist."
https://www.oregonlive.com/clark-county/index.ssf/2018/10/patriot_prayer_fresh_off_wild.html

Yes, my constituents! Nothing says JAYSUS like a pep talk from a fight club about guns! I mean really who is he kidding? I’ve read our good book cover to cover and I don’t remember any passage where JAYSUS told his disciples that it is better to shoot first and ask questions later! And speaking of shooting first and asking questions later, is it any wonder that they love the apocalypse?

Intercessors for America, the pro-Trump group that has been mobilizing its prayer warriors to help elect “godly” candidates in the 2018 midterms, has bumped up the frequency of its monthly prayer calls and will be holding them every week between now and the election. Rep. Jody Hice of Georgia was the featured guest on last Friday’s call.

IFA’s Dave Kubal described this year’s elections as the most important ever, and called Hice “one of my favorite Congressmen.” Hice returned the favor, saying that intercessory prayer activists are “the most important group in America right now.” He said that the “evidence of intercession is abundant in ways we cannot even fathom,” citing as examples the election of Trump and his ability to name Supreme Court justices, and the prayer meetings and Bible studies happening “all over the place” in Washington and at the U.N. and the Pentagon.

Hice warned that if Democrats take the House, they would immediately “begin pursuing impeachment, be it against President Trump or Chief Justice Kavanaugh [sic].” Under Democratic control, he said, taxes would rise, the military would “suffer,” there would be more sanctuary cities and less border protection, and religious freedom would be threatened.

Asked about pundits giving Democrats a 75 percent chance of winning a House majority, Hice noted that the same pundits had given Hillary Clinton a greater than 90 percent chance of winning the presidency in 2016. Hice took comfort in the fact that Trump moved the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem because God said that He would bless those who bless Israel.
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/rep-jody-hice-midterms-are-spiritual-battle-johnson-amendment-must-be-repealed-this-year/

Because impeaching the DARK ONE will lead directly to the apocalypse! You know I’ve seen this sort of movie before. It starts with impeachment and ends with nuclear hellfire! Yes because that’s what we need living under an unstable, unhinged lunatic with easy access to nuclear weapons – reason for him to use them! Can I get an amen???? But is it any wonder why supports of the Dark One – whose name shall not be spoken in my church - are losing if this is the kind of bullshit that we have to put up with? And yes, it is OK to swear in my church!

Last night, right-wing “journalist” and Trump–worshiping conspiracy theorist Liz Crokin posted a get-out-the-vote video on YouTube in which she asserted that a vote cast for any Democratic candidate in the midterm elections is a vote in support of the rape, torture, and murder of children.

“Tomorrow’s election boils down to whether or not you support the rape, torture, trafficking, and murdering of children, period,” she said. “Yes, it literally is that black and white. It is literally that simple.”

“The Democratic Party is the party of child sex trafficking,” Crokin continued. “Their policies—sanctuary cities, the border wall, the caravan crisis, the refugee crisis—these are all covers, people, to traffic children. Period! Tomorrow boils down to whether you support the trafficking of children or not. Period! I cannot stress this enough.”

“The members of Congress who are Democrats are tied into child sex trafficking in one way, shape, or form,” she added. “Whether they are directly trafficking kids themselves and raping kids and torturing kids themselves, or whether they are profiting off of it, or if they’re blackmailed, it doesn’t matter. That party’s polices encourages and fosters and enables child sex trafficking and many of the Demon-crats are directly running child sex trafficking rings, period.”

“If you are finding this video and seeing this video right now and you are undecided, there is a reason for that,” Crokin said. “God is calling you to the polls. And let me tell you, if you are not okay with children being raped, tortured, and trafficked, then you need to vote red all the way down the line. Period!”
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/liz-crokin-voting-democrat-is-a-vote-for-the-rape-torture-and-murder-of-children/

Sadly we’re going to have to put up with more of that shit next year, but just be remembered that this is how the Dark One lost! Can I get an amen??? There you go, mass has ended, may you go in peace! That’s it this year for:

[font size="8"]People Are Dumb
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Hit it!

Of course you know by now that people are people and people are dumb. We’re almost at the end of the year and it’s time to look back on all the incredibly stupid people that we’ve found over the last year that was 2018. So where do we start? Well I want to start with what might be the dumbest story of the decade. Shit, maybe one of the dumbest stories of the century. Yeah there’s nothing at all that will ever top this one. So what story is it? Yup it’s the border patrol agent who was holding a gender reveal party and turned a hundred acres of brush into one of the largest fires in Arizona history!

When Dennis Dickey, a United States Border Patrol agent from Arizona, fired at a target filled with colorful powder, he was expecting to learn the gender of his future child, his lawyer said.

Instead, the target erupted and sparked a fire that consumed more than 45,000 acres of land and resulted in more than $8 million in damages, the United States attorney’s office for Arizona said.

On Friday, Mr. Dickey pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor violation of United States Forest Service regulations for igniting what became known as the Sawmill Fire, which started on April 23, 2017, and had nearly 800 firefighters battling it for about a week.

The fire began while Mr. Dickey was off duty near Green Valley, Ariz., about 26 miles south of Tucson, to celebrate his wife’s pregnancy, his lawyer, Sean Chapman, told The Arizona Daily Star.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/01/us/gender-reveal-arizona-fire.html

You know it’s really going to be hard to pick the dumbest stories of the year because there were a lot of very strong contenders. Well one of my favorites was out of New Hampshire where a guy took the “judgement free zone” policy of gym chain Planet Fitness just a little too literally.

A Haverhill man who stripped naked and did yoga poses in a crowded Planet Fitness over the weekend learned the limits of the gym chain’s “judgement-free” philosophy.

Eric Stagno, 34, was arrested at the Planet Fitness in Plaistow, N.H., shortly after 1:30 p.m. on Sunday, according to police Captain Brett Morgan.

“When officers arrived, they found him there, completely nude: on his knees in a yoga-type position,” Morgan said. “He walked into the gym, stripped down at the door, then proceeded to walk back and forth a couple of times before settling in on the yoga mats.”

The gym was fairly crowded at the time, but Stagno kept to himself, Morgan said. He checked himself out in the mirror and made his way over to the yoga mats, seemingly unaware that those around him were perturbed.
https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2018/07/23/haverhill-man-strips-naked-crowded-planet-fitness/eEPggW9BW8zE5EI1pzexbL/story.html?refresh=true&s_campaign=bostonglobe%3Asocialflow%3Atwitter

Yup, that happened! Don’t judge me!!!! Don’t judge me!!!! It’s a judgement free zone!!! And of course we can’t talk about stupid people without mentioning America’s most penis shaped state – Florida, a lot of stupid and batshit crazy out of that state. For instance one of my favorite stories this year was the guy who got who took the phrase “get off my lawn” just a little too literally:

You know a neighbors’ spat is no longer neighborly when chainsaws get involved.

That’s what happened in Pasco County when two men got into a dispute over the shrubs between their houses last week. It ended with one of them needing surgery to repair severed tendons in his hand, WFLA reported.

The man with the chainsaw was Gregory Landaker, 70, of Land O’ Lakes, who was cutting shrubs on the property line he shares with Jeffrey Zlocki.

When Zlocki noticed what was going on, he went out and hugged “his bushes,” according to the sheriff’s office report.

That apparently didn’t deter Landaker, who continued sawing away. The chainsaw struck Zlocki in his left hand, and he was taken to Tampa General Hospital.

It wasn’t quite the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, but blood definitely flowed.
https://www.orlandosentinel.com/opinion/audience/david-whitley/os-ae-florida-man-chainsaw-attack-david-whitley-0911-story.html#

And then of course I love stupid criminal stories and the stupider the better. One of my favorite stupid criminal stories this year was the story of the cheerleader who was nominated for homecoming queen and then got busted for trying to bribe potential voters with pot brownies!

A 17-year-old cheerleader at a Michigan high school is accused of giving pot brownies to fellow students in hopes they'd vote for her as homecoming queen.

The student, now the subject of a criminal investigation, allegedly brought 12 marijuana-laced brownies to Hartford High School on September 26, authorities say.

Hartford patrolman Michael Prince, who is investigating the incident, told WWMT-TV that some of the brownies, nine of which are unaccounted for, were given to football players in "goody bags" as a way to campaign for homecoming queen.

In a letter sent home to parents, Hartford Public Schools said they were contacted by state police following an anonymous tip that students were eating pot brownies at the school. The school confirmed the report and involved students "are being dealt with" according to district policies and student handbooks, superintendent Andrew Hubbard said in a statement.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2018/10/04/student-trades-pot-brownies-homecoming-queen-votes-police/1520263002/

And then finally this year for people are dumb – another one of my favorite stories, this time out of Fresno – you know the hometown of one of Putin’s favorite Congressmen – Devin Nunes! You know here’s the thing – we all hate spiders. But you know what you don’t do with them? Kill them with a blow torch!!

A house caught on fire after a man tried to kill spiders and get rid of webs, according to a fire department.

Fresno firefighters said the man was house sitting for his parents and used a blowtorch against black widows, KFSN-TV reported.

Fire department spokesman Capt. Robert Castillo said the man used the open flame outdoors, starting at a brick veneer section of the approximately 4,000-square-foot home. He eventually noticed smoke coming from the attic.

Fire trucks inundated a street by the home Tuesday night. About 27 firefighters responded.

It caused an estimated $10,000 in damage.
https://www.ketv.com/article/house-catches-on-fire-after-man-sought-to-kill-spiders-fire-department-says/24187383?utm_campaign=KETV&utm_content=5bd1cca004d3010b17a766f5&utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=trueAnthem:+New+Content

That’s it this year for:

[font size="8"]Deep State Diaries Episode 24: The Internal Revenue Service
[br] [/font] [br]

It’s time for episode 24 of Deep State Diaries. Yes we’re touring the 24 branches and services that make up the United States government. Everything from the FBI to the IRS to the Pentagon to the CIA to the DPW to the DVA to parks and recreation and all branches and services in between. Of course if you’re here you probably already know more about our government and how it works than your average Fox News loving Trump supporter does. So that’s what this segment is going to address. We are going to do a deep dive into all that makes the United States the United States. Because we here at the Top 10 love to educate as well as entertain. Because we care.

[font size="6"]The Internal Revenue Service[/font]

Well there’s two things that are inevitable – death and taxes. Yes, for our last edition of this year we have decided that we are going to tackle one of this country’s most hated institutions. The Internal Revenue Service. And you might be thinking that facing an actual IRS auditor is the absolute worst thing in the world. But you know what? It really isn’t, after all, they are just here to help, like the Baymax robot in Big Hero 6. So what does the IRS do on an actual day to day basis? Well they mainly assist with checks, balances, and fraud. Of which there currently is a *LOT* of fraud. And things like, well, your paycheck are on the line. Especially if this happens!

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is warning about an uptick in phishing emails involving payroll direct deposit, wire transfer, and W-2 scams. The emails, which are primarily targeted to businesses, are not limited to a particular industry or employer though the IRS has received reports that tax preparers are among those affected.

Here’s how they typically work. The emails generally impersonate a real company employee, often an executive, and are sent to payroll or human resources (HR) personnel. The email asks the payroll or HR department to change the employee’s deposit for payroll purposes and provides a new bank account and routing number which, of course, leads to a bogus account operated by the scammer. By the time the deception has been discovered, the employee has lost one or two payroll deposits.

In another version, the emails impersonate a company executive and are directed to the company employee responsible for wire transfers. The email requests that a wire transfer be made to a bank account for company purposes, but is actually controlled by the scammer.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/kellyphillipserb/2018/12/17/irs-warns-about-fake-payroll-direct-deposit-wire-transfer-and-w-2-scam-emails/#5e5dde9c18a4

Yeah so the next time that you think you might be ripped off or a fraudster goes after your paycheck, thank the IRS! But people love to hate on the IRS, just ask the “Church” of Scientology! But you know too, what does the IRS think about a burgeoning industry that could soon be taxed and regulated? Yes, that industry!

The federal tax treatment of state-legal marijuana businesses makes no sense. As I used to tell staff who made "no sense" comments - That's not a requirement. That is the basis of Reilly's First Law of Tax Planning - It is what it is. Deal with it.

The problem is created by Code Section 280E

No deduction or credit shall be allowed for any amount paid or incurred during the taxable year in carrying on any trade or business if such trade or business (or the activities which comprise such trade or business) consists of trafficking in controlled substances (within the meaning of schedule I and II of the Controlled Substances Act) which is prohibited by Federal law or the law of any State in which such trade or business is conducted

Here is the schedule and you can see Marihuana and Marihuana Extract on Page 10. (Apparently spelling it with an "h" rather than a "j" was a thing back in the Reefer Madness days.)
https://www.forbes.com/sites/peterjreilly/2018/12/17/irs-and-marihuana-reefer-madness-tax-court-harborside-decision/#6a81288a1610

I think the funniest thing about that clip is Krusty having to read that clip. But you know the IRS has rules for everything. But yeah, it’s funny how Trumpers are going insane about people crossing the border illegally, but they have absolutely no problems cheating on their taxes! So what happens when you get caught?

A Rockford man was indicted Tuesday by a federal grand jury on charges of federal tax fraud and interfering with internal revenue laws.

Michael Mendoza, 31, faces sixteen counts of making false claims on Internal Revenue Service.

Mendoza allegedly claimed tax refunds worth $356,844 that he was not entitled to between 2014 and 2016. According to the indictment, he allegedly made false representations on wages, income tax amounts, and withholding amounts.

Per the indictment, Mendoza electronically filed federal income tax returns for himself and in the names of other persons, causing refunds claimed to be deposited into bank accounts he owned and controlled.

Mendoza faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine for each charge of a false IRS claim. He faces an additional three years in prison for attempting to interfere with the IRS administration.
https://www.wifr.com/content/news/Rockford-man-indicted-for-tax-fraud-interfering-with-IRS-503068931.html

Yeah so if you do get audited don’t be like Peter. And by the way, you should be thanking the IRS for protecting you from some hardcore scamming, not trying to destroy them. And yes if it can happen to me, it can happen to you or to anyone.

This Christmas season, the agency is speaking out about the scam and warning people not to fall victim.

IRS Spokesperson Clay Sanford said, "It happens to someone, probably once a week, somewhere." Sanford adds that many scammers pretending to be IRS employees make up fake badge numbers and even use threatening language. "They may already know something about you they may have done their homework ... we don't ask for bank account information we certainly won't threaten to put you in jail," he said.

Some of the callers even demand you pay them with gift cards. Sanford said, "We've seen scams wanting them to pay with iTunes gift cards. People have actually done this." If this happens to you, the IRS said hang up the phone and report it to the Inspector General at www.tigta.gov.

Sanford adds, it is highly unlikely you'll ever actually receive a call from the IRS. "It's not out of the realm of possibility to get a call from the IRS, we generally don't call people and ask for things like social security numbers," he said. Sanford says the main method of communication used by the IRS is the U.S. Postal Service. "It would probably be only when several mailed notices have gone ignored, that you might get an actual phone call from the IRS," he said.
https://www.myarklamiss.com/news/local-news/irs-don-t-fall-victim-to-scammers/1663511714

[font size="6"]Score Card [/font]

Overall importance: A
How Things Are Going: C-
Likely hood To Survive: C+

Overall: B-

[font size="6"]Next Week [/font]

There is no next week, but when we come back on January 9th we’re going to take a look at the Department Of The Interior! Which is going just swimmingly from what I’ve heard!

[font size="8"]And Now This:[/font]
[font size="8”]30 Seconds To Mars[/font]

Ladies and gentlemen we have saved one of the best for last, I am super excited to have my next guest on, they have a new album called “America”. No tour dates yet but we will let you know. Playing their song called “Dangerous Night”, let’s give it up for 30 Seconds To Mars!!!!

Thank you very much everybody! This is the season finale for the Top 10! I want to thank my staff, my crew, my fans, everyone who has been keeping the Top 10 going throughout this crazy year. I also want to thank all my hosts, you were great! We will be taking a much deserved break, we’ll be back on January 9th, 2019 with a new edition live from Portland! See you next year!

Credits

Host: Initech
Top 10 Conservative Idiots Recorded In Front Of Live Audience At: UCB Theater Franklin St, Hollywood, CA
Special Thanks To: UCB Theater Management
Holy Shit Gospel Choir: UCLA Gospel Choir, Westwood
Images: All images copyright belongs to respective copyright holders.
Videos: All videos copyright belongs to respective copyright holders
Articles: All article content copyright belongs to respective copyright holders
Writing: Top 10 Writing Department
Graphics: Top 10 Graphics Department
Research: Top 10 Research Department
Lighting & Stage Props: Top 10 Lighting Department
Legal: Top 10 Legal Department
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HR: Top 10 Human Resources Department
Initech’s Wardrobe Provided By: JAB Inc.
Wheel Of Corruption By: Studio 1 Stage Props, Burbank, CA
30 Seconds To Mars Appear Courtesy Of:
Management: Initech Productions, CCC Management
Follow The Top 10 On Twitter at: @10Idiots
Questions? Comments? Complaints? Hate mail? E-mail The Top 10 at: Top10ConIdiots@gmail.com

Initech Productions: Yes, We Got The Memo

December 12, 2018

Top 10 Conservative Idiots #5-23: Anarchy In The UK For Real Edition

Top 10 Conservative Idiots #5-23: Anarchy In The UK For Real Edition

Welcome back to the Top 10 Conservative Idiots!! What’s up London???? We made it! We are here! I mean whew!!! And man did we pick the right week to visit London or what? So why do a British themed edition you might ask? Well back in June when we were first planning our road shows we were really impressed with how much you hate Trump by protesting his visit to the UK. I mean you hate him! You really hate him! And people thought I was crazy to plan a UK show in London in December, but hey we’ve got a staff and crew and $400 flights on British Airways is pretty tempting don’t you think? We got time for the thing? Sure. So we here at the Top 10 like to point out that perfect gift for that special someone. And rapper Soulja Boy has just the perfect gift for you at the last minute. Yes if you haven’t heard by now, he’s hawking very cheap, questionable quality electronics from China and Russia and passing them off as his own. But wait here’s more! Let’s roll tape! Yes, for $20 – and what says “quality” more than a $20 smartwatch that you can get shipped from China or Russia? That’s basically nothing more than just an Apple watch that’s been remanufactured about 100 times. And then for $10 you can get Souljapods – basically just cheap knock offs of the Apple pods. Or for $160 you can get the Souljapad which is a cheap Android tablet. And then there’s the SouljaGame Console and SouljaGame Handheld – both of which come with “800 games”. Sure. If you want to believe that. I mean this is really some Krusty The Klown level territory here. OK that’s enough of the intro this week, we got a lot of idiocy to get to for our Big British Special. But first SNL Weekend Update from this weekend was hilarious and well, you have to see it:

So where do we begin for our big British special? Well to start with we’re going to get you up to speed on the latest happenings in Brexit (1). Yeah it’s a hot mess and we will do our best to sort out all the madness. But in the second slot, UK journalists are having some fun coming up with post-Brexit scenarios (2) and hey, the Sex Pistols were right – we could see Anarchy In The UK for real this time! In the third slot this week we’ve got to talk about some stuff that happened back home with the death of president George HW Bush (3) and Trump basically got the cold shoulder at his funeral. In the fourth slot this week is Facebook, Twitter And Youtube (4), and conservatives *STILL* think that social media sites are biased against them and well their latest attempt to hammer that point home is the stuff of insanity! In the number 5 slot this week is our weekly investigative piece Top 10 Investigates (5) and this week we’re going to revisit an old topic – cell phone spying, and it’s been made even more relevant now that the CEO of Huawei was arrested in Vancouver for espionage. What’s really going on here? At the number 6 slot is our weekly visit to the Holy Church Of The Top 10 in Holy Shit (6) and this week the Christian right is up to its’ usual bag of tricks and while Jewish people are celebrating Chanukah this week, they plan on crashing the party! And it is quite insane. For the seventh slot this week we’ve got a new edition of “Beating A Dead Horse” and we’re going to explore offensive song lyrics – is it finally time to retire the classic Christmas song Baby It’s Cold Outside? We’ll let you be the judge! For the 8th slot this week we’ve got a new segment – “What’s Up With The Royal Family”? Because the Royal Family, like all families, is straight up crazy and we’ll profile some juicy bits for you all! And in the number 9 (NEIN!!!) slot this week we’ve got a new version of one of my favorite segments – “I Need A Drink” and this week we’re going to a very New York City event – Santa Con! Yes, it’s the annual Santa Con convention and like most times when you mix booze and a theme, what could possibly go wrong? Everything! And finally this week for our big British special we’ve got a new installment of our ongoing series that explains how government works to your conspiracy theorist friends and neighbors, Deep State Diaries (10) and this week we’re going to explore a very British branch of the government – MI-6! That’s James Bond’s employers don’t you know? Plus we’ve got some live music from Slash! Enjoy! And as always don’t forget the key!

[div style="padding: 20px; background-color: #ffffff; border-radius: 10px; box-shadow: 0px 2px 4px 1px #aaa;"][div style="font-family: arial, helvetica; font-weight: bold; border-bottom: 1px dotted #999; padding-bottom: 8px;"]

[font size="8"]Brexit
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So you might be asking why are we doing a special British edition of the Top 10? When we were planning to do the Top 10 live was right around the time of Trump’s visit to the UK. Well we contacted the UK Liberal Democratic party after Trump’s visit and they said that if we could fill up a club we could easily come over here. Well, we did. With that out of the way, we got to talk some Brexit. It’s been in the news a lot. And for all the wrong reasons. The BBC and the press are saying that Thresa May is entering into uncharted territory here. Well, I got news for ya. We’ve been in uncharted territory since the day the Brexit vote went down. I mean who knew that a hostile foreign power was looking to upend the world’s democracies and replace them with true fascist dictatorships? Well…

More than a year and a half ago, British Prime Minister Theresa May invoked Article 50 of the treaty that established the European Union, declaring the U.K.'s intention to become the first member to leave the international bloc. At the time, the move seemed to be a crossing of the Rubicon, an indelible step toward departure.

Now, the EU's highest court says the U.K. can cross back if it wants.

The Court of Justice of the European Union ruled Monday that the U.K. is allowed to reverse its decision to notify the EU of its intent to leave — and to do so entirely on its own, without the consent of the bloc's other member states.

That window for the U.K. is open so long as it hasn't implemented a final Brexit agreement with the EU — and would remain open until Article 50 was due to take effect on March 29, 2019.
https://www.npr.org/2018/12/10/675230990/u-k-can-still-back-out-of-brexit-if-it-wants-top-eu-court-rules

We can already picture that Putin is doing that in his bunker at the Kremlin somewhere. So what does this deal mean that May invoked article 50 of the treaty? Well in my efforts to understand the Brexit situation, well, shit, I’m going to be honest – I don’t understand this situation. I don’t think anybody can understand it. Calling it a category 5 shit storm is an understatement. It’s easily a category 7 or maybe an 8. But understand that the shit has already hit the fan!

Image copyright Reuters

It is not possible to renegotiate the Irish border backstop proposal without "opening up all aspects" of the Brexit withdrawal agreement, the Irish prime minister has said.

Leo Varadkar was speaking shortly before it was confirmed that Tuesday's vote on the deal has been called off.

The DUP deputy leader Nigel Dodds said the delay was a "humiliation" Theresa May had brought on herself.

The prime minister has said she will seek extra assurances on the backstop.

It comes as the European Court of Justice ruled the UK can cancel Brexit without the permission of the other 27 EU members.

Mrs May made a statement to MPs in the Commons on Monday afternoon, and said she had listened to "widespread and deep concerns" from MPs about the backstop.

It is the insurance policy aimed at avoiding a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland after Brexit.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-46468409

Yeah clean that up! So what’s the smoking gun here? Or as Trump called it “smocking gun”? Well, a lot has been happening in the last week on this and we will do our best to try to understand it. But as I said if we can’t understand it, no one can, and I’m almost certain that Parliament will make a much bigger mess out of this than it needs to be! I mean couldn’t they just reverse the vote?

The European Union’s top court has found that the EU treaties do allow the UK unilaterally to change its mind and to withdraw its Article 50 application to leave the European Union.

The Luxembourg-based Court of Justice of the European Union delivered an unusually “expedited” decision on a question forwarded by a Scottish court at the request of a number of MSPs, MPs and MEPs. They sought to challenge the idea that the Article 50 application by the UK was irrevocable unless supported by all the remaining member states.

In Monday’s judgment, the full court has ruled that when a member state has notified the European Council of its intention to withdraw from the European Union, that member state is free to revoke unilaterally that notification.

That possibility exists for as long as a withdrawal agreement concluded between the EU and that member state has not entered into force or, if no such agreement has been concluded, for as long as the two-year period from the date of the notification of the intention to withdraw from the EU, and any possible extension, has not expired.
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/europe/brexit-uk-can-revoke-article-50-european-court-rules-1.3726021

Wait, so they can simply cancel the vote? That’s genius! Why couldn’t we have done that? Yeah let’s elect a completely unhinged billionaire real estate developer as president! What could go wrong? Oh and let’s allow the people to vote on whether or not the UK can leave the EU! What could go wrong? Well a whole lot apparently!

Underneath this country’s worst political crisis in 80 years and the Westminster drama that looks set to reach a crescendo lie deep cultural and attitudinal divisions that will sit at the core of this country for decades to come. For millions of people, a basic stance on Brexit runs much deeper than any affinity they might feel with a political party: recent work by the psephologist John Curtice found that 77% of us identify with either side of the debate to a strong extent, as against only 37% who feel a similar allegiance to a party, with the respective figures for “very strong” put at 44% and a miserable 9%. This is not a country essentially split between Labourites and Tories: we are now either leavers or remainers, with large swathes of each camp motivated by boiling passions.

Obviously, the Brexit divide is only symptomatic of even more fundamental differences. Not long after the referendum, it was no great surprise to read that how voters felt about Europe slotted into their opinions on multiculturalism, social liberalism, the internet, globalisation and immigration; nor that such factors as age, class and education had been central to how people voted. Indeed, when I was out on the road during the campaign, it felt as if an even simpler question would decide the outcome: whether your view of the globalist, liberal future into which the country seemed to be inevitably heading was optimistic, or whether prejudice or a pessimism rooted in deep economic insecurity (or both) had pushed you to the opposite conclusion.

Now, it would be foolish to pretend that millions of people aren’t contradictory bundles of both sets of views. Moreover, in the sense that pre-Brexit electoral politics often meant that the two main parties had to aim at bringing very different voters together in order to win elections, the gaps between large parts of the electorate were constantly smoothed over. The grim political perfection of Brexit, by contrast, was that it represented a convulsive argument about a package of stuff that went straight to the heart of all of these tensions, and decisively pushed people one way or the other. This was David Cameron’s unforgivable oversight. What had been bubbling away for decades therefore exploded – and, in the manner of a political combustion engine, is now doing so again and again.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/dec/10/brexit-divides-tensions-political-vote

Yes, we don’t either. And this whole thing is beyond stupid made even worse by a PM who may or may not be on Putin’s payroll. Well we say that because Putin is responsible for pretty much everything horrible that’s been happening. Yeah really let’s just ask the guy who came up with the word “Brexit”:

Peter Wilding, the chairman of British Influence, invented the word Brexit.

He claims he is "neither a 'phile' nor a 'phobe', just a realist campaigning for British Influence in Europe".

Here, Mr Wilding explains the origins of Brexit, which he describes as a "sad word," and why he's not pleased it caught on.

Have you ever won a prize you didn't want?

On the day I handed in my notice as Europe Director for BSkyB to fight for Britain to take back control of Europe through my think-tank, British Influence, I wrote an article saying:

"Unless a clear view is pushed that Britain must lead in Europe at the very least to achieve the completion of the single market then the portmanteau for Greek euro exit might be followed by another sad word, Brexit."
https://news.sky.com/story/brexits-my-fault-how-the-word-i-invented-could-be-an-epitaph-for-the-nations-decline-11576816

[font size="8"]Post Brexit Scenarios
[br] [/font] [br]

We need some music for this one!

Brexit is a category 5 shit storm. But let’s say that it’s a storm of a category that hasn’t even been invented yet. And the UK is basically in a pickle about what to do. It’s literally a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” scenario, and there’s plenty of ways that it could go, and they all seem very horrible. I mean the Sex Pistols weren’t wrong – we could be witnessing anarchy in the UK. For real this time!

The EU Withdrawal Act, passed by Parliament in June, sets out some rules. The government would have to produce a new plan of action within 21 days and then allow a further vote within another seven sitting days in the House of Commons.

However, the government could act much more quickly than that. And it's possible that political events would transform the situation.

There are a number of possible outcomes if MPs fail to back the deal - but here are six of the most likely ones:

no deal
a second vote on a deal
a major renegotiation
a general election
a vote of no confidence
another referendum

Following a government defeat in the Commons last week, MPs would now have more say in proposing alternatives to any plan of action - but these would still have to be put into law by the government.

The European Court of Justice has ruled that it would be legal for the UK to unilaterally revoke Article 50 to cancel Brexit (without the need for agreement from the other 27 EU countries).

With the government still committed to Brexit, it's very likely that a major event such as a further referendum.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-46393399

No we are not kidding you. So what could go down? It’s literally the angel and the devil on Theresa May’s shoulder right now and I’m sure they’re engaged in a political battle! Because I mean really who isn’t these days? I mean you know they’re worse off for this right? Even I could have told you that and I’m just an armchair comedian!

Governments don't usually say their policies will leave the economy worse off, but these are not normal times for Theresa May.

As the U.K. prime minister attempts to sell her Brexit deal agreed Sunday in Brussels to MPs at home, her government produced analysis showing all Brexit scenarios would hurt the economy but the impact of leaving under May's plans would be significantly less than exiting with no agreement at all.

The government analysis was echoed later in the day by a separate report from the Bank of England, which warned economic output in the U.K. could drop by as much as 8 percent if Britain drops out of the EU without a deal in place, compared to expectations had the U.K. stayed in. That compares to a 6.25 percent drop during the 2008 financial crisis.

May defended her government at her weekly question-and-answer session in the House of Commons, saying that her deal is the best available to protect the economy and "honor" the 2016 EU referendum result. She was met with widespread criticism, both from the Labour opposition, who dubbed her plan the "worst of all worlds," and from Brexiteers, who questioned the validity of the reports' assumptions.
https://www.politico.eu/article/best-case-brexit-scenario-means-2-5-percent-hit-to-uk-growth-over-15-years/

Yeah that’s kind of what we are doing right now! Seriously calling this a “clusterfuck” really is only beginning to state it. Even calling it a “colossal fuck up” isn’t really putting it correctly. Hell I think the only proper way to describe it is to come up with a string of profanities that haven’t even been invented yet! Or as they say in the movie “Animal House” – the words are so profound and disgusting that the decorum prohibits me from listing them here. So let’s go through a couple of these scenarios:

1. MPs vote in favour of the deal

This is possibly the easiest outcome in terms of pushing forward with Brexit, but the hardest to obtain, given the sheer number of Conservative MPs who have said they will vote against the deal. A vote in favour would give the prime minister the power to tell the EU that the deal has been ratified by parliament.

But the government would still need to pass a hefty amount of legislation as the Brexit process continues. This would begin with the EU (Withdrawal Agreement) Bill – a piece of legislation which the House of Commons Library thinks could happen before Christmas.

In the event that this first option doesn’t happen (which seems increasingly likely), the future is all a bid muddled. This is partly because it depends if MPs vote in favour of any amendments to the motion on December 11. Here, the possible outcomes would be:
2. MPs vote against the deal but in favour of an amendment

The House of Commons speaker, John Bercow, can select up to six amendments to a proposed bill to also be debated and voted on by the house. In this case, the proposed amendments include one by Labour MP Hilary Benn to reject both the Brexit deal and a no-deal scenario in an attempt to enhance the power for MPs to find an alternative. Labour and the SNP have said they will support the amendment. Other amendments include extending the Article 50 deadline to give more time to decide how to proceed.

If MPs vote against the main motion on the deal, the government would give a statement to the House of Commons within 21 days setting out how it plans to proceed, as specified in the EU Withdrawal Act 2018. This would bring us to January 1, 2019. Parliament would be given a week to debate the contents of this statement, before a further round of ministerial statements reporting on progress by January 21.

This handy chart put together by parliament shows how this would all work.
http://theconversation.com/what-happens-after-brexit-vote-four-possible-scenarios-explained-108279

You know what? Let’s take a look at the flow chart that could potenitally explain what’s going on.

You know I’m no expert but I think if you have that many items on your flow chart, your plan is already too complicated and fucked up to begin with! It’s like a Wes Anderson movie where the characters explain their overly complicated plans like they’re in a James Bond movie. I mean really this whole thing is completely insane. But apparently nothing is off the table!

This could include reopening the EU withdrawal agreement, even though that comes with risk, the sources say.

Theresa May is understood to be pushing the EU for flexibility on the backstop.

This is the clause in the prime minister's EU withdrawal agreement that is meant to prevent the return of border checks in Northern Ireland.

It would see the UK aligned with EU customs rules until a future trade deal is agreed that does not include a physical border between the EU and the UK on the island of Ireland.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-46503455

[font size="8"]Donald Trump
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Now getting back into some familiar territory here is the guy who we in the states currently call president and that’s Donald J. Trump – the most depressing looking guy at a funeral – and he’s not even in the casket! So what has Trump’s underwear in a wad this week? Yes, sir, I believe the term you’re looking for is “knickers”. Thanks for clearing that up! But we got to throw that Tweet from Monday up there, can we do that?

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1072095127894667265

Really you can’t make this shit up. Let’s break it down – especially the word “smocking”. And not only once, he said it twice! I personally can’t wait for: “The Smocking Gun: From The Files Of Police Squid!” that should be hilarious! And this was one of my other favorite tweets this week:

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1071177621445230596

Wait, what? We don't even know what it is yet! At least give us a clue!!! We want to know!!! Did a koala bear clear you? Or was it the 500 pages of blacked out? We don't know! Tell us!!!!! Well nothing cleared President T so here’s what really happened!

Special counsel Robert Mueller is showing his hand.

It started Tuesday night, when he filed a memo for Michael’s Flynn’s long-delayed sentencing after he pleaded guilty on Dec. 1, 2017, to lying to the FBI about his contacts with the Russians during the Trump campaign transition. Mueller recommended that Flynn receive little or no jail time based on his “substantial assistance” to the special counsel investigation.

That assistance seems to have been substantial indeed. Over the course of the past year, Flynn met with Mueller’s team or Justice Department attorneys no fewer than 19 times. Fully half of the memo detailing Flynn's assistance is redacted, a reminder that Mueller has a great many lines of investigation that no one, not even President Donald Trump, knows anything about.

Then Mueller filed sentencing memos for Paul Manafort and Michael Cohen. While Flynn got full credit for his early acceptance of responsibility and his complete cooperation, Manafort had his cooperation agreement rescinded because he was apparently incapable of being truthful. Not only has he lost the opportunity for his sentence to be reduced, Mueller will be asking the court to impose an even longer sentence because of Manafort’s false statements.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2018/12/10/sentencing-memo-flynn-cohen-manafort-mueller-donald-trump-russia-column/2257509002/

That’s real! That happened! I mean in that clip Trump looks like he’s not only groping the flag but acting like the flag is his BFF. OK getting off track here. But apparently it looks like Mueller has got Trump into a corner. Which is great because that’s probably the only thing he fits into anymore. I mean did you see him at the Bush funeral? He’s so fat that he can barely sit in a pew!

Watergate reporter Carl Bernstein said Sunday that President Trump has been cornered for the first time in his life.

"He is boxed in by Mueller and the people around him know that he is and it's on the question of ... possible collusion with Russia and unquestionably a massive obstruction of justice that is now demonstrable for all to see, led by the president of the United States to cover up whatever the dealings of himself, his family, his aides were with Russia," Bernstein told CNN's "Reliable Sources" Sunday, following several bombshell legal filings last week by Robert Mueller's special counsel team regarding people close to the president.

"It certainly looks like they are the kind of offense that would call for impeachment hearings into the conduct of the president of the United States," Bernstein said.

"There's something much more important than just impeachment going on and that is the fact that Donald Trump for the first time in his life was cornered."
https://thehill.com/homenews/media/420462-bernstein-trump-is-boxed-in-by-mueller

Yes, we know, sir! By the way in case you’re wondering what the over – under is on Trump actually getting indicted and maybe even serving some jail time, well, more people favor it than not but that’s not what the odds guarantee. I don’t know can you gamble on stuff like that here? Really? Cool!

Half of Americans believe special counsel Robert Mueller will personally implicate President Trump in wrongdoing, according to a CNN poll released Tuesday.

Respondents' answers were notably divided along partisan lines, but of the Republicans surveyed 23 percent said they thought the special counsel would personally implicate Trump and 47 percent of independents said the same. Among Democrats surveyed, 78 percent believe that Trump will ultimately be implicated in the special counsel’s report.

Most of those surveyed, 59 percent, also consider the investigation a serious matter, with about 35 percent saying Mueller’s probe is an attempt to discredit the president.

The poll comes days after court filings from Mueller revealed new details in his cases against former Trump attorney Michael Cohen and former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort.

Friday’s filings alleged that Trump personally directed Cohen to make payments to silence two women regarding affairs they say they had with Trump prior to his running for president.
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/420725-half-of-americans-say-mueller-investigation-will-implicate-trump-in

[font size="8"]Google, Facebook, & Youtube
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American conservatives just cant seem to let go of the fact that they think they’re being censored on major internet outlets like Google, Facebook and Youtube. And really, no one wants to be censored but they keep beating that shit over the head. And yes, we have covered this previously in “Beating A Dead Horse” (see: Idiots #5-2 ) and they just won’t seem to let it go. I mean look at who crashed the party when Google was getting interviewed on Capitol Hill!

Infowars founder Alex Jones and longtime Trump associate Roger Stone made an appearance outside Google CEO Sundar Pichai's hearing before the House Judiciary committee today.

Jones, a far-right conspiracy theorist who's accused the nation's leading tech companies of anti-conservative bias, railed against Google for "censorship" in the halls of Congress minutes before the meeting began.

"Sundar and Google are absolutely the most horrible corporation on earth," Jones said.

Jones was flanked by Roger Stone, the longtime associate to President Donald Trump.

Read more: https://www.politico.com/story/2018/12/11/alex-jones-roger-stone-google-ceo-hearing-1055994

Yup bet you didn’t think it was gonna be him did you? And you think you’re so smart! Oh and to be fair to Alex, at least it’s a step above yelling at a pile of poop! That one still kills me! So what do they have to be angry about this week? I mean it’s not like Facebook is in some deep shit or anything!

By almost any measure, 2018 has been a terrible year for Facebook (NASDAQ:FB). The company's image has been hammered by scandals including Cambridge Analytica's unauthorized use of user data, the use of the platform to spark a genocide of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, the aftermath of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, and, most recently, revelations that Facebook hired an opposition research firm to tie its opponents to George Soros and even accuse them of anti-Semitism. The result of the near-constant negative attention is that users, activists, and even legislators are questioning whether Facebook is a net positive for democracy, and many are demanding increased regulation and oversight of the social network.

On the business side, the company faced challenges as user growth plateaued in its core markets in North America in Europe, and management said margins would narrow as it invested in additional employees and tech tools to help restore user trust in the platform and better serve its mission of connecting people in a positive way. The slowing growth and rising costs, along with the brand image problems, weighed on the stock, pushing shares down more than 20% for the year.
https://www.fool.com/investing/2018/12/11/at-facebook-scandals-and-slowing-growth-made-for-a.aspx

That happened. Yes Facebook is still getting grilled for their role in the 2016 election. So what do they have to hide? Why it’s a hell of a lot if you dig past the headlines. In fact Mark Zuckerberg actually *DOES* plan to punish speech but it wants to give people an out. Like an airing of grievances, of sorts. I mean who is he, Frank Costanza?

Last month, Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s CEO and majority shareholder, published a memo on censorship. “What should be the limits to what people can express?” he asked. “What content should be distributed and what should be blocked? Who should decide these policies and make enforcement decisions?”

The company had previously posted its community standards and the internal guidelines that it uses when attempting to enforce those standards.

Now its CEO was looking to the future.

One idea he aired might be thought of as a Supreme Court of Facebook. “I’ve increasingly come to believe that Facebook should not make so many important decisions about free expression and safety on our own,” Zuckerberg wrote. “In the next year, we’re planning to create a new way for people to appeal content decisions to an independent body, whose decisions would be transparent and binding.”

A person who was kicked off the platform, or frustrated that a certain kind of post is consistently censored, might soon have a new venue to air his grievances.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/12/facebook-punish-censorship/577654/

So that aside there is a hearing this week and if there’s anything further coming on this we will keep updating you on this story but for now here’s what you need to know. They just can’t let this shit go, the Trump cult is that insane and they will let their voices be heard, just like the airing of grievances!

It was Sundar Pichai's turn in the congressional hot seat.

Google's CEO testified before the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday where lawmakers grilled him on a wide range of issues, including potential political bias on its platforms, its plans for a censored search app in China and its privacy practices.

This is the first time Pichai has appeared before Congress since Google declined to send him or Alphabet CEO Larry Page to a hearing on foreign election meddling earlier this year. That slight sparked anger among senators who portrayed Google as trying to skirt scrutiny.

The hearing culminated a tough year for big tech companies, as lawmakers and the public have become increasingly skeptical about Silicon Valley's effects on democracy, misinformation and privacy. Through the course of Tuesday's proceedings, the soft-spoken Pichai remained cool and confident overall while defending Google in the face of the sometime's intense questioning.
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/12/11/google-ceo-sundar-pichai-testifies-before-congress-on-bias-privacy.html

[font size="8"]Top 10 Investigates: Huawei Spying
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Hey London it’s time to investigate beyond the headlines. This is Top 10 Investigates!

Cell phone spying is a very tricky subject. But one company is more guilty of that than all the other companies, and that is Chinese phone and electronics manufacturing conglomerate Huawei. But since the last time we covered this subject, there have been some shocking new developments in how Huawei handles its’ business with its’ phones, tablets, laptops and other electronics. So why is the US government so paranoid about Huawei? Well just like it’s dealings with Russian-based Kaspersky, it has every reason to be suspect.

The US is again warning its allies about the risks of using telecom equipment made by China’s Huawei. American officials have briefed their counterparts in countries like Germany, Italy, and Japan about what they argue are potential cybersecurity risks, according to the Wall Street Journal (paywall). This follows previous warnings, such as a claim earlier this year that American citizens shouldn’t use Huawei’s phones.

The US may be concerned about Chinese government influence embedded in Huawei’s technology because America’s spy agencies have done the same thing in the past.

Western governments have long been wary of Huawei, which was founded by Ren Zhengfei, a former People’s Liberation Army soldier. (The recent arrest of Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou, who is Zhengfei’s daughter, over allegations of violating of Iran trade sanctions is apparently separate to concerns about cyber espionage.)

Shenzhen-based Huawei, founded in 1987, has grown into the world’s largest supplier of telecom network equipment, beating out firms like Cisco, Ericsson, and Nokia. Critics see Huawei as a possible Trojan horse that, once embedded in international communications systems, could provide opportunities for Chinese government spying or remote control of vital telecom systems. Huawei has vigorously denied these claims.
https://qz.com/1489707/the-us-is-worried-about-china-spying-via-huawei-because-it-did-the-same/

So Huawei lied about spying. Is anyone really that shocked? Really? If you are not shocked by this you are in the wrong place. But here’s where the recent developments come into play. Last week Huawei’s CEO was arrested in Vancouver for espionage. Let’s take a look at what that means.

The chief financial officer of Chinese tech giant Huawei has been arrested in Canada. She faces extradition to the United States.
Meng Wanzhou, also known as Sabrina Meng and Cathy Meng, was apprehended in Vancouver on December 1, according to Canadian Justice Department spokesman Ian McLeod. In addition to her role as CFO, Meng serves as deputy chairwoman of Huawei's board. She's the daughter of Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei.

Meng "is sought for extradition by the United States, and a bail hearing has been set for Friday," McLeod said in a statement, which was first reported by The Globe and Mail.
McLeod said the Canadian Justice Department can't share details of the case. Meng was granted a publication ban after a judge agreed to bar both police and prosecutors from releasing information about the case.

The US Justice Department sought the arrest as part of ongoing investigation, according to a law enforcement official.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/05/tech/huawei-cfo-arrested-canada/index.html

https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/05/tech/huawei-cfo-arrested-canada/index.html

What has people so scared of Huawei? It’s not just that the devices are known for spying on their customers or that they lied repeatedly. But with networks now upgrading their hardware and cell towers to the upcoming 5G standard, it seems that it could open the floodgates for spying and high definition video recording that previously hasn’t been seen before.

The US government has sought to press its allies to stop using equipment developed by Huawei, the Chinese telecom company with links to the country's military, amid spying fears.

US officials have contacted the governments of friendly nations including Japan, Italy and Germany to warn them about alleged risk of using Huawei devices. They are also thought to have contacted counterparts in Britain.

Huawei is one of the world's biggest manufacturers of telecom equipment, including the network kit required for next generation 5G mobile networks, which are now being rolled out globally.

Based in Shenzen, Huawei was founded in 1987 by Ren Zhengfei, a former engineer in the Chinese People's Liberation Army. The company's devices are rarely used in US government departments amid persistent concerns over Huawei's links to the Chinese government and the potential that its hardware could be used for espionage.

The US has considered boosting financial aid for technology development in countries that avoid using computer hardware made in China. The threat of possible espionage using Huawei network gear is thought to be a particular concern in countries that host US military bases, according to a report first published in the Wall Street Journal.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2018/11/23/us-presses-allies-stop-using-equipment-chinese-firm-amid-spy/

But just like a company that would stump for Trump, as it has in the past, Huawei is optimistic that it is growing “astronomically” which worries intelligence officials around the globe. Which really makes us wonder why they’re not using this to their advantage. Really is there anyone to blame in this mess? No, it’s just Huawei.

The arrest of Huawei's chief financial officer is just the latest controversy to hit the tech giant which has been accused of conducting espionage activities for the Chinese government.

"We don't know to what extent they might be considered an arms length business and to what extent they might be simply an arm of the Chinese government," said David Skillicorn, a professor in Queen's University School of Computing.

Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. has been thrust into the spotlight with the arrest of Meng Wanzhou, its chief financial officer and deputy chair of the board. According to a statement from the U.S. Department of Justice, Meng was arrested in Vancouver on Saturday and is being sought for extradition by the United States.

The Globe and Mail reported Wednesday that Meng was arrested on suspicion of violating U.S. trade sanctions on Iran. She has a bail hearing in Canada on Friday.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/huawei-china-telecom-arrest-spying-1.4934905

Well, maybe if you have a Huawei device. We will keep an eye on this situation and any further developments. That’s it for Top 10 Investigates. Good day!

[font size="8"]Holy Shit
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Gather around, my fair brothers and sisters of London, it’s time to take a seat in the pew and pass the collection plate! For the Holy Church of the Top 10 has convened and it’s our weekly duty to remind you why the holiest among us are also the most full of:

My fair congregation, we are glad that you are joining us as we visit a new country! But while we are in that country, that doesn’t mean that the Christian right back home gets to take a week off. For they have said some truly horrible and stunning things and done some equally horrible events. Just last week they held an event so utterly terrible that they actually got kicked out of the Museum Of The Bible! I mean what kind of hogwash do you have to pull to get kicked out of the Museum Of The Bible? Well something like this!

On the day before the start of “Revolution 2018,” the Museum of the Bible abruptly refused to host the gathering. Right Wing Watch reported on the gathering and its hosts on Monday; on Wednesday, according to Religion News Service, the Museum of the Bible decided, “under pressure” from some members of its own advisory board, not to allow Lamplighter Ministries to hold its gathering at the museum. Museum staff helped the group scramble to make a last-minute move to the Trump International Hotel.

Lamplighter’s Jon Hamill, a self-styled spiritual Paul Revere, had plugged Revolution 2018 during the dominionist Rise Up 2018 gathering at Harry Jackson’s church the day before the election.

According to the Religion News Service’s Yonat Shimron, “a group of biblical scholars, including some members of the museum’s own advisory board, objected strongly to the gathering, saying it betrayed the values the museum says it wants to uphold, including being open to people of all religious faiths.”

It’s not entirely clear what kind of unwritten line Revolution 2018 crossed, given that the Museum of the Bible has hosted events for all kinds of Religious Right groups. In fact, Lamplighter Ministries held Revolution 2017 at the museum last year.

But as Revolution 2018 got under way at Trump International Hotel on Thursday, organizers weren’t looking backward. In fact, several speakers at the afternoon and evening sessions said that the move to the Trump hotel was the fulfillment of prophecy, something orchestrated by God as part of his unfolding plan to bring transformation to the United States.

“We thought we were going to be in the Museum of the Bible tonight launching Revolution. But God had other plans,” Hamill told attendees. “Can we thank God to celebrate freedom in the Trump International Hotel? We are getting back on track! This train has come into station! We are now in the turnaround that God has prophesied, and we are setting a new course, a new way forward for this nation.”
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/prophetic-group-says-eviction-from-museum-of-the-bible-was-part-of-gods-plan/

Of course like all terrible things the people who are supposedly anointed by GAWD himself turn to the hotel that is owned by the Dark One, whose name shall never be spoken in my church! Except for that one time I did, but exceptions have to be made! I mean these are the people who think that the Dark One was appointed by GAWD himself! And I think even the good LAWRD JAYSUS would think these people are off their rocker! Or they are batshit crazy.

After encountering a barrage of criticism for agreeing to rent space to a charismatic Christian group that claims the Trump presidency is part of God’s plan, the Museum of the Bible abandoned plans to host the group and moved its meeting to the Trump International Hotel.

The Revolution 2018 event, a three-day conference run by Jon and Jolene Hamill of Lamplighter Ministries, begins in the nation’s capital Thursday (Dec. 6). It is intended, its website said, to “focus on real-time prophetic revelation with governmental authority.”

The group, which held a similar conference at the Museum of the Bible last year, boasted in promotional material for the event that the museum “represents an ‘Ark of the Covenant’ for our nation.”

It also emblazoned the word “Hanukkah” on its poster and alluded to the Jewish holiday as being providential.

“Something is about to change,” wrote the Hamills on the website. “I feel a visitation is at hand. And He is summoning us together for a very important moment which will redefine our future. Not a coincidence we are gathering over Hanukkah.”
https://religionnews.com/2018/12/06/under-pressure-museum-of-the-bible-moves-charismatic-christian-conference-off-site/

I believe that passage is in my good book! Now of course they DELIBERATELY chose that date, you don’t have to be a moron to buy into their nonsense that it was coincidental! These are the people who believe that Dark One was chosen by GAWD! Really, these people.

Now just remember that the good LAWRD JAYSUS thinks these people are full of shit! In fact they’re so extreme that they got barred from the Museum Of The Bible, which hosted their event last year. Really for those of you Brits who are here attending tonight, just remember that our religious right are batshit fucking crazy. Really, they’re part of a lifestyle brand. It’s not just going to church every Sunday, you have to be involved in the brand 24 hours a day! I mean these people are so extreme that even Biblical scholars were against this gathering!

The Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., which towers above other buildings near the White House, is best known for hosting global diplomats and prominent dignitaries in its lavish facilities.

But last Friday afternoon (Dec. 7), one of the hotel’s many glimmering ballrooms was transformed into a sanctuary, where dozens of worshippers held their hands aloft and spoke in tongues as Jon Hamill, co-founder of Washington, D.C.-based Lamplighter Ministries, led the group in prayer.

Hamill — whom supporters describe as a prophet — closed his eyes tightly and shouted above the chattering: “In Jesus’ name, we declare the Deep State will not prevail!”

He then hammered a judge’s gavel onto a podium as people raised their voices in approval.
https://religionnews.com/2018/12/10/at-trumps-hotel-spiritual-warriors-pray-for-the-president-in-his-darkest-hour/

So pray for the poor, downtrodden Dark One at his own hotel in his darkest hour. That’s all you need to know for this week. Mass has ended, may you go in peace! That’s it this week for:

[font size="8"]Beating A Dead Horse
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Hey it’s time for:

Christmas in the #MeToo era. Yes, this is our second Christmas post #MeToo, and it’s had us examining the harsh reality of many of our all time favorite Christmas classics – whether it’s A Charlie Brown Christmas or Rudolph The Red Nose Reindeer. Yes that’s a thing – people are saying that Rudolph The Red Nose Reindeer encourages bullying. So does that mean that Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer encourages vehicular homicide? Well, yes. But really the one that we got to talk about called “Baby It’s Cold Outside”. Now don’t worry – before we get into it, we promise that we’ll keep it tasteful. But really this has set off a firestorm of insanity.

After a Cleveland radio station pulled “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” from its Christmas rotation due to its controversial lyrics, others have followed suit — but not all listeners are happy about it.

National Public Radio reports that at least two stations, one in San Francisco and another in Denver, ultimately decided to hold a vote to determine whether the song would be heard on their airwaves.

Brian Figula, the program director at the former, KOIT, described the response as a “tornado,” and the outlet cites “hundreds of comments on social media and via email” that demanded “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” be put back on the playlist.

“People are unbelievably passionate about their Christmas music,” Figula explained. “It’s the one thing that you can’t mess with … [Listeners rely on it] to reminisce to the good old days when life was easy and simple.”
https://people.com/music/baby-its-cold-outside-radio-ban-controversy/

Yeah and if there’s one group of people who you don’t fuck with, it’s Christmas music fans. They are very passionate about their holiday traditions! But really this is the kind of thing that gives movements like #MeToo and leaves a bad taste in people’s mouths. Hey I just realized that sentence I just said was totally creepy! Well you know why don’t we just ask the writer of Baby It’s Cold Outside what he thinks?

Baby, it’s really, really cold outside for Frank Loesser’s Oscar-winning song this Christmas season.

Under fire amid the #MeToo movement from critics who say "Baby, It's Cold Outside" is sexist and hints at date rape, radio stations in Cleveland and San Francisco have dropped the holiday staple from their Christmas playlists and others in the U.S. and Canada are following suit.

This is not sitting well with the daughter of Broadway legend Frank Loesser, who said she has heard complaints in the past about her dad’s ditty but blames Bill Cosby for turning it into something fiendish.

"Bill Cosby ruined it for everybody," Susan Loesser told NBC News on Thursday. “Way before #Me Too, I would hear from time to time people call it a date rape song. I would get annoyed because it’s a song my father wrote for him and my mother to sing at parties. But ever since Cosby was accused of drugging women, I hear the date rape thing all the time.”
https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/music/daughter-baby-it-s-cold-outside-writer-frank-loesser-blames-n944901

First off I’m not touching this one with a 10 foot pole, you can make your own jokes. But second I mean come on really? Is that where we’re at? Remember when Bill Maher a few months ago said that we’ve reached “Peak Snowflake”? Well that peak might be getting higher. Yeah there’s lots of things that probably wouldn’t fly today exactly. But do we really need to start pulling songs that have been around 60+ years for something like this?

Copeland didn’t, and it wasn’t a surprise. You’d be hard-pressed to find anyone these days who would sing lyrics that endorse domestic violence as a key to relationship longevity.

Like an ill-advised spring break tattoo, some standards and pop chestnuts aren’t aging well. In a culture increasingly vocal about whatever demeans women, makes light of sexual assault, or equates violence with love, such songs are rightly being shunned.

That’s why some radio stations are yanking “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” from their holiday playlists. Written by Frank Loesser, it’s been a beloved perennial for decades. At the center of debate is its story line — a man unconvinced that a woman’s “no” really means “no.” She wants to go home; using the lousy weather as an excuse, he’s cajoling her to stay. She also needs a ride, but he makes no offer to oblige her. At the very least, he’s an insufferable jerk.

The creep factor amplifies after she agrees to “just a half drink more,” then asks, “Say, what’s in this drink?” Whatever Loesser’s lyrical intentions were when he wrote it in 1944, it now makes me say, “You in danger, girl.”

Today, the song “seems very manipulative and wrong,” said Glenn Anderson of Cleveland’s WDOK-FM, one of the first radio stations to ban the song. “In a world where #MeToo has finally given women the voice they deserve, the song has no place.”
https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2018/12/07/when-sexual-assault-and-domestic-violence-were-set-music/r4tzpGeNYcMg1E3cC9mDqL/story.html

Oh come on even Putin is giving you the facepalm! And that guy has no sense of humor! And really, that’s the reason why that song should be banned? That sounds like it would be something that Trump would say! “That’s very manipulative, and WRONG, OK? SAD!”. OK so the song might be a little creepy after you read the lyrics but would it seriously border on rape territory? Well I’m going to let you be the judge because some stations are bringing it back!

Gayle King got so fired up over criticism of “Baby, It’s Cold Outside,” she accidentally swore on the air on Thursday.

The “CBS This Morning” the co-anchor expressed her affinity for the tune penned in 1944 by Frank Loesser. She spoke out in the song’s defense after a news segment on the CBS show acknowledged that some radio stations have recently banned the tune.

The CBS piece mentioned San Francisco radio station KOIT is conducting a poll to see if the song, which it banned Monday, should remain off its playlist.

In Chicago, LITE-FM 93.9 was still including the song in its playlist as of noon Wednesday.

“At last check, the votes were running more than 90 percent in the song’s favor. Please count me in the 90 percent,” King said to her co-hosts, John Dickerson and Norah O’Donnell. “I just feel I want to say to people: ‘It’s a Christmas song that was written years ago.’
https://chicago.suntimes.com/entertainment/a-heated-gayle-king-defends-baby-its-cold-outside/

[font size="8"]What’s Up With The Royals?
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What’s up with the Royals?

So we’ve never mentioned the Royal Family on this show at least as far as I can remember so I’ve always wanted to do a segment that focuses exclusively on the Royals. Yeah exactly it’s like a train wreck – you don’t want to stare but you can’t look away. I’m certain that my British friends have had an ass full of the Royals but don’t worry – we’ll keep it tasteful, at least as far as our standards go. Which you know by now is pretty low. But what have the Royals been up to lately? Well I got to start with my favorite story about Prince Charles, which stems from a recent documentary on Netflix.

Being first in line for the British throne may have gone to Prince Charles’ head.

The Prince of Wales, 69, has reportedly earned a special nickname among the staff at Clarence House: The Pampered Prince. That’s because, according to Amazon Prime’s new documentary “Serving the Royals: Inside the Firm,” Charles needs help doing just about everything.

“His pajamas are pressed every morning, his shoelaces are pressed flat with an iron, the bath plug has to be in a certain position and the water temperature has to be just tepid,” Princess Diana’s former butler, Paul Burrell, revealed in the documentary, per Yahoo.

Burrell even said that Charles “has his valets squeeze one inch of toothpaste onto his toothbrush every morning.”

The butler’s duties reportedly extend to fetching items just a few feet away from the prince. “On one occasion, he rang me from his library and he said, ‘Oh Paul, a letter from the Queen seems to have fallen into my wastepaper bin. Would you pick it out?'” Burrell claimed.
https://pagesix.com/2018/11/01/prince-charles-has-his-shoelaces-ironed-every-morning/

Yes WTF indeed! So if Charles drops something on the floor he doesn’t even have to get out of the chair to pick it up! I don’t know – is that considered lazy or luxury in the UK? And by the way if you think that’s insane you should see a list of the things that the Royals can and cannot do. There’s so much about this that I don’t understand or even will begin to comprehend.

The Duchess of Sussex was spotted shutting her own car door this week during her first solo engagement, at the Royal Academy of Arts. This is apparently significant, with the Sun’s royal correspondent tweeting: “A princess [sic] who still takes the time to shut her car door.” Whether it will happen again remains to be seen, now the strangeness of it has been pointed out, but there are many everyday things the royals – mostly Charles, really – cannot or will not do.

• Carry cash The Queen is rarely seen without her Launer handbag, though it famously never contains any money – except, reportedly, for a neatly folded £5 note, and occasionally a tenner, for the church collection on Sundays.

• Squeeze their own toothpaste One of the enduring stories about Prince Charles is that someone squeezes his toothpaste on to a brush from a silver dispenser. Although this rumour has never officially been debunked, it is thought his then-valet Michael Fawcett only did this for a short while after Charles had broken his arm.

<snip>

• Open a car door According to Hoey, Prince Edward “was said to have reprimanded a butler because the man was not outside the house when he arrived back and Edward had to open the car door himself”. Perhaps it had the child-lock on. Hoey adds that Edward’s driver is “instructed to face the front at all times”.

<snip>

• Take selfies Meghan, as a self-respecting millennial, once had a blog and popular Instagram account – but no more. A fan, greeting Ms Markle – as she was then – in Nottingham asked for a selfie and was told: “We’re not allowed to do selfies.”
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/shortcuts/2018/sep/26/meghan-markle-can-shut-her-own-car-door-so-why-cant-prince-charles-iron-his-own-shoelaces

So if you think that’s weird, oh it gets weirder. Of course I have to explain how the Royal Family works to my American audience but just… wow. Oh and it gets weirder. It’s Christmas time and of course the Royals have their own traditions which are very crazy.

The Royal Family's Christmas traditions are wackier than we could've imagined.

Centuries of tradition meets the New-Gen-Royals, the Royal Family's Christmas period looks a little different to us common scum.

Aside from the decadent banquets, accommodating world leaders and addressing the public on Christmas day, this is what the Royal fam gets up to in the Silly Season.

The Queen insists on reading ALL of the gags out at the dinner table. Reports say that when she was younger, she used to make up extra jokes after all of the crackers had been pulled because she didn't want the laughter to end.

The Royal Soccer Match is a more recent tradition, coined by Harry and Wills. The game is played on Christmas Eve, where the brothers join the Royal staff and surrounding villagers to raise money for charity.

Royal festivities are held in the Royal Estate in Sandringham each year. The decorations remain up until Queen and Prince Philip leave the estate in February, to honour Elizabeth's father who passed away in Sandringham on February 6th in 1952.

Yeah, not a joke. The tradition dates back to King Edward VII, who suggested that the members of the family were to be weighed before and after the meal to make sure they're sufficiently fed. While this royal tradition dates back to the early 1900s, it is still done today.
http://www.kiis1065.com.au/lifestyle/the-royal-family-weighed-weird-christmas-traditions

Holy shit! The Royals don’t leave their Christmas decorations up until February? Even on January 1st the car companies stop their ridiculous Christmas sales! Oh oh wait, they’re sales “events”. Is that a thing here in the UK? Yes it is! Really? So it’s just as annoying here as it is at home? I mean at home they show the commercials during the events now. Right. Thank you sir! I mean even the Royals celebrate the holidays differently than us regular folks do!

We all have some weird and wonderful family Christmas traditions, but we can promise you with absolute certainty that none of your wacky holiday quirks will beat out the Royals.

Royal expert and editor of Majesty, Ingrid Seward, recently dished all things Royal family to Grazia magazine and discussed how the Queen and her offspring spend Christmas, and one very odd tradition caught people’s attention.

Prepare to scratch your heads in confusion, folks:

Every member of the royal family has to be weighed before and after Christmas dinner.

We all know the amount of serious feasting that goes into the Royals Christmas day, so we can only imagine that having to see just how much you stuffed your face that year cannot be described as ideal.
https://www.instylemag.com.au/royal-family-weird-christmas-tradition

[font size="8"]I Need A Drink
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Hey London I really need a drink!

So of course you know by now that the idea of this is that we have a few drinks, get drunk, and talk about anything in the news that doesn’t relate to politics. And this week we’ve got our annual holiday gift guide. So tell me bartender, what goes well with Santa? Peppermint schnapps? No thanks, I can’t stand mint flavor. I’ll stick with my Jack Daniels mixed with Jack Daniels. Well the reason I bring up Santa is that this week was Santa Con in New York City and well, you should never mix booze and bros, because this is the kind of shit that happens. And the people of New York City always dread this kind of year. For good reason.

Over the last two decades, NYC has slowly turned into a playground for the rich—but for one very special day of the year, it transforms into a playground for the drunk. SantaCon swept into town on Saturday, leaving a trail of spilled beer, abandoned Santa hats, and candy cane colored upchuck across Midtown and the East Village.

There are of course plenty of Long Islanders and NJ residents who just want an excuse to have a fun day out with their friends, and organizers have taken pains to snuff out the worst behavior from participants... but there are the people, like the gentleman below, who are just obliterated. If you want to see one SantaCon video that summarizes what it's all about, here you go:

Charitable contributions aside, there is no culture or purpose to SantaCon other than binge drinking (and perhaps reliving fraternity days of yore). The first step to making SantaCon tolerable to the rest of New York is admitting that, letting go of the defensiveness, and then maybe erecting an electric fence around Murray Hill and letting participants roam free without worrying about anyone shouting "MAKE AMERICA SANTA AGAIN" at innocent passersby.

Despite alcohol being banned on all Metro North, LIRR and NJ Transit trains for the day, plenty of people got started nice and early Saturday morning. "We haven’t done anything but wake up and drink," visiting Philly resident Charlie Rahr admitted to the NY Post, inadvertently coining the official motto for the event.
http://gothamist.com/2018/12/10/santacon_photos_2018_nyc.php#photo-1

Wait, you can drink on the LIRR and I wasn’t aware of this? I will have to remember that for my next trip to New York City! Get the paper bag PBR special, or maybe you can go even cheaper and get a 40 of Thunderbird! But come on, the draw of Santa Con is that you can get drunk and get holly jolly on everyone’s ass. Just like in Jingle All The Way!

Nothing brings people together quite like getting drunk in a Santa costume — just ask Andy Cohen.

After ridiculing the boozy tradition, Cohen couldn’t help but join in on New York City’s annual SantaCon bar crawl over the weekend when he spotted a party on the roof of a nearby building.

“This is out my kitchen window. This is the beginning of SantaCon,” he said in his Instagram Story on Saturday while recording a party forming across the way. “There are four Santas on this roof. This can’t end well.”

As the party continued to grow, a few partygoers noticed Cohen’s videos and invited him over.

“Do I go? I feel kind of funny, but it could be classic,” he said.
https://people.com/tv/andy-cohen-crashes-santacon-party/

But people think that Santa Con is exclusively a New York City thing but the truth is – it happens all over the country! And besides NYC, San Francisco famously holds an annual Santa Convention and it is just as batshit crazy as, just like its’ NYC counterpart, also has a tendency to draw a particularly rowdy crowd.

Seven Santa Clauses who got higher than a rooftop were busted for being drunk on Saturday in San Francisco during the annual SantaCon pub crawl.

The Santas were nabbed downtown and at the northern waterfront, according to police officer Robert Rueca. Fifteen other Santas were treated by medics for being drunk, tipsy, wobbly, sick or in other conditions brought on by excessive good cheer.

SantaCon, the annual celebration that started in San Francisco in 1994 and spread around the world, features countless celebrants in Santa suits fanning out from Union Square and bellying up to countless bars.

“It’s not officially sanctioned,” said Rueca, “but people do have the freedom to wear whatever disguise they want — that’s out of our control.”

It was not immediately known if there were more drunk Santas this year than in past years. Rueca said that everyone, including Santa, is subject to the same rules about public drunkenness “and it doesn’t matter what outfit you’re wearing.”
https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Seven-Santa-Clauses-busted-for-public-drunkeness-13455721.php

And then what happens when a group of rowdy Santas goes to get booze? Well let’s just say it ends badly as it started, with these Santas trashing a popular restaurant in San Francisco. Which begs the question – if Santa’s on the naughty list, who is on the nice list?

Some Santa Claus revelers in San Francisco have made the jolly one's naughty list after trashing a popular Polk Street restaurant Saturday night.

On Monday, in the aftermath of the Santa Con participants' bad behavior, there was growing outrage over videos showing just how bad these Santas were.

Workers at Shalimar, a Pakistani restaurant, were still cleaning up Monday but managed to capture video Saturday night of Santa Con partiers demanding food they never ordered then one woman with a Santa hat in her hand shoving a cash register, a stereo and just about everything that was on the counter onto the floor.

Alejo Cano Chang said the group came in around 7 p.m. During the woman's outburst, she also threw a sugar shaker at him. The vandalism didn't stop there.
https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/Naughty-List-Santa-Con-Revelers-Trash-San-Francisco-Restaurant-502428271.html

[font size="8"]Deep State Diaries Episode 23: M:I-6
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It’s time for episode 23 of Deep State Diaries. Yes we’re touring the 24 branches and services that make up the United States government. Everything from the FBI to the IRS to the Pentagon to the CIA to the DPW to the DVA to parks and recreation and all branches and services in between. Of course if you’re here you probably already know more about our government and how it works than your average Fox News loving Trump supporter does. So that’s what this segment is going to address. We are going to do a deep dive into all that makes the United States the United States. Because we here at the Top 10 love to educate as well as entertain. Because we care.

[font size="6"]M:I-6/font]
https://t2.rbxcdn.com/0f24ba664d4ea25bd47a49ea19383985

We need some music for this one!

Yes for our edition of Deep State Diaries this week we figured that we would pay tribute to our British hosts by talking about the British counterpart to the organization we discussed last week – the Central Intelligence Agency. This week we’re delving into and hanging out with the British counterpart – the Military Intelligence: Section 6. If you recognize who M:I-6 is, that is of course the employer of James Bond from the 007 movies. But what else does the super secret organization do when their agents are not going out on world tours to exotic locales and having sex with some of the most beautiful women on the planet? Well stuff like this. So where did the inspiration for M come from?

The Secret Intelligence Service, otherwise known as MI6, works covertly overseas to gather intelligence. The world’s oldest intelligence agency was founded by the legendary spymaster Mansfield Smith-Cumming in 1909 as the Secret Service Bureau, and he ran it util his death in 1923. He was well-known and liked for his colourful personality.

Many of his innovations are still part of the lifeblood of MI6, say insiders.

Former secret agents tell all in 2014 Netflix documentary “Secrets of Her Majesty’s Secret Service".

Firstly, “good agents” were his most important tool, explains the documentary.

“From the very beginning, he understood it was all about collecting intelligence and recruiting and running sources," says Sir John Scarlett, who is himself a former MI6 chief.

"From the very beginning, that’s what he did. It’s just in the bloodstream."
https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1057318/james-bond-real-mi6-chief-inspired-m-character-mansfield-smith-cumming-spt

Yeah so James Bond was partly inspired by real life M:I-6 agents! How about that? So that said how does M:I-6 take on different agencies like ISIS and Al’Qaeda from say, the CIA? Or maybe one of the big fish of the espionage world, Russia? Well it’s really interesting to get the M:I-6 perspective.

The head of MI6 said Russia broke one of the primary rules of espionage and won't be trusted again after it tried to assassinate a former Russian agent despite giving him away in a spy swap.

Alex Younger said British spies had to revise their assumptions about Moscow after Skripal was attacked with a deadly nerve agent, in an operation which Britain has pinned on Russia's GRU spy agency.

Younger is the Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service, more commonly known as MI6, and gave a speech to students at St. Andrews University in Scotland, which was reported by the Financial Times.

In the speech, Younger said the UK had partly trusted Russian President Vladimir Putin when Russia pardoned Skripal in 2010 in return for its own agents.

Younger said he and his agents assumed that Moscow's spy swap "had meaning" and would be honored, but he said they revised their opinion in light of the Skripal attack.

He said, according to the Financial Times: "Mr. Skripal came to the UK in an American-brokered exchange, having been pardoned by the president of Russia and, to the extent we assumed that had meaning, that is not an assumption that we will make again."
https://www.businessinsider.com/mi6-head-alex-younger-russia-wont-be-trusted-2018-12?r=UK&IR=T

So I can guess M:I-6 job interviews are kind of like that? Or maybe it’s like Kingsman: The Secret Service, another movie which I am a huge fan of? And speaking of technology how does M:I-6 prepare for the forthcoming technological wars, of which most hated foe Russia, is handling things?

The UK is in a technological arms race with hostile states who are using the tools of the information age to pose existential challenges to Britain’s national security, the head of MI6 warned on Monday.

In a rare speech, Alex Younger said British intelligence agencies had to “innovate faster than they can” as the country’s adversaries turn to cyber-attacks, disguised use of military force, misinformation and political obfuscation to probe and undermine Britain’s institutions and defences.

Though his remarks appeared primarily aimed at Russia, Younger also admitted there are emerging issues over China’s dominant position in the development of game-changing new technologies.

“Power, money and politics [are] going east ... it is all getting more complicated.”

Delivering only his second speech since he became “C” four years ago at the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), Younger attempted to set out how the threat to the UK has evolved in recent years, and how his agency, which has always had agent recruitment and handling at the core of its work, is having to adapt fast.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/dec/03/uk-is-in-technological-arms-race-with-its-foes-warns-mi6-chief

And that is a good question, sir! Why not stay dead? Well here’s the thing when discussing spies and spy technology, it’s probably best not to underestimate what they’re currently capable of, since we currently have spy technology available right in our very own pockets!

The head of MI6 will on Monday highlight the urgent need for a new era of spying in which artificial intelligence and robotics are deployed to combat rogue states hellbent on “perpetual confrontation” with the UK.

In a rare public speech - only his second in four years in the job - Alex Younger, the Chief of MI6, will say that Britain must enter an age of “fourth generation espionage” to keep the country safe.

The MI6 boss - known as "C" - will also emphasise the importance of "strengthening" Britain’s security ties with European allies ahead of Brexit, pointing out that "multiple" Islamic State-inspired attacks on the Continent have been disrupted thanks to the co-operation of intelligence agencies.

The speech to students at St Andrew’s University, where Mr Younger studied, will also warn of the danger of “adversaries” who are “willing to take advantage” of huge leaps in cyber technology to launch attacks on Britain “in ways that fall short of traditional warfare”.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/12/02/chief-mi6-calls-new-era-spying-using-ai-robots-combat-rogue/

But when it comes to the spy game, Trump is about to do something absolutely terrifying and if you’re not alarmed about this prospect, as I have seen just about every spy movie made in the last 5 years and I know what happens when you get names of agents leaked out in the open! Yeah it ends extremely horribly and Trump is going to do it!

British intelligence chiefs are reportedly desperate to convince the White House not to declassify more of the FBI wiretap application on former Trump campaign advisor Carter Page, because it would expose intelligence-gathering sources and methods.

According to a piece published late Wednesday in the U.K.’s Daily Telegraph, U.S. intelligence officials are also against the idea, as are those in Australia, another member of the intelligence-gathering club known as the Five Eyes (the group also includes Canada and New Zealand.)

Carter Page became a foreign policy advisor on Trump’s campaign team early in 2016. The FBI obtained a warrant to monitor his communications several months later, after they became aware that he may have been meeting with Russian officials in Moscow in mid-2016.

Over time, the investigation fed into the sprawling Russia probe that is currently being conducted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller. However, it did not spark the Russia probe, as some Republicans have alleged — the wider investigation was instead prompted by contact between the Russians and Trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos, regarding so-called “dirt” on Trump’s presidential rival, Hillary Clinton.
http://fortune.com/2018/11/22/mi6-trump-carter-page-fbi/

[font size="6"]Score Card [/font]

Overall importance: A
How Things Are Going: B+
Likely hood To Survive: B+

Overall: B+

[font size="6"]Next Week [/font]

For our season finale we’re going back to Washington, DC to discuss one of the most hated of all government agencies – the IRS! Yes, we came all this way just to make an IRS joke!

[font size="8"]And Now This:[/font]
[font size="8”]Slash Feat Myles Kennedy & The Conspirators[/font]

Ladies and gentlemen my next guest has a great new album called “Living The Dream”, you can see them live Feb 19th at The Dome at Doncaster and Feb 20th at Eventim Apollo. Playing their song “Driving Rain”, give it up for Slash feat Myles Kennedy & The Conspirators!

Thank you London! This was a blast! I hope to come back next year! Thanks to the 99 Club and to the Liberal Dem party for brining us over here. We are back home next week for our final Top 10 of 2018. See you next week!

Credits

Host: Initech
Top 10 Conservative Idiots Recorded In Front Of Live Audience At: 99 Club Leicester Square, London, UK
Special Thanks To: 99 Club Management, UK Liberal Democrat party
Holy Shit Gospel Choir:
Images: All images copyright belongs to respective copyright holders.
Videos: All videos copyright belongs to respective copyright holders
Articles: All article content copyright belongs to respective copyright holders
Writing: Top 10 Writing Department
Graphics: Top 10 Graphics Department
Research: Top 10 Research Department
Lighting & Stage Props: Top 10 Lighting Department
Legal: Top 10 Legal Department
Advertising: Top 10 Advertising Department
HR: Top 10 Human Resources Department
Initech’s Wardrobe Provided By: JAB Inc.
Wheel Of Corruption By: Studio 1 Stage Props, Burbank, CA
Slash Appears Courtesy Of: Roadrunner Records
Management: Initech Productions, CCC Management
Follow The Top 10 On Twitter at: @10Idiots
Questions? Comments? Complaints? Hate mail? E-mail The Top 10 at: Top10ConIdiots@gmail.com

Initech Productions: Yes, We Got The Memo

December 5, 2018

Top 10 Conservative Idiots #5-22: The Art Of The Squeal Edition

Top 10 Conservative Idiots #5-22: The Art Of The Squeal Edition

Welcome back to the Top 10 Conservative Idiots! ! Sign up today and get four free phones and our best unlimited plan on the super fast nationwide 4G LTE network! Yeah, I cant wait to get a Samsung Galaxy J7… said nobody ever. Those shitty phones are free for a reason. I kind of feel bad that we're doing an edition today since it is the funeral for former president Bush, which we will get to in full next week from London, but I do have bills to pay and theater owners to make money. Now on with the show. Do we have time for the thing today? Yeah so there's some places where you just don't use your phone. You know what one of those places is? A Broadway theater. Yup it's about him. I know we talk about Kanye a lot on this program because he is just straight up batshit crazy, but he and Kim were at the debut of a new play that opened on Broadway over the weekend called "The Cher Show" which is about the early days of the Sonny & Cher Show. Well, Kanye had his face buried in his iPhone - whether or not he changed his password is anybody's guess - but it definitely put a bad taste in the mouths of the performers. Yeah so don't be like Kanye. But my favorite part of this story is that during the show, there was one of the performers - Jarrod Specter - who publicly called out Kanye for not paying attention to the performance on stage with this tweet. Can we throw that up there?

https://twitter.com/jarrodspector/status/1069753066033987584

Well the funny thing is that uber-Cher fan Kim took to twitter because she couldn't contain her joy for the show. At least Kanye apologized for the comment but still... yeah don't be like Ye. If there's a live performance happening in front of you, at least have the courtesy to turn your phone off. OK that’s enough of the intro, we have a lot of idiocy to get to this week. But first we have to play SNL’s brilliant intro from last week that features Alec Baldwin and his famous Trump impression:

Holy shit!!!! Mueller really dropped the big one this week and it’s so huge that we’re going to have to devote the first two slots to it. The first slot is that Paul Manafort, Jerome Corsi, and Michael Cohen (1) are all wrapped up in the art of the squeal. In the second slot is a missing piece of the puzzle and that’s Trump’s close friend Jeffrey Epstein (2) just landed himself a whole bunch of sexual assault charges and may land a prison cell next to Kevin Spacey. In the third slot we’re going to add a new person to the growing list of people who somehow got elected and that’s Mississippi’s new senator Cindy Hyde Smith (3), and well, it is Mississippi. For the fourth slot I really have to talk about one of our favorite crazy alt right people, Laura Loomer (4) and her epic meltdown in front of the Twitter headquarters demanding her account back. And they have the nerve to call us snowflakes? In the 5th slot this week is our weekly investigative piece, Top 10 Investigates (5), and this week we’re going to take a look at addiction, and a burgeoning new industry of video game rehab. Yes, the kids are playing too much Fortnite, and that could potentially be a problem. In the number 5 slot this week, is our weekly visit to the Holy Church Of The Top 10 in “Holy Shit” (6) and this week, it’s the first week of December so you know what that means: it’s War On Christmas time! Our resident pastor will help you draw your battle lines! For the seventh slot this week we’ve got a new installment of “How Is This Still A Thing”. Did you know that South Carolina has made repeated attempts to secede from the union in the last 3 years? How is this still a thing? Taking the 8th slot this week we’ve got a new installment of our new segment that we debuted last week called “NO!”. We’ve got talk about Melania’s taste in decorating for the White House this week, and yeah. NO!!! For the number 9 (NEIN!!!) slot this week we’re going to go with “I Need A Drink” and we will definitely need a few drinks to help decide the feud between hip hop prodigy Travis Scott and Motley Crue bad boy Tommy Lee. Finally this week our ongoing series that explains how government works to your Trump loving friends and relatives, Deep State Diaries, is going to get into the intelligence game as we hang with the CIA! Finally this week I cannot wait to have this next guest on, who is playing at the nearby Palladium, oh hey, tomorrow night! And that is the great Nine Inch Nails, yay!!!! Enjoy! And as always don’t forget the key!

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[font size="8"]The Trump Trifecta: Manafort, Corsi, Cohen
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Whew, just like when you get that “World’s Greatest Whatever” coffee mug from Amazon, we must very carefully and slowly unpack this one. For it is quite the tangled web that Trump has woven and the more you delve into it, the more it is like the popcorn packaging peanuts that accompany that said coffee mug – they will get everywhere. First Mueller nails batshit crazy conspiracy theorist Jerome Corsi, then he and Michael Cohen attempt to cut a plea bargain, and Paul Manafort learns the art of the squeal.

OK I love that one! Yeah it might finally be time to start comparing Donald Trump to George Bluth. I mean they both built buildings in forbidden countries. They both have crazy, elaborate families that have a lust for excess. And none of them really contribute anything of value to society! But you know Trump is a mob boss, and like all mob bosses, they got to have a fixer. But would you really have Michael Cohen as your fixer?

Of all of President Trump’s former associates who have come under scrutiny in the special counsel’s Russia investigation, his former personal lawyer, Michael D. Cohen, has undertaken perhaps the most surprising and risky legal strategy.

Mr. Cohen has twice pleaded guilty in federal court in Manhattan to a litany of crimes, and he has volunteered information to the special counsel and other agencies investigating Mr. Trump and his inner circle. He did all this without first obtaining a traditional, ironclad deal under which the government would commit to seeking leniency on Mr. Cohen’s behalf when he is sentenced on Dec. 12.

Mr. Cohen has concluded that his life has been utterly destroyed by his relationship with Mr. Trump and his own actions, and to begin anew he needed to speed up the legal process by quickly confessing his crimes and serving any sentence he receives, according to his friends and associates, and analysis of documents in the case.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/03/nyregion/michael-cohen-trump-strategy.html

Yeah Robert DeNiro even looks like Trump in this one, but considering their feud right now I think Trump would object to that one. But how does conspiracy theorist Jerome Corsi fit into this whole thing? He’s the republican equivalent of the late great Stan Lee, you can find him making a cameo in nearly every scandal!

Before Donald Trump became Commander-in-Chief, powerful politicians used to let other people disparage the truth and attack critics on their behalf. Jerome Corsi was one of those other people, an artist of the dog whistle and I’m-just-asking-the-question routines, who electrified viewers of Fox News and listeners of Rush Limbaugh by saying the kinds of grotesque falsehoods that senators and congressmen dared not. Corsi first made his name by swift-boating John Kerry, during the 2004 Presidential campaign, but he hit the right-wing big time with the rise of Barack Obama. In 2008, he published a best-selling book called “The Obama Nation”—say it quickly—a canonical text for those who considered Obama “a corrupt, enraged, anti-American, drug-dealing, anti-Israel, pseudo-Christian radical leftist, black militant, plagiarist, and liar, trained as a Muslim and mentored by a menagerie of Marxists, Communists, crypto-Communists, and terrorists,” as Hendrik Hertzberg put it when the book was published. After Obama won the Presidency, Corsi became a guiding light of the birther movement, whose members insisted that Obama had been born somewhere other than the U.S., and was thus disqualified from serving as President—the same racist, denialist movement that Trump himself goosed to great effect as a precursor to his 2016 Presidential run.

Corsi, who is seventy-two and has a doctorate in political science from Harvard—and therefore likes “Ph.D.” to appear after his name—is now enmeshed in the special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of possible ties between Trump’s Presidential campaign and the Russian government. Two weeks ago, during one of his regular video live streams, Corsi announced that he expected to be indicted for giving false information to the special counsel. An indictment has yet to materialize, but, this week, after saying that he had rejected a plea deal, Corsi made public a draft court filing that outlined the allegations Mueller was prepared to make about him.
https://www.newyorker.com/news/current/jerome-corsis-baffling-cameo-in-the-trump-russia-story

Well… speaking of ratting on your friends, rather than face indictment, President T not only decided to rat on his friends, he threw them under the bus! Yeah that’s the kind of stand up guy that Trump is – suck up to him and he’ll be great to you, but double cross him and you’ll get the cement shoes! We may have to explore this topic more next week.

President Trump called Monday for his former attorney Michael Cohen to serve a “full and complete” sentence, weighing in on the fate of a onetime loyalist who is arguing that he does not deserve prison time for the criminal charges to which he has pleaded guilty.

“You mean he can do all of the TERRIBLE, unrelated to Trump, things having to do with fraud, big loans, Taxis, etc., and not serve a long prison term?” Trump said in morning tweets. “He makes up stories to get a GREAT & ALREADY reduced deal for himself. .?.?. He lied for this outcome and should, in my opinion, serve a full and complete sentence.”

President Trump called Monday for his former attorney Michael Cohen to serve a “full and complete” sentence, weighing in on the fate of a onetime loyalist who is arguing that he does not deserve prison time for the criminal charges to which he has pleaded guilty.

“You mean he can do all of the TERRIBLE, unrelated to Trump, things having to do with fraud, big loans, Taxis, etc., and not serve a long prison term?” Trump said in morning tweets. “He makes up stories to get a GREAT & ALREADY reduced deal for himself. .?.?. He lied for this outcome and should, in my opinion, serve a full and complete sentence.”

An attorney for Cohen declined to comment Monday on the president’s tweets.

In a late-night court filing Friday, attorneys for Cohen wrote that their client was a changed man who was cooperating extensively with special counsel Robert S. Mueller III as well as other prosecutors conducting probes related to Trump and his 2016 campaign.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-says-michael-cohen-deserves-a-full-and-complete-sentence/2018/12/03/e63df19e-f70f-11e8-8d64-4e79db33382f_story.html?utm_term=.1701702e632d

[font size="8"]Jeffrey Epstein
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Hey everyone guess what? The Qanon truthers were right! There really is a super secret network of underground elite pedophiles engaged in satanic rituals and human trafficking! Only… it’s not Hillary Clinton and John Podesta. Thank you sound effects guy! That was very well timed! But guess who it really is? It’s Trump’s BFFs Jeffrey Epstein and Alan Dershowitz! Woooooooo!!!!! Wooooo. Well yeah Jeffrey Epstein last week got BUSTED. And here’s what happened.

A last-minute settlement was reached Tuesday in a long-running Florida lawsuit involving a politically connected financier accused of sexually abusing dozens of teenage girls, clearing the way for the victims’ lawyers to try to unravel a once-secret agreement that prevented federal criminal prosecution of the financier.

The non-prosecution agreement protecting Jeffrey Epstein was negotiated a decade ago by prosecutors in the South Florida U.S. attorney’s office, which was then run by current Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta. It is the subject of a separate federal lawsuit in Florida filed by victims who say the deal trampled their rights to be heard.

“That injustice needs to be addressed and will be addressed,” said attorney Jack Scarola, who represents fellow lawyer Bradley Edwards in the lawsuit settled Tuesday. “There is no justification for the broad scope of immunity that was granted.”
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/12/04/jeffrey-epstein-settles-suit-testimony-1043176

Yes damn!!! Of course you know what will make it all better? An apology! I mean just ask OJ Simpson and Trump how well apologies work. And this is 2018, no one should have to apologize to anyone, unless you consider a death threat on Twitter an apology. So just how far back does this alleged abuse go?

President Trump won’t be testifying, though lawyers in the case tried to depose him. President Bill Clinton won’t be there either, though he, like Trump, was an occasional guest of the man at the center of the trial, billionaire sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein.

Don’t expect to find Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta in the courtroom in West Palm Beach, Fla., though his decision not to prosecute Epstein was a milestone in the twisting path toward the courtroom showdown that is finally supposed to begin Tuesday after nearly nine years of byzantine bickering.

Even Epstein himself, the prime figure in the legal battle, isn’t expected to show up; he’ll deliver his version of this epic by affidavit. Though the trial mainly will feature battalions of lawyers fighting over the actions of another set of lawyers, the case could offer a window into a sordid saga of sexual exploitation that includes many big names in American politics.

The ostensible focus of the trial is whether lawyers representing alleged victims of Epstein’s decades-long obsession with underage girls ginned up accusations of sexual molestation as part of an illegal scheme to lure investors.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/palm-beach-trial-could-reveal-details-of-billionaires-alleged-abuse-of-teen-girls/2018/12/03/f42e0c4e-f4d0-11e8-bc79-68604ed88993_story.html?utm_term=.e0175ee45f3e

And just like Trump’s alleged abuse of women , Jeffrey Epstein had amassed a huge network of girls at his disposal. I mean Trump really sure can pick ‘em, can’t he? You know what? Why don’t we ask him?

Oh oh!!! He just walked off stage! Mr Trump has left the building! Even he won’t touch that one. Yeah, and let’s all assume how gross that last sentence is. And by the way what is his connection to Trump?

Florida’s Democratic members of Congress are demanding an investigation into what led to the slap-on-the-wrist punishment for Jeffrey Epstein, a wealthy Palm Beach resident accused of sexually abusing dozens of teenage girls.

The agreement that prevented federal prosecution of Epstein was overseen by Alexander Acosta, who was the U.S. attorney for the southern district of Florida at the time and is currently President Donald Trump’s secretary of labor.

The members of Congress want an investigation by the inspector general at the Department of Justice.

“Based on newly-reported documents and a group of brave women coming forward to share their stories, it appears that, as a federal prosecutor, Labor Secretary Alex Acosta gave a sweetheart deal to a wealthy and well-connected serial sex offender, and hid it from dozens of victims, some of whom were still coming forward,” U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Weston, said by email. “The American people and the victims of these horrific crimes deserve to know why justice was not served in this disturbing case, and the lack of transparency still cloaking it is very troubling.”
https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/politics/fl-ne-jeffrey-epstein-alex-acosta-investigation-20181204-story.html

Yeah I’m sure that Trump is giving the thumbs up to this. And what’s even more bizarre? His lawyer is neck deep in this scandal! Yeah that might not be the best choice of words. But really we’ll keep an eye on this developing scandal and report back once the dems finish their findings.

Lawyer Alan Dershowitz has said that he still represents convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, who pleaded guilty to soliciting underage sexual partners whom he initially recruited as masseurs. Dershowitz, 80, told Axios that Epstein “has called me a couple of times about legal issues, because I’m still technically his lawyer,” adding, “I haven’t had any social, or any other kind of contact [but] you never stop being a person’s lawyer.” Dershowitz told Axios that Epstein lent his family his Palm Beach, Florida, house and that he received a “therapeutic massage with an old old Russian” there, but he’d had no idea “anything improper had even taken place in that house.” While he was allegedly raping teenage girls, Epstein cultivated relationships with a global elite: Bill Clinton flew on Epstein’s plane, nicknamed the “Lolita Express,” numerous times; Prince Andrew’s ex-wife borrowed money from him; and Donald Trump praised him as a “terrific guy.”
https://www.thedailybeast.com/alan-dershowitz-yes-i-am-still-jeffrey-epsteins-lawyer

[font size="8"]Cindy Hyde Smith
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Politicians at the state and local levels who are so toxic, you wonder how they are able to get elected, much less stay elected. This is:

This week – Mississippi’s new senator Cindy Hyde Smith. In an era where racists are claiming that the racial wall was torn down when Obama got elected and racism is dying out with old age, Cindy Hyde Smith not only rebuilt the wall, but put barbed wire and an electrical current on it. In fact, Ms. Smith is so toxic in her racism and underlying sexism that many of her major donors have asked her to return their donations in wake of the scandal.

Major League Baseball is requesting the return of its $5,000 donation to Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith’s campaign, in the latest blow to the Mississippi Republican ahead of Tuesday’s runoff.

MLB spokesman Pat Courtney said in a statement that the donation “was made in connection with an event that MLB lobbyists were asked to attend” and that MLB has requested that it be returned.

Melissa Scallan, a spokeswoman for Hyde-Smith’s campaign, said she could not comment on the matter.

News of the donation was first reported Saturday by the political newsletter Popular Information.

Hyde-Smith, who was appointed to the Senate in the spring, faces Democrat Mike Espy in Tuesday’s runoff to fill the remaining two years of the term to which retired Republican Thad Cochran was elected.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/mlb-asks-cindy-hyde-smith-to-return-5000-donation-report-says/2018/11/25/57d70318-f0cb-11e8-bc79-68604ed88993_story.html?utm_term=.814e16be1a31

But that didn’t stop the owner of the San Francisco Giants from making a donation to the controversial new senator from Mississippi. So he supports racism and that earned a lot of criticism from an otherwise progressive city.

Charles B. Johnson, the retired investment-company billionaire believed to hold one of the largest stakes in the San Francisco Giants, is attracting attention for the second time in two months over a political campaign contribution.

According to a federal election filing Wednesday, Johnson and his wife, Ann, each donated the maximum $2,700 to the campaign of Cindy Hyde-Smith, a Republican U.S. Senator from Mississippi who faces Democrat and former U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy in a runoff Tuesday for the final Senate seat to be decided in the 2018 midterm elections.

Hyde-Smith has been under fire from opponents since Nov. 11, when a video at a campaign rally in Tupelo surfaced that showed her expressing her regards for a local rancher by saying, “If he invited me to a public hanging, I’d be on the front row.”

Her comments have become a major campaign issue because of Mississippi’s notorious history of African Americans being lynched. Although Hyde-Smith apologized in a statement and during a Tuesday debate with Espy, who is African American, she also said her comments were in jest and being “twisted” by political opponents.

Since the video surfaced, Hyde-Smith also was captured on video saying it would be a good idea to make it harder for some college students to vote. A 2014 photo of Hyde-Smith donning a Confederate hat has created controversy in Mississippi as well.
https://www.sfchronicle.com/giants/article/Giants-owner-Charles-Johnson-donates-to-13416942.php

Yes that is true. But just how racist and hateful is Cindy Hyde Smith? Even her apology was racist and you can’t apologize for being racist while saying something racist. It doesn’t quite work that way. Seriously, her comments were too racist for Wal-Mart, and when you’re too racist for Wal-Mart, that’s pretty fucking racist.

Walmart tweeted Tuesday that it is withdrawing its support and “requesting a refund of all campaign donations” from Mississippi Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith after the Republican lawmaker “joked” about public lynchings, restricting voter’s rights for liberal college students—and then defended the comments. And other corporate donors are joining the retail giant’s request for a refund.

Hyde-Smith, who was appointed to her position by Gov. Phil Bryant last March, faces public scrutiny after a campaign stop last month in which she stated in front of rolling cameras that if a local rancher she’d met “invited me to a public hanging, I’d be on the front row.”

Her comment was particularly jarring given the fact that Hyde-Smith, who is Caucasian, is currently campaigning for a Nov. 27 run-off against former Democratic Congressman and U.S. agriculture secretary Mike Espy, who is black.

Mississippi has a pronounced history of racism and violence. According to the NAACP, Mississippi had the highest number of recorded lynchings between 1882–1968, hanging 581 black people.
http://fortune.com/2018/11/20/walmart-aks-cindy-hyde-smith-for-campaign-donations-back/

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Seriously, yes it was. But despite the toxic comments guess what? Trump campaigned for Ms. Smith, and she handily won the election against Bob Espy. So yes, Ms. Smith will lead the Mississippi senate for the next two years. Because, racism is still alive and well in Mississippi.

Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith, a Mississippi Republican who had to apologize for a cavalier reference to a public hanging, won a special runoff election on Tuesday, defeating the Democratic candidate, Mike Espy, who was trying to become the state’s first black senator since Reconstruction.

Ms. Hyde-Smith’s victory, reported by The Associated Press, came in the final Senate race of the midterm elections and will set the Republican majority in the chamber at 53 to 47 once the new Congress is sworn in, a net pickup of two seats.

The matchup between Mr. Espy and Ms. Hyde-Smith drew national scrutiny as a test of Mississippi’s past and present attitudes on race and its standing as a conservative bulwark, especially after the senator’s gaffe that she would be willing to attend a “public hanging.’’
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/27/us/politics/mississippi-senate-espy-hyde-smith.html

That’s true. That is Mississippi senator Cindy Hyde Smith, another one of the ever growing list of:

[font size="8"]The Alt Right
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Allow me to engage in a bit of schadenfreude here, but is anyone else just LOVING watching the Alt Right implode? It seems being a racist dick is becoming passé. You know last week I reported on how the Alt Right fight club known as the Proud Boys, was losing its’ charm as a bunch of drunk , Trump loving dickheads who loved to pick fights with Antifa after Gavin McInnes left the group but now the group has been working to “reclaim” its image!

Gavin McInnes, the founder of the far-right group Proud Boys, has been denied an Australian visa after failing his “character test.”

McInnes was supposed to go to Australia for a tour of the Deplorables, a conservative comedy series, with British right-wing activist Tommy Robinson.

“Over half our support in recent months has come from Australia. We’re coming to say ‘thank you,’” the tour website reads. The tour is scheduled to be from Feb. 1 to Feb. 10.

Sydney-based SBS News reported last week that protesters demonstrated in the Australian capital Canberra to demand that McInnes’ visa be canceled. But a later report claimed his visa application was rejected. It is not clear if McInnes had a visa approved initially.

The Australian Broadcasting Company reported that McInnes had been notified a few weeks ago that his visa would be blocked, and his window to file for an appeal closed on Friday.
https://www.dailydot.com/irl/proud-boys-founder-gavin-mcinnes-australian-visa/

Yes, ha ha indeed! Meet the new, friendlier Proud Boys - we're the same as the old douchey Proud Boys now with 75% less felony assault charges! But that wasn’t the only alt right news last week, this might be one of my favorite stories of the year. Laura Loomer, who suffers from an extreme case of Democrat Derangement Syndrome, might need some help. Yeah I am sure you saw this story last week, let’s tell you more!

In response to getting kicked off Twitter, far-right activist Laura Loomer chained herself to the platform's Manhattan headquarters on Thursday.

Livestream video posted to Periscope captured Loomer handcuffed to the glass doors leading into the headquarters. It didn't take long before a crowd and police gathered and the street was closed off.

At its peak, the Periscope livestream had almost 10,000 viewers.

"It's almost as if Twitter hates Jews and conservatives," Loomer said during her protest. "When is [Twitter CEO] Jack Dorsey going to stop censoring conservatives? When am I going to get my Twitter back? I'll be here as long as it takes."

Loomer ended her stand shortly after 6 p.m., when she asked police to cut off her handcuffs after a little more than two hours of protest.
https://www.businessinsider.com/lara-loomer-chained-herself-twitter-hq-after-banned-2018-11

You know what, Laura? If you don’t want to be pegged as a racist lunatic, don’t show up to Twitter headquarters screaming about free speech wearing racist symbols! I mean come on! And by the way, one of the favorite talking points of the Alt Right has always been that racism is dying out with older generations. Well guess what? This story out of Dover High School in Dover, New Hampshire will definitely change some minds!

Students at Dover High School in New Hampshire were recorded in class singing a KKK-themed jingle sparking a district investigation. Dover School District Superintendent William Harbron told NBC News on Monday that the students were 11th-graders assigned to create a jingle based on the post-Civil War Reconstruction era for a U.S. history class. The Ku Klux Klan, a white supremacist organization, was formed in this time period.

Video began to circulate of the presentation Friday in which students sang, "White masks on our heads, blood beneath our feet, laughing till they’re dead -- ha, ha, ha," to the tune of "Jingle Bells." The students did not know they were being recorded, the superintendent said.

"The principal became aware of the situation late Friday and began working with (the) teacher," Harbron told NBC News on Monday. "Right now we’re dealing the immediate need of communication out and dealing with the emotions surrounding the situation." The district released a letter on Monday stating that it was investigating the incident and that although the song was part of an assignment, "the impact was harmful."

"Administration from Dover High School and the District are working with students and the school community to respond immediately and effectively to this racial insensitivity. I think the most important part is that we are upset and concerned about what happened in that classroom," Harbron said.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/video-new-hampshire-students-singing-kkk-themed-jingle-sparks-district-n943246

Yes that escalated quickly all right! And while we’re on the subject of the Alt Right and racism, one of the darlings of the alt right is going broke at an alarming rate. Oh won’t somebody please think of poor Milo Yiannopolous? Please??? Well many of us are giving a fine “womp womp” to this douche.

The far right activist Milo Yiannopoulos was more than $2m in debt during 2018, according to a collection of documents assembled by his former Australian tour promoters and seen by Guardian Australia. Creditors listed in the documents include employees of his company, a wedding venue and his former sponsors, the billionaire Mercer family.

The documents indicate that as of April 2018, Yiannopoulos owed $1.6m to his own company, $400,000 to the Mercers, $153,215 to his former lawyers, $76,574 to former collaborator and Breitbart writer Allum Bokhari, and $20,000 to the luxury jewellery brand Cartier.

As of 2 October, Yiannopoulos owed sums of several thousand dollars to far right writers including Ian Miles Cheong, anti-Islamic ideologue Pamela Geller and science fiction writer Theodore Beale, aka Vox Day, the documents indicate, amongst others.

They were published on the website of an Australian far right figure and United Patriots Front member, Neil Erikson, infamous for subjecting the former senator Sam Dastyari to a torrent of racial abuse in a Sydney pub.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/dec/03/milo-yiannopoulos-more-than-2m-in-debt-australian-promoters-documents-show

[font size="8"]Top 10 Investigates: Video Game Rehab
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It’s time to investigate beyond the headlines. This is Top 10 Investigates!

There’s a new 21st century problem that is requiring a 21st century solution. That problem is that children are becoming increasingly addicted to video games. Which is why a new industry has spawned: video game rehab. While rehab for video game addiction is nothing new, with the advent of portable devices like the Nintendo Switch, tablets, and cell phones, children these days can and will be playing games 24 hours a day. Here’s more:

Parents chalking up their kids' distracted and compulsive behavior to playing video games is a story as old as Atari, or arcades, or whatever you consider to be your stand-in symbol for gaming in its infancy. But apparently the pull of Fortnite is so strong that some parents have gone the very desperate route of sending their kids to rehab in order to get them to put their controllers/keyboards down once in a freaking while, and not for the first time either.

One such parent who was recently profiled by Gadgets 360 was Michigan mother Debbie Vitany, who says her 17-year-old son (Carson) logs 12-hours a day in Epic Games' virtual battlefields. She says that this unhealthy time allotment has caused him to get bad grades and fall asleep in class (as most 12-hour per day obsessions will do). "We'd made some progress in getting him to cut down his Fortnite hours and get better sleep, but he's slipped back into his old habits," Vitany said. "I've never seen a game that has such control over kids' minds."

Lorrine Marer, who is a "British behavioral specialist who works with kids battling game addiction" even went so far as to compare the game to heroin, which is actually not the first time health experts have made this connection, though you probably wouldn't know for sure unless you both played Fortnite and did heroin.
https://www.complex.com/life/2018/12/fortnite-addiction-has-parents-sending-kids-to-video-game-rehab

Yes, 12 hours a day on one game. It can’t be that good can it? Well for chronic addicts it may never get any easier but that’s what happens when a game gets you complete control over ones’ mind. Now it’s all well and good but what does a professional Fortnite player think?

Fortnite has consistently remained in the spotlight since its release last July, but this week it headlined on Bloomberg for less than stellar reasons. To be specific, young players were being sent to rehab to tackle their Fortnite addictions.

Fortnite has been a massive hit with younger audiences, but this success has made it a high profile target for concerned parents. This is far from the first time parental discourse has focused in on a particular subject, with everything from the entire breed of pit bulls to the Grand Theft Auto trilogy having fallen under similar crosshairs before. Gaming addiction itself has always been a hot topic for parents, so it should come as no surprise that Fortnite pops up frequently when such concerns are raised.

Popular Fortnite streamer Ninja – who earns about $500,000 per month streaming the title – took issue with the aforementioned Bloomberg article. He places the blame for young players being addicted to the game firmly on the parents who let their children run rampant with playtime. The Bloomberg article quotes one mother whose son spends 12 hours a day playing Fortnite, a number that simply isn’t healthy regardless of one’s age. It also helps drive home Ninja’s point, which is that parents have a responsibility to manage how their children spend free time. It’s easy to hand a child a phone to keep them pacified, but it’s less easy to proactively manage them during these important developmental years.
https://gamerant.com/fortnite-ninja-addiction-report/

Well sure, the guy who plays Fortnite for a living and calls himself “Ninja” is your go to expert on addiction, of course he’s going to be against it! But they’re not “landing” into video game rehab, no, if you listen to our media on this subject, kids are being FORCED into rehab! Because that sounds so much better doesn’t it? Even professional athletes can’t stay away from the game!

Professional athletes are getting hooked, too. The National Hockey League’s Vancouver Canucks had so much trouble getting players to meetings and dinners they banned Fortnite on the road. David Price, star pitcher for Major League Baseball’s World Series-winning Boston Red Sox, was scratched from a May start against the arch rival New York Yankees because of wrist problems that may have been exacerbated by Fortnite playing.

Some pro-baseball players are so Fortnite-obsessed that they’ve hooked the game up to their stadium’s Jumbotron video system to play it while waiting to take batting practice.

Randy Kulman, a child psychologist in Wakefield, Rhode Island, has seen a surge in parents taking their kids to counseling because of video-game addictions.

“I had a 13-year-old in my office who said he had 300 Fortnite wins,” Kulman said. “I had to stop for a minute and calculate what he had to invest just to get those.”

Michael Jacobus, who runs the Reset Summer Camp for kids with addictions, said about 60 percent of the 120 children he counseled at camps in Santa Barbara, California, and Asheville, North Carolina, last summer were playing Fortnite excessively. Treatment involves a technology detox — their devices are taken away — combined with healthy eating, sleep and group therapy. Next summer, he plans to enroll more than twice as many kids, with additional locations in Texas, Indiana and New York.
http://www.timesonline.com/entertainmentlife/20181204/tech-addiction-video-game-fortnite-is-forcing-kids-into-video-game-rehab

And not only that, getting those wins in that game costs money. But one thing you should never do when your kids are spending too much time in front of their screens is blame the parents. No, it’s not their fault for their children’s addictive personalities. But how much do you blame the game for the monetary aspect of it?

Video gamers might have a spending problem.

With the exponential rise in popularity in games such as Fortnite and Overwatch, many video games have introduced loot boxes and microtransactions – avenues for players to spend real money to unlock virtual weapons, boosts and costumes.

Loot boxes award in-game upgrades such as new skins for characters, new maps, items or player boosts, often at a cost. Loot boxes have become common fixtures within the individual economies of video games – yes, today's video games have their own built-in economies.

Fortnite, one of the most popular games worldwide, generated $318 million in revenue in May despite being a free-to-play game. A recent Juniper Research report expects the digital game industry to exceed $160 billion via in-game spending by 2022.
https://www.ydr.com/story/news/local/2018/11/29/what-loot-box-microtransaction-egames-fortnite-fifa-league-legends-fut-coins-riot-points-ftc-esports/2140904002/

So if your children are spending that much money to be able to play a game that’s supposedly free, just how much money did Epic Games make last year? The answer will absolutely shock you!

Fortnite: Battle Royale has brought in more revenue in a single month than any other game of its kind. The free-to-play game hit a new revenue record of $318 million in May, according to SuperData Research.

That puts Fornite well ahead of other breakout games like Pokémon Go and Clash of Clans, and it’s all the more spectacular when you realize the multi-platform game launched on consoles just eight months ago and on iOS just three months ago.

Since then, Fortnite has brought in more than $1.2 billion in revenue, all of which comes from nonessential in-app purchases, for stuff like clothing and dance moves.
https://www.recode.net/2018/6/26/17502072/fortnite-revenue-game-growth-318-million

There you have it, Fortnite is playing with our children’s sanity while the company that prodiuces the game is pocketing $300 million. That’s it for Top 10 Investigates. Good day.

My fair congregation! There is a war brewing among us! And unlike most wars, this war only comes once a year, usually around this time of year. Yes, I am referring of course, to the annual War On Christmas, of course the republican right has trademarked the word Christmas and we on the left are required to pay royalties every time we use it. Yeah seriously!

It’s that time of year, and the festive annual tradition of Religious Right hand-wringing about a supposed “War on Christmas” is getting underway. This week Liberty Counsel launched its annual “Friend or Foe Christmas Campaign” and released this year’s “Naughty and Nice” list of retailers that the group judges on the nature of their holiday promotions.

In an old video Liberty Counsel retweeted on Tuesday, Liberty Counsel President Mat Staver decried “attempts to remove Christ from Christmas” and warned that “every year the battle intensifies.” The Religious Right’s “War on Christmas” narrative, amplified by right-wing media personalities on Fox and elsewhere, has been part of the attempt to boost conservative evangelicals’ political engagement by convincing them that they are under assault in American culture.

On Monday, Liberty Counsel sent out a press release with a link to this year’s Naughty and Nice list, which, while ridiculous, is revealing about the kind of country Liberty Counsel wants America to be—one in which the cultural hegemony of its brand of Christianity is upheld and enforced, even by secular institutions like Burlington Coat Factory.
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/religious-right-gears-up-annual-war-on-christmas-attack-on-pluralism/

Oh not Burlington Coat Factory! That’s where us preachers shop. Oh sure, sir, maybe on your salary you can afford to shop at Nordstrom but us preachers have to resort to much… thriftier stores. But this year in the War on Christmas, there’s even more stores who are getting poor ratings for not supporting the baby JAYSUS enough!

Companies can make it onto Liberty Counsel’s “naughty” list even if they are selling Christmas-themed products, or advertising with universally recognized symbols of Christmas traditions like Santa Claus and reindeer.

For example, Liberty Counsel notes that Lord and Taylor incorporates Christmas language in its products and marketing. “However,” Liberty Counsel complains, “the company, like many others, falls short of portraying what the Christmas season is about. Their reindeers and printed Santas hide the love of the Nativity and reason for gift giving.”

Similarly, Liberty Counsel criticizes Burlington Coat Factory for its “severe lack of Christmas advertising with biblical meaning.” Liberty Counsel complains, “Each ad or marketing concept starts strong with Christmas-themed products but loses meaning through emphasis on giving and receiving.” We’re explicitly talking about retail advertising; why wouldn’t their emphasis be on giving and receiving?

Then there’s Dick’s Sporting Goods. “This sports store ignores the most important Gift of Christmas,” says Liberty Counsel, urging people to contact the retailer “to encourage the organization to include Christ in their ‘Christmas’ seasonal marketing plan.” Is it really the job of a sporting goods store to promote Christian teachings about the birth of Jesus?
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/religious-right-gears-up-annual-war-on-christmas-attack-on-pluralism/

I think even the good LAWRD JAYSUS is saying “seriously, get a fucking life, guys!”. But this probably is their only life. I mean really these are the people who support the Dark One, whose name shall not be named in my church. But this year in their supposed “war on Christmas”, the supporters of the Dark One think that they somehow have a monopoly on the holiday. I mean did it ever leave in the 8 years that Obama was in the White House?

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke saluted President Donald Trump on Wednesday night as “the man who brought Christmas back to America.”

That had Twitter users wondering: Just where did Christmas go?

Zinke’s introduction was actually recycled; he made a remarkably similar comment at last year’s tree-lighting ceremony, calling Trump “the man who brought ‘Merry Christmas!’ back to our nation’s capital.”

Neither Christmas nor “Merry Christmas” have ever left.

Yet it has been a talking point for Trump since early in the campaign and one he has mentioned repeatedly ― and often randomly, including in July ― even as president.

Here is some of the reaction to Trump being hailed for saving a holiday that was never in peril:
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/ryan-zinke-donald-trump-merry-christmas_us_5bff6223e4b0864f4f6a05ca

That is a good question, dear LAWRD! By the way , how great is our gospel choir? Give it up for them! By the way, in case you are wondering the numbers, it seems the war on Christmas is no longer a thing! We won ladies and gentlemen! And what should, in no way, shape or form shock you, only the most hardcore supporters of the Dark One are the ones who care about this nonsense!

In a Nov. 1-3 survey among 2,201 U.S. adults, respondents who said they believe there is “too much political correctness” and also said that would shop more at stores that say “Merry Christmas” were more than three times as likely to identify as Republican than as Democrat, 41 percent to 12 percent.

“The issue of ‘War on Christmas’ seems like asymmetrical warfare, in that only one side seems to be fighting it,” said Dan Cox, an independent pollster and former research director and co-founder of the nonpartisan polling firm PRRI.

Every year, the idea that the religious meaning of Christmas is under attack fires up one side of the partisan divide and is largely greeted with apathy by the other, Cox said. These attitudes closely mirror Morning Consult polling conducted last year.
https://morningconsult.com/2018/11/28/christmas-another-sign-partisan-divide-extends-to-culture/

There you have it, nobody cares anymore about the War On Christmas, so why is this still a thing? Mass has ended, may you go in peace! That’s it this week for:

[font size="8"]How Is This Still A Thing?
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It’s time once again to ask:

This week – South Carolina repeatedly attempting to secede from the union – how is this still a thing? In the 150 years since the Civil War began, there’s one state that still refuses to acknowledge that they lost the war and are still part of the United States. That state is South Carolina. While California got all the attention this year for an ill fated attempt to split the state into three smaller states, South Carolina did something unprecedented and off the radar that you probably didn’t expect, but should have. Yes, they managed to find enough representatives who still favor this kind of thing.

South Carolina debated seceding from the Union more than 150 years ago, a decision that ultimately led to the Civil War. Now, the topic has come up again, amid a national debate over firearms and gun rights.

A trio of state House Republicans on Thursday quietly introduced a bill that would allow lawmakers to debate seceding from the U.S. if the federal government confiscates guns purchased in South Carolina.

The bill provides that "the general assembly shall convene to consider whether to secede from the United States based upon the federal government's unconstitutional violation of the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution if the federal government confiscates legally purchased firearms in this state."

The measure sponsored by Reps. Mike Pitts, Jonathon Hill and Ashley Trantham has no real chance this session. The deadline for bills to move from one chamber to the other is April 10.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/south-carolina-state-house-republicans-introduce-bill-on-secession-over-gun-rights/

So South Carolina is obviously more concerned with gun rights than human rights to the point where they feel that they need to leave the United States over it. Yes, let’s just think about that for a minute here. But this isn’t the first time since the Civil War that South Carolina has attempted to secede from the union. In fact they attempt to secede from the union about as many times as Wiley Coyote attempts to catch the road runner.

If South Carolina were to secede from the United States as some officials are threatening to do, it wouldn’t be the first time that state led a secession movement in a quarrel with the federal government.

State lawmakers there are working on a bill that calls for the legislature to consider secession over larger gun rights and possession issues. The legislation states officials would “convene to consider whether to secede from the United States based upon the federal government’s unconstitutional violation of the Second Amendment … if the federal government confiscates legally purchased firearms in this state.”

The bill is still listed as being in the House Judiciary Committee.

Although it’s unclear whether the bill will become a law and whether any nationwide discussion on guns and gun rights will lead to changes at the federal level—or even to an action as advanced as confiscating legally acquired firearms, as the right often claims—the proposed measure echoes previous events in American history.

South Carolina was the first of 11 states to secede at the beginning of the Civil War. Shortly after President Abraham Lincoln was elected from the Republican Party in late 1860, South Carolina voted to secede.
https://www.newsweek.com/south-carolina-secession-history-state-attempts-secede-slaves-guns-877933

But in case you’re wondering, no, South Carolina doesn’t plan to quit any time soon. In fact they’re doubling down. They don’t take this sort of thing lightly, you know! But seriously you have to wonder what their best intentions are in this. Oh wait, they’re putting guns above people. They can’t have that good of intentions, can they?

Three conservative state lawmakers want South Carolina prepped to secede from the Union — again.

They’ve sponsored a bill requiring South Carolina lawmakers to consider secession if the federal government “confiscates legally purchased firearms.”

The bill by Reps. Mike Pitts, R-Laurens; Jonathon Hill, R-Townville; and Ashley Trantham, R-Greenville, has absolutely no chance of becoming law this year since there’s only about a month left in the session.

Pitts said he filed the bill to “generate dialogue and debate for next session.”

“That’s a serious bill,” he said. “I certainly don’t take it lightly.”

This isn’t the first time Pitts has offered especially crafted legislation to make a political statement. In 2016, he filed a bill requiring journalists to register with the state government and created fines for those who didn’t.
https://www.postandcourier.com/politics/palmetto-politics-take-my-gun-and-south-carolina-may-secede/article_c51dea50-36a3-11e8-91c9-ebfac52faefd.html

And also in case you’re wondering if they are going to attempt this sort of thing again, the answer is a definite yes, and in fact civil war culture is alive and well and a huge industry in South Carolina. So much that the house where the original plan to secede from the union came about.

If the walls of a 200-year-old Beaufort mansion could talk ....

Upon closer inspection, they can.

On the basement walls where Union troops once likely lined up to receive their pay, they wrote their names and regiment. Someone practiced writing numbers.

A note scrawled on a basement wall and dated Aug. 4, 1862, describes perhaps the most notable activity in this Greek Revival home on Craven Street downtown known as the "Milton Maxcy House" or "Secession House."

"This is Edmund Rhett's house. He had 42 field hands and 12 horses," the note reads in handwritten cursive script. "In this house the first meeting in favor of Secession was held 1851."

In Beaufort, history is always for sale.
https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/south-carolina/articles/2018-11-17/home-where-southerners-first-hatched-secession-plan-for-sale

So if the home where the first secession took place is up for sale, the home where the 2019 secession will take place won’t be too far behind! That’s enough to make you ask – South Carolina secession:

[font size="8"]White House Christmas Decorations: NO!
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It’s time for our new segment:

It’s Christmas time and once again that means that the White House Christmas decorations are going up, and once again, we are reminded that the Trump family has no taste in anything! Now for a comparison let’s show the decorations from last year. Which hilariously got compared to the decorating schematic on the hit Netflix show “Stranger Things”.

Now let’s show this year’s. Let's show the Christmas decorations. Can we show that for a minute?

For the record, last year's decorations got compared to Stranger Things, this year I would say they're going for a Dexter vibe. Let's call this "Serial Killer Chic". Does blood set Melania's teeth on edge or does it help her control the chaos? I'm just surprised that they're not wrapped in plastic. You could also throw in a little American Horror Story as well.

“Everybody has a different taste,” Melania Trump said this week.

Speaking at a town hall conversation at Liberty University, the first lady was referring to her White House Christmas decorations, which were unveiled in a short video on Monday, and the kerfuffle they caused. Particularly the red topiary trees lining the East Colonnade. The entire nation has come to know the phrase “blood red,” as it became the stuff of late-night monologues.

It turns out taste these days — in Christmas decorations, at least — can be a litmus test for a person’s politics and how they feel about the Trump administration. Not even garland, string lights and candy canes are above partisan squabbling.

Ms. Trump’s decorations, which also included “Be Best” pencil wreaths and tree stands (a nod to her childhood-wellness campaign) as well as gingerbread replicas of the Capitol, the Lincoln Memorial and other national monuments, could be seen as either “stunning” and patriotic (the Washington Times) or “deeply haunted” (The Cut). It was the rare media outlet that played it down the middle, as did Town & Country, which tactfully called the red trees: “Most striking, perhaps.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/30/fashion/white-house-christmas-decorations.html

NO!!!! We don’t want blood red Christmas trees. We’re decorating for Christmas here, not the Purge! I mean yeah it’s obvious by now that the Trumps don’t have any taste in anything! Especially when it comes to interior decorating. I mean what was that interior decorator thinking? And are you shocked at her reaction to the reaction to this abomination?

Red is a Christmas color.

So why did Twitter and other social media platforms erupt when First Lady Melania Trump unveiled this year’s White House Christmas trees including 45 that are ruby red?

Amelia Florist Vickie Wenstrup is struggling to find an answer to this question. She was caught off-guard by the social media reaction to the red berry Christmas trees that she and a team of other volunteers labored over for three days.

The reactions were unexpected and "horrible," she said.

"I don't know who first said it. Or why," Wenstrup recalled. "The first thing I saw (on Google) was 'Melania Trump covers the White House in blood for Christmas.'"

Florist who helped with Melania's red Christmas trees floored by 'horrible' reaction
Sheila Vilvens, Cincinnati Enquirer Published 10:25 a.m. ET Nov. 30, 2018 | Updated 12:23 p.m. ET Nov. 30, 2018

So why did Twitter and other social media platforms erupt when First Lady Melania Trump unveiled this year’s White House Christmas trees including 45 that are ruby red?

Amelia Florist Vickie Wenstrup is struggling to find an answer to this question. She was caught off-guard by the social media reaction to the red berry Christmas trees that she and a team of other volunteers labored over for three days.

The reactions were unexpected and "horrible," she said.

"I don't know who first said it. Or why," Wenstrup recalled. "The first thing I saw (on Google) was 'Melania Trump covers the White House in blood for Christmas.'"

More: Melania Trump defends red trees that have Twitter crying 'Handmaid's Tale'

That certainly wasn't how Wenstrup saw the trees which are located in the East Colonnade of the East Wing.

She thought that the design was perhaps inspired by the sculpted and shaped holly topiary trees in the garden that are visible outside the hallway's windows. The garden is one of two designed by former first lady Jacqueline Kennedy, Wenstrup said.

The cranberry tree that adorns the White House Red Room could have also served as an inspiration, she suggested. Whatever the idea's source, it was not Wenstrup's. The first lady's team worked on that.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/people/2018/11/30/melanias-red-christmas-trees-reaction-shocks-decorations-volunteer/2160687002/

Oh come on! You work for the Trump administration, you knew the job was dangerous when you took it, and have you not seen the Trump’s taste in interior decorating? Have you not seen Trump Tower?

I mean come on the only way you could fit more gold in there is if Trump were Goldmember and Goldfinger himself. Oh wait, he kind of is. But Melania is standing by her awful taste in decorating:

Despite all the internet buzz and criticism, First Lady Melania Trump says she stands by her White House Christmas decorations.

In an interview at Liberty University Wednesday as part of a town hall on the opioid crisis, Trump was asked what she has to say about the media’s coverage of her Christmas decorations. “We are in the 21st century and everybody has a different taste,” Trump said. With a smile, she added: “I think they look fantastic.”

The Liberty University audience applauded for the First Lady’s comment before she proceeded by inviting everyone to the White House to see the decorations, which feature numerous Christmas trees including rows of trees in a deep red shade that many joked resembled blood.

“In real life they look even more beautiful, and you are all very welcome to visit the White House — the ‘people’s house,'” she said.

The First Lady raised similar critiques with her 2017 decorations. Strongly resembling this year’s red tree motif, last year’s featured an array of white trees.
http://time.com/5465753/melania-trump-on-white-house-christmas-decorations/

[font size="8"]I Need A Drink
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Hey everyone, we’ve been doing this Top 10 thing for 3 years now and I really need a drink!

So of course you know the idea behind this is that we kick back, have a few drinks, get drunk, and talk about literally anything in the news as long as it doesn’t relate to politics. What’s the subject on the table this week you might ask? Well I love a good beef, and good beef, but really there’s nothing more interesting than a feud between two people. You know kind of like Trump and fake news. But this beef concerns a rock star and a hip hop star clashing over stage design. So tell me bartender, what goes well with a roller coaster? Yeah why don’t you just save me a step and feed me some vomit directly! In case you don’t know what I’m talking about – former Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee and current roller coaster rider Travis Scott got into a bit of a beef over the design of their respective stages in the last week.

Is imitation the sincerest form of flattery ... or is it a plain rip off? That's the question that Motley Crue's Tommy Lee is asking after accusing popular rapper-singer Travis Scott utilizing the Crue's rollercoaster ideas in separate performances.

Posting on Instagram, an upset Lee stated, "Just found out this fucking idiot @travisscott or someone on his team ripped off the 360 AND The Crüecifly! WTF!! Get an original idea bro...(swipe to see who did this shit first) BRB there’s more ..." The first post shows Scott's performance then scrolls to Lee's Crue performance aboard the famous 360 coaster. Lee then posted a second video in which Scott is performing aboard a coaster similar to the Cruecifly that Motley Crue used during their final run.

"ANNNNND not one rip off but TWO. DOPE. I get copying is a form of flattery, but this is just straight ripping off my shit. What do you guys think???," continued Lee in the second post. See both videos below.

The comments in the posts yield support for both sides, with some calling it a blatant rip off while others defend Scott or lay the blame elsewhere in the rapper's camp.

Regardless, Lee does seem upset and ready to pursue things further, adding in a tweet:
http://loudwire.com/tommy-lee-travis-scott-ripped-off-motley-crue-rollercoaster-stunts/

Ah yeah that’s good! So if you’re Tommy Lee, imitation is clearly *NOT* the most sincere form of flattery. Instead you’re a rip off artist!!!! Go to hell!!! Well, Mr. Lee is determined to bring down Mr. Scott over one of the dumbest beefs of all time.

Rocker Tommy Lee is confident he will prevail if he takes rapper Travis Scott to court over their shared onstage roller coaster design.

The drummer hit out at Travis on social media this week (ends30Nov18) after discovering the Goosebumps MC performs on a special 360 degree loop as part of his new Astroworld - Wish You Were Here Tour, an idea Lee first showed off during Motley Crue shows between 2011 and 2015.

During another segment of the show, the hip-hop star's ride is suspended over the crowd - just like The Cruecify, the ride Tommy had used on the road.

The veteran musician vented about the striking similarities between the two set-ups on Instagram, where he shared footage of both performances, and then he added on Twitter, "I get copying is a form of flattery, but this is just straight ripping off my s**t... Hey @trvisXX lawyer up!"

Travis' attorney, Laurie L. Soriano, promptly responded to the threat of legal action, insisting Lee's claims were baseless as they had actually hired the original inventor to create the Astroworld roller coaster, but now the rocker has done some of his own digging and is fighting back.
http://music-news.com/news/UK/117646/Tommy-Lee-determined-to-prove-Travis-Scott-s-stage-rollercoaster-is-a-rip-off

Yeah you know obviously the first step is to lawyer up because you know, you cant solve anything these days without obstructing the American legal system. Because, lawyers. Now what about when Tommy Lee was accusing Travis Barker of Blink 182 of ripping off his style? Ah, a little hole in your theory there, Mr. Lee!

Tommy Lee took to Twitter to respond to those who claimed he “stole his shit” from Travis Barker, and Barker’s response was perfect.

Earlier this week, Motley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee caught wind of rapper Travis Scott’s ASTROWORLD Tour setup. Lee in turn accused him of ripping off old sets by posting side-by-side videos of both stage designs.

Since then, fans have come forward claiming that Lee ripped off the idea from Blink-182’s Travis Barker.

Lee responded to the claims by posting a video of him doing the same drum stunt from 1981 (although fans were quick to correct him that it was actually ’87), long before Barker began doing something similar.
https://www.altpress.com/news/tommy-lee-responds-ripping-off-travis-barker/

I don’t think that wine glass is big enough! So it’s pretty well established by now that Tommy Lee is a total psychopath. But we got to post Travis Barker’s response because it’s too damn good:

https://twitter.com/travisbarker/status/1068738058948816896

So is imitation the most sincere form of flattery or is everyone who dares imitate the great Mr. Lee a rip off artist? Well that’s where we will let you be the judge because the connection he’s making is well, let’s just file this one under Dave Chappelle’s “When Keeping It Real Goes Wrong!”.

Earlier today, Motley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee caught wind of rapper Travis Scott’s ASTROWORLD Tour setup. Lee in turn accused him of ripping off old sets by posting side-by-side videos of both stage designs.

Lee told Scott to “lawyer up” soon after, and now he’s returning to social media with a new development, alleging they both used the same production company.

“And the plot thickens! After I and our production crew created the 360 and Crüecifly, we hired a company called SGPS in Las Vegas to create it. WELLLLL GUESS WHO’S DOING TRAVIS’S SET DESIGN???? Fucking SGPS! So all u mothafuckas tellin’ me I’m not right can fuck off.”

SGPS lists several of Motley Crüe’s tour on their website, including 2005’s Carnival Of Sins, 2008’s Crüe Fest and 2009’s Crüe Fest 2.

The production company has also worked with blink-182 where they constructed Travis Barker’s flying drum riser for their return in 2009, which marked their first post-hiatus tour.
https://www.altpress.com/news/tommy-lee-travis-scott-astroworld-stage/

[font size="8"]Deep State Diaries Episode 22: The Central Intelligence Agency
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It’s time for episode 22 of Deep State Diaries. Yes we’re touring the 24 branches and services that make up the United States government. Everything from the FBI to the IRS to the Pentagon to the CIA to the DPW to the DVA to parks and recreation and all branches and services in between. Of course if you’re here you probably already know more about our government and how it works than your average Fox News loving Trump supporter does. So that’s what this segment is going to address. We are going to do a deep dive into all that makes the United States the United States. Because we here at the Top 10 love to educate as well as entertain. Because we care.

[font size="6"]The CiA[/font]

Now it’s time to have some fun! We’re getting into the meat of the United States intelligence – the Central Intelligence Agency. You might have heard of the CIA from such movie franchises as Jason Bourne, the Mission: Impossible movies, the TV shows Archer, 24 and Quantico, James Bond, I could go on and on. But what does the CIA really do? You know people like Alex Jones have these bizarre fantasies about what the CIA does, but what do they really do? In fact, what you may be surprised to learn is that spy work is actually more boring than it sounds. Or is it? Well the intelligence community is all over the horrifying torture and murder of Washington Post editor Jamal Khashoogi, and it’s quite frankly an intelligence nightmare.

President Donald Trump disputed that U.S. intelligence officials have definitively concluded that Saudi’s crown prince ordered the murder of U.S.-based columnist Jamal Khashoggi, while continuing to tout the importance of maintaining economic ties with the Kingdom.

A confidential Central Intelligence Agency report on Khashoggi’s death says Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman “might have done it,” Trump said Thursday, referring to a demand that the journalist be killed. But the CIA “didn’t conclude” that the prince made the demand, the president told reporters during a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.

“You can conclude maybe he did or maybe he didn’t,” Trump said about the CIA report. “Whether he did or whether he didn’t, he denies it vehemently.”

Several news organizations including the Washington Post and New York Times have reported that the CIA concluded the crown prince ordered Khashoggi’s assassination in Istanbul last month, contradicting the Saudi government’s claim he wasn’t involved. CIA officials have high confidence in their conclusion, which is based on multiple sources of intelligence, the Post reported Nov. 16.
http://time.com/5462128/donald-trump-disputes-cia-saudi-prince-khashoggi/

Yes there’s a party in the CIA! Thanks Weird Al! but of course the feud between the CIA and the Trump administration about what really happened is, well, the stuff of pure insanity. Because that’s what happens in 2018 is that there’s some insane shit happening because we have a president who has somehow managed to redefine what the word “truth” is.

CIA director Gina Haspel found herself at the center of a political dispute Tuesday amid reports that the White House was blocking her from briefing Senators on the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Illinois Democrat Sen. Dick Durbin told CNN's Wolf Blitzer Tuesday that senators were told Haspel will not participate in Wednesday's all-Senate classified briefing alongside Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary James Mattis despite indications that lawmakers on both sides of the aisle would like to hear from her directly about the CIA's assessment regarding Khashoggi's killing.

"We were told that she would not be attending the briefing for members of Congress," Durbin said.

"That is extraordinary when we are dealing with the Khashoggi situation, the assertion by the State Department and intelligence agencies, her absence is obvious and its noted, and it raises a serious question as to whether this administration is giving us the whole truth," he added.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/27/politics/cia-haspel-senate-briefing/index.html

So is that thumbs up salute the new 2018 Nazi salute? Yeah probably. So the CIA as you can imagine is one gigantic bureaucracy. So what does the CIA do on a day to day basis? Well as you can imagine the word “investigate” is in their name so that’s what they do!

In 1993, Michael Pullara, a lawyer in Texas, was having breakfast when he came across a New York Times article about a CIA agent being shot dead in a car near Tbilisi, Georgia. He recognized the victim, Freddie Woodruff, immediately as the brother of a close friend from childhood. Intrigued, Pullara didn't fully believe the explanation soon offered by Georgian authorities: that Woodruff had been hit by a stray bullet fired from the gun of a drunk villager, Anzor Sharmaidze.

What followed took him across Eastern Europe to learn more about the CIA-agent-turned-KGB-mole, Aldrich Ames, who met with Woodruff not long before his killing; to a prison, to learn about the fate of Sharmaidze, who was convicted and originally sentenced to 15 years; and to back alleys to meet thugs and former Soviet officials. The theory he lays out, one he believes to be bolstered by former FBI and CIA agents, is somewhat complex: He suggests the feds knew Ames was a mole and temporarily left him alone to trade secrets—perhaps hoping he might lead to more moles or hostile spies—but never considered what would happen if Ames and Woodruff had any sort of run-in. If Pullara is to be believed, Ames passed along information about Woodruff to the Russians, whose military intelligence service, the GRU, killed him as a favor to ex-KGB diehards.
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/qvqkyx/the-quest-to-pin-the-90s-murder-of-a-cia-agent-on-the-kgb

And by the way in case you’re wondering if CIA mind control is real – yes there is a bit of truth in the conspiracy theories. But contrary to what Alex Jones and Coast To Coast AM say, no, they’re not using it on celebrities like Beyonce. Actually, they decided against using it. Or that’s what they want you to think, or is it? We’re not saying!

Shortly after 9/11, the CIA considered using a drug it thought might work like a truth serum and force terror suspects to give up information about potential attacks.

After months of research, the agency decided that a drug called Versed, a sedative often prescribed to reduce anxiety, was “possibly worth a try.” But in the end, the CIA decided not to ask government lawyers to approve its use.

The existence of the drug research program – dubbed “Project Medication” – is disclosed in a once-classified report that was provided to the American Civil Liberties Union under a judge’s order and was released by the organization Tuesday.

The 90-page CIA report, which was provided in advance to The Associated Press, is a window into the internal struggle that medical personnel working in the agency’s detention and harsh interrogation program faced in reconciling their professional ethics with the chance to save lives by preventing future attacks.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/11/14/cia-truth-serum-after-9-11/1997442002/

[font size="6"]Score Card [/font]

Overall importance: A
How Things Are Going: B+
Likely hood To Survive: B+

Overall: B+

[font size="6"]Next Week [/font]

For our big British special edition, we’re going to cover a branch that’s very unique to England – M:I-6 ! That’s the intelligence agency that employs James Bond, don’t you know?

[font size="8"]And Now This:[/font]
[font size="8”][/font]

I cannot wait to have this next guest on, one of my favorite bands of all time. Their latest album is called “Bad Witch”, you can see them at the Hollywood Palladium starting Dec. 6th – Dec. 15th on their “Cold And Black And Infinite” tour. Playing their song “God Break Down The Door”, give it up for the one, the only Nine Inch Nails!
https://media.pitchfork.com/photos/5b21342d57d25b55cad148ea/1:1/w_320/bad%20witch.jpg

Happy 3rd anniversary everybody! See you in London next week for our Big British Special! See you next week!

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About Top 10 Idiots

This is the official DU account for the new format Top 10 Conservative Idiots separate from the host account Initech. The new format Top 10 will launch June 13th, 2018 and all posts related to the Top 10 (promos, etc) will be posted from this account only. The Top 10 is posted once a week on Thursdays at 2:00 PM. There is a full archive of all past, present and future Top 10 editions that can be found here: https://www.democraticunderground.com/100218599098\ Announcements for our current season schedule are posted in our Best Of editions that appear at the end of each season. Updates are posted regularly on the official Top 10 Mastodon account and the official Holy Shit Mastodon account. The Mastodon accounts are used to announce what's going to be in next week's edition, new content, advertising our segments, and so on. This account will post official Top 10 editions, and any related content including our spinoff series: Holy Shit The Sunday Sermons. If you wish to contact the Top 10 you may do so here: E-mail (all questions, concerns, suggestions, and hate mail welcome): Top10ConIdiots@gmail.com Follow the Top 10 on Mastodon: Top10ConIdiots@mstdn.party Follow The Holy Church Of The Top 10 on Mastodon: ChurchOfTop10@mstdn.party **This account will ONLY be used to post official Idiots editions, promos, and things related to the Top 10. No other posts will come from this account** Top 10 Wiki: https://www.democraticunderground.com/100211322508