Top 10 Idiots

Top 10 Idiots's Journal

February 27, 2019

Top 10 Conservative Idiots #6-8: The Thing From Uranus Edition

Top 10 Conservative Idiots #6-8: The Thing From Uranus Edition

Welcome back to the Top 10 Conservative Idiots! Book now and get triple your frequent flyer miles an double cash back points when you reserve with our new Top 10 Signature Rewards Card! We are back everybody and whew, that was quite the road trip! We had fun but it is good to be back home for a few weeks. And man did we have quite an insane week last week? It’s going to take a lot to break it all down for you. Do we have time for the thing? Good. OK so did everyone watch the Oscars this weekend? I mean yeah it was a complete mess of an award show. There were ups, there were downs. I love that Black Panther got some much needed recognition and that one of my favorite flicks of last year, Spiderman: Into The Spiderverse won Best Animated Movie. That was awesome. And then there was Billy Porter who won the red carpet this year and probably the next five years as well with his huge man gown tuxedo. And I mean really, Green Book? That was the movie you go with? That was the best picture of last year? I mean over Black Panther – one of the best superhero movies of all time and a real milestone for Marvel? Or Blackkklansman? Or A Star Is Born? Just…AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! I will say that this is one of the least memorable groups of Best Picture winners ever. Although everyone has their beefs with the Oscars. I’ve said mine, and it’s good to get that off my chest. I’ve been holding it in the last week. Not a shit joke, sir! OK that’s enough of the intro. But first you know what? Fuck it, I really didn’t find a talk show clip I really liked over the weekend so while on the subject of the Oscars let’s play the Honest Trailer of the Oscars which was better than that entire 5 hour presentation:

Whew, there's so much to unpack from the last week, we don't know where to begin. Well in the top slot this week, is Patriots owner Robert Kraft (1) - yes, he got arrested for soliciting prostitutes so I guess you could say that the Patriots had *TWO* happy endings this year. Hey o!!! For the second slot this week, is Christopher Hasson (2), aka the latest MAGA terrorist, and he might be one of the stupidest attempted murderers alive - really, we can't make this shit up. Taking the third slot this week is Jussie Smollet (3). No, he’s not conservative, but this whole thing with his attack just gets weirder and weirder and weirder and we will break down the most recent developments in this whole mess. In the fourth slot this week, we’ve got of course the guy who we currently call president, Donald J. Trump (4) and hey everyone, do you have your July 4th plans ready? Well your favorite president (sic) has made them for you! For the fifth slot this week, we have a new installment of our weekly investigative piece, Top 10 Investigates, and this week, we’re going to talk some hate crimes. HATE CRIMES!!! Specifically the alarming rate at which they’re rising in the last two years. In the number 6 slot this week is our weekly visit to the Holy Church Of The Top 10 in “Holy Shit”, and Trump did something surprising and announced that his administration is going to work to decriminalize homosexuality around the world, but with Ralph Drollinger and Paula White as his spiritual advisors, our resident pastor suspects something sinister is afoot and looks to get to the bottom of the Christian right blame game. At number 7 this week, we have a new “Beating A Dead Horse” (7) and the early reviews for Captain Marvel are in! Woo!!!! But that’s not the subject of discussion for this topic. No, we’re going to talk about the *OTHER* reviews for Captain Marvel coming from right wing trolls! And really if you’re shocked by this, you’re in the wrong place! For the 8th slot this week, we have a new installment of “How Is This Still A Thing?” and really people, haven’t you learned by now not to talk to Roseanne Barr? Because she is batshit fucking crazy and we will find out why interviewing her is still a thing. In the number 9 (NEIN!!!) slot this week, we have a new installment of "I Need A Drink" and we're going to get drunk and take a look at a story about an unclaimed lottery ticket in South Carolina that could be worth BILLIONS. Yes, that’s right – BILLIONS! Finally this week, sadly, folks, we must say goodbye to our ongoing series that explains how government works to conspiracy theorists, Deep State Diaries. But not before we take one last look at the State Department! Plus we’ve got some live music from the great Cypress Hill! Yes, the world’s foremost stoner band has graced us with their presence! And as always don’t forget the key!

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[font size="8"]Robert Kraft
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Yeah so the New England Patriots… really? You got to woo that? One of the many challenges of doing this in front of a live audience. So, the New England Patriots beat the Los Angeles Rams *AGAIN* to win their 6th Super Bowl in their 10th appearance. Say what you want about Tom Brady and Bill Belichick, but there’s another member of the Patriots squad who’s getting some really happy endings and becoming just another old sex pervert. I’m talking about their owner Robert Kraft, who got caught up in a sex scandal of his own over the weekend.

New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft is facing charges of misdemeanor solicitation of prostitution after he was twice videotaped paying for a sex act at an illicit massage parlor, police in Florida said Friday.

The 77-year-old Kraft was one of 25 people involved in the alleged solicitation at the Orchids of Asia Day Spa in Jupiter, Florida.

Michael Edmondson, spokesman for the state attorney's office in Palm Beach County, told ESPN that the nature of any charges that the 25 people face will not be released until next week.

The potential charges come amid a widespread crackdown on sex trafficking in Florida from Palm Beach to Orlando. Hundreds of arrest warrants have been issued in recent days as result of a six-month investigation, and more are expected. Ten spas have been closed, and several people charged with sex trafficking have been taken into custody.
http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/26055197/patriots-owner-robert-kraft-facing-charges-solicitation-prostitution

You know I’m a Rams fan, and I take absolutely no delight in watching an old republican white male get busted for sex crimes, and it’s not in my nature to kick a man when he’s down. But in this case I will make an exception, damn it! Oh and by the way what was Tom Brady doing there when he got arranged? I don’t think I would want to see that.

The quarterback has his owner’s back.

Tom Brady was photographed spending quality time with — and at one point hugging — New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft Monday, just days after Kraft was charged with soliciting sex from prostitutes in Florida.

The snaps were taken on a Boston tarmac after Kraft, 77, and Brady, 41, exited the former’s private jet in from Los Angeles, where they’d been celebrating Oscars weekend, according to TMZ, who obtained the photos. Brady’s wife Gisele Bündchen was also present.

In one photo, the two walk side by side as they appear engaged in conversation, and in another, Brady leans down to pull Kraft in close for a hug.

The intimate moment echoes that of the apparent kiss the quarterback shared with Kraft after their Patriots beat the Los Angeles Rams to win the Super Bowl on Feb. 3.
https://people.com/sports/tom-brady-robert-kraft-hug-prostitution-charges/

Seriously, is Tom Brady in love with Robert Kraft or is he in LOVE with Robert Kraft? Not that there’s anything wrong with that! Oh and here’s where it gets weird! Because of course it is going to get weird, why not? Want to know why Robert Kraft wasn’t at the game where the Patriots won the AFC title and went to the Super Bowl? He was in Florida soliciting for sex! Even he’s been there, done that!

New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft visited a Florida massage parlor for sex acts the night before and the morning of last month’s AFC Championship Game, authorities said Monday in documents charging him with two misdemeanor counts of soliciting prostitution.

Kraft is one of hundreds of men charged in recent days as part of a crackdown on prostitution allegedly occurring in massage parlors between Palm Beach and Orlando. Ten spas have been closed and several people, most of them women originally from China, have been charged with running the operation.

The 77-year-old Kraft was chauffeured to the Orchids of Asia Day Spa in a 2014 white Bentley on the evening of Jan. 19, where police say they videotaped him engaging in a sex act and then handing over an undetermined amount of cash, Jupiter, Florida, police said in charging documents released by the Palm Beach State Attorney’s Office.

Investigators said Kraft returned 17 hours later, arriving at the upper-middle class shopping center where the spa was located in a chauffeured 2015 blue Bentley, the documents said. Kraft, who is worth $6 billion, was videotaped engaging in sex acts before paying with a $100 bill and another bill, police said. He then flew to Kansas City to watch his Patriots defeat the Chiefs in overtime hours later.
https://www.pressherald.com/2019/02/25/nfl-pledges-to-take-appropriate-action-in-robert-kraft-case/

Holy shit!!! Hundreds??? Is this the mass arrests that the Qanon people have been warning us about all along? Is this the real sex and human trafficking ring? Is this the Thing From Uranus? Yes, I made a poop joke there! Good night everybody! So what kind of charges is Mr. Kraft looking at? Well, he’s a billionaire so he’ll probably avoid any jail sentence… and if you’re expecting that he’ll get nothing more than a slap on the wrist, you’re probably right.

The Florida state attorney's office in Palm Beach says New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft has been charged with two counts of soliciting prostitution, days after police alleged surveillance video had caught Kraft during two visits to the Orchids of Asia Day Spa in Jupiter, Fla.

State Attorney Dave Aronberg said at a news conference Monday that Kraft, a resident of Massachusetts who also has a home in Palm Beach, is among 25 people facing first-degree misdemeanor charges of soliciting another to commit prostitution.

As for potential penalties, Aronberg said the charge potentially carries a prison sentence of up to one year, along with "mandatory 100 hours of community service, a mandatory $5,000 fine, and a mandatory class on the dangers of prostitution and human trafficking."

The police investigation into the spa was aimed at stopping human trafficking, which Aronberg equated to "modern day slavery" and called an "evil in our midst."
https://www.npr.org/2019/02/25/697782148/robert-kraft-is-formally-charged-with-solicitation-over-visits-to-florida-day-sp

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[font size="8"]The MAGA Terrorist
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OK let’s lighten things up and talk about some terrorism. Yeah and not the kind of terrorism that you’d come to expect from Osama Bin Laden or Al’Qaeda, rather we’re going to focus on more home grown terrorism. You know think Timothy McVeigh, David Koresh and the Unabomber. That kind of home grown right-wing terrorism. So the latest one comes from where a lot of scary things come from – Baltimore, Maryland. But where did he come from? Oh and if you’re wondering why I keep referring to him as a MAGA terrorist, well, his list of targets looks very much like Trump’s enemies list, and yeah let’s keep it at that. But before we get into it, let’s probe the origin story of the latest MAGA terrorist

A U.S. Coast Guard lieutenant suspected of plotting to kill politicians and journalists as part of a terrorist attack appears to have Arizona ties.

A report from The New York Times indicates Christopher Paul Hasson graduated from Greenway High School in Phoenix in 1987 before joining the Marine Corps the following year.

A representative from the Glendale Union High School District didn't immediately respond Sunday to a request for comment from The Arizona Republic.

Hasson, 49, who worked at Coast Guard headquarters in Washington, D.C., was arrested on Feb. 15 on gun and drug charges.
https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona-breaking/2019/02/24/coast-guard-terrorism-suspect-has-arizona-ties/2972879002/

Yeah so that happened. So he’s originally from Phoenix. That’s Maricopa County. Who else is from Maricopa County? Oh I know! Sherriff Joe!!! Does the embattled MAGA terrorist have ties to the guy who made prison hazing popular again? You betcha! Oh and by the way, he might be one of the single dumbest criminals alive. You don’t use official computers for personal business, never ever!

The U.S. Coast Guard lieutenant spent hours on end planning a wide-scale domestic terrorist attack, even logging in at his work computer on the job at headquarters to study the manifestos and heinous paths of mass shooters, prosecutors say. He researched how to carry out sniper attacks, they contend, and whether rifle scopes were illegal. And all the while, investigators assert, he was amassing a cache of weapons as he ruminated about attacks on politicians and journalists.

But Christopher Hasson was not an isolated figure, according to a contractor who worked with him. The 49-year-old lieutenant with more than two decades in the Coast Guard was part of a project to replace some aging cutters in the fleet, tasks that regularly required interacting with civilians and military officials at meetings and on travel.

“I don’t remember him saying anything that was crazy,” said Adam Stolzberg, a contractor who worked at headquarters and was in meetings with Hasson a couple of times a month. Politics never came up, Stolzberg said.

It was only after Hasson’s arrest last Friday at his workplace that the chilling plans prosecutors assert he was crafting became apparent, detected by an internal Coast Guard program that watches for any “insider threat.”
https://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-us-coast-guard-christopher-hasson-terrorist-attack-20190222-story.html

Yeah so his studies obviously failed. Because, the difference between Hasson and those other mass murderers? He got caught. And did so in a colossally stupid way. But it does shed some light on white supremacism in the military – something that the FBI warned us about way back in 2003. Remember that report that came out during the Bush years? Yeah so this happened. And by the way in case you’re wondering what Trump is saying about this? Well, he’s dead silent.

Former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele on Friday condemned President Trump for declining to speak out against a Coast Guard lieutenant accused of plotting to commit an act of white nationalist terrorism.

“Why would we be surprised that a self-proclaimed nationalist would not speak out against a self-proclaimed white nationalist?” Steele asked during an appearance on MSNBC.

“Why are we acting like this is a space that Donald Trump is going to go in on behalf of the American ideal? No, he’s not,” he continued.

Steele’s comments came after Coast Guard Lt. Christopher Paul Hasson was accused by federal prosecutors of stockpiling weapons and creating a hit list of prominent journalists and left-wing politicians.

The president remarked on the news Friday, calling it a “shame.”
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/431266-ex-rnc-chair-condemns-trumps-silence-on-alleged-domestic-terrorist

Yeah so Trump just pulled a Seinfeld here. But this whole thing really sheds a light on white supremacists in the United States military. Yes, there are neo Nazis and white supremacists currently active in the US military. So what the fuck is going on here? We might have to keep an eye on this subject.

House Democrats are calling upon the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security to address renewed concern over the incidence of white supremacy and other extremist affiliations among members of the military, following the recent arrest of a Coast Guard lieutenant who, according to federal prosecutors, was actively plotting deadly acts of domestic terrorism.

In a letter sent to Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan and DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen on Monday, Maryland Reps. Elijah Cummings, Anthony Brown and Jamie Raskin, as well as California Rep. Jackie Speier, praised the “swift action taken by federal agencies” to arrest Christopher Hasson before he could carry out his alleged plans, but expressed concern “that an individual that espouses these views could repeatedly serve in the military across multiple services.”

According to court records, Hasson’s military career began in the Marine Corps, where he served from 1998 to approximately 1993, followed by two years of active duty with the Army National Guard. Since 2016, the 49-year-old lieutenant had been working as an acquisitions officer at the Coast Guard’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. It was from his work computer that federal prosecutors say Hasson, a self-described white nationalist who was arrested earlier this month on weapons and drug charges, studied the manifesto of the far-right Norwegian terrorist Anders Breivik and other extremist killers, and wrote of his desire to “kill almost every last person on the earth.”
https://news.yahoo.com/democratic-lawmakers-demand-answers-from-trump-administration-on-extremists-serving-in-us-military-223510915.html

[font size="8"]Jussie Smollet
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I’m sure by now that you’re probably sick of hearing about *FORMER* Empire star Jussie Smollet and the ongoing investigation into the attack that he now probably staged on himself. And he got arrested for it. And even crazier – the guys he hired are potentially the stupidest criminals of all time. Well maybe not of all time but they’re definitely hall of fame material. I mean this whole thing just gets weirder and weirder and weirder. So the question remains – did Jussie Smollet order the hit on himself to teach his bosses a lesson or didn’t he?

Dozens of private and city-owned security cameras played a critical role in helping investigators unravel “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett’s alleged hoax attack, police and prosecutors say.

Officials say investigators were suspicious of Smollett from the outset.

Officers were dispatched to investigate a brutal racist, homophobic attack on Smollett early on the morning of Jan. 29. During the attack, he said, two men threw a rope around his neck, in the manner of a noose.

<snip>

That all changed after police arrested two U.S.-born brothers of Nigerian descent – Abel and Ola Osundairo – as they arrived in Chicago Feb. 13 from a two-week trip overseas.

Abel, 25, was a close friend and personal trainer of Smollett who provided the actor with the club drug Ecstasy, prosecutors say. Both brothers had worked on the set of "Empire."

Smollett was charged this week with disorderly conduct by filing a false police report.

Prosecutors say he falsely told police that the perpetrators flung racial and homophobic slurs as they pummeled him, poured a chemical substance on him, and screamed “This is MAGA Country,” a reference to President Trump’s 2016 campaign slogan.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/02/23/jussie-smollett-alleged-hoax-security-cameras-police-osundairo-brothers-empire/2953688002/

So that escalated quickly. I mean that really got out of hand fast. This whole thing is certifiably insane and it just keeps getting weirder. What started out as an innocent attack is quickly spiraling out of control and it might get even worse before it’s all over. I mean Jussie’s got some ‘splainin to do. Well at least we have the check!

ABC News has obtained the $3,500 check that was apparently written by "Empire" actor Jussie Smollett to one of the two brothers who Chicago police said helped stage an attack on Smollett last month.

ABC News reports the check's memo line reads "5 week Nutrition/Workout program (Don't Go)." Sources told ABC News Smollett was training for an upcoming music video titled "Don't Go."

The check was dated Jan. 23, six days before Smollett was accused of staging the attack. The music video was scheduled to be filmed Feb. 23, according to a calendar entry of Smollett's obtained by ABC News.

A source close to Smollett told ABC News that the $3,500 check was $600 per-week for the workout plan and $100 per-week for the nutrition plan.

ABC News has also obtained text messages between Smollett and one of the Osundairo brothers.
https://6abc.com/jussie-smolletts-check-to-brothers-obtained-by-abc-news/5155579/

That seriously is a legendary fail. If someone pays you to commit a crime, maybe at least go watch a crime movie first! Because if you watch crime movies you know not to buy all your shit in one place or they’ll get suspicious! I mean even in Baby Driver they admitted that buying their masks all at once was a pretty stupid idea.

The Jussie Smollett case has not gotten any less messy—or confusing. The $3,500 check that Smollett allegedly used to pay brothers Abel and Ola Osundairo to stage a hate crime against him in January includes a memo line that reads, “5 week Nutrition/Workout program (Don’t Go).” Sources close to Smollett—who has maintained his innocence since formally being arrested for filing a false police report—say the Empire actor did not pay the brothers to attack him, but instead hired them to help him lose weight ahead of a music-video shoot. ABC News obtained a copy of the check that shows that memo line, as well as text messages between Smollett and one of the brothers regarding nutrition and exercise that seem to support that narrative.

Still, during an interview Monday with Good Morning America, Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson maintained that during their police interrogation, the brothers indicated that the check was given to them explicitly for the attack—and that police have additional evidence supporting this theory that has not been made public yet.

Smollett has consistently denied staging his attack. In their most recent statement on Smollett’s behalf following an impassioned police briefing—and Smollett’s arrest—the actor’s attorneys wrote, “Today we witnessed an organized law-enforcement spectacle that has no place in the American legal system. The presumption of innocence, a bedrock in the search for justice, was trampled upon at the expense of Mr. Smollett and notably, on the eve of a mayoral election. Mr. Smollett is a young man of impeccable character and integrity who fiercely and solemnly maintains his innocence and feels betrayed by a system that apparently wants to skip due process and proceed directly to sentencing.”
https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2019/02/jussie-smollett-attack-police-check-eddie-johnson-good-morning-america

That is a good question, Mr. Harvey! And in case you’re wondering why hate crimes go unreported in this country, well, there’s that whole thing we do where we tend to blame the victims, and Mr. Smollet is one such victim in this case. Yeah… he just made it worse for literally everyone that is the victim of a hate crime.

One of the many moral panics of our time is that of “victimhood culture”. Apparently, we are too indulgent of those who can claim victim status, a state especially rife among students. The story goes that this has turned us all into eternal babies, coddling us, protecting us from “micro aggressions” and signalling an erosion of individual grit and autonomy in favour of mimsy whining.

In an effort to invert unfair power structures, some claim, victimhood culture has only succeeded in replacing them with different unfair power structures, where those who used to be at the bottom now hold the whip hand over those who used to be at the top. Women terrify men, who are forever fearful an offhand remark will become a harassment lawsuit, and racial minorities secure jobs at the expense of white people the moment their unusual names are spotted on a CV. The writer Lionel Shriver called it “privileging the disadvantaged”. Shriver also told BBC Radio 4 that white men in the UK are on the bottom rung of society, because they are considered to be the most powerful demographic (reader, I can reveal they are). Victimhood culture advocates engage in a lot of doublethink.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/feb/25/jussie-smollett-intolerant-victimhood-culture

[font size="8"]Donald Trump
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Who’s got July 4th plans? Yes, you know July 4th – the holiday where you fight traffic to go to your local high school’s ridiculously poorly planned fireworks show, while your idiot neighbors blow their thumbs off trying it at home. Yeah, you might have lit up the night sky and caused dogs everywhere around you to bark their heads off, and you’ll get a trip to the ER out of it! Woo!!!! ‘MERICA!!! Well if either activity isn’t in your July 4th plans, let’s let your favorite president make them for you! What’s he got planned exactly? A super patriotic Americagasm spectacular on the National Mall. Which of course is already opposite the official government sanctioned July 4th Independence Day Parade celebration in DC. I mean must he *HAVE* to ruin everything? Oh he must!

President Trump asked to Americans to "hold the date" of July 4th—a federal holiday already in most calendars—for the White House's planned "Salute to America." In a Twitter message published Sunday, the president sketched the broad outlines of his new Independence Day celebration, which sounds pretty similar to standard issue July 4th festivities.

According to CNN, the capital has its own Independence Day tradition, and there's no word yet whether the "Salute to America" would augment or replace it:

Trump has expressed his desire to create a major patriotic event for some time. After attending Paris’s Bastille Day military parade with French leader Emmanuel Macron in 2017, the U.S. President said he wanted to stage his own similar event. "To a large extent because of what I witnessed, we may do something like that on July 4 in Washington down Pennsylvania Avenue," he told Reuters at the time. "We’re actually looking into it."

The White House first attempted to mount its parade for Veteran’s Day last year, but later cancelled the event, citing high costs. "The local politicians who run Washington, D.C. (poorly) know a windfall when they see it,” wrote Trump on Twitter at the time. "When asked to give us a price for holding a great celebratory military parade, they wanted a number so ridiculously high that I cancelled it."

If the new 4th of July celebrations aren't similarly thwarted, the president may have some trouble booking entertainment, as his administration has struggled to find popular musicians willing to associate themselves with the Trump White House. Entertainers like Elton John, Andrea Bocelli, and 2 Chainz passed on the chance to perform at Trump's inauguration, an event that finally mustered a tepid billing featuring 3 Doors Down, Toby Keith, and Tony Orlando.
https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a26495354/trump-july-4th-celebration-announcement/

WOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! Aint no party like a Donald Trump party because a Donald Trump party don’t stop! Oh wait, that sounds *EXACTLY* like literally every July 4th celebration ever. I mean come on, Obama could get Bruce Springsteen *AND* U2 to play his events! Trump could barely get a Z-grade Bruce Springsteen cover band. So what’s he got in store?

In line with Donald Trump’s ridiculous habit of taking credit for everyone else’s efforts, he is now claiming ownership of Fourth of July celebrations that are held every year in the nation’s capital (and across the country, of course).

“HOLD THE DATE!” Trump yelled on Twitter Sunday morning. “We will be having one of the biggest gatherings in the history of Washington, D.C., on July 4th. It will be called ‘A Salute To America’ and will be held at the Lincoln Memorial. Major fireworks display, entertainment and an address by your favorite President, me!”

In addition to exaggerating his relevance overall to the human species, what Trump did here is to stake a claim to a national holiday by seeking to turn it into another hate-filled, political lie-fest, otherwise known as a MAGA rally funded by taxpayers. It’s also a way to inflate his crowd size. Such a grifter.

Whiny Trump didn’t get his $92 million boondoggle of a military parade, so apparently, he had to think of another way to pay homage to himself before he winds up in jail. He probably stole the idea from one of his dictatorial idols, North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, whom Trump is scheduled to meet with this week in Vietnam. Maybe Trump will invite “little Rocket Man” to the party.
https://splinternews.com/hold-the-date-trump-s-planning-the-biggest-party-ever-1832854034

Hold the date? Seriously Trump’s never got a “Save The Date” card in the mail? He can’t even get that right! So how’s he going to throw this most patriotic Americagasm orgy of all patriotic displays? And has he really thought this through? Oh who am I kidding! Of course he hasn’t. I mean there’s all kinds of operating costs associated with an event like this.

It’s about four months away, but President Donald Trump has some pretty big plans for the Fourth of July in the District this summer. He announced on Sunday that he’s hosting a July 4th celebration at the Lincoln Memorial.

However, Mayor Muriel Bowser told FOX 5 Monday that not only have D.C. officials not heard from the White House, there is also already planning underway for the city’s traditional July 4th celebration. There’s a parade down Constitution Avenue, the annual “Capitol Fourth” concert at the U.S. Capitol and the fireworks over The Mall.

Sunday, the President tweeted: “We will be having one of the biggest gatherings in the history of Washington, D.C., on July 4th. It will be called ‘A Salute to America’ and will be held at the Lincoln Memorial.” He also said he’d make an address during the celebration.

But Bowser made it clear — she has concerns about planning, costs and security.

“Planning for that to make sure that all the participants are safe down on The Mall is not something that you can wing, it has to be planned and planned well, and moving the President during that could be a very considerable undertaking for our MPD, which would pull them off the already large crowds that we have,” said Bowser.
http://www.fox5dc.com/news/local-news/questions-abound-after-president-trump-announces-july-4th-celebration-at-lincoln-memorial

I love that movie! So yeah he obviously didn’t think this through and will need to do some extensive planning which is great because Washington DC will be using most of its’ resources to cover the other main July 4th attraction! Ha ha!!! Maybe Blackwater and the III%ers are available? Although this is why I love Twitter because there were some hilarious responses to Trump’s madness:

People on Twitter had a blast Sunday coming up with images for President Donald Trump’s planned “one of the biggest gatherings in the history of Washington, D.C.” at the Lincoln Memorial this year to mark Independence Day.

Visions ranged from chilling images of the kind of military event that might occur in Moscow to old photos of the 1970 “Honor America” Independence Day celebration on the National Mall organized by wealthy supporters of Richard Nixon. The 1970 event was aimed at shoring up support for Nixon amid antiwar protests and the fatal shooting that year of four Kent State University students by the Ohio National Guard.

The event instead blossomed into a free-for-all involving furious neo-Nazis and other conservatives and a “smoke-in” by antiwar hippies. (“Before this is over, I may need some of that stuff myself,” quipped master of ceremonies Bob Hope.) Nixon was not on the scene.

Trump on Sunday urged Americans to “HOLD THE DATE” of July 4 for a “Salute To America” celebration featuring a speech by “your favorite President, me!”
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/twitter-visions-trump-july-fourth_n_5c733a2be4b06cf6bb275b8d

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

There’s no mistake that since the 2016 election that saw America take an absolutely hard right turn that hate crimes have been reported in alarming numbers, not just in the United States, but all over the world. What’s to blame for this? Many people blame social media for the rise in what’s fueling this worrisome trend. But just how bad are things? It’s not just in America this is happening but in countries like Poland, Hungary, France, England, Turkey, the Philippines, and Russia, where arguably this can all be traced back to. But just how bad have things got in the world of hate? Well there’s a lot.

One video showed a 51-year-old Jewish man being beaten to the ground by three young men, who seemed to select him at random. Another showed an Orthodox Jewish man being chased across the street by a man wielding a tree branch. A third showed an Orthodox Jewish man hanging on to a fence as an assailant jumped and choked him.

The three incidents, all of which took place in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, in the past year, have raised alarms in the neighborhood and in the city’s large Orthodox Jewish community as a whole. Hate crimes are up citywide, but in Crown Heights, they have taken a particularly violent turn.

There were 55 hate crimes reported in New York City this year as of Feb. 17, an increase of 72 percent over the same period last year, the police said. Anti-Semitic crimes made up almost two-thirds of that, for a total of 36 crimes reported so far this year, compared with 21 last year.

The steep rise comes after a year when hate crimes were already increasing. Anti-Semitic crimes in 2018 were up 22 percent compared with 2017.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/18/nyregion/anti-semitism-brooklyn-new-york.html

And that’s just in New York alone. What about the rest of the country? It’s getting very scary out there, as you can already see. While the Jussie Smollett hate crime is FUBAR, there’s no mistake that it shed light on just how many hate crimes go unreported. And why is that? Well there’s many reasons why hate crimes go unreported.

A Minnesota legislator said Wednesday that he would introduce a proposal to toughen the penalty for falsely reporting hate crimes, citing a high-profile reported attack on a gay black actor in Chicago that was recently called into question.

Rep. Nick Zerwas, R-Elk River, described the measure, expected later this session, as "a reasonable step to help deter individuals from filing false police reports and to make sure that we devote law enforcement's limited resources to investigating and prosecuting legitimate bias-motivated crimes."

Zerwas said he was motivated to bring the issue forward after recent reports that police believed "Empire" actor Jussie Smollett may have staged a January attack by two masked men shouting racial and anti-gay slurs. Smollett has denied that claim through his lawyers.

In recent days, Zerwas has written about the case in multiple posts on Twitter, describing it as part of a "recent rise in fake victimization" and a symptom of media bias.
http://www.startribune.com/minnesota-lawmaker-wants-to-increase-penalties-on-false-hate-crime-reports/506109302/

Is it any surprise that a republican is leading the charge to stiffen penalties on reporting false hate crimes? We’re shocked, but not that shocked. Because hate crimes almost always tend to be caused by conservatives. And who are they targeting? We’ve seen time and time again that the LGBT community and Jewish synagogues and cemeteries are targets. But what else?

For the fourth year in a row, the Southern Poverty Law Center, a civil rights organization that tracks hate groups, reports that hate and domestic extremism are rising in an unabated trend. The center found a 30 percent increase in U.S. hate groups over the past four years and a 7 percent increase in hate groups in 2018 alone, according to the center's annual "Year in Hate and Extremism" report. The group designated 1,020 organizations as hate groups in 2018, a high of at least 20 years.

The watchdog group blames President Trump, his administration, right-wing media outlets and the ease of spreading hate on social media platforms for the alarming increase. The growth, it says, is largely driven by "hysteria over losing a white-majority nation to demographic change."

"The numbers tell a striking story — that this president is not simply a polarizing figure but a radicalizing one," Heidi Beirich, director of the SPLC's Intelligence Project, said in a statement. "Rather than trying to tamp down hate, as presidents of both parties have done, President Trump elevates it — with both his rhetoric and his policies. In doing so, he's given people across America the go-ahead to to act on their worst instincts."

The Southern Poverty Law Center is a revered civil rights watchdog group that has been around since 1971. It is credited with dealing the final blows to the Ku Klux Klan through legal battles.
https://www.npr.org/2019/02/20/696217158/u-s-hate-groups-rose-sharply-in-recent-years-watchdog-group-reports

Yes, haters gonna hate. So… shake it off. But before you do that, you should realize just how many hate groups operate in the United States and they get away with it. And when you live in a divided nation in a world that’s becoming increasingly divided on social media. Or you could say that it’s because of an alarming increase in an increasingly far right conservative presence around the globe. But whatever it is, we currently live in troubled times, and it’s going to get worse before it gets better.

The number of hate groups in the United States rose for the fourth year in a row in 2018, pushed to a record high by a toxic combination of political polarization, anti-immigrant sentiment and technologies that help spread propaganda online, the Southern Poverty Law Center said Wednesday.

The law center said the number of hate groups rose by 7 percent last year to 1,020, a 30 percent jump from 2014. That broadly echoes other worrying developments, including a 30 percent increase in the number of hate crimes reported to the F.B.I. from 2015 through 2017 and a surge of right-wing violence that the Anti-Defamation League said had killed at least 50 people in 2018.

“We’re seeing a lot of bad trends,” Heidi Beirich, the director of the intelligence project at the Southern Poverty Law Center, said in an interview on Wednesday. “There are more hate groups, more hate crimes and more domestic terrorism in that same vein. It is a troubling set of circumstances.”

Ms. Beirich said the increase in extremist activity tracked by her team began in earnest in the early days of the 2016 presidential election, when anxieties over immigration helped propel President Trump to the White House. Before that, she said, the number of hate groups had fallen for three straight years.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/20/us/hate-groups-rise.html

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, 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! You know the unholy, ungodly Dark One, whose name shall not be spoken in my church, is somehow trying to make things right by going against the religion that sees him as some sort of higher power, even though we all know damn well that he isn’t! Now… in case you’re wondering what I am referring to, exactly, is that the Dark One’s administration plans to decriminalize homosexuality around the world. Yes, he is going against his own, supposed, religion. But… only thing is he doesn’t even really know about it!

US President Donald Trump seemed unaware of his own administration's plans to end the criminalization of homosexuality around the world when asked about it on Wednesday.

Following reports that the Trump administration will launch a global campaign to end the criminalization of homosexuality, a reporter asked Trump in the Oval Office: "Mr. President, on your push to decriminalize homosexuality, are you doing that? And why?"

Trump asked the reporter to repeat the question, and then said: "I don't know which report you're talking about. We have many reports."

NBC News r eported on Tuesday that the Trump White House would campaign for a change in laws in dozens of countries where it is illegal to be gay, citing administration officials.

The campaign is aimed in part at denouncing Iran's human rights record, NBC News said.

Richard Grenell, the US ambassador to Germany, who is openly gay, plans to lead the campaign and discussed the effort with a dozen LGBTQ activists from around Europe at a dinner in Berlin on Tuesday night, The New York Times reported.
https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-seemed-unaware-plans-decriminalize-homosexuality-around-world-2019-2

Yes… WTF indeed! I mean they could have just given Iran the finger and it would have been much easier, and not have demonized an entire people at that! For the good book says “Cast a light unto others that you would have cast unto yourself!”. Yeah it does say that, sir! Now of course our brothers and sisters on the Christian right have steered the wrong course. I mean really, they can’t possibly get any crazier can they?

Right-wing preacher Lance Wallnau posted a video on his Facebook page last night in which he prayed against the Trump administration’s plan to launch a global effort aimed at decriminalizing homosexuality, saying that the United States has no right to impose “our craziness” on other nations.

Wallnau blamed the plan on a “State Department Trump swamp bureaucracy,” saying that decriminalizing homosexuality “is not the most important agenda” because white evangelical Christians wearing MAGA hats are actually the real targets of discrimination and hate crimes in America.

“You want to hear the truth?” he said. “Gays are celebrated everywhere, from ‘Hamilton’ on Broadway to the Tony Awards to the Academy Awards. There is no group that is more lifted up and celebrated and promoted than the LGBT movement. It’s the opposite of persecution. You want to know persecution is? Be a white evangelical conservative and … put a MAGA hat on; you might as well put a cross on and go to Saudi Arabia.”

“I pray that the State Department’s progress with their LGBT agenda—their zeal for the gay agenda and their politics—and the State Department’s funding, break that in Jesus’ name,” Wallnau added. “We have no right to impose on other nations our craziness in terms of our cultural definition of liberty. We don’t have a right to mess with other countries’ sovereignty and their religious beliefs. Oh my God, in Jesus’ name, I would like America to be saved, but for America to be saved, it’s got to not be an evil influence in the world.”
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/lance-wallnau-prays-against-trump-administration-push-to-decriminalize-homosexuality/

See? Even JAYSUS thinks your fail is unbelievable! And by the way if you think this is targeting all countries, you’re wrong! In fact it’s targeting just one country and it’s meant to be an insult, because that’s just how he rolls! Well, they could have said “fuck you” and got it over with, but then again that’s not how he rolls!

For a brief moment during the past week, it looked like the Trump administration may have actually done something good. In a surprise move, Trump’s ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell announced that he was leading an initiative to decriminalize homosexuality around the world. About 70 countries have laws on the books that make being LGBTQ or having same-sex sexual relations illegal.

The idea sounds as great as it is out of character. It’s also never going to happen. Here are five reasons why the proposed policy initiative is dead in the water before it even starts.

It’s only about Iran. Tellingly, Grenell bolstered his argument for the plan by citing Iran.

“Barbaric public executions are all too common in a country where consensual homosexual relationships are criminalized and punishable by flogging and death,” Grenell wrote in an op-ed. Trump and the right are fixated on Iran and will use every available means to attack it. Attacking Iran is also plays well with Israel’s right-wing government.

But what about other Muslim nations? The administration’s beloved Saudia Arabia regularly arrests people for being gay or even flying a rainbow flag. Or Chechnya, which is under the thumb of Trump’s buddy Putin, and where gay men live in fear of their lives?
https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2019/02/5-reasons-trumps-initiative-decriminalize-homosexuality-worldwide-doa/

Well now the good LAWRD JAYSUS sees right through his lies, and LYING IS A SIN!!! It is one of the most egregious of sins in our church!!! Can I get an amen???? And in case you’re wondering if their motives couldn’t be any more sinister, just look at what the Dark One’s son, Dark One Jr, said after he found out about the news:

President Trump's eldest son took aim at Out Magazine on Wednesday after an op-ed in the magazine slammed the Trump administration's push to decriminalize homosexuality around the world as a "racist" distraction.

In a tweet, Donald Trump Jr. wrote that no matter what his father's administration pursued, his critics would always "find a way to somehow make it bad."

"Yup, no matter what he does they find a way to somehow make it bad. You can’t make this stuff up anymore," he wrote.

The tweet came in response to an op-ed by Out writer Matthew Rodriguez, who wrote that the administration's announcement this week that it would seek to decriminalize homosexuality in countries around the world was a "racist tactic."

Rodriguez wrote that "rather than actually being about helping queer people around the world, the campaign looks more like another instance of the right using queer people as a pawn to amass power and enact its own agenda."

The author uses as an example of his argument the push to center the decriminalization efforts on Iran, a country president Trump has often verbally attacked.
https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/430734-trump-jr-attacks-lgbt-magazine-that-calls-white-house-effort-to

So you can’t make up that a racist motive isn’t racist? I mean Dark One, Jr, for shame!!! And if you think it’s not a racist problem, well, then you’re also a racist! There you go. Mass has ended, may you go in peace!!! That’s it this week for:

[font size="8"]Beating A Dead Horse: Captain Marvel
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Hey everyone, guess what? Early reviews for Captain Marvel are in! Woooooooooo!!! And the reviews for the movie are glowing. I particularly loved the one reviewer who said that “Thanos is fucked”. But those aren’t the reviews that we’re going to talk about here. No, instead we’re going to talk about the *OTHER* reviews for Captain Marvel. Only these reviews are coming from right wing losers who haven’t seen the movie yet. Yes, the same dipshits who took down Ghostbusters and Star Wars Episode VIII because they’re racist and sexist losers who have nothing better to do than troll, they are coming for the latest Marvel superhero. Yes, nothing is safe from these keyboard warriors! And can anyone guess why? OOH!!! OOH!!! I think I know the answer!

In depressingly – and bafflingly – predictable fashion, trolls are already flooding sites like Rotten Tomatoes with fake reviews for forthcoming MCU feature Captain Marvel.

The movie, which hinges on a pivotal female hero (played by Brie Larson) in the Marvel Cinematic Universe – not to mention one that’s going to be key to Avengers: Endgame – it’s now subject to misogynist trolling in the same vein as that seen for movies like the all-female Ghostbusters reboot.

So far, there are 8,617 (at the time of writing) ‘user ratings’ for the movie, astonishing for a film that hasn’t been released yet, and only seen by a small pool of critics as of last night.

Though some are fighting back, the majority of the ‘ratings’ come with tediously transparent remarks about the film’s so-called ‘agenda’, which has clearly upset more than a few chaps who are finding their masculinity in jeopardy.
https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/trolls-already-slating-captain-marvel-fake-reviews-125158297.html

Remember the good old days when people used to go to movies and I don’t know, enjoy them? Well guess what? Those days are long gone! Because of these people who have to ruin it for everybody else, and they’re not going away any time soon! In fact, think of this as Troll Hard 2: Troll Harder. Well the sad thing is their brand of trolling, actually kind of works. But this time around, we’re onto them!

If you’ve been keeping up with “Captain Marvel” news the past couple of days, you might’ve read some headlines claiming trolls are already “bombing” the Brie Larson movie’s Rotten Tomatoes score and “flooding” the film’s page with sexist comments.

Since the news hit, it appears several (around 15 or so) of those trolling comments have been removed, according to screenshots HuffPost took on Tuesday. But there might be an entirely new onslaught of people now downvoting the film.

It’s dizzying. It’s exhausting. And, yes, it’s all happening pre-release. So with time on our hands before the movie debuts on March 8, we decided to take a look at what’s really going on.

HuffPost first noticed the troll attacks on “Captain Marvel” earlier this week thanks to stories from a few fandom blogs and Screen Rant, which pointed out, “Most of the trolls’ comments are about Larson being a vocal feminist and how this movie pushes feminism to the forefront of the [Marvel Cinematic Universe].”
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/disturbing-captain-marvel-reviews-removed-from-rotten-tomatoes_n_5c6c77b8e4b0e37a1ed27cdd

Yes, so trollers gonna troll. And you know what? We fall for it every single time because they know how to hit us and how to hit us where it hurts! in fact their brand of trolling works so well because it’s designed to. They know our weaknesses – racism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia, and all the other fears and phobias that make us human. And they exploit them!

As Disney and Marvel Studios gear up for the March 8 release of Captain Marvel, the first female-led solo film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, some fans aren't celebrating but are instead attempting to poison the well, and presumably damage its opening-weekend box office. Trolls are bombing Captain Marvel's Rotten Tomatoes entry with negative reviews intended to sabotage its audience score.

It's important to note that no public screenings have been held for the film.

Most of the negative comments littering Captain Marvel's audience review section of the aggregator site aren't so much concerned with the film as with its star, Academy Award winner Brie Larson. Left by predominately male users, the remarks are primarily focused on what they claim are her "racist and sexist" views.

The outrage, such that it is, stems from a recent interview in which Larson called for inclusivity after she noticed that journalists attending press events and reviewing films were "overwhelmingly white male."
https://www.cbr.com/captain-marvel-trolls-rotten-tomatoes-explained/

But have no fear, Marvel fans! Rotten Tomatoes is here! Yes, the review site that compiles critical reviews and gives them an overall score is getting tough on review trolling this time around. Yes, they may have got away with it for Ghostbusters, and the Last Jedi, because those were both terrible movies, but they’re not getting away with it for Captain Marvel! No sir!

Rotten Tomatoes is fighting back against trolls.

The powerful movie review aggregation website announced Monday it would ban user comments before a film premieres in theaters. The move is in part a bid to crack down on what it called "non-constructive input, sometimes bordering on trolling, which we believe is a disservice to our general readership." The service is also tweaking the system it uses to poll moviegoers about their interest in upcoming releases.

The move comes after some users apparently tried to torpedo the moviegoer interest percentage score for the not-yet-released "Captain Marvel," Marvel Studio's first female-led superhero movie. Rotten Tomatoes' webpage for the film, starring Brie Larson in the title role, had been swamped with negative comments, some of them misogynistic.

"Captain Marvel," slated to debut March 8 and expected to open with some $100 million in ticket sales, was just the latest high-profile movie to come under attack by trolls. In recent years, a crush of users tried to sink audience scores for Marvel's "Black Panther," "Star Wars: The Last Jedi" and the female-led "Ghostbusters" reboot, deluging the site with comments that were sometimes racist or sexist.
https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/movies/captain-marvel-was-attacked-online-trolls-rotten-tomatoes-took-action-n976201

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

This week: TV shows who insist on interviewing Roseanne Barr. How is this still a thing? You know just like we think Twitter should have an “are you sure?” button before pressing send, we really need to have an intervention on reporters who still insist on interviewing the former TV star who has well, struggled to grasp reality. While we can’t fault Roseanne for that, we can certainly fault her for whatever batshit crazy thing is about to come out of her mouth. And this week, she certainly did not disappoint in the slightest.

Roseanne Barr is at it again. The actress/comedienne who lost her job and her hit ABC show after her racist Twitter rant against Valerie Jarrett just took some shots at Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and it looks like some folks will never learn to keep their mouths shut.

Over the weekend, Barr posted a video to YouTube calling AOC a “bug-eyed bi*ch” and a “Farrakhan loving bi*ch” over her proposed Green New Deal; a plan intended to “achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions and create economic prosperity for all.”

This isn’t the first time Roseanne Barr has made offensive statements against women who deserve respect.

In deranged new video, Roseanne Barr says of Valerie Jarrett, ‘I thought the bitch was white’

Back in May, Roseanne Barr was abruptly fired from her own show after she tweeted racist remarks about former Barack Obama adviser, Valerie Jarrett.

“muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby=vj,” Barr tweeted in response to a post about Jarrett.

ABC quickly fired her once they caught wind of the offensive tweets.
https://thegrio.com/2019/02/20/roseanne-barr-calls-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-a-big-eyed-bich-and-farrakhan-loving-bich/

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Now really, Roseanne. Did you learn anything? Apparently not. And now this gets even weirder with former confidant and the voice of Sideshow Bob himself, Kelsey Grammar, who not even 3 days before, called for Roseanne to be forgiven. Now really, Kelsey, what did you expect?

“Frasier” actor Kelsey Grammer said over the weekend that he thinks that “people should be forgiven” in regards to Roseanne Barr’s departure from her eponymous show last year.

Grammer said he was encouraged by the success of the reboot of “Roseanne,” adding that a reboot of “Frasier” is in the works, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

Last year, Barr was fired by ABC after she made a joke about Valerie Jarrett, who worked s an adviser to former President Obama.

After cries of racism, Barr’s show was canceled. ABC Entertainment President Channing Dungey said her comments were “abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with our values.”

“I have no idea. I think people should be forgiven for their sins. Our life is so challenging. How do you ever make amends?” Grammer said of the incident.
https://www.theepochtimes.com/kelsey-grammer-on-roseanne-barr-people-should-be-forgiven-for-their-sins_2806052.html

And really, you really had to go there? When you interview Roseanne you are almost guaranteed anymore that she will say something batshit crazy. Because Roseanne suffers from a condition where the rectum recycles matter that goes straight to the cranial cavity. And you probably know this disease better as “shit for brains”. Well, her reasons for being fired are almost as crazy as the reason why she was fired in the first place.

Roseanne Barr, who offered a plethora of reasons why she was fired from her hit rebooted sitcom following a racist tweet last year, told The Jerusalem Post that "antisemitism" at ABC and her support for Israel helped do her in.

In an interview published Friday in the Jerusalem-based English-language newspaper ahead of her visit to address Israel's parliament, Barr expanded on one of the multiple theories she's offered to explain why she was kicked off her revived show, "Roseanne," last summer.

"I feel that what happened to me, a large part of it is antisemitism," Barr told the Post in a phone interview on Thursday from her home in Hawaii. "I think it played a part – the fact that I was never allowed to explain what I meant – and what I meant was a commentary on Iran – so they purposely mischaracterized what I said and wouldn't let me explain."

She said ABC acted in haste and did something "unprecedented that they've never done to any other artist" because she is "the most vocal person about Israel and (against) BDS," the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement to pressure Israel over its treatment of Palestinians.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/2019/01/11/roseanne-barr-tells-israelis-she-blames-abc-antisemitism-firing/2552869002/

Anti-semitism is to blame? Really, are you Walter Sobchak from the Big Lebowski, Roseanne? Look, we support free speech here, nobody is going to come and take your free speech rights away. But after one crazy thing after another, we really need a sanity check before you go out in public and start saying crazy shit. Because she said this about Natalie Portman in January.

The comedian also said in an interview published Friday in the daily newspaper Israel Hayom that John Goodman should have "fought harder" for her.

Roseanne Barr criticized Natalie Portman and defended Kevin Hart ahead of her visit to Israel.

In an interview published Friday in the daily newspaper Israel Hayom, the comedian took on Portman, who last April outraged many upon declining to take part in an award ceremony as the recipient of the Genesis Prize Laureate, explaining she "did not want to appear as endorsing Benjamin Netanyahu, who was to be giving a speech at the ceremony."

"It was really sickening, I find her repulsive," said Barr of Portman in the interview. "She was raised in incredible privilege of safety in the Jewish state and knows nothing about anti-Semitism."

Portman was born in Jerusalem and moved to the U.S. with her parents at the age of 3.

Added Barr, "She's the darling of the left here, the Jewish left in Hollywood, she is a complete hypocrite who grew up in safety and privilege, like I said before, and knows nothing about what she speaks of."
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/roseanne-barr-slams-natalie-portman-defends-kevin-hart-1177378

You’re going to attack Natalie Portman for being Jewish when you’re trying to claim anti-semitism is the reason why you got fired? That is what one might call “hypocrisy”. That’s enough to make you ask – interviewing Roseanne:

[font size="8"]I Need A Drink
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Whew, Roseanne is crazy. I need a drink!

So of course you know by now that the idea behind this is that we cocktail, and while we’re cocktailing, we get drunk and discuss literally anything in the news as long as it doesn’t involve politics. And what involves politics less than the lottery? No, not like that, sir. Ah, don’t you love it when someone in the audience is making wise cracks at your expense? So tell me, bartender, what goes well with a story about the lottery? A glass of Dom Perignon rose? What are you trying to make me go broke? Ah fuck it, I’ll just have a glass of Jack Daniels mixed with Jack Daniels. So let’s go to South Carolina for this story.

Nearly everyone in this small South Carolina town has a theory for the city’s billion-dollar mystery: Who won the $1.5 billion Mega Millions jackpot announced last October?

Maybe the winner was so overwhelmed upon seeing the winning numbers that she or he died on the spot? Maybe the winner is on the run from police and fears a background check? Maybe that winning ticket fell from a car visor, ended up in a trash can and is forever buried at the Twin Chimneys Landfill. Or maybe, the winner is still going on with life as usual, before quietly taking the $878 million lump sum.

With less than two months to go, the clock is ticking. Whoever won the second largest lottery in U.S. history has until 5 p.m. on April 19 to walk into the South Carolina Lottery office in Columbia with the signed ticket and claim the jackpot.

The winning ticket was sold at the KC Mart in Simpsonville sometime between Oct. 20 and the drawing at 11 p.m. on Oct. 23. Store employee Jee Patel said State Law Enforcement Division agents were waiting in the parking lot when workers came to open at 6 a.m. the next day.
https://whnt.com/2019/02/24/unclaimed-1-5b-jackpot-mystery-winner-died-ticket-lost/

Yeah it’s kind of like that. So somewhere there’s an unclaimed lottery ticket that’s worth $1.5 BILLION dollars. Yes, it’s the kind of money that would make even Dr. Evil blush. So why is it such a mystery? Is it because of the size of the jackpot? Is it because we don’t know about the winner or haven’t even heard so much as a peep from them? Is it because they live in a small town where everyone knows each other? Or something else?

Four months after South Carolina's first Mega Millions jackpot win, the staggering $1.5 billion prize remains unclaimed.

That leaves two months until the six-month deadline to cash in the winning lottery ticket — and more time to speculate on what's taking the person so long to collect their winnings.

The winning ticket for the Oct. 23 drawing was sold at Simpsonville's KC Mart #7, and signs in the store window proclaim, "We sold a Mega Millions ticket worth ... $1.5 billion."

Still, mystery surrounds the unclaimed jackpot as the convenience store and state officials wait for the winner to come forward.

"It wasn't me," Ray Black said with a laugh as he checked the numbers on a lottery ticket recently at the KC Mart #7.
https://www.greenvilleonline.com/story/news/local/south-carolina/2019/02/23/mega-millions-unclaimed-lottery-ticket/2943473002/

So, like the Muse song, time is running out. And the rules state that if you don’t claim your ticket soon, your jackpot is toast. And hey you know we could all use some money. But it also affects the winning state big time, and let’s face it - $1.5 billion is a *HUGE* chunk of change. I mean shit, it’s more than I have under my mattress! Which means that if you don’t come forward, your state is a huge loser, too!

The winner of a $1.54 billion lottery jackpot in South Carolina has yet to come forward. That means the state of South Carolina might be a big loser too.

Economic officials on Thursday removed the estimated $61 million windfall the winner was expected to pay in state income taxes from tax and other estimates.

That extra money had been included as the governor and lawmakers prepared their spending priorities at the beginning of the year. An extra $61 million could buy new voting machines for the entire state, give a nearly 2 percent raise to all South Carolina teachers or put a police officer in every public school in the state. It is about 0.5 percent of the money lawmakers have control over in the state budget.

One winning ticket in the Oct. 23 Mega Millions drawing was sold at the KC Mart convenience store in Simpsonville, a suburb of Greenville. The winner has 180 days to come forward and claim the $1.54 billion prize paid over 30 years, or a $878 million lump sum.
https://www.postandcourier.com/news/unclaimed-b-lottery-jackpot-south-carolina-could-be-big-loser/article_978804bc-ba18-5b49-94d8-5612d2d2722e.html

So that one ticket alone can throw off the entire state’s budget for an entire year while its’ fate hangs in the balance. If you live in Greenville, SC, better check all your tickets because you could be this very person!

Nearly everyone in this small South Carolina town has a theory for the city's billion-dollar mystery: Who won the $1.5 billion Mega Millions jackpot announced last October?

Maybe the winner was so overwhelmed upon seeing the winning numbers that she or he died on the spot? Maybe the winner is on the run from police and fears a background check? Maybe that winning ticket fell from a car visor, ended up in a trash can and is forever buried at the Twin Chimneys Landfill. Or maybe, the winner is still going on with life as usual, before quietly taking the $878 million lump sum.

With less than two months to go, the clock is ticking. Whoever won the second largest lottery in U.S. history has until 5 p.m. on April 19 to walk into the South Carolina Lottery office in Columbia with the signed ticket and claim the jackpot.

The winning ticket was sold at the KC Mart in Simpsonville sometime between Oct. 20 and the drawing at 11 p.m. on Oct. 23. Store employee Jee Patel said State Law Enforcement Division agents were waiting in the parking lot when workers came to open at 6 a.m. the next day.
https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/nationworld/ct-mega-millions-south-carolina-winner-20190224-story.html

[font size="8"]Deep State Diaries Episode 2: The United States State Department
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It’s time for the very last and final edition of Deep State Diaries. It’s time to say goodbye, everyone, it’s been fun. We toured 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 United States State Department[/font]

So for our very last and final edition of our ongoing series that explains how government works to conspiracy theorists, Deep State Diaries, we are going to tour one of the US government’s oldest and most prominent institutions – the United States State Department. The USSD is an institution as old as the United States itself. Yes, it’s the branch of the US government that was formerly headed by Rex Tillerson and is currently headed by guy who makes torture great again, Mike Pompeo. The USSD is similar to a ministry of foreign affairs in that it helps shape international and also domestic policies that define the United States. So what are some things that the USSD actually does? Well we all know how bad Huawei is, and we think Europe might be finally getting the message that you shouldn’t do business with the embattled cell phone manufacturer.

European governments are proving receptive to the idea that China’s Huawei poses security risks to telecoms networks, a senior U.S. cyber official said on Tuesday.

“We are highlighting inherent risks... in particular with Huawei,” Robert L. Strayer, the U.S. State Department’s ambassador for cyber and international communications told reporters at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

Strayer said people in Europe were getting the message, but: “At the end of the day, each government and operator has to make its own decisions.”

A U.S. delegation is attending the wireless trade fair to persuade Europeans to follow the U.S. lead in shunning Huawei, the world’s biggest maker of telecoms equipment, which is competing for next-generation 5G mobile network contracts. (Reporting by Jack Stubbs and Isla Binnie Writing by Georgina Prodhan Editing by Keith Weir)
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/26/reuters-america-u-s-state-department-says-europe-is-getting-the-message-on-huawei.html

Well hopefully they won’t have to come to that. Another thing that the US department does is they issue travel warnings. Yes, they tell the citizens of the US that maybe they shouldn’t go to certain countries because reasons. Like maybe don’t go to the Bahamas right now because if you haven’t noticed the Gulf Of Mexico has these things called hurricanes, and they’ve been quite active lately.

The United States State Department issued another travel warning for the Bahamas today.

The U.S. State Department reissued a “Level 2: Exercise Increased Caution Due to Crime” for the Bahamas, stating:

“Violent crime, such as burglaries, armed robberies, and sexual assault, is common, even during the day and in tourist areas. Although the family islands are not crime-free, the vast majority of crime occurs on New Providence and Grand Bahama islands . . . Activities involving commercial recreational watercraft, including water tours, are not consistently regulated. Watercraft are often not maintained, and many companies do not have safety certifications to operate in The Bahamas. Jet-ski operators have been known to commit sexual assaults against tourists . . .”

There were three travel warnings issued by the U.S. last year for the Bahamas, by the U.S. Overseas Security Advisory Council (OSAC) in the Bahamas 2018 Crime & Safety Report, the U.S. State Department, and the U.S. Embassy in Nassau as well as one warning by Canada.
https://www.cruiselawnews.com/2019/02/articles/uncategorized/u-s-state-department-issues-another-travel-warning-for-the-bahamas/

Another thing that the US State Department does is that they determine what the United States can and cannot import and export. Remember how James Bond’s cover was that he was an importer – exporter of good? Even though it’s never implied what, exactly. But that’s really the job of the US State Department.

The US continues to pursue a zero-tolerance policy for its Iran oil sanctions and is urging importers to eliminate all purchases from the Middle East country, Francis Fannon, assistant secretary at the US State Department’s Bureau of Energy Resources, said Monday during a visit to Japan.

“The US policy is to drive Iranian exports to zero,” Fannon said during a media briefing in Tokyo. “That policy has not changed. We are unwavering in our policy.”

Fannon was asked whether Washington would consider extending Iran sanctions waivers when they expire in May, given falling supplies from Saudi Arabia as a result of the production cut agreement by OPEC and allies, and the ongoing crisis in sanctions-hit Venezuela.

He said it was premature to say whether the State Department would grant new waivers in May to the eight countries that were allowed to continue importing Iranian oil in return for promising to significantly cut their dependence on the supplies.
https://www.hellenicshippingnews.com/us-still-aims-to-cut-irans-oil-exports-to-zero-state-department-official/

And in case you can’t guess, under the Trump administration, the US state department has become well, less than flattering. So much in fact that nobody wants to work for a horrible boss like Mike Pompeo, or even worse – his boss, Donald J. Trump. Yes, the guy who we currently call president has made it completely miserable for anyone involved with the government. And well, it’s going to be a revolving door for the foreseeable future.

The number of Americans seeking a career in the U.S. diplomatic corps has declined in the first two years of the Trump administration, reaching the lowest level since 2008, according to State Department numbers obtained exclusively by NBC News.

Although President Donald Trump's unpredictable, go-it-alone foreign policy has caused apprehension among some prospective applicants, and led some senior diplomats to resign, the cause of the drop remains unclear.

But coupled with budget pressures and a survey showing declining morale at the State Department, veterans of the diplomatic corps worry that the long-term health of the institution charged with safeguarding America's interests abroad could be at risk if current trends continue.

The competitive process to join the ranks of U.S. diplomats starts with the Foreign Service Officer Test, a demanding exam given three times a year. Between October 2017 and October 2018, only 8,685 people chose to take the test, a 22 percent decline compared to the same period a year earlier, according to the State Department's numbers.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/fewer-americans-are-opting-careers-state-department-n973631

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

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

Overall: B-

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

There is no next week! This is it, we are done. Thanks for taking us down the government wormhole everybody, and see you on the other side!

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

Ladies and gentlemen, my next guest is America’s foremost premiere stoner band. Their latest album is called “Elephants On Acid”. You can see them on tour through March and April including a stop March 23rd at the Wiltern. Playing their song “Band Of Gypsies”, give it up for the one, the only Cypress Hill!

See you next week for Stupidest State Selection Sunday!

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 Choir Club, Westwood, CA
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
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Management: Initech Productions, CCC Management
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Initech Productions: Yes, We Got The Memo

February 20, 2019

Top 10 Conservative Idiots #6-7: In Soviet America Wall Does You! Edition

Top 10 Conservative Idiots #6-7: In Soviet America Wall Does You Edition

Welcome back to the Top 10 Conservative Idiots! 15 minutes with us can save you $300 or more on your car insurance! What’s up Ontario? Yeah we’re hanging out in the 909! This is our last road show for a while and then we’re going back to our home at the UCB in Los Angeles, but this road trip has been really great and we can’t wait to get back out soon. Do we have time for the thing? OK people, have we learned nothing from Pizzagate? Which is don’t get your bullshit conspiracies mixed up in my pizza, damn it! So what am I talking about you might ask? Well, I answer you, good sir / madam. There’s a new video on Youtube alleging that Chuck E Cheese, the pizza equivalent of Spirit Airlines, recycles its’ pizza for new customers. Yes, the video alleges that the place where a kid can be a kid takes the slices that you didn’t eat and puts them back on the trays for new customers. Which actually – I shit you not – prompted the parent company of Chuck E Cheese to post their own video of their pizza being made fresh out of the oven. Now you might say that that’s what you get for going to Chuck E Cheese, and normally I would agree with you. However that’s also addressed in the original video and the response from the Chuck E Cheese management. People stop it, just plain stop it. OK that’s enough of the intro, we have a lot of idiocy to get to, but first we have John Oliver is back (finally!!) and he goes into all possible Brexit scenarios for Brexit III: With A Vengeance!

Well, so Trump declared himself judge, jury, and executioner in his own Fox News manufactured crisis, because he believes that he is only president of Fox News viewers. So in the number one slot is the Stable Genius (1) himself, or Mar-A-LardAss as he was referred to on Twitter and his fake national emergency which he then left us with the mess, while he enjoyed some “executive time” (read: golf). Yeah. Taking the second slot this week is the GOP (2) and why they hate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’ proposed Green New Deal, and why she’s making conservative heads explode (hint: the Kochs handed them nice big paychecks). In the third slot this week, we’re bringing back a long dormant and old fan favorite feature – the Top 10 Mystery Machine! Yes, we were all horrified by the MAGA attack on Empire star Jussie Smollet, but it turns out that he’s got some ‘splainin to do, and wait until you see the crazy plot twist! In the 4th slot this week – we’ve got a new installment of “We’re All Gonna Die”. While Californians are prepared for the inevitable “Big One”, an even bigger one looks to kill us all! Storms, that is! So yeah we’re all gonna die. But we still got our guns right? Ha! In the number 5 seed, is our weekly investigative piece Top 10 Investigates (5) and we’re going to take a look at why California decide to axe a controversial plan to bring high speed rail between San Francisco and Los Angeles. At number 6 this week is our weekly visit to the Holy Church Of The Top 10 in “Holy Shit” and this week our resident pastor is going to find out whether or not GAWD wants another 4 more years of the Dark One serving in power or not. We hope not! For the #7 slot this week, and conservatives, rather than trying to be cool and hip with the young people, be lame and own your lameness! Taking the #8 slot this week is a new edition of “This Fucking Guy” and this week we’re going to profile end times Christian conservative firebrand preacher Jesse Lee Peterson (8) and whew, this guy is certifiably nuts. In the number 9 (NEIN!!!) slot is the return of one of our favorite segments, People Are Dumb (9) and there’s been some really stupid people since the last time we had this segment! Finally folks, unfortunately, our series that explains how government works to conspiracy theorists, Deep State Diaries is coming to an end. Now don’t be sad! We have one more, then we begin our 3rd annual Stupidest State Contest! So for our next to last DSD, we’re going to see how the government handles disasters (current one not withstanding!) as we hang out with FEMA! Enjoy! And as always don’t forget the key!

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[font size="8"]Mar-A-Lardass
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Hey everyone it’s a national emergency! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!! Or is it? So unless you’re hiding under a rock by now you know that Trump declared himself literally above the law when he signed a national emergency to declare a border wall. You know what before we get into the meat of the story, we got to play the clip of the speech, because it really is Trump at his most exquisite:

Two things – first why wasn’t the Guinness Book Of World Records at the Rose Garden on Saturday because I think Donald J. Trump gets the award for the world’s longest run on sentence. And second do the wall? Do the wall? That makes it sound like a 70’s disco dance! Everybody do the wall now! Oh and in Soviet America, wall does you! Yes, I have been waiting 5 days for that Yakov Smirnov reference. So what is going on exactly?

President Donald Trump will declare a national emergency to speed up funding for his proposed wall on the U.S.-Mexican border, but experts said the move would create a legal morass that could take until the middle of next year to resolve.

The White House announced Thursday that Trump will make the move that he'd suggested for weeks. The announcement came as Congress readied legislation that would devote $1.375 billion to the border wall, far less than the $5.7 billion Trump demanded.

Declaring an emergency would let Trump sidestep Democratic opposition to more wall funding, but it could draw legal challenges from lawmakers and others who viewed the move as a power grab. Although that could delay construction of his border barriers, an extended legal battle would give Trump a potent political issue to run on in the 2020 presidential election.

"Everyone’s going to come out of the woodwork," said Stephen Vladeck, a University of Texas-Austin law professor who teaches national security law. "I think we’re going to see an array of lawsuits that actually would all have to be dealt with separately."
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/02/14/donald-trump-emergency-border-wall-long-legal-fight/2548526002/

Seriously anyone remember when the wall was going to cost $50 billion? Then it was going to cost $25 billion. Then it was going to cost $5 billion. Now it’s going to cost $1.325 billion. Mexico probably could pay for it at this point! So President Trump, you just declared a national emergency! What are you going to do now? “I’m going to Mar-A-Shithole!”.

Donald Trump headed to his private golf club in West Palm Beach, Florida, for the second day in a row today (Sunday, Feb. 17).

The presidential motorcade arrived at the Trump International Golf Club at 9:12am EST, the White House press pool reported. On Saturday (Feb. 16), Trump arrived at the club at 8:42am, the press pool reported, and left at 2:56pm.

After he left Saturday, the president held a meeting with his China trade delegation at Mar-a-Lago, another private club, Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement. “Ambassador Lighthizer, Secretary Ross, Mick Mulvaney, and Peter Navarro will join the President in person at Mar-a-Lago and Secretary Mnuchin, Pat Cipilone, Larry Kudlow, Kevin Hassett, Derek Lyons and Clete Willems will join by phone,” she said.

Today marks Trump’s 171th day visiting a golf course since he became president on Jan. 21, 2017, according to Golf Net News. The president declared a national emergency in the Rose Garden on Feb. 15, after Congress failed to approve the amount of money he wanted in a recent spending bill to build a wall on the US’s southern border. Trump hopes to take $6 billion from the Pentagon to build over 200 miles of wall on the border, but the acting Secretary of Defense said this weekend that any budget decision was the Pentagon’s to make.
https://qz.com/1552736/after-declaring-a-national-emergency-trump-spent-the-weekend-at-his-golf-course/

You know what? Fuck the meme, lets’ just show the photo:

So many weird things about this. I mean what’s that weird stripe on Trump’s face? Did he run out of bronzer? Or did he use a Bronzer-By-Numbers kit and just applied the wrong shade? And second who wore it better – Trump or the wall behind him? My money is on the wall behind him. And by the way is it weird when Ann Coulter is on our side? I mean I’ve spent the last 3 years calling Trump an idiot on an almost weekly basis and now Coulter is in on it!

President Donald Trump's announcement Friday that he was declaring a national emergency wasn't received well by all Republicans, none more vocal than Ann Coulter.

The conservative commentator had for weeks been bashing Trump for what she said was him caving to Democrats over his demands for additional funding to construct a wall along the southern border, even calling him the "biggest wimp ever to serve as President of the United States".

On Friday, the bickering made its way into a nationally televised news conference where Trump announced his plans to use executive powers to declare a national emergency to free up billions in funds for the proposed wall.

"Ann Coulter. I don't know her. I hardly know her. I haven't spoken to her in way over a year but the press loves saying Ann Coulter, probably if I did speak to her, she would be very nice," Trump said, adding that she is "off the reservation."
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/02/16/ann-coulter-donald-trump-national-emergency-order/2890714002/

YES YOU DID!!!! Ann Coulter has *LITERALLY* spoken at your rallies, President Lard Ass! And by the way you know the phrase “I’ll see you in court” will absolutely apply here because Trump is going to face a lot of legal challenges in the forthcoming weeks. So get ready Trump, you will be having to answer for all of this insanity:

A coalition of 16 states, including California and New York, on Monday challenged President Trump in court over his plan to use emergency powers to spend billions of dollars on his border wall.

The lawsuit is part of a constitutional confrontation that Mr. Trump set off on Friday when he declared that he would spend billions of dollars more on border barriers than Congress had granted him. The clash raises questions over congressional control of spending, the scope of emergency powers granted to the president, and how far the courts are willing to go to settle such a dispute.

The suit, filed in Federal District Court in San Francisco, argues that the president does not have the power to divert funds for constructing a wall along the Mexican border because it is Congress that controls spending.

Xavier Becerra, the attorney general of California, said in an interview that the president himself had undercut his argument that there was an emergency on the border.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/18/us/politics/national-emergency-lawsuits-trump.html

[font size="8"]Green New Deal
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If there’s one liberal currently that conservatives *LOVE* to hate, it’s New York’s freshman representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Is it because she’s Latina? Is it because she’s a woman? Is it because she’s from New York? Is it because she cares about the environment and the people? Or is it all of the above? Oh who am I kidding? The answer is easily all of the above! But her proposed “Green New Deal” has them talking and not in a good way. I wonder if it’s because the Koch Brothers handed them a large sack of money to talk trash about it? Or something else?

Democrats are bristling over a GOP effort to pit senators against the party's newly resurgent progressive base.

Republicans, fresh off a border funding fight they are widely viewed as having lost, are eager to pivot to offense as they hunt for 2020 fodder, when several Senate Democrats will be running for president.

Republicans say Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is mulling a series of votes to try to jam Democratic senators, whom he has repeatedly tried to paint as pushed off center by the “radical left.” His first step this week was fast-tracking the "Green New Deal" resolution by putting it on the Senate calendar.

But top Democrats are brushing off the potential political fallout of McConnell’s tactics, comparing them to a “political stunt.”

Sen. Dick Durbin (Ill.), the No. 2 Senate Democrat, said Republicans were using a routine maneuver because it “amuses some small-minded senators.”
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/430309-gop-sees-green-new-deal-as-weapon-against-dems

Oh yeah it’s just par for the course. Mr. Senator, if I may guess what senators those were? I’m thinking McConnell and Lindsay Graham. I’m correct? Woohoo!!! And we’re not even doing the Wheel Of Corruption this week! Oh and by the way in case you’re wondering whether or not republicans couldn’t possibly be any more childish, one representative in Kentucky is trying to prove it wrong with a whoopee cushion! Yes, the worst environmental problems can now be solved with fart jokes!

Kentucky’s Republican agriculture commissioner is giving away a green whoopee cushion to highlight his opposition to the “Green New Deal” pushed by Democrats in Congress.

Ryan Quarles is running for a second term as Kentucky’s commissioner of agriculture in 2019. Last week, his campaign announced it would hold a contest to give away a green whoopee cushion to draw attention to what he says are the anti-agriculture messages pushed by Democrats.

The “Green New Deal” pushed by some Democrats in Congress is a plan to combat climate change. An early draft of a FAQ about the plan mentioned getting rid of “farting cows.” A spokesman for U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said the quip was meant to be ironic.
https://www.wtvq.com/2019/02/19/ag-commissioner-opposing-green-new-deal-whoopee-cushion/

Uh… farting cows? Did you not see that episode of South Park? If we all hold it in, we all spontaneously combust! I mean it’s just science! And by the way Mitch McConnell is such a worthless piece of shit that you can’t get him to vote on anything or do anything meangingful, but he’s forcing a vote on this because he knows it will fail. What a jackass!

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday that the Senate would vote on the Green New Deal introduced last week by Sen. Edward Markey, D-Mass., and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.

"I've noted with great interest the Green New Deal, and we're going to be voting on that in the Senate to give everybody an opportunity to go on record," McConnell told reporters.

The proposal, which is not expected to pass the Republican-dominated upper chamber, could force some Democrats to make a politically awkward calculation.

Democratic liberals, including all of the senators currently running for president, have come out in support of the legislation, which calls for generating 100 percent of the nation's power from renewable sources within 10 years. Scientists have said dramatic, immediate action is necessary to stem the catastrophic effects of climate change.

Democratic moderates have been less than enthusiastic about the proposal. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi derisively referred to the House version of the resolution as a "green dream," while only 11 of the 47 senators who caucus with the Democrats have signed on as sponsors.
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/12/mitch-mcconnell-to-force-the-senate-to-vote-on-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-green-new-deal.html

I swear that there’s a Simpsons GIF for everything! But in case you’re wondering whether or not there’s a rhyme or reason for Mitch McConnell’s madness, well you are absolutely correct because he’s forcing this vote because he knows the democrats will lose on this issue and that it will make them look like losers. Um… fuck you Mitch!

The Green New Deal, unveiled by New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey, will not resonate with American voters, longtime Democrat Barney Frank told CNBC on Tuesday.

The proposal, which calls for generating 100 percent of the nation's power from renewable sources within 10 years, is emerging as a major campaign issue, with all the Democratic senators running for president in 2020 pledging their support and President Donald Trump and Republicans blasting it.

"I think the Green New Deal would be loser," said Frank, the former Massachusetts congressman who retired in 2013 after more than three decades on Capitol Hill. "There's an argument that you don't destabilize a society by doing too much change at once."
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/19/barney-frank-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-green-new-deal-would-be-a-loser-against-trump-in-2020.html

[font size="8"]Jussie Smollet Attack: Latest
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So why are we bringing back the Top 10 Mystery Machine? It’s been long dormant (last appearance was Top 10 #39 ) but we need to bring it back because we were all horrified by the MAGA attack on Empire star Jussie Smollett as he was dining at a Subway after his flight got into Chicago at 2:00 AM. But as the layers keep unfolding on this story, the more it’s like peeling back an onion – the more it stinks and the more likely you are to cry as a result. So how did this thing get so twisted? Let’s find out what is going on with the latest.

Two brothers told police that "Empire" actor Jussie Smollett staged an attack on himself because he was upset a threatening letter he received a week prior did not get enough attention, a law enforcement official briefed on the investigation told ABC News on Monday.

Detectives are actively investigating the allegation, but have not confirmed it to be true, the official said.

Chicago police said this weekend that they are "eager" to re-interview Smollett after releasing the two brothers, who were initially identified as persons of interest in the alleged Jan. 29 attack in Chicago's Streeterville neighborhood. A spokeswoman for Smollett said his attorneys are talking to police.

The brothers, who are not considered suspects in the attack, also told police that they were paid to stage the attack, the official said.

"We are not racist. We are not homophobic and we are not anti-Trump. We were born and raised in Chicago and are American citizens," the brothers said in a statement.
https://abc7chicago.com/brothers-claim-jussie-smollett-staged-attack-after-threatening-letter-source-says/5144861/

Wait wait wait wait wait wait wait. Wait. Wait. Wait. So you mean to tell me that Jussie staged his own attack and paid the guys to attack him? And first of all, how is Jussie the only person on earth to actually scam Nigerian people? Let's let that one sink in for a minute! He’s got some ‘splainin to do! In fact the Chicago Police even want to question his own actions on this whole thing. Just what the hell is going on????

Chicago police said Sunday they’re still seeking a follow-up interview with Jussie Smollett after receiving new information that “shifted” their investigation of a reported attack on the “Empire” actor.

The trajectory of the investigation “shifted” after detectives questioned two brothers about the attack and released them late Friday without charges, police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said Saturday. He said police also reached out to Smollett’s attorney to request another interview with him.

Guglielmi said Sunday the interview had not yet been conducted. He declined to comment on published reports that police believe Smollett staged the assault or that a grand jury may hear evidence in the case. The reports cited unnamed police sources.

“We’re not confirming, denying or commenting on anything until we can talk to him and we can corroborate some information that we’ve gotten,” he said.

Smollett, who is black and gay, has said he was physically attacked last month by two masked men shouting racial and anti-gay slurs and “This is MAGA country!” He said they looped a rope around his neck before running away as he was returning home from an early morning stop at a Subway restaurant in downtown Chicago. He said they also poured some kind of chemical on him.
https://www.apnews.com/fe9c70e1cc324228838728c6806abae2

Now you might be asking how are celebrity fans and supporters of Mr. Smollett dealing with this most insane of plot twists? Now this is something that nobody saw coming even though it involved two guys wearing MAGA hats (and really if you’re surprised by that angle, you are in the wrong place!), well the celebrity action was a bit surprising but not really.

Trevor Noah brought up recent developments into the investigation of January's attack on actor Jussie Smollett on his nightly program Monday.

As of Sunday, Chicago police were pursuing "additional detective work" amid suspicion that the attack may have been faked. Two brothers told investigators they were paid by the "Empire" actor to stage the attack, according to a person familiar with the situation but not authorized to speak publicly.

"You have to admit, there's a certain part of the story that was always a little weird," Noah told his "Daily Show" viewers.

"Like, who are the MAGA supporters who hate gay people, who hate black people, but also happen to watch ‘Empire?’ ” Noah asked. In Smollett's account of the attack on "Good Morning America," Thursday he told Robin Roberts his attackers yelled "Empire" to get his attention and used racists and homophobic slurs.

"I've heard of hate-watching, but that (expletive) would be next level," Noah said. "It’s like a member of the Klan buying tickets to 'Fiddler on the Roof.' "
https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/tv/2019/02/19/jussie-smollett-trevor-noah-the-daily-show/2914297002/

Yes, Mr. Smollett’s got a lot of ‘splainin to do involving his attack. But why do that when this is 2019 and you can just pass the blame onto someone else? I mean come on, blaming the media? That’s something that Trump would do! And he would have got away with it too if it wasn’t for those meddling kids!

As questions mount over Jussie Smollett's report to police last month that he was the victim of a racist and homophobic attack, two of the actor's siblings have taken aim at the media.

As questions mount over Jussie Smollett's report to police last month that he was the victim of a racist and homophobic attack, two of the actor's siblings have taken aim at the media.

"I have a feeling even if we had video of Jussie (Smollett) being attacked...y'all would still discredit him," the tweet read. "Because it's easier to believe what aligns with your contempt for survivors of hate crimes, sexual abuse, etc who happen to be LGBTQ+, disabled, or women."

Two law enforcement sources with knowledge of the investigation have told CNN that Chicago police believe Smollett paid two men to orchestrate the alleged assault.

In a statement from his attorneys issued Saturday, Smollett denied playing a role in the attack.
"As a victim of a hate crime who has cooperated with the police investigation, Jussie Smollett is angered and devastated by recent reports that the perpetrators are individuals he is familiar with," the statement said. "He has now been further victimized by claims attributed to these alleged perpetrators that Jussie played a role in his own attack. Nothing is further from the truth and anyone claiming otherwise is lying."
https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/19/entertainment/jurnee-smollett-bell-jussie/index.html

[font size="8"]We’re All Gonna Die
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Hey everyone guess what? We’re all gonna die! Yeah the sooner we accept that, the better. If you’re not from California, allow me to school you in on a little state secret – we’re all gonna die. Yes, I know that I already said that! Thank you sir! And the way that everybody is going to die, at least what we were all told when we were kids - the worst thing we had to worry about showing up in our schools wasn’t a nutcase with a semi automatic rifle. No sir. It was supposed to be an earthquake measuring 9.5 on the richter scale. The proverbial “big one” as its’ called. Hey kids, I really hope everyone is having a great day today! Now we all have to hide under our desks in case a giant earthquake that could kill us all comes along! Ah, those were the days! And I mean come on have you not seen Spiderman: Homecoming? If a building falls on you, hiding under a desk isn't going to do shit! Well now there’s another big one that is headed its’ way. Yeah that’s what she said.

One of the most potent storms of the winter will continue to trigger flooding rain, mudslides, heavy mountain snow, strong winds and difficult to dangerous travel in California and much of the West this weekend.

Rain and mountain snow will spread inland through Saturday. Areas of rain and snow may persist not only on Sunday but into next week as well.

The amount of rain from the storm is more than enough to cause flash and urban flooding problems and trigger mudslides and rock slides. The mudslide risk will be greatest in, but not limited to, recent burn scar locations.

Evacuations in burn scar areas may be necessary. Several evacuation warnings have already been issued.

"Several inches of rain will fall on the west- and south-facing slopes of the coastal mountains and foothills and lower elevations of the Sierra Nevada this weekend," according to AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Brett Anderson.

An AccuWeather Local StormMax™ of 8 inches of rain is forecast through Saturday night with some additional rain likely into early next week.
https://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/major-california-storm-to-unleash-flooding-rain-feet-of-mountain-snow-and-strong-winds-this-weekend/70007317

Oh calm down! We’re not gonna die just yet!!! So just how bad could this mega storm get? You know Houston has hurricanes, Kansas has tornadoes, California, we do storms and natural disasters way better! We’ve got torrential rains, mudslides, fires and possible earthquakes to worry about!

Scientists call it California’s “other big one,” and they say it could cause three times as much damage as a major earthquake ripping along the San Andreas Fault.

Although it might sound absurd to those who still recall five years of withering drought and mandatory water restrictions, researchers and engineers warn that California may be due for rain of biblical proportions — or what experts call an ARkStorm.

This rare mega-storm — which some say is rendered all the more inevitable due to climate change — would last for weeks and send more than 1.5 million people fleeing as floodwaters inundated cities and formed lakes in the Central Valley and Mojave Desert, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Officials estimate the structural and economic damage from an ARkStorm (for Atmospheric River 1,000) would amount to more than $725 billion statewide.

In heavily populated areas of the Los Angeles Basin, epic runoff from the San Gabriel Mountains could rapidly overwhelm a flood control dam on the San Gabriel river and unleash floodwaters from Pico Rivera to Long Beach, says a recent analysis by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
https://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-ln-mega-storm-dam-failure-20190218-story.html

Hey! Haven’t you kids ever seen a storm that could kill a whole lot of us? Yes I’m channeling my inner Stan Lee on this one. And you know what? While my state has been busy preparing for “The Big One” we’re certainly underprepared for what’s going to come when the great storm hits.

Scientists call it California’s “other big one,” and they say it could cause three times as much damage as a major earthquake ripping along the San Andreas Fault.

Although it might sound absurd to those who still recall five years of withering drought and mandatory water restrictions, researchers and engineers warn that California may be due for rain of biblical proportions — or what experts call an ARkStorm.

This rare mega-storm — which some say is rendered all the more inevitable due to climate change — would last for weeks and send more than 1.5 million people fleeing as floodwaters inundated cities and formed lakes in the Central Valley and Mojave Desert, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Officials estimate the structural and economic damage from an ARkStorm (for Atmospheric River 1,000) would amount to more than $725 billion statewide.

In heavily populated areas of the Los Angeles Basin, epic runoff from the San Gabriel Mountains could rapidly overwhelm a flood control dam on the San Gabriel river and unleash floodwaters from Pico Rivera to Long Beach, says a recent analysis by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
https://ktla.com/2019/02/18/rare-mega-storm-in-l-a-area-could-cause-3-times-as-much-damage-as-major-earthquake/

No we’re still not gonna die! At least not yet. But this thing could have the potential to be a million times worse than a polar vortex and an even worse trail of devastation than the proverbial “big one”. Although at least on the flipside, California is finally getting some much needed water! Which will help with that “poor forest management” that President LardAss is accusing us of!

There’s still more than a week left in February, but already California has received about 18 trillion gallons of water thanks to a series of storms this month, according to the National Weather Service.

That’s enough water to fill 27 million Olympic-sized pools, forecasters said. The amount of water is also nearly half the total volume of Lake Tahoe.

Los Angeles has gotten its fair share of the rain as well, receiving more than 4 inches between Feb. 1 and this past Saturday, according to the weather service.

Those totals are likely to increase this week, too, with more showers forecast to drench Southern California from Wednesday night into Thursday.
https://ktla.com/2019/02/18/series-of-february-storms-dumps-18-trillion-gallons-of-water-in-california/

[font size="8"]Top 10 Investigates: CA’s Literal Train Wreck
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Hey! It’s time to investigate beyond the headlines! This is Top 10 Investigates!

One of the keys to California’s strong economy is a solid infrastructure. We have easy access to air travel and sea travel. And our freeway system is one of the best in the entire country and the entire world. So what’s missing? A European style high speed rail network. And one of the cornerstones of the new California administration was to help usher in a high speed rail network that would connect Los Angeles, the Central Valley, and San Francisco. But recently California Governor Gavin Newsom cancelled the project, prompting criticism and protest from around the state and around the country. What went wrong? We will find out.

Even before California’s High Speed Rail bond proposal appeared on the ballot in November 2008, the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association commissioned a study in conjunction with the Reason Foundation because of deep concerns about the project’s viability. The study, published in September 2008, just prior to the election, confirmed our worst fears. Specifically, the executive summary of the nearly 200-page document warned:

“The CHSRA plans as currently proposed are likely to have very little relationship to what would eventually be built due to questionable ridership projections and cost assumptions, overly optimistic projections of ridership diversion from other modes of transport, insufficient attention to potential speed restrictions and safety issues and discounting of potential community or political opposition. Further, the system’s environmental benefits have been grossly exaggerated, especially with respect to reduction of greenhouse gas emissions that have been associated with climate change.”

In the ensuing decade, it became increasingly clear that every negative prediction about the project came to be realized. Even initial advocates of the project, including a former chairman of the High Speed Rail Authority, turned against the costly boondoggle.

The capstone of criticism came at the end of 2018 when California’s own state auditor issued a scathing report excoriating the project’s mismanagement, waste and lack of transparency. To understand just how damning the HSR audit was, just consider the subtitle: “Flawed Decision Making and Poor Contract Management Have Contributed to Billions in Cost Overruns and Delays in the System’s Construction.”
https://www.ocregister.com/2019/02/17/please-governor-dont-derail-the-bullet-train-derailment/

So some extremely poor business decisions lead to the cancellation of California’s ambitious high speed rail project. Now before you go playing the blame game, let’s not blame the governor or the democratic party for this mess. In fact there’s several contributing factors that led to this getting cancelled.

On U.S. railroads, it’s been a week of emotional whiplash.

Just days ago, an outline of the much-anticipated Green New Deal— a proposal from Democratic lawmakers to dramatically cut U.S. carbon emissions—described the country’s need for high-speed rail network to help replace short-haul flights with lower-emission trips. Commentators on both sides of the aisle ridiculed the idea as politically impossible, even as environmental and transit advocates staunchly defended it.

Then, on Tuesday, California Governor Gavin Newsom tossed cold water on the state’s high-speed rail project, which represents a rare beacon of progress on next-generation train service in the U.S. In his first State of the State address, Newsom announced plans to scale back the scheme to link San Francisco to Los Angeles with a passenger train that could connect those cities in under three hours. Instead, only a much shorter, first phase of construction would be completed, putting 110 miles of improved rail service between the Central Valley cities of Merced and Bakersfield, with Fresno in the midst. That’s a huge step back from a 700-mile route connecting coastal population centers.
https://www.citylab.com/transportation/2019/02/california-high-speed-rail-why-green-new-deal-gavin-newsom/582655/

OK now it’s kind of like that. But there is a silver lining in an otherwise flawed plan. Think of it like the plot of Superman III if the bad guy had actually been able to get away with his money laundering scheme. But while this plan was flawed to begin with, that means that it could potentially come back in a big way for not only California but the entire US.

Despite delivering what some interpreted as a death knell, California Governor Gavin Newsom has confirmed—and re-confirmed—that a comprehensive high-speed rail system is still happening in the state.

But one part of Newsom’s original statement wasn’t open to nuance: This high-speed rail project has serious problems.

“The project, as currently planned, would cost too much and take too long,” Newsom said at his State of the State address. “There’s been too little oversight and not enough transparency.”

California’s rail campaign is a cautionary tale to be sure. A ballot measure was passed in 2008, setting up a bond measure intended to funnel $10 billion to the $38 billion project, which was estimated to finish in 2029. Yet, due to a politically fraught, lawsuit-plagued battle to determine the train’s route, over a decade later, construction costs have ballooned. Now there’s not enough money coming in to finance the project’s completion—especially as rail funding became limited nationwide after the 2009 economic stimulus.
https://www.curbed.com/2019/2/15/18225441/california-high-speed-rail-gavin-newsom

That’s it for Top 10 Investigates. Good day.

My fair congregation!! What are our brothers and sisters on the far right trying to tell us? Do we really need another four more years of the wretched, unholy, ungodly DARK ONE in the presence of the highest house in the land??? I mean from the very first DAY they have been somehow convinced that the Dark One is GAWD and JAYSUS combined into one person. But we all know that he isn’t! In fact he is the most egregious sinner of all – a man who lives the life of decadence and luxury that these people otherwise claim to despise.

The annual anachronism known as the National Prayer Breakfast attracted its usual array of clergy, military, and political leaders in Washington on 7 February. Most prominent of all, of course, was Donald Trump, who used the de facto pulpit to call for outlawing abortion, among other positions dear to the Religious Right.

Yet the presidential comment that most typified all that has gone morally haywire with the supposedly moral majority came when Trump praised the “abolition of civil rights”. You can consider that statement an innocent, if embarrassing, misreading of the Teleprompter. Or you can hear it as a Freudian slip.

As inspired by the Reverend Billy Graham and originated by President Dwight Eisenhower in 1953, the National Prayer Breakfast served two consensual, almost anodyne purposes. It epitomized the moderate, mid-century civil religion that preached that an American was a better citizen for believing in God and going, at least occasionally, to church or synagogue. And amid the Cold War, American leaders insistently portrayed their nation’s collective faith confronting what was routinely called “godless Communism”.

In fact, the greatest application of religion in the public square during the 1950s and 1960s occurred in pursuit of a liberal goal: civil rights. Like the abolitionists of the 19th century, civil rights leaders such as the Reverend Dr Martin Luther King Jr wielded the Bible and its concept of all humanity being formed in the divine image as an argument for racial equality.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/feb/10/in-revering-trump-the-religious-right-has-laid-bare-its-hypocrisy

Well we hope it doesn’t come to that. But then this guy had to go and make a bad situation worse, which is what he usually does. You know, the guy who we currently call president had to go and rub salt in the wound of high speed rail advocates:

President Donald Trump hit back Tuesday at California’s latest lawsuit against his administration in his trademark way — through Twitter.

In two tweets early Tuesday morning, Trump criticized California and the other 15 states filing suit, calling them the “mostly ... Open Border Democrats and the Radical Left.” He said California “seems in charge” and implied state officials had no room to criticize him on wall spending due to the billions spent on the California High Speed Rail Project.

“The failed Fast Train project in California, where the cost overruns are becoming world record setting, is hundreds of times more expensive than the desperately needed Wall!” Trump said.

The lawsuit, which California Attorney General Xavier Becerra announced on Friday, was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California Monday evening. Trump announced Friday that he is declaring a national emergency to divert funds from military construction projects to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border after Congress did not budget the amount he wanted.

California’s lawsuit, its 46th against the Trump administration, argues that border crossings are at historic lows and that Trump overstepped his power by trying to redirect money that Congress denied him in its most recent budget agreement.
https://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/white-house/article226455200.html

Yes, that’s not how any of this works, damn it! Oh you know we are allowed to swear in my church because I do believe that it is our GAWD given right! Can I get an amen???? And do we really need another 4 more years of Q anon? Remember this nonsense? Even the people who it attracted are the ones who are now apologizing that they doubted it!

On Saturday, radical right-wing commentator and rabid conspiracy theorist Sheila Zilinsky issued an abject apology on her podcast for ever having doubted QAnon.

Last month, Zilinsky appeared on “The Hagmann Report,” where she declared that she was no longer a believer in the QAnon conspiracy theory, which posits that Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election is really a cover for a plan by President Trump to take down a massive global pedophile ring.

Zilinsky said that while she was once “really onboard with the Q thing,” she was no longer convinced that it was legitimate since the long-promised wave of mass arrests never seems to actually occur.

“Let’s cut the crap,” she said. “Until there’s some people in jail, I’m not a Q fan anymore. I’m just kind of giving up the whole thing, unless I see something happen real quick. I just really don’t want to go down that rabbit trail anymore.”
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/sheila-zilinsky-apologizes-for-ever-doubting-q/

I mean Qanon, Pizzagate, are we certain that we want another 4 more years of this? I know that I definitely don’t! Especially since the forces of AYVIL have descended upon the White House in the form of the unholy Dark One, whose name I dare not speak, are the ones who are saying that the other side is AYVIL!!! Yes, AYVIL!!!! THE DEVIL IS INSIDE US!!!! Well… maybe.

Right-wing commentator Josh Bernstein posted a video today in which he proclaimed that the Democratic Party should be declared a terrorist organization and disbanded.

“They are Islamic compliant,” he said. “They are Marxist/Leninist/Stalinist/Maoist, if you will, in their ideology. They support terrorism. They are anti-Israel. They support open borders, which means that they’re fine with having Americans be killed by illegal aliens. They are for taxing you to death. They are for controlling every aspect of your life.”

“I think, at this point, based on their platform, based on their advanced leftist ideology, that the Democratic Party should be dissolved, they should be banned from all elections,” Bernstein continued. “They’re pro-death. They’re demonic … and to be quite frank, they should be labeled as a terrorist organization, just like ISIS, just like al Qaeda, just like Hamas, just like Hezbollah, just like Antifa, just like white supremacist groups.”

“They are a terrorist organization right now and they are literally terrorizing this country,” he added. “They are killing infants. They are murdering people and getting away with it legally, they’re passing more and more laws to do this. These people are evil.”
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/josh-bernstein-the-democratic-party-should-be-declared-a-terrorist-organization-and-dissolved/

Yes, I am complete!!! Ha ha! You didn’t really think I was the devil did you? No? Well I mislead you, just like the Dark One misleads his followers! There you go, mass has ended, may you go in peace!! That’s it this week for:

[font size="8"]Beating A Dead Horse: Nike Protests
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Hey conservatives, guess what? You’re not cool. You’re lame! And if you want people to take you seriously, it’s way past time that you own your lameness. In fact don’t even try to be cool or hip. Because as we’ve seen time and time again, any time a conservative tries to be cool by showing us that they can use social media, or that they are into what the kids are into, it backfires on them big time. And don’t even try to mix politics and your business, because then things like this happen. Yes, of course I’m talking about the guy in Colorado who brought politics into his sporting goods store business and then it backfired on him big time and now, well, who’s the loser now?

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (CBS4) – A sporting goods store owner in Colorado Springs decided to close up shop months after he started boycotting Nike products. In September, Stephen Martin, owner of Prime Time Sports, took issue with a Nike advertisement featuring Colin Kaepernick.

The former NFL quarterback started kneeling during the National Anthem before football games in 2016, sparking a movement among other NFL players, including Broncos linebacker Brandon Marshall.

That in turn sparked large outcry from thousands like Martin.

In 2018, Nike chose to feature Kaepernick in one of its ads.

Martin then decided to sell all of his Nike product at highly-discounted prices, despite him acknowledging Nike merchandise makes up 40-50 percent of the store’s inventory.

Fast forward five months.

“Being a sports store and not having Nike jerseys is kind of like being a milk store without milk or a gas station without gas. They have a virtual monopoly on jerseys. There is no other option,” Martin told the CBS affiliate in Colorado Springs, KKTV.
https://denver.cbslocal.com/2019/02/13/stephen-martin-prime-time-sports/

Well, I guess that’s why you don’t mix business and politics. And next time, maybe shut the fuck up about it? So that’s one way conservatives can own their lameness – don’t take a stand. You know what else they should do? Maybe, I don’t know, before you tweet out a video, maybe check the political status of the artist before hand?

Rock band R.E.M probably couldn’t predict their early ’90s hit song “Everybody Hurts” would be put to political use in 2019. When it was, they were not happy about it.

The episode began on Friday afternoon, when President Trump retweeted a video meme. The clip, created by Trump-supporting meme-maker Carpe Donktum, showed Democratic lawmakers like Senators Bernie Sanders and Kamala Harris looking stoic during the President’s State of the Union address. The video was set to R.E.M.’s “Everybody Hurts.”

R.E.M. was immediately critical about Trump’s use of their song to taunt his political opponents. The band’s official Twitter account tweeted its displeasure on Friday night, referencing the song “World Leader Pretend.”

“Congress, media–ghost this faker!!! Love, R.E.M.” the band tweeted.
http://time.com/5531454/rem-trump-democrats-everybody-hurts/

So Trump attempted to show that he was cool and hip by tweeting out an egregious copyright violation, and replaced REM’s song “Everybody Hurts” with Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless The USA”. As if that couldn’t possibly get any lamer, guess what? The video was created by an Infowars troll who won a contest and has a ridiculous name at that.

The clip, which runs more than two minutes in length, plays audio from R.E.M.'s early-'90s hit single "Everybody Hurts" over excerpts from Trump's Feb. 5 State of the Union address.

But, as of the early hours Saturday ET, Twitter users could not play the video posted by Trump, and many saw a message that read, "This video has been removed in response to a report from the copyright holder."

The creator of the video that the president tweeted Friday, self-proclaimed Trump supporter @CarpeDonktum, accused Twitter of censorship after the clip became unplayable on the platform.

The clip, clearly meant to mock a selection of lawmakers in Congress, cuts lines from Trump's speech, together with reaction shots of stern-looking politicians whom Trump has criticized in the past. They include Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah.

On Saturday afternoon, Trump tweeted a similar video — but this version's backing track replaced R.E.M. with Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the U.S.A."
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/15/rem-publisher-asks-twitter-to-remove-video-tweeted-by-trump-over-song-use.html

Who knew Trump had mad video editing skillz, yo? And really? God Bless The USA? That’s the best he could do? I mean he couldn’t use Cat Scratch Fever or BAWITDABA? That’s where Trump could take a stand and own his lameness. And by the way this wouldn’t be the first time that Trump has used a song without the artist’s permission. He’s been caught not once, not twice, but over a dozen times! Yes, a whole fucking dozen!

Axl Rose After Guns N' Roses frontman learned that "Sweet Child O' Mine" was being played at the president's rallies, Rose fired off a series of tweets accusing Trump of using licensing loopholes to ignore his request to stop playing the band's music. "Unfortunately the Trump campaign is using loopholes in the various venues’ blanket performance licenses which were not intended for such craven political purposes, without the songwriters’ consent," Rose tweeted on Nov. 4, 2018.

Pharrell On Oct. 27, 2018, the day after the synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh that left 11 dead, Trump played Pharrell's 2013 summer hit "Happy" at a rally in Indiana, according to reports. Pharell's attorney Howard King sent a cease and desist to Trump with a statement regarding the usage. "There was nothing 'happy' about the tragedy inflicted upon our country on Saturday and no permission was granted for your use of this song for this purpose," the letter read.

Neil Young If you go way back to when Trump first announced he would be running for president at the Trump Tower in 2015, you may remember that Neil Young took issue with Trump's use of "Rockin' in the Free World." "Donald Trump was not authorized to use 'Rockin' in the Free World’ in his presidential candidacy announcement," a spokesperson for the musician's Lookout Management said in a statement in 2015. Young recently reiterated his feelings on his official Facebook page: "Legally, he has the right to, however it goes against my wishes."
https://www.thewrap.com/music-stars-slam-trump-songs-campaign-rallies-axl-rose-rihanna-photos/

[font size="8"]This Fucking Guy: Jesse Lee Peterson

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This week’s “This Fucking Guy” is Christian conspiracy theorist, former Newsmax and current radio host, and occasional Infowars contributor Jesse Lee Peterson. This fucking guy. Whew, he is equal parts scary and crazy. And talk about a guy who votes against his own interests at that. He’s a firm and staunch believer and promoter of completely insane theories like Qanon and Pizzagate. He’s also a black guy who’s a firm believer in the fact that racism died when Obama got elected president. Which, as we’ve seen and pointed on this program time and time again, that is simply not true at all! So what’s he been up to lately?

Right-wing commentator Jesse Lee Peterson kicked off his radio program this morning by heaping praise on President Trump for his State of the Union Address last night, while launching personal attacks on Democratic leaders and declaring that anyone who votes for a Democrat after last night “hates God” and “loves Satan.”

Peterson said that Trump’s speech reminded him of the good old days “when men where in charge” and they “didn’t take any crap.”

“Do you see the difference when a man is leading as opposed to when a woman is leading?” he asked. “Especially a liberal woman. It was the difference between night and day.”

After declaring that Democrats “looked like defeated brats” who “demonstrated that they do not love America,” Peterson attacked Rep. John Lewis as a “bug-eyed, fat black guy” who “looked like a dirty, old black trash man.” Later, Peterson turned his attention to Stacey Abrams, who delivered the Democratic response, blasting her for having supposedly “forgotten to straighten her hair.”

“She had this little nasty-looking nappy hair on her head like she just got out of the bathtub from washing her hair and didn’t straighten it,” Peterson carped. “Remember when black women used to … know not to go outside looking like that? Stacey Abrams didn’t straighten her hair. She left it nappy.”

“And she’s getting fat,” he added. “She’s just fat from the head to the toe.”
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/jesse-lee-peterson-anyone-who-votes-democratic-hates-god-and-loves-satan/

Yeah BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! Hey, Jesse, you can’t fat shame someone when you worship the fattest and most slovenly president we’ve ever had! Although seriously, did anyone else have as much fun as I did when #MarALardAss was trending? That guy did! WOOOO! Thank you random audience member! Seriously, Trump’s got the fattest ass of any president we’ve had since Taft. I mean this fucking guy:

That’s actual, unedited footage by the way! And by the way if you’re wondering if Mr. Peterson couldn’t be any more against his own interests, just take a look at what he said a few weeks ago. He’s a guy who actually wants white people to take over, otherwise its’ over!

Right-wing commentator Jesse Lee Peterson appeared on a white nationalist’s podcast last week, telling the host that white people in America need to get married and “have a truckload of white children” because “unless white people take over, it’s over for America.”

Peterson has ties to Fox News host Sean Hannity and has appeared at events with right-wing media personalities including Mike Cernovich. He’s made several appearances on Fox News and he currently hosts a show on Newsmax TV.

Peterson gave an interview to white nationalist podcast host Jean-Francois Gariépy on January 4, during which the duo discussed declining birthrates among white people in the United States. Peterson has appeared on other far-right podcasts, where he’s largely sympathized with the hosts. Peterson frequently claims that racism never existed and that people of color have been undermining America since the Civil Rights era.

Gariépy and Peterson agreed with the claim that non-white people immigrating into the U.S. is making it harder for white people to live in America, prompting Peterson to assert that the United States needs “to close the back door and the front door in this country and in Europe and clean up the mess and if you decide you want to let people of color in again, maybe you can be real selective—like they did in the good old days—about who you let it.”
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/jesse-lee-peterson-unless-white-people-take-over-its-over-for-america/

Wait, what’s a black guy doing hanging around white supremacists? I mean has he not seen that episode of Chappelle’s Show? Maybe they just keep him around you know just because they need a guy like that but really I can’t find any reason. Oh and you know that one of the touchiest subjects in America is abortion, right? Well guess what Mr. Peterson’s position is? Well, he’s taken just about the most far right position of anyone:

On his radio program today, right-wing commentator Jesse Lee Peterson told a caller to break up with the woman with whom he has been in a relationship for five years because she has a child who was conceived via rape.

This morning, a 28-year-old caller named Caleb told Peterson that he has been in a relationship with his girlfriend, who has an 8-year-old daughter who was conceived as a result of a sexual assault, and that he has been helping to raise the young girl since she was three and that she often calls him “daddy”

Caleb wanted to know if Peterson thought it would be okay for him to marry his girlfriend, but Peterson broke his heart when he declared that he could not because this young girl needs to be in a family consisting of her natural mother and natural father, who, in this instance, is reportedly the mother’s rapist.

“Absolutely no,” Peterson declared. “Do not marry a woman … who already has children. It’s bad enough on kids when they don’t have both parents, it’s worse when a so-called step-parent steps in because the soul of that child—whether male or female—the soul yearns for a father, not a step-father or a step-mother. They want their natural father and natural mother, and especially their natural father. So, if this woman is a decent woman at all, she will sacrifice for her child, not for herself, but for her child and you’re going to be in the way.”
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/jesse-lee-peterson-a-child-conceived-in-rape-should-be-raised-by-the-rapist/

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So he thinks that children should be raised by both parents even if one of them is an absolute psychopath! And by the way in case you’re wondering if his increasingly hateful rhetoric gets him in trouble or not, well, first consider who his employers are. Then after you’re done with that, consider that his contributions are still a thing!

Jesse Lee Peterson was dropped from Newsmax TV following what his team said was a network restructuring of their 2019 programming schedule, but he will continue to produce his morning radio show independently.

A caller appeared on Peterson’s radio show yesterday and complained to Peterson that she could no longer view his show on Newsmax TV, accusing the right-wing news platform of being staffed with “beta males” who wanted to rid the station of Trump supporters. Peterson asked the caller if she had complained to Newsmax, and she said she had called their customer service department.

Right Wing Watch reached out to Newsmax for comment but did not receive a response before publication.

Peterson confirmed this caller’s complaint in a tweet yesterday, writing “The Jesse Lee Peterson Show is no longer available on Newsmax TV.”
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/newsmax-tv-drops-jesse-lee-petersons-show-but-keeps-him-as-contributor/

Yeah so he and his hateful rhetoric will be around for a long time. I’d love to see him played by Keenan Thompson on Saturday Night Live. They could have some fun with that! That’s Jesse Lee Peterson, this week’s:

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

So of course you know by now that people are people and people are dumb. And here’s a great example of when life imitates art. Remember that episode of Seinfeld where they all board different subway trains and George is on his way to a job interview, but along the way, gets seduced by a beautiful woman who proceeds to strip him of his underwear, rob him and chain him to a bed post? Well, this is kind of like that. Except that his own GIRLFRIEND was waiting for him downstairs!

A naked man was getting ready to have sex with a woman he’d just met, while his understanding girlfriend waited downstairs, he told police in North Carolina, but things went downhill quickly after that.

Randleman Police said Christopher Hancock told them he was attacked and robbed at the late morning sexual rendezvous, the Courier-Tribune reported.

Hancock reported he and his girlfriend have an open relationship, and they both went to a house so he could have sex with the other woman, according to WSET.

With his girlfriend waiting downstairs on a couch on Jan. 28, Hancock told police he and the woman went to a bedroom and stripped naked, per WFMY. That’s when two men attacked Hancock, punching and choking him until he blacked out, the TV station reported.

When the Franklinville resident came to, he told police the men were gone, along with his pants and $10,000 he said he had in one of the pockets, according to the Courier-Tribune.

Read more: https://www.newsobserver.com/latest-news/article226410755.html

I think the bigger question is where was he going with that $10,000? That’s a huge, huge yada yada there! Seriously, was he hiring a hitman? Oh well, we may never know! Next up, what is with people from Florida and burritos? This is the **SECOND** burrito incident from the Sunshine state in less than two weeks! I mean were they channeling their inner Ron Burgundy?

For the second time in as many weeks, a Florida Man has been arrested for battering a woman with a burrito, according to court records.

Police charge that Peter Elacqua, 41, got into an argument with his girlfriend Friday in their Port Richey residence.

After Elacqua allegedly shoved the woman into a chair in their bedroom, he “threw his burrito at the Victim,” striking her in the face with the food item.

When a sheriff’s deputy arrived at the home in response to a 911 call, the woman had “the contents of the burrito dispersed across her face, neck, and left chest/shoulder area.”
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/florida/another-burrito-battery-803261

Next up, we got another gem from Florida Man’s cousin, Maine Man. Yes, Maine, or Canada’s Florida, definitely brings the crazy wherever they can. Seriously, they cant even visit Nana in the hospital without stirring some shit up. Come on, man, if you’re going to visit Nana in the hospital, maybe leave the meth at home?
vJan. 20 fight at an Ellsworth hospital was precipitated by an incident in which a Norridgewock man crawled halfway out of a moving vehicle and pointed something at a car behind him that the other driver thought was a rifle, according to court documents.

The man and his two brothers then stopped their vehicle on East Main Street and ran away from responding police to Northern Light Maine Coast Hospital, where a few minutes later they were confronted by Ellsworth police officers in their grandmother’s room. In the ensuing brawl, each man was shot twice with stun guns, and hospital furniture was broken before the three men were subdued and arrested, according to a probable cause police report filed in Hancock County Unified Criminal Court.

<snip>

According to Heidi Grant, mother of the three men, she was at the hospital and let them in the locked door, not knowing she wasn’t supposed to let them in. She said her sons had called her telling her they were being chased by police and were afraid of being shot.

Police pursued the men to their grandmother’s hospital room and again ordered them to get down on the floor. They refused, at which point police fired their Tasers, according to the police report. The officers then tried to wrestle the three men to the ground, with Wilmot and Brighton Sawyer exchanging blows.
https://bangordailynews.com/2019/02/03/news/hancock/3-brothers-visiting-dying-grandmother-brawled-with-police-in-her-ellsworth-hospital-room/?_ga=2.180751008.666050852.1549286238-789779681.1549286238

Yeah bring it on!!! Next up we go to Virginia where a guy with a name that would imply the exact opposite is happening, decided to use his garage door to project some images on it that the neighbors would find, well, unflattering.

FEBRUARY 8--A Virginia man is behind bars after projecting a porno film on his garage door in full view of his neighbors, police allege.

Antonio Smallwood, 41, was arrested Wednesday evening in connection with the al fresco 7 PM screening on a tidy Newport News street. A patrolman responded to the block after a 911 call reported "pornographic material being displayed," cops say.

"Upon arrival, the officer observed a movie involving sexual activity being projected on the garage door of the residence," according to police. At that point, a cop sought to serve Smallwood with a summons. But when the film enthusiast refused to sign the summons, he was arrested.
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/stupid/virginia-screening-382017

Ah that was a great scene! I may need to break out my Fight Club DVD later. Finally this week for People Are Dumb, we go to Hong Kong for this one. And sometimes a potato is just a potato, or sometimes it might be a hand grenade! Yes, there was a hand grenade found in a batch of potatoes. I hope they didn’t charge extra!

A World War One-era German hand grenade has been found among a delivery of potatoes shipped from France to a crisp factory in Hong Kong, police say.

The muddy device, which was 3in (8cm) wide, was "in an unstable condition" because it had been discharged but had failed to detonate, officials said.

It was discovered at the Calbee crisp-making factory in the eastern Sai Kung district on Saturday morning.

The bombe de terre was safely detonated on site by bomb disposal officers.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-47107609

That’s it this week for:

[font size="8"]Deep State Diaries Episode 30: The Federal Emergency Management Authority
[br] [/font] [br]

It’s time for episode 2 of Deep State Diaries. Yes we’re touring the many 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 Federal Emergency Management Authority[/font]

When a natural disaster strikes (presidential disasters not withstanding), you call the experts who know how to handle it at FEMA! Yes, FEMA. You might remember them from such movies as Deep Impact, Volcano, San Andreas, Deepwater Horizon, Into The Storm, Armageddon, Knowing, and most recently Geostorm. Yes, Geostorm – the Suicide Squad of disaster flicks. Hell, there was even a very poorly made conservative documentary chronicling FEMA’s rise in the Deep State. Look it up. It’s worth a Google. But what does FEMA actually do? FEMA was founded in 1978 by president Gerald Ford under an executive order but has since branched out into its’ own branch of the US government. And with climate change rearing its’ ugly head, FEMA is working overtime.

A federal advisory panel that's supposed to provide scientific information to the National Flood Insurance Program is entering a five-month work stoppage, even as property losses mount against the backdrop of severe inundation related to climate change.

The Technical Mapping Advisory Council, or TMAC, is composed of 20 experts tapped by the FEMA administrator to answer complex questions about flood dynamics and flood risk in areas across the United States that are experiencing higher temperatures.

Created by Congress in 2012, TMAC’s specific charge is to “ensure that flood insurance rate maps (FIRMs) reflect the best available science and are based on the best available methodologies for considering the impact of future development on flood risk.”

Its findings have direct implications for NFIP, the federal insurance program meant to protect private properties from catastrophic flood losses. Today, NFIP has nearly 5.1 million policyholders and is more than $20 billion in debt, a crisis brought on by unprecedented payouts since Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/femas-panel-of-flood-experts-unable-to-meet-as-losses-mount/

So I guess you could say that FEMA is under water? Hey o!!! Thank you I’m here all week, don’t forget to tip your waitress! But in all seriousness, things are so bad at FEMA right now that the director was forced to resign. Things are going just swimmingly!

Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Brock Long announced Wednesday that he is resigning.

"It has been a great honor to serve our country as FEMA Administrator for the past two years. During my tenure, the Agency worked more than 220 declared disasters," Long said in a statement.
His resignation comes months after a controversy over his use of government vehicles.

Last fall, Long was the subject of a Department of Homeland Security probe into whether he was misusing government resources when he used government vehicles and personnel for six-hour drives between his home in North Carolina and FEMA headquarters in Washington.

An inspector general's investigation, released by House Democrats in September, found that even after Long had been told not to, he continued to use government SUVs and drivers to shuttle between home and work.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/13/politics/brock-long-fema/index.html

Yes this is fine. Just make sure that you don’t live in an area where natural disasters occur and you should be fine. Oh wait, natural disasters are everywhere! There’s fires, floods, earthquakes, tsunamis, tornadoes, hurricanes, and they’re all escalating thanks to climate change deniers! So how is FEMA prepared to handle such disasters?

FEMA is pushing back on claims from the Town of Surf City that it is "not protecting its citizens’ best interests” when it comes to restoring the beaches of the Pender County community in the wake of Hurricane Florence.

Ashley Loftis, Surf City town manager, said Monday, “Our citizens felt this way when they saw that only certain homes were classified as imminent critical.”

The town sent out a news release conveying its frustration with FEMA over the weekend. The release said town leaders are moving forward in hauling sand to areas considered “imminent critical areas” by FEMA and non-critical areas will receive a sand push. Town leaders are advertising for bids for the sand projects.

John Mills with FEMA external affairs responded to that release Monday.
http://www.wect.com/2019/02/12/fema-denying-claims-surf-city-press-release/

We’re talking about actual disasters here. Oh and in case you’re wondering if things couldn’t get any crazier at FEMA than they are, they have to do damage control within their own department! Because there’s a FEMA manager who was under fire for watching way too much Infowars and repeating some ridiculously horrible conspiracy theories about Michelle Obama (that I won’t repeat here) – and got busted for doing something shady. I’m shocked, shocked I tell you!!

The West Virginia woman, who made national headlines in 2016 when she was fired from a county development organization over a racist Facebook post about then-First Lady Michelle Obama, has now pleaded guilty to defrauding the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) out of $18,000 intended to help flood victims.

According to the Charleston Gazette-Mail, Pamela Taylor, 57, admitted to taking the government benefits after falsely claiming her home was damaged in the June 2016 floods that killed more than 20 people and wrecked houses on along the Elk River and beyond.

In reality, her home was not damaged at all.

WSAZ reports Taylor has agreed to pay $18,149.04 in restitution. She faces up to 30 years in prison and a fine of up to half a million dollars at her sentencing on May 30, according to the local television station.

As CBS News reported in 2016, the racist Facebook post compared Mrs. Obama to a primate.

“It will be refreshing to have a classy, beautiful, dignified First Lady in the White House. I’m tired of seeing a Ape in heels," the post said.
https://www.wtsp.com/article/news/nation-world/woman-who-called-michelle-obama-an-ape-defrauded-18000-from-fema/67-74347c1a-69be-41e6-a6db-2415648048b0

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

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

Overall: C-

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

Unfortunately folks, all good things must end, even our journey down the government wormhole, and we are going to take a deep dive into the US State Department!

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

Ladies and gentlemen, my next guest has a new album coming out on March 1st called “Wasteland, Baby!”. You can see him April 9th at Hollywood Forever and on tour this April and May. Playing his song “Nina Cried Power”, give it up for Hozier!

Credits

Host: Initech
Top 10 Conservative Idiots Recorded In Front Of Live Audience At: Ontario Improv, Ontario, CA
Special Thanks To: Improv Group
Holy Shit Gospel Choir: UC Riverside Choir Club, Riverside, CA
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
Hozier Appears Courtesy Of: Columbia 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

February 13, 2019

Top 10 Conservative Idiots #6-6: A Tale Of Two Crowd Sizes Edition

Top 10 Conservative Idiots #6-6: A Tale Of Two Crowd Sizes Edition

Welcome back to the Top 10 Conservative Idiots! We have the best deals on travel – act now and get double your bonus miles! We are back! Holy crap did we pick the wrong time to be off for a week or what? I mean we had Trump’s second State Of The Union, and the drama and the speech itself weren’t the craziest thing of the week! There’s a lot to unpack here so we will do the best we can! Do we have time for the thing? Sigh... FML people. Just... seriously I hate humanity sometimes. Why? Theme parks. Yes, those places your kids really want to go to where you can easily blow a grand waiting in line all day. There's lots of news out there that proves why I gave up theme parks a long time ago. And you know what? I don't really miss 'em either. Shit, I live 15 minutes from Disneyland and I maybe go there about once every two years. But this... this is just one of the strangest theme park attractions I've ever seen. Remember that animated flick from a couple of years ago called Trolls? If you don't I suggest going on Youtube and watching the CinemaSins Everything Wrong With video because that's about all you really need. So if you go visit Universal Studios in Orlando, there is a human size troll that greets people with glitter farts. Yes, glitter farts. Seriously, WTF is wrong with people??? And imagine being the guy who gets paid to wear purple body paint and be made up like a troll doll and all day all he does is sit there and fart glitter? Yeah that's a thing that exists in 2019. I'm sure it's probably already bad enough for the people who have to put on costumes and dance for tourists all day because they probably get paid shit, but I really wonder what they think of the glitter farts guy? And also imagine being the guy who thought of this! What you mean people are amused by glitter troll farts? I know let's put it in our theme parks! Brilliant! And he walks away with a giant sack of money. OK that's enough of the intro, I don't want to think about glitter farts anymore. We have a lot of idiocy to get to. But first Keenan Thompson of SNL explains to white people that maybe you shouldn’t do blackface no matter what the situation is:

You know it’s a fucked up week when Trump’s 2nd State Of The Union is the 2nd craziest thing that happened! For the first slot this week is AMI (1). Yes, the parent company of sleazy supermarket tabloid the National Enquirer is back in the news for an insane blackmail scheme involving the richest guy in the world, Jeff Bezos. Yeah, don’t go there, AMI, it won’t end well for you. In the second slot this week is the State Of The Union recap (2) which was summed up perfectly by one of Trump’s guests of honor.For the third slot this week is the guy who we currently call president, Donald J. Trump (3) and he went to Texas, because, border hysteria from the right, but Beto’s rally drew over twice as many people! In the words of Nelson Muntz, ha ha!! In the number 4 slot this week is the latest on the Ralph Northam scandal, and people, it’s not good. In fact I think it is saying more about the state of Virginia than it is about Gov. Northam. Taking the 5th slot this week, we’ve got our weekly investigative piece Top 10 Investigates, and this week we’re going to take a look at a controversy surrounding home DNA testing company 23 & Me (5) – just how accurate are the results? (hint: slim to nil) At number 6, is of course our weekly visit to the Holy Church Of The Top 10 in “Holy Shit” and this week our resident pastor is stunned that the Dark One is once again blurring the line between Separation Of Church & State by advocating for more Bible based classes. What could go wrong? For the 7th slot this week we’ve got a new edition of “NO!”. Really, Delta Airlines and Coke, WTF were you thinking with those creepy airplane napkins? NO!! In the number 8 slot this week it’s another installment of the hot new game that ‘s sweeping the nation – “IS IT RACIST???” . And this week there’s a literary professor who is making an absurd claim that Mary Poppins is racist, because, yeah it’s 2019. In the number 9 (NEIN!!!!) slot this week we have a new installment of one of our favorite segments, I Need A Drink. And this week we’re going to talk about the boiling water challenge. Really, people, just keep doing what you are doing.Finally this week in the latest installment of our ongoing series Deep State Diaries, we are going to the inner cities to check out what’s going on with the Department Of Housing & Urban Development, or the HUD! Enjoy! Plus we’ve got some live music from oh, I don’t know, a little band called Muse! Yes, they are too big for this crappy program but they are stopping by anyways! 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"]Jeff Bezos vs AMI
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Yeah… we need some sexy time music cause this one is for the lovers in the house! That’s right – we’re going to talk about one of the lowest forms of behavior that you just shouldn’t do – the dick pic! Yes, the subject of the dick pic once again rears its’ ugly head. But do we really need a guy with the last name pecker threatening to publish dick pics? Let’s just let that one sink in for a minute. This is quite possibly one of the most insane scandals ever to scandal.

In the blogpost, titled “No thank you, Mr Pecker”, Bezos accused AMI of telling him “they had more of my text messages and photos that they would publish if we didn’t stop our investigation”.

Bezos said his ownership of the Washington Post was a “complexifier” because it had made him the enemy of people including Donald Trump, who has frequently targeted him. Pecker is a longtime confidant of the president.

In December, prosecutors in the southern district of New York gave AMI immunity from prosecution for its cooperation in the investigation into Trump’s presidential campaign and alleged hush payments to a Playboy model. AMI admitted the company had coordinated with Trump’s presidential campaign to “catch and kill” – buy up but not publish – the story of Karen McDougal, the model who claimed she had an affair with Trump. AMI admitted it had worked “in concert” with the campaign to pay McDougal $150,000 for her story and then suppress it. Bezos noted in the blogpost that AMI had entered into the immunity deal.

According to Bezos, AMI’s chief content officer, Dylan Howard, emailed threats to Bezos’s lawyer, Martin Singer, allegedly writing: “In the interests of expediating [sic] this situation, and with The Washington Post poised to publish unsubstantiated rumors of The National Enquirer’s initial report, I wanted to describe to you the photos obtained during our newsgathering.”
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/feb/07/jeff-bezos-national-enquirer-blogpost-blackmail-claim

And by the way just how evil is AMI over this? Well this wouldn’t be the first time a sleazy tabloid got caught in an extortion ring. That’s pretty much what they do for a living! So just how legal is what AMI is doing? Well let’s ask a real lawyer!

So, The Hollywood Reporter canvassed intellectual property experts and asked them to weigh the four factors of fair use with regard to Bezos' lower selfies.

The purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes:

"To the extent that there’s a public interest argument it certainly wouldn’t extend to the content of the photos themselves," says entertainment litigator Ashley Yeargan of Russ August & Kabat. "You can describe the photos without having to show them."

Kinsella Weitzman entertainment and intellectual property litigator Gregory Korn agrees the photo itself isn't newsworthy, adding that "it’s essentially just a commercial use. If you call it anything else, you’re just lying to yourself."

As a lawyer who typically defends these kinds of claims, Fox Rothschild's David Aronoff says he would argue it isn't a commercial use — but, he still thinks AMI doesn't have a winning case. "I think fair use would be pretty much their only defense, and it’s not a good one," he says. "Putting aside the issue of extortion, do they have a fair use argument to publish the photos? The answer to that is a pretty strong 'no.'"
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/jeff-bezos-nude-selfies-are-not-newsworthy-legal-experts-say-1184324

That’s right – hell no!!! But what is AMI getting out of all of this? Well they’re so deep in the collusion scandal that they actually asked the Justice Department whether or not they should register as a foreign agent with the Saudis! Yes that’s right! AMI is deep in a hostile foreign power that is against American interests, much like the WWE. I mean come on, it’s all connected don’t you know?

American Media asked the DoJ about having to register as foreign agent after publishing a glossy mag that hyped Saudi Arabia.

Remember that weird glossy magazine that came out last year promoting Saudi crown prince Mohammed Bin Salman? Daily Beast called it Saudi propaganda, and it was.

AMI, the parent company of The National Enquirer, produced it.

Right after they put this weird Saudi propaganda publication out, AMI asked the United States Department of Justice if it should register as a foreign lobbyist, according to multiple news reports out today.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has accused AMI of blackmailing him over intimate photos, and questioned whether Saudi Arabia may have been involved, which both AMI and the kingdom have denied.
https://boingboing.net/2019/02/11/national-enquirer-parent-compa.html

Yes… yes we are!!!! So you have a trashy entertainment company and a trashy supermarket tabloid journalism company both deep in a massive conspiracy to undermine the world’s largest retailer, but how far does it go? Yes, that’s what she said! Thank you sir! Got to love it when we have smart asses in the audience! But of course AMI is in full “nothing to see here” mode!

A lawyer for National Enquirer owner American Media Inc.'s CEO defended the company's correspondence with Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, saying AMI did nothing illegal.

"It absolutely is not extortion and not blackmail," Elkan Abramowitz, attorney for AMI CEO David Pecker, said Sunday on ABC's "This Week with George Stephanopoulos."

His comments came after Bezos published a blog post Thursday accusing AMI of attempting to blackmail him with threats to publish a trove of embarrassing photos, including some of a sexual nature.

The clash followed the Enquirer's previous publication of a report on Bezos' breakup with his wife and his romantic relationship with former Los Angeles news anchor Lauren Sanchez.

Bezos on Thursday posted emails in which AMI representatives offered to withhold publication of the embarrassing photos in exchange for Bezos acknowledging that the tabloid owner had no political motivation for publishing its original expose. Pecker has supported Donald Trump, and Trump has repeatedly criticized Bezos, who owns The Washington Post.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2019/02/10/jeff-bezos-american-media-elkan-abramowitz-this-week/2829977002/

[font size="8"]State Of The Union
[br] [/font] [br]

Whew, you know it’s a fucked up week when the State Of The Union is only the second craziest thing that happened! Of course we don’t have much time to cover and most of it has been covered already but of course… wait, my fact checker is going off!! Oh! Oh!!!! Trump broke the fact checker! Yes, that’s right, he broke the fact checker! But this might be my absolute favorite thing coming out of the SOTU is that Trump invited a kid with the last name Trump, because of course he did. And that kid was being bullied for his last name Trump, because of course, violent leftist mob, and such. And you know how this kid returned the favor? Well…

An 11-year-old boy called Joshua Trump who was invited by his presidential namesake to his State of the Union speech fell asleep and has been hailed as a hero of the anti-Trump resistance.

Joshua Trump, a middle-school student from Delaware, was invited to the delayed event by Melania Trump. He dropped out of school after being bullied because of his last name.

As cameras panned to the audience, the boy could be seen napping while Donald Trump renewed his promise to build a US-Mexico border and declared illegal immigration “an urgent national crisis”.

One Twitter user, who posted a screenshot of the younger Trump asleep, wrote: “JOSHUA TRUMP RULES.”

“Joshua Trump, welcome to the resistance,” said another.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/feb/06/the-trump-who-fell-asleep-during-state-of-the-union-hailed-a-hero

Screw the meme. Can we show that picture?

Don’t even have to Photoshop that one! My other favorite thing from the SOTU was Nancy Pelosi standing behind Trump doing the alligator clap, and Trump looked like he was having none of it, and Mike Pence was looking about as creepy as ever. I mean at this point would anyone be surprised that VP Pence actually has real skeletons in his closet? I know I am not!

President Donald Trump spoke for more than an hour and 20 minutes last night, but the moment that may be remembered best from his State of the Union address had no words at all.

It was when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) stood and applauded a line from Trump’s speech in a way that seemed rife with sarcasm to many observers.

The moment came after an eyebrow-raising call for unity from Trump that seemed at direct odds with his own long history of Twitter insults, especially coming on the heels of a pre-speech luncheon in which he reportedly insulted multiple political rivals.

“We must reject the politics of revenge, resistance and retribution, and embrace the boundless potential of cooperation, compromise and the common good,” Trump said in his State of the Union address.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/nancy-pelosi-state-of-the-union-memes_us_5c5a5731e4b0871047589ff9

Common good? Common good? Trump wouldn’t know common good if it jumped up and bit him on the ass! Thank you audience! And by the way, if unity was the theme of the SOTU, Trump certainly did a good job of conveying that message! Oh wait, he literally did the exact opposite and used it to threaten the democrats! Good job!!! NOT!!!

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday characterized President Trump's description of "ridiculous, partisan investigations" as a threat to Democrats.

"An economic miracle is taking place in the United States, and the only thing that can stop it are foolish wars, politics, or ridiculous, partisan investigations," Trump said during his State of the Union Address Tuesday night.

The next morning, Pelosi, who has gone toe to toe with the president since Democrats took over the House last month, pushed back.

“That was a threat. Presidents should not bring threats to the floor of the House," the California Democrat told a group of reporters at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday.

Despite the president's remarks, House Democrats moved forward with their inquiries, as the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee said his panel will expand its Russia probe into Trump, including whether the Kremlin holds “leverage” over the president.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/02/06/state-of-the-union-pelosi-response-trump-threat/2788704002/

There goes unity! And by the way he hammered that point home on Twitter in the last week regarding Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s proposed new Green Deal, which we won’t get to this week but will next week (that’s what happens when you are limited to 10 items a week!) :

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1094375749279248385

Someone didn't read! I mean really eliminating all those things, Trump? No planes means no Air Force One to take you to your golf courses, and no cows means no Big Macs. If this plan went through, what would you feed the Patriots when they visit? His incoherent word salads on Twitter usually make a whole lot of sense. And speaking of not making sense , remember his plan to eliminate HIV? Well…

When President Trump gave his State of the Union address last week, he made an ambitious promise to "eliminate the H.I.V. epidemic in the United States within 10 years." The announcement was followed by a blueprint from the Department of Health and Human Services that details the administration's plan to concentrate funding for treatment and preventative medicine in a few dozen counties nationwide with the highest rates of infection. Public health experts generally applauded the plan as achievable with existing tools and techniques.

The announcement also contained a second, less-noticed promise: To defeat AIDS "beyond" the U.S. But the president's own record on addressing the virus in other countries has been inconsistent.

In December, Trump signed a bill reauthorizing the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, known as PEPFAR, a flagship foreign assistance program that was initiated in 2003 by President George W. Bush and has grown to be one of the biggest and most successful public health interventions in history, responsible for saving millions of lives around the world.
https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2019/02/11/693508003/what-it-will-take-for-trump-to-end-aids-beyond-america

[font size="8"]Donald Trump
[br] [/font] [br]

The GOP hysteria over the US – Mexican border is reaching epic proportions. And this week it was Trump vs Beto, or as we’re calling it “A Tale Of Two Crowd Sizes”, duking it out in Texas. But why is it always the democrats are loony? Or we’re out of control? Or we’re unhinged and insane? Really we’re not the ones who are building a human wall full of gun nuts along the Mexican border. Yes, they are literally building a human wall to protect us against the non existent immigrant threat. I cannot fathom enough about how insane this is. I swear that if Trump told his supporters to go jump off the nearest tall building, they’d do it. Don’t these people have things like jobs and families? They don’t have anything better to do, really?

Dozens of supporters of President Donald Trump's border security efforts formed a human wall Saturday across a small part of the southern border where there is no fencing.

The group gathered near Sunland Park, New Mexico, linking arms and chanting "build a wall," according to CNN affiliate KFOX.

Many held up American flags. Some sported "Make America Great Again" hats, and said they were there to show their support for the construction of a wall at the border.

The demonstration came just two days before President Donald Trump's visit to El Paso, Texas for a rally on Monday.
https://www.kvia.com/news/us-world/trump-supporters-form-human-wall-at-southern-border/1011675662

Yeah it’s kind of like that. But what will actually happen I think is more like this:

But then Trump decided to go down to El Paso himself, because he wants that damn wall, and he will get it or his supporters will be their wall! Because, reasons. And really, El Paso, we’re sorry that the shit show had to roll through your town, but don’t fret, other border towns will soon become victims of it!

Mariachis versus MAGA hats. Pro-wall versus pro-immigrants. President versus potential presidential hopeful.

This Texas border city of 684,000 residents was rocked Monday by dueling political rallies as a campaign event by President Donald Trump was met with protests led by former Democratic congressman and El Paso native Beto O'Rourke, a potential contender against Trump in next year's presidential election.

Across the city, pro-Trump backers voiced their support for the president, especially in his steadfast effort to erect a border wall along the southwest border with Mexico. A campaign rally at the El Paso County Coliseum drew several thousand supporters.

Trump took a jab at his El Paso rival, calling O'Rourke "a young man who has very little going for himself except he has a great first name." His speech was interrupted repeatedly by anti-Trump protesters in the crowd.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2019/02/11/trump-el-paso-border-wall-support-opposition/2841502002/

That’s what Trump thinks will happen! Oh and by the way in case you had any doubt about the kind of person Trump attracts, let’s say that they pulled a Gianforte. Yeah, the MAGA morons grabbed and assaulted a BBC reporter. Because, MAGA.

A BBC camera operator was attacked at a rally held by President Donald Trump in El Paso, Texas, on Monday — one where the president repeatedly goaded his fans into booing the media.

The camera operator, identified by a colleague as Ron Skeans, was attacked by a man wearing a red Trump hat who could be heard yelling, “Fuck the media!”

Trump paused his speech while the assailant was escorted away. The audience responded with a smattering of “CNN sucks!” chants that eventually morphed into “Trump! Trump! Trump!”

According to the BBC, the assailant “shoved and swore at the BBC’s Ron Skeans and other news crews before being pulled away.” Skeans described a “very hard shove” coming from behind him:
https://www.vox.com/2019/2/12/18221640/bbc-cameraman-attacked-trump-rally-el-paso

Yeah there’s nothing funny about that so we won’t try. But really, fuck these people. And that’s about as classy of a response as we’ll get from Trump fans. And by the way in case you’re wondering what the response coming from the city of El Paso is, well, walls aren’t really the answer. But there really is no one good answer for this problem. And of course, Trump’s got the wrong idea on everything.

People walking over the Paso del Norte Bridge linking this West Texas border city to Mexico can watch President Donald Trump’s border wall getting bigger in real time.

Workers in fluorescent smocks can be seen digging trenches, pouring concrete and erecting rust-colored slabs of 18-foot-high metal to replace layers of barbed wire-topped fencing along the mud-colored Rio Grande, which is usually little more than a trickle.

Most of the more than 70,000 people who legally cross four city bridges daily — to shop, go to school and work — pay the construction in the heart of downtown no mind. But on a recent weekday, one man stopped and pointed, saying simply “Trump.”

In his State of the Union address, the president said a “powerful barrier” had cut crime rates in El Paso. He’s demanding more than 100 miles of new walls, costing $5.7 billion, along the 1,900-mile border, despite opposition from Democrats and some Republicans in Congress.
https://www.providencejournal.com/news/20190211/many-in-el-paso-reject-trumps-claim-that-wall-made-city-safe

[font size="8"]Ralph Northam Scandal Update
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Sigh… this scandal is not going away anytime soon. And no, we’re not going to play a game of “Is It Racist” because we have a much more ridiculous topic saved for that this week. Yeah as you’re aware, the current Virginia governor and guy whose Amazon account includes buying the shovel with which he will use to dig his political grave, Ralph Northam, just doesn’t stop talking. In fact you know sometimes silence is the best answer. But no, he won’t shut up about it.

Democratic Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam held onto his office over the past week by saying as little as possible.

Following the circulation of a photo on Northam's medical school yearbook page that featured a man in blackface and another in KKK robes, Northam held a news conference that went, well, disastrously -- culminating in his almost-moonwalking.(Northam admitted to darkening his face to go as Michael Jackson to a dance party in 1984.)

At which point, Northam went almost completely silent. This paragraph, from a terrific Politico piece on Northam's plan to survive, gets to that silent strategy:
"This week, Northam has been largely holed up in his office and has not walked next door to the Capitol, where the Legislature is in session, according to multiple lawmakers. Most of the legislators he's called or texted are Republicans who had not called for him to resign."

And it worked! Now, much of that success was due to the fact that Democratic state Attorney General Mark Herring admitted he, too, had blackened his face in '80s, and the ongoing allegations of sexual assault against Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax, also a Democrat. But regardless of the reasons, Northam stayed out of the spotlight -- mostly -- and lived to fight another week, a prospect that seemed very, very unlikely at this time last week.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/11/politics/ralph-northam-virginia-blackface/index.html

Yes, Gov. Northam, just shut up already! You know the sad thing is this whole thing was discovered by a Trump friendly news organization who figured out a way to weaponize blackface. And really, that’s as bad as the act of blackface itself. But then of course, he had to get involved. Yes, you know him. And he only makes things worse.

At a rally in El Paso, Texas, on Monday, President Donald Trump accused Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, a Democrat, of supporting infanticide.

“The governor stated that he would even allow a newborn baby to come out into the world,” Trump told the crowd, “and wrap the baby, and make the baby comfortable, and then talk to the mother and talk to the father and then execute the baby. Execute the baby!”

Trump was talking about comments Northam made in late January, when he was asked during a filmed radio interview about an abortion bill before the Virginia House of Delegates. The governor’s comments were confusing, and some took them, at the time, as an endorsement of infanticide. But the governor has said that he was “absolutely not” talking about infanticide — and in any case, the Virginia bill would certainly not allow doctors to “execute” a baby after it’s born.

Trump’s comments at the rally may be part of a larger strategy to stir up support among abortion opponents in advance of the 2020 election.
https://www.vox.com/2019/2/12/18221707/trump-rally-el-paso-northam-abortion-virginia

Holy fucking shit!!!! He went there!!! Yes, execute the baby!!! Is it me or does Trump sound like a child when he says something like that? “They execute the baby!!!!”. I mean really this is a special kind of stupid, let’s call it MAGA. But in case you’re wondering what poll numbers are like for the VA governor, well, let’s say they’re not at all shocking .

Virginia residents are at an impasse over whether they feel Gov. Ralph Northam should step down after a racist photo from his past caught up with him last week, though a majority of black voters say they have still his back, according to new polls released this week.

The overall divide is an even split: 47 percent of Virginians want to see him stay; 47 percent want to see him go, according to a Washington Post/Schar School poll released Saturday. But what’s significant about the poll results is the racial breakdown of Northam’s support: Even after the governor admitted to using shoe polish to wear blackface in the 1980s, black Virginians still support him more than whites.

Roughly 58 percent of African Americans polled said Northam should remain in office, compared to 46 percent of whites who said the same.

The poll was conducted just days after a racist photo surfaced from the pages of Northam’s 1984 medical school yearbook, showing a picture of a man in blackface standing next to another man wearing a white Ku Klux Klan hood. After admitting the picture was his, Northam backtracked a day later and denied that he was either individual in the image. He did fess up, however, to dressing up in blackface that same year for a Michael Jackson dance contest.
https://www.vox.com/2019/2/10/18219220/virginia-northam-fairfax-polls-resignation

If you’re not surprised by those poll numbers, not only are you in the wrong place but you have not been paying attention! Because…. Surprise, Americans are split down the middle on just about everything right now. And of course he’s in full on denial mode right now:

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam rejected mounting calls for his resignation Saturday and, in a sharp reversal, said he does not believe he in fact appears in a racist photo on his 1984 medical school yearbook page as he initially thought.

"I am not the person in that photo," Northam said at an afternoon news conference.

He apologized, however, for the photos being on a page with his name on it.

"I am asking for the opportunity to earn your forgiveness," the governor said, adding, "I am far from perfect and I can always strive to do more."

His remarks came in the face of widespread demands throughout the state Democratic party and beyond for him to step down.

Former Vice President Joe Biden, Terry McAuliffe, Northam's Democratic predecessor as governor, a half-dozen Democratic presidential hopefuls, the NAACP, Planned Parenthood and state Democratic lawmakers called on the governor to resign.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/02/02/virginia-governor-ralph-northam-racist-yearbook-photo-resignation-calls/2753016002/

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

You’ve probably seen home DNA testing kits come along fast and furious lately. From companies that offer just basic testing like 23 & Me to sites that offer more specific studies, like ancestry.com. But if you have been taking these tests or you’ve been hearing that the tests come back wrong every time, you’re not alone. In fact, you should be concerned immediately after sending back the kit, especially if you sign up for their health tests.

23andMe is pushing back against a recent The New York Times editorial board opinion piece that warned customers to be careful about the company's health tests.

The editorial board argued that 23andMe's genetic risk health tests, such as its test that claims to screen for two genetic mutations linked to colorectal cancer, can't determine the actual risk of developing the diseases because it relies on "much simpler technology" than a healthcare facility does.

In addition, the op-ed compared 23andMe's breast cancer screen to "proofreading a document by looking at only a handful of letters," as the test only looks at parts of the genome where mutations are known to occur.

"[23andMe's tests] look for only a handful of errors that may or may not elevate your risk of developing the disease in question. And they don't factor into their final analysis other information, like family history. (Not everyone with a given mutation will go on to develop the disease). So the results will not tell you much about your actual health risks," the editorial board wrote in the Feb. 1 opinion piece.
https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/quality/nyt-editorial-board-warns-about-23andme-dna-tests-23andme-responds.html

Yes it definitely is! And in case you’re wondering, some disturbing facts about 23 and Me and similar DNA testing companies have recently been coming up. And they are very shocking, especially about the concentration of where your DNA is going. Right now, 4 companies control the DNA of 26 million people, and yes, you read that right.

Four companies now have DNA information on more than 26 million people.

That’s roughly the combined population of New York State (nearly 20 million), Connecticut (3.5 million) and Chicago (2.7 million).

According to MIT Technology Review , the number of people who submitted their most personal genetic details to companies including 23andme and Ancestry.com doubled in 2018. At that rate, 100 million people will have provided information about their DNA make-up to private companies by the end of 2020.

Testing kits like AncestryDNA can be purchased on Amazon.com for $69 and are simple to use. Customers simply rub a cotton swab inside their mouth, seal it in a package included in the kit, mail it to a lab, and wait up to a month to find out their ethnic makeup.

While many people enjoy learning about their heritage, critics argue such that DNA information might allow insurance companies to discriminate against people predisposed to certain ailments.
https://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/health/ny-news-dna-ancestry-23andme-kits-insurance-20190212-story.html

Except it’s not dino DNA. It’s human DNA, sir. And by the way if you think that DNA testing screw ups are limited to just the US, you are wrong. In fact it’s a world wide problem that affects just about everyone who ponies up the $199 for the 23 & Me kit. Yes, the home DNA testing kits cost $200, and for that amount of money they had better get something right!

Mail-order genetic testing kits, which are all the rage right now, have been put through their paces by identical twins, and the results are a little baffling.

These test kits collect your DNA, typically by you spitting into a tube, and then you have to send the package back to the manufacturers for analysis. The results are shared electronically when ready.

To check out the accuracy of these test kits, Charlsie Agro – who fronts Canadian telly watchdog show Marketplace – and her identical twin sister Carly used them to submit their DNA to five separate consumer-grade genetic-testing outfits, and compared their results.

And their results were surprisingly varied. For one thing, the tests couldn't agree on where exactly their ancestors actually physically came from. Test kit supplier 23andMe reckoned the twins are about 40 per cent Italian, and 25 per cent Eastern European; AncestryDNA said they are about 40 per cent Russia or Eastern European, and 30 per cent Italian; and MyHeritageDNA concluded are about 60 per cent Balkan, and 20 per cent Greek.
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/01/18/dna_twins_gene_tests/

Except there’s no chaos theory here, at least not yet. There’s plenty of reasons why you should do a 23 & Me test but there’s also plenty of reasons why you shouldn’t. The fact that 26 million people have their DNA data in the hands of 4 companies is enough. But this also might shock you.

Last month, the DNA-testing company 23andMe secured Food and Drug Administration approval for a new screening for gene-based health risks. Along with celiac disease, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, breast cancer and several other medical conditions, the company can now screen clients for two mutations that have been linked to colorectal cancer.

But “F.D.A.-approved” does not necessarily mean “clinically useful.” 23andMe relies on much simpler technology than tests that you’d get at your doctor’s office. As a result, the company’s tests cannot tell you much about your actual risk of developing the diseases in question.

Here’s how those tests work — and why you should interpret them with caution.
They read your gene.

You can think of your genes as long text documents. The words are your genetic code. Genetic mutations are like typos — imperfections that scientists can spot with some scrutiny.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/02/01/opinion/23andme-cancer-dna-test-brca.html

That’s it this week for Top 10 Investigates. Good day.

[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 time to remind you that the holiest among us are the most full of:

My fair congregation! You know… do we really need *MORE* religion in our lives? Now I ask this of you *AS* an ordained minister in my own church! Because it used to be religion was only confined to the churches. And that was before 1980. Now the Christian church has become a 24/7 lifestyle brand. They sell you the music, they sell you the movies, and they’re selling you education. Yes, education is now becoming a product of the ultra far right wing churches. And now they want to take it mainstream. Yes, with the help of the Dark One, whose name shall not be spoken in my church, they might just get their wish, and they will make you take Bible classes whether you want it or not!

With the government shutdown on the back burner, President Donald Trump has taken up another interest: Bible study.

“Numerous states introducing Bible Literacy classes, giving students the option of studying the Bible,” Trump said in a Monday morning tweet, asserting, “Starting to make a turn back? Great!”

The social media assertion was made 30 minutes after Fox & Friends played a related segment, Politico reported, then noting that Trump’s tweet was “not quite accurate.”

Although lawmakers have begun introducing various “Bible literacy” bills across the country, which would encourage or require public school students study the Old and New Testament, as has been documented in a USA Today report published last week, none of the bills have actually passed.

While the bills have been supported by some Christian groups, USA Today reports that other civil rights organizations argue that such a mandate would violate the Constitution’s separation of church and state.
http://fortune.com/2019/01/28/trump-blesses-teaching-bible-literacy-classes-in-public-schools-as-great/

Yes, this is so rich! The guy who is the ungodliest, most holy DAYMON in the room somehow wants to be more godly than the next guy. But he won’t! In fact if you look at your Good Book, JAYSUS said that the Dark One shall pose as a creature of light. But is there any coincidence to what he’s trying to do? Well, that news could be related to this!

President Donald Trump gave Bible literacy legislation a shout-out on Monday with a tweet praising states that are “starting to make a turn back” to an unspecified time when public schools apparently relished in Bible study.

As The Washington Post’s Mark Chancy noted, there was no such time in American history.

And as Trump’s former pastor noted, in any case, the president can’t exactly speak with much authority on the subject.

Pastor David Lewicki responded to Trump’s tweet on Tuesday morning, explaining how he served as a pastor at New York City’s Marble Collegiate Church for about five years in the mid-aughts.

Despite being on the member rolls, Trump never showed. Not to Bible study ― and not even to a service, according to Lewicki.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/former-marble-collegiate-pastor-says-he-never-saw-trump-at-church_us_5c51f51ee4b04f8645c728a8

He just can’t stop lying. And if I remember from the Good Book, LYING IS A SIN!!!! It is one of the most egregious of SINS!!!! And the Dark One can’t help himself in not telling the Truth! For JAYSUS himself even said “I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life!!!”. And the Dark One should realize that he ain’t the truth! In fact, he can’t handle it!

The Supreme Court barred devotional Bible reading and recitations of the Lord’s Prayer in public schools in 1963. But the ruling also said courses about the Bible were permissible, so long as they were “presented objectively as part of a secular program of education.”

Evangelical Christians promptly began a full-court press for Bible classes, which were hardly objective or secular. As I noted in my 2002 book, "Whose America?: Culture Wars in the Public Schools," a Florida teacher of “Bible history” said his class had helped recruit more than 100 new members into an after-school “Youth for Christ” course. And in South Carolina, a graduate of her own school’s “Bible survey” said the course had persuaded her to become a missionary. “I want everybody to have what I have,” she told her teacher, “And I’d like to spend my life sharing it with them.”

Both of these accounts appeared in the evangelical press, which didn’t disguise the purpose of the Bible classes: to spread the Christian Gospel. And that seems to be the same goal behind a recent round of state legislative proposals to enhance "Bible literacy" in our public schools.

As reported last month in USA TODAY, lawmakers in at least six states have introduced measures that would require or encourage elective classes about the Bible. Unlike their forerunners a half-century ago, who were explicit about their evangelical aims, supporters of the new bills insist that the classes seek only to inform people about a central text in American and world history.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2019/02/08/christian-gospel-public-school-bible-studies-classes-column/2805502002/

Yes, even JAYSUS thinks this is ridiculous oh Dark One! And is anyone surprised that he gets it wrong? I mean if you are, you’re in the wrong church! Can I get an amen??? And if you need any further proof that he can’t get anything right, well, let’s take a look at what he said at last week’s National Prayer Breakfast, for once again we were not invited!!!

With his opening words at this year's National Prayer Breakfast, President Trump made clear he saw the largely conservative crowd as a friendly audience, one he was eager to please.

"I will never let you down," he said. "I can say that. Never."

In his first appearance at the event in 2017, Trump promised to get rid of the Johnson Amendment, a cause popular among those Christians who resent the law's restriction of political speech by pastors. The law is still on the books, and Trump did not repeat the promise this year.

He devoted much of his speech instead to other issues important to conservative Christians, from religious liberty to abortion. He praised Vice President Pence's wife, Karen, for teaching at a conservative Christian school that requires its staff to declare a belief in marriage as "the uniting of one man and one woman," and he pledged support for a government-funded Catholic adoption agency in Michigan.
https://www.npr.org/2019/02/07/692491459/at-national-prayer-breakfast-trump-pledges-i-will-never-let-you-down

Did… did he just Rick Roll us? I’m never gonna give you up, I’m never gonna let you down. I’m never gonna run around and desert you. Mass has ended, may you go in peace!! That’s it this week for:

[font size="8"]NO!
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Happy Valentine’s Day everybody! And you know with the entire country and world taking notice of the victims of sexual assault in the post #MeToo era, what the fuck was Delta Airlines thinking? Yeah we don’t need this right now. I mean yeah you can talk all you want about how Virgin America had that in seat entertainment system where you could buy anyone a drink and that was creepy enough. But do we really need this?

Delta Airlines and Coca-Cola wanted to make the dream of falling in love on a plane a reality. But their approach did not have the intended effect.

As part of Delta’s brand partnership with Coke, the airline handed out promotional in-flight napkins that encouraged passengers to give their number to others on the plane.

On one side of the napkin it read, “Because you’re on a plane with interesting people and hey…you never know.” The other side had space to write down a name and phone number, with the additional text, “Be a little old school. Write down your number and give it to your plane crush. You never know…”

Delta passengers apparently did not take kindly to the approach, and dozens wrote to the brands on social media, calling the stunt “creepy.”
http://fortune.com/2019/02/07/delta-diet-coke-napkins-number/

NO!!!!! The airplane is the last place where I’d expect people passing around creepy pick up notes like this! It’s like being on an elevator. You don’t make friends with random strangers on an elevator, you shut the fuck up, stare at the door until you arrive at your destination! Look guys, there’s a fine line between clever and creepy and this definitely crossed that line.

Maybe Delta should stick to flying planes instead of playing matchmaker.
After handing out Coca-Cola napkins suggesting passengers give their name and number to their "plane crush," both companies are apologizing.

It started with 33 words on napkins advertising Diet Coke:

"because you're on a plane of full of interesting people and hey ... you never know," the front teases.

The back nudges further, emitting a shocking amount of peer pressure from a paper square:
"be a little old school. write down your number & give it to your plane crush. you never know ..."
Some passengers, like Terry Pendergist, thought the napkins were "Pretty funny."
https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/07/business/delta-coke-flirtatious-napkins-trnd/index.html

Yes get a hold of yourself!!! And by the way if you want to be even more grossed out, Twitter’s worst comedian, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, somehow managed to make it even creepier!

https://twitter.com/GovMikeHuckabee/status/1093338203732525056

EW!!!!!!!!!!!!! EW EW EW EW EW!!!!! Wait a minute… EW!!I can guarantee that no one wanted to sign up for your daily newsletter, Mike! And you know here’s the thing, it started out like they were thinking it was going to be a good idea, you know, like having a shady billionaire real estate broker with ties to the New York mafia run for president, and well, just like that, it backfired! Big time!

With Valentine’s Day fast approaching, some would say this is kinda sweet and a little bit funny. But, as expected, there are some who find the notion behind the napkins just plain creepy.

This latest faux pas comes just days after Delta were accused of discrimination by a deaf couple travelling on the airline.
‘Creepy AF’

Although not many passengers were that keen to hand out their numbers (probably none at all), many failed to see the funny side of the promotion.

A torrent of complaints have rained down on social, with users branding them ‘creepy A
https://simpleflying.com/deltas-coke-napkin-sponsorship-backfires-leaving-some-passengers-creeped-out/

And if things couldn’t possibly be even creepier do we really need your airline playing match maker for you? I mean here’s the thing – falling in love in 2019 is a bit trickier than it was in 1970 when it was much easier to get away with this kind of thing. And sure, going “old school” may seem like a good idea at the time, but really. And in the words of the great Jerry Seinfeld – “Who are the ad wizards who came up with this one?”

Falling in love on an airplane is the kind of story you only ever hear in a bar or see in a Lifetime movie. But for a brief time this winter, Delta Air Lines wanted to help passengers make it a reality - by gently nudging them to hit on other passengers.

With cocktail napkins.

"Be a little old school," said the small print on the napkin, advertising Diet Coke. "Write down your number & give it to your plane crush. You never know ..."

There was a little space on the napkin where flirtatious passengers could write down their name and another space for their number. The larger print said, "because you're on a plane full of interesting people and hey," again, "... you never know."

But while some found the napkins clever and charming, others thought they were creepy. In fact, evidently enough complained that Delta and Coca-Cola apologized for the marketing stunt Wednesday, saying the napkins have since been removed from flights.
https://www.nola.com/news/2019/02/delta-apologizes-for-creepy-napkins-urging-passengers-to-slip-phone-number-to-their-plane-crush.html

[font size="8"]Is It Racist???
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Hey everyone! It’s time to play the hot new game that’s sweeping the nation:

Yeah probably! You know… you know when you have racists in power, you’re going to get a lot of people asking whether or not something is racist. Now that we’re tackling real life racists, we’re also going after fictional ones. As evidenced by the fight with the Simpsons over the fate of Apu. But there’ another character in the news this week that’s making the rounds for a completely bizarre reason. And yes, this story is so insane that Snopes had to fact check it to prove that it was real. So is beloved Disney character Mary Poppins a racist? Was it soot or was it blackface? Well this is where we’re letting you be the judge!

Professor Daniel Pollack-Pelzner accuses the much-loved movie dame of “blacking up” when her face is already covered with soot as she dances alongside Dick Van Dyke.

The iconic scene — accompanied to the tune of Step In Time — is one of the best-loved moments in the 1964 Oscar-winning classic, The Sun reports.

However, writing in the New York Times under the headline ‘Mary Poppins, and a Nanny’s Shameful Flirting With Blackface’ the professor reveals he is not a fan.

He writes: “Her face gets covered with soot, but instead of wiping it off, she gamely powders her nose and cheeks and gets even blacker.”

The English and gender studies professor at Oregon’s Linfield College also refers to passages in P.L. Travers’ original books that he believes are clearly racist.

He singles out a line where a housemaid says: “Don’t touch me, you black heathen,” to a chimney sweep.

And he argues when Admiral Boom shouts orders to fire on the chimney sweeps by yelling: “We’re being attacked by Hottentots!” it is also racist.

“The 1964 film replays this racial panic in a farcical key,” he writes.
https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/real-life/news-life/disney-classic-mary-poppins-has-been-accused-of-racism/news-story/43c503309d87b752932dc8a1a54a4722

You know what? We’re going to forgo our usual meme here and show you the clip:

Oh come on!!!! It’s just dust! It’s not blackface. I think they’re reading too much into the situation, although that’s what we do here so.. really. Yeah this is where we are at in 2019. What? You saw the video from the intro or the segments we’ve done about Gov. Northam – just don’t do blackface! I mean it’s that simple!!! I mean really is it that hard? But what is this guy’s beef with the scene anyways?

An American academic has criticised Mary Poppins for projecting racial stereotypes, saying Dame Julie Andrews’s character wears “blackface” during one scene.

Writing for The New York Times, Professor Daniel Pollack-Pelzner – a gender studies professor at Linfield College, Oregon – sharply criticises the scene where Mary Poppins joins Dick Van Dyke’s chimneysweep Bert to dance on a rooftop. The pair both get covered in soot as the dance number “Step in Time” is performed.

Pollack-Pelzner says that, while the scene may be comic, the author of the Mary Poppins books, PL Travers, often associated chimney sweeps’ blackened faces with racial caricatures.

He points to one scene in Mary Poppins Opens the Door in which a sweep reaches out to a woman with his darkened hand, to which she replies: “Don’t touch me, you black heathen.”
https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/mary-poppins-racist-blackface-soot-controversy-dick-van-dyke-julie-andrews-disney-a8760771.html

How does that guy play into it? Oh yeah that was making fun of method actors who take things way too far. And while the Gov. Northam scandal is going on, let’s not look past the fact that this movie was filmed in 1963, and that sort of thing wasn’t even thought about. I mean let’s extrapolate that for a minute – does this mean that anyone who comes into contact with a chimney now is wearing blackface? No? Well you might be focusing on the wrong thing then!

First of all, an admission. I've never seen Mary Poppins all the way through. While I know the chorus of Supercalifragilistic-et cetera off by heart – albeit not intentionally – jaunty chimney-sweeps and gaudy nannies just aren't my thing.

(My son, however, has seen Mary Poppins multiple times – apparently never when I've been in the same room.)

But now, an article written by Daniel Pollack-Pelzner in the New York Times has caused a stir by claiming that Mary Poppins is – pause here for a sharp intake of breath – racist.

Oh yes, indeed. Specifically, the professor draws attention to the books on which the film is based, featuring as they do occasional casual racist references that were wholly unexceptional in the mid-20th century. He also highlights visual parallels between the British sub-tradition of music-hall cheeky chappie chimney sweeps and the American tradition of blackface minstrelsy which, he claims, are subtly conflated in Disney's film.
https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/mary-poppins-blackface-racist-disney-daniel-pollack-pelzner-a8762546.html

Whoa, whoa, whoa… the original books that Mary Poppins was based on were racist? I did not know this! And we may have to do a deep dive in a future edition. But my favorite thing is the Twittersphere, and you can always count on them to shoot a ridiculous opinion like this down!

A U.S. professor is deeming the classic 1964 film "Mary Poppins" racist, accusing Julie Andrews of "blacking up" her face with soot while dancing with chimney sweeps.

In a New York Times op-ed called "'Mary Poppins,' and a Nanny’s Shameful Flirting With Blackface," Professor Daniel Pollack-Pelzner slammed the iconic dance scene where Poppins joins Dick Van Dyke's Bert on a rooftop for the song "Step In Time."

"When the magical nanny … accompanies her young charges, Michael and Jane Banks, up their chimney, her face gets covered in soot, but instead of wiping it off, she gamely powders her nose and cheeks even blacker," Pollack-Pelzner wrote.

The Linfield College literature professor linked the scene to racism in P.L. Travers' novels, which he claims "associate chimney sweeps’ blackened faces with racial caricatures."

Pollack-Pelzner also took aim at naval officer Admiral Boom, who ordered his cannons fired at the "cheeky devils" on the roof after mistaking the dark figures of the chimney sweeps for "Hottentots," a racial slur.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/movies/2019/02/04/professor-accuses-mary-poppins-blackface-twitter-isnt-having/2773748002/

[font size="8"]I Need A Drink
[br] [/font] [br]

Hey its’ the day before Valentines Day and I really need a drink!

So you know the idea behind this segment is that we cocktail and while we’re cocktailing we talk about literally anything in the news that doesn’t directly relate to politics, because there’s a lot of dark shit out there. Tell me bartender, what goes well with a pot of boiling hot water? More boiling hot water? What are you trying to do, kill me? Ah, I will just have my usual Jack Daniels mixed with even more Jack Daniels. Really people enough with the challenges! We had the cinnamon challenge, then the milk chug challenge, then the Tide Pod challenge. Now we have the boiling water challenge! During the polar vortex people were experimenting what happens when you mix boiling hot water with below freezing temperatures. Sure, it starts out innocently enough!

Folks across the country proved this week that subzero temperatures aren't an excuse to just sit inside and sulk.

Add a little boiling water to the outdoor elements and you've got yourself a fun, at-home science experiment.

Dubbed the boiling water challenge, it involves taking a mug or saucepan of boiling water outside and quickly throwing it into the air to watch it instantly transform into snow.

Kids of all ages are having a good time with this one while the weather permits. From cool slow-motion and Boomerang videos displaying their homemade snow, to adding food dye to the water to put on a magical show, people are having fun and being creative with this challenge.

If you're going to try it, just make sure you're doing it safely, away from others.
https://www.wlwt.com/article/subzero-temperatures-lead-to-boiling-water-challenge/26102170

Read that last sentence very carefully.Do it safely away from others!!! Because when you’re experimenting with boiling hot water, certain precautions should be taken. Just ask any chemist – they will tell you that. And boiling hot water is not a plaything, people!! When you throw it mindlessly in the air, well, this happens!

It's one of the weirdest, most magical-seeming tricks there is: the ability to instantly transform hot, boiling water into an icy mist in the blink of an eye.

This bizarre demonstration of what's called the Mpemba effect might seem like sorcery, but just because you can impressively fling hot, scalding water into the sky above your head doesn't mean you should. In fact, you absolutely, positively shouldn't.

Unfortunately, in the midst of abnormally freezing temperatures in the US resulting from a certain polar vortex anomaly, lots of people are making use of the stunning, cold conditions to take part in a viral 'Boiling Water Challenge': hurling dangerously hot water into the wintry air around them to see what happens.

What happens, lots of the time, is these people get seriously burned when that scalding water lands on their skin – with one hospital outside Chicago announcing it had to treat numerous patients who ill-advisedly attempted the stunt last week.
https://www.sciencealert.com/dangerous-viral-boiling-water-challenge-is-sending-people-to-hospital-doctors-warn

Yeah so maybe… don’t do this. If you throw boiling hot water into the air and it’s windy outside, you know the wind can carry that water right back to you. It’s physics. Sure, it can turn out beautiful if done properly, but we know the internet. And there’s more fails than those that are done properly. Stop it people, just stop it. Or keep doing what you’re doing.

"Throwing caution to the wind" is a well-known idiom. Throwing boiling hot water to the wind is idiotic.

Nevertheless, the polar vortex has prompted a number of people to do both at the same time. The polar vortex is not polar bears in a washing machine but a meteorological phenomenon. Basically, the vortex has been an expanding low pressure area around the North Pole that has pushed cold air southward to cover much of the U.S. with frigid temperatures last week. For example, temperatures in Chicago fell to 21 degrees below Fahrenheit. Temperatures in Minnesota dropped to "holy hannah" levels. This deep freeze also seemed to lead to some brain freeze and the new "boiling water challenge," not to be confused with the "hot water challenge" which involves dumping boiling hot water on someone as a prank.

You have to figure that connecting the words "boiling water" and social media challenge can't be good. In this case, people are taking pots or cups of boiling water and launching the water into the cold, cold air. The result can be a spectacular frosty mist. But as Tinder will teach you, just because something looks good doesn't mean that it is safe. There are three problems with throwing boiling water into the air: wind, gravity, and, oh, the boiling hot water. As this CBS Chicago news segment shows, this boiling water challenge has landed at least 8 people in the emergency room at the Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, Illinois:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/brucelee/2019/02/08/how-the-boiling-water-challenge-can-land-you-in-the-hospital/#723bcdaa488a

Well I can drink on the job here but you definitely shouldn’t try this at home. And you definitely shouldn’t mix alcohol while doing this. But really nothing good can come of a social media challenge can it? And during the next polar vortex, can we at least learn our lesson from the last one and don’t do this?

It looks cool -- throwing boiling water into the air and watching it instantly freeze in supercold weather -- but don't do it.

The boiling water challenge that has gone viral in the past few weeks as the polar vortex gripped a large part of the United States may be an interesting science experiment, but hospitals say it's also sending people to the emergency room.

Eight people who took part in the challenge have been treated at the burn center of Chicago's Loyola University Medical Center since the deep freeze happened last week, spokeswoman Chris Vicik said.
They had injuries to their "feet, arms, hands, face, and varying degrees of burns, as well," she said.

One person sought treatment at the University of Iowa Burn Treatment Center in Iowa City, spokesman Tom Moore said, and Hennepin Healthcare in Minneapolis said a "couple" of people were treated there in recent weeks.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/07/us/burns-from-boiling-water-challenge/index.html

[font size="8"]Deep State Diaries Episode 29: The Department Of Housing & Urban Development
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It’s time for episode 29 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 Department of Housing & Urban Development[/font]

We’re hanging out in the projects this week as we visit the Department of Housing & Urban Development, or the HUD. So what does the HUD actually do? Well it was started under president Lyndon Johnson in accordance with the National Housing Act proposed and ratified by president Franklin Roosevelt. The HUD’s job is to provide housing assistance for those in need, and to help end homelessness but as we’ve seen time and time again, those assistance programs can be easily abused, and there’s plenty of ways that the uber rich can abuse this program. Just ask the guy who we currently call president. Just take a look at who’s in charge right now.

After saying that the government shutdown delayed her plans, Department of Housing and Urban Development Regional Administrator Lynne Patton is moving into New York City’s public housing for one month. Patton, who once organized events for members of the Trump family (including Eric Trump’s wedding), was appointed by HUD Secretary Ben Carson in 2017 to oversee the country’s largest public housing system despite having zero housing experience.

On Facebook, Patton said she would be living in four different properties with four different families. “I have my own inflatable bed, towel, portable chargers, and will be purchasing all groceries for the family for the duration, so not to generate any undue expenses.”

The move comes on the heels of a historic deal between the New York City Housing Authority and HUD. In the coming weeks, HUD will be selecting a federal monitor who will report directly to HUD but be paid by the city to oversee the ailing public housing system. New York needs a whopping $32 billion in capital repairs to fix the buildings that house more than 400,000 residents. The NYCHA was subjected to a federal investigation after several scandals, including residents living without heat for years and reports that children were exposed to lead paint.

Patton’s first stop on her public housing tour is the Patterson Houses in the South Bronx. Residents and Patton complained that the NYCHA was taking steps to clean up the property simply because of the high-profile visit. “As I anticipated and declared in countless interviews leading up to my move-in,” she wrote on Facebook, “NYCHA is making immediate repairs on the ground (as they do whenever I come to visit one of their properties—lobbies are cleaned, trash is picked up, elevators work, etc).”
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/02/lynne-patton-new-york-city-public-housing-hud-trump-ben-carson/

Yeah BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! That’s right! Trump put the woman in charge who planned Eric’s wedding. And you’re probably asking – wait, Eric is married? What the what??? Yup, but we’ll save that for a different topic. But as you know, the HUD was previously run by Ben Carson. And how did that go?

On Jan. 31, Mayor Bill de Blasio and Ben Carson, the secretary of the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, struck a deal that subjected the New York City Housing Authority to federal oversight without any commitment of new federal funding.

“I think that it is not a good agreement for Nycha and for the city,” Mr. Brezenoff, the outgoing Nycha chairman, said in an interview.

Mr. Brezenoff, an ally of Mr. de Blasio who was hailed in April by the mayor as “one of the great public servants in the last generation,” said he believed the deal was unfair.

It was bad for New Yorkers, he said, especially for the more than 400,000 who are living in dilapidated public housing riddled with problems, from leaks to heating issues and vermin. It let the federal government off the hook.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/11/nyregion/brezenoff-nycha-hud.html

Yes, daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaamn indeed! Of course only Trump is the opposite of King Midas in that everything he touches turns to shit! Although there is something interesting that might be a good social experiment is that Lynne Patton is going to actually live in HUD housing for a month. It will be interesting to see where this goes, and if she will have a different opinion of her boss upon emerging.

An administrator for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has moved into a Bronx NYCHA building, prepared to live in public housing for a month to see the ailments for herself.

Lynne Patton arrived at the Paterson Houses Monday with her air mattress, towels and grocery money. She's planning to stay in four different NYCHA buildings across the city for one week each.

"I'm hoping that by being here, at the very least it sends a sense of urgency that not only can changes every day be made, they must be made," she said.

She said that moving in was no political stunt and that she wants to see firsthand what exactly is wrong.
https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/HUD-Administrator-Moves-Into-NYCHA-Housing-for-Month-505694781.html

So………… this is happening! And I’m sure that Lynne will find absolutely nothing wrong at all with how things are going in inner city housing. I mean you know things are fucked up when you have $85 million allocated for one city and it’s still not enough! Maybe, I don’t know, the rent is too damn high? Yes, shout out to that guy by the way!

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced it was sending more funds to the Sunshine State to help battle homelessness.

U.S. HUD Sec. Ben Carson announced at the end of last week his department was sending an additional $6.7 million to back 47 new programs across the state in addition to the almost $79 million going to 250 other programs in Florida that he announced last month.

“Combined, this funding represents a record investment to support state and local efforts across the nation to reduce and end homelessness,” HUD noted on Friday.

“Today we make another critical investment to those persons and families living in our shelters and on our streets,” Carson said on Friday. “These new programs will join those already on the front lines in their communities working to end homelessness.”

With more than $85 million headed to almost 250 homeless programs in Florida, there are some signs on success.

At the end of last year, HUD noted that communities across Florida reported homelessness declined in 2018.
http://www.sunshinestatenews.com/story/hud-sending-85-million-florida-fight-homelessness

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

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

Overall: C-

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

Speaking of disasters, next week we’re taking disasters head on in the face of adversary as we visit the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA!

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

Ladies and gentlemen I am extremely excited to have my next guest on, they need no introduction, their latest album is called “Simulation Theory” and you can see them March 11th at the Forum! Playing their song called “Pressure”, give it up for the one, the only Muse!

Thank you Oxnard! Happy Valentine’s Day Everybody! We’re off to Ontario next. Yes, the Top 10 is hanging out in the 909! See you next week!

Credits

Host: Initech
Top 10 Conservative Idiots Recorded In Front Of Live Audience At: Levity Live, Oxnard, CA
Special Thanks To: Levity Live Management
Holy Shit Gospel Choir: Ventura College Choir Club
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
Muse Appear Courtesy Of: Warner Bros. 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

February 6, 2019

Top 10 Conservative Idiots #6-5: Curb Your Kasich Edition

Top 10 Conservative Idiots #6-5: Curb Your Kasich Edition

Welcome back to the Top 10 Conservative Idiots! First off Happy Chinese New Year everybody! Yes, it’s the year of the Pig and that’s not counting our pig headed president. He’s just naturally that way. We won't get to cover the SOTU this week because there's a lot to take in and it will take days to unpack the bullshit from it, but it was summed up perfectly by one of Trump's guests of honor:

Well, hey,we were all thinking it! It is good to be home everybody! We have been touring the country the last few weeks but we will be back home for the next few weeks. Can we have a do over on the Super Bowl please? Yeah no not only am I not happy with the outcome, there was nothing memorable about it. It was one of the most boring, dull, uninspiring games ever, the halftime show sucked, and even the commercials weren't memorable at all. Hell Cher’s tweet about Adam Lavine’s body tattoo was more memorable than the entire halftime show. Shit, more people were interested in This Is Us than they were about the game, I mean who wants to see the Patriots win again? Oh and Patriots fans, you know I’d stop referring to them as the “Evil Empire” if Bill Belichick didn’t look like Count Doku. Seriously, look it up. I’m actually with the Saints fans who didn’t watch and protested the game this year. Hey, I had a team in it and I thought that this was one of the worst ever. And speaking of the Saints fans protest, I love New Orleans by the way – they can turn just about anything into a giant party. I mean shit, this is the city that puts the “fun” in “funeral”, someone dies and they turn it into a giant block party with music and dancing. And of course booze, you can’t forget the booze – it flows pretty freely in NOLA. They are definitely not letting this one go either – the official NOLA paper even printed on their front page “Super Bowl? What Super Bowl?”. Was there a game going on or something? Oh well the NFL definitely deserved what they got because this was one of the lowest rated Super Bowls in history. Hell, it was an all time new low. Oh yeah and fuck the Patriots, hopefully the Saints can beat the shit out of them next year. OK enough of the intro. We got a lot of idiocy to get to. But first Bill Maher is back and he does a deep dive into the one thing that Trump really needs to build a wall around:

Ed. Note – we are *NOT* going to cover the horrifying and awful assault of Empire star Jussie Smollett, at least not this week. Another example of a story too horrifying to make fun of, even if it involves MAGAts. Now back to our regularly scheduled programming!

Where do we begin this week? Well we begin with the Christian right’s favorite subject – the apocalypse! And while there’s many ways we could predict the apocalypse is going to happen , catastrophic weather wasn’t one at the time of the Bible. And Donald Trump (1) is showing how much he cares about the extreme climate changes. In the second slot this week is Foxconn (2) – yes the behemoth Chinese manufacturing conglomerate responsible for giving us suicide nets is coming to Wisconsin! Well, sort of. But Wisconsin workers are getting “Art Of The Deal”’d. Yeah. At number 3 this week is John Kasich (3). In case you don’t know who he is, he’s the former governor of Ohio and former presidential candidate, and this week some new light has been shed on his character after he got bumped from a flight, and he’s doing his best Larry David imitation. In the fourth slot this week, we’re going to play the new game that is sweeping the nation – “IS IT RACIST????” (4) starring Virginia governor and guy currently digging his own political grave, Ralph Northram! So is it racist? Yeah probably! For the number 5 slot this week is our weekly investigative piece “Top 10 Investigates” and this week we’re going to take a look at one of our favorite topics – cell phone spying, and particularly yet another security flaw discovered in iOS’s Facetime application. How safe is it? We will find out! In our number 6 slot this week is of course our weekly visit to the Holy Church Of The Top 10 in “Holy Shit” and this week, our resident pastor is going to find out if opponents of the Dark One’s MAGA lifestyle are really the demon spawn of Satan? Yeah probably. For the 7th slot this week we have an all new edition of Beating A Dead Horse (7), and if you’re thinking of boycotting Starbucks in the wake of Howard Schultz announcing his run as an independent, giving your money to another billionaire isn’t going to work. For the number 8 slot we have a new installment of “How Is This Still A Thing” and after two years of just nonsense typos, and not using spellcheck once, we’re going to ask “Donald Trump’s Twitter Typos: How Is This Still A Thing?”. In the number 9 (NEIN!!!) slot we’ve got a new edition of “I Need A Drink”. So last week Netflix debuted a docu-bio picture about serial killer Ted Bundy, and we have to get to the bottom of whether or not Ted Bundy is hot. Finally this week our next installment of our ongoing series that explains how government works to conspiracy theorists, Deep State Diaries (10) is going to hang out with the Drug Enforcement Agency! Plus we have some live music from our good friends Weezer! Yes, the almighty Rivers and company have graced us with their presence. Really if you don’t have their awesome new covers album Teal Album you’re doing it wrong. 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"]Donald Trump
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Hey everyone guess what? We’re all gonna die!!!! So the extreme weather entity known as the “polar vortex” has been rearing its’ ugly head and quite literally turning weather upside down all over the world. Cold is hot, hot is cold, it’s raining and snowing heavily everywhere. And maybe, just maybe, it might be finally time to talk about climate change! Well, at least not if you saw the shit spewing from @realDonaldTrump’s twitter feed last week. Can we throw that tweet up there?

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1090074254010404864

So much wrong with this I don’t even know where to begin! And you know with all of this, I thought there was a giant crisis. Anyone remember that? Well…

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1091760712756744192

Dude, not even last week, you literally said that there's a border crisis and that you're ready to declare a national emergency to get your precious wall. Oh well I guess playtime is more important! I mean next thing you know Trump will be fighting for a position on the monkey bars, you know, assuming he can pull his fat ass up enough to climb them! OK enough about Trump’s tweets for a minute. You know what is really crazy? His lack of common sense on the environment. And tonight is the State Of The Union – will Trump address the 800 pound gorilla in the room?

There is little chance that President Trump will address climate change in his State of the Union speech. But climate change will likely become a part of tonight's events, no matter what the president says — or doesn't.

In both of his previous addresses to Congress, Trump all but ignored the threat of a hotter planet — never once uttering the phrases "climate change" or "global warming." The issue is as politicized as ever, and Trump has spent his first two years as president rolling back or weakening many of former President Obama's climate policies.

But in his speech this year, Trump faces a new Congress, one where emboldened Democrats control the House. And he'll be talking to an American public that is more worried than ever about global warming. In the last year, concern over climate change has increased among Democrats, independents and Republicans, driven by images of natural disasters, recent polls have shown.

About 12 hours after Trump ends his address, NOAA and NASA will announce that last year was the fourth-warmest year since modern record-keeping began, coming behind only the previous three years.
https://www.eenews.net/stories/1060119623

Oh yeah so much winning! And if ignoring climate change is what one would consider winning you should see some of the ways climate change could potentially kill us all, but we don’t have time to list them all here. What? We have this thing called Google!!! Oh and if you’re like me and not all surprised that states that voted for Trump are the ones who are going to be the most affected, you are in the wrong hallway, guys!

Forests decimated by drought and wildfire from Montana to California. Homes blasted by hurricanes and flooding from North Carolina to Texas.

Climate change, according to scientists, is already fueling natural disasters across the United States, causing billions of dollars worth of devastation.

Now a new report from UC San Diego and the Brookings Institution predicts the states that could suffer the harshest economic toll from global warming are those that voted for President Donald Trump and other conservative politicians opposed to reining in greenhouse gases.

“The damages to the Republican-electing congressional districts is almost double what it is for the Democratic-voting districts,” said David Victor, a researcher at UC San Diego’s School of Global Policy and Strategy and a prominent contributor to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

“The political alignment around climate impacts is almost the exact opposite of the political alignment around emissions control,” he added.
https://pilotonline.com/news/government/nation/article_1f03a6c6-8dd6-5666-8fec-ac277fe7ad5d.html

Yeah so even my home state is affected, but Trump supporters probably don’t care about that, and you know what? If you are bashing my state so much and you live here, get the fuck out! We wont miss you even slightly! And by the way does someone want to teach Trump about how it works? Oh wait, who am I kidding? This is the Trump administration! Facts don’t matter!

President Trump has been a longtime opponent of taking action on climate change, as evidenced by everything from his accusation that the phenomenon is a “hoax” created by China to his decision to pull the U.S. out of the Paris Agreement.

There are many reasons Trump may be against addressing climate change, but one thing is clear: he doesn’t understand the science behind it.

On Monday, the President took to Twitter to repeat a joke he frequently makes during winter weather events — this time the record-breaking, polar vortex-caused cold that’s sweeping the midwest this week — as a reason climate change cannot be real.

Weather refers to the atmospheric conditions at a particular place and time. At this very moment, the weather in the midwest is freezing cold, with major snowstorms.

Climate refers to the long-term atmospheric patterns in a particular area. It may hit -20°F in the midwest this week, but over the long term, the average temperature is expected to rise, as is the frequency of days with extreme high temperatures. In fact, the National Climate Assessment, a landmark report released last year following a collaboration between more than a dozen federal agencies, shows that those trends are “higher for the Midwest than in any other region of the United States.”
http://time.com/5515340/trump-climate-change-weather/

You know Time, don’t bother trying to educate Trump on how the weather works, because he most likely doesn’t care and won’t listen. I mean there’s everyone from Arnold Schwarzenegger to kids trying to educate Trump on climate change. Yes, kids!!!!

No, despite the cold snap, the Midwest does not need more warming. Ever since President Trump’s infamous “Global Waming” tweet, a lot of folks have been chiming in to set the record straight. NOAA. Cable TV hosts. Bill Nye. But two adorable kids just stole the freaking show.

On Jimmy Kimmel Live! Tuesday night, 10-year-old Kaitlynn and 8-year-old Apollo took turns breaking down basic science for the president of the United States. As Kaitlynn put it: “Don’t get angry, Mr. President — it’s just science.”

Kaitlynn handled the greenhouse effect, while Apollo patiently explained the difference between weather and climate: “Even though it’s cold where you are, that doesn’t mean the globe isn’t heating up.”

Kaitlynn stressed that the many consequences of climate change are going to make the world pretty rough for people her age — and that includes Trump’s 12-year-old son, Barron.
https://grist.org/article/kids-break-down-climate-change-for-president-trump/

[font size="8"]Foxconn Wisconsin
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Anyone remember last year when conservatives were so quick to flash their cash in front of us when they got those $1,000 bonuses? Well who’s laughing now? Also remember when Trump was touting the idea of bringing Chinese mega manufacturing conglomerate Foxconn to the States? Yes, Foxconn, the behemoth Chinese manufacturer of nearly everything we use that contains an on / off switch that gave us unsatisfactory working conditions, extreme labor and human rights violations, and worker suicide nets is coming to America! Woooooooooooooooooo!!!! Wooo. Yeah you might not be so excited after finding out what they have been up to this week.

In 2017, Foxconn promised Wisconsin an enormous state-of-the-art factory, staffed by thousands of workers, all making screens for 75-inch TVs. The building would be the “eighth wonder of the world,” President Trump declared at a groundbreaking ceremony with gold-plated shovels last summer. Then, the Taiwan-based company announced that it would actually be a far smaller factory, making screens about half the size, with more jobs in “knowledge work” than in manufacturing.

Now, it is unclear whether there will be a factory at all.

On Wednesday, Louis Woo, special assistant to Foxconn chief executive Terry Gou, told Reuters that the company was rethinking the whole screen-making idea. “In Wisconsin we’re not building a factory,” Woo said. He explained that Foxconn can’t compete producing televisions in the US. Instead, it would be more profitable to manufacture LCD panels in China and Japan, ship them to Mexico, and import them in the US. On Thursday, the Nikkei Asian Review reported that work on the Wisconsin project had been suspended.

Later that day, Woo appeared to backtrack vaguely, sending a peculiar email to the Milwaukee TV station WTMJ suggesting that it was hard to know what to call the project. “No matter how we look at it, the campus cannot be simply described as a factory,” Woo wrote. “It is a lot more than that.” (Update: Friday afternoon, Foxconn said that after a conversation with Trump, it had decided to build an LCD factory in Wisconsin after all, but gave no timeline for the project.)
https://www.theverge.com/2019/2/1/18206261/foxconn-wisconsin-factory-government-subsidies-investments

Yeah so Foxconn was going to pull out of Wisconsin entirely, but they decided to go ahead with it, because, Trump. so I guess this is the Art Of The Deal? And by the way if you think Huawei has been caught with their pants down in the spying department, wait until Foxconn comes over here!

In 2017, the Taiwanese electronics company Foxconn promised the state of Wisconsin 13,000 jobs, many of them in manufacturing, in return for what now amounts to a $4 billion subsidy: the largest in U.S history. It now seems unlikely that Foxconn will make good on its pledge, especially for blue-collar jobs. Having already downsized the expected plant once, Foxconn told Reuters last week the factory project was off and then denied this days later in a statement.

The statement also mentioned “expand(ing) our investment in American talent in Wisconsin.” On that front, the company has been active: Foxconn has been integrating itself into the revenue-desperate state university system for years.

Now, university students worry that the intellectual property that comes out of their hard work might end up in the pockets of the corporate behemoth.

In August, the company announced a $100 million research institution at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s engineering graduate school, the largest private partnership in school history. The investment will refit a university building for the Foxconn Institute for Research in Science and Technology (FIRST), where research will span everything from biochips and supercomputing to robotics and artificial intelligence.
https://www.thenation.com/article/foxconn-patent-university-jobs-wisconsin/

Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha, that’s strangely appropriate because you know that whenever Trump says or does anything, the opposite happens, right? He’s a literal exact opposite of King Midas in that everything he touches turns to shit! Foxconn really is no different and they’re already making a bad deal worse. Just how bad is it?

Absolutely no one should have been surprised that the fantasy of an imaginary high-tech Foxconn factory three times the size of the Pentagon and transforming Wisconsin into a jobs-gushing Silicon Valley of the Midwest suddenly began vanishing into thin air last week. The only surprising part was that the deal started coming apart even before Foxconn—a Taiwanese company producing liquid-crystal display TV and computer screens—could collect any of the $4 billion in state and local taxpayer subsidies former Republican Gov. Scott Walker foolishly committed to pay the company throughout the next 15 years—the largest state tax giveaway in U.S. history.

Seriously, did anyone other than Walker’s Republican co-conspirators in the Legislature ever really believe all those preposterous claims about Foxconn turning Racine County into Walt Disney’s Tomorrowland, with Tinkerbell flying overhead sprinkling fairy dust? The initial announcement was a 2017 Walker re-election stunt at the White House featuring Walker, Donald Trump and Foxconn Chairman Terry Gou—three notorious public liars well-known for promising enormous jobs numbers that never materialized.

The centerpiece of Walker 2010 campaign was an incredible political promise to create 250,000 jobs in his first term, which he still hadn’t achieved when voters finally sent him packing eight years later. Trump’s blizzard of well-documented lies by The Washington Post increased to 15-a-day in 2018, tripling his 2017 world record. It wasn’t easy, but Gou put them both to shame. Gou had broken promises to spend billions of dollars throughout the world that, he claimed, would create tens of thousands of jobs in Brazil, India, Vietnam and Indonesia. Gou’s only prior U.S. fabrication was a 2013 promise to invest $30 million creating 300 high-tech jobs in Pennsylvania. It never happened.
https://shepherdexpress.com/news/taking-liberties/the-vanishing-foxconn-fantasy/#/questions

Uh… that your deals are bogus? And by the way if Trump is a dirty dealer and the Wisconsin deal is a dirty deal, what does that mean for other cities who might be trying to woo Foxconn or other behemoth manufacturers to their cities? Let’s just say buyer beware!

One year ago, the Taiwanese electronics company Foxconn scored a blockbuster $4 billion economic development deal to build a manufacturing plant in Mount Pleasant, in southeastern Wisconsin, promising to invest $10 billion in a plant that would create 13,000 jobs. Last week, Foxconn announced it may dramatically cut back hiring plans—even after city and county governments bought out local homeowners via eminent domain.

“This news is devastating for the taxpayers of Wisconsin,” said Wisconsin Rep. Gordon Hintz, one of several local leaders who swiftly condemned the corporate pivot. “We were promised manufacturing jobs. We were promised state-of-the-art LCD production. We were promised a game-changing economic opportunity for our state. And now, it appears Foxconn is living up to their failed track record in the U.S.—leaving another state and community high and dry.”

The exact contours of the plan remain unclear, leading some observers to claim Foxconn has pulled a “bait-and-switch.”
https://www.curbed.com/2019/2/4/18211219/wisconsin-jobs-foxconn-economic-development

[font size="8"]John Kasich
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We need some music for this one!

Last week, a new book came out about former Ohio governor, presidential candidate and guy who is doing his best to channel his inner Larry David, John Kasich, ran into a bit of a scuffle with a comedian who was on the same flight he was. It turns out the former governor was bumped from a flight and got into a spat with the star of a Hulu show called “Difficult People” and was pulling his inner Larry David and complaining that he got bumped to coach class. The horror! For the record, let’s call this piece “Curb Your Kasich”.

A comedian on Friday told the full story of her recent encounter with former Ohio Gov. John Kasich, whom she says stole her seat aboard an Alaska Airlines flight from New York to San Francisco when he was bumped.

Julie Klausner, known for the Hulu sitcom “Difficult People,” said the Republican was an “obnoxious” flight companion on her podcast, “How Was Your Week?”

She said a pilot needed to fly last-minute aboard the plane and bumped Kasich out of his seat, according to Cleveland.com. But instead of taking the downgraded seat he was assigned, the former presidential candidate took the comedian’s, the outlet reported.

Klausner, who identifies as a liberal, said once she read up on Kasich — and his political views — she decided to post about the incident on Twitter.
http://en.brinkwire.com/news/difficult-people-star-fumes-after-john-kasich-gets-her-airplane-seat/

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Yeah we can assume it was pretty much like that. So John Kasich may have been channeling his inner Larry David by refusing to fly coach. But as you peel back the layers of this story, it gets weirder and weirder, because, why wouldn’t it?

Earlier in the month Alaska Airlines needed to bump a passenger from first class on a New York JFK to San Francisco flight for a pilot traveling to a duty assignment. The passenger they downgraded to economy was John Kasich, who just finished serving 8 years as Governor of Ohio and who sought the Republican nomination for President in 2016.

Only Governor Kasich didn’t leave the first class cabin, he sat down in another passenger’s seat instead.

Passenger Julie Klausner agreed to take a later flight rather than engage the drama. Alaska Airlines reimbursed the cost of the margherita flatbread she purchased while waiting an extra four hours.

It’s been reported that Kasich was asked to move to extra legroom coach (‘premium’) and also to 12F which I don’t think is an extra legroom seat on any Alaska aircraft (and we know that since this wasn’t the last flight of the day on the route that the aircraft was an Airbus A320). Here’s where he sat instead.
https://viewfromthewing.boardingarea.com/2019/01/28/airline-downgraded-john-kasich-but-he-wouldnt-leave-first-class/

And by the way does anyone else find it ironic that Kasich picked a fight with the star of a show called “Difficult People”? Seems like Kasich just gave Klausner and the Difficult People writers some material for the next few episodes!

A comedian on her way to San Francisco from New York City earlier this month said former Ohio Governor John Kasich took her first class airplane seat after Alaska Airlines staff moved him to a new seat in economy class.

Julie Klausner, who appears in the Hulu sitcom "Difficult People" said she was surprised to find Kasich in seat 1D on her morning Alaska Airlines flight from John F. Kennedy Airport to San Francisco.

Kasich recently finished a second term as Ohio's governor. He also sought the Republican nomination for President during the 2016 election.

Gate agents told Klausner a pilot who needed to travel last-minute had been given Kasich's original first class seat. Alaska agents re-assigned Kasich to a seat behind the curtain in its extra-legroom economy cabin, Premium Class.

But the politician instead sat down in an unoccupied first class seat, which ended up being Klausner's.
https://www.sfgate.com/travel/article/John-Kasich-takes-Julie-Klausner-seat-13574976.php

Oh and by at least some good came out of this incident, and for a cause that a pro-life conservative like Kasich would absolutely fucking hate! So Klausner decided to use this story for good instead of bad and raised a lot of money for Planned Parenthood!

Comedian Julie Klausner has raised thousands of dollars for Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio after reportedly losing her seat on a cross-country flight to former Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R), an abortion opponent.

Klausner, a California-based comedian best known for her role on the Hulu series “Difficult People,” posted on social media earlier this month that she lost her spot on an Alaska Airlines flight from New York to San Francisco after Kasich’s original seat was occupied by a pilot flying last minute, according to Cleveland.com.

Kasich was then moved to her what had been Klausner's seat, prompting her to take a separate flight, according to her account.

Klausner said that when she began getting insulted and criticized on social media for her depiction of the incident, she decided to donate $1 to Planned Parenthood of Ohio for every comment — both positive and negative — posted on her social media accounts.

On Tuesday she posted PayPal receipts on Twitter showing her donation of $2,774 to Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio.
https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/427731-comedian-raises-thousands-for-planned-parenthood-after-john

[font size="8"]Is It Racist?
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Hey everyone! It’s time for the new game that’s sweeping the nation!

IS IT RACIST???? Yeah probably! Well the reason why we’re playing this fun game is that racism is once again rearing its’ big ugly head in the news so we need to dissect and analyze the big stories that are impacting everyone. This week we are literally watching the exact procedure in which one would dig their political career’s grave. Yes, of course I’m talking about newly minted Virginia governor Ralph Northam and the political hit job against him. But the way this whole thing is being handled is what one would call “poorly”.

Controversy swirled over the weekend after a racist photo in Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam's medical school yearbook surfaced.

The photo, which pictured a person in blackface and a person dressed in a Ku Klux Klan robe, was featured on Northam's page in a 1984 yearbook. Northam, a Democrat, initially apologized for being in the photo, then later said he did not believe he was pictured.

Despite calls for his resignation from several members of his own party, the Democrat is standing his ground and has refused to leave office.

Here's a breakdown of how we got here:

The photograph was first discovered Friday afternoon by the conservative news outlet Big League Politics. It was one of several published on Northam's medical school yearbook page from Eastern Virginia Medical School from 1984, the year he graduated. The school confirmed the photo's authenticity and provided a copy of the page to USA TODAY.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/02/04/ralph-northam-scandal-virginia-governor-uncertain-future/2763459002/

True, Eddie, very true! But really… who has a medical school yearbook? And second, what the fuck was that editor thinking? And really if you think about it, this is the same kind of shit that forced Al Franken to resign and got James Gunn fired. And by the way I think we’re starting to notice a pattern between people who think the KKK is funny and people who have previously appeared in blackface. Coincidence?

The political world is feeling the shockwaves of the racist photo discovered on the 1984 medical school yearbook page of Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, who is being pressed – even by fellow Democrats – to resign.

Those with a sense for race relations in the state and the time when the yearbook was published are no less indignant, but their astonishment is tempered by a sense of history.

The photo, depicting a person in blackface next to another person in a Ku Klux Klan robe, is offensive. Unheard of? Not quite.

Northam has done himself no favors with his changing explanations, first apologizing for being in the picture and then saying he wasn’t in it at all but acknowledging he once wore blackface when imitating Michael Jackson in a dance contest.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2019/02/04/ralph-northam-hails-time-troubled-race-relations-virginia/2765034002/

So let’s go through the list. Wore a KKK outfit? Check. Appeared in blackface? Check. Didn’t think blackface wasn’t appropriate at the time? Check. Also lived in Virginia before the internet? Checkity check check! Yeah he’s probably a racist. But should he resign? Let’s take a look at the other side of the issue.

The photo from Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam’s medical school yearbook page showing a picture of a man wearing blackface and another in a Ku Klux Klan hood was first posted on the conservative news site Big League News. According to the Wall Street Journal, that site was founded in 2017 by Patrick Howley, who previously worked for Breitbart and The Daily Caller. But the GOP connections go deeper than that.

“Big League doesn’t shy away from the fact that it is partial to America First Trumpism,” Fritsch told the Journal. “We have criticized Trump in the past, but most of our stuff—like the mainstream media liked to see Barack [Obama] and Hillary [Clinton] succeed, but they don’t tell you—we like to see America First succeed. There’s no beating around the bush.”

To be clear, the source of the photo doesn’t change the fact that it’s deeply offensive and racist, and that Northam should resign. (The fact that he hasn’t could be damaging to the Democratic Party as a whole.) But it’s worth knowing who first discovered this photo and why.

One under-discussed element of this story is what was happening in Virginia politics in the days before the photo came out.
https://splinternews.com/ralph-northam-blackface-photo-was-first-surfaced-by-gop-1832314724

OK so let’s recap. Media company that touts “America First Trumpism” and promotes MAGA conspiracy theories and is hostile to democratic causes takes down a democratic governor with a medical school yearbook picture? Nah, that can’t be coincidence. And speaking of coincidence, you can’t say that “it’s you” because of a yearbook scandal from just one year. But if your school has to ban yearbooks because of multiple racist scandals, then yeah, it’s you.

Talk about history repeating itself over and over. In 2013, the provost of Eastern Virginia Medical School—which in 1984 printed a yearbook page for future Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam that contained a racist, recently resurfaced photo—banned future editions of the yearbook because people couldn’t stop being super racist, the Washington Post reported Monday.

Provost Richard Homan didn’t can the yearbook after Northam’s year—when his page, which is now the subject of calls for him to resign, featured a photo of a person in blackface and someone in Klan garb. But he opted to end the yearbook’s printing because of a different racist photo from a 2013 edition depicting three white students dressed in Confederate uniforms and standing in front of the Confederate battle flag.

Homan, who spoke with the Post after an emergency meeting with the school’s Board of Visitors on Monday, said he recalled at the time telling Mekbib Gemeda, the school’s new vice president for diversity and inclusion, that the students in the 2013 Confederate photo should be counseled and given sensitivity training. He also banned future yearbooks, saying the books were typically made by students with little faculty review. Homan did not, however, review previous editions of the medical school’s yearbook to see if, perhaps, something like this had happened before.
https://splinternews.com/northams-med-school-had-to-ban-yearbooks-because-of-ano-1832339577

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

In the 21st century, we live in a world now where there are more cell phones than people. In fact the subject of cell phone spying has been an extremely popular one among well, just about everybody. Even the cell phone giant Huawei has been busted on it multiple times, which prompts iPhone owners to say something along the lines of “Well, at least I don’t own a Huawei!”. Well you might want to add your iPhone to that list, because there was a new flaw discovered in the iPhone Facetime app that has Apple scrambling for answers.

Apple issued an apology Friday for a massive FaceTime app glitch that allowed users to hear or see a person they were calling into a group chat, even if that person hadn’t accepted the call.

“We sincerely apologize to our customers who were affected and all who were concerned about this security issue,” Apple said in a statement to CNBC. “We appreciate everyone’s patience as we complete this process.”

Apple temporarily disabled Group FaceTime on Tuesday, expecting to relaunch the feature this week. Although the company asserted in today’s statement that is has identified and fixed the “security bug,” it won’t issue be issuing a software update or re-enable the feature until next week.

The eavesdropping glitch was first reported to Apple’s by 14-year-old Grant Thompson, first discovered the issue nine days before the tech giant commented on the bug. According to CNN, Thompson’s mother, Michele, “reported the issue to Apple in multiple ways, from email and phone calls to sending the company a fax, but it failed to respond.”
http://fortune.com/2019/02/01/apple-apologizes-for-major-facetime-glitch-that-allowed-eavesdropping/

Even if you think your cell phone could be spying on you, chances are good that it probably is. In fact cyber security experts are calling this a “nightmare scenario”. And this even comes as a time when Apple is losing significant market share of the iPhone. So the timing of this couldn’t possibly be any worse for the company.

It was a tin-foil hatted conspiracy theorist’s wildest prognostication come true: the trusty and beloved iPhones that accompany users to work, to bed and even to the toilet suddenly transformed into an all-purpose spying device, transmitting audio and video to anyone with your phone number or email.

“This is the nightmare scenario,” said Marcus Carey, a cybersecurity expert and author of Tribe of Hackers. “It does incite privacy fears because this is the same scenario that most people fear from the US government and other regimes.”

The bug, which was publicized Monday, transmitted audio (and, under certain circumstances, video) to a caller despite the recipient not having accepted the call. It was triggered when the initial caller added a third person to a FaceTime call. Though Apple has yet to issue a software patch, the company has disabled group chatting on FaceTime, preventing users from further exploiting the bug.

But the major flaw in FaceTime has raised concerns about Apple’s security practices just as the company reports disappointing financial results. And reports that a teenager and his mother spent days attempting to alert Apple to the problem have also raised questions about the company’s procedures for receiving reports of vulnerabilities.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/jan/29/facetime-security-bug-apple-privacy-iphone

But cell phone spying isn’t just a concern for conspiracy theorists and your crazy aunt who watches network news all day, it’s a serious concern for the government. In fact the state of New York is launching an investigation into the bug. And if you have such a phone then you might want to disable it until a fix is found.

New York state Attorney General Letitia James has launched an investigation into the circumstances of Apple’s recent FaceTime bug. The bug, which allowed callers to listen and watch through a phone’s camera before a call was picked up, became public on Monday, and Apple has since disabled the relevant feature. The AG’s office will be focusing on Apple’s slow response to the bug, which was reported to the company more than a week before it became public.

“This FaceTime breach is a serious threat to the security and privacy of the millions of New Yorkers who have put their trust in Apple and its products over the years,” James said in a statement. “New Yorkers shouldn’t have to choose between their private communications and their privacy rights.”

The move comes just two days after New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo issued a consumer alert about the bug, warning citizens to disable FaceTime until a fix could be deployed. “The FaceTime bug is an egregious breach of privacy that puts New Yorkers at risk,” Cuomo said. “I am deeply concerned by this irresponsible bug that can be exploited for unscrupulous purposes.”

The bug has also attracted attention at the federal level where many legislators have been pushing for a comprehensive new data privacy bill. Shortly after news of the bug broke, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) called it “a clear violation of consumers’ privacy protections and a reminder of why we need comprehensive privacy legislation.”
https://www.theverge.com/2019/1/30/18204213/apple-facetime-bug-new-york-state-investigation

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However, whether or not Apple will actually get around to fixing this latest flaw remains to be seen and even the company itself has remained iffy on the issue. Will it be fixed or will it wont? In fact even the House Of Representatives is demanding that Apple answer for this latest SNAFU. And even Tim Cook himself isn’t sure when it will be fixed and this could be a huge problem.

Top House Democrats are demanding answers from Apple CEO Tim Cook after a bug in the company’s FaceTime program allowed users to listen in on other devices even if their call hadn’t been accepted.

Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.), the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), who leads the panel’s consumer protection subcommittee, wrote to Cook on Tuesday expressing concern about the vulnerability that Apple says it fixed last week.

“As such, we are writing to better understand when Apple first learned of this security flaw, the extent to which the flaw has compromised consumers’ privacy, and whether there are other undisclosed bugs that currently exist and have not been addressed,” the two Democrats wrote.

The flaw was discovered by a 14-year-old in Arizona on January 19, according to reports. More than a week later, Apple disabled the FaceTime Group feature where the bug was present and announced a fix on February 1.
https://thehill.com/policy/technology/428578-house-dems-demand-answers-from-apple-on-facetime-bug

We will keep an eye on this issue as it develops but for now that’s it for Top 10 Investigates. Good day.

My fair congregation! You know we don’t like to talk about the unholy, ungodly Dark One who is currently occupying the highest office in the land. And we most certainly do not speak his name in my church! Or his ungodly, sinful lifestyle employed by his followers. But what happens when they think that opponents of their ungodly, sinful lifestyle are the spawns of SAYTAN? This is one of those things that is really head scratching. Especially when our good book says that the Dark One shall pose as a creature of light, and that is exactly what he is doing, my friends!

A group of Trump-supporting “prophets” rallied prayer warriors last Thursday night to defend Trump’s push for a wall on the Southern border, denouncing his political opponents and media critics as demonic forces out to undermine God’s plan for the nation.

The conference call was hosted by Frank Amedia, a Trump campaign adviser who created—at God’s instruction, he says—POTUS Shield, a “prophetic” network conceived to wage spiritual warfare on behalf of Trump and his supposedly divine mission to shift the U.S. Supreme Court to the right. The call, which lasted more than an hour, was held the night before Trump agreed to sign legislation re-opening the federal government for three weeks while negotiations continue on border security funding.

On the call, Amedia and other speakers portrayed the gridlock and partial government shutdown as part of a nefarious strategy to not only destroy Trump’s presidency but also to strip the nation of its identity and sovereignty. Jerry Boykin, a retired general who is both executive vice president of the Family Research Council and a member of the POTUS Shield council, spoke on the call and said he had been at a meeting with Trump the day before and said the president “is not going to back down.”

Boykin called opposition to Trump—reflected in the “hatred” he said was “spewed” toward the MAGA-hat-wearing Catholic school boys whose interactions with a Native American elder provoked intense controversy on social media— “diabolical” and “spiritual to the nth degree.” Boykin said the government shutdown was terrible and that it would require the Lord himself to intervene to end it.
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/trumps-prophets-we-are-at-war-with-satanic-opponents-of-trump-his-wall-and-his-divine-destiny/

You know I’m pretty sure that the good LAWRD has better things to do than this nonsense. But I know his followers definitely don’t have anything better to do. So why are we the spawns of SAYTAN and he and his followers are GAWD’s anointed? That makes no sense does it? Can I get an amen????

Media outlets and social media were buzzing this week about White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders’ Wednesday interview on the Christian Broadcasting Network, during which she said that God wanted Donald Trump to be president.

Here’s a new flash: Since the earliest days of his presidential campaign, Trump has been hearing from Religious Right leaders, including his personal “spiritual adviser” Paula White, that he was chosen and anointed by God to be president; they routinely portray his 2016 victory as miraculous—the direct result of divine intervention.

The Christian Broadcasting Network is every bit as much a pro-Trump propaganda outlet as Fox News, with the added bonus of promoting Trump as God’s anointed. The same can be said for the Pentecostal media platform, Charisma, and other conservative Christian media networks.

And if Trump is God’s chosen instrument, Religious Right leaders repeatedly tell their followers, it follows that Trump’s opponents—including his “deep state” enemies—are opposing God and are in league with Satan’s demonic forces of darkness.
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/sarah-sanders-no-surprise-religious-right-leaders-constantly-say-trump-is-gods-anointed/

So where is this nonsense coming from? You know we had to trace back a bit to see where it was coming from, and this might be one of the sources. Apparently after all this madness started, it was revealed that the Dark One was receiving “downloads” that proved that he was “god’s anointed”. Is that code for something? I don’t know.

Frank Amedia, who was a volunteer “Christian policy liaison” for Donald Trump’s presidential campaign before launching a project with fellow “prophets” to create a “POTUS Shield” around Trump’s presidency, visited televangelist Jim Bakker’s program this week to discuss various prophecies he has received around Trump.

Amedia told Bakker that he had heard from God that God had given Trump a “breaker anointing” that had allowed him to break up the Republican and Democratic parties and the news media, so North Korea had better watch out.

“So, you know, North Korea, you’d better be on your toes because you’re up against a breaker anointing of God,” he said. “This isn’t about politics, this isn’t government as usual, this isn’t even militaristic, God has raised up…a breaker anointing. Anything that God opposes him against, he breaks up. He broke up the Republican Party…he broke up the Democratic Party, he broke up the news media. Everything that comes against him, he has a hammer against. So, I’m telling you, North Korea, you’d better stand down because you’re up against the breaker anointing of God.”
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/frank-amedia-trump-receives-downloads-that-hes-beginning-to-understand-come-from-god/

That is a good question, oh great LAWRD!!!! Oh and by the way how great is our gospel choir? Let’s give it up for them. And there’s no Maroon 5 either, just them. And by the way if you want to take a look at who exactly is doing the LAWRD’s work look at this incident out of Louisiana. Really these guys are the ones who think they’re GAWD’s anointed? Get out of here!!

James “Doc” Greene is a Religious Right talk radio host who has been broadcasting from Houston, Texas for years. Last weekend, he was arrested after he entered a public library with a concealed weapon to protest a “Drag Queen Storytime” event and refused to leave.

Outsmart Magazine, Houston’s LGBTQ outlet, reported Tuesday that Greene had been escorted out of the Houston Public Library the weekend prior because he refused to leave the building, from which he was banned after he reportedly filmed children visiting the library.

In a video Greene recorded of the incident, he flashes what looks like a White House press pool badge dated October 28 (no year given) to argue that he is a member of the media. For about five minutes, Green bickers with Houston Police Department members who are requesting that he leave the premises before he tells them, “We have a bunch of homosexuals that are molesting children. They are doing it with your help.”

After Greene continued to refuse officers’ demands that he go to his vehicle and leave the library premises, officers handcuffed him and confiscated his concealed firearm. There is no indication that Green intended to use his handgun in the library, and Texas law permits concealed carry permit holders to tote firearms in most public venues. Greene complained of chest pains after he was placed in a squad car and was taken to a hospital, where he reportedly stayed for six hours. No charges have been filed against Greene.

“The police, unfortunately, have become the criminals themselves,” Greene said in an interview after the incident, accusing officers of violating his First Amendment rights.
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/religious-right-radio-host-arrested-with-gun-at-drag-queen-storytime-event/

Oh and there was no molesting going on, you stupid dumbass. Really you guys need to find something else to do. Wait, they probably have nothing else to do! There you go. 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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Your boycott is not going to work! There, I said it! Yes, you know the time honored tradition of telling a corporation where they can shove their products has long been a favorite of both liberals and conservatives during the last 15 years. And in the last 3 years it’s been taken to some crazy extremes with conservatives burning and destroying everything from Keurigs to NFL season tickets to Taylor Swift albums. You know, because it’s fun to burn things! It’s also fun to throw things out of a window, because hey, it’s Physics 101, yo! But there’s one chain that has been the subject of numerous boycotts from both sides over the last 15 years and that’s the coffee chain known as Starbucks. You know why your boycott is not going to work? Because you’re probably sipping on a latte right now while you’re talking to your barista about the latest draft of his screenplay. And if you give your money to another corporation that sells coffee, like Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, or 7-11, or Whole Foods, or anyone else because it makes you the moral authority, well, that’s when you start to see ridiculous shit like this.

Which is fine except you just gave your money to a company whose franchise owners have been using their stores to conduct ICE Raids:

The show wasn’t just for Sandhu. The day he was raided, immigration officers fanned out across America, serving inspection notices and arresting suspected undocumented workers at 98 7-Eleven stores in 17 states and Washington, D.C. Since then agents have raided several more, and Bloomberg has learned that ICE and federal prosecutors in Brooklyn, N.Y., are engaged in criminal investigations of multiple franchises. 7-Eleven, an American icon and the world’s largest convenience store chain, has become the highest-profile target of a sweeping corporate immigration crackdown by President Trump.

It’s a huge headache and a public-relations nightmare for the company and its chief executive officer, Joe DePinto. But the immigration crackdown has also given 7-Eleven something potentially useful: the names of franchisees who might be in legal jeopardy. Store owners found in violation of immigration law could be in breach of their franchise agreements. And as they well know, 7-Eleven has the contractual right to take back a store from someone who’s violated his or her agreement. Which is why Sandhu’s mind went into overdrive when, on July 30, he received a letter from 7-Eleven demanding any documents alleging violations of immigration law and warning him that he risked having his store seized if he didn’t comply.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-11-09/7-eleven-is-at-war-with-its-own-franchisees-over-ice-raids

If you think you’re taking the moral high ground by buying a coffee at 7-11 instead of Starbucks, you’re not, and the sooner you realize that, the better. So why is Starbucks the subject of yet *ANOTHER* boycott? Well it’s because former CEO Howard Schulz announced his bid for the presidency as an independent. Which you know, is always a guaranteed path to the presidency! But why boycott Starbucks over this? Why not?

Democrats are threatening to boycott Starbucks if the coffee giant's former CEO Howard Schultz brings his potential 2020 ambitions to fruition.

Since announcing on January 27 that he was "seriously considering running for president as a centrist independent," Schultz faced almost immediate calls to seriously reconsider.

At issue is the possibility that Schultz running as an independent could split the vote in the upcoming 2020 election, potentially securing President Donald Trump's re-election.

After airing his potential 2020 ambitions on Twitter, Schultz was faced with a wave of appeals with a resounding message: "Please don't."

"Please don’t," said former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti in a tweet responding to Schultz's. "Our nation faces a serious crisis due to the actions of Donald Trump, and you would split the vote against him."

Other social media users rushed to "co-sign" Mariotti's statement, with one Twitter user saying the former Starbucks chief had "no chance of doing anything but distracting us and costing us votes."
https://www.newsweek.com/democrats-threaten-boycott-starbucks-if-former-ceo-howard-schultz-runs-2020-1307384

You know before you go and get your underwear in a wad about Howard Schulz running for president, just remember two things – 1) we’re still a long way out from the Democratic Primaries. And 2) just remember he’s running as an independent. If he runs at all. And you know how well running as an independent for president works! So of course the natural solution is to boycott Starbucks. And you should realize that Starbucks is no stranger to boycotts! There have been numerous attempts over the last few years to boycott the chain, but they’ve all failed.

Democrats are already in panic mode over the 2020 election: Howard Schultz, the former Starbucks CEO, is contemplating running as "centrist independent," and liberals across the land seem terrified he'll end up a spoiler for their ambitions, handing the White House back to President Trump for a second term.

Their solution: Boycott Starbucks.

That's not a great idea.

Certainly, Schultz's candidacy isn't a great idea either — we'll get to that in a moment — and boycotts have a long, often honorable history in American politics, used by pre-Revolutionary tea drinkers and Civil Rights-era activists alike. Senator Marco Rubio's (R-Fla.) ongoing attempts to allow state and local governments to discriminate against Americans who boycott Israel disrespects both that tradition and the First Amendment of the Constitution.
https://theweek.com/articles/820395/boycott-starbucks-dont-bother

And that’s kind of the reason why your boycott won’t work. Your place of business is about to become a Starbucks! Remember when I said that Starbucks is no stranger to boycotts? If you may remember from a few months ago, that conservatives tried to boycott Starbucks for this completely insane reason.

Ubiquitous, culturally-relevant, self-described “third-place” coffee giant Starbucks is in hot water again, this time for doing the right thing. In light of the company’s recent commitment to hire 10,000 refugees within five years in response to President Donald Trump’s disorganized and highly suspect immigration ban, Trump supporters are banding together to boycott Starbucks.

In his letter detailing the company’s plan to hire refugees, CEO Howard Schultz wrote that hiring plan was in response to Trump’s immigration policy. As CNBC notes, many angry people are suggesting that Starbucks should only hire Americans or American veterans instead. In fact, Starbucks has a long history of hiring veterans, supporting them with various internal programs and honoring/spotlighting veterans that are employees or store managers. Since 2013, the coffee company has hired over 8,000 veterans as part of its dedicated veterans’ program.

<snip>

The last time Americans boycotted Starbucks, back in November 2016, it was because the company’s holiday cups weren’t “Christmas-y” enough. This most recent boycott smells a little bit like the protest that happened among a particularly vocal group of Trump fans last fall. When a Trump supporter felt he was waiting too long for his Starbucks order, he assumed it was because the barista was a Hillary Clinton supporter and launched into a tirade that was captured on video (and subsequently went viral). Trump fans came out to support their brethren by asking that baristas at Starbucks write “Trump” on their cups, thereby forcing staffers to yell out the President’s name when a drink order was ready. #TrumpCup became a trending hashtag for a few days after the incident, and Starbucks pocketed those sweet, sweet protest dollars.
https://www.eater.com/2017/1/30/14443194/starbucks-boycott-trump-supporters

Yeah so Starbucks ain’t scared of you. They’ve been through this thing a lot, especially since the conservative party went apeshit back in 2016. And by the way why is it always the democrats who are the angry ones? Or we’re enraged or insane? Because we don’t want another billionaire to be the president? I mean how well has that played out? Well hold off before you drop that latte and run to the nearest Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf because Mr. Schultz is only running if he sees “a viable path” and we all know running 3rd party is a guaranteed way into the presidency!

Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz may not decide on making a independent run for president until this summer or fall and will only be a candidate if he sees a plausible way to win the White House, an adviser said Tuesday.

Schultz’s announcement that he’d consider a 2020 bid outside of either party drew a furious reaction from Democrats, who warned that he’d draw votes from the party’s eventual nominee and assure the re-election of President Donald Trump.

"He 100 percent will only run if he sees a viable path. There’s no chance he gets in this race if there isn’t a path," Bill Burton, a former aide to President Barack Obama who recently joined Schultz’s political team, said in an interview Tuesday.

Burton said it may not be until "summer or fall" when Schultz makes a decision. By that point the frontrunners among the wide field of Democratic contenders may become clearer.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-01-29/starbucks-schultz-may-not-decide-on-2020-until-at-least-midyear

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

This week: Donald Trump’s Twitter Typos: How is this still a thing? When most people get angry, they pound a wall, break something, shoot a gun at a firing range, or take their frustrations out in ways that would not make them look foolish. But not President Trump. Instead, he prefers his favorite medium of venting his frustrations: the tweet. And because he’s the president of the United States, if he says something stupid, the entire world tends to take notice. And since the inauguration he’s said a lot of incredibly stupid things and misspelled a lot of words on Twitter.

When President Donald Trump isn’t busy tweeting about the Robert Mueller investigation with demands for a “major Counter Report,” he’s tweeting about his border wall — this time, with a major spelling error.

“Arizona, together with our Military and Border Patrol, is bracing for a massive surge at a NON-WALLED area,” the president tweeted last week. “WE WILL NOT LET THEM THROUGH. Big danger. Nancy and Chuck must approve Boarder Security and the Wall!”

Twitter quickly noticed Trump’s error — and became grammar police once again on Monday when the president misspelled “smoking” as “smocking” twice in the same missive.https://people.com/politics/president-trump-spelling-mistakes-typos-words/

And if you want to know the kind of reaction that a Trump twitter typo can draw, well, the reaction is that he gets mocked relentlessly. And he deserves it too. Because even his unsecured iPhone has this thing called “spell check” that can autocorrect your word after typing a couple of letters.

We all make typos, but, fairly or not, President Donald Trump's textual slipups draw more attention than most.

That is especially true when he stumbles writing about one of his defining political issues: border security. Or, as the president called it in a tweet on Monday, "Boarder Security."

"Anytime you hear a Democrat saying that you can have good Boarder Security without a Wall, write them off as just another politician following the party line," Trump tweeted. "Time for us to save billions of dollars a year and have, at the same time, far greater safety and control!"

Trump deleted the tweet and posted a new one with the correct spelling at about 11 a.m. EST. But USA TODAY saved a screenshot of the original "boarder" gaffe.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2018/12/17/trump-boarder-security-typo/2334531002/

So… Boarder Security. Yeah that is a thing that happened. And here’s where we could list all of the ways that Trump has managed to screw up even the most basic vocabulary. But, sadly, we don’t have that kind of time. However, he won’t ever dare correct himself because he has some sort of bizarre egomaniacal pride about himself. Instead we’ll let someone else do it for you!

The first half of 2018 on Donald Trump's Twitter timeline has been full of confusion, anger, and a whole heap of presidential typos.

The news cycle has moved at a breakneck speed, and so has Trump's tendency to tweet — and then delete — tweets with typos. Even in the face of opposition from Congress and the potential violation of post-Watergate transparency laws.

That Trump and his social media team may be dropping these typos in on purpose is interesting because it's either a completely bizarre strategy or, if it's not true, the White House is just really that bad at spelling (which they've proven regardless of the tweets).

But not all typos are created equal. Some are understandable — what Twitter trolls among us has not confused "your" and "you're"? — while some are just inexplicable. And we've still got six months left of the year.

Here, then, with an assist from Factbase and the Trump Twitter Archive, are 12 of Trump's worst Twitter typos so far in 2018.
https://mashable.com/article/trump-deleted-tweets-2018-typos/#eEXHqy0obsqF

Because Trump doesn’t use auto correct, he can make lots of hippos. Typos, it’s typos!!! It’s scary to think that we went from “Ask not what your country can do for you…” to… “Democrats have a smocking gun!!!!”. Talk about a huge drop off in quality. So much that even his own analytics expert thinks that he’s doing it wrong.

In criticizing the ragged nature of President Trump’s written communications, John McWhorter at The Atlantic cites as an example a spelling that the president or someone on the White House staff got right: “commonsense,” the adjective, in the phrase “commonsense legislation.” The noun is “common sense.” When it modifies other nouns, you can either hyphenate it (“common-sense legislation”) or, in Germanic style, close it up. In this case, the closed-up style, “commonsense,” is neater and (my impression is) preferred in American publications edited at some level above the Mendoza line.

McWhorter argues that Trump’s writing shows “inadequate thought” and “not just inadequate manners or polish.” I’ll pass over the part about inadequate thought. Why that minimizing “just” to modify “manners”? They have a moral dimension. One reason we’re careful with words is that they have tonic and toxic effects on the soul. We can bless, and we can curse.
Comments

Sometimes words cause unintended harm by slipping away from us, like a fastball from a pitcher with poor control. All of us have been on both sides of that. In the course of a spirited conversation, you hear coming out of your mouth a word or phrase that could have unfortunate associations for your interlocutor. They evaded your awareness in the nanosecond between the formation of the thought you wanted to express and your choice of words to express it, and now it’s too late.
https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/manners-morals-and-trumps-twitter-typos/

That is a good question. And in case you’re wondering how the biggest search engine data analytics handle Trump’s typos, well, it’s a chronic habit that is beginning to become a huge problem. So much that even Google and Yahoo don’t know how to handle it.

President Trump often takes to Twitter to announce public policy, changes to his Cabinet or bloviate on socio-economic issues. However, there are a number of times when the president misspells words on Twitter, which leads to huge spikes in searches for these misspellings and can often cause confusion.

"When we examined search data for misspelled words, comparing it to the dates of many of the president’s spelling gaffes, a pattern emerged," according to a Dictionary.com article, which highlights the president's abundant mistakes. "Each misspelling sparks a surge in searches on site, specifically searches for that exact configuration of letters, as Americans attempt to spellcheck both the president and themselves."

The first example cited is a tweet from Trump the day after his presidential inauguration in January 2017.

“I am honered to serve you, the great American People, as your 45th President of the United States," Trump wrote. The tweet was quickly deleted and corrected with the right spelling, but the misspelling led to a 3,850 percent surge in searchers for "honered" compared to the previous week.

The site noted that searches for "honer" also had a modest jump, at 1,271 percent.

Dictionary.com also mentioned Trump's March 2017 attack on the Obama administration for tapping his phones, a claim that was later refuted by the Department of Justice. There were reports that the FBI tapped the phones of former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, which some have said vindicated Trump's claim.

Trump's misspelling of the word "tap" led to a 46,300 percent increase in searches for "tapp" over the prior week.
https://www.foxnews.com/tech/president-trumps-twitter-typos-cause-massive-spike-in-search-for-misspelled-words

And by the way speaking of English even fast food chains cant resist trolling Trump over some basic typos. Even when he treated the Clemson Tigers to that fast food Big Mac buffet and tweeted about it the day after, Burger King couldn’t resist a jab.

President Donald Trump first was criticized for serving fast food to the Clemson Tigers football team on Monday in the White House. But the real burn came from Burger King trolling President Trump for his typo, "hamberders." The fast food giant on Tuesday took to Twitter to poke fun at the commander in chief.

Trump tweeted that it was "great being with the National Champion Clemson Tigers last night at the White House" and that because of the shutdown, he served "massive amounts of Fast Food." Trump claimed he paid for over "1000 hamberders etc." — and there you can see the typo. "Within one hour, it was all gone," Trump continued. "Great guys and big eaters!"

Trump only left the post up for a few hours before he posted a corrected version, but that didn't stop Burger King from making a joke Tuesday. "due to a large order placed yesterday, we're all out of hamberders," Burger King posted to Twitter. "just serving hamburgers today."
https://www.bustle.com/p/burger-king-mocked-trumps-hamberder-typo-with-a-hilarious-tweet-of-its-own-15826760

And by the way even Trump’s son can’t help but misspell words. So you could say that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. Though we suspect that the tree might be a stump at this point.

Donald Trump Jr., 41, was mocked for a pre-dawn tweet Thursday after he mistakenly referred to "Saturday Night Live" as "S&L," an acronym for savings and loans, rather than "SNL."

In the tweet, Trump Jr. quoted a Republican's take on the 2020 Democratic platform, describing it as "almost like a funny version of an S&L sketch."

But "Saturday Night Live" cast member Mikey Day's Trump Jr. impression will go to waste this weekend, just when the president's eldest son has given him a perfect excuse to suit up and slick back his hair. The show returns with a fresh episode on Feb. 9.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/entertainthis/2019/01/31/donald-trump-jr-taunted-twitter-after-confusing-snl-and-s-l/2735280002/

When you make one typo, you just make one typo. But when you make typos frequently and you’re the president of the United States, you might need to reeducate yourself on spelling. That’s enough to make you ask – Donald Trump’s Twitter Typos:

[font size="8"]I Need A Drink
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Whew, there was a lot to unpack there. Oh well, I need a drink!

So you know the idea behind this is that we get drunk and talk about anything in the news as long as it doesn’t relate to politics. Because you know when you mix religion and politics, it doesn’t end well for you. Which is why we generally don’t encourage that. But instead we’re going to talk about a favorite topic of ours on this show – serial killers! And this entry is for the ladies, because really, what are you doing? Tell me bartender – what goes well with a documentary about Ted Bundy? Some fava beans and a nice chianti? Eh, I’ll stick with my usual Jack Daniels mixed with Jack Daniels. So last week Netflix premiered “Conversations With A Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes”. And well, the dialogue that has come out about this movie isn’t about what a gruesome killer Ted Bundy was. Nope, and I’m sure Netflix didn’t plan for this either!

What's the deal with lusting over killers?
Ted Bundy is back on a lot of people's minds, with two projects on the serial killer in the news.
First up, Netflix is streaming "Conversations With a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes," a docuseries about the man who confessed to more than two dozen murders before he was eventually executed in 1989.

Meanwhile, a trailer for "Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile" recently dropped with former teen heartthrob Zac Efron as Bundy, and once again people were talking about the charismatic killer.

"I've seen a lot of talk about Ted Bundy's alleged hotness and would like to gently remind everyone that there are literally THOUSANDS of hot men on the service — almost all of whom are not convicted serial murderers," said a tweet Monday from Netflix's official account.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/29/entertainment/netflix-ted-bundy/index.html

Um… I’ll take both! Ted Bundy is hot, yo! And that’s the scary thing. Serial killers aren’t hot. They’re serial killers. I mean did Dexter glamourize the world of serial killers? Yeah probably. Here’s the thing, Netflix, if you don’t want a serial killer to be seen as hot, maybe, I don’t know, don’t case a heartthrob like Zac Efron in the role! But maybe… just maybe they’re secretly loving this!

Netflix says it wants people to stop lusting after Ted Bundy, because that’s what it has to say. But make no mistake, the streaming service is loving all the memes and tweets about the infamous serial killer’s “hotness.”

Bundy, who raped and murdered dozens of young women in the 1970s, was caught in 1978, and executed in 1989, remains one of the world’s most studied serial killers. That’s in part because he looked and often acted (according to some that knew him) like a normal, well-adjusted person. Since his execution, Bundy has been analyzed in countless films, documentaries, books, and songs, as Americans still struggle to understand how a human being could be capable of such atrocities—especially one as classically handsome as Bundy.

So it was only a matter of time before Netflix, in its quest to be the only entertainment platform you’ll ever need, produced a documentary about Bundy. Last week, the streamer released Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes, a four-part docu-series featuring never-before-heard audio of the killer discussing his crimes in the third person. (For years after his capture, Bundy maintained he was innocent, only confessing to the murders shortly before he was executed.) Joe Berlinger, the writer and director of the documentary, also directed the Bundy film Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile, which stars heartthrob Zac Efron as the vicious killer and premiered at the Sundance Film Festival this month.
https://qz.com/quartzy/1537986/netflix-probably-loves-all-the-hot-ted-bundy-memes/

And that’s exactly what I will do! And by the way here’s the thing ladies, you should realize that before you go sexualizing serial killers, be aware that it has consequences. And Netflix, before you go scolding viewers for sexualizing serial killers, you should aware that this is a feature of modern society, not a bug!

You may have noticed that the internet has recently developed a bit of a crush on Ted Bundy—Ted Bundy, as in, one of the world's most notorious serial killers. First Netflix released a documentary, Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes, that's chock-full of archival footage and audio recordings made while Ted was on death row. Netflix had to literally ask viewers to stop calling Bundy hot. Then a new trailer dropped for the upcoming Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile, which stars Zac Efron, one of the most handsome men to ever grace this Earth.

In other words, Ted Bundy is having a moment. A big moment. And here's why that's f*cked up.

Attraction to the real Ted Bundy started long before the biopics, of course. Back in the days of his trial, hordes of groupies sent him love letters until the day he died. When asked why they did it, these women typically fell into two categories: they either believed someone that handsome couldn’t possibly commit such disgusting crimes, or plainly, they couldn’t articulate why they were so enamored.

It's called Hybristophilia. Think about it like this: Society teaches women to "fix" men, and to provide rehabilitation (and patience! and kindness!) for the very worst ones. Groupie culture around serial killers is pretty much an amped-up version of this relatively commonplace psyche. RJ Parker, in his book Serial Killer Groupies, chalks it up to women's nurturing instincts and a genuine belief that they can change their targeted serial killer through love. Heavy.
https://www.cosmopolitan.com/sex-love/a26131568/ted-bundy-penn-badgley-you-hot/

Yes and if you think you can “fix” a serial killer, just take Dexter’s advice. Ted Bundy was a complete monster. But then again lost in the conversation of whether or not Ted Bundy was hot is the fact that Netflix, in their infinite quest to prove that they can and will sign anything, paid a ton of money to make Ted Bundy great again!

Maybe you just got finished with Netflix's four-part Ted Bundy docuseries Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes and thought to yourself, "What else can I watch about this fuckin' guy?" Then you searched the rest of the service and found yourself SOL.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, that will no longer be the case for true crime buffs, provided you can show a little patience. The streaming giant has apparently edged out STX and Lionsgate and is closing in on a $9 million deal that would give them the U.S. rights (and some international rights) to the Bundy biopic starring Zac Efron. Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile centers around Bundy's crimes via the viewpoint of his longtime girlfriend Elizabeth Kloepfer, who in the film refuses to believe he's guilty despite numerous signs pointing in that direction.

For those wondering how Efron and Extremely Wicked fared with critics at the Sundance Festival, here's a roundup, but the (near) consenus seems to be that Efron is great and the overall film isn't. "I think [Efron’s] startlingly good: controlled, magnetic, audacious, committed, and eerily right," Variety's Owen Gleiberman wrote. He went on to say, "Ted is a kind of actor, a maniac playing a role, yet doing it with such sincerity and flair that it’s not just a role. It’s the person a part of him wants to be."
https://www.complex.com/pop-culture/2019/02/netflix-ted-bundy-docuseries-zac-efron-biopic-9-million

[font size="8"]Deep State Diaries Episode 28: The DEA
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It’s time for episode 28 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 Drug Enforcement Agency[/font]

This week we’re hanging out with the Drug Enforcement Agency or the DEA! So this department was created back in the 1970s by then president Richard Nixon. You might remember the DEA best as the employer of Walter White’s brother in law Hank Schrader from one of the all time great TV series, Breaking Bad. But what does the DEA actually do? Besides enforce drugs, the DEA stops the illegal flow of drugs over the border and through our customs departments. But to use the slippery slope – with drugs comes crime and with crime comes, well, more crime. And there’s plenty of reasons why we need an agency like the DEA, even though we just covered the ATF last week. You know, things like crystal meth.

The amount of methamphetamine seized in New Jersey and tested by federal authorities skyrocketed by more than 5,000 percent over the course of just a couple years.

Data released in February by the Drug Enforcement Administration, based on reports from law enforcement, show the highly addictive drug is commonly being found in the southern and far western regions of New Jersey. It's still considered the "drug of choice" in some of the state's more rural areas.

"Somebody, if they were looking for meth, they wouldn't have a difficult time finding somebody to get it from," said Timothy McMahon, special agent with the DEA's New Jersey Division.

The substance, known to produce heightened senses of alertness and euphoria, as well as increase a user's heart rate and body temperature, can come in pill, liquid, and crystal form, the DEA said. Long-term abuse can lead to tremors, hypertension, memory loss, hallucinations, psychotic episodes, violent behavior and other side effects.
http://nj1015.com/dea-testing-shows-meth-is-running-rampant-in-new-jersey/

We know you’re Heisenberg. So meth and crystal meth are nothing to joke about even though they were the subject of one of the most awesome TV series of all time. And if you haven’t seen Breaking Bad then get off your ass already! But in addition to meth there’s also the ever-scary black market that you need to worry about!

Black market prescription drugs are showing their ugly heads right here in San Antonio. The Drug Enforcement Administration or DEA tells us that many of those buying the black market pills are everyday people who became addicted after an injury.

"A black market created usually by injury or surgeries.... a black market for prescription meds sold by the pill but can be a deadly purchase if mixed with other drugs," said Dante Sorianello, DEA agent.

Little pills causing big problems. The black market for prescription meds is fed by stolen pills, stolen prescription scripts, people who need to make a quick buck and sell their own prescription medications.

"Maybe a physician who is over prescribing to somebody and then getting some sort of kickback from that, that's probably a little bit more of the rare-er of a physician getting a kickback from over-prescribing," said Sorianello.
https://news4sanantonio.com/news/local/dea-warns-of-black-market-pills-little-pills-big-problems

Whoa whoa whoa! Settle down there! And by the way with the entire country making a huge shift in policies regarding marijuana and its’ many uses, how is the DEA handling which farms are allowed to grow and distribute and which ones aren’t? That’s going to be a very sticky icky situation for the DEA moving forward.

A task force led by DEA Agents conducted a number raids Thursday on a large number of suspected illegal marijuana grows in the Denver Metro.

Two of them took place in Sean Lykins neighborhood in Brighton.

Lykins said, “I just heard a loud speaker telling the house next door to me the people to come out and then I saw a bunch of SWAT officers at the door."

Surveillance video captured DEA agents arriving and raiding a home said to be illegally growing marijuana.

Lykins and his family was leaving their home when they were frightened by the sound of fleas grenades.
https://kdvr.com/2019/01/31/dea-raids-more-than-30-suspected-illegal-marijuana-grows/

Yes get your Tegridy brand weed right here! Fresh home grown! Now with such a department one wonders how they are able to keep all their agents in check? Well, there’s good cops, bad cops, and even worse cops. These guys might fall into the even worse cops category, so Uncle Hank could have been just as crooked as the criminals he caught!

A U.S. federal narcotics agent known for his expensive tastes and high-profile drug seizures has been implicated in a multimillion-dollar money-laundering conspiracy that involved the very cartel criminals he was charged with fighting in Colombia.

A once standout Drug Enforcement Administration agent, Jose Irizarry is accused of conspiring with a longtime DEA informant to launder more than $7 million in illicit drug proceeds, sometimes using an underground network known as the black-market peso exchange, according to five current and former law enforcement officials.

The officials described the case as one of the biggest black eyes in the history of the DEA, an agency that has seen repeated scandals in recent years, and one they fear could have compromised undercover operations in the U.S. and South America.

The conspiracy not only allegedly enriched Irizarry but is believed to have benefited one of South America’s top money launderers, who is a relative of Irizarry’s Colombian wife, said the officials, who spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the federal investigation.
https://www.gazettenet.com/APNewsBreak-Feds-say-star-DEA-agent-abroad-stole-millions-22805550

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

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

Overall: B-

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

Next week we’re going to visit a very important position in the cabinet by visiting the Department Of Housing & Urban Development, or the HUD!

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

Returning to the Top 10, one of our favorite guests. They have not one, but two albums out this year – the Teal Album out now and the Black Album out March 1st! you can see them on tour with the Pixies through March and April. Playing their song “Africa”, give it up for the one, the only Weezer!!

Thank you Podfest LA! This was fun! We’re off to Oxnard next! See you next week!

Credits

Host: Initech
Top 10 Conservative Idiots Recorded In Front Of Live Audience At: Anaheim Convention Center, Anaheim, CA
Special Thanks To: Podfest LA
Holy Shit Gospel Choir: UC Irvine Choir Club, Irvine, CA
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
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Gender: Do not display
Hometown: California
Home country: USA
Current location: Southern California, North Orange County Area
Member since: Wed May 30, 2018, 12:44 PM
Number of posts: 596

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