Friday Fun: Few Lighthearted Ones & One for the Archives

 Posted by at 2:46 pm  Politics
Feb 052021
 

I want to close with a serious news piece that I think is worth archiving for possible future reference.  But I’ll start with a fewer light-hearted anecdotes I came across.

Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) (former Auburn U. head football coach) proves republicans didn’t listened to Bobby Jindal back in 2013 when he told the RNC to “stop being the stupid party” and become a “party that talks like adults.” 

 

The Senate now has their own version of Louie Gohmert.  When asked by CNN reporter about his thoughts concerning QAnon Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Sen. Tommy replied: “I haven’t looked at what all she’s done.  I’d have to hold back a statement on that….  This weather’s been a little rough.  [Didn’t] look at any news or whatever.”

The weather prevented him from watching or reading any news?!?  *sigh*

Obviously he’s too dumb to be taught to simply say “No Comment”

Probably shouldn’t be a surprise that the weather prevented Sen. Tommy from keeping up with the news.  He also would fail our Naturalization Test because he doesn’t even know what the three branches of government are:

“Our government wasn’t set up for one group to have all three branches of government — wasn’t set up that way.  You know, the House, the Senate, and the executive.”

Well, at least he got one out of three correct.  I suppose 33% is a pretty average score for a republican.

Point of Interest: Question No. 16 in the civics section of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ Naturalization Test asks would-be citizens to “name the three branches of government.”

Looks like we’ll have to deport Sen. Tommy.

(As we all know, the three branches of the federal government, as laid out in the Constitution, are the legislative, including both the House and Senate; the executive, or presidency; and judicial, which includes the Supreme Court.)

And if you want visual proof Sen. Tuberville isn’t the brightest bulb in the chandelier, here’s a screengrab of his recent Google Search History:

Little-Too-Late Word of Advice, Coach: YOU SHOULD’VE WORN THE HELMET!

If you ever need an example of Trump’s stupidity (or like to review the lowlights of his presidency) here’s a Tweet asking folks to add their favorites:

 

Speaking of Tweets, I got a kick out of this one about an Andy Williams, a Florida fireman, who participated in the Capitol riots – but was sure the sheer number of rioters would protect him from being found out:

 

And also Bette Midler’s first attempt at posting a “Dick Pick”:

 

WaPo has done an excellent job of tracking Trump’s untruths through his four years in office.  They have compiled an excellent archive of his lies that is really well done.

The first provides an overview summary of his four disastrous years:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/01/24/trumps-false-or-misleading-claims-total-30573-over-four-years/

“Trump averaged about six claims a day in his first year as president, 16 claims day in his second year, 22 claims day in this third year — and 39 claims a day in his final year. Put another way, it took him 27 months to reach 10,000 claims and an additional 14 months to reach 20,000. He then exceeded the 30,000 mark less than five months later.”

Next provides a detailed history of his lies:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/how-fact-checker-tracked-trump-claims/2021/01/23/ad04b69a-5c1d-11eb-a976-bad6431e03e2_story.html

bit unwieldly (understandable, when trying to compartmentalize over 30,000 lies).  It breaks them down into categories of:

Health Care

Russia

Economy

Trade

Immigration

Ukraine Probe

Coronavirus

Election

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/interactive/2021/timeline-trump-claims-as-president/?itid=lk_inline_manual_10

This one provides a Timeline graph tally, and a much easier search by topics feature – both single and filter for several topics.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/politics/trump-claims-database/?itid=lk_inline_manual_11

Kudos to WaPo for doing a stellar job keeping track of what was obviously a never-ending Sisyphean task!

 

 

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Friday Fun: War Against the Zombies!

 Posted by at 3:24 pm  Politics
Mar 272020
 

We truly are at War … against two Zombies.

One is an ugly, almost invisible microscopic Zombie that is currently wreaking havoc not only in the United States, but around the world – and about which we’ve heard a great deal:

The other is also an ugly, but way too visible fat Zombie that is also wreaking havoc not only in the United States, but around the world – and from whom we’ve heard WAY TOO MUCH:

I’m bringing this up because there’s an excellent overview article in WaPo about how viruses function that’s aimed at laymen.  And it’s FREE to be read and shared as part of WaPo’s effort (like The New York Times and The Atlantic magazine, and I’m sure other publications) to help educate the public about Coronavirus disease or COVID-19 (which is caused by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2, or SARS-CoV-2).

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/03/23/coronavirus-isnt-alive-thats-why-its-so-hard-kill/

Viruses are a true conundrum for scientists, many of whom actually refer to them as “Zombies” – because they really do NOT fit the criteria of a living thing.

Specifically, viruses are problematic for biologists because they don’t have cells, and therefore do not belong to the three main groups of life that all other organisms do: Bacteria, Archaea (a different form of microbe) and Eukaryota (plants, animals, fungi, etc. – organisms whose cells have a nucleus enclosed in a membrane).

This diagram might be too technical, but it’s an overview of how a virus hijack’s a cellular host’s machinery:

Viruses are basically just rogue genetic material (either DNA or RNA) housed in a protein shell called a capsid. They are unable to reproduce on their own, and so they use their protein shell to invade the host cells in order to insert their DNA or RNA into the host’s cells, and commandeer the host’s “machinery” to produce more of their own DNA or RNA viruses.

As noted in the WaPo article:

There is a certain evil genius to how this coronavirus pathogen works: It finds easy purchase in humans without them knowing. Before its first host even develops symptoms, it is already spreading its replicas everywhere, moving onto its next victim. It is powerfully deadly in some but mild enough in others to escape containment. And for now, we have no way of stopping it.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/03/23/coronavirus-isnt-alive-thats-why-its-so-hard-kill/

So paraphrasing from a Comment, we can see a striking similarity between the Coronavirus Zombie as detailed above, and the Trump Zombie detailed below:

There is a certain evil genius to how this Trumpublican pathogen works: It finds easy purchase in humans who know nothing. Before its first host even develops symptoms, it is already spreading its lies and hatred everywhere through Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, etc. – before moving onto its next victim. It is powerfully deadly in some “hosts” causing them to run over protesters with their cars, but mild enough in others to make them merely vote for the GOP. And, for now, we have no way of stopping it.

But come November 3rd we’ll be able to decapitate (it’s the only way to kill one) that Trump Zombie  with our votes – and DESTROY IT!

(Have I hinted enough that I would truly encourage you to read the WaPo article to gain an overview to how a virus functions?)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/03/23/coronavirus-isnt-alive-thats-why-its-so-hard-kill/

BUT I also want to share some absolutely wonderful ads that are being produced from a variety of sources to attack *Rump – with many using his own words as a petard on which to hoist him.

I hope you’ll feel free to share them with like-minded friends, and those fence-sitters who are amenable to common sense.

This one is from Mike Bloomberg:

 

Documenting how *Rump Failed to Act

 

This is the Priorities USA one (again, using his OWN WORDS) that *Rump’s lawyers have sent a “Cease & Desist” letter to try stop it from airing.

NOT. GOING. TO. HAPPEN!

In fact George Conway (Kellyanne’s husband) is leading the charge in getting into as wide circulation as possible:

 

We know that all presidents at some point will face a true crisis – *Rump FAILED!

A timeline calendar of Trump trying to minimize the Pandemic

This is Biden’s most recent excellent ad put out just a couple of days ago:

Enough of this Doom & Gloom. Let’s close with a smile!

Since people are hunkered down, it’s amazing how inventive they’ve been in entertaining themselves. One theme I’ve seen repeated several times involves folks doing their own DJing. (Is that even a word?)

PSA Heads Up: If you have a cat, be careful what you employ in your bag of tricks:

 

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