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Top 10 Idiots

(592 posts)
Wed Feb 6, 2019, 06:00 PM Feb 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!

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[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?




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…




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/





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[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





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[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/


&t=3s

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





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[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





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[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.




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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 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:




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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





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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:



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[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





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[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
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
Weezer Appear Courtesy Of: Atlantic 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

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Top 10 Conservative Idiots #6-5: Curb Your Kasich Edition (Original Post) Top 10 Idiots Feb 2019 OP
Kicking for truth irisblue Feb 2019 #1
K & R malaise Feb 2019 #2
Next week is going to be fun picking apart the SOTU! Top 10 Idiots Feb 2019 #3
That sleep in was perfect malaise Feb 2019 #5
That face says more than any amount of words ever could! Initech Feb 2019 #6
K&R Scurrilous Feb 2019 #4

malaise

(267,800 posts)
2. K & R
Wed Feb 6, 2019, 06:41 PM
Feb 2019

Al Gore sent him a message for ignoring climate change last night.

Great work as always

Get thee to the greatest page

Top 10 Idiots

(592 posts)
3. Next week is going to be fun picking apart the SOTU!
Wed Feb 6, 2019, 07:51 PM
Feb 2019

Though I think Joshua Trump perfectly summed up what we were all thinking!

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