So within minutes of the acquittal of PAXTON, his wingnut cohort talkshow host on sabbatical, "judge" of the proceeding Dan PATRICK, dropped his award winning mister-nice-guy-objective act and blasted out a reading of three pages prepared before *anyone* knew the outcome (haha and cough), in which he lambasted the House and the Managers for bringing the impeachment at all, took up where PAXTON left off in impugning the whistleblowers, and decreed a full audit of the House's spending on the process (None Dare Call It Retaliation).

Masterful performances all around besides PATRICK - the Senator wife sat through the two weeks of hearing things that most of the public and private individuals would be offended to have aired against them, without the slightest blush; while the patriarch of the family and keeper of the public law didn't attend the horrible parts, but less than gloating afterward, blazed threats against those he blamed for his own activities - notably, the President of the U.S.

So abusing government mechanisms “to settle political differences” and “lawless policies” and immorality/corruption are not things he is responsible for, wink wink, but what he will continue to do to others.

*** So, word to us/Wise (seriously: ) , as his Defense lawyers said quoting their model Drumpf, "If they come after whomever, they can come after YOU/us." So, be wary about topics such as: What I did for love, appearances of possible plastic surgeries, and dress codes for appearing at the Texas Senate - (topic list not exhaustive) .

*******QUOTE***

https://voz.us/attorney-general-paxton-sends-message-to-joe-biden-after-his-acquittal-buckle-up-because-your-lawless-policies-will-not-go-unchallenged/?lang=en

.... "The sham impeachment coordinated by the Biden Administration with liberal House Speaker Dade Phelan and his kangaroo court has cost taxpayers millions of dollars, disrupted the work of the Office of Attorney General and left a dark and permanent stain on the Texas House," Paxton said. "The weaponization of the impeachment process to settle political differences is not only wrong, it is immoral and corrupt."

Paxton also promised "the Biden Administration the following: buckle up because your lawless policies will not go unchallenged."

"We will not allow you to shred the constitution and infringe on the rights of Texans. You will be held accountable," added the attorney general, who announced an interview with Tucker Carlson next week. ....

"Most importantly, I want to thank my amazing wife Angela, who I love dearly. She is a brave woman of deep faith, unquestionable integrity, and the light of our entire family," continued the attorney general, who will return to work with immediate effect after overcoming this historic process. ....

*******UNQUOTE******

* He's an a-hole, wingnut, grifter, crook.

* He's got a government wife and a mistress.

* He had/hired all-wingnut/Fundie true believers & betrayed them.

* He didn't show up shamed to hear all the testimony (but his wife had to).

* His physically shapely mistress was spared the shame testimony.

* At least one of his loving/believer/friends was reduced to tears to ask for condemnation of him.

* His true believer subordinates were slimed.


*** Oh, I don't know, anything else?

During the live coverage of the capture, some of the namby-pamby reporters were criticizing every move – “WHY are the (troopers) getting a PHOTO OP picture with him” and “WHY are they cutting his shirt off?” It’s like the usual backseat driving of all the critiques like the END of Afghanistan that somebody had the GUTS to do.

They’re like, “AWww, poor baby murderer to be shamed by a trophy picture and then getting paraded in his black underpants.”

Then at the press conference, Democratic governor Josh SHAPIRO and State LT Col. George BIVENS were *BRILLIANT* - intelligent, eloquent – all the things that Texas/Florida ABBUTT/deSATAN and their zombie stooges in the comparable state slots AREN’T. They both acknowledged all the agencies – local, state, “our Federal partners” and the public. The governor saying, “All working together, the way GOVERNMENT IS SUPPOSED TO WORK.” And BIVENS, the one coordinating everything, was questioned about this-or-that things that went wrong delaying the capture, and BIVENS said (paraphrase: ) “In any complicated operation there will be unexpected things happening that might be short term setbacks, but they aren’t final, have to be adapted to and you go on.” (I’ll be finding the transcript quote for much use.)

THAT is what the response should be to the wingnut carping about the end of Afghanistan - and Benghazi, and Saigon for that matter. It’s all the a-hole wingnuts, child "reporters" and wingnuts who General SCHWARZKOPF scolded against their calling the combat ammunition tracers as “like video games.”


*** ON EDIT: There is at least one other thread expressing a different take. None of us needs one another's permissions for our opinions, nor do we have to submit to "debates", especially since other thread venues are available. Ty.

PUTEEN, fresh off his umpteenth assassination, calls Drumpf amateur for being so obvious and uncontrolled in his mug. Drumpf covets Time Magazine covers for himself. Hillary being sad. Drumpf at his very first defendant's table - AWwww, so cute!

Back when Tweety/Chris MATTHEWS was a thing here, minor warring factions about him raged, his fans lauding him for his long gone time as a Democratic operative and speechwriter for President CARTER, others gigging him for his treason to Dem candidates. Situation a lot like how MAHER now has here. A DUer summed it up by saying that Tweety flips positions according to how the wind blows and "WHEN he's on our side, there's nobody better."

MAHER has his justified detractors. After my accepting him for years at face value as a good Lib with allowances for Libertarian tendencies, in the past year or two I've detected, for myself, his increasing cozying up, more than before, to wingnut whackjobs (loving Jordan PETERSON, ROGAN) under the supposed guise that polarization needs to be bridged by kumbaya. (DANTE said the worst part of hell is for those who don't pick sides.) What used to be his quaint bull session dictums for drugs, against marriage/children and religion, in the past couple of years he has seemed to have turned into the get-off-my-lawn dude - railing against the COVID safety precautions, how he wants his say-so on his body (sounds like Choice), how young people are ignorant and know no history, how things should be like his childhood in the '50s, how wokeness is what's wrong with today's Libs who are therefore stupid, how everybody is stupid except all the freedom-loving wingnuts he's hanging with. And with every appearance "teaching" his guests how he had this great show Politically Incorrect and got cancelled for saying something about 9-11.

And yet, there are glimmers of his Dem/Lib/'tarian self, when he shuts down, at least momentarily, a Russel BRAND here or there. In the current case, he tried his mightiest to reach out to this RAMASWAMY wannabe-MUSK, kissing up throughout and demonstrating at the end how he believes he practices surmounting polarization via tolerance for disagreement. But this RAMASWAMY hit the ground with his motormouth running, talking-over CONSTANTLY, deluding himself that he is going to convert anybody with a slew of "patriotic" and American catch phrases, how he's going to cult up the youth of America into a renaissance of patriotic citizenship, via deleting the IRS and FBI.

It was hilarious when this dude thought he was bragging about rapping in Iowa to a wingnut audience and MAHER said, "Yeah, I saw that. Don't do that again." And RAMASWAMY, who thought he was being kewl rapping like Cancun CRUZ reading aloud Dr SEUSS, was nonplussed asking "Why?" Bwah-HAH! Then all heck broke out with MAHER attempting to rouse himself out of his self-satisfied deterioration, fighting valiantly against the dude's refusal to acknowledge Drumpf's law breaking, yet at the end predicting great things for him much much later than for right now.

If there are any young-uns who don't know Tweety/Chris MATTHEWS, my hoary chestnut is below.



Etymology of "Tweety". During Campaign 2000 the media noise machine was swooning over the nicknames Shrub was giving some of them. Media Whores Online ran a contest to nickname Chris MATTHEWS. In the first three or so weeks, there was no clear, catchy front runner, with "The Screamer" sort of leading. Then one of MATTHEWS's own Hardball staff leaked to MWO that they themselves called him "Tweety" because of the Clairol shade of hair coloring he favored. This was immediately declared the winner. But in some quarters, it wasn't entirely satisfactory. For one thing, by the time the name was declared, the shade had changed to platinum, leading to a suggestion he be called "Carole LOMBARD".

 Plus, "Tweety" sounded too affectionate. 

His Misogyny.  Then M-TV held its 20th or 25th or whatever anniversary, and all the cable echo chambers were doing segments of Britney shedding her duds down to almost nothing. Not to be left behind, Tweety followed suit, with a guest "culture" commentator from Time Mag, the young humor columnist, Joel STEIN. The staff kept re-running the Britney clip, and Tweety was clearly DROOLING disgustingly. STEIN said, "You're beginning to creep me out." Tweety responded, "Yeah, well, wait till YOU're 50." This led to the suggestion that "Tweety" be modified to "Tweezer" to retain the hair reference while canceling out the affection factor and also adding the (dirty old) "geezer" angle.
Back when, misogyny was a wink-wink/smirk-smirk thing among the old style flunkies like him, there were many examples of his, with HRC being his prime target for years until she was becoming a real contender, when he yearned to host her, but the bridges had been burned. 
But here's a vignette from back in the day, regarding his wife Kathleen. He deigned to host her or let her co-host a segment or so, this time with him and another recycled miscreant Mike BARNICLE. She was standing like at the front of a class and they two were sitting like the smirking, spit-balling, Catholic schoolboy-jerks that they really are. She trudged through her presentation, taking her subject seriously while the two of them smirked, giggled, and mocked all the way. But regarding Kathleen, he exemplifies one signature characteristic of misogynists: Despite the obviously hostile behaviors, they claim to adore, honor, put-on-a-pedestal women. And Tweety frequently does that over-compensating, protests-too-much thing by referring to her as, "MY QUEEN." 
*************So flash forward decades to the TWITLER atrocious era, specifically calling Senator WARREN “Pocahontas.” Tweety hosted her soon after a TWITLER episode of it, besides a manic outburst of his sputtering interrupting, almost giggling every time he said that name, catching himself each time then protesting that it was a horrible thing, like Beavis/Butthead giggling at a dirty word. So WARREN kept to the high road and that TWITLER was not going to silence her. So then he struck, like when he lashed out at DONAHUE. He was in bursting giggle mode and said, "So, for you 'Pocahontas' will be like a clarion call for you to come charging out!1" and he busted his gut. WARREN looked sucker punched. 

Darrell HAMMOND "Doing" Tweety on SNL. Tweety's ego was massively stroked after the debut of HAMMOND's impersonation of him, either in 2001 or 2002. He said, "I am now an ICON: I have been 'done' on Saturday Night Live'." The funniest line in the debut was HAMMOND as Tweety, cracking himself up with, "For the ... FIFTY ... people who watch this show...” (Hardball, not SNL). In the first few times HAMMOND featured him, the target was Tweety himself -- manically interrupting, spitting, and drooling. However, the characterization evolved, not true to the original, where Tweety became the "rational" character surrounded by oddball, extremist "guests", with HAMMOND-Tweety shaking his head in disbelief at their partisan spin.   

"Turning" from Being a Democrat. He (like G.E.RUSSERT and Pat CADDELL) still trades on having been a Democrat in the CARTER/O'NEILL era. In the hothouse of big time political flunkydom, STATUS and POWER come from the SUCCESS of your boss. RAYGUN kicked Tweety's bosses' rears, and Tweety gravitated to admiring that "success". When he started up his media career he was mentored by G.E. RUSSERT, who had himself already started "turning" by "reaching out" to LIMBOsevic and expending his formerly-Lib-bleeding-heart on those poor wingnuts who had been maligned and marginalized by the Liberal Elite, lo those many years. Tweety started doing video valentines to RAYGUN, promenading arm in arm with Nancy. He might have tapped into the frenzy of the FAKE impeachment, but "hatred of the CLINTONs" isn't what made him turn. The last time he was identifiably a Democrat was sometime around 1988 when Hardball (the book) was published.  Throughout the year of Campaign 2000 he savaged the Dem candidate daily and went on to years of bromance over Shrub, renouncing any Democratic heritage.  He said his parents were “cloth coat" (Rethugs), and that basically what first drew him to the Dem side was Irish-Catholic pride over JFK.  Not ideology, not idealism.  He said the reason he joined the Peace Corps was specifically to avoid going to Vietnam. 

How Tweety "Executed" DONAHUE on MSNBC. Tweety was on his book tour for another one of his "books" (large type, wide spaces between lines, blank half-pages). It was in the jingoistic hysteria in the run-up to the illegal Iraq attack. The book was about supposed "Americanism" -- an American Civ 101 ripoff about books and movies and cultural stuff that are essentially American (think, "The Great Gatsby" ). So Phil welcomed him as a colleague and peer on Phil's MSNBC show for the full hour to plug the book. From the moment he appeared, there was a strange, deadly snake look in Tweety's snake eyes. Phil was walking around the audience, apparently not sensing anything, while Tweety was motionless, following him only with his eyes. Phil brought up something or other questioning blind, kneejerk jingoism, and Tweety STRUCK! He started out with venom dripping, "You see, THIS is EXACTLY what's wrong with YOU Liberals: You are NEGATIVE about this country, you find NOTHING good about it," and on and on. It took awhile before Phil figured out what was happening. Later, Phil, devastated and spent, was sitting at the table with Tweety and, weaker and weaker, did some of his trademark shoulder shrugging and arm waving. Tweety delivered the coup de grace, "What's THIS (mimicking the movements)??!! What's with the --APE-- movements???!" Days or a week or two later, Phil's cancellation was announced and took effect. 

How Tweety "Triggered" a Gun Incident (re: Kathleen WILLEY). At the height of the FAKE impeachment, Ms WILLEY claimed that a mystery jogger had threatened her or her cat or somebody, with the insinuation that there was a CLINTON connection. Several months later, there was gossip that the jogger had been identified. Tweety hosted her and it appeared they had discussed the identity off camera. He tried mightily to get her to say the name on the air, which she wouldn't do. Finally, he himself blurted it out, "Was it (Name/Surname)?" She wouldn’t confirm it. Within days there was a bizarre incident, with the mentally disabled brother of Pat and Bay BUCHANAN going with a gun to the house of the supposed jogger named by Tweety, where there were only some foreign exchange students present. Later it was determined that the person Tweety named on the air had NOTHING to do with the supposed jogger incident. 

"Heroes" Tweety and Tom DeLAY. In the aftermath of the 07-24-98 shooting of two Capitol police officers when the slain officers were duly eulogized and called heroes, Tweety latched on to this, the way we have seen him attempt to glorify himself in other instances: Like saying he was assigned to Africa in the Peace Corps and "WALKED THE SAME GROUND" THAT CHURCHILL had passed through. Or when he said, "I am an ICON! I have been 'done' by SNL!". So now that the Capitol policemen were being called heroes, Tweety came forward to say that HE had been a Capitol policemen, TOO, JUST LIKE THEM, when he was starting out. It turns out that he had worked a (temporary?) job for three months as that. In all the years before the officers were shot and eulogized, he probably NEVER referred to that job, most likely thinking of it as a rent-a-cop turn, until he could see in retrospect the glory that he had been DESTINED to from the beginning.  But he is not the only glory hog. When that incident was happening, the news of the moment reported that Tom DELAY had hopped a plane out of town and immediately turned around in Houston when the incident was over. This show of courage is why he has been dubbed, "Tom-DePLANE!-DePLANE!-DELAY".  But searches of countless news reports of that time show no mention of the hopping-the-plane. Only this is left: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm /... "...House members, many rushing out of town, did not have to remain behind. DeLay slipped out the main door of the Capitol less than 15 minutes after the shooting. He looked stricken. Asked if he'd seen anything, he said, "Did I ever. I don't want to talk about it." Aides rushed him into his waiting car. ...."

07-19-2023 "Achilles! Do not you be relentless,
only Death is relentless, that's why men hate him so!"
And "Christmas Truce 1914... fraternization...
'live and let live..' " - 
Amid their forced murderousness
enemy combatants have always
defied their commanders in brief clarity
that their enemy is not themselves,
but death in common.

07-18-2023 Three years ago today you entered
your last hours,
on a ventilator, among masked strangers,
we masked mere intimates not permitted.
"Strong" man, hah so delicate, gone.

Over the years there have been news items about how Blue States pay while Red States reap tons in ("welfare"? ) while the Red States brag about how 'murrican Self-Reliant they are. Anybody have those numbers?

So we all remember how ABBUTT's grid in Texas went bust and Carnival CRUZ became Cancun CRUZ, and yet the Texas wingnuts bragged about how their grid is SEPARATE from the rest of the country, how they are the very model of Rugged Individualism and don't want to be hooked up to the national grid because that would be Woke Wussiness and Welfare Queenie and they don't need anything from anybody, and how all the Texas low income, Medicaid deprived people there will continue to get the customary negligible help from Texas, on a par with the bottom states of Alabama and Mississippi.

So lookee here, around June 29 the news somehow escaped notice that because of BIDEN's Infrastructure law, Texas will get $60M for improving the Texas grid. Not only was there no encouraging "thank you" heard from Texas wingnuts, but the news somehow escaped all notice at all. Oh, and the old news was that Texas had a $32.7 BILLION surplus in time for this year's legislature budgeteering. But somehow Texas Rugged Individualism brooks no leeway in not providing for the common good.

Oh, and look, the $60M federal funds will be at the disposal and delegation of State officials, which in Texas means all-Wingnuts - what could possibly go wrong?!

*********QUOTE******


.... The U.S. Department of Energy announced Thursday that it will award the funds so that Texas’ power grid might better withstand extreme weather events. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law created the grant program. ....

State emergency officials will develop parameters for how to use the money. The funds could go toward programs such as trimming trees around power lines or improving how equipment functions in extreme heat or cold, for example.

The (Texas Division of Energy Management) did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Grid resilience has been top of mind for Texans since the 2021 winter storm forced power grid operators to call for electricity cuts to millions in the state. Hundreds of people died as the freezing weather took hold and residents could no longer heat their homes. ....

https://www.texastribune.org/2023/03/13/texas-budget-surplus/#:~:text=Texas'%20%2432.7%20billion%20surplus%20is,the%20budgets%20of%2024%20states.


Texas’ surplus is bigger than the entire budget of many other states.
Texas’ $32.7 billion surplus is about the size of the budget of South Carolina. It’s larger than the budgets of 24 states. ....

********UNQUOTE****

I've been giving it a chance, same as with the KARDASHIANs and Celebrity Apprentice for a couple of seasons, because I want to know what people are talking about and to have my own take on things.

For his regular show I've gone against the headwind here of calling him a sell-out and favoring wingnuts and his criticizing Libs because we Libs are known for looking inward to identify strategy flaws and correct them. Besides in his defense because, despite hosting wingnuts, he usually stands them down.

*** With the (unscripted?) "Random," he has come across as *STALE* - harping on how he got cancelled for Politically Incorrect for saying the terrorists were courageous, and irritating about how he defines "freedom" as able to refuse the vaccinations and masks, but more stale and fuddy duddy about how he says Libs are unthinking and just kneejerk in "obedience" (wearing masks OUTSIDE). Repeat/repeat/repeat how he loves Johnny CARSON, who was the BEST, and how things used to be great - sounding very much like MAGA.

Instead of being his erstwhile semblance of "cutting edge," he sounds like "get off of my yard."

*** But I saw a YouTube of him with ROGAN, and he seemed to be IN LOVE, intimidated by ROGAN's physicality and submitting to ROGAN's dominance in being "open" to wingnuts, "free speech" doncherknow.

Over the years his claim to fame has been how Libertarian he is to (Free Love?) regarding women of whatever ideology and race, yet I saw him being VERY uncomfortable with Leslie JONES, who guested as very OPEN and EQUAL with him, not kissing up to him, and he was very uncomfortable with her.

Then he demands that the guests smoke pot and drink. Some don't do it and he acts shocked. And with the ones he kisses up to, like he did on ROGAN's show, he gets all giddy and tells them he wants them to go for a Vegas weekend with him. The other one who stood up to him was Kris JENNER, who is nothing if not experienced at dealing with immature underlings. She didn't do the pot/alcohol thing, talked like an adult to him like Leslie JONES, and let his Vegas overture just die in the air.

It also was in Korea before that.

LST = Landing Ship Tank, colloquially a.k.a., "large slow target," (top?) speed 10 knots. About the length of a football field, an empty/hollow tube below like a warehouse, meant for carrying tanks, bulldozers, troops. Flat bottomed, able to enter rivers. The flat bottom meant it didn't "cut" through waves, would BOUNCE off a wave, the hull lifting into the air and vibrating like a tuning fork, and then SLAMMING down onto the surface until hitting the next big wave. Known to break in half, from being a long empty/hollow "tube." They would be (purposely) crashed into the shore ("beached" ), with the "bow doors" then being opened and a ramp being lowered to unload the bulldozers, troops, cargo supplies (via forklifts and pallets).

So after my first 7 months on board up and down a gigantic river carrying supplies from Saigon to an Army base at Can Tho, we were given 3 weeks of R&R in the Philippines (with a stop in Hong Kong). On the way back we went through a terrific/horrific storm for a couple of days. USN says things have to keep going on, so we had to keep our regular shifts while bouncing along skeered shitless, with the ladders ("stairs" ) being straight up and down and climbing up meant being paralyzed by the pull of gravity until a leg at a time got freed up.

When it was over, came gorgeous weather, sun, and calm. The "captain" (actually a Lieutenant for a small ship, 250 crew) exhibited one of the two times, during my year, of noblesse oblige by granting us "Holiday Routine" (no work except for basic maintenance), and the crew spread out to sunbathe on the deck and the Captain sent down from Officers' (secret) stockpile of ice cold oranges. Somebody had a cassette playing and as we lounged along, we were in dreamland to the strains of The Doors' "The Crystal Ship."

********QUOTE*******

https://www.usni.org/magazines/naval-history-magazine/1990/april/lst-large-slow-target
....

*****UNQUOTE*******

First name, Eduardo. Surname's pronounced: ver-ASS-te-ghee.

First, let's see his mug:

Beefcake versions readily available, also with all popes and wingnut leaders of several countries (maybe he's just a climber? ) .

Out of central casting, as Drumpf says, and somehow "worked" in the Drumpf mob outfit White House, supposedly as a bridge to Hispanics.

In his yoot, allegedly in his barrio he was a toy for elder molestors for pay

Later, in his early 20s, allegedly, he was boytoy with Ricky MARTIN. Claims to be "celibate" except for masturbation, despite rumors of liaisons with tons of celebs and politically powerful wingnuts. Never mentioning known sexploits amid rumors of orgies with seminarians, only-catholics, non-caths need not apply.

Later, he was, allegedly (with pics), something going on with President PENA-Nieto (pics on "air force-1" of Mexico).

*** Past several years, he's been a severe "catholic" (think, Mel GIBSON) and hawking for pay "catholic" events/retreats.

He joined the Drumpf regime, as a figurehead "Hispanic" and shenanigans.

Went to John Paul II on bended knee with church pervert Marcial MARCIEL, founder/exploiter of "Legion of Christ". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcial_Maciel

Runs an alleged money scam outfit of "catholic" rosary "reverence" for cash.

*** NOW, has a movie out about child trafficking with CAVIESAL and - say-it-ain't-so Mira SORVINO. 30 seconds of the trailer shows mawkish melodrama that is supposed to tug heart strings. In interviews he claims that all boy molesters are only-Gay.

Oh, didn't mention gawd told him to run for president of Mexico - viva Mexico!


********AM leaving more research to the estimable DUers.

Bald head behind JP II's hand is MACIEL:


Equal opportunity for Francis: