Initech

Initech's Journal

April 25, 2018

Top 10 Conservative Idiots #4-15: We Are Both Dragon Energy Edition

Top 10 Conservative Idiots #4-15: We Are Both Dragon Energy Edition

Welcome back to the Top 10 Conservative Idiots! 15 minutes with us can save an average of 15% or more on your car insurance! Can we talk about the city of Philadelphia for a minute? Sure they’re still celebrating that glorious Super Bowl victory in which they kicked Tom Brady’s ass. And when they celebrate, they celebrate big. But when they lose, they also lose in grand fashion. And if I say if you know you’re going to lose, why not lose big? And that’s exactly what Philadelphia did when their NHL team, the Flyers, did when they got swept by the Pittsburgh Penguins - again. Look, I get it – losing sucks and especially when you lose to the same team all the time. I’m an Angels fan, we lose to the Red Sox and Yankees all the fucking time. I’m also a Ducks fan – we just came off the worst playoff showing in probably team history. But you know what we don’t do? We don’t throw trash on the ice or the field after we lose. You know what else we don’t do? Use the opposing team’s faces in our city’s urinals. So that happened. Both of these things actually happened – you can look them up on Google. Yeah can we show that picture? Seriously guys! I mean this isn’t a Blues Brothers concert – don’t throw your beer cups and other trash on the stage. Take it out the way a regular team does – fire the coach during the off season! Yeah that will show him not to lose a championship again! Of course that doesn’t mean that they won’t hire a new guy who’s the same or worse. But really Philly, you guys need to grow the fuck up when you lose and take it like the rest of us! Yeah you got spoiled a bit there with the Eagles and with Villanova. But you want all the championships, apparently. I said ALL!!! OK enough of the intro – we got a lot of idiocy to get to this week. But first John Oliver is back and he discusses Iran Deal done with a State Department under Trump:

Holy shit was there a lot of racism this week! And things are going to get real dark real fast. That said in the first slot this week we’re going to bring back “How Is This Still A Thing” and this week we’re going to ask: Neo Nazism, how is this still a thing? Taking the #2 slot this week is Sean Hannity. Yes, the reigning king of the deplorables has had his worst week ever after being outed as Michael Cohen’s mysterious third client. In the number 3 slot is our old buddy Alex Jones. People have finally had enough of his false flag bullshit, he’s getting called out on it, and it’s spectacular. Taking the #4 seed is the guy who we call president, Donald J Trump, and we’ll tell you about how he combined his two favorite hobbies during the Barbara Bush funeral, in the tacky fashion you would expect from him. At number 5 is an all new edition of Top 10 Investigates (5) and this week we’re going deep inside a racist frat at Syracuse University but it turns out they’re not the only ones! At number 6 this week is of course our weekly sermon on all things holy, Holy Shit (6) and this week our resident pastor is going to call out his fellow religious nuts in their support of our unholy president. At number 7 is the Alt Right (7) who has strangely embraced Kanye West after he returned to Twitter this week after a long absence, and is well just Kanye being Kanye. At number 8 we’re going to talk about Focus On The Family. Yes, the James Dobson institution got called out by our good friends at Right Wing Watch for tax fraud, and well, the resulting feud is insane. In the number 9 (NEIN!!!!) slot this week we’ve got a new installment of People Are Dumb, because, well, people are dumb. Finally this week we’re live at the home of the Golden State Warriors, Oracle Arena, for Round 2 Week 2 of the Stupidest State contest! And this time it’s the Family Values championship – Alabama vs Missouri – will Missouri’s Cinderella story continue, or will Alabama move on to face their neighbors in the Flyover League championship? Plus continuing our punk month celebration we’ve got some live music for you from a little band I like to call “The Offspring”! Yay!!! And as always don’t forget the key!

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[font size="8"]Neo Nazism: How Is This Still A Thing?
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Time once again to ask:

This week: Neo Nazism. How is this still a thing? And not only is it a thing, it seems to be gaining in popularity thanks to the guy in the Kremlin. So this week there was a lot of racism in the news – and none of it is good. In fact, it’s the opposite of good. And not only do we want to know how this is still a thing, we also want to know how the Nazi party is still a thing. Yes, you heard that correctly – the Nazi party is still a thing.

Neo-Nazis held a swastika burning following a white supremacist rally in the city of Newnan, Georgia, on Saturday.

Photographer Spencer Platt captured the scene for Getty Images. His pictures show a massing burning swastika and an othala rune – a pagan symbol that was used by some elements of the Third Reich.

One image shows dozens of people giving Nazi salutes in front of a burning swastika that appears to be 12 to 18 feet tall.

According to Platt and local news reports, the white supremacist group gathered in Draketown, Georgia, about 50 miles from Newnan after the protest.
http://time.com/5249811/neo-nazis-burn-swastika-georgia/

So yes we have actual Nazis marching on American soil now. Have they learned nothing from history? Apparently not. We fought an entire war to keep Nazis out of America. Now they're socially acceptable. In fact they have learned less than nothing. In fact – the state of Georgia actually has laws on the books that protect Nazi protesting.

The neo-Nazis were running late, so the counterprotesters began without them, lining the streets of Newnan, Ga., on Saturday afternoon.

The target of their counterprotest was the National Socialist Movement, the neo-Nazis who had planned a public rally. But things quickly went awry for the counterprotesters who were wearing masks or bandannas that concealed their faces — a problem in the eyes of some police officers. About 2:30 p.m., police began to point their guns at a crowd of the anti-racism protesters gathered on a sidewalk.

“State law requires you to remove your masks right now,” one SWAT officer told the crowd, according to video footage from the scene. “You will do it right now or you will be arrested.”

Within minutes, several counterprotesters were in handcuffs. Video footage from the scene showed SWAT officers pulling some counterprotesters off the curb and throwing them to the ground. One man wearing a bandanna over his face was arrested as counterprotesters chanted, “Hands up, don’t shoot!” The officers continued to yell, “Remove your masks!”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2018/04/23/georgia-police-invoke-anti-mask-law-made-for-kkk-to-arrest-racism-protesters/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.e04c0f7fc3ef

So let’s get this straight – counter protesters wearing masks – not OK. But neo Nazis marching on American soil? It’s “protected speech”! But at the neo Nazi rally, there were apparently more protestors than counter protesters.

A neo-Nazi rally outside of Atlanta on Saturday drew only a few participants and did not last very long.

But the event still upended Newnan, Georgia, a city of about 38,000, for the afternoon as downtown shops closed and counterprotesters gathered. Hasco Craver, the assistant city manager, said more than 700 law enforcement officers from 42 agencies were present.

Members of the National Socialist Movement, a white nationalist organization that has been labeled a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, gained a permit last month for a rally from 3 to 5 p.m. at a park. Organizers estimated the rally could draw 50 to 100 people, city officials said.

Their plans called to mind a rally of white nationalists in Charlottesville, Virginia, in August that spun out of control, with demonstrators and counterprotesters clashing in the streets. An Ohio man, described by police as a Nazi sympathizer, drove his car through a crowd of pedestrians, killing one woman and injuring at least 19 others.
http://www.thecourierexpress.com/news/state/few-white-nationalists-turn-out-for-georgia-rally/article_858bda08-58b1-5c32-a39b-f51386fb25e5.html

Yes, ha ha indeed. But in fact, white supremacy has become meta, and what seems like a Chappelle’s Show sketch come to life, there really is a black white supremacist out there!

Bryan Sharpe, who uses the moniker “Hotep Jesus” online, has acquired overnight support from right-wing media, but on the author page linked to his Twitter account, Sharpe, who is black, has aligned himself with the racist alt-right movement, expressed anti-Semitic beliefs and argued that “black culture is sure to create nothing but failure.”

On Sunday, Sharpe entered a Starbucks coffee shop to demand a free drink in response to outrage after two men were arrested at a Starbucks in Philadelphia after a manager called the police. The men were reportedly waiting for a business associate to arrive, did not order drinks, and had refused to leave when asked. In response, Starbuck announced it would close 8,000 stores in the United States for a day for racial-bias training.

Since Sharpe posted the video, it has been shared by conservative media sites like Drudge Report, Infowars, Independent Journal Review, TheBlaze, talk radio host Rush Limbaugh, WorldNetDaily, and Milo Yiannopoulous’ site Dangerous. Conservative commentators boosted the video because they believe it proved, as right-wing writer Ian Miles Cheong states, “the foolishness of Starbucks’ virtue signaling and white guilt.”
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/right-wing-media-promote-an-anti-semitic-extremist-to-mock-starbucks-controversy/

Yes that is real. That is a thing. Oh and the guy who leads a real life Alt Right fight club, the Proud Boys, has a message for those that dare stand in his path. You know – like a James Bond villain who is on the radio.

Gavin McInnes, the CRTV host who heads up a freakish boy’s club recently identified as a hate group, told viewers that he blamed women “voting with their hearts” for “illegals and Muslims” that murder people in the United States.

Last night on his show, McInnes claimed that conservatives “need to protect the left from themselves” because liberals are “so bad at anything but the patriarchy.” McInnes tried to make his case by turning to a story recently shared by University of Denver law professor Nancy Leong about a predatory Uber driver who told her he was going to take her to a hotel against her will—but not before McInnes noted that he thought Leong was “insanely hot” and rated her attractiveness.

McInnes presumed that the Uber driver who endangered Leong was an immigrant. He then used that assumption to put the blame for Leong’s experience on women who vote in favor of immigrant rights.

“Immigrants, mass immigration, that’s women voting, voting with their hearts, feelings—‘They just want a place to stay. They just want a place to crash.’—so they bring in illegals and Muslims and these Uber drivers end up killing people in New York and they tried to kill her,” McInnes said.
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/gavin-mcinnes-women-voting-with-their-hearts-to-blame-for-illegals-and-muslims-that-murder/

Except it isn’t. But there is some good news out there, is that Neo Nazis like Milo Yiannopolous are getting shut down wherever they go. What a time to be alive!

Conservative writer and provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos was forced to leave a bar in New York City Saturday after a crowd chanted “Nazi scum get out.”

Videos show the crowd repeatedly chanting the phrase while the former Breitbart News editor is seen standing in the corner of the bar. He left the bar soon afterward.

The videos identify the chanting group as members of the Democratic Socialists of America.
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/384392-milo-yiannopoulos-shouted-out-of-nyc-bar-by-crowd-chanting-nazi

There you have it. One group of socialists heckling another group of socialists. That’s enough to make you ask – neo Nazism:

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[font size="8"]Sean Hannity
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So the king of the deplorables, Sean Hannity, may have had his worst week ever. Last week it was revealed that Trump’s lawyer – Michael Cohen – was a very high paid lawyer with a very limited clientele. And it was then revealed that Michael Cohen’s mysterious third client was revealed to be Trump’s personal megaphone, Sean Hannity. Yes, it’s all come full circle now! We know that Fox News talks directly to Trump because they know he watches 24 hours a day. So what was he up to?

Fox News anchor Sean Hannity had a bad week.

Last Monday, a lawyer representing Donald Trump’s personal attorney, Michael Cohen, said that Hannity was one of Cohen’s three clients. Cohen is under investigation in relation to a payment he reportedly made to adult film star Stormy Daniels on behalf of then-candidate Trump. Hannity denied (kind of) that he’d retained Cohen’s services, but that hasn’t stopped people from taking a closer look at his financial dealings, which have proven to be more extensive and complicated than previously known. Here’s what we know so far.

1. He is linked to at least 20 shell companies

According to documents reviewed by The Guardian, Hannity bought real estate through more than 20 shell companies registered in Georgia. A shell company is a vehicle used to hold assets and can help beneficiaries remain anonymous. They are not in themselves illegal, though they are sometimes used to conduct illegal activities such as tax evasion. There is no indication that Hannity is engaged in any illegal practices, but he is the hidden owner behind at least some of the 20 companies through which he has bought property. In his case, it appears the shell companies were used to limit his liabilities in the real estate deals in question. In the last 10 years, the companies have spent $90 million on 870 homes in seven U.S. states.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/what-we-know-about-sean-hannitys-shell-companies-and-why-it-matters/ar-AAwdKrt?ocid=spartandhp

Damn straight! So come on, Hannity, what are you hiding with those foreclosed homes? Come on, all cards are on the table! Show us your poker face, damn it!

Following a report that contends he bought property with government assistance and then failed to disclose it, conservative commentator Sean Hannity on Monday said it was merely the "latest fake news attack."

"It is ironic that I am being attacked for investing my personal money in communities that badly need such investment and in which, I am sure, those attacking me have not invested their money," Hannity said in a statement. "The fact is, there are investments that I do not individually select, control or know the details about; except that obviously I believe in putting my money to work in communities that otherwise struggle to receive such support."

After the Fox News host last week was named as a client of Trump's personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, the Guardian on Sunday reported that records link Hannity to a group of more than 20 shell companies. Those companies, registered in Georgia, spent at least $90 million on more than 870 homes in the past 10 years.

The most controversial of those purchases: Hannity reportedly bought two large apartment complexes in Georgia, and the purchases were funded with mortgages obtained with help from the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2018/04/23/sean-hannity-calls-out-guardian-report-shell-companies-ironic-am-being-attacked-inv/542317002/

Of course he’s going to deny it! Just go be a nice little conservative there and deny you did that thing you did when there’s evidence that proves you did it. Because that’s what conservatives do! It’s fake news, folks! Fake news!!! OK Hannity we’re calling it. All cards laid out on the table! What hand have you got?

Fox News host Sean Hannity is linked to a group of shell companies that have spent $90 million buying hundreds of homes across the U.S through the help of foreclosures and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), The Guardian reported Sunday.

More than 870 homes in seven different states have been purchased over the past decade, ranging from large mansions to rentals for low-income families, according to the newspaper.

For some of the mortgages, Hannity reportedly obtained funding from HUD under the National Housing Act loan program, which was first guaranteed under the Obama administration.

HUD recently increased Hannity’s original $17.9 million mortgage for purchases in Georgia by an additional $5 million, records obtained by the Guardian show.

Hannity did not disclose his cooperation with the department when he had HUD Secretary Ben Carson on his show last June, The Guardian noted.
http://thehill.com/homenews/media/384366-hannity-hud-shell-companies-report

Yeah that sounds about right! So what are you hiding Hannity? That you used the government assistance you railed against every night on Fox News? Or that he swindled people out of their money under shady circumstances? Or how about all of the above?

When Sean Hannity was named in court this week as a client of Donald Trump’s embattled legal fixer Michael Cohen, the Fox News host insisted their discussions had been limited to the subject of buying property.

“I’ve said many times on my radio show: I hate the stock market, I prefer real estate. Michael knows real estate,” Hannity said on television, a few hours after the dramatic hearing in Manhattan, where Cohen is under criminal investigation.

Hannity’s chosen investment strategy is confirmed by thousands of pages of public records reviewed by the Guardian, which detail a real estate portfolio of remarkable scale that has not previously been reported.
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2018/apr/22/michael-cohen-sean-hannity-property-real-estate-ben-carson-hud

[font size="8"]Alex Jones
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You know if Sean Hannity is the king of the deplorables, then that must make Alex Jones the proverbial court jester. They keep him around because his insane ramblings make them seem slightly less crazy. The key word there is “slightly”. But Alex might have had his worst month ever. It turns out that he might not be exactly what one would call “truthful” – and I know that’s shocking! So the parents of the children who were murdered during the horrible Sandy Hook massacre have finally had enough of his calling every shooting a “false flag” bullshit.

Three parents whose children were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012 filed a defamation lawsuit on Tuesday against Alex Jones, the right-wing conspiracy theorist who has long claimed the shooting was "completely fake" and a "giant hoax" perpetrated by opponents of the Second Amendment.

Mr. Jones, the popular radio show host who also operates the conspiracy theory website Infowars, has questioned for years whether 20 children and six adults died in the school massacre in Newtown, Conn. To bolster his false claims, he often cites news reports and video clips from the hours after the shooting that turned out to be incomplete or based on wrong information.

Soon after they buried their children, many Sandy Hook parents started to come under fierce attack by conspiracy theorists who have said they are actors in an elaborate scheme to enact stricter gun control laws. The fringe theories still thrive in small forums online but have reached a far greater audience through Mr. Jones, the most vocal propagator.
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/17/sandy-hook-parents-sue-alex-jones-for-defamation.html

So the tables are finally turning on Alex Jones’ conspiracy theory and supplement hawking empire – and it’s not playing out like that TV show Empire either. Mmmmmm hmmmmmm!!!! But leave it to old Alex to play the victim here!

Alex Jones has claimed he himself is being defamed following lawsuits brought on by the parents of children killed in the Sandy Hook school shooting.

The InfoWars host is being sued for defamation by Neil Heslin, the father of 6-year-old victim Jesse Heslin, and Leonard Pozner and Veronique De La Rosa, who lost their six-year-old son Noah, for $1 million each over his conspiracy theories and “vicious lies” surrounding the 2012 massacre in Newtown, Connecticut.

Responding to the lawsuits on his show, the controversial broadcaster denied that he ever believed the shooting was faked and 20 children were not killed there.

“You’re allowed to question things in America, that’s not defamation,” Jones said. “But what is defamation is to file lawsuits that say I said things I didn’t say and then put me and my whole family through the ringer and lie about us and hold us up against dead children and say basically ‘we hate their families, we hate the children.' It’s almost like I’ve murdered the children and that’s not what happened.”
http://www.newsweek.com/infowars-alex-jones-claims-defamation-over-sandy-hook-lawsuits-892336

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Oh come on, even Putin is giving you the facepalm. I mean come on, Alex, don’t play dumb here – you spent years slandering the victims of this horrifying massacre and you sent your idiot followers on a quest to out pedophiles at a DC pizza parlor because reasons. And of course like a good conservative, Alex is rolling back his previous statements.

Talk show host Alex Jones has responded to a lawsuit from the parents of two children killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Conn. Jones has repeatedly claimed on his website, Infowars, that the shooting was staged.

In a YouTube video, Jones said he now believes the shooting really happened, and that the families are being used by the Democratic Party and the news media. Jones invited the parents onto his program for a discussion about guns.

In the past, Jones has repeatedly claimed the shooting was staged and that parents of children who died in the shooting are actors.

The plaintiffs are the parents of Jesse Heslin and Noah Pozner, who were among the 20 students and six educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School who died in the shooting. They’re seeking at least $1 million from Jones. The lawsuit alleges Jones’s misinformation led conspiracy theorists to make death threats against the families of shooting victims.
http://wshu.org/post/alex-jones-backtracking-now-says-sandy-hook-shooting-did-happen#stream/0

But it’s good to know that Alex hasn’t learned anything from this lesson. I mean after all when you’re dealing with a guy who has no morals and no filter, how do you go about doing some damage? Well when you see the kind of products that are available in the Infowars Store, it’s going to take a lot. And this might be one of his worst. I mean after all, you got to get kids started on racism when they’re young!

Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones is selling a “limited edition” of a children’s book that depicts President Donald Trump as a cartoon bunny named Thump. The book promotes white nationalist imagery and makes light of the video of Trump admitting to sexually assaulting women and the national outrage that followed.

On one page that Jones showed, the text read, “Thump found friends in strange places and in all shapes and sizes. Such as the frogs that croaked ‘KEK!’ They were full of surprises!”

The line is a reference to Pepe the Frog, an originally innocuous cartoon that was transformed into a talisman for white nationalism during the 2016 presidential campaign.

The book also references a video released in October 2016 that showed Trump bragging about sexually assaulting women. Thump reads, “Thump was caught talking of grabbing all things pusillanimous. Protesters even made pink hats: their ire was unanimous.”
https://www.mediamatters.org/blog/2018/01/04/alex-jones-hawking-pro-trump-children-s-book-indoctrinates-them-white-nationalism/218970

Yeah so that is real. That is a product that really exists! And speaking of bad products we’ve pointed out on this program about how Alex Jones’ Infowars and Gwenyth Paltrow’s GOOP aren’t really that different when you think about it. But the good news is that the Sandy Hook parents aren’t taking this shit lightly. I really can’t wait until Alex is preaching to an empty jail cell or cardboard box.

The father of a slain Sandy Hook Elementary student has a message for Alex Jones: He’s ready to take him down.

“To say that Sandy Hook was a hoax and it never happened, its an outright lie,” Neil Heslin told NBC’s Today Show host Megyn Kelly Thursday. “It’s a total disrespect to myself, my son, the individuals who lost their lives that day. It extends so much further than that. It’s disrespect to the community, to law enforcement, to the first responders. It’s not right. And it needs to stop.”

Heslin’s six-year-old son was gunned down in December 2012 in Newtown, Connecticut, along with 19 other small children and six adults.

Jones has peddled a false narrative for years on his website, Infowars, claiming the shooting was a hoax. In lawsuits filed Monday and first reported by HuffPost, Heslin and two other parents are now suing Jones for defamation. The parents are each seeking more than $1 million in damages.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/sandy-hook-father-to-alex-jones-im-not-backing-down_us_5ad8d925e4b029ebe0221e59

[font size="8"]Donald Trump
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Since Trump is only taking up one entry this week we have to squeeze as much out of it as we can but before we get into the meat of this entry I have to bring up one story that caught our attention over the weekend. Remember a couple of weeks ago when Trump called Jeff Sessions “Mr. Magoo” at a closed door meeting? Well, just like Alex Jones, it turns out that he didn’t say that thing that everyone knows that he said.

President Donald Trump is denying he ever called Attorney General Jeff Sessions "Mr. Magoo," saying he knows nothing about the bumbling cartoon character.

In a weekend tweet, the president said the Washington Post story referring to the "Mr. Magoo" comment was nothing but "fake" news. Trump also denies calling Deputy Attorney General Jay Rosenstein "Mr. Peepers," a reference to a television characters from the 1950s.

The Washington Post reported in February on the "Mr. Magoo" nickname for Sessions, a one-time Trump ally turned frequent target of presidential criticism.
http://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2018/04/trump_denies_calling_ag_jeff_s.html

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Fake news! You know what sir? Don’t give my regards to Mr. Magoo! Now let’s get into what I originally wanted to talk about - past presidents – let’s talk about them! Remember when we used to have a respectable leader that we could get behind? Yeah I miss those times. Even the republicans used to elect presidents who at one point or another, were respectable. But in 2016 all of those rules got thrown out the window. So you might be wondering where I’m going with this – take a look at our current president. He’s not even welcome at state funerals!

Washington (CNN)President Donald Trump will not attend Saturday's funeral service for former first lady Barbara Bush, the White House said in a statement Thursday, citing the desire to "avoid disruptions" and out of respect for her family and friends.

"First Lady Melania Trump will attend the memorial service for Barbara Bush this Saturday on behalf of the First Family. To avoid disruptions due to added security, and out of respect for the Bush Family and friends attending the service, President Trump will not attend," the White House said in a statement.

President Trump offered his condolences to the Bush family Wednesday as he began remarks at a joint news conference with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
Barbara Bush, Trump said, was a "wonderful, wonderful person" and "a titan in American life."

"Her strength and toughness really embodied the spirit of our country," Trump said at Mar-a-Lago. "She was a woman of proud patriotism and profound faith."
https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/19/politics/barbara-bush-funeral-donald-trump/index.html

Yes – stay classy, Trump! So we went from a president who actually attends state funerals to one who live tweets them! Talk about a huge drop off in quality. So what did Trump do when Melania was at Barbara Bush’s funeral? Only his favorite hobby. Which he’s not very good at.

Sometimes a picture is worth a zillion words. The viral group photograph from former first lady Barbara Bush’s funeral speaks volumes about the state of our democracy, poignantly illustrating what we have lost and must at all costs regain.

George H.W. Bush is front and center in his wheelchair. Behind him, left to right, we see Laura and George W. Bush, Bill and Hillary Clinton, Barack and Michelle Obama, and Melania Trump. It is an extraordinary portrait of power, continuity, legacy, civility and mutual respect — a remarkable tableau that is made possible only by President Trump’s absence. Imagine him in the picture, puffed-up and no doubt scowling, trying desperately to make himself the center of attention. It’s a good thing he decided to spend the weekend playing golf and writing angry tweets at Mar-a-Lago instead.

I can’t look at that photo without pondering how destructive Trump has been — and how much work and goodwill it will take to put the pieces together again after he’s gone.

The elder Bush pursued conservative policies. Clinton was center-left. The younger Bush took the country back to the right. Obama pulled it to the left. These shifts seemed big and important at the time, but they pale in comparison with the disruption Trump has wrought.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/trump-golfed-instead-of-going-to-barbara-bushs-funeral-that-was-a-good-thing/2018/04/23/a5930974-4731-11e8-8b5a-3b1697adcc2a_story.html?utm_term=.3b04139581ae

But then Trump followed that up with his second favorite hobby – which he is good at – live tweeting! I mean come on, you got to admit he is good at that. Only Donald J. Trump can topple whole governments with a single tweet, like a really fucked up Superman!

Personalities on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Monday criticized President Trump for tweeting on Saturday during the funeral for former first lady Barbara Bush.

Co-host Mika Brzezinski called Trump’s tweets “especially insulting to the United States of America” on a day “the world said goodbye to Barbara Bush.”

Panelist Mike Barnicle referenced a photo that went viral after the funeral showing current first lady Melania Trump; former Presidents George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama; and former first ladies Hillary Clinton, Laura Bush and Michelle Obama.

“It’s a reminder of who we used to be as a government and as people who participated in politics,” Barnicle said.
http://thehill.com/homenews/media/384403-morning-joe-host-trump-tweeting-during-barbara-bush-funeral-was-insulting-to

Oh come on Joe! You’re just now realizing how bad Trump’s tweets are? There are lists out there compiling everything he’s insulted since he joined in 2009. And Trump insults your show while insulting whatever they talked about on Fox News! His insults are like fine wines – you have to let them ferment to get the most enjoyment out of them. But yeah even at Trump’s funeral, he was still outclassed by the last guy!

A lot has been said in regard to the chemistry between US President Donald Trump and his wife Melania Trump. On numerous occasions, the FLOTUS was said to have looked ‘not happy’ with her husband and it became a talk of the Twitterverse. From swatting away his hands in public and awkward handshakes, to him leaving her during the inaugural dance alone to wave at the crowd — Twitterati haven’t missed a thing. So, naturally, when on Saturday, they spotted the FLOTUS sitting alongside Barack Obama and smiling — it got everyone talking.

The Obamas, Clintons along with the Bush family and Melania Trump attended the funeral of Barbara Bush in Houston, Texas. Although a solemn service, during the event, she was seen engaging in a conversation with Barack Obama and Tweeple ruled, “it’s the happiest they have ever seen her”.

Former US first lady Barbara Bush, the wife of former President George HW Bush, passed away at age 92 on Tuesday (April 17). Although FLOTUS attended the ceremony, POTUS Trump gave it a miss, to ‘avoid disruptions’.
http://indianexpress.com/article/trending/trending-globally/photo-of-melania-trump-similing-with-barack-obama-at-barbara-bushs-funeral-takes-twitter-by-storm-5148446/

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

Fraternities. And fraternity life. Made famous by movies like Animal House and more recently flicks like Neighbors. But these days fraternities aren’t the funny university play houses like you see in those comedy movies. They have taken a much more dark and far more sinister turn. So for this story we’re heading to upstate New York to Syracuse University and a seedy underbelly that is hindering Greek life on the campus.

SYRACUSE, NY (WRVO) – Everything is on the table, according to Syracuse University officials, including expulsion, for the 18 students involved in racist videos by the Theta Tau fraternity. SU officials said it will be a fair but expeditious disciplinary process.

Syracuse University Chancellor Kent Syverud said Monday while he believes in freedom of speech, the behavior in the videos involves conduct, as well as speech.

“That conduct is the reason this is part of the student judicial process,” Syveryud said.

Each case is being reviewed separately. The students will get the chance to tell their side of the story. A university conduct board will make a decision and that can be appealed. Dolan Evanovich, the senior vice president of Enrollment and the Student Experience, said their code of conduct covers behavior, harassment and hazing.

“There are multiple offenses that could be brought into play,” Evanovich said. “There are multiple codes that have been violated and each of them have a disciplinary process associated with it, and a disciplinary result associated with it. We will be reviewing each individual case with each individual student who has committed an individual code of conduct violation.”
https://wskg.org/news/syracuse-students-involved-in-racist-frat-videos-could-face-expulsion/

But this isn’t Animal House – yes this fraternity is under something far worse than Double Secret Probation. Most likely Quadruple Secret Probation. Hazing has become a huge problem in the last 10 years mainly for how out of control its’ become. And the Theta Taus are no different. In fact its’ a problem that has become so out of control that what choice do universities have?

Deadly alcohol overdoses, sexual assault, hazing and racism — that’s at least partly what you get when joining a frat. The latest case at Syracuse (N.Y.) University of racism should be the icing on the cake for colleges and universities to ban them.

Is there really no other way to achieve camaraderie in college than to join a fraternity where you leave your good decision-making skills at the door?

Syracuse has not gone far enough in the school’s reaction to a pair of lewd videos created by more than a dozen members of the Theta Tau fraternity.

Eighteen students were pulled “from academic participation” after two videos surfaced showing them in offensive skits using racist, homophobic and anti-Semitic language, as well as mocking individuals with disabilities.
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/columnists/jaclyn_cashman/2018/04/fraternities_actions_deserve_removal_from_all_college

There wont be any Jack Daniels chugging in this fraternity. But they did issue an apology but that was apparently too little too late for the university deans. Well, we can’t blame them for channeling their inner Dean Wormer.

SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- Syracuse University permanently expelled the Theta Tau fraternity over an offensive video that surfaced this past week.

The university announced the expulsion on its website Saturday afternoon, three days after officials learned of the video, which shows brothers of the professional engineering fraternity acting out a racist, anti-Semitic oath.

The video, first published by The Daily Orange student newspaper, depicts pledges of the fraternity performing a "roast" of their brothers. Fraternity leaders said in an apology the "skit" was intended as a parody of a conservative, Republican brother.

In the performance, brothers take an oath to "Tri Kappa": "I solemnly swear to have hatred in my heart for n*ggers, sp*cs and most importantly the f*ckin' k*kes."
http://www.syracuse.com/su-news/index.ssf/2018/04/syracuse_university_expels_theta_tau_frat_over_racist_sexist_video.html

Well the grades don’t matter anymore but let this serve as a lesson to fraternities – don’t pull this shit again, and this isn’t funny. But this seems to be a growing problem stemming across the country and deans don’t know how to deal with it. Take a look at what is happening at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.

Only a day after a spiraling incidents of racism pushed Cal Poly to suspend the majority of its Greek organizations, Syracuse University in New York suspended one of its own fraternities for a racist video showing members imitating sex acts and using racial slurs for black, Jewish and Hispanic people.

The video, which was originally published by campus newspaper The Daily Orange, appears to show a scripted performance by members of Theta Tau, a professional engineering fraternity.

At one point in the video, two men repeat a racial slur-filled oath swearing to "always have hatred in my heart for n-----s, sp-cs, and most importantly ... the f---in' k-kes."
http://www.sanluisobispo.com/news/local/education/article209358079.html

Could the problem be that we as a society live in a racist country that has become immune to this sort of behavior? The answer is probably. The problem isn’t just with these kids but with society in general and we have failed to teach our young generation about the consequences of their racism. And there were also incidents at Penn State and Rutgers.

Videos containing a racial slur uttered repeatedly by two white women — one purportedly a Penn State University student and the other a William Paterson University student — drew ire on social media and are under investigation by both schools.

The universities in separate statements shared Monday condemned the two videos, as did the international headquarters of the sorority Delta Phi Epsilon. A statement by the organization said it had removed one of its members over the incident.

The videos surfaced over the weekend, and both used the same derogatory word for black people.

In one, a woman in an elevator wearing blue-and-white clothing with Penn State's name and the Nittany Lion logo raises her right hand, as if to sing into a microphone.
http://www.post-gazette.com/news/education/2018/04/23/Penn-State-racist-race-slur-college-higher-education-sorority-higher-education/stories/201804230177

Yes they are finished. But the problem isn’t just with one fraternity – it’s with the whole system. That is it for Top 10 Investigates. Good day.

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

My fair congregation, we have a sinner among us! But that sinner does not sit within the walls of this house. No! He sits in the walls of the grandest house of them all – the White House! Yes, for we have elected a man who is the ultimate sinner! No one has committed more sins than he has! We are going to find out why the holiest among us love this man even though he represents the worst among us! You know people give Fox News a lot of shit for being state run television, but if you really want to see what that’s like, look no further than the Trinity Broadcast Network!

HENDERSONVILLE, Tenn. — The Music City campus of the Trinity Broadcasting Network is about a half-hour drive from Music City itself, in a placid Nashville suburb on a bend in the Cumberland River where the main road through town is called the Johnny Cash Parkway. TBN, America’s largest Christian television network, acquired the complex in 1994 after the death of country singer Conway Twitty, who had operated it as a sprawling tourist attraction he called Twitty City. Last year, TBN renovated Twitty’s personal auditorium, leveling the floor, adding large neon signs and a faux-brick backdrop under the original Corinthian columns. The resulting TV set looks like an urban streetscape framed by a Greek temple.

On a February night, in his large office just above the auditorium, the network’s biggest star is making last-minute plans for what’s shaping up to be a busy evening. First, Mike Huckabee fields some logistics for dinner at his nearby condo, where he will host three couples who won the privilege in a charity auction. He takes a call from the actor Jon Voight, who tells Huckabee he is free to do an interview about Israel. (Huckabee leaves the next day for Jerusalem, where TBN opened another studio a few years ago.) He checks with one of his producers about an old “Laugh-In” clip Huckabee had requested. “We aren’t paying $6,500 for it, good gosh!” he laughs when he hears the cost of the snippet. “Did they point a gun at your head and wear a ski mask when you asked that?” (They decide not to use it.)

Two hours later, Huckabee walks onto a stage in front of more than 200 people and kicks off a taping of his hourlong cable show. For nearly all of its 45-year history, Trinity’s programming had been strictly religious, a mix of evangelical preachers, gospel music and a flagship talk show called “Praise the Lord” (now just “Praise”). But Huckabee’s show is saturated with politics. The former two-term governor of Arkansas and one-time Iowa caucus winner opens with a disquisition on the Fourth Amendment (“Our system is designed to make sure the government is your servant”) leading into a pre-taped interview with Senator Rand Paul. It’s followed by an appearance by Kayleigh McEnany, the Republican National Committee spokeswoman and a frequent campaign surrogate for Donald Trump. The crowd roars with laughter when Huckabee promises he won’t go on for as long as Nancy Pelosi, a reference to her recent filibuster-style speech on the House floor. “Can you imagine Nancy Pelosi for eight hours?” he asks, chuckling. “NO!” the audience shouts back.
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/04/22/trump-christian-evangelical-conservatives-television-tbn-cbn-218008

Why yes, it does say that in our Bible sir! Yes, so Christian conservatives are apparently more horrified at the thought of having Nancy Pelosi, but seem perfectly OK with what Donald Trump did with a magazine behind closed doors! Yes I realize I am violating the laws as put forth by this great country by talking about the guy that we call president, but all of those laws were thrown out the window! And Nancy Pelosi is not the only Congress person they are targeting!

Religious Right leaders are waging an outrageously dishonest smear campaign against Sen. Cory Booker. Their distortions and ludicrous lies would be shocking if they were not part of a long pattern of conservative Christian leaders smearing their political opponents as enemies of faith and freedom.

This episode started with the Senate confirmation hearing for secretary of state nominee Mike Pompeo. Booker raised important questions about Pompeo’s long and close association with promoters of anti-Muslim bigotry and conspiracy theories.

When Pompeo basically refused to address that record, Booker moved on to Pompeo’s opposition to legal equality for LGBTQ people, and his embrace of harshly anti-LGBTQ rhetoric. And when Pompeo again tried to dismiss those concerns, Booker asked him pointedly about whether he considered homosexuality a perversion.

This was in the context, Booker made clear, of the fact that the secretary of state represents U.S. values abroad, and his question had a clear policy implication. During the Obama administration, the U.S. government was a powerful advocate for the lives and rights of LGBTQ people in places where they face brutality from their own governments. Booker wanted to know if the U.S. would abandon those vulnerable people in order to placate Religious Right groups that have resented and resisted American pro-equality advocacy.
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/anatomy-of-a-smear-the-religious-rights-dishonest-attack-on-senator-cory-booker/

Yes because if there’s one thing JAYSUS did it’s promote bigotry. Because bigotry is a SIN!!! It is the most egregious of sins!!!! And it will take you to a very dark place!!! Can I get an amen? But my fair congregation, the reason why the holiest among us trust the unholiest among us is a truly disturbing one, and very complex! It has many layers and the good LAWRD wouldn’t recommend peeling them back! But we will!

Charisma, the Trump-supporting Pentecostal media operation, is promoting video of a sermon based in part on Republican operative and “historian” David Barton’s book “Original Intent.” It’s the kind of sermon that should warm the hearts of Religious Right leaders like Barton and David Lane, who complain that pastors aren’t preaching Christian-nation politics aggressively enough.

Charisma circulated a video excerpt of a sermon by Shane Idleman speaking at Westside Christian Fellowship in Leona Valley, California. “I’m so sick of this politically correct culture that can’t offend anyone—except believers,” said Idleman, charging that the culture is trying to silence the church and “the voice of truth.”

Waving his Bible, he said, “I’ll give you this when you pry it out of my cold, dead hands.”

“The pulpit sets the tone for the nation, not Fox News and CNN,” he said, arguing that Americans should look to the Bible for answers about immigration, guns, gay marriage, and other issues. But, he said, “they” want to “silence the pulpit. ‘You just do your little church stuff, let us control the world. Let us control the United States.’”
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/charisma-promotes-sermon-touting-david-bartons-christian-nation-history/

Funny, I don’t remember that part in the Bible where it said to shoot first and ask questions later! And speaking of shooting first and asking questions later, to understand the unholy one, you must understand the people who support him! Because if you attack the thing they love most (and its’ not their children) then you attack them!

Earlier this month, right-wing pastor, radio host, and former Constitution Party presidential nominee Chuck Baldwin declared that it was a “biblical requirement” for every Christian to own an assault-style rifle and that those who don’t are “worse than a heathen.” Shortly after making that statement, Baldwin delivered an entire sermon on the subject at his Liberty Fellowship church in Montana, during which he asserted that any effort at gun reform “is an attack from hell itself.”

“I tell you the truth,” Baldwin said. “Satan and his minions have, in their minds, determined that now is the time to attack the God-given duty and liberty of people to defend themselves and to take away from us our ability to do that. This is a concerted attack, not from liberal Democrats and neocon Republicans, this is an attack from hell itself.”

Baldwin insisted that the requirement to own an assault rifle for self-defense is “a God-given law,” therefore “any attack on this law is an attack on God’s law” that is no different than the government declaring that Christian churches cannot preach the gospel or baptize converts or support missionary efforts.
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/chuck-baldwin-gun-reform-is-an-attack-from-hell-itself/

Yes the good LAWRD is speechless! But here’s why the unholy one speaks to the holy ones, despite that the good LAWRD warned of this in the good book. He sayeth “the dark one will pose as a creature of light” and truer words have never been spoken! Which is why the unholy one surrounds himself with holy ones!

Ralph Drollinger, who runs fundamentalist Bible studies for dozens of members of Congress and President Trump’s Cabinet every week, said in a fundraising letter this month that his group “has been blessed by God with extraordinary growth beyond our wildest imaginings in foreign nations across the globe and most notably in former Soviet Bloc countries.”

As RWW has reported, Drollinger’s Capitol Ministries is dedicated to teaching public officials a very conservative take on the Bible. Drollinger teaches that “the absolutely critical preeminent duty of the Church in an institutionally separated society” is “to convert the soul and disciple—Christianize—the leaders of the State and its citizenry.” In his recent letter he cites a biblical charge to evangelize kings and writes, “We reach leaders not because their souls are more precious to God, but because their influence upon the world is so great.”

Drollinger says he and Trump share “a Biblical understanding of the issues” and that Trump sends him handwritten notes praising his weekly written Bible studies. “I just love the guy,” he says. U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue, among Drollinger’s students in the Cabinet, was the headliner at a major Capitol Ministries fundraising event in February.

We noted last fall that Drollinger is aggressively expanding his operations both at the local government level in the U.S. and in national capitals around the world. His April 4 letter includes some details about the latter:
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/group-that-runs-fundamentalist-bible-studies-for-cabinet-congress-growing-beyond-our-wildest-imaginings-globally/

There you have it, the reason why the holiest among us love the unholy one is that he speaks their language! Mass has ended may you go in peace! That’s it this week for:

[font size="8"]The Alt Right
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The tribal mentality that has taken over this country has reached epic proportions. And no one does it better than the Alt Right. Or alt lite. Or Diet Reduced Calorie Sugar Free Alt Lite (now with 50% fewer cucks!). Excuse me a minute. This week, Kanye West returns to Twitter and well, he hasn’t really changed that much. Except for the fact that he’s tweeting out some bizarre shit and going full Alt Right.

Kanye West was having a great weekend, until he wasn’t. One moment, the rapper-producer-entrepreneur was dispensing pearls of pseudo-philosophy on Twitter to the retweets of adoring observers. The next, many of those same admirers had turned to denouncing him instead. Oh, and he had become an alt-right darling. Whatever West is going through at the moment, the response to his Twitter spree reveals more about the people who have fled from him — and those who’ve flocked to him, too.

West’s fortunes reversed when he expressed his admiration on Saturday for red-pill YouTuber Candace Owens, an African American Donald Trump supporter known for, among other things, referring to Black Lives Matter protesters as “whiny toddlers, pretending to be oppressed for attention.” The following day, he tweeted nine videos from Scott Adams, who gained his fame first for creating the cartoon “Dilbert” and second for proclaiming that rape is a “natural instinct” of men and society a “virtual prison for men’s natural desires.”

It’s easy to cast West as just another lost man seduced by the far right’s promise to provide a sense of purpose. All that pseudo-philosophy does suggest a preoccupation with the sort of existential problems figures such as psychologist Jordan Peterson, who has become a surprise lifestyle guru, claim they can solve. It’s also possible to connect West’s eccentric behavior on Twitter — this isn’t the first time his forays into politics have discomfited some fans — to the mental-health struggles that led to his 2017 hospitalization.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/act-four/wp/2018/04/24/the-alt-right-loves-kanye-west-now-that-says-more-about-them-than-him/?utm_term=.db8bc7a417ca

It’s about ideas, bro!!! And information!!! Yeah that’s my best Kanye impression here. But I love that somehow the most racist people on the planet can find solace in people who they would normally despise in IRL but like Trump he says what they want to hear. There’s more to it than that. Kanye has definitely drank the Alt Right Kool Aid.

Add this to the growing list of things we did not anticipate a Donald Trump administration would usher in: Kanye West, alt-right icon.

Kanye’s road from Jay-Z’s beat-maker to right-wing internet hero has been an unexpected one. He was once known as the artist who mainstreamed conscious rapping with songs like “All Falls Down” and “Diamonds Are Forever,” the man who once declared “Bush doesn’t care about black people” live on NBC.

But Kanye shocked fans when he met with the incoming president at Trump Tower in 2016. He reviled fans when he took one of his trademark concert rants to declare that he would’ve voted for Trump in the election had he cast a ballot.

West retreated from the spotlight for some time after the blowback he faced for his Trump comments. But now he’s very much back on online, and has apparently been spending a little too much time in the annals of YouTube.
https://www.mediaite.com/online/kanye-west-endorses-youtube-personality-who-regularly-appears-on-infowars/

That sounds about right. But politics does make for strange bedfellows. Remember that guy who used to occupy the nightly 8:00 slot on Fox News – Bill O’Reilly? Anyone remember that guy? Well he defends Kanye after spending decades destroying and undermining rap music.

In case you weren’t aware, nothing makes any sense anymore. Only in a world where Donald Trump is the President, could we imagine Bill O’Reilly and Kanye West batting for the same ideological team. The conservative news pundit took West’s defense, claiming the rapper was being attacked by “American Stalinists” following the rapper’s tweet, which lauded über-right, Trumpette media personality Candace Owens.

<snip>

Anyway, O’Reilly went off on people who were calling Kanye out, with a post on his website. “But the American Stalinist movement has no use for democracy, and that is a growing danger to this country… This mob mentality has gone far beyond political correctness. In the past year, America has witnessed a frightening number of Stalinist-type attacks on free expression. If you disagree with Black Lives Matter, for example, you are shut down as a bigot. If you suggest due process to the Me Too Movement, you are a misogynist. If you wear a sombrero as part of a Halloween costume at Yale, you are denigrating a minority group and therefore must be punished. In addition, the totalitarians believe that religious Americans including clergy have no right to opt out of funding abortions. If you protest that your tax dollars are being used for fetus termination or birth control, you are a human rights violator, not worthy of being heard,” he wrote. O’Reilly also contends that “ALL Caucasians are being branded as racists simply because of their skin color.” Now find the nearest wall, and bang your head into it.
http://www.complex.com/music/2018/04/bill-oreilly-defends-kanye-west-calls-critics-american-stalinists

Ooooooooooooh, does this mean that I’m an American Stalinist? What does that even mean, O’Reilly? Oh and by the way I saw the American Stalinists at the Troubadour last week – awesome band. But getting back on topic, it does seem like Kanye is a Trump supporter. Someone who definitely has more money than brains apparently. I wish I had that problem!

If you thought Kanye West’s tweet over the weekend recommending the ideas of right-wing activist Candace Owens was a fluke, well, prepare to think again. Early Monday afternoon, West tweeted snippets of a 22-minute video by Scott Adams, the erstwhile “Dilbert” cartoonist and would-be pro-Trump thought leader, in which Adams framed West’s praise of Owens as heralding the dawn of a golden age. West’s tweet had, according to Adams, “altered reality”: Suddenly, the fans of Owens, a black woman who’s made a career for herself calling Black Lives Matter protesters whiners, were exposed to the possibility that Kanye West was one of them, and West’s fans were doing a double take as well. To Adams and West alike, it was clear that cracks in the walls of our “mental prisons” had emerged: Existence was on the verge of shifting to a higher plane, and Kanye West was the catalyst of its transcendence.

Anyone online has something to promote; usually, their own selves. Adams’s video, which suggests, among other things, that the Civil War was resolved within the heads of white people and that the civil-rights movement was a matter of tinkering with laws, concludes with a shout-out to his Patreon; West, meanwhile, has several forthcoming albums to promote. They have, for now, different followings on different scales. Adams has roughly 228,000 Twitter followers; West, 15 million and rising. But the ultimate social media self-promoter seems to live inside their heads. Though West excerpted only the portions of Adams’s video having to do with West himself, a quick listen to the original finds it filled with fulsome praise for Donald Trump, unconventional thinker par excellence. Trump’s genius, according to Adams, lies in his ability to break out of the mentalities we take for granted. Trump wasn’t a politician, but he became the president; he talked about immigration despite the puny-minded finding his talk racist; he’s in the midst of trade wars and negotiating with North Korea when no one said either could be done. And Kanye, for his part, is still onboard the Trump train: A recent phone argument with Ebro saw West avowing to the Hot 97 radio personality, “I love Donald Trump.”
http://www.vulture.com/2018/04/kanye-west-raves-his-way-into-trump-worship.html

But at least Kanye took the time out to audition to be Trump's BFF. We are both dragon energy!!! Ideas!!! Information!!! Being the best!!!

https://twitter.com/kanyewest/status/989179757651574784

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[font size="8"]Focus On The Family
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I have to hand it to our good friends at Right Wing Watch – the Top 10 would not exist without the content you guys put out every day calling out right wing bigots for their actions. And I love it when the bigots get pissed when they get called on their bullshit. Take for example our buddy Dave Daubenmire:

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Miliions? Right, Dave! Keep telling yourself that! That obviously very poorly photoshopped stadium backdrop you stand in front of for every video is going wild! Well when people fight back against Right Wing Watch, they fight back harder. So the James Dobson institution Focus On The Family got called out for declaring themselves a church.

Focus on the Family told the IRS in 2016 that it needed to be recognized as a church in order to avoid the Affordable Care Act’s mandate on insurance coverage for contraception and other regulations, according to documents that we have obtained from the IRS.

We reported in February that Focus on the Family, the influential Religious Right organization founded by James Dobson, is now classified as a church by the IRS, meaning that it does not have to file publicly available tax documents like most nonprofits do. In response to our request, the IRS sent us copies of its correspondence with Focus about the change in its status.

Those documents reveal that the IRS was initially skeptical of Focus’ claims but gave in after Focus’ lawyers insisted that the organization meets most of the tax agency’s criteria for houses of worship and that even questioning their status as a church could violate the First Amendment.

In May 2016, Focus wrote to the IRS requesting reclassification as a church, claiming that for “its entire existence, Focus on the Family has been a religious tax-exempt organization with many of the essential elements of a church.” It warned of the “adverse impact” it would face if the request was denied, namely that it would not be able to take advantage of “a number of religious exemptions” in law that “apply only to churches and church organizations.”
http://www.wisconsingazette.com/views/here-s-how-the-anti-gay-focus-on-the-family/article_145f8a3c-4253-11e8-9d51-77b3323b6c22.html

Yeah BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! Funny I’ve read and studied the 1st Amendment, I can’t find the part where it says “applies only to churches”! So rather than actually pay their taxes, Focus On The Family simply declared themselves a church, because, Jesus. So Right Wing Watch gets involved and calls them out on it:

Focus on the Family is defending its decision to have the Internal Revenue Service officially reclassify the Christian nonprofit as a "church," denouncing the efforts of some to ascribe "sinister" intentions to the change.

An article published in February by the liberal group People for the American Way's Right Wing Watch site documenting Focus on the Family's reclassification has been getting extensive attention in recent weeks.

The piece noted that the Colorado-based conservative Christian organization has long identified as a non-church 501(c)(3) nonprofit. By 2015 fiscal year, it had been relabeled a "church."

Paul Batura, vice president of communications for Focus on the Family, told The Christian Post that the news stories on their reclassification as a church give "sinister and fictitious motives to our application."
https://www.christianpost.com/news/focus-on-the-family-defends-irs-classification-as-a-church-says-its-meant-to-protect-donors-223194/

Yeah that’s about what it is like. Well anyway here’s how the whole thing went down and it’s utterly spectacular when Christians get called out on their bullshit. And Focus On The Family is an organization that does nothing but peddle bullshit. So when Right Wing Watch called them out on it, here’s what happened!

Focus on the Family, the behemoth Religious Right organization founded by James Dobson, has declared itself to be a church, thereby avoiding a requirement that it file public tax documents, according to IRS records and a document available on the organization’s website.

Focus on the Family filed as a non-church 501(c)(3) nonprofit as recently as the 2014 fiscal year, submitting to the IRS a publicly available Form 990 as most tax-exempt nonprofits are required to do. But when the group posted a Form 990 for the 2015 fiscal year on its website—dated October 26, 2017, and reporting a massive budget of $89 million—it was emblazoned with the message “Not required to file and not filed with the IRS. Not for public inspection.”

On the part of the form on which it is required to identify the reason for its public charity status, the group indicates that it is a “church, convention of churches or association of churches.” In an “explanation of church status,” the organization states that while it hasn’t filed with the IRS because the IRS has told it that it’s “not required” to do so, it would “post a pro-forma 990 on our website and make copies available to donors.”
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/focus-on-the-family-has-declared-itself-a-church-avoiding-irs-disclosure-rules/

Yeah they get the message about as accurately as Cartman does. This is what happens when you don’t teach a society how to read! So here’s how FOTF responded:

Focus on the Family told the IRS in 2016 that it needed to be recognized as a church in order to avoid the Affordable Care Act’s mandate on insurance coverage for contraception and other regulations, according to documents that we have obtained from the IRS.

We reported in February that Focus on the Family, the influential Religious Right organization founded by James Dobson, is now classified as a church by the IRS, meaning that it does not have to file publicly available tax documents like most nonprofits do. In response to our request, the IRS sent us copies of its correspondence with Focus about the change in its status.

Those documents reveal that the IRS was initially skeptical of Focus’ claims but gave in after Focus’ lawyers insisted that the organization meets most of the tax agency’s criteria for houses of worship and that even questioning their status as a church could violate the First Amendment.

In May 2016, Focus wrote to the IRS requesting reclassification as a church, claiming that for “its entire existence, Focus on the Family has been a religious tax-exempt organization with many of the essential elements of a church.” It warned of the “adverse impact” it would face if the request was denied, namely that it would not be able to take advantage of “a number of religious exemptions” in law that “apply only to churches and church organizations.”
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/heres-how-focus-on-the-family-convinced-the-irs-to-call-it-a-church/

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

So of course you know by now that people are people, and people are dumb. So I want to start with this story out of Argentina. Where the university of Buenos Aires was experimenting on mice using THC, the drug that is found in the cannabis plant. And here’s the thing. If you’re studying the affects of addiction on animals, maybe you should keep your stash of what you’re experimenting with locked up. Because when it goes missing, you have no one to blame but your own stupidity.

What a ratty thing to do ― blaming mice for 1,000 pounds of missing marijuana.

That’s the dubious excuse eight police officers in Pilar, Argentina, gave after a half-ton of pot disappeared from a police warehouse.

About 13,000 pounds of bud were supposed to be in storage, but a recent police inspection revealed 1,000 pounds were missing, according to The Guardian.

Javer Specia, the city’s former police commissioner, was ordered to explain the shortfall to a judge. He and three subordinates told the skeptical jurist the missing marijuana must have been eaten by mice.

Experts, however, sent that theory up in smoke, saying rodents wouldn’t confuse marijuana with food. In the off-chance they did, the mice likely would have died from the dope, and investigators would have found the cannabis-laden corpses, according to USA Today.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/mice-marijuana-argentina-skeptical-judge_us_5acf8ca6e4b016a07e9a3036

We’re not low! Next in People Are Dumb, while on the subject of stoned animals, you know one animal you should never get stoned? Raccoons! But maybe it would make raccoons slightly less insane than they already are? Or more, I’m not sure how that would work.

People call the emergency services for all kinds of unusual reasons, but this one is definitely unique.

A woman turned up at a fire station in Indianapolis in the middle of the night saying her pet needed help - but it wasn't the obvious reason of a cat being stuck in a tree.

She said her pet raccoon had been exposed to a large amount of cannabis.

Wayne Township Fire Captain Mike Pruitt said his team were "scratching their heads" after the incident.
http://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-43810733

Stoned Raccoons by the way, I hear they were great at Coachella. Next up, what is a “People Are Dumb” segment without a trip to our favorite state – Florida? And I love stupid criminal stories. And this one might be one of my favorites.

A Florida Man arrested early Thursday on a drunk driving charge was in his underwear behind the wheel, according to cops who noted that the suspect’s drawers were imprinted with the word “breathalyzer” and the phrase “blow here,” which was “near his genitals.”

After spotting a Dodge pickup truck weaving on a Port St. Lucie highway around 3 AM, a cop pulled the vehicle over outside a Best Western hotel, according to an arrest affidavit.

The driver, Daryle Lee Campbell, was handcuffed due to his “furtive actions and for officer safety.” Campbell, 54, had been spotted throwing a “black object” from his truck, though the item was not recovered by police.

During questioning, Campbell claimed that he was en route to help a friend who had a flat tire. Campbell--barefoot and in his underwear--seemed jittery, was unsteady on his feet, and appeared “under the influence of a stimulant,” the affidavit notes. After Campbell declined to perform field sobriety tests, he was arrested on a DUI charge.
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/drunk/breathalyer-boxer-man-278593

What’s that? How dare you suggest that he’s wearing a MAGA hat, sir! But yeah he probably was. Next up we’re going north to Florida’s next door neighbors for another great stupid criminal story.

Georgia police have identified the man who burglarized a GameStop store while wearing the world’s worst disguise--the plastic wrapping used to package water bottles.

Cops report that Kerry Hammond Jr. is wanted in connection with last Friday’s burglary of the video game store in St. Marys, a city in Georgia’s southeastern corner.

Investigators allege that the 22-year-old Hammond sought to hide his identity by wearing the plastic wrapping around his head. But Hammond--who is 6’ 1” and 275 pounds, did a poor job obscuring his face, as seen in video surveillance stills released by police. A distinctive tattoo on Hammond’s right forearm can also be seen in GameStop security video.

Hammond, last spotted driving a white 2006 Ford Taurus, has two other active felony warrants charging him with burglary and criminal damage to property.
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/buster/dumbass/big-dasani-being-sought-765903

Yeah it’s kind of like the scene in Big Trouble. And Georgia is next to Florida. Next up – another pothead story, and hey just in time for Super Troopers 2 (which is hilarious BTW), this one seems like it could have been lifted right out of the original Super Troopers!

April 19 (UPI) -- Police in Texas said they might have "set a record" when a recent arrest saw the seizure of the "longest joint ever."

The Fort Bend County Constable's Office Pct. 3 tweeted a photo of a rolled marijuana cigarette measuring 8 inches long.

"We think we set a record. Looooongest joint ever! Great work from Deputy Ochoa on this arrest. The subject attempted to destroy evidence as well," the tweet said.

The "joint" appears to actually be a blunt, as it was rolled with brown tobacco paper instead of thinner cigarette paper.
https://www.upi.com/https:/www.upi.com/Odd_News/2018/04/19/Texas-police-share-photo-of-longest-joint-ever/3361524145148/

Finally this week for People Are Dumb – we’re going to end on a cartoonish note involving New York City mayor Bill DeBlasio. And it seems that the rats in New York City have officially become self aware. This could be lifted right out of an episode of “Itchy & Scratchy” on the Simpsons.

One wily rat made NYCHA look like a Mickey Mouse operation Tuesday in Brooklyn.

Mayor de Blasio and workers from the Housing Authority were outwitted by the rodent during a press event at a Bushwick project when it triumphantly escaped their clutches as they attempted to demonstrate a new high-tech extermination technique.

Like a scene from “Tom and Jerry,” workers fruitlessly tried to stomp on the agile rodent when it scurried from a hole in which dry ice had been dropped in an effort to control the furry pests.

One worker even swung a shovel at the plucky rat in a comical whack-a-mole routine.

But no one could lay a hand on the tiny animal, which dodged all the would-be rat-slayers at the Bushwick Houses and scampered to safety at a playground on Humboldt Street.

https://nypost.com/2018/04/17/de-blasios-rat-killing-demonstration-is-a-complete-disaster/

That’s it this week for:

[font size="8"]Stupidest State Contest: Round 2 Week 2
[br] [/font] [br]

16 states will enter, but only one will be crowned the new Top 10 Conservative Idiots Stupidest State!

Welcome back! We are live in the Bay Area at the home of the Golden State Warriors, Oracle Arena, for the Family Values championship! Last week – we were at HP Pavilion for the Gun Nut Conference Championship in which Florida utterly routed last year’s Flyover League champions Montana in a venerable duel to the death. This week – it’s the Family Values championship. And only one state will move on to compete with Florida while the other state will go home. The reigning king of this conference – Alabama is taking on a brilliant and promising new challenger in Missouri. Will Missouri prevail and continue their Cinderella story or will Alabama dominate and keep their winning streak alive? Let’s find out!

[font size="6"]Family Values Championship: Alabama Vs Missouri [/font]

[font size="4"]Alabama[/font]

So last year we spent an almost exhausting amount of time covering the near Senate election of an actual pedophile – Roy Moore – to the senate. Yes, that guy could have been an actual Senator Of The United States. Just the thought of that alone is enough to make one cringe. But when it comes to the subject of Family Values, Alabama *OWNS* this category and it’s for an extremely good reason – they have one of the highest concentrations of churches in the entire country. If you want to see a preview of what this country would look like under a totalitarian religious fascist state, look no further than Alabama! You know they just can’t let the past go.

Alabama doesn't need "folks in Washington" or "out-of-state liberals" instructing the state on what it should do with Confederate monuments, Gov. Kay Ivey said Tuesday.

Ivey, during a campaign appearance in Foley, defended a new campaign ad released earlier in the day that touted the Alabama Memorial Preservation Act of 2017, which she signed into law less than 11 months ago.

"I believe the people agreed with that decision and support in protecting our historical monuments," Ivey said after speaking at a Baldwin County Young Republicans function. Her appearance also occurred one day before the Reckon by AL.com GOP governor's debate at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Lyric Fine Arts Theatre in Birmingham. Ivey said she does not plan to attend.

"We can't and shouldn't even try to charge or erase or tear down our history. We must learn from our history," Ivey said.

Read more: http://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2018/04/post_164.html

Yeah that sounds about right! So what does that have to do with the subject of family values, you might ask? Well I answer you – well the Confederacy was all about hate and slavery. Something which again, Alabama refuses to change with the times!

In 1968, shortly after gunning down Martin Luther King Jr. at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, James Earl Ray was running from police, who were, he believed, right on his tail. He was looking for an escape route — a place where people might not be too upset by his crime.

He turned his Mustang towards Alabama.

Ray believed Alabamians would be sympathetic towards him, that then-Gov. George Wallace — whose hateful segregationist rhetoric had inspired Ray in the first place — would protect him, even pardon him, for killing King.

Alabama was his safe haven.

This has been the perpetual image of Alabama for decades now.

Read more: http://www.alreporter.com/2018/04/18/opinion-alabama-remains-a-safe-haven-for-hate/

Yes that. I think it’s always funny when liberals get called out for needing safe spaces but no one needs safe spaces more than straight white conservative males. And if you need any examples of the kind of people Alabama elects, they elect the most racist, sexist, backwoods, anti family values people they can find. And here’s one such example:

Many travelers along Interstate 65 have been wondering for more than a year what happened to the iconic sign with the image of a red-tailed Satan and the message "Go To Church or the Devil Will Get You." Whether passing motorists agreed with its sentiment, the sign was a well-known landmark that many will be happy to know is being replaced.

The sign, erected decades ago by W.S. "Bill" Newell, was toppled by a storm in fall of 2016. It was located on Newell's private property near the Verbena exit beside the north-bound lanes. Newell was known as a Christian and a patriot who enjoyed providing the message for motorists to contemplate.

Newell's sons, Sam and Keith, took over maintenance of the sign upon their father's death in 2009. A new signboard has been erected, this time closer to a picturesque mill waterwheel so that it is more visible to those traveling north, according to Althea Newell, wife of Sam Newell. The signboard is currently covered with blank, white paper.
http://www.al.com/living/index.ssf/2018/01/new_go_to_church_or_the_devil.html#incart_river_home

Yeah believe or die. That always works well. I mean come on, this is a state that threw their own governor in jail and wrongly convicted him. And then they prevent any candidates with sensible issues from running because reasons!

ATHENS, Ala. -- A gay businessman and one-time police officer who is married to another man says GOP leaders in a north Alabama county refused to let him run for sheriff after a review that included questions about his sexual orientation.

Jason White told the News-Courier of Athens that members of the Limestone County Republican Executive Committee voted Tuesday to deny his bid for sheriff in a decision he believes is linked to the fact he is gay.

"I think it is obvious," he said.

White, 40, said he now plans to run for sheriff as an independent, and Republicans must find another candidate if they want an opponent for longtime incumbent Mike Blakely, a Democrat.
http://www.heraldsun.com/news/nation-world/national/article196576344.html

[font size="4"]Missouri [/font]

The last time we visited Missouri last year they were involved in one of the biggest clusterfucks in the entire country – the Furgeson police shootings. And the resulting riots that happened. It’s one of the biggest fuck ups ever. But Missouri has an even darker and much more sinister underbelly to it, and it’s not found on the streets of small towns. No, the real evil in Missouri is found in those buildings with crosses marked on them. Missouri has some of the highest concentrations of church related crimes in the entire country. So here’s just how seedy Missouri’s underbelly is. They will protect the fetus but if its’ actually born?

Jay Riseman was sued for malpractice 13 times during a 15-year career as a physician and surgeon in Illinois before coming to practice in Kansas City.

According to court records, in one case he failed to remove a catheter from a 68-year-old patient who then got an infection and died. Another case alleged that an infant died after Riseman gave her too much pre-surgery laxative.

The Illinois medical licensing board disciplined Riseman multiple times for medical errors, but that record didn't follow him when he went to work at three of Kansas City's biggest medical institutions. To this day his Missouri license lists him as a physician in good standing with no negative marks.

Riseman was among 500 doctors who have been disciplined in one state but have a clean license in at least one other identified in an investigation recently published by the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel and the website MedPage Today. The investigation determined there's no reliable national repository of public information on physicians' licenses.

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/news/business/health-care/article205352034.html

Yeah BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! Missouri will protect doctors that have been banned from practicing in other states because, abortion. That is a stunning level of evil. And by the way, anyone know if Trump needs a surgeon general? I mean come on this is a state that allows churches to hand out liquor licenses:

Springfield City Code grants schools, parks, churches and places of worship veto power over liquor licenses within 200 feet.

That practice is technically unconstitutional and for years now liquor licenses have been presented to City Council so elected officials have the final word on approval or denial, according to City Attorney Frank Romines.

A new council bill would "clean up" City Code so it reflects that alcohol licenses are ultimately a council decision, Romines said.

It's part of an ongoing effort by the law department to update code provisions that are out-of-date or redundant, Romines said. The change is not in response to any specific request or complaint.

Read more: http://www.news-leader.com/story/news/local/ozarks/2017/11/19/power-veto-nearby-liquor-licenses-no-longer-belongs-schools-churches-parks/860477001/

Yeah someone needs to go tell them that. But if you want to know the caliber of person that Missouri elects, and why they deserve to be the Family Values champions – just look at their governor Eric Greitens, who may be one of the country’s worst!

Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens (R), responding to media reports, acknowledged Wednesday night that he was unfaithful to his wife “a few years ago” before being elected. But his lawyer denied sensational allegations aired by a local TV station that Greitens threatened to distribute naked photos he took of the woman with whom he was having a relationship if she ever said anything about it.

The woman, who has not been named publicly, was Greitens’s hair stylist, according to media reports confirmed by The Washington Post with a source familiar with the situation.

A joint statement posted Wednesday night by Greitens and his wife, Sheena, said in part that “a few years ago . . . there was a time when he was unfaithful in our marriage. This was a deeply personal mistake. Eric took responsibility, and we dealt with this together honestly and privately.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2018/01/11/missouri-gov-eric-greitens-admits-extramarital-affair-but-denies-reports-he-blackmailed-woman/?utm_term=.e8d8f417bd43

[font size="4"]And the winner is… [/font]

Oh man this was a solid matchup. Alabama and Missouri both brought their A game. Both teams went into a double over time with less than 30 seconds to go on the timer. Current score – 91 – 91. Will it be Floribama Shore or will Florida take on the Show Me State? And … it’s in!!!!! Missouri has won, they are celebrating on the court! Alabama is stunned, they are going home. Final score 94 – 91. Cut the net guys, you earned it!

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

We’re heading up north to the Pacific Northwest at the home of the Portland Trailblazers, Moda Center, for Round 2 Week 3 and this time it’s the Batshit Conference Championship! Will Kentucky prevail and head to the Final Four, or will Virginia bring their A game and continue their Cinderella story? Tune in to find out!

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

My next guest is a legendary punk rock band from Orange County, California. They are going on tour with our good friends 311 this year and you can see them coming to a city near you. Playing their classic song “Gone Away” from their album “Ixnay On The Hombre”, give it up for the Offspring!

See you next week!

Credits

Host: Initech
Top 10 Conservative Idiots Recorded In Front Of Live Audience At: City National Grove Of Anaheim, Anaheim, CA
Special Thanks To: City National Grove Management
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
The Offspring Appear Courtesy Of: Universal Music Group
Management: Initech Productions, CCC Management

Initech Productions: Yes, We Got The Memo

April 18, 2018

Top 10 Conservative Idiots #4-14: Debbie Does The Deep State Edition

Top 10 Conservative Idiots #4-14: Debbie Does The Deep State Edition

Welcome back to the Top 10 Conservative Idiots! 15 minutes with us can save an average of 15% or more on your car insurance! We are back everybody! So I want to talk about some music news to start with. First off – I can’t wait for the autobiography of Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers. And this is classic Peppers – his new autobiography is going to be titled “Acid For The Children”. And believe me, I bet Flea has some stories. And then there was Coachella. There were lots and lots of great things happening during the weekend. And some not as great. I love music as you know by the amount of bands and acts we’ve had on this show. And look in the age of “Me Too”, I might get some never ending shit for this, but do we really need pregnant women making sexy dance moves on stage? I’m looking at you, Cardi B. Yeah I think a whole lot of people were turned off by that. And can we talk about Cardi B for a minute? What is her appeal exactly? Her music is not that great, and she seems to be one of those “look at me” celebrities. Hey look at me, I’m 7 months pregnant and I can twerk on stage! Sorry but that ain’t sexy, Cardi. Some guys might get turned on by it. I mean shit, I’ve seen Porn Hub – there is some weird shit that gets posted on that site. But look as I’ve said before – this is a comedy show, not a horror movie. What? You can be pregnant and still be attractive! I look at it this way - there’s sexy and then there’s trying to be sexy, and Cardi B was trying to be sexy, and well, I would say don’t. Yes, I am ready to throw down on that sir. We’ve got 90 minutes here, I’ve got time to tangle! Yeah so I wasn’t exactly as impressed with Cardi B as some people are. OK enough of the intro. We got a lot of idiocy to get to – but first John Oliver is back and he uses tax day to explain very plainly how corporate America’s greed is screwing you over big time:

Taking the first slot this week of course is the guy who we currently call “president” and that is Donald J. Trump (1). When your ratings are in the toilet, what’s a guy who is obsessed with ratings supposed to do? I know! Send missiles to another country! With love. At number 2 this week is also the guy we call “president”, Donald Trump. So Caligula is going out golfing again, but this week, across the street from Mar-A-Shithole, Stormy Daniels is taking her show to the nearest strip club. Taking the third slot this week is Michael Cohen (3). Holy shit this is too damn good – Cohen’s mystery 3rd client has been revealed and it is too good. In the fourth slot is Congress V. Zuckerberg (4). Yeah the testimony between Congress and Mark Zuckerberg over how Facebook uses your data against you was a category 5 shit storm and we will cover the highlights from that. Taking the 5th slot is an all new installment of “Top 10 Investigates” and this week we’re going to take a look at all the things going on during tax day 2018. In the number 6 slot this week is of course our weekly sermon of all things holy, Holy Shit, and this week – our resident pastor is going to talk about the possibility of whether or not demons exist. At number 7 is a new installment of “This Fucking Guy” and this week we’re going to profile right wing billionaire Phil Anschutz, the owner of the Coachella festival. At number 8 is the Alt Right. So Alex Jones went off the deep end, while the Alt Right held a march in Boston – in the middle of a Monday afternoon. In the number 9 (NEIN!!!) slot we’ve got a new installment of “I Need A Drink” and this time we’re going to get drunk and discuss a documentary movie called “The King Of Kongs”. Would you be surprised to learn that the subject of the movie got busted for cheating? Well, it cant be that surprising. Finally this week it’s the start of the Elite 8 for our Stupidest State competition! This week we’re live from the home of the San Jose Sharks – HP Pavilion in San Jose – and it’s the Gun Nut Conference championship! This week – who will bring their big guns to the dance? Florida? Or will it be last year’s Flyover League champions Montana? Plus we’ve got some live music for you from Bay Area punk legends NOFX! And as always don’t forget the key!

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

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

So in case you’re living under a rock – or probably hiding under a rock – you know by now that the guy who we currently call president, Donald J Trump, created a fiery show of epic proportions that easily eclipsed the one happening on Saturday night in Indio. Look we get it – Assad is the bad guy here, and what he did is completely inexcusable. But of course with the real president of the United States – Vladimir Putin – pulling the strings, here’s what we get.

As President Trump basks in widespread approval for the U.S.-led missile strike aimed at Syrian chemical weapons installations, the White House still faces a quandary over U.S. policy toward that country's civil war — as well as some sharp questions about the president's war powers.

Trump has yet to articulate a long-term U.S. strategy for dealing with the grinding, multi-sided war in Syria, which has lasted more than seven years, killed hundreds of thousands and triggered an epic refugee crisis.

Only days before the missile attack, Trump had called for a rapid U.S. troop withdrawal from Syria, which critics said would yield control of the country to Russia and Iran, key allies of Syrian President Bashar Assad. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) was among those who said that Trump's words had "emboldened" Assad to use chemical weapons.

Now, in a turnabout, Trump is promising to keep troops in Syria, according to France's president. Trump may also slap new sanctions on Russian companies, according to Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.
http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-trump-syria-20180415-story.html

Yeah so that happened. And come on it’s Donald Trump! Of course he’s going to declare it a success. But if this isn’t a grave misuse of presidential war powers I don’t know what is! So of course here’s where it all went south.

President Donald Trump declared "mission accomplished" on Saturday after the U.S.-led predawn airstrikes in Syria dealt what Pentagon officials called a "very serious blow" at "the heart of the Syrian chemical weapons program."

While Syrian television reported that the nation's air defenses had responded to the strikes, "none of our aircraft or missiles in this operation were successfully engaged" by President Bashar al-Assad's regime, said Lt. Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, the director of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

"The Syrian response was remarkably ineffective," he told reporters Saturday morning.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/syria-airstrikes-trump-declares-mission-accomplished-after-hitting-weapons-targets-n866001

Gee, where I have heard that before? Oh I know! Only one of the biggest political fuckups in history!

Yeah so this is a case of “same shit, different year”. And once again a blunder that is probably going to get a whole lot of people killed is back in the news. And that might be a new one on the list of phrases future presidents should probably avoid.

If there was a new employee handbook for people who’d just obtained the position of “leader of the free world,” there would be some surefire entries in the section about presidential phrases to avoid:

“I am not a crook,” would be an easy add, for reasons both obvious and historical. So would “I did not have sexual relations with that woman.”

New hires would be discouraged from summing up economic policy stances with the phrase: “Read my lips. No new taxes.”

And then there is “Mission Accomplished”, the historically loaded phrase US President Donald Trump tweeted Saturday after US-led airstrikes in coordination with British and French forces that struck the “heart” of Syria’s chemical weapons network.

“A perfectly executed strike last night. Thank you to France and the United Kingdom for their wisdom and the power of their fine Military. Could not have had a better result. Mission Accomplished!” Trump tweeted.
http://www.scmp.com/news/world/middle-east/article/2141761/donald-trumps-mission-accomplished-tweet-about-syria-may-come

A perfectly executed strike! Nobody has better missiles than I do. Assad is a stupid loser. So yeah that happened. And not only is he defending it, he’s doubling down!

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Sunday defended his use of the phrase “Mission Accomplished” to describe a U.S.-led missile attack on Syria’s chemical weapons program, even as his aides stressed continuing U.S. troop involvement and plans for new economic sanctions against Russia for enabling the government of Bashar Assad.

Stepping up the pressure on Syria’s president, U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley indicated the sanctions to be announced Monday would be aimed at sending a message to Russia, which she said has blocked six attempts by the U.N. Security Council to make it easier to investigate the use of chemical weapons.

“Everyone is going to feel it at this point,” Haley said, warning of consequences for Assad’s foreign allies.
“The international community will not allow chemical weapons to come back into our everyday life,” she said. “The fact he was making this more normal and that Russia was covering this up, all that has got to stop.”

Trump tweeted Sunday that the strike was “perfectly carried out” and that “the only way the Fake News Media could demean was by my use of the term “Mission Accomplished.”” He added that he knew the media would “seize” on the phrase, but said it should be used often. “It is such a great Military term, it should be brought back,” he wrote.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/04/15/trump-defends-use-of-mission-accomplished-extends-sanctions/

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

Pop quiz hot shot! You’re the president of the United States and you just bombed the shit out of an Arab country! Where do you go to celebrate? Well if you’re Donald J Trump, you go to your favorite destination – Mar-A-Lago! For a few rounds of tax payer funded golf. By the way remember when Sean Hannity said this about presidents and golf?

Or when Trump said this?

But this week he’s going to have some unexpected company. That’s right – the strip club across the street from Mar-A-Shithole is going to be the home to a very special guest this week!

Stormy Daniels, who claims to have slept with a married President Donald Trump long before he successfully ran for the nation’s highest office, performed in a Florida burlesque show over the weekend—less than 5 miles away from the president’s famed "Winter White House," Mar-a-Lago.

Daniels, real name Stephanie Clifford, appeared at Ultra Gentleman’s Club in West Palm Beach, just a 10-minute drive from Trump’s estate and nestled right next door to Trump International Golf Club, The Palm Beach Post reported Sunday.

For Daniels, it was one of the many stops along her “Make America Horny Again” tour, an obvious reference to the president’s campaign mantra. She took the stage around 11:20 p.m., according to the Post, and was dressed like the superhero Wonder Woman.

Daniels was booked for the show in January, when reports about the $130,000 Daniels allegedly received from Trump's personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, began circulating. The club's manager, Stacy Saccal, said she was skeptical that Daniels's fame would last this long.
http://www.newsweek.com/stormy-performed-maralago-trump-887620

Really, Stacy? You’re surprised it would last this long? This is 2018 here, everyone is famous forever thanks to social media. I mean come on, Farrah Abraham is still famous because reasons. But I can’t wait for the porno of this one – “Make America Horny Again”. Or I may offer my own suggestion – “Debbie Does The Deep State”. Thank you! And we’ll get to Michael Cohen in a minute but even he’s feeling the effect of Stormy. Not in that way, sir!

Porn star Stormy Daniels turned a hotly anticipated court appearance by President Trump’s personal lawyer Michael Cohen into a three-ring circus on Monday, creating a media frenzy when she rolled up to the hallowed hall of justice in black stiletto heels.

Meanwhile, inside the Manhattan federal courthouse, the Cohen case took another twist when a mystery client of his was revealed to be Fox News Channel personality Sean Hannity.

Cohen had been ordered to appear in court after his own lawyers last week struggled to explain why records obtained in government raids on his office, home and hotel room should be shielded by attorney-client privilege — repeatedly failing to name any of his clients apart from Trump.

But Daniels, best known before her claim of sleeping with Trump for such XXX movies as “Big Busted Goddesses of Las Vegas” and “The Witches of Breastwick,” easily upstaged the man-of-the-hour as she strutted through a throng of photographers and news cameras outside the Pearl Street courthouse.
https://nypost.com/2018/04/16/how-cohens-day-in-court-turned-into-the-stormy-daniels-show/

Yeah great choice of music! Let’s get on the pony and ride! Whew!!!!! Is that really what we’ve reduced the presidency to – porn stars and golf? And come on, how can Trump be secluded? He’s still got his unsecured Android phone with him! Is this a polar vortex or a porno vortex? Hey o!!!

In the land of hanging chads and where the Cash Me Outside girl is a local celebrity, of course, a porn star and self-proclaimed former mistress of the president of the United States wouldn’t miss the opportunity for a drive-by burlesque show.

That it was within spitting distance of the Winter White House at Mar-a-Lago and the golf course that bears Donald Trump’s name, made Stormy Daniels’ stop on her “Make America Horny Again” tour a perfect fit in the bizarre news that regularly emanates out of Palm Beach County.

And so, as President Trump addressed the nation on U.S. bombs dropping on Syria on Friday, Stormy — her given name Stephanie Clifford — a few hours later solicited patrons at Ultra Gentlemen’s Club to slap dollars on her oiled-up body.
https://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/breaking-news/the-annals-weird-florida-stormy-and-trump-create-vortex/28SAK8gEXRwitNrMcumTzL/

Well, among other things there is that. You know what? Can I hear some more Pony? Yeah that’s my shit! And by the way if you’re in Miami and you’re thinking of going to see Make America Horny Again, and why wouldn’t you? My advice would be to get there early, I bet Stormy has some good opening acts!

The porn star who claims to have had sexual relations with President Donald Trump is just hours away from taking center stage at at Ultra Gentlemen’s Club in suburban West Palm Beach.

This stage is where controversial adult entertainer and porn star Stormy Daniels is set to perform, just a few miles away from Mar-a-Lago and Trump International Golf Club.

The club’s general manager says Daniels’ show is expected to attract 1,200 people during her four performances Friday and Saturday night.

The 39-year-old last performed in West Palm Beach in 2006, the same year she claims she had a one-night affair with the President.
http://cbs12.com/news/local/stormy-daniels-about-to-take-center-stage-in-west-palm-beach

[font size="8"]Michael Cohen
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When your attorney is a crook, how are you going to get out of this mess? I mean you know your situation is fucked when your attorneys have their own attorneys. Last week I called this phenomenon “attorney-ception”. It’s a trial within a trial within a trial. Well this week the concept of that was taken to insane new levels.

Michael Cohen, longtime personal attorney for President Donald Trump, on Monday showed up at U.S. District Court in lower Manhattan after skipping an initial Friday hearing.

Cohen is asking Judge Kimba Wood to bar prosecutors from getting the first look at client files seized from him by the FBI last week. A lawyer for the president, Joanna Hendon, on Sunday filed a motion asking the judge to grant the president the privilege of reviewing the documents first.

The hearings follow the April 9 raids, in which federal agents seized materials from Cohen's office, home, hotel room and electronic devices.

Both Cohen and Trump argue that they should be allowed to decide which of the documents should be permanently withheld because they are protected by attorney-client privilege.

U.S. attorneys pushed back against Cohen's request in a filing Friday, saying that "Cohen is in fact performing little to no legal work," and alleging that "zero" emails were exchanged between Cohen and Trump. Their assessment was based on already conducted searches of Cohen's email accounts which had not been reported before the court filing.
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/16/trump-lawyer-michael-cohen-in-court-with-porn-star-stormy-daniels.html

Seriously! Now Trump’s lawyers are appearing with Trump’s porn stars! I mean is there anyone who they aren’t in bed with? Both literally and figuratively? Oh but here’s my favorite part – he’s complaining about privacy! Cue the world’s tiniest violin!

President Trump’s personal lawyer said he is worried about the confidentiality of roughly three clients since he branched off from the Trump Organization in 2017 — including the president and beleaguered RNC fundraiser Elliott Broidy.

Michael Cohen, who is under investigation by Manhattan federal prosecutors and the FBI, made the disclosures in a filing Monday morning as part of his bid to block the feds from reviewing documents that might be protected by attorney-client privilege.

On Friday, Broidy, a Trump fundraiser, stepped down from his Republican National Committee post after he admitted that Cohen arranged $1.6 million in hush money to a former Playboy model whom the donor had impregnated.

“It is unfortunate that this personal matter between two consenting adults is the subject of national discussion just because of Michael Cohen’s involvement,” Broidy said in a statement.

Cohen declined to name the third client, saying that person has requested his name not be made public.
https://nypost.com/2018/04/16/michael-cohen-says-hes-worried-about-client-privacy-after-fbi-raid/

Dude, seriously, Mr. Cohen, you work for the Donald Trump administration. Your privacy rights went bye bye when you signed up! But this week Cohen named 2 of his 3 ultra-prestigious clients – Donald J. Trump and GOP fundraiser Elliot Brody. Can anyone guess who the third is? Anyone? Well here’s who is behind door #3!

The legal battle over federal investigators' raids on President Donald Trump's personal lawyer Michael Cohen took an unexpected turn Monday as an attorney identified Fox News host Sean Hannity as one of Cohen's legal clients.

Cohen's attorneys had acknowledged publicly that he represented Trump and former Republican National Committee deputy finance chair Elliott Broidy in legal matters, but they had sought to avoid naming a third client. Under direct orders from a judge, Cohen's attorney Stephen Ryan named Hannity as the client in court on Monday.

The revelation came amid an extraordinary showdown between a sitting president and his own Justice Department over access to files seized in the raids on Cohen's home and office last week and over whether the materials are protected by attorney-client privilege. Hannity's connection to Cohen was revealed after the conservative commentator — one of Trump's staunchest defenders — fiercely criticized federal officials for the raids, without disclosing his own connection.

Even before the surprise disclosure about Hannity, the afternoon hearing before U.S. District Court Judge Kimba Wood was a spectacle. Cohen came under scrutiny after he acknowledged paying $130,000 to porn actress Stormy Daniels shortly before the 2016 election so she would keep quiet about an alleged sexual encounter with Trump. The Wall Street Journal reported last week that Cohen also negotiated a deal in 2017 to pay $1.6 million to a woman who said Broidy impregnated her.
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/04/16/michael-cohen-client-list-526288

Come on, even Larry David is playing you off, Sean! And yeah sure you can define “representation” all you want because that’s what the GOP does – they just make shit up as they go along! But hey I’m at least surprised that you found a real estate attorney who’s willing to give you advice for $10. That’s a bargain!

Sean Hannity used his radio program to deliver his first personal statement after being outed as the mysterious client Michael Cohen legally advised in 2017.

Cohen was trying to keep Hannity’s name off of public record during his court hearing today, but he was forced to identify his third client after the judge told him there wasn’t sufficient legal ground for the patron to retain his anonymity. When reporters reached out to Hannity before the start of his radio show, his initial response was “We have been friends a long time. I have sought legal advice from Michael.”

On Hannity’s radio show, he remarked how “very strange” it was to see the coverage from Fox News in light of the bombshell about their own anchor.
https://www.mediaite.com/online/sean-hannity-issues-statement-on-michael-cohen-he-has-never-represented-me-in-any-matter/

[font size="8"]Facebook
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Another thing that happened if you’re living under a rock – or hiding under a rock – is that Mark Zuckerberg went to Washington last week to testify about Facebook’s increasingly shady business practices. And well, he was met with less than appealing enthusiasm, and shocker – most of the insanity was coming from the right!

Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg took nearly 600 questions on Capitol Hill, giving a rare window into his views on some of the thorniest issues online.

What kinds of data does Facebook collect about its users? Who owns that data? What does Facebook do with it? And how does Facebook keep it safe and private?

Testifying about these issues in the Senate on April 10 and the House on April 11, Zuckerberg chose his words carefully, dodged or referred questions to his “team,” or gave only partial answers. The responses he did give were in some cases misleading because they lacked relevant information that could cast Facebook in an unflattering light.

We found some of the missing links. For this roundup, as is our custom, we won’t be awarding Pinocchios.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2018/04/13/fact-checking-mark-zuckerbergs-testimony-on-facebook-and-data-collection/?utm_term=.83159bda4a65

Yeah so Facebook you’ve got some ‘splainin to do! Especially you, Mark! Look at me! Ok, tell us what did Facebook do with all that data it collected? What are they using it for?

Facebook’s chief executive will confess that the company did not do enough to stop its tools for being used for harm, as he prepares to answer hard questions in his first ever appearance before Congress this week.

Mark Zuckerberg will say that advertisers and developers will never take priority over Facebook’s mission of “connecting people” as long as he is in charge of the social network, according to prepared testimony published by the House commerce committee.

The Facebook founder will say it made “mistakes” that allowed the leak of data of up to 87m users to Cambridge Analytica, the data analytics firm that worked for the Trump campaign. He will list the series of changes Facebook has made in the last three weeks since the revelations but admit there is “more to do”.

Mr Zuckerberg will also address concerns about Russian election interference on the platform. “We were too slow to spot and respond to Russian interference, and we’re working hard to get better,” he will say, adding that Facebook is working with the US government to understand the full extent of Russian influence in the 2016 election, while also trying to protect the integrity of elections around the world.
https://www.ft.com/content/7fba5b52-3c10-11e8-b9f9-de94fa33a81e

Are you fucking kidding me? A mistake? No! saying 2+2=5 is a mistake! Butt dialing your ex girlfriend is a mistake! Dropping an obvious fly ball during a tie game in the 9th inning is a mistake! This is a colossal fuckup that affects the whole damn planet! Well as if things weren’t going south enough already, it’s about to get worse. So much worse. Especially when Mr. Machine Gun Bacon gets involved.

But it turned out that all Cruz wanted to do was grind an old axe: his belief that Facebook has demonstrated a “pervasive pattern of political bias” in its monitoring and regulation of the content shared to its platform. He proceeded to rattle off a laundry list of examples: A “Chick-Fil-A Appreciation Day” page that was banned in 2012, around the time that a number of Americans were protesting the fast-food chain after its chief operating officer made comments against same-sex marriage. Palmer Luckey, the virtual reality prodigy who parted ways with Facebooks after it was reported that he backed a pro-Trump conservative group that trafficked in anti-Hillary Clinton content. Diamond and Silk, the outspoken Trump fangirls who were reportedly told by Facebook this month that their “content and brand” were “unsafe to the community.”

“There are a great many Americans who I would say are deeply concerned that Facebook and other tech companies are engaged in a pervasive pattern of bias and political censorship,” Cruz said.

Zuckerberg conceded that Silicon Valley is “an extremely left-leaning place,” but denied Cruz’s insinuation that the bias had infiltrated the machinations of Facebook. When Cruz asked Zuckerberg if any members of the Facebook team tasked with monitoring users’ content had ever supported Republican political candidates, Zuckerberg said that he did not know.
http://time.com/5235461/mark-zuckerberg-facebook-ted-cruz/

Yeah really, all Ted Cruz seemed to care about was whether or not Trump fans Diamond & Silk were blocked from Facebook because they’re Trump supporters. Nah, Teddy, don’t you read the 100 page terms of service agreement when you signed up? No one does because that thing is the length of War & Peace, but Facebook can delete accounts at any time for any reason. But then there was this:

But according to Monday’s filing, Zuckerberg repeatedly admitted in his testimony that the Menlo Park, California-based company is “responsible for the content” on its platforms.

The filing also quoted Zuckerberg’s testimony that Facebook had a responsibility to ensure that its tools were “used for good,” and that “terrorist propaganda” qualified as “clearly bad activity” that should be reduced.

“What emerges from Zuckerberg’s testimony is a picture differing markedly from the one painted before the district court,” the filing said. “It is not simply a ‘hands off’ publisher of other people’s content.”

The plaintiffs are seeking a “summary” order voiding Garaufis’ dismissal immediately, and returning the case to him.

Facebook told Garaufis that content it hosts “is organic, and that Facebook is not responsible for it,” Robert Tolchin, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said in a statement. “Confronted with overwhelming evidence and public pressure Zuckerberg has now been forced to admit what we have alleged all along.”
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-facebook-lawsuit/zuckerberg-testimony-undermines-facebook-stance-in-terrorism-case-u-s-court-filing-idUSKBN1HN2G3

[font size="8"]Top 10 Investigates: Last Minute Taxes
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Ed. Note: The original piece we had planned on low cost airlines has been postponed due to the Southwest incident. It will show up on a future edition. Now back to our regularly scheduled program!

It’s time to investigate beyond the headlines. This is:

Taxes. You can get your taxes in two flavors. If you are expecting a handsome refund, you’re probably looking forward to all the new things you can buy, until your precious refund money runs out. But now this week, there are millions of do it yourself taxers who are scrambling to get theirs done before the midnight deadline on April 17th. So what happens if millions of Americans file their taxes all at once?

(Update: Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told the Associated Press late Tuesday that online tax filers would get an extension from the IRS. Click here for details.)

Hours before the midnight Tax Day deadline, the IRS page for paying your tax bill using your bank account crashed.

The IRS "Direct Pay" page allows filers to transfer funds from their checking or savings account to pay what they owe. As of 4 p.m. ET on April 17 — Tax Day — the page was unavailable.

Direct Pay is a free service.

The "Payment Plan" page, where filers can pay their tax bill in installments also appears to have crashed.

Taxpayers tweeted their frustration on Tuesday morning.
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/17/irs-tax-payment-site-down-as-agency-works-to-resolve-issue.html

That’s right – if I can’t hear you, it’s not illegal. So what happens then if you can’t get through to the servers? Well, unlike trying to buy concert tickets, you’re not shit out of luck. So with that out of the way, who is really benefitting from taxes? Well it’s not you!

Tuesday at midnight is the deadline for millions of Americans to file their taxes for 2017, the last year before sweeping changes to the U.S. tax code went into effect in January. So while American taxpayers are seeing news reports of better than expected earnings for big banks, thanks in part to lower corporate tax rates, most won’t see a tax cut of their own until they file their 2018 taxes in a year.

President Donald Trump signed the $1.5 trillion tax cut, the largest reorganization of the tax code in a generation, into law on December 22, 2017. The law gave tax breaks to individual and joint filers, including lower rates and a larger standard deduction, and also slashed the top corporate tax rate from 35 to 21 percent. Those new rates went into effect on January 1, 2018.

That change gives corporations, which typically pay their taxes every quarter, a more immediate indication of the tax law’s benefit than individual and joint filers, who usually pay their taxes at the end of the year. Both corporations and individuals are operating under the new tax regime in 2018, but the differences typical filing schedules make corporate benefits apparently early. (Some individuals, most notably freelancers who don’t receive W2s from an employer, also file quarterly.)
http://www.newsweek.com/individual-filers-wait-tax-cuts-while-big-banks-reap-benefits-889865

No, Homer, we’re not sure why we would need to deduct gambling losses in order to purchase a cheeseburger. Just remember that while you may be enjoying your refund money – your boss probably had to pay $0. But yes – even he filed for a tax extension. You know – the guy who so far has refused to disclose his tax and financial statements.

It’s true, many Americans do procrastinate on their taxes and file for an extension: FiveThirtyEight reported that about 13 million Americans asked for an extra six months to complete their tax forms in 2015. However, for what it’s worth, it appears President Obama was pretty good about filing his taxes by the April deadline.

Of course, there might be a few reasons Trump is late like so many of us. His business — which he has not fully divested from and which is the subject of an ongoing lawsuit from the state of Maryland and Washington, DC — is complicated, after all.

Maybe this will be the year that Trump finally releases his tax returns for the American people to see, as he neglected to do during the 2016 presidential campaign, and he wants to make sure they’re right.

Or, my favorite theory: This is a covert way to draw more attention to the Republican tax bill. The New York Times reported this week that “no one’s talking about the new tax law,” given the way news coverage has fallen off since the bill passed and Republicans have struggled to turn it into an effective campaign message.
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/4/17/17247962/tax-day-2018-trump-tax-plan-tax-extension-irs

So the guy who we currently call “president” has yet to release what he is currently worth on his tax returns. But who’s complaining about high taxes? What you need to know about who really is complaining:

On Capitol Hill, CNBC broadcast interviews with Republicans and Democrats live on scene. Republicans in the House also set up studios on Capitol Hill for camera crews behind a "House Republicans" backdrop, which they typically reserve for major events like the president's annual State of the Union address.

In addition to the TV hits, Republican released a slew of prepared media touting changes from the law, known as the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, or TCJA.

"On Tuesday, April 17, we Americans file our taxes — for the last time — under the old, broken tax code," wrote Republican Rep. and chief tax writer Kevin Brady in an op-ed for USA Today. "Yes, for the last time. Goodbye and good riddance to that outdated, monstrosity of a tax code that took too much of your money, sent our American jobs overseas, and kept our economy so slow many workers didn't see a pay raise for a decade or more."

President Donald Trump wrote an op-ed of his own that claimed the tax law was driving economic growth.
http://www.businessinsider.com/tax-day-2018-battle-over-trump-tax-law-2018-4

He has the best taxes, folks. Nobody has better taxes than he does. But no one does it better last minute than those who live in the US. After all, procrastination is what makes us #1! USA! USA! USA! So why are taxes such a big deal? Look at this from the 1930s and 1940s.

Before tax preparation software guided Americans through the process of filing tax returns before the Tax Day deadline — which falls on April 17 in 2018, though Tax Day is usually but not always April 15 — there were quacks like Donald Duck.

During World War II, the federal government needed an easily recognizable face to explain a process that was unrecognizable to many Americans at the time. As TIME previously reported, while the modern income tax was introduced in 1913, only the richest Americans paid it in the early years. That changed with the attack on Pearl Harbor, which prompted Congress to pass a new Revenue Act in 1942 to fund the U.S. war effort. The number of tax returns filed skyrocketed from 7.7 million in 1939 to 36.7 million in 1942, and about 50 million in 1945, according to the Tax Foundation, a tax-policy think tank.

So Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau tapped Walt Disney — who was already heavily involved in making films to boost the war effort — to crash-produce The New Spirit, a motivational film explaining income taxes to Americans in 1942.
http://time.com/5239332/tax-day-2018-history/

That’s right – Disney is the key to the economy! There you have it folks. That’s it for Top 10 Investigates. Good day.

So, my fair congregation – do DAYMONS exist? That is the question I have on the table for you this week, and one you should ponder long after you leave my church this week. And by the way how great is the Top 10 Gospel Choir? Give it up for them! Do DAYMONS exist? And in what capacity could they do some major damage to one’s soul? Well brother Alex has a theory about that!

Alex Jones, the conspiracy theorist who publishes Infowars, claims that he never knowingly spreads false information. Last night, he told listeners that when he was a teenager he used to be courted by attractive women who attempted to convert him to Satanism and prevent him from starting Infowars.

During Infowars’ latest ongoing “emergency” live-stream marathon session, Jones claimed that attractive young women at his high school would pretend to want to date him in order to try to convince him to join a satanic cult. Jones claimed this happened multiple times.

“Every time I thought some hot 17-year-old, when I was like 13 or 14, really wanted to date me and I’d drive out to some big old mansion of theirs—and I mean real mansions, helicopter pads, private landing fields, you name it—God almighty, after the third or fourth time I had been with them, they’d tell me, ‘By the way, we worship this god and we want you to come to this event, we want you to engage in this activity because Lucifer is really God,’” Jones said.

He added, “They knew inter-dimensionally because believe me, they weren’t trying to get the average person to go do that. Everybody thought like, ‘Why are you dating the head cheerleader or the head senior when you’re a freshman in high school?’ Well, because she was driving me out there in her $100,000 Mercedes and that was 30-something years ago, driving me out there in her $100,000 Mercedes that’d be a $300,000 Maybach today, to try to get me into the cult.”
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/alex-jones-claims-attractive-women-tried-to-date-him-in-high-school-to-convert-him-to-satanism/

Brother Alex, what brand of covfefe are you smoking this week? Because it must be too much, or not enough, I don't know how that shit works! Because using it is a SIN!!!! And it is the most egregious of SINS!!!! And you must be cleansed of this wicked sin!!! And I can point to where it says in the good book. But let’s ask Sister Liz if DAYMONS exist!

Fringe right-wing conspiracy theorist Liz Crokin posted a video on YouTube last night in which she declared that a gruesome video showing Hillary Clinton cutting the face off of a living child exists and will soon be released for all the world to see.

“I know with absolute certainty that there is a tape that exists that involves Hillary Clinton sexually abusing a child,” Crokin said. “I have gotten this confirmed from very respectable and high-level sources.”

Crokin said that reports that Russian-linked accounts posted a fake Clinton sex tape during the 2016 election are false, saying that no such fake video exists and that the stories about it are simply an effort to confuse the public “so when and if the actual video of Hillary Clinton sexually abusing a child comes out, the seeds of doubt are already planted in people’s heads.”

“All I know is that, one hundred percent, a video of Hillary Clinton sexually abusing a child exists,” she said. “I know there’s many videos incriminating her, I just don’t know which one they are going to release. But there are people, there are claims that this sexual abuse video is on the dark web and I know that some people have seen it, some in law enforcement, the NYPD law enforcement, some NYPD officers have seen it and it made them sick, it made them cry, it made them vomit, some of them had to seek psychological counseling after this.”

“I’m not going to go into too much detail because it’s so disgusting, but in this video, they cut off a child’s face as the child is alive,” Crokin claimed. “I’m just going to leave it at that.”
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/liz-crokin-claims-that-she-knows-one-hundred-percent-that-a-video-of-hillary-clinton-sexually-abusing-a-child-exists/

Holy shit!!!! You know a good rule for my fair congregation is never fall asleep while you’re watching reruns of Dexter. Because these are the kind of fucked up fantasies you will wake up with the next day! I mean because that is a SIN!!!! Can I get an amen??? But apparently an election of the wrong party will not only unleash demons, it will cast an hour of darkness upon us! Great Evil Dead sequel, by the way!

Right-wing preacher Lance Wallnau participated in another Truth & Liberty Coalition livestream event last night, where he warned that if Democrats gain control of Congress in the midterm elections, it will “inaugurate an hour of darkness” in America.

Wallnau said that he is working to help conservative Christian voters connect locally so that they can “pray together and begin to exercise spiritual authority for God to show up” in their local elections.

“This president, if he is in any way made vulnerable in the House or in the Senate,” he said, “the combined power of business, academia, media, entertainment, and government and funding is going to impeach this man and undo everything that he has done. And when that happens, it’s going to inaugurate an hour of darkness that God did not want over America. He wanted restoration and reformation, He didn’t want just a window of grace and then annihilation.”
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/lance-wallnau-if-democrats-win-in-midterms-its-going-to-inaugurate-an-hour-of-darkness-over-america/

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!! Even the LAWRD himself thinks this is ridiculous!!! But DAYMONS apparently also exist within our own education system! Just ask the “Activist Mommy”!

Elizabeth Johnston, a right-wing activist better known as “The Activist Mommy,” appeared on the “Focal Point” radio program yesterday to discuss the “Sex Ed Sit Out” effort she is leading, which encourages parents to remove their children from school for a day later this month to protest what she sees as “graphic, gender-bending sex education.”

Johnston told guest host Matt Barber that after this “Sex Ed Sit Out” effort is complete, she is going to turn her attention to suing school systems that promote “obscenity” by teaching sex ed to students.

“What they are teaching in the schools is obscenity, and we have good obscenity laws in this country, we just don’t have leadership enforcing those obscenity laws,” she said. “And you know what? It’s time that we hold leadership accountable. It’s time that we make sure that obscenity laws are enforced and so I feel like—Sex Ed Sit Out, that is going to be, after we get through this event on the 23rd—that is going to be an area that we move into very naturally.”
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/activist-mommy-elizabeth-johnston-says-shell-sue-schools-promoting-obscenity-via-sex-ed/

So DAYMONS exist in our schools, in our politics, and everywhere on this planet we live on. And they all must be cleansed of sin!!!! But apparently we are the DAYMONS folks, because according to Brother Larry, we are going to cut their heads off when we win!

Over the weekend, right-wing attorney and crackpot conspiracy theorist Larry Klayman joined right-wing birther conspiracy theorist Joel Gilbert on Infowars, where Klayman warned that liberals cannot be allowed to remove President Trump from office because that will eventually lead to liberals literally beheading conservatives.

“They’re trying to seize control of the country,” Klayman said. “Once they get ahold of it, they’re going to build it up in their socialist/communist/atheist radical anti-American image.”

“They want a socialist state, they want a police state, they want to squeeze God out of this country,” he added. “We are fighting a war, in effect, to the death. Our lives are at stake. All of our lives are at stake and they’re not going to stop with just getting rid of Trump. Once they get rid of him, they’re coming at us, the conservatives, the libertarians, those that will not go along with their socialist radical views.”
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/larry-klayman-says-the-left-will-seek-literally-to-chop-our-heads-off/

There you have it!!! That’s where DAYMONS exist! We are the DAYMONS!! I hope that is the take away you get from today’s sermon. Mass has ended, may you go in peace. That’s it this week for:

[font size="8"]Phil Anschutz
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It’s now time for:

This week we’re going to Coachella everybody!!! Well, sort of. Actually we’re going to talk about the owner of Coachella, right wing billionaire Phil Anschutz. If you don’t know who he is, he owns Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG) – a company that is very slowly taking over the entire entertainment industry from the way we purchase tickets to actually owning the venues we go to. While we’re paying attention to the Kochs and the Mercers for the havoc they have wrought on this country, Phil Anschutz is the Jared Kushner of billionaires – he just sits in the corner, plotting his next evil move. Like a character in a horror movie. Only this is much more terrifying!

This weekend, hordes of music lovers and teepee enthusiasts will descend on Indio, California, for the annual Coachella Music Festival. The first big festival of the season, Coachella has a reputation for attracting the worst of the worst: entitled rich kids in knockoff Native headdresses, bankers in bindis, and these people. Think Fyre Festival, but financially solvent.

A few years ago, The Washington Post revealed that the often-problematic festival’s issues went way beyond appropriative accessories. A 2016 report on America’s “enemies of equality” is often cited as blowing the lid off Coachella and its founder, Philip Anschutz, the owner of entertainment conglomerate AEG. The Freedom for All Americans campaign reported that Anschutz, one of the richest people in America with a net worth of $12.9 billion, gave large sums of money to the Alliance Defending Freedom, the National Christian Foundation, and the Family Research Council.

According to the Post, the National Christian Foundation “funds a lot of the groups aggressively working to chip away at the equal rights of LGBT Americans.” The Family Research Council, which expressly says on its website that it “believes that homosexual conduct is harmful to the persons who engage in it and to society at large,” has been deemed an “extremist group” by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/your-coachella-money-is-going-to-a-right-wing-billionaire-who-funded-anti-lgbt-and-anti-marijuana-causes

So that $475 you shilled out for your 3 day Coachella pass? Yeah it’s going to fund the exact opposite of everything the festival originally stood for! Yeah so never mind that Beyonce and Jay Z have a 1,000,000 person entourage, your money is going to fund Anschutz and his causes like destroying LGBT civil liberties!

You'd be hard pressed to find a more anti-freedom lobby than the ADF. The organization is suspected to be behind seventeen proposals in fourteen states that directly target LGBT rights – a repressive political wave following the legalization of gay marriage in June 2015.

The ADF is also behind this charming little legal guide to helping churches shield themselves from the message of pro-sexual freedom that is apparently "spreading like a virus" in American churches.

Philip Anschutz, the 39th richest man in the United States, contributed nearly 110,000 dollars to the ADF between 2011 and 2013, and 80,000 dollars to a variety of other anti-LGBT organizations.

In a press release, Ian Silverii, director of ProgressNow Colorado, directly accuses these groups of advocating violence toward LGBT folks, as is the case of the extremist hate group Pray in Jesus Name.
http://www.konbini.com/us/entertainment/philip-anschutz-coachella-supports-anti-lgbt-climate-deny-orgs/

Yeah BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! That’s right – money from your Coachella ticket goes to anti-LGBT hate groups like Focus On The Family. Oh and if you think that’s not the worst thing he’s done lately, our buddy Phil seems bent on shutting down America’s local newspapers.

After the Denver Post announced that it would be laying off thirty people, or around 30 percent of the newsroom staff, the Denver Newspaper Guild, which represents 25 of those getting pink slips, put out an open call for a wealthy benefactor to buy the publication from Alden Global Capital, the hedge fund that's been stripping it down like a stolen car for years. Billionaire Phil Anschutz seems to fit this bill, and he has a notable interest in newspapers, having purchased the Colorado Springs Gazette in 2012.

But a story shared by Denver City Councilman Kevin Flynn suggests that Anschutz may prefer to let the Post die in order to replace it with a resurrected version of the Rocky Mountain News, which was shuttered in February 2009.

According to Flynn, Anschutz's right-hand man, the late Jim Monaghan, told him his boss simply wouldn't buy the Post because "he doesn't want to inherit the contracts." In other words, closing the Post would end the union contracts there, after which Anschutz could launch the Rocky as a non-union shop, like the Gazette.
http://www.westword.com/news/denver-post-phil-anschutz-and-rocky-mountain-news-reboot-plan-10118090

And the Denver Post is just one paper! I mean we all know what they did last week when they mistook Coors Field for Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia – a pretty obvious mistake to make except for the fact that it clearly says “Phillies” if you look closely enough:

https://twitter.com/RonanOShea/status/982264392765992962

And that’s just one newspaper! But there’s a method to Anschutz’ insanity. It seems for every evil thing he does, he does one thing that kind of makes it better… ish?

Billionaire businessman Philip Anschutz, the entertainment conglomerate chairman known for bankrolling controversial right-wing causes, donated $1 million to Elton John AIDS Foundation’s LGBT Fund earlier this week, according to a press release.

The fund “tackles the stigma, discrimination and violence that prevents LGBT people in Sub-Saharan Africa from accessing the health and HIV services they need.”

"My gift to the Elton John Foundation is intended to emphasize that we support freedom of all people to live their lives peacefully, without interference from others," Anschutz said in a statement provided to Billboard.
http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/music/philip-anschutz-donates-1-million-elton-john-aids-foundation-article-1.3890053

Except Mr. Anschutz is out to channel Scrooge McDuck – like most right wing billionaires do. And $1 million? Come on, Phil’s probably got that much in his couch cushions. But if you want any more insight into this 78 year old Christian conservative, here’s more.

Not that just anyone with a fat billfold can sign up. Weiss stresses that "we won't go forward unless we get significant support from people in Denver. And we don't want a person with a present agenda to be advocating to control the newspaper" — a description that some might see fitting billionaire Phil Anschutz, the Christian conservative marijuana hater who owns the Colorado Springs Gazette . Anschutz has long been rumored to have an interest in owning a Denver daily, but comments by his former right-hand man shared with Denver City Council member Kevin Flynn suggest that he would prefer to buy the Post when it hits bottom, shut it down and use its assets to revive the defunct Rocky Mountain News as a non-union paper.

Since the New York Times piece appeared, Weiss says, "We have been inundated with calls from people who have deep pockets" who aren't looking at buying the Post as a way to simply turn a quick buck.

"This is going to take patient capital," he allows. "We expect that whoever buys the paper will have to make strategic long-term investments that will pay off handsomely, but not in six months or a year or even two years. But they'll pay off eventually, and Colorado will have a great newspaper."
http://www.westword.com/news/meet-the-man-trying-to-broker-deal-to-buy-denver-post-from-hedge-fund-10200922

Never mind that Phil funds anti-marijuana causes *AND* owns the world’s largest music festival where there was a fucking marijuana bar present! That’s Phil Anschutz – this week’s:

[font size="8"]The Alt Right
[br] [/font] [br]

So the Alt Right, or Alt Lite, or New Right, or Diet Alt Lite, or Diet Reduced Calorie Sugar Free Alt Lite (now with 50% less high fructose corn syrup), or whatever these morons are called this week, have been having a banner week. Last week we talked about how Alex Jones has been in a huge free fall with that insane press conference, and this week, he had what might be one of his most insane revelations yet. So Alex claims that women were trying to seduce him to Satanism. Well, I always figured because he regularly channels the devil. Thank you! And then Alex further went insane by saying this:

Alex Jones, a conspiracy theorist who has spent the last week using his network to promote the idea that a deadly gas attack in Syria was a “false flag” designed to justify the military involvement of other countries in the region, screamed a slew of profanity aimed at President Trump before breaking down in tears in response to Trump’s announcement that U.S. would carry out airstrikes in response to the gas attack.

On Friday night, Trump announced that the United States military had bombed targets in Syria in retaliation for a chemical gas attack that had been carried out on April 7. Many world leaders believe that the Assad regime in Syria conducted the attack, pointing to reports that the chemical nerve agent sarin was used as it was in a similar attack last year. In response, Trump ordered the military to bomb three of the Syrian government’s chemical weapons facilities.

When news broke of Trump’s announcement about striking Syria, Jones and co-host Owen Shroyer took to the air to report live on the attacks, during which Jones briefly became a sobbing mess.

“I feel like I just had my best girlfriend break up with me and the left will make jokes but this ain’t funny, man,” Jones said, his voice trembling.
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/alex-jones-had-a-weekend-meltdown-after-trump-announced-syria-airstrikes/

Oh come on Alex, you voted for a con artist! Don’t be surprised when you get conned! Yeah exactly thank you sir! It’s the art of the deal, folks, ok? If that’s not enough our favorite wannabe tough guys the Proud Boys are back! And like the Dropkick Murphys song says, they are looking for trouble!

The Proud Boys, a truly bizarre “western chauvinist” fraternity that was recently named a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, is hosting a Patriots Day rally in Massachusetts headlined by three figures who inhabit the far reaches of right-wing politics.

According to a Facebook event created by the New England chapter of Proud Boys, the April 16 rally will feature alt-right icon Kyle “Based Stickman” Chapman, who was charged with assaulting counter-protesters at a rally in Berkeley last year, right-wing Senate candidate V.A. Shiva Ayyadurai, who has cozied up to alt-right activists, and YouTube pundit Carl “Sargon of Akkad” Benjamin, who calls himself “liberalist” despite offering himself as an ally to the fringes of the far-right.

The rally will be hosted by John Medlar, a “local free speech activist” who also organized a “free speech” rally at Boston Common last year shortly after a woman was murdered at the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. The event page promises “music, rousing speeches, and open-mic free speech.”
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/the-proud-boys-are-organizing-another-rally-in-boston/

Because if there’s one way to attract an audience, it’s on a Monday afternoon when most of the people you cater to are working the drive through at McDonalds, or at school accusing their political science teachers of too much liberal bias. In fact last year at the same rally, there were more counter protesters than actual protesters!

Last year’s rally at Boston Common ended early after it was overwhelmed by counter-protesters. Ayyadurai also spoke at that rally.

The Proud Boys and their founder, CRTV host Gavin McInnes, have a well-documented history of spreading hate and vitriol. Former Proud Boy Jason Kessler helped organized the “Unite the Right” rally, which several Proud Boys attended. McInnes has made a career out of peddling transphobic, misogynistic and anti-Muslim rhetoric—ideas that have taken hold with many members of his organization.

The group also has a history of violence at rallies, some of which may be motivated by the fact that the final “degree” of Proud Boys membership requires physically assaulting an anti-fascist “Antifa” protester.

True but back to Alex Jones for a minute – you know we’ve railed on his attempts to label mass shootings false flags. Well this week he got his ass handed to him!

Since the tragedy in Connecticut, Jones has doubled down on his claims about the shooting and Infowars continues to put forward “false flag” conspiracy theories after nearly every major mass tragedy.

The new suits come on the heels of a marathon of press events Jones hosted in Washington last week, at which he spoke about his fight against a separate lawsuit from a person he had claimed was responsible for the murder of a counter-protester at last year’s Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville.

The plaintiffs in the lawsuits filed late last night are being represented by Mark Bankston, who filed another recent suit against Jones seeking damages for a plaintiff who Infowars incorrectly identified as the Parkland shooter. The suit, Fontaine v. Jones, alleges that Infowars’ false reporting resulted in death threats for the incorrectly accused young man and seeks $1 million in damages.
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/alex-jones-has-been-named-in-two-more-defamation-suits/

https://www.youtube.com/user/amsmiles

But I can’t get out of here without mentioning how the right wing is reacting to their news about Sean Hannity this week.

News broke this afternoon that Fox News host Sean Hannity was the secret third client of Michael Cohen, the lawyer who allegedly arranged massive payouts to women who had affairs with President Trump and former RNC fundraiser Elliot Broidy. Hannity’s name surfaced in connection with Cohen’s challenge to the FBI’s seizure of records from his office based on assertions of the need to protect attorney client confidentiality.

The news came as a shock to many in the media, but Trump-supporting conspiracy theorists have already begun their work weaving the revelation into their ongoing conspiracy theory narrative alleging that the so-called “deep state” or “shadow government” is secretly working to undermine the Trump administration, its allies in the media, and conservative voters.

Last December, Hannity told former White House strategist and Breitbart executive Steve Bannon that he feared that he “may end up in jail” for defending Trump against a deep-state effort to remove Trump from office. “By the way, people like us may end up in jail,” he told Bannon. “Let me tell you. They will stop at nothing. This is what I’m trying to get across to people. This is serious. This is the rule of law in this country now.”
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/the-sean-hannity-news-is-already-being-folded-into-deep-state-conspiracy-theories/

[font size="8"]I Need A Drink
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It’s now time for:

And man do I need a drink this week. And I definitely need a few drinks to get me through a Proud Boys rally. So tell me bartender, what goes well with Donkey Kong? A barrel of whisky thrown right at me? Eh, I think I’d rather have a double Jack & Coke, thanks. This week, a record was torn down just like the NCAA yanking it from Joe Paterno. What? Too soon? Well I’m talking about a documentary movie that was made a few years ago called “The King Of Kongs”. So what happened exactly?

Well, we’ve officially found our video-game version of Icarus. One of the highest-scoring gamers of all time, Billy Mitchell — who was propelled into geeky stardom thanks to the 2007 documentary King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters — has been stripped of all of his high scores due to substantial cheating evidence against him. Per Variety, Twin Galexies, which is the world’s largest tracker of video-game records, made the ruling after months of investigation. “With this ruling, Twin Galaxies can no longer recognize Billy Mitchell as the first million point Donkey Kong record holder,” the group said in a statement. “According to our findings, Steve Wiebe would be the official 1st million point record holder.” Because of the scandal, Mitchell has been banned from competitive gaming for the rest of his life, and Guinness Book of World Records has also been alerted.
http://www.vulture.com/2018/04/king-of-kongs-billy-mitchell-banned-from-competitive-gaming.html

Thank you sound effects guy! And no one beats that level, damn it! So how did Billy Mitchell get stripped of his title exactly?

Famed high-score gamer Billy Mitchell, best known for his role in “The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters” documentary, was officially stripped of his “Donkey Kong” and other video game high scores and banned from submitting scores to the world’s largest tracker of video game world records following a decision that he cheated, Twin Galaxies announced today.

“With this ruling, Twin Galaxies can no longer recognize Billy Mitchell as the first million point ‘Donkey Kong’ record holder,” the group wrote in its announcement. “According to our findings, Steve Wiebe would be the official 1st million point record holder.”

Variety has reached out to Mitchell and Wiebe for comment and Guinness to see if his record there will stand.

The decision comes after months of research by the administrators of Twin Galaxies, which tracks world gaming records and helps the Guinness Book of World records validate gaming scores, according to a statement released by the group Thursday morning.
http://variety.com/2018/gaming/news/king-of-kong-stripped-of-title-1202751358/

Well on the plus side, I hear that Putin has a nice job for Mitchell in his hacker army. So Mitchell cheated! And of course there’s more to this story than you would believe. Wait – so who knew there was an official Donkey Kong forum?

The recent controversy began with a lengthy post on the Donkey Kong Forum from Jeremy Young, known on the site as Xelnia. Over the course of almost 2,000 words—complemented by multiple animated gifs—Young makes the case that Mitchell achieved three of his Donkey Kong high scores in emulated versions of the game rather than on original arcade cabinets. The evidence mostly comes down to subtle variations in the way that older emulators—like those that Mitchell would have used—render the environment on-screen. As Ars Technica explains, “While a real Donkey Kong cabinet generates and displays game scenes in a ‘sliding door’ effect, sliding from one side to the other, old versions of the Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator (MAME) instead build entire chunks of a level at once and then display them as a complete screen buffer.” That matters in part because it can change the way the game is played, while also making it easier to falsify the record.

In his post, Young stops short of suggesting that Mitchell actively cheated along the way to earning his high scores in the game, but with an emulator he easily could have. Young notes that using the emulator’s recording feature, Mitchell could have played in a stop-and-start style, allowing him to patch together a more ideal run. Further, there are no witnesses to the three scores in question (Mitchell submitted evidence by video tape), and he probably didn’t have the skills to create a recording from the hardware itself, which increases the likelihood that he used an emulator.
https://slate.com/technology/2018/02/billy-mitchell-from-king-of-kong-stripped-of-his-donkey-kong-high-score-records.html

At least in drinking games the only way to cheat is if you spill or puke. And there isn’t any hacking into that shit either. Unless you know of some superhuman way to drink beer. But the cheating allegations against Mitchell aren’t just an isolated incident. Apparently there’s more!

In the wake of Young’s announcement, others have made additional accusations against Mitchell. As Ars Technica reports in an update to its original post, “Former Donkey Kong world record holder Wes Copeland has presented new statistical evidence that he says suggests Mitchell’s 1.05 million point game was patched together from multiple emulated plays.” Meanwhile, the site adds, another competitor managed to best his own previous No. 1 score in Donkey Kong, livestreaming a game in which he accumulated almost 200,000 more points than Mitchell had in the most impressive of his (allegedly fraudulent) runs.

Ultimately, Mitchell’s true gift to the competitive arcade community may have been the ease with which he filled the role of antagonist. In the years since King of Kong’s 2007 release, many other players have surpassed the accomplishments of Steve Wiebe, Mitchell’s good guy foil. While they may have paid prices of their own for their triumphs, it seems as if they’ve done so in a very different spirit, one that emphasizes mutual support as much as it does individual skill. From the outside, it’s hard to avoid the impression that they’ve come together in a spirit wholly contrary to the one Mitchell espouses in the film. Or, as Young puts it in the conclusion to his original post, theirs is a community “built on the idea of friendship through competition, camaraderie through our shared pains in pushing ourselves, our friends, and these games to their limits.”
https://slate.com/technology/2018/02/billy-mitchell-from-king-of-kong-stripped-of-his-donkey-kong-high-score-records.html

So the moral of the story here is don’t cheat, kids! Unless you’re a republican or you’re working for Vladimir Putin, then it’s OK for you to cheat. So what does Billy Mitchel’s biggest rival, Steve Weibe think?

Steve Wiebe is speaking out as another record-keeping body has stripped away the accomplishments of his ‘The King Of Kong’ rival. On Thursday, video game legend Billy Mitchell was banned from competition and his records were wiped off the books after video game organization Twin Galaxies determined the proverbial villian of the 2007 documentary was cheating.

The two gamers battled to be the first to reach one million points in Donkey Kong, a feat Mitchell appeared to do first. But Thursday’s news changed all that. The accusations against Mitchell are a bit complicated, but it appears that his records were not set on a true arcade machine, using a MAME emulator rather than an arcade circuit board, thus making his achievements invalid.

Given the rivalry between the two competitors, it’s inevitable that Wiebe was reached to discuss what’s become of Mitchell and what he thought about the coda to their battles documented in the film.
https://uproxx.com/gaming/steve-wiebe-responds-billy-mitchell-cheating-king-of-kong-documentary/

[font size="8"]Stupidest State Contest: Round 1 Week 4
[br] [/font] [br]

16 states will enter, but only one will be crowned the new Top 10 Conservative Idiots Stupidest State!

Welcome back! I hope you all filled out your brackets! Round 1 of the tournament is over and man there have been some exciting developments. Last week – Missouri routed Utah to advance to the Elite 8 in a Family Values faceoff, while Virginia stunned the world champion Texas team flinging the batshit in a massive upset. This week we’re live in San Jose at the home of the San Jose Sharks – HP Pavilion for the Gun Nut Conference Championship! The winner moves on to the Final Four. The loser goes home. This week it’s a duel to the death in the states that have the craziest gun laws in our country. In one corner is Florida, they have not disappointed this year. In the other corner – Montana, and they are proving every bit as formidable as they were last year. This is going to be an exciting matchup! Can they do it? Let’s get out our brackets so you can follow along!

[font size="6"]Gun Nut Conference Championship: Florida Vs Montana [/font]

[font size="4"]Florida[/font]

So the last time we checked in with Florida, they were still reeling from the Parkland tragedy but that has spawned a new movement. But unfortunately I know what state this is. This is Florida, the state that has given us Florida Man and his wife Florida Woman. The state where meth and bath salts are considered a balanced part of your daily diet. And a place where shooting first and asking questions later is the most effective means of communication. It’s also the last place where you can stuff a gun in your pants and people will consider it a fashion accessory. So what has Florida been up to?

The pro-Second Amendment right wing officially broke its brain last month. Instead of civilly disagreeing with the Parkland-surviving teens who organized the March for Our Lives, Breitbart has accused David Hogg of giving a Nazi salute (didn't happen), commentators and sitting lawmakers have utterly misrepresented Cuban politics and accused Emma Gonzalez of supporting the Castro regime, the Daily Wire wrote an article making fun of David Hogg's actually very-good 4.2 grade-point-average, and social-media users have spread all sorts of memes comparing school-shooting survivors to Hitler.

Did you assume that photoshopping Hogg's face onto the body of a Hitler Youth member was the lowest the public discourse about this could go? Think again! A burgeoning take on right-wing pockets of social media seems to be that the Parkland kids actually caused the Stoneman Douglas massacre by bullying poor, poor Nikolas Cruz.

To be clear: There's little evidence that Cruz was bullied. Douglas students have consistently described Cruz as a frightening individual that most people steered clear from, and he was evaluated multiple times for psychiatric issues and threats of violence.

And even if any students bullied someone, that doesn't give anyone the right to walk into a school with an assault rifle and murder people. The meme here seems to stem from one of Gonzalez's speeches, where she says she and others "ostracized" Cruz — but the clip is ripped out of context and she is very clearly explaining that Cruz's actions (threatening others, taking tons of photos of his guns, drawing swastikas on his belongings) terrified people and made them want to avoid him.

Read more: http://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/right-now-blaming-parkland-teens-for-bullying-nikolas-cruz-10221533

Yeah BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! Only in this country could you get shot at, and people would be blaming you for standing in the way of the bullet. It’s your own fault, damn it! But some good news is that Florida is at least taking *SOME* measures to prevent Florida Man from owning a gun.

In a truly surprising sequence of events, it took less than one month from the massacre at a Parkland high school for Florida lawmakers to take actual legislative action. March 9, Gov. Rick Scott signed a bill allowing law enforcement to petition the courts to take guns away from people thought to be a danger to themselves or others. It was the first firearm restrictions supported by Florida Republicans in more than 20 years.

Though the law is only three weeks old, court records show it's already having a real-world effect in South Florida. In Broward County, law enforcement has successfully petitioned the courts to take guns away from seven people, including a mentally ill man who kept a "diary of delusions," a teenager whose peers were concerned he could be the next school shooter, and a disgruntled employee who threatened to shoot up his office. (No cases have been filed so far in Miami-Dade, according to a judicial spokesperson.)

New Times reviewed five of the seven cases in Broward to learn more about how the new law works and who it targets. (Because the other two cases involved juveniles, the details of those petitions are not public record.) Those court records paint a disturbing picture of people who, until recently, were within their legal right to possess firearms.
http://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/under-new-florida-gun-bill-broward-has-already-blocked-seven-people-from-having-firearms-10218571

Yes we need 8 paces, damn it! So Florida is on a right path, I guess? And only in America can we grieve in a mass shooting by comforting the gun owners.

WASHINGTON — The day after a shooter killed 17 people at a Florida high school, President Donald Trump offered comforting words — for gun owners.

"We are committed to working with state and local leaders to help secure our schools and tackle the difficult issue of mental health," Trump said in brief remarks at the White House. "It is not enough to simply take actions that make us feel like we are making a difference. We must actually make that difference."

Translation: Your guns are safe.

"That's very encouraging that he's not mounting up with the anti-Second Amendment posse," said Larry Pratt, executive director emeritus of the Gun Owners of America, an advocacy group based in Virginia. "The response from gun owners will be principally that he didn't say the kind of things Hillary Clinton would have said had she been president and the way Barack Obama reacted to other situations like this."
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/after-florida-shooting-trump-offers-comfort-gun-owners-n848306

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[font size="4"]Montana [/font]

Hey everybody give it up for last year’s conference champions! Montana pulled out no stops as it shot its’ way to the top – both literally and figuratively. If you think Florida’s got a lot of guns, Montana has the highest concentration of gun manufacturers in the entire United States. And that’s a fact, you can look it up on Google. And as we learned last year – Montana has a toxic mix of doomsday preppers, end of the world conspiracy theorists, and white supremacists. And of course with hardcore guns comes hardcore racism. Since we last saw Montana, Montana has elected Greg Gianforte as its’ only representative. But well so much for freedom of speech!

Students walk out: On Wednesday, hundreds of students in Missoula walked out of class to protest gun violence in schools. (Here are the photos.) “In my opinion it’s sad that it’s taken this long for people to get this upset about it,” said Henry Charman, a senior at Hellgate who helped to organize the walkout.

Carroll College students plan to walk out of their classes on March 14 to protest Congress’ inaction on gun violence. In 1990, a man who appeared to be drunk walked into Carroll College's cafeteria and opened fire, killing one food service worker and wounding another.

Threats against schools: A Darby senior was in court this week after telling fellow students he was "going to shoot up the school." MacLean William Kayser, 18, told classmates that those wearing yellow shirts to school the following day would be "a target'' but those in red shirts would be safe. He then pointed at various students, saying “you’re a red shirt” or “you’re a yellow shirt,” according to an affidavit of probable cause filed Tuesday in Ravalli County Justice Court.

On Thursday, Missoula's Big Sky High School was on lock-in after graffiti was found in a girls' bathroom that said "Don't be at Big Sky at 1:20." The school allowed parents to pick up teir kids.
http://billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-regional/montana/student-walkouts-school-threats-the-gun-debate-in-montana/article_7575f057-35a9-5e5b-a212-6ad9742c8d7d.html

Uh yeah that’s about it in America. You have a constitutional right to protest but then you get punished by exercising that right. I mean come on this is a state where they have rallies *FOR* the 2nd Amendment:

HELENA – Nearly 150 people gathered on the steps of the state Capitol on Saturday in a show of solidarity for the Second Amendment right to bear arms as rallies for an end to gun violence took place elsewhere in Montana.

“Today is a great day in Montana and we will be heard,” said Brent Webber, who organized the March for our Guns rally in response to the March for our Lives events held nationwide Saturday in observance of the Feb. 14 shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida, that killed 17 people.

A couple miles away an anti-violence rally was held at Helena’s Memorial Park. Other Montana observances were also held in Great Falls, Missoula, Billings and Bozeman.

Webber said March for our Guns event was for every Montanan who did not have a voice in this debate through the media.

https://www.greatfallstribune.com/story/news/2018/03/24/gun-violence-rallies-trigger-emotions-montana/456173002/

By the way – Montana needs no introduction as to why it’s one of the single most violent states in the country. I mean after all, this is the guy who they chose to represent them in the House Of Representatives:

US congressman Greg Gianforte misled police after his assault of Guardian reporter Ben Jacobs in May, falsely stating that Jacobs had initiated physical contact and that the “liberal media … is trying to make a story”, according to the police incident report.

The records, made public on Friday, provide new details on the violent altercation that occurred on the eve of a special election to fill Montana’s sole seat in the US House of Representatives. Jacobs had approached the then candidate at his Bozeman campaign headquarters to ask a question about the Republican healthcare bill when Gianforte threw him to the ground and punched him.

The Republican was nevertheless elected the next day.

Gianforte subsequently pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor assault charge and was sentenced to community service, anger management classes and a $385 fine in June.

read the entire article at:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/nov/17/greg-gianforte-guardian-reporter-ben-jacobs-assault

[font size="4"]And the winner is… [/font]

Holy shit this was quite the exciting matchup here! Florida brought their A game against Montana and they are not going to disappoint! The game went into overtime, with Florida winning by the final score of 91 – 78. Montana is going home. Florida is the Gun Nut Conference champion! Cut the net guys, you earned it!

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

One conference championship down, 3 to go! Next week, we’re going across town to Oakland, California, at the home of the Golden State Warriors – Oracle Arena - for the Family Values Conference Championship! And it will be Alabama vs. Missouri – who will be the more godly state worthy of advancing to thine Final Four?

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

Ladies and gentlemen, continuing our month long celebration of all things punk rock, my next guests are San Francisco legends! Their latest album is called “First Ditch Effort”. You can see them headlining Punk Rock Bowling on May 27th and they are bringing their “Punk In Drublic” beer and music festival to a city near you. Playing their song “Oxymoronic”, give it up for NOFX!

See you next week!

Credits

Host: Initech
Top 10 Conservative Idiots Recorded In Front Of Live Audience At: City National Grove Of Anaheim, Anaheim, CA
Special Thanks To: City National Grove Management
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
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Wheel Of Corruption By: Studio 1 Stage Props, Burbank, CA
NOFX Appear Courtesy Of: Fat Wreck Chords
Management: Initech Productions, CCC Management

Initech Productions: Yes, We Got The Memo

April 11, 2018

Top 10 Conservative Idiots #4-13: Lawyer-Ception: A Trial Within A Trial Edition

Top 10 Conservative Idiots #4-13: Lawyer-Ception: A Trial Within A Trial Edition

Welcome back to the Top 10 Conservative Idiots! Sign up for the new Top 10 Visa Signature Card and get 15% cash back on all purchases and low APR financing, plus double airline miles! So I want to start by talking about professional golf. I usually don’t talk about professional golf. But I love this story. So the Masters tournament happened in Augusta, Georgia this weekend. I have no idea who won, I don’t really care. So the Budweiser commercial and their semi-annoying nonsense catch phrase “Dilly Dilly” got banned from the Masters tournament. Yes if you say “Dilly Dilly” during the tournament, you will get an ejection. Yes, as in an immediate, go directly to jail, do not pass go, do not collect $200 ejection. So the organizers of the Masters tournament handed down that moratorium. But the response from Anheuser-Busch was classic. Can we throw that tweet up there?

https://twitter.com/budlight/status/981273219750662145

Bud Light even went so far as to have hats and t-shirts made, because apparently not having a “Dilly Dilly” presence at the Masters, made Bud Light really want to have a “Dilly Dilly” presence at the Masters. So hats and t-shirts were made and distributed for the prestigious event. But alas, guess what happened? That Dilly Dilly ban, as the guy who we currently call “president” says, fake news! yup – the whole thing was erroneously reported! Thank you sound effects guy! Man I never thought I would see the day when my sound effects guy was funnier than I am. OK enough of the intro – we have a lot of idiocy to get to. But first – John Oliver is back and he exposes the seedy underbelly behind faith-based “Crisis Pregnancy Centers”:

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Taking the first slot is another edition of The Trumper Games! Happy Trumper Games! Yes – another tribute has been eliminated – Trump’s own lawyer Michael Cohen! In the second slot this week of course is Donald J. Trump (2) . So by now you know that Trump sent troops to the Mexican border, because, reasons. In the third slot this week is the Alt Right (3). Apparently they are ramping up their quest to out rampant satanic pedophilia, whatever that is. In the number 4 slot, is Gun Nut Apologists (4) who are ramping up their quest to harass and humiliate Parkland student David Hogg - to the point where they are flat out stalking him. In the #5 slot we’ve got a new installment of Top 10 Investigates, and this time we’re going to Los Angeles, and we’re going to investigate what is up with the Waze app. Yes – Waze apparently doesn’t know road conditions and it can get you in serious trouble. In the number 6 slot is our weekly sermon of all things holy, Holy Shit, and this week, our resident pastor is going to educate you on how to elect a “godly” candidate because , Jesus. In the number 7 slot we’ve got a new installment of “This Fucking Guy”, only this week, it’s “This Fucking Gal” and that is batshit crazy racist Infowars and Project Veritas contributor Laura Loomer (7), and whew, she crazy. And speaking of Infowars, it’s been a while since we checked in with our old buddy Alex Jones (8) and man is he losing it big time. In the number 9 (NEIN!!!) slot this week is a new installment of “People Are Dumb” because, well, people are dumb. Finally this week it’s Round 1 Week 4 of our Stupidest State contest and this time we’re live from the home of the Los Angeles Chargers at Stub Hub Center, and this time Virginia takes on the champs, Texas in a battle of the batshit, while newcomers Utah and Missouri duke it out for Family Values superiority! And to cap it off we’re beginning our month long celebration of all things punk rock, and we have a live performance for you from the legendary Suicidal Tendencies! And as always don’t forget the key!

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[font size="8"]The Trumper Games: Mockingtrump Pt. 2
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Another firing, another week for the Trumper Games! Wait a minute… you mean to tell me that Michael Cohen wasn’t fired? Charlie!!!! Get me my producer! And bring me the good champagne again, why must I keep getting the cheap shit? But this week – the president’s own lawyer – Michael Cohen – was eliminated from the contest known as the Trumper Games! And this was no ordinary arrest either – we’re talking about the presidents’ own attorney!

WASHINGTON — The F.B.I. raided the Rockefeller Center office and Park Avenue hotel room of President Trump’s longtime personal lawyer, Michael D. Cohen, on Monday morning, seizing business records, emails and documents related to several topics, including a payment to a pornographic film actress.

Mr. Trump, in an extraordinarily angry response, lashed out hours later at what a person briefed on the matter said was an investigation into possible bank fraud by Mr. Cohen. Mr. Trump accused his own Justice Department of perpetrating a “witch hunt” and asserted that the F.B.I. “broke in to” Mr. Cohen’s office.

The president, who spoke at the White House before meeting with senior military commanders about a potential missile strike on Syria, called the F.B.I. raid a “disgraceful situation” and an “attack on our country in a true sense.”

It is not clear how the F.B.I. entered Mr. Cohen’s office, but agents had a search warrant and typically would have presented it to office personnel to be let in. The documents identified in the warrant date back years, according to a person briefed on the search
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/09/us/politics/fbi-raids-office-of-trumps-longtime-lawyer-michael-cohen.html

Oh that’s fierce! But alas – who connected to the president isn’t a shady criminal? We honestly have no idea. So now Tribute Cohen – who was from the 7th district – has been eliminated. The president’s own lawyers have their own lawyers! It’s Lawyer-ception! It's a trial within a trial within a trial! Where does it end and where does it begin?

The FBI raid against Michael Cohen spiked President Donald Trump's rampant indignation over the Robert Mueller probe to previously unseen heights, multiplying the persecution complex he feels about the FBI and his own Justice Department and fueling his sense he's the target of a witch hunt.

And it suggests that Cohen, who paid off adult film star Stormy Daniels, could be a bridge between the two separate legal strands threatening Trump.

"There is no way that they are looking for things that don't connect to the President in some way," Anne Milgram, a former New Jersey attorney general told CNN's Anderson Cooper of the Cohen raid. "It really is an unbelievable day when you start to think about what is happening, what we are going to see next."

Trump's rage continued into Tuesday morning, when he tweeted that "Attorney--client privilege is dead!" and referred to a "A TOTAL WITCH HUNT!!!," his preferred moniker for Mueller's investigation.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/10/politics/michael-cohen-donald-trump-white-house/index.html

So now the president’s lawyers have their own lawyers! Who probably also have their own lawyers – I mean who knows how many layers this thing has? What’s real and what isn’t? Even we don’t know! And of course the president is angry all right! I mean he had to remind us of what it’s all about.

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/983662953894436864

Yes it’s a witch hunt! Or…. Is it? I mean if you were to ask the president directly it is an ordeal orchestrated by the other side! But in reality… he failed to read beyond the headline or the first paragraph like most fans of the president’s favorite news network.

The Department of Justice had to go to extraordinary lengths in order to carry out the raid on President Donald Trump's personal lawyer Michael Cohen.

And the lengths to which the Justice Department went show just how big of a deal the raid is, and, as experts said, how it is such "bad news" for Cohen.

On Monday, the FBI raided Cohen's Manhattan office, his home, and his hotel room, as The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Vanity Fair reported. The FBI was apparently acting on a referral from the special counsel Robert Mueller.

The agency took records related to several topics, including the $130,000 hush-money payment to adult-film star Stormy Daniels just before the 2016 presidential election, The Times reported. Federal prosecutors obtained a search warrant after Mueller sent a referral, said Cohen's lawyer, Stephen Ryan.

The Washington Post reported that Cohen was under investigation for possible bank fraud and violations of election law. Meanwhile, The Times wrote that the raid did not appear to be directly connected to Mueller's probe into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, but that the information he provided was likely uncovered as part of his investigation.
http://www.businessinsider.com/michael-cohen-justice-department-raid-on-trump-lawyer-2018-4

Yes… anything goes at this point, apparently! Mmmm… yes…. Mmmm…. Yes. Mmmmm… yes. So how does anything go? I mean how deep does this probe go? Not quite that deep, sir! We will keep an eye on this story, but for now, consider Tribute Cohen… eliminated!

Here’s what we don’t know: We don’t know specifically what the FBI was looking for when it raided the office of Michael Cohen, high-profile attorney for the Trump Organization. We don’t know what they found; we don’t know what investigations might be bolstered or curtailed by the evidence they seized.

What we do know, though, is interesting enough. The raid, which covered Cohen’s office and, according to the Wall Street Journal, his home and a Manhattan hotel room, included the seizure of information about the payment made to porn star Stormy Daniels shortly before the 2016 election and it included communications between Cohen and President Trump — meaning it included communication between an attorney and his client.

That last point also means that the bar for obtaining a warrant was higher than normal.

An attorney for Cohen told The Washington Post that the search was related to an investigation referred to the Justice Department by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III. In March, The Post reported that Cohen had caught Mueller’s eye, with the special counsel’s team questioning witnesses about Cohen’s actions and requesting documents from Trump’s attorney.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2018/04/09/to-search-michael-cohens-home-and-office-the-fbi-had-to-clear-a-higher-than-normal-bar/?utm_term=.69a989833d67

[font size="8"]Donald Trump
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You know Trump loves him some walls, folks. And he’s so determined to build that damn wall that he will stop at nothing to get it. And you know what the fuck good is a wall going to do when you have these things called airplanes and boats? If he really wanted to be effective, he would build a dome over America. But as we know from the Simpsons Movie and the show Under The Dome, those scenarios tend to end pretty shitty. So here are the latest developments in Trump’s quest to wall off the United States:

The Pentagon offered new details Monday about the types of activities National Guard troops would perform while deployed by President Trump to the U.S.-Mexico border, but critical questions remain about how long the operation will last and how much it will cost.

National Guard troops will provide air support through drones and light-, medium- and heavy-lift helicopters, Lt. Col. Jamie Davis, a Defense Department spokesman, said in a statement to The Washington Post. They will also help maintain roads and other infrastructure, clear vegetation and assist with facility maintenance, in addition to operating surveillance systems, including cameras and blimps, Davis said.

They will not be arresting migrants or carrying out armed patrols along the border.

Describing the mission as a support role for the Department of Homeland Security, Davis confirmed that the troops won’t necessarily carry weapons. “National Guard personnel will only be armed for their own self-protection to the extent required by the circumstances of the mission they are performing,” Davis said.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/troops-sent-by-trump-to-border-will-fly-drones-gather-intel--and-clear-brush-too/2018/04/09/8f608250-3c08-11e8-a7d1-e4efec6389f0_story.html?utm_term=.048db30a9db2

Oh come on, this is the Trump administration here! You say facts like costs and deployment times as if they are a thing. You silly journalists, facts don’t matter! I mean if facts did matter Trump wouldn’t be in the White House! So Trump is sending troops to the border because, reasons. I mean if drugs are really the reason, the Trump administration can’t be bothered to do any actual research!

As for drug trafficking, the administration would be well-advised to take credit for collapsing marijuana smuggling, which is the real story. From a 2009 high of 3.8 million pounds confiscated by Border Patrol in the field (as opposed to at official crossing points), we anticipate seizures to fall to 0.6 million pounds this year, a reduction of 84 percent.

The key driver of the collapse is the legalization of recreational marijuana, at first in Colorado and more recently in California, which has allowed domestic production to displace Mexican imports. As the U.S. industry becomes more established, it will continue to take share from lower quality, smuggled product.

The anticipated legalization of marijuana in New Jersey will put another nail in the smuggling coffin, and we anticipate a further two-thirds drop of marijuana smuggling in the field by 2021. The collapse of marijuana smuggling has nothing to do with border patrol and everything to do with legalization at the state level. Nevertheless, in the time honored tradition, U.S. presidents can take credit for achievements on their watch. President Trump should do so.
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/09/the-real-reason-trump-is-sending-troops-to-the-mexican-border.html

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Well it’s not wrong, it’s a fact, sir! But you know it is Trump – a guy whose media diet is almost as shitty as his actual diet. 2500 calories worth of McDonalds can’t be all that bad for you can it? And neither can a steady diet of 24/7 Fox News.

National Guard troops have begun deploying along the Mexican border, answering a call from President Trump to combat the "lawlessness that continues at our southern border."

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey announced 225 guard members from his state deployed Monday, with more than 100 additional troops sent Tuesday.

"Thank you to the brave men and women of @AZNationalGuard deploying in support of Operation Guardian Shield," Ducey said on Twitter. "Your efforts are making all Arizonans and our country safer."

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said about 250 Texas National Guard members have been deployed, a force that will be ramped up to about 1,000 from his state alone in coming weeks, he said.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2018/04/10/heeding-trumps-call-national-guard-troops-mass-along-border/502018002/

And who needs to actually build a wall when you can just send a human one with drones overseeing your every move? Yes – they’re watching you! And the true worth of the border wall – it’s pretty worthless, actually.

President Donald Trump's plans to build a wall along the United States' southern border is inflaming relations between the United States and Mexico. It's a contentious issue, considering the border wall would cost billions of dollars.

On Thursday, Trump threatened to cancel a meeting with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, after Peña Nieto reiterated that Mexico would not pay for it.

On Thursday, Senate leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky, said Congress will follow through on Trump's border wall order, and McConnell estimated it will cost $15 billion at most — he cited a range of $12 billion to $15 billion.
https://www.cnbc.com/2015/10/09/this-is-what-trumps-border-wall-could-cost-us.html

[font size="8"]The Alt Right
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So if you remember last week – we discussed in more detail that I would care to know about – a bullshit conspiracy theory called “The Storm”. And the storm alleges that there’s a global elite ring of rampant pedophilia and child sex trafficking that we are unaware of. Sure, these are truly horrifying crimes, but like most things, the Alt Right just makes shit up. Take Liz Crokin for instance who says that anyone who dares to criticize Trump is tied to Satanism! Oh sure that’s what we want you to think, Liz!

Fringe right-wing conspiracy theorist Liz Crokin appeared on the “Disputed Lands” program last night, where she asserted that the cabal of elite satanic pedophiles who rule the world are trying to kill everyone through vaccines and chemtrails so that they can sexually abuse and eat children without anyone “pestering” them.

“That’s why they are all about abortion, depopulation, contaminating our food supply, the chemtrails, the vaccines,” Crokin said. “They are trying to kill us. They are trying to kill us off because they know the only way they can run their sick one-world government where they worship Moloch, rape kids, and do it without anyone like me pestering them is if they kill most of us off and that’s what they’re trying to do.”

Crokin said that, in the meantime, “they are trying to hard to normalize this because they know eventually this is going to come out” and so they are working to “get raping kids and eating kids to be cool and normal” by using celebrities like Lady Gaga, Katy Perry and Drew Barrymore to promote “cannibalism and satanic rituals and child sex trafficking.”
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/liz-crokin-elite-satanic-pedophiles-are-trying-to-kill-us-off/

Yeah probably. I want some of whatever brand of Covfefe these morons are smoking because it must be some pretty strong stuff. I mean Liz isn’t the only one who is convinced that there’s rampant satanic pedophilia out there. I give you Alex Jones’ BFF, Jerome Corsi.

Jerome Corsi, the Washington bureau chief for the right-wing conspiracy theory outlet Infowars, appeared on “The SGT Report” over the weekend to discuss his efforts to promote the QAnon/The Storm conspiracy theory, which alleges that President Trump is secretly working to take down a massive satanic pedophile ring that involves untold numbers of elite political, business and entertainment leaders.

Corsi said that it is only through the grace of God that he is able to maintain his sanity as he works tirelessly to expose the terrible truth about the rampant satanic pedophilia that is taking place and that he often finds himself unable to sleep over the thought that he may be missing an opportunity to get the word out and “red pill” one more person.

“The corruption, the evil of devoting yourself to Lucifer ends up in satanic sacrifices, children abused, human rights kidnapping, just incredible human torment, torture, snuff films,” Corsi said. “The evil depths and corners of this are so abhorrent to me, and should be to every right-thinking American, that we need to expose this, we need to bring it out, we need to show it the light of day despite how many people it’s going to be disturbing to.”

“Those of us who are going to know every aspect of it are ourselves going to have to pray to God that we come out not so damaged that we become somewhat dysfunctional,” he added. “We are going to have to make sure that we pray and approach this with the light of God and the help of God in order to get through this crisis.”
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/jerome-corsi-is-overwhelmed-by-his-calling-to-expose-rampant-satanic-pedophilia/

What crisis, Jerome? You mean the one where a puppet installed by a mass murdering dictator is occupying the government of the free world? That one? Yeah there’s that. These morons are so convinced of this that they actually held a march in Washington, DC! Yes, an entire fucking march! These are the Walking MAGAts. Or maybe its’ spinoff show, Fear The Walking MAGAts.

A group of just over 100 right-wing conspiracy theorists met in front of the White House on Saturday, marched down Pennsylvania Avenue past the Justice Department and FBI buildings, and gathered on Freedom Plaza for an open mic rally.

Several marchers brandished copies of Infowars Washington bureau chief Jerome Corsi’s latest book, “Killing the Deep State.” Corsi promotes the conspiracy theory known as The Storm, which is based on anonymous postings by someone known as Q, supposedly from deep within the government. “I see Q people,” read a sign at the march. Others yelled at tourists and pedestrians, “Who is QAnon? Look it up!”

Adherents believe that the dispatches from Q—or QAnon—are signaling that the Trump administration is getting ready to blow the lid off major conspiracy theories, including one that posits that leading Democratic political operatives are engaged in child sex trafficking.

In January, Corsi warned that eventually videos would come out showing “global elites” making children plead for their lives before “butchering” them. The related “Pizzagate” conspiracy theory nearly turned fatal when one adherent showed up at a restaurant that conspiracy theorists claimed was the center of a sex-trafficking ring and started shooting. At the Saturday march, one participant’s sign read, “Arrest Luciferian Pedophiles NOW.”
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/red-pill-rally-in-dc-unites-far-right-conspiracy-theories-and-apocalyptic-religion/

Yeah probably! So if you want a recap – the March For Our Lives had millions of people around the country and the world marching for something. Here in DC, you had 100 people marching for… absolutely nothing! But if you talk to the most die hard person involved in this cult, it is quite something because they believe in this bullshit. By the way – did you know the deep state elite satanic pedophiles were involved in Cohen’s firing? Neither did we!

Last night, right-wing preacher Lance Wallnau posted a video on his Facebook page in which he railed against the news that the FBI had raided the office of President Trump’s longtime personal attorney, Michael Cohen.

Wallnau fumed that the “deep state” and Trump’s “enemies in the CIA.” were violating attorney-client privilege solely in order to obtain information about Trump that could be leaked to the media in order to embarrass the president.

“Michael Cohen, Trump’s attorney, just had his hotel room and his office ransacked by the FBI. in order to find every personal communication he had with Donald Trump that can be leaked to the New York Times that can expose any embarrassment regarding Stormy Daniels,” Wallnau said. “So desperate, so despicable, so depraved are his enemies that they are actually raiding his lawyer’s office in order to find any type of shred of information that they can use because the Russia thing is going belly-up, so they are now going after Trump for did he ever, in 10 years, 12 years, did he ever do anything that can humiliate him or embarrass him?”

“It’s infuriating,” Wallnau said, as he began to pray against the intelligence agencies and “their quest to try to destroy their own president.”
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/lance-wallnau-rails-against-the-flippin-nutjobs-who-raided-michael-cohens-office/

[font size="8"]Gun Nut Apologists
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You guys know David Hogg, right? I’ve been reporting on this kid lately, and he’s going places. In fact he’s really getting under the gun nuts’ skin. They are addicted to their death toys. They can’t stand it not to have their precious. Really, the gun nuts are like Gollem from Lord Of The Rings. Guns are the One Ring, and the gun nuts are chasing after their precious. In fact I reported that gun nuts have threatened to murder Hogg, and they have also started a whole website dedicated to stalking him. Well here’s one gun nut from St Louis who… yeah should probably keep his mouth shut.

St. Louis radio and TV personality Jamie Allman has landed in hot water with a tweet about his desire to assault Parkland student David Hogg with a hot poker.

Hogg has been a subject of criticism from pro-gun rights advocates since he and other Parkland students began speaking out and organizing rallies. The students are advocating for stronger gun laws after 19-year-old gunman Nikolas Cruz took the lives of 17 people at the school.

Allman's Twitter account is now "locked," which means anyone who wants to see his tweets first has to request his permission to follow him.

A screenshot of the controversial tweet, sent at 9:56 p.m. on March 26, began making its way around social media this week and was the subject of a story in the Riverfront Times, the St. Louis alt-weekly, on Friday.

Read more: http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/jamie-allman-lands-himself-in-hot-water-with-tweet-about/article_3b1fe951-d154-5d4f-a0f2-c37ea771d2af.html

Yeah BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! Really? You first thought is sodomizing with a hot poker? What is wrong with these assholes? Oh and in case you didn’t catch – his employer is Sinclair Broadcasting, which as you are probably well aware is under fire for trying to become state run TV under Trump:

In recent weeks, news anchors at local TV stations across the country have warned Americans about the “sharing of biased and false news” and the threat “fake stories” pose to democracy. As a recent video revealed, reporters recited word for word the same script bearing this warning.

What do these stations have in common? They’re all owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, the largest television station conglomerate in the United States.

Critics have claimed that Sinclair — a company with close ties to the Trump administration and conservative politicians — is pushing its stations away from local coverage and toward a partisan brand of political reporting on national politics.

In new research, we find evidence that that appears to be the case. Stations bought by Sinclair reduce coverage of local politics, increase national coverage and move the ideological tone of coverage in a conservative direction relative to other stations operating in the same market.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2018/04/10/yes-sinclair-broadcast-group-does-cut-local-news-increase-national-news-and-tilt-its-stations-rightward/?utm_term=.216b52f6bc02

Yeah sure whatever. So Sinclair is under fire for wanting to become state run TV under Trump. And then they have this douchebag to deal with. But at least Jamie got shit canned – partially. I mean if hot sodomy with a metal rod isn’t enough for a guy to get fired, what is?

“I’ve been hanging out getting ready to ram a hot poker up David Hogg’s ass,” Jamie Allman wrote on Twitter on March 26.

“We have accepted Mr. Allman’s resignation, and his show has been canceled,” a Sinclair spokesman told The Washington Post on Monday.

“You can’t say ‘Hey I’m just a kid,’” Allman said, according to the Riverfront Times. “We have to be allowed to refute what you’re saying... or to respond to it, you can’t be all the time grabbing your blanket when the going gets tough.”

Sinclair has also come under fire for forcing its anchors to recite the same scripted editorial against “false stories” that critics have likened to a “hostage video.”

Read more: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/jamie-allman-canceled_us_5acc21c5e4b07a3485e7a557

Goodbye Jamie, don’t let the door hit your ass on the way out! Now what Mr. Allman said was extremely horrible. But not the worst thing said about David Hogg this week. Behind door #2 – there is Ted “Mr. Poopy Pants Draft Dodger” Nugent:

Ted Nugent lashed out on Friday at the high school students who have led protests against gun violence in recent weeks, calling them "soulless" and "ignorant" in a fiery radio interview.

"I really feel sorry for them because it’s not only ignorant and dangerously stupid, but it’s soulless," Nugent said during an appearance on "The Joe Pags Show." "To attack the good, law-abiding families of America when well-known, predictable murderers commit these horrors is deep in the category of soulless."

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

In the interview, Nugent railed against what he called the "dumbing down of America" by schools and teachers, whom he accused of teaching students' "lies."

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/381108-ted-nugent-parkland-students-protesting-gun-violence-are

Ahhhhhhh!!! Someone give me a warning next time! Hey “The Storm” fans, there’s a real satanic pedophile for you – Ted Nugent! Ted Nugent is your creepy uncle’s creepy uncle. In case you want to do a search on his past transgressions, just do a quick Google search. I won’t post them here. This is a comedy show, not a horror movie. Yes, the guy who bragged about shitting his pants to get out of Vietnam is threatening to murder high school students. And by the way – guess what he did after getting called out on his bullshit? Anyone? Yeah we need the sad Hulk music for this one!

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NRA board member Ted Nugent isn’t backing down from his attacks on the Parkland high school mass shooting student survivors. “I stand by my words,” the rock star said in a Facebook videoSaturday night. On Good Friday Nugent had declared that the teenaged student survivors who are advocating for gun control so no other children have to die in a school massacre, “have no soul.”

On Saturday, in a rambling rant (below) about the media that was filled with inaccuracies Nugent said that news outlets including CNN, MSNBC, ABC, CBS, and HuffPost, along with organizations including Media Matters, MoveOn.org, and the Southern Poverty Law Center, had “claimed that it’s hate speech to identify the hate of people that call us child murderers, because we don’t believe in banning guns, which won’t save any lives.”

A quick Google search could find no evidence of any major organization labeling Nugent’s attack “hate speech.”
https://www.rawstory.com/2018/04/ted-nugent-whines-hes-victim-hate-speech-attack-parkland-teens-backfires/

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

Traffic. It’s one of those things that we have to endure as a modern society. And it can often be the stuff of nightmares. Nobody likes to wait in traffic. Yes, you can counter that with the “nobody likes to wait in line” argument, but there are people who wait in line for days for the latest iPhone. So yeah there is that. But in the smartphone era, there are apps on your phone that can help route you around the worst of traffic. One of these apps is called “Waze” and the Waze app can get you in trouble if you are not careful.

Nobody could have known, several years ago, that technological progress could make life so complicated in Echo Park.

But along Baxter Street, everyone seems to have a story about the ineptitude of drivers — following directions from navigation apps — who can't seem to handle one of the steepest inclines in Los Angeles.

"The car came through our garden, went through two fences and ended up backwards hanging over our driveway," said Jason Luther, who was describing an accident that happened during the last rains.

"A lot of people can't make it up the hill," Baxter resident Robbie Adams said.

Why not? I asked.

"Because it's too steep, and they don't know how to drive up. So they stop and try to back down, and it's a mess because people are coming up behind them."
http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-lopez-echo-park-traffic-20180404-story.html

Yes – WTF LOL indeed. So the Waze app has been routing people onto one of the most notoriously difficult streets to drive on in America. So what is it about this street that is causing so much controversy? Well of course people from Los Angeles always react well in rainy driving conditions. Always.

With grades as steep as 32 degrees -- 35 percent -- residents say Baxter Street is most treacherous in the rain, with a history of cars skidding into front yards.

It has recently become more of a concern during dry times as well.

"The rain has always been an issue, but I guess this particular issue with traffic started when Waze became popular," said Baxter resident Robbie Adams, who has been active in pressing City Hall to take steps to ease the traffic volumes.

East of Glendale Boulevard in the hills of upper Echo Park, Baxter Street has two summits with cross streets.

In the intersection with Alvarado Street, Baxter is so steep, drivers cannot see the road on the other side until starting down.
https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/Neighbors-Seek-Relief-From-Traffic-Guided-to-Steep-Street-478825893.html

And that is the typical reaction from Southern Californians when it comes to rain. So what happens when you drive on this most notoriously steep of streets? Well there are lots of bad things that can happen.

Even as tires were spinning and horns honking there during Wednesday's evening rush hours, residents crowded into a conference room at the Echo Park district office of City Councilman Mitch O'Farrell to meet with city transportation officials and press for solutions. Making Baxter one-way has been proposed, but the alternative favored by many residents is adding road signs prohibiting cut-through traffic during rush hours.

Going through the neighborhood, it seems most every neighbor has cellphone video to share of incidents that have occurred on Baxter. Adams has a pickup spinning its rear tires in front of his house. Brian Sayres recorded a car giving up the climb, attempting to back down, then knocking loose its bumper when it turned around. Daniel Ruiz's cellphone video shows a backup of traffic behind car halted at the summit. Another resident's posting on YouTube shows the semi-trailer of an 18 wheeler literally grounded at the summit, its wheels dangling in the air, before it was finally winched free.

Several residents shared stories of skidding cars sliding into yards. James Anderson said the car he parks outside his Baxter Street home has been hit twice, and after the second time, asked the driver what happened.

Well there is always that. So how do the residents of one of the steepest streets in America react to the traffic that Waze has created?

Baxter Street in Echo Park, East Los Angeles, is the fifth-steepest hill in America; it's so steep that inexperienced drivers struggle with it, spinning out and crashing, especially in the rain.

Luckily, it's not a main road and so the people who've used it for most of its 130+ year history have been locals who've developed the necessary specialized knowledge to traverse it.

But now Baxter Street has become something of a thoroughfare, with disastrous consequences as inexperienced drivers -- directed to shortcut through Baxter when the main roads are busy, especially when a rare LA rainstorm clogs traffic and turns Baxter's hills into a nearly impassable obstacle -- are steered onto it by their navigation apps.

We have a good friend who lives off of Baxter Street and we drive it several times a year on our way to dinner parties at his house, and it's a serious white-knuckler. Check out the Youtube subgenre of wheeled conveyances braving its slopes.
https://boingboing.net/2018/04/05/algorithmic-routing.html

So there you have it – Baxter street is not only one of the most notoriously steep streets to drive on, there’s even a Youtube video dedicated to the insanity of driving on this street. That is it for Top 10 Investigates. Good day.

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

So my fair congregation, how does one choose the more godly candidate? And I answer you – they’re a republican. Well it’s a lot more complicated than that. Mainly they’re a person who the right wing evangelicals can pray to, and someone who speaks their language. Now it does not matter what kind of scandals or the magnitude of said scandals one was involved in. Are they are republican? If yes then that is who the people of JAYSUS will vote for! Just ask brother Tony!

NPR reported today that evangelical leaders are seeking to organize a meeting with President Trump this summer at which they intend to confront the president about his alleged affair with, and payoff of, pornographic actress Stormy Daniels. To those who have been following the Religious Right’s support for the president, this story seemed highly suspect because the movement has displayed nothing but blind loyalty in return for Trump’s willingness to enact their political agenda.

This afternoon, the Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins, who has played a central role in maintaining the Trump/Religious Right partnership, appeared on Todd Starnes’ radio program, where he announced that evangelicals have no intention whatsoever of confronting Trump about his personal immorality.

Perkins is among those who are in the process of planning the upcoming meeting, which he explained is intended to be nothing more than a follow-up to the meeting that Trump held with hundreds of evangelical activists prior to the 2016 election. Perkins said that there is a risk that evangelical voters may not be motivated to vote in the midterm elections and so this meeting is designed primarily as a means of highlighting the fact that Trump has largely kept his promises to enact their agenda.
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/tony-perkins-evangelicals-have-no-intention-of-confronting-trump-over-stormy-daniels/

So this is the Christian right’s idea of what passes for the more godly candidate in the 2018 midterm election. Scandals don’t matter. It don’t matter if Trump layeth down with thine porn star! Because that is blasphemy, and BLASPHEMY IS A SIN!!!! Can I get an amen???? So here is how one chooses the more godly candidate!

Intercessors for America has released its prayer guide for the 2018 midterm elections with the goal of electing more “godly” leaders.

IFA’s vision is “to see God’s purposes for America fulfilled through sustained prayer and Spirit-led obedience.” Kyle noted last month that IFA’s director, Dave Kubal, had posted a video talking about the 2018 midterms and the importance of “aligning intercessors with elected officials” in order “to see great advances of the kingdom of God” enacted “through our government.”

IFA’s 2018 guide touts the importance of getting engaged before primary elections, and it’s talking specifics:

There are twelve key House races in our nation, in which retirements, weak incumbents, or a huge field of primary candidates warrant critical intercession. These key races may affect the balance of power in Congress. Please join us in praying for these highlighted districts—even if you don’t live there.

Overall, pray that God would be honored in our elections and that Christians would not only pray, but also participate in elections.
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/intercessors-for-america-releases-guide-to-electing-godly-candidates-in-2018/

So really you just need someone who can speak your language. And so what does that mean, my fair congregation? Well I answer you… if they are a good and decent person, they are not the kind of person the religious right looks up to! For they only look up to the worst among us! Like Donald J. Trump, for instance! Because apparently Trump is GAWD!!!!!

On his program yesterday, televangelist and prepper pastor Jim Bakker declared that the attacks on President Trump are a sign that “America is in a war against God.”

“Our president, it is like he is in a war,” Bakker said. “He is not running the country like he should because he is trying to defend himself. Don’t kid yourself, he is in warfare. God spoke to me today on this broadcast; what you are experiencing in this nation through the television and through all the networking and through Hollywood and through everything now—everything—you are feeling a spirit which is the spirit of Antichrist. There is a war in the world against God!”

Bakker said that Christians who ask “why would God give us a president who swears, why would he give us a president who has had affairs with women throughout his lifetime?” need to remember that King David was also “a womanizer” and that just about every American president has had multiple affairs.

“One of the most loved presidents of all times, from the information that I have first hand, had multiple affairs daily in the White House,” Bakker said, rather cryptically. “You say, ‘How could he know?’ Well, somebody had to bring the women up the stairs.”
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/jim-bakker-attacks-on-trump-are-a-sign-that-america-is-in-a-war-against-god/

But of course picking the more godly candidate among us doesn’t mean that we should question logic or reason in 2018. No, my fellow worshippers! Because Satan be damned, in the Trump era all logic and reason has been thrown out the window! Which is why the godliest among us will say batshit crazy stuff like this:

On Friday’s episode of his “TruNews” program, End Times broadcaster and right-wing conspiracy theorist Rick Wiles asserted that government “death squads” are responsible for carrying out mass shootings in order to provide a justification for imposing gun control.

This is not the first time that Wiles has made such a claim, as he also believes that these death squads were responsible for murdering Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia and have been routinely beating up politicians.

“I think there is something very sinister going on,” Wiles said. “I personally think that there are death squads, top-secret death squads in this country.”

“Don’t rule out the possibility that these mass shootings are organized and carried out by a death squad and then some sap gets shot and we’re told that he was the perpetrator, he was the one who did it,” Wiles added. “How are we going to ask him? He’s dead.”
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/rick-wiles-government-death-squads-are-carrying-out-mass-shootings-to-justify-gun-control/

Yes Brother Rick – even JAYSUS is embarrassed at this one! Because insanity is a SIN!!! And sins must be punished by our GAWD, creator of all that is good and holy! Can I get an amen? And unlike you, Rick, we can point out in our book where it says that because in our Bible it most certainly does! So death squads are shooting people, because, reasons. But you know what? We must not pick the wrong candidate, or we might usher in the anti Christ! Because you know that the Anti Christ will reign down with fire and fury the destruction of our very planet!

On Friday, Dave Kubal of Intercessors for America hosted a Facebook livestream with End Times author William Koenig, who specializes in claiming that just about all of the major natural disasters and catastrophes that have struck America in recent decades have been God’s punishment on this nation for attempting to divide Israel.

During the discussion session, Koenig warned that White House senior adviser Jared Kushner’s efforts to secure a Middle East peace plan could lead to the rise of the Antichrist.

“There is going to be a peace deal,” Koenig said, suggesting that such a deal would signal that we are living in the End Times, as foretold in Daniel 9:27. “It will be a seven-year covenant. This is the key final-day peace deal. For three and a half years, there will be relative peace and that the midpoint of that three and a half years in the covenant, the Antichrist will come on the Temple Mount and declare himself to be the Messiah. The false prophet spoke of in Revelation will acknowledge that he is the Messiah and then in the last final three and a half years, leading up to the final battle for Jerusalem, which is Armageddon, you’ll have Satan’s wrath, then God’s wrath leading up to the final battle.”
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/william-koenig-its-very-possible-that-jared-kushner-could-bring-about-the-antichrist/

There you have it, folks! Don’t pick the wrong candidate or you will witness the death and destruction of humanity! That is the take away I hope you get from today’s sermon. Mass has ended may you go in peace! That’s it this week for:

[font size="8"]Laura Loomer
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This week’s “This Fucking Guy” is actually a woman – and a seriously batshit crazy one at that. I’m of course talking about Laura Loomer. If you have been paying attention to the Alt Right blog-o-sphere like I have, you’ve probably heard her name mentioned many times. But for those that haven’t, let’s run down her credentials. She’s a regular contributor to Infowars and Project Veritas, got kicked out of court for questioning whether or not the plaintiff was Islamic, got arrested after storming last year’s Shakesphere In The Park production of Julius Caesar, and claims to be a journalist despite having no journalist credentials whatsoever. At least this show – you know we don’t have journalistic integrity, but the difference is we’re proud to admit it! So here’s what Laura has been up to lately.

Right-wing activists and media figures went all-out in their attacks on the March for Our Lives gun reform rallies on Saturday, including attacking the rallies’ funding and organization, blaming “political correctness” and comparing Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school shooting survivor David Hogg to Adolf Hitler.

Hundreds of thousands of people gathered in Washington, D.C., and in cities across the country to call for stricter gun laws and call out politicians who have received funding and support from the National Rifle Association. Polling shows that most Americans support the march’s calls for gun reform.

Predictably, right-wing pundits went after billionaire George Soros—conservative activists’ favorite bogeyman—in an effort to minimize the legitimacy of the protests. Breitbart radio host Joel Pollak said it was “no surprise” that the march was a “Soros production.” The site’s sports editor Dylan Gwinn said that “we all know that these kids are being coached.”

<snip>

Right-wing conspiracy theorist and Infowars “reporter” Laura Loomer posted a selfie in response to the march, in which she wore a jacked with a patch that reads: “I don’t need feminism. I carry a 9mm.” Loomer also chided activists who ran a voter registration booth at a benefit concert held the night before the march.
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/right-wing-activists-respond-to-march-for-our-lives-by-attacking-students-and-blaming-soros/

Holy fuck! If that’s what she’s like in real life, I would hate to see her in other situations! “I don’t need safety regulations! I have a 9mm!”. “Who needs the TSA? I have a 9mm!”. “Who needs a DUI check? I have a 9mm!!!”. “I can’t believe I got cut off on the freeway! I have a 9mm!!” And so on. And that wasn’t the only protest Loomer said something off the wall batshit crazy at.

Unhinged conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer urged her followers to archive the shooter’s personal profiles, claiming that the shooter “is a Jihadi and they want to cover it up”:
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/these-are-some-of-the-worst-right-wing-reactions-to-the-shooting-at-youtube-hq/

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Oh come on, who covers up things like jihadists? What? Too soon? Well, remember a couple of weeks ago when the UK detained a couple of Alt Right / Alt Lite / Diet Alt Lite whatever the fuck they call themselves activists got arrested in the UK? Well there was this.

Two far-right activists were detained and deported when they attempted to enter the United Kingdom this weekend, triggering outrage among right-wing media personalities in the U.S. and Europe.

On Friday, far-right YouTube vlogger Brittany Pettibone and her boyfriend, Austrian “Identitarian” activist Martin Sellner, were detained by United Kingdom border police for three days, after which they were deported back to Austria. Pettibone frequently affiliates with right-wing extremists and has earned a spot in the hearts and minds of alt-right activists by flirting with white nationalism, such as the idea that it’s “our fault” if white people become a minority race. She also used to co-host a podcast with the explicitly alt-right personality Tara McCarthy.

Documents provided to Pettibone explain that immigration authorities denied her entry because she intended to work with Tommy Robinson, an anti-Muslim activist employed by Rebel Media, and was carrying “leaflets with scenarios regarding possible violence” at a speech Sellner was scheduled to give.

<snip>

Conspiracy theorist “journalist” Laura Loomer felt the need to chime in that she would not be flying to the U.K. “to join the sisterhood of traveling detainees”:
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/far-right-erupts-as-alt-lite-activists-prevented-from-entering-uk/

Which is definitely true. And why am I not surprised that Laura is friends with those lunatics? I mean Jack Posobiec and Mike Cernovich are also Diet Low Calorie Alt Lite, and they also make shit up as they go along. Remember that Julius Caesar play from last year I talked about? Guess what?

A rightwing protester has been charged with trespassing after interrupting a New York production of Julius Caesar during the assassination scene and shouting: “This is violence against Donald Trump.”

The protester, who later identified herself as Laura Loomer, interrupted the Shakespeare in the Park production on Friday night and shouted “this is political violence against the right” while audience members booed and told her to get off the stage.

The incident was filmed by Jack Posobiec, a rightwing provocateur best known for helping to spread the Pizzagate conspiracy theory. He stood up as Loomer was escorted off stage by security guards and yelled at the crowd: “You are all Goebbels. You are all Nazis like Joseph Goebbels … You are inciting terrorists. The blood of Steve Scalise is on your hands.”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jun/17/trump-supporter-interrupts-controversial-julius-caesar-play-in-new-york

Oh come on, Laura, if you’re gonna accuse someone of being Hitler, for one you should take a look at that president who you admire so much. And second, you need to hang with some real Nazis. I’m not talking your run of the mill tiki torch, khaki wearing Nazis. I’m talking real fucking Nazis.

Meanwhile, the radical right was busy creating a troll storm buttressed by popular right wing websites like Hotair.com, which warned that "An Army of Illegal Aliens is Marching on America." By Saturday afternoon, the hashtag, #stopthecaravan was trending on Twitter. The SPLC hate tracker, which automatically detects trends among a population of far-right Twitter accounts, registered #stopthecaravan as trending.

Also on Saturday, the neo-Nazi Website, Daily Stormer, warned of "Brown Hordes on the Move," and provided a phone number urging readers to call the White House. After Trump's tweets, the Daily Stormer posted a follow-up article on Sunday arguing that the president "has at least heard us."

The notorious hate site Stormfront warned of "an avalanche of mud" heading for the U.S. border. As one poster on the neo-Nazi forum put it, "We should exercise our second amendment rights and meet them at the border, guns in hand."

Other racists began "doxing" the organizers of the migrant march. On The Right Stuff forum, Michael Peinovich posted an urgent request for readers to call the White House and a poster in the thread put up the contact information for the group organizing the caravan, Pueblo Sin Fronteras, urging its racist followers to email them. Others encouraged readers to attack the group's Facebook page. On Peinovich's Twitter feed, he retweeted a post with the contact information for the group, including phone numbers and emails. In the same thread, a Twitter user named "Frex" posted Pueblos Sin Fronteras organizer Alex Mensing's Facebook page, including photos of his family, writing, "Now is the time to go out and mine all his social media before he goes private."
https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2018/04/02/trump-and-his-troll-army-declare-war-caravan-migrants-fleeing-persecution

Yeah Laura, there’s some real fucking Nazis for you. And guess what? They all vote for Trump! That’s Laura Loomer, this week’s This Fucking Gal.

[font size="8"]Alex Jones
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Holy shit, Alex Jones has had quite the week and if you think we're not going to include him in our weekly show you are wrong, very wrong! You lose! You get nothing! Good day sir! So our good friends at Right Wing Watch (really, the Top 10 wouldn't exist without them) went to his press conference over the weekend. In case you're unaware, Infowars is currently facing multiple lawsuits for slander (shocker) and Alex put on quite the show to address the current problems facing the conspiracy theory site. RWW went to the taping and well, it's like seeing Alex put on a live broadcast of Infowars.

Infowars host and nationally known conspiracy theorist Alex Jones traveled to Washington, D.C., this week to host a press conference aimed at rallying support for Infowars hosts and guests while they face defamation lawsuits and battle against what they claim is undue censorship from social media platforms.

The press event at the National Press Club and a follow-up event at a nearby hotel failed to deliver any major revelations about the lawsuits Jones and his team are facing, apart from an announcement that Jones and his legal counsel had moved that one of the cases against him be dismissed. This predictable announcement was accompanied by more than four hours of press briefings that resembled a typical day on “The Alex Jones Show.”

Early yesterday morning, Jones and his allies kicked off a press conference they said would address the multiple lawsuits that Infowars and its guests have been named in. But the conference quickly became just another venue to advance one of Infowars’ main objectives: attacking and delegitimizing credible news media.

First on deck was pro-Trump pundit and One America News contributor Jack Posobiec, who has appeared often on Infowars. He read excerpts from an Eleanor Roosevelt speech about the importance of freedom and said afterward that he wanted to keep his appearance focused on the vague concept of individual liberty, rather than commenting on the defamation lawsuits that Jones and his crew are facing.
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/we-went-to-alex-jones-press-briefings-yesterday-heres-what-we-found-out/

So here's a few of the greatest hits - and gee would you be surprised to learn that he blamed Soros for everything? And that most of his friends including Jerome Corsi and Roger Stone are also under indictment?

First on deck was pro-Trump pundit and One America News contributor Jack Posobiec, who has appeared often on Infowars. He read excerpts from an Eleanor Roosevelt speech about the importance of freedom and said afterward that he wanted to keep his appearance focused on the vague concept of individual liberty, rather than commenting on the defamation lawsuits that Jones and his crew are facing.

But soon afterward, a host of Infowars staff and regular guests, including GOP “dirty trickster” operative Roger Stone, Infowars Washington bureau chief Jerome Corsi, Infowars reporters Lee Ann McAdoo and Millie Weaver, Sputnik’s Lee Stranahan and Gateway Pundit White House reporter Lucian Wintrich, joined Jones to speak at the podium about the lawsuits and the threat they claimed these lawsuits pose to their First Amendment rights. Jones made a point to tell press conference attendees that the National Press Club had removed its logo from the podium it lent to Infowars for the briefing.

And then there was this:

Jones said he had been sued 13 times in the last year, for which he blamed the Right’s favorite bogeyman, billionaire George Soros. Like many of his guest speakers, Jones claimed that the lawsuits against him were designed to destroy the First Amendment, which he says would be the first step in an alleged plot to repeal other constitutional protections.

Jones said that the mainstream media “killed itself” and has since “circled their wagons” to defang the First Amendment and censor content creators like Infowars that have experienced success on non-traditional platforms like YouTube. Jones compared Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey to a communist dictator and alleged that the website ranking service Alexa had been rigged to disadvantage his website.

And then they of course brought up QAnon. If I were to put my finger on it I would say someone at Infowars is Q. It's entirely possible - they know way too much about it.

Afterward, Corsi took the stage to discuss QAnon, the anonymous author of more than one thousand cryptic riddles on 4Chan and 8Chan that Corsi and other conspiracy theorists believe to be a top-ranking Trump administration official. QAnon and the related conspiracy theory known as “The Storm” are topics that Corsi spends literal hours each day attempting to decode.

“QAnon is military intelligence and close to Trump,” Corsi said. “And the intelligence we’re getting, that we’ve explained on Infowars, really is a lot of the inside script.”

When I asked Jones about his prior claims that the White House had asked that Jerome Corsi cover the transparently insane “QAnon” conspiracy theory, he told me, “That’s private stuff.”

Alex, keep doing what you are doing. But that’s not the only nonsense Alex was up to this week. Alex well, is straight up crazy. Of course you know that every single mass shooting, Alex is quick to call the shooting a false flag. Well after the horrifying gas attack in Syria this week, guess what?

Yesterday, conspiracy theory architect Alex Jones echoed the Assad regime and called the chemical attack a “false flag” launched by Syrian rebel forces that was meant to keep the U.S. and other world powers engaged in Syria’s civil war.

“It has every hallmark of a false flag. And why does it have every hallmark of a false flag? The Russians have announced they’re pulling out a month ago, the United States announces it’s going to pull out a week ago—President Trump. The globalists openly want to keep us there and break the country into three parts. This is a big, big deal,” Jones said.

He added, “It’s so obvious that they’re trying to suck us into a war.”

Infowars editor-at-large Paul Joseph Watson also uploaded his own video defending the Assad regime from accusations that it was behind the chemical attacks in Douma.

“With the Syrian army and Russia on the verge of defeating ISIS and jihadist rebels in the town of Douma, they launch a massive chemical weapons attack that brings global condemnation, inviting massive U.S. airstrikes across the country and we’re just supposed to swallow this entire narrative without question,” Watson said. “No. That’s insane.”
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/infowars-claims-syrian-gas-attack-was-a-false-flag/

I mean come on, when Paul Joseph Watson calls you out for being insane, that’s pretty fucking insane all right! Thank you audience! But that wasn’t the most batshit crazy thing Alex has said this week, I mean who are we kidding?

Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones told Infowars listeners today that liberal leaders in the tech industry, politics and media—who Jones refers to as “the globalists”—want to brutally murder people in the Midwest, rape Infowars viewers’ wives and children, and starve conservatives in forced labor camps.

Jones complained that we here at Right Wing Watch present “the great truths” that he espouses at Infowars as if they might be wildly dangerous conspiracy theories. He also dissed conservative websites that criticize Infowars and claimed he was working to fight a “New World Order” led by globalists he believes want to brutally murder most of America.

“They want power and they want to direct everybody and they want to kill the Midwest. They don’t want to just reorganize things. They want a giant blood-letting. It’s their religion. They hate flyover country, they hate bitter clingers. Hillary [Clinton] hates you. They all hate you,” Jones said.

He added, “They want to put you in a forced labor camp and watch you starve to death because it makes them feel powerful. They want to rape your wife. They want—just like in East Germany—if you want to be in the theater or be involved, you have to have sex with the party officials. They want to be able to kill and rape whoever they want. They want authoritarianism to carry out criminal operations and the raping of your children.”
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/alex-jones-claims-democrats-want-to-brutally-murder-and-rape-children-in-the-midwest/

As to what that is, we’re totally unclear. Between that and the interview with Mr. Draft Dodger Poopy Pants Ted Nugent, this honestly is not the craziest thing Alex has said lately. Last week, he said this about democrats in Wisconsin and Michigan:

3

Yeah BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! What is it with this guy and his weird obsession with rape and child rape? Yes this are horrifying crimes. But you know what? We don’t obsess over them the way Infowars and Infowars fans do! I could sit here all day and show you all the batshit crazy stuff Alex Jones said last week. Man, he went off the deep end. Which really isn’t that hard for him to do. Stuff like this:

Alex Jones, the nation’s most notorious conspiracy theorist, told Infowars listeners today that he would happily move to Mexico if it became “beautiful everywhere like it is in some spots” because he is “not afraid of brown people” unless they turn into “leftists.”

Today on “The Alex Jones Show,” Jones was discussing the “caravan” of Central American immigrants currently traveling through Mexico and hoping to enter the United States.

“I want to see these countries industrialized. I want to see them first-world. I want to see Mexico beautiful everywhere like it is in some spots and first-world. I’ll go move down there,” Jones said.

He added, “I’m not afraid of brown people. I’m afraid of brown people turning into leftists that hate my guts just like white leftists.”
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/alex-jones-im-not-afraid-of-brown-people-im-afraid-of-brown-people-turning-into-leftists/

So it doesn’t matter if your ultra far right brown people come into this country, but those scary liberal brown people are the ones he worries about! Watch out, Alex, they might want to give you health care and have that tin foil hat surgically removed from your head! But apparently there’s a holocaust going on that we don’t know about! Where did you hear that crazy shit from? From Infowars? You betcha!

Alex Jones, the unhinged conspiracy theorist leading Infowars, claimed that “globalists” are utilizing radiation coming from mobile phones to carry out a “silent, invisible holocaust.”

On today’s episode of “The Alex Jones Show,” a major topic of discussion was the supposed health risks associated with radiation coming from cell phones’ wireless transmissions. As Jones was ranting about the alleged risks, he took a bizarre turn to claim that leaders in the tech industry, political sphere, and corporate world are using cell phone radiation as part of a plan to execute humanity.

“If you want to talk about something that’s killing millions of people—not 40-something—how about you talk about radiation? How about we have walk-outs in schools over cell towers on top of the schools? How about we have walk-outs over cell phone radiation? How about we have walk-outs over all of that?” Jones said.

He added, “Because this is what kills thousands of times what guns do every year. And this is how the globalists in this silent, invisible holocaust are killing everybody in their plan.”
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/alex-jones-globalists-use-cell-phones-to-commit-silent-invisible-holocaust/

[font size="8"]People Are Dumb
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Oh hey you know what time it is? It’s time for this!

Yes it’s time once again for People Are Dumb. Because as you should know by now that people are people, and people are dumb. I want to start with this story out of Anchorage, Alaska, and people, don’t even try to fight a moose. Because a moose is one of the most dangerous and deadly animals to deal with, and if you even attempt to fight a moose, the moose will win 10 times out of 10. If you try to kick a moose’s ass, the moose will kick yours 10 times harder. And it doesn’t take a wildlife expert to know that one, just 5 minutes on Youtube. Do your best impression of the opening credits for Monty Python and the Holy Grail here.

(Newser) – A man was injured north of Anchorage after a moose that he had just kicked stomped his foot in return, state officials said. KTVA-TV reported the man escaped with major injuries in the encounter Thursday with the moose and her calf, the AP reports. "It sounds like the moose were on a trail and in this case, it sounds like the guy was trying to go through them," State Department of Fish and Game spokesman Ken Marsh says. "That's never a good idea." The two moose left the area after the man had his foot stomped, says Alaska Troopers spokeswoman Megan Peters.

"I am not a biologist, but as a lifelong Alaskan I would advise people not to go around kicking moose," Peters says. Moose have vast leg strength, Marsh said. "If you get into a kicking contest with a moose, guess who's going to win?" South-central Alaska has seen a number of violent incidents involving moose this spring, including a man who had a moose swipe at him with its hoof while feeding it and a cocker spaniel attacked by a moose in an Anchorage yard. Marsh says moose sightings are on the rise as females prepare for calving season in mid-May.
http://www.newser.com/story/257585/guy-kicks-moose-then-comes-the-payback.html?utm_source=part&utm_medium=uol&utm_campaign=rss_top

Yes, the people responsible for producing this story, have been sacked. So next up I want to talk about this story out of Denmark that wouldn’t be out of place in a Simpsons gag. So if you’re trying to blow something up, you might want to read the directions on how to blow that said something up next time because otherwise this happens.

A Danish cultural centre has been damaged after a 53-metre high silo fell the wrong way while being demolished.

In video of the explosion in the town of Vordingborg, onlookers cheer the detonation, but then watch in astonishment as the tower toppled towards the waterfront library and music school.

No one was injured in the accident.

Denmark’s explosives association said preparations for the demolition seemed to be correct, Danish newspaper BT reported.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/09/silo-demolition-in-denmark-goes-wrong-and-crushes-cultural-centre

So yeah people definitely read the directions next time! So next up in “People Are Dumb”, how does one deal with a problem of serial masturbation? I know! Pizza! Because everything is better with pizza, don’t you think?

Dart then instituted a program that rewarded "serial masturbators" with pizza if they went 30 days without a sexual assault or masturbating incident, according to the lawsuit.

Since detainees who had never exposed themselves were not eligible to receive pizza as a reward, the program had a reverse effect, leading to an "increase in exposure incidents" since the detainees without prior incidents "were now incentivized to commit indecent exposure and masturbation in order to qualify for a pizza reward," court documents state.

The plaintiffs have also filed class-action lawsuits with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice, alleging discrimination and retaliation in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. Those charges are currently being investigated, according to the release.

"Some women suffer numerous incidents of exposure and/or masturbation in a single day even as male attorneys are not targeted for these incidents," the release states.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/serial-masturbators-cook-county-custody-rewarded-pizza-30/story?id=51024509

Wade Wilson is right – what situation isn’t improved by pizza? Next up – dinosaurs! And this again wouldn’t seem too out of place as a Simpsons joke. We go to Canon City, Colorado for this one.

CANON CITY, Colo. (AP) - Everyone knows dinosaurs are extinct. But this is a case of one that was extinguished.

It was a 24-foot high electronic Tyrannosaurus rex featured at the Royal Gorge Dinosaur Experience in Colorado.

Thursday morning, the T. rex began smoldering before catching fire.

Both the dinosaur and spectators were fully involved; park visitors stood and watched as flames spread through the dinosaur.

At times the T. rex appeared to be breathing flames.
https://paleontologyworld.com/entertainment/dinosaur-theme-park-t-rex-bursts-flames

Next up – newspapers. Yes not even our nation’s newspapers are immune from stupidity, or user error. Take this example from the Denver Post which posted this:

The Denver Post's guide to Coors Field published Friday had a small issue -- the huge picture on the front of the newspaper's Life section isn't of Coors Field. It's Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia.

The photo spread quickly across social media Friday morning. The Post eventually responded by tweeting that it was sorry for the mistake and including a picture of Coors Field.
http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/23050418/denver-post-guide-coors-field-erroneously-features-photo-philadelphia-citizens-bank-park

Can we show that? Because it’s pretty spectacular:

And finally this week for People Are Dumb – 911. Yes that emergency hotline. I love 911 abuse stories, like the kind of person who calls 911 to report that McDonalds ran out of chicken nuggets. We could do an entire People Are Dumb just dedicated to crazy people dialing 911. And the British equivalent of 911 is 112. Well, police in Cambridgeshire, England decided to do a study of how many 112 calls originated from fast food restaurants, McDonalds in particular. Well…

Police call-outs to or about fast food chain McDonald's have more than tripled in three years across Cambridgeshire.

The crimes ranged from reports of missing persons to violence and domestic incidents, a freedom of information request revealed.

The News’ previously told how the McDonald's in Ely Leisure Park has become a focus for police - with customers being put off their happy meals because of youngsters constantly causing trouble.

Last year was by far the busiest with 17 call-outs about incidents relating to the fast food chain, more than double the previous year.

Over the last three years there have been 26 recorded cases of incidents related to McDonald's across Cambridgeshire.
https://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/local-news/mcdonalds-police-cambridgeshire-calls-up-14472850.amp?__twitter_impression=true

That’s it this week for:

[font size="8"]Stupidest State Contest: Round 1 Week 4
[br] [/font] [br]

16 states will enter, but only one will be crowned the new Top 10 Conservative Idiots Stupidest State!

Welcome back! I hope you all filled out your brackets! This week, we’re live from the home of the Los Angeles Chargers, the beautiful Stub Hub Center in Carson, California. And we have not one, but two exciting matchups this week! Last week –if there’s one thing Florida does well – it’s shoot first and ask questions later, and they totally brought their A game against Looooooosiana. Meanwhile in the fight for Fiscal Irresponsibility, Wisconsin utterly routed the casino moguls in Nevada. See? That’s what happens when you get Koch money – it goes far! And this week we’ve got another double header for the final week of Round 1 – and we’ve saved the best for last as Virginia looks to unseat Texas as the king of batshit, while we have a pair of first timers – Utah and Missouri – looking to unseat Alabama as the king of the Family Values conference. Can they do it? Let’s get out our brackets so you can follow along!

[font size="6"]Match 1: Batshit Conference: Virginia Vs. Texas [/font]

[font size="4"]Virginia[/font]

So the Commonwealth State is a new state to the Stupidest State contest. Yes this is their first time in the NFFSA tournament. Virginia is right next to Washington, DC. It is the home of world class universities like the University of Virginia, George Mason University and Virginia Tech. It’s also the home of uber religious schools like Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University and Pat Robertson’s Regent University. So how did they get here? Well, Charlottesville proved to be a huge array of white supremacy and stupidity. And Virginia is going up against last year’s champions. But white supremacy and religious insanity aren’t the only things Virginia is known for. In fact it’s a toxic stew of stupidity. After all it’s the home of the Confederacy and morons who still don’t know what the Confederacy means.

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (WDBJ7) -- The Virginia Flaggers hoisted a 30' x 50' Confederate battle flag on a 120' pole along I-64 near Charlottesville.

According to a spokesperson for the Virginia Flaggers group, the flag, named "the Charlottesville I-64 Spirit of Defiance Memorial Battle Flag" was "dedicated to the glory of God, and will fly in honor and memory of all Confederate soldiers".

The group believes that the flag symbolizes a "duty to see that the true history of the South is presented to future generations".

This flag is the 27th memorial battle flag raised on major interstates and roadways across Virginia.

http://www.wdbj7.com/content/news/Virginia-Flaggers-erect-Confederate-battle-flag-on-I-64-outside-of-Charlottesville-478457623.html

Yeah so Virginia is home to the hardcore confederates. So you know people say the youth are our future, but when you have youth like these… there’s nowhere to go but up from here, right?

Over the weekend, a video of the Virginia Tech women’s lacrosse team singing along to the song “Freaky Friday” by Lil Dicky was posted on Twitter. During the video players can be heard singing along to the lyrics, including the word “n-----.”

"Following an away match on Saturday, March 24, a member of our squad posted a video to social media of the team singing along to a song that included derogatory lyrics,” said head coach John Sung in a statement emailed to the Collegiate Times. “We are engaged in conversations within the campus community to share our sincere apology.”

Coaches as well as members of the Virginia Tech Athletics administration met with the full team to discuss the video that was posted. Sung considers this to be a teaching moment for the team and hopes the team will be able to learn from their actions as they move forward.

“We have confidence that the team will learn from this mistake and understand that these actions reflect poorly on our program and do not represent the values of our program or the principles of the university,” Sung said.
http://www.collegiatetimes.com/news/video-of-virginia-tech-lacrosse-team-singing-the-n-word/article_84edfd72-313e-11e8-9d9d-231e1f45d531.html

[font size="4"]Texas [/font]

Hey everyone let’s give it up for last year’s champions! Yeah!! They are back, they are rested, and they look ready to do some damage. But Virginia with their racism and hardcore white supremacy has been a proven tough fight for the champs. Everyone knows what Texas is the home of – it’s the home of world class sports teams like the Rangers, Cowboys, Spurs, Astros, Texans, Stars, and Mavericks. It’s also the home of world class universities like Texas A&M, Baylor University, Rice University, and Stephen F. Austin University. So what propelled Texas to the king of the NFFSA last year? Well it was a toxic stew of university scandals, doomsday preppers, and of course Ted Cruz. So what are the champs up to since we last saw them? Well they’re still feeling the heat from the Baylor Scandal.

Baylor University paid former football coach Art Briles $15.1 million and former university President Ken Starr $4.5 million after both were fired in 2016 {yes, that Ken Starr}.

The disclosure was included in Baylor’s IRS Form 990 for the 2016 tax year, which was recently filed.

Briles was fired and Starr was removed as president in May 2016 after an independent investigation found a universitywide “fundamental failure” in handling sexual assault reports. Starr later resigned as chancellor and law professor.

“Baylor stands by the unprecedented corrective actions the Board of Regents made in May of 2016, which included leadership changes within the university administration and athletic department and the acceptance of 105 recommendations to improve our processes, communication, training and response related to incidents of sexual violence within our campus community,” the university said in a statement released Friday.

Read more: http://www.wacotrib.com/news/higher_education/baylor-paid-briles-million-starr-million-after-removal-amid-sexual/article_2bdda9a0-43d6-5e13-94dc-72b28c1db737.html

I don’t remember that on the open carry list! So what is Texas also the home of that would make them repeat the batshit conference? Well they also have batshit crazy street preachers!

DENTON -- About 20 self-described "street preachers," some of whom held anti-gay and anti-Black Lives Matter signs, caused a stir Thursday on the University of North Texas campus, where more than 300 students gathered to counter protest or watch the ordeal.

The preachers had been attending the National Street Preachers Conference in Arlington, according to two preachers at the campus. One of the men, 26-year-old Sebastian Bryan, described the group as "regular Bible-believing Christians" who wanted to show people "their need for a savior to call people to repentance," he said.

At least two signs included Bible verses, while others included provocative phrases such as "Every Muslim is a Jihadist" and "AIDS: Judgement or Cure?"
http://www.dentonrc.com/news/news/2018/03/29/street-preachers-controversial-signs-draw-large-crowd-unt-campus

[font size="6"]And The Winner Is… [/font]

Oh my god we have a major upset brewing in the tournament! Texas was heavily favored to repeat as conference champions but due to heavy injuries they lost big time. Utterly routed by the young, upstart Virginia team! Final score – Virginia wins by 32! Final score – 100 – 78! Virginia celebrates on the court and the champs go home defeated! Wow!

[font size="6"]Match 2: Family Values Conference: Utah Vs Missouri[/font]

[font size="4"]Utah[/font]

Utah is a new state we have not yet covered. It is the home of some of the world’s most beautiful scenery, and especially for America. It’s home to world class skiing – the home of a former Olympic site – Park City, Utah. It’s also the home of a very unique national monument – the Four Corners national monument! Yes, Utah is the home of a monument where the borders of 4 states touch – Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona. The state of Utah is one of the smaller states in America population wise. And it’s also the home of the Mormon Church. As the state is heavily dominated by this religion and its’ reflected in most of its’ laws. In fact the Mormon church is so crazy that this is the type of shit residents in Salt Lake City have to endure.

Marissa Smith sat in her Mormon bishop’s office in the same chair her boyfriend had the week before. He had looked across the same wooden desk as she was now. He had stared at the same plain walls. Maybe he had nervously played with his hands, too — she wasn’t sure.

She wasn’t sure, though, if he had been asked the same questions.

“What time of night do you kiss?” the local lay leader pressed Smith about her relationship. She answered, but she didn’t want to. He continued on:

“Where do you go with your boyfriend?”

“Are you sitting up or laying down?”

“Was any clothing off?”

“Then he asked me if I was surprised by what happens when boys orgasm,” Smith recalled. “I didn’t even know how to answer that question. I didn’t want to talk to my bishop again.”

Read more: https://www.sltrib.com/religion/local/2018/03/30/mormons-set-to-march-through-salt-lake-city-calling-for-an-end-to-bishops-interviews-with-children-about-sexual-matters/

Yeah that is happening! When the Mormon church gets in your business, they get really far up in your business! That sounded wrong, didn’t it? But the good news is that the Mormon church has taken a dip into LGBT rights. But don’t expect them to dive head first. You got to start somewhere!

As Russell M. Nelson ascended to the top of the LDS Church and its all-male hierarchy, the question came: What about women?

“We love ’em,” Nelson quipped at the Jan. 16 news conference announcing his presidency of the nearly 16 million-member Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The 93-year-old leader (as well as his two counselors in the faith’s governing First Presidency) praised the mothers and daughters in their lives who had produced missionary sons and bishops and had served as “influencers” to the men.

The trio made no mention of single women in the global faith, presidents of the all-female LDS Relief Society, or the armies of women who work at every level of Mormon congregational life no matter their marital status. Nor did the three speak of recent strides by the church toward gender equity or even hint at the word “feminist.”

Read more: https://www.sltrib.com/religion/2018/02/22/where-mormon-church-is-on-women-tk/

[font size="6"]Missouri[/font]

Last time we saw the Show Me State, they were involved in a bitter, intense fight between residents of Furgeson, Missouri and an out of control police department that was willing to shoot first and ask questions later. But this year – Missouri is in the news for a far different reason. But first you know that Missouri is the home of such universities as Mizzou. It’s also the home of world class sports teams including the Kansas City Royals, the St Louis Cardinals, and the St. Louis Blues. So why is Missouri back in the news? Well there’s this!

In the dark before sunrise, high school sophomore Brittany Koerselman, belly bulging, seven months pregnant and feeling like a cow, tucked herself into the borrowed white prom dress that would be her wedding gown.

The Iowa teen didn’t want to be a child bride. But the cops were coming.

She was 15, not even old enough to drive on her own. Jeremie Rook, her boyfriend and the father of her baby, was 21.

It didn’t matter how “infatuatedly in love” she was then with everything about Jeremie — his long chocolate hair, his bad-boy attitude, tongue stud and 28 tattoos. In Iowa, a 21-year-old having sex with a 15-year-old is statutory rape. The evidence was alive in her womb.

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/news/state/missouri/article204287484.html

Holy shit indeed! This is a stunning level of evil here folks. Not only having to be victim of that, but also having to be forced to get married to the asshole and carry his baby is a stunning, jaw dropping level of evil! And they tried to restrict it, but….

JEFFERSON CITY (AP) — The Missouri House has passed a bill to ban marriages of children under 15 years old.

House members voted 95-50 Monday to send the bill to the Senate. Backers say it would help stop abuse through coerced marriages, while opponents argue it would take away parents' rights to decide whether to allow their children to marry.

Children ages 15-17 now can get married with a parent's permission. Those younger than 15 need approval from a judge.

The bill would require 15- to 17-year-olds to get a judge's approval following a court hearing. Children 14 years old or younger couldn't marry.

Read more: https://www.news-leader.com/story/news/politics/2018/02/19/missouri-house-votes-restrict-child-marriages/353758002/

[font size="6"]And The Winner Is… [/font]

No doubt about this one. Missouri utterly destroys Utah by a whopping 27 points! They will go on to face Alabama for Family Values supremacy in the next round. Final score – 85 – 58.

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

The Elite 8 has been set folks! Now as the rules dictate we will do an expansion round for each of these conferences for the conference championship. Single elimination. The winner moves on. The loser goes home. Next week, we’re live from the home of the San Jose Sharks, HP Pavilion, and we will see Florida take on the champions Montana in a fight for Gun Nut Supremacy.

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

Ladies and gentlemen, we’re going to dedicate April to celebrating all things punk rock. There’s a lot in punk rock right now. You have Punk Rock Bowling in Vegas, you have the Punk In Drublic festival, and the Flogging Molly cruise all happening. So with that in mind, April is punk month here at the Top 10. Which means I want to see some circle pits! And this time we’re kicking things off with a legendary punk band from Venice, California. Their latest EP is called “Get Your Fight On!”, and you can see them at Punk Rock Bowling in Las Vegas on May 27th, playing the title track from that album, give it up for Suicidal Tendencies!

See you next week!

Credits

Host: Initech
Top 10 Conservative Idiots Recorded In Front Of Live Audience At: City National Grove Of Anaheim, Anaheim, CA
Special Thanks To: City National Grove Management
Images: All images copyright belongs to respective copyright holders.
Videos: All videos copyright belongs to respective copyright holders
Articles: All article content copyright belongs to respective copyright holders
Writing: Top 10 Writing Department
Graphics: Top 10 Graphics Department
Research: Top 10 Research Department
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HR: Top 10 Human Resources Department
Initech’s Wardrobe Provided By: JAB Inc.
Wheel Of Corruption By: Studio 1 Stage Props, Burbank, CA
Suicidal Tendencies Appear Courtesy Of: Suicidal Records
Management: Initech Productions, CCC Management

Initech Productions: Yes, We Got The Memo

April 4, 2018

Top 10 Conservative Idiots #4-12: Wheel Of Corruption & The Goblet Of Fire Edition

Top 10 Conservative Idiots #4-12: Wheel Of Corruption & The Goblet Of Fire Edition

Ed. Note - due to a scheduling conflict, the Top 10 will be posted early today! Also I won't be able to get to the YouTube shooting and the oh-so-predictable RW reactions to that, since it happened at the time we were putting together this week's edition, but we will cover it in full next week. In the meantime, our good friends at Right Wing Watch do a good job of covering the worst of it: http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/these-are-some-of-the-worst-right-wing-reactions-to-the-shooting-at-youtube-hq/ And now back to our regularly scheduled programming! Enjoy!

Welcome back to the Top 10 Conservative Idiots! Sign up now and get a free iPhone 8 on us! We are back everybody! I want to start by saying I am not going to talk about the craze of condom snorting – yes that’s a thing. And it’s as disgusting as it sounds. What? You see the wheel here on stage, I got my sous chef Fernando coming, I would like to hang onto the contents of my stomach thanks! Yeah fuck that story and everyone who participates in that horrifically disgusting act. No, fuck them! Seriously! Let’s move on to much happier news. Congratulations to the Villanova Wildcats for winning the NCAA tournament this year. Michigan Wolverines, you put up a good fight, and you can rest assured that you will not have to go to the White House to meet Trump. Yeah remember when we had a president who wasn’t a complete jackass? Those were good times. And you know this might be one of the most insane NCAA tournaments I’ve ever seen. You had ups, you had downs. You had highs. You had lows. You had lows getting beaten by highs. You had highs getting beaten by lows. You had 98 year old nuns. There was a number 1 seed getting upset by a number 16 seed. And Duke lost. But all in all this was also one of the best NCAA tournaments I’ve ever seen. It sucks for Sister Jean, I mean America was really pulling for a win for Loyola Chicago because of her. I mean who wouldn’t want to see a 98 year old nun watch her team win it all for the first time. And one of my favorite things about the NCAA tournament is how many crazy prizes are offered every year for someone who completes the proverbial “perfect bracket”, I mean come on. NOBODY HAS DONE THIS, OK!!!! You have a better shot of winning the Powerball than you do getting a perfect bracket! And both of those have some incredibly insane odds. But hey they’re all like religion – you can’t get saved if you don’t play! So seriously stop offering a billion dollars if someone gets a perfect bracket. All you’re doing is just getting our e-mail addresses so you can hawk your crap. Stop it. Just stop it. OK enough of the intro. We got a lot of idiocy to get to. But first you got to see John Oliver’s epic smackdown of Sinclair Broadcasting:

In the first slot this week is Gun Nut Apologists (1). They’re getting desperate folks, and Parkland survivor David Hogg is really getting to them. Taking the second slot this week is Roseanne (2). Yes the star of the hit sitcom revival is a conservative idiot – and has been posting bullshit on Twitter, and attracted the attention of our ratings-obsessed president. In the third slot is said ratings-obsessed president Donald J. Trump (3). Taking the 4th slot this week is also Donald Trump (4) because there was yet another Trump firing. And that means another installment of the Trumper games! Taking the 5th slot, we’ve got a new installment of “People Who Somehow Got Elected” and this week – we’re finally going to add Wisconsin governor Scott Walker (5) to the list! In the 6th slot, is the latest installment of our investigative journalism series “Top 10 Investigates” (6) and this week we’re going to Victorville, California to visit a massive automotive boneyard. And when you find out why it’s there, it’s truly fascinating. Taking the 7th slot, we’ve got of course our weekly sermon of all things holy, Holy Shit (7), and this week, our resident pastor is going to predict the future since Christian republicans have already called the 2020 election! In the number 8 slot this week, we're going to educate you on an insane right wing conspiracy theory known as "The Storm" which has been popping up in the news a lot lately thanks to Roseanne and Sinclair Broadcasting, but what is it? You will soon find out. In the number 9 (NEIN!!!) slot we’ve got a new installment of “I Need A Drink” and this time we’re going to get drunk and discuss one of the more bizarre rules of professional hockey. What other sport has a reserve goalie rule? Well this dude nailed it! And finally this week we’re live from the Gila River Arena in sunny Phoenix, Arizona with Week 3 of Round 1 of our Stupidest State (10) tournament of champions! This time around, the casino moguls in Nevada are going for broke against Koch Industries in Wisconsin, while Florida is bringing their big guns to the dance against Louisiana! Plus we’ve got some live music for you from Portland’s finest, the Decemberists! Enjoy! And as always don’t forget the key!

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

[font size="8"]Gun Nut Apologists
[br] [/font] [br]

Hey everybody! It’s time for the WHEEL OF CORRUPTION!!! Yay!!!!

Of course you know the rules by now – I spin the wheel and we have to talk about whatever it lands on. Of course if it lands on the guacamole option, you know that it costs $1.50 extra. So here’s what is on the wheel this week:

- Guns
- Abortion
- Crime
- Poverty
- Chance
- 5,000
- Infowars
- Nazis
- Go Directly To Jail
- Buy A Vowel
- North Korea
- Lawsuits
- Whammy
- Donald Trump
- People Are Dumb
- ‘Merica!
- How Is This Still A Thing?
- A Random Tweet
- 10,000
- Community Chest
- Talk Shows
- Clip Without Context
- Something Random In The News
- Fox News
- Top 10 Investigates
- Polls
- Chance
- Nukes
- Protests
- Intermission
- 15,000
- Bankrupt
- Golf
- The GOP
- Butter Beer
- Community Chest
- Florida (Obviously)
- This Fucking Guy
- Beating A Dead Horse
- Holy Shit
- Guacamole ($1.50 Extra)
- Harry Potter
- T-Shirt Cannon
- ? (Mystery Item)
- I Need A Drink
- Lightning Round
- Bonus Spin

Let’s get this going! Spin that shit! Come on no whammy no whammy no whammy stop! And it lands on… clip without context!

There you have it – only in the Trump era could he be giving a speech next to a guy in a giant bunny costume with a shocked look on his face. Spin it again! Guns. Folks. Really, is this where we are at in 2018? Attacking high school students? I mean come on this is fucking insane. The gun nuts just can’t stand that someone is attacking their precious death toys. I’m of course talking about the David Hogg – Laura Ingraham feud. Here’s what happened.

At least 17 major companies have now announced that they are pulling their sponsorship of Laura Ingraham’s Fox News program because of a Wednesday tweet by the anchor widely seen as mocking Parkland, Florida, school shooting survivor David Hogg.

On Friday, Byron Allen’s Entertainment Studios — whose upcoming Teddy Kennedy film “Chappaquiddick” had been promoted frequently during “The Ingraham Angle” in recent weeks — announced on Twitter that it “had pulled all Chappaquiddick ads” from the show.

The studio joined at least eight other companies on Friday in stopping ads on the show after Hogg’s Wesdnesday night call for a boycott of sponsors. Other Friday walkouts included Liberty Mutual, Office Depot, Miracle-Ear, Jenny Craig, Principal investment group, Honda, Ruby Tuesday and Atlantis resort.
https://www.lmtonline.com/entertainment/the-wrap/article/Laura-Ingraham-Loses-1st-Sponsor-After-Parkland-12791233.php

That’s right! You don’t insult high school students! Especially someone with a media connection and who was the victim of a mass shooting attack! But Laura Ingraham wasn’t the only conservative attacking David Hogg this week. I give you rock music singer and guy who most likely wears adult diapers, Ted Nugent.

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

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

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

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

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

Yeah BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! I mean come on Ted, really, you’re calling these kids soulless? Need I remind you of what you did to get out of serving Vietnam?

In a series of tweets on Sunday, Reid recalled that Nugent had defecated in his pants to dodge the draft and had repeatedly been associated with pedophilia.

“Then a week before my physical, I stopped going to the bathroom. I did it in my pants. poop, piss the whole shot. My pants got crusted up,” Nugent told High Times in a 1977 interview. “[T]hey made everybody take off their pants, and I did, and this sergeant says, “Oh my God, put those back on! You fucking swine you!” Then they had a urine test and I couldn’t piss, But my poop was just like ooze, man, so I poop in the cup and put it on the counter. I had poop on my hand and my arm. The guy almost puked. I was so proud. I knew I had these chumps beat.”

After Reid’s mini-tweet storm, she also pointed out Nugent’s history in a segment on MSNBC.

“That is Ted Nugent who in 1977 gave an interview saying he took meth and poohed his pants so he wouldn’t have to go to Vietnam and reportedly adopted a 17-year-old girl so he could have sex with her,” she pointed out.
https://www.rawstory.com/2018/04/ted-nugent-says-parkland-teens-no-soul-joy-reid-reminds-america-dodged-draft-pooping-pants/

Yeah that was pretty much my reaction too! And then there was Sylvester Stallone’s brother and last member of Member’s Only, Frank Stallone.

Remember Frank Stallone? He’s the D-list younger brother of Sylvester Stallone who once scored a Top 10 Billboard hit in the ’80s with the ultra-cheesy ‘Far From Over,’which Sly used in his film Staying Alive. Frank was also the subject of a running gag by Saturday Night Live’s Norm McDonald during the ’90s when McDonald hosted Weekend Update.

Well, ol’ Frank is back, and he’s going after Parkland survivors because of course he is.

In a since-deleted tweet, Stallone called David Hogg a “pussy” who is getting “a little big for his britches.” He added that he was sure “someone from his age group is dying to sucker punch this rich little bitch.” Stallone finished off the tweet by claiming Hogg would “run home like the coward he is” and that the high-schooler is the “worst rep for today’s headline grabbing punk.”

This David Hogg pussy is getting a little big for his britches. I’m sure someone from his age group is dying to sucker punch this rich little bitch. Watch him run home like the coward he is . He’s the worst rep for today’s youth headline grabbing punk
— Frank Stallone (@Stallone) March 31, 2018

Read more: https://www.mediaite.com/online/sylvester-stallones-brother-calls-david-hogg-a-pssy-wants-classmates-to-sucker-punch-him/

Oh and in case you’re wondering what kind of society we live in – it’s apparently one that favors guns over, um, lives, apparently.

The NRA saw a major spike in donations following the school shooting in Parkland, Florida.

The shooting took place in February and left 17 people dead. That same month, NRA donations tripled from the month before. Federal Election Commission filings say the NRA received just under $248,000 in January. It received more than $779,000 in February.

The NRA has faced intense scrutiny since the shooting. It's not entirely clear if the donations are part of its supporters' response to that or part of a larger trend. History shows consumers display increased interest in guns and gun sales increase after mass shootings.

Some of that sales bump is likely due to fears the event will prompt stricter gun laws and make it more difficult to purchase a gun.
https://www.nbc26.com/newsy/donations-to-the-nra-spiked-after-the-parkland-school-shooting

Oh and it gets worse from there! Some frothing at the mouth gun nut started a website dedicated exclusively to news about David Hogg, apparently so gun nuts could go harass him wherever he follows. Yeah BOOOOOOOOOO!!! Boo, I say! These idiots apparently have a screw loose.

An internet conspiracy theorist tied to Alex Jones has launched a new website dedicated to attacking gun control advocate David Hogg, and claims it’s protected by free speech.

The content on “Hoggwatch.com” features content exclusively related to the 18-year-old Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Student, who survived the February shooting that killed 17 people.

Many of the articles are written by Mike Adams, the founder of Natural News — a bombastic website seeking to debunk widely accepted scientific theories.

But Hoggwatch.com, which began publishing stories after the Feb. 14 massacre, pushes conspiracy theories that Hogg is a paid actor who wants to shift the American ideology.

Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/conspiracy-theorist-launches-site-just-to-attack-david-hogg/ar-AAvpyEL?li=BBnbcA1

[font size="8"]Roseanne
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Let’s give the wheel a good strong spin shall we? Come on no whammy no whammy no whammy no whammy… stop! Sweet, I win 10,000 of something. What that is, we don’t know. Spin it again! and it lands on… Poverty! So folks by now you know that the Roseanne show revival – about a blue collar, working class family that votes against their best interests – premiered to gangbuster ratings, and even got the attention of our ratings-obsessed president. You know that Trump loves him some ratings. “I have the best ratings, OK? I get nothing but 5 stars everywhere I go!”.

When “Roseanne” premiered in 1988, I was among the millions of Americans who tuned in weekly to watch the Conners navigate life in the Midwest. Although I was a kid in Los Angeles, thousands of miles from the fictional Lanford, Ill., the show’s humorous, caustic portrayal of a working-class family struggling to make ends meet resonated with me. In the show, I saw my own family’s quest for the American Dream and how, for many living in poverty, it’s often a dream deferred.

In one of my favorite episodes, Roseanne juggles paying the bills by intentionally putting the wrong check in the wrong envelope and telling the utility company the bill never came. In another, Becky is embarrassed when she learns her mother has taken a job as a shampoo girl to provide for their family. I was Becky, not quite fully grasping that we were poor or that money was in short supply. This was the genius of Roseanne — it transcended race, class and political boundaries while appearing not to do so.

The “Roseanne” reboot, rather than working to bridge the class divide and understanding in America, attempts to insert itself into the current political moment by declaring Roseanne a Donald Trump supporter. After the premiere, Trump even called the real Roseanne to congratulate her on the series reboot.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/posteverything/wp/2018/04/03/roseanne-was-about-a-white-family-but-it-was-for-all-working-people-not-anymore/?utm_term=.af72f9161ebb

That was pretty much my reaction to the Roseanne reboot too, sir. So yes you know that our ratings-obsessed president called Roseanne to congratulate her. Which is quite amazing that Trump actually paid a compliment to somebody, we would expect him to do the opposite at this point!

RICHFIELD, Ohio —Unusually quiet for the better part of a week, President Trump let loose Thursday during an infrastructure speech that also featured presidential riffs on the border wall, the Democrats, Syria, trade, North and South Korea ... and Roseanne.

Praising the high viewership for this week's premiere of the revived Roseanne sitcom, starring Trump supporter Roseanne Barr, the president told a group of union workers in Ohio: "Look at her ratings! Look at her ratings!"

Trump trumpeted Barr's show during a speech designed to promote an infrastructure plan based on public-private partnerships and reduced federal regulations.

"We will breathe new life into your very run-down highways, railways and waterways," Trump told supportive union members. "We'll transform our roads and bridges from a source of endless frustration into a source of absolutely incredible pride."
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/03/29/donald-trump-makes-first-public-appearance-days-push-infrastructure-ohio/468641002/

Ah yup! There it is! There’s the Trump we all know! He just can’t stop talking about ratings, can he? I mean they’re yuge! The biggest! Nobody gets better ratings than he does! So what is the real controversy with Roseanne? Why is this show such a big deal in the Trump era? Well…

So it should come as no surprise that the new Roseanne — technically a continuation of the original series, but also a different show in some subtle ways — would reignite this old debate between where Roseanne the actress ended and Roseanne the character began. Except, because this is 2018 and everything eventually turns into a discussion about Donald Trump, the political polarity has been completely flipped. The arguments now are less about Roseanne’s bold examinations of feminism and class both on and offscreen and more about how she’s perhaps the president’s most famous supporter.

These arguments have become a vast, interlocking set of controversies that are impossible to separate, because each is necessary to understand the other. For instance, writing off Roseanne entirely — because it homogenizes Trump supporters as people just worried about their families or the country — misses the ways the series depicts Roseanne as a hectoring bully who convinced her sister, Jackie, not to vote for Hillary Clinton at the last minute. (She voted for Jill Stein instead.) But praising Roseanne as a series about the self-delusions of Trump supporters misses the ways it refuses to talk about the harsh realities of living in Trump’s America for people who aren’t straight and white.
https://www.vox.com/culture/2018/3/30/17174720/roseanne-2018-reboot-controversy-trump-explained-review

Dude, he seriously smiles like he’s in a doctors office and he gets off on the rectal exam. Yeah just try and contemplate that image for a minute. Go on, I’ll wait! But now let’s take a look at the real Roseanne – the one who you don’t see on TV. This is where the controversy comes in.

Actress Roseanne Barr faced heavy criticism on social media this weekend after posting a tweet apparently indicating support for an online conspiracy theory claiming President Trump is involved in combating a global trafficking ring tied to the "deep state."

In a tweet posted Friday night, the "Roseanne" star alleged that Trump was breaking up human trafficking rings and freeing "hundreds" of children in sex slavery around the world every month.

"President Trump has freed so many children held in bondage to pimps all over this world. Hundreds each month. He has broken up trafficking rings in high places everywhere. notice that. I disagree on some things, but give him benefit of doubt-4 now," the actress wrote.
http://thehill.com/homenews/media/381123-roseanne-barr-faces-social-media-backlash-over-trump-conspiracy-theory-tweet

I’m with the kid on this one. And in case you couldn’t think it could get any more ridiculous, wait until you see who supports Roseanne! And with friends like these, you know, who needs enemies? This was a miracle? I think even Jesus somewhere is giving a facepalm at this one!

Over the weekend, Roseanne Barr posted a tweet praising President Trump for supposedly having “freed so many children held in bondage to pimps all over this world” and “broken up trafficking rings in high places everywhere,” which was a rather confusing statement to anyone not familiar with the right-wing conspiracy theory known as “The Storm.”

Barr’s since-removed tweet was rooted in a fringe right-wing conspiracy theory alleging that the special counsel investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election is really a cover for Trump’s efforts to take down thousands of corrupt political, business and entertainment leaders who are part of a massive satanic pedophile ring.

Unhinged conspiracy theorist Liz Crokin has been one of the leading voices promoting this conspiracy theory and she was overjoyed with Barr’s tweet, declaring in a video she posted over the weekend that Barr’s tweet was “nothing sort of a miracle.”

“It is just absolutely amazing and it is nothing short of a miracle that Roseanne, with her controversial viewpoints and the fact that she is exposing the deep state child sex trafficking and elite pedophilia, that she has been given this platform,” Crokin said. “I have to pinch myself because I am still finding it hard to believe. It is so amazing for our community.”
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/an-absolute-beacon-of-light-liz-crokin-loves-that-roseanne-barr-is-promoting-the-storm/

[font size="8"]Donald Trump
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Let’s spin that shit! Come on no whammy no whammy no whammy… stop! Bankrupt? No!!!!!

Spin it again. And it lands on… Donald Trump. Yes, the president who, if you were to compare him to any James Bond villain, he would be a real life Auric Goldfinger. And he probably would blow up Fort Knox. But let’s think about this here for a minute – He loves gold. He has an insane plan to dominate the world. And he’s been accused of cheating at golf. Yeah he’s a real life Goldfinger all right! So on the eve of the holiday known as Easter, how does Donald J. Trump celebrate the holiest of Saturdays? In the most Donald J. Trump way possible!

President Donald Trump began his morning on Holy Saturday with tweets blasting California Gov. Jerry Brown and Amazon before heading to the golf course.

The president, who is spending the Easter weekend at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Palm Beach, Florida, called Brown “Moonbeam.”

He also slammed the U.S. Post Office and Amazon over postage rates, tweeting that Amazon “must pay real costs (and taxes) now.”
https://www.daytondailynews.com/news/trump-holy-saturday-begins-with-name-calling-golf/GaplsUVm6avr5v2hPlFCyM/

Well, I think it’s safe to say that we all are. But I can guarantee none as shocked as the look on that Easter bunny’s face. I mean can we show that again? I love this so much!

To quote the late great Freddie Mercury – “Is this real life? Or is this just fantasy? Caught in a landslide, no escape from reality”. So now that we got his Easter pre-game party out of the way, how did Trump celebrate the actual Easter? About as well as you can possibly imagine.

President Donald Trump delivered another of his classic campaign rally speeches from the White House this morning, boasting about the economy and his build-up of spending on the military, with a giant pink-eared bespectacled bunny at his side.

Trump’s address was his way of commemorating the 140th annual White House Easter Egg Roll – a tradition that dates back to 1878.

“This is a special year. Our country is doing great. You look at the economy; you look at what’s happening,” Trump told the large gathering of children standing below him on the White House lawn

“Nothing is ever easy but we have never had an economy like we have right now. And we’re going to make it bigger and better and stronger,” he beamed.

Trump also took the moment to assure egg-rollers and their parents, “Our military is now at a level, will soon be at a level, that it’s never been before.
http://deadline.com/2018/04/donald-trump-easter-bunny-campaign-rally-speech-white-house-egg-roll-video-1202356792/

Oh wait, ladies and gentlemen! What’s that? There is some urgent news I have to report here!

Oh and this just in – Trump has told his 1,400th lie since he took office! Ladies and gentlemen, that is the 45th president of these United States! Bravo, take a bow! You know Trump’s lies are like fine wines – each one has its’ own body and character, and they have layers of flavor. You got to give it time to ferment.

The U.S. president has now said 1,400 false things since his inauguration, an average of 3.2 per day.

Speaking in Ohio, President Donald Trump is threatening to "hold up" the trade agreement his administration just finalized with South Korea to provide more leverage for talks with North Korea. (The Associated Press)

WASHINGTON—U.S. President Donald Trump was supposed to give a speech on infrastructure. Instead, he took his audience on a dizzying ramble-journey that covered everything from the war in Syria to the sitcom Roseanne. And he was highly dishonest along the way.

Trump made 16 false claims during the Ohio address. He added five more over the course of the week for a total of 21.

He has made 1,400 false claims over the first 437 days of his presidency, an average of 3.2 per day.
https://www.thestar.com/news/world/analysis/2018/04/02/donald-trump-made-16-false-claims-in-that-dizzying-infrastructure-speech.html

Oh! Oh no he didn’t! He set the fact checker on fire! Oh the humanity!!! I mean could this possibly get any more insane? Only if Trump doubled down on his attacks on Amazon. And he most certainly did, I mean this is Donald Trump we’re talking about here! Forgive our president for he knows not of which he speaks.

President Trump once accused Verizon of making “a STUPID deal” for AOL. He ridiculed Coca-Cola as “garbage” — but said he would keep drinking it. He called both H&R Block and Nordstrom “terrible.” He said Sony had “really stupid leadership” and described executives at S&P Global, a financial firm, as “losers.”

Before and after he became president, Mr. Trump attacked tech firms, military contractors, carmakers, cellphone companies, financial firms, drug companies, air-conditioner makers, sports leagues, Wall Street giants — and many, many media companies, which he has labeled “shameful,” “dishonest,” “true garbage,” “really dumb,” “phony,” “failing” and, broadly, “the enemy of the American people.”

Lately, Mr. Trump’s antibusiness rants have become particularly menacing and caused the stocks of some companies to plunge. His Twitter posts have carried with them the threat, sometimes explicit, that he is prepared to use the power of the presidency to undermine the companies that anger him.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, long a booster of Republican presidents, is not happy. “It’s inappropriate for government officials to use their position to attack an American company,” said Neil Bradley, the executive vice president and chief policy officer of the chamber. Mr. Bradley, who did not specifically name Mr. Trump, added that criticism of companies from politicians “undermines economic growth and job creation.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/03/us/politics/trump-amazon.html

[font size="8"]The Trumper Games: MockingTrump Pt. 1
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Let’s spin it to win it! Wheel goes round, wheel goes round, wheel goes round. Oh and it lands on… oh the guacamole option! Come on out here, Fernando! So I got this great plate of chips and salsa, a nice 24 ounce glass of Negra Modelo, and Fernando is coming to prepare my tableside guacamole. Fernando is our sous chef here at the Top 10. Here’s your $1.50 Fernando. OK easy on the onions, not too much tomato. Yeah look at that!

That’s Fernando everybody! All right, spin it again! And it lands on… Donald Trump. Another firing, another week for:

Ah, welcome to yet another edition of the Trumper Games! Happy Trumper Games! So last week if you need a recap – the president eliminated another tribute! Damn it, Charlie! You brought the cheap champagne again, I want the good shit! Last week, the president eliminated Tribute McMaster. This week – the president eliminated another Tribute, this time from District 4. I will be honest, I have no idea how the districts work, I just make them up as I go. This week – the tribute that was eliminated was David Shulkin, the head of the department of Veterans Affairs. As the president would say “You’re fired!”.

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump fired Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin on Wednesday, ending weeks of speculation about the embattled administrator’s future.

Shulkin’s position in the administration had been in jeopardy since the release of a damning inspector general report last month that criticized him for wasteful and unethical actions during a 10-day official department trip last summer.

In the wake of that report, Shulkin accused subordinates and White House operatives of working to undermine him because of a host of policy disagreements. In recent days, he backed away from promises to purge his department of those enemies and largely avoided the press.

The move leaves the Department of Veterans Affairs — which has a budget of nearly $200 billion and boasts about 360,000 employees — in a state of leadership disarray for the second time in less than four years.
https://www.militarytimes.com/veterans/2018/03/28/shulkin-out-trump-fires-va-secretary-after-weeks-of-controversy/

Yes – the president eliminates yet another tribute! That’s 4 tributes in the last 3 weeks! The president is on a roll! And he has done all of them through his favorite method of elimination – the tweet! And remember the rules of the Trumper Games state that anyone can be eliminated at any time, and for any reason! So who did the president replace Tribute Shulkin with?

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump ousted Secretary of Veterans Affairs David Shulkin on Wednesday, announcing his intent to nominate the White House physician, Adm. Ronny Jackson, to fill the post and ending weeks of speculation about when the embattled cabinet official would leave the administration.

Trump tweeted a confirmation of the news, which was first reported by Reuters. In a statement, the president described Jackson as "highly trained and qualified and as a service member himself." Trump also thanked Shulkin for his service and the "many great things we did together at Veterans Affairs."

Jackson has been a White House physician to Presidents Trump and Barack Obama. Robert Wilkie, an undersecretary of defense, will serve as interim secretary until Jackson is confirmed by the Senate, Trump said in a follow-up tweet.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/trump-replaces-embattled-va-secretary-personal-physician-n859496

Yes, my pretties! The president has replaced Tribute Shulkin with Tribute Jackson – yes the very same White House doctor who previously praised Trump’s “very good genes”. Come on, really? This is the guy who gave us Don Jr and Eric! He doesn’t have that great of genes! So what do we know about Tribute Jackson?

Sen. Bernie Sanders wouldn't commit to supporting President Donald Trump's pick to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs, Rear Adm. Ronny Jackson, on Sunday.

In an interview on CBS’ "Face the Nation," the Vermont independent noted that Jackson, Trump's personal physician, is a virtual unknown on veterans issues. He also expressed concerns the Trump administration is pushing to privatize the nearly $200 billion bureaucracy, citing the conservative agenda of the influential donors Charles and David Koch.

"We know nothing about what Dr. Jackson stands for and what his vision is for the VA," Sanders said.

Trump replaced VA Secretary David Shulkin last week after months of criticism over reports he misused government travel. Shulkin has since said he was forced out for pushing back against efforts to privatize veterans services.
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/04/01/sanders-trump-veterans-jackson-shulkin-493220

That’s right! We know nothing! Only in the most stunningly incompetent of administrations could we replace a tribute with another tribute, and know nothing! This president really… doesn’t know what he is doing! Damn it, Johnny! Keep my champagne refilled! But of course, let the finger pointing and blame gaming begin!

Former Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin is making it clear he was fired from his job amid conflicting claims from the White House.

White House spokeswoman Lindsay Walters on Sunday told The Associated Press that Shulkin had "resigned" from his job when President Donald Trump abruptly announced via Twitter last Wednesday that he was nominating White House doctor Ronny Jackson to replace him.

But in television interviews, Shulkin said he had not submitted a resignation letter, or planned to, and was only told of Trump's decision shortly before the Twitter announcement. He said he had spoken to Trump by phone earlier that day about VA improvements, with no mention of his job status, and was scheduled to meet with the president the next morning.
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/ousted-shulkin-rejects-white-house-claim-resigned-va-54160410

[font size="8"] Scott Walker
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Spin it to win it! And it lands on… chance!

Eh, the rest of the players might get $50 each, but I will get stock options worth $500,000,000! Ha! Jokes’ on them! Spin it again! and it lands on… oh People Who Somehow Got Elected! Let’s hit it!

Politicians at national, state and local levels who are so terrible , you wonder how they got elected in the first place. Or in this case reelected. It’s now time for another installment of:

This week – it’s the governor of the state of Wisconsin, Scott Walker. Governor Scott Walker is a byproduct of the Koch Bros / Tea Party craze fueled by a combination of voters fed a diet of hatred on Fox News, and money funded by the Koch Bros. And thanks to the Supreme Court’s controversial Citizens United ruling that allowed unlimited amounts of money to flow into campaigns, and for billionaires to simply buy key positions. Like being the governor of the state of Wisconsin, who was called “a menace to democracy”.

When a judge ordered Gov. Scott Walker to stop messing with Wisconsin democracy and order special elections to be held for a pair of vacant legislative seats, that should have been the end of the governor’s lawless scheming to leave the 229,904 Wisconsinites who live in those districts unrepresented for almost a full year.

Everyone had figured out what Walker was up to. Fearful that special elections might see Democrats elected in the historically Republican 1st Senate District and 43rd Assembly District, Walker simply refused to call the elections after the seats went vacant last year. Walker and his lawyers tried to makes excuses for the governor’s anti-democratic machinations, but Dane County Circuit Judge Josann Reynolds dismissed them as “inconsistent, incompatible and irreconcilable.”

“To state the obvious,” the judge explained, “if the plaintiffs have a right to vote for their representatives, they must have an election to do so.”

Remarkably, the response of Walker and his legislative allies to the judge’s order was not to order the elections — which could have been held in conjunction with the regularly scheduled spring elections if Walker had acted promptly. Instead, they proposed to rewrite state statutes so that governors would no longer be required to call special elections to fill legislative vacancies “as promptly as possible.”
http://host.madison.com/ct/opinion/editorial/editorial-scott-walker-is-a-menace-to-democracy-in-wisconsin/article_9dd4a26c-a7f9-5802-b3ec-7a8f43a54548.html

Yes – Scott Walker is so terrible at his job that even leading newspapers in Wisconsin aren’t endorsing his reelection bid. Even the citizens of Wisconsin are under the impression that they are currently without leadership.

MADISON - After a three-month delay, a lightning-quick lawsuit and three orders from as many judges, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker called two special elections Thursday and GOP senators dropped legislation to block the contests.

Republican efforts collapsed following a Wednesday ruling by an appellate judge ordering the governor to call the May primary and June general elections. In less than a day, Walker abandoned a state Supreme Court appeal to overturn the ruling and lawmakers in both the Senate and Assembly canceled plans to vote to leave the seats vacant.

"This is a victory for the citizens of Wisconsin who are without representation because of Governor Walker's refusal to do his job," said former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, whose national Democratic group brought the lawsuit against Walker on behalf of local voters. "Republicans in the Legislature should stop trying to find new ways to keep the people they're supposed to represent from voting."
https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/2018/03/29/wisconsin-gov-scott-walker-calls-special-elections-senate-leader-drops-bill/469000002/

Wow, even Dirty Harry thinks that Scott Walker sucks. And when he says that Scott Walker sucks, damn it, he means it. But let’s expand on this – Walker originally refused to call the special elections in Wisconsin, and was ordered to by a federal judge. See, the republicans can’t win if they can’t lie, cheat, and steal.

MADISON, Wis. — A Wisconsin judge Thursday ordered Gov. Scott Walker to call special elections to fill a pair of legislative seats vacated by fellow Republicans, handing a victory to Democrats who have pushed for the elections to be held.

A national Democratic group led by former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder filed the lawsuit on behalf of voters who argued they were disenfranchised by Walker’s decision not to call elections to fill the vacancies that occurred on Dec. 29.

Attorneys for Holder’s groups, the National Redistricting Foundation, argued that Walker has a legal obligation to call special elections as soon as possible. Democrats said the governor is afraid Democrats will win the seats, but Walker contends the lawsuit is a partisan, special interest effort to waste taxpayers’ money and he’s under no legal obligation to hold the elections.

Dane County Circuit Judge Josann Reynolds, whom Walker appointed in 2014, rejected all of his defense arguments in requiring him to issue an order no later than March 29 calling special elections within the next 11 weeks. Reynolds said Walker’s interpretation of the law was inconsistent and incompatible with a strict interpretation of the Constitution, something she noted the conservative governor has long said he adheres to.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/03/22/wisconsin-gov-ordered-to-hold-special-elections/

Yes there is something rotten in the state of Wisconsin, all right. And that something rotten just happens to be in Madison. In fact the governor and republicans of Wisconsin are so desperate to *NOT* hold an election that they’re resorting to such desperate measures as this.

Gov. Scott Walker and Republican lawmakers are moving quickly to change when special elections must be held in the wake of a court order requiring special elections for two vacant legislative seats.

Dane County Circuit Judge Josann Reynolds — who was appointed to the bench by Walker in 2014 and elected to a six-year term the following year — blistered the governor Thursday for refusing to call the special elections and ordered him to do so within a week.

The Senate and Assembly, which wrapped up their regular session business this week, are planning to meet in extraordinary session to take up a bill that would change the timeline for special elections, according to a statement issued Friday by Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, and Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester.

Walker — even before formal legislation had been made public — said that he would sign the bill.
http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/govt-and-politics/scott-walker-republican-lawmakers-call-for-swift-changes-to-special/article_64450368-6531-5016-8166-d5a5d5056734.html

Yes – and Scott Walker is one of those people who wants to watch the world burn. He would rather hold elections in secret or not hold them at all. Because the republicans can’t win if they can’t lie, cheat, steal, and rig their way to the top, as we have seen time and time again. In fact the GOP is so corrupt in Wisconsin that they wanted to simply eliminate the position of Secretary of The Treasury:

Scott Walker just got called out by a judge he appointed for making up absurd excuses for trampling on the voting rights of Wisconsinites by literally refusing to let them vote. The governor’s rationale for refusing to call special elections to fill vacant state legislative seats was so absurd that Dane County Circuit Judge Josann Reynolds dismissed them as “inconsistent, incompatible and irreconcilable.”

In ordering Walker to call the special elections for the state Assembly and state Senate seats that were vacated when he appointed Republican legislators to his administration, Judge Reynolds saw through the fabric of excuses blocking elections that Republicans might lose and simply declared: “To state the obvious, if the plaintiffs have a right to vote for their representatives, they must have an election to do so.”

Logic tripped Walker up and, thankfully, there was a judge to check and balance the governor’s anti-democratic impulses.
http://host.madison.com/ct/opinion/editorial/editorial-vote-no-on-eliminating-wisconsin-s-elected-state-treasurer/article_06f9593c-8c4c-5e95-80e6-a445d62e6712.html

Yes and no one wants to see the world burn more than Scott Walker. And in case you’re wondering why all this is going down in Wisconsin – the GOP is all about protecting “the brand” and “the base”. And it will stop at nothing to do so. So much that their strategy of “all or nothing” is backfiring on them big time!

The risk of losing two seats in the legislature might not be as bad for Wisconsin Republicans as the fallout from attempts to avoid having special elections.

UW-La Crosse political scientist Joe Heim told WIZM that the image of the Wisconsin GOP may suffer over the election fight.

“You think (the GOP was saying), 'Well the courts aren't going to let us do this, they're going to force us to, so we're just going to change the law,’” Heim said. “I think that kind of gives an image of arrogance to the Republican Party.”
http://www.1410wizm.com/index.php/home-m/item/33110-uw-l-poly-scientist-says-special-election-fight-may-tarnish-gop-image-in-wisconsin

There you have it. Scott Walker rigs elections and is more concerned with protecting his brand than his people. That’s Wisconsin governor Scott Walker – another politician to add to the growing list of:

[font size="8"]Top 10 Investigates: Herbie The Stored Bug
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Let’s give the wheel a nice strong spin shall we? And it lands on… clip without context!

Why don’t you name some, Linda? Go ahead I’ll wait.

Spin it again! And it lands on… Top 10 Investigates! It’s time to investigate beyond the headlines. This is: Top 10 Investigates.

Two years ago, Volkswagen got caught up in the middle of one of the worst anti-environmental scandals any automotive manufacturer could have been involved in. So if you need a recap of this scandal, Volkswagen got caught cheating on emissions standards in a massive clusterfuck that nearly broke the company. So what does one do to make it right? They bought back the vehicles that were the victims of this scandal. But what do they do with those vehicles once they bought them back? Well, we go to the California desert – the city of Victorville is the home to a massive automotive boneyard that is visible from space.

Volkswagen has bought back hundreds of thousands of automobiles in the US as a result of the diesel emissions scandal uncovered in 2015. After spending $7.4 billon on the cars so far, where did they end up?

Thousands went to the desert, as these images from near Victorville, California, already known for its graveyard of decommissioned airplanes, show. The cars taken back by VW will either be fixed and returned to customers, resold or destroyed. Over 20,000 vehicles have already been destroyed, Reuters reports.

All told, about 350,000 cars in the US have been reacquired by the German automaker. VW has found 37 sprawling lots across the US, including a disused football stadium in Detroit, for the cars that are still awaiting their fate.
https://qz.com/1241214/photos-volkswagen-has-bought-back-thousands-of-diesel-cars-in-the-us-heres-what-that-looks-like/

Yes that’s correct – some 350,000 cars are just sitting in a massive boneyard at the Southern California Logistics Airport in Victorville. So where exactly are these vehicles being stored? It’s not just in a boneyard in Victorville, they are all over the country.

Volkswagen has taken parking lots to a whole new level in the United States - and will not be emptying them soon.

Volkswagen AG has paid more than $7.4 billion to buy back about 350,000 U.S. diesel vehicles through mid-February, a recent court filing shows. The German automaker has been storing hundreds of thousands of vehicles around the United States for months.

Volkswagen has 37 secure storage facilities around the United States housing nearly 300,000 vehicles, the filing from the program’s independent administrator said. The lots include a shuttered suburban Detroit football stadium, a former Minnesota paper mill and a sun-bleached desert graveyard near Victorville, California.

VW spokeswoman Jeannine Ginivan said in a statement on Wednesday that the storage facility in Victorville, California, is one of many “to ensure the responsible storage of vehicles that are bought back under the terms of the Volkswagen” diesel settlements.
https://www.reuters.com/article/volkswagen-emissions-storage/rpt-vw-storing-around-300000-diesels-at-37-facilities-around-u-s-idUSL1N1RA1YO

Yes and that’s exactly what Volkswagen did – they said “fuck this place, let’s put up a parking lot.”. And these parking lots aren’t just massive – they’re visible from space. In fact just do a simple Google Maps search on the Logistics Airport in Victorville – you can see it for yourself. And this is what some might call “vehicular purgatory”. Who we hear are playing Coachella this year. Awesome band.

The desert can play tricks on the eyes, especially when the temperatures hit triple-digits.

But on a cool spring day last week there was no confusing the ocean of cars parked off Adelanto Road and Innovation Way at Southern California Logistics Airport for a mirage. Victor Valley residents have grown accustomed to seeing airliners parked at SCLA over the years, either for storage, painting or other modifications. But row after row of cars? That was something new.

Stirling Development’s Anita Tuckerman confirmed SCLA has become ground zero in Southern California for Volkwagen’s buyback of diesel-powered cars that the company rigged to cheat on emissions tests. Earlier this month, a federal judge ordered Volkswagen to pay a $2.8 billion criminal fine. The company has announced plans to spend another $18.32 billion to rectify everything.

“Stirling has leased them 134 acres,” said Tuckerman, director of Asset Services for Stirling Development. “They can hold 21,000 cars on their current land.”
http://www.vvdailypress.com/news/20170429/diesel-vws-land-in-134-acre-purgatory-at-southern-california-logistics-airport

So this whole fiasco is costing Volkswagen billions of dollars, hundreds of wasted man hours, and the potential to be an environmental disaster worse than the previous environmental disaster. After the first four environmental disasters, is your fifth one free? Is there a rewards program for that?

Across the nation, nearly 300,000 recalled Volkswagens were still in storage at the start of the year at temporary lots like the one adjacent to Pikes Peak International Raceway, according to news agency Reuters.

Volkswagen has not released any updated timetable for the clearance of the remaining “buyback cars” still in storage. The automaker hopes to re-sell the remaining cars either in the U.S. or in foreign markets. Some may get disposed of for scrap parts.

At the makeshift lot next Pikes Peak raceway, hundreds of cars have been moved off site in recent months but thousands more remain. Volkswagen has declined to release the total number of cars in storage at the lot.

Nationally, there are 37 storage lots, according to Reuters, citing an updated report on the automaker’s recall program related to its diesel emissions scandal. The lots include a shuttered suburban Detroit football stadium, a former Minnesota paper mill and an old air field near Victorville, Calif., the news agency said.
https://www.chieftain.com/business/most-recalled-vws-still-in-storage/article_395d70ee-3450-11e8-a0eb-1bab10c5cac8.html

Yes, WTF. WTF indeed. This entire thing is proving that it could potentially be an environmental and fiscal disaster. That’s it for Top 10 Investigates. Good day.

[font size="8"]Holy Shit
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Let’s spin the wheel again shall we? And it lands on… come on no whammy no whammy no whammy no whammy… stop! Oh hey look, intermission!

Spin it again! And it’s time for… Holy Shit! 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 is our weekly duty to remind you that the holiest among us are also the most full of:

So… my fair congregation, I ask you – how does one predict the future? Well that is what my colleagues in the Christian right are doing this week! And I answer you… I don’t even think they know. Can I get an amen on that one? Thank you! Because there are a certain minority of them that are already calling the 2020 election for Donald J. Trump. Even though we haven’t even hit the primary season yet! Here is one such individual who is already predicting the future !

Frank Amedia, the tsunami-stopping pastor who served as a volunteer “Christian policy liaison” for Donald Trump’s presidential campaign before launching his POTUS Shield effort, appeared on Jim Bakker’s program today, where he prophesied that President Trump will win re-election in 2020.

Amedia recounted how God had told him weeks before the 2016 election that Trump would win and then gave him the assignment on election night to launch POTUS Shield in order to “put up a line of defense and call My prophets to go forth” to wage spiritual warfare on behalf of the president.

After recounting the history and purpose of POTUS Shield, Amedia revealed that God had given him permission to declare that Trump will be re-elected in 2020.

“I wasn’t allowed to release it until today,” Amedia said. “I have been holding it in my heart for several months, I think I shared it with a few of my people and that’s it. Donald Trump will be the next president of the United States again in 2020. I think you feel the power of God releasing on that.”
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/god-has-given-frank-amedia-permission-to-reveal-that-trump-will-win-re-election-in-2020/

So there you have it, my religious brothers are already calling the 2020 election for President Trump, and the race hasn’t even begun yet! Donald could still get primaried! So here is why GAWD is saying that Trump is the man for 2020! According to Brother Jim, GAWD is just using him!

On his television program today, End Times prepper pastor Jim Bakker declared that support for President Trump is a test from God of one’s faith in Him.

“Do you know why church people and millions of other people do not understand Donald Trump, that God could use him?” he asked. “They don’t know God. They don’t know God. They don’t know this book [the Bible] one iota.”

“He used the unlovely, He used the unacceptable, He used the people that no one would vote for,” Bakker continued. “We don’t get God. God uses the impossible.”

“He picked a president,” Bakker added. “He is testing; your evaluation of Almighty God is going on. God picks the unusual. God picks the one that no one else would pick.”
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/jim-bakker-the-lord-is-using-trump-as-a-test-your-faith-in-god/

And there you have it folks – Brother Jim is saying that god is testing you. You know if this is god’s will, and I’m sure it is, then what’s Satan’s will? That question has yet to be answered! But in predicting the future, one must pass the test, and one must protect thyself! Which is why you NEED lots of firepower!

Chuck Baldwin, a right-wing pastor and radio host who was the 2008 Presidential nominee of the Christian Reconstructionist Constitution Party, appeared on Sheila Zilinsky’s podcast over the weekend, where he declared that any Christian who does not own the equivalent of an AR-15 assault rifle “has denied the Christian faith” and is “worse than a heathen.”

Citing a passage from 1 Timothy, Baldwin asserted that every adult has “a duty to provide for your family, but you cannot provide protection for your family without being equipped to do so.”

“Therefore, you must have the means of self-defense,” Baldwin said. “And in our society today, that means a firearm in the similitude of an AR-15. Without that, you are not in a position, you are not even able to protect not just your family and your house, but your neighbors, your community around you; that we, as a community of people—that’s the militia—are given the God-given responsibility to protect our communities. That is a biblical requirement.”

Baldwin called on pastors to preach sermons telling their congregations that “if you are not prepared to defend your family and your neighborhood and your community with the force of arms, you have denied that Christian faith and you are worse than a heathen.”
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/chuck-baldwin-says-its-a-biblical-requirement-for-everyone-to-own-an-assault-rifle/

So, my fair congregation, you must have guns, and you must be prepared to have your faith be tested by the LAWRD OUR GAWD!!!! For he is testing you at all times. He might be testing you right now by making you listen to my shit! Hey, we don’t know! In order to predict the future, one must be armed, and one must be mind fucked on a daily basis! But… what else are we forgetting? Well we wlll need shelter because apparently an environmental apocalypse is coming!

Ralph Drollinger, the man who leads weekly Bible study meetings for members of Congress and Trump’s Cabinet—including embattled Environmental Protection Agency head Scott Pruitt—distributed on Monday a Bible study warning that America is in the process of shifting from Christianity to the “false religion of Radical Environmentalism.” Pruitt told CBN last year that it was “wonderful” to participate in the Cabinet Bible studies.

Drollinger’s weekly written Bible studies (also available online in print and audio versions) are distributed to public officials by Capitol Ministries, which is expanding in the U.S. and globally. Drollinger, who sometimes describes them as a kind of a homework supplement to the in-person Bible study meetings, told a reporter last year that Trump reads the studies and sends him positive hand-written notes about them.

The study posted on Monday, “Coming to Grips with the Religion of Environmentalism,” appears to be an updated version of a previous written study with the same title. It draws heavily on a passage in the biblical book of Genesis in which God grants mankind dominion over the Earth and all its creatures and instructs man to rule and subdue creation.
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/epas-pruitt-hears-from-bible-study-leader-that-radical-environmentalism-is-a-false-religion/

Yes, I think even JAYSUS is speechless at this one because you can’t predict the future. I mean you simply can’t! And I hope that’s the takeaway you get from today’s sermon. Mass has ended, may you go in peace! That’s it this week for:

[font size="8"]The Storm
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Spin it to win it! Wheel goes ‘round, wheel goes ‘round… and it lands on, oh clip without context!

Uh huh, sure, Jim. Tell us more! How many supplements did you need to sell? Go on I can wait. Spin it again! and it lands on… Conspiracy Theories! You know we were originally going to do a “This Fucking Guy” segment here. But I couldn’t find enough information. But I did find a ton about “The Storm” so that’s what we’re going to talk about here. Do you all know what “The Storm” is? It’s one of the most baseless, bullshit conspiracy theories out there. And it’s quite insane. It is essentially Pizzagate 2.0, and we all know how crazy Pizzagate was. So before we get into it, what is “The Storm”?

A new conspiracy theory called “The Storm” has taken the grimiest parts of the internet by, well, storm. Like Pizzagate, the Storm conspiracy features secret cabals, a child sex-trafficking ring led (in part) by the satanic Democratic Party, and of course, countless logical leaps and paranoid assumptions that fail to hold up under the slightest fact-based scrutiny. However, unlike Pizzagate, the Storm isn’t focused on a single block of shops in D.C., or John Podesta’s emails. It’s much, much bigger than that.

As most terrible things do, this story begins with a post on /pol/, a sub-board of the more-or-less-anonymous, anything-goes website 4chan. Over the last few years, /pol/ — which technically stands for “politically incorrect” — has slowly but surely become a top contender for the ever-coveted title of the most upsetting community online. It’s the sort of place where neo-Nazis and people who believe women shouldn’t have basic human rights used to meet before we started verifying them on Twitter and electing them to public office. And as of late, it’s expanded its ranks to include fringe members of all shapes and sizes.
http://nymag.com/selectall/2017/12/qanon-4chan-the-storm-conspiracy-explained.html

Yes like all bad ideas this one originated from 4chan by the famed anonymous poster known as Q. Boy wouldn’t it be great to unmask Q and find out who Q really is? And they would have got away with it too if it weren’t for those meddling kids! But the Storm was in the news a lot this week and it mainly has to do with Roseanne. But there is more to this than you would think. So QAnon attempted a 24 hour meme war that backfired on them big time.

Conspiracy theorists tapped in to “The Storm” have declared today to be the day in which they “post a continuous barrage of memes” in order to prepare the nation for the release of a video that they believe will serve as the “nail in many coffins” for liberal politicians who are involved in a massive alleged pedophile cult.

The Storm is a conspiracy theory that has captured the imaginations of “Pizzagate” truthers who believe that the highest ranking liberal political and business leaders are engaged in a secret satanic pedophile ring dedicated to trafficking and abusing children. At the helm of The Storm sits an anonymous poster on 4chan and then 8chan message boards known only as “Q.” Many followers of The Storm believe “Q” to be a high-ranking government official whom President Trump has ordered to leave cryptic clues—dubbed “crumbs” by conspiracy theorists—about supposed behind-the-scene efforts to unravel the alleged pedophile ring. An archive site of QAnon posts has documented nearly 1,000 cryptic messages since late October of last year.

Since the theory began in October, hordes of people have been engaged with it. YouTube videos about “QAnon” regularly rack up hundreds of thousands of views. The most dedicated participants in the conspiracy theory, including Infowars Washington bureau chief Jerome Corsi, spend hours per day in Discord chat rooms attempting to decode posts written by “Q.”

Now, these activists believe they have been ordered by Trump to “set the stage” for the impending release of a video concerning Hillary Clinton that they say will contain footage that is “impossible to defend” and will lead to the undoing of the liberal elite.
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/qanon-activists-declare-a-24-hour-meme-war/

What “undoing” left of the “liberal elite” is there left to do? You’ve already undone everything and about 90% of the progress Obama made in his 8 years in office. How much more damage are you threatening to do? Blame us for terrorist attacks? Yeah! But you know what? We got him!

Participants in the ongoing conspiracy theory known as “The Storm,” which alleges that President Trump is working to take down a massive elite satanic pedophile ring, believe that the main subject of their theory—an anonymous 8Chan user dubbed “Q”—is being targeted by the FBI.

Early this morning, “Q,” who some conspiracy theorists are convinced is a high ranking White House official, claimed that the FBI was opening a case on him or her in relation to the recent series of bombings in Austin, Texas, because of a number of “Q” posts that contain the phrase “BOOM.” “They are scared … They will fail. We know the details” the post reads:

The user “Q” is the figurehead of a larger conspiracy theory known online as “The Storm.” According to advocates of “The Storm,” Special Counsel Robert Mueller is not actually investigating President Trump and his associates for possible collusion with Russian officials during the 2016 election, but rather is working for Trump to dismantle a satanic pedophile ring involving global elites.
www.rightwingwatch.org/post/the-storm-conspiracy-theorists-now-believe-the-fbi-coming-after-qanon/

[font size="8"]I Need A Drinkl
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Let’s spin the wheel again shall we? And it lands on… come on no whammy no whammy no whammy… stop! Clip without context!

Well, sir, we’re going to need divine intervention to get us through the next two years. Spin it again! And it lands on… oh hey I need a drink!

Yes and I need a drink this week. So tell me bartender, what goes well with a cross check? Molson lager? We can’t get that here in the States. I’ll just take a large IPA thanks. In case you don’t know what we’re talking about – we’re going to discuss one of the strangest rules in any sport that got national and international attention last week. I’m of course talking about the NHL’s reserve goalie rule.

Chicago Blackhawks goalie Collin Delia was injured in Thursday night's game against the Winnipeg Jets and the team needed to call on 36-year-old goalie Scott Foster to make his NHL debut as the emergency back-up.

Delia, making his first NHL start, was helped off the ice with an apparent lower-body injury in the third period. He was filling in for starter Anton Forsberg, who was injured during warmups. The team's No. 1 goalie Corey Crawford has been on injured reserve since late December.

Foster only found out he was dressing as the backup "moments before game."

"The initial shock happened when I had to dress," Foster told media. "I think I blacked out after that."

Foster took the ice wearing No. 90. He finished the night with seven saves on seven shots—including one on sniper Patrik Laine—in 14:01 of ice time and was named the game's No. 1 star for his efforts in the Blackhawks' 6-3 win.
https://www.si.com/nhl/2018/03/29/emergency-goalie-takes-over-blackhawks-scott-foster-makes-debut-36-years-old

OK that dude is definitely way more of a bad ass than you or I will ever be. I mean come on, his first time playing in a professional hockey game and he fucking nailed it. You can’t get more awesome than that, can we? Well what is the reserve goalie rule? Let’s explore that a bit further.

An NHL team only has two goalies, the starter and his reserve, on its playing roster at any given time, but the league mandates that a third, last-resort option be present at every home game. To become eligible, all the EBUG has to do is sign a one-day amateur tryout contract. The opportunity comes with no compensation, but the backups get to watch the game and will often get a free meal out of it.

Rule 5.3 of the NHL rulebook reads:

In regular League and Playoff games, if both listed goalkeepers are incapacitated, that team shall be entitled to dress and play any available goalkeeper who is eligible. This goalkeeper is eligible to sit on the player’s bench, in uniform. In the event that the two regular goalkeepers are injured or incapacitated in quick succession, the third goalkeeper shall be provided with a reasonable amount of time to get dressed, in addition to a two-minute warm-up.

Perhaps it is a testament to the durability of NHL players, but an EBUG rarely has to do so much as look up from his free dinner, let alone actually suit up and prepare to be called onto the ice. In 2009, a college drama student put on pads for the Edmonton Oilers after an injury to one of their rostered goaltenders. In 2008, the Washington Capitals asked their website editor to sit on the bench. In 2011, the Minnesota Wild signed a 51-year-old embroidery shop owner to a one-day contract after its starting goalie had to attend the birth of his child and the team’s minor-league reserve couldn’t make it to the stadium in time. None of those guys had to actually play, however.
https://slate.com/culture/2018/03/how-a-full-time-accountant-played-14-minutes-in-goal-for-the-chicago-blackhawks.html

Yeah so that happened. And man it was quite a sight to behold. In fact this rule is actually making talks in other sports. I mean imagine if baseball had this rule!

On Thursday evening, Scott Foster was an Oak Park, Ill. accountant and recreational hockey goalie whose last competitive action came during his senior year at Western Michigan University in 2005-06. By the time the Chicago Blackhawks finished their 6–2 win over the Winnipeg Jets on Thursday night, Foster had made his NHL debut, stopped seven shots and allowed zero goals in 14 minutes of action. A codicil in the NHL collective bargaining agreement specifies that an emergency goalkeeper can enter a game for either team in the event that both active goalies get injured. On Thursday, the Blackhawks lost starting goalie Anton Forsberg to injury in warmups and backup Collin Delia, who was making his NHL debut, with 14 minutes remaining. That forced Foster, who finished his day as an accountant just hours earlier, to finish the game. Now, Foster is the talk of the sports world and an instant folk hero.

The emergency backup goalie rule usually puts unsuspecting people—coaches who were once NHL goalies, former professionals—into the thrilling if terrifying scenario of entering a NHL game. Foster's perfect outing assures that he'll finish his NHL career with a 1.000% save percentage.
https://www.si.com/mlb/2018/03/30/major-league-baseball-emergency-catcher-scott-foster

While you may think Scott Foster is an isolated incident and he’s definitely an anomaly in this world of hockey, he most definitely isn’t! in fact this isn’t the first time hockey has had to enact this controversial rule. In fact there’s other times that hockey has had this happen, and I am definitely going to need more beer!

Eric Semborski was coaching youth hockey players at the Philadelphia Flyers training facility Saturday morning, a rink where he’d interacted occasionally with NHL players in Voorhees, N.J., when he got the call.

A series of events had taken place earlier that would result in the 23-year-old former college club goalie becoming an NHL player himself. Semborski was pulled aside by his boss and found himself talking to a representative of the Flyers.

“He started taking down my player history,” Semborski told USA TODAY Sports. “Then he said the Blackhawks would need a goalie in a couple hours and to go home and get my gear. It’s not something I ever thought about.

"To go from club hockey to the Wells Fargo Center? I dreamt about being in the NHL as a kid, but I knew it was never going to happen.”
https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nhl/2016/12/06/emergency-goalies-eric-semborski-rob-laurie/95044812/

[font size="8"]Stupidest State Contest: Round 1 Week 3
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Let’s give the wheel a spin one final time this week. And it lands on… t-shirt cannon! Everyone in the audience will get the new 2018 Stupidest State t-shirt. Now if only I had the budget to make and sell t-shirts. Well, when you have a budget of 0, well, you know… Spin it again! Stupidest State contest! Hit it!

16 states will enter, but only one will be crowned the new Top 10 Conservative Idiots Stupidest State!

Welcome back! I hope you all filled out your brackets! This We have not one, but two exciting matchups this week! Last week – we had a huge upset in the tournament brewing as perennial favorite Kansas was knocked off by a young upstart, and red hot West Virginia in the fight for Fiscal Irresponsibility superiority. Meanwhile, in the Family Values conference, Alabama – though they may have been weakened because of the Roy Moore election, showed Indiana who’s boss in an absolutely epic showdown of who worships Jesus the most. This week we’re live from the Gila River Arena in Phoenix, Arizona, where we’ve got a pair of exciting matchups for you! This week, a young, upstart Nevada team looks to go for broke against conference favorite Wisconsin, while Florida brings their big guns to the dance against conference newcomer Louisiana! Let’s get out our brackets so you can follow along!

[font size="6"]Match 1: Fiscal Irresponsibility Conference: Nevada Vs Wisconsin [/font]

[font size="4"]Nevada[/font]

Welcome to Nevada everybody! Of course we were here last week broadcasting our Stupidest State contest live from the beautiful new T-Mobile Arena that’s right off Las Vegas Blvd, better known as “The Strip”. Of course everyone knows the Strip – it’s the only place in the entire world where you can experience what it’s like to live like a baller in the best suites at the MGM Grand and Caesar’s Palace, and you can go from that to living like the homeless. Just put it all on 36 Black. But Nevada is also home to the University of Nevada and the newest NHL franchise, the Las Vegas Golden Knights, and they are the future home of the Las Vegas Raiders. But what else is Nevada the home of? Campaign finance scandals! Of course every state has those, but nobody is greedier than Nevada!

Democrats are accusing former U.S. Rep. Cresent Hardy — who has filed to run for Nevada’s 4th Congressional District, the seat he won in 2014 — of using nearly $4,000 of campaign funds for personal use.

The 11 expenditures in question span Jan. 3 to Aug. 8 of last year, after Hardy had left office. The Republican lost his 2016 re-election bid to Democratic Rep. Ruben Kihuen. Federal election laws prohibit the personal use of leftover campaign funds but allow officeholders six months to spend the money on “winding down” the office.

Campaign finance filings show Hardy spent $395 on an Alamo rental car, $210 at The Orleans, $297 at Hotels.com, $788 on airfare and nearly $80 for phone and internet services with Cox Communications.

“This is potentially more troubling evidence of Cresent Hardy’s history of shady dealings to line his own pockets,” said Drew Godinich, a spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. “We deserve leaders who put the needs of Nevada first, instead of themselves.”

Read more: https://www.reviewjournal.com/news/politics-and-government/nevada/democrats-accuse-nevadas-hardy-of-misusing-campaign-funds/

And then Nevada is also the home of a guy named Steve Wynn, whose giant Wynn Casino is directly across Las Vegas Blvd from Trump tower, and he is embattled in a sex scandal of his own, and just like Trump – treats his workers like shit.

Steve Wynn is under siege. The casino magnate is facing a range of allegations—from sexual harassment to forced sex—from former female employees, according to The Wall Street Journal. Then on Saturday, Republican National Committee Chair Ronna Romney McDaniel announced she had accepted Wynn’s resignation as the RNC’s finance chair. Wynn called the claims of assault “preposterous” in a statement, but the board of directors of Wynn Resorts has formed a committee of independent directors to investigate the allegations in the article.

But there’s no indication that President Donald Trump is moving to sever ties with his fellow mogul. Trump loves people who flatter him, and Wynn flatters him profusely. In other words, Wynn may be the most controversial example of Trump’s insistence on surrounding himself with successful businessmen despite the baggage they bring—but he’s also part of a larger pattern.

The close relationship between the two men is a recent development. During the Republican primary, Senator Ted Cruz met privately with Wynn to discuss a potential endorsement when he was in Las Vegas for a primary debate, in December of 2015. Wynn, whose net worth Forbes estimates at $3.5 billion, had given money to Cruz in the past, and the Texas lawmaker’s team hoped to score his official imprimatur.
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/01/trump-wynn/551693/?utm_source=twb

[font size="4"]Wisconsin [/font]

Wisconsin. You know Wisconsin. It’s the state that has given us the Lambeau Leap, the Green Bay Packers, the University Of Wisconsin, and the cheese head. It’s also given us the current speaker of the House & rejected spokesmodel for Axe Body Spray, Paul Ryan. It’s also given us the guy who we profiled earlier in “People Who Somehow Got Elected”, Scott Walker. And Scott Walker has enacted and enabled some policies that the residents of Wisconsin aren’t well, let’s say less than pleased with.

STEVENS POINT - A University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point spokeswoman said Wednesday that university leaders have tasked a committee to create a new proposal aimed at limiting cuts to humanities majors.

The action by the university's common council comes after roughly 300 people on March 21 staged a sit-in of the Old Main building to protest a proposal by the university that would cut 13 humanities majors. The proposal has been met with backlash and has garnered national attention.

At the student-led protest, students delivered to the chancellor and the administration a letter asking the university to create a second proposal.

"In response to a request from students and alumni who organized a sit-in on campus March 21, the UW-Stevens Point Common Council has asked its Academic Affairs Committee to serve as a task force to write a counter-proposal for addressing fiscal challenges, one that particularly preserves our existing humanities majors," said Nick Schultz, a UW-Stevens Point spokesperson, in an email Wednesday evening.
https://www.stevenspointjournal.com/story/news/2018/03/28/following-sit-backlash-uw-stevens-point-draw-up-counterproposal/468048002/

Yes that’s just at the collegiate level. The Kochs aren’t afraid of screwing over anybody and anything they damn well please. Because that’s what closet backdoor dictators do. And then there’s this.

Now that he's running for re-election in what could be a tough political year for Republicans, he proposed and the Legislature approved a $639 million increase in K-12 funding for 2017-19 -- the largest increase, he brags, in the state's history. ...........................................Forget about that $1.8 billion cut. Walker will trumpet the "largest education increase in history." Very clever indeed.

Then, there's the Affordable Care Act. From the day Walker took office, he's done his best to sabotage Obamacare. He was one of several Republican governors to turn down federal dollars to expand Medicaid, a feature of the ACA aimed at lowering premiums. He bad-mouthed everything about it and backed the "repeal and replace" Republicans. When Donald Trump became president, he cheered when Trump signed executive orders to undermine the insurance exchanges and create uncertainty in the marketplace, all combining to raise rates.

But as election time nears, Walker has suddenly seen the light. Like a gallant knight riding to the rescue, he now hopes to be seen as a savior, putting aside $200 million to stabilize the market for those who use the insurance exchange in Wisconsin. Seventy-five percent of the costs, incidentally, will be picked up by the federal government, which he found untenable only a few years ago.................
http://host.madison.com/ct/opinion/column/dave_zweifel/plain-talk-slippery-scott-s-at-it-again/article_668f32eb-b0d4-5fe3-bea4-f96afc4f32da.html#tncms-source

[font size="6"]And The Winner Is… [/font]

Sorry Nevada, you may be casino evil and have mobsters and gangsters in your back pocket, but no one out greeds Wisconsin. I mean come on this is the state that elected and reelected Scott Walker, and tried to actively suppress the vote. Wisconsin handily wins 79 – 64. They will move onto the next round.

[font size="6"]Match 2: Gun Nut Conference: Florida Vs. Louisiana[/font]

[font size="4"]Florida[/font]

Ah, Florida. The home of Florida Man. You know we could just sit here and literally all day post meme after meme and story after story about how batshit crazy Florida is. But since the last tournament, they left the Batshit conference because as it turns out – Florida has some of the country’s worst gun laws. It’s also the home of another Koch backed governor – Rick Scott. And since the Parkland shooting, Rick Scott has spent an awful lot of time in the spotlight – and time he doesn’t want. Since the Parkland shooting, it’s all been completely insane.

Yes – what more American thing to do than to blame the victims for being in harms’ way? That’s all we do as a country, because, reasons. And how does Rick Scott respond? Armed guards in schools! Because, guns!

The Florida House spent nearly seven hours Tuesday debating a four-point school safety plan. The final vote on the proposal could come Wednesday.

The debate covered 37 amendments filed by Democrats. Another 41 amendments were withdrawn from consideration.

Before the House began consideration of a Senate proposal that puts guns in the hands of school employees, Rep. Jared Moskowitz, D-Coral Springs, put his colleagues on notice.

"By the time we are through everyone will know where everyone stands on the marshal program," he said.

Read more: https://www.tallahassee.com/story/news/2018/03/06/house-poised-pass-school-marshal-plan-votes/400847002/

[font size="6"]Louisiana[/font]

Loooooooooooooosiana, as it’s called by the advertisements for its’ home state fast food chain Popeyes, is a state we have not covered yet. It’s home to such world class universities as Tulane University. It’s also the home of the New Orleans Pelicans and all the creepy and weird mascots that team has produced. But the city of New Orleans itself is creepy, weird, and utterly fascinating as it’s the home of Mardi Gras – a celebration of life and, well, let’s be honest, public drunkenness. It’s also the home of Koch backed governor Bobby Jindal (state now run by a dem- Jon Bel Edwards). Who again has enacted some of the worst gun laws in the country.

A judge ruled Thursday that a Louisiana law prohibiting felons from carrying firearms was in violation of a recently ratified constitutional amendment, according to The Times-Pacayune.

“The courts cannot question the wisdom of fundamental law and frustrate the will of the people; their function is to interpret and apply that law,” he wrote. “After reviewing the law and applying a strict scrutiny standard, the Court finds La R.S. 145.1 unconstitutional in its entirety.”

Louisiana voters approved a constitutional amendment last November to subject any gun law to the highest standard of scrutiny by a court, a level of judicial review that few laws pass. Chris W. Cox, executive director of NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action, boasted that no state “has passed a right to keep and bear arms constitutional amendment as strong as Louisiana’s.”
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/03/21/judge-louisiana-law-banning-felons-from-owning-guns-is-unconstitutional/

Yes they take the phrase “keep and bear arms” just a little too literally. And with hardcore guns as you know, comes hardcore racism! Yes, the two often go hand in hand but not like in Looosiana. Cases like this:

Eight alleged members or associates of a white supremacist prison gang called the Aryan Circle have been indicted in Louisiana on federal charges in the 2016 killing of a fellow alleged member of the gang.

Court records unsealed on Tuesday show Jeremy Wade Jordan, 38, of Orange, Texas, pleaded guilty on March 2 to the first of two counts in his indictment. The first count in his Dec. 14 indictment charged Jordan with "violent crimes in aid of racketeering" in the murder of Clifton Hallmark in Evangeline Parish.

Jordan, whose case had remained under seal since December, is scheduled to be sentenced on June 18.

A separate indictment, also unsealed Tuesday, charges seven other people -- residents of Louisiana, Texas, Oklahoma or Arkansas -- with being accessories after the fact to the slaying. The two-page indictment, handed up last Thursday, says they helped Jordan "in order to hinder and prevent his apprehension, trial and punishment."

Read more: http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2018/03/8_indicted_in_white_supremacis.html

[font size="6"]And The Winner Is… [/font]

Oh man this was a close one. Looooooooosiana was the favorite here, but Florida completely routed them by a whopping 30 points. Florida wins and ironically celebrates by eating Popeye’s chicken. The final score is 99 – 67. Florida Man was on his A game this week and sharp shot his way to the top.

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

Next week we’re live at the home of the Los Angeles Chargers, Stub Hub Center, and it’s the final week of Round 1 and we’ve saved the best for last as last year’s world champion Texas goes batshit crazy against red hot Virginia, while the Mormons of Utah duke it out in a Family Values face off against the child brides of Missouri!

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

Ladies and gentlemen, my next guest has a great new album called “I’ll Be Your Girl” and they are going to be seen on tour everywhere in March and April. Playing their song “Severed”, give it up for the Decemberists!

See you next week!

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Top 10 Conservative Idiots Recorded In Front Of Live Audience At: City National Grove Of Anaheim, Anaheim, CA
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