Where Ephrom Rants

Political commentator, slideshow commentator, and Rationalwiki Editor.

[ephrom]

Are Republicans actually going to be able to impeach Biden on the Hunter laptop shit or is that just more hot air from them?

Probably not. Democrats couldn't even impeach Trump over real crimes, fuck knows Republicans will have trouble impeaching Biden over fake ones.

[dumbestthingiveeverheard]

Dumbest Thing I've Ever Heard: 8/11/2023

Fifth Place: Charlie Kirk

It's always refreshing to see Republicans go back to their old talking points, like Charlie Kirk saying on his show today that Democrats--gasp--want the government to improve the lives of the people:

The Democrats, they are a temporary coalition between permanent, resentful, government addicted minorities and people that want government benefits, Xanax and chardonnay wine moms, and resentful college educated white, liberal women who complain about everything with single women, and oligarchs. That's the Democrat Party. 

I know, how dare people want a government which gives them benefits. I always love how the Republican attacks on Democrats so often come down to "They believe this institution that we pay taxes too should represent us in some way." Yeah, that seems like the entire point of having a government in the first place, honestly.

Fourth Place: Jesse Watters

Vivek Ramaswamy is currently proposing a Constitutional Amendment which would require those between the age of eighteen and twenty four to pass a civics test before voting (one wonders why it should be those ages specifically, but that's another topic). Jesse Watters of Fox News has endorsed this idea, and I remind everybody one of my favorite facts of all time: Those who get their information from Fox News have been found to be less informed than those who watch no news at all.

Third Place: Anthony Sabatini

Yes, Sabatini is running for Congress again, and The Daily Beast has a rather interesting report about his college thesis: It turns out large chunks of it were plagiarized from Wikipedia. The main reason it wasn't caught is because the thesis is so filled with typos that checking if Sabatini actually wrote the lines himself became much harder.

I should also note that his thesis is just--really bad. It's a grand total of forty typo filled pages, and is about as good as a piece of scholarship as the doctoral thesis of Kent Hovind. Although, given Neil Gorsuch plagiarized large chunks of his doctoral dissertation--you don't think--nah.

Second Place: Michael Knowles

A new diet pill was recently announced, and this angered Michael Knowles because of Aristotle or something:

Quacks have sought quick fixes to the ills wrought by concupiscence since time immemorial. Wise men since at least the days of Aristotle have understood that a quick fix will never work because the natural remedy to vice is virtue. Natural happiness, then, comes by way of excellent rational activity in accordance with virtue. 

People in his time also believed there were only five elements, things fell at a speed determined by how much they weigh, and that the sun orbited the Earth as opposed to the other way around. Nothing against Aristotle, the dude was pretty smart and certainly said a large amount of intelligent things--but he was flawed, like all men of throughout all of history, and I highly doubt he would have taken issue with diet pills of all things.

Winner: Merrick Garland

The fact Joe Biden allows a man who just announced a special counsel investigation into Hunter Biden because of a nonsensical scandal thought up by Republicans to remain his Attorney General is evidence of either his generosity or stupidity. The Hunter Biden "crime" claim is utterly nonsensical and if the Department of Justice wants to turn a blind eye to the much bigger crimes of Donald Trump while doing this--well, one has to wonder if Garland isn't just working for Trump's re-election campaign.

Merrick Garland, you've done the dumbest thing I've ever heard.

[dumbestthingiveeverheard]

Dumbest Thing I've Ever Heard: 8/10/2023

Fifth Place: Joe Manchin

Once again, Senator Manchin is threatened to leave the Democratic Party and become an independent. Of course, Manchin has been talking about doing exactly this for months--even throwing around the idea of a possible Presidential run at several points--and one simply has to wonder: Why doesn't he just do it? Nobody in the Democratic Party thinks particularly highly of the man who spent two years trying to stop President Biden's agenda with the same adamancy of the average Republican, and his only actual friends seem to be a handful of moderate Republicans to whom the only concern is stopping Biden. Manchin hasn't even managed to keep the people of his state happy with his moderation, hence why he has kept doing worse each election, which is especially striking given Manchin replaced Robert Byrd, the longest serving Senator in US history and somebody way to the left of Manchin.

Fourth Place: Cal Thomas

Two years after the fact, Thomas has not forgiven Biden for withdrawing American troops from the disastrous war in Afghanistan, easily the bravest move of his Administration. Of course, although the stories of the death of soldiers from the  Kabul Airport bombing are tragic, it is important to remember that it was Biden who put a stop to them through getting the troops out of Afghanistan! Had Biden not withdrawn from the nation, thousands of military men would still be in harms way.

Third Place: Jake Tapper

Sometimes, I see a question so moronic in a political interview I just have to stop and think "Wow, did Jake Tapper ask it?" Hence his recent one on one with Senator Elizabeth Warren, where he says regarding the Hunter Biden controversy "That can’t be something that you’re comfortable with as a phenomenon." Mind you, exactly what bearing the comfortability of Elizabeth Warren has on the story is not explained, nor did Tapper bother to give a reason as to why he's asking a sitting Senator about a serious political scandal questions that sound more like he's trying to sell her a pillow.

Or did I forget the Constitution says a President can be impeached "on high crimes and misdemeanors or if they personally make Elizabeth Warren uncomfortable"?

Second Place: Asa Hutchinson

While everybody is making fun of Donald Trump for possibly skipping the first Republican debate, Hutchinson defended Trump because "we want to talk about the issues." Said issues being--what exactly? Wokeness? Cancel culture? Transgender athletes? Asa, I hate to tell you this, but your party doesn't care about issues--it cares about cartoon boogeymen and Donald Trump, and that will be what these debates are about regardless of if Trump is on the debate stage or not.

Winner: Ron DeSantis

Do you know who's ahead of him in some polls now? Chris Christie! How does this man think he is going to be President?

Ron DeSantis, you've done the dumbest thing I've ever heard.

[depsidase]

[dumbestthingiveeverheard]

Dumbest Thing I've Ever Heard: 8/8/2023

Fifth Place: Frank Luntz

"This is not the party that I that I joined 40 years ago," said Republican pollster Frank Luntz on the topic of Donald Trump, specifically in reference to his strong support of Russia. Of course, Luntz seems to want us to forget that he got his start in politics working for the campaign of the nationalist and self-described neo-isolationist Pat Buchanan back in 1992, who has also been a stern defended of Putin throughout his life.

Fourth Place: Ron DeSantis

Ron DeSantis is not going to be President, I am certain of that--and I knew it from day one. The people who want somebody with his policies want Donald Trump and the people who want somebody who isn't Donald Trump don't like how similar he is to Trump, it's the same issue Warren had back in 2020 (anybody to her left went to Sanders and anybody to her right went to Biden).

This was confirmed once again today through a Mediaite article which documents that DeSantis has now fallen behind Vivek Ramaswamy in terms of betting odds! Ramaswamy, of course, also has no shot at the Republican nomination, let alone the Presidency as the polls have constantly made it clear that the only person who can win the primary is Donald Trump. Still, this is yet another piece of bad news for DeSantis, and nothing about his campaign has shown he has any chance at getting the nomination short of Donald Trump dropping out--and even then, that wouldn't be guaranteed.

Third Place: Tommy Tuberville

Did you know that a sitting United States Senator isn't a politician? Because that's what Tommy Tuberville said on Laura Ingraham's show last night! I don't even have a joke for this one, it's just really dumb.

Second Place: Matt Walsh

Media Matters caught this line from Matt's show today where he proves he is, quite literally, panphobic:

This is just creepy. I gotta say. It's made up, obviously. That's the main thing. Pansexual is not a thing. It's not real. It's also creepy. I'm able to be attracted to anyone, he says. Ew. Like, calm down. That -- I can walk into a room and just be attracted -- just the way he phrases it, to me, makes it creepier. I am able to be attracted to anyone. Like, this is some sort of superpower that he has. I can walk into a room and be attracted to anyone or anything. Okay? Just watch me. You don't think I can? Not something to be proud of, man. That's -- the fact that you're in a constant state of arousal is not something you want to brag about in the news. It's not open minded. It's just weird.

Matt goes on like this for awhile, not getting that being attracted to people regardless of their gender identity--which is what pansexuality actually is--is not the same as literally being attracted to all human beings everywhere. Matt, it seems, does not understand that if a pansexual says they're "attracted to anybody" they're speaking metaphorically.

First Place: Jack Goldsmith

Another New York Times opinion piece, this time by a member of the George W. Bush Administration who is warning against prosecuting Donald Trump, most likely because that means they might also go after the Republican Administration he worked for.

You see, according to the article, if Donald Trump is convicted of a crime--that means Republicans won't trust the same justice system they stopped trusting when it refused to allow Donald Trump to remain President despite losing the 2020 Presidential Election.

Jack Goldsmith, you've said the dumbest thing I've ever heard.

[dumbestthingiveeverheard]

Dumbest Thing I've Ever Heard: 7/28/2023

Fifth Place: Elon Musk

It seems like every day Elon has done something worthy of getting a spot on this list. Just today, Media Matters published an article with the headline "Elon Musk reinstated a Twitter account that shared child sexual abuse imagery as the company desperately attempts to attract advertisers." You see, Musk decided to reinstate the account of a right-wing conspiracy theorist named Dom Lucre, who was suspended for posting images of child sexual abuse?

Musk has previously promised to take a zero tolerance policy against those who post the abuse of children on his platform--unless you have the right political views, that is.

Fourth Place: Josh Hawley

"Josh Hawley’s Immediate Reaction to New Charges Against Trump? Demanding Biden ‘Tell Us Whether or Not He’s a Crook’" ran a headline on the website Mediaite today. Even ignoring the blatant changing of the topic by Senator Hawley from Trump to Biden, it's not as if Hawley would believe Biden if he were to declare he isn't a crook. Richard Nixon did exactly that in 1973, and the majority of people who thought he was a crook before that speech still thought he was one after--in fact, the amount of people who had a negative opinion of him actually increased after he declared he wasn't the thing he was being accused of.

Third Place: Marjorie Taylor Greene

Congressman Robert Garcia correctly pointed out the issue with her call for decorum during a hearing yesterday by simply tweeting "Marjorie needs to remember she showed us a dick pic last week." A naked picture of the son of the President, to be exact, which she was using to make some point that was not understood by anybody except her and her insane supporters.

Let's not forget that this is the same woman who has called the entire Democratic Party pro-grooming. This is the same woman who has shared Q-Anon posts accusing powerful people of being pedophiles with no evidence and the woman who said that Nancy Pelosi should be hanged for treason. The notion that this woman has any right to talk about either decorum or decency is utterly laughable at best and insulting to the intelligence of the American people at worst.

Second Place: Mike Huckabee

Speaking on Fox and Friends today, Huckabee defended Trump by saying:

People look at this and they say, wait a minute, let me see if I get this right. You do a raid on his home over some pieces of paper.

Well--yeah, if those pieces of paper are top secret documents the person who has them kept refusing to return to the point where that's your only option, that actually sounds like a pretty smart idea. What are you expecting them to do, just forget about the documents because actually attempting to retrieve them might look silly if you boil them down to such a simplistic degree?

Winner: Christopher Rufo

This man somehow got an article in the New York Times yesterday with the headline "D.E.I. Programs are Getting in the Way of Liberal Education." In it, Rufo makes this terribly moronic statement:

The most significant question looming over this debate is one that, unfortunately, has rarely been posed by either critics or supporters of D.E.I. programs: What is the purpose of a university? For most of the classical liberal tradition, the purpose of the university was to produce scholarship in pursuit of the true, the good and the beautiful. The university was conceived as a home for a community of scholars who pursued a variety of disciplines, but were united in a shared commitment to inquiry, research and debate, all directed toward the pursuit of the highest good, rather than the immediate interests of partisan politics. Today, many universities have consciously or unconsciously abandoned that mission and replaced it with the pursuit of diversity, equity and inclusion. Many D.E.I. programs seem to be predicated on a view radically different from the liberal tradition: namely, that the university is not merely a home for the discovery of knowledge, but also a vehicle for activism, liberation and social change.

This is a false dichotomy if I have ever heard one: Hey Chris, what do you think scholars are supposed to do with the truth? Use them to figure out if society needs to be changed and in what way, and be willing to take active part in that process. This is why so many academics end up as aides to major politicians or as commentators, because the entire point of having the truth is to spread it around as much as possible--a truth not worth spreading is not worth knowing.

Christopher Rufo, you've said the dumbest thing I've ever heard.

[oneheadtoanother]

[dumbestthingiveeverheard]

Dumbest Thing I've Ever Heard: 7/26/2023

Fifth Place: Elon Musk

Remember Elon's rather confusing move to change Twitter to "X"? Well Mediaite reports today that "There Is a ‘100 Percent Chance’ Twitter Will Be Sued Over New X Branding, According to Trademark Expert." You see, it turns out that nine thundered different companies use the "X" on their brand in some form or another, including both Microsoft and Meta. Meaning Elon not only decided to change one of the most highly recognizable logos on the internet to something present on my keyboard, but he also did so in such a way where he could get sued because it turns out everyone else had that same idea.

You know, there's a lot of speculation that Elon bought Twitter specifically to run it into the ground, I'm not going to say I believe it--some rich people are just crazy (Google Marville sometime if you want evidence of that)--but I see why so many people believe it.

Fourth Place: Ben Shapiro

I talked about Greg Gutfeld yesterday, whose comments have been condemned by other staff at Fox News, a Holocaust survivor, and the White House since yesterday's post. However, one person was perfectly willing to defend what Greg said, Ben Shapiro:

No one said there was anything good about slavery or the Holocaust. They said that resilient human beings sometimes are capable of making the best of their horrific situations. Which, of course, is true. That, of course, is true. That's the story of the heroism of the slaves making the best of one of the world's worst situations in human history. Same thing with Holocaust survivors. Like, trying to survive, trying to cultivate a skill set while undergoing the worst horrors a human being can imagine. But, of course, they have to lie. They have to lie. 

Here's the problem: That's not what Gutfeld said. He didn't say that human beings used their already existing cleverness to survive this situation (although that would still be offensive due to the implication that those who died were somehow just less intelligent than those who did not) but that this gave them the chance to learn new skills which helped them in life.

And by the way Ben, you yourself say you have family members who died in the Holocaust. Are you telling me they just weren't clever enough and that's why they died? In that case, fuck you.

Third Place: Matteo Cina

Media Matters gave Ben Shapiro sometimes new to defend tomorrow with their reporting today "Fox News staffer: 'It is hard to talk about the Holocaust and rising anti semitism without discussing Jewish presence in banking.'" Specifically, the article takes aim at things the assistant for Fox News Digital and former writer for Texas Governor Greg Abbot has previously written on TikTok.

This is just nonsense: Antisemitism in Europe in the twentieth century had nothing to do with the amount of Jews who controlled the banks or whatever, it had to do with the longstanding tradition of that same bigotry which existed in Europe since its inception, largely due to the belief that the Jews were responsible for the death of Jesus. The history of Jewish people in banking goes back to Jews being banned from owning land in the Middle Ages, therefore meaning their only other role in society could be money lending, especially given many Christian communities did not allow Christians to charge interest on loans which made it so those who lent out money could--at best--break even and were almost certainly going to lose profit as a result.

To put it another way: It wasn't "Jewish presence in banking" that cause antisemitism, it was antisemitism and the restrictions of the Church which caused the Jewish population to be the only ones who could engage in banking. The fact is, what this man said could only be seen as apologetics for antisemitism and it should be condemned by everybody who sees it.

Second Place: Glenn Beck

I think this headline from The Daily Beast sums up this situation perfectly: "Glenn Beck Demands Target, a Store He's Actively Boycotting, Sell His Book."

First Place: Ron DeSantis

Remember that ad a member of a DeSantis campaign retweeted with the fascist symbol on screen? It turns out a member of the DeSantis campaign also made the ad in the first place, said person being Nate Hochman who is also a contributor to National Review and a fellow at the Claremont Institute.

I talked yesterday about how DeSantis seems to be using the same platform as other second place religious right zealots, but I want to point out that he is the only person running a campaign with this problem. No other campaign--from either side of the isle--has had this many issues with fascists entering and spreading their views on the same level Ron has. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was beaten up by the media--rightfully so--for one antisemitic comment, but DeSantis's constant fascist problem is seemingly being ignored. This is, hands down, the friendliest Presidential campaign to fascists I've ever seen, and I think that anybody has ever seen if you look at post-World War Two American history and exclude openly fascist parties. Trent Lott was forced out of his role of Senate Majority Leader for praising his segregationist friend Strom Thurmond just two decades ago, now we have people running for President using openly fascist symbols and nobody seems to notice.

Ron DeSantis, you've done the dumbest thing I've ever heard.

[waluigis-cock]

Even sesame street is getting his ass

[ephrom]

Okay so the first episode of Hulu's Futurama was pretty good--but I hope future episodes do less self aware humor. It's just so overdone at this point.

[dumbestthingiveeverheard]

Dumbest Thing I've Ever Heard: 7/25/2023

Fifth Place: The Babylon Bee

Today, the right-wing satire website ran the article "Scientists Unveil Periodic Table Of Genders." Even ignoring the fact that this is the millionth or so time they've run a joke similar to this--you do realize what this implies, right? That the side in favor of transgender rights and who affirms non-binary identities have science on their side while you guys don't. In fact, this is even quite similar to a pro-transgender rights meme I saw posted a few years back.

Fourth Place: Matt Gaetz

The Hill reports today "Gaetz introduces legislation to end ‘unqualified’ birthright citizenship." Of course, given birthright citizenship has been upheld by the Supreme Court, repealing it would require a Constitutional Amendment, not just an act of Congress--something Matt would know if he took even the basic class on how our government works.

It should also be noted that Matt is trying to use this bill “to reflect the original intent of the 14th Amendment’s ‘subject to the jurisdiction thereof’ clause,” which refers to a part which quite literally reads that citizenship applies to everyone “born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof.”  If the original intent of that language was not that everybody born in the United States is automatically a citizen, which was the understanding held by the Senate when the Amendment was passed (as seen by a Senate Judiciary Report regarding the Amendment) and by then-President Andrew Johnson, then somebody should really have told those who wrote it to use different words.

This is a small aside, but one thing you'll notice if you listen to the rhetoric the right pushes on the Constitution is that they always seem to think the people who wrote it put some Asterix next to each part that implies something they wish it didn't which the rest of us are just too blind to see but totally shows the amendment is counter to everything they don't like. Although I am not going to sit here and pretend like the left can be guilty of the same thing--especially regarding the Second Amendment--it is not only worth pointing out that the right does it far more, but also that the right does it exclusively to take away the rights and freedoms of American citizens--or, in the case of Matt right here, to take away the status of citizen from millions of people.

Third Place: Hillary Clinton

Regarding the recent heat wave sweeping the country, the former Secretary of State wrote on Twitter:

Hot enough for you? Thank a MAGA Republican. Or better yet, vote them out of office.

First off, why the MAGA Republicans specifically? Don't Reagan and Bush Republicans also have a great deal of responsibility? How about Gingrich Republicans--you know, the ones who literally did everything possible to stop the environmental progress your husband's second in command tried to make!

Let's not forget that this is the same woman who dropped references to Climate Change from her speeches during her 2016 Presidential Campaign after Bernie Sanders endorsed her, who refused to endorse a carbon tax, and who encouraged other countries to embrace fracking as Secretary of State.

Second Place: Greg Gutfeld

It's not everyday the Auschwitz Museum feels the need to condemn something said on cable news, but Gutfeld's provided just such an occasion. Specifically, the organization criticized the Fox News host's use of Viktor Frankl's book Man's Search For Meaning while defending Florida's educational standards which say that slaves learned useful skills during their enslavement, in response to the Jewish Jessica Tarlov bringing up a hypothetical similar situation related to the holocaust. His statement was the following:

Did you ever read Man’s Search for Meaning? Vik Frankel talks about how you had to survive in a concentration camp by having skills. You had to be useful. Utility, utility kept you alive!

Can we just talk about the implication that the Jews who died in the Holocaust did so because of lack of skill? What the fuck, Greg?

Winner: Ron DeSantis

I am honestly starting to believe that the DeSantis campaign is run by people who really don't want DeSantis to be President. Remember that ad late last month which called Donald Trump to much of an LGBT ally that was put out by a pro-DeSantis Twitter account? It turns out the DeSantis campaign made that ad internally and then gave it to this account in hopes of passing it off as something done by a crazed supporter. Said ad was mocked all across the internet both for the idiotic claim that Trump was some stern fighter for the rights of LGBT people and also because DeSantis was trying to run to the right on an issue that many Americans no longer agree with the right on.

At this point, all one really has to do if they one to debunk the idea of a DeSantis nomination is point out how badly Mike Huckabee, Rick Santorum, and Ted Cruz all did when they ran on platforms rather similar to DeSantis back in 2008, 2012, and 2016 respectively. The fact is that every Republican Presidential Primary for the past decade or so has featured one candidate who is the preferred President of the nutjobs and, although they do a good job being second place, they never progress past that. The average American--fuck, the average Republican--does not want what these people sell, and the reason is because they understand that hating other people isn't going to improve their lives, while hate is the only thing these people offer.

Ron DeSantis, you've done the dumbest thing I've ever heard.

[animentality]

[afloweroutofstone]

[ephrom]

Does anybody--anybody--actually like NFTs? We're on year three by now if certain wealthy people desperately trying to make them a thing, and they keep fucking failing.

[mbcbrdheun1]

I'll become gay at 100 followers

[liberalsarecool]

The media can't say 'fascists' or 'anti-LGBTQ+' out of respect to white supremacy.

[dumbestthingiveeverheard]

Dumbest Thing I've Ever Heard: 7/24/2023

Fifth Place: Elon Musk

I'm sure most people saw that Elon Musk has changed Twitter's name from Twitter--one of the most recognizable names on the internet--to "X" the twenty-fourth letter of the alphabet. What exactly caused Musk to think this was a good idea is currently up for debate, but many are calling it another misstep--because it so obviously is.

To give everyone an idea of just how nonsensical this is from a business standpoint: Imagine if McDonald's woke up one day and decided to change its name from the highly well known one they've had since their founding, to "P." Just the letter P, nothing else.

Fourth Place: Ben Shapiro

I would like to thank Matthew Gertz on the platform now known as "X" for compiling these four images which I think perfectly sum up the disconnect between how conservatives think America works and how it actually works.

Third Place: Matt Walsh

Xing--which I assume is what we will now call tweeting--today, Matt had the following to say about feminism:

Anyway, here's Matt back in March:

So the owning of other human beings as property has been a net benefit to civilization, but not giving women the right to vote, open bank accounts on their own, work outside the home, and be able to report both sexual harassment and rape. Mockery--and possibly revealing information about how Matt views the world--aside: What does it even mean for a movement or ideology to kill a person? What possible metric could you be using to justify such a statement?

Second Place: Paul Gosar

Media Matters reported today that Gosar previously used his official newsletter to promote USSA News, a website which has engaged in Holocaust Denial. Postings from the website include:

USSA News on July 22 posted: “David Cole, a Jew, explores Auschwitz and debunks the claims that it was an industrial death camp – still on youtube for now but as more countries outlaw questioning the ‘holocaust’, it is uploaded here in case it is removed to censor inconvenient evidence.” 

USSA News on July 21 posted: “Making Adolf Hitler into a Jewish-controlled agent is quite a brilliant plot by International Jewry to divert newcomers away from learning the true history & background of National Socialism (Slavery).  Don’t be fooled! … Stand up for Hitler and National Socialism (Slavery)!!” The piece then promoted content on Renegade Tribune, a neo-Nazi site. 

USSA News on July 20 posted an article from the antisemitic site Unz Review attacking Jewish people, which begins by stating: “Untrue stories exist at each end of Jewish history’s three thousand years – fictional, fabricated and of immense magnitude.” It then claimed: “Towards the end of the 20th century as belief in the origin stories was fading away, the Holohoax morphed into a fearsome modern religion, in which belief is compulsory.” 

USSA News on July 17 lionized Hitler by writing that “the Kalergi Plan consists of the genocide of white people through miscegenation and mass immigration of non-whites to Europe. … Hitler was aware of Kalergi’s plan and did everything in his power to prevent it. Like Gobineau, Hitler considered the Aryan race to be the noblest, the best armed for the struggle for existence, the most beautiful, the most energetic, and the one with the greatest amount of creative genius. What this race lost by mixing it was not compensated by what the others gained by ennoblement.” 

I decided to check the website myself, and just today I found an article with the headline "God Is An Anti-Semite" which begins by showing this cartoon.

For those curious, that comic was made by a man named Farstar, here's some information about him according to a Wordpress blog sharing his name:

Farstar88 is a Fascist artist from South Africa who specialises in political cartoons as well as comics in order to provide a much needed narrative that is ruthlessly suppressed and excluded from mainstream consciousness. In a world of political correctness gone completely insane, telling a contrary story even if it is more than sufficiently backed up by facts, is considered an act of aggression and the victims apparently are those whose feelings get hurt when they can’t have their way.

You know, Paul Gosar hasn't really been subtle with his authoritarian leanings over the past few years, this is the man who buddies around with known fascist Nick Fuentes remember, but at some point you have to wonder--why doesn't he just come out and admit it? These aren't people with shaky pasts that you have to dig real deep to find information on, that bit about Farstar--I learned that in about three minutes through Google. At this point, one has to wonder what he has to loose by just loudly declaring that he is, in fact, a fascist--especially given everybody already knows that by this point.

Winner: Ron DeSantis

Speaking of fascists, DeSantis's campaign gave another shout out to its fascist supporters over the weekend through a staffer retweeting a campaign ad with this image of DeSantis superimposed over a fascist symbol.

Again, one has to even wonder why they try to hide it anymore.

Ron DeSantis, you've done the dumbest thing I've ever heard.

[ephrom]

Do you think Brown, Tester, and Manchin have good chances of winning reelection in 2024? If not, those that basically lock the Democrats out of the Senate or would they be able to make it up by winning other, current Republican seats?

Brown and Tester, yes. Machin, I'm starting to doubt. And no, it has nothing to do with Machin's conservative leanings--Tester is only slightly to the left as Manchin is and I think he's going to be re-elected. I'm not sure if Democrats can get a seat to make up for a Manchin loss--although Manchin losing would barley change anything, in all honesty. We'd go back to 50-50 like we had in 2021.