How Your Gov't. Worked

But Not Any More, Not That It Was Much Better Then

Don't forget the hideous racism that was still enshrined in law. And the sexism. Filthy hypocrites.

Just Who Exactly is "Mentally Ill"?

Chris Nesi / New York Post:
Sen. Tommy Tuberville claims ‘many’ airline pilots, air traffic controllers are ‘part of the furry community’  —  Fly the furry skies.  —  Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville claimed the airline industry is full of members of the “furry” subculture in a bizarre speech from the Senate floor connecting transgenderism to mental illness.
Charles P. Pierce / Esquire:   One of Our Senators Actually Thinks Airline Pilots Are Secretly Furries
Walter Einenkel / Daily Kos:   GOP senator freaks out over ‘furries’ flying the friendly skies

Charisma Madarang / Rolling Stone:   GOP Senator Ahead of Midterms: Furry Airline Pilots Are ‘Terrifying’

Steve Benen / MS NOW:   Alabama's Tuberville worries aloud about airline personnel joining ‘the furry community’

Where'd he get the bizarre delusion that airline personnel are furries, & what is the connection between furries & these imaginary "terrifying furries"? The only "mental illnesses" here are football & being a Republican spud. Total fucking incoherent weirdoes, all of them.

Boebert Family Values

Surely No One Is Surprised

Daniel Hampton / Raw Story:

Lauren Boebert accused of sex with three staffers in complaint alleging $200K hush payment  —  An explosive sworn complaint filed with the House Ethics Committee alleges Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) carried on a sexual relationship with her district director in the office

TMZ.com:   LAUREN BOEBERT REJECTS ETHICS COMPLAINT ... Accusing Her of Affairs with Staff, Hush Money Payment

Jim Hᴏft / The Gateway Pundit:   Lauren Boebert Strongly Denies Sworn Ethics Complaint Alleging Affairs With Two Female Staffers and One Male Staffer — Matt Gaetz Responds After His Name Is Dragged Into Allegations

Erik Maulbetsch / Colorado Times Recorder:   Complaint Filed With House Ethics Committee Alleges Boebert Slept With Three of Her Congressional Staffers

Elizabeth Weibel / Breitbart:   Report: Rep. Lauren Boebert Accused of Having Sexual Relationships with Three Staffers

Will no one have uncoerced S-E-X w/ a Republican politican? Could be a problem for them.

Who Are The Real Extremists?

Allegedly Comm-u-niss Democrats, or self-admitted Nazi Republicans?Erick-Woods Erickson pulls head from keister, wipes poop from eyes, & takes a look around:

The Midwestern Führerbunker Driving the Right Off the Cliff

and digby has a "gift link" to Jamelle Bouie.

Jamelle Bouie has an important piece in the NY Times today (gift link) about the GOP’s Nazi problem, and it is a problem. He points out that there is a whole generation of younger staffers, some of whom have been exposed during this campaign and others who are actually working in the top reaches of the government under Trump. His administration is crawling with white supremacists and neo-Nazis. But he also provides some important historical context to show how we got here.

How did we get here? It is a mystery. Just guessing, but a long tradition of white supremacy, Yankee religiosity, chattel slavery, & the Confederacy might have somethnig to do w/ it.

Actually, Should Read "Twice-Convicted Sex Offender"

Kee-rist on a kee-rutch, how many times do I have to embed a version of "Hypocrites" here? Haven't heard this one.And let's call these sickos sex criminals instead of "offenders". Or we could say "rapists". Murderers, for example, are seldom known as "offenders".

Convicted sex offender offered opening prayer at rally for GOP Senate nominee in North Carolina

A pastor kicked off a recent campaign stop for Michael Whatley, the Republican nominee for Senate, with a prayer that asked God to bestow “integrity and honesty” upon the event and to right wrongs “hammered down on the conservative movement.”

The prayer was hardly unusual by North Carolina political standards. What was surprising was the man who delivered it. Pastor Daimon L. King is a registered sex offender, twice sentenced to prison for convictions involving children, according to state and court records.

[...]

Some 30 years ago, King was a marching band assistant at a high school outside Raleigh when he was charged with statutory rape and indecent liberties with a 15-year-old student, The News & Observer reported at the time. King, then 31, was convicted in 1998 and served nearly five years in prison before being paroled, according to state department of corrections records.

In 2010, he pleaded guilty to having sex with an underage female relative and served close to three years in prison, state records show.

King is required under North Carolina law to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.

[...]

Democrats have blasted Whatley over association with another convicted sex offender

Since March, Whatley has been dogged over his ties to West, who served as a congressional district committee chair in the state GOP when Whatley was chairman.

West, a former small-town police officer, was convicted of five counts of indecent liberties with a child and served six years in prison, corrections records show.

Rapists under color of authority, yet.

[The AP]

Republicans Vs. Modernity

Mental Illness On Parade

Proof from the states: the right wing attempt to repeal the 20th century

We read the legislation introduced across all 50 states this session and pulled out the worst of it. 1,182 bills, 48 states, everything from abortion bounties to studying chemtrails to a proposal to legalize cockfighting against robots.

Abortion bounties, brass knuckles, chemtrail studies and a bill to bring back the gas chamber. All of it introduced this session.

Republicans are trying to make a case at their convention in Dallas this week that they’re responsible stewards of the government, while their opponents are extremist ideologues. However, a review of legislation introduced across all 50 states indicates that they are the ones with an extremism problem. From banning no fault divorce to studying chemtrails, the Republican Party has gone off the rails.

Delusional paranoids, sex criminals, & racist pigs, every last one. It's long past time to commit them to the asylums & throw away the keys.

[Heartland Signal]

Today In Mental Illness: No Philistines At The Polls!

If this deluded sumbitch is telling people how to vote, he'd better not be getting tax-exemptions; this is all political.Do enjoy the end. He's quite a speaker.

How Republicans Can Win

Everything they say is a lie.

In his mid-thirties, Thomas brings a balanced perspective—young enough to understand a changing world, yet grounded enough to recognize the importance of enduring values. Raised with strong Christian principles, he believes progress should never come at the expense of our moral foundation.

Thomas is a firm defender of the United States Constitution and is committed to upholding it faithfully, without hesitation, in every aspect of public service.

See? You can just tell.

Jordan Freiman / CBS News:
GOP candidate for Missouri House charged with conspiring to plant cocaine on opponent  —  Thomas Ross, a Republican candidate for state representative in Missouri, is facing a federal charge over allegations he instructed his former campaign manager to plant cocaine and amphetamines on a political opponent
Claire Carter / Washington Examiner:   Missouri House candidate plotted to stash cocaine in rival's purse, FBI says

US Department of Justice:   Missouri State Representative Candidate Charged with Conspiring to Distribute Cocaine to Frame Opponent

David A. Lieb / Associated Press:
Missouri candidate charged with trying to plant cocaine on his political rival
Sophie Brams / The Hill:   Missouri House candidate charged in alleged plot to plant cocaine on opponent

David A. Lieb / The Independent:   Missouri candidate charged with trying to plant drugs on his political rival

Heartland Signal:   Missouri House candidate charged in plot to plant drugs on Republican primary opponent

NewsNation:   Missouri GOP House candidate accused of trying to plant drugs on opponent

Bear in mind, this is the primary. What'll they do in the general when they're running against the demonic socialist transgendering Democrats?

Academic Freedom & The First Amendment In America's Diseased Penis

You know where I mean.

Hot, humid hellhole.

I Taught a Short Story. My College Fired Me For It.

Academic censorship is very real.

Sharia Law & Holocaust denial:

I know all about restrictions. I’ve been a U.S. citizen for 18 years. But where I grew up in the Middle East, I witnessed a different intrusion of politics in the classroom. This was Dubai in the early 80s. Before the ski resorts and island hotels and excess.

Once every school year, a representative from the Ministry of Education would come to class, distribute black markers, and ask us to open our atlases. We were shown where, on the map, to locate Israel. We were to use the markers to strike out the word. Next, the same directive for the dictionary. In our history book, pages covering parts of WWII were pasted together. The chronology went from Mein Kampf to reparations. A bunch of us attempted to “steam” the pages open over a saucepan of simmering water and made a pulpy, scalding mess. Someone needed ointment.

When we asked our teacher about the missing content, she quietly said, “I will lose my job if I speak about it.” Decades later, I would lose mine for making a different choice.

Fuck censorship & damn all these fascist bastards for Jesus to hell!

[Persuasion]

Your Species Is Disgusting

Wouldn't be surprised if I'm interested in prehistoric S-E-X because it's an excuse to share this number,which didn't hit the conscious mind even after I saw that Homo erectus was a probable partner. Eventually the memory was jogged.

So you sick bastard Homo sap. farm boys will eff anything, even hominin species/breeding groups of which there is no fossil or genetic record. Ick!

For the literate, Science. If, like most Yankees, you can barely read above a sixth-grade level, CNN has a précis for you.

None of this is exactly new, but it is to me. Actually, even before the Kinkster's tune I was interested because F. Clark Howell's Early Man was an eighth-grade textbook.

Even then I knew most of the possibilities of the "adult" world were impossible, but paleoanthropology was not un-interesting.

Ka$h Patel's New Improved F.B.I.

Speaks well of the F.B.I.'s attitude toward women & theft, dunnit?

Eric Tucker / Associated Press:

FBI no longer treating an applicant's experience with prostitution as automatic bar against hiring  —  The FBI is dropping a categorical hiring ban on applicants who have had sexual encounters with prostitutes and will instead consider in a more holistic manner at least some candidates …

Sarah N. Lynch / CBS News:   At the FBI, a history of hiring prostitutes or stealing from employer may no longer be a barrier to being hired

Nathan Brooks / Political.org:   FBI Quietly Drops Automatic Hiring Ban for Applicants With Prostitution History, Citing ‘Whole Person’ Review

"Whole person" my sweet ass!

Strengthening America

Eff The Farmers!

Stupid, ignernt, Common Clay of The New West morons got precisely what they voted for.

Martha McHardy / The Daily Beast:
Key Voter Group Rages at Trump for Sparking Historic Crisis  —  FIELDS OF ANGER  —  Farmers who overwhelmingly backed Trump are now warning they are in the worst financial crisis since the 1980s.  —  Donald Trump's farm-country stronghold is struggling due to an economic crisis that farmers say he is making worse.

Good. Hope they're all bankrupted & die homeless on the streets of a big city, especially since I don't need their fucking food anymore now that I have hormones!

And The Military!

In other national security areas, what do all the phony patriots & closet cases squealing like little girls about their testosterone & masculine manliness have to say about the reality away from their silly fairy stories?

New York Times:
Hegseth's Purge of Top Generals Leaves the Army Rudderless … A series of firings and feuds initiated by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has left the Army essentially rudderless as it struggles to deal with the threat posed by cheap, deadly drones and missiles that have pounded U.S. bases in the Middle East.

NBC News:
Iran inflicted billions in damage to U.S. intelligence sites, sources say  —  The attacks on buildings and surveillance equipment in the Middle East caused unprecedented damage for the CIA and other U.S. spy agencies.  —  WASHINGTON — Iranian missile and drone attacks have inflicted damage …

How much did Russia & China have to pay to get these billions in damage done for them? Or was all they had to do help Fat Don get elected?

Note well that two of these three items may be behind a paywall. So much for the First Amendment, & yet another excellent reason to start the killing now, wouldn't you say?

Oh, Great

This reporter's Representative. I voted for the farthest left candidate, Angela Gonzales-Torres, in the primary; Gomez is not radical enough for me. We'll see what happens in '28.

Kate Santaliz / Axios:

House Ethics investigating Rep. Jimmy Gomez over sexual misconduct allegations  —  The House Ethics Committee announced Monday that it is investigating Congressman Jimmy Gomez (D-Calif.) over allegations of sexual misconduct. … - The committee provided no further details about the allegations.

Josh Christenson / New York Post:   House Ethics panel probing Dem Rep. Jimmy Gomez after he admitted to cheating on his wife following Post report on staffer makeout

Lauren Green / Washington Examiner:   House Ethics Committee confirms investigation into Democrat Jimmy Gomez

Fox News:   House Democrat investigated over alleged ‘inappropriate sexual contact’ with staffer

Sudiksha Kochi / The Hill:   House Ethics investigating California Democrat Jimmy Gomez over allegations of sexual misconduct

Caitlin Yilek / CBS News:   House Ethics Committee investigating Rep. Jimmy Gomez for alleged sexual misconduct

Nicole Silverio / The Daily Caller:   House Ethics Committee Opens Investigation Into Democrat Rep Jimmy Gomez For Sexual Misconduct

Jeff Charles / Townhall:   Lawmakers Set to Introduce Legislation to Target Sexual Misconduct in Congress

Jim Hᴏft / The Gateway Pundit:   House Ethics Committee Investigating Democrat Rep. Jimmy Gomez Over Sexual Misconduct Including “Inappropriate Sexual Contact” With a House Staffer

Much ado about necking, per the usual imitation information sources above. Drier facts here.

Hurtful & just stupid, Jimmy, what the hell?

Get In The Streets, Sheep!!

Hundreds of people in Pakistan took part in nationwide protests and marches organized by the Islamist political party Jamaat-e-Islami on Sunday against rising fuel prices, high taxes, and soaring inflation. (AP video by Jahanzaib Aurangzeb)

Not a woman to be seen. C'mon America, it's not as if you have anything to lose, show these Islamist pigs how to do it. Men, women & children, pitchforks & torches! Insurrection now, insurrection tomorrow, insurrection forever!!

Arlene Smith, Musical Barrier Breaker, Dead At 84

Arlene Smith, one of the first “girl group” stars who as a teenager and a founder of the Chantels co-wrote and sang lead on the 1950s doo-wop classic “Maybe,” has died at 84.

Quite a life, & some history there too.

Republicans = Nazis

"Moses" & his fellow Jesus-loving vermin pray for your death.

House Speaker Mike Johnson says he grows more confident "with each passing day" that the GOP will retain control of Congress. Why? "This is a God thing. We have intercessory prayers who are on the ground at the Capitol praying."

"We"? Is the House paying for this praying?

They lie to themselves & they lie to you, every day of the wk. & twice on Sunday. String up the theocrats before they send you to the MAGA Inquisition!!

Top Ten All-American Hellhole States

These are America’s 10 worst states to live in for 2026

States of the former Confederacy, plus Oklahoma, Utah (not a state then) & Indiana; somewhat surprising until I remembered it was a Klan hotspot in the 1920s.

The Ku Klux Klan held immense political and social power in Indiana during the 1920s, with an estimated 300,000 members—representing roughly a third of the state's native-born white male population.

Guessing all these hellholes have Republicans as Goobernators & legislatures dominated by idiotic right-wingers.

And the biggest loser is:

America’s Worst Place to Live in 2026: Tennessee

And I'd heard so much about Nashville being a "hot", burgeoning cultural center, like Branson, MO but w/ less Jesus. Great for crackers, sure.

Tennessee Republicans, led by Gov. Bill Lee, make no apologies for a rash of state laws targeting the LGBTQ+ community, including a so-called “bathroom law” requiring transgender people to use the facilities designated for their sex at birth. The state also explicitly bars localities from adopting their own antidiscrimination ordinances. To underscore the point, Lee signed a resolution earlier this year designating June “Nuclear Family Month.”

“The nuclear family, consisting of one husband, one wife, and any biological, adopted, or fostered children, is God’s design for familial structure and has been the bedrock of society since the creation of the world,” the resolution states.

Its sponsors deliberately timed the observance to coincide with the month when Tennessee’s more than 300,000 LGBTQ+ people celebrate Pride.

Inclusiveness isn’t the only area where the Volunteer State falls short. Tennessee also has one of the highest violent crime rates in the nation, according to FBI statistics. And it has the third-highest rate of drug deaths, according to the United Health Foundation.

Who'd a thunk CNBC would be full of low-T lib sissies who are so concerned about the pervs?

"Low-T": EAIAC

Handsome Dick Manitoba is thrice the man Pete Hegseth wishes he were.

I wasn’t ready for this. ☠️ 😭

Low T Pete will never live this down. pic.twitter.com/gQ4k4vwv9R

— Christopher Webb (@cwebbonline) July 17, 2026

Sky Dancing has more on testosterone obsession, about half-way down the page. These people are ignernt & crazy.

Some physicians and researchers questioned the move and said some of Hegseth’s statements on testosterone Wednesday were not backed by research. Testosterone levels vary naturally over time, and it is unusual to screen patients for low testosterone unless there are symptoms, they said.

“This is non-evidence-based and could cause harm,” said Adriane Fugh-Berman, a professor in the department of pharmacology and physiology at Georgetown University.

Pin-dicked closet cases, every one.

The framing fits neatly within a growing trend of hormonal obsession on the right. Over the past several years, in corners of the internet, media, and politics devoted to an exacting vision of masculine supremacy, testosterone has become a substance of mythical importance. Calling a political opponent or message-board adversary “low-T” is the new “soy boy,” “beta,” or “gay.” Right-wing influencers are touting dubious pills that promise to increase testosterone production for more energy, bigger muscles, and better boners. The Trump administration is bragging that the president has the highest T level Dr. Oz has ever seen in a man over 70.

All this is befitting of a political movement that wants to eliminate gender-affirming medical care and gets its health advice from the supplement ads on Tucker Carlson’s podcast. In the eyes of Hegseth and his peers, testosterone isn’t just a sex hormone present in most human beings or a potential gauge of underlying health issues. It’s a magic manly potion, an indisputable indicator of sexual power, a tool for turning matcha-swilling weaklings into musclebound superheroes incapable of expressing any emotion but rage.

Funny, I doubt if there's any testeosterone left in my wretched body, but I can assure you I am a blue-hot ball of screaming rage!

Telling The Truth

From The Hill, via Attention To The Unseen. This may raise a stink among certain elements. The truth hurts.

House Democrat: Hegseth testosterone screenings indicative of ‘homoeroticism’

The New England Democrat added that the Defense chief is the “embodiment” of the style of hypermasculine, homoerotic art drawn by Finnish artist Touko Valio Laaksonen, better known as Tom of Finland.

“So I feel like they must be looking at that [Tom of Finland’s art] as like their example for what men look like,” Balint said.

No, really? Could explain why none of them like girls. One might even wonder if this were a peculiar & pathetic means of trying to get women out of the military.

The actual testosterone story, as opposed to what these simpletons believe it to be. Essentially, a pointless exercise for most.

They Either Don't Know What It Is, Or They're Against It

From the yr. 1984. How do they know?
Not sure what to make of the LDS reference.

I s'pose the sheep have always been this way. They're apparently worse in 2026.

The evidence for this startling conclusion comes from the most significant opinion study you’ve never read or read about. Published in May, the Johns Hopkins Agora Institute and ReD Associates conducted an in-depth research of conservatives in three red counties in Michigan, South Carolina and Wyoming. The authors describe the content of “Faith, Freedom, Family, Place: An Ethnographic Study of Conservative Americans’ Relationships to Democracy” as follows:

This study relies on ethnographic research: sustained immersion in people’s homes, lives, and communities through extensive interviews, observations, participation, and relationship-building. Where much democracy research documents what people say they believe, ethnography examines how and why political worldviews take shape within the full context of daily experiences, relationships, and social environments.

The most fundamental issue the researchers attempted to resolve is the relationship their subjects had with what is commonly thought of as the American secular faith in democracy. What the study found is that the respondents either had a notion of what constituted democracy that greatly differed from what is taught in Civics 101 — when such a course is even offered — or rejected outright the very concept of democracy. In fact, the latter view was the majority opinion:

14 out of 21 participants in this study had an immediate negative reaction when asked about democracy . . . Sarah (mid 30s, WY), a homeschooling mother, put it plainly: “I don’t like the word democracy.”

Spotted at Hullabaloo. As noted, worth reading. No reforms or promises will give these people functioning minds that can be changed. Members of the "godless and wicked majority" who they think are "besieging" them had better get to work on actual besiegement, before it's too damn late.