People who should just shut up.

Here are some people who should just shut up. Just go right ahead and shut right up. Just stop speaking, shut their pie holes and never re-open them. Just shut up.



First up, Florida Congressthing Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-duh!)

Republican congressman defends notorious Holocaust denier he invited to SOTU

Yes, this actual member of the actual Congress of the United Actual States of America invited a notorious holocaust-denying anti-Semite to be his honored guest at the State of the Union, and now he thinks he can defend this choice.

As he faces continuing backlash for inviting Charles Johnson, a notorious far-right troll dubbed “the web’s worst journalist,” to Tuesday’s State of the Union address, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) desperately tried to defend the invitation 

 “I met Chuck just briefly before allowing him to snag a ticket that was at our office,” Gaetz told Fox Business’ Neil Cavuto Thursday.

 

 Seriously? You expect people to believe that? You gave a ticket to the State of the Union Address to some guy you met once and basically knew nothing about? Like there's just a big stack of tickets to the SOTU on your receptionist's desk and any random constituent can just wander in off the street and "snag" one? A ticket to be the plus-one of a sitting Congressman at the most prestigious event of the year, and this stranger just happened to pop in to your office and "snag a ticket?" Please!

“But some of the claims against Mr. Johnson are not accurate. He’s not a Holocaust denier, he’s not a white supremacist, those are unfortunate characterizations of him. I did not know he was as infamous and controversial as he was when he came by.”

 

I don't know the guy, barely met the guy once, but I know that he is not a white supremacist or a holocaust denier and by the way, I really had no idea who this guy even was that I'm so certain is not a racist at all.

And, by the way, if you really didn't know anything about this guy before handing him the toughest ticket to get in DC, you could easily find out with a few minutes on Google. Or, you don't even have to do that, because the great Bob Slatten has already done it for you.

Let’s make this completely queer:

Gaetz’s guest at the SOTU, Chuck Johnson, has a crowdfunding site that raises money to defend Nazi leader Andrew Anglin and other far-right extremists.

Chuck Johnson was banned from Twitter in 2015 after soliciting donations to “take out” Black Lives Matter activist DeRay McKesson.

That’s who Gaetz brought to SOTU and is now trying to back away from.

Gaetz also had this to say about Chuck Johnson, the man about whom he knows nothing other than the true depths of his character:

“He is not guilty of the things that some people have charged him of as it relates to those claims,” Gaetz said. “He’s a controversial figure, there are plenty of controversial folks at the State of the Union. I don’t just cavort with people who hold my views. I think there are people on the right and the left who you spend time with, learn more about [and] understand their viewpoint.”

Holocaust denial is not a "viewpoint." It is not some point of view about which you might want to learn more and come to understand. Either you invited him to the most exclusive event on the DC social calendar because you share his "viewpoint" or you were just so monstrously careless that you accidentally brought a Nazi sympathizer to the SOTU. Either way, it reflects awfully poorly on you. Your best bet now would be to just shut up.

Person Number Two: New York Times columnist David Brooks:

The Abortion Memo

David Brooks FEB. 1, 2018

To: Democratic Party Leaders

From: Imaginary Democratic Consultant

Re: Late-Term Abortions

Dear Democratic Leaders,

Last week I watched as our senators voted down the Republican bill that would have banned abortions after 20 weeks.

So that's good, right? Taht's what Democrats are supposed to do - stand up for reproductive rights. Buuuuuut I'm guessing you're going to find a way to cast this as a negative somehow, right?

Our people hung together. Only three Democrats voted with the other side. Yet as I was watching I kept wondering: How much is our position on late-term abortions hurting us? How many progressive priorities are we giving up just so we can have our way on this one?

Wow, what a surprise David Fucking Brooks is going to advise Democrats to abandon one of their core values. Gosh, I wonder if he'll advise them to "move to the center?"

Let me start with some history. Before Roe. v. Wade, the abortion debate looked nothing like it does today. Many leading anti-abortion groups were on the left. The first pro-life rally on the National Mall was organized by the National Youth Pro-Life Coalition, which a co-founder described as “an extremely liberal group.” The National Catholic Welfare Conference endorsed a platform that included a right to a living wage, a right to collective bargaining and a right to life from the moment of conception.

So. . . the Catholics are still anti-abortion, they just no longer seem interested in workers' rights. Therefore, the Democratic Party should, um, do what exactly? Give in on abortion rights? How is that going to help anything?

In 1971, Ted Kennedy could declare, “Wanted or unwanted, I believe that human life, even at its earliest stages, has certain rights which must be recognized — the right to be born, the right to love, the right to grow old.” And in the 1960s, conservative states like Mississippi, Georgia and Kansas passed laws legalizing abortion.

In 1973, Roe v. Wade changed all this.

Welllll, not exactly. What changed was that the cynical marketers of the right wing realized that they could use Roe v. Wade to motivate fundamentalist Christians to get involved in politics. Previously, most Christians believed that it was at least unseemly to combine religion and electoral politics. Now the Paul Weyrichs of the world were able to use ministers to turn worshippers into activists who would work and vote for conservative candidates who promised to overturn Roe v. Wade

I understand that our donors (though not necessarily our voters) want to preserve a woman’s right to choose through all nine months of her pregnancy. But do we want late-term abortion so much that we are willing to tolerate President Trump?

Oh for fuck sake! i am so goddamm sick and tired of Conservatives trying to pin the blame for Cheeto Mussolini on "liberals" or "progressives" or Democrats, or anyone other than the stupid racist fucks who voted for him, i.e. REPUBLICANS/CONSERVATIVES.

Do we want it so much that we give up our chance at congressional majorities? Do we want it so much that we see our agendas on poverty, immigration, income equality and racial justice thwarted and defeated?

 Do you really not understand how electoral politics works, Brooks? You can't be this fucking stupid. Democrats lose elections, even in the absence of shameless gerrymandering and voter suppression, when they run middling centrist milquetoasts who do not inspire their base to turn out. Do not pretend that you actually believe that there are these "centrist" voters out there who would love to vote for a Democratic candidate on the basis of economic or immigration policy, but just have to reluctantly pull the lever for the Republican because they oppose abortion after 20 weeks. Those voters don't exist. And Democrats are not going to pry loose any Republican voters by abandoning their base. That's pretty much how they got into the terrible situation in which they find themselves now.

Let’s try to imagine what would happen if Roe v. Wade was overturned. The abortion issue would go back to the states. The Center for Reproductive Rights estimates that roughly 21 states would outlaw abortion. Abortion would remain legal in probably 20 others. There’s a good chance that a lot of states would hammer out the sort of compromise the European nations have — legal in the first months, difficult after that. That’s what most Americans support.

The pro-life movement would turn its attention away from national elections. Single-issue anti-abortion voters would no longer be automatic Republicans. The abortion debate would no longer be an absolutist position on one side against an absolutist position on the other.

 You live in a fantasy world.
You really think the religious right would withdraw from national politics if they gat Roe overturned? You think there's any possibility they'd be satisfied with that? You don't think that they'd turn their focus to getting a one-man-one-woman amendment to the Constitution? Or a national You Can't Pee Here law? Or outlawing Islam or something? You think they're going to ever let these suckers off the hook? As long as the rubes will subscribe to their newsletters, buy their miracle cures, hoard buckets of freeze-dried End Times foodlike substances and donate to every sleazy candidate for any office who promises to "stand up " for their "Christian values" or whatever, these scumbags will keep sucking every last dollar they can out of these demented delusional dotards.

Roe v. Wade polarized American politics in ways that have been fundamentally bad for Democrats. If you don’t believe me, compare the size of the elected Democratic majorities in 1974 to the size of the Republican majorities in 2018. Without Roe v. Wade the landscape would shift.

Roe v. Wade didn't shift the political landscape. Well, okay, it probably contributed. But the tectonic shift came when LBJ signed the Civil Rights Act, sending southern racists (and Northern ones) running from the Democratic Party to the GOP.  And it was exacerbated by Nixon's "Southern Strategy." And pretty much every Republican candidate since has played on white America's racial fears and resentments. And male Americans' fear and resentment of uppity women, and hetero Americans' fear and resentment of LGBTs, and Christian Americans' fear of Muslims and resentment of "secular humanists." You think Democrats throwing womens' reproductive rights under the bus would somehow counteract all that? If I thought you actually believed that, I'd think you were nuts.

We also shouldn’t take millennial voters for granted. Boomers saw the pro-choice movement as integral to their feminism. Millennials do not. In 1991, 36 percent of young voters thought abortion should be legal in all circumstances; now only 24 percent do. Young voters don’t like the Republican total ban. But they don’t like our position, either.


Yeah, Democrats don't have "a position." Many Democrats are pro-choice-full-stop. Many others are mainly pro-choice, but with some restrictions. Some are not pro-choice at all. And if you think that Democrats will attract more voters by abandoning their commitment to choice, well. just ask Bernie Sanders how campaigning for Heath Mello went over with the base.
here's a hint:

I’m asking us to rethink our priorities. What does America need most right now? One of our talking points is that late-term abortions are extremely rare. If they are extremely rare, why are we giving them priority over all of our other issues combined?

Sincerely,

Your Imaginary Consultant

Person Number Three: Arizona Senator John McCain

Opinions

Mr. President, stop attacking the press

By John McCain January 16

 

 Really? You really have a problem with Il Douche attacking the press? Really? As is you and your GOP colleagues and your FOX News co-conspirators hadn't spent the last 40+ years attacking the press? Sure, you were less juvenile about it. You complained of "liberal bias" rather than just shouting "Fake News!" every time there was a story you didn't like, but the right has been sowing the seeds of distrust of the 4th Estate for decades now. 
Surely you've seen these:





 This has been going on for decades and now, either because Orange Julius Caesar is just being too blatant about it, or because he insulted you personally and you want to take some measure of revenge, or because you want to burnish your "maverick" credentials, you're suddenly going to cast yourself as some sort of First Amendment hero?

Lou Dobbs is God Damn Insane

 

Trump has signed the fewest new laws at this point of any recent president

By Philip Bump December 21, 2017 Email the author

December 31, 2017

Donald Trump Sets First-Year Records For Most Golfing Trips, Lowest Approval Rating, Fewest Bills Signed

This is why we can't have nice things

Inside Flat Earth International Conference, where everyone believes Earth isn't round

I mean, for God's sake, if we can't even get people to agree on something that has been common knowledge for centuries. . . No wonder 30-some-odd percent of us think that a senile malignant narcissist with a pathological lying problem is doing just a fine fucking job as president!

For the attendees of the Flat Earth International Conference, such as Mark Sargent, "Everybody here can agree on absolutely one thing, which is [Earth] is not a globe," he said.

Sargent, who has a large following on YouTube thanks to his series, "Flat Earth Clues," said he denies that he is the "father" of the movement and rather thinks of himself more like a "recruiter."

The father of the movement? Ha ha, no, I can't take credit for that. Truth be told, there have always been dullards who believe ridiculous shit. I just find the dullards and lead them to the shit!

 

"Flat Earth is not something new. I did not invent flat Earth," Sargent said

 

 Yeah! We know! Of course the idea of a flat earth isn't new. It existed before the invention of science! Then, after the ancient Greeks invented science, it stopped existing BECAUSE IT WAS WRONG!

And if there were any doubts that the idea of a non-globular Earth was wrong, they were put to rest by Ferdinand God Damn Magellan in the 16th fucking Century!

"Flat Earth is not something new. I did not invent flat Earth," Sargent said. "All I did was walk up to a door, point at it [and] say, 'You know what I think it's some really interesting things on the other side of this." 

 

   
Yeah, but then there wasn't. There wasn't anything interesting. Just a dumb stupid idea that any elementary school child could tell you is wrong.

The flat Earth movement has grown online, with YouTube channels like Sargent's and others including "Globebusters" as well as "ODD TV," a flat Earth rapper with over 100,000 subscribers.

One Hundred THOUSAND subscribers?!?!?!
How?
How can there possibly be. . . maybe people are watching to laugh at him?
Please?

Last November, Sargent and other flat Earth believers gathered at an Embassy Suites hotel in Raleigh, North Carolina, for the Flat Earth International Conference, an educational seminar

NO!!! That is NOT what "Educational" means!
That is the opposite of what "educational" means!

Last November, Sargent and other flat Earth believers gathered at an Embassy Suites hotel in Raleigh, North Carolina, for the Flat Earth International Conference, an educational seminar where individuals and organizations discuss scientific questions about Earth.

Scientific questions? Scientific questions?
Whether the Earth is round or flat has not been a scientific question since about 200BC.
It's not science anymore. It doesn't take science to figure out that the Earth is round when you can get on a plane in New York, fly East, land in London, refuel, continue east, land in Tokyo, refuel, continue to fly East, land in San Francisco, refuel, continue to fly East and end up back at JFK. You don't need any scientific training or accumen to figure that out.

Sargent said he thinks there are more people who believe the theory than just those outspoken on the subject.

"You know flat-Earthers," he told ABC News' Eva Pilgrim. "I guarantee it. But you don't know who they are because they are afraid of talking about it."

GOOD! They should be! They should be absolutely ashamed of being that cinder-block stupid. And ignorant. And just nutty, I mean do they think that every normal person in the world is in on some giant hoax to pretend that the world is round? Do they think it's some kind of conspiracy?

Conference attendees Amy Nicholson and Kim Gurley both told ABC News they are more reserved in their beliefs.

Gurley, who traveled from Houston, Texas, to attend the conference, said, "I haven't really come out all the way yet." Nicholson said she wrote a book of poetry about her flat Earth journey, but even her best friend told her she "sounds psychotic."

Flat. Earth. Journey.
Flat. Earth. . . JOURNEY?!?!?!
What the fuck does that even mean?

Also, how do you come out part-way on this? Are you telling people that you think the Earth is a cube?

Other conference attendees told ABC News they believe there is tangible proof behind the idea.

But there isn't!
Did no one from ABC News point this out?
Or ask them what that "proof" is? Because I would actually like to hear what they think is "proof" of the very round Earth is flat.

Some flat-Earthers imagine Earth looks like a snow globe with a dome -- round but not a sphere. According to most flat Earth maps, the North Pole is at the center with the ice of Antarctica holding everything in.

Sargent told ABC News he is "pretty sure" that’s what the flat Earth looks like. "I mean there are some details to be worked out, sure. But the basic concept is sound," he said. "Absolutely sound."

 Ohhhh, a snow globe! Well, why didn't you say so? That makes total sense. See, here I thought you were saying the earth was like a disc or a plane of some sort, but a snow globe -- now that is totally plausible!

Flat-Earthers denounce traditional and iconic "blue marble" images taken from space as fake, including Rob Skiba.

"As soon as you start looking into the pictures of the globe, you start seeing words like 'composite' or 'animation' or you know something that tells you this is not an actual photograph of the earth," Skiba said

 Really? You do? 

Well, I just did a Google image search for pictures of Earth from space and I didn't see the word "composite," or "animation" or any words because they're photographs taken from space and there aren't any words on Earth visible from space.

I used to wonder how people could look at the basic fact that the average temperature of the globe increases every year and think that somehow that does not indicate global warming, but this! Holy God! The future does not look bright for the stupid stupid human race.