Yet He Persisted

 

23-year old Adam Mockler is a brilliant and insightful rising Gen Z political commentator featured on youtube and CNN. We can hope his voice will be heard as marking a sane pathway towards our nation’s recovery from the toxic hate and swath of destruction left by the Trump Cartel.

More ghoulish, gloating, and gleeful cruelty from the Criminal Sociopath:

And there's this:

(Senator Mike Lee of Utah called it "A nightmare on Walz Street", referring to governor Walz.) 

See the pattern yet?

Yes, Jimmy Kimmel did it again. He made a joke that enraged Trump and his wife by violating their delicate feelings.

On Thursday night Kimmel parodied the upcoming White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, which is usually hosted by a comedian who roasts powerful people, including the president.

His set up for the joke was, “So, I thought, why not … do some of the jokes a comedian might do if our president wasn’t a trembling drama queen who’s scared of comedy?”

And who would be surprised that the Drama Queen and his wife share a thin-skinned fear and hate for free speech?

Melania went on a social media tirade against Kimmel. In her Monday post on X, she called the late night comedian a “coward” who “shouldn’t have the opportunity to enter our homes each evening to spread hate.”

“Kimmel’s hateful and violent rhetoric is intended to divide our country. His monologue about my family isn’t comedy- his words are corrosive and deepens the political sickness within America…Kimmel hides behind ABC because he knows the network will keep running cover to protect him,” the first lady said. “Enough is enough. It is time for ABC to take a stand. How many times will ABC’s leadership enable Kimmel’s atrocious behavior at the expense of our community.”

Melania's “faithful and loyal” Kimmel-hating Drama Queen husband shared her outrage. He contemptuously sniffed that the host is “in no way funny” and "diplomatically" described his monologue as a “despicable call to violence” in a Truth Social post.

Say, isn’t that something like telling an angry mob to, “March to the Capitol! Fight like hell if you want to take your country back!”?

Clearly the Trumps want to incite hate for Kimmel, and to see that the maximum possible level of punishment is inflicted upon him. 

Of course this applies to everyone Trump hates, or dares to challenge him, or dares to disagree with him, or dares to mock him, or dares to criticize him, or  dares to report his criminal acts, or even unflattering information about him. 

Seeking to punish those sorts of people and to silence their voices has always been the MO of every bully, thug, tyrant, dictator, sociopath, and authoritarian leader. There's every reason to understand all of these terms apply to our Criminal President.

Yet Kimmel persisted.

Monday night Kimmel responded. You know how sometimes you wake up in the morning and the First Lady puts out a statement demanding you be fired from your job? We’ve all been there, right?

He went on to explain.

It was a pretend roast. I said, “Our First Lady Melania is here. Look at her, so beautiful. Mrs. Trump you have a glow like an expectant widow”. Which was obviously a joke about their age difference, and the look of joy we see on her face every time they’re together. It was a very light roast joke about the fact that he is almost eighty and she’s younger than I am. It was not by any stretch of the definition a call to assassination. And they know that…

And also I agree hateful and violent rhetoric is something we should reject. I do. And I think a great place to start to dial that back would be to have a conversation with your husband about it.” 

Then on Tuesday:

During his remarks welcoming King Charles III and Queen Camilla to the White House earlier in the day, Trump noted that his parents had been married for 63 years. Then he set the premise for Kimmel's age joke:

“That’s a record we won’t be able to match, darling,” Trump, who turns 80 in June, said to first lady Melania Trump, 56, who was sitting just behind him. “I’m sorry. Just not gonna work out that way.”

Attacking and falsely accusing comedians reveals moral and intellectual weakness. It's also an attack on our First Amendment by the actual domestic enemies of our Constitution and Republic.

Trump v Pope

 

It’s time for Reverend Dave to step up to the pulpit with my sermon, “Why Trump hates the Pope”, (and MAGA is ok with it.)

If Trump isn’t the antichrist, he certainly comes closer to being that than anyone else in this century. He is a racist, grifting, sex offending, extortionist and felon who pardons powerful drug kingpins, protects rapists and child molesters, and richly rewards the worst oligarchic servants of mammon in history 

Yet he’s “God’s Chosen” in eyes of his deluded cult and duped supporters. He can do no wrong that would elicit their disfavor and diminish their devotion.

The truth is the last thing the MAGA cult is interested in. Trump’s word is their gospel, and journalists who don’t praise him are their hated nemeses.

Last October Pope Leo said journalism is "not only an act of justice, but a duty of all those who long for a solid and participatory democracy."

He quoted Hannah Arendt's "The Origins of Totalitarianism" in asserting that the world needs a free press and objective information. He cited her warning that "the ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the convinced Communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction and the distinction between true and false no longer exist."

"With your patient and rigorous work, you can act as a barrier against those who, through the ancient art of lying, seek to create divisions in order to rule by dividing.”

That went over like a garlic-covered silver cross would with vampires. In Trump’s view the Pope is supporting the “enemy of the people”.

The Pope’s next blasphemy against MAGA was directed at Trump’s alcoholic, spouse-abusing war monger Pete Hegseth for invoking Jesus in justifying the slaughter of Iranians:

“This is our God: Jesus, King of Peace, who rejects war, whom no one can use to justify war. He does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them, saying: ‘Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen: your hands are full of blood.’” 

Leo reminded us and warned others, "Blessed are the peacemakers! Woe to those who manipulate religion and the very name of God for their own military, economic and political gain, dragging that which is sacred into darkness and filth. 

The “Woke Pope” even dared to mention the characteristic shared by every anti-MAGA and anti-war resister. 

It is a world turned upside down, an exploitation of God’s creation that must be denounced and rejected by ​every honest conscience."

Pope Leo didn’t neglect to include the likes of Putin, Orban, Netanyahu, and the Iranian leadership. He meant ALL tyrants.

"The world is being ravaged by a handful of tyrants, yet it is held together by a multitude of supportive brothers and sisters!" he said.

But it gets even worse, as the “Woke Pope” transformed into the “Commie Hippie Pope”:

"The masters of war pretend not to know that it takes only a moment to destroy, yet often a lifetime is not enough to ​rebuild. They turn a blind eye to the fact that billions of dollars are spent on killing and devastation, yet the resources needed for healing, education and restoration ​are nowhere to be found."

There it is. Trump virtually sees the Pope as a woke leftist commie hippie, a threat to his imperial rule, and enemy of the people.

Wasn’t Jesus similarly deemed by the authoritarians in charge back in his time?

Maybe Trump will want to bomb the Vatican next, so they don’t develop a nuclear weapon to wipe out Mar-a-Lago?

Nothing is too deranged anymore. Nothing.

A Simple Test

  

Reporter: Why did you attack Pope Leo?

Trump: I don’t think he’s doing a very good job. He likes crime I guess. We don’t like a pope who says it’s ok to have a nuclear weapon. We don’t want a pope that says crime is ok. I am not a fan of Pope Leo.  

Q: Did you post that picture of yourself depicted as Jesus Christ? 

Trump: I did post it and I thought it was me as a doctor and had to do with Red Cross... Only the fake news could come up with that one.

~~~

Is the authoritarian MAGA brain capable of conscience, self-examination, and questioning its beliefs and assumptions? Or is it afraid to even consider such questions? The liberal mind is open and not afraid of questions.

 

A simple MAGA test. A or B

1.

A: Team Pope

B: Team Trump

2.

A: Team Truth

B: Team Big Lie

3.

A. Team Constitution

B. Team Christian Nationalism (As in, America is a “Christian nation”)

4.

A: Team democracy, rule of law, compassion, and provision for the general welfare

B: Team mammon, tax cuts for billionaires, indicted criminals, cuts in healthcare, and cruelty towards protesters and asylum seekers

 

Team A or Team B? Or mixed?

Only responses with answers will be published.

 

I’ll go first.

Dave Dubya: Team A all the way.

 

 

Happy MAGA Easter

Also from the man anointed by Jesus to save America: "We're fighting wars. It's not possible for us to take care of daycare, Medicaid, Medicare, all of these things."

 Or in the words of the Criminal President's henchman Whiskey Pete Hegseth, “Give them wisdom in every decision, endurance for the trial ahead, unbreakable unity, and overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy”, calling for “justice to be delivered without remorse...We ask these things in bold confidence in the mighty and powerful name of Jesus Christ,” he concluded.

Can I get an amen? Let's hear it for war crimes for Jesus!

Winning the hearts and minds of Muslims...er...I mean Christian nationalists, everywhere.

And pay no attention to this radical, woke, anti-American, antifa spokesman:

“This is our God: Jesus, King of Peace, who rejects war, whom no one can use to justify war,” Pope Leo said. “He does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them.”

Every CINO's Savior:

A reminder:

MAGA/Zionist Axis

 

Regular readers will recall my disputes with fellow blogger, arch-conservative, and Trump supporter Darrell. Darrell now has an ally in Infidel, another blogger who refuses to allow my comments.

I’ve been keeping track of Infidel’s newfound faith in Trump and his war on Iran. He knows Trump lied about Iran being “two weeks” from hitting the US with a nuclear weapon. He probably knows Trump lies every day, but this time is somehow different. It’s all about “freeing Iran”, no matter how many innocents are killed and how much suffering we inflict. Some of us are reminded of the Vietnam War when, “It became necessary to destroy the town to save it.” 

Like Trump, he doesn’t want to hear any disagreement or questions on his views. He never publishes my remarks, as his privilege. As Trump said, “Sometimes you need a dictator”.

So why am I bothering to question his pro-war beliefs? Primarily because he summarily dismisses my views as simple partisanship at best and “morally depraved antisemitism” at worst. His accusations that I am part of the “most twisted and ugly and morally depraved elements within the US” and of the “ignorantsia” who “took to the streets protesting against the operation to free Iran”.

If he thinks I’m a “most twisted and ugly and morally depraved” member of the “ignorantsia”, then I’ll dare to give him another reason to demean and insult me.

It is time again for my inner "villain" to utter the most politically incorrect, snark-seasoned, and semi-facetious opinion in America.

 

The nation of Israel was formed by UN resolution 181 in August 1947 and became a nation in 1948. UN Resolution 181 has proven to be a tragic blunder that assured endless war. It became an endless path to hell paved with good intentions. Let's remove religion, "God's chosen people", WWII, and ancient history from the equation.

I propose Resolution 181 be rescinded or amended to let Palestine be Palestine where Jews and Arabs lived together for centuries. I would allow one of our deep red states be the new Jewish State, in addition to ending all weapons shipments to the rogue state of Israel. (It's still a better deal than the US ever gave to Native Americans.)

We could finally make Washington DC the 50th state, so the flag would stay the same.

Yes, I know it's impractical and nearly impossible, but so is peace in the Middle East.

I'm open to any better idea...if there is one.

Despite how ludicrous this may sound, I've yet to hear a better suggestion for a way out of this mass madness.

Infidel is a Zionist. It seems being anti-Israeli government is antisemitism as far as he’s concerned. This is also what AIPAC’s central message has become, as Infidel dismisses the idea that Israel has any influence on Trump joining Netanyahu’s war.

He never acknowledges Netanyahu’s or his IDF’s war crimes. His empathy lies only with Israeli victims of violence. Palestinians who are beaten, killed, and forcefully evicted from their homes in Gaza and the West Bank are not on his radar. He even suggests they had it coming. Israelis are never the bad guys. 

His words are italicized below:

We will soon be hearing -- have already been hearing -- from the most twisted and ugly and morally depraved elements within the US.  The types who view this conflict as just one more opportunity for petty domestic political point-scoring.  The ones who would happily leave the theocracy in power in Iran, at a staggering cost in human suffering, if they fear its fall might be perceived as a "win" for Trump.  The vile Israel-haters of the far left and far right have already oozed forth with their Der Stürmer conspiratardia about evil Jewish manipulation of the US.  Don't listen to them.

This works one way. I would never accuse anyone who would "happily leave the dictators in power in China, Russia and North Korea, at a staggering cost in human suffering", if he didn't cheer for Trump starting a war with them.

The “conspiratardia” would include everyone who clearly understands Netanyahu and Hegseth pressured Trump to join Isreal’s war. As I noted, Trump’s director of the National Counterterrorism Center Joe Kent resigned saying: “I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran. Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation, and it is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby."

Behold the “ignorantsia”: Most Americans know very little about Iran, so they view this situation entirely through the lens of US politics -- thus their reactions to it are irrelevant.

Never mind Trump’s war is already having serious impacts on every American who has difficulty in affording what is essentially his dollar per gallon war tax. This will raise prices for food and other essentials. “Petty domestic political point-scoring”? No. We’re way beyond that. Consequences are felt here and across the world. 

And speaking of consequences, what happens to US airmen who are shot down and captured in Iran after Reichsfuherer Hegseth declared, "No quarter!"? War crimes beget war crimes. Bombing a bridge and returning to bomb it again with rescuers working on it is a war crime. Or so the "ignorantsia" would assert.

"My point is, Israel's enemies are proven liars.  They lie and lie and lie."

Yes, they do. Too bad Iran's enemies are also proven liars who lie and lie and lie.

BTW, Putin is the real winner. Again. He's raking in extra billions as we Americans pay dearly for gas and soon enough, paying more for everything else.

All because liars promise unicorns and rainbows in the Middle East if they kill enough people and “bomb them back to the stone ages”. Again, some of us are old enough to remember how well that same slogan worked in the Vietnam War.

“Trump can't keep track of what he's doing or planning. That's typical of a person with dementia. But the military knows what they're doing, and so does Netanyahu…Any such operation involves risks, but at least now there's hope.”

In other words, it’s war criminal Netanyahu’s war being joined by a demented war criminal American as Commander-in-Chief. The demented criminal commander has a sycophantic propagandist as head of the Department of Defense who has been actively denying promotions of black and female officers, while purging the higher ranks of anyone who questions, or is perceived as disloyal, to Trump .

What could go wrong? Is starting a war based on lies and “hope” wise? How many deaths are an acceptable sacrifice for lies and hope? How great a financial burden for working class and poor Americans is acceptable for lies and hope?

Trump has virtually declared his intentions to commit more war crimes upon the Iranian civilian population. "We are going to hit them extremely hard over the next two weeks. We're going to bring them back to the stone ages, where they belong."

~~~

Al Jazeera reports:

During his prime-time address to the nation, Trump said, referring to Iran: “We are going to hit them extremely hard over the next two to three weeks, we’re going to bring them back to the stone ages, where they belong.”

Trump also said “discussions are ongoing”, adding that the conflict could end over the same period.

The current war on Iran began on February 28 when the US and Israel launched their attacks. Tehran hit back, targeting Israel and Gulf countries.

More than 2,000 Iranians have been killed in the war so far. Thousands of civilian sites, including hospitals, schools, universities and pharmaceutical factories, have been attacked by Israel and the US.

Janina Dill, a global security professor at the University of Oxford, told Al Jazeera that if Trump’s “stone ages” threat implies that the US will destroy structures and buildings that characterize a modern society, “then this would be illegal because it implies directing attacks against civilian objects”.

International humanitarian law prohibits targeting civilian objects deliberately during war, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

“The statement is particularly appalling since it repudiates the claim that the United States is fighting the Iranian regime, implying rather a war against the Iranian people and society more broadly.”

~~~

But, no worries, Trump assures us, "We can't take care of daycare. We're a big country. We're fighting wars. It's not possible for us to take care of daycare, Medicaid, Medicare, all these things." 

For an atheist, Infidel seems to have extraordinary faith in an indicted felon and war criminal president and his politicized military. I would suggest he examine the results of Trump’s politicized DHS and DOJ for some insight into how all this may develop. But of course, that would be the perspective of the “morally depraved, Israel-hating ignorantsia”.

Following this pattern of demonization, I expect the absurd accusation of “America-hating” to follow soon from the MAGA/Zionist axis of war enthusiasts. 

 

MAGA Fools Day

 

Keeping Score

 

How many times have Trump and his Iran War supporters lectured us about the “thousands of Americans killed by Iran”? How many still believe Trump when he keeps saying, “We won this war!”?

I’ve lost count on both questions, but “thousands of Americans killed by Iran” sounds like a great reason go to war with them, though.

Lets’ leave Israel and Netanyahu out of the discussion for moment, even though they goaded Trump into joining their war.

One Trumpist gloated in a previous comment thread.

The “Colonel”: We are doing something that NO OTHER AMERICAN PRESIDENT HAD THE BALLS TO DO.

IRAN has been killing OUR SOLDIERS, and our Citizens for 47 years. TRUMP is Finally ENDING THAT CRAP.

He’s echoing Trump, of course. No other president worked for Netanyahu and Putin either. Putin thanks him for HUGE oil profits, and Netanyahu thanks him for fighting his war for him.

Trump is doing EXACTLY what he promised NOT to do and what George W. Bush did. They BOTH started wars of choice in their acts of aggression in the Middle East. 

The White House posted a long list of Americans killed by “Iran” titled, “The Iranian Regime’s Decades of Terrorism Against American Citizens”.

“For nearly half a century, the Islamic Republic of Iran — the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism — has killed and maimed American citizens and service members through its own forces and proxy militias. More Americans have been killed by Iran than any other terrorist regime on Earth.”

Note the inclusion of “proxy militias”. Very few were direct actions by Iran’s “own forces” against Americans. Almost all the cases of Americans being killed were preceded by “Iran-backed”, or “affiliated” entities.

I asked the colonel a few rhetorical questions. I mean “rhetorical” in the sense no answers are expected. Trump supporters HATE answering questions.

What kind of colonel thinks starting a war will end killing? A MAGA "colonel".

How many American children has Iran killed? None. We killed Iranian children without so much as an apology. (Retired intelligence officer Captain Josephine Guilbeau explained how the cameras on the Tomahawk missiles would indicate their target was a school. But they launched another one instead of confirming the target. She calls it terrorism, and she's correct by definition.)

How many American soldiers were killed by Iran?

Now we’re getting to the question at hand. Let’s look at some facts and historical context

The answer is very few directly, but by their Arab allies in Lebanon and Iraq. 

Reagan put Marines in harm's way with no military objective and they were killed by an “Iran-backed” suicide bomber. 

After Bush LIED about WMD’s and Saddam working with al-Qaeda HE STARTED the Iraq war. We have no way of knowing how many Americans were killed by Iranians in Iraq. We know they were invited to assist in resisting the American occupiers. This was all due to US aggression. Americans seem to have forgotten that the guy who starts wars of choice is the guy to blame for the deaths and destruction.

Bottom line: Excluding Afghanistan where Iran wasn’t a participant, all those Americans died because of misguided or dishonest actions by US presidents. The American deaths number in the thousands.

What kind of colonel can't see this pattern?

So, let’s look at the body count.

Thousands of American troops were killed by Iraqis, many with Iranian help. Obviously, not all of the thousands of casualties were inflicted by Iranians or proxies, but let’s count them anyway, just for argument’s sake.

If "Iran-backed" entities count, then US-backed Israel and US-backed Iraq have slaughtered HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of Arabs and Iranians in Iran, Gaza, Lebanon, and in Israel. The body count from Trump's war is already in the thousands in Iran.

How’s that for perspective?

Hundreds of thousands of Iranians were killed by America-backed Iraq alone.

From AI:

During the 1980–1988 Iran-Iraq War, the United States provided significant covert and overt support to Iraq, including billions in economic aid, intelligence, and dual-use technology, to prevent an Iranian victory. This included intelligence sharing, over $200 million in direct arms sales (like helicopters), and allowing the sale of chemical/biological weapon precursors.

This all came back to bite us. Iraq and Iran were terrible regimes, but the US is definitely not the good guy in the Middle East. Only the peace activists are the good guys. Israel, Iran, and the US are not among them.

“When you get into trouble 5,000 miles from home, you've got to have been looking for it.” ~ Will Rogers

 

THAT's the crap that needs to end, or we're looking at MORE AMERICANS getting killed by terrorists.