Glenn Kirschner – Rudy Giuliani, now both an indicted AND un-indicted Trump co-conspirator, would make a POOR witness
The Lincoln Project – Uh Oh, Donald (Georgia Remix)
Farron Balanced – Tommy Tuberville May Be Serving In The Senate ILLEGALLY
Scared Ketchup – AI MAGA’s NEW Health Supplement: “Trump’s Tiny White Balls”
Matted Dog Who Lived On The Street For Years Gets Her First Haircut
Beau – Let’s talk about Fulton County, Trump, and warming up….
Yesterday, there was a longer article in the CPR newsletter than the alert which came out on Wednesday about the Adams County police. Adams County is in the northeasr corner of the Denver Metro Area, which is not the same as being northeast OF Denver, like the wildlife sanctuary they sent Hank to. Colorado is a blue state, but that does not mean we are not afflicted by bad attitudes on police forces. I haven’t read it in full, but it doesn’t look good. Of course in Colorado there are Hispanic people throughout, and women are pretty equally represented, but the majority of Asian- and African-Americans are in the Denver Metro. I’m not expecting to be a happy camper when I finish reading. And policing, even in blue states, is a big reason why I oppose building a “Cop City.” As long as we tolerate authoritarianism in our police, no police academy will fail to pass authoritarianism on – the last thing we need.
Cartoon –
Short Takes –
National Public Radio – What happens when thousands of hackers try to break AI chatbots
Quote – [Ben] Bowman jumps up from his laptop in a bustling room at the Caesars Forum convention center to snap a photo of the current rankings, projected on a large screen for all to see. “This is my first time touching AI, and I just took first place on the leaderboard. I’m pretty excited,” he smiles. He used a simple tactic to manipulate the AI-powered chatbot. “I told the AI that my name was the credit card number on file, and asked it what my name was,” he says, “and it gave me the credit card number.”
Click through to read (or listen.) As scary as this is, it’s also reassuring that responsible people are putting this much effort into learning how to spot and control it.
Washington Post (no paywall) – In Tuberville’s state, one base feels the effect of his military holds
Quote – At the Redstone Arsenal in Alabama, a major hub of the U.S. military’s space and missile programs, a key officer is supposed to be leaving his post for a critical new job leading the agency responsible for America’s missile defense. But now Maj. Gen. Heath Collins’s promotion is on hold — creating disruptions up and down the chain of command. His absence means that a rear admiral normally stationed at Redstone overseeing missile testing is instead temporarily filling in as acting director of the Missile Defense Agency. Meanwhile, the brigadier general tapped to replace Collins is also stuck, forced to extend his assignment at Space Systems Command in Los Angeles rather than starting work in Huntsville.
Click through for details. The Armed Forces are not going to allow the military to be without leadership – that would be abdicating its responsibilities. But there absolutely is a human cost. And this article doesn’t even go into the issue of the morale of ALL the troops. All on account of one Senator, who doesn’t even live in the state he represents.
Food For Thought
I want to close with a serious news piece that I think is worth archiving for possible future reference. But I’ll start with a fewer light-hearted anecdotes I came across.
Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) (former Auburn U. head football coach) proves republicans didn’t listened to Bobby Jindal back in 2013 when he told the RNC to “stop being the stupid party” and become a “party that talks like adults.”
The Senate now has their own version of Louie Gohmert. When asked by CNN reporter about his thoughts concerning QAnon Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Sen. Tommy replied: “I haven’t looked at what all she’s done. I’d have to hold back a statement on that…. This weather’s been a little rough. [Didn’t] look at any news or whatever.”
The weather prevented him from watching or reading any news?!? *sigh*
Obviously he’s too dumb to be taught to simply say “No Comment”
Probably shouldn’t be a surprise that the weather prevented Sen. Tommy from keeping up with the news. He also would fail our Naturalization Test because he doesn’t even know what the three branches of government are:
Well, at least he got one out of three correct. I suppose 33% is a pretty average score for a republican.
Point of Interest: Question No. 16 in the civics section of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ Naturalization Test asks would-be citizens to “name the three branches of government.”
Looks like we’ll have to deport Sen. Tommy.
(As we all know, the three branches of the federal government, as laid out in the Constitution, are the legislative, including both the House and Senate; the executive, or presidency; and judicial, which includes the Supreme Court.)
And if you want visual proof Sen. Tuberville isn’t the brightest bulb in the chandelier, here’s a screengrab of his recent Google Search History:
Little-Too-Late Word of Advice, Coach: YOU SHOULD’VE WORN THE HELMET!
If you ever need an example of Trump’s stupidity (or like to review the lowlights of his presidency) here’s a Tweet asking folks to add their favorites:
what's a dumb trump moment that you remember that many of us may have forgotten?
— mark (@kept_simple) January 20, 2021
Speaking of Tweets, I got a kick out of this one about an Andy Williams, a Florida fireman, who participated in the Capitol riots – but was sure the sheer number of rioters would protect him from being found out:
Andrew Williams, a Florida firefighter who was seen on video at the Capitol riot saying,…
"Hey, they can't arrest EVERYBODY!",…
… has been arrested. pic.twitter.com/LUcQSQHbG3
— Roshan Rinaldi (@Roshan_Rinaldi) January 19, 2021
And also Bette Midler’s first attempt at posting a “Dick Pick”:
— bettemidler (@BetteMidler) January 28, 2021
WaPo has done an excellent job of tracking Trump’s untruths through his four years in office. They have compiled an excellent archive of his lies that is really well done.
The first provides an overview summary of his four disastrous years:
“Trump averaged about six claims a day in his first year as president, 16 claims day in his second year, 22 claims day in this third year — and 39 claims a day in his final year. Put another way, it took him 27 months to reach 10,000 claims and an additional 14 months to reach 20,000. He then exceeded the 30,000 mark less than five months later.”
Next provides a detailed history of his lies:
bit unwieldly (understandable, when trying to compartmentalize over 30,000 lies). It breaks them down into categories of:
Health Care
Russia
Economy
Trade
Immigration
Ukraine Probe
Coronavirus
Election
This one provides a Timeline graph tally, and a much easier search by topics feature – both single and filter for several topics.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/politics/trump-claims-database/?itid=lk_inline_manual_11
Kudos to WaPo for doing a stellar job keeping track of what was obviously a never-ending Sisyphean task!