Blue_Tires

Blue_Tires's Journal

April 19, 2019

MEANWHILE, in Florida...

https://twitter.com/HawaiiShira/status/1119174652008357889

April 18, 2019

Traitors in our midst...

Nobody ever wanted to have this conversation when I've brought it up in the past, so I'll just say what I gotta say and let it drop.

Since 2016 an increasing number of formerly-respected liberal pundits including bloggers, writers, journalists, and elected officials both current and former have been actively working for Donald Trump and not us. I'd said even before Trump's inauguration that we as a party would never really advance until we purged these backstabbing elements out.

I'm not going to name names in this thread and I'm not going to argue individual cases. I'm just going to implore DU to etch a day like today in your memory, and take a hard, scrutinizing look at what each one of our self-appointed thought leaders and influencers are saying today and in the coming days about this first release of the report:

1. Are they in total denial about the report's significance? Or even worse are they ignoring today's news altogether?

2. Are they cherry-picking the most minuscule errata and using it as a toe-hold to discredit the entire report?

3. Are they trying to spin or divert the discussion elsewhere? Are they still regurgitating stale, long-debunked talking points?

4. Are they defending Trump and his administration outright? Or are they doing the oh-so-clever "Oh I'll never defend Trump, but I will endlessly bash and smear his critics and the #Resistance 24/7/365? Is their ratio of attacks against their own party versus attacks against Trump 8-to-1 or greater?

5. No matter whether they're defending Trump directly or indirectly, are their talking points indistinguishable from the nutbars on RussiaToday or NewsMax or Fox News? Have you caught them plagiarizing anti-Dem talking points from more extremist sites like InfoWars?

6. Are they starting to make regular guest appearances on Fox News? Are they writing guest columns for sites like DailyCaller? Does Breitbart boost their signal and promote them as a "REAL/SMART" Democrat/pundit/journalist/etc.? Did they write for liberal websites for a number of years only to cross over to a far-right one after 2016? Are folks like Giuliani, David Duke and Cernovich quoting them and re-tweeting their hot takes on Twitter?

7. Are there some political hot-button topics that outraged them DAILY and were ready to go to war against Obama for, yet somehow under Trump they stopped giving a shit about their pet issue despite Trump making it a thousand times worse? Do you see them giving Trump a pass for things they'd never give Obama or Hillary a pass on?

8. Have they bent over backwards to whitesplain away the overt racism in Trump's rhetoric and the racist leanings of his base? Were they pimping that "It's class and not race!" bullshit despite being debunked ages ago? Are they still accepting the conservative framing that only white folks make up the "middle/working class"? Worse still, were they whoring the hell out of the RW "identity politics" talking points?

9. Do they have a full deck of "whataboutism" cards to play to deflect any criticism against Trump? Do they sprinkle arguments using "AND THAT'S WHY TRUMP WON!" as a rebuttal? Was there true fear and lament on Election Night when Trump won, or just smug self-satisfaction? Even worse, did they have a schadenfreudegasm?

10. Are they always telling their followers on social media every two years to "send a message" by staying home and not voting, or voting third party? Have they been revisionist as fuck by saying with a straight face that Obama never did anything for us and was the worst president ever? Have they been doing a lot of scrubbing of their pre-2017 activity and hot takes on social media?

There's more of course but you get the general idea. And yes, because I've been keeping score for 3+ years I can cite multiple examples of high-profile, household name liberal pundits who fit these warning signs... I'm just telling y'all to take heed...

April 18, 2019

At what fucking point should Glenn Greenwald return his Pulitzer?

His fall from grace is nothing short of pathetic.

https://twitter.com/Wilson__Valdez/status/1118871855757131776

https://twitter.com/Wilson__Valdez/status/1118880818129186816

https://twitter.com/Wilson__Valdez/status/1118891112729587719

Oh, and if anyone wants to try their luck and defend their boy Glenn, I'm not in the mood today. Make an appointment for tomorrow.

April 17, 2019

MEANWHILE, in Kentucky...

A moment of silence....

https://twitter.com/SRiggsWDRB/status/1117747509005291520

April 17, 2019

Exactly what the shit is this shit?

Like I said, this is why you *don't* normalize Nazis and pretend they're just misguided everyday people

https://twitter.com/pacelattin/status/1118536554396340225

https://twitter.com/erinbiba/status/1118582360071651328

April 17, 2019

John Jonchuck guilty of first-degree murder in 2015 death of his daughter, Phoebe

Source: Tampa Bay Times

LARGO — John Jonchuck is guilty of first-degree murder, a jury ruled Tuesday, and should spend the rest of his life in prison for dropping his daughter, Phoebe, off a bridge into the chilly, dark waters of Tampa Bay.

He was not facing the death penalty.

Over more than four weeks, jurors heard a tangled narrative of Jonchuck’s mental history. His public defenders argued that he was insane at the time of the killing, driven by imagined voices and delusions, unaware that what he was doing was wrong. Their case was built on Jonchuck’s recollection of hearing an old Swedish Bible knocking, of listening to Phoebe chanting when she touched it, of thinking she was possessed and that he was the Pope or God.

His rantings did not sway the jury, which ultimately decided that Jonchuck, now 29, knew killing 5-year-old Phoebe was wrong. Prosecutors said he was acting out of vengeance, killing Phoebe so her mother could never get custody of her and because he was bitter that his own mother loved the little girl with affection she never showed for him. Jonchuck’s mother and uncle both said if he was not insane, he should “rot in hell” for what he did to Phoebe.

Read more: https://www.tampabay.com/news/pinellas/crime/john-jonchuck-guilty-of-first-degree-murder-in-2015-death-of-his-daughter-phoebe-20190416/

One sidenote I found interesting on the night of his arrest was despite a documented history of drug use, despite throwing his child off a bridge and leading police on a chase, despite telling the cops that he was God and wanted a Bible to read, they did *NOT* drug test him

April 16, 2019