Updated after Kevin lost the 10th time, Jan. 5, 2023
Images created by Hal Brown using various sources and InPixio and BeFunky.
Most recent illustrations on bottom of page
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Below: Click images to enlarge
Just frittering away time. I couldn't decide what Dali painting to use as a background. Trump/McCarthy modified by BeFunky.
Even if he doesn't I think he eventually will after he cuts fascistic deals with the extremists. I don't know what kind of sandwiches are served in the House dining room, but this is what Kevin may be eating:
As for as the Republican Party goes what has happened to them can't be undone. This is an historic humiliation for both the party and McCarthy. He will have to kowtow to the likes most lunatic extremists who decided to vote for him.
The Republican led house with the newly empowered crazies out for revenge and notoriety will turn their two years into a grotesque freak show.
Breaking news: A backroom deal was finally struck among House Republicans with a compromise candidate to be the Speaker of the House. It is Ginni Thomas. While she is politically the polar opposite of Nancy Pelosi one thing the two have in common is they like to wear colorful scarves.
Democrat political fashion guru Lisa Bungalow told The Bunion in an exclusive interview "while I loathe her politics and when I see her on TV it already makes me nauseous, at least she will keep bringing a splash of color to the podium."
Addendum:
I would be surprised if Marjorie Taylor Greene, who is supporting him, hasn't already been promised some choice committee assignments. While she might not be offered the chair of a high profile committee she could be made chair of Science, Space, and Technology. Once there she could make waves by opening an investigation into Jewish space lasers and how they started the California wild fires.
A shirtless guy on a Honda bike with pink sneakers and a tattooed man with a "What Part of Fuck Off Is Confusing to You?" t-shirt.
By Hal Brown
To my loyal daily readers: Thank you for checking in today. I haven't posted a new blog because I've been diagnosed with pneumonia and am being treat with two antibiotics. I had it in late October and it may not have been treated aggressively enough so this may be a relapse.
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I took this photo from my car when I pulled up behind this motorcyclist in Milwaukie, Oregon. It wasn't until I got home and looked closely at it that I found it more interesting than just merely a man riding a motorcycle shirtless with his white t-shirt wrapped around his arm on a warm day.
He's not riding a Harley lowrider, but his jeans are riding low. They are Calvin Klein's. Taking a closer look I see something I can't identify:
What is this white band that appears to be plastic which is wrapped tightly around the jeans? It seems to be holding something in the front. It isn't the back of a jockstrap. The many I looked at all have wide elastic bands in the back. So what the hell is it?
Not only are the jeans maroon but his footwear stands out.
By coincidence or not pink sneakers and maroon underpants kind of go together. Maybe he was trying to make a fashion statement.
You can also see on his elbow that it looks like he has a skin condition like psoriasis or a healed wound which could have been from a motorcycle accident. If the latter it means he might have suffered from not wearing a leather jacket, though you rarely see anyone who isn't a Harley biker wearing them around Portland.
Another unknown is what this is on his back:
It could be a healed wound. I'm not a doctor but it could be the exit wound caused by being shot by a hollow point bullet.
I hazard a guess that the motorcyclist is about as far removed from being a MAGA cultist as anyone would be.
And then there this man:
I have no idea what the politics of this Portland area denizen might be. He clearly doesn't want anyone to inquire about it. He was at the very crowded Milwaukie Farmers Market. He was making a very public statement. I wish I had had the courage to interview him. That would have made an interesting story.
Never let it be said that I don't dig deeply into the backstory of what I write about. I tried to find out the model and year of the Honda motorcycle but couldn't based on the photo of the rear. I did find out what the hat the Fuck Off man is wearing was.
Rabbi Barry Ulrych, of the B'nai Chaim of Murrietasynagogue, regarding the images appearing on Metal Mulisha products, stated "People say it's just a fashion—it's more than that—it's an identity ... These symbols are not as neutral as one might think. Symbols can hurt, and some symbols are intimidating ... With this symbolism, they are glorifying the Nazi past. You can't go through life being ignorant of symbols."
In a letter, the company countered with the statement "Metal Mulisha founders and riders are devout Christians, espousing those values prized in the religious community."
He appears to be wearing not inexpensive Dolce & Gabbana glasses:
As we lurch toward idiocracy—the real thing, not the movie—we must change course.—John Kass
This blog is about research into the cognitive ability of those constituting the part of our society which is populated by those who one could call idiots which in modern use means stupid or foolish people.
Scanning some of the comments I came across the link shown below:
Clicking it led to this 2018 Scientific American article by a Michigan State University psychology professor and an undergraduate student. (Coincidentally I got my BA in psychology there long before he joined the faculty.)
This is a summary of relevant research on the subject. There are no surprises in what the researchers found out about people like these:
This is the conclusion of the Scientific American authors:
These studies add to scientific understanding of the fake news problem, which is providing a foundation for an evidenced-based approach to addressing the problem. A recommendation that follows from research on the illusion of truth effect is to serve as your own fact checker. If you are convinced that some claim is true, ask yourself why. Is it because you have credible evidence that the claim is true, or is it just because you’ve encountered the claim over and over? Also ask yourself if you know of any evidence that refutes the claim. (You just might be surprised to find that you do.) This type of recommendation could be promoted through public service announcements, which have been shown to be effective for things like getting people to litter less and recycle more. For its part, research on individual differences in susceptibility to fake news, such as the study by De keersmaecker and Roets, can help to identify people who are particularly important to reach through this type of informational campaign.
At a more general level, this research underscores the threat that fake news poses to democratic society. The aim of using fake news as propaganda is to make people think and behave in ways they wouldn’t otherwise—for example, hold a view that is contradicted by overwhelming scientific consensus. When this nefarious aim is achieved, citizens no longer have the ability to act in their own self-interest. In the logic of democracy, this isn’t just bad for that citizen—it’s bad for society.
The idiom "you can't tell a book by its cover" means that when applied to people you shouldn't base your opinion of them by how they look. This is very true to an extent. However I do think that the t-shirts and outfits some of these Trump supports wear tell us a great deal about them. You would be hard pressed to see anyone wearing similar things at a Biden event.
Looking at photos of these people, daring to risk being accused of being judgmental, based on how they look I conclude that most of them wouldn't care that scientific studies have shown that they have a deficit in cognitive ability. "This is fake news by liberal snowflakes" they'd probably think.
Click above to enlarge collage of Trump supporters
Cult expert Steve Hassan has published articles about Trump supporters. Here's a recent one:
