Deep state black shirts coming for your gas stove and may confiscate your guns

Deep state black shirts coming for your gas stove, and may confiscate your guns

by Hal Brown

Below was the less dramatic image I created for the story earlier this morning. The one I ended up using is meant to reflect that fact, with a bit of exaggeration, that  an astounding story on The Washington Post's Wonkblog site revealed that the average number of firearms owned by a "typical gun-owning household" had roughly doubled between 1994 and 2013, to 8.1 guns per household. The trend has only gone up since. (from The Fool)

Bellow is the comment I made to Alexandra Petri's Washington Post satirical OpED.

Click image to enlarge

The Republicans attempt to conflate their fear mongering over heavily armed Deep State Black-shirts breaking down your door to haul off your gas stove with them doing the same thing to take your stash of pistols and assault rifles is both ludicrous and is pathetic in that it is apparently t-shirt slogan worthy an issue now. 

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) brilliantly tried to enflame the paranoia of gun owners when he said his gas stove would have to be torn from his “cold dead hands.” 

Click above to enlarge

Petri writes from the point of view of being a gas stove:

Hi, I’m a stove. What kind of stove? Don’t worry about it. I already told you what kind of stove I was. You remember, when you were sautéing on me. Your poor, fragile mind, stressed with so many things! Thank goodness you have me here, to take care of you and keep you safe.

Petri is a self-described punster:

Gaslighting isn't the only pun that can be applied to this dangerous attempt of the deep state to take over the lives of God-fearing patriotic white Americans. Consider Petri's gas stove's final words:

What kind of stove am I? What am I lit with? Listen, I am the best kind of stove. Don’t worry about me. Worry that they will come and take me from you, if you aren’t careful. “Even if they were considering a ban, that wouldn’t be how bans work?” Oh, sweetheart, do you hear yourself? I’m worried for you. You must be burned out. Maybe you should get some fresh air, for reasons unrelated to my presence in your kitchen. Just forget everything you know about how regulations and bans work and listen to the sound of me, your stove.

I’ll say it one more time: There is literally no reason to be concerned that you have me in your home. Nobody should look into this any further.

Look at my flames. There they are, flickering, just as bright as you remember.

She just as easily could be speaking as if she was an AR-15.

Hi, I’m a gun. What kind of gun (new link)? Don’t worry about it. I already told you what kind of gun I was. You remember, when you were shooting me. Your poor, fragile metal mind, stressed with so many things! Thank goodness you have me here, to take care of you and keep you safe.

and

What kind of gun am I? What am I loaded with? Listen, I am the best kind of gun. Don’t worry about me. Worry that they will come and take me from you, if you aren’t careful. “Even if they were considering a ban, that wouldn’t be how bans work?”  

Oh, sweetheart, do you hear yourself? I’m worried for you. You must be blasted out. Maybe you should get some fresh air, for reasons unrelated to my presence in your bedroom. Just forget everything you know about how regulations and bans work and listen to the sound of me, your AR-15.

I’ll say it one more time: There is literally no reason to be concerned that you have me in your home. 

Nobody should look into this any further.

Look at my shots. There they are, explosive, just as bright and loud as you remember.

Here's an excerpt from this Wired article The Gas Stove Culture Wars Have Begun:

A NEW WAY to show your political affiliation may be emerging, and it’s close to home. So close, you’ll find it in your kitchen. 

A debate over gas stoves reignited this week and fell along ideological lines in the US: As researchers, regulators, and Democratic politicians are pointing out the problematic emissions from gas appliances, conservatives are asserting their rights to cook how they choose. Things are, well, heating up quickly, as they do on a gas range: “If the maniacs in the White House come for my stove, they can pry it from my cold dead hands. COME AND TAKE IT!!” Congressman Ronny Jackson, from Texas, told Twitter. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez from New York clapped back: “Did you know that ongoing exposure to NO2 from gas stoves is linked to reduced cognitive performance[?]”

Much like the divide over electric cars—US president Joe Biden has pushed the new electric options, but some Republicans cite them as costly and inconvenient—the stove finds itself at the center of a culture war. People have very strong feelings about the roaring flame of their gas stoves and enjoy their cooking speed and precision. For Republicans, it’s another issue to pick at as they tear apart Biden’s climate agenda and paint policies as government overreach. 

Addendum:

This is my Twitter tweet shown below with related hashtags.

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When it came to surviving Covid, Trump was really Teflon Don

When it came to surviving Covid, Trump was really Teflon Don 

By Hal Brown

Click images below to enlarge.

The original photoshop was tweeted by Trump himself:

Below: The original Teflon don

About the photo of Trump:

I wanted to find a photo of Trump looking as bad as possible and an image search of "Trump looking bad" turned up this one taken by an official White House photographer. Here's an article about it.

This word leaped off the screen when I read this article in Medscape.

Excerpt:

Which Treatments Improve Long-term Outcomes of Critical COVID Illness?

Editor's note: Find the latest COVID-19 news and guidance in Medscape's Coronavirus Resource Center.

Treatment with interleukin 6 (IL-6) receptor antagonists or antiplatelet agents improves survival and outcomes at 6 months for critically ill patients with COVID-19, according to new data.

However, survival wasn't improved with therapeutic anticoagulation, convalescent plasma, or lopinavir-ritonavir, and survival was worsened with hydroxychloroquine.

"After critically ill patients leave the hospital, there's a high risk of readmission, death after discharge, or exacerbations of chronic illness," study author Patrick Lawler, MD, a clinician-scientist at the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre at University Health Network and an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Toronto, told Medscape Medical News.

"When looking at the impact of treatment, we don't want to improve short-term outcomes yet worsen long-term disability," he said. "That long-term, 6-month horizon is what matters most to patients."

Remember this?

Of course anyone who isn't a brainwashed and brain dead Trump cultist can't forget this:

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-52399464

And then there's hapless Dr. Birx who has to forever live with these moments:

Then we had the publicity stunt which was meant to show both how invulnerable he was and how Covid was no big deal:

This is an excerpt:

In the midst of an aggressive course of treatment for coronavirus, President Donald Trump left the hospital with his security detail Sunday so he could ride in an SUV past supporters cheering him on outside Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. 

The short trip, where Trump waved to his supporters through the window while wearing a mask in the back of his SUV, was an attempted show of strength that displayed the President’s questionable judgment, his willingness to endanger his staff and the fact that he still does not seem to comprehend the seriousness of a highly contagious and deadly disease.

Trump’s doctors on Sunday provided concerning details about his condition to reporters – including two alarming drops in his oxygen levels. But the late Sunday photo op underscored that the chief concern for the President, who was furious at his chief of staff for telling reporters about his troubling vital signs, is projecting a commanding image to the public.

An attending physician at Walter Reed harshly criticized Trump’s Sunday drive-by as a risk to the lives of Secret Service agents who accompanied him in his SUV. 

“Every single person in the vehicle during that completely unnecessary Presidential ‘drive-by’ just now has to be quarantined for 14 days. They might get sick. They may die. For political theater. Commanded by Trump to put their lives at risk for theater. This is insanity,” Dr. James Phillips tweeted.

The original Teflon don was Mafia boss John Gotti. He was given this nickname because of the way he avoided legal consequences for his crimes for so many years. He eventually was sentenced to life in prison. He spent the majority of his sentence in effective solitary confinement, allowed out of his cell for only one hour a day. This is how he spent the final years of his life at the US Penitentiary in Marion, ILL

It is a fortuitous coincidence that when referring to Trump with this moniker the word "don" has two meanings, don as the head of a crime family and "Don" as in Donald.

Not only has Trump followed in Gotti's footsteps when it comes to staying out of prison he managed to get elected president despite years of breaking the law. He proved to be Teflon in another way by avoiding dying when he contracted Covid prior to the development of vaccines.

It remains to be seen whether some of his off the rails behavior is a form of long Covid. There's no way to determine this now but one thing we can say for sure is that he's alive and kicking.

If Trump has an autopsy made public after he dies it is possible we will know whether Covid had invaded his brain. Consider, also from Medscape that 

Autopsies Show COVID Virus Invades Entire Body

The researchers said their work shows the virus "is capable of infecting and replicating within the human brain." They also said their results indicate the virus spreads via the blood early during infection, which "seeds the virus throughout the body following infection of the respiratory tract."

Can you imagine what would happen if Trump cultists learn that Covid has invaded Trump's brain, Trump who claimed he had the biggest brain, or as he put it a very, very large brain, also had, literally not figuratively, a very sick brain. 

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More Schadenfreude: John Bolton, Trump, and DeSantis for President

More Schadenfreude: John Bolton, Trump, and DeSantis for President

By Hal Brown

I used two  John Bolton caricatures by the great DonkeyHotey in my blog today. I like the one on the right showing his incredible growing mustache. Mustache Maximus. How much bigger can you make it before it goes off the page? 

The story on HUFFPOST showing in the lower left above has nothing to do with John Bolton' s presidential announcement. Bolton is quoted saying that Trump “is the luckiest man in American politics" and that "this ought to be disqualifying to both of them" referring to the current and former president.

Also from HUFFPOST:

Bolton, a fierce Trump critic, predicted that the significant legal differences between the two cases would "get lost in the fog.” Now, he finds it hard to believe that Trump can be prosecuted for the Mar-a-Lago documents, regardless of the circumstances.

“I don’t see how a criminal case goes forward at this point,” Bolton said. “I just think it’s such a cloud over the prosecution.”

Why HUFFPOST featured John Bolton in this article  seemed odd to me at first but then I realized he is the only other announced candidate for president unless you count Ye.

When I saw this it was news to me even though it broke a week ago. I haven't been paying attention. I did a web search and found out that this wasn't exactly breaking news:

I clicked on the article on the right above based the word "ridiculous" in the title which was what I was thinking:

Click above for article

I am bolding the sections of the quotes below which I thought we telling.

Excerpts:

Earlier today, John Bolton officially entered the 2024 U.S. presidential race with an announcement to the British media. Bolton, who was George W. Bush’s ambassador to the United Nations during the Iraq War and Donald Trump’s national security adviser until he was fired via Twitter, insisted in his Good Morning Britain interview that this is not a joke or a shameless attempt to sell more books and boost his speaker fees. “I wouldn’t run as a vanity candidate,” he said. “If I didn’t think I could run seriously, then I wouldn’t get in the race.”

Here's the interview:

Trump called Bolton one of the dumbest people he's ever worked. Trump fired him in Sept. 2019 after they clashed on positions on N. Korea and Afghanistan. Bolton said that Trump's support within the party itself was in permanent decline.

The New York Magazine Intelligencier article concludes:

Is it possible that there are a few Republican voters who hate Trump, love U.S. military intervention, and think Ron DeSantis is insufficiently mustachioed? I suppose so. But Bolton winning the 2024 GOP presidential nomination feels less plausible than the idea that he’s dabbling in comedic performance art.

These are quotes from the NY Post article:

“If I don’t see that, I’m going to seriously consider getting in,” Bolton said at the time, later adding: “I think to be a presidential candidate you can’t just say, ‘I support the Constitution.’ You have to say, ‘I would oppose people who would undercut it.’”

On Friday, Bolton told the British broadcaster that he specifically wants to derail Trump, who has called his onetime subordinate a “liar,” a “dope” and “a disgruntled boring fool.”

Here's a one sentence article which has 985 comments which you can read here. 

This story was covered in India in Republic World. Here's a quote:

Bolton had made his aspirations known in December last year, when he suggested that he would run for president if no other candidate from the Republican party comes forward to slam Trump for his remarks on terminating the US Constitution. “I’d like to see Shermanesque statements from all the potential candidates. If I don’t see that, I’m going to seriously consider getting in,” he told NBC, adding that Trump’s statement should be enough for his disqualification for public office. ‘“I think to be a presidential candidate you can’t just say, ‘I support the constitution’. You have to say, ‘I would oppose people who would undercut it’,” he added. 

Bolton served as Trump’s national security adviser between April 2018 to September 2019. Previously, he believed that he didn’t bag the secretary of state post as Trump was not a fan of his mustache. Later on, in September 2019, Bolton left the Trump administration and said that he had quit. On the contrary, Trump said that he had been sacked from the job.

The Trump mustache rejection fits with this story: Trump Rejected Nikki Haley as Running Mate Over ‘Complexion Problem’.

While the country, possibly much of the world, is waiting with baited breathe for Ron "The Fairly Sane High IQ Malignant Narcissist Culture Warrior" DeSantis (read "Gov. DeSantis’ attack on New College isn’t about philosophy; it’s about votes")

 to declare that he's going to take on Donald "Bizzaro World" Trump I suppose HUFFPOST didn't have anyone else to quote in their article.

A few days ago I wrote about the Schadenfreude I experience watching McCarthy and the MAGA marauders in the House trying to deflect questions about George Santos.

I think that if we end up with a three-way primary season with Trump, DeSantis, and Bolton going hair to head to mustache it will be equally delightful to watch these three snipe at each other.

I wouldn't dismiss Bolton's candidacy as a joke the way New York Magazine did in calling it ridiculous. His announcing it on British TV could have been a savvy PR ploy if he thought he would get more extensive coverage in the United States by giving a long interview in England.

A significant number of Republican voters may be sick of Trump's 20 of the same worn out tricks pony act and the increasing evidence he has become a ranting, raving, delusional drunk uncle. DeSantos and his culture war may not play well outside of Florida and deeply red states populated by a large number of bigots and morons.

Despite his mockable mustache John Bolton may look like the only adult left in the GOP candidate waiting room. In fact if MAGA Republicans give him a chance they may become enamored with the mustache. Leaving out Hitler, there are many examples nine of whom who are known not only for their accomplishments but also for their mustaches are shown below:

Addendum:

Bolton's reputation as a proponent of the U.S. being an aggressive international actor may play well with Republican voters. For example read:

Bolton just had this long and detailed article published in the conservative National Review:

Excerpts:

He begins: Among the many unwelcome legacies of Donald Trump’s random walk through foreign and defense policy during his presidency, the resurgence of isolationism and know-nothingism in the Republican Party is among the most distasteful and dangerous. 

And he concludes: Isolationism has never entirely disappeared from the Republican Party’s fringes, and the Democrats’ leftist marches are perennial habitats for this virus. 

Trump, however, fostered a toxic environment within which the virus spread. More prosaically, years of neglect have left us with inadequate supplies of existing weapons, demonstrated currently, for example, by the pressure to supply Ukraine with anti-tank Javelin missiles without completely depleting our own arsenals. 

New weapons systems to outpace China in all combat domains are critically needed, to say nothing of what we and our allies need elsewhere in the world. In particular, we need a dramatically expanded, modernized Navy to deter and contain China in the vast Pacific and Indian Ocean expanses. 

We have wasted decades by not expanding and improving our national missile-defense assets, a requirement defensive by definition and one that even isolationists should be willing to support. 

Dominance in space and cyberspace is essential not just for military purposes but to keep the homeland alive and functioning during crisis or conflict situations. And as was evident well before Covid but has been inescapable since, we need resilient, sustained American production capabilities for national-security requirements, with no reliance on insecure foreign supply chains.

This is from his Twitter page:

The damage from isolationism is already evident, starting with the retreat from Afghanistan, a blundering, bipartisan flight from reality. This unforced error, the epitome of Trumpian isolationism, reflects disdain for the interests sacrificed.

The pursuit of U.S. interests remains the foundation of conservative national security policy. These interests are concrete: defending our territory and people; guarding commercial interests; access to resources; and reliable protection for our allies.

Among the unwelcome legacies of Trump’s presidency, the resurgence of isolationism is among the most dangerous. The GOP must urgently overcome it or there's little hope of advancing a larger agenda. Now is the time, no matter how difficult the fight.