Tag archive: Lie

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Justice 2, GOP 0

With national Republican figures, from the highest to the lowest, being indicted, tried and convicted of multiple crimes in both civil and criminal cases, the GOP runs the serious risk of becoming identified as the party of lawlessness as the 2024 elections careen toward us.  Two major developments in as many days in early May added fuel to the fire of Republican miscreants, much in the way a spate of stories involving GOP corruption and sexual misconduct led to Democrats reclaiming the House in 2006.  On May 9th, Donald Trump was found liable for sexual assault and defamation in the E. Jean Carroll civil rape suit, and on the following day Trump Mini-Me George Santos, with aspirations to ascend to Liar-in-Chief, was arrested and charged with 13 counts of wire fraud, money laundering, theft of public funds and lying to Congress.

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The Rise & Fall of Tucker Carlson

On Monday, 24 April 2023, the cable news universe was rocked by the sudden and unexpected announcement that Fox News had parted ways with Tucker Carlson, who had been anchoring the coveted 8 PM weeknight spot for six years with his eponymous “Tucker Carlson Tonight”, the network’s top-rated news/opinion show.  The split came barely a week after a record $787.5 million settlement in the defamation case brought by Dominion Voting Systems, in which Carlson was a scheduled witness, one among several Fox News anchors who promoted the “Big Lie” that Donald Trump had won the 2020 election, but had it stolen from him by rigged Dominion machines.  Carlson’s embrace of the stolen election fraud was legendary, as was his attempt to paint the January 6th insurrection as a peaceful protest or conspiracy from the left.

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Trump on Trial: At Last!

April 25, 2023 witnesses the opening of the first salvo of courtroom dramas involving former US president Donald J. Trump, although as a civil case, he’s not required to attend in person, and likely won’t do so.  The case is brought by journalist and author E. Jean Carroll, who alleges Trump sexually assaulted her in a Bergdorf Goodman department store dressing room in Manhattan in the mid-1990s.  No, the charge isn’t rape – it’s defamation of character, following statements Trump made after Carroll publicly accused him in 2019, when he denied ever meeting her, much less assaulting her, in terms peppered with his patented brand of denigration and misogynistic dismissal. 

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A Tale of Two Thomases

As asteroid Thomas moved toward its retrograde station, a pair of stories erupted into the American consciousness, with yet another mass shooting at a Louisville, Kentucky bank, where five died, including bank VP Thomas “Tommy” Elliot; and allegations of ethics violations in nonreporting of gifts to US Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas emerged.  Both stories broke within two weeks of Thomas’ cosmic turnabout on April 20th at 25 Sagittarius, a period fraught with peril for those terrestrial entities associated with this celestial body, provoking a literal “turning point” in their lives.  Sagittarius is the sign ruled by Jupiter, which is associated with both banks and the judiciary, making Thomases involved in these fields even more susceptible to asteroid Thomas’ fallout.

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Ukraine War: First Anniversary

The traditional first anniversary gift is paper, but no peace treaty looms on the horizon between Russia and Ukraine as the war grinds on into its second year.  Perhaps the modern version, the gift of a clock, would be more appropriate, to time the conflict’s duration.  What many predicted would be a triumphal progress for the Russian army a year ago, with expectations that Ukraine’s capital of Kyiv would fall in a matter of days, has turned into a long, hard slog, mainly serving to illustrate the resilience, spirit and determination of the Ukrainian people, and the relative weakness and ineffectuality of the Russian armed forces.

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The Man Who Would Be Speaker: The Kevin McCarthy Debacle

Well, that was fun!  The 118th Congress kicked off with a bang on January 3rd, and an impressive showing of just how incapable of governing the House GOP majority truly is.  Far from running the country, they couldn’t even pick a Speaker!  Pardon me while I indulge in a bit of schadenfreude, a marvelously descriptive turn of phrase which in German means “shameful joy,” taking pleasure in the misfortune of another.  I really should be mourning the tragic state of politics in America, and I do, truly.  But somehow, I can’t help smiling at Kevin McCarthy’s discomfiture.

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