I’ve been thinking about the National Embarrassment’s EPA (now known as the Environmental Profiteering Agency) and the recent announcement that they think using asbestos again in manufacturing is just a peachy idea.  It was brought to mind the other day when I saw a commercial on television – yes, some people do still watch television – for a lawyer’s firm seeking people who suffer from Mesothelioma and may have been exposed to asbestos.  Now, I’m not a doctor – unless that’s the plan for the evening (nudge, nudge, wink, wink) – but I’m pretty sure asbestos has been linked fairly clearly to Mesothelioma.

Question: if you KNOW there’s an ARMY of attorneys out there just itching to sue your ass for exposing people to asbestos and, having already successfully sued many other asses for exposing people to asbestos, are you going to use asbestos?  The LAST crowd to use the stuff – those now doing the paying out – could at least offer as a defense the suggestion (I know…) that they didn’t know it was harmful when they used it.  Nobody gets to use that today.  NOW the suits will allege the companies did it with full knowledge of the danger and reckless disregard for the people who might come into contact with the stuff.

Maybe – just maybe – the Dumbass Don’s declaration that people can use it will fall on deaf ears and nobody will.  I can’t say for sure, though.  Greed is a terrible thing and Crapitalism boosts greed to an exalted state.  Crapitalism turns it into a simple formula: if they can make more in profits than they’ll have to pay out in punitive damages it will be worth it to the company.

I’ll tell you this: It sucks for humanity but the DOW may go up a couple of points, so…

The other day I was on social media – Facebook, to be exact.  One of my conservative friends had posted an item from conservative commentator Michelle Malkin.  In it, she was observing that social media was removing posts from conservative commentators.  You might want to let that sink in a minute, though some of you are with me already.  I was watching a conservative commentator on social media complaining that conservative commentators were being deleted on social media.  I followed a link on the post and discovered she has an entire page hosted on Facebook with post after post – all of which had NOT – obviously – been deleted.   I wonder if she appreciated the delicious irony…

I suspect her reference was about Alex Jones.  But Alex Jones is a flim-flam man.  He just wants to sell things and he’s found an audience gullible enough to buy anything he puts forward.  He plays to his weak-thinking audience by saying the most outrageous things he can.  He claims, for example, that the Sandy Hook shooting was a hoax and convinced his audience to harass the parents of the victims.  He – and Malkin – claim it’s a matter of free speech.  I think it’s the equivalent of yelling fire in a theater when no fire exists…

The reality is that social media outlets these days are worrying about being blamed for the raft of fake news being produced by various players and they’re working to tone down the bunk a bit.  It’s not their fault it’s mostly conservatives who fall for and repeat fake news.

The thing about Michelle Malkin is that she’s a master of the Lie of Omission.  The things she says are factually accurate – as far as they go.  It’s only in the aggregate that her “information” becomes false because she doesn’t share ALL of the facts – only those that support her position.  But a lie of omission is still a lie…

Are you with Q?  Ancient Alien theorists say, “Yes”!  I mean, really, who wouldn’t be?  He seems like a fun guy.  Granted John de Lancie played Q a bit…over the top as the saying goes but I think it gave Q that certain…je ne sais Quoi that made the character special – unforgettable, even.  Those episodes were always fun and he…what?
Wait, what?  ‘Deep State’?  What’s that?  Really?!?  Okay, one question:  when you make your hats, do you use the heavy duty foil or is the normal weight okay?

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I finally saw a climate change denier say in the social media that it would be inappropriate to try to say the fires currently raging across the entire western region of the United States have anything to do with Climate Change, specifically, Global Warming.  The “thinking”, apparently, is that because many of the fires have human-caused ignition points – several are attributed to arson – they can’t possibly be blamed on global warming.

And here I thought the IPCC said the fires that DID happen would be larger, more intense, and harder to fight.  I’m no expert but I don’t think sources of ignition even entered into the discussion.  Two record-setting fires in as many years seems to back the IPCC position.  You know…again…

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“Americans HAVE the sticker shock of health care as it is and what we’re also not talking about is, why aren’t we incorporating the costs of all the funeral expenses of those who die because they can’t afford access to health care?  That is part of the cost of our system.  Why don’t we talk about the cost of reduced productivity because of people who need to go on disability, because of people who are not able to participate in our economy because…they’re having issues like diabetes or, or they don’t have access to the health care that they need?  I think at the end of the day, we see that this is not a pipe dream.  Every other developed nation in the world does this.  Why can’t America?  And that is the question that we need to ask.  We have done these things before.  We write unlimited blank checks for war.  We write…we just wrote a two trillion dollar check for that tax cut – the GOP tax cut – and nobody asked those folks, “How are they going to pay for it?”  So MY question is, why is it that our pockets are only empty when it comes to education and health care for our kids?  Why are our pockets only empty when we talk about 100% renewable energy and it’s going to save this planet and allow our children to thrive?  We only have empty pockets when it comes to the morally right things to do.  But when it comes to, uh, tax cuts for billionaires and when it comes to unlimited war we seem to be able…to invent that num…invent that money very easily and, to me, it belies a lack of moral priorities that people have right now, especially the Republican Party.”
_                                                                                                                   – Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

I’ve heard a couple of things from my conservative brethren that I think even THEY must know are nothing more than talking points.  One is about Paul Manafort.  They pretend he shouldn’t be prosecuted because there’s no demonstrated link between him and Russians regarding the collusion investigation…that they know of, anyway.  That is to say, Meuller might well have discovered crimes in Manfort’s life but because Meuller is investigating campaign collusion with Russia how can crimes unrelated to campaign collusion be prosecuted?

I KNOW – and I mean, I really KNOW – that my conservative brethren aren’t that stupid.  Here, let me put it another way.  Let’s say I get pulled over for speeding and while the cop is approaching the car, he notices the body of the person I just murdered in the back seat.  According to the espoused theory, he’s supposed to ignore the axe in the body’s head and just write my citation and let me go.  After all, he stopped me for speeding.  It would be…inappropriate if he arrested me for the murder, right?  See?  Stupid.  It’s immediately apparent.

If this is the line the White House or ‘Fox and Friends’ or whomever wants you to parrot, don’t.  They’re asking YOU to bring shame and disgrace to yourself and your family to defend a lie.   Free advice, here.  If your “team” asks you to pretend you’re too stupid to see what’s wrong with the official position, you might want to decline lest someone take you at your word…

Speaking of Meuller, though, the whole “they haven’t found anything so the investigation should be shut down” line falls very near the other one on the stupid scale.  I simply refuse to believe conservatives are stupid enough NOT to know that the investigation is “on-going.”  (“On-going” means they’re still investigating.)  The reason you haven’t heard the details is that you’re not supposed to…yet.  One of the most important bits that whole line ignores is that our National Embarrassment keeps adding to the pile, extending the investigation.

Every time Dumbass Don tweets some new bit of obstruction, it has to be investigated, too.  Now that he’s confessed (via twitter) that he knew the meeting with the Russians was about getting dirt on Hillary, Meuller has more work to do.  The investigation gets extended.  In reality, you haven’t heard anything yet NOT because there’s nothing to report but, instead, because there’s so much, it’s taking a long, long time to pull it all together in a legally appropriate way.

I’ll tell you this: I KNOW my cons aren’t stupid.  But if you don’t want people to decide you’re stupid or call you stupid, stop pretending to be just to win a political fight.  Whatever the issue of the day is will come and go but the label you’re applying to yourself will last forever…