trolls

House Is Paralyzed By GQP Fascist Caucus Mutiny Against Speaker McCarthy

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House Speaker Kevin McCarthy laughingly claimed victory with the federal debt ceiling/federal budget resolution last week. His extremist House GQP Freedom [sic] Caucus – more accurately described as the GQP Fascist Caucus – voted against his bipartisan deal with President Biden, accusing him of betrayal. Now the GQP Fascist Caucus has shut down business in … Read more

House Passes The Honoring Our PACT Act For Veterans, Over Republican Opposition

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The seditious insurrectionist and Internet troll known as Rep. Lauren Boebert (Q-CO), Democratic lawmaker accuses Boebert of giving tours prior to insurrection, Tim Ryan: Prosecutors reviewing video of Capitol tours given by lawmakers before riot, who engages in performace politics to entertain other QAnon trolls, like heckling President Biden during his State of The Union … Read more

First the Russian troll farm, now a Chinese religious cult propaganda farm for Trump

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With his declared willingness to accept help from a foreign government in an election, President Trump upended long-held views that such outside assistance is anathema in American campaigns, both because of laws prohibiting foreign contributions and widely embraced norms of fair play. Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation clearly determined that the Trump campaign — including … Read more

Apparently, I blog about reproductive rights too much.

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I announced a while back that I would delete anti-choice comments or those dismissive of the idea that women’s reproductive rights are important and/or denying that those rights under constant attack by right wing politicians and “pro-life” bullies in the face of overwhelming evidence that that is exactly what is happening. I got one such comment yesterday and did delete it, as promised, and of course whining ensued by the commenter but fuck him because, as I said, I don’t have time to teach Pro-Choice 101 to people who clearly aren’t interested in understanding it.

I’m going to print part of his comment, though, because it is illustrative of a curious disparity in the response to my posting, which is admittedly (and proudly) focused on reproductive rights much of the time:

I have a hunch this issue took over your life a long time ago and it has now become, if not your life, then a major part of it. That’s sad. Especially when it leaves you so angry and bitter…

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Thucky and the Gish Gallop

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Frequent commenter Thucydides, who is affectionately known as Thucky around these parts and who may or may not be Arizona’s Superintendent of Public Instruction, has a familiar arguing style. DailyKos diarist AmBush referred to it after the first Presidential debate in 2012, where Mitt Romney “won” by spewing out a barrage of lies and distortions of his own positions. The technique is known as the Gish Gallop.

The Urban Dictionary defines the Gish Gallop thusly:

Named for the debate tactic created by creationist shill Duane Gish, a Gish Gallop involves spewing so much bullshit in such a short span on that your opponent can’t address let alone counter all of it. To make matters worse a Gish Gallop will often have one or more ‘talking points’ that has a tiny core of truth to it, making the person rebutting it spend even more time debunking it in order to explain that, yes, it’s not totally false but the Galloper is distorting/misusing/misstating the actual situation. A true Gish Gallop generally has two traits.

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