“It’s bad enough being flown upside down from from the Alitos flagpole, but this was galactically humiliating.” The American Flag, on filing suit against Donald Trump for sexual assault June 15, 2024
Early this morning in a Florida courthouse, the American Flag filed a civil suit against Donald Trump for damages from an alleged sexual assault during Donald Trump’s June 14th 78th birthday party. It is alleged that during Mr. Trump’s Palm Beach party,
“On numerous occasions during the evening of June 14, 2024 Mr. Trump did, (1) with both diminutive hands and without permission or warning, fondle, squeeze, and crush the defenseless complainant American Flag, and (2) with both lips and with tongue outstretched and without permission or warning, forcefully kiss the defenseless complainant American Flag.
Complainant seeks judgement and monetary damages for: (1) sexual assault, (2) mental distress, (3) damage to reputation, (4) medically bruised lips, (5) medical effects of severe vomiting in the wake of the assault, and (6) removal of Mr. Trump’s sweat stains from complainant American Flag’s body.”
Civil Doc. No. FL061424-666, June 16, 2024.”
The Trump campaign denies this occurred, despite being witnessed by numerous other American flags at the venue. Candidate Trump briefly deployed his oft-repeated criticisms that “Sleepy Joe Biden thought this up and paid the American Flag to bring this rigged lawsuit. Pelosi, witch hunts, election interference, it’s another Biden crime family crime spree!”
The Biden campaign, for its part, maintained, “Yet another set of lies from the disgraced felonious former fathead president. Democracy, Bidenomics, E. Jean Carroll, Russia, Russia, Russia, and where’s Melania?!”
Despite the full plate of Trump indictments and pending trials, we will strive to follow every lead in this new Trump-induced ludicrosity.
This post is a reprint of one I published in October 2011 entitled “The Floridation of Fluoridation: Pinellas County Commission Votes to Increase Tooth Decay.” In the midst of the MAGA anti-science/anti-regulation movement this 2011 post reminds us that this kind of retreat from rationality has suffered through many other periods, and this particular version is only twelve years past. This one, spearheaded by the Tea Party crusade, was an obvious precursor of the worse things to come with our present MAGA crowd who have taken this to an extreme, of course. They have far more political power than the Tea Party had.
In fact, a strong third party candidate, Robert Kennedy Jr., has built much of his campaign around conspiracy thinking about vaccinations. He may have enough support to materially affect the 2024 election outcome, and many political analysts believe he might draw enough votes in close battleground states to propel Trump into our lives for four more years. And, given the very limited success of the court cases against him and the weakness of our incumbent president’s popularity, there is no vaccination against a second Trump regime.
October 14, 2011
NAZIs for Tooth Decay
Teeth Are Highly Overrated. Last night, Rachel Maddow gave us a glimpse at what a Tea party Republican America might look like. It ain’t pretty. And it’s stupider than it ain’t pretty. Moreover, its collective toothy grin will be missing a tooth or two within a fairly short time. . .
On October 4th, Pinellas County Florida’s Tea Party dominated Board of County Commissioners voted 4-3 to remove fluoride from the county water supply, exempting St. Petersburg and a few other cities. Health concerns? Not so much. One could sympathize if the commissioners based their decision on serious health concerns. They didn’t. Indeed, there are no serious health concerns associated with fluoridation according to an overwhelming number of public health researchers.
Then what? One local Tea Partier put it this way, according to the October 5th St. Petersburg Times: “Fluoride is a toxic substance,” said tea party activist Tony Caso of Palm Harbor. “This is all part of an agenda that’s being pushed forth by the so-called globalists in our government and the world government to keep the people stupid so they don’t realize what’s going on.”He added: “This is the U.S. of A, not the Soviet Socialist Republic.”
Another, an actual voting member of the commission, longtime Republican John Moroni joined Norm Roche, Neil Brickfield and Nancy Bostock in voting to stop the program. . . Morroni compared the practice to the disputed federal health care reform law mandating that people buy health insurance. Ultimately, he said, public support has shifted since he and other commissioners approved the practice. “I don’t think the county government should be telling people they have to have fluoride in the water,” Morroni said. If folks want their water flavored with slime, fish heads, mercury, and petroleum, Morroni will apparently brook no governmental interference. This is a guy who, believe it or not, also serves on the county’s Health and Human Services Coordinating Council.
Pinellas County residents shrugged. In fact, a week after the vote Morroni’s emails were highly supportive. At the next commission meeting on October 11th, he stuck to his guns. Citizens spoke out as well. According to TampaBay.com: “One woman blamed fluoride in her drinking water for making her overweight, causing dentists to shrug. Another woman handed all seven commissioners a book: The Fluoride Deception. . . In a tangle [between two commissioners, one of them] even compared adding fluoride to dropping psychotropic drugs Ritalin and Prozac in the water.” Why not Viagra, I ask.
Mind you, fluoridation has never been popular in Pinellas County. According to the St. Petersburg Times, until its 2004 debut it was, “the largest water supplier in the eastern United States that did not fluoridate its water.” This despite the wide acceptance of fluoride’s positive effect on reducing dental disease.
The Mayor of Florida speaks out
Tea Party Florida-tion of America So, surely, this reaction to fluoride is an anomaly, a local breakout treatable with Clearasil. We’d think even the Tea Party understands the importance of proven public health measures. Well, no. The Tea Party has but one interest: to end anything they consider an “interference” with their brand of “liberty,” or “freedom.” This principle does not spare public health. In effect, they don’t recognize or give credence to the word “public” in any real sense. All men (and, presumably, women) are islands. Therefore, public health measures like fluoridation and vaccinations are invasions of liberty, or, thereby, privacy (a right they do not, by the way, believe exists in the Constitution). No public health measures would be safe in Tea Party America.
For example, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDCP) rates fluoridation as one of the “Ten Great Public Health Achievements” of the 20th Century, right there with these other successes, all intermediated by federal and state governments:
“healthier mothers and babies,” (WIC, Planned Parenthood, Food Stamps, etc.)
“family planning,” (Planned Parenthood, birth control, right to choose, etc.)
“vaccination,” (everything from measles to polio to APV)
“safer and healthier foods,” (FDA, Dept. of Agriculture), and
“safer workplaces” (OSHA, Mine safety, etc.).
Note that all these are on the national Tea Party hit list. Recall the debate over funding the FDA, the controversy over the otherwise loony Rick Perry’s APV vaccination program in Texas, the attempts to defund Planned Parenthood, and, most of all, the never ending attack on abortion rights, including some forms of birth control. As you know, there are many more examples of this that affect health or safety, that, in effect, endanger public health successes from reaching the public, particularly the poor.
Of course, a Tea Partiers’ primary peeve is a general one, from which their “policies” emerge like poop from a goose: government regulation of nearly any kind. Since all regulation of individual behavior or business practices are considered by them to be an interference with liberty and freedom, regulations furthering the promotion of the “Ten Great Public Health Achievements” of the 20th Century are slated for suppression. Here’s two more:
“Motor-vehicle safety,” and
“Recognition of tobacco use as a health hazard.”
These are, after all, an interference with an individual’s liberty to kill himself/herself needlessly. Regulations, like seat belt and motorcycle helmet laws, firstly, denies the freedom to be without insurance and then, secondly, let’s them rely on health professionals’ and hospitals’ charity to regain their health. “Responsibility to society” is not, in any real sense, a phrase in the Tea Party repertoire. (Nor is “repertoire”)
In any event, the above covers eight of CDCP’s “Ten Great Public Health Achievements” of the 20th Century, all slated for serious ugly treatment by the Tea Party. That leaves two more:
“Control of infectious diseases,” and
“Decline in deaths from coronary heart disease and stroke”
There must be something wrong with these. . . How will they attack them? Well, if not directly, they plan to do so indirectly by defunding national research programs like NIH, CDCP, and others. This is already underway in the GOP-dominated Congress.
This is another posting from 2011 added here as I refill this newer version of the blog with posts since 2008 to 2019. Hope you find these “historical artifacts” interesting.
September 29, 2012
Where and how did Homer Simpson learn to call Mr. Montgomery Burns, his well-known boss, a “job creator”? It’s interesting. Springfield Hospital’s maternity ward reports that Burns, early this summer, emerged “reborn” as a new man, a job creator. Since then, rather than being known as merely a miserable conniving rat bastard nuclear power purveyor and destroyer of lives, Springfielders have had to reassess him. Warily, they’ve not yet embraced the new Mr. Burns, nonetheless, attempts on his life are no longer routine. Burns likes this. A lot. He can cut his security staff by 40%. “Excellent. Unloading the creeps during a recession adds unbounded joy to a procedure normally quite unextraordinary.”
Today, I was reminded of how this transformation came to be. It required no changes whatever to Monty’s wretched behavior. His unmatched disdain for people, puppies, and philanthropy? Intact. Disgust with slack-jawed troglodyte union organizers? Better than ever. Yet, reborn, Monty became a “Job Creator.” Sounds almost like a hale fellow well met. What happened? The explanation is all around us. Today, an email from former Democratic Congressman Alan Grayson (D-FL), reminded me how easy this was to accomplish, and not just for Monty Burns.
The Bonfire of Poli-Speak. I get Alan Grayson. Most Democrats do not. Most Dems are now utterly centrist, which in the recent pre-Tea Party past was considered “right-leaning,” and “blue dog.” Alan Grayson is not centrist. His bona fides: he earned a 2.00 rating out of a possible 100.00 from Conservative.org for his voting record. Yes, a “2.” In November’s midterms, Grayson fell to GOP right winger Daniel Webster. Among hisbona fides? In 2005, while serving in the Florida Senate, the gallant Webster fought to keep Terry Schiavo in a persistent vegetative state. Today, in GOP circles, that is considered centrist.
Being in the D.C. area, I’m far distant from his district. As a fan, though, I and thousands of others get emails from time to time with his pithy (he puts the pith in pithy) observations of the current scene. His email today reminded me of a political communications consultant named Frank Luntz. He’s beloved by the GOP for his ability to manufacture dishonest but strangely pleasing phrases that hide what’s really going on underneath. The method is particularly effective when arrayed against the less well-informed, but even seasoned Democratic party boosters and wonks are routinely fooled. So, Luntz’s output is more than lying, and it’s also . . . less. That enigma makes his work for the GOP dangerous.
And that makes it a story worth telling. Monty Burns – and the Koch brothers – would prefer I not do so. . . So, let’s do!
You Say “Toe-MAY-toe,” I Say “Shut Up!“ I hadn’t thought much lately about Frank Luntz, the GOP’s de facto syntax professor and Minister of Truth & Public Enlightenment. His wordsmithery has impacted national political discussion by successfully redefining words and phrases used to discuss policy issues. The GOP, more than any others, has used Luntz’s sleight-of-hand to stake out their radical positions by literally changing the language used to debate them.
That, of course, is what’s meant by “framing” an issue. We all try it. Wives and husbands. Teenagers justifying almost anything. Progressives. Labor unions. Socialists. Tea Partiers. And so too the Democratic party, but without skill or persistence. Now here’s a discouraging truth: No group distorts language to their advantage better than the Luntz-inspired GOP. Democrats are late to the game on this, rarely understanding the national impact of the GOP’s expertly crafted assault on voters’ sense of personal responsibility and public morality, especially their commitment to neighbors, near and far. The result is deadly to Democratic party principles, with a pivotal election approaching.
Some say, “So what? Politicians lie. When not lying they’re thinking about lying.” Well, Luntz’s approach is not precisely a renewed dedication to downright lying, it’s not a prescription for lavish bullsh*tting either. None of this gambling with political language, of course, is new, either. The reigning method, though, is highly refined for the telecommunications-driven 21st Century. As never before, disguised untruth can be pushed to the media outlets in all its forms, 24/7. Beware Frank Luntz while praying for the Democrats to discover their own.
Teeth Are Highly Overrated. Last night, Rachel Maddow gave us a glimpse at what a Tea party Republican America might look like. It ain’t pretty. And it’s stupider than it ain’t pretty. Moreover, its collective toothy grin will be missing a tooth or two within a fairly short time. . .
On October 4th, Pinellas County Florida’s Tea Party dominated Board of County Commissioners voted 4-3 to remove fluoride from the county water supply, exempting St. Petersburg and a few other cities. Health concerns? Not so much. One could sympathize if the commissioners based their decision on serious health concerns. They didn’t. Indeed, there are no serious health concerns associated with fluoridation according to an overwhelming number of public health researchers.
Then what? One local Tea Partier put it this way, according to the October 5th St. Petersburg Times: “Fluoride is a toxic substance,” said tea party activist Tony Caso of Palm Harbor. “This is all part of an agenda that’s being pushed forth by the so-called globalists in our government and the world government to keep the people stupid so they don’t realize what’s going on.”He added: “This is the U.S. of A, not the Soviet Socialist Republic.”
Another, an actual voting member of the commission, longtime Republican John Moroni joined Norm Roche, Neil Brickfield and Nancy Bostock in voting to stop the program. . . Morroni compared the practice to the disputed federal health care reform law mandating that people buy health insurance. Ultimately, he said, public support has shifted since he and other commissioners approved the practice. “I don’t think the county government should be telling people they have to have fluoride in the water,” Morroni said. If folks want their water flavored with slime, fish heads, mercury, and petroleum, Morroni will apparently brook no governmental interference. This is a guy who, believe it or not, also serves on the county’s Health and Human Services Coordinating Council.
Pinellas County residents shrugged. In fact, a week after the vote Morroni’s emails were highly supportive. At the next commission meeting on October 11th, he stuck to his guns. Citizens spoke out as well. According to TampaBay.com: “One woman blamed fluoride in her drinking water for making her overweight, causing dentists to shrug. Another woman handed all seven commissioners a book: The Fluoride Deception. . . In a tangle [between two commissioners, one of them] even compared adding fluoride to dropping psychotropic drugs Ritalin and Prozac in the water.” Why not Viagra, I ask.
Mind you, fluoridation has never been popular in Pinellas County. According to the St. Petersburg Times, until its 2004 debut it was, “the largest water supplier in the eastern United States that did not fluoridate its water.” This despite the wide acceptance of fluoride’s positive effect on reducing dental disease.
The Mayor of Florida speaks out
Tea Party Florida-tion of America So, surely, this reaction to fluoride is an anomaly, a local breakout treatable with Clearasil. We’d think even the Tea Party understands the importance of proven public health measures. Well, no. The Tea Party has but one interest: to end anything they consider an “interference” with their brand of “liberty,” or “freedom.” This principle does not spare public health. In effect, they don’t recognize or give credence to the word “public” in any real sense. All men (and, presumably, women) are islands. Therefore, public health measures like fluoridation and vaccinations are invasions of liberty, or, thereby, privacy (a right they do not, by the way, believe exists in the Constitution). No public health measures would be safe in Tea Party America.
For example, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDCP) rates fluoridation as one of the “Ten Great Public Health Achievements” of the 20th Century, right there with these other successes, all intermediated by federal and state governments:
“healthier mothers and babies,” (WIC, Planned Parenthood, Food Stamps, etc.)
“family planning,” (Planned Parenthood, birth control, right to choose, etc.)
“vaccination,” (everything from measles to polio to APV)
“safer and healthier foods,” (FDA, Dept. of Agriculture), and
“safer workplaces” (OSHA, Mine safety, etc.).
Note that all these are on the national Tea Party hit list. Recall the debate over funding the FDA, the controversy over the otherwise loony Rick Perry’s APV vaccination program in Texas, the attempts to defund Planned Parenthood, and, most of all, the never ending attack on abortion rights, including some forms of birth control. As you know, there are many more examples of this that affect health or safety, that, in effect, endanger public health successes from reaching the public, particularly the poor.
Of course, a Tea Partiers’ primary peeve is a general one, from which their “policies” emerge like poop from a goose: government regulation of nearly any kind. Since all regulation of individual behavior or business practices are considered by them to be an interference with liberty and freedom, regulations furthering the promotion of the “Ten Great Public Health Achievements” of the 20th Century are slated for suppression. Here’s two more:
“Motor-vehicle safety,” and
“Recognition of tobacco use as a health hazard.”
These are, after all, an interference with an individual’s liberty to kill himself/herself needlessly. Regulations, like seat belt and motorcycle helmet laws, firstly, denies the freedom to be without insurance and then, secondly, let’s them rely on health professionals’ and hospitals’ charity to regain their health. “Responsibility to society” is not, in any real sense, a phrase in the Tea Party repertoire. (Nor is “repertoire”)
In any event, the above covers eight of CDCP’s “Ten Great Public Health Achievements” of the 20th Century, all slated for serious ugly treatment by the Tea Party. That leaves two more:
“Control of infectious diseases,” and
“Decline in deaths from coronary heart disease and stroke”
There must be something wrong with these. . . How will they attack them? Well, if not directly, they plan to do so indirectly by defunding national research programs like NIH, CDCP, and others. This is already underway in the GOP-dominated Congress.
