Midnight Meme Of The Day!

-Noah

Dateline Washington: The Republican Party proudly announced today that they have made some changes to their traditional elephant symbol. A statement issued by National Republican Party Chairman Reince Mengele read as follows:

It was hard for us to break with our traditional symbol, but we feel strongly that the new symbol reflects the values and attitudes of today's Republican Party. In addition, we will be stepping up our youth outreach programs.

To that effect, we are starting up our "Make Playgrounds Great Again" effort. The effort will be lead by Alabama Governor Katherine Kay Kudzu and is already being met with tremendous enthusiasm. You would be amazed if I told you many of our best people, republican men, in particular, are signing up as volunteers for this fantastic program. We will also be revealing a new line of children's wear including "Make Playgrounds Great Again" hats and "Make Playgrounds Great Again" t-shirts. All the clothing will be designed by Ivanka Trump and will be, of course, made by our friends in China. The clothing will be made available on the Trump Family Website. Family values are always a big part of the Republican way of doing things!

At today's White House press gathering, Trump White House Press Secretary Sarah Killer Bee Sanders, wearing a new black and yellow horizontal striped sweater and matching yellow antennae said that this new Republican outreach is meant to show that the Republican Party is "so much more than just a party of angry old white men." She added that the sweater she was wearing will be available in children's sizes. "We want to be sure that no child's behind is left, I mean no child is left, well, you know what I mean."

On the road in Alabama, campaigning for republican senatorial candidate Judge Moore Boys, Trump Grand Wizard Bannon, dressed in two Confederate Flag shirts, reassured attendees at a local republican rally that the new outreach to future republican voters would in no way affect the party's efforts to preserve its ideals of white supremacy and tax cuts for the wealthy.

"IF It Proves True" Is A Very Disingenuous Trope Republicans Are Using To Protect Their Own Asses

The Democrats were going to win big in the 2006 midterms. An anti-Bush/anti-GOP wave had been building in intensity and reach for months. In the end, the Republicans lost a net of 30 seats, and although the DCCC elected mostly Blue Dogs and New Dems from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party who were never going to be able to hold their seats-- they've pretty much all been subsequently defeated-- among the GOP scumbags who were defeated were real villains like Dick Pombo (R-CA), Jim Ryun (R-KS), Charles Taylor (R-NC), J.D. Hayworth (R-AZ), John Sweeney (R-NY), Curt Weldon (R-PA), Mark Green (R-WI) and Chris Chocola (R-IN). The cherry on the cake was the Mark Foley child molestation scandal. And, although Pelosi closed ranks with the Republicans to protect their colleague personally, the scandal was the last straw for many voters that year. Foley molesting underage boys-- no, he didn't just send them mash notes online-- damaged the GOP's brand.

Speaking of which... what more is there to say about that posterchild of Republican hypocrisy, Roy Moore? After a couple of days of moral ambiguity from most of them, Republican office-holders have finally started to distance themselves from him. Senators Mike Lee (R-UT), Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and Steve Daines (R-MT) officially rescinded their endorsements of Moore. Bob Corker made it clear that he's glad he never endorsed the unfit Moore in the first place:

The most that most Republicans were willing to say was that "if" the charges were proven true, Moore should step aside. That cap includes Mike Pence, Ted Cruz (R-TX), Huckabee's ridiculous daughter, McConnell (R-KY), Cory Gardner (R-CO), Susan Collins (R-ME), Rob Portman (R-OH), Pat Toomey (R-PA), Richard Shelby (R-AL), Thom Tillis (R-NC), John Cornyn (R-TX),Lee Zeldin (R-NY). To anyone reading the Washington Post story-- instead of the Hannity or Breitbart translation for idiots-- the charges are as proven as they will ever be. There isn't going to be a trial with a judge and jury making an official determination, is there? Instead, you either believe the 30-some-odd women and witnesses or you believe the psychotic child molester. How many Republicans in the House have bothered distancing themselves from Moore? The only ones I could find public statements from are super-vulnerable members Barbara Comstock (R-VA), Peter King (R-NY) and Carlos Curbelo (R-FL). Curbelo pointed out that "this man is despicable and should step down. To call him 'unfit' is generous." Why can't some of them take the kinds of unambiguous stands that the party's last two legitimate presidential nominees took?

Barbara Comstock's anti-Moore screed was classic, though; I wonder why some of her Republican House colleagues don't follow her on this? Where's Speaker  Ryan? Too worried about how the child molestation charges will impact his tax cuts for billionaires legislation-- his own holy grail? Comstock:

Harvey Weinstein, Anthony Weiner, Roger Ailes, Roy Moore ... No Moore of this ... 4 woman have come forward with detailed stories about Roy Moore. Their stories are confirmed through numerous sources who knew of the actions at the time or well before now. I believe the stories from the victims of Harvey Weinstein, Roger Ailes and others because they were substantiated and consistent with the stories of how sexual predators operate. To date Roy Moore has not provided any credible explanation or response to the detailed allegations, particularly the allegations by a woman who was at the time a 14-year-old girl and Roy Moore was a 32-year-old district attorney. The defense from some of his supporters is beyond disturbing. Today, the National Review Editorial Board also set out the case against Roy Moore and why he should drop out. Roy Moore should not serve in the U.S. Senate

According to Teresa Jones who served as deputy district attorney for Etowah County, Alabama-- part of the time Roy Moore was molesting underage girls-- "It was common knowledge that Roy Moore dated high school girls, everyone we knew thought it was weird," Jones told CNN. "We wondered why someone his age would hang out at high school football games and the mall... but you really wouldn't say anything to someone like that."

Down in Alabama, Republicans are using God and Jesus and The Bible to excuse Moore's predatory behavior. The state auditor Jim Zeigler (R-AL): "Take the Bible: Zachariah and Elizabeth for instance. Zachariah was extremely old to marry Elizabeth and they became the parents of John the Baptist. Also take Joseph and Mary. Mary was a teenager and Joseph was an adult carpenter. They became parents of Jesus. There's just nothing immoral or illegal here. Maybe just a little bit unusual."

Last week, best selling author and ex-Evangelical Frank Schaeffer told us that he "grew up in the big time Evangelical subculture. Roy Moore’s penchant for child sex/assault and alleged rape was all too typical. There was always some nasty little sex secret with a pastor going on. In public-- like Moore-- it was all about godly lives. In private it was all about double standards. From rape to who got abortions, to how evangelical churches protected their pedophile molesters, one story emerged: Protect the 'Work' at all costs! The children who a pastor rapes are told to keep silent less they 'Hurt the Lord’s Work.' And the children are blamed: 'Your skirt was too short! You led him astray!' Roy Moore isn’t the abusive anomaly, he’s the patriarchal norm. This goes back to the Bible itself that puts brutal men in charge of churches where women must be silent. Voices raised in protest are exiled. Moore is a poster boy for evangelicals like Ralph Reed, who should be in jail for double dealings with the casino owners. He’s a poster boy for the professional hater Franklin Graham. Moore with his gun-waving, Bible-quoting is no different in hypocrisy than is Sarah Huckabee, as she quotes Jesus with one side of her mouth and lies for Trump daily out of the other."

Hogan is the Republican governor of Maryland

By Saturday, Schaeffer had time to think more about it and he wrote a post on his own blog: When Christian Cite The Bible To Defend Child Molestation We've Reached The Bottom Of The American/Evangelical Slide To Hell.

Moore suggested just this year that the 9/11 terror attacks were God’s punishment because “we legitimize sodomy.” He has said that homosexuality is “the same thing” as sex with a cow and should be criminalized, and argued that Representative Keith Ellison should not be allowed to serve in Congress because he is a Muslim.

Following Moore’s “logic” it might be time to ask when God will destroy America because it is filled with people claiming to follow Jesus who also-- like Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Roy Moore, Jim Ziegler and others-- sink to both blasphemy and outright lies in defending child molesting in the name of the Bible.

When Evangelicals defend an alleged pedophile saying Moore is as “clean as a hound’s tooth” and offer a defense of child abuse saying the Virgin Mary was a teenager when Joseph married her (in fact, the Bible does not indicate her age), adding: “They became parents of Jesus,” then maybe God really will strike down America… just for the hell of it, because-- like Trump grabbing women’s crotches-- He can get away with it.

This morning, I had the great honor of joining Joy Reid, Karine Jean-Pierre, Kurt Bardella, David Frum, Jason Johnson, and Bishop William Barber on AM Joy to discuss the desperate hypocrisy of the Republican party, which has become, unequivocally and enthusiastically, the party of Trump, Mass Shootings, Milo, Bannon, Rape, Neo-Nazis, White Supremacy, and most recently, the repeatedly disgraced Judge Roy Moore, whose actions have added a new word to the Republican lexicon: Pedophile.

Will Eric Cantor Name The 7 Legion Of Christ Child Predators To His Young Guns Mob?

Father Maciel and his prey

Some of the air and oomph was taken out of Cantor's Young Gun initiative this year when he and his Illinois operative, sneaky closet case Aaron Schock, used it to take down veteran conservative Don Manzullo on behalf of their Young Gun pal Adam Kinzinger. But the NRCC is still using the name the same way the DCCC uses the Red-to-Blue program, highlighting to donors which candidates have the party establishment's seal of approval. Many low-info donors write checks based on who the party bosses put in Red-to-Blue and Young Guns. Because they have the same name, the NRCC program is often confused with Cantor's sleazy Young Guns PAC, which is widely hated inside the GOP congressional caucus these days.

Half of the Young Guns inductees are waging competitive bids against Democratic incumbents. They are: Keith Rothfus of Pennsylvania, Matt Doheny and Randy Altschuler of New York, Richard Tisei of Massachusetts, Andy Barr of Kentucky, and Ricky Gill of California.

The party is also providing support for several candidates, such as Jackie Walorski of Indiana and Jason Plummer of Illinois, who are seeking seats that Democratic members are vacating. Also tapped to be part of the program is Arizona Republican Jesse Kelly, who’s running in the June special election to complete the term of former Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.

The committee has also inducted two contenders who are seeking seats that were created in redistricting and that do not have an incumbent, David Valadao of California and Mia Love of Utah.

One Young Gun is running for a seat a Republican member is vacating: Tony Strickland of California, who is waging a bid for the Ventura County-area district of retiring GOP Rep. Elton Gallegly.

But there's a whole stock of perfect Republican candidates just watching for Sessions and Cantor to recruit for the Young Guns. Perhaps young Schock should get right on this one. The Vatican has been forced into investigating 7 priests from the child rape organization they were running called the Legion of Christ. All 7 were active participants in sexual abuse of minors and other criminal activities. Just over a year ago, we looked at the horrific career of papal favorite Marcial Maciel, the serial rapist who headed the Legion of Christ and who was always protected by "former" Nazi, Pope Ratzinger. But the pressure to investigate the whole den of child rapists, including a recent rape of a child, has been mounting to the point that even Ratzinger had to give in. (I wonder if they'll conclude that the rapist priests were just sending inappropriate texts and IMs to their victims.)

The investigations mark the first known Vatican action against Legion priests for alleged sexual assault following the scandal of the Legion's founder, who was long held up as a model by the Vatican despite credible accusations-- later proven-- that he raped and molested his seminarians.

The Legion, which is now under Vatican receivership, has insisted that the crimes of its late founder, the Rev. Marciel Maciel, were his alone.

But the Vatican investigation of other Legion priests indicates that the same culture of secrecy that Maciel created within the order to cover his crimes enabled other priests to abuse children-- just as abusive clergy of other religious orders and dioceses have done around the world.

...While the investigation is under way, the accused priests are being kept away from children, the Legion said.

"Over the past few years, in several countries, the major superiors of the Legion of Christ have received some allegations of gravely immoral acts and more serious offenses ... committed by some Legionaries," the statement said.

...Preliminary investigations of an unspecified number of other priests accused of abuse found them innocent, the Legion said.

The scandal of Maciel and the Legion ranks as one of the worst of the 20th-century Catholic Church, since he was held up as a model for the faithful by Pope John Paul II. The orthodox order, which has about 900 priests around the world, was praised for attracting both money and vocations to the priesthood.

Documentation from Vatican archives, however, has shown that as early as the 1950s, the Vatican had evidence that he was a drug addict and pedophile.

Only in 2006 did the Vatican sanction Maciel to a lifetime of penance and prayer for his crimes. He died in 2008 and a year later the Legion admitted he had fathered three children with two different women and had abused his seminarians.

The Vatican took over the Legion in 2010 and is pushing through a process of reform.
Aaron Loughrey, 35, was a 17- or 18-year-old Legion seminarian in Ireland in the spring of 1995 when he says he was forced by a superior to masturbate him in bed. Loughrey, who left the Legion before being ordained, says he has been in counseling almost ever since as he seeks justice from the order.

He said that the vow he took as a seminarian never to criticize the actions or deeds of a superior made him unable to question what the priest had told him to do. In a parallel to the way Maciel abused his seminarians, Loughrey says his superior had told him that an unnamed illness gave him terrible cramps in his lower abdomen that could only be eased with massage.

"In my heart and in my conscience I believed that I had acted that night like a true Legionary-- putting my superior's needs before my own-- and I stuffed the unsavory thoughts and feelings to the back of my mind," Loughrey has written.

In an email Friday, Loughrey said he was certain there were more than just a handful of abusers in the Legion. Those currently under investigation represent about 1 percent of Legion priests.

"I would like to say I am glad about this (investigation), but I am honestly not hopeful that anything will come of it," he said.

This is, of course, the problem of forcing people-- priests and Republicans-- to live their miserable lives in closets. They always go insane. Always. Closets are for clothes, not for humans.

Is Sexual Dysfunction An Integral Part Of Conservatism?

When I mentioned the other day that easy and unaccountable sexual access to children is a perk of the Roman Catholic priesthood, the last thing in the world I was trying to imply was that most Mexican priests are child molesters. I have no way of knowing how many are and how many aren't. And I meant the comment to apply to all Roman Catholic priests everywhere, not just in Mexico where far right fanatic and pedophile Papal favorite Rev. Marcial Maciel was from. Sexual access to children has always been a perk to Catholic priesthood and fact that the Legion of Christ was a favored cult within the organization, bringing in billions of dollars in loot, wasn't slowed down one bit just because they were, clearly, an organized international pedophile ring.

Today there's a tempest in a teapot scandal here in America-- not over the deaf boys who were systematically raped by a Wisconsin priest and the typical Vatican cover-up (and complicity)-- but because the clownish head of the Republican National Committee was using Party funds to party with. An RNC spokesperson confirmed that Michael Steele is being investigated for using donors' contributions "at a bondage-themed club that features topless female dancers imitating lesbian sex." As typical of conservative politicians as this is, it is nothing compared to the scandals rocking the conservative theologians who run Roman Catholic Church, Inc. worldwide.

An Irish-Catholic friend extremely concerned about the predator priests scandals that have been unfolding in Ireland asked me to take a look at a post by Father Tim at Irish Central. Before I got to it, I saw a story about how a 15 year old boy may be headed to prison for having consensual sex with his 14 year old girlfriend. Priests who rape 8 year old boys, on the other hand, get transferred to another parish... at worst. Priests like Father Tim, the non-twisted ones-- may even be in a majority in the Church, but I don't hear much outcry to dump Ratzinger or prosecute him.

A great deal of the rage and shock felt by the public about the Catholic Church's self-inflicted child sex abuse scandal centers on a simple question: WHY didn't those in authority DO SOMETHING right away when they heard about THE PROBLEM?

Of course, many of those in authority DID do something right away: They either ignored it, blamed the victims and swore them to silence after wrenching, blame-switching interrogations, or transferred the offending priest to another parish or even another country where he was free to renew his evil acts. A few sought to send the priest, or the victims, or all of them, to a Church psychiatrist (a responsibility I know well) -- hopefully to both sort out the truth, arrive at a just solution consistent with canon and civil law, and to help begin the process of emotional and spiritual healing needed by all.

Sadly but honestly though, this latter path was the exception rather than the rule. And an even less-followed path was simply calling the police, although in Ireland particularly, the Church had built itself a very high pedestal from which to "rule" its flock -- which the police were part of. They were not in the business of arresting priests on the word of a couple of young, probably "misbehaving" boys.

I am sure it will not shock you to hear that the Church has a BIG problem with sex. In fact, the pedophile scandal has probably forced the Vatican to use the word "sex" more often in the past couple of months than it has in the past couple of centuries. There is little in the Gospels to help it offer the Faithful a very clear "What would Jesus have done?" about anything relating to sex -- much less, sex crimes. And they haven't gotten very far with just "Be fruitful and multiply" and the strong implication that sex is for having children (and, oh yes, expressing love).

People have asked me if I really believe that every conservative is sick and if conservatism tends to make people unable to deal with the real world. Well, not every conservative is sexually dysfunctional; after all, every rule has an exception. But last night I was reminded once again what the conservative mindset leads to when I watched a program, The Longest Night, about Austrian conservative Josef Fritzl who started raping his daughter when she was eleven, eventually drugged her and dragged her down to a soundproof cellar he constructed and kept her down there, as a sex slave, for 24 years, fathering seven children by her.

Authorities say Fritzl imprisoned and repeatedly raped his daughter, Elisabeth, for 24 years in a cramped and windowless dungeon he built beneath the family's home in the western town of Amstetten. Investigators say DNA tests show he fathered her six surviving children.

Another child died in infancy, and that prompted the murder charge. Prosecutors contend the baby boy might have survived if Fritzl had arranged for medical care [Fritzl pled guilty to murder, was sentenced to life in prison and is now planning to demand a retrial.]

In her opening statement, prosecutor Christiane Burkheiser accused Fritzl of repeatedly raping his daughter in front of the children. Burkheiser said Fritzl didn't talk to his daughter during her first few years in captivity and that he simply came down to the cellar to rape her.

"Josef Fritzl used his daughter like his property," Burkheiser said, adding that for her first delivery he gave her an unsterilized blanket to wrap up the infant and a book of childbirth instructions-- but only because Elisabeth urged him to.

She alleged that Fritzl once punished the young woman by shutting off electricity to the dungeon, and forced her to spend the first part of her captivity in a tiny space that didn't even have a shower or warm water.

"The worst was ... there was no daylight," Burkheiser said, adding it was also "incredibly humid" in the cramped space and the air was moldy and stale... Defense lawyer Rudolf Mayer appealed to the jury to be objective and insisted Fritzl was "not a monster," saying his client even brought a Christmas tree down to his captives, whom he considered a second family.

Am I saying that this is the other side of people like Paul Ryan and Jim DeMint? Absolutely. Just watch:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

OBAMA GETS TOUGH WITH RIGHT-WING PEDOPHILE

Not all right wing extremists are pedophiles and not all pedophiles are right-wing extremists. Just almost all of them.

Today the Smoking Gun pointed in the direction of a nutcase web site that nearly makes Ann Coulter seem normal. Puellula dot com-- I ain't linkin' to this one-- is a disgusting pedophile site that posted pictures of Barack Obama's 2 young daughters (ages 8 and 5). Obama took action immediately and forced the removal of the pictures from Lindsay Ashford's really creeped-out site. Registered in Panama, the site celebrates "little girl love." If you feel a need to vomit-- and you've already spent enough time looking at the CPAC coverage-- you can try Puellula.

Ashford, who claims to "handicap the 2008 presidential campaign by evaluating the 'cuteness' of underage daughters and granddaughters of White House aspirants," has posted a letter he sent to Obama's lawyers:

As per your request, the images of Senator Obama's children no longer appear on the website.
I have, however, chosen to retain a link to the senator's website. I would remind you that the terms of service on the senator's website expressly permit me to do so. The page contains the following text: "We encourage you to link to our Website, but you acknowledge that such linking does not constitute an endorsement by us of you, your website, or any information or content therein." I have never intimated that the senator supports me or my website in any way.
I have no intention of removing references to Senator Obama and his family from my website. Whatever anybody thinks of my opinions, they are not defamatory. If anything, my comments are laudatory. Furthermore, my right to express my opinion is protected by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.
Finally, I would point out to you the fact that pedophilia is not a crime. Pedophilia, according to the definition of the American Psychiatric Association is a sexual attraction to children. It does not imply any action whatsoever upon that attraction. This fact is confirmed by many specialists in sexuality, including Drs. Fred Berlin and Peter Fagan, both of Johns Hopkins University. Whilst I agree that under the laws of many nations, sexual contact with children is illegal, my website does not encourage anybody to break the law. In fact, it clearly discourages illegal activity. It does support using democratic means to encourage dialogue and reconsider such statutes.
I certainly hope that Senator Obama would agree that debate and public discourse are important facets of any democratic society, irrespective of how distasteful some may find particular issues.

I think normal Americans have had about enough of Republican perverts masquerading as supporters of Family Values, repulsive slime like far right GOP racist pedophile and United States Senator Strom Thurmond (who had sex with a 15-year old black girl which produced a child), ex-GOP Congressman Mark Foley, Republican anti-abortion activist Howard Scott Heldreth (a convicted child rapist in Florida), Republican County Commissioner David Swartz (who pleaded guilty to molesting two girls under the age of 11), Republican judge Mark Pazuhanich (who pleaded no contest to fondling a 10-year old girl), Republican legislator Edison Misla Aldarondo (who serially raped his own daughter starting at the ages of 9), Republican Mayor Philip Giordano (found guilty of sexually abusing 8 and 10-year old girls), Republican pastor Mike Hintz (whom George W. Bush commended during the 2004 presidential campaign, surrendered to police after admitting to a sexual affair with a female juvenile), Republican lobbyist Craig J. Spence (who organized child sex parties at the White House during the 1980s), Republican Congressman Donald "Buz" Lukens (who was found guilty of having sex with a female minor), Republican Congressman Dan Crane ( who had sex with a female minor working as a congressional page), Republican congressman and anti-gay activist Robert Bauman (who was charged with having sex with a 16-year-old boy he picked up at a gay bar), and dozens more. Isn't it time to take a good hard look at the Ann Coulters and the Bill O'Reillys of the world, throw up and move on-- away from the GOP and back to sanity?