I finally know what in the hell Roseanne Barr is tweeting about. And I wish I didn't.

President Trump has freed so many children held in bondage to pimps all over this world. Hundreds each month. He has broken up trafficking rings in high places everywhere. notice that. I disagree on some things, but give him benefit of doubt-4 now.

— Roseanne Barr (@therealroseanne) March 31, 2018

Okay so that tweet has been sent to me a number of times since yesterday, but I had no fucking idea what she was referring to so I did not know what to post about it.

Well now I know.

Courtesy of Newsweek: 

The tweet seems to allude to a conspiracy theory known as The Storm, which emerged after Trump quipped at a photo op last October about it being “the calm before the storm.” 

Those who believe in the theory allege that cabals of high-ranking Democrats run child sex rings attended by celebrities, which Trump is breaking up. 

QAnon refers to a user of internet messaging board 4Chan, who claims to be a White House official with secret knowledge of the investigation into the sex trafficking ring.

“QAnon believers are convinced that the world is run by a nefarious deep state cabal of Democrats, celebrities, and intelligence community figures (many of whom, they claim, are pedophiles),” writes blogger Will Sommer, who monitors right-wing media, on Mediate. 

“Trump is about to take them all down, in their telling, often with sealed indictments that are hidden from the public. Hence Barr’s tweets about massive pedophile networks.”

Jesus.....H......Christ!

I mean seriously, what are these people huffing that makes this kind of bullshit seem even remotely plausible? 

Now of course the only reason that this crazy lady's tweets are even relevant right now is because ABC has decided to raise a zombiefied version of her old sitcom. And now the newly resurrected program seems hell bent on making Donald Trump palatable to the average American.

Now I will admit that back in the day I watched "Roseanne" and I even liked it at the time.

However in my defense I don't think I realized that she was out of her ever loving mind.

But I have NO intention of watching this reboot, and it is not because I do not have a lot of love for John Goodman, Laurie Metcalfe, and Sara Gilbert, because believe me I do.

But I would not even talk to my own mother if I found out she voted for, or supported, Donald Trump.

And this is not a partisan issue, this is an issue of having respect for somebody even as a fellow human being.

Donald Trump is the most rancid piece of shit to ever run for political office, so it is simply impossible for me to understand how any sentient being could have convinced themselves to cast a vote which allowed him to occupy the most important office in the country, if not in the world.

Some things are unforgivable, and that is one of them.

Even some of the folks at ABC are starting to have second thoughts.

In the wake of my Roseanne article I've been contacted by multiple people at ABC who've told me there's a real discomfort among many of the employees with the propagandist nature of the reboot and a feeling that the project is meant to monetize Trump's base.

— Jared Yates Sexton (@JYSexton) March 31, 2018

Gee, ya think?

H.R. McMaster out as Trump's National Security Adviser, will be replaced by John "bomb the hell out out everybody" Bolton.

I am pleased to announce that, effective 4/9/18, @AmbJohnBolton will be my new National Security Advisor. I am very thankful for the service of General H.R. McMaster who has done an outstanding job & will always remain my friend. There will be an official contact handover on 4/9.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 22, 2018

Courtesy of the New York Times:

Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster, the battle-tested Army officer tapped as President Trump’s national security adviser last year to stabilize a turbulent foreign policy operation, will resign and be replaced by John R. Bolton, a hard-line former United States ambassador to the United Nations, White House officials said Thursday. 

General McMaster will retire from the military, the officials said. He has been discussing his departure with President Trump for several weeks, they said, but decided to speed up his departure, in part because questions about his status were casting a shadow over his conversations with foreign officials. 

The officials also said that Mr. Trump wanted to fill out his national security team before his meeting with North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un. He replaced Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson with the C.I.A. director, Mike Pompeo, last week. 

Officials emphasized that General McMaster’s departure was a mutual decision and amicable, with none of the recrimination that marked Mr. Tillerson’s exit. They said it was not related to a leak on Tuesday of briefing materials for Mr. Trump’s phone call with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.

"They said it was not related to a leak on Tuesday of briefing materials for Mr. Trump’s phone call with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia." In other words that is EXACTLY what it is about.

(I just assume now that the truth is always the opposite of whatever the Trump White House says that it is. Real time saver. )

So now another grown up is out the door, leaving Trump surrounded by sycophants and conspiracy theorists.

And this new addition is DEFINITELY going to make things even more inane inside this White House.

John Bolton worked for the Bush Administration and was well known for wanting to bomb just about everybody, and who as Ambassador to the UN spent all of his time undermining it and shitting on its agenda.

After the Russians hacked the DNC, Bolton put forward the theory that it was a false flag operation orchestrated by President Obama.

You know, because THAT makes sense. 

Bolton also has ties to Cambridge Analytica, and once appeared in an advertisement for a pro-gun Russian group with ties to the NRA.

Fox News contributor, with ties to Cambridge Analytica, the NRA, and Russia.

Oh yeah, he is going to fit into this clown car just fine.

Family of slain DNC staffer sues Fox News.

Courtesy of ABC News:

Rich was shot and killed in Washington, D.C., in July 2016. Police said he was shot several times in the back and later died at a local hospital. Rich was 27 years old and worked as a voter-expansion data director for the DNC at the time. 

The May 16, 2017, Fox News article, which allegedly contained "false and fabricated facts," according to the lawsuit, fueled conspiracy theories that Rich was murdered in connection with a massive WikiLeaks data dump of 20,000 DNC emails days after his death. 

In the suit, which was obtained by ABC News, Rich's parents, Joel and Mary Rich, claim that Fox News investigative reporter Malia Zimmerman and Fox News commenter Ed Butowsky reached out to the family under false pretenses to support stories that Seth Rich leaked DNC emails to WikiLeaks. 

The lawsuit claims that Fox News, Zimmerman and Butowsky are liable for the harm caused by the report because they "aided and abetted the intentional infliction of emotional distress" caused by the story about Seth Rich and alleges that Fox News provided with a national platform to develop what the lawsuit dubs a "sham story."

So to be clear Donald Trump's favorite news outlet is being sued for spreading "fake news."

Nice to see that irony has made a full recovery and is back in the saddle.

But Fox News is not the only Right Wing outlet being sued for spreading conspiracy theories.

Courtesy of The Hill: 

A counterprotester at the deadly white supremacist rally last year in Charlottesville, Va., is suing the media outlet Infowars, its owner Alex Jones and seven others for defamation. 

Georgetown Law’s Civil Rights Clinic filed the lawsuit Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia on behalf of Brennan Gilmore, who alleges that Alex Jones and other far-right supporters, including former Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.), published stories about him that damaged his reputation and mobilized an army of followers to pursue a campaign of harassment and threats against him. 

Gilmore argues he became the target of elaborate online conspiracies that placed him at the center of a “deep-state” plot to stage the Charlottesville attack and destabilize the Trump administration after he posted a video he captured on Twitter of the car attack that killed Heather Heyer and injured 36 others. 

“From Sandy Hook to ‘Pizzagate’ to Charlottesville, Las Vegas and now Parkland, the defendants thrive by inciting devastating real-world consequences with the propaganda and lies they publish as ‘news,’” Gilmore said in a statement. 

“Today, I’m asking a court to hold them responsible for the personal and professional damage their lies have caused me, and, more importantly, to deter them from repeating this dangerous pattern of defamation and intimidation.”

Damn! First YouTube removes advertising from his videos, and now Alex Jones is getting his ass sued off. 

I would say that today was a banner day for truth and justice, would you not agree?

Well here's a little good news to start your day.

The Alex Jones channel with billions of views is frozen. We have been told it will be deleted tomorrow and all 33 thousands videos will be erased. We just set up this new page subscribe if you want to see what the SPLC wants censored.. https://t.co/0sGkMNUCPt

— Alex Jones (@RealAlexJones) March 4, 2018

If ever there were a more deserving POS for this to happen to, I certainly do not know their name.

Jones is behind some of the most egregious conspiracy theories that have spread chaos around the internet, including birtherism, the accusation that Sandy Hook was a "false flag" operation, and the Pizzagate lie which resulted in a man firing a gun in that establishment.

I hope they eject him from every social media outlet.

P.S. By the way as it turns out YouTube did not take down the channel, however they did strip him of his advertisers. 

So those explosive texts that got Donald Trump so excited yesterday were just another conspiracy theory nothing burger. You know, like we assumed.

NEW FBI TEXTS ARE BOMBSHELLS!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 7, 2018

(No, actually they're not.)

Courtesy of The Hill:

Text messages exchanged between two FBI employees stating that then-President Obama wanted “to know everything” referred to the bureau's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, not a probe into Hillary Clinton’s email server, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday. 

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) released a report Tuesday that included the exchange between FBI agent Peter Strzok and FBI attorney Lisa Page, arguing that the texts raised questions about Obama's involvement in the investigation into Clinton's email use. 

The report highlights one exchange from September 2016 in which Page wrote, “Potus wants to know everything we’re doing.” 

Associates of Strzok and Page, who were having an affair at the time, reportedly said the two were talking about Obama wanting information on Russian interference in the 2016 election. 

The exchange occurred days before Obama met with Russian President Vladimir Putin and spoke to him about election tampering, The Wall Street Journal reported. 

By the time the texts were sent, the FBI had closed its investigation into the Clinton email case. It did not reopen the case until October.

So President Obama wanted to know the extent of the Russian hacking before he confronted Vladimir Putin about it.

How dare he!

You know it was like he thought it was his job to keep this country safe from attack by a foreign government or something.

That is clearly not how his successor sees it.

At this point if there is a Republican running around saying the "sky is falling" it is not even worth the effort to look up.
 

Here is a GOP Congressman suggesting that the FBI and State Department should be purged of agents who are part of the "deep state."

WATCH: GOP Rep. Francis Rooney calls for 'purge' of FBI, accuses some in the agency of being a part of the 'deep state' pic.twitter.com/kkJTBPFeui

— MSNBC (@MSNBC) December 26, 2017

"Deep State" by  the way is right up there with the "Illuminati" and "Gay Mafia" as fantastical imaginary shadow organizations which conspiracy theorists claim are working the levers of power behind the scenes.

This is the kind of lunacy espoused by Alex Jones and Right Wing talk radio hosts.

To see an actual member of Congress using this kind of language is flatly terrifying.

Stephen Seagal has "written" a book, and look just in time for Christmas.

Courtesy of the AV Club: 

Apparently smarting after his interview with Piers Morgan was ridiculed far and wide for, among other things, obtusely arguing against NFL player protests and enthusiastically praising Vladimir Putin, lawman and blues guitarist Steven Seagal licked his wounds by writing a book, such that he could better explain his political ideas. It is written in the only language Seagal knows: that of a low-rent, straight-to-DVD action flick, its dual nature upheld by each side of the colon in its title The Way Of The Shadow Wolves: The Deep State And The Hijacking Of America. The foreword is by Sheriff Joe Arpaio, because of course it is.

The book follows John Nan Tan Gode, an Arizona Tribal police officer, described on the first page of the book as having “classic chiseled features,” who stumbles upon a conspiracy that reaches the highest levels of power. It is, in other words, a written adaptation of a Steven Seagal movie by Steven Seagal himself, a casting suggested most prominently by its cover, in which the legendary lawman saunters brow-a-furrowed out of some sort of wolf sunset.

I have seen a Stephen Seagal movie so I have been unable to take him seriously as an actor.

Since he started hanging out with Putin I have been unable to take him seriously as an American.

So there is absolutely NO way I am going to be able to take him seriously as an author of a book.

Besides I would be completely unable to read it.

Ever since I graduated from the first grade I have not been able to make heads or tails out of anything written in crayon.

Shep Smith completely destroys the Republican's, and his cable network's, Uranium One conspiracy theory.

Courtesy of the Washington Post:  

But Smith, in his broadcast, made many of the same points as the fact-checkers. “Now, here’s the accusation,” he said. 

Nine people involved in the deal made donations to the Clinton Foundation totaling more than $140 million. In exchange, Secretary of State [Hillary] Clinton approved the sale to the Russians, a quid pro quo. The [was] accusation first made by Peter Schweizer, the senior editor-at-large of the website Breitbart in his 2015 book “Clinton Cash.” The next year, candidate Donald Trump cited the accusation as an example of Clinton corruption. 

He then played a video of Trump’s version of the “scandal” in which he claimed: 

Hillary Clinton’s State Department approved the transfer of 20 percent of America’s uranium holdings to Russia. Well, nine investors in the deal funneled $145 million to the Clinton Foundation. Smith called the statement “inaccurate in a number of ways,” noting that “the Clinton State Department had no power to veto or approve that transaction.” Rather, it must be approved by an interagency committee of the government consisting of nine department heads, including the secretary of state. 

Most of the Clinton Foundation donations in question, he pointed out, came from Frank Giustra, the founder of the uranium company in Canada. But Giustra, 

Smith noted, “says he sold his stake in the company back in 2007,” three years before the uranium/Russia deal and “a year and a half before Hillary Clinton became secretary of state.” He added:

 . . . The accusation is predicated on the charge that Secretary Clinton approved the sale. She did not. A committee of nine evaluated the sale, the president approved the sale, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and others had to offer permits, and none of the uranium was exported for use by the U.S. to Russia.

I have to admit that hearing actual facts spouted by somebody on Fox News still seems like an out of body experience.

However Shepherd Smith, who I cannot believe is still working there, has done just that on a number of occasions and seemingly in defiance of his network's official position on certain stories.

I think we can all agree that the REAL victim here is Texas Congressman Louie Gohmert who probably spent hours yelling at his congressional aides to hurry up and put this graphic together so he could "Get them Clintons!"

IMPORTANT UPDATE: Here, care of Rep. Louie Gohmert's office, is the full chart he displayed at today's House Judiciary Committee oversight hearing. pic.twitter.com/dPSHtGvwqK

— Chris Geidner (@chrisgeidner) November 14, 2017

(I understand that if you drop acid it makes perfect sense.)

At Trump's bidding CIA Director met with promoter of conspiracy theory that DNC hack was an inside job, and NOT the Russians.

Courtesy of The Intercept: 

CIA Director Mike Pompeo met late last month with a former U.S. intelligence official who has become an advocate for a disputed theory that the theft of the Democratic National Committee’s emails during the 2016 presidential campaign was an inside job, rather than a hack by Russian intelligence. 

Pompeo met on October 24 with William Binney, a former National Security Agency official-turned-whistleblower who co-authored an analysis published by a group of former intelligence officials that challenges the U.S. intelligence community’s official assessment that Russian intelligence was behind last year’s theft of data from DNC computers. Binney and the other former officials argue that the DNC data was “leaked,” not hacked, “by a person with physical access” to the DNC’s computer system. 

In an interview with The Intercept, Binney said Pompeo told him that President Donald Trump had urged the CIA director to meet with Binney to discuss his assessment that the DNC data theft was an inside job. During their hour-long meeting at CIA headquarters, Pompeo said Trump told him that if Pompeo “want[ed] to know the facts, he should talk to me,” Binney said.

So if you are wondering if this is about that old debunked story about the murder of Seth Rich by Hillary Clinton (Which is referenced below.), yes it most certainly is.

This Binney guy is a frequent guest on Info Wars with Alex Jones and just about any fringe conspiracy focused radio show or blog that will have him.

He has some impressive credentials so people often take him seriously, but the majority of the charges he makes remain unsubstantiated. 

This particular conspiracy theory has been debunked by essentially every intelligence agency in the country, including the CIA by the way, so the very fact that Pompeo talked to this guy speaks to Trump's desperation to get Robert Mueller and the other investigators off his back.

This of course is another reason why I was so frustrated with Donna Brazile, because her mentions of Seth Rich in her book only pour more gasoline on the dying embers of the "DNC hack was an inside job" conspiracy theory.

So apparently today begins the Civil War 2.0. Or not.

Courtesy of The Guardian:

If you are inside the “alt-right” information bubble, you might be preparing yourself for a civil war to commence this Saturday. 

Since late September, the idea has been circulating on Facebook groups, subreddit message boards, Twitter, and leading conspiracy media outlets that on 4 November, anti-fascist groups will begin a violent insurrection. 

Some websites are telling their readers that antifa groups are “planning to kill every single Trump voter, Conservative and gun owner” this weekend. Hundreds of Facebook posts show how seriously consumers of such media are taking the news, and comments like “One more threat against white people and I swear to God I’m going to take a goddamn car and run over every fucking one of them” are not unrepresentative of the response. 

But antifa groups have no plans to protest that day, and the small leftist groups who are planning protests have only dubious connections to the antifa movement. So what gives? 

Beginning in late September, three things kicked it a into higher gear. First, Refuse Fascism, a small group linked to the Revolutionary Communist party, staged a visually spectacular protest in Los Angeles. They blocked the 101 freeway and held up signs that enigmatically spelled out “Nov 4 it begins”. This is the same group that is organizing a series of protests around the country against the “Trump-Pence regime” this weekend. 

Second, a video posted on a Facebook page called Vets Before Illegals went viral. The video, entitled “Antifa sets a date for civil war”, claimed that “on their website, they are calling for an open civil war that will start in November”, and set out alleged plans for attacking police officers, then citizens and the government. 

Last, but by no means least, the rumor was picked up and amplified by Alex Jones, the radio star with an audience of millions. As Sunshine explains, Jones “is a kind of meta-conspiracy theorist now” who “harvests other people’s theories” and repackages them to fit his narratives and his audience.

Good old Alex"I never met a conspiracy theory I didn't like" Jones.

So helpful isn't he? 

There was also a report from Gateway Pundit based on a bad joke written on a Twitter account, with no actual connection to the antifa movement, which claimed that on November 4th  a leader of that movement promised to "behead white parents."

Now my first thought is that this is much ado about nothing , and that there will likely be NO actual armed conflicts or violence today. Especially since there do not seem to be many protests actually available for these wingnuts to flip out over. 

However this could also be a dry run just to see now many people can be agitated in anticipation for a REAL call for violence against a larger antifa, or progressive protest.

That could easily result in a number of fatalities, which I would assume is the whole goal here.

I would also like to know if the Russians are involved in promoting this thing, since it sounds like it is right up their alley.

The major message to take away from all of this, is that people are incredibly high strung right now, and in all honesty it would only take a small spark to ignite a very real, and very dangerous civil war in this country.

It behooves all of us to watch our rhetoric and to make sure that while we are expressing our very reasonable anger and outrage, that we are not also giving others an excuse to turn to violence.

From Hillary Clinton's book, "What Happened."

This is from page 297, in a chapter titled "Those Damn Emails."

"With respect to the potential intrusion by hostile actors, we did not find direct evidence that Secretary Clinton's personal email domain, in its various configurations since 2009, was successfully hacked."

--FBI Director James Comey, in a press conference on July 5. 2016.

A lot of people suggest that the server maintained by my husband;s office might be vulnerable to hacking. As it turned out, the State Department network and many other highly sensitive government systems, including the White House and Pentagon, were all hacked. Colin Powell's emails were hacked. But as Comey stated, there has never been any evidence that my system was ever compromised. Ironically, it turns out it may have been one the safest possible places for my email.

I wanted to share this portion with you, mostly because it was what I had been saying for more than a year. But also because it is one of the clearest signs that Hillary is treated completely differently than just about anybody else you can imagine.

If this had been a Republican who managed to outsmart the hackers and store their emails on a server that proved to be unhackable, while all around them supposedly secure servers were being hacked almost on a daily basis, the GOP would have insisted that they receive some kind of award.

But for Hillary Clinton, there is a completely different standard.

Hillary actually explains, in great detail, exactly how she first decided to use this server (Simple convenience.), which was already in place in her husband's office, and how amazed she was that it became weaponized and used against her by the Republicans.

When you read it you almost cannot believe that such a simple decision inspired so much vitriol, and even resulted in people screaming "Lock her up" at Trump campaign rallies.

Alex Jones and Roger Stone know why Donald Trump is acting like an Alzheimer patient, he is being drugged by the "deep state."

Courtesy of Raw Story:  

The 71-year-old Trump has a family history of Alzheimer’s disease, and analyses have found he showed some symptoms of age-related cognitive impairment — including observations that he shows symptoms of late-day confusion known as “sundowning.” 

“I’ve talked to people, multiple ones, and they believe that they are putting a slow sedative that they’re building up that’s also addictive in his Diet Cokes and in his iced tea, and that the president by 6 or 7 at night is basically slurring his words and is drugged,” Jones said. “Now first they had to isolate him to do that. But, yes, ladies and gentleman, I’ve talked to people that talk to the president now at 9 at night, he is slurring his words, and I’m going to leave it at that. I’ve talked to folks that have talked to him directly.” 

Jones compared Trump’s behavior to former President Ronald Reagan, who suffered from Alzheimer’s disease that likely started during his time in the White House. 

“Ladies and gentlemen, I was told this by high level sources and it was evident and especially after [Ronald] Reagan was shot in his first year in office when he was acting like Trump, and doing the right things, that he never really recovered,” Jones said. “They gave him cold blood, and his transfusion that causes brain damage. They slowly gave him small amounts of sedatives. It’s known that most presidents end up getting drugged. Small dosages of sedatives till they build it up, Trump’s such a bull he hasn’t fully understood it yet.”

Jones goes onto suggest that Trump needed to be seen by an "outside physician," which I agree with, and that he is putting his own life in danger by bringing this up.

Because you know paranoid people are always about to be killed by somebody.

However Jones was not alone with this conspiracy, he also had ex-Trump adviser Roger Stone on to confirm his lunacy.

Courtesy of Crooks and Liars:  

After Jones made the claim that Trump is slurring his words by 5 or 6 in the evening, Stone and Jones reassured one another that Donald Trump is a fine, healthy strapping specimen of a man who could not possibly slur his words without help from someone else. 

Leaning in to Jones, Stone shared his gossip. "But I have now heard not from one, but two different sources, that he seemed disoriented and was slurring his speech in conversations." 

Whoa, if true. I would tend to believe that is actually true and that Trump is sundowning. But rather than consider a cause that might be perfectly natural and also disturbing, Stone has a different explanation. 

"To me this is a tip off that he may be being medicated," he continued. "Is General [John] Kelly above this? No."

Well it certainly appears that SOMEBODY might be on drugs. 

Actually the evidence that Donald Trump might have some mental health deficiencies was obvious even before he announced his candidacy.

As for the fact that he slurs his words and gets confused later in the evening, that could simply be the result of being 71 years old and doing a job that he is far too unhealthy to tackle, or it could be that he really is suffering from Dementia or the onset of Alzheimers.

By the way there is plenty of evidence to suggest that Trump has difficulty organizing his thoughts much earlier than 5 or 6 in the evening.

But leave it to these two sad faced clowns to create some batshit crazy conspiracy to explain the simple fact that their idol is unfit to lead this country.

One Idaho state representative is pretty sure he knows who was behind the violence in Charlottesville. Obama!

Courtesy of The Hill: 

An Idaho state lawmaker is facing backlash for sharing a conspiracy theory that former President Obama helped to orchestrate the violent white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va., as part of a plot to take down President Trump. 

Idaho Rep. Bryan Zollinger on Friday posted a story on Facebook that suggested Obama and other top Democrats like billionaire George Soros and Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe were part of a conspiracy to set up the rally, the Post Register reported. 

“I’m not saying it is true, but I am suggesting that it is completely plausible,” Zollinger wrote on Facebook. The story claims that Obama has set up a “war room” to fight against the Trump administration — a claim that has largely been debunked — and that Charlottesville was a part of his plan. 

The lawmaker later told the Idaho Statesman that it was “maybe a mistake” to share the story but doubled down on his statement that the claims were “plausible.”

Plausible?

So it is plausible that a bunch of Nazis, KKK members, and White Supremacists gathered in Virginia to foment violence at the direction of the first black president in American history?

Sure, plausible, right.

But do you know what IS plausible?

That these racists assholes will continue to blame Barack Obama for every single thing that goes wrong in their lives for the next twenty years despite the fact that he is no longer in office, or wields any real power.

Because THAT is what racists do.

John Oliver reveals that Alex Jones is not only selling batshit crazy conspiracy theories, he's selling batshit crazy merchandise to go with them.

Courtesy of the LA Times:

On Sunday’s “Last Week Tonight,” John Oliver noted that Jones’ status as a Sandy Hook "truther" qualified him for an Easy Pass to “hell’s version of the champagne room.” But he spent most of his time on a relatively overlooked aspect of Jones’ conspiracy empire -- the wide range of products that he sells in order to fund it. 

According to Oliver, Jones spends nearly a quarter of his airtime plugging InfoWars-branded merchandise, including Wake Up America Patriot coffee to Combat One Tactical Bath Wipes and a powder called Caveman True Paleo (made from “chocolate and domesticated bird corpses,” Oliver joked). 

As the comedian pointed out, it just so happens that many of the products Jones sells, often at a significant markup, purport to address the conspiracy theories with equally wild-eyed zeal. Think: water filters to remove chemicals that supposedly turn frogs gay or vitamins to boost your immunity and ward off germs from allegedly disease-ridden refugees. 

Jones even has his own in-house “expert,” Dr. Edward Group, with dubious qualifications (and equally questionable hair) to back up his various outlandish claims. 

InfoWars is essentially a “QVC for conspiracy,” Oliver argued. 

My favorite line: "Current Russian Ambassador to the United States Donald Trump."

That almost made me blow chardonnay out of my nose. 

According to Twitter tirade Donald Trump is fairly convinced he can pardon ANYBODY caught up in this Russia probe. Even himself?

While all agree the U. S. President has the complete power to pardon, why think of that when only crime so far is LEAKS against us.FAKE NEWS

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 22, 2017

Actually we don't ALL agree. In fact legal experts are divided over this possiblity.

What they are less divided over however is that doing so would be a REALLY bad move on Trump's part.

Once he did that he would completely delegitimize his entire presidency and then it would only be a matter of time until he was impeached.

Of course this was only one of the bizarre, and arguably insane, tweets from this morning.

So many people are asking why isn't the A.G. or Special Council looking at the many Hillary Clinton or Comey crimes. 33,000 e-mails deleted?

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 22, 2017

...What about all of the Clinton ties to Russia, including Podesta Company, Uranium deal, Russian Reset, big dollar speeches etc.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 22, 2017

Okay first off it's "Special Counsel" not "Special Council."

Second the Special Counsel was not appointed to investigate Hillary Clinton.

Third "so many people" clearly refers only to the voices in Trump's head.

And fourth, most of what is listed are just Right Wing conspiracy theories without any facts to back them up.

The Republican Senators must step up to the plate and, after 7 years, vote to Repeal and Replace. Next, Tax Reform and Infrastructure. WIN!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 22, 2017

ObamaCare is dead and the Democrats are obstructionists, no ideas or votes, only obstruction. It is solely up to the 52 Republican Senators!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 22, 2017

It is not Obamacare that is pushing up daisies, it's that horrendous GOP anti-health care bill.

Face it Donnie, you cannot grope this thing back to life.

Oh, and I would not hold out much hope for any tax reform bills either Cheeto Hitler.

Your brand is toxic!

The Right Wing is freaked out that Barack Obama may be functioning as a "shadow president" and undermining Donald Trump.

Seriously? You think this is MY fault?

Courtesy of Media Matters:  

Fringe media supporting President Donald Trump have claimed that former President Barack Obama violated federal law and is acting as a “shadow president” because he has talked to former and current foreign leaders since the end of his presidency. The claims, which have at least partially been parroted on Fox News, are an extension of conservative media’s ongoing conspiracy theory that Obama runs a “shadow government.” 

Since Trump’s inauguration, conservative outlets have baselessly claimed that Obama is running some kind of “shadow government,” a conspiracy theory which has since been invoked by a Republican congressman and by one of Trump’s attorneys. The right-wing hysteria took on a new level of feverishness after Obama met with a handful of former and current world leaders, some of whom he worked closely with as president. 

Pro-Trump fake news purveyors were quick to attack Obama for his post-presidency activities. Several websites, including American Today, Patriots On The Right, US Postman, and USA Daily Time, claimed in June that Obama was “undermining President Trump” while “advertis[ing]” his “shadow government.” They suggested that Obama had “committed treason” and “violated” the Logan Act, a law barring private citizens from interfering with American foreign policy and for which no one has ever been prosecuted. The Federalist Tribune and The Washington Feed also asserted that Obama would get “a lengthy jail sentence” as a consequence of the law. Eventually, more fake news purveyors continued to push the false narrative, with Mad World News, USA Newsflash, GOP The Daily Dose, The Angry Patriot, Global Politics Now, Freedom Daily, US Advisor, ENH, and Before It’s News joining in. 

Additionally, “alt-right”-affiliated Infowars and fake news purveyors Conservative Fighters, TruthFeed, and Red Rock Tribune hyped a Daily Caller piece suggesting Obama was a “shadow president.” “Alt-right”-affiliated The Gateway Pundit also called Obama a “shadow president” who “may be breaking the Logan Act.” 

As you might imagine Sarah Palin also jumped on this bandwagon with both feet. First off the only person undermining Donald Trump's presidency right now, is Donald Trump.

The guy is like an unhousebroken monkey climbing the curtains and crapping all over everything.

To blame former President Obama for what is happening is both sad and pathetic.

Secondly damn do I hope that Obama is out there mending fences and explaining to the leaders of other countries that this orange tinted asshole does NOT represent the majority of the American people.

We need a good will ambassador right now like never before, and let's face it, who better than Barack Obama?

Megyn Kelly's interview with conspiracy theorist Alex Jones is blowing up in her face.

So Megyn Kelly, a recent NBC hire after walking away from Fox News, has an interview with Info Wars Alex Jones airing this next Sunday night.

However the blowback on this thing has now reached epic levels.

First off she is under fire from at least on parent of a Sandy Hill shooting victim.

Courtesy of the Washington Post:  

NBC’s Megyn Kelly is under fire for her one-on-one interview with Infowars’s Alex Jones. 

One of the immediate critics is a mother whose daughter was killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, a massacre that Jones has dismissed as a government hoax. 

Nelba Márquez-Greene saw the interview, scheduled to air Sunday — Father’s Day — as an “egregious offense” to fathers whose children were murdered Dec. 14, 2012, in Newtown, Conn. 

“To give Alex Jones a platform on Father’s Day is especially cruel to me,” she told The Washington Post.

Since Jones has claimed that the shooting was fake and no children actually died, one can understand this mother's anger.

Kelly responded to these comments with this tweet:

POTUS's been on & praises @RealAlexJones' show. He's giving Infowars a WH press credential. Many don't know him; our job is 2 shine a light. https://t.co/5e88BJyqnz

— Megyn Kelly (@megynkelly) June 12, 2017

However that was not good enough for the organizers of the Promise Champions Gala, an event that raises money for the gun violence prevention group the Sandy Hook Promise foundation, who have now dropped Kelly as their host this year.

It was also not good enough for JP Morgan who has now pulled their ads from NBC News over this controversy.

This has led others to call for the firing of Megyn Kelly, and the revelation that so far Kelly has been a "ratings disaster" for the network: 

“NBC is freaking out,” a source told Radar. “They didn’t pay her $15 million for this. They are now worried that her numbers will be bad when she joins the 9 am hour of Today.” 

“If Kelly tanks at 9 am she will also bring down Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb at 10am,” warned the source. 

In order to do damage control, producers are scrambling to land Kelly some major “gets” to improve the 46-year-old journalist’s ratings.

Personally I have no idea why NBC and MSNBC keep hiring these Fox News cast offs.

They have zero journalistic integrity and they bring with them years of baggage from their time at Fox News.

Ahead of Megyn Kelly's NBC debut, a reminder of all the awful things she said at Fox News: https://t.co/W0CFlq8Dd4 pic.twitter.com/zyqGWLaKiz

— Media Matters (@mmfa) June 3, 2017

I for one will NEVER watch any show that Megyn Kelly hosts, just like I have never watched Greta Van Susteren since her move to MSNBC.

Call me a snob but I like my journalism to have actual journalism in it.

Sandy Hook denier who sent death threats to parent of shooting victim sent to jail.

Courtesy of CBC News: 

A Florida woman pleaded guilty and was sent to prison Wednesday for threatening a man whose six-year-old son was killed in the 2012 mass shooting at a Connecticut school, which she contended was a hoax. 

Senior U.S. District Judge James Cohn sentenced Lucy Richards, 57, to five months in prison, followed by five months of home detention. She pleaded guilty to interstate transmission of a threat to injure in communications with Lenny Pozner, the father of Noah Pozner, who died in the Sandy Hook school shooting in Newtown, Conn. 

Cohn called Richards's actions toward Pozner "disturbing" and said no one should cite a conspiracy theory or belief in a hoax in the deaths of 20 children and six adults that occurred at the school. 

"I'm sure he wishes this was false and he could embrace Noah, hear Noah's heartbeat and hear Noah say 'I love you, Dad'," Cohn told Richards. "Your words were cruel and insensitive. This is reality and there is no fiction. There are no alternative facts."

Investigators say Richards made four voicemail and email threats to Pozner on Jan. 10, 2016, after viewing internet sites claiming the shooting was a hoax aimed at curtailing Americans' Second Amendment gun ownership rights. The messages said things such as "you gonna die, death is coming to you real soon" and "LOOK BEHIND YOU IT IS DEATH."

I pushed this story back a day because of the Comey hearing, but I think it is important to remind all of us that these people are still out there, living in an entirely separate reality than the rest of us. 

We even see them here on IM sometimes, people who simply cannot accept the facts as they are, and who create a cocoon of ignorance and denial that makes them feel safe and comforted.

But as we see in this incident these people can also be dangerous, and with one of their tribe of conspiracy theorists now occupying the White House I would imagine that is now perhaps more true than ever before.

Despite numerous reports to the contrary, Sean Hannity showed up for work last night, and immediately started obfuscating for Donald Trump.

If you did not get through that entire fourteen plus minutes I don;t blame you, I did not make it through last night myself.

Thankfully TPM offers the low points:

“I have to start tonight on a personal note of something that happened last week. Now, I was asked by the family of the DNC staffer that was killed in July to pull back covering the story of the death because their son and their family was hurting,” he said on his show. “Now out of respect for the family’s wishes, well, I decided for the time being not to discuss it unless there were further developments.” 

“But I also promised you, my audience, my loyal audience, that I will not stop investigating. I will not stop asking questions,” he continued. “And at a very high level, the bottom line here is the family wants the truth and I think the country deserves the truth, because this impacts so much of what the narrative in this country is now about, which is the left and their conspiracy theory. Now I can report, I am making progress. We will have a lot more coming probably sooner than later.”

First off before his "vacation" Hannity was on the Seth Rich story like white on....on...well on the average Fox News viewer.

So for him to suddenly start considering the feelings of the family sounds more like he received an ultimatum and caved in order to keep his show.

Secondly Hannity, and his supporters, have come up with an interesting response to those calls for this advertisers to abandon his program.

He is joining with a group called #StoptheScalpings, formed by two Right Wing talk radio hosts Melanie Morgan and Brian Maloney, in calling for a similar attempt directed at Rachel Maddow.

Courtesy of Think Progress:  

Stop the Scalpings is targeting Maddow because she “has been the biggest purveyor of lies and propaganda in the media today,” Morgan writes. She goes on to allude to Maddow’s regular coverage of the Trump campaign’s shady dealings with Russia, which she dismisses as a conspiracy theory despite an active FBI investigation and the appointment of a special prosecutor. 

“We will continue to announce the advertisers that finance these efforts and support these hosts who allow lies and conspiracy theories to permeate the airwaves,” she continues. “If Media Matters ceases these type of assaults, we will do the same… Until then, we will list every advertiser that supports hosts like Rachel Maddow, an outright liar, and someone who deceives the public and defames conservatives on a daily basis.”

In other words these idiots are now attacking actual journalism in an attempt to protect their right to broadcast fake news and conservative disinformation. 

Sean Hannity goes on "vacation" as advertisers flee his show likes rats on a sinking ship.

Uh oh My ANNUAL Memorial Day long weekend starts NOW. Destroy Trump/Conservative media breathless coverage starts! Did Hannity do last show?

— Sean Hannity (@seanhannity) May 25, 2017

Now if that seems familiar you may remember that Bill O'Reilly also claimed that he was on vacation, while in fact Fox was busy cleaning out his desk.

Now that does not mean for certain that Hannity is toast, but then again yes it pretty much does just that even though Fox is claiming he is coming back.

He may indeed return from vacation on Tuesday, but the writing in on the wall. 

Courtesy of the LA Times:

Fox News may be seeing a repeat of advertiser backlash that eventually drove out its former top anchor, Bill O’Reilly. 

At least seven advertisers — Cars.com, Leesa Sleep, Casper, USAA, Peloton, the Crowne Plaza hotel chain and doorbell company Ring — have reportedly asked to be pulled from Sean Hannity’s prime-time program. 

The defections are in response to the host’s promotion of a right-wing theory that Seth Rich, a Democratic National Committee staffer, was slain after providing party emails to WikiLeaks. 

I'll tell you one thing, if Hannity does lose his job this Seth Rich conspiracy theory will be his great white whale, and he will keep flogging that dead horse until he takes his last breath.

Sounds like the perfect end to a despicable career.