If you are reading this, then you most probably already know that the “US BioLabs developing biological weapons in Ukraine” claim is bullshit. Russia is vigorously promoting it to supposedly justify their war of aggression. There are other sources making the same claim – Putin’s US megaphone, Tucker Carlson, and also the folks within QAnon. Here via CNN is a bit of insight …
Russia’s falsehoods about labs like this have not been limited to Ukraine. Similar claims were made about a lab in Tbilisi, Georgia; those were proven false. Dr. Filippa Lentzos, co-director of the Centre for Science & Security Studies at King’s College London, visited the lab along with other experts and debunked the Russian claims. She told CNN the Russians are spreading the same lies about labs in Ukraine.
There is a disinformation machine at work here.
It goes a bit like this. The Russian government makes suggestive statements, leaving breadcrumbs that are dutifully repeated by official Russian state media — and then, increasingly importantly, by dozens of faceless websites (some of which the US has alleged are tied to Russian intelligence). Social media accounts push the idea further, build on it, make it more fantastical…
… On an American QAnon online radio show broadcast Monday, one host read verbatim from Russian state media reports about biolabs….
… On Tuesday, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman helped the Russian effort, making his own suggestion that the US was up to something nefarious at labs in Ukraine. The same official in 2020 promoted the idea that the US military brought Covid-19 to China….
Via CNN: Analysis: Russia and QAnon have the same false conspiracy theory about Ukraine
For Russia this is all disinformation 101, propaganda designed to give their supporters something to run with. It is not new, they play this card whenever they find themselves in the spotlight. As for the QAnon folks and Tucker, well they are simply useful fools that are all part of that machinery.
In many ways the Biolabs claim is itself a useful tool. Anybody you see promoting it is immediately self-certifying that they are a fool. They also get extra fool points if they manage to somehow blame Fauci for it all, for example Jeanine Pirro on Fox Not News…
Moving on, below you will find my usual selection of some truly bizarre claims that have popped up during the last 7 days. Each is laced with my snarky commentary. With my usual hat tip to my main source, Right Wing Watch, let’s dive in.
Enjoy.
COVID-19
Michael Flynn asserted that his vaccination status “is none of your damn business”: “You go into a restaurant, and they ask you, ‘Do you got this or that?’ I say, ‘Have you been checked for AIDS?’”
- When they ask you for your vaccination status they are checking the risk you present to them and their customers of exposure to an airborne virus. When he checks their AIDS status, not airborne, then what exactly is it he is planning on doing once he gets inside?
Homophobia
Scott Lively asks a rhetorical question: “Is God using Biden to punish America? That’s really a rhetorical question because the answer is obvious. God is unhappy with America because we have turned our backs to Him as a nation and allowed His enemies to gain control of our social, cultural and political institutions. His enemies are our enemies, and the proof of that is the illegitimate puppet regime of Joe Biden, so evil and so corrupt in so many ways that we grow exhausted just listing them.”
- Translation: “If you don’t hate gay people like I do, you are evil incarnate”
- Scott is a one issue guy, he passionately hates gay people and has made a long career out of this.
- He also deeply loves Putin because Putin also hates gay people, and so he has written love letters addressed to Putin.
Alvin McEwen @ Holy Bullies: DeSantis spokesperson – If you oppose the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill, you’re probably a pedophile or have complicity in pedophilia.
- Oops, DeSantis spokesperson has a small typo there, let me fix it – If you oppose the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill, you’re not an obnoxious gobshite. There, that fixed it now.
Lou Engle has launched a Behold The Lamb fast, which encourages people to “fast and pray for those who struggle with same-sex attraction, gender dysphoria, or identify themselves as LGBTQ+.”
- Nobody has ever altered sexual orientation. Some might indeed claim to have been “saved”, but test it objectively via measuring responses to stimuli and the truth is revealed. Anybody claiming this is possible or has actually happened is lying to you. It really is not a choice, it is the way you are.
- It has been extensively studied.
- You might as well stand on the seashore and command the tide not to rise. Give that a go and see how well that works out for you. You can also bring some buddies to pray for you to succeed. This has literally been tried by King Canute, it did not go well.
Those that Love Putin
During a segment called “Globalist Regime Wages War on Whites,” Stew Peters defended Russian President Vladimir Putin and his invasion of Ukraine while insisting that the American government is the “real enemy.”
- Warren Buffett once famously quipped “It’s only when the tide goes out that you learn who has been swimming naked”
- Well yes, that relates to investing, but it works rather well in this context as well. We can now clearly see where this guy’s heart really is.
Nick Fuentes openly expresses his contempt for America and also pours out his love of the Russia War by literally cheering on and saluting “the Russian heroes of the special military operation” in Ukraine.
- Nice of him to spell out exactly who he is what he stands for.
- If you are also an obnoxious racist shit and desperately need to broadcast that, then Nick is your role model.
Truly Bizarre
- Yes, this was indeed “the” Michael Flynn, the national security adviser to former President Donald Trump.
- The deal is this – He was caught conspiring with the Russians to drop the Obama sanctions that had been placed because they had been caught interfering in the 2016 US elections, and was about to go to jail. Trump then issued a formal pardon in Nov 2020. In exchange for that pardon, Flynn now goes around the nation giving talks to promote the big lie that the election was stolen.
- For this latest “speech” he is pressing religious buttons with false claims to try and get a fellow right-wing conspiracy theorist, MAGA pastor Jackson Lahmeyer, elected.
- Trump did not drain the swap, but instead populated it with lots of new swamp monsters.
- Flynn was being paid by the Russians for what he was doing for them, and was even rewarded by being given a seat next to Putin at dinner … really …
Andrew Tobra issued a press release proudly bragging that Gab will not be following the lead of other social media companies in banning Russian propaganda from their platforms.
- Because he just loves both disinformation and Putin.
- If indeed you are looking for an extremist-friendly social-media site that is a haven for violent extremists, and you love Putin, then Gab is for you
- Least you wonder, Gab’s days are most probably very limited. It is loss making and is in trouble both financially and also legally with SEC regulators.
Wayne Allyn Root asserts that George Soros “is one of the most evil enemies in our history”: “If Soros funded the leaders of Ukraine, and put them in power, this has to be a trap. Ukraine must be a ‘bad guy.’”
- If indeed you hate democracy and freedom, then yes, I guess Soros and Ukraine would indeed be the bad guys.
- Incidentally, there is a reason for Mr Root being banned by Twitter permanently. He has a long track record for promoting false conspiracy claims.
Lauren Witzke, who lost her bid for office by 20 plus points, is offering advice on how to run for office
- I want to learn how to swim – hey, let’s find somebody who can’t swim to teach me
- I want to practise law – hey, let’s find somebody who has failed the bar exam to help me
- If you do indeed need guidance on how to catastrophically fail in politics then Lauren if your go-to role model
- Tips: To succeed in politics like she does, then … be vigorously anti-gay, declare BLM to be terrorists, strive to ban all immigrants even the legal ones, hail Putin’s Christian values, declare healthcare to be a satanic plot, and make sure you promote QAnon as “truth”. Oh, and don’t forget to have a background where you worked hard for Mexican cartels as a drug runner. (I’m not making any of this up, those really are her views, and that really is her background. She fits right in with today’s GQP).
Nick Fuentes, yes him again, also revealed why he and other white nationalists love Donald Trump: “He was like this close to saying the N-word. That’s what Americans want. This guy talks like us.”
- Trump’s speech and actions are seriously viewed as racist by scholars. As can be seen here, it appears that actual racists agree, and confirm that Trump is indeed racist.
- Meanwhile white evangelicals still love him, and that tells us a great deal about their actual values.
Pastor Kent Christmas, yes that’s his real name, claims that “years ago” a member of Congress “began to attack the word of the Lord,” for which he was arrested and sent to jail for three months for “attacking Jesus Christ, who is the foundation of our nation.”
- He did not provide any specifics. The only case that appears to come close to this is a 1811 case People v. Ruggles. That involved the New York Supreme Court. The Ruggles in that case was not a member of Congress. In that instance the guy was in a pub, drunk, and yelling that Jesus was a bastard, so the judge fined him and sent him to Jail for a few months.
- As for his claim that “Jesus Christ, who is the foundation of our nation” … eh no, simply just no. The US was founded as a wholly and completely secular nation. He appears to be mixing up the US with Saudi Arabia and Iran which are actually run by religious clerics.
- If he lies for Jesus about rather basic facts like this, then why should you ever take anything he has to say seriously.
- Yea I know, a play on his surname was indeed very tempting.
Josh Bernstein declares that fact-checkers are “full of shit” and that if you believe them, “you are a fucking moron”: “You should trust me and my reputation because my reputation is 100 percent solid.”
- Josh’s “reputation” is on par with the steaming droppings of some bovine that have then been baked dry in the sun. So yes, 100 percent solid.
- Lance appears to have radically refined the term “Great Leaders” by applying it to delusional obnoxious inept pricks.
Andrew Wommack says “climate control is nothing but a ruse of the devil,” and asserts that people are dying in Ukraine because environmentalists have “empowered” Russian President Vladimir Putin by trying to limit the use of fossil fuels.
- So there you go all you naughty environmentally minded people. The fact that you recycled your rubbish, got a bike, and insulated your house, has inspired Putin to invade Ukraine.
- Then again, the other possibility is that TV scamvangelist Andrew Wommack simply makes shit up – damn, this is such a hard choice, how can I possibly decide which is right?
Patrick Howley declares that “the Globalist Regime that currently controls the U.S. government is a genocidal hostile authoritarian cabal operating under the auspices of fake ‘democracy’ to keep humans relegated to Third World slave status everywhere — and they HATE White men.”
- Who?
- He is a reporter that used to work for Breitbart, then quit to start an even more right-wing site, because Breitbart was simply too liberal for him.
- I’ll take a punt here and guess that he is not a Biden fan.
OAN’s Natalie Harp had nothing for praise for the “very strategic” and “smart roll-out” of former President Donald Trump’s new social media platform.
- Ever so small flaw in her stance – it has actually been disastrously unpopular so far.
The False Profit$
Pastor Shane Vaughn reports that he has been banned from YouTube.
- That perhaps explains why he has not popped up over the last few weeks with yet another bizarre rant designed to garner clicks and $$$
- He could of course simply publish his rants elsewhere for free, but with no financial motive you will not see that happen.
- Not having Shane on YouTube means that the world has become a slightly better place.
Self-Appointed Prophet Robin Bullock claimed the U.S. Constitution is the only one in history “that has never changed” because it was “written from the word of God”: “We get everything you know of in our Constitution from the scripture.”
- This dollar store Boromir has a gift for grasping both stupidity and ignorance very tightly and then running hard with it.
- For my MAGA readers, you might want to read up on the long list of amendments to the US Constitution. The first was in 1791 and the 27th was ratified in 1992.
- Exercise: See if you can find a scripture that endorses gun rights, or abolishes slavery.
- Historical fact: In 1797, President Adams and a unanimous U.S. Senate ratified the Treaty of Tripoli which specifically states “the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion”
- I must admit that the constitution does have something in common with the bible. Republicans like Robin claim to love it, but have generally never actually read it all.
Todd Coconato attended a private dinner with dozens of “really influential people in the Christian world” at the National Religious Broadcasters convention Wednesday night and was not optimistic after hearing the discussion
- Old age and COVID is rapidly reducing their ranks. The young are generally not stupid enough to buy what they are selling.
- Thinking about what they stand for … intolerance, ignorance, racism, bigotry, etc… they are discovering the hard way that you really do reap what you sow. Concepts such as empathy, equality, charity and kindness have been long forgotten.
Quotes of the week
Let’s turn now from the delusional to the inspirational.
I’ll finish today with a few Volodymyr Zelensky quotes, the guy who refused to flee when offered a safe haven with this quip “The fight is here; I need ammunition, not a ride.“…
Кожен мій ранок починається з sms-повідомлення. Це sms від Генерального штабу. За минулу добу обстрілів – сім, втрат – дві. Цифри можуть бути різними, але тільки одна робить ранок добрим. Це – нуль. Обстрілів – нуль. Втрат – нуль.
Every morning my day begins with an SMS from the General Staff. Over the past 24 hours there were 7 occasions of shelling and two casualties. Figures may vary, but only one figure makes the morning good. It is zero. The shelling is zero. The loss is zero.
On March 6th, 2022, just one week ago, he said this …
Today is Forgiveness Sunday.
A day when we always apologized. To each other. To all people. To God.
But today, it seems, many have not mentioned this day at all.
Have not mentioned the obligatory words: “Forgive me.”
And the obligatory answer: “God forgives, and I forgive.”
These words seem to have lost their meaning today.
At least in part.
After everything we went through.
We will not forgive the destroyed houses.
We will not forgive the missile that our air defense shot down over Okhmatdyt today. And more than five hundred other such missiles that hit our land. All over Ukraine. Hit our people and children.
We will not forgive the shooting of unarmed people.
Destruction of our infrastructure.
We. Will. Not. Forgive.
Hundreds and hundreds of victims.
Thousands and thousands of sufferings.
And God will not forgive.
Not today. Not tomorrow. Never.
And instead of Forgiveness, there will be a Day of Judgment.
I’m sure of it.