Troll level: God Emperor

The Trump campaign just released this commentary on the impeachment proceedings:



I'm a bit in awe.

The devil…the prowde spirite…cannot endure to be mocked.

- Sir Thomas More

President Trump to step down

Wow.

Jonathan Swift, where are you in our hour of need?

Troll level: thermonuclear:

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) held a town hall in her district last night and it turned into one for the books. Not because of any policy that she was trying to push but because of the reaction of one of the members of the audience. 

A woman stood up and began decrying climate change, saying we only had a few months left, and that Ocasio-Cortez wasn’t moving fast enough. Then it really went over the slide. Have a listen as she demands that in order to stop the CO2 we have to “eat the babies.”

One of Ocasio-Cortez's constituents loses her mind over climate change during AOC's townhall, claims we only have a few months left: "We got to start eating babies! We don't have enough time! ... We have to get rid of the babies! ... We need to eat the babies!" pic.twitter.com/uVmOnboluI

— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) October 3, 2019

 

Now we were really hoping someone was not that ill. The delivery and “even if we bomb Russia” would suggest that. She even had an “eat the babies” shirt. And this morning, the LaRouche group is saying she was a troll, part of their group.

What's interesting here is AOC's reaction to the troll.  She hadn't figured out it was a troll, but what she did not say is what any normal person would have said:

No, we don't need to start eating babies.  What's wrong with you?

It was a huge missed opportunity for AOC to demonstrate that she's, well, normal.  She didn't, and so it was a massive own goal.  Alinsky smiles.

Alinsky's rules #5 and #6

On display in Murphy, North Carolina.

Rule 5: Ridicule is man's most potent weapon.

Rule 6: A good tactic is one your people enjoy.

Global Warming Kooks

Ten years ago on this blog, Hammer left a comment in which he coined an outstanding term that I've sadly not used.  I'll fix that right away.  Man, I miss his blog.

Why I'm a Global Warming Skeptic, part II

It seems that yesterday I fed the trolls.

I followed an interesting Sitemeter hit back to a blog where people were discussing Global Warming. Fellow Northeast Gunblogger Weer'd Beard had left a comment there pointing to my original post about why I'm a Global Warming skeptic.

A comment there replying to Weer'd basically said that I was spouting nonsense, and ended:

This is all just the same bogus junk science and fake petitions and other nonsense I've seen pop up all across the blogosphere. And most of that stuff can be traced back to oil, coal and gas industry astroturf campaigns.

You've been had, and so has your friend in the Bore Patch.

Well, then. I left a comment in reply summarizing the primary cause of my skepticism, which is that we've just come out of a climatic period called the "Little Ice Age", where we have historical records showing warming over around 300 years. The Little Ice Age was preceded by the Medieval Warm Period which was warmer than things are now. Most pertinent to the current climate debate, none of the computer models explain the shift from Medieval Warm Period to Little Ice Age, or why we came out of it in the 1700s and 1800s.

And this is where I made my mistake. I assumed that folks on the left were interested in an exchange of views, with an opportunity to examine new evidence and debate facts. Instead, here is a sample of the "enlightened" responses:

Wow, Ted, you're a twit.

You may be reading books/reports, but you most certainly don't seem to be comprehending them. 

And:

There is scientific fact, and then there's BS junk science peddled by flat-earthers like Ted. I'll stick with real science, thank you.

Oh, and some airbrushing to try to remove the Medieval Warm Period. Most interesting was this comment, though:

"None of the models explain why the Medieval Warm Period was warm. None of them explain why the Little Ice Age was cold. None of them explain the transition between them, which is around 3 times the magnitude of the worst case warming scenarios today, and around ten times the "consensus" estimates." [my comment - ed.]

Irrelevant.

Obviously, the trool has never bothered to take a science class, preferring instead to memorize and spout inane republic talking points.

Here's the deal, troolie -The Greenhouse Effect is very simple science. I understood it in the 7th grade.

CO2 is a greenhouse gas. Burning hydrocarbons (i.e. fossil fuels - aka gasoline) yields CO2 and water. CO2 has been increasing in the atmosphere over the past several decades. The source is burning of gasoline.

The mean global temperature has been increasing over the last several decades. This tracks with the increase in CO2 and the increase in the burning of gasoline.

Real scientists say this. Not politicians, not paid oil company hacks. Real scientists.

That's all she wrote.

Translation: God said it, I believe it, that settles it. And I think you meant Republican talking points, Scooter.

Ironically, these folks all seem to absolutely believe that they represent the Defenders of Science, while dismissing inconvenient arguments and piling on Judenwissenschaft ad hominem attacks. Sadly, they're not by any means the only ones, as Bjorn Lomborg could tell you.

And this is why I'm very skeptical about the whole Mankind-is-causing-climate-change thing. Counter arguments are not met with scientific discussion, the arguers are trashed as enemies. This obviously isn't science coming from the pro- Global Warming side, and so I wonder what else isn't science. Adding in the sorry history of fraudulent data presented as evidence for their cause, and the brutal "remedies" proposed, my BS meter is pegged.

And this is a shame, actually. I'm quite ready to agree that the climate is changing. I'm even willing to be convinced that we're at the heart of it. I am not willing to be steamrollered.

Jim seems strangely out of place, but puts his sarcastic finger on things over in the comments:

Why bring history into this Ted? History has nothing to do with the current climate problems. It is obvious to anyone with a brain that humans are killing the earth and we have to put a stop to it. Who cares if a few million or even a billion people suffer and/or die to save the earth - there are too many humans as it is anyway. Get with the consensus and pony up your sacrifice to save mother earth.

Heh. And so let me say that I'm proud to be a leading Internet purveyor of flat-earth, tool-of-the-energy-industry, republic [sic] talking point, reading-but-not-comprehending, trooling [sic], paid-oil-company-hack BS! Sold more Rumors than Fleetwood Mac, I have ...

Hey you deniers trolls, get the heck off my lawn!

LOLOLOL

Seen on reddit/r/The_Donald:

I'm so old that I remember when it was the lefties joking about the stuffy folks on the right.  The Times they are a'changin' ...

Epic trolling is epic

The lunatics at PETA have rented a billboard in Maryland, with a message aimed at convincing the good citizens not to eat the local delicacy blue crab.  The caption is "I'm ME, not Meat".  Well it took only a blink of an eye before an adjacent billboard went up mocking the PETA loons.

Sorry PETA: Revenge is a dish best served cold, over spread out over newspapers, with nutcrackers and tiny wooden hammers 🦀🦀🦀 #Maryland #MarylandMyMaryland pic.twitter.com/rse0T7pP0h

— Tom Fitzgerald (@FitzFox5DC) August 30, 2018

Whoever you are, Mr. Billboard Man, a grateful Internet thanks you.

Quote of the Day: Laser Pointer edition

This (about Trump's Executive Order on immigration and detaining families together rather than splitting them up), while impossible to argue with, is only the set up:

The EO is rope-a-dope trolling at the Master Class level. 

1) Trump issues EO.
2) Court overturns it, because it violates the consent decree agreed to by the Clinton administration.
3) Trump shrugs and says, "See? I can't break the law. So either fix it yourselves, congressional sh*tweasels, or f**k off, idiots. I don't care which. Mid-terms are coming for you @$$clowns. Go do nothing somewhere else." 

And the federal courts are triple-boned on this:
either they decline to review the EO, and cede their authority to the President (not going to happen),
or they overrule their prior ruling, and cede their authority back to the executive branch (not going to happen),
or they strike down the EO, and we go right back to throwing the illegal little bastards right back in the same cages into which they've been placed non-stop since the early 1990s, by three prior presidents before Trump came into office.
(That's a win-win-win hat trick, if you're keeping score at home.)

And here's the delivery:

If you get worried, realize that the average sh*tweasel in Congress (either house, but the Senate is generally far dopier) has the IQ, at best, of a housecat, and that President Trump has proven, thus far, to be a Jedi Master of the laser pointer , in this analogy. It's really only that complicated.

That's some top shelf snark, yessir.

But I'm certain that next time they'll totally have Trump outsmarted, yessir.  Next time for sure.  Smartest kids in class.

It's starting to look like it's redundant for me to have a post tag for both Donald Trump and for My Little Troll.

Actually, this is exactly right

Prediction: no new gun control laws

There is quite a lot of nervousness in our little corner of the 'net, all around Donald Trump's comments about gun control laws and what he'd like to see.

With all due respect to co-blogger and brother-from-another-mother ASM826, it's not going to happen.  Here's why:

1.  Trump understands "Flyover Country" better than any politician today.  That's why he found issues that resonated so strongly with them that (ahem) trumped up scandal after trumped up scandal had absolutely no impact on their support for him.  He knows what gun control means to them, and how they would view him if he supported Chuck Schumer against them.

2.  The school shooting has been on the TV 24x7 for two weeks, as the MSM tries once more to intimidate Republicans into giving Democrats something for free.  There is nobody less susceptible to media pressure than Trump is.

3.  Trump knows how to troll his opponents better than any politician today.  Remember his meeting with Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi about DACA and immigration?  How he would "sign anything they sent him"?  Boy, that sure played out great for Democrats, didn't it?

4.  Trump wants the GOP to win the elections this fall, or at least not to lose too badly.  That's goal #1 which sets the stage for a Congress that will implement his agenda which will get him re-elected in 2020.  That's goal #2.  Trolling the Democrats to get them to propose all sorts of heinous gun control laws (that go nowhere) will leave voters with little doubt what the Democrats would do if they win the election this November.

So all that's happening is that he's Trolling the media and the Democrats (redundancy alert!).

Hey, maybe I'm wrong.  I thought I was wrong once, but I was mistaken.

Epic troll is epic

Should have said "Hold mah beer" ...

Chelsea Clinton is as dumb as a rock

Welcome to the Internet, it's full of sarcasm and trolls.  Someone needs to tell Chelsea not to feed the trolls.  Like she just did.

The Palm Beach (Florida) Republican Party did up a pic of Abe Lincoln in a "Make America Great Again" hat:

Long time readers will know that I'm not particularly a fan of Mr. Lincoln, and especially his brand of MAGA, but hey - it's the Internet.  It's nothing but sarcasm and trolls.

But it seems that someone needs to tell that to Ms. Clinton:

Please tell me this is photoshopped. Please? https://t.co/WezDQx6IvT

— Chelsea Clinton (@ChelseaClinton) March 25, 2017

[blink] [blink]

OK, this is a photoshop.  Duh.

The Twitter responses ranged from incredulous to brutal, as you'd imagine.  Ms. Clinton seemingly needs some remedial edumcation on da 'net.

Oh, yeah, the 'net has cat pix too.  This one applies to her tweet:

Bo Burnham - Country song (Pandering)

Russia just epically trolled the United States.  Donald Trump has made voter fraud an issue this year (for actually quite good reason).  Russia shoots; Russia scores:

Russia has reportedly tried to send its officials to monitor the U.S. presidential election in Oklahoma, Louisiana and Texas.

The U.S. State Department immediately shot the idea down, telling the Russian diplomats 'thanks, but no thanks'.

Representatives from the Central Elections Commission allegedly spoke to the State Department about sending a group of monitors to oversee polling places on November 8, according to Russian media. 

The move has been deemed a 'PR stunt' by the State Department.

Gee, ya think?  Troll level: Galactic Overlord.

The comedian Bo Burnham has trolled the modern Pop Country industry with a side splitting song about how to get a #1 hit in today's Country Music industrial machine.

Huh. I would have expected "Schooly McSchoolyface"

But this is pretty good too.

Remember, friends don't let friends use Internet polls to name things.

About Colin Kaepernick

When they say it's about the principle, it's actually about the money.

Chris Lynch has a great analysis about how Kaepernick - a backup quarterback - has created a controversy that will give him a big payday:

Kaepernick has a disastrously large contract. He signed a 6-year $114 million contract in 2014 that has $61 million guaranteed. He could have used some of that $61 million to quietly become a benefactor to so very many. Instead he's become a lightning rod, complete ingrate prick, salary cap albatross or potential season long distraction depending on your point of view.

From the San Francisco 49er's point of view this is a distraction they didn't need from a player with an almost $20 million cap hit if they cut him. For their back-up QB! And if the team cuts him there will be people who complain that it was because Chip Kelly doesn't like black people ...

I have to wonder if this is some sort of diabolical genius on the part of Kaepernick. Say if he no longer wants to play football but wants to collect all of his guaranteed money. This would be almost the perfect plan. Just sitting during the anthem isn't against the law or even team policy. Sure many people will hate him but this might be a way out of playing football and maybe even into some high paying speaking gigs for clueless kids at liberal arts colleges. I haven't seen anything this diabolical since Al Gore made millions pretending to care about global warming.

The 49ers simply cannot win now.  If they cut him there will be a huge outcry against them.  Remember, this is San Francisco, perhaps the most famously liberal area in the country.  While your typical football fan is more patriotic than the average bear, it's Silicon Valley wealthy who fill the stadium in Frisco.  They're all to the left of Karl Marx.

Or the 49ers keep him and pay him, even though he's only gone 10-14 in the last two seasons.

He's got them over a barrel, right good.

Donald Trump: trolling the left, Alinsky style?

Hmmmm:

By choosing to hold a rally at UIC, Trump knew that he could get his enemy to demonstrate who they are and what tactics they prefer. It does not make him responsible for what they chose to do. And what he ultimately chose to do was prevent violence, not promote it.

Trump was pushing a negative so hard it became a positive and allowed him to ridicule his opposition. BLM, OWS and SJWs are being turned into the Bull Connor of the 21st century by their own actions. Trump is just giving them the opportunity to reveal themselves. Then he makes them live by their own rules. On Hardball:

MATTHEWS: When you set up rally in Chicago where it’s mostly Hispanic and blacks, you knew there would be a lot of people that have the time to come out and protest your situation. It was no surprise here, was there in what happened? Given the venue of your event, TRUMP: It shouldn’t matter. You’re the first one to say it. It shouldn’t matter whether it was whoever lives in the city. It shouldn’t make a difference. Whether it’s white, black, Hispanic, it shouldn’t matter.
MATTHEWS: They don’t like what you’re saying. They don’t like what you’re saying.
TRUMP: We shouldn’t be restricted from having rally here because of ethnic make up or anything like that. I’m somebody that feels strongly it shouldn’t make any difference. You usually feel that too. I’m surprised you’re bringing this up because it shouldn’t matter,

Do you believe those were spontaneous responses?

Like I said, hmmm.  Trump has been a master of communicating on an emotional level with voters (for better or worse).  The Establishment has been oscillating between the egghead cerebral and the hysterical name calling.

This could be battlefield preparation in action.  I guess we'll see.

I have no idea whether the coming Trump Administration will be good for the Republic or not, but it's starting to look inevitable.  Still, there's a craftsmanship to his campaign that is not just impressive, but sometimes fun to watch.  Epic troll is epic.

Now that's a firearms product endorsement!

Spike's Tactical has introduced an AR pattern rifle that it calls the "Crusader":

Features not only include Psalm 144, but sports a Crusader's shield logo and has a safety switch labelled "Peace", "War", and "God wills it".  Heh.

But the marketing stroke of genius?  Demonstrating epic level trolling:

A new assault rifle called the "Crusader" went on sale this week, bearing a Bible verse on the magazine to deter Islamic terrorists from using it, and the Council on American-Islamic Relations of Florida was swift to complain, reports Fox News.


Manufactured by Spike’s Tactical in central Florida, the $1,395 AR-15 has a Bible verse etched into it that says “Blessed be the Lord my Rock, who trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle.” Etched on the other is a symbol of a Crusader's cross from the Middle Ages. The weapon's safety selector has three settings: Peace, War and God Wills It.

Company spokesman Ben Thomas, a former Navy SEAL, said the scripture is like an insurance policy to keep it out of the hands of terrorists:

“When you make a rifle, you have to understand that it could be used for ill deeds if it got in the wrong hands."

And the company didn't need to wait long:

Naturally, CAIR felt compelled to weigh in, presumably because they felt Islamic terrorists might be offended:

“Sadly, this manufacturer’s fancy new gun won’t do anything to stop the real threat in America: the escalating problem of gun violence,” a spokesperson said. “This is just another shameful marketing ploy intended to profit from the promotion of hatred, division, and violence.”

The spokesperson had nothing to say about the escalating problem of Islamic terrorism, or about the terrorists themselves promoting hatred, division, and violence.

I'd have much more sympathy for CAIR if they hadn't spent the last 15 years being pure, grade A insufferable prats.

Maybe I need to get one of these, just to bother the Right Sort™ of people.

Epic Guitar is ...

... well, kind of dumb.

Trolling

Both the question and the answer.

I sense a great disturbance in the Force

Seems Sumdood posted something about how your gun sucks and you're holding it wrong, or something.

Don't feed the trolls, folks.