Look who LinkedIn is urging me to follow, because "we" have a couple of mutuals.
Well, thanks, LinkedIn, I suppose, for helping me to figure out who I should definitely unfollow, unfriend, uncolleague, or whatever the corporate term is for "Dead to me forever". I work with (and am married to) one of the smartest, nicest best people I know, I'd almost forgotten what a luxury it is to not have to put up, day in, day out ,with the petty grievances, iniquitous antics, corruption, wingnut gibberish and garden variety stupidity and incompetence of certain former bosses and co-workers I could name.
my problem with most sports analysts is the same i have with most political analysts, they start with a hot take, and then go look for evidence to back up their take, and ignore evidence that undermines their take. why can't we just start with objectivity?
In Part One of this TL;DR we took a little trip down Memory Lane to remind
ourselves who Orly Taitz was and what happened to her. In this second part
we try to answer the question, "Why the hell is driftglass writing about Orly
Taitz in the first place?"
Also, a reminder: Orly Taitz is not dead. The title of these posts are
poetic license. If that bothers you, take it up with the poetic licensing
bureau.
So why am I writing about Orly Taitz and not something important like the Gulf of
Murrica, or all the transients Don Jr. hired to make it look like he had a
supportive crowd in Greenland? From Politico:
Donald Trump Jr.’s visit was ‘staged,’ says Greenland lawmaker
“We know how they treat the Inuit in Alaska. Make that great before trying to invade us,” Pipaluk Lynge tells Politico.
The subject is Orly Taitz ... and Laura Loomer ... and Mike
Lindell ... and the entire Conservative media infrastructure because of
what they represent, what they have done to this country, and why it is no
longer possible for us to communicate meaningfully with Republicans. And
by “communicate” I don’t mean anything as lofty as “debate” or
“persuade”. We’re way beyond that now. We now speak two entirely
different languages with two entirely different contexts.
For you Star Trek nerds, think of it as the “Darmok” episode, except in that
episode the Tamarians -- who spoke only in metaphors -- wanted to make a
peaceful first contact with humans. Their captain was willing to risk
his life to try to make himself understood.
Our situation is very different. Republicans are threatened the very
language and context we use to communicate. They take it as an assault
on their values, so the more we try to find common ground with them, the more
threatened they feel and the harder they lash out.
This is so completely alien to the way we think that we just keep trying it
and we just keep failing. So today we’re going to discuss why this
approach not only fails, but just keeps making things worse.
And to do that, I'm going to need to talk for a minute about an ancient battle
tactic, so bear with me.
If you don’t know what a kite-shield is, you may have seen one in a
sword-and-sandal epic, and I’m not an ancient weapons expert so please forgive
me if I get some of this wrong.
A kite-shield was a long shield, sometimes shaped like a tear-drop. And
the front lines of the Byzantine infantry were required to have such shields
that were smaller than 6 spans high. A span is the width of your spread
hand, so a pretty substantial shield.
These shields, when used side-by-side, could protect the formation from hails
of arrows while they advanced or retreated.
During a battle, their job was to stay at the front lines of the battle as
they attacked with a long lance and maybe a crossbow and protect the rest of
the infantry. Or, if they were retreating, to man the outer
perimeter of the army. If you've seen the movie Gladiator, you'll
remember a similar tactic which the gladiators used in the Colosseum when they
were being attacked by chariot and arrow fire. By locking their shield
together, the gladiators could keep themselves safe from crossbow fire and by
pivoting at a strategic moment, cause an attacking chariot to crash and flip
over.
Not sure shields were ever used to flip chariots in real life, but you get the
idea.
Next, we need to understand how emotional investment work and how
information works. Not factual information or false information.
Not truth and lies. Just...information.
Let's say you're a good-hearted Liberal and you’re motivated by a desire to
feed the hungry or heal the sick or welcome the stranger. You know, all
that good Jesus stuff. Well, by and large you will accept information
that helps you achieve that goal and you will lock-your-shields against
information that attacks your goal to feed the hungry.
You will accept information about school lunch programs, healthy eating
initiatives, food deserts, and very detailed policy proposals to help you
achieve your goal. On the other hand, you will lock your shields against
Libertarian Darwinism that says, let 'em starve. Or gimmicks that let
the government off the hook by redefining "condiments" or "napkins" as
food. Or assholes who just don't give a shit about hungry kids.
The ketchup as a vegetable controversy stemmed from proposed regulations
of school lunches by the USDA's Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) in 1981,
early in the presidency of Ronald Reagan. The regulations were intended to
provide meal planning flexibility to local school lunch administrators
coping with cuts to the National School Lunch Program enacted by the
Omnibus Reconciliation Acts of 1980 and 1981. The proposed changes allowed
administrators to meet nutritional requirements by crediting food items
not explicitly listed. While ketchup was not mentioned in the original
regulations, pickle relish was used as an example of an item that could
count as a vegetable.
In the Reagan administration’s attempt to slash $1.5 billion from
children’s nutrition funding, school lunch program requirements were
worded (whether deliberately or not) so as to conceivably allow for
designating ketchup as a vegetable, allowing the USDA to eliminate one of
the two vegetables required to meet minimum food and nutrition standards,
and thus shrink costs.
This from
Stateline talks about the consequences of red states refusing to expand Medicaid:
In the 10 states that didn’t expand Medicaid, 1.6M can’t afford health
insurance
The majority of residents in this coverage gap are people of color, an
analysis found.
Nearly 1 of every 5 uninsured working-age adults across the 10 states
that have not expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act are,
according to a new analysis, stuck in a health care limbo known as a
“coverage gap.” That means they earn too much money to receive Medicaid
but not enough to qualify for financial help to purchase their own plan on
the marketplace.
In Alabama and Mississippi, more than a quarter of uninsured working-age
adults are left with no affordable pathways to health coverage, according
to the analysis from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a
progressive think tank that researches federal and state budget policies.
Overall, 1.6 million adults between the ages of 19 and 64 face the
situation in the non-expansion states.
Mississippi state Rep. Robert Johnson, a Democrat, said the lack of
insurance coverage contributes to other problems — such as the closures of
hospitals that have to cover the cost of treating uninsured patients — in
all types of communities.
“This is not a conservative or liberal issue. This is about the people
that we represent in the state of Mississippi, whether they be Black or
white,” Johnson said in an interview. “This is a life-or-death issue for
not just individuals, but the whole communities.”...
So, how can these people -- these Republicans -- turn their backs on
hungry kids or sick Americans? How the hell can they sleep at
night? And the bigger question: How can the meatheads who keep
voting these scumbags into office be so fucking smug about it?
Well, as a good-hearted Liberal you are emotionally invested in feeding the
hungry or caring for the infirm or protecting the Earth or whatever,
right? Probably all of the above and more. These are what you will
lock your shields to protect from racism, ignorance and greed. You'll
keep raising money and raising awareness and protesting and calling your
representatives and speaking up at community meetings to try to advance your
cause, because this is your emotional investment, and you are dumbfounded that
anyone could possibly be against feeding hungry children or replacing lead
pipes or, y'know, holding insurrectionists accountable, or electing a
competent, capable, honorable public servant instead of a
corrupt, racist, serial liar and convicted felon?
Maybe if these mopes just had more information? After all, you have
so much data to back up what you believe – a mountain of studies and
white papers -- if they would just fucking listen for one minute to the
facts.
But they don't, do they? No matter what you do. They never
do. And they don't just ignore you. They mock your
earnestness. They are happiest when they are metaphorically capering
around burning bonfires of your fancy studies and white papers, or cheering on
some has-been garbage person shooting up a case of Bud Light because you care
about the fate of trans people.
Conservatives Heartbroken That Kid Rock Gave Up Bud Light Boycott
Months after an outrage over the beer brand, one of the ringleaders says
it's time to forgive and forget — and some are calling him a sellout
It seems like only yesterday that Kid Rock was firing an assault rifle at
cases of Bud Light in protest of their brand partnership with trans
entertainer Dylan Mulvaney. But time flies, and it’s already been eight
months since that week in April when Rock helped kick off a right-wing
boycott of the beverage — one that caused a drop in brewer Anheuser-Busch
InBev’s stock price and enshrined the culture war slogan “get woke, go
broke.”
A lot has happened since then. In October, AB InBev struck a deal worth
more than $100 million to make Bud Light the exclusive beer sponsor of
Ultimate Fighting Championship, a mixed martial arts franchise that counts
Kid Rock as one of its celebrity fans. Weeks later, Rock gave an interview
to Sean Hannity of Fox News, claiming he had never called for a boycott of
the beer (indeed, he continued to drink it in public and serve it at his
Nashville bar) and that he and Donald Trump had enjoyed a “great
conversation” with Anheuser-Busch CEO Brendan Whitworth at a UFC event
about why the Mulvaney promotion had set them off.
So why don't appeals to reason work? Why do they believe such ridiculous
lies? And why are they so happy being this pig-ignorant? Delighted when
they stun you with their cruelty? Why do they brag about drinking your
Liberal tears?
Because they have shields too. Shields they use to
protect what they value most highly. And what do they value most
highly? The belief that they are always right about everything and are
smarter than everyone. That you and I are monsters and/or Deep State
dupes. And that if it ever turns out that they were actually wrong about
something...it was never their fault: it was all part of some vast, evil
Liberal Deep State conspiracy that you and I are part of. This
unshakable belief is the core of who they are and what they are emotionally
invested in.
And all of your mountains of facts -- including the things that these mopes
themselves said just days or weeks ago which contradict what they are saying
today? All of those are just ... a hail of potentially fatal crossbow
bolts against which their shields need to be locked together tighter and
tighter.
And what are their interlocking shields? Those are the lies they
"believe". Those endless, endless lies.
Decades upon decades of lies. Lies about Bill Clinton.
About Vince Foster. About the Mena airport. About Iraq. About
deficits. About "soul cooking". About tan suits and Death
Panels and birth certificates. About immigrants eating pets and
hurricanes being faked and the "Biden crime family". Lies about the 2020
election and January 6th.
OK, (you ask as a good-hearted Liberal) but what about when a big lie just
falls apart? To extend the analogy, why can't the truth get through and
help them see reason when a shield collapses?
Well (my imaginary good-hearted Liberal) I have to ask you right back,
haven't you been listening? To you, things like whether or not Barack Obama was born in the United States are a
matter of truth or falsity. Fact or fiction. And when we get
something wrong, generally we say "oops!" and we correct ourselves (sometimes
painfully) and then we get back to pursuing our good-hearted Liberal
goals.
But to MAGA mopes, the endless lies they tell are not about truth or falsehood
at all. Those lies are just bits of kit designed to protect what these
mopes are most deeply emotionally invested in. That they are never
wrong, that they're smarter than everyone else, and anything bad that happens
is the fault of us Liberal devils
From the Rolling Stone just yesterday:
Right-Wingers Are Blaming the L.A. Fires on Diversity
Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and commentators across conservative media are
blaming the blazes on everything but the climate crisis
From Le Monde, just yesterday:
Trump slams Democrats, blames Governor 'Newscum,' for deadly fires in Los
Angeles
From Vanity Fair just yesterday:
Right-Wing Pundits Blame DEI and Democrats in Predictable Deluge of
Wildfire Misinformation
“They prioritized DEI over saving lives and homes,” Elon Musk claimed,
falsely, in one indicative post.
You think they're grateful for all that truth that slips in when one of their
shields breaks? That they'll respect you for it?
Are you nuts? They'll hate you even more for it.
All of your facts are nothing but volleys of painfully stabby arrows that need
to be blocked immediately. And in that moment they'll
settle for any lie, no matter how ridiculous, to shut you up.
Do you remember the series of rapid-fire lies Republicans ran through after
January 6th?
At first, most elected Republicans were outraged, or at least pretended they
were.
Because the case was open and shut. It was obvious what had happened and
who was to blame and they were in a hurry to get on what they assumed would be
the right side of history.
But even after four years of Trump and 40 years of escalating Conservative
dumbing-down and riling-up propaganda, they fundamentally never understood the
base of their party. Because to the base, the failure of the J6 coup was
not a cause for sober reflection -- it was a massive failure of their shield
system.
They were in imminent danger of being exposed to a fatal dose of
reality! Something had to be done!
So, suddenly ... maybe it wasn't Trump supporters who did this terrible thing
at all.
In rapid fire succession, a variety of different and contradictory lies were
cobbled together.
It was ... Antifa. While at the same time it was somehow also all the
fault of Sekrit Deep State FBI infiltrators who tricked those poor, patriotic
Republicans into doing the deed.
Trump falsely claims FBI and Antifa were ‘leading the charge’ in Capitol
attack
Mr. Trump maintained that January 6 rioters ‘went there to protest a rigged
election’
Ahead of the third anniversary of the January 6 Capitol riot, former
president Donald Trump baselessly cast blame on Antifa and the FBI as the
main proponents of the attack.
“By the way, there was Antifa, there was FBI, there were a lot of other
people there too leading the charge,” Mr Trump said at a rally in Sioux,
Center Iowa on Friday, 5 January. “You saw the same people that I
did.”...
He then turned to “the hostages,” seemingly referring to those arrested
and charged for their actions on January 6. “The J6 hostages, I call them.
Nobody’s been treated ever in history so badly as those people,” he
said.
Then it was Nancy Pelosi's fault. From NBC News, September 10,
2024
Trump defends Jan. 6 rioters, blames Nancy Pelosi for chaos
Then it was the fault of the capitol police who let those peaceful protesters
in the building. From ABC News,
February 19, 2021 :
In new defense, dozens of Capitol rioters say law enforcement 'let us in'
to building
At least 29 accused rioters say they thought it was OK to enter the
Capitol.
For the record, and any future generations who might wondering, from
PolitiFact:
Did Capitol Police let mob of Trump supporters in?
We didn’t find evidence of that. Instead, we discovered that some online
video is getting misinterpreted. Many officers had to abandon their posts
and barricades because they were far outnumbered and overwhelmed.
And just this week, the word “Hezbollah” entered the chat. From
MSNBC:
Trump’s rhetoric about Jan. 6 rioters takes a weird and unexpected
turn
The president-elect has lied about Jan. 6 before, but his latest comments
about the rioters broke new ground — including a bizarre claim about
Hezbollah.
What breaks many Liberal's brain is that while fascist scumbags on the right
were flinging wild lies about who was to blame for J6 against the wall like
ketchup at Mar-a-Lago during an orange toddler temper tantrum...they were also
claiming that, hey, maybe J6 was a good thing!
Yeah! A noble undertaking!
Because maybe those rascally Deep State liberals really did steal the 2020
election!
Maybe J6 was justified!
And, suddenly, there was no "maybe" about it any more. Those cunning
Deep State commie liberals definitely stole the 2020 election and the freedom
fighters of January 6th were martyrs and political prisoners!
Watching this all from the outside, it felt like watching a moron going
insane. The lies were so stupid and obvious, and they shed them so fast
and scampered off to the next lie so awkwardly that, c'mon, this is
ridiculous. This is so dumb. This isn't fooling
anyone.
Then came the J6 committee, and the dozens and dozens of hours of testimony by
eyewitnesses.
Surely this would all make a difference. Tip the scales. But, once
again, to believe that is to fundamentally misunderstand the Republican
brain.
They do not care about true or false. They
do not care about fact or fiction. All they care about is
protecting the core of their identity: the belief that they are always right
about everything and are smarter than everyone. That you and I are
monsters and/or Deep State dupes. And that if it ever turns out that
they were actually wrong about something...it was never their fault: it was
all part of some vast, evil Liberal Deep State conspiracy which you and I are
part of.
Just like the lies they told as the Bush administration they had all so
passionately supported collapsed, the early lies the were throwing
around about J6 were sloppy and stupid because they were grabbing for any
scraps of anything they could throw together to create a temporary
defense. It didn't have to hold long: just until the Republican party
and Conservative media came up with more permanent lies behind which their
racist grievances and preening self-regard would be safe.
This is why they love Trump. He and Fox News and Hate Radio are their
Hephaestus. Their Vulcan. The tireless manufacturers of an
endless supply of shiny new lies -- shiny new shields -- to replace ones
that reality shatters and need to be discarded.
Orly Taitz and her lies were useful until they weren’t.
Once those lies had outlived their usefulness they were dropped and forgotten
and new liars telling new lies took their place.
Because the only imperative is maintaining a steady supply of shielding lies behind which the delusions of Republican bigots and imbeciles can remain unscathed and secure.
This is a post in two parts. Part One is, who was Orly Taitz and
whatever happened to her? And Part Two is, why the hell is driftglass
writing about Orly Taitz?
To begin Part One, no, Orly Taitz is not dead. The title of the post is
meant ironically. Or metaphorically. Or photosynthetically.
One of those writerly things.
Anyway, no, she's not dead, just irrelevant and nearly forgotten.
When last the world heard from Orly Taitz she was living in Laguna Niguel,
California and owned a dental practice. But not so long ago, she was the
tip of the spear in a massive conspiracy to cripple the presidency of Barack
Obama and maybe get him impeached, while at the same time putting Donald Trump
in contention for the 2016 Republican nomination.
Born in the former Soviet republic of Moldavia, Orly Taitz is a
peroxide-blonde SoCal dentist with a law degree from an online academy and
a black belt in Taekwondo. More than anyone else, she has vaulted
birthers—their preferred nomenclature is “doubters” or the “eligibility
movement”—into the public eye.
In 2008, Taitz helped to bring a lawsuit on behalf of Alan Keyes,
disputing the validity of Obama’s birth certificate. This year, she hit
the headlines again when she filed another lawsuit from an Army reserve
major who charged that “Barry Soetoro” was not his lawful commander in
chief. Both suits were rejected, prompting Taitz to accost Supreme Court
justices John Roberts and Antonin Scalia at public events to demand an
investigation into the matter...
Taitz wasn't alone. The Mother Jones article has bios on all the leading
birthers, including Philip Berg "a 9/11 Truther who hopped the birther train after a brief detour with the
PUMA crowd—the small but noisy band of Hillary Clinton supporters who
refused to accept that Obama had won the 2008 Democratic primary.", Alan Keyes"The perennial candidate, anti-gay crusader, and anti-abortion activist is
nevertheless perhaps the birther movement’s most credible member—which isn’t
saying a lot. A party to the Taitz lawsuit challenging Obama’s eligibility
to hold the presidency, Keyes, who calls Obama a 'radical communist' and a
'usurper'", Dr. Ron Polarik (not his real name) who claimed to be a
“document imaging” expert, Andy Martin (not his real name) who started the
rumor that Obama was a secret Muslim.
Swiftboat scumbag Jerome Corsi joined in, as did Fox News' very own Lou
Dobbs, and on and on.
And there were even elected Republican federal officeholders who maybe
were cautious enough not to fully and publicly embrace the entire bull goose loony lie, but were more than
happy to go on the record as having "questions" about Obama's
birthplace. That list included senator Richard Shelby (R-Ala.),
representative Bill Posey (R-Fla.), representative Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) and
representative John Sullivan (R-Okla.)
Do you remember that Taitz also sued over Obama's Social Security
number? She did.
Taitz was the Laura Loomer of her day: the louder and crazier she got, the more
media attention she got, and the more Republican "friends" she began to gather
on Facebook.
Because any media oxygen you give to a fanatic only encourages
them.
Orly Taitz, the California attorney-dentist leading the charge of the
so-called birthers movement, is boasting on her blog that she’s made some
high-profile “friends” on Facebook: Republican National Committee Chairman
Michael Steele, House Republican Whip Eric Cantor and GOP Reps. Mary Bono
Mack and Cynthia Lummis.
“I am in total disbelief and greatly honored,” Taitz wrote on her blog
today after Cantor appeared as one of her Facebook “friends.” “To me it
means that the leadership of the Republican party understands the
importance of the issues and legal cases I brought forward. I hope more
congressmen and senators join and either become additional plaintiffs or
bring to the House and Senate judicial committee hearings the issues of
Obama’s illegitimacy to presidency as well as suspected illegal activities
by Obama and his supporters. “
The birthers argue that President Barack Obama was not born in the United
States and is therefore not eligible to serve as president. Obama’s birth
certificate and all credible evidence show that he was, in fact, born in
Hawaii.
Republican National Committee press secretary Gail Gitcho said she has
been deluged with calls about Steele’s “friend” status with Taitz today —
a day when the RNC was trying to roll out its health care
counter-agenda...
Michele Bachmann pals around with birther queen Orly Taitz
The Minnesota congresswoman was photographed with the one woman in America
with crazier ideas about Barack Obama
Wonderful news! Big-haired Minnesota Congressloon Michele Bachmann was
finally photographed with crazy attorney/dentist and insatiable lover Orly
Taitz, the Queen of the Birthers.
The Tea Party Patriots invited both of them to speak at a lunch in
California on Friday. Taitz claims Birtherism didn't come up, but that's
literally the only thing she talks about, so I'm not sure if I believe
her.
And then, inevitably, the Exploiter Of Broken People took her
side.
And from that moment on, with Hate Radio and Fox News and most of the legacy
media happy to go along for the ride, Trump used this ridiculous, racist lie to make himself the
center of attention. From then on, it was Trump versus Obama.
Co-equals. And when Obama was finally pushed to the point where he
thought, fine, I'll disclosed the birth certificate so we can get on with
actual, important business, it was Donald Trump that the legacy media rushed
to interview.
And he made a seven-course meal out of it.
>
The CNN headline?
Donald Trump to vet Obama's birth certificate
So that was the end of it, right? Finally done with this nonsense?
President Donald Trump isn’t convinced Barack Obama was born in the
United States after all.
That’s according to a New York Times piece, which contains these two
chilling paragraphs:
“In recent months, they say, Mr. Trump has used closed-door conversations
to question the authenticity of President Barack Obama’s birth
certificate. He has also repeatedly claimed that he lost the popular vote
last year because of widespread voter fraud, according to advisers and
lawmakers.
“One senator who listened as the president revived his doubts about Mr.
Obama’s birth certificate chuckled on Tuesday as recalled the
conversation. The president, he said, has had a hard time letting go of
his claim that Mr. Obama was not born in the United States. The senator
asked not to be named to discuss private conversations.”
So, that's what Birtherism did for Donald Trump. But what about Orly
Taitz?
Well, she's still nuts and still desperately trying to claw her way back into
the spotlight, but now she's just a joke. The last "news" item about her I could find is from January 2021 from an outfit called
Law & Crime. The headline:
Orly Taitz Accuses VP Harris and Sen. Schumer of Borderline ‘Criminal’
Conduct in Bizarre Attempt to Shut Down Trump’s Second Impeachment
Trial
The Wikipedia pages on her are wild. Just paragraphs and paragraphs of
nutso accusations and dozens of transparently ridiculous lawsuits. Stuff
you've heard about and stuff I'll bet you've never heard about like...
Obama's first act as president was to donate money to Hamas, which she
claims will be used to build Qassam rockets. And,
The FEMA camps conspiracy theory: Obama is having the Federal Emergency
Management Agency build internment camps for "Anti-Obama dissidents".
And,
That Osama bin Laden was killed years before 2011 when he actually died,
with his body kept on ice, and the announcement of his death was timed to
divert attention from an upcoming court case she was litigating challenging
Obama's citizenship.
Back when her madness was useful and exploitable by Republicans, she was
everywhere, being interviewed by everyone. But once she reached her
sell-by date and her crazy bitch ravings were no longer useful, she became
just another rusted, used-up tool. Discarded like a used condom in the
same ash heap of broken people where momentarily-useful cranks and crackpots
like Mike Lindell and Laura Loomer are headed.
...is cordially invited to take a flying fuck at the moooon.
This invitation is also extended to the entire House of Sulzberger for giving poisonous little trolls like Stephens a national platform at a once-respectable newspaper.
