Cocaine on the Brain in MAGA-land
Show and Tell About the White House ‘Scandal’
Right wing fear mongering requires fresh material on a regular basis. After all, saying Hillary Clinton is head of a cabal kidnapping children for their hormones gets old after a while for all but the most committed MAGAs.
The current flavor of the week is based on a news story about cocaine being found in the west wing of the White House on Sunday evening by a Secret Service uniformed agent.
From Politico:
The small amount of cocaine was found in a cubby area for storing electronics within the West Exec basement entryway into the West Wing, where many people have authorized access, including staff or visitors coming in for West Wing tours.
Asked what the chances were of finding the culprit, the official said that “it’s gonna be very difficult for us to do that because of where it was.”
“Even if there were surveillance cameras, unless you were waving it around, it may not have been caught” by the cameras, added the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity given that it’s an ongoing investigation. “It’s a bit of a thoroughfare. People walk by there all the time.”
Lines may have been snorted and crossed. But it’s possible we won’t know by whom - Subhead on Politico story
The former president weighed in, taking his moment in the spotlight to accuse Special Prosecutor Jack Smith of looking like a crackhead.
Trump no doubt got his knowledge on the subject by looking at a video of his son.
Don Jr’s unhinged videos are filled with frantic air quotes and slurred words.
Random Twitter joker:
I expect that whoever brought the cocaine into the Biden West Wing will be identified and prosecuted. Whenever the Secret Service found cocaine in the Trump West Wing, they just gave it back to Don Jr.
Fox News and the rest of the media weenies fighting for a share of the MAGA audience spent the day making sure that any speculation on the drug find got a full airing.
Brian Kilmeade speculated on Fox and friends:
"We don't know if there's fentanyl in that cocaine, too, that's the problem ..."
Fox News' Julie Banderas:
"We’re just asking questions... all the major broadcast networks last night led with the cocaine found at the White House. Not one broadcast mentioned the name Hunter Biden. Now, we’re not saying it is Hunter Biden’s. We’re calling it for what it is!"
At the Gateway Pundit: “Where Are the WHITE HOUSE Security Tapes?
Of course, there were Congresscritters with plenty to say in this moment of national crisis.
Our own Congressman Darrell Issa jumped in front of Fox News cameras to remind viewers about Hunter Biden’s past addiction problems, suggesting that a broader investigation was necessary.
Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene responded to Biden’s press secretary deferring on speculating about the illegal stash.
Don’t worry @PressSec, we Oversight Republicans are going to ask Secret Service about cocaine found in the WH. I’d also like to know if WH staff and admin, as well as Hunter Biden, can all pass a drug test. And what list of meds or drugs is Joe taking?
Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton wrote a stern letter to the Secret Service demanding information about the illicit drug.
“I write regarding the Secret Service’s recent discovery of white powder, reportedly confirmed to be cocaine, inside the White House. According to public reports, the Secret Service has not yet confirmed where in the West Wing the cocaine was found.”
“I urge you to release that information quickly, as the American people deserve to know whether illicit drugs were found in an area where confidential information is exchanged,”
“If the White House complex is not secure, Congress needs to know the details, as well as your plan to correct any security flaws. Please answer the following questions as soon as practicable, but in any event no later than 5:00 PM on Friday, July 14.”
A random Desantis supporter took to Twitter to “both sides” the questions:
We don't know if the cocaine found in the White House was Hunter Biden's or not, but this is shameful at every level. Both Trump and Biden have brought indecency into the White House. The presidency deserves respect and decency at every level, and that's what DeSantis offers.
It was up to former White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany to pop the Hunter Biden conspiracists balloon:
“For it to be Hunter Biden, he left on Friday, he was at Camp David. There’s no way. It’s inconceivable to think cocaine could sit for a 72-hour period, so I would rule him out at this point.”
Pundit Steve Schmitt was inspired by all hubbub to do a riff on a Gil Scott Heron song from the 70s making fun of coverage of the “cocaine crisis”
Cocaine in the White House. Did you hear? It was the news today.
But did you hear the other news too?
Did you hear about a Black man on the moon ? And a woman too ? Americans, of course. Who else?
They are going soon, and when they do, I hope this is the song they’ll play: “Whitey on the Moon.”
The progress is real and so is the threat.
What is that threat?
Cocaine in the White House. Did you hear? Is that something to fear?
Might there be something else? Fascist in the White House. That’s a real thing. But then again, there is cocaine in the White House.
News You Missed During the Cocaine Crisis
Will the Day Come When America's Reporters Have to Flee? Via Daily Kos. Columnist Thom Hartman met some credible people in Europe who are concerned about freedom of the press trends in the US.
It involves preparing for something that, I confess, hadn’t even been on my conscious radar: helping safely smuggle American reporters and opinion writers — and their families — out of the US in the event of a sudden fascist takeover and press crackdown by a figure openly hostile to reporting like Trump or DeSantis.
That people living in Europe would even consider such a thing as potentially necessary was, for me, a shocking wake-up call about how far America has already gone down the authoritarian road and how clear — from outside our country — this is to those living in nations that have experienced rapid authoritarian transitions in the past.
FYI - “Reporters Without Borders ranks America 45th in press freedom, far below every other advanced democracy in the world.”
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Vaccination rates are going up despite everything Via reporter Kevin Drum’s website.
Things are pretty flat, but in the US the [COVID] vaccine rate went up half a point in early 2023 and is now safely over 80%. That's pretty solid.
On the bad news front, only about 40% of Americans have received a booster COVID dose, the lowest of any major country. On the childhood front, vaccine takeup is strongly related to insurance.
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A high BMI is not necessarily associated with a higher risk of death, study finds - Via NBC News
A body mass index in the range considered overweight, or even obese, is not necessarily associated with a higher risk of death, a new study has found. The research is the latest addition to a growing body of evidence that suggests BMI alone is not an accurate indicator of a person's health.
The study, published Wednesday in the journal PLOS One, assessed the relationship between BMI and the risk of death from any cause, based on data from more than 550,000 U.S. adults over an average of nine years.
Every time the Guns Over People Party get their knickers in a knot over something, I always wonder what nefarious activities they are deflecting and distracting the public's attention from.