There are two things that always get me when watching movies or reading books about the future. Of course, the comical thing is when they get things all wrong. “Back to the Future” told us of a turbulent time when cars flew, kids rode hover boards, and holograms were everywhere. Extremely weird stuff happened. Stuff like the Cubs winning the World Series. Well, that actually turned out to be true, but the other stuff was pure fantasy.

However, nothing quite compares when the crazy stuff predicted in stories of the past actually turns out to be eerily true. “1984” was meant to be a cautionary tale even back then. It chronicled the dangers of propaganda when the government became all powerful and no one was quite sure what was up and what was down.

A lie is still a lie even if it is repeated often. Yet, a lie is more easily believed the more often it is repeated. It seems that Donald Trump and the GOP are bound and determined to get you to believe whatever they would like you to believe on Hunter Biden. They are going to keep pushing that same story about the laptop until you finally believe it.

Of course, the fact that Hunter Biden had a laptop isn’t the lie. The fact that Biden has made deals where he has taken advantage of his father’s position is also not a lie. The idea that either of these two facts point to Biden as being the most corrupt president ever is the lie. The idea is not only false, but is laughable on its face.

Are Hunter Biden’s dealings problematic? I’m sure they are on some level. Nearly every president has had a brother, son, or wayward cousin they wish they could put a muzzle on and keep locked away for their own protection. Billy Carter and Roger Clinton were absolute embarrassments. Heck, George W. Bush was that embarrassment before he cleaned his act up. You’d have to settle for Neil Bush as the black sheep of that family.

Go back far enough and there is a stupid relative or friend that a president wish they didn’t have. Of course, depending on the president, these idiots either provided for temporary humiliation or were much more problematic. Of course, like in the case of Warren Harding, those scandals were much more about their own reaction than what their idiot relatives or friends did.

So, how is this situation any different? Well, on the first note, the people leveling the charge are so guilty it is not even funny. To accuse Hunter Biden of excessively profiting from the presidency or making shady deals is galling when compared to their own behavior. Heck, you could break it down by child and all of them made more combined than all presidential children in history. Ivanka and Jared Kushner probably did more than the others.

Even now, there are propagandists on Twitter trying to convince you that he and his children divested while Hunter Biden profited. Actual facts say otherwise. Repeat a lie often enough and it becomes truth for millions of people. Joseph Goebbels told us how the big lie works. “1984” told us too. Seeing Back to Future’s version of 2015 was hilarious enough. Seeing “1984” actually come to life is anything but hilarious.

Just to remind everybody, myself included, because Republicans continue to blur the line between church and state whenever they need more blur …

“I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should ‘make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,’ thus building a wall of separation between Church and State.”

Thomas Jefferson, Letter to the Danbury Baptist Association (January 1, 1802)

There’s a new Trump & Company Super PAC called “Preserve our Rights.” There might be just a little tax problem with this new PAC.

The website doesn’t tell you diddle squat about what they want to preserve – they just ask for your email address and then to donate some money to them. Personally, I wouldn’t give them either. They could be for beheading baby kittens for all I can tell by their website.

Whose rights are they talking about, exactly?

Their filing at the FEC does tell us this:

Best I can tell, their PAC is located at a UPS Store and the Suite 395 is a post office box in the metropolitan area of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. Here ya go to see for yourself.  Now, there’s something else you’re gonna find out about this location in a minute.

The PAC treasurer, Craig Hagin, is the associate pastor of an Evangelical mega-church in Oklahoma.

And his parents, Kenneth and Lynette Hagin, are the seniors pastors.

As I mentioned before, the Super PAC makes it easy for the faithful to give online.

And so does their church.

Remember how I promised you some fun about where the UPS store is located?  Honey, it’s just down the street from the church.

Now let me tell you about what kind of Christians they are.  They held a conference last year at the church / Bible College.

More than 4,000 people packed an auditorium at Rhema Bible College near Tulsa, Oklahoma, last weekend for the Health and Freedom Conference—an event mixing Christian worship, promotion of QAnon, and messages decrying COVID-19  “fear porn.”

Leaders speaking at the conference included General Michael Flynn, MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, Trump lawyer Sidney Powell, several pro-Trump pastors, an assortment of doctors, and many others.

And here’s a sample of what was said there. This is Lin Wood at the Bible College.

https://twitter.com/patriottakes/status/1383709884114341892?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1383709884114341892%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fjulieroys.com%2Fcovid-19-conspiracy-conference%2Fcomment-page-1%2F

I think they’re preserving the right to execute me.  I could be wrong.

Now you’d think they’d have a problem with the IRS. They don’t because they are getting bolder. When you start saying that people need killin’ in a tax-free building, you’d think that would be the end of the line, but apparently it ain’t.

Okay, y’all, if you toss Madison Cawthorn, Roger Stone, and Alex Jones into your Veg-A-Matic and turn it on HIGH, you get something that will make you snort giggle all weekend.

I know it’s April Fool’s Day but – damn – I’ll believe anything that even 2 out of 3 of those guys say.

https://twitter.com/MollyJongFast/status/1509727328716435459?t=YNSgbmSx2O-KldbMWVLAJw&s=01

Question: how does he know what happens at these orgies unless he’s been there?

By the way, the Sandy Hook parents’ lawsuit in Texas starts on April 25th in the county courthouse in Travis County. Jones made an insulting settlement offer to the parents. They rejected it. Loudly.

I hope your weekend is great.

If we could spare a moment for Kevin McCarthy. In many respects, he is like the manager at the fast food place on the night shift. The teenagers have gotten out of school and have taken over the shift. He’s not incredibly talented, have any real natural authority, but he’s the adult in the room.

Some men are born great. Others have greatness thrust upon them. Still others ride the magic coattails of mediocrity and are the last ones left standing. McCarthy was never distinguishable at any point in his Congressional tenure. Yet, when Paul Ryan decided that he had had enough and the kooks decided Liz Cheney was unworthy, he was the only one left. Congratulations.

Madison Cawthorn is not a remarkable character in this tale. He’s young. The fact that he sits in a wheelchair is the only thing that distinguishes him from a frat boy looking for his former glory. Cawthorn was on a video/podcast telling a captive host that the GOP is full of orgies and cocaine parties.

We’ve all had leaders like McCarthy before. Their leadership style can best be described as hands off and hoping for the best. I suppose that works when you are surrounded by other adults. That isn’t McCarthy. He finds himself surrounded by idiots making idiotic comments and embarrassing the caucus left and right. Of course, when you do nothing to inspire discipline you aren’t going to get it.

The rest of us get to imagine who Cawthorn may be talking about. Some in the GOP want him to name names. As satisfying as that might be, I think most of us could be spared the mental images involved. Consenting adults can do what they want in their own time. Most of us don’t want to know anything about it.

Yet, McCarthy is playing the politics of reaction. He talks to Cawthorn and tells him if he does something like this again then he will be compelled to warn him again. He’s done the same with Greene and Boebert. Maybe he could round all of them up along with Matt Gaetz (honestly, we know he’s the one Cawthorn is talking about) and put them in time out. On second thought, maybe that’s how this all got started in the first place.