GREAT MOMENTS IN PROJECTION: Biden Adviser: ‘MAGA Republicans’ Would ‘Disrupt Our Democracy,’ ‘Destroy’ the USA.

President Biden was the first to slam “MAGA Republicans” as “extremists,” and members of his administration are following suit.

On Sunday, Keisha Lance Bottoms, one of Biden’s senior advisers, was asked if members of the Biden administration will “keep hammering away at that phrase” — MAGA Republicans — between now and the November election:

“Well, I think it will be important for all of us who care about the United States of America to call out what we see,” Bottoms told MSNBC’s Jonathan Capehart:

“And what we see, again, with this MAGA Republican agenda, is an effort to disrupt our democracy. So, whether it be through November and beyond November, I think it will always be important to call out any effort there is to destroy — essentially, destroy the United States of America.

“President Biden has been very clear, he wants to work in a bipartisan effort. He has worked in a bipartisan effort. He’s been able to get things done on behalf of our country.

“But when you have a MAGA Republican agenda that has no respect for the Constitution, that has no respect for free and fair elections, then it is important for all of us, not just the president, not just me, for all of us to call it out for what it is. It is a danger to our democracy, it is a danger to our way of life.”

Flashbacks:

● CNN Center in Atlanta damaged during protests.

—CNN, May 29th, 2020.

● Atlanta Protests Turn Violent: Police Cars, Local Restaurants Damaged.

—Georgia Public Broadcasting, May 29th, 2020.

● Atlanta’s protest ends with shattered storefronts and pleas for peace.

—Georgia Recorder, May 30th, 2020.

● College Football Hall of Fame vandalized, looted in Atlanta riots.

—AL.com, May 30th, 2020.

● Protesters burn down Wendy’s in Atlanta after police shooting.

—Reuters, June 13th, 2020.

● As Black Vigilance Becomes Armed Vigilantism, Accountability Is Lost in Atlanta’s Streets.

—The Intercept, June 24th, 2020.

● Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms Doesn’t Have the Courage to Clear a Wendy’s Parking Lot and Now a Little Girl Is Dead.

—Stacey Lennox, PJ Media.com, July 6th, 2020.

● Amid spike in crime, a question of who owns the streets.

For some in Atlanta, the feeling is one of abandonment. “The police just don’t seem to care anymore,” says Morris Worthen, a Black Atlanta native. At the same time, he adds, “Everybody protests police shootings of Black people, but I don’t see any protests when Black people kill Black people.”

Nearby, a white neighbor, Tom Doyle, says he can’t deny a shift in attitude among his neighbors, regardless of their race.

“If the police back off, there’s really only two things left to do: defend yourself or be a victim,” says Mr. Doyle, who says he sometimes carries his gun.

But the police feel abandoned, too, says Thaddeus Johnson, a Georgia State University criminologist, who spent 10 years as an officer with the Memphis Police Department in Tennessee.

—The Christian Science Monitor, July 15th, 2020.

● Atlanta mayor says city has been ‘defunding the police’ for the last few years.

—Reporter Newspapers, June 11th, 2020.

Related: Why Team Biden might be purposefully grinding down the middle class.

UPDATE: Dem midterm strategy: Racing for the Bottom(s).

Not to put too fine a point on it, but the United States of America was doing a heck of a lot better under a MAGA Republican president than under the current one.

That is unless you think that inflation, a cratering economy, food and gas shortages, and everybody thinking the country is moving in the wrong direction are the preferred conditions. And I sometimes wonder if this isn’t the case for the Biden crowd.

Of course in their view the only thing that matters is that they are in power and can continue funneling money to their buddies, so America is better off under Biden’s rule in their view.

Democrats nationally have two issues upon which they are hanging their electoral hat: abortion, and hating Donald Trump/his supporters. Both of them are issues that appeal to their base and almost nobody else. The Biden Administration makes the Carter Administration look tack sharp and competent, just as Hunter Biden makes Billy Carter look sophisticated.

My own prediction is that come November 9 Republicans will have won control of both the House and the Senate. I could be very wrong about this, as I often am. But I am going out on a limb here.

Don’t get cocky.

(Updated and bumped.)

NORD STREAM PIPELINES 1 AND 2, WHICH CARRY RUSSIAN NATURAL GAS TO GERMANY, LEAKING INTO THE NORTH SEA; SABOTAGE STRONGLY SUSPECTED.

NEW CIVILITY WATCH: Biden, Who Pledged Unity, Calls Florida Mayors Before Hurricane But Not DeSantis; Admin Dodges Questions.

TRUMP’S FIRST SHAM IMPEACHMENT TRIAL WAS ‘UNCONSTITUTIONAL,’ JERRY NADLER REPORTEDLY SAID:

In a bombshell report about a forthcoming book called Unchecked: The Untold Story Behind Congress’s Botched Impeachments of Donald Trump, co-authored by Politico Playbook’s Rachael Bade and Washington Post reporter Karoun Demirjian, it was revealed that none other than House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) was absolutely not in agreeance with how Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) or House Select Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) were prepared to handle the impeachment process.

Fox News noted:

In October 2019, amid the Democrats’ plan to hold a full House vote on a resolution outlining the structure of impeachment proceedings against Trump, Nadler, according to the book, took issue with how Schiff, who was tapped by Pelosi to lead impeachment efforts, was prepared to proceed with the impeachment without due process for Trump.

Worried about the situation and the likelihood that his Judiciary Committee would not be able to cross-examine witnesses as the committee had done traditionally, Nadler confronted Schiff about the planned process, and, according to the book, said: “It’s unfair, and it’s unprecedented, and it’s unconstitutional.”

In response to Nadler’s many concerns about the particular process that was used by Schiff and Pelosi, Schiff reportedly responded by saying, “I don’t appreciate your tone…I worry you’re putting us in a box for our investigation.”

Nadler and his staff were reportedly “sidelined” for a spell while Pelosi and Schiff — and every Dem involved in the sham impeachment — carried on with the process. Nadler and his staffers, the authors claim, worked overtime to get back in the good graces of the House Democratic leaders. The strategy to include the Judiciary Committee in the impeachment process, after all, seemed to have worked before it all fell apart again.

I hope they’re prepared to reap the whirlwind: The Democrats damned Biden by impeaching Trump.

IRONY CAN BE AWFULLY IRONIC SOMETIMES, MATE:

This is absolutely incredible 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 https://t.co/5m29JLvSaM

— Konstantin Kisin (@KonstantinKisin) September 27, 2022

BROADSWORD CALLING DANNY BOY. BROADSWORD CALLING DANNY BOY: Mark Felton visits the castle from Where Eagles Dare in his latest video:

NOTIZIE DAL BUCO DELLA MEMORIA: Meloni’s liberal opponent: Nascent fascism in Italy is “absolutely fake news.” “Matteo Renzi was the Italian prime minister from 2014-2016. He’s a lefty but tells CNN: ‘Personally I was against Georgia Meloni. I’m not her best friend. We are rivals but she is not a danger to democracy. The idea there is a risk of fascism in Italy is absolutely fake news.’”

QUESTION ASKED AND ANSWERED:

● Shot: “Hey, where are the white women at?”

—Cleavon Little in Blazing Saddles, 1974.

● Chaser: ‘Transracial’ icon Rachel Dolezal has been reduced to doing OnlyFans and Black Twitter has thoughts­­.

—Louder with Crowder, today.

HIS APPEAL HAS BECOME MORE SELECTIVE: No One Watched Chris Wallace’s New CNN Show.

CNN rebooted “Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace” after torpedoing of CNN+ to air weekly at 7 pm. The program averaged 401,000 viewers for its debut, down 29% from the 2022 average for the time slot.

Wallace tanked most among viewers under 70 years old. He drew just 44,000 viewers in the advertiser-coveted demographic of 25 to 54 — that’s a 64% decline for the hour.

That’s not exactly a huge increase from the heady days of CNN+:

Flashback:  The Chickens Come Home to Roost for Chris Wallace. “My thought bubble on this is: What the hell did Wallace expect? Even absent the Cuomo/Zucker scandals, it wasn’t exactly a big secret how bad things were at CNN, not just from a ratings perspective but a coverage perspective. Between Brian Stelter, Jake Tapper, Don Lemon and others, they’ve been an embarrassment for years, so much so that even reliably left-wing news outlets like the New York Times and the Washington Post have taken to criticizing some of the decision-making and reporting styles there.”

IT’S GOOD TO BE THE NOMENKLATURA: Investigation into congressional stock trading reveals massive corruption red flags. “‘From 2019 to 2021, 183 current senators or representatives reported a trade of a stock or another financial asset by themselves or an immediate family member,’ the Times reports . ‘More than half of them sat on congressional committees that potentially gave them insight into the companies whose shares they reported buying or selling.’ The Times investigation also revealed that ‘44 of the 50 members of Congress who were most active in the markets bought or sold securities in companies over which their committee assignments could give them some degree of knowledge or influence.’”

THIS WAS THE MOMENT WHEN THE RISE OF THE OCEANS BEGAN TO SLOW AND OUR PLANET BEGAN TO HEAL:  Amy Klobuchar Makes Wild Suggestion That Voting Democrat Will Stop Hurricanes.

(Classical reference in headline.)

ROGER KIMBALL: Giorgia Meloni and Common Sense.

Italy’s new prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, seems to be a rare member of the genus homo politicus in embracing such commonsensical positions.

In a speech three years ago at the World Congress of Families, she listed Orwellian by quoting not him, but G.K. Chesterton.

“Fires will be kindled,” she quoted, “to testify that two and two make four. Swords will be drawn to prove that leaves are green in the summer.”

Chesterton’s wise words come from the end of his book “Heretics” (1905).

“The great march of mental destruction will go on,” he writes. “Everything will be denied. Everything will become a creed.”

Meloni, founder and head of Italy’s Brothers of Italy party, is a euroskeptic.

This makes her a heretic.

She objects to the effort of the people in charge of Project Europe to turn her into a “perfect consumer,” a “consumer slave.”

This makes her a pariah.

Meloni refuses to be treated as a cipher, a number.

This makes her a threat.

She proudly defines herself as “Italian, Christian, woman, mother.”

This makes her a fascist.

That, anyway, is what the major news networks want you to believe.

On the eve of her stunning election victory—in 2018, the Brothers of Italy won only 4.5 percent of the vote—CBS indulged in a hysterical (I don’t mean “funny”) bit of rhetorical overkill.

“Voters in Italy appear poised to elect a far-right prime minister,” CBS informed viewers.

That’s not all. According to CBS, Meloni “leads a neo-fascist movement, reminiscent of Benito Mussolini’s own political party.”

Mussolini, eh?

Oh, yes.

This woman wants to reclaim her own identity as an individual, to champion the two-plus-two-make-four reality that she’s Italian, not a global citizen, a Christian, not a “consumer slave,” a mother, not “parent No. 1,” and a woman, not a “gender.”

All this makes her, if CBS is to be believed, the exponent of a political philosophy that has “roots in neo-fascism.”

Related: Giorgia Meloni is no springtime for Italian fascism. “With Italy already mired in economic woes, Meloni isn’t going to be able to convert it into a fascist state. Quite the contrary. Given the turbulent nature of Italian politics and the tawdry character of her political allies, she’ll be lucky if she can hold her coalition together for six months. Her Roman Holiday ends the moment she enters office.”

UPDATE: Jon Gabriel on Meloni, Mussolini, and the Media: “I’m no scholar in Italian politics, nor have I invested much time researching the 317 parties jockeying for control from Turin to Taranto. But considering the news media’s coverage of U.S. politics, I didn’t fall for their latest imprecation. They claimed Ronald Reagan was a fascist. As was Bush Sr., Bush Jr., McCain, Romney, and Trump*. As I type, the press is pivoting from ‘Trump is literally Hitler’ to ‘DeSantis is even more Hitlery than Hitler.’ Hell, they thought Liz Cheney was a fascist until a few years ago. So, their track record is, let’s say, spotty. And provincial. Which is why our political press called Jair Bolsonaro ‘Brazil’s Trump’ and Viktor Orbán ‘Hungary’s Trump.’ They view every election around the world as a proxy battle on whatever Beltway buzz is circling the cubicles this week.”

* Don’t forget Calvin Coolidge!

(Updated and bumped.)

THAT WAS FAST — PUTIN CALLS UP THE VOLKSSTURM:

Mobiks of the "elite" 1st Tank Regiment saying there will be absolutely no training for them ahead of them being sent to Kherson on the 29th. pic.twitter.com/aBlh0HIbFH

— WarTranslated (Dmitri) (@wartranslated) September 27, 2022

SPRING FASCISM PREVIEW:

(Classical — and possibly NSFW — reference in headline.)

GOODER AND HARDER, CALIFORNIA: California will ban all new gas-fueled furnaces and heaters by 2030 to cut ozone levels.

CNN SLAMMED INTO A BRICK WALL NAMED JOE ROGAN AND PROMPTLY IMPLODED:

You certainly can’t say the whole thing wasn’t a mess of CNN’s own making. Not only did the network carry the “official” narrative for the Democratic Party over the last couple of years, they also made the mistake of targeting Joe Rogan directly, when the announced that he had used the drug ivermectin to treat Covid late last year.

CNN went on what I can only describe as a blatantly false misinformation campaign, inaccurately accusing Rogan of taking the veterinary form of ivermectin, used to de-worm horses, while plastering their network with both banners and lobotomized talking heads who were happy to prattle on about the network’s take on the situation.

The campaign was especially egregious because CNN was essentially alleging that Rogan was so stupid and such a conspiracy theorist that he would purposely take horse de-wormer instead of just falling in line, adhering to “the science” and sticking to Pfizer-endorsed Covid treatments only.

This hairbrained campaign by CNN was met by a casual threat when Rogan joked about potentially suing the network because of their claims.

Rogan then promptly put the screws to CNN’s on-network doctor, Sanjay Gupta.

“It’s a lie. It’s a lie on a news network. And it’s a lie that’s a willing…that they’re conscious of. It’s not a mistake. They’re unfavorably framing it as veterinary medicine,” Rogan said to Gupta.

“Why would you say that when you’re talking about a drug that’s been given out to billions and billions of people? Why would they lie and say that’s horse de-wormer?”

“They shouldn’t have said that,” Gupta was forced to uncomfortably admit.

“They shouldn’t have done that,” Gupta says again.

“It’s defamatory!” Rogan replies. “Six days after infection I was back at the gym.”

The Mortal Kombat-style “FINISH HIM” moment came when Rogan asked:

“You’re working for a news organization. If they’re lying about a comedian taking horse medication, what are they telling us about Russia? What are they telling us about Syria?

The aftermath of the situation resulted in tremendous embarrassment for the news network, whose viewership at the time paled in comparison to that of Rogan’s.

It was a true comeuppance for CNN and it was long overdue.

The following day though, having failed to learn their lesson, CNN was right back at it, including Gupta: CNN’s Effort to Clean up the Gupta Train Wreck Interview Proves Joe Rogan’s Point.

“Listen, I think it’s also very important, I know it’s in large part a tongue-in-cheek interview because it’s Joe Rogan and there’s lots — you’re jockeying back and forth. But he did say something about Ivermectin that I think wasn’t actually correct about CNN and lying. Okay? Ivermectin is a drug that is commonly used as a horse de-wormer. So, it is not a lie to say that the drug is used as a horse de-wormer. I think that’s important. And it is not approved for COVID. Correct?” Lemon asked.

“That’s right. That’s correct,” Gupta replied. “It is not approved for COVID. And you’re right, I mean, the FDA even put out a statement, saying, you know, basically reminding people — it was a strange sort of message from the FDA, but that said, ‘You’re not a horse, you’re not a cow, stop taking this stuff,’ is essentially what they said, referring to Ivermectin.”

“When Joe got sick, he took Ivermectin. He also took monoclonal antibodies, which is an infusion of these antibodies. So, he took both those things. It’s very likely it was the monoclonal antibodies that made him feel better so quickly,” Gupta added.

* * * * * * * *

Yes, it’s true that ivermectin has not been approved by the FDA for COVID, but it’s been approved for other uses. It’s common for doctors to prescribe medicines for off-label use, which is how some doctors are prescribing it for COVID.

Lemon also painted a very different picture of the interview than what actually happened, telling Gupta “you held your own, though. It was very good” — when the interview was demonstrably awful for Gupta’s reputation and CNN.

But that’s the problem with CNN in a nutshell, and it’s the point that Rogan was making. They don’t care about the truth; it’s all about narrative. Rogan had previously speculated on whether he would have to sue to get them to be honest. I wonder what he’s going to think about this spin, especially after he so eviscerated Gupta. They may have just invited that action.

Despite Chris Licht’s paying lip service to reforming his badly tarnished opinion network, that may prove to be impossible. QED, this recent headline: ‘They enriched us.’ Migrants’ 44-hour visit leaves indelible mark on Martha’s Vineyard.

CNBC: Wharton’s Siegel says Jerome Powell owes ‘the American people an apology’ for poor Fed policy.

Wharton Business School professor Jeremy Siegel criticized the Federal Reserve and its chairman, Jerome Powell, on Monday, saying the U.S. central bank is moving too aggressively to fight inflation and will hurt American workers in the process.

Siegel said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” that persistently high inflation in 2022 is due in large part to mistakes made by the Fed in the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic, which caused economic shutdowns around the world and big drops in global markets, and that the Fed’s pivot to fast rate hikes would cause more economic damage.

“Honestly, I think Chairman Powell should offer the American people an apology for such poor monetary policy that he has pursued, and the Fed has pursued, over the past few years,” Siegel said.

The comments come after another 0.75 percentage point hike from the Fed last week, which brought the central bank’s target range for its benchmark interest rate to 3%-3.25%. Projections from Fed policymakers at the recent meeting showed that the rate could jump well above 4% in coming months.

Siegel said the Fed is “talking way too tough” and should be more worried about causing a recession than focusing on lagged inflation data. He also said the Fed is being inconsistent with how it uses some pieces of economic data.

CTL-F “President” and “Biden” return zero results in the article, unexpectedly.

Earlier: The Fed Raises Interest Rates by 0.75%; The Propaganda Media Pretends It’s The Fed That’s Choking the Economy, Rather Than Biden’s Toxic Profligacy That Forced The Fed to Impose Higher Interest Rates.

“COPPER. I live near one of the largest copper mines on earth. I helped manage a smaller copper mine for 8 years. Observation: VRE-battery supporters are completely out of touch with the costs and fossil fuel / environmental impacts associated with copper mining & production.”

A Twitter thread (assembled on Thread Reader) follows. Read the whole thing.

(H/T: Kate of Small Dead Animals.)

DEVELOPING: California man accused of planning ‘Las Vegas-style’ mass shooting.

Note that we’re still waiting for the motive of that mass shooting in Las Vegas. Or as America’s Newspaper of Record reported last year: FBI Assures Nation They Will Get Back To Figuring Out Why That Guy Shot 400 People In Vegas After They’re Done Investigating Parent-Teacher Meetings.

And Catholic Pro-Life Activists, to boot.

JAMIE RASKIN (D-MD): Ray Epps is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful MAGA-head I have ever known in my entire life.

J6 committee leader calls Ray Epps "poor schmuck" who is “just trying to survive.”

pic.twitter.com/Gt4N1L4k55

— Cernovich (@Cernovich) September 26, 2022

TODAY IN BRANDON’S ATTEMPT AT STRAY VOLTAGE:

Shot: Stocks fall on recession fears; Dow slips into bear market.

Chaser: White House says it wants Atlanta Braves name change… on same day Biden hosts team.

WHOOPS: Tom Elliott rains inconvenient truths on all the media libs screeching that new conservative Italian PM Georgia Meloni is the new Mussolini.

That doesn’t stop CNN from getting the vapors, though:

SAN FRANCISCANS GET THE VAPORS, DIVE FOR FAINTING COUCHES: San Francisco firefighter wears “Lets go Brandon” shirt while on duty.

Flashback to America’s Newspaper of Record last year: ‘I Just Think This Let’s Go Brandon Thing Is Really Disrespectful,’ Says Man Wearing F— TRUMP T-Shirt.

RIGHT-WING COALITION WINS IN ITALY, AMERICAN PRESS LOSES ITS MIND:

Meloni does not, in fact, lead a “neo-fascist” movement. Is she “far-right” in the European sense? Sure, she is, but that doesn’t make her a fascist, and as far as I can tell, none of her proposed policies are fascist. They may make those on the left upset, especially regarding immigration and LGBT stuff, but that’s not the standard for fascism.

Ironically enough, American Democrats base their accusations on the fact that Meloni’s party has its historical roots in turn-of-the-century fascism in Italy. Of course, the problem with that is obvious. The Democrat Party was the party of slavery and Jim Crow, and it remains a party of mass death in regard to abortion. So if the assertion is that a political party with a checkered history is unacceptable, then the Democrats might as well close up shop, otherwise, they are just massive hypocrites.

They won’t, though, because they truly believe they are more enlightened than their political opponents. If you don’t want kids being sexualized by the LGBT lobby, then you must be a fascist. If you don’t want unlimited Muslim immigration that is driving up crime rates, then you must be a fascist. We all know how the game is played, and it’s all meaningless at this point. No one takes the left’s rantings seriously.

“If CBS News is right and Giorgia Meloni is a ‘fascist,’ then I’m telling you, half of America is fascist,” Rod Dreher adds. “Then again, they probably do believe that in the CBS Newsroom in New York. Please, I want you to watch this, or at least part of it. It’s important to see and hear for yourself the radical distance between what CBS News and other media say Giorgia Meloni is, and what she actually is. It’s important so you can grasp how badly you and all of us are gaslighted by the media when it comes to politics, especially when politics intersect with culture. They hate Meloni because she takes a hard line on out-of-control immigration, and because she believes in defending the traditional family (which entails rejecting transgender ideology). Ergo, ‘FASCIST!'”

HOW IT STARTED: Minneapolis City Council members intend to defund and dismantle the city’s police department.

—CNN, June 8th, 2020.

How it’s going: Once nicknamed ‘Murderapolis,’ the city that became the center of the ‘Defund the Police’ movement is grappling with heightened violent crime.

—CNN, yesterday.

Evergreen: