Yes, folks, you heard it straight from the pursed lips of Wile E. Pickle himself:
Suuuuuuper genius.
Meanwhile, as Jeff points out, mass-produced hamburgers were actually pioneered by…brace yourselves…ol’ Joe Stalin himself:
While the Soviet Union was indeed opposed to the vulgar excesses of materialistic US consumer-capitalism during the Cold War, Mr Gorka linking Ms Ocasio-Cortez and her fellow “blue wave” idealists to the Russian dictator’s reign of terror is as obvious a piece of scaremongering as it is hysterical and disingenuous.
He is also incorrect in singling out the humble hamburger as an emblem of Bolshevik disapproval. At one time, the regime positively envied the all-American lunch option and considered it a model meal: simple, affordable and nutritious.
Anastas Mikoyan, a long-serving Minister of Foreign Trade, visited the US on a diplomatic mission in 1936 where he observed the American economic system at close quarters, studying its food industry, meeting with auto tycoon Henry Ford and visiting Macy’s department store in New York City with a view to improving efficiency at home.
Mikoyan – recently portrayed on screen by Paul Whitehouse in Armando Ianucci’s satire The Death of Stalin (2017) – had already introduced canning to modernise Soviet food plants, his efforts hailed (or satirised, depending on your point-of-view) in Boris Pilnyak’s socialist-realist novel Meat (1936), a Soviet answer to The Jungle (1907) by Upton Sinclair.
He returned from his trip with a number of souvenirs of American goods he felt had virtue and should be introduced at home. His haul included ice cream, corn flakes, popcorn, tomato juice and hamburgers.
“You, Anastas, care more about ice cream, than about communism,” Stalin joked when Mikoyan encouraged the manufacture of the dessert in the USSR.
The food commissar would commission The Book of Tasty and Healthy Food in 1939, a state cookbook intended to encourage homecooking and quell interest in restaurant dining and its associated service culture. It was read by one-sixth of the world’s population at the time.
His interest in the mechanisation and mass production of a Russian equivalent to the American hamburger was halted by the Second World War and instead the “Mikoyan cutlet” emerged, a cheaper burger patty (“kotleti” in Russian) intended for the common man that was popular for many years after. The Kremlin, of course, preferred gourmet sausages.
The New York Times wrote about the dish in a profile of Mikoyan, “the man who introduced Eskimo Pie to the Soviet Union”, in November 1964: “The ‘Mikoyan cutlet’ – nobody knows whether it is pork or beef or perhaps fish or fowl – is still the cheapest, most popular if not most revered piece of meat a few kopecks can buy.”
So there you have it, folks. Stalin not only came for their hamburgers, he left the US’s burgers alone…and put them into production back in Russia, too.
But if anyone could stand to lose a few hamberders, it’s Wile E. Pickle, who is rather a large lump and has plenty of beef to spare on his portly frame.
I feel like doing a roundup today, so here we go. First off, we learn that Cohen was a take-the-money-and-run kind of guy:
Yeah, that’s right: Novartis PAID him to influence Donnie, but he just took their money for (apparently) nothing.
We also learned that Mark Meadows is a stinking racist, that his biracial nevvies have a racist for an uncle, and Rashida “Impeach That Motherfucker” Tlaib is a total badass for calling him out:
(Extra props to Mikey Cohen for actually sassing back at him that he, as a relative of Holocaust survivors, ALSO worked for a racist.)
And in addition, we learned that the Internet never forgets a racist’s past, no matter how many black women he trots out to prove how totally-not-racist he is:
Yeah, Birthers, that’s right, you’re gonna get called on your shit A LOT from now on. DEAL WITH IT.
And we also learned just how savvy a politician Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is, even though she’s an absolute beginner:
She’s kicking ass and taking names, daring (and caring) to ask the questions that the paid-off bottom-feeders like Mark Meadows have been ignoring for YEARS. And what’s more, she’s drawing on her own experience as a resident of the Bronx as the basis for her questioning. DAMN, this woman is GOOD. She’s doing it very efficiently, and opening up space for the hearings that will no doubt lead to Donnie’s impeachment. And she even had time to spare…notice how she said she would yield the rest of her time to the chairman?
And oh yeah, there was also this:
Surprise! Donnie was a crappy student, and willing to spend a lot of money (and threats) to cover it up.
You wanna see damning testimony? I got yer damning testimony riiiiiight here:
Yes, that’s right…Donnie DID meet with all those Russkies he claims never to have met with. And all in the hopes of building a “tower” in Moscow that never actually materialized. How about that! He’s been lying to us all this time. And more to the point: He violated the emoluments clause, which is grounds for impeachment.
Also, Donnie DID pay off Stormy Daniels to hush her up during the 2016 election campaign. And Diaper Don is on the hook, too, because his squiggle is on those cheques:
Gonna be so satisfying when both these thugs get frog-marched off to the Big House in shackles and orange coveralls. Which should match Donnie’s Cheeto-dust face and hair to perfection.
And hey howdy, it only took six years for pretty much everything Cenk predicted to come true, and then some:
And yes, I am kink-shaming, because this is fucking perverted.
“He began to hit me when we engaged in sexual activities,” wrote one plaintiff, a New York woman, in a sworn affidavit filed with her lawsuit. “He would have me on my knees and begin to beat me with his hands on my breasts,” she wrote, “occasionally saying, ‘I own you,’ or ‘You are my slave.’”
The malpractice lawsuits, two of them filed on Thursday in Essex Superior Court and a third filed last year, paint a picture of a therapist who encouraged women to trust and rely on him, then coaxed them into humiliating sexual activities, often during treatment sessions for which they were charged. When the New York woman had trouble paying her therapy bills, she said, Ablow advised her to work as an escort or stripper because the work was lucrative.
[…]
In all three cases, the women say they relocated from other states, at Ablow’s request, to be closer to his Newburyport office where he used a controversial treatment for depression: infusions of Ketamine. The drug, an anesthetic that can induce a trance-like state and memory loss, is sometimes abused but is also used by some clinicians to treat chronic depression.
Andrea Celenza, a Lexington psychoanalyst who interviewed the women and reviewed their medical records as an expert witness hired by the plaintiffs, said in a letter filed with the lawsuits that Ablow’s behavior in the case of the New York woman “was sadomasochistic, anti-therapeutic, and constitutes a perverse use of his status and power.” The former patient said that, during their seven-year sexual relationship, Ablow persuaded her to get his initials tattooed on her arm.
Another expert said that Ablow appeared to be using Ketamine in conjunction with talk therapy to gain control over a third patient, a woman from Ohio.
“The patient appears to have become very dependent on this medication and dependent on Dr. Ablow to supply it,” wrote Jeffrey Lieberman, chairman of the psychiatry department at Columbia University’s Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, in expert testimony filed with the lawsuits.
I am shocked, SHOCKED to hear that a quack I have wanklisted so many times for the ugly things he has said about women, LGBT people, etc. turns out to be a bona fide pervert.
And that, as Cenk said, he pretty much literally had somebody tied up in his basement. Or two somebodies. Or three. Hell, it even makes sense from a strictly metaphorical angle, because having someone hooked on ketamine is indeed a kind of mental bondage, and this not-so-good doctor’s creepy mind is indeed a basement. An oubliette, if you will:
The patient from Ohio said she came with her mother to see Ablow in early 2015, when she was 25, receiving Ketamine infusions from him. When she returned home, she said, Ablow encouraged her to e-mail him or text him daily.
“I had never had a therapist or any professional take such an interest in me,” the woman said in her signed affidavit, adding that Ablow told her to send him even her most trivial thoughts. “At some point, it became normalized and frankly necessary for me to communicate with Dr. Ablow several times a day.”
During therapy sessions conducted over Skype, the Ohio woman said, Ablow would compliment her on her appearance and tell her he missed her. Soon, he raised the topic of sexual preferences and asked his patient whether she preferred to be submissive or dominant.
The woman said the conversation made her uncomfortable. Still, in March of 2015 she traveled to Newburyport again, this time alone.
“I asked Dr. Ablow why he had such a terrifyingly strong effect on me and he told me it was nothing to be afraid of,” the woman said. “It was then that my sexual encounters with Dr. Ablow began.”
The Ohio woman said Ablow soon persuaded her to move to Newburyport. As a further inducement, he allegedly offered discounts for the Ketamine infusions and promised to arrange job interviews.
“He told me he could convince anyone of anything,” she said.
The Ohio woman said Ablow would have her undress and perform oral sex, although he was careful to stop her before climaxing.
“Much later, when I confronted him about this, he informed me that he had a lot to lose and did not want to leave evidence,” the Ohio woman said. The Ohio woman said Ablow asked her to get a tattoo with his initials, but, unlike the New York patient, she declined.
The woman also said Ablow would sometimes beat her as she kneeled.
“Sometimes he would use his hands and other times he would take off the belt he was wearing and use that to strike me,” the woman said. “This belt had a metal buckle with a skull on it.”
Ugh. Fortunately, this one eventually started seeing another therapist — a REAL one — and freed herself from him and his perversions. But he still haunts her nightmares, and those of others too:
The Ohio woman said she still fears Ablow and is plagued by nightmares in which he chases her with a gun, because he discussed guns with her during their therapy sessions.
The former employees said Ablow could be threatening, displaying his handgun or making subtle hints that he would retaliate if they provided anyone with unfavorable information about his practice. Dixon, who said she had a manipulative sexual relationship with Ablow off-and-on for years, said he once pointed his gun directly at her. During sex, Dixon said, Ablow could be so rough that “he often left bruises and abrasions.”
And again, UGH.
Most sickening of all, there’s the fact that he was a very conscious predator:
Janna McCarthy, who worked for Ablow from May 2014 to July 2015, said Ablow would ask her to schedule appointments with attractive women who were “sad, lonely” and struggling with past trauma at times when no else would be in the office. “I was concerned that he was engaging in sexual contact with some of these women,” she wrote.
One couldn’t very well call that conduct sexual. Violent and abusive is what it was, and an abuse of ethics is what it is. I don’t know what medical school graduated him, or how on Earth he was granted a licence to practice.
But if there is any justice in this world, he will soon be without that…and with it, the means and opportunity to prescribe horse tranquilizers to any more struggling women.
And he hammers home the point that Bolivia, under Evo Morales, has NOT suffered the problems Venezuela has, even though Evo is as much a socialist as the PSUV ruling party of Venezuela. Quite the contrary: Bolivia’s economy has grown on multiple fronts, and the Bolivian people in turn have benefited.
Just look at how angry and scared he gets when asked to comment on news that an actual terrorist got arrested:
You can see how livid the puffy white rings in the Cheeto dust around his eyes get when he’s pressed to respond even a tiny little bit. He MAD, bro.
And no wonder: That guy who got arrested? That was one of his “lone wolves”. Because Donnie is a stochastic terrorist of long standing. Remember that other terrorist who got popped? That was one of his, too. And the Turks point it out.
And just in case you wondered: Yes, most of the terror attacks in the US, outside of 9-11, were committed by white supremacists of some stripe or other. ALL the ones that occurred on Donnie’s watch have been, and what’s worse, there’s been an uptick of them (and a growth of the neofascist groups behind them) ever since that clown got installed in the White House by Bog only knows who.
And Donnie’s been a racist all his life. Even before his presidential run, he’s been stirring the pot against non-white people for years. Remember how he called for the death penalty on the Central Park Five, the teenagers wrongly accused of a rape and beating that narrowly missed becoming a murder? He did that, and he has never taken it back. Just as he did this, and never took it back:
This is on HIM, and he knows it. That’s why he’s so livid when confronted with it and asked to speak about it.
Just watch. Any moment now, he’ll unleash a Twitter-storm of rage and “fake news” attacks.
And he will do so the moment any reporter asks him another pertinent question.
Rachel Maddow has all the details…and the documented proof:
$2 million in a Swiss bank account, with $200,000 a year in interest for him to live off of. And yes, the Saudis came through. If that’s not a scandal, I don’t know what is.
Please note that this is about a million (or two!) miles removed from the Boycott/Divest/Sanction campaign against Israeli apartheid, which is spearheaded and supported by countless Jews, including some in Israel. This is not that, and it is completely unrelated to that. This is Agnew’s own paranoid antisemitism talking — he apparently thought there was a Jewish conspiracy to control the media, and turn it against him. Even though the evidence of all his prior crimes is out there, well documented even by individuals with no ties to Israel OR the US Jewish community. (In that sense, he is quite of a piece with his disgustingly antisemitic boss, ol’ Tricky Dick himself.)
But this crime? This has not seen the light of day until now. And it should make for quite a few new and intriguing chapters in the saga of the Bush family ties to the House of Saud, not to mention those of the current Repugnican squatter-in-the-White-House.
Yeah, that was pretty savage. And totally on point. And so’s this:
He’s out-fundraising all the other Democratic leadership candidates…and more to the point, he’s doing it without corporate donors. He’s doing it with the help of the people whose causes he’s been fighting for all his political life.
If that’s not a harbinger of who’s going to sweep the leadership race, I don’t know what is.
(And if he doesn’t, you can be sure he got robbed…AGAIN.)
Y’okay. So we all know that Tucker Carlson is no real journalist. He only plays one (and very unconvincingly) on TV. And sometimes, in an unguarded moment, the mask slips…as it does in this unaired clip where he “interviews” a respected Dutch historian who’s not having any of it:
You’ll notice that “interviews” is in quotes. As always, those are there for a reason. This is not a real interview any more than Bowtie Boy is a real journalist. He’s a crapagandist and a bully, and he’s trying to corner Rutger Bregman, who refuses to be derailed into admission of “hypocrisy”, OR supporting the faux-populist pose that Bowtie Boy is currently affecting. Instead, Bregman pierces the Bowtie Balloon, pointing out that Tucky is a millionaire in the pocket of a billionaire. At which point Fucker loses it altogether, and starts cussing him out.
Fear doesn't travel well; just as it can warp judgment, its absence can diminish memory's truth. What terrifies one generation is likely to bring only a puzzled smile to the next.
--Arthur Miller, "Why I Wrote 'The Crucible'", The New Yorker, October 21, 1996
All opinions here are the brain-wrackings of Sabina C. Becker, unless otherwise credited. If you cite them, please give credit where due.
