Category: Politics

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Why Democrats Are the Party of Freedom

Democrats stand on freedom

For decades, I’ve been saying that Democrats are the party of freedom. Look at their past policies and you can clearly see that Democrats are for personal freedom and corporate accountability, while Republicans are interested in limiting personal freedoms and letting corporations run rampant.

I was reminded of this recently when a post popped up in my Facebook feed from a page I don’t follow. It was a video clip from the movie “Demolition Man,” starring Sylvester Stallone and Sandra Bullock. In the clip, Edgar Friendly, played by Dennis Leary is explaining to Stallone’s character why he lives underground, away from society. In the scene, he says he is the enemy because he likes to think, he likes to read, he’s into freedom of speech, and then begins a typical 1990’s era Dennis Leary screed about how he wants to be free to smoke and eat red meat, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. If you’re not familiar with it, check it out:

Edgar Friendly rants about freedom in Demolition Man.

And then, all these weird-ass right-wing MAGA freaks jumped in the comments talking about how they finally understand what he was talking about, and “That’s what the Democrat party is doing to us!”

I bit back the desire to comment. I wanted to ask them which Democratic policies are taking rights away from people. I wanted to engage in an honest conversation about which party is trying to strip the rights away from the electorate. But I know better.

I wanted to engage them in a conversation about evidence-based facts that exist in reality. Experience has taught me to stop trying. I used to try to engage with people online, naively believing that people can have rational political discussions in an online environment, but it’s rarely possible, in my experience. So, I don’t even try anymore.

In the past, when I’ve tried to engage in healthy debate online, the sourced, fact-based items I would provide as evidence were countered with unsourced opinion pieces riddled with blatant lies. When I would call into question the source and quality of their evidence, they would claim that my sources were the flawed ones, because they came from the “liberal media.” Never mind that they were fully sourced back to the original evidence.

So, it’s unfortunate that I can’t have an honest conversation with these people because I really want to know which Democratic policies are infringing on my rights as a private citizen. I don’t see any Democratic policy trying to take my rights away, but if you can think of some, please let me know in the comments. Any examples I’ve been given in the past crumble under the slightest scrutiny. They can largely be reduced to, “They’re trying to take away my right to take people’s rights away!” I only see Democrats trying to protect our rights, restore the rights that have been stripped away, and fight for freedom and equality.

I see Republican talking heads resorting to making things up from whole cloth. I heard one on CNN say with a straight face that Kamala Harris wants to ban red meat, and then he confidently claimed that she campaigned on the issue. This is not true.

FACT CHECK: Does Kamala Harris Want To ‘Eliminate’ Beef? | Check Your Fact

Meanwhile, I see Republicans trampling our rights every chance they get. I have examples:

They are against women’s rights. They have removed a woman’s right to choose. They have come between women and their doctors, interfering with a woman’s right to make her own health care decisions.

They are against gay rights. They fought against marriage equality. And now they want to reverse it.

They are against trans rights. They don’t want trans people to have the right to be their authentic selves in public.

They are against environmental regulations. They want to repeal safety regulations imposed on corporations, which infringes on our individual rights to a safe, clean environment.

They are against the right to affordable health care. Right now, in our country, getting good, quality health care is considered a privilege. Democrats want to make it a right.

They are against employee collective bargaining rights.

These are just a few of the many examples available. Their policy proposals are all about control and forcing the general public into a Judeo-Christian mold. I would seek out individual examples for all of these things, but I don’t have to. There’s a 900-page document called Project 2025. Go read it. It’s all there. If you don’t have time to read a 900-page manual on how to create a dystopian nightmare, check out this white paper from David Pakman.

For as long as I can remember, Democrats have been strong on policy, but complete shit on messaging. I have become so excited in this election season. Kamala walking out on stage to Beyoncé’s Freedom sent chills down my spine. Democrats have always been the party of freedom, and it’s about time they talk about it. Walz telling people to “mind your own damned business” did it again. Chills.

I was shocked, amazed, and ecstatic that the Democrats finally seem to be learning how to message. We want to be free. We don’t want people telling us what to do. We want to be free to worship as we choose and free to not worship at all. We want to be free to do what we want with our bodies. We want to be free to love who we want.

Democrats stand and fight for freedom

Democrats are the party of personal freedom and corporate regulation. Ideally. I’m not naïve. There is plenty of corporate control of the Democratic party. They have way too much financial incentive to favor corporations, and there are plenty of corrupt Democrats. But they are leaps and bounds ahead of the Republican party, which is openly for corporate freedom, corporate deregulation, which by its very nature leads to individual servitude.

So, if you like freedom, vote Democratic. Vote Harris/Walz. Then we can continue the fight to get corporate influence and corporate money out of politics. If you vote the other way, individual voters will no longer have any say at all in what goes on in government. A lot of people probably think I’m being alarmist, or hyperbolic. But I’m not. Their plan is public, and it describes a dystopian future that I want no part of. The only people who will be happy under that plan are people who long to be controlled by an evil tyrant. And, strangely, those people do actually exist.

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Complete Piece of Shit Gets What He Deserves

Elmer Stewart Rhodes, wife beater, child abuser, disbarred attorney, and founder of the far-right militia group The Oath Keepers, has been sentenced to 18 years in prison after being convicted of seditious conspiracy and evidence tampering in relation to the January 6th riots on the Capitol in 2021.

The domestic terrorist and abusive father of six was sentenced by Judge Amit Mehta, who opted to enhance Rhodes’ sentence for terrorism. The Justice Department was seeking 25 years for the domestic terrorist, as a prosecutor stated in court that a harsh sentence was important “to ensure the respect for the rule of law that is essential to the survival of our democracy.”

Just before handing down his sentence, Judge Mehta told Rhodes, “You, sir, present an ongoing threat and peril to this country.”

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January 6th, Dumb Fucks Day: A Poem

Dumb Fucks Day poem

So, I had an idea to write this, as the trials are ongoing and the dumb fucks are being sentenced and locked up (some of the very same people who shouted “lock her up!” at Trump rallies are now sitting behind bars — irony can be beautiful). I know it’s out of season, but it needed to be created so I’ll be able to post it on January 6th, Dumb Fucks Day, next year, and every year after. 

Be wary, be wary 
On sixth January 
Of gallows, sedition, and riot 
There is no reason 
This seditious treason
Should ever be kept quiet 

Dumb fucks, dumb fucks
'Twas their intent
To take over congress
And kill old Pence
Violent throes 
With MAGA foes 
And poor old Biden
To overthrow

By our vigilance 
They were stopped 
With a coerced Tweet
From the orange hair mop
Proud boys, proud boys let the cells clang shut 
Proud boys, proud boys those people are nuts.
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Coronaspiracy! Origin Story

Coronaspiracy!

This one is probably going to disappoint everyone.

If you’re hoping I’ll say that I believe Barack Obama and Anthony Fauci created COVID-19 as a bio-weapon in the Wuhan lab in coordination with Bill Gates and the Clinton Foundation and released it upon the world on purpose, you’re going to be disappointed.

If you’re hoping I’ll say that I believe this virus naturally evolved in bats, possibly jumped to another animal, a pangolin, perhaps, before jumping to humans and was initially spread at the Wuhan wet market, you’re going to be disappointed.

The first claim is ludicrous, and the second simply has no proof. It’s a best guess, and nothing more. It is based on the fact that viruses have spread that way before, and by applying Occam’s Razor, so say a lot of scientists. But when all the facts are laid out, that’s not necessarily the most likely scenario.

If you’re hoping I’ll say, “Check out this film, ‘Plandemic!’ It will open your eyes and help you see the truth!” You’re going to be disappointed. That film is a propaganda piece designed to look like journalism featuring a discredited, disgruntled former bottom-of-the-food-chain subordinate of Dr. Anthony Fauci. She faked some research, and when she was caught, she stole all of the records of her crime from the lab she worked in. That’s why she went to jail. She claims she was held without charges. There were charges. You can find this easily with a simple Google search.

Okay, so, let’s look at the bare facts:

The Wuhan Center For Disease Control and Prevention is less than 300 yards from the Chinese wet market commonly blamed for the initial outbreak of the disease we now call COVID-19. It is adjacent to the Union Hospital, the site where the first group of doctors got infected.

The — ahem — “conspiracy theory” that the virus came from this lab originated in a paper from the South China University of Technology. This paper, written by scholars Botao Xiao and Lei Xiao, alleges that the WHCDC kept disease-ridden animals in laboratories, including 605 bats.

The Chinese government buried this report, but it was seen by some people before it was buried, so we know what’s in it. We know that the principal investigator was involved in a project generating a chimeric virus using the SARS-CoV reverse genetics system and reporting the potentiality for human spread. It was noted there was concern at the time that it might escape.

We know that genome sequences from the first patients were either 96% or 89% identical to the bat CoV ZC45 they were working with in the lab.

We know that the only native bats are found roughly 600 miles away from the Wuhan wet market, and that the probability of bats flying that far is minimal, at best.

We know that one of the researchers described quarantining himself for two weeks after coming into direct contact with bat blood. And we know that same man also quarantined himself after a bat pissed on him.

We know that the United States Government was knowingly funding gain of function research on bat corona viruses in that lab in the past. We know that the Obama administration prohibited funding of that type of research in 2014, correctly recognizing it as risky, reckless, and unnecessary, no matter the intentions.

Gain of function research, if you don’t know, as I didn’t before I began my own research into this, is experimentation on viruses to try to encourage them to develop abilities they don’t currently have. Abilities such as jumping species, or becoming more deadly. This type of research could be used to create a bio-weapon, sure. But in this case the research was officially to keep tabs on the bat corona viruses, find out what would cause them to do that, and make sure we’re prepared in that eventuality, to get a head start on the thing.

To be clear, the United States Government ceased funding for that project, but funds did continue to flow into that laboratory for other research. That in no way means that the lab ceased gain of function research. It only means the US stopped providing funding for it.

We know that in 2018, the US Embassy in Beijing warned of safety concerns in the high-containment laboratory.

I’ve read a couple papers from virologists explaining why they think the virus developed naturally, and I’ve read a paper claiming that the virus is man-made. The evidence that the virus is man-made is a strange, out of place furin cleavage site in the RNA sequence. This can occur when the virus is intentionally cut and a new sequence is inserted. The paper asserting that the virus was created in a lab point to this as evidence. The papers claiming it is natural point to the fact that this can occur naturally, and has occurred naturally in several ancestors of the current virus. But it does not appear in any near relatives. So it is curious, but it’s not proof.

The proponents of the virus being natural initially claimed that the new sequence came from a pangolin. They later realized an error, it doesn’t match a pangolin after all, and they have not identified what animal it could have come from. To be honest, I followed the information as best as I could, but most of this is pretty far over my head. So let me give them the benefit of the doubt and say there is no evidence that this was created in that lab — but there’s also no evidence it wasn’t.

What bothers me the most is that top epidemiologists are very emphatic that it didn’t come from the lab. That, in itself, is suspicious to me. Scientists generally approach things from a position of neutrality and gather evidence. The assertion that it absolutely definitely did not come from the lab when there is literally no proof either way that they can produce to back up that claim sets off alarm bells for me.

To be clear, I don’t think this was created on purpose as a bio-weapon. Nobody would use a Coronavirus for that. They’d be working with Ebola or something equally terrifying. I’m not convinced for sure that this wasn’t created for research and accidentally leaked. But let’s assume it wasn’t. Let’s assume it’s natural. Doesn’t it still make more sense that it naturally evolved from a bat to a human from an accident in that lab, and not from 600 miles away in the bats’ natural habitat?

These are the top people in the field, these scientists. It’s a small group of people. Lying about the origin won’t change the outcome, it won’t hurt more people, it won’t prolong finding a vaccine or a treatment. But it will cover their asses, absolve them and their respected colleagues from blame. I saw one respected epidemiologist insisting that no matching virus existed in that lab. How would he know that? The lab is in China, the country with, arguably, the most secretive government in the world. We don’t honestly know, except for the people who do.

When I look at all of this information, Occam’s Razor tells me the virus probably came out of this lab. And unless or until they can produce proof that it came from elsewhere, that’s what I’m going to continue to believe, because it is absolutely the most likely scenario.

The fact that Trump also believes the virus came from a lab is unfortunate. Trump, as almost everyone knows, is a pathological liar. But Trump is also a brainless human-parrot who will repeat anything he hears that suits his narrative. So, you can’t discount something just because he says it. Sometimes he parrots smart people. His opinion is irrelevant when it comes to whether something is true or false.

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Coronaspiracy! The Numbers

Coronaspiracy!

As of the moment I am writing this sentence, 75,991 Americans have officially died from COVID-19, directly. By the time I publish this, hundreds more will be dead. As of now 1.28 million Americans have been confirmed to have the disease.

There is a lot of disagreement surrounding these numbers, and there should be. No matter how you slice it, these numbers are complete bullshit. They’re 100% bogus. The reason they are bogus is one of the same reasons they are so high. We don’t have adequate testing and contact tracing in place. Those numbers only include people who have been lab-confirmed tested positive for COVID-19 and deaths that doctors deem were probable COVID-19 deaths, but didn’t have testing available to confirm.

I personally believe that the numbers are vastly under reported. I’ve read a lot of stuff from people who believe the numbers are being artificially inflated. First, I want to get into why I believe far more people are dying from COVID-19 than are being reported. Then, I’ll look at each reason I’ve heard for over reporting and see if they have any meat on their bones to pick at.

Most importantly, hardly anyone has been tested. America has tested roughly one percent of its population. Within that one percent, we have a 20% positivity rate, one in five people tested has shown positive. But they’re only testing people who present with severe symptoms and people who are exposed or at-risk, like health care workers or rich people.

But we’ve also been told that a lot of people who get it have mild to no symptoms. So it’s hard to say whether that 20% positivity rate would hold steady on a random test of the population. To know that, we’d actually need random tests of the general population.

For just a second, let’s assume that the one in five positivity rate is accurate. The current population of the United States is just over 331 million people. Twenty percent of 331 million is 66.2 million. That’s a lot bigger number than 1.28 million. But, of course, that’s just a possibility. That’s reasonably the high-end possibility at this point. There’s no reason to believe the number is quite that high until we see data. At the same time, until we have data, there’s no reason to believe it’s not that high. The only thing we know for sure right now is that we don’t know.

The fact that our numbers have plateaued for now doesn’t mean much. It doesn’t mean that the virus has slowed its spread. Because the number of tests per day have not increased. We’re testing roughly 150,000 people per day, consistently. The number of tests per day have plateaued, and the number of new confirmed cases per day have plateaued. Which tells us one thing, only. We’re still testing at about a 20% positivity rate.

So, if we are at 66 million infected and only 75,991 people have died, that’s a pretty decent mortality rate, right? That’s .11% mortality. That’s not bad. That’s comparable to the flu in an average year. Except it’s far more than 75,991 dead. Remember, the only people counted as COVID-19 deaths are confirmed cases and suspected cases, which are going to be the common symptoms we all know about.

But COVID kills in other ways. People with mild symptoms are dying from COVID related blood clots. Some people aren’t going to the hospital at all. They aren’t reporting their symptoms, they are dying at home. This is reflected in the excess mortality that began to spike as soon as COVID-19 hit our shores. These are COVID deaths, but aren’t being added to the official count.

Excess mortality is an increase in the overall number of deaths from all causes. Starting in March and continuing to skyrocket, the number of deaths over and above what is expected in an average year is increasing daily. We know that traffic accidents are down due to greatly reduced travel. A lot of people aren’t out and about getting themselves killed in various ways, so we should se some balance to the extra deaths from COVID. But we don’t. Instead we see an alarming number of extra dead people, over and above the official lab-confirmed COVID death count.

We know that heart attack deaths are up because people ignore their symptoms, terrified to go to the hospital. Heart attack deaths may also be up due to blood clots formed during a COVID-19 infection. COVID-19 is a clotting disorder as well as a respiratory disorder, evidence shows. They’ve been treating people with blood thinners with positive results. But these heart attack deaths won’t be counted as COVID-19 deaths. These stroke deaths won’t be counted as COVID-19 deaths. Because they won’t have a post-mortem test for the disease, and without that, it would be impossible to know if that condition was a COVID-19 death, or from other causes.

Domestic violence deaths are likely up right now. That’s a guess, on my part, but it only makes sense. Suicides are going to be up. You just have to think about the way the world is operating now vs the way we were a few months ago to start to pinpoint that types of deaths should be going up and which type should be going down.

But in the end, at any rate, one would think it would be pretty much a wash, and we’d see a small spike in excess deaths from this pesky new Coronavirus. But that’s not what we see. We see a huge spike in excess mortality. What is causing all that extra death, if not COVID-19?

Alright, so, we’ve got the constantly climbing excess mortality, a one percent test rate, and only counting positive tests as COVID-19 deaths. That’s what tells me the COVID deaths are being under reported. Now let’s look at some theories I’ve seen floated about why the count is being over reported.

Some people are claiming that flu deaths are down this year, and that’s because deaths that should be reported as flu deaths are actually being reported as COVID-19 deaths. But, if the flu numbers this year are lower than the numbers projected earlier this flu season, there’s actually a pretty good explanation for why that is. Because lower flu numbers this year should be expected. The flu season wasn’t over when a good portion of the world began to self-quarantine. Although the self-quarantine was intended to slow the spread of COVID-19, which it did, it also slowed the spread of influenza, which is far less contagious than COVID-19. The self-quarantine should have drastically lowered instances of flu-related death, and the numbers are, understandably, reflecting that.

However, I’m not sure the final tally for this flu season is official just yet. And the decrease in cases later in the flu season may be offset by the increased testing for influenza that started when COVID hit. Since they didn’t have COVID tests, they increased testing for influenza. If you had flu-like symptoms but tested negative for flu, then you’d get a COVID test, if available in your area. Testing available at participating hospitals, restrictions may apply.

Some people say that if you have a heart condition and you die, they will posthumously test you, and if you have COVID-19, that will be counted as a COVID death. Well, no. That’s not happening. I don’t even need to research that. Just think about it. You would need the cooperation of morticians across the country. A whole lot of them would be speaking out if that were happening. If we were testing all those dead bodies when we don’t even have enough testing supplies to increase the testing on our living population to an acceptable level.

So, no, they aren’t testing most people posthumously and adding them to the count. But for certain conditions, I think they should. COVID kills people with comorbidities at an elevated rate. COVID causes blood clots, which, in turn, lead to heart attacks and strokes. So, there’s a good chance that the person with the heart condition would have gone on living many more good years managing their condition had they not been struck with COVID. That is a COVID death, and they are not being counted.

And now Trump has latched onto another popular conspiracy theory, that hospitals are over-reporting COVID deaths to increase their funding, basically, accusing them of exploiting the CARE act. Again, for this to happen on a wide enough scale for it to affect the numbers, it would involve so very many people. Doctors, nurses, hospital administration. So many whistles would be blown internally at hospitals all across the country if this were happening.

So, it might look like I’ve just glossed over these theories and dismissed them out of hand with no research. That’s kind of true. But that’s because there is nothing to research. These are wild claims with no evidence to support them. To argue against something, I need something to argue against. I need some evidence to try to disprove. It’s just people alleging things may be happening with no evidence that anything they are saying is true.

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Coronaspiracy! Introduction

Coronaspiracy!

There are a whole lot of conspiracy theories circulating about the coronavirus. There are so many different things to address that trying to squeeze them all into one blog would be a tedious endeavor, so I’m going to do this in parts and give each piece of the puzzle the thorough examination it requires.

One thing is becoming crystal clear as time passes and evidence mounts: Some of the conspiracy theories have truth tangled up in them. There is definitely something shady going on. There are multiple cover-ups, and seemingly baffling decisions by world leaders, and I don’t mean Trump. Trump knows nothing and he is not now, nor has he ever been a world leader. I would say Trump is just as clueless as the rest of us, but it’s painfully clear he is far more clueless than most of us. I do mean the American Government. I do mean China. We’ll get into specifics later.

There are multiple things we need to examine when looking at the current COVID-19 outbreak and the response, or lack of response, to it. They are all pieces of the same puzzle. They all fit together somehow and form a picture, or a story. I don’t claim to know what that picture is. I don’t know the story, and I don’t expect to solve this. I’m just some guy, okay?

Someone will solve this, and then it will all click. We’ll know it when we see it. I’ve read a whole lot from people who think they’ve got it all solved, but I don’t think I’ve seen the truth yet. I know I for sure don’t believe that there is a signal embedded in 5G which will activate a chip we all have injected unknowingly through a mandated vaccine to turn us all into mindless automatons. That’s not the kind of thing I’m going to be focused on here. I’m not going to focus on any kind of theory about what exactly is going on. For now, I just want to examine the individual pieces.

Full disclosure: I am not an epidemiologist. I’m not a virologist. I am not a microbiologist. I’m not a biologist of any kind. I’m not even a scientist. I’m not a doctor. What I am is a writer, and a researcher. My day job relies heavily on research. I spend my days at work finding, aggregating, and analyzing data until I have a clear picture of what’s going on.

One thing we’ll be looking at is the numbers, the data, the reporting, total numbers of cases, total death count, mortality rate of COVID-19 vs. Influenza in any given year, with special attention given to the 2020 flu season. We’ll be looking at the claims that the numbers are too low, and we’ll be looking at claims that the numbers are inflated.

Another thing we’ll be looking at is the origin of SARS-CoV-2. Top epidemiologists claim that it couldn’t have come from a lab. That statement, on it’s own, is suspicious. Scientists don’t usually speak so definitively, and when they do, it’s a red flag. You can always trust the science. You cannot always trust a scientist, or even a group of them. I don’t want to come off like some kind of climate denier. My point is that the data is out there to look at.

I’m going to fully examine the response, or lack of response of the American Government concerning testing. This lockdown was supposed to be temporary while we got testing measures in place. That hasn’t happened. Our government keeps giving us bogus answers why while other countries seemingly have testing under control.

Another piece of the puzzle is the confusion around the medicines and treatment. There is some really suspicious stuff happening with Hydroxychloroquine and Remdesivir.

We’ll be looking at strange deaths that may or may not be coincidence.

And by the time I’m finished examining all those pieces, I’m sure I will have found more pieces to look at. I can’t stop falling down this rabbit hole, and it keeps looking curiouser and curiouser …

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For Russia With Love: The Tara Reade Story?

Heart with Flag of Russia coloring

There are three women I know of now whose name is pronounced Tar-uh Reed. Tara Reid is an actress who starred in the Sharknado franchise. Tara Reed is an artist and designer. She designed my favorite coffee mug. And now I’ve learned that there is a Tara Reade, who used to work for Joe Biden.

When I heard about the allegation that Tara Reade made against Joe Biden, I was deeply disturbed. Were Biden’s hands on shoulders, close-ear talking, hair petting, and hugs something more than just an overly-affectionate guy with boundary issues and a lack of understanding of personal space? It had always looked uncomfortable, but innocent, to me. And, if it’s innocent, I find it strangely endearing, despite the fact that I don’t personally like to be touched by strangers.

He’s not just overly familiar with females. For every picture of Joe Biden petting a little girl’s hair, there’s another of him with his arms around a man, gazing into his eyes, or practically kissing his ear. I could do a Google image search and come up with some pretty compelling visual evidence that Joe Biden is in love with several men. He’s not. At least, I don’t believe so. Some people are huggers. And Joe Biden is a hugger extraordinaire.

I think the world no longer tolerates that, but I also think it is both innocent and changeable behavior. Unlike Trump, Biden does have some sense of self-awareness, can listen to criticism, and make changes.

I’ll be honest: I really don’t want the allegations to be true. I do have that bias, and I will freely admit it. I always have that bias. No matter who it is. Like any regular person, I don’t want sexual assault to happen. I would hope we all have that bias. I hope that none of us would wish a woman had been sexually assaulted so we could have some ammunition against a political opponent. But I know better. There are plenty of people who really hope Biden did exactly what Reade says he did. And we all know it does happen, of course.

Tara Reade’s story, when I first heard it, sounded credible. In a public, yet deserted hallway, Biden pinned her to a wall, groped her, kissed on her, and asked if she wanted to go somewhere else. When she reacted negatively, he said, “Come on, Man, I heard you liked me.” Shit. That sounds like Joe Biden, I can hear him saying that. So, it sounds bad. I agree that we should listen to women. We should take them seriously. We should look into their allegations and dig until we find the truth. I let other people do the investigative journalism. I found their articles, checked their sources and compiled a pretty decent collection of truths that form a pretty cohesive picture.

Here’s the truth that I have found:

In 2009, Reade wrote an article commending Biden’s work on the Violence Against Women act. The same year, she wrote another article claiming that she’d left DC because her husband had received a job offer to manage a Congressman’s campaign in the Midwest, and she’d moved with him.

From late 2016 to early 2017, she had a Twitter account using her newly married name, Tara McCabe. She used this platform to praise Biden on multiple occasions. She retweeted him saying, “My old boss speaks truth. Listen.” This Twitter account also featured a lot of anti-Russia, anti-Putin sentiment.

Then, in 2018, she writes in an Op Ed for Medium which praises Russia and Putin, that she left Washington because she “saw the reckless imperialism of America and the pain it caused through out the world,” and because she loved Russia with all her heart. In this article she describes Putin as a “compassionate, caring, visionary leader.”

She wrote several pro-Russia, pro-Putin articles during this time, gushing over him, saying, “President Putin has an alluring combination of strength with gentleness. His sensuous image projects his love for life, the embodiment of grace while facing adversity. It is evident that he loves his country, his people and his job … President Putin’s obvious reverence for women, children and animals, and his ability with sports is intoxicating to American women … And like most women across the world, I like President Putin… a lot, his shirt on or shirt off.”

Then in 2019, she’s all in for Bernie Sanders. She wrote another article, with yet a different reason for leaving, this one with the harassment allegation attached. “Then, I went to Senate personnel for help. No one helped me. I resigned or I would say, I was forced to resign.” The report she says she filed doesn’t seem to exist.

When she started attacking Biden publicly, she also resumed denouncing Putin. Putin was bad again. When the media dug up her old articles praising Putin, she deleted them. Too late, of course. They can no longer be found where they were originally published, but copies were made. She now claims they were part of a novel she was writing that was set in Russia. They were clearly op-eds, not notes for a novel. No novelist I know of publishes their novel notes as op-eds while they’re working on the book.

There are a whole lot of other inconsistencies, people she says she told about the incident denying any knowledge, her brother pointedly changing his story, an old neighbor of hers coming forward to say she wouldn’t trust a word Reade says, and countless other glowing red flags. But this blog is already so very long, and I haven’t even gotten to the meat of what I want to talk about yet. This has all just been background, the evidence I followed to form my theory of what is going on with this. And I want to get it down before I read it somewhere else.

I’ve got a theory! It could be Russia!

Okay, hear me out. Here’s what I think might have happened:

Sometime in late 2017 or early 2018, Reade somehow becomes involved in communications with Russia, a political operative, maybe even someone in the government. Hell, perhaps even Putin himself, a highly unlikely prospect, of course. But not outside the realm of possibility. I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that Putin maintains a stash of burner phones and carries on flirtatiously with American Women in his spare time. It’s the stuff of spy novels, sure. Yeah, it’s far-fetched, but allow me my fantastic imaginings. I am a fiction writer, after all.

But a Russian political operative of some kind becomes romantically involved long-distance with Reade. Of course it’s not a real relationship, not on the Russian side. They are just using American citizens as sleeper agents they can prompt to stir up shit when it would cause the most damage.

Reade is manipulated to turn against Joe Biden and encouraged to back Bernie Sanders. Now, an aside at this point. I like Bernie. I would vote for Bernie, I’d love to see him as President. I don’t believe that Bernie Sanders or his campaign are involved in any collusion with the Russian government in any way, and both he and his campaign openly discourage Russian meddling. None-the-less, there still exists evidence that Russia has interfered in ways favorable to Sanders and his campaign. Russia doesn’t want Bernie Sanders as President, but some of Sanders more rabid supporters are very easily influenced by carefully placed fake news stories and are extremely useful at stirring up political infighting on the left. Alright, back to my theory.

At this time, she’s also advised to stop praising Russia, so as not to raise any suspicion. And, finally, to drop that allegation bomb on Joe Biden right when it would do the most damage. Hopefully to allow Bernie Sanders to overtake Biden for the nomination, but, failing that, at least send Joe limping into the General.

Yes. In a nutshell, I think the Tara Reade allegation is simply more Russian meddling of the same sort that has been going on all along. I think, in some form or another, she is a Russian agent. Maybe there is no spy novel romance going on. Perhaps she’s just being paid. But this whole thing stinks of Russia, and Russia’s fingerprints are all over it.

But, hey, what do I know? I’m just a fiction author with a good imagination.