Warm but way-comfortable this late-afternoon Friday here in California’s Central Valley — nice kickoff to the weekend.
We’re supposed to stay this way for a few more days, which makes shitty-shit somewhat, near-tolerable.

And in the discussion of shitty-shit, Republicans today rolled out their supposed agenda, another bilge crack of window-dressing non-particulars from 30 years ago — entitled “The Commitment to America,” a document long on bullshit and short of any type of policy specifics. Noted the entire apparatus dings from nasty-Newt Gingrich’s “Contract with America,” in 1994, full of hot air, signifying nothing (from an old quote from somewhere). Supposedly Gingrich met with House GOPers yesterday.
Major ignorant prick Kevin McCarthy unveiled the shitty-shit in a media event in Pennsylvania.

An outline of empty air (Steve Benen at MSNBC): ‘To be sure, the important thing about the Republicans’ blueprint is its substance, and on that front, McCarthy’s pitch is deeply flawed. His platform — I’m using the word loosely — is largely made up of vague platitudes, in large part because the party likely fears a political backlash that would come if GOP leaders went into more detail about their policy plans. … But it’s also true that the minority leader and his team were hoping for a smooth rollout for their “commitment,” and as today’s developments make clear, they didn’t have one‘

Nancy Pelosi quickly cut through the paper-thin curtain: ‘“Today’s rollout is the latest evidence of House Republicans’ whole-hearted commitment to MAGA: going all-in on an extremist agenda designed to greatly diminish Americans’ health, freedom and security … This alarming new extreme MAGA platform threatens to criminalize women’s health care, slash seniors’ Medicare and raise prescription drug prices, and attack our free and fair elections.”‘

And really, really full of lying shitty-shit, from honest Abe to Ukraine:

today in Republicans pic.twitter.com/hdupOA6Qin

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 23, 2022

History has many facets, some real some dumb-ass — Sam Brodey at The Daily Beast this afternoon notes the lie from the far past, and somewhat recently:

The quote appears often on social media or inspirational websites, attributed to Lincoln. But a review of historical records by The Daily Beast turned up no proof of when or where the beloved president said these words.

Christian McWhirter, a historian at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library in Springfield, Illinois, said he could find “no reliable evidence” that Lincoln ever said those words. “They do not appear in his writings and I cannot find them recollected by any of his contemporaries,” McWhirter told The Daily Beast.

McCarthy’s office did not immediately respond to questions about how they sourced the quote.

What may have injected this phrase into the public’s bloodstream was not Lincoln but Lehman Brothers, the Wall Street titan that collapsed in the 2008 financial crisis.

Of course, you have to go a little bit further to see McCarthy and his henchmen (giving the assholes too much credit) as not only historical liars and incompetent not-twits of the InterWebs:

NEW: House Republicans just rolled out their official "Commitment to America” plan for 2023 with an inspirational video chock full of scenes presented as exceptional imagery of America — but that are actually stock footage from Russia and Ukraine. https://t.co/xtQm52WWNp

— Jennifer Bendery (@jbendery) September 23, 2022

Idiot details from HuffPost late this afternoon:

House Republican leaders on Friday unveiled their “Commitment to America” agenda for 2023 ? and with it, an inspirational video full of scenes presented as exceptional imagery of America that were actually stock footage from Russia and Ukraine.

The GOP’s video, “The Preamble to the Commitment to America,” opens with a narrator highlighting aspects of what it means to be an American.

“We celebrate the rich heritage of the American story and the vibrancy of the American Dream,” the voice says, over footage of a drilling rig at sunrise.

But this video snippet, an apparent nod to America’s natural resources, wasn’t filmed in America. It’s stock footage created by Serg Grbanoff, a filmmaker based in Russia.

Grbanoff told HuffPost that he filmed this scene in Russia’s Volgograd region…

…

At another point in the House Republican leaders’ video, they take a shot at Democrats on the economy.

“Democrats have led America off track,” the narrator says. The words “Crippling inflation and rampant crime” appear on the screen, over a shot of a woman walking through a grocery store.

But this is footage from a European grocery store. If you look closely at the screenshot, you can see a tag hanging on one of the store shelves that says “AKCIA,” a Slovak word meaning “action.” Informally, “AKCIA” is used to designate sales in Slovakian stores.

And on and on.

Horrifying is these assholes take either the House or Senate in November. We can expect the terror of vengeful, cruel incompetence for a time ahead. Or worse.

One-sided, way-dark humor aside, here we are once again…

(Illustration out front by Daryl Cagle and found here).