Happy Fan, Belling into 2023, Be Real, Ukraine, Trump Smear, Speaker Mess

From the winning 2020 campaign trail:
One adorably flustered fan! How can anyone not smile?

  • The Palmer Report has more detail on the violent threats they were forced to endure after Trump targeted these two election workers.
     
    Key passage:
    Two years ago two innocent, decent women were disingenuously targeted by the president of the United States. Their lives were deliberately ruined by Donald Trump so he could exploit them for a narrative he knows is a lie. Now he’s doing it again because he can. Now he’s doing it again because no one will stop him.
     
    This monster, Donald Trump, must be stopped. This monster, Donald Trump, must be indicted.
     
  • The Presidential award ceremony was one of several events that allowed President Biden to split the screen with the Republican shamble competition. In Letters from an American, historian Heather Cox Richardson notices several contrasts.
     
    Nancy Pelosi had a similar slim Congressional majority in the past, and managed it smoothly. Kevin McCarthy …well-l-l… is still Kevin.
     
    And the competing sides of split screens on our televisions showed President Biden being Presidential on one side; on the other side: Republicans in Congress were themselves for 15 ballots.
     
  • Kevin McCarthy finally sells enough Republican holdouts, among those who could not stomach voting for him, to at least vote Present and finally becomes Speaker. Well, alright, then.
     
  • Master of entertaining rant, Max’s Dad watches the perpetual Republican chaos in the House. He doesn’t much care for Empty G (sound it out), the Freedom Caucus, mr Trump, mainstream rightwing fanatics, Kevin, and especially one to whom he refers as the back stabbing Elise Stefanik. He does enjoy each episode of gory GOP bloodshed.
     
    Key slam:
    The guy who almost brought a nation down with a coup attempt helped along by this bunch of babbling bums endorsed the establishment guy McCarthy. The Representative from Mars, MTG, endorsed McCarthy because being the gutless scum he is, he probably promised her she could investigate Jewish space lasers or some such shit. But despite the crazy endorsements of Trump and Greene, the Boeberts and Gaetz’s and the Roys and the Biggs’ and the Gosars, HEY WAIT thats 5 defections.
     
  • Our favorite Earth-Bound Misfit goes all Congressional graphic, cartooning with Kevin’s pretzel act.
     
  • Hackwhackers has fun watching poor Kevin organize a knife attack on himself.
     
  • driftglass offers a fix to Time Magazine‘s cover showing the new savior who is now the voice of the Republican Party.
     
  • Wisconsin conservative James Wigderson has a suggestion for Kevin McCarthy:


    And a potential alternative if that doesn’t work:


    But first an innocent question:


    And a few necessities:

  • PZ Myers watches the Speaker Sports Spectacle, remembers the curses he has always put on the Republican party, and wonders if he may have gone too far.
     
  • Disaffected and it Feels So Good sees the elongated drama of vote after vote, day after day, as an illustration of two bitter truths:
    Everyone hates Kevin.
    Republicans hate America    .
     
    To be clear, I neither hate Kevin nor Congressional Republicans. They are all public servants who should be held in high esteem.
    I just hold them in minimal high esteem.
     
  • CalicoJack in The Psy of Life looks to the underlying reasons for the Republican Speaker Show and sees how hard it must be to find unity in a political party that bases itself on divisiveness.
     
  • It’s be careful what you wish for time.
    Green Eagle warns the extreme right wing of the right wing Republican Party that they may regret the new rule they demanded and got from McCarthy. The new rule will allow any single member of Congress to initiate a vote of no confidence. This might, in the end, have consequences they do not anticipate.
     
    I recall a quote from Oscar Wilde:
    When the gods wish to punish us they answer our prayers.
     
  • Fox Network personalities should pay attention:
     
    At The Onion the incredibly productive new Republican House of Representative holds multiple important votes in just 3 days.
     
    Key twist:
    This level of voting right out of the gate hasn’t been seen in America in over a century, and it bodes well for our nation’s future.
     
    Fox folk: Go thou and do likewise!
     
  • News Corpse points out that, despite Fox smears, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries does not have a history denying and overturning elections.
     
  • It turns out George Santos, the new Congressional member who cannot breathe without contriving a better and better lie, is wanted by Brazil’s government for fraud.
     
    tengrain at Mock Paper Scissors has a helpful suggestion for any lawbreaker trying to avoid being detected and caught: Do not run for Congress.
     
  • Frances Langum introduces us to Hal Sparks who, detail by detail, takes down conservative speculation about Hunter Biden’s laptop. Frances warns the video is NSFW! But fun.
     

    Key passage:
    Don’t get me started on how Hunter Biden is fully cooperating with both the IRS and the FBI in their actual investigation of “the laptop.” (Note to your MAGA relatives Hunter will not be charged with tax evasion because he’s paid his back taxes.)
     
  • The best book reviewers not only can read each line, but can read between the lines. The Propaganda Professor looks between the lines while reading The Conservative Intellectual Movement in America by George Nash.
     
    Mr. Nash is discouraged by the current state of contemporary conservatism. Today’s version is hobbled by an intense anti-intellectualism in some prominent parts of the movement.
     
    Conservative hostility against the very idea of ideas is matched by higher educational institutions that are dominated by left wing hostility toward conservative ideas.
     
    It is not surprising that a serious conservative would feel beleaguered. The professor suggests this feeling of oppression may inhibit Mr. Nash from seeing the irony in his joint complains:
     
    The liberal cabal is not interested in conservative ideas which no longer exist in much of the conservative movement.
     
    Key passage:
    It’s impossible to build a culture of ideas when you’re antagonistic toward ideas that are new — because every idea was once new (“liberal”). Intellectualism is more than having knowledge or rhetorical skill or even intelligence at your disposal. It’s being able to use those tools to construct sound, cohesive and coherent arguments.
     
  • Libertarian Michael A. LaFerrara believes he knows why Republicans did so poorly in 2022.
     
    The party, says Mr. LaFerrara, should embrace rugged individualism but discard religion and the associated moral authoritarianism. He explicitly rejects Trumpism as insufficiently individualistic.
     
    Key passage:
    The Republican Party must become the party of American Individualism, and all that the principle implies. A consistent platform of individual rights in the social, economic, and academic fields, accompanied by a consistent allegiance to limited government interference in people’s lives generally, could very likely be the path to solid GOP dominance.
     
    All that is consistent with my understanding of libertarian orthodoxy.

    • Religion is bad. And government intervention to impose religion is inherently evil.
    • Extreme individualism is the ideal: every man for himself, every woman for herself, every child. Government intervention to help individuals is inherently evil
    • Regulation is wrong. Private business practice should remain private unless it directly intrudes on the rights of others. Government intervention to protect us is inherently evil.
       

    My own perspective diverges from much of that view.
     
    I’m good with anyone who declines to impose religious beliefs on me or anyone else. I do hold to my own religious beliefs, not as an embrace of certainty, but as a search for a transcendent value. And I’m okay with religious criticism. I sometimes engage in it myself:

     
    I do think government should follow the Constitutional preamble and its explicit mandate to promote the general Welfare. That implies a rejection of the sort of social Darwinism that insists government has no role in helping those who struggle against poverty. To what degree, if any, should government offer assistance? Your mileage may vary.
     
    Government must regulate business for public and worker safety. The libertarian ideal can be fatal to those who become its victims.
     

  • Andy Borowitz reports that Kari Lake is furious. Why does playing around with the truth work with George Santos, but she can’t overthrow one statewide election.
     
    Key passage:
    An apoplectic Lake said that Santos’s success and her failure “show that not all liars are treated equally in the United States of America.”
     
  • Kickboxer and multiple auto owner Andrew Tate tried to humiliate very young climate activist Greta Thunberg and was himself humiliated online. Then he turned out to be a rapist, kidnapper, and all around predator who had turned sexual slavery into a business.
     
    Although Andy now resides in a Romanian prison, Dave Columbo brings us his central message of manhood. Sort of:

    @davecolumbo

    Tate Bisbehavin’.

    ♬ Techno Music-Cyborg Dance – SPMusicGroup


    OH! don’t forget, I just skim the surface. Dave has a ton of very good stuff.
     

  • Tommy Christopher reviews an incident of police abuse. One possible lesson that I suppose could be drawn if you are tempted to harass someone who is attempting to comply with unreasonable demands:
     
    You might want to ease up if you are being videotaped. And you may also want to back off a bit when you discover he is a reporter from the Wall Street Journal.
     
    I like maintaining my belief that most officers respect the rights of all citizens and treat everyone with restraint unless there is legal cause to do otherwise.
     
    Still, nobody should have to worry about encountering the occasional exception.
     
    Key fear, while heading toward the police vehicle:
    I didn’t trust what was going to happen. While the woman was recording, I thought the odds of him not doing anything to me whether physically or anything else are a lot higher. Once he closes that door, he could take off, he could take me somewhere.
     
    It is not acceptable that any citizen should have that fear, that it be understandable, that it be reasonable.
     
  • This reminds me of what has come to be called the Mortara Case. Rod Dreher, writing for The American Conservative, quite correctly says it shocks the modern conscience.
     
    A Jewish baby in 1850s Italy fell seriously ill, and eventually recovered. Five years later, his Christian nanny testified that, during the baby’s illness, she was afraid he was near death. She secretly had the baby baptized as a Catholic.
     
    Catholic doctrine has been firm. Anyone who baptized as a Catholic remains a Catholic forever. And we couldn’t have a Catholic child raised as a Jew, now could we?
     
    Italy was pretty much ruled by the Vatican in those days. So Pope Pius IX had Italian police pay a visit. They took the six year old boy from his parents and delivered him to the Pope. The family never got their child back.
     
    Worldwide outrage over the kidnapping did have an effect on history. The Vatican dominance over Italy’s government was reduced, although not eliminated.
     
    I thought about the Mortara kidnapping as I came across a post in Scotties Playtime.
     
    A small baby was the sole survivor as the rest of her family was killed in a US Special Operations raid. The Red Cross found the nearest relative, a cousin and his wife, who arranged to raise the girl. They and the baby were evacuated to the US.
     
    But a US Marine who had grown fond of the baby acted against orders and filed for adoption in Virginia. He wanted to provide for her Christian salvation. Five days after she arrived with her new family, he showed up with custody papers and took the baby from them. They haven’t seen her since.
     
    He and his wife say they are determined to raise the little girl as a Christian in a Christian home.
     
    The case is winding slowly through the courts.
     
  • Last October an instructor teaching Art History at Hamline University in Minnesota briefly showed a 14th century painting depicting the Archangel Gabriel delivering to the Prophet Muhammad the first revelation that would later be part of the Quran.
     
    She knew that some, not all, Muslims believe any likeness of the Prophet to be blasphemy. So she warned students that she would be showing the image. It is, after all, part of art history.
     
    A student later complained about the insult to her religion. The instructor was dismissed.
     
    Julian Sanchez of Cato Institution reacts with obvious arguments that, nevertheless, need to be made:
     






     
  • Most (not all) Christians remember the story of an angry Jesus overturning tables after money changers set up shop within the Temple itself. From the three Synoptic Gospels: It is written, “My house shall be called a house of prayer,” but you have made it a den of thieves. Those versions have the disruption occurring a few days before Pilate had Jesus crucified.
     
    Nan’s Notebook cites the fourth Gospel, John, which has Jesus overturning the tables a few days into the start of His ministry. She makes the case that, not yet being established as a religious authority, Jesus was doing no more than throwing a temper tantrum.
     
  • In The Life and Times of Bruce Gerencser, atheist Bruce receives a piece of scam spam from a “pastor” in Kenya, and outscams the scammer.
     
  • SilverAppleQueen has a suitcase, a traveling bag, and cats. She somehow believes visiting her new granddaughter is more important than blogging. Weird, right?
     
  • The Journal of Improbable Research finds a theoretical design of the best possible wings for flying fruit.
     
    Coolest incomprehensible explanation:
    We develop a theoretical model and perform experiments for double-winged biomimetic 3D-printed fruits, where we assume that the plant has a limited amount of energy that it can convert into a mass to build sepals and, additionally, allow them to curve.
     
    Some folks have all the fun!
     
  • YellowDog Granny, as she always does, offers bits of humor and wisdom, sometimes profane, often profound, about cursing, renegade weather, kids and computers, Elon Musk, and right-wingers, all in cartoon form. And suddenly, WOW!, she drops this on us.
     

     
    Paul Simon has GOT be proud.
     
  • Clickbait satirist Reductress has valuable advice on how to treat your friend the same after finding out they’re not medicated.
     
    Best part:
    Try instead saying, “We are all valid, and let me know if you want my psychiatrist’s number.”
     
  • In Happiness Between Tails da-AL provides a detailed family recipe for Italian sweet bread-fruitcake.
     
    Key sample:
    Panettone, or pan dulce as my Argentine mother calls it, is no longer just for holidays! Moreover, in my home, its one of my family’s favorite desserts that I make. For anyone who has yet to become acquainted with panettone, the cake-fluffy queen of usually dense fruit breads.
     
  • My long time friend Darrell Michaels has, I admit, turned into a bit of a conservative crank – posting what those on the extreme right believe about us cop-hating, bureaucracy loving, government worshiping, unpatriotic, racist anti-white libs.
     
    But he does take wonderful photographs. On his last visit to Egypt he captured the inside and out of pyramids, mosques, ancient temples, Old-Kingdom era hospitals from multiple millennia ago, and more. All in all, a wonderful pictorial collection.
     
    I am reminded of one semi-political incident. Barry Goldwater, an amateur photographer, once presented a photo of his close friend and political enemy John F. Kennedy for his signature. They were both looking forward to the next Presidential election, where they anticipated running against each other. The photograph, with Kennedy’s message, survives.


    I have expressed similar warm wishes for my good friend. He should drop political commentary and stay with his true talent.
     

– Podcasts –
 

2 thoughts on “Happy Fan, Belling into 2023, Be Real, Ukraine, Trump Smear, Speaker Mess”

  1. That video is the reason we all love Joe Biden and how he bound his coalition together. It really warms my heart to see it. Thank you for posting it.

    I think the MAGA wing of the authoritarian party has over stepped. They have made it so McCarthy has to be beholden to all, including Democrats. If McCarthy wants to prevent the country from defaulting on its debt obligation, which one assumes he does, but acknowledges, he may not, or wants to keep the government open for business, he will have to make deals with Democrats, which means he will need to do something for them…

    Huzzah!
    Jack

    PS Thank you for the shoutout and ping back to the post. It actually gives us hope for the future of our democracy.

    1. Not hard to share what you write, Jack.
      Carefully considered, insightful insights.

      Thank you for providing them.

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