Nazis & Gays, DeSantis Misfire, Default, Trump Charges, Manhood, Tina Gone

Amazing what makes me happy:

  • YellowDog Granny has what should be the final word on drag queens, banned books, and gun regulation.
     
  • Scotties Playtime has a few uncomfortable facts about 1930s Germany and what Nazis did to gay people.
     
  • CalicoJack, in The Psy of Life, has a notable lack of sympathy for a Florida teacher who made and published a video saying the South should have won the Civil War. He seems to have gotten an unfriendly reaction from students, fellow teachers, and occasional parents.
     
    The teacher has filed a complaint against …well… everyone.
     
  • Although this satire by the Borowitz Report predates the actual Twitter disaster, it does wear well. Ron DeSantis hoped to use contrast to seem like a human person by appearing next to Elon Musk.
     
    Key alternatives:
    According to an aide, the campaign considered a shortlist of other foils, including Mickey Rourke, Dennis Rodman, and Ginni Thomas.
     
  • A long-time conservative notable went on the Fox Network and got righteously indignant at political criticism directed at Casey DeSantis, spouse of Ron. After all, Republicans have never gone after the spouses of Democrats. driftglass covers the shocked reaction as the host reminds him about Michelle Obama.
     
  • News Corpse watches as the Fox Network finally recognizes that the greatest problem faced by mr Trump is not Ron DeSantis.
     
  • The Palmer Report says the news is becoming so obvious that mainstream news media, however reluctantly, is finally reporting it: Donald Trump is going to prison.
     
    Key increasingly obvious fact:
    Donald Trump does not have magic powers. He can’t magically delay his criminal trials, just as he couldn’t delay his E. Jean Carroll civil trial. Nor can he just “decide” not to go to prison after he’s been sentenced to prison.
     
    Key cautious adjustment:
    It looks like we may finally be turning that corner – sort of. A news publication called The Messenger, which is run by former journalists from Politico, just ran this headline: “Could Trump Go to Prison? It’s Not Out of the Question.”
     
  • Couple of Jan. 6 Oath Keeper leaders are guilty of seditious conspiracy, and Vixen Strangely at Strangely Blogged goes to work on the Trump version of patriotism.
     
    Key insight:
    The “tree of liberty is watered with the blood of patriots” types never seem to note that in a representative government, sometimes your particular flavor of “patriot” isn’t winning elections and violence isn’t so much a revolutionary action as a pity party gone badly wrong.
     
  • In Letters from an American, noted historian Heather Cox Richardson reviews this week’s warning issued by the Department of Homeland Security about a persistent and lethal threat from domestic extremists and foreign terrorists.
     
    Key factor:
    The announcement warned that a key factor in potential violence is “perceptions of the 2024 general election cycle,” a reference to disinformation suggesting that U.S. elections are rigged. This false allegation is a staple of former president Trump’s political messaging.
     
  • PZ Myers has a thought about ex-General Michael Flynn’s new dating and reproductive website especially for anti-vax folk. The selling point is that you too can preserve your blood purity.
     
    Professor Myers is reminded of POE: Purity of Essence.

  • Tommy Christopher covers the stranger than strange Congressional Representative James Comer (R-KY) who has been holding hearings, trying to find evidence of Biden corruption. Comer boasts about how his hearings have helped Trump, then denies that he said what he said. (Trump? Who is this Trump person?)
     
  • Our favorite Earth-Bound Misfit finds another non-abortion tragedy in which, for anti-abortion activists, cruelty is very much the point.
     
  • Conservatives reacted with a affected horror combined with barely suppressed glee at the gotcha opportunity. Homeless veterans had been ejected from a hotel to make room for a bunch of undocumented migrants.
     
    The NY Post went with it. Then Fox took the lead. Others followed. It was everywhere.
     
    They waxed indignant at this newest liberal injustice, just the thing that Trump followers had been warning us about. Those who had sacrificed to keep us free had been displaced by a bunch of worthless illegals.
     
    A couple of local reporters began checking.
    They discovered it was all a scam. Agitprop.
     
    There were no migrants.
    There were no veterans.
     
    Homeless people – not veterans – had been approached on the street. They were offered a few bucks for a week of play acting. They were provided a script to follow, and told what words to say.
     
    Disaffected and it Feels So Good sees a continuation of a long term pattern: this has, for many decades, been how Republicans treat veterans and others who have been marginalized.
     
  • We keep hearing Republicans say why they are threatening a default on the national debt. Eliminating that debt, slashes to discretionary spending, work requirements on veteran benefits, cutting back retirement accounts, restricting school lunches for little kids – that sort of thing.
     
    Frances Langum has the RNC chairwoman on video broadcasting the real reason for Republican default:
     
    People won’t pay attention to who done it. Crashing the economy and hurting working folks will help Republicans win.
     
  • Ted McLaughlin at jobsanger brings us Adam Schiff and three sentences that make the default threat simple.
     
  • tengrain at Mock Paper Scissors watches a Capitol tour guide summarize the default crisis.
     
  • Wisconsin conservative James Wigderson becomes impatient with a Wisconsin Republican:
     

  • I’ve seen this argument every once in a while. Blue cities, those with Democratic mayors, have high crime rates. Therefore Democrats are soft on crime.
     
    The Propaganda Professor dives into the stats and suggests a look at reality, a reality that differs from the conservative narrative.
     
  • Many of us have heard the canard: Republicans are the Party of Lincoln. Democrats were for slavery.
     
    Cato Institute’s Julian Sanchez gets impatient, then impatient, and finally impatient:
     

  • At The Onion, Matt Gaetz amends a bill on veterans care to include a half-page ad congratulating a new high school graduate.
     
    Key student:
    Class of 2023 Sherwood High School is full of rock stars, but you are the coolest of them all. And a 3.6 GPA? Brains and beauty.
     
    Key signoff:
    See you at the party later! XOXO, Matty.
     
    Come on folks, we do know it’s satire. Right?
    Well, right?
     
  • It’s confession time for recovering toxic masculinity, as Dave Columbo remembers his sincere role in a play boasting about manhood, getting unanticipated laughs from an appreciative audience:
     
  • Hart Williams, at The Moderate Voice goes pre-Civil War to find a comparison, asking whether SCOTUS is about to screw the country again.
     
    Key new lows:
    The Roger Taney Court now has a serious challenger for crappiest SCOTUS of all time.
     
  • Infidel753 has a thoughtful analysis of why prohibition not only doesn’t work when it comes to anything a large percentage of the public wants, but actually makes things worse. Much worse.
     
    Infidel has a useful alternative.
     
  • Libertarian Michael A. LaFerrara finds a study from a few years ago in which more than 11,000 scientists in 153 countries documented dangerous trends in global climate, and proposed 6 policies that could help.  
    He declares that the scientists have to be socialists conspiring to achieve the global communist goal of Marxism-Leninism.
     
    Key starting fact:
    …a new study by 11,258 scientists in 153 countries from a broad range of disciplines warns that the planet ‘‘clearly and unequivocally faces a climate emergency,’’ and provides six broad policy goals that must be met to address it.
     
    Key principle:
    The convergence of science and politics is just as poisonous to liberty as the union of religion and politics.
     
    Key conclusion:
    Sound familiar? It does to me . . . a lot like the global communist goal of Marxism-Leninism.
     
    Key headline:
    11,000 Political Science Hacks Declare Socialism the Solution to a ‘Climate Emergency’
     
  • In Hackwhackers, yet another prominent critic of Putin’s war has died suddenly from a mysterious illness.
     
  • @whiskeywhistle98 leaves humor and satire behind for a serious moment, sharing the same loss we all feel:
     
  • John Scalzi at Whatever tells us why he feels the loss, and shares video of the fallen star.
     
    Key memory:
    …so I will simply say that she was, as her own song would say, simply the best. I’m glad I lived in a time with her.
     
  • I had to look it up. The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence are a small, mostly gay, street performance group that satirizes sexual intolerance. The Los Angeles Dodgers invited the group to Pride Night next month. Good for them!
     
    M. Bouffant at Web of Evil describes how, under pressure from my fellow Christians, The Dodgers withdrew the invitation.
     
    As I recall, this is commonly called selling out.
     
    After a ton of protests by the public, quickly joined by political figures and activists, the Dodgers reinvite the group.
     
    As I recall, this is commonly called selling in (I did not make it up).
     
    Key quote from Christians who know God loves us and shares our hatred of gays and non-Christians:
    The group mocks Christians through diabolical parodies of our faith.
     
    After all, our faith can’t survive parody.
     
  • Nan’s Notebook reasserts the danger of, and her opposition to, Christian Nationalism.
     
    My comment:
    You do obliquely acknowledge those Christians who oppose “Christian Nationalism”. Thank you.
     
    We oppose preferential treatment favoring any religion, including our own.
     
    With the minor point that we are not “nominal” Christians, but instead are the real thing, you can count on me and others to continue standing with you.
     
  • Michael John Scott sees the surge in censorship laws as the logical outgrowth of Bad Jesus, in a distortion of Christian teachings.
     
    Key events here in Missouri:
    It is outrageous to learn that these laws make it a felony for teachers and librarians to engage in discussions or provide guidance on materials deemed “unsuitable” by lawmakers.
     
  • North Carolina pastor John Pavlovitz sees the political right as the worst kind of drag show: hateful, heartless bigots pretending to be Christian.
     
    Key perception:
    This is a counterfeit Christ.
     
    There is no love for neighbor here.
    There is no compassion for the poor, no care for the sick, no food for the hungry, no welcome to the stranger.
    There isn’t a trace of a benevolence that declares the peacemakers blessed…
     
  • In The Life and Times of Bruce Gerencser, Bruce remembers what it was like growing up in a dysfunctional Evangelical home.
     
  • In Happiness Between Tails da-AL has a literary talent for hosting literary talent. Prolific author of literary fiction Gary Gautier struggles to define his latest novel, Alice, finally settling on a post-apocalyptic adult hippie fairy tale.
     
    That is enticement.
     
  • Not exactly research. The Journal of Improbable Research finds an article from decades ago, by philosophy professor Zeno Vendler of the University of California, on understanding misunderstanding.
     
    Well, somebody somewhere at some point had to do it. Right? (Unless I have it wrong.)
     
  • Vincent at A Wayfarer’s Notes no longer drives, so he and his wife had to travel late to join friends in celebration of Mother’s Day. Joyful pictures make me smile.
     
  • Clickbait satirist Reductress has a helpful guide on whether you want real friends or just 3‑5 people who are in love with you.
     
  • Mark Waulberg (No, not Mark Wahlberg, the other Mark) has some insight about the problem in a marriage:
     
  • SilverAppleQueen includes all the secrets in a recipe for the best chocolate cake known to man.
     
  • Georgia has another distinctive play in minor league baseball from The Savanna Bananas:
     

– Podcasts –
 

4 thoughts on “Nazis & Gays, DeSantis Misfire, Default, Trump Charges, Manhood, Tina Gone”

  1. I see that you claim to be a “real christian”. Does that mean that these “christian nationalists” are not real?
    Is your faith experiencing a schism, again? How can i understand this? From my point of view, christians are not to be trusted. We have these nationalist nut jobs, we have the starry eyed do gooders, we have the cults.
    It is confusing. I would say that you are one of the “good christians”, but the whole thing gives me a headache.

    1. Thank you, Richard, for your thoughtful question.

      I don’t see Christianity as a seesaw contest of competing claims to membership.

      Within my own extended family two have aggressively suggested that I might not be a true Christian.

      One was dismissive because I do not hate the requisite groups. There are, among my brothers and sisters in Christ, those who take comfort that God loves them and joins in their hatred of gays, Obama, and non-Christians.

      The other was doubtful because nobody of any intelligence could embrace such an absurd faith. At times I was flattered by the implied compliment. On the other hand, she tended to express her disagreement in very slow cadence, I suppose in case I might have trouble comprehending anything so complex.

      Church attendance in the US is dropping and so is the number of those who see themselves as Christian. I think it is partly because folks reject the intolerance and hatred that they identify with faith. There is a special place in my heart for them.

      I cannot speak for God or for Jesus. Too many already claim that right. But I do like to imagine Christ embracing those who turn away because they reject hate.

      Perhaps that places me among the “starry eyed” that you distrust.
      I believe I can endure that burden.

  2. brrrr – chills to bone thinking about Trump – hadn’t expected him to become president at all, so anything can happen, gasp – your posts & pods are important reminders

    1. Thank you da-AL.

      Your point is worth keeping in mind. The danger to our Democratic Republic remains significant.

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