Joe Biden, Polls, Media as Massage, Vote Wise, Vlad the ImPutin, Breyer

Jack Benny honored at Carnegie Hall, 1961
Quoting another honoree – this one possibly fictitious;

Continue reading “Joe Biden, Polls, Media as Massage, Vote Wise, Vlad the ImPutin, Breyer”

Gorsuch, COVID, Jan 6, Investigate, Biden Press, Voting, Gay M&Ms

Let’s begin with showmanship:

  • Well, let’s see. NPR reports that Chief Justice John Roberts was concerned that fellow Justice Sonia Sotomayor had health problems and so was especially vulnerable to the newest variants of COVID.
     
    So, says NPR, the Chief Justice, in some form, suggested that all the other Justices maybe, perhaps, ought to take the minimal precaution of masking up to make her safer during their sessions.
     
    Sure enough, the other Justices agree. All those usually on the liberal side of issues agree. Conservatives do as well: Clarence Thomas wears a mask. Samuel Alito does too. Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett mask up. It’s just simple courtesy, right?
     
    Except Justice Neil Gorsuch refuses! Hell no, he won’t go wearing a mask. The Chief Justice can suggest all he wants. Sonia can participate by video if she’s so damn concerned.
     
    NPR reports, it all goes public, and everyone goes onto lets-all-get-along mode.
     
    Did John Roberts, in some way, suggest everyone mask up? Gorsuch says Sotomayor did not ask him to wear a mask.
     
    Uh-huh.
     
    But did John Roberts suggest everyone mask up? Sotomayor, all in the spirit of comity, confirms she did not ask Gorsuch to wear a mask.
     
    HEY, Come ON! Did or did not John Roberts suggest everyone mask up?
     
    The Chief Justice himself says he did not ASK everyone to wear masks, then he says he will not comment further.
     
    Max’s Dad reviews the conduct of Gorsuch, considers the context, and finally concludes Justice Gorsuch is one hell of a real jerk.
     
  • Tommy Christopher has the sad report. Folk singer Hana Horka of Czechoslovakia hears news that natural immunity will protect her, so she deliberately catches COVID, celebrates, and dies a horrible death.
     
    Her son has a few terrible details of gasping and choking, as well as some harsh words for those whose disinformation tricked her into her fatal actions.
     
    This seems to apply:
     

  • Novak Djokovic has been expelled from Australia and prevented from participating in this year’s Australian Open tournament after misrepresenting his vaccination status. MadMikesAmerica suggests the tennis star’s doubles partner is not who you might think.
     
  • M. Bouffant at Web of Evil has a question about anti-vaxxers who file suit demanding the right to infect other people’s children.
     
  • Reductress carries the sad tale of a family of six who receive only four COVID rapid-tests and are compelled to fight to the death. Yeah, it’s satire.
     
  • Satirist Andy Borowitz speculates that if enough Republicans begin seeing Trump as Fauci-lite, Florida’s Governor Ron DeSantis may be betting that voters want a stupider version of Trump.
     
  • In Letters from an American, historian Heather Cox Richardson observes an unprecedented aspect of the Biden administration: a denial of the election result by the losing former president. A growing body of evidence documents an active attempt to overthrow American democracy.
     
  • tengrain at Mock Paper Scissors reports that 59 Republicans boasting about signing forged election documents in 2020 may be surprised to face criminal charges and prison.
     
  • Joe Gandelman, at The Moderate Voice, reviews a draft executive order prepared for Trump that would have seized voting machines after the 2020 election, and concludes that it does sound like a coup attempt.
     
  • Julian Sanchez of Cato Institute seems skeptical about one line of Trump defense in the attempt to overturn democracy, too many eyes on me:
     


    Then demolishes the too damn dumb to try a coup defense:

Continue reading “Gorsuch, COVID, Jan 6, Investigate, Biden Press, Voting, Gay M&Ms”

Rightist Hilarity, DOJ, Insurrect, 2022, Vote Rights, Sinema, COVID, Maddow

I am still recovering from painful complications after a recent biopsy. No cancer was the good part.
I very much appreciate the public and private messages of support.

I mentioned to a close and beloved family member that screaming continuous agony is not as much fun as people may think. I no longer recommend it.
He asked if that meant primal therapy does not work.

Here’s what I thought noteworthy from the last three weeks:

  • My longtime friend, Darrell Michaels, who is Unabashedly American, goes all uproarious, posting a series of memes representing the current state of contemporary conservative comedy. Apparently he shares the rightist instinct for humor.
     
    Here is his first:
     

    Most of the rest are of a similar level of wit and wisdom.
     
    I had completely forgotten that my friend, like so many conservative humorists, is hilarious.

  • Our favorite Earth-Bound Misfit celebrated the New Year with memes a few steps upward from poor Darrell and his traveling troupe. Are you taking notes, my frolicsome friend?
     
  • While, as responsible citizens, we all pretty much had to be captivated by the legislative lynching in the US Senate of voting rights, an extraordinary criminal charge of seditious conspiracy was carefully documented by the US Department of Justice. In Letters from an American, noted historian Heather Cox Richardson reviews the indictment against 11 members of extremist group the Oath Keepers.
     
    The evidence is explicit. When combined with other well documented reports, it appears the combination of active violence and rightwing legalistic sounding mumble-jumble pretty much has to have been a fairly large conspiracy.
     
    Any plot involving that many participants can be expected to develop huge leaks.
     
    Stay tuned.
     
  • Our friend Dave Dubya goes tick-tocking the new evidence, providing a chilling January 6 timeline.
     
  • Green Eagle wants to remind us just how viciously insane our opponents on the right are and posts a few viciously insane examples.
     
  • An extraordinary headline in Axios:
     
    Trump accuses Jan. 6 panel of “seeking evidence of criminal activity”.
     
    Not kidding, that’s the report. They stand accused of seeking evidence.
     
  • On last week’s one year anniversary of you-know-what, Max’s Dad has a few well considered thoughts on the insurrection, including the flag of Confederate slavery carried into the Capitol building, Tucker Carlson, Ted Cruz, high level conspirators, and the character of America.
     
  • North Carolina pastor John Pavlovitz points to what all Americans know and what decent Americans care about concerning last year’s most infamous act of violence.
     
  • Ant Farmer’s Almanac reports on a division among those who planned the January 6 insurrection on how to commemorate the anniversary.
    Okay, so it’s satire.
     
  • CalicoJack in The Psy of Life examines experimental research using random subjects in a controlled setting and discovers a likelihood of political violence this year.
     
    Looking over the same data, I would say YIKES!
     
  • Ted McLaughlin at jobsanger reports on a new Justice Department unit dedicated to battling domestic terrorism, and points to three steps that are needed to make that effort effective in keeping us, and our nation, safe.
     
  • Wisconsin Republicans, suckling up to Mr Trump, have been hot to investigate the 2020 Wisconsin vote that went for candidate Biden. One screwup after another has accumulated into an ongoing embarrassment for that investigation. Now we have a new scandal involving a forged election document signed by unelected Wisconsin “electors” and submitted to the National Archives as if it was real. Wisconsin conservative James Wigderson is getting impatient with state Republican officials and their propensity for having cartoonish cigars blow up in their collective face:
     

Continue reading “Rightist Hilarity, DOJ, Insurrect, 2022, Vote Rights, Sinema, COVID, Maddow”

Still in Recovery, but Recovering

(Posted by cell phone)

Good news: Cancer free although I’m laid up for another few days.

Bad news: This adventure involved an unexpected trip to the Emergency Room, where I asked one of the nurses how things are going. She said they are deluged with COVID patients.

So I checked a regional survey here in Missouri. The hospital is coded in the extreme range. More than 96% of ICU beds are currently occupied.

A moment’s thought tells me there are patients in serious condition who will be unable to get required extreme treatment.

At least some with nothing related to COVID will die because of the pandemic.

Christmas, Trees, Plague, Trump, Goo, Cult, Jan 6, Watters All Wet, QAnon

Legal expert Imani Gandy gets surprisingly musical:

  • Libertarian Michael A. LaFerrara rejects left and right this season. Christmas has nothing to do with Christianity and multi-culturalism rejects true American culture, which is inherently libertarian. So both are unAmerican.
     
    Here’s why Christmas has nothing to do with Christianity: It is a state and federally sanctioned holiday.
     
    Inherently libertarian? I’m taking some liberties here. He actually says American culture is rooted in individualism. Mr. LaFerrara is not the only libertarian to appropriate individualism as a synonym for their anti-government philosophy.
     
    Let’s take a look, shall we?
     
    That Christ is part of the name Christmas is not simply historical coincidence.
    Right?
    Nobody should be required to celebrate December 25 as a religious holiday, nor should it be prohibited. The fact that it is recognized by government is not a barrier to either. That includes my right wing friends. It also includes me and other hippy leftist longhairs who happen to be religious (remembering those happy days I actually had hair).
     
    In fact, religious freedom includes everyone. Celebrate or don’t celebrate as secular or religious. That’s …you know… individual.
     
    Multiculturalism extends social participation to those who have been excluded in the past. It does not require anyone to give up their individuality.
     
  • Concerned about the War on Christmas? In MadMikesAmerica, Glenn Geist says Christmas has already been killed.
     
  • But maybe Christmas in its truest sense can be given a resurrection:

  • SilverAppleQueen protects her Christmas tree from predators.
     
  • Household pets cannot always escape the joy:
  • @momwino98 is stunned by a Christmas realization:
     

    @momwino98

    Come on Santa! Get here!!! ##santa ##FFXmasSwitch ##thegrinch ##wine ##tiktokmom ##fyp ##foryourpage

    ♬ Original sound – TikToksSoundGuy

  • North Carolina pastor John Pavlovitz suggests the real tragedy of the COVID pandemic is the core reason the pandemic did not end long ago.
     
  • As to humanity lost:

  • Hackwhackers still doesn’t much care for Mr. Trump but since suddenly he so vigorously endorses vaccinations, Mr. Trump deserves some appreciation. The turnaround does produce some conflict within the MAGA crowd.
     
    My reaction:


    And maybe I yield to a bit of cynicism:

  • PZ Myers has yet another story of folk who don’t want vaccines because they don’t know what’s in it.
     
    Good phraseology:
    …but then they’ll turn around and slurp up toxic goo mixed up in a church basement by a kook…

Continue reading “Christmas, Trees, Plague, Trump, Goo, Cult, Jan 6, Watters All Wet, QAnon”

Insurrect, Pence-ive, But… Their Emails!, Perry, Jordan, Big Lie, Rice in Peace

  • Green Eagle reports on the latest from Mike Pence. Seems that testifying about Jan 6 is not a sure thing. Green Eagle may know why. Has to do with an underreported aspect of the Constitution.
     
  •  

  • Vixen Strangely at Strangely Blogged hears Liz Cheney read emails from the Republican Fab Four, plays the game one of these is not like the others, and looks forward to actual hearings.
     
  • News Corpse covers Fox Network confusion about how to cover their mis-cover of the Jan 6 failed coup. Liz Cheney makes text messages public that Fox personalities had sent on January 6 urging that Donald Trump stop his followers as they trashed the Capitol Building, killing a few police officers, sending dozens more to the hospital, and attempting to assassinate legislators. As FoxFolk were sending messages urging that Trump tell the mob to stop, Foxxers went on air to say that the carnage was completely independent of Trump. As other networks showed Rep. Cheney reading the messages to the cameras, Fox refused to say a word about the hearings for more than 24 hours.
     
    The excuses they eventually offered for the difference between public coverage and private panic are pathetic, but they are the best pathetic excuses they had then, or have now.
     
  • In Letters from an American, Heather Cox Richardson notes that CNN reporters think they know who the Jan 6 Committee think they know wrote a subversion memo suggesting Republicans overthrow the 2020 election. The initials turn out to be May I have the envelope please? Rick Perry, one-time Energy Secretary for President Trump. The investigative momentum, she says, seems to be picking up.
     
  •  

  • The Palmer Report is paying attention to who says what in and out of the Jan 6 Committee. The individual who may be putting himself into an ocean of legal pain is Rick Perry.
     
    I haven’t liked Rick Perry since he was Governor Perry of Texas. An obviously innocent man was put to death for killing his family because Governor Perry was too damn busy read too damn lazy to read an urgent authoritative report proving the man could not have done it. Perry later tried to cover up the man’s innocence.
     
    There’s something about executing innocent people that flat-out ticks me off.
     
  • Jim Jordan reveals that he also wrote texts to Mark Meadows advocating the overthrow of the election. Andy Borowitz covers the stunned reaction as the nation is shocked that Jim Jordan is capable of writing a text.
     
  • Dave Dubya talks about the Big Lie that is disproven in an endless series of Groundhog Days, remarking,
    But a cult is a cult. And a cult isn’t a cult to a cult,
    asking if Trumpists are fascists, and whether we should compare them to Nazis, then proposing an answer.
     
  • On the other hand, Scottie has definite proof of voter fraud in the 2020 election.
     
  • CalicoJack in The Psy of Life finds reason for pessimism about our national future:

  • driftglass is frustrated as columnist Jennifer Rubin insists Biden must defend democracy by publicly identifying its foes. driftglass asks: identify what to whom?
     
  • MadMikesAmerica explores in cartoon format why President Biden’s poll numbers have been going down.
     
  • Frances Langum has the documentation showing exactly where Republicans stand on Biden’s American Rescue Plan.
     
    It’s becoming a pattern. Representative Paul A. Gosar (R-AZ):
     
    While bill is being debated:
    The American Rescue Plan is a Trojan horse for socialism!
     
    After bill passes:
    I am pleased to announce that the City of Kingman will receive this critical funding
     
    Yup. Oppose it all the way until Republican opposition is defeated and relief for beleaguered Americans passes.
    Then Republicans claim credit for it.
     
  • M. Bouffant at Web of Evil gathers the documentation and the reaction as Donald Trump, bitter at his massive election defeat, accuses the American Jews collectively of inadequate loyalty to Israel.
     


    This rather jumps out:
    It used to be that Israel had absolute power over Congress and today I think it’s the exact opposite.

Continue reading “Insurrect, Pence-ive, But… Their Emails!, Perry, Jordan, Big Lie, Rice in Peace”

Pandem Variants, Masks, Gargle, GOP, Jan 6, Exec Priv, Big Lie, Evil, Gaetz

  • Infidel753 has the initial facts on the fairly new Omicron variant.
     
  • Here in Missouri, if our Governor ever faced accusations that intelligence exceeded the legal limit, he would have many overlapping proofs of innocence.
     
    Our favorite Earth-Bound Misfit watches the latest drama:

    • Mike Parsons opposes any masking requirements, which is run-of-the-mill dumb among Republicans in these parts.
    • Mike Parsons orders a study to prove he is right about opposing mask-mandates. This elevates the dumb a bit.
    • The study proves he is wrong. Mandates work. This merely documents the dumb. A deal of sorts, but still not that big a deal.
    • He tries to hide the study, which is way-y-y-y dumb.
    • News media find it anyway. Duh! Making it even bigger news than if he had been honest about it. Now it’s a newsworthy news story that can’t be ignored in news coverage by local news organizations.
    • Governor Parsons blows up, mad as hell about it being found. Which produces headlines everywhere.

     
    Of course, separately, this never gets old:
     

  • At Scotties Playtime, Senator Ron Johnson (R-Idiocy) abandon’s bleach injections and says gargling with mouthwash cures COVID.
     
    Along that vein, so to speak
     

  • Some of us do get frustrated by so many lazy accept-whatever-they-say reporters interviewing prominent disinformation political types. Tommy Christopher shows that it is not always that way. A Senator who opposes vaccine mandates by employers seems unprepared for a couple of sharper than usual CNBC anchors and trips all over himself.
     
  • The Palmer Report documents the documents and a bad week for Mr. Trump that ended in a very bad day yesterday.
     
  • Hackwhackers, discovers the newly discovered Republican Power Point presentation directing Jan 6 efforts to overturn the election of Joe Biden and the national rejection of Trump. Then posts several pithy internet reactions. Entertaining, instructive, and, on reflection, horrifying.
     
  • One major news item this week involved Trump losing so far his executive privilege claim on archived White House documents. The appeals court decision was unanimous. News Corpse covers the coverage, watching for the slant from the Fox Network.
     
    Turns out there is no slant. Fox didn’t mention it at all.
     
    Well, I suppose reporting nothing on one side and nothing on the other is Fair And Balanced after a fashion.
     
  • Green Eagle explains the part of law that may make Mike Pence unwilling to testify to the Jan 6 Committee. Has to do with the Constitutional right to kill Vice Presidents.
     
  • Julian Sanchez joins fellow Cato Institute personality Caleb Brown in podcastville to consider the Mark Meadows case and Congressional access to information from former executive branch officials. Julian Sanchez seems to think the case represents a fuzzy legal issue with no clear answer.
     
  • The good news for Mr. Trump is he has attracted heavy duty investment into his very own social network. The Borowitz Report covers the bad news. The network’s standards have been violated and Trump has been banned.
     
    If you haven’t read his blistering statement about the expulsion, it’s because he hasn’t found anywhere to post it.
     
    Warning: None of it is true. It’s satire, folks.
     
  • CalicoJack in The Psy of Life takes a close penetrating look at why middleclass suburban white voters fall for racist dog whistles and variations of the Big Lie and other lies, and why Democrats are perpetually caught flat-footed and unprepared.

Continue reading “Pandem Variants, Masks, Gargle, GOP, Jan 6, Exec Priv, Big Lie, Evil, Gaetz”

Abortion, COVID, Fauci, Jan 6, Lincoln Project, Kamala, DeSantis Military

  • It seems a staple on the right that pregnant women must be prosecuted if they are suspected of aborting the fetus or in any way causing their own miscarriage.
     
    A few misguided souls on the left greet the prospect of the coming Supreme Court ruling with some glee. It might help win enough seats next year to save the Republic.
     
    Infidel753 explains, step by step, why the controversy should be regarded as about an essential freedom not a political chess piece.
     
  • This involves real people. Legal scholar Imani Gandy says abortion is part of a larger pattern. She brings the true stories of a few actual victims from an ongoing state and local war on pregnant people.
     
  • Vixen Strangely at Strangely Blogged elaborates on the flippant suggestion of adoption as the solution as Justice Amy Coney Barrett asks an extraordinarily loutish question.
     
  • Sarah Cooper explains a flaw in Supreme Court thinking on women, abortion, and adoption:
     

  • Nan’s Notebook points to an obvious group that has no legitimate voice on controlling the bodies of pregnant women, which is to say men. She also has obvious advice for anti-abortion women.
     
  • This hits home:

  • Andy Borowitz reports on a new variant of non-intelligence, discovered in Texas. The mutation has developed immunity to all information.
     
  • M. Bouffant at Web of Evil has the news. When it comes to vaccines, seems the sheriff of Los Angeles County is a paranoid loon.
     
    The Sheriff refuses to vaccinate because when you get the vaccination, the Chinese get your DNA. Honest, says he, the FBI themselves told him. Really they did.
     
    Doesn’t say whether they had tears in their eyes or called him sir.
     
  • MadMikesAmerica watches as Death consoles a disappointed Omicron.
     
  • This answers one inane argument:

  • Frances Langum takes notes as Jimmy Kimmel provides an eloquent, compelling, and funny rant defending Anthony Fauci from Senate Republicans and Fox personalities. Saving lives occasionally offends delicate conservative sensibilities.
     
  • News Corpse follows the occasion as once-upon-a-president Donald Trump hosts a recent event of devoted followers, and leads the cheers for Corona-19 in the hope that each new death might hurt Joe Biden.

Continue reading “Abortion, COVID, Fauci, Jan 6, Lincoln Project, Kamala, DeSantis Military”

Two Trials, Judge Not, Jan 6, Alex Jones, Eric Trump, Antifa Infiltration, Boosters

  • Ted McLaughlin at jobsanger looks to the just verdicts in the Arbery murder for hope, but points out the fight is far from over.
     
  • Dave Dubya is grateful for the application of justice by a mostly white jury to three white neighborhood vigilantes, but sees racism continuing as a powerful undercurrent. He has a deeper gratitude for our opportunity to work and vote for sanity and decency.
     
  • Vixen Strangely at Strangely Blogged points out that it should not have been so hard to expect a conviction in the murder of a jogger. But the system nearly failed. It took more effort than it should have even to bring charges.
     
  • Hackwhackers keeps the week’s justice score. 1 good, 1 not so good.
     
  • We have all seen the same video by now. Ahmaud Arbery was murdered by the father-and-son McMichael team with the help of their friend Roddie Bryan.
     
    The question that should not have been a question was whether a southern, nearly all white jury would follow the evidence and convict.
     
    Tommy Christopher has the numbers. A new national poll taken just before the verdict shows that only a third of Republicans thought the three were guilty of anything.
     

  • At The Moderate Voice David Robertson has a criticism. Those of us who were not on the juries in the Wisconsin and Georgia murder trials are not entitled to make judgments.
     
    On the Arbery verdict:
    I am not a member of the Arbery jury. So, I am not in a position to declare Arbery’s killers guilty of murder. Neither is anyone else who isn’t a member of the jury.
     
    I hold an opposing view.
     
    It is true that, as a member of a jury, I am constrained by the Constitution and my own notions of fairness in deciding whether a defendant will be deprived of liberty for the crime of murder. The prosecution must prove its case conclusively on the basis of submitted evidence.
     
    Not being on a jury, I am allowed to non-judicial opinions, to wit:
    – O.J. Simpson is a murderer.
    – So was Charles Manson.
    – And so were Byron De La Beckwith and Deputy Sheriff Cecil Price.
    – So were a host of lynch party enthusiasts in the often sad history
         of US civil rights.
     
    While my opinion may be of little value, except to myself, I violate no-one’s rights in holding to it.
    Not sorry, O.J.
     

  • Frances Langum listens carefully as Alex Jones explains that he doesn’t want to go to prison. He will testify to the Congressional committee investigating the Jan 6 lynch mob insurrection. He will refuse to answer questions, based on his 5th Amendment rights. He will claim that in answering truthfully, he would incriminate himself.
     
    But he wants everyone to know that he won’t really mean it.
     
  • The Palmer Report contemplates the story now circulating that Eric Trump’s wife was in secret communication with organizers of the Jan 6 lynch mob insurrection. They supposedly used burner cell phones – to be used and discarded. Well… so far, it’s a single story in a single magazine, so who knows whether it will stand up. And Eric Trump can be expected to issue a blistering denial – fake news, unfair smear, and all.
     
    Except for this:
     
    So far, Eric hasn’t said a word. Deafening silence.
     
    Remembering one of Arthur Conan Doyle’s favorite Sherlock Holmes adventures The Adventure of Silver Blaze and the dog (which is to say Eric) that didn’t bark.
     
    About those secret calls:

  • It’s looking like white supremacist infiltration was responsible for a whole lot of the violence blamed on antifa and BLM. Much more than we thought.
     
    While it is accepted by most as a legitimate news source, I do have a bias about The Intercept. It was founded, in part, by the prickly Glenn Greenwald, so we should put it in the Trust-but-Verify category. I confess to a low opinion of Mr. Greenwald. Let’s wait for the verify part.
     
  • Wearying though it may be…
     
    Our favorite Earth-Bound Misfit looks to South Africa to find that while you may be done with COVID, COVID is not done with you.
     
  • John Scalzi at Whatever explains why he got the booster shot.
     
    Has to do with listening to the experts about vaccines, and not, say, podcast hosts or virulently racist and/or performatively ignorant politicians.
     
    Well… when you put it that way.
     
  • Andy Borowitz reports as Dr. Anthony Fauci urges Americans to use COVID as an excuse to skip Thanksgiving with horrible relatives.

Continue reading “Two Trials, Judge Not, Jan 6, Alex Jones, Eric Trump, Antifa Infiltration, Boosters”