Popular Biden, Vaccines, Rudy Dissed, Secret Infected Service, Crush SNL, CRT

• Hackwhackers looks at the data. The public really likes Joe Biden in office. And that’s according to Fox News polling.
   
• Wisconsin conservative James Wigderson is impatient with those of his right leaning fellows, like Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson, who advance conspiracy theories about the 2020 election. Now he gives the evil eye to those campaigning against COVID vaccinations: like, for example – well wadiya know? – Senator Ron Johnson.
   
• tengrain at Mock Paper Scissors admits to shock at learning that Mr. Trump’s no-mask-no-vaccine ethic infected almost 900 Secret Service employees with COVID.
   
• Yes, says Frances Langum, once-upon-a-president Trump wanted the federal government – Department of Justice, the FCC, everyone – to take action against Saturday Night Live for teasing him.
   
• Ant Farmer’s Almanac applies formal formers to poor beleaguered Rudy Giuliani. Not much beyond the headline, but then there doesn’t need to be, does there?
   
  Okay, so I do have an opinion:

• CalicoJack takes a hard look at social media in The Psy of Life. Connecting with others of like mind lends a feeling of community, and expands what we know vicariously beyond what we can know directly. And it just may be that benefit is how social media damages democracy.
   
• The Borowitz Report covers Mitch McConnell’s patriotic response to voting rights. Democracy originated in ancient Greece, and Senator McConnell will stand firmly against allowing a foreign form of government to sneak into America.

• Nojo remembers Ronald Reagan and Roots, and takes on the conservative perspective about race.
   
• Let’s start here:

  Libertarian Michael A. LaFerrara maintains that Juneteenth and the end of slavery was one logical conclusion of the Declaration of Independence.
   
  He acknowledges it took too long for the freedom embodied in the Declaration to reach those of African Descent.
   
  His words:
   
  But it did, finally erasing America’s most glaring birth defect.
   
  Yup. Erased. That’s what he said.
  So, by 1865, injustice surrounding race was no more.

• John Scalzi at Whatever gave some thought last weekend to the new national celebration of Juneteenth, the date in 1865 when slaves in Galveston, Texas discovered they had been freed by the Emancipation Proclamation. The news had been kept from them for three years.
   
  Awkward for White people to celebrate what is about them only in a tangential, not very positive, way. John comes up with a worthwhile solution that should work in coming years.
   
• I’ve been watching Joy Reid for a long time. She may be the best interviewer of hostile antagonists on television. Friendly, smart, devastating when those across the table try to slip something past.
   
  PZ Myers has a similar reaction as Joy Reid interviews the conservative who first sounded the trumpet against Critical Race Theory in schools.
   
• At The Moderate Voice, this week’s military smackdown was not only performed by General Mark Milley. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin wiped the smug smile off the face of Matt Gaetz during testimony.
   
• So what is Critical Race Theory? Hell if I know. And I have tried to find out.
   
  I was able to read a lot about standpoint epistemology, intersectional theory, essentialism, anti-essentialism, structural determinism, empathetic fallacy, and a rejection of rights-based remedies.
   
  So that settles that, right?
   

  Dave Dubya points out that we do know what angry opposition to CRT is. And he is quite correct.
   
  Then Dave does what I have not seen anywhere else:
   
  He finds and simplifies a translation of the CRT word salad into comprehensible standard English.
   
  Now then – – – Why the hell can’t the highly credentialed denizens of academic lounge rooms join in giving that the ole college try?

• driftglass can become Captain Obvious when it is truly needed. It is needed now, as Florida demands that professors and students at Florida Universities register their political views with the state. Yeah. It’s that bad.
   
• In Letters from an American, Heather Cox Richardson looks at conservative efforts to amplify culture war issues and election related conspiracy theories. On the one hand, they are largely rejected by the public. On the other? The election process itself is being rigged to insulate Republican office holders from that same public.
   
• Scotties Toy Box and Joe.My.God look into a far-right Christian group and a boot camp for taking over local school boards.
   
• So now, a few conservatives are calling for the execution of tens of thousands of Democrats whom they accuse of stealing the election from Donald Trump. The current state of contemporary conservatism does seem to have reached a new level.
   
  Cato Institute’s own Julian Sanchez suggests one reason conspiracy theorists, even those backing deadly violence, ought to be embarrassed.
   
• Vixen Strangely at Strangely Blogged offers a brief, cogent, analysis of why Mike Pence gets booed at conservative conclaves.
   
  It flows from an important conservative premise: Donald Trump cannot fail. He can only be failed.
   
  So the base looks to Trump loyalists as targets for their wrath. It is they who have not measured up, who were wanting in strength or character, who were and are and must be traitors to Trump-who-cannot-fail.
   
• Ted McLaughlin at jobsanger says voters in Texas are not really happy with any prospective candidate for Governor. Reminds me of the old Foster Brooks fantasy race for President a couple of generations ago.
  What if Goldwater ran against McGovern and nobody won?
  (yeah I am that old)
   
• Imani Gandy and Jessica Mason Pieklo of Rewire News Group go podcasting, covering how the Supreme Court managed to protect Health Care but not same sex couples. It seems to be a case study of what happens when a bunch of bad precedents pile up. Your choice of a podcast or a transcript.
   
• M. Bouffant at Web of Evil is unimpressed as occasional police officers are justifiably cleared after false accusations of wrongdoing. After all, there are even more who actually do get away with horrible things.
   
  It’s not an unfamiliar argument. Let’s take to the streets after EVERY act of violence involving police, because there are a huge number of incidents in which it is vanishingly rare for any officer at all to be held accountable.
   
  I dunno. I’m reminded of the fictional judge who remembers cases in which obviously guilty people escaped punishment. But he also remembers cases in which people he believed were innocent were found guilty and went to prison.
   
  So he is satisfied. “On the whole, justice was served.”
   
  Justice is not served by convicting more officers.
  Justice is served by convicting more guilty officers.
  Justice is also served by exonerating those falsely accused.
   
  I propose a simple ethic:
   
  Celebrate justice when it happens.
  Make a lot of noise when it doesn’t.
  Get the facts when it is unclear.
   
• Our favorite Earth-Bound Misfit notes the rising death toll and speculates just a little about the mysterious middle of the night building collapse in Florida.
   
• Infidel753 wonders why the center of science research and technological innovation shifted from China to Europe beginning about 600 years ago, after so many centuries of Chinese enlightenment. Infidel suggests there is a hidden benefit to disorganization and disunity.
   
• Tommy Christopher finds a bit of constructive irony in Biden Press Secretary Jen Psaki’s expression of solidary with NCAA student-athletes, her own athletic background, and the location of White House press conferences.
   
• The Journal of Improbable Research goes back to 1969 for warnings from a publishing executive about the drawbacks and modest benefits of using small computers to replace manual typesetting. There is great potential, if you can get authors to use these little boxes properly.
   
• SilverAppleQueen remembers a poem about tragic love authored by one of the greatest poets of the French Resistance.
   
• In The Life and Times of Bruce Gerencser, Bruce finds himself and his family chosen at random for evangelism by a stranger showing images of a bloody Jesus. At a restaurant, no less.
   
  Reminds me of 15 plus years ago, when I took one of our teenagers to the Mel Gibson movie The Passion of the Christ. I thought it should have been retitled “The Jesus Chainsaw Massacre.” Our teen liked it. He’s now a United States Marine, a decorated combat hero. So who can say what inspired his path?
   
  That weekend, Pastor asked me what I thought of the film, since it was, after all, about Jesus. I told her I preferred The Book.
   
• Much as I have grown to dislike clickbait, I’m getting to like parody of clickbait. Reductress brings us 4 subtle ways to tell whether, if he cuts his hair, you will leave him.
   
• Sarah Cooper reveals what we never knew about her involvement with Paul McCartney but then is forced to fight vicious fact checkers. She explains that she actually has two passions worth knowing.
   
• Michael John Scott, in MadMikesAmerica, develops insomnia, gets prescribed a sleeping aid that doesn’t work, but has a ton of potential side effects: the sort covered at the end of commercials by rapid-fire sotto voce announcements.
   
• A very depressed @momwino98 finds a perfect way to cheer up:
  

  @momwino98

  Just needed to take a breath. All good now. 5 year olds can be ruthless. 🤦🏼‍♀️🤪 ##5yearolds ##tiktokmoms ##foryourpage ##parenthood

  ♬ original sound – @Momwino98

• Seems Hunter Biden is following in the footsteps of President Bush. He has taken up painting. And he’s pretty good at it. His paintings are fetching a pretty good price in the art world. News Corpse watches the Fox network take off after poor Hunter. Pretty much every Fox personality agrees his art is just horrible, not worth anywhere near the price it’s fetching.
   
  So who is paying good money? Fox speculation is that America’s art world has been infiltrated by drug cartels and Russian oligarchs who … well … love Hunter’s paintings. Who else would like … how does Fox’s Dagen McDowell put it? … such crap.
   
  Does bring to mind a bit of current internet humor, easily adapted.
   
  Hunter exhibits his work for the first time and is confronted by a visiting art critic from Fox. The critic asks, “Would you like my opinion on your work?”
  “Sure,” says Hunter.
  “It’s worthless,” says the Fox personality.
  “I know,” Hunter answers, “but tell me anyway.”
   
• At The Onion this week, Americans simply cannot stand it, and are unanimously begging for it to stop.

– Podcasts –