Election Returns, Sinema Drama, DeSantis Scolded, Marriage Protected

  • YellowDog Granny begins a list of people she will invite to kiss her nether regions and, a while later, shares her fond, visionary, hopes for a future election.
     
  • Green Eagle suggests that, despite his flaws, Herschel Walker did not deserve what happened to him.
     
  • My long-time conservative friend Darrel Michaels is despondent to below ground level at election results this year.
     
    He can be forgiven, I think, for his near incoherent rage against the victors:
    leftist hate-America-first,
    senile and corrupt,
    flying monkeys,
    socialist/leftist candidates,
    dangerous ideas,
    demonstrably proven to fail,
    profligate spending,
    extra/un-constitutional,
    despise America,
    leftist propaganda    ,
    and on and on.
     
    I am reminded of the late Illinois Everett Dirksen who, while entertaining a crowd of constituents pulled out of his pocket an extravagantly scathing attack and began reading it aloud. Partway through, he stopped, looked up wide eyed at his audience and, in a shocked voice, said:
     
    Why, they’re talking about ME!
     
    Key passage from my distraught friend:
    There are ways to make sure elections always tilt to blue rather than red if the outcome is in doubt. Just ask Kari Lake in Arizona.
     
    Ah! So that’s how we overcame.
     
  • In Hackwhackers, Senator Kyrsten Sinema has left the Democratic Party (or, in Republican SnideTalk, “Democrat Party”). If your first reaction is that this will pretty much screw up Senate committee composition, Hackwhackers says not to worry (too much). The Senator says she will still caucus with Democrats.
     
    Key Passage linked to Steve Benen:
    In other words, as of 24 hours ago, Democrats looked forward to having what was effectively a 51-seat majority in the chamber. As of this morning, that remains largely unchanged.
     
  • Disaffected and it Feels So Good speculates on why Kyrsten Sinema has left the Democratic Party, and suggests it may have been a shrewd move.
     
  • CalicoJack in The Psy of Life finds a study contrasting democracies that have successfully quelled violence with those who have not. Jack examines the conditions that accompany violence and identifies those actively working to creating those conditions.
     
  • driftglass suggests that it is way too late for the Republican party to reform its way out of decline.
     
  • Frances Langum walks us through the Republican plan to use the debt ceiling to threaten the economy. We will destroy the economy unless we are allowed to cut Medicare and Social Security.
     
  • tengrain at Mock Paper Scissors explains the success of a program that lifted 19 million American children from the grip of poverty, how Republican opposition caused it to lapse, how those children are once more in desperate straits, and how Republicans are blocking a revival.
     
    Key passage:
    …the GOP would arm wrestle each other to see who gets to kick-away Tiny Tim’s crutch…

  • Iron Knee at Political Irony discusses a ruling in which a federal judge stomped all over Florida governor Ron DeSantis while blocking a law that would have restricted conversations about race in schools and businesses.
     
  • The Respect for Marriage Act has passed. YAY!
     
    Vixen Strangely at Strangely Blogged contemplates the weepy opposition by one member, and looks through the tears.
     
  • A web designer was before the Supreme Court this past week, arguing that free speech and freedom of religion means that service can be refused to a gay couple for religious reasons.
     
    Imani Gandy and Jessica Mason Pieklo of Rewire News Group follow the oral arguments, including some hyper-cringey things Justice Samuel Alito had to say about Black Santa and Black kids in Klan costumes.
     
  • Those captivated by ideology are occasionally unable to make distinctions when it comes to other points of view. You are in agreement or you are wrong. And there are no differences between those who are wrong. They are simply on the wrong side of the fence.
     
    The arguments offered in this week’s oral presentations before SCOTUS, both sides and the Justices agreed, were all about whether a religious objection to offering services to a gay couple could override a Colorado law against discrimination.
     
    Libertarian Michael A. LaFerrara says that couldn’t have been the issue. In his world, the only possible argument was whether every business is free from any governmental regulation.
     
    You see, all that legal stuff misses the only possible controversy. You are a libertarian who wants freedom from any government, or you are a statist who wants to enslave everyone.
     
  • The Palmer Report sees a difference in reactions by opponents whenever family members of public figures experience hardship. One side offers sympathy and support to those whom they otherwise oppose. The other side gleefully gloats.
     
  • In Happiness Between Tails da-AL mourns the death of writer Ashley L. Peterson, an expert and expert explainer of mental health. Her family is maintaining the site for which she wrote.
     
  • Wisconsin conservative James Wigderson watches the Netflix special so you can skip past it:

  • In spite of other developing flaws, Tommy Christopher says CNN has grabbed the lead on several stories from the January 6 Committee. Multiple sources are telling CNN that legal trouble is brewing for mr Trump and four associates: Mark Meadows, John Eastman, Jeffrey Clark, and Rudy Giuliani. As in criminal referral type trouble.
     
  • News Corpse says public postings from mr Trump reflect private turmoil as the former president goes into a fearful, incoherent meltdown.
     
  • Ted McLaughlin at jobsanger has internet user figures and, sure enough, mr Trump’s nightmare is coming true.
     
  • Andy Borowitz reports as the Declaration of Independence is found in a Trump storage unit.
     
    Key satire:
    The eighteenth-century document was reportedly found under a stack of hastily packed items, including several pairs of socks and the Oval Office’s television remote.
     
  • Max’s Dad is glad they were able to get Brittney Griner released from Putin’s fist. Putin refuses to negotiate in good faith on remaining captive Paul Whelan. MAGA folk sense an opportunity to attack Biden about that, as if it is his choice.
     
    I share the reaction of Max’s Dad:

  • In Letters from an American, historian Heather Cox Richardson speculates that, by releasing Brittney Griner, a Black married lesbian, while refusing to negotiate on Paul Whelan, a former Marine, Putin was seeking ways to sow discord in the US.
     
    Key passage:
    Impressively, both the Griner family and the Whelan family avoided that trap and kept a united front.
     
    Former president Trump, however, played along, complaining bitterly about “a ‘stupid’ and unpatriotic embarrassment for the USA!!!” that had secured the release of “a basketball player who openly hates our Country” instead of “former Marine Paul Whelan,” who “would have been let out for the asking.” Other MAGA Republicans followed suit.
     
  • Our favorite Earth-Bound Misfit has the figures. As Putin’s aggression against Ukraine wears Russia down, other former Soviet republics are boosting defenses against future Russian threats.
     
  • At The Moderate Voice, Time’s 2022 Person of the Year is:
    Volodymyr Zelensky and ‘the Spirit of Ukraine’.
    Seems about right.
     
  • Elon Musk hit the news last weekend, announcing he would reveal how BidenFolk effectively stole the election, with the cooperation of Twitter employees. He then revealed nude photos of Hunter Biden.
     
    Cato Institute’s Julian Sanchez seems a bit skeptical about Elon’s big reveal, as cooperative journalist Matt Taibbi helps Musk tell us all about Twitter scandals before Elon took over:

  • The Propaganda Professor recounts an incident in which an actress expressed disgust with Elon Musk. She announced that she would be turning in her Tesla and buying a Volkswagen. Musk took a break from his busy day to point out that Volkswagen started as a Nazi enterprise. Twitter erupted in mocking the “woke” libtards that had just been owned.
     
    The professor uses the incident to illustrate a misleading and, worse, a bullying approach that typifies Musk management.
     
    Key passage:
    For them, the ownership of a company 80 years ago is all you need to know about the company’s policies now; the fact that certain Democrats were friendly with Sen. Robert Byrd, who was part of the KKK in the Forties (and shortly thereafter renounced the organization and became a civil rights champion) proves that Democrats are the real racists — likewise the fact that the old Democratic Party supported slavery and the Confederacy, and it couldn’t possibly have changed any in the 150 years since then. (At the same time, some GOPers are fond of claiming that if JFK were alive today he’d be a Republican because the “Democrat Party” has changed so radically in the past 50 years.)
     
    But perhaps the most telling thing of all is that Musk joined in lockstep with right-wingers. As he always, always does.
     
  • At The Onion, Elon is worried that he might not have enough Twitter employees left to fire on Christmas Eve.
     
  • PZ Myers dives into detail on how the Musk approach affects another Elon enterprise, Neuralink. One sad outcome of impulsive, don’t bother me with details, get it done NOW, management is that they ran afoul of animal treatment regulations.
     
    Two key passages:
    It boils down to a top-down corporate culture that was all about cracking the whip and driving employees to work faster, faster, faster. This is bad policy.
    AND
    A lot of it is meticulous routine that all of the participants should have familiarity with. The “wrong glue”, and screwing up at least twice…I don’t know how that happens, unless you’re in an inexcusable rush.
     
    Now mr Musk is pushing his already stressed employees to rush into testing brain inserts on humans within 6 months.
     
    Who’s ready to volunteer?
    Anyone?
    Come on, folks, step right up…
     
  • Nan’s Notebook explores the contradiction in Christianity between our beliefs and our actions, and between our emphasis on believing, and the emphasis Jesus places on action.
     
    One key passage:
    Of course, for those of us who have no interest in the teachings of Jesus (or any other religious guru), our efforts towards helping others are not prompted by religious beliefs. We do it because it’s the human thing to do.
     
  • North Carolina pastor John Pavlovitz is appalled at the rise among nominal Christians of a renewed anti-Semitism: It is anti-scriptural, and antagonistic to the teachings and background of Jesus.
     
    Key passage:
    They’ve literally forgotten where they came from.
     
    Judaism is the genesis of the Christian tradition, the deep and rich root system without which it would simply not exist. The New Testament and the work of Jesus cannot be fully understood or appreciated untethered from the Hebrew Scriptures, and anti-Semitic disciples of Jesus are simultaneously committing violence against Jewish people and to their faith’s namesake.
     
  • In The Life and Times of Bruce Gerencser, atheist Bruce offers wisdom that a Christian and anyone else ought to value. But he is also an extraordinarily good writer: even to the point of making his comment policy entertaining as well as instructive.
     
    Comment policy? Seriously?
     
    Bruce makes me jealous.
    Being a Christian, I suppose I must forgive him.
     
  • Infidel753 speaks movingly about living with the death of a parent and speculates sensibly on why the brain reacts as it does.
     
    A young friend whose father died recently, knew mine had died decades before. He asked how long it had taken to get over it.
     
    I promised to let him know.
     
  • M. Bouffant at Web of Evil seems to be feeling somewhat negative.
     
  • The Journal of Improbable Research has discovered a scientific paper on the percentage of people who fall asleep during presentations of scientific papers.
     
  • Nojo is befuddled and irritated by new slang, especially when confronted with polycule. Say what?
     
  • Dave Columbo explains why his computer’s internet connection is holding up his writing:
     

    @davecolumbo You know I’m right #jokes #standup #standupcomedy #standuptiktok #funny #comedian #fy #fyp #foryou ♬ Super Mario 64 (Main Theme) – Tony Brattoli

  • Clickbait satirist Reductress has helpful email signoffs that will make you sound less like a pushover and more like the God of the Old Testament.
     
  • SilverAppleQueen has a cat who has gotten adaptive about sleep.
     

– Podcasts –
 

9 thoughts on “Election Returns, Sinema Drama, DeSantis Scolded, Marriage Protected”

      1. I took a chance and visited Darrells’ Place. Are you sure that is not a parody site? Ugh.
        Thanks for these roundups. I found your site courtesy of Mock Paper Scissors. I hope your young person will continue to have a good recovery.

        1. That is gracious.
          Thank you.

          In Darrell’s personal defense, he has reached out from the first – in private – at personal crises regarding our Marine and more.
          He was a valued contact when we lost contact with our son just as the news reported his base was under attack and Marines had been killed.

          And he has been in touch during other family tragedies, his and ours.
          A genuine good guy.

          Easy for me to look past even extreme political slights.
          But yeah, he is serious in what he posts.

          1. Despite our polar opposite political/social views, I agree Darrell is a good person. I’ve told him this several times. I said to him if politics were left out of it, we could be great fishing buddies.

            I don’t think he can say the same of me anymore, since he’s decided I’m a “leftist who hates America”. Odd, since Burr and I share nearly identical political views. Something else is exerting an influence on Darrell’s judgment. I think he resents my examinations, evidence, and criticism of radical Right dogma. His defenses are triggered, so I must be demonized for it. It’s how the Conservative/authoritarian personality reacts and perceives others as threats.

            Good people can be angered, frightened and misled into hateful ideas by believing horrible lies. MRI’s have shown the more conservative/authoritarian a person is, by nature and nurture, the more active and enlarged his amygdala becomes. Their “fight or flight” response is more easily manipulated. This is one of the worst tragedies of the conservative/authoritarian personality’s impact on the human condition.
            And of course he HATES that I see an authoritarian personality in him.

            But he keeps proving it with his constant demonization and festering rage towards the dreaded “others”, and his loyalty and deference to authoritarian leaders like Trump.

            Here’s what Darrell wrote at my blog on Jan 8, 2021:

            “Dave, Trump was wrong to give encouragement and a wink and a nod to the protestors and delaying any attempt to rein them back. He was complicit. Sadly this ego maniacal narcissist tarnished the myriad of good things he has done for our country with this latest escapade.”

            I was surprised and impressed by his brief glimpse of reality and sound judgment. Alas, it was not to endure. Beliefs trump reality with the radical Right.

            He later flipped for Trump:

            This is what Darrell wrote on May 15, 2021: “Trump instigates a riot according to the left and the media, but then I repeat myself. (He didn’t.)

            House leader McCarthy is another example. He went from, “The president bears responsibility for Wednesday’s attack on Congress by mob rioters”, to promptly bending his knee at Mar-a-Lago.

            No doubt noting this will raise Darrell’s ire even further. No wonder he banned me. 😉

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