Month: January 2022

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.