Hitler Love, Unlawful Justice, Unjust Judge, Trump Decoded, MAGA Beer

Right after election 2020 as President Biden bounced mr Trump, we were given scholarly research on how the founders would have reacted:

  • Vixen Strangely at Strangely Blogged explains how Justice Clarence Thomas is receiving substantial financial, travel, and gifting benefits from a right-wing ideologue. But, says Justice Thomas, he and his extremely generous donor are not really in a corrupt relationship:
    We’re just good friends.
     
    To the uninitiated, it does seem like heavy dating.
     
    Key defense:
    Now, Thomas has assured us that he isn’t the kind to be swayed by the temptations of his wealthy friends, that he prefers the simple pleasures of the RV parks, the Walmart parking lots.
     
  • Julian Sanchez, of Cato Institute, offers a close to perfect explanation of why the relationship between Justice Thomas and his just-friend mega-donor is corrupt, even if he doesn’t issue rulings against his core beliefs:

  • So the ultra generous friend of Justice Thomas collects Nazi stuff, especially canvases painted by Hitler, books signed by Hitler, and materials just personally held in the hands of Hitler. That doesn’t mean he actually admired Hitler, right? It doesn’t mean he’s a Nazi.
     
    Dave Columbo explains a bit about personal values. Obsessively pursuing a collection deserves a little more than quick dismissal:
     
  • Hackwhackers brings us satirist Alexandra Petri, rewriting for clarity Justice Clarence Thomas preference for the simple Walmart life. He reluctantly sacrificed the simple existence he would rather have lived to hang at exotic locations with a billionaire friend who collects Hitler souvenirs.
     
    Kind of noble, if you think about it.
     
    And, of course, we are also gifted with pointed Clarence cartoons.
     
  • Andy Borowitz reports as Ginni Thomas vows not to let her husband’s problems interfere with her work on the Supreme Court.
     
    Key Satire:
    Calling her post as Associate Justice “a job I’ve loved for the past three decades,” she said, “I’m hopping mad that Clarence would do anything to jeopardize that.”
     
  • The Palmer Report explores why formerly Republican state legislative strongholds around the nation are flipping to Democrats.
     
    Key political malpractice:
    After the downfall and ouster of Trump two years ago, the lesson Republicans should have learned was that if you quietly hold more power than you should, and you intend to use it for corrupt or evil purposes, flaunting that power is not a smart idea.
     
  • Imani Gandy and Jessica Mason Pieklo of Rewire News Group explain how Gen Z Saved Abortion—and Democracy—in Wisconsin. You can also choose podcast or transcript.
     

     
    Key description:
    Abortion. Voting. Trans rights. Clean water. The Wisconsin Supreme Court race had all the rights on the line. This week, Jess and Imani break down how liberals took back the Badger State’s highest court for the first time in 15 years.

  • Wisconsin conservative James Wigderson writes for CNN as Wisconsin sends a clear signal to the GOP.
     

  • Ted McLaughlin at jobsanger briefly explains the difference between pro-life and pro-birth.
     
  • Our favorite Earth-Bound Misfit goes all obvious, saying what needs to be said about judicial folk following religion instead of law.
     
  • At The Onion, men explain how they think an abortion works.
     
  • Frances Langum brings us video as a Republican Representative from Florida actually uses a Congressional hearing to express his extreme distaste for Trans people. Not Trans sports or bathrooms or underage transition or associated issues:
     
    Nope. It’s the people themselves, demons who deserve our hate.
     

     
  • Scotties Playtime has the story as, right here in Missouri, a lawmaker supports the right of parents to give away children as young as 12 to adults in marriage.
     
    Key description:
    12 year olds getting married and pregnant, but not allowed to learn how they got pregnant.
     
  • PZ Myers also has news here in Missouri and elsewhere as state and local officious officials are told they can’t ban books. So instead, they close all the public libraries.
     
  • Iron Knee at Political Irony seems unconvinced as mr Trump talks with supplicant Tucker about the biggest problem we have in the whole world: nuclear warming.
     
    Jimmy Kimmel helps react to the novel science.
     
  • Green Eagle, like the rest of us, made fun of mr Trump for his late night covfefe post. But now the Q people have figured out that it was actually a secret code. The rest of us unenlightened ordinary sheeple are just left behind.
     
  • Disaffected and it Feels So Good reports on the right-wing search for rightwing politically correct beer.
     
    Actually, I thought this was a parody, but it appears not.
     
  • Texas Governor Greg Abbott has announced his intention to pardon a man convicted of murder after driving his car through a red light into a crowd of protestors demonstrating against the killing of George Floyd, then shooting to death a BLM protestor.
     
    After all, he felt threatened by the victim who legally carried an AR-15 not aimed in his direction. He was says he was fearful that the victim might change his mind and aim it at him after all. So he killed him.
     
    Tommy Christopher provides some of the grim details released about the killer’s stunningly racist kill-crazy messages posted before he drove to the protest.
     
  • Andrew Sullivan seems to suggest that the increase in the murders of Black children, murders by gunfire, is caused by BLM inhibiting instances of police brutality. driftglass calls that argument what it is.
     
    And I do not lack for an opinion:

  • tengrain at Mock Paper Scissors brings us the unfortunate juxtaposition of imagery as Governor Kristi Noem (R-SD) boasts that the NRA represents American diversity. The television camera shows the audience. Oops.
     
  • M. Bouffant at Web of Evil reacts to an insurrectionist on probation who insists he needs a gun for protection. Want to know why he needs protection?
     
  • The arrest of a youthful National Guard member dominates a corner of the news. He turns out to be the source of damaging national security leaks.
     
    MagaFolk leap to his defense:


    And yes, to today’s version of conservatism, personal characteristics are especially critical:
     
    They perceive him to be:

    • white – which is to say (using a polite euphemism) “racially conservative”
    • male – hard to say why that is important to radical lawbreaking
    • Christian – which is to say rightwing Christian Nationalist
    • antiwar – which is to say pro-Putin
       

    Historian Heather Cox Richardson sees a more central, unstated, reason for their praise.

  • And of course, as News Corpse reports, Tucker Carlson jumps into defending the intelligence leaker with pro-Putin propaganda.
     
    Key Twitter truth check courtesy of News Corpse:

  • At The Moderate Voice Kathy Gill takes us time traveling as Mississippi celebrates the Confederacy and the glorious day rebel forces attacked US troops.
     
    Key celebration date:
    Why April? Because on April 12, 1861, Confederate troops fired on Fort Sumter, S.C…
     
  • If you can substitute your own definition of an opposing argument, you can win any debate with an imaginary opponent.
     
    Libertarian Michael A. LaFerrara examines the proposition that if a company can’t afford to pay their workers a living wage, they shouldn’t be in business and offers a few startling interpretations of his own.
     
    Key example (right at the beginning):
    By “they shouldn’t be in business,” does the questioner imply that anyone who doesn’t think the employees are not being paid what he imagines equals a “living wage” can physically threaten or attack the business and its owners, including the use of violence, unless they raise the wages or close the business?
     
  • Nan’s Notebook considers an adaptation of the classic first cause argument for the existence of God, modified to posit that science supports the logic. Nan then performs an autopsy on the entire proposition.
     
  • In The Life and Times of Bruce Gerencser, Bruce answers those of the faithful who insist that atheists cannot understand scripture because they are not believers.
     
    Key contradiction:
    On one hand, Evangelicals will tell atheists to read the Bible, believing that if atheists will read the gospels, they will see the truth and be saved. Yet, when atheists read the Bible and reject its claims, Evangelicals are quick to say that atheists can’t “know” the truth because the “natural man understandeth not the things of God.”
     
    I suppose I am legitimately vulnerable to a parallel criticism.

  • North Carolina pastor John Pavlovitz addresses abuse with the church in a painful conversation with a victim:

  • Any medium can work for a message of truth. YellowDog Granny has cartoon wisdom about love, evil, heroes, and action.
     
  • Infidel753 casts a vote for basic civility, and objects to the trend toward pointless coarseness, insult, and name calling in internet dialogue.
     
    Key count:
    By the time you’ve seen a hundred of them, they have the same effect as a toddler repeatedly shouting “poo poo pee pee” and then giggling at his own cleverness.
     
  • In Happiness Between Tails da-AL returns home from a wedding in India with astonishingly beautiful videos.
     
  • Ant Farmer’s Almanac is there with the headline if you’re eagerly waiting for news about Taylor Swift and Joe Alwyn.
     
  • John Scalzi at Whatever has words of praise for accountants.
     
    Key appreciative advice:
    If you have a tax profile that is in any way complicated, and you can afford it, I strongly encourage you to get an accountant as well. They’re tax deductible! And will make your life so much easier, at least in the month of April.
     
  • @whiskeywhistle98 shares a lesson about basic etiquette, a lesson from which we can all benefit.
     
     
  • Clickbait satirist Reductress provides a model of courtesy to others we might all follow when devouring a new bag of chips.
     
  • CalicoJack in The Psy of Life clears some of the myths with our current scientific understanding on autism.
     
    Spoiler alert: It has nothing to do with vaccinations.
     
  • SilverAppleQueen has a cat-oriented alternate use for laundry and blankets.
     
  • Ever lay awake wondering about the amount of time it takes Wile E. Coyote to tumble into the canyon? The Journal of Improbable Research finds a study by the University of North Carolina on the speed of cartoon falls.
     
  • This week in baseball – The Savanna Bananas take opposing hits personally:
     

     
– Podcasts –