Sunday, March 17, 2024

Happy St. Pats to Everyone but RFK Jr.

 


Sometimes an entire family is needed to properly slap a cabbage-headed man into something like reality, but also, it hardly works when he's long been away with the fairies. Some people have noted that despite the talk of anti-vax RFK. Jr. selecting anti-vax sports figure Aaron Rodgers as his running mate, he's liable to declare some wealthy idiot named Nicole Shanahan who has enough money to maybe get him on some ballots as his running mate. 

I guess I don't know for sure she's an idiot. I guess it depends on whether she agrees to be the Kennedy idiot's running mate. For all I know, the idiot he runs with is Jesse Ventura, although, despite his lad working for RT, I never thought Ventura was quite that kind of idiot, except possibly in the "fire doesn't melt steel bars" kind of way. 

Anyway cheers to St. Pat, who got the snakes out of Ireland. I truly would love it if there was a saint who would ger the sheer idiots out of politics. But I am proud to support Joe Biden because of his anti-malarkism. 

It's a brilliant start. 

TWGB: Aiding and Abetting

 

Trump really loves his 1/6 convicted felons as if they were his very own co-conspirators, doesn't he? Some observers of today's Trump rally speech got exercised over his use of the term "bloodbath" as in, if he is not elected this year, there will be a bloodbath. Don't be stupid--this was just his usual hyperbole. It's his continued defense and support of his last bloodbath, where something like 140 law enforcement officers were pounded mercilessly by his little fan club, we should be looking at. 

It's a pity-looking at Trump's rallies these days is a little like returning to the scene of a crime where Father Time is stealing what insurers cannot replace and bankers cannot lend, and which, like any Trump property, might have been severely over-valued anyway--his fragile little mind. He thinks renaming Fort Bragg is somehow a repudiation of US successes, not a repudiation of Confederate failures. 

Saturday, March 16, 2024

TWGB: The Only Winning Move

 


The disqualification trial of Fulton County DA Fani Willis saw a decision that enabled the case to continue, as Willis stays on while her top prosecutor, Nathan Wade, leaves the case--but we also learn that the judge in the Trial, Scott McAfee, faced threats and was concerned about getting security for his family. This is appalling, but not an unusual feature of TrumpWorld. McAfee, a conservative, will be treated by MAGA as having been somehow biased (I checked Twitter--they are GRUMBLING) when it is hard to objectively state what was uncovered in the trial more than a mere appearance of impropriety. 

He made as fair a decision as he could. He chided Willis for her conduct. It's not enough. 

From what I can tell, the lesson of TrumpWorld is similar to the lesson of playing "tic-tac-toe" in the 1983 movie WarGames--the only winning move is not to play. It means a little something different here though--it's the choice of game. You don't win at appeasing MAGA. You win only by doing your job. In other words--how about a nice came of chess?

Mike Pence knows this one. He just recently explained why he could not endorse Donald Trump, his old running mate, for president. Trump required him to do something illegal and unconstitutional to show his loyalty and he could not. In return, his life was threatened, and Trump to this day considers Pence "disloyal". It seems clear that to Trump's mind, you cannot serve two masters: the Constitution and Trump.  It also stands as a stark warning to other would-be GOP VP nominees--he will not be someone you serve with, just someone you serve. I can only ask what the conscience of a conservative has to say about that.

Friday, March 15, 2024

The Fine Red Line

 

I think it was an act of moral courage for Senator Schumer to express criticism of Israel PM Netanyahu and concern for the lives of innocent Palestinians. Leaving aside whether he was the best person to make this message because of his own Jewishness and long-standing support of Israel, that there needed to be daylight between what the United States supports and what Netanyahu's government is carrying out was a necessity, because OUR US government must be accountable. The ongoing suffering of people who had no choice in the horrific and malicious actions of 10/7 is inhumane. The idea of so much suffering on both sides without a clear path to reconciliation, and ultimately peace, feels unthinkable. 

There have been protests in Israel that suggest that many people do not feel like Netanyahu has done everything he can to get the hostages home and end the current war. Although Schumer called for elections what he did not do is imply who should win them--rather, he indicated that a referendum on the desires of the people in our democratic ally would settle what their vision is for the future of the Israeli state--without leaving it in the hands of someone who had done everything he could to prevent a two-state solution. 

Thursday, March 14, 2024

The Celebrity Apprentice, But For VP

 


First it was an ad for cosmetic dentistry, and now she's touting custom insoles--just what, you may ask, is up with South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem? 

My personal best guess is, she's angling to raise her profile for VP by doing Celebrity Apprentice challenges because she can't count on Corey Lewandowski to put in a good word for her.  I mean, what is one supposed to do--stay in South Dakota? It's the Indiana of just a scootch over to the west. And as with Mike Pence, there's only so much right wing signifying you can do as a governor before you sort of wonder how it will pay off. Or not pay off, as the case may be. 

Does it feel like she's using her office a little bit for commercial purposes in a conflict of interest? Like, is she expecting something in return (or has she received something in return we don't know about)? Who knows? Maybe she only went into politics because she wanted to be a spokesmodel someday, and never got that Star Search contract. But as I've said before, the GOP secret to conflicts of interest is, if you always work in your own self- interest, there's never a conflict! 

“Hells Bells/Carol of the Bells” (AC/DC) Jazz Cover by Robyn Adele Anderson


Just a little break.

Wednesday, March 13, 2024

Biden's Memory and Hur's

 


Memory is a motherfucker. That's something I picked up from Death and Other Details. But also from reality. Grief doesn't fix things into stone, like when you lost someone. You still have them, as a part of you, like a phantom limb, wearing their conversations in your mind. It can be a comfort and not a comfort all at once. You might know facts intellectually, but they don't exist in your lived reality. It's like two things, overlapping--what did happen, and what it feels like. 

Being human, being mortal, is weird. It just is. But the funny old thing is, Joe Biden is actually tracking quite well with reality. He has a lot of life experience. He can tell you about it in great detail. Damn near photographically. He also has had access to classified information and knows very well what to do and not to do with it. And his situation was not one damn thing like former President Trump's. There is no way to determine intentionality with what was retained by Biden, and some of what Hur looked at was diaries that were not a part of the PRA. Hur's characterization of Biden's memory was gratuitous and biased. 

Happy St. Pats to Everyone but RFK Jr.

  Sometimes an entire family is needed to properly slap a cabbage-headed man into something like reality, but also, it hardly works when he&...