Saturday Scrapple: As the Worm Turns

Used to be that people learned how government works and then ran for office. Republicans don’t have the brains or patience for that, so they elect loudmouth jackasses who don’t know how it works so the rest of us can point and laugh at their bone-deep ignorance. Case in point: Dumbfuck Rob Arlett, the SuxCo counciltwerp who introduced a right-to-work ordinance for Sussex County. One problem: That ain’t legal, Cletus. It’s a state-level matter.

If Sussex Countians could read, they might learn that such laws depress wages, which would force them to explain why such a law is needed when wages in the state remain flat.

The Al Franken laments haven’t gone away, because a lot of women seem wedded to the notion that if Franken is sacrificed, it will better life in the USA for all women. The absurdity behind this notion is demonstrated to full effect by Salon’s Amanda Marcotte, who says Franken should “take one for the team” and resign his seat because hey, a Democrat would replace him and Democrats would demonstrate to the nation that they, unlike Republicans, mean what they say.

The naivete behind this sentiment should be obvious, but sadly, no. Nevertheless, some Democrats haven’t refrained from shitting their pants over learning that even otherwise decent people can be harassers. The Nation’s Joan Walsh checked in yesterday with a more logical approach to the problem.

Just a little reminder: Republicans don’t care. A Republican convicted of assault, Montana’s Greg Gianforte, has been seated in Congress. Now we learn that he lied to authorities about how his altercation with a reporter began.

I confess I’ve stopped trying to follow the details on the Russia investigation, so I don’t know the significance of the fact that Trump is now paying his own legal bills. What caught my eye was this little morsel from the story:

Attorney General Jeff Sessions has offered shifting accounts of his Russia contacts while he was a campaign adviser, including with Moscow’s former ambassador to the United States, Sergei Kislyak. He made light of the investigation during a speech on Friday before a conservative lawyers’ group.

“Is Ambassador Kislyak in the room? Before I get started here, any Russians?” Sessions said, prompting applause and laughter from the crowd at the Federalist Society event. “Anybody been to Russia? Got a cousin in Russia or something?”

At least he’s got a future in standup comedy if this whole attorney general thing doesn’t work out.

If you want some cheering up on that front, Booman cites the Paradise Papers to back up Michael Gerson’s assertions about a tidal wave of indictments coming down the pike.

Josh Marshall, meanwhile, wonders how a nobody like Sam Clovis was on the pro-Russia bandwagon so early in the election cycle. His Russia boosterism predates him joining the Trump campaign.

Save this one for after breakfast. That North Korean soldier who defected by sprinting across the DMZ, suffering several bullet wounds in the process, was also treated for a severe case of parasitic intestinal worms, indicative of the poor diet and poor hygiene common in a country that lacks chemical fertilizers and so uses human excrement to fertilize crops.