DL Open Thread Thursday, May 6, 2021

Never, ever doubt who Republicans represent. Hint: It isn’t you, unless you own a business. The new GOP obsession is a “labor shortage,” which is what Republicans call it when businesses are forced to increase wages to find employees. Or, if they’re in control, as they are in Montana, they get their shitweasel governor to rescind extra unemployment funds from the feds to force people into the job market. Economists say research shows an extra $300 a week isn’t keeping people home, but evidence is for cucks, donchaknow?

Sit down for this one: Then-Attorney General Bill Barr lied to the nation about the Mueller report. A federal judge has ordered release of the secret memo on which Barr based his decision not to prosecute the Last Guy for his obvious obstruction of justice.

The Last Guy apparently is still spewing his ego-preserving nonsense about the election being stolen, but why is the whole Republican Party going along with it? Digby explains that they think it’s their best hope for goosing right-wing turnout.

You would think that people who aren’t white would have enough common sense to oppose white supremacy, but that’s because you don’t realize the depth of human stupidity. USA Today took a look at donations to the Proud Boys in the weeks before the Jan. 6 insurrection and found much of the money came from Chinese-Americans. The theory is they like the Proud Boys’ support of traditional gender roles and hatred of “communism,” which they apparently think is actual communism and not a term Republicans use for anything they don’t like.

The withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan has already awoken the Screeching Hawks Doomsday Chorus, which wants you to know that bad things — very bad things — are inevitable now that the Taliban and Al Qaeda can see each other again. Like Republicans, the hawks are pushing the same worn-out old buttons and hoping for the traditional response. I don’t think they’ll get it, because Americans are in much greater danger from Americans with guns than they are from Middle Eastern terrorists, and most of them know it.

One of the oddest economic effects of the pandemic has been a near-nationwide lumber shortage. Vox explains why the price per board foot has roughly tripled — the industry thought business would decline because of lockdowns and quarantines, but people instead took the opportunity to do a lot of home renovations, and now the industry is scrambling to catch up.

Finally, in News of the Woke, Disney is getting ripped for its Snow White ride at Disneyland because — I’m not making this up — when Prince Charming kisses the sleeping princess, he didn’t get her consent on account of her, y’know, being unconscious and all. If we’re going to rewrite all the old folk tales, I’d like to put in a word in defense of the Big Bad Wolf, who I think was framed by those pigs, because much of this country’s anti-wolf sentiment — looking at you again, Montana — is fueled by these biased, unfair depictions of them as “super predators.”

The floor’s yours.