It isn’t a secret plot. You do not have to know how to decode subtle signs. It is right out in the open. Oh well, the wholly powerless figure-head President, and the pretend legislature can’t do anything about it.

The panel said it was interested in conversations the top House Republican had with President Donald J. Trump on the day of the riot and afterward.

The Biden administration announced the new guidelines as it continued to work to get coronavirus tests to people regardless of their insurance status.

FFS, just send out the goddam tests. Jesus fucking Christ! The DC Bubble bullshit artists are in full control. Tax credits and unworkable bullshit will surely save us.

OMG.  It is so tiresome.  Under-President Biden (who is wholly powerless) goes to Georgia and says we need to get rid of the filibuster.  President-in-Fact Machin says no.   Blah, bah, blah.

We all know that no voting rights protections will be voted on, but it will take hundreds of thousands of hours of a TV “analysis” to get there.

In more non-breaking news – If you’ve been near a TV or computer in the past few years, you now that Senator Rand Paul is a dick.

‘You personally attack me:’ Fauci fires back at Sen. Paul in heated exchange

Dr. Anthony Fauci and Senator Rand Paul spar during a Senate health hearing and Dr. Fauci says he has received death threats while working to end the pandemic because of Paul’s false claims.

Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), who helped organize a bipartisan letter backing up the legislative filibuster in 2017, said he’s “seriously weighing” what to do.

“Part of the point of this week is for us to remain curled up in the floor to demonstrate our commitment to finding a bipartisan solution.  It is my firm belief that my good friends and colleagues on the other side of the isle will grow tired of kicking us and perhaps catch a cramp in their kicking legs.  That pause in the kicking will open up a good avenue for dialogue which will allow us to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Restoration Act without changing the rules of the Senate,” Coons said.

Coons getting candid with Politico.

Me: Let’s go out to dinner one last time.
Ms: One last time?
Me: Yeah. One last time before things, you know,  go ka-plooey.
Ms: Ok.  Mexican?

True story.  Things had already gone ka-plooey of course.  Mexican restaurants are a trailing indicator.

I doubt President Manchin is going to allow another stimulus. But it isn’t as if the wholly powerless Under-President Biden is going to petition President Manchin for one. So no biggie.

Speaking of President Manchin, he said he would LOVE to vote for voting rights protections but only if 10 moderate New England Republican Senators from 1965 come back from the dead and vote for voting rights too.  So that will happen.

This pandemic wave is due, in part, to recalcitrant dummies who think masks, vaccinations and being asked to help not spread disease infringes on their freedom. Oh Well. Nothing we can do about recalcitrant dummies, right?  Oh wait… it is also due to the fact that Republican ghouls have figured out that prolonging the pandemic is “bad for Biden.”  

I like the idea of the ADT and admire the spirit of people who undertake it:  like this person:

Mainer and through-hiker Briana DeSanctis is looking to be the first woman to make a cross-country trek of the American Discovery Trail. She began her journey Jan. 1 at Cape Henlopen State Park, at the eastern terminus of the 5,000-mile trail.

From Delaware, the trail heads east through Maryland and West Virginia into Ohio, where hikers have an option to take the northern or southern route. DeSanctis is taking the southern route, which goes through Kentucky, southern Illinois, Missouri and Kansas before meeting back up with the northern route in Colorado. From Colorado, there’s one trail to the Pacific Ocean, where it ends at Limantour Beach in California.

Brushing the sand off her wet feet after stepping in the Atlantic Ocean to officially mark the beginning of her trip, DeSanctis was in good spirits.  (snip)

DeSanctis’ progress can be monitored on her Facebook page – Rocky Mountain High on the Discovery Trail. According to the Facebook page, as of the deadline for this story, she has made it into Maryland, which means she hiked through the snow and on the poorly plowed roads of western Sussex and Maryland’s Eastern Shore.

DeSanctis can also be reached by phone at 603-534-8135 or by email, bree683@hotmail.com.

If you, like me,  wondered how ADT hikers crossed the Chesapeake Bay, wonder no longer:

“At Stevensville (MD) arrangements must be made for a taxi or a friendly motorist to carry you across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge.”

Well, the news blackout was in fine form this weekend, so just a couple of important items made it through the filter:

• • Ending debtors prison in Delaware

  • Holding unvaccinated dipshits accountable through health insurance, and

  • Delaware’s most mediocre Dems

In Delaware, a single misdemeanor with a $100 fine can balloon into hundreds of dollars in fees owed to the courts. These fees are not intended as a punishment or deterrent — their purpose is to generate money to pay for certain government functions.

Imposing fines and fees on those who are unable to pay has created a de facto debtors’ prison in Delaware, harming our communities and trapping residents in a destructive cycle of poverty. Use the link to support HB 244 and join the Campaign to End Debtors’ Prisons.

French President Emmanuel Macron is so frustrated with idiot ant-vaxxers and “irresponsible” assholes that he just wants to “piss them off” by making their lives so complicated they’d prefer to get vaccinated.  I agree.  It is time.  

But this is America where ALL power resides in the states, the President is a impotent figurehead (unless a Republican), and the Federal government exists only for ceremonial purposes – so what to do?  

…there is one way to hold unvaccinated Americans accountable for putting themselves and others at risk: make them pay more for health insurance through surcharges and eliminating paid time off when they are sick while offering financial incentives (including lower deductibles) for fully vaccinated Americans who enroll in wellness programs.

There is a whole congealed layer of Democratic elected officials that don’t get much mention because they do just enough to stay off the radar. Help us name & shame Delaware’s most mediocre Democrats.

We know the good ones. We know the bad ones (The Dems that have sold their souls and votes for a few measly bucks, or for a spot a little closer to power [Coons, Longhurst, Poore, Pete, KMcG etc]). But there is a whole layer of Democratic elected officials that don’t get much mention because they do just enough to stay off the radar.

I know. That is  “bad” from an objective perspective. I mean, they’ve been elected to get shit done for ordinary Delawareans not just mark time and collect a pension. But that style of failure isn’t aggressively bad like the terrible office-holding shitheads like Chris Coons. And while a few of these Dems were dis-invited by voters to continue using up Leg Hall oxygen in the last round of Democratic Party primaries, many continue to hide in plain sight.

My list of the top mediocre starts with the overly ambitious Bethany Hall Long. What does she stand for? That’s easy, she truly believes in the next rung of the ladder. I’d also put the terminally-uninterested John Carney on the “bad through sheer mediocrity” list. Who are your top picks?

What’s the missing ingredient in the Delaware left? I agree with Rob that it is a killer instinct.

I already listened this episode of the Highlands Bunker, but I’m revisiting it this weekend. If you a an incorrigible lefty like me, it is really worth a listen.

Praising “good Republicans” is a popular pastime among media and Dem elites.

The Good Republicans

Political journalists are forever promoting the supposed “good Republicans,” who weirdly, are always, at least in the telling, BARELY LIKE REPUBLICANS AT ALL. In fact, their “goodness” is usually ways in which they are actually like Democrats, who themselves are actually bad! The best way to get good press is to be a Republican who fakes being like a Democrat, as being a Democrat who is a Democrat is bad!Of course 5 minutes later it is revealed that the Republican is, actually, bad.

January 7th is the one year anniversary of my peak optimism! I honestly and foolishly thought that Republicans would be able to shake off Trump once and for all after the failed coup.

In a statement Coons expressed disappointment for what he termed Biden’s “ill-timed and divisive” rhetoric.  “This is not the time to …and Chris he didn’t say anything like that but with everything we know about Coons, it was really believable.

Frankly I think it speaks volumes about the Senator’s character that so many people who read this headline found it totally plausible.

PS. I’m not sorry.

When people ask me why I have such a problem with Chris Coons, it is stuff like this.  Blaming Democrats and Republicans equally for the “division” leading to the Jan 6th riots.

Too often in recent years, we have chosen division. Now, we must choose to heal and strengthen our democracy, and lay the groundwork for future generations to sustain our trajectory along that most important path.”

See the poll on the right side of the page. I’m curious to know what you guys think. But a little more curious to know if anyone on the bleaker side of the question thinks there is anything we can do to save it.