Kamala Harris bought a nice thing for her kitchen with her own money – this is an outrage that the DC press cannot  condone.

Of all of the stupid arguments defending the filibuster, the idea that that the filibuster as it stands in 2021 is a Longstanding Tradition rather than the latest iteration of a constantly changing one is among the stupidest. And needless to say, if Mitch McConnell thought that eliminating the legislative filibuster was in the interests of the Republican Party it would already be gone.

All changes to rules and norms will involve some level of “hypocrisy.” Who gives a shit? A rule is good or it is bad, and the filibuster is a very, very, very bad rule. That’s all ye need to know.

Happy Hanukah (Chanukah)!

Right now oil prices back down to 2018 levels. Headlines in a few weeks, probably: “Gas is cheap again. Why this is a problem for Biden”

…people who hold the most wildly disproportionate share of power in America — white conservative Protestants — think of themselves as the most oppressed minority group in America, and are indeed often presented as such by the very same elite media these people are sure are so biased against ordinary people like them.  – LGM Blog 

Keep masking in enclosed spaces and in crowds. Avoid A-holes. Enforce vaccine mandates for school, work and travel. If the mandates don’t work, at least they will stop many MAGATs from getting vaccinations.

Look, this news on the new variant isn’t ideal. I think we can all agree on that. But it’s also by no means surprising. The COVID-19 virus is going to be here forever. It’s not going to go away, at least not without an additional set of big medical advances. We have to get used to this. That means it is likely to continue mutating. Some of those mutations might be pretty bad! It’s still true that barring the unprecedented elimination of the virus, we are all going to get it at some point or another.

The issue is to manage the virus. There are all sorts of problems around this. First is the massive disinformation campaign led by Rupert Murdoch’s global media network and the other rich right-wingers who fund this. Second is the fact that western companies and governments are putting profits ahead of vaccinating the world. We can’t really solve the second entirely without solving the first, but we can do a lot more than we are doing. Unfortunately, these are intractable problems right now.

It sure seems like she did. See the “Source” below. Also note that the “article” makes no mention of the brazen criminality the “auditor” will stand trial for. BTW – I’m just putting the whole thing here because, being a press release that they posted verbatim, it is not the intellectual property of any website.

Some dumb fucking conservative idiots have gotten into the habit of circulating “shocking” bullshit among themselves, then pretending that the shocking bullshit came from a school in the Caesar Rodney School District. The social media posts bout the “shocking things they are teaching in school” typically include calls to respond to the outrage, and “JAM THE SUPERINTENDENT’S INBOX” It seemed fun, so I tried my hand at writing one one of these bullshit outrage trigger documents.

Afraid.

Worried,

Very on brand.

For all the MAGATS talk about masculinity, white conservative guys sure are scared.  Everything is self-defense for these chickenshit, because they move through a terrifying world with pants constantly wet with piss.  They are so scared of being murdered that they have to grab a gun and chase after unarmed joggers just in case the unarmed jogger decides to kill them.

Is Trump in jail yet?  No?  That’s odd.

In “Joe Biden Vs The Democrats” Jonathan Chait returns to the tired “both sides are at fault” trope. The twist is that by both sides he means progressive Democrats and Centerist Democrats – blaming them both equally for Biden’s failure to pass his agenda. For anyone paying attention, that is obviously nonsense.  1) It is clearly hardline moderate zealots like Coons, and Manchin turning on Biden, and not progressives, and 2) It is clearly Republicans who are really fucking shit up.

“Nobody can say with any confidence if this fall can be reversed. Indeed, given the U.S.’s steady job growth, nobody can ascertain exactly why the public has turned so sour so fast. Biden is like a patient wasting away from some undiagnosable disease. What is clear is that if the presidential election were held this fall, Biden would enter the contest as the decided underdog against Trump.”

“The conventional wisdom has deemed that Biden is getting his just deserts for trying to govern as a liberal…”

“But the truth is that Biden’s presidency began to disintegrate without his abandoning the center at all. He found himself trapped instead between a well-funded left wing that has poisoned the party’s image with many of its former supporters and centrists unable to conceive of their job in any terms save as valets for the business elite. Biden’s party has not veered too far left or too far right so much as it has simply come apart.”

Rob Portman, (LAME DUCK-Ohio), and Chris Coons, (D?-Delaware), introduced bipartisan legislation to combat international wildlife trafficking. Maybe it’s a decent bill, maybe not.  Knowing Coons, however, I’m going to go ahead and assume that the bill was drafted by lobbyists for the International Wildlife Trafficking Association.

The real point of rolling out shit like this for Coons is to be seen smiling while standing next to a Fascist. Did I just call Portman a Fascist? He is a Republican isn’t he? It is impossible, even for someone like Coons, to not know that that GOP is a hard right fascist party. Any Republican who still affiliates with the party is a fascist.  And there are no good fascists. Even nice seeming ones are cogs in a machine that wants to tear down the Republic.

They don’t even deny it anymore.  Although Portman probably whispers soothing things to Coons during their junkets.  Coons, I imagine, is very easily pacified.  In fact, I can clearly picture a sepia tinted Portman and Coons enjoying a cognac in 1939 Berlin.  “Nobody really wants to kill <I>ALL</I> the Jews, my dear Chris.  That’s just talk for the amusement of the proles. ”  Portman says.    Coons nods warmly.

So, yeah.  I happen to find it utterly disgusting that Coons can continue to befriend and help prop up the reputation of the GOP, by pretending that it isn’t a fascist party.  But I’m a nobody. When my home is Kristallnacht-ed, I doubt it will even make the news. It will probably be my own fault anyway, right Coonsie?  Why was I so strident, and uncompromising?   Why, indeed.

From LGM, this post includes Umberto Ecco on fascism which knits together the toxic masculinity and hero worship that is the beating heart of the GOP’s fascism.  

In such a perspective everybody is educated to become a hero. In every mythology the hero is an exceptional being, but in Ur-Fascist ideology, heroism is the norm. This cult of heroism is strictly linked with the cult of death.

From the weekend, El Som linked to one that merits reading.  

Republicans Embrace ‘Toxic White Male Masculinity’, And Campaign On Its Behalf.  It’s also why they own so many big manly guns.  Good interview, despite the fact it’s on Politico.

And this:

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) now says that he wants to make “masculinity” his signature political issue, saying that “social messages that we teach our kids in school,” as well as unemployment, are making men watch too much porn.

“As conservatives, we’ve got to call men back to responsibility,” he told Axios.

The Republican party is filled with psychotic racists who hate America and they need to be crushed at every election down to dog catcher. They need to be social pariahs who relearn how to stay in hiding.

When Coons continually attempts to rehabilitate the reputation of the Grand Old Party, even as their atrocities are unfolding, he isn’t trying to be a good guy. He is propping up psychotic racists for some psychotic reason only he really knows.

The House of Representatives voted Wednesday to approve a resolution that censures Rep. Paul Gosar for posting a photoshopped anime video showing him murder Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The censure strips him of his two committee assignments. Gosar’s response was more or less – “Big Whoop. I’m just here to fuck around and shit post anyway.”

CNN and others call the more “a major rebuke” but let’s face it – Gosar is right abut his tenure. He is a hype-man. He can put his clown show on just as easily without committee assignments.

I liked AOC’s response.

How many of these Republican members of the

Super Secret Bipartisan Caucus

members will vote for the second leg of the ‘Build Back Better’ plan? The over/under is 1. I’ll take the under.

He ran as the sensible moderate who, even in the age of unbreakable, unreasonable, recalcitrant Republicanism,  could “bring people together.”   The unreasonable, recalcitrant Republicans have called bullshit on that plan, so Biden can either renounce this key campaign promise, or make pretend that Susan Collins,  Mitt Romney, Bill Cassidy, Lisa Murkowski,  Shelley Moore Capito attending a White House signing ceremony means that he is “bring people together.”

I’d bet the farm that the Biden braintrust goes with “let’s make pretend” as a strategy.

And I get it.   Calling out Republicans for what they are and charting a bold, aggressive new course of direct confrontation would be akin to admitting that his political life up until now is a bit of a scam.   You can’t blame him for not having the guts to renounce his entire political identity, who could possibly do that?

Sure.  That sucks for the country, but there you have it.