In case you hadn’t noticed — In addition to all their other failings, republicans are extremely tedious. Where most people aspire to be the best and the brightest, republicans are focused on becoming the worst and the whitest. It’s just so damn tiresome.
Its principals no longer include responsibility, decency, integrity or honesty. The republican party is broken. It can no longer function as a viable partner in governance. They have completely ceded any pretense to the moral high ground. That will be the ultimate cause of their downfall. As a fundamentally corrupt organization, they cannot sustain themselves, except through subterfuge.
It looks like the republican party has stolen the clown car from the idiot circus and been busy filling their ranks with the occupants. I am astounded by just how many soulless parselmouthed Qlowns they’ve welcomed.
I think we are all heartily sick of the constant pattern of another day, another republican outrage or scandal. If it happened and it’s vile or villainous it must be republican is the saddest commentary we can make on the current state of the party. There are a container ship load of parallels to draw. Fortunately, we are making those comparisons, and we are not being quiet about it.
Moving forward, our enemies are our own complacency, coupled with corporate media incompetence.
We just have to stay alert, committed. and vocal.
Up the Resistance
(to republican depredations)
By the way, in case you forgot, this is still an ongoing thing.
And if that’s not enough to get you to smile, here’s another:
There’s some stuff in the news that might brighten your day. Or fuel your resolve.
Damn You, Corporate Media
I think there’s something happening in Congress today. What it is ain’t exactly clear. And that’s because the media isn’t doing their actual job. It’s a good thing the Columbia Journalism Review is around to hold their journalistic feet to the accountability fire.
Whenever some uninformed cretin tries to bothsider the January 6th Select Committee, just point them at this excellent CJR article to blow away any fig leaves they are using to cover for republican bad faith.
Columbia Journalism Review: Jon Allsop: The absurd coverage of the January 6 committee
In late May, over the Memorial Day weekend, the top story on NBC’s Meet the Press was a recent vote by Republican senators to kill the prospect of an independent, fully bipartisan commission to investigate the insurrection at the Capitol on January 6. (Six Republicans backed the commission, but their votes weren’t enough to overcome their colleagues’ filibuster.) At the top of the show, Chuck Todd, the host, correctly noted that it was Republicans who blocked the commission. Then, however, he called the vote “a stress test for our democracy” that “our democracy failed, and failed big time.” He said that top Republicans had plainly torpedoed the commission for reasons of electoral self-interest, then said that “this Congress” had voted it down. He interviewed Barbara Comstock, a former Republican Congresswoman who supported the commission, about the reasons for her party’s opposition, then asked Jason Crow, a Democratic Congressman, whether his party’s leadership in the House would voluntarily retain the commission’s proposed bipartisan structure in any replacement investigation it may constitute, in order to ensure its “credibility.” Todd also asked, “On this Memorial Day weekend, if Congress can’t even agree on an independent January 6 commission, what can it agree on?”
Todd’s framing reflected the variety of motifs found in other media coverage of the January 6 investigation, and of Washington politics more broadly: there was some moral and factual clarity, but it was muddied, both by impersonal language that obscured lines of accountability, and the twin implications that bipartisanship is desirable, and that Democrats bear responsibility for upholding it—even in the face of explicit Republican obstructionism. As the story has developed—with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi establishing a select committee to investigate January 6 in lieu of a commission—these motifs have persisted; last week, they crescendoed, as Pelosi blocked two Republican Congressmen—Jim Banks and Jim Jordan—from appointment to the panel, leading Kevin McCarthy, the House minority leader, to pull all five of his picks.
Banks had been overtly hostile to the prospect of the committee and Jordan may be a material witness to Donald Trump’s complicity in the insurrection; both men voted to reverse Trump’s defeat in key states, abetting the Big Lie that incited the insurrection in the first place. Pelosi’s decision not to seat them thus looked like a move to shore up the credibility of the committee’s investigation against inevitable bad-faith attacks from within. And yet a number of journalists and commentators reached very different conclusions. Rachael Bade, of Politico, said that Pelosi had given a “gift” to McCarthy: “He wanted this panel to look partisan and political. Now it’s definitely going to look partisan and political.” Politico’s DC Playbook team, of which Bade is a member, wrote that, while it had called out Republican “cowardice” in rejecting the idea of a commission, Pelosi’s decision “will make the investigation even easier to dismiss for people who aren’t die-hard members of Team Blue,” arming the GOP with a “legitimate grievance.” Chris Cillizza, of CNN, told anyone still harboring hopes that the committee might deepen public understanding of January 6 to “give up on those hopes now,” because Pelosi had just “doomed” them. (Confusingly, Cillizza then went on TV and pinned most of the blame on McConnell.) The Hill wrote that Pelosi had helped Banks burnish his “brand.” And so on.
Broken News from the Fraudit Front Lines
You might think the fiasco in Arizona couldn’t get any more ridiculous. You’d be wrong. The fellow appointed by the folks who started the whole mess (the Arizona Senate) to watch over what was happening is being barred from the premises. Let that sink in a minute. The Senate’s own choice is too honest to leave in place. If you are missing your village idiot, he’s likely a republican serving in the Arizona Senate.
Huffington Post: Mary Papenfuss: Arizona Senate Liaison Threatens To Quit When Cyber Ninjas Bar Him From Audit Site
Former secretary of state Ken Bennett, a Republican, said he was “shocked” when he was not allowed into the building last Friday where the Maricopa County audit — which he is charged with overseeing — was taking place.
Bennett said Monday that he was frozen out after he expressed several concerns about the operation, including what appeared to be sloppy and inconsistent spreadsheet tallies of votes. He called the issue “just the tip of the iceberg” of problems.
“The reason that I am that close to stepping down as liaison is that I cannot be a part of a process [when] I am kept out of critical aspects along the way that make the audit legitimate and have integrity when we produce the final report,” Bennett said on “The Conservative Circus” program on KFYI-550 radio.
Hypocrisy, Thy Name Is Murdoch
We should make IOKYAR instances into crimes, punishable by relentless mockery (and a community service requirement to spend 200 hours cleaning public restrooms).
Huffington Post: Amanda Terkel: Oh, So Now Fox News Is Suddenly Against Ambushing People
A man confronted Fox News host Tucker Carlson on Friday while he was out shopping at a fly fishing shop in Montana.
The man told him he was “the worst human being known to mankind,” according to video of the interaction posted to social media. Carlson appeared to be with his family, because the man said he didn’t care that Carlson’s daughter was there.
Fox News was appalled that Carlson would be bothered while going about his normal, everyday life.
…
Fox News is outraged when their big-name hosts are ambushed, but it is totally fine with its big-name hosts doing the ambushing. Ambushes were a central part of the show of Bill O’Reilly, who was Fox’s most prominent host for years. (He left in 2017, under the disgrace of a series of sexual harassment allegations.)
Lindsey, You Are Such a Putz
Michael Steele had to take time out of his busy day to slap the stupid stick Lindsey was chewing on right out of his feeble, Former Guy kissing mouth. Fact check: The violent crime rates have risen faster in South Carolina than in any of the states Lindsey railed against.
Undoing the Damage
The Boondoggle at the Border was the prime signature unneeded and unwanted idiocy of the previous administration. The sooner we put the wall and its adherents into our rear view mirror, the better. The only wall we need is a sound-proofed impenetrable one wrapped tightly around our insurrectionist traitors, their despicable enablers, and their weasel-mouthed fellow travelers.
Mother Jones: Hannah Levintova: “Not Necessary”: The Biden Administration Just Canceled More Border Wall Contracts
On Friday, the Biden administration canceled two border wall contracts along 31 miles of the Rio Grande in South Texas—continuing the process it began this spring of dismantling one of the Trump administration’s signature initiatives.
The two contracts had previously been funded in 2020, but Biden’s Department of Homeland Security announced on Friday that they are “not necessary to address any life, safety, environmental, or other remediation requirements.”
The Trump administration had planned to spend about $15 billion to construct a border wall along the Southwest border of the US in an effort to crack down on crossings by undocumented immigrants, whom they deemed a threat to American security. Immigration and environmental activists alike blasted the wall plan—the former for imperiling immigrants fleeing dangerous or difficult circumstances, and the latter because wall construction threatened to disrupt natural habitats and endanger more than 100 threatened animal species who roam at the border. Nor do some portions of the wall constructed under Trump appear to do much to prevent border crossings, as they are easily scaled with a ladder.
Now We Just Have to Get Them to Take the Pandemic Seriously
Even in the regressive political backwater, known as Tennessee, office holders are taking baby steps to disavow one of the worst racist hatemongers in our history. Although, I’ve heard the Texas Senate wants to give the now homeless statue a place of honor in their republican cloak room. In other news, the Tennessee government is still busy denying science.
Wonkette: Doktor Zoom: Forrest Dumped (Nathan Bedford, That Is, From Tennessee's Capitol)
Yet another monument to treason and enslavement came down today, and it was a significant one: Tennessee legislators and visitors to the state Capitol in Nashville can now go about their business without walking past the bust of slave trader, Confederate general, war criminal, and early Ku Klux Klan leader Nathan Bedford Forrest. The bust was hardly a precious part of state history, having only been placed in the Capitol in 1978; the Capitol itself dates back to shortly before the Civil War.
The treasonous murderer's bust is gone, and will be moved to the Tennessee State Museum. Unfortunately, it will not be converted into a urinal in its new location.
After years of public calls for the bust to be removed from its place of honor, and of Confederate confederates insisting the horrid thing stay, last year Gov. Bill Lee said it was time for the bust to go. The State Building Commission voted yesterday to move the bust, the last formal requirement necessary. Workers hauled it away this morning.
We Are So Over Her
There’s a sad, sad huckster who needs to have her microphone surgically removed. After years of lying incessantly for The Former Guy; saying other exceptionally stupid things for her own aggrandizement; and generally being a horrible excuse for a human being; Sarah Slanders (and her odious papa Mike) need to retire back to the outhouse basement from whence they sprung. For the idiots, by the idiots, and of the idiots, forever.
Raw Story: Sara K. Burress: Sarah Huckabee Sanders caught with blatant lie in her op-ed about COVID vaccine
Former White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was often criticized for lying to the press so many times that PolitiFact lists her false claim rate at 66 percent. After her tenure in the White House, Vanity Fair also crafted a list of some of her most egregious lies.
So it isn't surprising that in her latest op-ed, she continued the trend. Writing for the Arkansas Democrat Gazette, Sanders falsely claimed that Vice President Kamala Harris said that she would never take a vaccine that former President Donald Trump created. She sang the praises of the vaccine that many Trump supporters have refused to get and complained that Trump isn't getting enough credit for fast-tracking the vaccine people complain they won't take because it was fast-tracked.
CNN White House correspondent John Harwood explained that Sanders was mischaracterizing what Harris said. In fact, Harris said that she wouldn't take a vaccine on just Trump's word. She explained that she trusted Dr. Anthony Fauci to sign off on the vaccine. He did. So, Harris took the vaccine.
My Borowitz Fix
I think I might have a problem. I can’t make it through a GNR without adding a column from Andy Borowitz. I wonder if there’s a 12-step program for this?
The New Yorker: Satire from the Borowitz Report: Republicans Protest Lack of Rioters on January 6th Commission
WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—Casting a dark cloud over the select committee investigating the January 6th insurrection, congressional Republicans protested, in no uncertain terms, the panel’s “utter lack of rioters.”
Leading the charge was House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who called the commission “little more than a gussied-up festival of anti-riot propaganda.”
“Nancy Pelosi’s handpicked Democratic panel members all have one thing in common: none of them took part in the riot,” McCarthy said. “Without an equal number of rioters on the panel, we’ll never get to hear both sides of this thing.”
Beam Me Up, Scotty
There’s been a lot of coverage surrounding the dueling dicks in space. But, the hard core science fictiony stuff is making progress, too. Admittedly, all of this is still mostly a though experiment. But, we’re seriously talking about the technology of space bubbles and bending time. I couldn’t manage to do a proper job summarizing the article, so all you get is the introduction. You’ll have to check out the actual article for all the geeky goodness.
Scientific American: Robert Gast: Star Trek’s Warp Drive Leads to New Physics
For Erik Lentz, it all started with Star Trek. Every few episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Captain Jean-Luc Picard would raise his hand and order, “Warp one, engage!” Then stars became dashes, and light-years flashed by at impossible speed. And Lentz, still in elementary school, wondered whether warp drive might also work in real life.
“At some point, I realized that the technology didn’t exist,” Lentz says. He studied physics at the University of Washington, wrote his Ph.D. dissertation on dark matter and generally became far too busy to be concerned with science fiction. But then, at the start of the coronavirus pandemic, Lentz found himself alone in Göttingen, Germany, where he was doing postdoctoral work. He suddenly had plenty of free time on his hands—and childhood fancies in his head.
Lentz read everything he could find on warp drives in the scientific literature, which was not very much. Then he began to think about it for himself. After a few weeks, something occurred to him that everyone else seemed to have overlooked. Lentz put his idea on paper and discussed it with more experienced colleagues. A year later it was published in a physics journal.
Great News from a Great City
The ring road around Madrid is called the M-30 (pronounced emmay trainta). I lived inside it for a little more than a year, cough-cough years ago. It is still one of my favorite places on the planet. This story made me feel all warm and fuzzy and nostalgic remembering remembering late nights carousing along the Paseo de la Castellana, enjoying the endless tapas bars and far too many copitas.
GoodNewsNetwork: Andy Corbley: Madrid is Planting a Huge Forest Ring Around the City to Lower Heat Levels and Cut CO2 Emissions
Whether you’re from the U.S. and call it a “Beltway” or Europe and call it a “Ring road,” Madrid will be calling it the “green way” soon enough, as the Spanish capital aims to combat their city’s island of heat by encircling themselves with a sea of green.
Their urban forest project will involve planting nearly a half million trees on a 46-mile perimeter (75-km) around the city. When the trees have reached maturity, they should absorb around 175,000 tons of CO2 per year.
Black pine, beech, Spanish juniper and various oak species can all be found in the arid middle of Spain wherein lies the Spanish capital, and it is these native trees which require little water or specialized soil conditions that will constitute the new forest.
My First Ever Tiny Bit of Entertainment News
Presented without my usual brand of commentary. Just the fact that this is trending is enough.
Musical Interlude
Something new from Songs Around the World, 30 years after its initial release.
WineRev’s History Lesson
Our resident history professor’s always interesting history lesson will appear here as soon as I notice he’s posted it in the comment section. Until then look for it in the comment section.
Take it away, WineRev
>>>>>After lots of screeching from Amy Farrah Fowler’s lab monkeys (AKA known as national Republicans near a microphone) the January 6th Select Committee holds its first public hearings today. The opening set of witnesses testifying will be several Capitol Hill police officers who will recount the “ordinary tourists looking for the men’s room” on that day and politely asking for directions to the nearest public facilities. Chairman Thompson (who’s national profile will be rising day by day before your eyes) has arranged that one of today’s witnesses, Officer Michael Fanone, who suffered a heart attack and a brain injury (that thankfully did not lower his cognitive abilities to that of Eric Trump or Louie Gohmert), will testify in full uniform. Hey, if Michael “Seditionist” Flynn can do it, so can Officer Fanone (who merits his uniform more than the Flynn-flan man…..)
July 27ths that will be remembered by the cats here in the Wisconsin house-sitting house as the Good and Goofy day when strangers came in, kept us four-paws out of the breezeway room all day, replaced 4 windows and converted an 8 foot (barely) sliding glass patio door into a 6 foot (actually working) sliding glass door (all from about 1968) and promised to be done by supper time so we can eat in out usual spots, and also remembered for other stuff that happened in the last 2000 years.
82 (A TWO-digit date!) Jerusalem, Judea (now Israel) Wealthy guy Joseph (and, since this is a very common name, this is the one from the village of Arimathea) dies today. As is the custom he is buried this same day in an elaborate tomb that he had had constructed decades before. Its not quite a new tomb; about 50 years ago it was used, borrowed you might say, but just for 2 nights for a body, in an emergency, hurry-up burial, without the customary rites and rituals. Then, on the first day of the week at early dawn, some women came to Joseph of Arimathea’s tomb, carrying spices which they had prepared. And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb. While they were perplexed about this, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel. And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, ‘Why do you seek the living among the dead?.......” Millions have died in, and millions of others still live in, this same hope…..
1377 Rugusa (now Dubroknik) Republic of Venice (now Serbia) Before vaccines, there was prevention. Before antibiotics, there was prevention. Before proof of viruses, there was prevention. Before the discovery of germs, there was prevention. Before medicine ceased being a sideline for barbers, there was prevention. Before healing separated from religious rituals, there was prevention. (Before stupid,…..well, there was STILL stupid.) In one of the first recorded successful examples of society-wide prevention, enforced by law enforcement, the city council of Rugusa this day passes a law saying newcomers from the plague will not be allowed inside the city walls until they have remained in supervised isolation for 30 days and shown no signs of the disease. (“Our Freedom to LIVE outweighs your freedom to move around for weeks!”) This was later raised to 40 days, “QUARANTA” in Italian (and now I’ve learned the root of quarantine!)
1586 London. Walter Raleigh brings the first samples of tobacco home to England and explains its use. The beginning of the idea of planting a Virginia colony to produce a cash crop for the mother country, ensuring the colony (starting in 1607, so it still took 21 years of talking and planning) will continue and be supported. And, on a DOUBLEHEADER DATE in one of the ironies of history, on this day in 1965 in Washington DC, President Lyndon Johnson signs a bill into law requiring warning labels about diseases caused by tobacco products to be printed on all packaging of those products, a very wide spread effort to eventually cut smoking (to date) by half.
1867 Lleida, Spain Birth of Pantaleón Enrique Joaquín Granados Campiña, composer. Son of a Spanish army captain, Enrique showed fine promise at the piano, studying in Barcelona. At age 20 he went to Paris but failed the entrance exam to the Conservatory. However, one of the professors took him on as a private student for several years. He made a living for over a decade as a professional pianist with various theater companies (and composing on the side.) He was finally slated for his solo premiere in Paris premiere (at age 47) for some of his piano sonatas when World War I erupted. With the stage name of Granados he took a ship to America and premiered in New York; later on he even had a chance to perform in Washington DC for President Wilson. He later returned to England; soon after he and his wife took a ferry for France, but the ship was torpedoed by a German submarine and the couple was killed. Granados wrote extensively for the piano, yet after his death many of his pieces were transcribed and re-scored for classical guitar, making his work a key piece to this day of that instrument’s repertoire and giving him a massive reputation in Spain.
1921 Toronto, CA At the University of Toronto (Go Blues!), medical researchers Frederick Banting and Charles Best this day isolate the molecule of insulin, and come up with a few ideas how to produce it. Because of their discovery, diabetes is no longer fatal but becomes treatable.
1929 Geneva, Switzerland This city, the founding place of the International Red Cross, and lately the home of the League of Nations, this day sees a solemn ceremony. Dignitaries from 53 nations (more added later) gather to sign a treaty on the treatment of sick, wounded and enemy soldiers who are prisoners of war. The Geneva Convention set rules (admittedly, often honored in the breech) for proving our humanity under hard conditions; and we’ve tried, with uneven success, to prove it.
1940 Across America When you get settled in with popcorn and a soda, there’s this week’s newsreel, and then a short feature or cartoon before the main picture. On this day across American movies screens there is a new cartoon, “A Wild Hare” starring a carrot-chomping wise guy rabbit, Bugs Bunny. Tex Avery’s creation in his debut also debuted his signature line, “What’s up, doc?”
1949 Near Southampton, UK The 36-seat jet-propelled De Havilland Comet 1 has it’s maiden flight today. It was the world’s first passenger jet. (It was also cramped, noisy and had square windows, which proved to be an aerodynamic problem. Passenger jets soon moved to windows with rounded off corners.)
1953 Panmunjon, Korea. After three years of at times bitter fighting, and several months of peace talks, this day the Korean armistice agreement is signed, ending the fighting (if not yet establishing peace) between the United Nations and North Korea. Divides the peninsula into North and South Korea. 68 years sometimes jittery years later, the truce holds.
May all your News be Good, comforting and inspiring.
Shalom.
On the Lighter Side
What makes a republican tick? — You start out with your run-of-the-mill blood sucking republican leech. Give him a red hat.
In republican circles, the bottom line has come to mean the line at the bottom of the barrel above which republicans are forbidden to cross.
Sure, both sides do it. The difference is the republican side does it 100 times as much.
White supremacists (aka republicans) have real trouble with proper pronunciation. They pronounce “traitor” as “patriot.” We shouldn’t be surprised. They’ve been making the same error since 1861.
Quote(s) of the Day
If publishers and editors exert themselves to keep certain topics out of print, it is not because they are frightened of prosecution but because they are frightened of public opinion. In this country intellectual cowardice is the worst enemy a writer or journalist has to face, and that fact does not seem to me to have had the discussion it deserves. — George Orwell
When we say, 'One nation under God, with liberty and justice for all', we are talking about all people. We either ought to believe it or quit saying it. — Hubert H Humphrey
Rats and roaches live by competition under the laws of supply and demand; it is the privilege of human beings to live under the laws of justice and mercy. — Wendell Berry
A conservative is a man with two perfectly good legs who, however, has never learned how to walk forward. — Franklin D. Roosevelt
Conservatism is the blind and fear-filled worship of dead radicals. — Mark Twain
Required Pet Photo
I don’t think I’ve ever shown you a picture of Feisty before. She had a bit of a shoe fetish. Sadly, she left us before Pressley had a chance to meet her. She was fierce and I wonder how they would have gotten along.
Pressley’s Picks
This is the kind of cancel culture that is completely unacceptable. Ignoring customers just because they don’t have opposable thumbs is about as discriminatory as it gets. Runaway specieism is a blight on our society.
I think you already know — we do all the dirty work.
I could do this if I felt like it — I don’t. Although, that CPR thing looks like something to try tomorrow morning.
Bonus Pick: I’m trying to convince NNNE to try this. It would help if you encouraged him. He’s been known to cave to peer pressure.
Closing Notes
Thanks for slogging on through to the end of another Roundup. Remember to stay active and involved, while also looking out for your health. Your country needs you!
hpg keeps on keeping on. Last night’s Evening Shade: PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN---DAY187---Evening Shade-Monday
Back in 1978, Jimmy Carter was president. The Camp David Accords were signed on September 17th. The day before that happened, The Grateful Dead closed out their three-night run at the Gizah Sound & Light Theater. Here’s Row, Jimmy, Row from that final show. Check out the background shot at 5:42 (as well as Jerry’s pigtails). Not so coincidentally, there was also a full lunar eclipse that night.
We also have this, from Bob Weir, remembering a highlight of his experience playing in Egypt (transcribed from the 2015 Netflix documentary: The Other One: The Long, Strange Trip of Bob Weir)
I felt the weight of the antiquity. Time went away. Future, past, all of it was right here…when the Pyramid was lined up with the Sphinx, I would hear echoes that seemed to go far beyond this place in time. At dusk, the mosquitoes come out, and I looked at my arm and it was covered by mosquitoes. And I’m thinking ‘OK, welcome to Hell.’ And then something flies by my face–it was a bat! I look across the stage, and the stage is swarmed with bats, and they’re taking out the mosquitoes, they’re saving our asses! Here’s a rock ‘n roll band on a thousands-of-years-old stage at the foot of the Great Pyramid, surrounded by a cloud of bats…and I think to myself ‘take me now, Lord, I wanna remember it just like this.’
Disclaimer: They really are that bad!