National Sneer Week

 For fans of punching down, it's been a barn burner.  First Trump got big ha-ha in California by mocking Paul Pelosi, the 83-year-old man still recovering from a home invasion assault with a hammer.  Pelosi's crime is to be married to the former Speaker of the House who "ruined San Francisco" in some unspecified way.  Trump may have confused her with former mayor Dianne Feinstein, who he inexplicably failed to mention.  After all, he thinks he ran against Barack Obama in 2016, among many other things which defy explanation.

Then the Friends of Putin caucus in the House agreed to a stopgap budget with no money for Ukraine, and Elon Musk thought that was wonderful.  Don't be surprised if Russian TV gives him and Tucker Carlson a weekly show.  I think Russia Tonight is the only media shop Baby Tuckoo hasn't been fired from.  

 

 It's the first Monday in October, crom help us, and we can already see what's coming:  The Nine refused to review the execution of Robert Robertson, who has been on death row in Texas for twenty years for causing the death of his daughter through "shaken baby" syndrome.  Most experts now agree that this is not a thing but "junk science" never stopped Texas before (Cameron Willingham 2004).

Speaking of executions, possibly, Trump says he would prefer to die by electrocution rather than shark attack.  No doubt this is at the front of voters' minds in Iowa.  No states currently offer the choice (although if nitrogen hypoxia doesn't pan out for Arkansas they may invest in a large tank).  He's convinced that boats powered by electricity pose a threat of death if "the battery" gets wet.  In California he speculated about using water from "up north" (Canada?) to "dampen the forests" and prevent fires, because raking them is no longer sufficient.  Also, Letitia James is a racist and many people are telling him the judge in his fraud case should be impeached.  The most sinister dog whistle may have been his speculation on what Jack Smith's name "used to be."  There was a racist congressman from Mississippi named John Rankin who made a speech in the House in 1952 outing various liberal movie stars as "secret" Jews.  ("One is Danny Kaye.  We found his real name is David Daniel Kaminsky...Edward G. Robinson, his name is Emmanuel Goldenberg...There's another one here who calls himself Melvyn Douglas, whose real name is Melvyn Hesselberg.")  I thought that playbook had been burned, but Trump seems to have preserved a copy.  By the way, Trump's real name is Drumpf.  His grandfather, the draft-dodging brothel keeper, changed it.

I'd be more worried about the Republicans if they weren't so adept at walking into walls.  The snit between Kevin McCarthy and Matt Gaetz promises to brighten our days, as Gaetz plots to "vacate" the Speaker's chair and Republicans plot to expel Gaetz.  Then there's the war on Taylor Swift, by any measure the most popular woman on the planet today.  At a concert last summer her fans made enough noise to register on seismographs.  When she called on people to register, more than 35,000   became voters.  She didn't tell them how to vote but democracy in any form frightens the right, so Junior Trump chimed in with a particularly dumb attack.  Yeah, keep up the mud-slinging.  Tell her she's ugly.  This guy thinks liberal women are ugly.  He's dating the CrossFit Cracker.

Is opera too woke?  It's too woke for WCPE in North Carolina.  Imagine -- there's a classical music station in North Carolina, and they won't be carrying the Met's broadcasts of The Champion by Terence Blanchard, about the boxer Emile Griffith (he was gay); Dead Man Walking by Jake Heggie (rape and murder); El Nino by John Adams (Christian, but not in a way the station manager approves); X:  The Life and Times of Malcolm X by Anthony Davis (I can't imagine); and The Hours by Kevin Puts (suicide).  Which leaves what, Hansel and Gretel?  Oh, no, Hansel is played by a woman and the Witch is (frequently) played by a man.  Don't despair, Tarheels, you can hear all the Met broadcasts at wqxr.org/streams.  Remember this when WCPE holds a membership drive.

I'll be back tomorrow, Blogger permitting.  They seem to be going through some things.