The departed

 We will hear (or refuse to listen to) a great deal of banana lubricant about the achievements of Henry Kissinger.  Here is another opinion.

Shane MacGowan of The Pogues is dead at 65.  He wasn't known for taking care of himself but for remaking Irish music in the 1980s.  We still have the music.

I wish the Huffpost would be more circumspect in its headlines.  For example, "Joe Biden Scorches Lauren Boebert With Hand Gesture in Her Own Backyard" raises one's hopes since Boebert's use of her hand(s) is her best-known Congressional achievement.  According to the article Biden went to Boebert's district to praise passage of the Inflation Reduction Act without her vote.  And then...he made the sign of the cross.  Not the gesture I was picturing, while heads exploded on MurdochTV.  It's bad enough the President used a straw to drink a milkshake.  "Straws are for women and little kids," asserted funnyman Jesse Watters.  I hear Biden washes his hands after using the toilet, too.  Just like a woman.

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., is apparently still running for president and he has identified yet another conspiracy -- housing.  Three companies called BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street already control the S & P 500, he claims, and now they want to buy up all the houses so Americans will be reduced to renters!  It's no nuttier than his claim about Chinese and Ashkenazi Jews having a natural immunity to covid.  Glenn Kessler breaks it down in today's Washington Post, but it's the photo by Shuran Huang that captures the real Junior.

Trump, who will benefit from every vote thrown away on Kennedy (and Stein, West, Williamson, your Uncle Luke, whoever), continues to deteriorate.  Depending on the crowd he tries to take credit for and distance himself from Dobbs, and now he has revived his six-year-old pledge to "replace" the Affordable Care Act with something better -- in two weeks, of course.  Republicans cringe because voters want abortion rights and affordable health insurance, but they bite their tongues, some of which are hanging by a single vein at this point.  The latest barrage of stupid is directed at MSNBC, which "Orange Jesus" promises to destroy for being anti-Trump on "free government approved airways."  Someone who spends most of his time in front of the TV should know the difference between over-the-air and cable by now.  

That's not to say that MSNBC has been a beacon of truth during the Gaza War.  All three of its Muslim anchors, Mehdi Hasan, Ali Velshi and Ayman Mohyeldin, mysteriously vanished over the past two months and now Hasan has apparently been fired.  None of them could be called a Hamas propagandist but why ask for trouble?  Better to panic now than be accused of bias later.  Besides, Hasan called Joe Biden "impressive."  

As I write, the House is debating with a straight face whether Apollo astronaut and inventor of Rocky Road ice cream George Santos should be expelled because of more ethics violations than some entire parties commit over a two-year term.  From spending campaign money on Hermes scarves to stealing credit card information from his donors, you name it, he's done it.  Of course he's wailing about "due process."  Of course Speaker and tower of Jello Mike Johnson has "reservations" about the expulsions but thinks Santos should jump before he's pushed but says the votes seem to be there but -- Mr. Dithers can't make up his mind about anything but Jesus.  He made the pilgrimage to Mar a Lago last week to get his orders.  I'm sensing confusion.

Ghostwriters in the skyyyyy....it's a busy time for the "as told to" community -- even Margie Greene and Kyle Rittenhouse have book-things to sell.  You remember Rittenhouse, the little shit whose mom drove him to Kenosha so he could "defend" himself against three BLM protesters, killing two.  The one who got acquitted mostly through the judge's inattention.  He's on book tour with his PTSD support dog, if you please, because people are so mean to him.  Question:  How loathsome do you have to be when you sit down with Piers Morgan and he's the voice of decency?  "You killed two people and you wounded a third.  How do you feel about that?"  "I don't think that's an appropriate question to ask how it feels."  Morgan might as well have questioned the Golden Retriever.

James Comer was all like, boyoboy, now we got him!  He issued a subpoena to Hunter Biden and HB and his lawyer Abbe Lowell were like, OK, but we testify publicly and on TV.  Oh, no, says Comer, we want a closed-door session so's we can lie about, uh, to protect your privacy and all.  You can't just make up the rules about a Congressional subpoena.  What are you, Steve Bannon or something?  So Comer's stuck.  Congratulations, Mr. Lowell, you just outsmarted James Comer.  It's like teasing a Golden Retriever.  I hope you're proud of yourself.

"Orange Jesus" comes from Liz Cheney's book Oath and Honor, which sounds more like the unreadable memoirs of a general (or her father) than a three-term Congresswoman.  On January 6, as he signed numerous electoral vote "objection sheets," she heard Mark Green (R-TN) sigh, "The things we do for Orange Jesus."  In another passage she describes asking Kevin McCarthy about a trip to the holy sepulcher, Mar a Lago:  "What the hell, Kevin?"  "They're really worried," replies the future speaker. "Trump's not eating, so they asked me to come see him...he's really depressed."  Awwww.....In his pre-coup harangue Trump told his storm troopers to get rid of "the Liz Cheneys of the world."  Dick called his daughter and warned her not to speak on the House floor.  Lordy, even Darth Cheney is a better parent than Trump.  I won't buy the book but I'm loving the excerpts.

Mike Pence was all ready to wimp out on the vote certification for fear of hurting his "friend."  Plans were already in place for Chuck Grassley to step in, foiled when Pence's son Michael, a Marine, told his father, "Dad, you took the same oath I took."  This is not from Cheney's book but from Pence's deposition to Jack Smith, as reported by ABC News.  The one brave act of his life and his son put him up to it.  I love learning about otherwise anonymous people who changed history for the worse (Gavrilo Princip) or the better (Frank Wills, the security guard at the Watergate on June 17, 1972).  

"HENRY KISSINGER WAS A WAR CRIMINAL RESPONSIBLE FOR MILLIONS OF DEATHS."  This obit/analysis appears in Teen Vogue, which just became my favorite magazine.  They also cover the right's assault on libraries better than the New York Times.  Maybe the kids are alright, or will be.  Meanwhile the Washington Post celebrates Kissinger's life as a playboy.  Shut up, please.

According to the Post there was a "fraught" call between Pope Francis and Israeli President Isaac Herzog last month in which the pope said it is "forbidden to respond to terror with terror."  Maybe, but it's human nature.  This one is never getting resolved.  Holocaust v. firebombing of Dresden?  Rape of Nanking v. Hiroshima?  "An eye for an eye and the world goes blind," said Gandhi, but who listens to him even in India now?  City councils are debating the Gaza war and calling for cease-fires, sometimes shading into support for Hamas (most recently in Oakland, California).  The best reason to extend the cease-fire beyond today is the slow release of hostages.  (Oakland?  This is why all your sports teams are leaving.)

Speaking of people who need to shut up, the gag order on Trump in the New York fraud trial was reinstated by the appellate court, just in time for him to flout it by attacking Dawn Engoron, the judge's "Trump hating wife."  Someone has been posting material critical of Orange Jesus on Xitter under her name, and Trump may be throwing his KFC back at the butler but he never passes up a chance to assail a woman.  "I do not have a Twitter account.  This is not me," Mrs. Engoron told Newsweek.  Allison Greenfield, the judge's principal law clerk, continues to get threats including packages and letters.  (Greenfield's offense was to take a picture with Chuck Schumer.  She barely knows him but O.J. has decided she is Schumer's mistress.)  Why do they even bother with court orders?  Take his phone and put the rest of him in a cell.  Let's see if he eats there.

Is Kissinger really dead?  Have they driven a stake through his heart?  Tune in tomorrow!