Mental distress

 Many have denied the validity of the 2020 election; a few have made a career of it.  One such was Ronna McDaniel, former chair of the Republican National Committee.  (She had to stop using her full name, Ronna Romney McDaniel, because Trump hates Uncle Mitt -- much as the giant toddler demanded the name of the destroyer USS John S. McCain be concealed because he hates John McCain, and it wasn't even the same John McCain but his father the admiral -- I digress.)  McDaniel was pushed out of the cult to make space for seasoned political insider Lara Trump and snapped up by the people who run NBC News, where Joe Scarborough and Michael Steele already sort of work.   

For those who have aways wondered what the final straw would look like, this is it.  Chuck Todd emerged from obscurity to display his new beard and commiserate with Kristen Welker of Meet the Press, which was a serious political discussion show in the days of Lawrence Spivak and is now a Republican coffee klatch.  Welker was tasked with interviewing the new hire, which no one apparently did before she signed the contract.  That was Sunday. By Monday Nicolle Wallace, Joy Reid and even Lawrence O'Donnell had described the repugnance they felt at having to share studio space with someone who had not just talked the election-denier talk but engaged with fake electors in Michigan.  They had all been assured that McDaniel would not set foot on MSNBC, which is sort of the Mitt Romney of NBCUniversal, but there was no reason to believe it.

Today we learn that Ronna of the Five Days is done.  MSNBC president Rashida Jones (not to be confused with the actor) and NBCU Newsgroup CEO Cesar Conde announced her dismissal this morning, and her friend Hugh Hewitt says she will sue them for "breach of contract and intentional infliction of mental distress."  If her agent is any good they'll have to pay her $300,000 anyway, but that's not enough.  Poor Ronna, too MAGA for NBC, not MAGA enough for Trump, who posted (weirdly even for him), "It leaves her in a very strange place, it's called NEVER NEVERLAND, and it's not a place you want to be."

Mental distress.  I wake up with it every day, and so do millions of other people, I'm sure.  Who do we talk to?  How do we bring a class action suit against Trump and his cult?  Some of us are experiencing deja vu this morning as he promises to replace the Affordable Care Act with something "much better, stronger and far less expensive."  What year is this?  

Mental distress.  It's safe to say that Mark Robinson would still be operating a forklift and complaining about having to join a union if not for Trump.  "Martin Luther King on steroids" has decided that television -- not dumb programs like Jersey Shore but the technology itself -- is Satan.  "Satan comes to earth as an angel of light.  Television is literally light particles broken down through the airwaves come down and reformulated.  Where?  Inside your TV."  Has he heard about cable?  Never mind, he's rolling:  "Have to sit up every day.  Can't even let your grandchildren watch TV because RuPaul's Drag Race might pop up."  It always comes back to their sexual obsessions.  Mister, I would not recommend you go after RuPaul.  Or Simone Biles:  "I ain't no little weak gymnast that quits when the going gets tough."  I'm telling you, those two will fuck your shit up.  You're warned.

Mental distress.  The Key Bridge collapsed after an out-of-control container ship drifted into it, but you wouldn't know that from the "there are no accidents" mob.  Maria Bartiromo:  "You've been talking a lot about the potential for wrongdoing or the potential for foul play given the wide-open border."  A 2023 inspection in Chile identified a problem with the ship's "propulsion and auxiliary machinery," which sounds like precisely what failed, but sure, it's migrants.  Another idiot blamed "Baltimore's DEI mayor," i.e., Brandon Scott is Black.  He failed to shove the Dali away from the bridge, which is what any white mayor would have been doing around 1 a.m.  Nancy Mace complains that $1.7 trillion "Green New Steal" money has not yet repaired every bridge in America, including the ones that hadn't been damaged yet.  Don't you have a prayer breakfast to get to?  Matt "Schlapp and Tickle" Schlapp identifies the problem as "drug-addled employees," like the ones who acted fast to close the bridge to traffic, saving dozens of lives.  My favorite is the theory that it's a giant distraction to keep us from asking why the Princess of Wales has clearly been replaced with a body-double/clone/android.  Wake up, sheeple!  You know this would not have happened without an openly gay Secretary of Transportation.  Who wants to file the articles of impeachment?  Margie, you had the crayon last.

Mental distress:  Marty, Marty, what happened?  Martin Scorsese is producing a series for Fox Nation about the lives of some saints.  Previous programs on the streaming service featured Roseanne Barr, Tomi Laren and Piers Morgan.  And now they will have cultural legitimacy.  Whaddaya wanna do tonight, Marty?  I want to fuck my reputation away for money, Angie.

Mental distress:  Say it ain't so, Joe!  Could the Biden administration really give Trump the "traditional" security briefing?  Then the best we as a nation can hope for is a tense game of Telephone, where national secrets become garbled between Trump's disintegrating brain and the Kremlin.  Our future will  depend on Putin's interpreter and really bad phone reception.

Mental distress:  Five people died in a bus accident near Leipzig, Germany.  Want to bet someone is already blaming DEI?

Sagittarius A*, a black hole in the center of our galaxy.  Hold on, I'm coming.