Everything we know is wrong

 When I was young and we were dodging sabertooth tigers on the way to school, we knew what the Official Holidays were because we had to illustrate them in the classroom:  silhouettes of George Washington on February 22, tracing our hands to simulate turkeys for Thanksgiving, American flags for just about everything else.  It was as uncomplicated as the seasons.

I gather that things have changed.  October 12 has long been a battleground, with 29 states and the District of Columbia (!) designating it Indigenous People's Day.  Christopher Columbus has been outed as a religious fanatic, enslaver and worse, as well as a heckuva navigator.  For many Americans he won't do, while others, especially Italian-Americans, consider him a cultural hero.  One more thing to bicker about.

This year, just in time for Old Columbus Day, there was unsettling news:  DNA seems to confirm that the Admiral of the Ocean Sea is indeed buried in a gaudy tomb in Seville Cathedral -- and that he was not Genoese but a Sephardic Jew from somewhere in western Europe.  Well.

DNA can't reveal his religion, but I have to assume he was a Catholic converso as fanatical as Torquemada.*  If not, nice work getting Fernando and Isabella to underwrite his voyages, since they were the monarchs who required all Jews and Muslims to convert or emigrate in the pivotal year of 1492.  If "America" was indeed "discovered" by a Jew, a lot of books will have to be re-written while a lot of people dismiss DNA evidence in general.  The next few years will be interesting.

"Facts are stupid things," said one of the most popular presidents.  Reagan was trying to quote one of the least popular, John Adams, who said, "Facts are stubborn things."  See, we can't even agree on that, but they're both right -- facts are definitely getting in the way.

The U.S. Forest Service was supporting hurricane recovery work in Rutherford County, North Carolina, when the sheriff's office notified them that armed idiots out "hunting FEMA" had been arrested and it was time for them to flee.  

Finally some evidence of cat killing!  It was in 1979 and the perpetrator was not a Haitian immigrant but Douglas Hamlin, the new head of the National Rifle Association.  He did unspeakable things to his fraternity's cat because, it says here, the animal would not use its litter box.  Hamlin and four bro's pleaded guilty to a charge of animal cruelty and continued their academic careers at the University of Michigan, and now this psycho has a job facilitating the mass murder of humans.  Well done, Doug.

Sovereign Citizen Vem Miller was arrested Saturday at the Trump Hatesapalooza in Coachella when an alert sheriff's deputy spotted his fake license plate and found weapons, ammo, and passports and licenses under various names in his SUV.  Miller says he's tight with the Trump boys; his Instagram account features selfies with Stephen Miller, Lou Dobbs, Nigel Farage and other fascist influencers.  How can the entire US military protect Trump from friends like Vem?

Trump continues to evoke pity or scorn, depending on your opinion of him.  At a particularly ill-advised appearance in Prescott Valley, Arizona, he invented such new words as "Einssshht" (Einstein) and "Aseurasians" (Arizonans?).  It was so bad that Fox News cut away.  He was building on a Coachella pledge to "defleet inflation."  This is exactly why Edith Wilson kept everyone away from Woodrow after his stroke, but Melania has a book to peddle.

Kamala Harris has agreed to be interviewed on Fox News this week and interviewer Bret Baier is already getting death threats from MAGAts afraid that he'll let her finish a sentence or fail to call her a "hoe."  They want him to ask how long she has been Black, blame her for causing all the hurricanes, and demand that she drop out because she uses a teleprompter.  He probably won't.  The only death threat he might respond to would be from Murdoch.  Since Trump has begun demanding she take a "cognitive test," she should do the "man-woman-camera" thing he keeps bragging about and then let go with her distinctive laugh.  Trump can't stand to be laughed at.  He'll break his phone TRUTHING ABUSE!!!!

*Happy Torquemada's birthday (October 14, 1420) to those who celebrate.