Truth and sanity

 I took a day off knowing there would be twice as much merde to shovel today and I was right.

You can start anywhere.  In an executive order entitled "Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History" The Leader teed off against another institution he hates, the Smithsonian.  Who could possibly dislike the Smithsonian?  J.D. Vance, whose approval rating matches that of a scorpion at a picnic, is ordered to terminate "the influence of a divisive, race-centered ideology" which suggests, for example, that long ago white people enslaved black people and that this was a bad thing.  He is also commanded to stop the American Women's History Museum from mentioning transgender women, who officially do not exist, like Sasquatch.  All traces of DEI, which at this point means whatever they say it means, no more and no less, must be erased.  Any pair of male penguins observed raising a chick will be banished from the National Zoo.  Expect Michelle Obama's dresses to be disappeared from the exhibit of First Ladies' inaugural gowns.  You know, sanity.

This display of 22 flags representing sovereign indigenous nations was in the Carl T. Hayden VA Medical Center in Phoenix until the new order began in January, when they were dropped off with no explanation at the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community.  Like Pfc Ira Hayes and the Navajo Code Talkers, they were an uncomfortable reminder that thousands of native Americans served in the armed forces.  Governor Katie Hobbs ordered the flag display to be re-created in the state capitol.

This is General Ulysses Grant at Appomattox, Virginia, waiting to accept the surrender of Robert E. Lee.  I expect it to be cropped to remove the man on the left, Brigadier General Ely S. Parker, whose Seneca name was Hasanoanda.  "I am glad to see one real American here," Lee is supposed to have said, to which Parker responded, "We are all Americans, sir."  Until now.

Do we even have laws anymore?  Elon Musk calls Social Security "a Ponzi scheme" which means he either doesn't understand Ponzi schemes or doesn't understand Social Security.  But he understands buying votes.  Remember when Secretary of Something Doug Burgum was so crazy to get asked to the cult debate that he offered $20 to anyone who donated a buck to his campaign?  His problem was thinking small.  Kaptain Ketamine promised to hand $2 million to two people who could somehow prove they had voted for Brad Schimel for the Wisconsin Supreme Court.  Before the lucky Cheeseheads could be announced the Boer changed his mind and deleted the offer from his social media platform (maybe something about bribery being illegal in Wisconsin), but I have a feeling this will become more common as the next four years drag on.  MAGA-infested state legislatures are probably repealing anti-bribery statutes as I write.  

Asked if anyone would face prosecution for the Signal war-planning kegger, Pam Bondi had her response memorized:  "Well, first, it was sensitive information, not classified, inadvertently released, and...it was a very successful mission.  If you want to talk about classified information, talk about what was at Hillary Clinton's home..."  Click!  From the worst national security breach in history to Hillary in 4.9 seconds, a new record.  At the MAGA Justice Department, they commit treason, we release information inadvertently.  Also, Benghazi, Benghazi, Benghazi.

On Sunday the Treasury Department waited until everyone was watching sports to announce The Leader's "bold agenda to unleash American prosperity" by removing those annoying regulations that made it difficult to launder money by forcing corporations to reveal the names of their real owners and investors, known as the 2021 Corporate Transparency Act (a "Biden rule" which has been "an Absolute Disaster for Small Businesses Nationwide," in Leader-speak).  Now small businesses like Nana's Cupcake Cafe and Union Carbide won't have to spend countless hours filling out forms with the names of their Saudi, Russian and Qatari partners.  MAGA!

The next time a blithering idiot starts blithering about The Leader's "landslide" or "mandate," remind them that a few cases of seasonal flu or food poisoning could destroy his House majority.  Elise Stefanik was ordered to stop apartment-hunting near the UN and return to Congress because there's a real danger of a Democrat winning her seat.  Josh Weil (D) has a shot in Mike Waltz's district and Greg Abbott is afraid to call a special election for the seat held by the late Sylvester Turner (D).  Even in districts so red they sizzle, voters who are frightened by Musk running amok with their entitlements and not allowed to vent at town halls are taking their anger to the polls.  

The heart wants what it wants, someone said (Pascal?  Woody Allen?), so I'm not inclined to criticize Usha Vance's taste in men, but I'm finding it hard to sympathize with her first venture onto the world stage.  As The Leader's demands for Greenland grow more shrill and demented, Mrs. Vance was scheduled to fly there alone to attend a dogsled race and take in some local culture.  Possibly she refused to be snubbed on her own so a delegation was cobbled together including Mike Waltz, desperate to get out of town for a while.  Then Jaydee invited himself along. It was sad.  Even a travel agency, whose actual business is to get people to travel there, noped out:  "We cannot accept the underlying agenda and will not be part of the press show that...comes with it."  US diplomats knocked on doors all over Nuuk but people turned out the lights and hid like they were Jehovah Witnesses.  The organizers of the dogsled race, apparently one of the world's biggest, cancelled it to make sure the Americans couldn't show up uninvited.  In the end they visited with US Space Force personnel in Pituffik and went home.  Usha, if you drop in on people, bring a marble rye.  Have you never seen Seinfeld? And leave your husband at home if the best he can do is "It's cold as shit."

The stupid, it spreads!  We all know that MAGAs refuse to board a plane if the pilot is black or female or transgender or Peter Graves or whatever other DEI deficit would put everyone's life in jeopardy, but healthy?  "I don't want to fly in a plane with vaccinated pilots because I think it's too dangerous," says Tucker Carlson.  "But are there numbers on this?"  You came to the right antivax loony, Baby Tuckoo.  Sherry Walker has a "study" which shows that covid vaccine causes myocarditis in airline pilots.  Spending as much time in Russia as he does, he needs to worry more about Aeroflot pilots who are drunk.  Also this one.  And this guy.  And the one who handed the controls to his children.

A couple of friends of The Leader made the news this week.  Michael Williams, who appeared at a Trump rally last year and raps under the name Sheff G, pleaded guilty to attempted murder and was sentenced to five years...

...while pardoned J6 patriot David Daniel is arguing that the pardon also covers some new child pornography charges he incurred in North Carolina because the evidence came from a J6-related search by the old, woke, pre-Patel FBI.  Fruit of the poisoned Putsch, so to speak.

In a poll of 1,600 readers, Nature magazine reports that 75 percent of US scientists say they would like to leave the country and many are actively looking for work in Canada and Europe.  Maybe they're just loafers like the ten thousand people Roadkill Bob is firing from HHS.  Maybe they read in the New York Times about the measles cases in Texas and the antivax parents dosing their kids with cod liver oil and how as a result they have measles and jaundice, with the prospect of seizures and coma.  And they think this is just the canary in the mine, it's going to get worse and worse and they would rather get their families to some civilized country and hope no Americans show up leaking viruses. Can you blame them?