Yeah, speaking as a New Englander, you are totally right and I included that line about flyover country entirely out of a fit of pique. I actually thought to change it, but the fifteen minute window had passed. I think it’s more accurate to say it’s say there’s a problem with rural and exurban America (which is not to…

While Trump, Pompeo, et al. obviously deserve a lot of scorn for how they’re handling this situation and China’s human rights abuses in general, it’s also worth mentioning that the US has long been complicit in China’s abuses against the Uighurs. During the Bush administration we blindly accepted China’s labeling as…

Remember how a hundred years ago back in January, we launched an illegal assassination and almost went to war with Iran over the mere possibility Americans would be attacked by a scary, brown, Muslim adversary? Whatever could have happened to temper our response? Oh, I know! He must have pivoted! Truly today is the…

S’alright. As a Connecticut Yankee, I still have a lot of apologizing to do for our giving the nation Joe Lieberman. You guys just keep working on making it to becoming purple already.

Soong’s rough, early work; definitely not his best.

You’re right, SCOTUS doesn’t need political capital, not to make major political decisions. But I would argue that it still wants and spends political capital. If SCOTUS makes a bunch of really unpopular rulings in a short period of time, that’s the sort of thing that could get moderates on board with ideas like court…

Yeah, that definitely sounds like something meant to sow discord among Democratic voters. The comments I got were more basement-variety racism.

Ha! That would be pretty great. One of the few pleasures of this horrible time is watching these villains backstab each other. I’m sure you’re right that Pence would play stoic and conciliatory, although I wonder if, just maybe, that might not be enough to make Pence snap and let forth some of his old hate-radio bile.…

Sorry, forgot to link to something about the asylum case. Here it is.

Anybody else feeling a bit paranoid with all this good (or, at least, neutral) news coming out of the Supreme Court? Aside from the recent decision on asylum, I have to wonder how the Roberts Court is planning to spend the political capital they’re building. Maybe Roberts is just being a good Republican operative and…

They’d have to get rid of the filibuster for that wouldn’t they? Off-hand, it doesn’t sound like something that you could do through budget reconciliation.

I have no clue. You’d think after the first three times I dismissed him almost instantaneously and without a passing remark, he’d learn that I’m not fertile ground for attention seeking. One of the things that made me think somebody in Moscow might be catching a check for this nonsense. But then again, it does seem…

As a New Englander, I’m not super invested in Texas politics, but Patrick willing to offer up the elderly to appease the Invisible Hand both got me to file him away in my rogues’ gallery of special sociopathic lunatics, and is a moment from this covid-19 episode that will stay with me long into the future.

Off-topic, but is anyone else getting trolls spewing hate about Ilhan Omar or did I just pick up a “fan?”

I’d say that with Pence, it’s less about coming around to reality and more trying to live in two realities simultaneously: one where he is a serious, respectable statesman with a political future, and one where he is Caligula’s poodle. Because these are wholly incompatible realities and one is very damaging to the…

Ha, I think I got him a second before you replied to me! Thanks for the heads-up, though. One of these days I’m sure the trolls will realize I’m no fun to play with and just smash that dismiss button like I’m playing whack-a-troll.

Of course, because it’s Mississippi and it’s 2020 and we can’t have nice things, the legislation that’s been drafted mandates that the words “In God We Trust” will appear on whatever flag ultimately gets designed. They don’t know what they want on the flag, but by God, it will be exclusionary and support some kind of…

It’s because of racism and anti-Communist sentiment. Yeah, seriously.

The non-sequitur about freedom of speech Pence gave to explain why the administration’s corona parties aren’t hypocritical got all the attention, because it is amazingly stupid, but this line jumped out at me ever more:

I was doing an online activity the other day with some friends and friends of friends, a couple of whom happened to be conservatives. One of my friends recently graduated medical school and has a weakened immune system. During a lull in what we were doing he mentioned that he was worried about possibly having to treat …