“Before Alex Rodriguez flipped the switch on his defiant, longtime drug-cheat image … before the post-career entrepreneurial whirl and frolic across the celebrity landscape with superstar then-fiancée Jennifer Lopez … before the TV gigs with Fox Sports and ESPN and a failed attempt to purchase the New York Mets followed by the successful bid for a minority piece of the NBA’s Minnesota Timberwolves and WNBA’s Minnesota Lynx … before all that, A-Rod had to finally come clean about his sordid past. Here’s how it unfolded.”
“It’s not just that Romney, by speaking out and then walking away, is both a hero and a coward, then. It’s that he is intrinsically a part of the winding daisy chain of cowards who shun him in public and thank him in private. His very existence allows them to believe that in whispering that they are with him even as they roam the world making it safer and safer for Trump and Trumpism, he has become an unwitting enabler of precisely the thing he most deplores. And for every coward that secretly confesses to Romney, there is yet another coward in his shadow, seeking expiation from him, in a seemingly endless chain of people who say one thing and then do quite another, because they want to be famous, or because they want to hang on to power, or because they are afraid someone with a gun will murder their children.”
“EVs are cutting the world demand for oil, but not in the way you may think”.
“Hollywood is paying a steep price for never really figuring out the streaming model”.
“The Snarky Reason Behind the ‘Gilligan’s Island’ Boat Name”.
“Being Mean to Scabs Is Working”.
“One thing should be made very clear to the girl who comes up the city, and that is that the ordinary ice cream parlor is very likely to be a spider’s web for her entanglement.”
“In every variation and iteration, of course, these two stories are related. “America’s religious exodus” is obviously and inextricably tied up with the massive, global, transdenominational scandal of clergy sex abuse and cover-up. How could it not be?”
“But, as opposed to stand-up greats like Richard Pryor who supplemented their commentary with clearly exaggerated alter egos, Minhaj never even hinted that he was doing a character, or giving voice to stories he’d heard from others, or gesturing toward the broader landscape of Muslim Americans. Minhaj took what real, everyday brown folks were going through and led those people to believe that he’d also been there—earning his fame and plaudits from that very trust, as well as the trust that engendered among those who wished to understand brown Americans.”
“News flash: don’t wait for the big reporters to clarify this for anyone or explain that it hardly makes sense that the self-described “most pro-life president ever” might now be a credible spokesman for reproductive rights. Get serious people: Democrat and abortion rights supporters generally will have to do this on their own.”
“The question now is simply whether Kavanaugh wants to kill the Voting Rights Act with this argument, in a case where the state is in open revolt against a court order, or does he want to wait until some other state does the exact same thing without the stench of having previously lost the argument.”
“The Supreme Court is coming for Affirmative Action in the Military”.
“It’s always difficult when a board removes a founder, but in this case, it’s easy. Kick rocks, buddy.”
“For the first time, researchers have sequenced RNA from an extinct animal species — the Tasmanian tiger (Thylacinus cynocephalus).”
RIP, Pete Kozachik, Oscar-nominated visual effects and stop-motion artist best known for The Nightmare Before Christmas.
Let Them Wear Shorts. As a dedicated shorts-wearer myself, I could not agree more.
“From almost any other judge, the ruling in Spectrum WT v. Wendler would be a shocking rejection of basic free speech principles; from Kacsmaryk, it’s par for the course.”
“The reason that disinformation fighters spend a lot of time on Republican lies is because Republicans lie a lot. It’s that simple.”
“Haley Van Voorhis, a safety at Division-III Shenandoah University, became the first woman non-kicker to appear in an NCAA football game on Saturday”.
“One Republican congressman confided to Romney that he wanted to vote for Trump’s second impeachment,” writes Coppins, “but chose not to out of fear for his family’s safety.”
The people using this excuse deserve nothing but contempt. You got scary, nasty, violent threats did you? What do you think your colleagues across the aisle experienced? Do you seriously think that the dregs of America didn’t threaten them too? Yet they did the right thing.
Now I will acknowledge one important difference; the Dems didn’t have to worry about getting primaried for doing the right thing. I get that it sucks to have to choose between doing your job and keeping your job. But everyone of you started your term in office the same way; you put your hand on the Bible (or something else that was important to you) and swore an oath to defend the Constitution. Not to help your party get over at all costs, not to help Trump (or any other politician) evade consequences. There’s no fine print, no exceptions, no disclaimers. If you’re not willing to uphold that oath, step aside for someone who will.
As for Romney’s stated rationale for stepping down, in principle I can agree with needing new blood, but in practice, unless Utah puts someone like Evan McMullin in the seat, his replacement will be another one of the sort of cowards he’s berating on the way out.
Some of you may think I am over the top describing the Christian right takeover of the Texas GOP and the State of Texas. It turns out the editorial board of the Houston Chronicle agrees with me. They have an excellent editorial out, pulling no punches when describing the sickening matter of Ken Paxton, the push for school vouchers, and the present and probable future of Texas as a Christian Nationalist state. All of this comes from just three West Texas billionaire extremists and the GOP politicians they have bullied and purchased.
Please, go read this editorial. It is really important.
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/opinion/editorials/article/dunn-wilks-paxton-texas-theocracy-democracy-18380689.php
Regarding the Senate dress code, I share with you possibly the most clueless thing WaPo columnist Kathleen Parker may have ever written (and she’s pretty damn clueless):
“Fetterman (D-Pa), who proudly outfits himself as the biggest schlump ever to enter the Russell Senate Office Building, reported to his job dressed in sweats, top and bottom. Frankenstein’s monster would be offended.
As little as I have loved Republicans the past few years, coinciding with the rise of our own little autocrat, at least Donald Trump knows how to dress. I can’t imagine that even he would demean his office or his country by dressing down, as is now the “code” for senators. Clothes might not make the man or woman, but they do tell us a great deal about them. You don’t have to be rich to dress well. You just have to own a mirror and observe a few rules.”
This is one tremendous masterpiece of denial and misplaced priorities. Sure, he attempted a coup, but at least he wore a suit, and who cares whether it actually fits properly!