Hispanic Fanatic

Let’s say you get an email from a total stranger who claims, among other things, that her soul once left her body, the wind talks to her (telling her that she is a ghost), and that Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia was murdered while being hunted for sport.

You would likely hit delete and check your spam-filter settings.

But you are not a seasoned journalist like the brilliant minds at Fox News. 

You see, back in 2020, a deranged Minnesota woman sent an email to Fox that was full of the above gibberish and made-up “facts” that “proved” Biden had stolen the election.

This revelation comes from the Dominion lawsuit, which previously revealed that Fox anchors knowingly lied to their audience to maintain their ratings, which is a concept that I never learned in journalism school.

Also, Fox anchors hate Trump and think their viewers are morons, so I guess we have something in common.

In any case, Dominion has stated that “the alleged source of the voter-fraud claims that sparked the lawsuit is a single email from a previously unknown woman” who admits that “she conjures her theories out of nothing.”

Again, it might strike you as odd that Fox would broadcast incendiary commentary based on one email from an anonymous person who freely admits that her “now nationally prominent ideas about election fraud” are based on “hidden messages she detects in films, song lyrics she hears on the radio, and overheard conversations she hears while in line at the supermarket checkout.”

But again, you are not a Fox journalist.

They listened to this woman, who had zero qualifications and offered “a jumble of ideas that centered on ties between telepaths, the Bank of the Vatican, the NXIVM sex cult, and the 1970 film Beneath the Planet of the Apes.”

And they thought, “Seems credible.”

Of course, it is improbable that many people at Fox believed this lunatic’s email (although it would probably be disturbing to know how many did). More likely, they saw these rantings from a representative of their core audience and used it as a springboard or brainstorming tool for their coverage. After all, there was no actual evidence of voter fraud, so why not make up some bizarre shit and hope it sticks? And why not start with the psychotic assertions of a swing-state nutjob?

Hey, at least she’s not an East Coast elitist, right?

Fox has shown that it is terrified of offending its audience, so it will go to appalling lengths to keep the right-wing outrage percolating. This is the power of the Republican base.

Hey, even the few conservative leaders “who do not embrace the racism, sexism, religiosity, nihilism, and authoritarianism of the hard-core MAGA Republicans appear to believe they cannot win an election without the votes of those people, [and] so the extremists now own the party.”

Conservatives are no longer even offering the dog-whistle ideal of making the country great (again). Instead, they are clamoring for leaders who will eradicate the libs and engage in unbridled retribution.

They openly admit that their lies — so obvious to anyone who is not delusional, partisan, or idiotic — are just to appease the base.

But the base doesn’t care. 

They want to believe that we can bomb Mexico, and that will end our drug problem.

They want the GOP to take “a wartime posture — even calling for a “national divorce” — to cover up “their party’s misalignment with large swaths of the United States.”

They want to see heavily edited video that implies January 6 was a pleasant stroll rather than a riot, a ploy so childish and ludicrous that one assumes even the people spouting this nonsense are incredulous.

Brief aside: there should be a word that describes a pathetic effort to convince people of obvious lies that are so absurd that even the perpetrators don’t believe it. There probably is a word in German that covers this idea, and I imagine it’s something like werheschfeltzanthursse.

Regardless, the lies don’t matter, and neither does the public admission of the lies.

Right-wingers are ready to believe anything. 

Just ask that woman in Minnesota.

Better yet, don’t ask. The last thing you want is an email correspondence with her.

Have you seen the blockbuster sci-fi movie that is destined to win 47 Oscars? I’m talking about Chrono-Z: Galactic Crusade. 

Here’s the synopsis:

“A ragtag team of space adventurers discovers a horrifying truth: an ancient demon race has secretly infected planets with a zombie virus, causing apocalyptic outbreaks throughout the galaxy. With no other choice but to travel through time to prevent the demons’ plan, the team embarks on a perilous mission to gather powerful artifacts and allies from different eras. But when they accidentally alter the timeline, they must race against the clock to correct their mistakes and stop the demons’ final assault on Earth. Will they be able to save the world from total destruction or will the apocalypse reign supreme?”

OK, that sounds like a pretty-kick ass movie. And here’s the poster:

Now, there is just one problem with this epic sci-fi action-adventure film. It doesn’t actually exist and never will. In fact, the premise, the title, and the poster were all created by artificial intelligence (AI).

I’ve written before about the promise and peril of AI.

Well, after playing around with ChatGPT and OpenAI, I have created about 100 artistic masterworks and devised plots for a couple of hit movies. It’s a fairly addictive activity — somewhere between a hobby and a time suck.

For example, I asked AI to outline a story that combines the following elements: ominous prophecy, gunslingers, lost love, dinosaurs, and baseball.

Here is the result:

“In a post-apocalyptic world where dinosaurs have been resurrected through advanced cloning technology, a gunslinger named Jack is haunted by an ominous prophecy that foretells the end of humanity. As he navigates a dangerous landscape filled with prehistoric creatures, Jack is reunited with his lost love, a talented baseball player named Sara. Together, they must use their unique skills to face off against a band of ruthless outlaws and unravel the mystery of the prophecy before it’s too late. But as they get closer to the truth, they discover that the key to saving humanity may lie in the one place they least expect: on the baseball diamond.”

I have to be honest. I would see that movie.

So what does the rise of AI mean for writers, painters, and other creative types?

Well, some predict that AI will take over artistic endeavors. After all, if AI can crank out a masterpiece like Chrono-Z: Galactic Crusadein minutes, what hope does a struggling screenwriter have? 

But I’m more optimistic. No matter what AI can produce — and its output will only get more sophisticated with each passing day —there will always be creative voices, human voices at that, who will rise above the din of computer-generated art to offer a unique point of view.

Also, these same doomsayers insisted that Photoshop would be the end for photographers and CGI programs would make people forget how to draw. Going back further, they said word processors would destroy novelists and synthesizers would mean that no one would ever learn how to play a musical instrument again.

Yes, AI is different, but forgive me for being skeptical about the end of creativity.

Technology often enhances, rather than short-circuits, imagination. Perhaps we can use AI to inspire us and to make the creative process smoother. 

At the very least, you can get kooky with your prompts and generate some crazy shit that would never have existed otherwise, such as this rendition of a cyborg heart.

How cool is that?

If the woke mob is indeed coming for you, they are taking their damn time.

You see, everyone from smug governors to elitist talk-show hosts to beleaguered cartoonists insist that rich white men are being canceled, with hordes of liberal aggressors poised to crush conservatives beneath an avalanche of stomping Birkenstocks.

But in truth, you are far less likely to encounter a woke mob than you are, say, a pack of snarling fascists with bullhorns screaming threats.

Yes, recently a crowd of “neo-Nazis in Florida yelled, ‘Heil Hitler’ and harassed Jewish residents during staged protests.” The white supremacists felt perfectly comfortable parading around in public, shouting insults and brandishing swastikas, in a state where that aforementioned smug governor has refused to condemn Nazis.

This was also around the time that some rando Gestapo lovers proclaimed a “National Day of Hate” that put law enforcement “across the nation on high alert.”

OK, so Nazis are happily prancing down the streets and issuing death threats without fear of repercussion. But that’s as far as it goes, right?

Um… no.

There is the even more ominous fact that a homeschooling network in Ohio is creating and distributing lesson plans based on Nazi ideology, which are then presented to children as educational materials. The network has over 2,400 members.

The founders of the Dissident Homeschool network include a Dutch immigrant who says she is “deeply invested into making sure that our child becomes a wonderful Nazi.”

I’m absolutely certain that there is no such thing as a wonderful Nazi. 

But while we’re discussing these homeschooling parents who shriek about the “dangers of diversity and how Indiana Jones movies are nothing more than Jewish revenge porn,” let me ask the following:

Whatever happened to the argument that immigrants have to assimilate to American values? 

I suppose that rule is waived for Dutch immigrants, by virtue of their blond hair and blue eyes. Or maybe Nazism has become enough of an American value, beloved as it is by so many citizens, that this immigrant is indeed assimilating.

Just ask the “neo-Nazi leader [who] planned to attack electrical substations encircling Baltimore and ‘completely destroy’ the entire city.” He likely considers himself a patriot. He is one of the many “domestic extremists who have openly advocated targeting a vulnerable power system.” This tactic is a central pillar of a “white-power philosophy called ‘accelerationism,’ which wants to destroy society and replace it with one based on their racist ideologies.”

Keep in mind that a new study shows that “domestic extremist mass killings have increased greatly in the past 12 years,” but that this increase is almost exclusively a conservative phenomenon. For example, “all the extremist killings in 2022 were committed by right-wing adherents, with 21 of 25 murders linked to white supremacists.”

Furthermore, the “number of U.S. mass killings linked to extremism over the past decade was at least three times higher than the total from any other 10-year period since the 1970s.” And you guessed it, “the main threat in the near future will likely be white supremacistshooters.”

Of course, there is an international element to this madness as well. It involves climate change, which is not just the main threat to humanity’s existence, but a prime recruiting tool for Nazism.

Damn, how does that work?

Well, as global warming heats up the planet, more climate refugees will be forced to leave their countries. And those nations accepting refugees will have plenty of “right-wing politicians who see both a threat and an opportunity.” These politicians, who “feel emboldened to portray migrants as a threat to national identity,” will ramp up the xenophobia, garnering more votes from easily scared white citizens. It will also lead to more young white men becoming Nazis, but hey, that’s not the problem of conservative demagogues hustling for votes, is it?

In any case, we face a future where white supremacists are trying to destroy America from within, and Nazis are making a comeback in every industrialized nation on Earth. 

Suddenly, the woke mob doesn’t seem so bad.

As I may have mentioned, I don’t just blog with abandon. 

I also dabble in fiction (three novels so far, with the fourth coming soon).

And I pen the occasional short story. 

Well, the good people at the No Sleep podcast have seen fit to adapt one my stories for their show.

No Sleep is a sci-fi / horror podcast. So there’s all sorts of scary shit going down there.

You can find the adaptation of my story, “The Site,” by clicking here.

So if you’re in the mood for something creepy, check it out.

And thanks

It’s bizarre how often Americans are forced to prove themselves.

You must have a full-time job to prove that you are worthy of health care.

You must take on crippling debt to prove that you deserve a college education.

If you’re a woman, you must prove that you understand your own body.

If you’re an immigrant, you must prove that you love this country better than people who are born here.

If you’re homeless, you must prove that you are drug-free to get housing (even if the exact opposite approach works better).

It goes on and on. But you’ll be glad to know that there are exceptions to all this proving. 

For example, if you’re a lunatic millionaire racist who led the country into unprecedented disaster, you deserve another chance.

Also, if you’re a toddler in Missouri, you can openly carry a gun in the street. We trust you.

Yes, Americans seem like a skeptical bunch, always demanding proof. But they are actually quite discerning about what requires evidence.

For example, most Americans emphatically believe there is a man in the sky who controls the universe, despite the fact that he has never revealed himself.

They are mixed, however, on the whole concept of climate change, despite vast amounts of solid data obtained over decades 

They may or may not believe that vaccines cause autism, or that covid exists, or that JFK is actually alive and working to overthrow a vast conspiracy run by lizard people. Really, millions of Americans believe that last one.

And still the contradictions mount.

Consider that many people think Biden stole the election (despite the absence of evidence), but these same individuals refuse to believe that giving people money or free food helps alleviate poverty (despite an abundance of evidence).

Of course, it doesn’t help that we are deeply suspicious of how poor people spend their cash, even while bursting with admiration for wealthy jerks who blow obscene amounts of money on egotistic endeavors and grotesque trivialities. There is quick judgment for what a poor person puts in her grocery cart, but foot-kissing praise for billionaires who spend the equivalent of Denmark’s GDP on themselves.

Other beliefs similarly defy reason.

For example, a high percentage of Americans believe that racism is dead, except if it’s directed at white people. But they also believe in blatant racist stereotypes so strongly that it affects public policy.

Yes, American life is a strange combination of superstition, illogical thinking, and skewed beliefs that are mixed with vociferous demands for objective proof that is usually ignored.

For many of us, there will never be enough evidence to change our minds. 

And that’s a fact.

For many of us, the first time we experienced sustained physical contact with a member of the opposite gender was in elementary school, during gym class. But it was not a thrill. It was awkward as hell. Because we were square dancing.

Yes, for decades, gym classes across America regularly took breaks from making kids run laps or humiliate themselves on the rope climb. Instead, garrulous gym teachers would shout out commands and force children to do-se-do and bow to their partners.

Everybody — and I mean everybody without a single exception — hated it.

We were told that square dancing taught coordination and cooperation while providing physical exercise. But like a lot of things we were taught in school, this was total bullshit.

It turns out that square dancing was crammed into public schools for exactly one reason. This southern-pride tradition was thrust into the curriculum as “a weapon of white supremacy against an anti-Semitic jazz dance conspiracy.”

To which I say, “Dude, what the actual fuck?”

Well, it turns out that a century ago, fabled businessman and noted bigot Henry Ford heard jazz, and he promptly declared it “a force for moral decay.” Ford, like virtually all rich white guys throughout history, hated young people having fun, especially if there was a possibility of the races intermingling. And the jazz halls provided exactly that opportunity. 

Ford believed that jazz’s “sly suggestion, the abandoned sensuousness of sliding notes, are of Jewish origin.” But in addition to being weird and anti-Semitic, this statement is also factually wrong.

Black people invented jazz. In fact, they also invented square dancing (which Ford did not know), but white people took it over in an act of appropriation “that’s repeated every generation since with blues, rock, rap and countless other black innovations.”

Of course, Ford hated black people too, and he believed that square dancing was “more white and more gentile [and] would make people more moral again.” So the auto magnate “sparked a national movement by pouring a small fortune into revitalizing square dancing in the 1920’s, decades after it was abandoned by American pop culture.”

Ford’s main motivation for doing this, in the words of historians, was because “he was creepy and racist and hated Jewish people.”

Over the decades, square dancing took hold in the nation’s schools, and in the 1980s, it was declared the national dance of America. Ford had succeed in creating “a vision of a racially homogenous future using a fable about an America that never existed.”

Thus we have the disturbing origin story of a loathsome activity that traumatized generations of school kids. 

But it’s more than that.

It is proof that nothing is neutral when it comes to our public schools. There is a reason behind everything.

Considering that white supremacy influenced gym class, it’s absurd to believe there is an objective way to teach anything in school.

Conservatives know this. That’s why they insist that schools are indoctrinating kids simply by telling them facts. It’s why parents threaten physical violence if racism is ever mentioned in class. It’s why politicians eliminate AP courses because they supposedly enforce a left-wing agenda. It’s why teachers can’t say gay.

Conservatives have “framed a crusade against inclusive learning plans as intending to protect white students — and even adult employees — from feeling discomfort or guilt.” 

In truth, conservatives “are deeply invested in upping the hysterics and gutting enlightened education in their effort to create ignorant right-wing fanatics.”

The elevation of certain activities, and the denigration of others, has a long history in public education. It permeates every lesson plan and soaks through every syllabus.

All the decisions about educating children have political and cultural ramifications. To deny this is to deny reality.

And if you don’t believe me, just ask all those kids who had to allemande left and hop to the corner. We’re still angry about it.

We are currently enduring the 5,826^th video of police officers overreacting just the tiniest bit by killing someone during a traffic stop.

That someone is usually a black man. The officers exhibiting psychopathic levels of violence are often white, but not always.

The locations and details differ, but the result is the same. 

Conservatives imply the victim had it coming, which is odd coming from people supposedly terrified of a tyrannical government. Why are they so willing to accept the government murdering its citizens without trial, or even formal charges?

Right-wingers also insist everything will be fine if ethnic minorities just comply with the police, even if the cops give contradictory or physically impossible orders, and the unarmed person complies, only to be tased, pepper sprayed, and punched repeatedly.

And yes, conservatives are usually more upset about protests against police brutality than the existence of police brutality itself. They also freak out if a protester throws a brick through a window, but they’re noncommittal if cops kick someone to death in the street.

In any case, US cops kill an average of three people per day, and last year was “the deadliest year on record for police violence.” Experts point out that police violence is “continuing to get worse, and … it’s deeply systemic.”

American police “typically shoot, arrest and imprison more people than similarly developed nations,” making us an ugly outlier yet again when compared to other industrialized countries.

The cops kill over 100 Americans each year in which no actual crime is ever alleged. A similar number get killed during routine traffic stops, which is what happened in Memphis. Overall, about 70% of the people killed by police each year were not involved in committing a serious crime. In fact, about one-third of people killed by police were “fleeing before they were killed, generally running or driving off — cases in which experts say lethal force is unwarranted and also endangers the public.”

Now, if that is not some trigger-happy shit, I don’t know what is.

So why are the police so willing to gun down or beat up unarmed people? 

Well, like most societal ills, the roots of this issue go back decades. Cops have always held an unquestioned position of power that allowed them to rough up Irish immigrants in the 1920s or billy club Latinos in zoot suits during the 1950s. In the 1970s, Dirty Harry said it was cool to shoot hippies, and in the 1990s, millions of Americans thought Rodney King deserved his walloping.

Then we get to the September 11 attacks, which militarized the entire nation. Police departments became mini armies, and a “warriorculture emerged that often views community members as the enemy.”

This was also around the time that a handful of shoddy studies implied that “officers who show weakness are more likely to be killed.” Such pseudoscience convinced many cops to treat every patrol as a tour of duty, and “law-enforcement culture has never recovered” from this mindset.

Of course, conservatives still argue that heavily armed cops with their own tanks are necessary to prevent crime. But in truth, “police departments with more military equipment are more likely to kill civilians,” and studies show that “more militarized police departments are less likely to prevent crime or make local residents feel safer.”

In the case of Memphis, a specialized squad was “formed to address the city’s rising crime rate by targeting ‘hot spots’ of illegal activity.” But all this menacingly named unit — “supposedly created to make the city safer” — ended up doing was “instilling a newfound fear into a tight-knit grieving community.”

Yeah, that unit has now been disbanded.

Now, any discussion about police violence must include the issue of white supremacy. 

Oh sorry, I forgot that the Memphis cops were all black. Strange, isn’t it, that these black cops were all fired and charged, with no protest from right-wingers, even before the video came out? In contrast, the murder of George Floyd had to get constant airplay for days, with corresponding massive demonstrations, before one white cop was charged, all over the strenuous objections of conservatives.

But I’m sure that’s just a coincidence.

Regardless, the Memphis cops did not have to be white to uphold a racist structure. These officers were “drunk with power” and rewarded for maintaining the status quo. They worked within a system that “is predicated by white supremacy, and they bought into that system.”

Black Americans are three times more likely to be killed by US police than white Americans. However, if statistics don’t sway you, just focus on the fact that we will never see a video of cops pulling over an unarmed white guy and beating him to death.

The very reason that the police exist has gone from obvious to vague. After all, cops have no constitutional obligation to protect you. 

So exactly what are they doing out there? 

It’s a good question.

Yes, things have been grim in America for the past few years. To be honest, they haven’t been that great for a couple of decades now.

In fact, a serious case can be made that the nation’s high-water mark was the 1990s, when we had grunge rock, the X-files, a booming economy, and a conservative movement that was going crazy (but not yet fully psychotic). 

Also, I was still young, which is, when you think about it, really the most important thing.

But in the spirit of optimism — and before we get too far into 2023 and allow it to crush us like the other 2020s so far — I will point out several positive developments.

First, child poverty has “dramatically decreased in the U.S. over the past 25 years.” The chief reason may be the Child Tax Credit, which helped cut child poverty by roughly 30 percent. 

Of course, that tax credit has now been eliminated, so there is a chance the rate will go up again. And compared to “other developed nations, child poverty rates in America remain higher than the rest.”

But hey, let’s not kill the vibe.

Moving on, we see that the rates of cervical cancer have “dropped an astonishing 65% among women in their early 20s.” This is primarily because of vaccinations against the human papillomavirus (HPV), which causes this type of cancer. So many women have taken advantage of the HPV vaccine that herd immunity has kicked in, and “rates have dropped among unvaccinated women as well.”

It’s true that many religious zealots refuse to let their teenage daughters get vaccinated because they would literally rather have their kids get cancer than engage in premarital sex, but… ha, I see what you did there. Almost got me to go negative, didn’t you?

Nope, we’re going to continue on the good-news train.

Here’s something: inflation is slowing down, and the federal budget deficit has fallen significantly, going from $2.6 trillion to $1.4 trillion.

These are very positive economic developments, and everyone can cheer them. Well, except for Republicans, who are determined to drive America into default and wreck the economy out of some bizarre desire to punish Biden or parade their ignorance or just burn everything down. Who can tell anymore?

No, we are staying positive. 

So ignore all that GOP nonsense and move on to this intriguing fact: The racial gap in death rates of covid has disappeared.

We all know that the pandemic hit ethnic minorities far harder than white people, but “in a country with deep racial inequities, where covid was initially another tragic example, the virus is no longer disproportionately harming Black and Hispanic Americans.” This improvement is due to “passionate advocacy and hard work by many community health officials.”

That’s uplifting, right?

Don’t be a buzzkill by pointing out that “this accomplishment continues to receive relatively little attention,” probably because “the remaining pool of unvaccinated Americans is disproportionately Republican, and Republicans are disproportionately white.”

You see, white Republicans don’t want to admit that vaccines work, and that the pandemic was real. And the mainstream media does whatever white Republicans say, which is another example of the lobsided balance of power in this country and how we all bend over backward to appease ignorance.

It doesn’t even matter that Latinos “suffered more COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 people than most other racial and ethnic groups for most of the pandemic” and that “the Latino community’s rising prosperity may be in jeopardy” because of the devastation that the virus wrought. 

But no, let’s talk about how white Republicans can’t have their feelings hurt and…

Stop. Stay calm. Ok, moving on.

Another upbeat development is that there has been mild progress on climate change, as “renewable power soars, vulnerable ecosystems gain rights, and climate protocols start to pay dividends.”

That’s almost enough to make you forget that “the oil giant Exxon privately ‘predicted global warming correctly and skillfully’ only to then spend decades publicly rubbishing such science in order to protect its core business.”

It turns out that “the only thing Exxon did better than predicting the future was lying about it.” If you need a refresher on how evil corporations can be, and how climate denialism indicates sheer idiocy, this is “your umpteenth reminder that we’ve known about the coming (now here) disaster for decades.”

Well, my quest for positive news is getting shaky now. Perhaps I can combine my last two items — the pandemic and climate change — into one hopeful story.

Yes, here it is: As global temperatures rise, it becomes “more likely that viruses and bacteria locked up in glaciers and permafrost could reawaken and infect local wildlife.” This means that the next killer pandemic may not come “from bats or birds but from matter in melting ice.”

So if the heat doesn’t kill us, the viruses will.

Damn. There goes all my optimism.

Ok, what was I saying about the 1990s? Yeah, I guess those were the motherfucking days.

At least we’ll always have Soundgarden.

It’s ok to laugh, at least a little. After all, the whole damn thing is a joke. It’s a farce of epic proportions and a black comedy laced with schadenfreude.

I’m referring, of course, to the Republican takeover of the House of Representatives, a haphazard free-for-all that featured the most contentious speakership election in a century. We lost track of how often the word “McCarthy” accompanied the phrases “stinging defeat” and “public humiliation,” which is always a good sign for a political leader.

But at last, the GOP elected a new speaker, a guy so popular within his party that it took only 15 votes to elect him. By the way, don’t you wish you had 15 attempts to accomplish a goal? Yes, most of us would never be denied a promotion over a dozen times, because that level of incompetence would likely get us fired long before that.

If you are a mediocre white male conservative, however, you get as many chances as you want to win, until everyone just accepts that you’re the boss—at least in name.

You see, the incoming speaker of the house made so many concessions to a small contingent of lunatics that he is basically being held hostage. It’s almost like appeasing fascists makes them bolder. 

By the way, nothing says “strong leader” like groveling to idiots. These insurrectionists so thoroughly owned the negotiations that they ran out of things to ask for.

I hear the final package includes daily foot messages for every member of the Freedom Caucus. Plus, McCarthy will personally fetch their dry cleaning and let Matt Gaetz slap his face twice a week.

In truth, we don’t really know what’s in the rules package, because the GOP rushed to chisel the deal into stone before everybody could find out that Lauren Boebert is now legally allowed to fire a bazooka at anyone she deems un-American.

At one point during the voting, Republican congressmen almost came to blows, leading us once again to ponder why right-wing men are so in love with violence. Seriously, they constantly want to punch someone, shoot someone, or bomb someone—even their own allies.

With the metal detectors at the capitol mysteriously removed, it is likely just a matter of time before some GOP rep takes a shot at a fellow lawmaker. I wouldn’t be surprised if this heavily armed, easily agitated crowd turns the capitol into the OK Corral.

In any case, the GOP won the House because they convinced enough gullible voters that Republicans would tackle inflation and bring down gas prices. And sure enough, the first thing the GOP has addressed is inflation and improving the quality of life for all Americans.

Ha. No.

To the surprise of nobody with an IQ over 50, the Republicans’ top priority is making it easier for wealthy people to cheat on their taxes. The GOP is “fiercely loyal to the rich and the powerful, and they enthusiastically mislead ordinary Americans to serve those interests.” 

The GOP’s second priority is revenge—plain and simple. The Republican House will investigate Biden, his family, and probably the Biden family’s neighbor’s best friend’s dentist before they are done. They will also harass the law enforcement agencies that they claim to revere so much. And they will launch expensive, time-consuming investigations that are solely “about grievances” and serve as a cover for “folks who are already under investigation trying to protect themselves.”

Oh, and they also want to decimate Social Security, but you knew that already.

Clearly, McCarthy’s “hollow victory will have economic and political consequences.”

Their approach will be based upon faux patriotism and owning the libs. It will be about gaining power for its own sake, and “to the extent that Republicans want to give the appearance of caring about governing,” they will slash and burn their way through Congress with no idea of what they are doing and no principles for doing it. This is because “the endgame now is chaos itself.”

So what are we supposed to do with this gaggle of clowns? Take them seriously?

No, the only appropriate responses are mockery or dread. 

It’s our own little circus of the damned.

Let’s be honest. You have always wanted to see a ninja fight a dragon. Well, you’re in luck:

I created this image, which would surprise anyone who knows my level of artistic talent (i.e., circles and the occasional stick figure).

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