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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsRon DeSantis' Vile New Grift and Other Acts of Wingnut Malice (Th'Ferret)
It was naive of me, but I really did believe things would be a little less crazy, and a little less stupid by now. However, here in the 297th consecutive week of the Exact Same Right Wing Pandemic Tantrum, its clear I was foolish to ever dream this fever could break.
(Shiny colors and nifty news links await you on my blog site: http://showercapblog.com/ron-desantis-vile-new-grift-and-other-acts-of-wingnut-malice/)
I guess we should start with Afghanistan. Who wouldve thought a place known as the Graveyard of Empires would prove so inhospitable?
Not to impugn the good faith of the military-industrial complex, but Im starting to think that Afghan army we spent two decades building never quite became the elite peacekeeping force we were led to expect. I guess $83 billion doesnt buy what it used to.
Other than human tragedy on an unfathomable scale, of course.
Its sure been somethin, watching all the Republican pundits n politicians, scowling so somberly as they lament Joe Bidens failure and weakness, when theyre not-so-secretly beside themselves with glee that they get to spend the foreseeable future stirrin up fear and hate of our most loyal Afghan allies.
A Republican strategist is just somebody who works out the shortest distance between two points, where the second point is always Be Afraid of Brown People, so the last couple of weeks have basically been a paid vacation.
and Xmas for the likes of Tucker Carlson. A Muslim refugee scare so soon after Viktor Orbán Week? I guess White Supremacist Santa thinks Liar Tuck has been appropriately naughty this year.
Cant imagine you were surprised to see Stephen Miller crawl out of his sewer pipe to stoke the fires of hate for a bit. Last thing that little Nazi tapeworm wants is more folks willing to fight for American values.
You look from Miller to those brave Afghans who risked their lives, fighting the forces of ignorance and autocracy, alongside the U.S. military, and you cant help but think, yeah, lets get this white replacement thing yall talk about so much started. That photo of the airplane full of evacuees you bastards have been waving around in fear-mongering fervor? I say empty that plane, fill it up with the exact same number of Oath Keepers and Newsmax hosts, turn it around, and send it right back. Wash, rinse, repeat, until were no longer debating whether or not democracy is good. Wheres my MoveOn petition for that option?
Before we get into the weeks Covid news, the usual disclaimer that much of the behavior described will make no damn sense; I think it helps to keep in mind the people involved have no damn sense.
The Biden Administration has been forced to escalate their conflict with the coronavirus deadliest ally: the Republican Governors Association. Its weird that an extremely contagious, frequently lethal virus has its own personal fifth column in 21st-century America, but then, a lot of shits weird these days.
Greg Abbott, leading by example for a change, caught his very own case of the disease hes been so assiduously dispensing to Texas schoolchildren. (I didnt say it was positive leadership.) Meanwhile, his casually nihilistic Lt. Governor introduced a fresh, new, racist conspiracy theory into a market thats surely saturated by now*.
And Death Cult Bandwagon Jumper Doug Ducey became the latest GOP governor to force his constituents children to cosign his partys suicide pact with the Delta variant. See? Weird shit, huh? Toldja.
Folks, youre gonna have to bear with the Republican Party. Remember, theyre coming off a year when they had no policy platform whatsoever, and there are inevitably going to be a few bumps in the road as they suss out what their disinformation-addicted, feral base wants.
For the moment, the focus seems tbe on just two issues: letting Richard Spencer rewrite the nations history textbooks, and feeding as many Americans as possible to the disease thats already killed 624,000 of us, asterisk minors strongly preferred.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced a whole new category for next years ceremony: Best Video Footage of a Brain-Broke Wingnut Decaying Before Our Very Eyes Into a Puddle of Rage at a School Board Meeting. Gonna be competitive.
Trouble is, its these and ONLY these people that Republican governance currently serves. Here in the fever swamps of 2021, conservative policy is driven by the ever-shifting delusions of the most gullible rubes who ever blew a paycheck on a doomsday prep kit shilled by a talk radio host, and folks, that is no way to run a dang railroad. Or to, yknow, SET PUBLIC HEALTH POLICY DURING A GODDAMN PANDEMIC.
But thats how were playin it, in red states anyway, which is completely insane of course, the kind of insane you seldom see outside those who develop labyrinthine plots to kill the Batman, but I suppose thats how we wound up at this KOOKY moment in history, when the American right has decided to open up a hot front in the nations cold culture war, carefully selecting their battlefields to maximize child casualties.
It is real, real, REAL important to Republican politicians that kids catch Covid. Like, tax-cuts-for-their-billionaire-masters important. Now, Im old-fashioned; Im in favor of a more traditional government role, where elected officials use the powers of their offices to reduce sickness and suffering wherever possible, but times change, and perhaps we should respect the religious liberty of our death cultist brothers and sisters, as they pursue their mad quest to fill every ICU bed in the South.
Or maybe we could, I dunno, shuffle our priorities around a bit, focus more on saving lives than placating ill-behaved, misinformed shitweasels? Maybe, and I dont want to sound like a radical commie libtard cuck or anything, do things that work instead of things that dont?
Like, I dont want to tell Ron DeSantis how to do his job, but when one is overseeing (or, as you could more accurately say, causing) a senseless, unnecessary, mass-casualty event, that generates headlines like, Sick COVID patients lie on floor at antibody treatment site in Florida, and Mask fight in Florida schools as pediatric ICU beds fill with patients, one could likely find better uses for ones time than petulantly punishing local educators who insist on protecting their charges from your deranged, homicidal orders, but I suppose the mob isnt going to throw bloody chunks of red meat to itself.
Oh wait, maybe I do want to tell Ron DeSantis how to do his job. The governor job, not his side gig as an entry-level Regeneron hawker.
Yeah, DeSantis, who will always find a way to sink to heretofore undiscovered depths of depravity, having used his platform and his powers to spread Covid-19 throughout his state, now ever-so-subtly nudges the population he failed and infected towards an expensive treatment, (vaccines are still free, yo) each dose of which further enriches Kenneth C. Griffin, the billionaire hedge fund jag who finances Ron-Rons campaigns, and pulls his strings.
Got that? Intentionally spreading a deadly disease, amongst children, in order to create consumers for a product that would have no function in an environment where the pandemic was under control. Quite possibly the most obscene thing I have ever witnessed. Raw evil.
MAGA Nation, I have to ask: how many ways do the turd-gargling plutocrats you look to for leadership have to tell you, directly to your face, that your lives mean less than nothing to them, that they would happily feed you face-first into a wood-chipper for a fucking nickel, before you get the fucking message?
Because even as Fux Nooz fills your head with snakes and pop rocks, behind the scenes, theyve implemented their own mask mandates and vaccine passports, you know that, right? Turns out, the things they tell you are tyrannical deep state plots to control you are actually simple, common-sense measures that keep people safe and healthy. To cut through the bullshit: theyre protecting their own lives while encouraging you to throw yours away.
And, for that reason, you should stop listening to them.
Anyone? Bueller?
Sigh. Moving on.
Unsatiated by January 6ths flaccid fascist kerfuffle, loser white boy terrorism returned to the U.S. Capitol on Thursday, in the form of Floyd Ray Roseberry, a Normal Tourist Visitor from a nearby alternate reality constructed by the shittiest people alive. This one didnt have a real bomb, so nobody got hurt this time; sure hope were that lucky next time and the time after that and the time after that and
anyhow.
Mo Brooks responded to the incident in typical Mo Brooks fashion, by which I mean he expressed sympathy for, and even fellowship with the terrorist. This has been your weekly installment of Nazi Shit From Within the House Republican Conference Kevin McCarthy Couldnt Be Bothered to Condemn, or, as it is known in Iowa, Shit That Makes Steve King Throw Half Empty Coors Light Bottles at the TV Set.
Hey, speaking of the American conservative movements terrorist wing, it seems the days before Proud Boy Spring Break, excuse me, I mean before the Capitol Riot saw a suspicious spike in traffic to a website containing maps of the tunnels running beneath the U.S. Capitol, from links originating on pro-Trump militia message boards, in what is surely the wackiest imaginable coincidence.
Surely.
Hey, gotta drop a great big sloppy THANK YOU on everybody for your generous support of Marguerite vs. the Occupation. Its
humbling, that yall believe in me enough to fork over your hard-earned money. And Im thankful. Now we prep the book for the printer, so we can get it in your hands as soon as possible! Cant wait!
Theres even more Nazi-stompin fun on the horizon, believe it or not
but for now, Ill stop trying to sell you folks my comics
because Id rather talk about the awesome, Covid-vanquishing miracle called REGENERON️!
I kid. Stay safe out there, my lovelies. We got through 2020, well get through this shit.
*Of course, the right wing appetite for racist disinformation is entirely without limit. Ha ha ha fooled you. (weeps)
CaliforniaPeggy
(149,585 posts)And thanks for your brilliant analysis of this week.
Till next time!
MustLoveBeagles
(11,591 posts)2naSalit
(86,536 posts)crickets
(25,962 posts)Another good one, Ferret!
Hugin
(33,120 posts)The first recorded Empire taking the plunge being none other than Alexander the Great on his way to what is now India after his gig in Egypt.
Along the way Alex encountered a sparse peoples. Who in his initial assessment, seemed to be mainly occupied by waiting for dead whales to wash up on the beach to scavenge. Not wanting his crack warriors to get soft on their long journey to the sub-continent and needing an after Persia mint. He decided to add yet another Greatening to his extensive list by showing these heathens the what for. Yes, yes... His exhausted and depleted forces became the first recorded turn tail after they discovered the locals didn't want to be Great and had nothing better to do while waiting for dead whale to eat than to resist their empire building.
That's the problem with having a classical education, nobody fucking listens.
On the plus side, a withdrawal complicates the Kremlin's cash for US personnel killed program they had worked out with the Taliban.
Next up... The Chinese. Odds are this adventurism will end with them deciding to build a bigger wall. We'll see.
Thanks again, SC.