Remember when the news cycle slowed down for the holidays? If anything, it sped up last week thanks to the narcissistic nut in the White House. Past presidents understood that overexposure is bad for their brand. In contrast, Donald Trump is the Flasher-in-Chief. That’s why it’s just another Manic Monday:
Other than I and me, the Insult Comedian’s favorite word is hoax. When I first heard the reports about Kash Patel and his country singer girlfriend, Alexis Wilkins, I asked myself: Is this a hoax? Who the hell would date a grown man with wizard fantasies and crazy eyes?
He looks *almost* normal in that promo picture for his fakakta kids book.
Patel’s corrupt misuse of FBI SWAT teams is no surprise. I remain, however, gobsmacked that anyone would date him. In a word: Gross.
Marge Taylor Greene announced that she’s resigning her House seat in January. The cynic in me wonders if this is a gambit to test her support. There’s a NYT piece that indicates she still has support in her Georgia district:
“But what has perhaps been most striking is that, in a part of the country where the president has deeply entrenched support, many Republicans are defying him by refusing to abandon Ms. Greene.
On Friday night, the local chapter of the Republican Party in Floyd County issued a statement affirming its “unwavering support” for Ms. Greene, praising her for working “tirelessly to support the needs and views of her constituents.”
They’re not dumping Trump BUT they’re starting to gag on the MAGA Kool-Aid. It’s about fucking time.
There’s a dispute between Marco Rubio and South Dakota Senator Mike Rounds over the Ukraine “peace” plan. According to Rounds, Rubio said that the United States did NOT author the plan. Rubio later denied that and embraced this so-called peace plan as made in America.
You say peace plan, I say sell out. Let’s call the whole thing off.
MAGA Republicans are all liars, but my money is on Rounds:
“Senator Mike Rounds, Republican of South Dakota, said Mr. Rubio had earlier on Saturday held a call with a bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers attending a security conference in Canada. Mr. Rounds said that in the call, Mr. Rubio had suggested that it was a Russian proposal, not a U.S. plan.
“He made it very clear to us that we are the recipients of a proposal that was delivered to one of our representatives,” Mr. Rounds said Saturday at a news conference at the Halifax International Security Forum, speaking about Mr. Rubio. “It is not our recommendation. It is not our peace plan.”
Mr. Rounds said Mr. Rubio “made it clear that it was an opportunity to have received” the plan. “You now have one side being presented, and the opportunity for the other side to respond,” Mr. Rounds said. Some critics of the plan have said it would force Ukraine to make unreasonable concessions to Russia.”
Some critics should have said that it’s a sell out to Putin who still has the Kaiser of Chaos by the balls. In a word: Disgraceful.
Let’s cross the pond and check in on the right-wing Reform UK party leader Nigel Farage. The bad news is that he’s riding the crest of a populist wave and leading in the polls. The good news is that the next general election isn’t until 2029.
The last time a party other than Labour or the Tories led in the polls was when there was a flurry of excitement in the Eighties over the birth of the Social Democratic Party, which formed an alliance with the Liberals. They lost badly in 1983, and the SDP merged with the Liberals to form today’s Liberal Democrats. Oh well, what the hell.
Back to Nigel Farage. He’s been accused of schoolboy thuggery, racism, and blatant anti-Semitism by those who knew him when:
“It is the hectoring tone, the “jeering quality”, in Nigel Farage’s voice today that brings it all back for Peter Ettedgui. “He would sidle up to me and growl: ‘Hitler was right,’ or ‘Gas them,’ sometimes adding a long hiss to simulate the sound of the gas showers,” Ettedgui says of his experience of being in a class with Farage at Dulwich college in south London.”
The Other Peter is not alone, just the most vociferous critic. The Faragist response has been incoherent and inconsistent: Some say it was youthful folly, others say it didn’t happen. They’re liars so I believe his accusers.
This has been going on for a month thus far, so the attempts to shut it down haven’t worked. In a word: Excellent.
What’s next for Farage: An endorsement from Holocaust denying “historian” David Irving? Denial is his jam.
Finally, reports of the Border Patrol’s activities in the New Orleans metro area are sketchy and unconfirmed. My devotion to my internal bullshit detector means that I don’t automatically believe social media reports. No good will come of any of this but how bad it will be remains uncertain.
Repeat after me: Immigration sweeps are about intimidation, not crime.
Let’s circle back to our theme song. The last word goes to Prince:
