Another Carnival is in the books. I’m glad it’s over. It wasn’t my worst Carnival, it’s impossible to top 2024 when I went in an ambulance to the ER on Mardi Gras morning. It was, however, second worst. Weird shit kept happening to me, which I why I stayed home on Fat Tuesday. I’m just relieved that it’s Thursday Morning and the parade box is gone until 2027. We still, however, have a theme song to get to:

Giles, Giles & Fripp was a King Crimson prequel band. Drummer Michael Giles and guitarist Robert Fripp were the core of the first of many iterations of King Crimson whose sound was much heavier than GGF. Cat Food anyone?

I’m playing catchup after Carnival, so let’s throw some segments at the wall and see what sticks.

The Slow Motion Shutdown: It’s a partial shutdown so nobody is talking about it. I hope Senate Democrats stick to their guns. Reform of DHS is imperative. Impeaching Cosplay Kristi would be a nice bonus. That will have to wait until next year.

The MAGA Lunatic Fringe: Team Trump keeps appointing right-wing extremists. On the surface, Jeremy Carl looks like an academic whose credentials for the post of assistant secretary of state for international organizations are shaky but that’s typical of Trump 2.0 picks. Administrations usually search for qualified nominees, Team MAGA lives in the Upside Down, so its unqualified appointees are sent to wreak havoc and chaos. The MAGA malakatude, it burns.

Jeremy Carl denies being a racist but what else can you call someone with these views?

“He dismissed the creation of Juneteenth as a federal holiday as “race hustling and white-shaming” and described “self-hating white people” as “mentally ill”.

Following the conviction of members of the far-right Proud Boys for seditious conspiracy, Carl wrote that he would “rather be a Black man on trial for the assault of a white man in 1930s rural Mississippi than I would be a right-winger in DC today on trial for political crimes”. And in the wake of Derek Chauvin’s conviction for the murder of George Floyd, Carl repeatedly described Floyd as a “violent felon” and “thug”, writing that he was “looking up from hell”.

He tried but failed to scrub this vile shit off social media. When questioned by Senator Chris Murphy about his views, his answer was as incoherent as your basic Trump speech:

Trump nominated a legit white nationalist to a top post at the State Department. I asked him some basic questions about his belief in the “erasure of white culture”. Watch this embarrassing, fumbling answer. Like he has never before been asked to explain his views.

— Chris Murphy (@chrismurphyct.bsky.social) 2026-02-12T21:15:09.155Z

 

If Utah Senator John Curtis holds firm in voting against this mook, the Carl nomination will die an ignominious death in committee.

CBS Adds Insult To Colbert Injury:  CBS lawyers told Stephen Colbert that he could not have Texas Senatorial candidate James Talarico on The Late Show. The stated reason is the Fairness Doctrine, which requires equal time be given to opposing candidates. I call bullshit: this fits into one of the exceptions to the Fairness Doctrine, which has rarely been invoked this century. Team Trump is reviving it to crush dissent. Fuck them and fuck CBS.

The candidate believes that he’s being singled out because the GOP is scared shitless that he could flip this senate seat. I remain skeptical he can pull off such a monumental upset BUT I hope he’s right.

If John Cornyn loses the Republican primary and Talarico wins his race against Jasmine Crockett on the Democratic side, Talarico could be proven right. One thing I’m sure of is that this mishigas will boost Talarico’s campaign. I’m staying out of it because I like both Democratic candidates. Stay tuned.

Here’s the censored segment on YouTube:

Here’s Colbert’s take on what happened with the CBS suits:

Jesse Jackson RIP: Every country needs gadflies. Jesse Jackson was a brilliant gadfly. He specialized in tweaking and shaming the establishment into supporting equal rights for ALL citizens.

Jesse died this week at the age of 84. He’s been seriously ill for years, which is why he’s been quiet during Trump 2.0. I’ve missed his distinctive voice and his way of blending hope with stinging attacks on racism and racists. We won’t see Jesse Jackson’s like again. RIP.

The last word goes to Jesse Jackson: