Dismissed as moot

 I can't understand it.  Usually an amicus brief from an imaginary state is enough to put you over the top.  But the Supreme Court had this curt response to Ken Paxton's historic lawsuit:  "The State of Texas's motion for leave to file a bill of complaint is denied for lack of standing under Article III of the Constitution.  Texas has not demonstrated a judicially cognizable interest in the manner in which another State conducts its elections.  All other pending motions are dismissed as moot."  Vague demurral from Alito and Thomas (as predicted here on Thursday), but not a whisper from the illegitimate Merrick Garland replacements Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Barrett.  

It wasn't just New Nevada and New California who signed on -- there were 126 Republican members of the House, including their minority leader, who associated themselves with this act of sedition.  No doubt they plan to continue their assault on democracy in January, when they "debate" the vote of the electoral college.  When that fails, they go to the mattresses?  Bring out the vuvuzelas?  March around the Capitol banging on pots?  We haven't been here before -- in 1860 they just went home.

  

Trump just missed out on Time's Person of the Year -- in fairness, it took two people to beat him -- but Der Spiegel has named him Loser of the Year.  "Trump's presidency ends as it began.  Without decency and without dignity."  As if to make their point, he blew off a White House Christmas party so he could spend more time rage-tweeting about Barr, Kemp, Ducey, Hunter Biden, and of course the Supreme Court ("No Wisdom, No Courage!").   

Remember that as Trump continues to plant flunkies and die-hards on "advisory boards" to continue spreading his contagion.  Today's winner is Douglas Macgregor to the West Point advisory Board of Visitors.  He's a retired army colonel and a real pip who has some quaint views on martial law, the urban "underclass" and slavery.  Doesn't like Muslims but seems to think people like Mike Pompeo and John Bolton are getting rich off the "Israel lobby."  As for World War II he believes war with Japan was "engineered" to end the Depression and that the big mistake was fighting the Nazis -- which might be the reason the Senate refused to confirm him as ambassador to Germany.  In short, it will be just like having Trump around for another three years.  Sorry, cadets.

I have no clear idea who Todd Starnes is except that he shows up on Fox News and spreads disinformation.   I think he just got Trump (who is in a particularly excitable condition today) to admit to treason.  This morning Starnes tweeted,  "At this point @real Donald Trump should declassify everything.  Everything."  At 8:36 am Trump confessed, "I have been doing this.  I agree!"  Giving Kellyanne Conway a job on a part-time Air Force Academy board is one thing but this has to cross some kind of national security line.  Isn't this why Chelsea Manning went to prison?  Are you allowed to betray your country's secrets just to stick it to Joe Biden?  It's bad enough that by tradition the Bidens' china pattern will be selected by Melania von Schtupp.

Most people have harmless ways of dealing with depression:  shopping spree, spa day, loud music, controlled substances, alcohol, pint of Cherry Garcia.  Trump handles the blues by killing people.  Four more federal executions are scheduled between now and January 20, a tacit acknowledgment that he's really going away.  "A most intolerable ruffian, a disgrace to human nature, and a blot of blood and grease upon the History of England" is how Dickens concludes his account of Henry VIII.  May I borrow those words?

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I'm all out of ice cream and firewater.  Luckily Dolly Parton still walks among us.  I'm not surprised that she saved a little girl from being hit by a vehicle on a movie set.  It's what she does when she isn't helping fund the Moderna covid vaccine, or making sure kids have books to read, or awarding scholarships, or basically being the patron saint of east Tennessee.  So if she wants to pose for Playboy on her 75th birthday or sell her song catalogue for a mountain of money or sail away on a yacht the size of Minorca (she won't), it's fine with me.  Obama said his greatest regret was not giving her the Medal of Freedom.  Can't we do better than that?  Maybe a ship?