Starting the week with a bang

In the wake of the Apu crisis, Harry Shearer will no longer voice Dr. Hibbert on The Simpsons.  He will be replaced by a Black voice-over artist named Kevin Michael Richardson.  Since the character is clearly based on Dr. Cliff Huxtable from The Cosby Show I'm surprised he wasn't quietly dropped years ago, but there you are.  Now all they need is a closeted gay man to voice Smithers.

Since the lockdown began last year, pundits phoning in their commentary have usually positioned themselves in front of bookshelves.  Anyway, I haven't seen any tropical fish or drive-in-size TV screens.  So Junior Trump decided to shake things up by posing in front of his gun collection for an attack (verbal) on teachers' unions.  Not to be outdone in the competition for daddy's love, Eric explained that the Texas weather disaster was caused by two months of Biden policies and not Texas's decision to start its own power grid in 1970.  Because he's real smart.  

Not as smart as Meghan McCain who, although she's a front-line worker at The View, is outraged that she still hasn't been able to get a covid vaccine.  She wants Dr. Anthony Fauci, who's been running the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984, replaced with "maybe someone who does understand science."  Congratulations, Meghan, you're our Karen of the day.  But you still can't go to the front of the vaccine line.

The evening news reported again about the United flight that lost an engine over Colorado and made an emergency landing on Saturday.  Surprisingly, they ignored a similar story out of Europe:  A Boeing 747 cargo plane lost an engine after taking off from Maastricht in the Netherlands and had to land in Liege, Belgium; falling debris injured a woman on the ground.  If it doesn't involve Americans, it didn't happen.  

Texas police have been especially busy, as you might expect, but they still found time to arrest a Black man in Plano who was walking home in the snow.  Rodney Reese was charged with being a pedestrian in the roadway; the charge was dropped and he is still alive.  Turns out there really is a law against walking while Black.

Has Mike Pence been radicalized?  He turned down an invitation to CPAC, moved to Orlando for the convenience of its star, the president-in-exile.  There are murmurs that he doesn't care to speak from the same stage as the man who painted a target on his back last month.  We'll know if he shows up at a fund-raiser for AOC, I guess.  CPAC also booked and then un-booked "Philosopher Scholar Musician" Young Pharaoh.  He has many interesting views about Q and vaccines, but it looks like his anti-Semitism got him -- what's the word?  cancelled.  Never mind, Trump has had over a month to store up rage and bile like a constipated muskrat.  He can go all weekend.  Expect at least an hour on the "so-called Supreme Court" alone.

Well-known punchline Ted Cruz shared pictures of himself distributing bottled water to some of the 14 million Texans who have no clean water.  He expected to be savaged by John Oliver and SNL.  It was the mariachi band in front of his house that pushed him over the edge.