Sky falling. That is all.

"I wish I was joking.  It's real.  It's actually real.  I don't know how much time we can spend on it without collapsing into fits of giggles coupled with a really weird sense of desolation."

That was the reaction of James O'Brien on the London radio station LBC to "One Britain, One Nation," the patriotic anthem released to mark the fifth anniversary of the Brexit referendum.  He's right in every respect.  It was written by Kash Singh, obviously one of the "good" immigrants, and the recording by young children is right up there with "Oceania 'tis for thee."  Well, that's their problem.  Mine is that Mr. O'Brien's response to the song is my response to almost everything, especially the weird sense of desolation.

Food is a weapon.  I think that was a slogan during at least one war.  And now it has shown up in the culture wars arsenal.  An IKEA store in Atlanta decided to celebrate Juneteenth with a special menu to represent "culture and tradition" that included watermelon, fried chicken, collard greens and mashed potatoes.  According to one worker, no Black employees were consulted.  Back to little meatballs, please.  Maybe they meant well, which cannot be said of the basketball coaching staff of Coronado High School in California.  The mostly-white team defeated mostly-Latino Orange Glen High School in a division championship game 60-57.  Not satisfied with the win, the Coronado coach shouted expletives at the opponents while his players hurled tortillas at them.  Coach Laaperi has been fired.

Is Greg Abbott determined to turn Texas into a place as bleak and hopeless as his life in a wheelchair?  I ask with considerable hesitation -- after all, many people who lose the ability to walk have responded with overwhelming resolve and compassion for others, from Franklin Roosevelt to Tammy Duckworth.  But everything this guy does is shot through with hate and rage.  Not content with vowing to waste state money on WALL, making voting a task that would discourage Hercules and all but requiring public schools to inculcate white supremacy, now Abbott is blocking laws passed by the all-Republican legislature, the Democrats having walked out in protest.  These include a bill requiring children to be taught about domestic violence; a bill for early parole of inmates convicted of certain crimes before age 18; a ban on using hypnosis to obtain evidence admissable in court; and a bill to expand broadband access, especially in rural areas.  For many people the last straw was his veto of a law against chaining up dogs outdoors without access to water.  Even Hitler would have supported that.

The Navy uses a training document for its internal police called Terrorism/Terrorist Operations which lists socialists alongside neo-Nazis and anarchists as Scary People.  They must be worried today, because India Walton, a socialist, has defeated Mayor Byron Brown in the Democratic primary and will probably be the next mayor of Buffalo, New York. 

"This was not a peaceful demonstration...it was intended to halt the very functioning of our government," said Judge Royce C. Lamberth as he sentenced Anna Morgan-Lloyd to three years probation for taking part in the January 6 coup.  The Indiana woman is the first to be sentenced; she must also pay a fine and perform community service.  The prosecutor agreed that two days of jail was enough for the 49-year-old grandmother.  Judge Lamberth is a Republican appointed by Ronald Reagan.

The leader of the coup has yet to experience any punishment aside from loss of his Twitter and Facebook accounts and the cancellation of his contract to operate the municipal golf course at Ferry Point in the Bronx.  In the latter action he is suing New York City for $30 million to assuage the hurt feelings he suffered at the hands of Mayor Bill DeBlasio.  That should keep him in Depends through next year.

Of course, nobody hurts Trumpelthinskin's feelings like the mean people on the television, but we're only now hearing about the revenge he tried to take.  Like classifying all those Alec Baldwin sketches on SNL as "illegal campaign contributions" to the Democrats and unleashing the FEC.  Like invoking the "equal time" provision that hasn't even existed since 1987 (and never applied to satire) and making the FCC make NBC give him some.  Like actually getting the Justice Department to bully the late-night hosts the way Michael Cohen used to bully people for him.  I'm surprised he didn't demand that the State Department deport James Corden.  Or did he?

You want to know who gets attacked every day?  Joseph R. Biden is who.  According to Gym Jordan it's his fault gas costs more than it did a year ago, when millions fewer were driving.  According to Lara's consort it's his fault Russia is "literally hacking our country...the lack of respect" Putin feels for presidents who don't give him BJs.  It's his fault the Senate won't even debate For the People, not Sinema and Manchin acting like Moses brought the filibuster down the mountain.  It's his fault the country has not met his goal for covid vaccination, not the numpties who refuse to get the shot (like the "healthcare workers" at Houston Methodist or the idiots at Indiana University).  Maybe you'd like him to lock them up like Duterte in the Philippines.  And the people who ignore his advice and come to the southern border anyway?  His fault.  

Biden will just have to suck it up until fall.  That's the new, rather vague date when, as Pillow Mike told the Restore America jamboree last weekend, Trump will definitely return to power.  The Supreme Court has to order the election overturned and they don't come back from recess until October 5, then there's a three-day weekend for Indigenous Peoples Day so...maybe the thirteenth?  Mike complains of "living in the twilight zone" because none of the judges he pesters will look at his Miss Flite stack of very serious documents.  (Bleak House.  Re-read it.)  "Then they're going to go 9-0 that this country was attacked."  

Hang in there, Joe.  Help is on the way.