National Hypocrisy Week

 It took some digging but I found some good news to go with the fall of Kabul, the agony of Haiti and the impending collapse of civilization:  Raymond Burke has covid.  

Why is this good and not just mean?  Burke is a Catholic cardinal with a record of vileness that must be the envy of Protestant fundamentalist preachers.  He refused communion to John Kerry because the then-senator supported freedom of choice.  He said Catholics who voted for Barack Obama "collaborated with evil" and attacked Notre Dame for giving him an honorary degree.  He called the church under Pope Francis "a ship without a rudder."  He was angered by even the tiny role assigned to women (e.g. "altar assistants"), saying it "feminized" the church and drove men away.  He equated gay people and the divorced with murderers.      

But the covid pandemic inspired His Eminence to up his game.  He attacked social distancing and wore a mask only because he lives in Rome (the pope wisely gave him a bullshit job running a charity) where they are required.  Last December he was still preaching about "Wuhan virus" and hinting darkly that "certain forces" use it to "advance their evil agenda."  Of course he opposes vaccine mandates:  "The state...is not the ultimate provider of health.  God is."  And on a trip to Milwaukee, where he used to frighten children, God gave him covid, big-time.  As in, he's on a vent.  Couldn't he get sick in Italy?  Wisconsin's getting slammed like every other state.

Burke's "press team" noted that his solution to other people's problems was thoughts & prayers.  "He faithfully prayed the rosary for those suffering from the virus...Let us now pray the rosary for him."  You bet.  I'm going to use my extra-large beads, and I'm going to pull them out of my ass one...by...one.

That felt good.  We all need a break from the encroaching madness.  George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and Condoleezza Rice are about the only Republicans who haven't had anything to say about the disaster in Afghanistan, not even an apology.  Weird, huh?  Joni Ernst is "afraid of a Benghazi 2.0" because it's still a magic word on the right.  Margie Greene's well-reasoned response was that Americans are entitled to assault weapons because the Taliban have them.  She's ready to file a second set of Articles of Impeachment because "I wouldn't be surprised if they're paying the Taliban" in the form of weapons and equipment left behind.  The Forty-fifth President would never do that.  By way of proof, here is a picture of Mike Pompeo with the new president of Afghanistan, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar,

 after he was freed in 2018.  And here's a link to the webpage mysteriously deleted by the Republican National Committee.  I'm glad Margie can't read.   She'd be so disillusioned.

It's Haiti's curse that its most recent disaster coincided with all the others.  More than 1,400 dead are reported and the search goes on.  The island avoided Tropical Storm Fred, only to be soaked by Tropical Storm Grace.  Aid workers have to bribe armed gangs to reach the affected areas.  And as the hottest year on record grinds on, we can study Haiti for clues to what to expect when the whole planet goes Mad Max.  By next year visitors to Arizona will be advised to bring their own water.

Every time someone in Tempe flushes a toilet, Lake Mead gets a little lower.  How long can this go on?  Green New Deal?  How about Green Last Chance?