Out of the woods, into the fire

The Old Vic has cancelled next spring's production of Into the Woods because members of the company don't agree with comments co-director Terry Gilliam has made about #MeToo, trans rights and racism.  The show does not touch on any of those topics, as far as I recall.  Stephen Sondheim is said to have approved Gilliam's ideas (for the show) but what does he know?  Firing someone for his politics used to be called "blacklisting" but that sounds racist.  Like "blackboard."

Presented to the National Conservatism Conference as an expert on "manhood," Josh Hawley blamed feminism for driving men to pornography and video games.  I was wondering why all the sudden interest in porn.  It's only going to get worse when Greg Abbott ends all rape in Texas.  

The names of the twelve jurors who convicted Derek Chauvin of murdering George Floyd have been made public.  If you're having trouble with your social media accounts today, be patient:  Servers are expected to crash under the volume of death threats.

Russia is being inundated by a fourth wave of covid, logging 1,100 deaths a day.  And Putin pretends to be a dictator.  Stalin would have made sure people distanced, wore masks and got vaccinated, or shot them in the back of the neck.  The man cared.

A poll by the Public Religion Research Institute found that three out of ten Republicans agree:  "True American patriots may have to resort to violence in order to save our country."  If that's how the question was phrased, I'm not surprised.  

Today's Big Brass Balls award goes to Joe Manchin, who says Democrats should "stop playing games" on what's left of the infrastructure bill.  Remind me, someone, which guy named Joe did eighty-one million of us vote for?

It's too early to relax but Trump and his mob seem to be gearing up for a Terry McAuliffe victory tomorrow in Virginia, trotting out the usual lies about election fraud.  They're already in court claiming that absentee ballots were improperly accepted in Fairfax County, where Black people have actually had the vote since 1965.

In an FEC filing the Lauren Boebert campaign identified her as a representative of Utah.  Look out, Mitt, she's a-gunnin' for ya.  Literally.