Then they came for the butterflies...

Catching up on some of the stuff no one could make up.

The National Butterfly Center is a private preserve near Mission, Texas, in the Rio Grande Valley.  It's home to over 200 species of butterfly and many native plants.  You can't go there because it is closed due to insanity.  In 2017 the Center sued the federal government to prevent the construction of WALL and has been the target of QAnon harassment ever since.  The center and its director have been subjected to threats and slander because a few loons decided it's being used for child trafficking; the violence escalated after the MAGAt rally in Mission last week.  Needless to say WALL-grifter Brian Kolfage is involved.  Here's one in the meantime.

 

 

Those of us who think the Super Bowl takes up too much oxygen got a couple of late Christmas presents this year.  First the NFL was revealed to be a bunch of short-fingered profiteers when Taja Riley went public on behalf of the unpaid "volunteers" who dance in the half-time show.  The stars traditionally appear for "exposure," i.e., the opportunity to sell millions of units of however songs get sold these days, but that does the dancers no good.  They're professionals, they rehearse for weeks, and nobody even learns their names.  A thirty-second commercial on this greedfest costs $5.6 million.

It gets uglier.  Brian Flores, the coach who led the Dolphins to three winning seasons before being fired, filed suit against the league and the Dolphins, Giants and Broncos alleging racism in hiring.  No surprises there -- at present there is exactly one Black head coach in the NFL.  Worse, Flores says there is widespread "tanking," where owners order coaches to throw games to improve their draft position.  This was confirmed by Hue Jackson, former head coach of the Browns.  The timing couldn't be worse:  the NFL was in the middle of congratulating itself on the new, non-racist name of the Washington Commanders and treating the retirement of Tom Brady as a combination of George Washington's farewell to the troops and Lou Gehrig Day in Yankee Stadium.  My eyes remain dry.

Misconduct allegations against Commanders owner Daniel Snyder have reached the point of investigation by Congress.  Snyder calls himself "a hands-off owner" but a different story is told by former female employees.  Democrats on the House Oversight Committee are trying to get the league to publicize a report of its internal investigation; Republicans support sexual harassment by powerful men.  I assume.

As the right continues its war on K-12, it's harder to get a college education, too.  To mark the start of Black History Month, the FBI says a half-dozen "tech-savvy juveniles" scattered across the country have been making bomb threats to Howard University, Morgan State and several other HBCUs, resulting in cancelled classes and locked-down campuses.  On Tuesday a fire at a fertilizer plant in Winston-Salem caused the evacuation of Wake Forest University and surrounding neighborhoods.  Let's see, the last time we heard of North Carolina's infrastructure it was July 2021 and 850,000 gallons of raw sewage had just been spilled into the Catawba River.  Maybe someone should take a look at that, build it back better.

Aargh!  'Twon't be Talk Like a Pirate Day until September but passengers who booked vacations on Crystal Cruises are learning what it's like to flee the law.  Owing Peninsula Petroleum $4.6 million and avoiding an arrest warrant in Miami, the captain of the Crystal Symphony set sail for Bimini instead.  Crystal Serenity has followed in its wake, ferrying confused passengers from Bimini to Fort Lauderdale.  Bankruptcy looms, shipmates.

What's this?  A million users have closed their Facebook accounts?  Mark Zuckerberg lost $29 billion overnight?  Still dry-eyed.

Lauren Boebert got up to rant about the Mexican border or something, but wound up complaining that Mama -- uh, Speaker Pelosi -- wouldn't look at her.  Look at me!  Pay attention to me!  Could she be any more ludicrous?  Let the Speaker finish her sudoku, honey.

You need more ludicrous?  Empty Greene says she may run for president -- she didn't specify president of what -- and Alex Jones thinks it's a swell idea.  But who will Pillow Mike endorse?

The Republican line this week is that no Black woman could possibly be qualified to join heavy legal hitters like Brett the Boofer and Coathanger Amy on the Supreme Court, so anyone Joe Biden nominates must be the result of "affirmative action."  Someone asked Mitch McConnell how many Black women work for him (in the office, not house help) and he said he'd have to check.  Because he doesn't see race, you know.

Tennessee again.  This time a pastor in Mt. Juliet held an old-time book-burnin' for Tarot cards, ouija boards, Harry Potter and Twilight books and other "occult" material.  (J.K. Rowling could use some buffing up after she was slammed for expressing unpopular views on transgendered people.)  I hear somebody saw Goody Proctor dancing with the devil!  

Defense of the day:  January 6 rioter Brian Stenz told the FBI he mistook Sen. Jeff Merkley's office for the Capitol bookshop.  That's why he smashed the (unlocked) door, tore a framed Chinese scroll from the wall and left a Trump flag and a cigarette butt behind.  He couldn't find the biography of Daniel Webster he was looking for.

ERCOT is the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (not to be confused with ergot, the fungus that makes you hallucinate, or maybe it should).  Already this morning 70,000 customers in Texas have lost power because of a winter storm, exactly a year after the last winter storm.  Governor Abbott promised this wouldn't happen again!  Also, he blames crypto-miners.  And demons, I bet.

Oklahoma Trumpanzee Rob Standridge has a bill in the state senate to protect the sensibilities of the religious by fining teachers who mention evolution, race, sex or virtually anything else besides How Great America Is, Thank You, Jesus!  Do Oklahoma teachers have a union?  They need one.

Open borders, huh?  Inspectors seized 243 pounds of illegal bologna at El Paso last month.

Taliban fighters can no longer bring their guns to amusement parks.  That's right, Afghanistan now has more stringent gun laws than Florida.

And finally, news from around the bend:  Trump is now claiming the Democrats were staging a coup on January 6 by counting the electoral votes, and he sent orderly, peaceful patriots to stop them.  Also the Ukraine call was "perfect."  Also impeachment hoaxes.  He gets like this when it's too cold in Florida to cheat at golf.  Also why won't the radical leftist racists buy Melania's used clothing?  All right, I made that one up but I got you, didn't I?  "The lunatic is on the grass..."