Today is another day

Even a natural pessimist like me has to acknowledge that sometimes if you just wait twenty-four hours, the weather can change.

Matt Gaetz, the man you instinctively move away from in the grocery store, was riding high at the "student action summit" of Turning Point USA in Tampa, talking up Christian theocracy and calling women who support choice ugly (while sharing a platform with Empty Greene -- go figure).  He abused Houston activist Olivia Julianna by name as too fat to impregnate and "odious from the inside out."  Then he made the mistake of calling out Mike Pence.  This drew the ire of Pence's former chief of staff Marc Short:  "I don't know if Mike Pence will run for president in 2024 but I don't think Matt Gaetz will have an impact on that.  In fact, I'd be surprised if he's still voting.  It's more likely he'll be in prison for child-trafficking by 2024...I'm actually surprised the Florida law enforcement still allows him to speak to teenage conferences."  Words, if sharp ones -- Short seems a lot more alert than Pence.  The best revenge, though, was Olivia Julianna's:  The 19-year-old raised $200,000 for her Gen Z For Change in about a day.  

Remember OAN star Alison Steinberg?  No?  Here are a few reminders:  She abused a Starbucks employee who asked her to wear a (legally mandated) mask.  She thought it was hilarious when Anthony Fauci and Joe Biden got covid.  She demanded that Huntington Beach, California, pull down its "disgraceful" Pride Flag.  She calls Disney employees "pedophiles."  She hates fat women, though apparently not fat men like Trump.  She says vaccines are "poison."  She calls liberals "sick demons who thrive on the thought of death."  But now, with OAN circling the drain, she has called on us sick demons to join hands and Fight the Power:  "It is absolutely crucial that for once we defy the powers that be, we all come together, set aside our differences in a united effort."  Because without OAN Alison will be the barista asking some asshole to put on a mask.  Voltaire is supposed to have said, "I don't agree with what you say but I will fight to the death for your right to say it," or some such.  Well, Voltaire died in 1778.   Go and do likewise, OAN.

Olivia Julianna, meet Addison Gardner.  "I play varsity volleyball and I run track.  My education is very important to me and I plan on doing great things in life.  If a man decides that I'm an object and does unspeakable, tragic things to me, am I, a child, supposed to carry and birth another child?  Am I to put my body through the physical trauma of pregnancy?...Some here say they are pro-life.  What about my life?  Does my life not matter to you?"  Addison, who is twelve, addressed those words to the West Virginia House as they contemplate yet another insane forced-birth bill.  The children are way out in front on this and she will do great things, probably not in West Virginia.

Possibly in Seattle, which voted to become a sanctuary city for women seeking abortion and the doctors who care for them.  Already Washington, Oregon and California have said they will not extradite those facing criminal prosecution for fleeing hellholes like Oklahoma and Texas for the procedure.  Legal protection could also be extended to those seeking gender-affirming care.  The Opus Dei Court will have to do some Astaire-level dancing to overturn these laws while maintaining its reactionary support for states' rights.

Hulu abruptly changed its policy and will accept political ads from Democrats after all.  I have no way of knowing but I'd guess the change wasn't brought about by death threats and intimidation.  But if it was, well done!

Will there be a debate between Herschel Walker and Senator Raphael Warnock?  I can't sleep for wondering.  Brian Kilmeade put the question this morning and Walker responded, "Senator Warnock has nothing else to talk about.  He don't want to talk about the high gas prices, he don't want to talk about high groceries," he don't want to talk about Georgia's lack of English teachers neither.  "I'm ready to debate him any time, any day, I just want to make it for the fans [sic], not about a political party or some media...I want to make it a fair and equal debate for the people."  And on he rambled, about the moderator and how he doesn't want to see men in women's sports and how Warnock voted for "the crime," and even with Kilmeade's help it didn't get any farther than that.  WE MUST HAVE THIS DEBATE.  You know, for the fans.

Of course it's much uglier in Pennsylvania where Christian nationalist Doug Mastriano will reclaim the Dominion for Jesus as soon as he finishes off "Soros puppet" Josh Shapiro.  I have barely scratched the surface, although my surface now needs a Karen Silkwood shower.  At least they have Mehmet "huntin' and fishin'" Oz for comic relief.  If Oz were a real doctor he wouldn't question John Fetterman's fitness because he is recovering from a stroke.  But then he probably wouldn't be running, either.

Yesterday the House of Representatives ("We get shit done") passed the Frederick Douglass Trafficking Victims Prevention and Protection Reauthorization Act despite twenty Republican votes.  Oh, look!  One of them was Matt Gaetz!  Daily Kos has a list of others who support human trafficking and it's your basic Sedition Caucus.  

I almost forgot.  Trump went to Washington to make a speech and it was grimly amusing.  He wants to give drug dealers two-hour trials and then execute them, didn't specify firing squad or guillotine but he's very enthusiastic about the way they do things in China, for once.  He wants to move the unsightly homeless out of cities where they bring down the tone of the neighborhoods and dump them on waste land beyond city limits (barbed wire fences optional) where they can "get their life back on track."  He wants to put the National Guard in charge of majority Black crime-ridden cities currently run by Democrats.  And our hero police should be unleashed without having to worry about bleeding-heart politicians or laws or any of that guff.  (He loves the police, just not the Capitol Police so much.  Crisis actors.)  "There is no longer respect for the law," he complained, and then went home to rage about former staffers who respond to subpoenas.

Anyway, Junior's coke dealer:  You're on notice.

This just in:  Trump wants to sue CNN and literally hundreds of other media who have called him a liar.  All across the country civil court judges reach into the bottom drawer for the Jim Beam.  Don't do it, Donzo, look what Judge William Bertelsman just did to Nicholas Sandmann.

Addison Gardner, you are our future.