When life gives you a lemon grove

 As he continues to recover in a Pennsylvania hospital Salman Rushdie may think the price is too high, but according to lithub.com his books are selling like crazy.  It's called spite-buying, as when Americans made The Satanic Verses a best-seller in 1988 just to stick it to the beardy old man with the crazy eyes.  The money Trump is raking in after the "assault" on Mar a Lago, now more destructive than Pearl Harbor, is another example of the same thing.

People who avoid hospitalization or death by a short course of Paxlovid nevertheless complain about the foul taste it leaves, known as dysgeusia.  "Grapefruit juice mixed with soap" and "like I chewed a bunch of vitamins" are among the descriptions given.  It's being seriously studied -- did you know the University of Florida has a Center for Smell and Taste? -- but Pfizer is missing an opportunity if they don't market it as an appetite suppressant.

"Facts are stupid things," said Ronald Reagan, John the Baptist to Trump's Messiah, and that's the best possible explanation for this little-reported story:  For reasons unknown, a Brooklyn realtor named Chaya Raichik decided to start a rumor that Boston Children's Hospital offers "'gender-affirming hysterectomies' for young girls."  That's all it takes.  Who knows?  Maybe Raichik once had a bad experience in the hospital cafeteria.  Despite being denied by the hospital and debunked by fact checkers, this lunacy took off.  "Long past time to start executing these 'doctors,'" wrote one Trumpanzee, while others in the herd chimed in with posts about "physcopaths" and "demons."  Even Stephen Miller -- yes, the Trump courtier -- put in an appearance.  If this was a blackmail scheme, Raichik is more inept than the Pirana brothers.  If not, she (?) needs a hobby.

In other news of the delusional, Mike Pence must be running for president.  Why else would anybody visit New Hampshire and Iowa?  Pence says he doesn't think he took any classified documents when he left office.  I very much doubt he had any.  He wants "unprecedented transparency" in the investigation of Trump's crimes, but he also defends the FBI.  Don't look now, Mike, but the fence you're trying to sit on is collapsing beneath you.

This is the future.  Luis Miguel is running for the Florida legislature on a platform of "Kill them all, Trump will know his own."  Miguel asserts that it is, or it should be, legal under state law to shoot federal agents because the Internal Revenue Service has been "weaponized by dissident forces."  That's just the beginning.  He also calls for the execution of the "traitor" Bill Gates because he supported the Inflation Reduction Act; a firing squad for Kurt Schwab, president of the World Economic Forum;  and Florida independence, which is fine with me.  Miguel is expected to get slaughtered himself in this week's primary.  He's been kicked off Twitter but not disavowed by the party.  Is any of this serious or is he trying to be the Onion's version of Ron DeSantis?  I guess we'll know on Tuesday.

"Hey, this guy's crazy!" -- Steve Bannon

What does it take to lose the love of the GQP?  Read about Proud Goy Jeffrey Perrine right here.  More than six thousand people wanted him in the California Assembly, which might be enough to get him on the board of the San Juan Unified School District.  San Juan?  Shouldn't that be Saint John?

Do you feel violated?  You should.  "My rights, together with the rights of all Americans, have been violated at a level rarely seen before in our Country," Trump whined on Ministry of Truth Social today, promising "a major motion pertaining to the Fourth Amendment."  Now who told him about that one?  University of Texas law professor Steve Vladek observes that it's "virtually impossible to sue federal law enforcement officers for even egregious violations of the Fourth Amendment" (thanks, SCOTUS).  When this "major motion" collapses, his very smart lawyers can invoke the Third Amendment, claiming that troops were "quartered" in his "beautiful home" for several hours on August 8. 

If you bought The Satanic Verses to raise a middle finger to this idiot and his fashion sense, Alyssa Rosenberg explains why you should read it this week.