Limited rapture

 You can please some of the people some of the time, as Lincoln didn't say, and that's certainly true of Americans on the cusp of a second civil war.  A one-shot cure for cancer, Alzheimer's and the common cold would be denounced by some grinch because it cost too much to develop, or required experimentation on animals, or made some people's hair fall out.  This may always have been true -- when Neil Armstrong stepped on the moon somebody was grumbling that the money should have been spent on housing the homeless -- but in the time of social media and 24-hour news they tell us about it faster and louder.  Let us have our moment, all right?  You heartless bastards.

Brittney Griner is coming home from a Siberian prison camp that probably hasn't changed since the time of Solzhenitsyn, if not Dostoevsky.  How can this be bad?  I'm glad you asked.  

She was swapped for Viktor Bout, piece of shit arms dealer and Putin fan.  Keeping him in prison would not end the trade in illegal weapons in Baltimore, much less the world.  He's been in US custody since 2008, so it's unlikely his connections in the arms trade are still of use to anyone.  The motherland is welcome to him.

Paul Whelan is still in prison; apparently we don't have another arms dealer or drug dealer or human trafficker the Russians will take for him.  Maybe after Jack Smith starts dropping indictments...

The swap was accomplished by Joe Biden, Antony Blinken and the State Department.  Like all the administration's accomplishments it enraged the howler monkeys of the right, especially King Monkey.  Trump is already on record calling Griner "a potentially spoiled person" (?) who "makes a lot of money, I guess," repeating the phrase "loaded up on drugs" in his demented way.  Trump insists that Bout "killed many Americans.  Killed many people."  This is the same Trump who signed off on releasing five thousand Taliban and saddling the new administration with an ugly withdrawal from Afghanistan.  Not to mention an ugly future for the people who have to live there. 

"Why do I have a feeling if President Trump were in office, it would have been handled so much better?" said "Governor" Kari Lake when asked about Griner.  If she were Griner, "I would say, 'You know what, let me stay a bit longer...Let's see if we can find something a little bit more level.'"  Sure you would, honey.  Hey, it's borscht Thursday!  I don't want to miss that.  Kari, we already have sore losers piping up with their ill-formed opinions every day, nobody wants yours.  I can't wait until the more unhinged racists and haters at Fox start sharing tonight.  Actually, yes, I can.  We all know Trump makes the best deals.  So why didn't he use his shrewdness and his warm relations with Putin to get Whelan released when he was arrested in 2018?  

In short, welcome home, Brittney.  Ignore them.  You and Cherelle have a damn fine holiday.

On a totally related note, the House has passed the Respect for Marriage Act requiring federal and state governments to recognize same-sex and interracial marriages.  The vote was 258-169 because 39 Republicans voted with all the Democrats.  Nancy Pelosi calls it "a glorious triumph of love, of freedom and of dignity for all."  And a raised middle finger for Shecky Alito and his Opus Dei cabal.  The bill awaits only Joseph R.'s signature.

It's nearly as satisfying that state Rep. Joseph Harding, who wrote Florida's infamous "Don't Say Gay" law, has been indicted on six counts of wire fraud and money laundering for helping himself to SBA covid relief money.  He must be a disciple of Rick Scott. 

Another Florida man, Chad Mason, decided to make a day of it.  He's accused of damaging a church Nativity display and trying to steal a car.  Oh, and sexually abusing a dog before a horrified crowd.  This is why "Florida Man" has become an epithet.

That would change if there were more Floridians like Rep.-elect Maxwell Frost, who will become the youngest member of Congress next month if he can find a place to live.  He was denied a rental apartment in Washington's Navy Yard district because of bad credit (he's been working as an Uber driver).  He'll be making $174,000 a year as a Congressman, enough for a $2,600 studio apartment in DC.  Did he mention that to the rental agency?

Of the thousands of children taken away from their parents at the southern border, the Biden administration says 120 have not been reunited.  Sounds impeachable.

Isn't Trump supposed to be chaperoned at all times to prevent further PR disasters like His Dinner with Kanye?  So how did QAnon Qrazy Liz Crokin, who (among other things) is still promoting the Comet Ping Pong idiocy known as Pizzagate, slip past the guards?  Oh, I see, she brought totally sane Michael Flynn to Mar a Lago, where Trump just happened to stop by.  Another Wednesday night in Florida.

John Hurt didn't wear that much makeup in The Elephant Man.