Topic of cancer

 When this vile disease makes the news it's seldom for a good reason.  "Ground-breaking study proves chocolate can shrink tumors" would be a good reason.  That's not the news.

The news release said, "After several days of tests, I have been diagnosed with Diffuse Large B Cell Lymphoma, which is a serious but curable form of cancer.  Prognosis...is excellent after four months of treatment."  Jamie Raskin, of all people, who survived colon cancer twelve years ago and who, by any measure, has had enough grief in his life (his son committed suicide just before the January 6 coup in 2021).  "I am advised that [chemotherapy] also causes hair loss and weight gain (although I am still holding out hope for the kind that causes hair gain and weight loss)," he added because he is a very old and great spirit.  Be well, the House and the country need you more desperately than ever.

Greg Bretz of Kansas is not doing so well.  He has terminal inoperable cancer in Hays Medical Center, where he used THC paste and a vaping device to cope with the symptoms, with the approval of his doctor.  I say "used" because the police (three of them) came to his room and took the drug apparatus away, acting on a tip from a hospital snitch.  So Mr. Bretz, 69, is bedridden, dying, and had a court date for January 2 until publicity shamed them into voiding the arrest.  I hope they gave back his drugs.  The power of the press, in this case the Wichita Eagle.

From grim to goofy:  "George Santos" is making news again for foolery like this:

That's right, he lost his mother on 9/11 and again on 12/23.  Unless she's still alive but too embarrassed to show herself in public.  This guy never saw a tragedy he didn't want to own:  the Holocaust that somehow threatened his grandparents in Brazil; the financial crisis that made his parents withdraw him from Horace Mann Prep, where they never heard of him; the four alleged employees who allegedly died in the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando.  I wouldn't be surprised if he had a great-aunt on the Titanic and also the Lusitania.  There's a tweet where he calls himself "biracial," so he may be one of Herschel Walker's stray sons.  And he may not even be an American citizen, which is the only thing that might keep him from joining the Republican caucus.  Tune in tomorrow for The Further Adventures of Congressman Munchausen.

Elsewhere in the party of Honest Abe, Kristi Noem just has to run for president.  The South Dakota governor's staff gave her a Pulsefire LRT flamethrower for Christmas and she was like a kid, proudly showing off by burning some rubbish.  Meanwhile on the Rosebud and Pine Ridge Sioux reservations people were burning other things to keep warm when a blizzard stopped propane deliveries and firewood ran out.  A twelve-year-old girl died because she did not receive medical treatment.  But is that a cool present or what?

Former fake Democrat Tulsi Gabbard now works for fake news outlet Fox News, where she interviewed George Santos and acted outraged by his outrageous lies.  "Do you have no shame?" she asked.  This displeased Margie Greene, who doesn't like it when people use words she has to look up, like "shame."  (Actually she makes her staff do it.)  She thinks Santos deserves "grace" for all the apologizing and clarifying he's doing night and day.  You two discuss it, I have to make more popcorn.

 

 Last month Officer Gregory Damon apparently found it necessary to drag this handcuffed woman across the floor of the Orient Road Jail in Tampa.  To be fair, she refused to get out of his car and said, "I want you to drag me," no doubt planning a future lawsuit.  Officer Damon was there to serve and protect, so he obliged.  And now he's been fired.  Are there no police unions?  Are there no lawyers?

Never mind.  I'm sure Governissimo DeSantis will find a place for Damon, just as he did for Jared Smith.  Smith was voted out as a Hillsborough County judge when he ruled a teenager could not get an abortion because her parents disapproved and her grades were too low.  Now he's on the brand-new Sixth District Court of Appeal, where he can continue to share his wisdom.  Maybe Damon would like to be the governissimo's head of security and leave the actual dragging to his staff.

Another woman has written something Trump can spend the rest of the year screaming about.  Carol Leonnig's I Alone Can Fix It:  Donald J. Trump's Catastrophic Final Year (written with Philip Rucker) picks up where her history of the Secret Service ended.   Many people are saying that Joe Biden does not trust the agents detailed to protect him and is careful what he says within earshot of them.  How could this be?  Maybe the old man is a lot sharper than his foes, and even some of his friends, give him credit for.  Leonnig says too many of them are "very, very close" to the would-be usurper, especially their boss Anthony Ornato.  There are questions about the "accident" involving Vice-President Harris's motorcade in October and even about an agent's claim to have been bitten by Biden's dog Major.  On MSNBC Leonnig confirmed the story of Mike Pence's suspicions on January 6 and refusal to get into the car lest his "protectors" prevent him from completing the electoral count.  The necessary housecleaning would have to be done by the Department of Homeland Security, which explains why the Trumpers want to keep Alejandro Mayorkas busy with a bullshit impeachment.

Brazil and much of the earth is in mourning today.  Pele has died at age 82.  Cancer.