Let's see what's in the papers

 A couple days ago I was wondering what so engrossed Rep. Katie Porter as she waited out the chaos to cast another vote for Hakeem Jeffries.

Brilliant choice.  I'm not familiar with Mark Manson's The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck but it's Number 19 on Amazon's best-seller list, two slots ahead of the current John Grisham.  Today Rep. Porter announced that she's running for the Senate seat currently held by Dianne Feinstein.  Feinstein hasn't exactly retired but she stepped down as chair of the Judiciary Committee and took herself out of the running for president pro tempore.  The Senate needs Katie and her whiteboard.

Here she is pushing for restoring the IRS to pre-2010 staffing levels, one of the first targets of the MAGA Mob a/k/a the 118th Congress.  I am so surprised.

Satellites -- boy, no secrets from them.  China says it has covid under control but the eye in the sky shows unusual crowds (and even new parking lots) at Chinese crematoriums.  Nevertheless China promises to "retaliate" against Japan, South Korea and any other country which requires negative tests of Chinese travelers.  They still think a public health crisis can be solved by threats, saving face instead of saving lives.

In other covid news, it seems that Diamonds are not forever.  Passionate anti-vaxer and Trump worshiper Lynette Hardaway a/k/a Diamond of the Diamond and Silk duo, has died aged about 51.  No one will admit it was covid; the pair were fired two years ago for being too unhinged even for Fox News, which they blamed on racism.  "Probably her big and precious HEART just plain gave out," wrote the laird of Mar a Lago.  Don't read the rest if you're thinking about lunch.

On January 6, 2021, a date which will live in infamy, the Speaker of the House had a conversation with the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff which went something like this:  Speaker:  You know he's crazy, don't you?  Chairman:  That's right.  The subject of their talk was the President whose followers were attacking the Capitol in an effort to prevent the certification of the election.  Nancy Pelosi wanted Mark Milley to assure her that crazy Trump would not involve the military in his sweaty fantasy of clinging to power.  Their talk was far from secret:  the Speaker described it the next day and it's documented in the Report of the House Select Committee.  But the interstellar cockroach occupying the skin of the unfortunate dentist Paul Gosar has a different slant on that conversation, hissing tweeting:  "Milleys [sic] treasonous sell out to China will be investigated.  Pelosi not warning members about intel of impending violence will be exposed.  Soon, we'll know the truth."  Not forgetting the Rothschilds and their space lasers, I would imagine.  Strap in, the next two years will be spent in Cloud-Cuckoo-land.

Bert's Books of Swindon.  British bookshops are cool.

Here's something the Mob can investigate:  Mel Gibson cancelled!  The racist, homophobic, antisemitic actor was dropped from riding with the Krewe of Endymion as co-Grand Marshal of next month's Mardi Gras parade.  (Why was he invited in the first place?  How do I know?)  "Fucking Jews.  The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world," he told the officer who arrested him for driving drunk in 2006, not realizing that the Jews also control Mardi Gras.

Hey, what's a gal gotta do to get suspended from the new Muskified Twitter?  Post a self-praising video with music she stole from Dr. Dre.  I'm reliably told that it was perfectly awful but it disappeared like a fart in a hurricane, presumably at the insistence of the Doctor's lawyers.  "I don't license my music to politicians, especially someone as divisive and hateful as this one," said Dre.  Is that any way to talk about Margie Greene as she stalks the Capitol -- in slow motion -- while threatening, "It's time to begin, and they can't stop what's coming."  She should have gone with "Tomorrow Belongs To Me," though Kander and Ebb probably have some ferocious lawyers, too.  What is it with the Law and Order party and its persistent flouting of copyright law?  Trump has ripped off everybody but Jello Biafra.

In its sneaky subversive way C-SPAN was the star of last week's House slapstick, deploying its own cameras to show the private chats and deal-making as well as the brawling.  It was just beginning to draw an audience -- "Hey, there's nobody talking over the speakers -- and no commercials!" when the new "leadership" ordered it to go back to a single camera focused on whoever is making a speech.  Maybe they do have a vestigial sense of shame.  So if Chip Roy is reading Spare on the taxpayers' time, we'll never know.

Oh, no!  Guess who just got a subpoena from Jack Smith.