Apparently failure IS an option

 

The Russian air force accidentally bombed the city of Belgorod, just across the border from Ukraine.  Sorry, but close only counts in horseshoes.  At least ten Russian planes have malfunctioned and crashed inside Russia; last October one of them hit an apartment building and killed fifteen people.

In a warmup for next year, rightwing book-banners have been defeated in school board elections across Illinois and Wisconsin.  Usually such elections attract little attention but people are genuinely alarmed by PEN America's report on the growth of censorship in the US.  

Montana usually seems as if it should have been left as empty space between the US and Canada, but some voters there elected a trans woman, Zooey Zephyr, to the state House of Representatives.  She recently said the legislature would have "blood on its hands" if it passed a bill to deny gender-affirming care to youth.  The speaker decided this would be a good excuse to keep her from being recognized:  "It is up to me...to protect dignity and integrity" on the House floor, said Matt Regier.  "Hate-filled testimony has no place on the House floor," Freedom Caucuser Caleb Hinkle chimed in, with a straight face I'm sure.  So Zephyr can't speak until "he" apologizes.  Can you feel the dignity?  And of course thousands of Montanans will have no representation.  Democracy Republican-style staggers on.

Over in Minnesota the Republican minority amuse themselves by proposing idiotic laws that have no chance, and this week they dialed it up to eleven.  Nathan Wesenberg admitted he calls 911 to waste police time by reporting drag performances and John Petersburg doesn't want weed legalized because it's bad for you "like sugar."  But the winner was fashion icon Eric Lucero...

...who's concerned that tax money not be spent on "pictures, plays, sculptures, or any other type of art" which could be used to "channel the occult."  See, a bunch of them Theosophists was raisin' the devil.  Had him about five feet off the ground...Sorry, I thought it was a Firesign Theater bit.

The Supreme Court ruling in Dobbs is turning out to be the least popular in at least a century -- Republicans from Tim Scott to Mitch McConnell to Trump Himself are edging away from it, and even Ron DeSantis signed a six-week abortion ban while wearing a Groucho disguise -- and today the same court continued its block of the mifepristone ban by Trump-appointed Judge Kacsmaryk in Texas.  Not surprisingly, Kacsmaryk also has interesting views on the "homosexual agenda" expressed in an interview with a religious radio show, which he forgot to mention at his confirmation hearing.  What is it about the Senate Judiciary Committee that causes situational amnesia in reactionaries?

May Golan calls herself "a proud racist" who has insulted African refugees in Israel in disgusting terms, so Benjamin Netanyahu has appointed her Israeli consul in New York.  The Likud Party says she earned the job through her excellent command of English.  Any resemblance to Abba Eban ends there.  I don't know about New York -- does Israel have a consulate in Rome, Georgia?

If it passes the Texas Senate, and why wouldn't it, SB 1515 would require the Ten Commandments be posted in big letters in every classroom and time set aside every day for students to (be forced to) read the Bible and pray.  That should stop all the shootings.

With Democrats firmly in control of Michigan for the first time in four decades, some insultingly dumb laws are being repealed.  Did you know it's currently illegal for unmarried couples to cohabit?  Has been since 1931 and will continue to be if Republicans have anything to say (not much).  Two weeks ago they revoked another 1931 law -- what the hell was going on then besides the Great Depression? -- which criminalized abortion, no exceptions.   The tyranny of Gretchen Whitmer continues.

In case Republicans try to deny that they hate democracy, remind them that attorney/fundraiser Cleta Mitchell is on the road advising them about ways to suppress voting in 2024 by attacking same-day registration, early voting and especially making it possible for college students to vote on campus.  In the Jim Crow states, Black people who got that far would be sent away from the polls if they failed to construe a portion of the state constitution, or translate a passage of Latin, or in some cases correctly guess the number of beans in a jar.  So there are still options short of violence which Ms. Mitchell hasn't thought of. 

Not content with being "your retribution" for angry, uneducated white people, Trump is promising to be "your justice, too" -- "for those who have been wronged and betrayed."  Stephen Miller isn't even sugarcoating the fascism anymore.  "Obliterate," "banish," "drive out," "rout," everything but "stab in the back."  It's like Oswald Mosley filtered through a song by the Sex Pistols.

The enormous SpaceX rocket didn't just blow up yesterday, it blew up its entire launch pad.  Maybe 420 is not as lucky as Elon Musk thinks.

From today's Washington Post:  "Dear Miss Manners:  Is it rude to turn off the light while the cat is eating?"  There's always someone with bigger problems than yours.