Catching our breath

 Some week -- Pat Robertson dead, James Watt dead (for you youngsters, he was Reagan's Interior Secretary and the worst until Ryan Zinke), Chuck Todd leaving the Sunday Republican Talking Points Hour a/k/a Meet the Press, Chris Licht evicted from CNN after trying to turn it into Fox Lite, and an indictment connected to the Ken Paxton case, real estate developer Nate Paul accused of bribing the former Texas AG.  That's a lot to take in, and maybe you missed a few:

Disney's new The Little Mermaid is a flop in China, where audiences apparently will not accept a Black actress as a mermaid.  Who knew there was racism in China?

If you thought Jacob Rees-Mogg was unbearable before, wait.  Boris Johnson put him up for a knighthood.  

Margie Greene took up Chris Wray's offer to read The Document at a Justice Department SCIF (that's Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility).  Then the idiot went on Girl Talk with Laura Ingraham and admitted to making notes, which she held up in case there was any doubt.  It's not enough to break the law, Trumpanzees have to boast about it in public.  She said "all America" should be allowed to see it but stopped short of repeating what she had read, because even Bill Barr has admitted it contains nothing actionable.  And the "who cares if it's real?" conspiracy tour continues.

Speaking of Barr, the former attorney general really let Trump have it on CBS Mornings on Tuesday.  He described his former boss as "manic and unreasonable" in the days before the January 6 coup attempt, a narcissist who "repels people other than his core base."  But would Barr vote for him again, asked Gayle King?  Calling neither Biden nor Trump "fit for the office," Barr averred that yup, he sure would.  And so would every other Republican, maybe excepting outliers like Romney or Liz Cheney.  It was a party, then a cult, and now it's a criminal conspiracy. 

In other "Yeah, I did it, whaddaya gonna do about it?" news, Susan Lorincz, who shot Ajike Owens because Owens rang her doorbell, acknowledged calling Owens's children "the n word" and telling them, "Get away from my house, you Black slave" in the months before the shooting.  On the night she killed Owens, Lorincz had a headache.  It's not much of a defense.  (The Owens family is represented by Benjamin Crump, the busiest attorney in America.)

Smoke from wildfires in Canada is being noticed as far away as Norway.  The air in New York is so bad, Brooklyn may as well be on fire.  Those climate change hoaxers deserve an Oscar for special effects.

Trump has to turn himself in on Tuesday to face various charges like conspiracy and violating the Espionage Act and Clay Higgins (R-LA) is REPORTING FOR DUTY.  The January 6 terrorist, who likes to play soldier, tweeted:  "This is a perimeter probe from the oppressors.  Hold.  rPOTUS has this.  Buckle up.  1/50K know your bridges.  Rock steady calm.  That is all."  But is confidence high?  Higgins has never been in the real military, but he pretended he was, in a series of police jobs before being fired for displaying excessive racist zeal even for Louisiana.  Some people think we should take his Turner Diary blather seriously.  What do you think?

In a few moments Jack Smith will hold his first press conference.  I have never heard his voice.