News from all over

 All countries prepare to host the Olympic Games in their own way, hoping an infusion of tourist money will offset the expensive chaos and social dislocation of putting them on.  What they conceal is often more revealing than what they seek to promote.  In 1936 Germany took down its "Juden raus!" signs and suspended public arrests and beatings.  In 2014 Russia tried to exterminate all the stray cats and dogs in Sochi.  For 2024, Paris has informed its bouquinistes that most of their stalls will have to be dismantled and moved to accommodate the opening ceremony.  Open-air booksellers along the Seine have been a tradition for four centuries but now represent a threat to "security" as athletes and delegations sail down the river.  Already struggling after the covid lockdown, the gilets jaunes protests and this year's demonstrations over retirement age and the police killing of a teenager, some vendors say they will not survive further disruption.  For one night?

Wisecrack of the day:  "It is most likely that, by the time we get to the debate stage on August 23, the front-runner will be out on bail in four different jurisdictions," said Chris Christie on CNN.  The ex-governor may have been feeling giddy about the news that Murray and Lee Kushner, Jared Kushner's uncle and aunt, gave the maximum legal amount to his campaign, even though he put Murray's brother Charles away for tax fraud in 2004, when Christie was US attorney.  Thanksgiving at the Kushner house must be tense. 

And Christie might have added that none of the money he raises will be spent on his legal defense.  As opposed to Trump's Save America PAC, which has already shelled out $40 million this year for his and Walt Nauta's legal bills.  If he expected to claw any of it back through litigation, looks like that's a "no."  Judge Raag Singhal, a Trump appointee, has dismissed his $475 million defamation suit against CNN, while the Justice Department is no longer willing to pretend he was acting in an "official capacity" when he raped E. Jean Carroll.  The MAGAts will just have to dig deeper.  

Russia doesn't have hurricanes but it appears to have had one in Mari-El, on the northern bank of the Volga River.  High winds felled trees at a campsite on Lake Yalchik, leaving eight people dead and injuring another ten.  

Some buildings were also damaged in Moscow but that was most likely caused by drones.

It's no surprise that Florida universities are struggling to fill full-time positions, as academics seek refuge in civilized states.  It's also no surprise that organizations are choosing to hold conventions elsewhere.  Have you heard about the return of leprosy?  Twenty percent of the nation's reported cases are in central Florida and the CDC can't figure out how people are being infected.  It's known to be present in armadillos but most people avoid them. 

 

Armadillo.  Avoid.

The House of Reprehensibles continues to swirl in the cosmic vortex.  Nancy Mace (SC) is a multitasker, dividing her time between hurling unsubstantiated charges of Biden corruption and showing up at prayer breakfasts (Tim Scott's, thank you very much and amen) where she regales the evangelicals with tales of how she gave up hot hot morning sex with her fiancee to eat Pop-Tarts with them.  She's 45 and has been married twice, so it's not like she's violating her purity vow (is that still a thing?).  Still, it got her noticed, not easy with this Congress.  ("Congress" is an old-time expression for doing the naughty, by the way.)  

But her adventures were superseded by Derrick Van Orden (WI), who found a group of pages dozing in the Rotunda during a late-night session and lost his cheese:  "Wake the fuck up, you little shits!  What the fuck are you all doing?  Get the fuck out of here!  You are defiling the space, you pieces of shit!"  He was unimpressed when one explained that they were Senate pages -- the House no longer has pages, maybe because of Denny Hastert.  When questioned about his outburst, Van Orden explained that the Rotunda was used as a field hospital during the Civil War and is therefore a "symbol of sacrifice."  Much more recently, National Guards bedded down in the Rotunda on January 6-7, 2021, after clearing the building of the mob sent by Trump to obstruct the Electoral College vote count.  Van Orden is not so impressed by their service, I'm betting.

Van Orden takes a selfie to confirm that he exists.