Congress is like a drunk dad watching as his sugar-crazed rug monkey tips over a display of Easter treats at an understaffed Walmart, wondering whether he should deal harshly with the little shit, blame it on the ex, or just hit the door running.
And no, we did not watch last night’s episode of “The Worst Wing.” I use the word “episode” in its medical sense, “an occurrence of a usually recurrent pathological abnormal condition.”
No, instead we watched the new Robert De Niro vehicle, “Zero Day,” in which the smart Black lady is president. (In this instance, Art does not imitate Life.)
But at least I didn’t already know what was going to happen in “Zero Day.”
You didn’t have to be Nostradamus to call the play on Zero’s Day in DeeCee.
Zero was going to rave like a poorly raised toddler. The Repugs were going to find it all oh-so-cute. And the Donks were going to be as bold, decisive and effective as a Walmart shopper, watching the kid step out of his overflowing diaper in the produce section as dad idly thumbs his phone, and thinking, “Somebody really should do something.”
Yes, somebody should. We’re still waiting.
I’m not picking on Rep. Melanie Stansbury here. I’ve met her. I like her. But god damn, etc.
You don’t derail the Dingaling Bros-Barnum & Beelzebozo Circus train by standing on the tracks holding a tiny sign, like Wile E. Coyote. What you get there is run the fuck over. Take it from a guy who knows what it feels like to get hit by a locomotive.
Mad Blog Media 
Oh, that’s why I heard the calliope music and smelled popcorn last night. The buffoon fired up his red tie clown suit last night and spoke down to the masses. I suppose my dayglow pink Walther PPK paper cutout would have been an inappropriate hand sign. “Don’t worry JV, you’ll get your sign pointing too.”
No, I don’t listen to shit spewed from a ruptured septic tank. My time was better spent conversing with acquaintances I have who voted with clouded minds, engaging with them about the need in the not too distant future for proper “we the people” tripartite government leadership.
I listened to and watched a different old white guy last night. A man who has made a real difference in the world for people of all ages and from all places, David Attenborough. A real human being, not a wanna be.
Good man y’self. Today, after two days of inactivity due to weather and chores, I finally got out for a 20-miler on the ol’ two-wheeler and feel much better as a consequence. I was starting to get a wee bit twitchy.
Now, of course, the weather is set to turn on us again. Friggin’ wind-blown sand. We’re all good and tired of the free skin peels.
Went to Kartchener Caverns State Park today for the Big Room Tour. Haven’t done it in about ten years. Plus, the Ranger guiding the tour was our friend Charles who was the bass player in our short lived group. He was a natural for the job and did an excellent job.
The Nature episode we watched was this one.
https://www.pbs.org/video/attenboroughs-life-journey-z2tyb3/
I was at one of our scavenger shacks a while back and picked up the complete Planet Earth series for a song. I never did see much of the series when it came out so one of these days when the late evenings allow, I’ll kick back and enjoy the passion and ebullience of Sir Attenborough.
What should the Dems do?
I took some heart from Carville’s Sunday NYT piece; nothing to do just now but watch the Repugs and the Lyin’ King bring more chaos on the middle- and lower-classes. Then maybe they’ll see the light. Maybe.
The Dems in Congress should shut the government down. No spending. Dump it in Trump’s lap. In his last term spending and debt went up all 4 years. Remind. his voters of that and. expose the DOGE lies that are well documented in a variety of sources. They should go on Fox news and explain it in simple English. Dare the spinners there to put up some facts, shut up, or start telling the truth. Show down time.
Donks should also give voters a laundry list of solid reasons for voting Donk. They’ve allowed the other side to caricature them as clueless whackos, when it should be crystal-clear who the real dingbats are.
The party’s women seem to be making solid arguments for returning to kitchen-table issues. There’s Gov. Maura Healy of Massachusetts, who says “there was a perception that leaders within the Democratic Party were not actually seeing and feeling people’s pain. … that they just didn’t have their finger on the pulse, that they’re talking about issues that weren’t bread-and-butter core economic issues that resonate. They allowed themselves in some ways to be caricatured as only caring about X, Y and Z issue. Which isn’t true, by the way.”
Another is Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), who delivered a much-criticized rebuttal to Jesus Hitler’s jabbering. She argues for what The Atlantic‘s Tim Alberta described as “the economic security of everyday Americans.”
Writes Alberta:
“Slotkin argues that the surest way to heal the country — to defuse identitarian struggles, pacify the culture wars, uncoil our hypertense politics — is by restoring the confidence of working families. When people feel assured of their financial welfare and of their children’s future, she insists, they become far less receptive to the type of strongman demagoguery that thrives on scapegoats and feasts on anxiety.”
In other words, performance, not posturing. Every time Beelzebozo farts I’ve got a dozen Donks squeaking for money in my in-box or on my phone. It ain’t money that’s the problem — it’s messaging. And doing what you say you’re going to do.
Biden was a poor salesman of his own successes, and he should have kept his promise to be a one-term prez, a bridge to the next generation of leadership. The first time he balked, the party should have called him on it. “Thanks for your service, but it’s time to think about how we can win the next few elections and get some more stuff done.”
Meanwhile, here’s Charlie Pierce on the 10 Democrats who joined Republicans in censuring Rep. Al Green of Texas for heckling Beelzebozo: