i'm rubber, you are glue

       The spectacle of right wing media melting down over NBC's decision to fire Ronna McDaniel after feedback from their on air talent is delicious.   Jesse Watters calling NBC a political operation is particularly rich considering the 787 million dollar judgement his network had to payout to settle a libel judgement against FAUX news.

      McDaniel has been gaslighting the media in general and left leaning outfits like MSNBC in particular for years and she is an unrepenetent purveyor of the big lie.   It was a horrific lapse of judgement by the network.  At least the people that hired her had the grace to admit it was a stupid decision and the backbone to correct themselves.

Trading on the inside

      It seems there is a firestorm brewing at NBC in the wake of the network signing former RNC chairperson Ronna McDaniel as a commenter.   As Chuck Todd put it, after years of gaslighting and character assassination by McDaniel of journalists covering Republicans in the age of tRump, what exactly does she bring to the network?

      It's as if Fox News hired Katie Porter for regular appearances.  The MAGA hordes would rise up in indignation and probably boycott the network.  MSNBC has already said McDaniel is persona non grata on their programs.  This is an own goal on NBC's part,

What's wrong with we the people

        Paul Krugman's lament in the NYT this morning; "What's wrong with Ohio'', can just as easily refer to any state where a majority of working class white people vote for a political party that doesn't even pretend to address their economic interests.  Instead, transgender bathrooms and abortion bans are the order of the day.

       A glance at the House Republican budget is instructive.   Aside from using the word ''woke" 37 times, the document advocates raising the retirement age for social security purposes to 70 years and dismantling Obamacare.   this in the face of evidence the lifespan of the average person without a college degree is actually going down.   Many thousands of people under that scenario will die before ever collecting a dime from Social Security.  I guess they will die happy, knowing SNAP benefits will also be cut under the GOP plan and billionaires will probably snag another tax cut thanks to their sacrifice.

      Meanwhile, they seem to favor a former reality show star who has been judged a rapist, a fraudster and who is being tried as an insurrectionist.  The mind boggles.

A nation of immigrants

        Immigrants, especially the brown skinned ones crossing the southern border, are being vilified by the media, Republicans and some Democrats.  It's the same old same old.  The press plays up the lines at the border as a dire crisis, egged on by the GOP.  Democrats fall into the familiar defensive crouch.  

       The attacks come in two distinctive directions.   In the MAGA worldview, these immigrants are "poisoning the blood" of America and must be stopped.  The more orthodox Republican view is the migrants are taking jobs away from honest, hard working (i.e. white) Americans and must be stopped.

     It turns out neither view is correct.  Many spanish speaking immigrants have political views nearly identical to the MAGA crowd and will probably become reliable conservatives much like the Cubans have  over time.   Also, as Paul Krugman points out in today's NYT, the evidence overwhelmingly indicates that immigrants wind up doing jobs native born Americans won't do.   At the same time, this much younger cohort of foreign workers are contributing to medicare and social security, thereby pushing back the date where benefits will be cut.  

     For the most part, immigration is a win-win situation for Americans..   But as in previous generations, my Italian and Irish ancestors included, immigrants are targets of opportunity for demagogues.

The buying of a president

       For a mere half billion dollars, you too can own a president!   I have no doubt that pitch or something similar is being made to rich men and dictators around the world on behalf of Cheeto Jesus.   The reported addition of Paul Manafort to the tRump campaign is another indicator.  As the NY attorney general prepares to start seizing the tRump organizations assets if it cannot come up with a billion dollars or so to secure a bond for the amount of the judgement against tRump and his minions, the pressure builds on him to do anything to secure his legacy.

     Maybe Elon Musk would like a president who toadies to a rich and famous man.  Or maybe Kim Jong Un would come through for his dear friend.  Or a long list of national security risks who would demand a quid pro quo for any monetary help they might provide.  You get the idea.

Are you kidding me?

      Another weekend, another tRump rally, another head scratching take on a subset of my fellow Americans.   How can any thinking, feeling human being sit through a session of the word salad that makes up most of tRump's stump speech and not come away feeling mentally and emotionally dirty?

      He spews lies and hate the way most of us breathe.   He encourages his cultish followers to wallow in the intolerance he personifies.  He compares migrants to ''animals'' who are "poisoning the blood of America".  He wants to round up tens of millions of people in the country illegally and intern them in giant camps while they await deportation to countries many have not seen since they were toddlers.  He gets rapturous applause for this hateful rhetoric.  What are the rest of us to make of this spectacle?

     He threatens a "bloodbath'' if he is not elected in November and then promises to be dictator for a day upon assuming the presidency.  Meanwhile his many legal teams attempt to delay or derail the criminal trials he faces.    Yet, his followers remain doggedly faithful.  Is it the man or the message?  

Spring

       Although we are still 5 days away from the vernal equinox and the official start of spring, three reliable harbingers of spring occurred yesterday!   The Peru girls' softball team started spring practice, the local golf driving range opened and i planted the first spinach of the season.  Unfortunately, Mother Nature is foreclosing spring activities in the near future, but we have staked a claim for the changing of the seasons.