Exploring the search of “both sider” ism s relating to a partial defense of Fox in the Fox Dominion lawsuit, and the things fall apart. The liberal media of MSNBC and CNN blew the Covington Kids. Sure. And just as with Fox, the kid in a MAGA hat razzing with Black Israelites got a cash settlement, within a story not worth paying attention to in the first place. Jessie Smollet perpetuated a noxious hoax, and media outlets had to clean up after initial storyline sensationalism reporting. What I am left with in the litany after these two “what about” s I saw is the partical of where partisans diverge into two differerent camps and fall into rabbit holes depending on what disinformation conjecture they add to the narrative — something called “Russiagate”, conjectures where someone in the media realm actually took the Trump pee tape story seriously for more than two minutes.

I suppose the next track is to point to Tucker Carlson as soonly shutting down his insane Trump election denying guests. How long you indulge them is a different question needing a better answer. Look. I am old enough to remember how Bush/Kerry election denialists who dealt with in 2004 — who would not touch Bev Harris with a ten foot pole and who put it in a box for contained indulgence. The former was Al Franken, the latter was Keith Olberman– notably putting a thick sheen of “this may be insane” before such reporting. I do not know if Carlson did that with this line of guests what would have happened — enough to satisfy his audience from turning to OANN?

His chances are, unless there are more variables I am completely ignorant on, nil, but I do wonder. The race can not be properly polled. A social sanction exists in supporting George Santos, A matter of embarrassment. The silent Tory Syndrome that brought John Major to power. See too Donald Trump. James Traficant and David Duke under polled as well.

There is a decent case to make for George Santos if you are of the right eclectic political stripe. Like, if you design to take on the DEI administrators you do need gay jackasses in your corner. So cometh George Santos, fabulist and fabricator and a man with a great imagination. We want people with great imaginations, don’t we?

What else can the Republican Party run in his district?

And, well, he is one of 435. That is, in the end, how I could swallow Ron Paul.

Let us see. Donald Trump, Nikki Haley, As a Hutchinson, Vivek Ramaswamy, Tim Scott, and Larry Elder are all in it to win it. Ron Desantis and Chris Sununu are waiting around along with I guess Mike Pence and Chris Christie.

Joe Biden, Robert F Kennedy Jr, and Marianne Williamson are in it. Joe Manchin has amused people on it.

There is a curious question on Biden in the primaries. There exists apolitical effect, evident in 2012with fake candidates but also seen in other years with real candidates, of a blind “screw this” vote by registered Democrats who are not Democrats. So West Virginia votes 40 plus percent for a — mullet headed prisoner. Biden is a bizarre figure in various ways — and the mass of voters who associate his party with things that do not interest or inform them along the Appalachia Belt — drag queen story hours and the like — have only increased. Can Kennedy Jr beat Trump in West Virginia? The biggest West Virginia primary victory for the Kennedy clan since Kennedy took Humphrey in 1960!

it is kind of strange to be slapped in the face to this reality of marketing in our consumer based society: Anheuser Busch is in essence in the entertainment content business. The product means close to nothing — one bottom mass beer as good as another. But they are bought off of the image cast from the commercials. And they had a loyal fandom of the commercials. The marketing director of the Bud line of beers made comments in launching a new entertainment / commercial line with someone referred to as a trans-gendered “influencer” making the pitch. In doing so, she disparaged the previous commercial lines, the pitches that entertained the mass of consumers over the years, saying they were getting from this “fratty humor”. In essence, it is Netflix cancelling some lowbrow show with a large audience to go with a presumably critically acclaimable darling — one these low brows may deem as lecturing and hectoring. They have made the announcement that popular hits such as those “was-sup” guys, the “bud” and” weise” and “er” frogs, and the Bud Knight will be no more. From that perch the maybe a tad too violent reaction from Kid Rock and the slumping away from the product makes sense — corporate has cancelled the entertainment they used to sell. The words of getting to “inclusivity” and “for everyone” ring hollow because it is not simply introducing a new show, it is doing so while announcing the old show has been cancelled.

On the finding that the woman who made the remarks about getting away from “fatty humor” is a recovering or self hating Greek, at party functions in college with a sorority the college paper disparaged with standard takes on Greek life, there is an irony here on customer. Way back in 2004 I recall voting demographics getting split into a “beer track” vs “wine track” dichotomy. Class distinctions have that beer track, sold off”fratty humor”, not much in the frat, and the “wine track” maybe just parked temporarily in fratty beer… Sold or, in this case ceased to be sold, by the wine track.

In one sense, everyone got basically what they wanted out of the Tennessee embrogalo. From a partisan strategic vantage point, the Republican supermajority could have been smarter — censure, strip A committee assignment or two — but trying to think this through — I have no idea one way or the other if it would result about the same martry status.

From their point, the two expelled legislators would have had zero legislative power in even a theoretical not super-gerrymandered Tennessee. The gun control is a no-go in this state. Like, it is worth pointing out on “Do something” — the Tennessee State legislator has done somethings — they shortened the response time for first responders and eliminated the hesitancy that plagued earlier school shootings. As a result, deaths here by a… Disgruntled adult Non-student *… are in the single digits instead of the double digits. Now what the neck was this adult non student doing on this elementary school where, strictly speaking, in a classic school shooting scenario at an elementary school the youngster would have likely been inept enough and not fully committed and stopped by a non strained adult to limit the shootings to a mere wounding or two?

Of course, that is not what gets sold as “do something”. It ends and starts at banning a gun or two. Which, if you want to get Tennessee to do, you have to circumvent the state legislature. You have the loud opinionated minority in the galleys shouting for something, insisting ” This is what democracy looks like”. And by bumping aside the rules, knowing you won’t accomplish anything in the rules, you can become a national figure — a power source from a different place. Would they have achieved this status from a mere censor and committee stripping? I do not know, but I could give two rats about the Tennessee Republican and Democratic parties — it does happen to be the correct principled punishment regardless. In that hypothetical world, I guess it would be interesting to observe what happens at the next strategic breaching of disruption of legislative processes.

• * I have to point that out because I sees headline for remedies that would have its drawbacks and weaknesses even if it were a go, that has it with “Children killing Children”. No such thing happened here.

I am trying to find something neutral in the way of podcasts which relate the going ons in the Tennessee chamber. My bias going in before I hash out details is that no one is playing with a full deck oh honesty — the to be expelled would be less than honest in assessing their disruption of the chambers for the fact that they can’t get their way — the expulsers to be apt to take a wide berth on their crimes. And maybe the fact that two have been expelled and another not suggests the middle, such as it is, can detect nuances on merely obnoxious behavior versus actionable ones. Unless it is a bias on what race acts beyond unruly and ring leads the disruption.

As it were, I am stuck needing to push Democracy Now aside and the Tennessee MAGA blogger out. Maybe I can return to them after reading a few AP articles. The comments section to various magazines of political opinion are also useless, as we skip to a “What about the Jan 6ers” and “Republican heckling at the SOTU!”. As if… They don’t suck too? That is not what I want to know details about when looking for the details of state legislators leading an angry protest during a legislative session.

So… nteresting political fight in Tennessee.

We had a child molester on the floor for years, they helped him get reelected and did nothing to expel him,” Johnson said. “We’ve had members pee in each other’s chairs. We’ve had members illegally prescribe drugs to their cousin-mistress, and nothing happened. But talk on the floor without permission, and you’ll get expelled.”

Due process. Also it’s kind of that thing on why Pete Rose may not be in the Baseball Hall of Fame and, say, OJ Simpson is in the Football Hall of Fame — the integrity of the game as opposed to outside crimes. Maybe you object to the procedural niceties, or think they should be scuttled because you think you are just in the right and they are just that much in the wrong on the issue — but some disagree.

A famous old drag performer passed away, a local celebrity who has done her act for decades and decades. Limited hearsay tells me it is nothing I want to see — report from a straight woman who watched once and left at an intermission had a kind of Insult act feeling it at her expense for the guffaws of the gay male crowd — do with it what you will. What I wonder is if their business is going to have a sign, along the lines of Mary’s Club for its strip club owner at his passing, the years of her life on the current sign and r.i.p. and all that — something on the “industry pioneer”, dates of birth some ninety years ago and then death in 2023 — which, if it were like how Mary’s Club had its sign, will still be up there in 2033 long past all memorials.

I assume he takes off his make up. Puts on different clothing. That still leaves those strange horns he has.

The Atlantic Magazine sure can be funny sometimes.

I can not think of an industry, conceptually, more deserving of an existential crisis than a self named “influencer” industry, existence of conceptual basis a sign of misused technology — somewhat.

Yeah, well. Who cares? Why did you love it in the first place? It strikes me as a tool still useful if you choose to use it right. But today I learned about the existence of a thing called “neocities”, which is a 90s Internet throwback designed to capture something of that website experience. The person I backtracked with this ” neocities” website, I don’t quite find the age on but she would at best have been in diapers at its time. So. For this person, one Veronica Heffernan — wait twenty years and you should have twatter.

Weird take of the day:

If Trump’s mugshot is made public it would cement him as an ‘outlaw’ and could make him a folk hero like Al Capone, presidential historian says.

When, not if, Trump’s mugshot is public — it will be emblazoned on pro Trump and anti-Trump merchandise. If by some miniscule fluke it is not released, people will mock one up for such purposes.

More to the point, his All Capine-ness or Poncho Villa or Bonnie and Clyde -ity is there regardless. Probably worse so, frankly — Yes, it is fine movie, Bonnie and Clyde, but on some level I knew the fictional representation masked the real ugliness and was fiction. Trump? His supporters don’t land there.