Snakes on a Plane 🌻 🌻 🌻

Dinner at Eight: The twice impeached head of the Republican party hosted a disgraced bigoted rap star and an anti-Semitic Holocaust denier for dinner at his winter home and all the leaders of the Republican Party played ostrich because the “only thing necessary for evil to triumph in the world is that good men do nothing” and nothing says hate is okay louder than silence.  Once the Mar a Lago dinner went public, Trump did what he usually does, first he denied that the dinner took place, then he admitted it had while claiming that he didn’t know that his dinner companion, who was really just a guest of that other anti-Semite Kanye, was an infamous white supremacist, and then he said it was a great dinner because Nick Fuentes, the anti-Semitic guy, Holocaust denier, not to be confused with the other hater known as Ye, was a fan so how bad could he be?  Without acknowledging any of the hate speech that Kanye has been spouting, Trump went on to say that he hosted him and his “companion” because Kanye asked him to and only to “help” him as “he’s been decimated in his business and virtually everything else,” and anyway Kanye has “always been good to me.” For his part Kanye, relayed that he invited Trump to join his 2024 presidential run in the role of vice-president, a suggestion that Trump received about as well as expected and that resulted in Trump saying some nasty things about Kim K. Once upon a time, Republican leadership would have denounced this freak show, not because they were so enlightened but because saying hateful things out loud and hanging with Nazi wannabees and white supremacists in highly visible places wasn’t considered smart but that was then, this is now and John McCain is still dead, so GOP House leader Kevin McCarthy and Senate Leader Mitch McConnell had nothing to say, neither did Florida Governor/presidential wannabee Ron DeSantis or former VP Mike Pence.  A few prominent Republicans did speak out, including of course outliers Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger.  Presidential aspirants Chris Christie and Arkansas’ outgoing Governor Asa Hutchinson did too while Mike Pompeo said something about being against hate while studiously avoiding any reference to Trump. David Friedman, Trump’s former ambassador to Israel forcefully condemned the visit tweeting “ Even a social visit from an antisemite like Kanye West and human scum like Nick Fuentes is unacceptable….throw those bums out, disavow them and relegate them to the dustbin of history where they belong.” All good, but he kind of ruined the thought by first referring to Trump as his friend. As to Kanye, last night the Wall Street Journal reported that Adidas had known he was he was a problem for some time, something about him sharing porn and wanting to name his album Hitler and had started to develop a plan to cut ties with him but ultimately didn’t because their relationship was too lucrative and money trumps all, at least until the reputational costs go through the roof.  To state the obvious, the White House weighed in on Trump’s Dinner at Eight too as did several Democrats. One of those Democrats, California Governor Gavin Newsom says that he told Biden that he has no plans to challenge him in 2024.

The Social Network:  On the subject of hate, things at Twitter are going as well as can be expected.  The site is still up and running, but the hate quotient is through the roof, and it seems as if almost every other tweet is from Elon Musk.  Musk, who is in the process of inviting back all the previously banned right-wing nut jobs and hate mongers, except for maybe Alex Jones, picked a fight with retired Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman, the somber truthteller whose willingness to speak truth to power by testifying at Trump’s first impeachment trial cost him his military career.  Over the weekend, Musk called VIndman a “puppet & puppeteer,” questioning “who pulls his strings….?”  An odd accusation from Musk whose statements about the Ukraine war echo Putin’s so much that they seem to be written by Putin’s disinformation squad. Again, if you haven’t listened to Rachel Maddow’s ULTRA, you should because Putin appears to be taking a page or two from the Nazi propaganda playbook of the 1940s. By the way, I’ve made it off the waitlist and onto Post.News, one of the leading contenders to replace Twitter.  It’s a work in progress but getting better every day and at least so far free of hate.  Unlike Mastodon, another frequently cited Twitter alternative, it’s very easy to navigate and has that all important edit button.

Election:  The never-ending midterms are still on but at least Alaska’s elections have finally been called.  Democrat Mary Peltola won the state’s House seat, trouncing the still squawking Sarah Palin 54.9% to 45.1%, while Senator Lisa Murkowski beat out Trump endorsed Kelly Tshibaka 52.7% to 46.3%.  Both Peltola and Murkowski are moderates, the beneficiaries of a ranked voting system that seems to be doing what it is supposed to do, rooting out extremists. In another win for moderation, eight of the 11 Republicans elected to the Alaska Senate have formed a bipartisan majority coalition with all nine of the Senate’s Democrats, freezing out three right-wing Republicans. Maybe Alaska is on to something?  Things in Arizona aren’t going as smoothly.  Gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake will probably never concede her loss to Democrat Katie Hobbs even though outgoing Republican Governor Doug Ducey has publicly congratulated and welcome Hobbs into the Governors club.  A few Arizona counties are refusing to certify their election results, ironically those are counties where the Republican candidates won the most votes.  Also, Republican Attorney General candidate Abe Hamadeh, an election denier, and the RNC are suing Democratic candidate Kris Mayes.  Given that Mayes only won by 510 votes, the Attorney General race will go to a mandatory recount once all the state’s votes are certified, assuming they ever are. Of course, without those red county holdouts, Mayes margin of victory would likely increase.  And then there’s Georgia where the state’s Supreme Court let early voting take place this weekend.  The run-off between Herschel Walker and incumbent Senator Raphael Warnock has begun, due to culminate on December 6 election day.  As a result of the Court’s decision to let early voting take place over the Thanksgiving weekend, college students who might otherwise have missed out were able to cast their ballots in their home counties which is of course the reason that Republicans tried so hard to restrict holiday voting.  By the way, Herschel Walker claims his Texas home as his primary residence, probably a violation of Texas tax laws and some Georgia rules about candidate eligibility not that any of that will have any consequences for him.  Real Clear Politics, the same group that projected a large red wave in November show Walker leading Warnock by 1.4%. That may be because their averages include a lot of junk polls, or it might be that they are right. Oy. The general view is that the outcome will be determined by voter turnout, another reason that the Republicans weren’t all that happy about holiday weekend voting.

Tremors:  Something’s up in China where, spurred by resentment over the country’s failed zero-covid policy, broad based nationwide strikes have been taking place.   Protester have even been heard chanting  “Xi Jinping, step down.”  Quite remarkable given that protesting in China can lead to some very severe consequences. Similarly, protests in Iran continue led by fed up women and the men who get why they’re so upset.  And, of course, there is Ukraine where the situation remains treacherous and colder weather and its impact on both sides’ survival and battlefield success is on the immediate horizon.