Irate Historian

It sounds a bit cliché and silly to say there are "different types of racist", but it does somewhat characterise the GOP. The typical GOP *voter* sounds like your racist granddad, but the typical GOP *activist* sounds like a school shooter.

Mullin, the guy where whenever he pops on TV everyone always questions if he’s plastered. Cool. Great.

REALLY. TRULY.

Markwayne Mullin is the most “defensive coordinator the whole team hates” option we have

"we're not mad at her at all and she definitely didn't fuck things up that's why we're giving her a fake job I just made up and replacing her with the second-biggest idiot in the senate"

mullin was also going to be up in the midterms this year, so congratulations to the white house for inviting even more chaos

lmao mullin is going to fucking *hate* this job, i will be surprised if he’s in it a year

do i think a democrat could win a surprise senate election in oklahoma? probably not. but do i welcome the NRSC having to commit more money and energy to a race that would have been a cakewalk? yes.

getting an extremely safe seat, loudmouth senator to take shit from stephen miller all day is going to be much, much harder than doing it to a has-been governor whose career was already toast

Man, would love the “cabinet member revolving door” to start spinning up again just a year in. The man’s more of an alcohol hazard than Pete.

Mullin is a hilarious choice if one of the requirements is "don't say stupid shit under pressure"

so Markwayne here won a 2022 special election to serve out the rest of Inhofe's term, which ends this fall - there will be a replacement appointed by the governor until the general election in November, I believe

and look, they're just going to run another random dipshit and win, but...

During the final battle with Macduff (played by Sean Harris) the ghosts of those Macbeth has lost and has killed, along with the witches stand at the edge of the black smoke from lit fires meant to obscure Macduff approaching forces. The ghost of the boy soldier is among them, watching.

I think about this adaptation of Shakespeare a lot. It’s one of my favorites. A symbolic focal point is a teenage soldier who is killed during the crushing of Madonaldwald’s rebellion. His death clearly traumatizes Macbeth, and the ghost of the boy leads him to Duncan’s tent.

Fifty years after New Zealand stopped whaling, humpback population showing signs of recovery Breeding is getting more competitive, suggesting the population is growing, a new study shows.

This is a marvelous change not only for the Humpback whale 🐋 population but for all of us. We need to keep our gentle giants from going extinct.
Fifty years after New Zealand stopped whaling, humpback population showing signs of recovery | RNZ News share.google/X1HB3JFgaePK...

UGH yes. Also, while I’m aware it’s not the best film adaptation of Shakespeare, Justin Kurzel’s 2015 adaptation with Michael Fassbender leans heavy on Macbeth as a man broken and driven mad by both his ambition and his war experiences. Haunting.

Tweet from Tucker Carlson: "Could this be a religious war designed to rebuild the Third Temple on the ashes of Al Aqsa? Hope not."

Tucker Carlson is focusing on Jews in this monologue, because he knows that is who his audience wants to blame this stupid war on, but if any group in the US is obsessed with a war to build the Third Temple, it is evangelical Christian Zionists, not Jews.

Americans are finally taking a critical approach to Israel. We can do that without sliding into antisemitism | Joel Swanson Israel’s role in drawing the US into a war on Iran is attracting healthy scrutiny. It’s also creating a permission structure for antisemitism

Great piece!

@joelhs.bsky.social writes:

"What is uncomfortable about this time period is how easily legitimate questions about Israel’s role in stoking this war can slide into conspiracy theories. The lines are not always as easy to maintain as we might like."

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Obama calls on Virginians to vote for redistricting in special election “Free and fair elections are the cornerstone of our democracy, but right now they are under threat,” Obama said.

🚨BREAKING: A day before early voting begins in Virginia’s redistricting referendum, Barack Obama called on Virginians to vote in favor of a state constitutional amendment allowing the legislature to redraw its congressional map to counter GOP gerrymanders. www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/...

For the record I don't think he's a nazi, i think he's an incredibly stupid guy who has had an upbringing cushy enough that he never had to be anything but an incredibly stupid guy because there was no incentive not to be. But I'm not into putting incredibly stupid ppl is public office so

you need to understand that Platner is not just a candidate , he is a canary in the coalmine to a certain kind of man that the world has not changed and they still can get plush gigs and pole position in society and life with zero qualification and even less aptitude for the work .

The thing with Platner for me is this:

Manchin
Sinema
Pennsylvania Sasquatch

We've been burned before. Repeatedly.

So, yes, we want to be extra careful with this guy and he's not helping matters by going on Nazi podcasts.

From the Iraqi first lady

Gee I wonder why Taiwan would support Ukraine

I don’t know if this gives Zelenskyy any leverage but if it does, I hope he takes it.

The worm turns

MAGA Unreality vs the World The U.S. government is in the hands of people who are fully detached from reality. That is a major weakness for the regime – but also a source of further radicalization.

I wrote about Trump’s delusions as both a massive weakness for the regime and a major impediment to the Right’s authoritarian project – but also a dangerous source of further radicalization, as the Trumpists are hellbent on imposing their unreality on the rest of us.

MAGA Unreality vs the World:

The good news for all the people who said "We caused Trump by not holding Bush and Cheney accountable for Iraq" is that we're going to get a real heck of a do-over

And like you mentioned, we’ve been a low trust society for a long time, partially fueled by pundits, partially fueled by a culture that is suspicious of any kind of authority. We don’t want facts, I don’t know if we ever have. What we want is convenient narratives and talking points.

Yeah, I really think that a lot of things recently have helped that along. Everything is shock jock entertainment meant to provoke (but not necessarily challenge), social media, hustle culture everywhere and extreme individualism.