Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
Just so.
  

    
But the morons too pure of heart to vote for Harris because
Gaza/genocide are no doubt well satisfied with the Kushner luxury
condos.
  

    
I suspect a lot of them are so despairing they aren't measuring
things as we would.
  

    
>>[Rashida Tlaib's sister] is connected with Arab Americans in her
community who supported Trump, drawn by the anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric of
his party. “Some people supported him regardless of Gaza,” she
said.<<

<https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2024/11/election-results-2024-trump-harris
-michigan-muslim.html>

Zero sympathy. Many were never going to vote for a Democrat because
of anti-LGBT bigotry.
  

    
Tulsi Gabbard for Director of National Intelligence. 

Matt Gaetz for Attorney General. 

The transition is developing a “bread and circuses” vibe. I try to
resist conspiracy thinking, but these nominations are so bonkers 
that I wonder where I should really be looking for the real action. 

I wonder if even this up coming Senate will find confirming Gaetz as
AG of the USA too hard to stomach. 
  

    
Tom Nichols is once again worth your time. His summary of Tulsi
Gabbard's credentials - gift link:

<https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/archive/2024/11/tulsi-gabbard-nominati
on-secutirity/680649/?gift=1GQFLaQ1yhOu7hhb3PZC3LJzM6cPEaNQQYdv3pwIa48&utm_sou
rce=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share>

Tulsi Gabbard’s Nomination Is a National-Security Risk

Excerpts:

... she’s no peacemaker: She’s been an apologist for both the Syrian
dictator Bashar al-Assad and Russia’s Vladimir Putin. Her politics,
which are otherwise incoherent, tend to be sympathetic to these two
strongmen, painting America as the problem and the dictators as
misunderstood. ...

Gabbard met with Assad, saying that peace in Syria was only possible
if the international community would have a conversation with him.
“Let the Syrian people themselves determine their future, not the
United States, not some foreign country,” Gabbard said, after
chatting with a man who had stopped the Syrian people from
determining their own future by using chemical weapons on them ...

... Tom Rogan, a conservative writer and hardly a liberal
handwringer, summed up her record succinctly in the Washington
Examiner today:

She has blamed NATO and the U.S. for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine
...
When she appeared on Sean Hannity’s show in 2022, even Hannity
blanched at Gabbard floating off in a haze of Kremlin talking points
and cheerleading for Russia. When Hannity is trying to shepherd you
back toward the air lock before your oxygen runs out, you’ve gone
pretty far out there.
  

    
Gaetz has resigned his House seat, effective immediately. I suspect his real
aim was to curtail the sex-crimes investigation by the House, which is
suddenly moot. The Senate can reject him and then he'll be free to join the
right-wing grievance-and-insults circuit. The Senate approves him (and I
think they won't) and he's head of the Justice Department, yay!
  

    
Or Trump just leaves him as "acting".
  

    <scribbled by fingers Wed 13 Nov 24 21:30>
  

    
All of the monster's nominees will be approved.
  

    
Or he'll adjourn congress.
  

    
I wouldn't be so sure about that. Suggest you read HCR's latest:
<https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/november-13-2024>

"Then, too, Trump remains old and mentally slipping, and he is
increasingly isolated as people fight over the power he has brought
within their grasp. Today his wife, Melania, declined the
traditional invitation from First Lady Jill Biden for tea at the
White House and suggested she will not be returning to the
presidential mansion with her husband. It is not clear either that
Trump will be able to control the scrabbling for power over the
party by those he has brought into the executive branch, or that he
has much to offer elected Republicans who no longer need his voters,
suggesting that Congress could reassert its power.  

"Falling into line behind Trump at this point is not necessarily a
good move for a Republican interested in a future political career."
  

    
As usual, what she wrote makes sense to me.

On the specific point about adjourning congress, I don't think the
less-horrible republican senators, or any senator, has a choice. The
president's power to adjourn congress has never been tested, right?
  

    
>>elected Republicans who no longer need his voters

Say what, now? They don't need the cult members? Of course they do.
  

    

Looking for some good news? Maybe this will qualify: 

The Onion, in partnership with Sandy Hook Families, has purchased
InfoWars.

Announcement on Bluesky:
https://bsky.app/profile/bencollins.bsky.social

NY Times story:
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/14/business/media/alex-jones-infowars-the-onio
n.html?unlocked_article_code=1.Z04.AIN1.l8m4R2-M9kom&smid=url-share

"The publication plans to reintroduce Infowars in January as a
parody of itself, mocking 'weird internet personalities' like Mr.
Jones who traffic in misinformation and health supplements, Ben
Collins, the chief executive of The Onion’s parent company, Global
Tetrahedron, said in an interview."

They've already got an advertiser, too: 

"Everytown for Gun Safety, a nonprofit dedicated to ending gun
violence that was founded in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook
shooting, will advertise on a relaunched version of the site under
The Onion."
  

    
I was wondering how The Onion would continue to thrive competiting
with <gestures at everything>. Brilliant move, and just in time.
  

    
Maybe Harris should have given them an interview.
  

    
I think there are still a few sitting Reputincon legislators in both
houses who voted to impeach and convict, respectively, so Trump’s
hold over congress is bound to be at least marginally incomplete. 

This will likely be reflected in confirmation votes for Gaetz and
the like.

If Trump unilaterally “adjourns” congress, many more Rs will take
exception to that, and they may gavel themselves into session
anyway, and then we’ll see if the SCOTUS shitstains are really ready
to endorse actual monarchy.
  

    
Senators do like the prestige of being senators, which is
substantially linked to the power of pushing the president around
some. 

Still, I have decided to try and be wary of falling into the usual
post-election arms-length reactions to nominations and policy
signals. That appropriate for the Before Times, but not anymore.

In case anyone feels like they can't talk about how they feel
anymore: I spent half of a 1-hour therapy session (a $100 value)
crying yesterday. There was more than uncertainty and dread about
national politics driving that, but it certainly played a big part.
  

    
We've entered new depths of normalization. NPR skeeted this today.

‪>>NPR‬ ‪@npr.org‬
·
6h
RFK Jr. wants to tackle chronic disease. Despite controversial views
on vaccines, his focus on healthy food and taking on special
interests may find broad support — and face political headwinds.<<

"Controversial views"? 
  

    

Laura Helmuth has quit as editor-in-chief of Scientific American,
"after facing backlash for comments she made about the 2024 election
and voters."

Archive of Washington Post article:

http://archive.today/SMcZV
  

    
Isn’t musk a free speech absolutist?

Also: that’s what fascism looks like. 
  

    
This Inkwell conversation is drawing to a close! I'd love to use it
as a standing testament to what we *can* do. 

Please check in with whatever you're doing to make this country
better - despite the shit we're wallowing in - in the biggest or
smallest ways. You may inspire others. Political, social, whatever.
How are you improving what's around us?
  

    
Me:

- I donate to cat rescue groups. A way to address something that
never changes: the most innocent beings in terrible situations. The
return is immeasurable when some miserably sad stray ends up in a
loving home. 
- I donate to a pet rescue in Ukraine. A tiny way to shovel against
an avalanche of horror.
- And - last of the donations - every cause I believe in that I can
possibly afford to give to: the ACLU, National Wildlife, California
Parks, Planned Parenthood.
- I use my platforms - online, onstage, and on the air - to spread
accurate information and encouragement to keep going.
- I donate to feed the hungry.
- I support as many honest, hard-laboring news entities with my
subscriptions as I can.

That's me. That's what I'm doing in this fucked-up world.