I n case you were willfully ignoring the news this past Friday - and who can blame you? - the Trump administration popped a squat in the late afternoon and left us with quite the cow pie, or the transcripts of a recent interview with convicted pedophile pimp, Ghislaine Maxwell, helpfully conducted by Trump's loyal lawyer minions. Never mind that she wasn't under oath, and never mind that her statements - "He was a gentleman in all respects," she cooed about Trump's social engagements with dead pedophile Jeffrey Epstein - are almost comically slavish. Or they would be if there weren't so many sickeningly abused girls and young women in the wake of this horror show. But qui pro quo , Maxwell likely intoned after the interview, since she was moved shortly after to a far cushier prison, which I'm sure is just a coincidence, n'est pas? Will MAGA take this on faith and move on from their obsession with Epstein? Maybe not, but they will be distracted, which...

Did you hear? For RepubliKKKans, making things up is the new "alternative facts." Wheeeeee! Don't like the chances of winning the midterms? Redraw and make up new districts which favor your candidates. Don't like that your heralded meeting with Putin was a big flop? No biggie. Just say it was a big hit. Such fun! But that's just the beginning. Everything can be fudged : job reports, health data, crime stats, even our nation's own history. Think the courts are going to help bring a stop to this? Think again, because the John Roberts Supreme Court is here to help. In fact, in my estimation, John Roberts is doing more to dismantle democracy than Mitch McConnell, Ronald Reagan and Trump combined. Think I exaggerate or give Roberts too much credit? Consider first his court's 2010 ruling, or "Corporations are people," and look further through his court's almost total destruction of The Voting Rights Act, along with allowing any illogical and des...

Can the U.S. ever return to normal? Even after The Orange One is defeated and MAGA loses power? After all, what President, Democrat or Republican, will want to relinquish all the power granted to them by the current Supreme Court and its creepy shadow docket? What is the court actually thinking? Has this ever happened before? "We have a precedent in Nazi jurist Carl Schmitt," notes Crooked Timber , "whose 1932 book, The Concept of the Political , offers some insight into the Supreme Court majority’s mindset. If that mindset is not literally fascist, it is fascist-adjacent...." In the meantime, here are some fascinating/horrifying articles you may have missed this past week: 1. They just can't quit him. No, for real. 2. This pleases me so much.  So does this. 3. Finally, genuine horror as American Evangelicals contribute in a big way to Amazon deforestation and the erasure of indigenous culture. It's a horrible situation and it's getting worse. Photo Cred...

It's a new day, a new year, with a forthcoming U.S. President we've come to loath even more than we ever thought possible. This past general election was grueling for many of you. For my part, I was devastated. I'd allowed myself to dream of a comparably sane political landscape with President Harris at the helm. I'd convinced myself that no one in their right mind would vote for a guy who pantomimes blowies and insists immigrants are eating dogs and cats. After the disastrous election results rolled in, just the sight of Orange Anus' face sent many of you clicking off your browsers and screaming, "I can't, I can't! No more politics crap!" I was hesitant at first when some of you pleaded for a politics-free Open Post, and a separate Lunocracy Post where such things could be discussed. But you convinced me - along with several of my Manor co-hosts - and it's worked out quite well, hasn't it? Or has something freewheeling and vital been lost...