Some extremely bright person within the Washington Press Corps lamented that the Biden White House might be more functional than the Former Guy, some of the “passion” may have been eliminated. If this shows anything at all, it merely proves how lazy said Press Corps has become in the last four years now that the guy they’re reporting on isn’t giving them fresh stupid every day for some sexy copy. That being said, there are days when I empathize with them. However, I’m not getting paid for this so my empathy is slight indeed.
Today starts the last full week of May and, brother, it is summer indeed. We got into the lower nineties today and this is how it’s going to be Friday when we’ll see some rain. So stock up on that sunscreen, friends and neighbors, and make sure you stay hydrated. And if it looks like I’m stalling because nothing has grabbed my interest, you are most correct. However, one can only buffalo for so long, so let’s do what we can.
Despite the civil war going on in the Arizona GOP over the Maricopa Audit, dingbats in Georgia are gearing up to do the same. A judge opened up 147,000 mail-in ballots in Fulton County and despite already having three audits, including a hand recount – plans are afoot to start one in the Peach State. A group of plaintiffs has said they plan to put forth a plan by May 28th for the judge’s consideration and hope to have a “half-dozen experts” do the work. No word on who these experts are nor what their expertise is in.
One hopes, however, that they don’t use Cyber Ninja, the company currently trying like hell to find something in Arizona. Due to their fooling around, Maricopa’s voting machines have been compromised and now need to be replaced. This is after company head Ben Nelson announced and then dropped accusations that a database had been suspiciously deleted. It apparently did not exist. Furthermore, this is why the machines are compromised and must be replaced, potentially costing taxpayers six million dollars.
It should be noted that regardless of what is or isn’t found during the audits, it will not change the results of the November 2020 election. Joe Biden is still the president and barring anything unusual he will be unless he loses the 2024 election. Or maybe he doesn’t run, that’s a possibility, too.
Anyhow. Recall that I don’t mess around with too much news outside the United States, mainly because I don’t feel comfortable, but this story has grabbed my attention. An airplane, Ryanair Flight 4978 was diverted from its path to Lithuanian and forced to land in Minsk, Belarus. Upon landing, journalist Raman Pratasevich was taken into custody by authority, as was his girlfriend. Protasevich is one of the leading critics of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who has been in office for 26 years.
This comes on the heels of a hotly contested election last fall that put Lukashenko in office for his sixth term, and Pratasevich is one of the loudest voices in exile against corruption in the Belarusian government. A video was released today by the government featuring Pratasevich and he’s being treated well, so there’s that. Perhaps the only real connection to American politics is Lukashenko’s a former Soviet goon and favored lackey of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In any event, this is one of the most blatant displays of authoritarian government and one of those things that shows just how ridiculous the current GOP obsession with “woke” and “cancel culture” is. So there’s that there, then. Hopefully we’ll have something meatier come Wednesday.
Dear Y'all 