Reportedly, the Ruskie efforts to influence and sway the 2018 elections are boring full steam ahead.  Which is dreary for a couple of reasons: (1) They are apparently effective.  And (2) The Ruskie efforts to influence and sway the 2018 elections don’t amount to much more the creation and planting of noxiously amusing gifs on various online platforms.

But more to the point… er… the elevation of Trump looks like a good clear and clean entangle a Putin shadow.  What exactly is the Ruskie down ticket formation supposed to be?  Then again, the idea may come down to kicking the machine forward… the… er… Ruskie troll gif machine.

Every so often, in one of the national papers — the USA Today or New York Times — we see an apocalyptic religious sect or another spring for a full page ad.  Not nearly as entertaining as the old Wildmon full page ads against sexual deviancy on tv that used to occasionally grace the back page of the comics page on Sundays (and cramp the strips down in size), but still… worth a gander.

The Trumpets are blaring.

The aliens will come.  They won’t be real aliens, they’ll be demons.  We’ll throw our support behind the Pope.  Who will demand we support going to church on Sunday as part of the remedy, to be enshrined into law.  Global law, I suppose.

You call us crazy.  You’re the crazy one!

The case has ever been thus, and a little confused.  As Counterpunch’s Jeffry St Clair mentions in the discovery of some Russian troll using that site, to promote shared political biases.

whether it’ s a (fired plagiarist) Jayson Blair story in the New York Times or a (controversial reporter) Judith Miller story in the New York Times

The mention of Judith Miller in the same breath as Jayson Blair gives his politics away, as does the particularly uncertain words in the parentheses give away the politics of the Portland Tribune.

Dots abound all over the place.  You connect the dots in a haphazard way and find… er… child sex traffic from a pizza parlor in released Hillary Clinton emails?  Or… Ahmad Chalabi passing on misinformation to Judith Miller to advance his political aims.  One or the other… or both.

From The Columbian, the paper of record for Vancuouver, Washington if you shall.  “Herrera Beutler Ignores Comments” — moving about her not reading the twitter machine.

Later in the meeting, talk turned to President Trump.  In October 2016, Herrera Beutler said, “I refuse to accept this is the best we can do,” and announced rather than vote for Trump in the general election, she would write in Rep. Paul Ryan, R. Wisconsin, who had also sought the Republican nomination, but lost to Trump.

I kind of don’t understand this casual mistake, and there seems to me something more going on here than nothing — since I see it of a type happen a bit too much.  Paul Ryan… did not run for the Republican nomination for President in 2016.  It mis-remembers Paul Ryan’s various hedges during the campaign — momentary “dump Trump and replace with Ryan” feelers — culminating with Paul Ryan campaigning down ticket for all the Republicans and mentioning Pence as a headline with a mention of Trump almost as an after thought… which… a vote for Pence is literally the same as voting for Trump.

It feeds a false narrative.  Such as this one…

A third party run in 2020 by disaffected Republicans, behind the one term pledged Democratic candidate Joseph Biden.  Biden / Sasse!  Because… Sasse brings to Biden what Biden lacks, and Biden brings Biden.
Nevermind that the consensus among Republicans during the Obama — Biden years, even those who adhere to Sasse-ism (what that may be) was that the man was a gaffe-ing baffoon.
This is not a serious editorial in the New York Times.

There’s a letter to the editor in the Oregonian a few days ago, which seems to take an editorial cartoon with Franklin Graham saying “a marriage is between a man, a woman, and a porn star” at face value, and demands an apology from Franklin Graham as he never said such a thing.

Not withstanding that I can’t bring myself to care much about Stormy Daniels (that’s her name, right?) and her tryst with the current president, or even much on the hypocrisy fronts of such folks as Franklin Graham, it strikes me as the most likely reading of the letter… he isn’t aware of the point of reference… Donald Trump and Stormy Daniels and Franklin Graham and the “religious right”‘s support of Donald Trump.

There is an article in the Portland Mercury which envisions Abraham Lincoln as an early territorial governor of Oregon, and which gives him an a-historically progressive credit, thinking somehow that he would have — unlike the slavery supporting governor that was appointed — envisioned Oregon as something other than a White Haven… never mind the historical Lincoln wanted to ship them all back over to Africa.  The two convergent realities with the two governors, in terms of Oregon’s development, would be about the same.  Best guess is Lincoln wouldn’t have become president… Oregon is way too out of the way, ain’t it?
Things to ponder as proponents of a name change to Jefferson High School (the one majority black high school in the state, and you know Jefferson and the slaves) considers a name change… sure, shelve the statue if you want, but beyond that… meh.