Liz Cheney would be Senator right now, and not lowly Congresswoman, had she followed some basic political etiquette in her initial Senate run. There was a doddering old man giving every indication he was about to retire. Liz Cheney just had to make party appearances where she could praise the Senator’s integrity and public service and blah blah, wait for the Senator’s announcement, then in her candidacy announcement reiterate all those points about the outgoing Senator’s integrity and history of public service, blah blah, and just hope when the good folks of Wyoming will send me in I will be able to fill his big shoes. Instead, she jumped the gun, her messaging about “new energy” landed on a slight and insult, and just as a matter of pride the old man had to run for re-election — where he promptly walloped Liz Cheney (a carpet-bagger who was tripped up on the campaign showing indications of having few lasting ties with the state. Also notable that Old Man Senator Enzi made an issue of Cheney’s support of torture, an assist from Rand Paul).

Flash forward a couple of years and Cheney runs for the open House seat. She beat a “nobody in particular” in the primary with a kind of unimpressive 60 percent in the vote. As she jumped ahead in Republican House leadership, polling showed she was not all that popular in the state. The whole effect is that pre – impeachment, pre-January 6th, and through an entire term saying nothing bad about Trump, she was leaving herself vulnerable for a potential Republican primary bid from someone who campaigning asserting attention to “Wyoming” with a suggestion that the incumbent was too nationally focused.

As so happens, while Cheney would indeed be Representative next year if not for January 6, Impeachment, and the hearings (and if she can’t be Senator because she made political mistakes out of vanity — high profile Congressional commitee chair is the next best stand-in) — her opponent was surely always keeping an eye on any opening for the decidedly weak and vulnerable incumbent, and had she not found it this year she would plausibly find it next time around. There the component pieces of the story — which in the case that happened are some of them but not all of them — would be identical to those of the Democratic “bigwig” incumbent who was beaten by AOC. (I think the story of Eric Cantor is a tad different.) A bit of an upshot is that I frankly don’t know if Elle Stefanik believes her crap on Trump — not that it matters.

It bugs me that various political stories get flattened into one dimensional narratives. Like the Roy Moore election, where his primary opponent was easily fingered as the lackey for an unpopular Governor everyone wanted to dump on — a part of the story which the national narrative skipped right over. Yes, it took someone with a right-wing base of support to begin a credible fight — but then it took an additional component of “screw that guy” voters to get him to a primary win. But never you mind.

Cheney had a history of voters not voting for her. That seems to be lost in the discussion. Plausibly for the best — as it does happen to be a bigger part of the story — and she did basically switch career paths in the midst of her election –but it needs to be noted: she kind of sucked as a politician.

Sometimes a detail just throws you, and says something. So out of Donald Trump posting on his social media platform, the culture’s terminology —

Truth Social — effectively a clone of Twitter with a MAGA sensibility — refers to individual posts as “truths,” and the retweet equivalent is to “retruth” a message.

Huh. Is this advertent or inadvertent aping of “the left”? — The therapeutic touchy feely parcel with an eye toward intersectionality and wanting to advance “narratives” of the oppressed? It doesn’t come across as ironic, a “needer neener”. It is a charge of ” There is no ‘your truth’, there is just ‘the truth!'” — an equivalent in the past as from some hardheaded people if you say in expressing an opinion “I just feel that — ” a “Don’t ‘feel’. THINK!”

So comes the parody. National Review (making sure to say “think” and not “feel”, even as parcels of ” Never Trump but I guess” may lead to wanting to characterize it as “feel”)

Whatever anybody thinks about the FBI’s actions at Mar-a-Lago, can we all agree that Donald Trump’s claim — that there was a “standing order” that said whatever he brought to his Florida residence was automatically declassified — is patently absurd?

Not according to “his truth”.

And then… NYT.

People close to the president say it was part of his pattern of collecting keepsakes. His office at Trump Tower was so crammed with memorabilia, including Shaquille O’Neal’s gargantuan sneakers, visitors had to edge their way inside to avoid knocking down a knickknack. His critics see more sinister potential motives, rooted in his cozy relationships with authoritarian leaders.

Hoarders hoard. Nuclear codes, Shaq’s shoes — same difference.

President Trump always presented a puzzling question. Like, I could care less about Roe v Wade and taking a step back don’t view it as meaning as much as people think it does. But here come the performative Handsmaid Tale dresses and allusions to Trump Vulgarians I am supposed to give a thumbs up on — as though it is the meaning of his presidency and as though President Romney somehow would mean something else. I suppose the best I could say on this score is that what was a nakedly transactional politics (weirdly the most endearing aspect of his presidency) transacts into other realms — or potentially would.

(Tap tap tap)

The dilemma of seeing the headline at The Atlantic — “How the Rosary became an extremist symbol” — assuredly a simultaneously sad and unintentionally hilarious farce of an op-ed — is the question — do I want to spend one of my few free articles of the month on this link?

Luckily I see a summation of generous number of quotations elsewhere. And yep. This aticle is as stupid as it looks like it might. The rosary is the new AR-15! People who oppose Abortion whip it out all the time. The guards at the Vatican deploy it and consider it a ward against the world’s Satanic influences. The Knights of Columbus are stratifying their claims on Patriarchy and doubling down on them — they have more rosaries than ever before. The rosary is the new AR-15!

Now flash the “ok” sign with one hand while holding the rosary with the other, and see what happens.

Next article down is “How should feminists have sex now?” which I can almost guarantee will not live up to anything. This is basically a perennial –pops up from time to time over the past five decades. Do what they want with it, I guess.

“Salman Rushdie and the Cult of Offense”. Do I even want to know?

Funny thing — someone I know became entangled in finding details on the assault on Rushdie. Islamic, or some dumb Christian who just knows he did something with Satan in it. I have to answer. My initial assumption — and which apparently the case — was Muslim — it is his past history and all — with the further statement that I’m not wedded to the notion, and if details emerge otherwise than details emerge otherwise. For the further thought experiment — In the initial rush after Oklahoma City federal boarding before they spotted Tim McVeigh, I could meet the assumptions of “Muslims! Arabs!” with — “They even know where Oklahoma is?”. As so happens, a federal building in the middle of the country can easily be symbols of federal tyranny for mid country McVeigh, where you need to get to bigger entities of WTC and the Pentagon as the symbols of Western Imperialism for Bin Laden et al.

My darkly amusing comment laying out there which flashed past my screen — ” JK Rowling is next!” — Rowling at the end of death threats — actually, she’s upset a whole gambit of peoples. And yet still, if I hear of a horrible maiming on her, my thought would not go to “Ah! Tranny terrorists!”. (Interesting, if it turned out to be so — they probably would use the denigration “tranny” in their extremist group name.)

The completely implausible realization, or kernel of a thought, that I have as I read through what is up and what are the stakes of the FBI raid of Mar-a-Lago, and the quest for some presidential documents —

As of this moment, there is not a whole hell of a lot here. Unless Team Trump is hoarding the JFK files, the Alien files, or the Epstein files. Look, pee tape crap, capital hill looting, or third rate Nixon-esque burglaries just don’t do anything for me anymore. I need MORE! I need the real stuff.

But wait! What’s this?

Trump adviser Jason Miller told the Post that “it furthers [Trump’s] inclination to run and galvanizes the Republican base on his behalf.”

Sure it does. Because before this Trump had nothing to run on, and no paranoid grievances to assist in galvanizing his electorate. He simply saw no reason to run, and no path to a victory. But now — now — now we finally got something!

There is roughly zero relation between the news story focus — “Republican Congressman Dan Newhouse, who voted to impeach former President Donald Trump, has defeated his Trump-backed opponent in Washington’s GOP primary” — and any of the 2402 comments ostensibly commenting on this story. They all veer into Abortion related name calling.

But maybe if I wade a thousand comments down I can find something — anything — relating to the election results.

Hope springs eternal for the Democrat.

After sharing a Spokesman-Review story on Twitter in which he was quoted saying he didn’t even consider Newhouse a Republican, Culp liked a tweet from a user who said GOP voters should decline to vote for Newhouse. Another supporter suggested Culp run a write-in campaign, which could spoil Newhouse’s chances of re-election.

The mathematics of such a thing usually lands on a “no”. Evan McMullin did bump kiss for Trump’s chances in Mormon Utah or Idaho. It is worth noting the thin thread pulling attempt of Beutler appears to have come up short — her Trump supporting opponent cleared past her in vote tallying. In theory, the new Republican candidate in that district has more Democrats and suburban ” Not Trump” Republicans that can vote for the Democratic opponent in the general election than Newhouse has Democrats and Trump Republicans against him.

The task of attempting to play spoiler by having a sizable enough contingency of your votes not bother to vote. Well, there is the Portland mayoral race. Comedy writ large — the left wing challenger to the nationally embattled mayor loses 41 percent against 46 percent of the vote because the antifa contingent sticks with their lunatic candidate in the general, even if she is nowhere on the ballot. Such I guess may be a long game for Loren Culp — let this new Jay Inslee serve a term, because we will be out a Newhouse and get in two years from now.

In that odd side swiping constellation of ten Republicans who voted to impeach Trump, and the over hanging question of who will survive — and where we knew Dan New house would make a go — and damned if he didn’t need Democrats to come out and do it for him —

The Democrat came in first place, as it turned out.

But that other Washington district. Oddly not as red, which may be the ondoing — fewer votes to scrounge up from, as they rally with the Democrat, against a right flanking competition. So today, she leads for second place by a three digit “dwindling” vote count, and everything hinges on where the outstanding ballots are. This race, if indeed Beutler wins her way to November, becomes a case study of the tight maneuvering of Machiavelli electioneering, as she wins by way of this:

Ahead of the primary, a mysterious outside group called Conservatives for a Stronger America spent $932,000 supporting St. John and $521,000 opposing Kent, prompting Kemp to claim the group wanted to help St. John split the Trump base to help Herrera Beutler. That may in fact be happening.

Had St John been getting the bulk of this vote, “Conservatives for a Stronger America” would’ve been supporting Kent and running negative ads against St John. As it is, the vote tallies:

Beutler 22.62%. Joe Kent 22.48%. Heidi St. john 15.8%

Figuring that the Kent / St John vote was not going to Beutler, and having to siphon some of Kent’s support to St John… 6 and a half percentage points off the pace —

I guess the big question I have as the US Justice department prepares to exchange a WNBA player — earner of six digits in the US and seven elsewhere —

— user of more pot than Russia allows —

— and isn’t everyone supposed to be boycotting Russia right now? There is no more McDonalds, though they apparently continue selling the same food items under a new moniker. —

The big question as we exchange her for, (take a side swipe at news story) — “The Merchant of Death” — the guy Russia wants back … a guy by the nickname “The Merchant of Death”… Got that? ” Merchant of Death”. Details less important.

Cool. But the question: Does the basketball player at least have an on-court nickname? If not, can someone give her one harass enough in order to balance the scales as against the prisoner swapped? (Or would that just be desperate).

No, there ought not be this law — all things wrong with it on a small “d” democracy level, but I do wonder, wish I could snap my fingers and create an alternate universe for comparisons’ sake and see how yesterday’s Kansas election plays out —

— in a world where you are required to run the same ads statewide.

If you lived in any city in Kansas — the media markets of Topeka, Witchita, and Kansas City, the “Kansans for Constitutional Freedom” ads — urging the “no” vote — stressed Abortion rights being protected. Out in the hinterlands, the ads talked about everything other than Abortion, down to the horror of a “constitutional amendment”, benign or shattering the same matter. If there was some code word done to mention “abortion”, it may as well be confidante with anti covid mask rhetoric.

This happens a lot. Get the regional base out in one, find a Lowest common denominator to spring added votes in the other. The thing which would be interesting if today we could get the double messaging still working in the celebratory victory parade — instead of just Sebelius declaring “they voted Hell No!” in the face of Cavanaugh and company’s overturning Roe v Wade , someone has to maintain the point — ” Kansas voted overwhelmingly against more state constitutional amendments!”

I think by any realistic accounts of the situation, Lynne Cheney is shot. I am sure she will appear in some ‘Profiles in Courage’ book in half a century , so she has that — as too a great career in corporate lobbying ahead of her — so no need to cry for her. But once a politico in Wyoming receives the endorsement of the NY Times, you know it’s over.

She has a celebrity endorsement. Kevin Costner. I do not know how this plays in Wyoming. He is Hollywood, and has houses up and around Hollywood –even if he also has houses (or maybe just house) in Wyoming — part time residence makes him part time relatable to the good folks of Wyoming. Maybe everyone there loves Waterworld?

Quick searching suggests the man supported Buttigieg in the last Democratic Presidential race, because — someone had to. He becomes then the Democrat that Lynne Cheney hopes will make the effort to multiple steps of Re- registration to cast A vote for her, and “save Democracy ™”.

Not too many celebrities in the two districts of Washington State Republican impeachers. The closest Dan Newhouse’s has are NASCAR drivers — and they seem to want to run against him. Just as well.