Today is Wednesday, February 9, 2022. On Tuesday the cowardly “Bitch” McConnell has actually upheld the truth just this once (since he has always sided with Der Donald in the past) when he just came out to condemn the Republican National Committee (RNC) for censuring the only heroes among the pusillanimous repugnican party for investigating an insurrection on January 6, which the totalitarian party is now whitewashing and denying it ever happened. From this moment on, I will call the RNC the “Republican National Cult,” which is what longterm MSNBC contributor Neal Katyal has now dubbed the antidemocratic RNC. This is a more apt name for it, I believe anyway. Can you believe that McConnell’s truth telling is actually facing criticism from the far right for daring to condemn the RNC? This absurd state of affairs is covered in an online CNN article on my smartphone by Meaghan Ellis entitled “‘McConnell is done’: GOP leader leaves far-right in a frenzy after condemning RNC censure of Cheney and Kinzinger.”

In his comments targeting the RNC, McConnell took issue with the committee singling out members of the party who have different views from the majority and said “That’s not the job of the RNC.” The House Minority leader also broke with the majority of his feckless party by saying January 6 was a “violent insurrection.” He went even further, saying what everyone already knows except for many on the far right who are in an alternate mind bubble, that it “was a violent insurrection for the purpose of trying to prevent the peaceful transfer of power after a legitimately certified election, from one administration to the next.” Some critics of the abominable lawmaker criticized him for his tardiness in even acknowledging the truth this late in the mix.

However, a number of other Republican lawmakers echoed McConnell’s sentiments. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) admitted that she believes the censure was “absolutely wrong,” and Senator Mitt Romney (R-Utah) also weighed in, saying the suggestion “that a violent attack on the seat of democracy is legitimate political discourse is so far from accurate as to shock and to make people wonder what we’re thinking.” Well, said, Mitt, but just like your minority leader, where were you over a year ago when more pushback was needed against Der Donald’s totalitarian agenda?

On the COVID front, I was particularly impressed with an op-ed in The New York Times written by Paul Krugman who lambasted those wearing the red hats, the MAGA repugnicans, for screwing up this country’s response to the pandemic. In his February 7 column, Krugman stresses that Americans who have behaved “responsibly,” like yours truly, and all of you, I’m sure, during the pandemic have grown understandably frustrated with those who haven’t. Krugman then criticizes this country for doing a very poor job of coping with COVID. He writes, “We’ve had more deaths, as a percentage of the population, than any other large, wealthy nation, with the disparity even wider during the Omicron wave than it was before. Why? Because so many Americans haven’t behaved responsibly.”

Krugman continues his rant against our ineffective means of combating the virus. He says: “And I know I’m not alone in feeling angry about this irresponsibility, which has been encouraged by politicians and other figures. There are surely many Americans feeling a simmering rage against the minority that has placed the rest of us at risk and degraded the quality of our nation’s life.”

Buttressing those sentiments, Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, has issued stats showing that more than 5.7 million people have died from COVID-19 worldwide – and over 906,000 of them died right here in these “Dis-United States.” At this point, most of those Americans dying from the disease are culled from the unvaccinated set.

As for how “responsible” Americans are now feeling toward their compatriots who are undermining the overall response to COVID-19, Krugman believes that those who are fed up with those who still refuse to get vaccinated now belong to a silent majority. The regular columnist argues that antivaxxers and antimaskers have made the pandemic worse than it has to be in the country. Krugman states a simple truth: “Those who refuse to take basic COVID precautions are, at best, being selfish – ignoring the welfare and comfort of their fellow citizens.” Krugman goes on to say that these selfish individuals are “engaged in deliberate aggression – putting others at risk to make a point.” He touches on a sensitive issue by saying this, “Tell me that it doesn’t bother you when the person sitting across the aisle or standing behind you in the checkout line ostentatiously goes maskless or keeps his or mask pulled down.” I would like to know then if any of you have had the balls to ask someone who is either not wearing a mask or not wearing a mask effectively (like if it’s a chin guard) to put on their mask or leave the store. I would guess that you haven’t done this as of yet. I can say that I’ve thought of railing at one of these fools for not taking the proper precautions during the initial stages of the pandemic, but have never spoken these words out loud to anyone for fear of getting my head thwacked. I wonder if Mr. Krugman himself actually had the courage to correct someone in a grocery store or wherever.

For the rest of his editorial, Krugman denotes that the reason why people are behaving this way at such a divided time has to do with politics. He writes, “Republicans, fed a steady diet of misinformation by partisan media – did I mention that Fox News has required its employees to disclose their vaccination status since last summer? – are four times as likely as Democrats to be unvaccinated, and far less likely to wear mask when grocery shopping.” Krugman concludes by saying that all of this bad behavior spawned by right-wing politicians and opinion leaders had the aim of making basic health precautions part of the culture war. The ghastly numbers of gullible dying repugnicans be damned! THE GOP is truly a death cult in addition to being a cult party right now, and it’s just sickening.

Finally, I’m now hearing that the former president is in more hot water – he is in such hot water that it’s positively scalding – from the National Archives for his administration’s gross mishandling of those White House documents. He’s in such hot water that the National Archives is requesting that the Department of Justice open an investigation into the ex-president’s handling of White House records, according to a source familiar with the matter. This little ray of optimism regarding Der Donald’s ultimate reckoning with justice appears in a CNN article on my smartphone by Evan Perez entitled “National Archives seeks Justice Department investigation of Trump’s handling of White House documents.”

The source has indicated that the Archives is seeking a review of whether Der Donald violated the Presidential Records Act, which requires that all records created by presidents be turned over to the National Archives at the end of their administrations.

As of now, the Justice Department is mum on whether it will open a formal investigation. It also declined to comment.

This kerfuffle arose when it was publicized that the National Archives had to retrieve 15 boxes of records that had ended up with Der Donald in Mar-a-Largo ( a no-no) and that other documents given to the Archives were torn up and had to be pieced together. If this were anyone else, this would be an occasion of great amusement, but coming from a potential autocrat, who knows that the insurrectionist was just trying to destroy evidence by tearing up papers that he had no right to do! By all means, he should be investigated for this breach of protocol regarding the use of presidential papers. This is just another outrage from the former president that should appall everyone who believes in the sanctity of the office. Remember this, the Orange Menace called Hillary Clinton’s supposed mishandling of personal emails revealed during the presidential race in 2016 “disgraceful” and now his very words should haunt him in that he’s being potentially investigated for destroying a whole cache of presidential records. Isn’t that more disgraceful? Karma, anyone! Do you think Clinton is chuckling to herself after hearing of Der Donald’s new potential legal woe?

This being Wednesday, I spent some time at my comic bookstore on Metropolitan Avenue to pick up two comics, The Joker and Superman: Son of Kal-El. I then read the two comics in my coffee shop next door where I had poached eggs and home fries.

Later I went home to bake another cake: a lemon pound cake. I had to buy a box of baking soda that we didn’t have for the ingredients in Right-Aid on Austin Street. This I did after driving back from Royal Collectibles. There was one peculiarity in my entering the store to get the baking soda: at the entrance before the line for the cashier, I happened to see two male police officers and one female officer standing by. Hmmm, I wondered. Why are they are in the store? Were they there to crack down on people not wearing facial coverings? I wondered. Just joking. When I was called up to buy my item, I inquired of the cashier if the police officers were there because someone shoplifted something, which produced no visible reaction on the young male cashier’s face. Maybe he couldn’t say anything, who knows. It was odd, that’s all I can say.

That’s it for the rest of the day. I thought we would go out later for dinner, but Elliot got cold feet, so we remained home, and I ordered a large pizza from Gloria Pizza and chicken parmigiana for Elliot. By the way, did you know that today was National Pizza Day? Hell, I didn’t get any discount from Gloria Pizza, which I should have.

I’m now hearing the story of Der Donald’s mishandling of presidential documents in the background. It’s making the rounds of news programs the whole night.

Representative Eric Swalwell is making the comparison between Clinton’s emails and the actual destruction of papers done by the former president and he’s calling for the Justice Department to conduct a criminal investigation. Only time will tell if this Teflon Don II will ever be wearing an orange jumpsuit? This seems quite serious here.

Stay safe and be well.

Here’s my lemon pound cake. I haven’t had a piece yet, so I can’t tell you how good it is.