Larry Kudlow, in one of his addled diatribes, yesterday complained that Biden’s climate plan will force people to drink “plant based beer”, which is interesting since beer is already plant based, it being brewed with hops and malted barley.  Kudlow was immediately mocked on social media, and Schumer gleefully joined in.  It’s good.

Excited to be watching the Oscars with an ice cold plant-based beer.

Thanks Joe Biden. pic.twitter.com/Wk8MQnjkUf

— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) April 26, 2021

Over the weekend, the outrage machine cranked the volume up to 11 over Biden’s new climate change requirement to cut red meat consumption by 90%. Upon hearing the news, right wing social media, fed by Fox Noise, went to DEFCON 4 and began launch sequence.  All the usual characters threw wall-eyed fits including Greg Abbott:

Not gonna happen in Texas! pic.twitter.com/zqYS9kH8CU

— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) April 25, 2021

Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert both followed suit with Greene even calling Biden the “Hamburgler”.  The only problem?  The story is complete bullshit, fabricated by the London rag The Daily Mail, which then metastasized into a trending story on social media.  Snopes did a full report on the claim and rated it False. I wish these clowns would spend the time spent on fake outrage on more important things like education, Medicaid expansion, and avoiding power blackouts, but that’s way too much too expect.

Alaska state senator Lora Reinbold is one of those: loud-mouthed, science denier, and anti-vaxxer.  She steadfastly refuses to follow COVID protocols, even refusing to wear an appropriate mask at the state capitol in Juneau and railing about “mask tyranny”.  Being a falsehood-spouting Republican, Reinbold is an active member of the Stupid Caucus of the GOP.  Her behavior has been so egregious (even to her fellow Republicans) that she was removed as chair of the state senate judiciary committee and banned from certain parts of the capitol for her repeated violations of COVID protocols and berating other senators.  She was even fined for refusing to follow protocols.

Reinbold’s behavior has now come with really serious consequences, and it’s hilarious. Alaska Airlines is the only airline that flies between Reinhold’s home in Anchorage and the state capital of Juneau, and she has clashed with airline employees over federal mask mandates and COVID protocols in place to protect travelers, and publicly complained about the restrictions.  Exasperated, the airline finally banned her this weekend from flying on the airline, period.  Announcing the ban to the media, the airline’s spokesman said,

“We have notified Senator Lora Reinbold that she is not permitted to fly with us for her continued refusal to comply with employee instruction regarding the current mask policy.  This suspension is effective immediately, pending further review. Federal law requires all guests to wear a mask over their nose and mouth at all times during travel, including throughout the flight, during boarding and deplaning, and while traveling through an airport.”

She now has to take a 14 hour drive, complete with a ferry ride to get to Juneau for legislative sessions. Last night, in a Trump-like response to the ban on Facebook, Reinbold threatened the airline with an investigation into its “monopoly”, and complained that she was publicly named after the ban, despite her regular public ranting about the airline.   Seems to me that turnabout is fair play.

Alaska Airlines not only did the right thing here and were forced to do so.  Reinbold is a danger to the public especially since she is an elected official who has used her position to flout the law and common sense.  She got exactly what she deserved.

The Arizona State Senate is conducting a behind closed doors audit fishing expedition that targets only Maricopa County which Biden won in 2020.  The effort is backed by the Arizona GOP peddling the Big Lie to discredit Biden’s win.  As if that’s bad enough, HOW it’s being done will most certainly yield a predetermined result, and is being given cover by the State Senate and the courts, all Republican controlled.

The fishing expedition is being conducted by a firm called Cyber Ninjas, whose founder, Doug Logan, has repeated and supported the conspiracy theories of the Big Lie.  Worse, their is no oversight of the count by outside parties, the press is banned from observing, and the ballots are being housed in an unsecured room in the Veterans Memorial Coliseum on the Arizona State fairgrounds.  Some members of the press have been able to get into the room and observed that workers were using blue pens which could be used to tamper with the ballots to change the votes.  That’s against state law; all audits are mandated to be conducted with red pens to prevent tampering.

It gets worse: Yesterday, conservative judge Christopher Coury temporarily halted the count after Arizona Democratic party petitioned to halt the count.  He expressed doubts about the process, but, and it’s a big but, he ordered the party to post a $1 million bond to cover any costs of a delay.  That bond more than 5 times the amount budgeted by the State Senate for the audit.  Coury’s effort to appear non-partisan is belied by the excessive bond he required of the Dems and they declined to post the bond.  The judge is well known in Arizona for his conservative rulings and was the target of Dems in 2020 be removed for his ruling against an education reform measure on the ballot.

Arizona (along with Texas and other red states) shows the danger of extended single party rule including the courts.  The effort to discredit the Arizona presidential election is brazen, and so far the courts are aiding and abetting the effort.  There is no reason for this fishing expedition except to shore up the Big Lie to give the GOP more cover to pass voter suppression laws to tilt the balance in their direction.  The effort is dangerous and anti-democratic.

John Cornyn this week:

“The president is not doing cable news interviews,” Cornyn said on Twitter. “Tweets from his account are limited and, when they come, unimaginably conventional.”

That’s right – Cornyn’s not happy that Biden isn’t acting like a narcissistic screwball Trump.  I know that sounds stupid, but that criticism has gained serious traction along with the usual “Biden is feeble” and “who’s in charge?” insults.  This one, though, plays to only one demographic – Trumpists.  Trump is still the hijacker, holding the entire GOP hostage, even though his primary weapon, Twitter, has been taken away from him since January, and there are few chinks in his armor against challengers.

Also this week, the Washington Post published a report that Biden is doing exactly what he said he would do during the campaign, to not be continuously top of mind for Americans.  His calm demeanor and low key political style has calmed the waters in American political life. As measured by studies of Google searches, Trump is fading in the American consciousness and Biden has not replaced him.  Since the inauguration, the number of searches using the terms Trump and Biden have declined.

But even as the attention of the American people on the presidency has diminished, attitudes towards it are much different.  By a large margin, Trumpists and Trump leaners believe that Biden has made communication to the American people MORE negative than when Trump infested the WH.  They actually liked Trump’s loud, abusive, and confrontational style, and now criticize, like Ccornyn, that Biden is too normal and not bombastic enough.  A lot of that is the constant torrent of vitriol that they are fed by rightwing media and Republican politicians trying to keep the spotlight on themselves.  The other is that much of Trump’s base is actually attracted to over the top rhetoric along with the childish bullying and insults.  In short, Biden’s not a big enough asshole to suit them, and probably could never be.

The GOP is so subverted that just being normal is now viewed as weakness.  The Crazy Train to 2024 is already full and pulling out of the station.  It promises to be a weird trip.

This is a good one…Rick Scott who’s chairing the NRSC this cycle attempted to gain favor with Trump by inventing a new award, the Champion of Freedom.  He had it engraved on a tiny cheap bowl and rushed over to Mar a Lago to give it to him.  THEN, he stupidly tweeted out the picture.  Yes, the Twitterverse responded as you would expect, and it is glorious.

This party is so fucking pathetic that they have to bestow golden offerings (with names like "FrEeDoM aWaRd") to stay in the good graces of their one-term president.

— Brian Tyler Cohen (@briantylercohen) April 12, 2021