TerrallCorp Dispatch #4

To Whom It May Concern,

First of all, let me express my appreciation to each and every one of you who has been praying for the speedy recovery of my damaged ankle. I have no doubt that your entreaties to whatever deity or deities you may worship gave a significant boost to the ongoing healing process, which my fast-talking, always in a hurry to get out the door orthopedic surgeon assures me is proceeding on track. I wish I could be thanking you all in person, but as you know COVID-19 makes that impossible for the time being.

I had pause to think more deeply about my ankle problem when I noticed a message in the tray of eggs in this week’s grocery delivery. To wit: “At Mid-State Specialty Eggs we believe being content is a manner of traveling, not a destination.” Well, between the pandemic raging throughout California and my recent second surgical procedure (screw removal — I’ll show you them if you ask nicely) I’m not doing a lot of traveling these days, but Mid-State informs me that “With 108 square feet per bird outside, inside, on perch or floor, the contented hen gets to choose, just like you.” Why I’ve got three times that much room in which to perch on chair, couch floor, or bed! And at least I can travel in my head.

The truth is I am a bit stir crazy lately but at least I haven’t had to hide from marauding redneck lunatics out to kill me, as many elected representatives did when the Monster From Mar-a-Lago’s idiot worshippers attacked the Capitol on January 6. It’s amazing that more than five people didn’t die (oops, make that six, another Capitol Police officer who survived the day just committed suicide) in the Pinochet meets The Three Stooges almost-coup; as Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez later noted, “many members of Congress were almost murdered, [as were] many Congressional staffers.” AOC herself “had a very close encounter myself where I thought I was going to die.”

White supremacists out to kill anyone vilified by their shithead hero — I’d call that cancel culture. Unlike the less-than-brainy Representative Jim Jordon, I wouldn’t use that phrase to describe the second impeachment of our sociopathic seditionist former president. Jordan and all but a handful of Republicans in Congress want the Dems to forgive and forget, as if an ultraviolet attack by white supremacists was equivalent to a minor parking violation.

It was nice to experience the global sigh of relief after inauguration day came and went without any of the violence threatened by the MAGA-ite hordes. I have an easier time sleeping through the night lately, although admittedly still with the help of Melatonin and generic Benadryl (hey, at least I’m not including pop-up ads with the product placement). Not having an ever-present toxic cloud of twitter spew from our former Prevaricator-in-Chief and knowing that he’s been successfully evicted from the White House makes a huge difference, as does reading that Trump was crushed by the PGA announcing it no longer plans to hold its 2022 tournament at his New Jersey golf course.

More schadenfreude came with the acrimonious parting of the ways between our forty fifth president and his former number one flunky, Rudy Giuliani. Rudy and The Don sure seemed like BFFs, but The Don doesn’t really have any friends so why should he pay Rudy’s $20,000 a day fee or give him a pardon? Giuliani is also facing disbarment in New York and being sued for $1.3 billion by Dominion Voting Systems; cue thunderous applause.

Unfortunately, we also have the specter of Mitch McConnell using the filibuster to block adequate aid from being delivered to tens of millions of people in desperate need. There can’t be a much better example of pure evil than the wielding of arcane legislative rules left over from the days of slavery to keep serious relief from being distributed during a pandemic.

On January 26, McConnell twittered, “If Democrats ever attack the Senate rules, it would drain the consent and comity out of the institution.” Sorry Mitch, saying fuck you to your byzantine procedural blockades to progress is in fact entirely in order, given that the 50 Democrats in the Senate represent over 41.5 million people more than the 50 Republicans represent.

Obviously Biden needs to stick to his guns on advancing the progressive legislative agenda he owes the multi-racial, multi-generational movements which helped elect him. He’s already made some good moves, but if Jolting Joe waffles in the name of bipartisanship it wouldn’t be heresy to push him from the left. To state the obvious (a specialty of mine), the New Deal era of the 1930s wouldn’t have come into being without sustained pressure on Franklin Delano Roosevelt from his base; ditto positive social programs that emerged during subsequent Democratic administrations. Wisconsin Democratic representative Mark Pocan, a former co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, hit the nail on the head when he said, “I hope we don’t do what we did when Barack Obama first got elected [and] try to have Kumbaya a little too much with everybody and not get things done in that little period of time we had. We really have to act and use the very tight margins we have very swiftly in order to get things done.”

In his January 24 New York Times column Charles M. Blow quoted Clayola Brown, President of the A. Philip Randolph Institute, who said that it’s important “not to do what we did with Barack Obama, which is sit back and think now we have it fixed. It’s not fixed. Or to sit back and think that the work has been done. It’s only started.” Blow rightly concluded, “It is not apostasy to demand results from your leaders, elected by your support, on the issues that you care about. Nor is it apostasy to call them out if they are too eager to compromise away and real chance at substantive change.”

It would also be highly appropriate to light a fire under the asses of Democratic Senators Manchin (WV) and Sinema [sic](AZ), both of whom recently pledged not to oppose McConnell’s beloved filibuster. One would think that since they recently faced the very real possibility of political assassination, even right-wing Dems would be willing to rock the boat. No accounting for quislings, I guess.

Just be glad I refuse to give Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos a penny more than I have to (and I don’t have to) so I didn’t pay to get beyond the Post paywall to read the story headlined “Nearly all GOP Senators vote against impeachment trial for Trump, signaling likely acquittal.” To be honest, I did read other versions of that story elsewhere but let’s just say I didn’t, shall we?

No matter how grim things get, we can always take comfort in anything which brings Trump pain. And though relaxing too much is not advisable, there’s nothing wrong with continuing to celebrate the bastard’s electoral defeat, and the victories over those two awful Republican Senatorial candidates in Georgia.

Also, let’s hope the complaint an aide to House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy recently made to Axios continues to describe the California Republican’s entire office: “We’re eating shit for breakfast, lunch, and dinner right now.”

Apologies for not getting to clinically-insane Q-Anon conspiracy spouters in Congress and the earth losing 1.2 trillion tons of ice each year. Next time, I promise.

Enjoy the interim!


Most Sincerely Yours,
Ben


p.s. If you are in San Francisco and without a copy of Namaste, Motherfucker! #8, you can still snag one at either Bird & Beckett (open for masked, socially-distanced browsing, Tues-Sunday, noon to six; birdbeckett.com) or The Green Arcade (open for curbside pickup, Mon-Sat noon to four and Sunday noon to three; thegreenarcade.com).

Or mail order from anywhere: https://shop.thegreenarcade.com/product/namaste-motherfucker-issue-8/362?cp=true&sa=false&sbp=false&q=true



NOTES


https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jan/23/squad-terrified-colleagues-congress-aoc-capitol-riot

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/aoc-says-she-feared-her-life-during-capitol-riot-i-n1254042

Marc Pocan quote: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jan/22/to-achieve-a-real-legacy-biden-will-have-to-be-more-radical-and-ready-to-fight

Charles M. Blow’s column:  https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/24/opinion/democrats-obama-biden.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage

Shit-eating Republicans: https://www.axios.com/kevin-mccarthy-criticism-trump-impeachment-295d5309-8f5a-40ce-a97b-5aee436db191.html

Fun facts on the filibuster and the Senate: https://www.democracynow.org/2021/1/25/kill_switch_adam_jentleson_senate_filibuster

"GOP megadonor Sheldon Adelson has died at 87, but his tireless efforts to destroy the country live on." --Sarah Lazarus, Crooked Media newsletter, Jan. 12, 2021

Bonus kick in the ass! BellRays live from 2011 (they’re still scorching in 2021):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h75r0h5EEVY