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Bruce MacKinnons cartoon would be funny if the guy in it were some obscure goofball prattling away about his own personal, paranoid fantasies in the corner of a neighborhood tavern at three in the afternoon.

Its not nearly so funny when the goofball is a former President of the United States with a significant following among voters and the slavish devotion of a major political party. When others pick up on his insane theories about the FBI and the Justice Department, were heading for serious trouble.

Conspiracy theories may be fun for disaffected college sophomores to kick around, but when influential conservatives begin to babble about local prosecutors they believe are backed by George Soros and start seeing communists behind every bush, its time to take them seriously, not in the sense of accepting their lunatic delusions but in the sense of working to deny them power.

You cant look for help from the Republican Party, who, after a flirtation with Ron DeSantis, seem to be turning back to Donald Trump, and backing draconian laws, as Ann Telnaes notes, to eliminate womens rights to make their own medical decisions.

The handmaids and their allies are fighting back, however, and weve already seen victories in Kansas and Wisconsin against those who would oppress them.

And, by the way, while I appreciate that Ed Hall is sympathetic to womens current plight, let me point out that the common image of cavemen dragging women off by their hair does not match anything Ive ever read or heard about hunter/gatherer societies.

Some were actually matriarchal, most were matrilinear and in all of them, women were respected and given significant power in decision-making.

Its only in relatively modern times that women became subservient. That may be, in Western culture, a matter of a few thousand years, but it is still reversible, and it starts in the voting booth.

We need to maintain the voting trend already seen in Kansas, in Michigan and in Wisconsin, and the fury of young reformers in Tennessee.

Prickly City (AMS) has been peeking behind the curtain lately, and more true conservatives need to begin rejecting dogmatic answers and party-line loyalty if they truly want to make America great again.

Antagonizing women over control of their bodies is bad strategy, and, while Kari Lake came within a hairs breadth of becoming governor and Elise Stefanik has morphed herself into Trumps Mini-Me, there are far more credible women rising through the ranks, at least on the other side of the aisle.

Theres also reason to hope, first of all in the rising anger over Pro Publicas revelations about Clarence Thomas and the billionaire who, Lalo Alcaraz (AMS) notes, has showered him with expensive privilege for a quarter of a century, but also in the fact that Pro Publica was able to uncover and make public the scandal.

And if Elon Musk is able to rouse the rabble with nonsensical accusations that NPR is corrupted by the one percent of its budget that comes from the federal government, the Dominion Voting Systems lawsuit still looks ready to take a great deal more than one percent of Rupert Murdochs vast fortune from him, with Smartmatic in the wings preparing to use the same information in their lawsuit against Fox.

Responsible mass media is facing challenges, certainly, but there are signs of it rising to those challenges, not only in NPRs ethical stance against Musk and Foxs apparent coming defeat in court, but in the rise of small, independent news organizations that are rising in communities around the country.

What would we know about the Uvalde murders if not for the incisive, independent Texas Tribune?

And speaking of Uvalde, there seems to be a rising insistence on doing something about guns.

The incredible, rising death toll is finally not going unnoticed, and both Judge and Murphy point, accurately to the problem of massive spending by the NRA not just to promote their ammosexual appeal to the public but to ensure a solid, faithful Republican base in national politics.

As noted before, I was a member of the NRA as a kid, before the Revolt at Cincinnati turned it from a gun-safety group into a gun-crazed Second Amendment lobbying group. I shot for badges and was part of a competitive rifle team.

But that was then and this is now, and Politico has a good history piece about how the NRA elevated a forgotten, outdated Second Amendment into a national, blood-soaked obsession.

As for that solid Republican support, Open Secrets shows that its no accident, and the NRA no longer even bothers to carry the fig leaf of claiming it supports both parties.

They know who will be hewers of their wood and drawers of their water, and they dont waste money trying to win over those who refuse to believe that drag queens and gay penguins are more dangerous for children than being blown to bits in their classrooms.

And who wont legislate as they are told to.

As Scott Stantis explains, its a matter of priorities.

However, if editors have the courage to run them, there are plenty of cartoons out there questioning that priority, and plenty of people willing to gather in places like Tennessees capitol building to try the matter with those well-compensated legislators.

Theres even a touch of good news in the bad news. Nick Anderson derides Texas Governor Greg Abbott for uncritically echoing Tucker Carlsons demand to pardon Daniel Perry, an Uber driver who drove into a BLM crowd, then shot and killed a demonstrator who was carrying an AK-47.

Abbott insists that the states Stand Your Ground law should override the jurys decision of a murder conviction.

The good news in this is that, by Abbotts logic, if you see someone open-carrying an assault rifle, you can legally shoot and kill him on the basis of the Stand Your Ground law, even if he hasnt threatened you with the gun.

Thats in Texas, mind you.

In Florida, you still have to check and make sure hes carrying a bag of Skittles.

HURRY UP PLEASE ITS TIMEHURRY UP PLEASE ITS TIMEGoonight Bill. Goonight Lou. Goonight May. Goonight.Ta ta. Goonight. Goonight.Good night, ladies, good night, sweet ladies, good night, good night.

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