Mass shooting in Brooklyn.  Inflation hit 8.5%.  War in Afghanistan continues.

 Russia has committed war crimes in the Ukraine.

 There's a lot of debate in progressive circles over whether or not Republicans actually believe all the crazy crap they say. It's easy to point to someone like Ginni Thomas, who was unleashing all sorts of insane conspiracy theories in private text messages with Trump's chief of staff Mark Meadows, as proof that Republicans really believe this stuff. But that's the wrong way to look at it. What's crucial to understand is that "believe" has nothing to do with it. The truth of a statement holds absolutely no value for increasingly authoritarian Republicans. All that matters is power and having the power to shape narratives, regardless of facts. Indeed, they view true power as being able to impose your narrative, even when it's so absurd that no one could really believe it.

-Amanda Marcotte in Salon.com

 Literary giant Robert Penn Warren grew up in the pivotal Civil War state of Kentucky. Gramdpa Penn told his grandson that he opposed slavery though he fought for the Confederacy because he could not take up arms against his family and friends. "You go with your people," he explained.

I recall William Faulkner getting into trouble in 1957 when as a writer in residence at the Univ. of Virginia he said that if another war broke out he would stand with Mississippi, his people.

I suppose Robert E. Lee fits in here as well.

How should we feel about this attitude?

 Most days I make my rounds with a Class B movie running in my head. Today it's 195something and I walk into Toots Shor's in NYC. Frank is there with Ava and he wavies me over. "Sit down, Rebel," he says. And so I sit down with Frank Sinatra and Ava Gardner. Frank tells me about the place he's buying in Palm Springs. "Come out and see me and I'll introduce you to Dean and Joey. We'll go to Vega and have a good time." Then Joe and Marilyn walk in and we have quite a table. That Marilyn Monroe is such a sweetie, isn't she? When Joe is not looking, Marilyn is making eyes at me, blowing kisses. I love it but if Joe notices, I'm afraid, cause he's bigger than me, a professional athlete. But after all, she's hitting on ME, for heaven's sake! Can I help it if Marilyn Monroe is attracted to me? After a few libations, we're singing "That's Life." "You're riding high in April, shot down in May, but I'm back on top in June." Marilyn is giggling and winking at me. Joe sits there and grimaces like he's trying to pass a kidney stone. I've always heard he's a jerk, and this proves it. Then the party breaks up and Toots comes up and says, "Come back to see me, Fred, your money's no good here." Then I have to drive home from "work," and the party's over. My, my (as Frank would say).

 Interesting stuff at the Hoover arts and crafts fair. Too bad I am not artsy and crafty. Oh, maybe I am crafty but in a different way.

 The War did not start as a war of emancipation but ultimately became a war of emancipation. In order to win the war and put down the rebellion Lincoln found it necessary militarily to issue the Emancipation Proclamation and arm African Americans. How might history have been different if Lincoln could have won the war without the EP and without arming African Americans?