This has been driving me crazy. May I just say that “Nazi” is not a particularly strong pejorative word? It has roughly the same epithetic power as the word “Nerd.” Whenever I see someone talk about Nazis, I always think of Indiana Jones and Call of Duty. Fun movies and fun games. And now, I think of Funny Twitter Memes made by Millennials. So … not very scary. One needs to be about seventy or older to really feel the cultural significance of the word “Nazi.”

Time for an incredibly late recap of the Virginia primaries! This didn’t get nearly as much national attention as the Georgia 6th District Special Election, but Virginia held their primaries for governor and lieutenant governor on Tuesday, June 13th. The winners were: Governor:Ed Gillespie (R)Ralph Northram (D) Lt. Governor:Jill Vogel (R)Justin Fairfax (D) At this moment I don’t know if there are any third party candidates and I don’t know who is running for Attorney General.

I finally looked up what “single-payer healthcare” means. I’ve seen this term “single-payer” bandied around in the healthcare debate for years but I’ve never been able to wrap my mind around what it meant in the context of these debates. I’ve always assumed that it was a debate over how to implement health insurance. Thus I’ve never really cared that much about it, because it felt like an “inside baseball” topic.

I saw a retweet complaining: “Twitter suspended the RC Cola twitter account over this tweet yet racists and other Rubes can post anything!” It got my attention because, like the retweeter, I too thought that sounded awfully hypocritical. But *unlike* the retweeter, I decided to dig a little deeper to find out more, because it didn’t quite sound right. It didn’t pass the “smell test” so to speak. It doesn’t make sense that Twitter would shut down the account of a major brand just for mentioning covfefe.

Here’s a sequence of tweets that caused me to snort with laughter: NEW: Source close to Gianforte campaign says it's raised $100K+ online in last 24 hours — most of it coming after reporter "body slam." — Peter Alexander (@PeterAlexander) May 25, 2017 This is what a constant diet of propaganda and conspiracy theories do, turn conservatives into the kind of people who cheer assault https://t.co/ixyBVR5BgE — Stonekettle (@Stonekettle) May 25, 2017

There is a lot of consternation about today’s House vote on H.R. 1628, the American Health Care Act (AHCA). Back in April (I think?), Republicans pulled the bill before voting because they didn’t have enough votes, and the world rejoiced. This time, the rumor mill says that it might pass by as little as 1 vote. Activists have been out in force imploring people to call their Representatives. Update: H.R. 1628 passed 217-213, with 20 Republicans voting no, and 1 Republican not voting. (All Democrats voted no.) The bill now has to go to the Senate where it will undoubtedly undergo further changes, then it goes back to the House to approve the Senate changes.

Tonight, on a Very Special Episode of Behind The Tweet, we look into one of *my* tweets. I’m sure everyone’s heard about the Sean Spicer Incident of 4/11/2017, the one where the press secretary mistakenly tried to compare Syrian dictator Assad to Hitler. I listened to snippets of it, and it’s very clear to me what he was *trying* to say, it’s just that he got tongue-tied, because he was aware that he had suddenly stumbled onto dangerous ground, and his attempts to extricate himself came out really badly. (Seriously, who *wouldn’t* be alarmed if they accidentally started talking about Hitler?) He apologized and corrected his remarks immediately after the press conference, from what I understand.

It’s time for another episode of Behind The Tweet. This time, another “rogue” account: “GOP worried if they press Rus-Pres ties & impeach, possibility of new election could occur; smartest play for dems - promise no redo.” - @RogueSNRadvisor If you still held any lingering doubts about whether these rogue accounts were fake, this should seal it for you. Either it’s fake, or senior White House advisers are dumb as rocks, which would be even more alarming.

From old drafts, c. January 31, finally remembering to post: Regarding the firing of Sally Yates as temporary Attorney General: I don’t like the ugliness of it, but Trump is well within his rights to fire her or anyone else who refuses to carry out his directives. He could have done it gracefully or like a big old meanie, and of course he chose the latter, sounding very much like a tyrannical dictator in his statement. The clear intention is, “You will be loyal to me or you will be fired.” He’s trying to run the federal government like a private corporation.

On Real Time with Bill Maher, Piers Morgan did an excellent job of demonstrating what it’s like to be a centrist white guy in America right now. The above clip is just one example. Say something completely reasonable and true? Get shouted down, because it doesn’t fit the left’s current narrative that the world is ending. And because it comes from a white guy, the opinion is automatically invalid (because the narrative is that of course white guys don’t get it because Trump’s agenda won’t hurt white guys).