Greetings from the windy city. That's the windy Elkhorn City, of course.
I spent a warm Wednesday afternoon helping Meat and Tater hold their porch furniture down. Anything that didn't have a hundred or three pounds of dead weight on it was liable to blow into the yard and beyond.
But it was a good time for tall tales and refreshing cold beverages. An eighty degree day in March is hard to deny. We had plenty to talk about.
"I'm not sure what's bigger SJ" was Meat's common refrain of the day.
In the running for "what's bigger" include the insurrection involvement by a Supreme Court Justice's spouse, the continued Putin boot licking from a former president, the butt kicking Putin's getting from nearly everywhere else, and a popular millionaire actor smacking a popular millionaire comedian on live TV.
Honorable mention, but not in the running would include Christmas and Easter combined for the Republicans in Frankfort. Like most spoiled brats, they'll just complain about the things they didn't get.
If you were to gauge simply by the time we spent on each subject in the first paragraph, we'd have a close race between Putin boot licking and public comedian slapping with a justice's pillow talk running a close third. But we all know it's quality, not quantity, here at Paddling Upstream.
Which is why I included Tater's brilliant "spoiled brats" comment. Unfortunately, that's the only part of that subject worth repeating.
We can probably all agree the actor and the comedian and the slap heard 'round the world isn't bigger than the other issues. And of course I know we can't possibly all agree on that. But it's my column, so there.
It is a pretty big deal that the former occupant of the White House is actively encouraging a dictator, condemned and sanctioned by the free world, to produce dirt on the President of the United States who is leading the free world against that dictator. How many ways can one guy commit treason against his own country?
That was rhetorical, the reality is not enough ink.
But as big as Trump, his sycophants and other demonically possessed cretins' devotion to Putin is, it pales in comparison to a Supreme Court justice hearing the gentle words "overthrow the election" and other sweet nothings whispered into his ear each night.
Ginni Thomas, wife of Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas, is fringe. Her public views make her husband's court writings sound liberal. She is a conspiracy theorist and champion of the "stop the steal" movement who was in attendance at the capitol on January 6. Her texts encouraged White House officials to overturn the election.
If that doesn't seem like a big deal to you, this might get your attention. The only Supreme Court justice to side with Trump in turning over records from that day was Clarence Thomas.
Wonder why Clarence would go that way? On a decision where conservative and liberal justices agreed, only justice Thomas sided with the guy who wants to overturn a legal election. Just like that Putin guy wants to do in Ukraine.
Tater says it's always the pillow talk.