“This is the kind of opportunity, once lost, where people look back centuries later and ask how the moment to save civilization was allowed to pass by”, quoth Stephen Miller. And what was the golden opportunity he spoke of? The opportunity to pass the Big Hideous Bill, which seeks to save civilization by killing off poor people so the billionaires can get bigger tax breaks. Isn’t that how civilizations are always saved?

Mike Johnson had a similar take on the matter: “We can’t make everyone 100% happy. Never going to ask anybody to compromise core principles, but preferences must be yielded for the greater good.” Principles. Greater good. This from Mike Johnson. Yes, that Mike Johnson.

JD Vance, who cast the deciding vote on this obscene bill in the Senate, at least had the decency to merely shrug off the damage it would do as “immaterial”. Others, however, flat out reveled in it. Wisconsin MAGA Derrick Van Orden responded to a tweet pointing out that 18 million Americans just lost health care, 17 million kids lost school lunch, and 3 million Americans lost food assistance with “YES!” After he’d received a sufficient quantity of flak that he decided a little damage control was in order, he deleted the post and claimed it was an error — he had meant it as a response to something else. He also claimed that the statements in the post he wasn’t really responding to were “BS”. He may not know what brief tweet he’s responding to, but by golly he knows exactly what’s in the thousand-page bill he voted on.

Meanwhile, the cosplay administration completed construction of a Florida concentration camp (or as Steve Bannon calls it, a “congregation facility” — nice place for a tent revival, doncha know) in record time, which the MAGA Cult has proudly dubbed Alligator Alcatraz — further implying that it will be a home for hardened criminals, even though few of the refugees sent there will have a criminal record at all. And in the true spirit of MAGA grift, they’ve started selling commemorative T-shirts and caps. Pundit Benny Johnson, pictured, was absolutely orgasmic in celebrating this “merch”.

The Alligator Alcatraz branding is a direct link to old racist fantasies about feeding black babies to alligators. That point doesn’t seem to be lost on Laura Loomer, who posted:

Alligator lives matter. The good news is that they are guaranteed 65 million meals if we start now.

This isn’t just talking about alligators eating inmates at this prison. She’s quoting a number that represents the entire Hispanic population of the U.S.

The other big news story of the week is that flash floods in Texas killed dozens of people — thanks in part, quite possibly, to the Cosplay Cult’s inept downplaying of climate change and defunding of weather monitoring programs. Mother Nature is playing FAFO. But not to worry, it’s Marjorie Taylor Greene to the rescue. Yes, she who has so adroitly addressed the problems of Jewish space lasers, the “gazpacho” police, things grown in “peach tree dishes”, and “indicktable” crimes, has been “doing research on weather modification”. Consequently, she’s introducing a bill to ban it. Look out, evil weather scientists; Marge is on the prowl.

On the other hand, some people believe there is no reason to send in The Marge. Kandiss Taylor, a MAGA candidate for Congress in Georgia, declared: “Fake weather. Fake hurricanes. Fake flooding. Fake. Fake. Fake.” No doubt you can hear all the howls of outrage from her fellow Republicans even from where you’re sitting. Well, enough normal people did express outrage that she felt compelled to change her tune a little (to what she really meant all along, so don’t you try to twist her words by quoting what she actually said, you libtard) to “Fake Weather. Real Damage.” It was all engineered, you see, making it the deaths “murder”. So maybe we do need to call in The Marge after all.

It’s hard to believe that after several weeks of keeping a tally of the stupid, there hasn’t been a single appearance by Ben Shapiro. Well, it was only a matter of time: “And, again, the child tax credit is essentially a giveaway to people who don’t pay taxes in the first place, like the earned income tax credit. ” Hey, if he doesn’t even understand that there’s no market for underwater real estate*, how do you expect him to understand how taxes work?

Did somebody mention Ben Shapiro? He made up for lost time with a second appearance: This past week, he weighed in on the idea that the U.S. has a major political party that has gone absolutely bonkers, and has become extreme beyond all imaginable extremes; the moderates in the party are “running for the hills”. Well, so what? We all know that’s true, right? Except he wasn’t talking about the GOP. He was making this claim about Democrats. After all, if they keep talking about equality and environmental stewardship and affordable healthcare — especially if they keep doing it so politely — we might need to attack the Capitol again.

(*There’s now a clip of Ben trying to explain away his stupid flub about real estate by saying he meant the houses would be submerged underwater very gradually, over a period of many years. Sorry, but that isn’t a real response. No matter how much time is involved, he’s advocating a typical right-wing “solution” to a problem that affects everyone, of just trying to palm the damage off on someone less affluent.)