Free Republic

President Joe Biden has nominated former Arizona Senator Jeff Flake, a prominent “Never Trump” Republican, as his choice for U.S. Ambassador to Turkey. Flake is being described in the establishment media as a “Republican” nominee, as if his nomination were a bipartisan gesture. However, Flake has distanced himself from most Republicans, saying “there is no future” for the GOP with Trump. Flake is almost certain to be confirmed by the Senate, where he served for a term before retiring.

I have a good friend who believes, gloomily, bitterly, resignedly, that not only are we in for four more years of painful and cheerless BushCo-branded tyranny and misprision and aww-shucks dumb-guy shtick, but also that we are actually at the beginning of a long, brutal, fear-based Republican juggernaut that will last a good 16 more years, at least. Because this is how long it will take for the current horrific conservative cycle to play itself out, and this would resemble a more typical and historically proven 20-year pendulum swing, in this case one toward neoconservative right-wing hate and homophobia and...

This is the great thing about rabid fundamentalism. You really just don't have to give a damn. Take the environment. I mean, isn't it just a little pointless to care so damn deeply about the air and the soil and the water and the stupid little disposable animals on this silly spinning ball of expendable rock when the Second Coming is imminent and a blood-soaked fire-breathin' Jesus who looks remarkably like Mel Gibson will return very soon to smite the heathens and the gays and the vegetarians and the Francophiles, and who will rescue all those who worship patriarchy and...

I am searching for a few good things. Things to counteract, to dissolve the simmering dread, to deflect the waves of nausea and karmic pain induced by the incessantly depressing media maelstrom and the appallingly hateful gloat of the GOP convention and by the most tyrannical administration and least articulate American president in 100 years. You know how it is. And you say to yourself, these things, these radiant gems that live outside the mass-media miasma, I need them because they provide some balm, soften the fact that the nation feels massively off track and blinded and war torn and...

<p>Mention that you're planning a trip to Turkey, and there's a good chance you'll get a reaction like the one I got from a friend the other day.</p> <p>"Didn't you see that movie?'' he said, shuddering visibly. "You know -- 'Midnight Express?' "</p>