I wrote a joke! And also a book

Reading from Fearless: A Novel of Frances Perkins and Social Security on Tuesday, March 12, hosted by Next Page books at Parlor City at 6:30 PM

Q: What is the difference between pornography and an insurrectionist president?

A: The Supreme Court knows pornography when it sees it.

I know, I know: the pundits all keep saying SCOTUS didn’t rule on the substance of whether an insurrectionist or person who’s given aid and comfort to our enemies can hold office/appear on the ballot. (In case your memory of Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment is fuzzy, it answers that question with “hell to the no.”*) Said pundits keep arguing that SCOTUS just ruled on questions of jurisdiction, state’s rights, etc. (But remember, “state’s rights” is always code for white supremacy. Shameless self-promotion, you can read much more about this in Fearless:))

But we all know SCOTUS’s only interest is in dancing with those that brung them: misogynist, Chr*stofascist, billionaire cult members and members of the Federalist Society.**

So it’s pretty fitting that SCOTUS can more accurately identify pornography than even the most rudimentary form of representative democracy.

* Actually, it says “No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.”

**I was going to mention whoever is pulling Brett Kavanaugh’s strings by paying his credit card bills, but it turns out that’s a liberal conspiracy theory. In that regard, Kavanaugh is guilty of nothing more - or less - than affirmative action for white people whose families have vast wealth - in this case, money his father was given for fighting any regulation of animal cruelty in the cosmetics industry. I’m sure I often fall prey to the cognitive bias whereby we all more easily assimilate facts that fit with our preconceived views but — I do love it when I’m wrong and can learn something new.