Hello, everyone. It's good to be back. As usual when I'm doing MBRU, we'll be looking closely at what's going on in the insanitarium known as the Republican Party, but I think one thing is as clear as ever as we enter Summer 2015 and look ahead to the upcoming crazy season heading towards the 2016 election: the GOP is basically the party of the Confederacy. You can put "neo-" in front of that, if you like, but the difference is negligible. The repugnant reaction to the racist murders in Charleston last week, including the Confederate flag-waving, only proves the point. And it's as ugly as ever.

Kiko’s House: The Republican doctrine of perpetual war.

Human Voices: A divisive and inflammatory response to Charleston.

TalkLeft: There are no neutral observers on race.

Prairie Weather: It's not terrorism if only blacks are killed.

The Moderate Voice: Why "liberal" is no longer a dirty word.

Round-up by Michael J.W. Stickings of The Reaction. (Twitter: @mjwstickings.) I'll be here all week.

Send requests and suggestions to mbru@crooksandliars.com (with "For MBRU" in the subject line).