I don’t know if you’ve noticed but Facebook has taken to interrupting it’s ads with ads. At first, I found it rather obnoxious. Then I realized I could use that to my advantage. These days, when the ad within the ad starts, I use it as my cue to leave Facebook. It’s a GREAT tool to keep from wasting too much time in social media. I recommend it…

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I saw a new story about yet ANOTHER way Donnie Dumbass is fleecing his believers. He had someone set up a donation page – which is just greed squared for the Dumbass. (And, really, why WOULDN’T someone with his claimed wealth need YOUR money?) But then, clever sods they are, they added these check-boxes that allowed your intended one-time contribution to automatically become a regular, weekly contribution and another that allowed your contributions to be increased automatically. Convenient, yes? Even MORE convenient, they pre-checked the boxes for you! Oh, AND they made the check-boxes easy to overlook so people think they’re making a one-time donation of, say, $300 (often quite the bite on the “poorly educated” folks he claims to love so much) only to find out their “one-time” donation had gone out weekly. One guy, Victor Amelino, a 78-year-old from California, donated $990 in September. It recurred seven times for a total of almost $8,000.”

All legal, apparently, and a trick the GOP is using quite a bit these days, at least according to the New York Times. As they receive complaints, they refund the “donated” money. (Likely NOT the bank charges for overdrafts or other fees and if you don’t complain, no refund for you.) The truth is, it’s common for campaigns to refund contributions for various reasons. In the last election, Biden refunded some $5.6 million dollars. Trump and the RNC? $64.3 million dollars. “In effect,” the Times wrote, “the money that Mr Trump eventually had to refund amounted to an interest-free loan from unwitting supporters at the most important juncture of the 2020 race.”

Trump’s not the brilliant businessman he pretends. He’s a thief but his acolytes are only too happy to be fleeced so long as they believe they’re “owning” the libs. Impressive…

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Ah, Matt Gaetz (R (of course), Florida). This tool has behaved like a sleazeball since I first became aware of him. Turns out, it’s because he’s a sleazeball. He’s discovering that paying to transport underage women across state lines for sex is a…problem. He ALSO seems to be discovering that, having attacked anybody and everybody he disagrees with over anything he disagrees with, he finds himself with precious few (any?) comrades coming to his defense.

Did YOU know that Matt Gaetz is one of the Dumbass’s biggest supporters? (Like-minds, you know…) As the evidence mounts, Trump has repaid Gaetz’ loyalty by…distancing himself. Gaetz was a regular on Fox “News” and now is persona non grata after trying to implicate Tucker Carlson in the scheme. He’s just on his own. Nice. Sadly, the Gaetz family has money so he’ll likely buy his way out of any significant legal trouble, here in Feudal America, but it MAY get him out of Congress. Fingers crossed.

I keep hearing the Q-Anonsense that the Democrats are supposedly running a child sex trafficking ring but I keep noticing that conservatives are getting caught participating in child sex trafficking rings. I have to confess, I get a sense of satisfaction seeing conservatives actually falling to the charges they like to project onto their opponents so…pass the popcorn…

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I’m a bit irritated at the American media at the moment – okay, usually. During this current lockdown pause, people are getting back to normal. Unfortunately, in this once-great nation, “normal” means one mass shooting after another. My irritation is rooted in the media tendency to first discover the political leanings of the murderer in question and use THAT as a gauge as to how much information is available. So the first guy I heard about, the Atlanta shooter, (a white, “Christian” domestic terrorist) has been mostly bypassed by the media. Sure, he went out of his way to kill Asians at a time when Asians across the land are being blamed – and “punished” – by conservatives for Covid-19, but, we’re told, it wasn’t racist. He was just having a bad day. He says he’s a sex addict and wanted to eliminate (Asian) temptation. Apparently, his interpretation of his god’s wishes included killing people he might otherwise want to have sex with. Nice work, God… (Truthfully? I’m guessing these incels get that a lot from women, “I’d rather die than have sex with you…”) After that, the media coverage shifts to violence against Asians, NOT details about the shooter, himself.

Thankfully for the media, the NEXT shooter was born in Syria. We know FAR more about him. We get to see him in court. We get to know when his next court date is, what was found on his computer, what his likely motivation was, pretty much anything/everything they can find.

Most Americans don’t even realize they’re being manipulated in their thinking…

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I’d like to take a moment to wish you all a Happy Easter. I see Easter as a “hopeful” holiday and I think we could all use a little of that right now…