Conservatives in Congress are doing everything in their power to block the efforts to look into their attack on the Capital building on January 6th. You remember. They are such poor losers, they simply refused to accept the loss. When their whining and crying didn’t cause states to simply disregard the vote and declare the “winner” they preferred, they decided to attack. As I recall, they taunted Dems as “Sore Loserman” when the Sour Cream Court awarded the Oval Office to Bush 43, despite the vote and there were NO Democratic attacks on the Congress and nobody threatened to hang the Vice-President. But when THEY lost? Why, just like any three year old, they threw a tantrum. But sure, Dems are the snowflakes…

The cons attacked Congress and did some terrible things and threatened to do even worse. Then their man-baby pseudo-god, the CheetoJesus, told them to go home and they did. Now…everybody knows what happened. The whole world watched it on TV, live. But the Republicans, being the party of responsibility, immediately shunned all responsibility and started blaming anything – EVERYTHING else. Hell, they even tried to pretend those blindingly white assailants were cleverly disguised Black Lives Matter activists. Now, while that would have meant an Academy Award for makeup, I can say with some certainty that no self-respecting progressive wants anything to do with a MAGA hat considering the vile things it represents. I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t don one just to make one Don look bad. Of course, they didn’t need to. He makes himself look bad without effort.

So…the Republicans began lying about what happened and have been lying about it ever since. In response, Democrats in Congress called for an investigation. The useless Senate tried but the cons used their outsized power – with a little assist from the reviled DINO Manchin – to block that effort. So the House has picked it up and, surprise, surprise, the cons are doing everything they can to CLAIM participatory cooperation while blocking every effort to move forward. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is trying to set up a commission to investigate. She asked minority leader McCarthy to name five members of their caucus to the panel.

McCarthy offered up five names. At least two of them were ringers – people whose job is to obstruct. Jim Jordan is a staunch ally to the Dumbass and his entire reason for being in Congress seems to be to keep investigations from moving forward. McCarthy also named Jim Banks who released a statement immediately after being named saying he was going to use the opportunity to “investigate” anything else he could think of – an obvious attempt to disrupt the proceedings. Pelosi, being no dummy, blocked Jordan and Banks from the panel so McCarthy, in a tantrum, pulled ALL five of his nominees. “If you won’t let me put my biased, disrupting, and obstructing elements on your panel, I won’t put ANYBODY! Waaaaa!”

It’s just a stall tactic. Do you know WHY the cons have to engage in stall tactics? Of course you do. THEY know what such a commission will find. EVERYBODY knows, even the cons. If the cons actually believed it was ANYTHING other than what it was, they would welcome an investigation, not block it. But they know. It wasn’t Black Lives Matter. It wasn’t Antifa. It wasn’t a peaceful, unauthorized tour of the building. It was a direct, violent assault on the Constitution of the United States of America. Every once in awhile, conservatives decide they hate, hate, HATE the United States of America SO much they just have to attack. (Actions speak louder than words…) And it SEEMS like it’s always in response to someone trying to force them to act like decent human beings. (Ft. Sumter, anyone?)

The commission will happen. Cons will reject the findings. The rank and file will dutifully repeat what they’re told. It doesn’t really matter. It’s all political spectacle anyway. EVERYONE knows what happened on January 6, 2021 and everyone knows WHY it happened. The thing is? Those pricks will be back. (Less those who are currently reaping the rewards of their oh-so-brave anti-vax stance, of course.) They’re stupid. They’re violent. They’ve been whipped into a frenzy. But that means they’re dangerous and they will destroy this country to get their beloved moron back…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This takes a bit of getting used to but I’d like to propose that this society STOP trying to get the anti-vaxxer crowd to get the jab. No more pleas, no more bribes. (I guess they’re called “incentives.”) The whole concept of herd immunity is that if enough people get a vaccine, they can protect those who CAN’T get the vaccine. But very early on, the conservative bubble started blasting the vaccine (while taking credit for it) and downplaying the entire COVID-19 pandemic. Smart Americans moved forward with the vaccine, anyway, but because of obstructionist conservative contrarianism, we were unable to achieve herd immunity. Scientists say we need about 70% vaccinated, minimum, but we never got above 65% because of self-centered assholes.

NOW, humanity is being “treated” to a new variant, the Delta, and an even newer variant, Lambda. The vaccines seem to work to prevent deaths in the variants but they’re BOTH far more virulent than the original version and the anti-vaxxer crowd is reaping the whirlwind. Their body, their choice…and they’ve made their choice. But the United States (and the rest of the world, really) will benefit from giving them their whiny little way. It turns out, they may not believe in evolution – but evolution believes in them.

The conservative bubble is actively promoting stupidity as a virtue and, as we saw in the bit above, stupidity in large groups is VERY dangerous. But every day now, we’re culling some small part of that stupidity from the herd – and by their own choice! Every day, fewer stupid people. Every day, fewer Trump supporters. Every day, fewer anti-vaxxers. Every day the ratio of responsible, vaccinated people to irresponsible, unvaccinated pukes is changing, slightly. Trump’s feckless response to the virus killed 600,000 Americans, politics notwithstanding. But now the focus is on those who would disrupt civilization just to “own a lib.” Over time, it’s likely that enough contrarians will die of stupid stubbornness that we’ll BACK into herd immunity.

Yes, it does mean the rest of us are going to have to wear masks and social distance for awhile longer. That, too, is a “choice” the cons have forced on us. But that “choice” HAS been foisted on us and we’re stuck with it, for now, so at least we can take some comfort in the notion that, with these next mandates, we’re likely reducing the number of numbskulls that have been vexing this once-great nation for FAR too long, now…

So, please. Everyone, be quiet. Let the contrarian crowd panic about being tracked. (They can share their concerns on their ever-present cell phones.) Let them worry that Bill Gates wants to control their bodies. Let them take whatever stupid, self-destructive stance they want to take. Afterwards, we’ll be able to move into their houses…

There’s a guy out there, likely you’ve heard of him, named Mike Lindell. Mike sells a pillow and desperately wishes he was the Orange Moron’s boyfriend. (Okay, I don’t know what he wishes but he ACTS like he would like to “get with” the Dumbass…) He went to some right wing conference and claimed the Dumbass won with 80 million votes to Biden’s 67 million.

Why not, right? In fact, why stop at 80 million? Since the cons are just making things up as they go along, I find myself wondering why they stop at 80 million. Why not 400 million? Why not a billion? Facts are meaningless distractions to them so there’s no problem if someone should point out that America doesn’t even have 400 million people. On the other hand, cons want – frantically – to believe the dumbass won. They’ll accept any number they’re told. So if they have no chance of convincing smart Americans and they have no chance of being challenged by conservatives, why not just claim 6 TRILLION votes?

Maybe they’re trying to keep it “believable.” But they’re unbelievable…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Speaking of unbelievable morons, CheetoJesus and Bill O’Reilly are teaming up for a “stadium tour.” Two losers on a “waah-waah” tour crying about how unfair life has been to them. Tickets went on sale June 1. According to Ticketmaster, they’re having trouble selling out the venues. Most tickets cost between $100 and $300 dollars and stadiums are BIG.

They probably should have stuck with a “conference room” tour…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Truth be told, I’m not very impressed with the billionaires vying for the position of first useless, wage-thief to get to space. I don’t mean to be repetitive but conservatives – as a group – are idiots and they decided decades ago that taxpayers shouldn’t fund space travel. Instead, they thought it should be private corporations. Of course, corporations only do things for profit. That’s their jam, profit. I don’t think it’s a good idea to cede possible discoveries in space to private corporations. Nothing good will come of it.

Here’s an idea: let’s put them all together on a single ship, “accidentally” aim it for the sun, and launch those greedy pricks off the Earth. Blasting greedy, thieving rich people off the planet once and for all? Now THAT would be inspiring…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We hear in the news that California is suffering a severe drought. I’ve taken to saying California isn’t in a drought. These days, California is a desert that occasionally gets some good rain. I own and operate a small swimming pool service. One of my customers asked me what I thought was going to happen regarding swimming pools in relation to the drought. I told him I was certain the powers that be will make poor people stop drinking water before they make rich people stop swimming in it.

Now there are mandated cutbacks to households up and down the state with the “stick” portion of the carrot-and-stick program being higher water rates – which the rich will pay easily and the poor won’t be able to pay at all. It looks like my off-the-cuff, flippant response to my customer was dead-on accurate. Bummer…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So, the American west is burning and/or hot enough to burn at a moment’s notice while the rest of the country is drowning in floods. Fact-based individuals know these are the predicted results of man-made climate change. After all, they were predicted! Cons, of course, continue to insist these results of man-made climate change are anything BUT the results of man-made climate change but then, they think the CheetoJesus was a competent leader so…I think we can safely ignore their “thoughts” on the subject – or, really, any subject, for that matter…

The thing is, after awhile, one starts to wonder what the fat cats doing this to the planet think they’re going to do once the planet can no longer sustain human life. Sure, the plutocrats are the least developed people ever to walk the planet but technically, they do qualify as “human” so a place capable of sustaining humans seems like a beneficial thing. As it happens, they DO expect their money to solve their problems for them. For awhile, it will likely work, too.

When food can no longer be provided to the masses, the Capitalists will just pay whatever the new cost and not look back. They’ll buy up what’s left and leave the masses to work it out for themselves. When the temperature regularly reaches 130 degrees, they expect to be able to just fire up the air conditioning and keep cool – maybe go for a swim in their indoor pools.

But the farther out one runs this little thought exercise, the more one realizes the Richie Riches of the world have a glaring problem they haven’t seemed to take into account: the work. By which I mean, if the only people left are the wealthiest of the wealthy, the one-tenth of one percent crowd, how will they get anything done? When, for example, the AC breaks, who fixes it? I know, they love, love, LOVE, to tell the world about their great accomplishments and all they’ve achieved. Ask ’em, they’ll tell you – they’re great! They ALL have stories about starting out with nothing (but a small, million dollar loan from daddy), working out of their garages, and “building their success” through grit, hard work, and determination. Technically, the “hard work” part is correct. It’s just other people’s hard work that gets it done. The truth is, people who work know what work looks like and it’s not what those blowhards do.

So the useless parasites are going to have to maintain a core of useful people. It would be informative to see how many useful people it takes to maintain even one bloated fat-cat. (Just their estates require teams of useful people.) Sure, one doctor can maintain several patients so they can share but still, they’ll need several. White-collar professionals will be fewer than the blue-collar workers needed to get the basic maintenance done. How many of THOSE will need to be maintained? At some point there will be FAR more workers than parasites. That means private armies of security to protect the useless. But ALL of that – the working class, the white collar professionals, the private security armies – can only be maintained with money.

Once society collapses under the weight of desperation, money won’t have much meaning. After all, how much money is enough to entice you to give away what little food you have and let your own family starve to death? Even most cons aren’t that dumb. Remember, global climate change won’t be a localized event where the rich can just move behind some wall somewhere. It will be everywhere and it will affect everything.

So it seems…short-sighted to continue to despoil the environment of tomorrow for profits today. Even if the selfish and arrogant think their money is going to save them, I don’t think it will for long. Sooner or later, desperate but useful people will simply TAKE the protective environments from the useless – and we’ll know how to fix the AC!

Listen, if you haven’t had your Covid-19 vaccination and you have no medical proscription against the vaccine, I’d like to invoke the immortal words of that dick Cheney and invite you to go eff yourself. Alright, so I paraphrased but I’m sure you gather the sentiment. To put it bluntly, you’re being selfish. You’re declaring yourself more important than anyone – no, everyone – else on the planet. That’s some pretty high esteem you’ve got for yourself, there.

The first 600,000 Americans who died in this thing died as a direct result of the failings of Donnie the Dumbass. The blood of the first 600,000 is on his hands. But of course, he’s a proven, well-established, useless piece of crap moron. Failure is the expected paradigm for him. Now, though, some of that blood is showing up on the hands of people who could but just don’t want to get the shot. Because of people who just said no, we never reached full herd immunity. Because of people who just said no, the Coronavirus was able to mutate and mutate again and now we’ve got the far more virulent Delta and Delta Plus variant. Because of people who just said no, Covid-19 is making a comeback. That means more masks, more shutdowns, and more isolation. Why, because you’re afraid Bill Gates wants to use you as a party favor? Most of the excuses I’ve heard range from the asinine to the insane. But even if you pretend your position is science-based (not science fiction, like the ‘Nanites re-writing your DNA’ story), you’re starting to sound like a climate change denier. I mean, how much evidence do you need?

How many millions of doses have been administered? I do not pretend all has been perfection with the vaccine. Some people have had poor reactions. MORE people have had “poor reactions” to acquiring Covid-19. As a species, we can’t reach herd immunity while you’re standing in the corner, arms crossed, feet stomping, whining, “You can’t make me!” Well, that’s true enough, I guess. Great. Awesome, even. And…tell me again…WHY should I have to MAKE you do the right thing? Why don’t you just know, as an otherwise competent adult, that you have an obligation to the people and society around you? (OMG, are you also one of those assholes who won’t stop at a red light because stopping is for losers?) Sometimes, as a species, we work together as a species because it’s what’s best for the species. If you CAN get the vaccine and you DON’T get the vaccine, you’re not doing your part – for the species. You don’t have that right…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In related news, the world is trying to open up again. We went from being locked down with nothing to do and nowhere to go to just…open. 100%. Everybody wants everything again – and they want it now. Surprise! Everything isn’t available. Yet. Prices are high – on everything. They’ll come down. It’s going to take some time for everything to ramp up. People are just impatient. The “news” is reporting shortages and supply-chain disruptions as though society is collapsing around us. They have to say something. Things will settle over time…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The other thing I’ve been hearing about regularly in the “news” is that crime is on the rise. Lots of questions. Why is this happening? What can be done? More police? Better laws? My, oh my what is to become of us? Let me put this as succinctly as possible for the weak thinkers in the room. Street crime is a direct result of poverty. (White collar crime is, generally, just pure greed…) The more desperate a person is, the wider his moral stance. If one can’t buy food, one steals food. Simple, really. As long as our once-great nation pursues policies of poverty (the so-called “free market”), crime is going to be ever-present.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hey, speaking of poverty, you want to fix the homeless problem? I have the answer(s). The way I see it, there are two main components to the issue. One is the working poor, the other group consists of the mentally incompetent, either caused by illness or drugs. First, we’ll have to force rich people to pay a living wage – the so-called honest day’s pay for an honest day’s work. Second, we’ll have to tax rich people and make them pay their fair share. See? Simple.

The working poor are people who often have jobs but have been priced out of the housing market. To correct the housing problem for people who work but can’t cover their living costs? Pay them a living wage. See how simple that is? But there’s a second prong to this solution. We need to regulate “pooled money investors” so they can’t buy single family homes AND require them to divest from those they already own in a short period of time.

Pooled money investors are just people who still have a couple of coins to rub together who toss some money on a pile and use the collected resources to buy up (or build) properties as opportunities become available. The problem is, they have an unfair competitive advantage when it comes to buying houses. When you hear about ANY organization that can buy property at over-asking prices, with no inspections or even questions, and give you a short escrow – in some cases as short as 72 hours, you’re dealing with pooled money investors – even if the “buyer” appears to be an individual.

They have artificially overheated housing market costs. They’ll pay whatever they need to pay to own the property without any concern for the actual value of the property. Then, they just put the house on the rental market for whatever they have to charge to accommodate some algorithm somewhere. But when single family homes cost more, apartments follow. Individual home-ownership declines – which undermines societal stability – and rents skyrocket…

Second, we’re going to have to return to involuntary confinements. For the mentally ill, that means institutions where they can be cared for. The drug addicted are normally competent but they’re drug-addled. They can’t make good choices. I’d put them into rehab facilities instead of jail (though it might have to be a rehab jail…). Of course, mental health and rehab facilities cost money so we’d have to tax the people with money to cover those without.

There are MANY more details about this but the necessary first steps – force rich people to pay a living wage and pay their fair share in taxes – are non-starters. I’ll tell you this; since we won’t do the right thing to the comfortable people in this country, we CAN’T do the right thing for the afflicted people in this country. Hey, I said I had the answer. I didn’t say I could make it happen…

Like reading the headlines, of yesterday’s news over and over…
– Joe Walsh

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The other day, I was talking with a conservative. Apparently, the cons have been conned into believing the current high gas prices have nothing to do with corporate boardrooms and everything to do with Joe Biden being a Democrat. This failed understanding allowed my con conversationalist to sneer, “So…how do you like those high gas prices?” Honestly? I’m ambivalent. On the one hand, I’m not a fan of paying the higher prices. On the other hand, greed kills. In THIS case, the greed of the oil companies will, I’m sure, hasten the arrival of renewables, killing their black-gold goose.

It won’t be overnight, to be sure. Still, these days, Americans have options and they’ll use them. Fossil fuels are yesterday’s news and the sooner we transition away from them, the better…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In what must be unrelated news, the ocean is on fire. You might want to read that again. It’s a little difficult to wrap one’s mind around the fact that the ocean is on fire. It’s actually a broken gas line and the escaping gas is what’s on fire. It poses a question: what does one use to put out an ocean on fire? It’s not like throwing some water on it is going to help.

Sadly, this is not the first time I’ve seen water burn in my life. We humans (Americans, in my experience) are capable of throwing SO MUCH CRAP into water, it burns. The last time I saw it, the result was a Republican president (Nixon) enacting the Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA made new rules and regulations, cleaned things up, and the rivers stopped burning. Then the deregulation fiction took hold and we’re back to burning water. Good job, cons…

These days, I’m sure con media will go all in on how burning the ocean is good for it or some such and then we’ll see an army of armed idiots defending the right of the fire to burn…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I would not want the day to pass without mentioning the passing of Donald Rumsfeld. He blessed the planet by leaving it after only 88 years of harm and destruction. He helped Bush 43 start his illegal wars of profit. A LOT of innocent people died because Donald Rumsfeld lived. That’s one hell of a legacy.

Speaking of Hell, I’m sure Mr. Rumsfeld is busy settling in to his new digs and I’m sure the world is better off without him…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Well, it was great while it lasted but the dumbass is in the news again. Sure, he’s running around stirring up his acolytes at rallies and that’s going to generate some coverage. This seems to be some kind of ‘Greatest Hits Revue’ tour. He’s covering all his old hits but there’s nothing new in there. Meanwhile, he’s also in the news because his organization is under indictment for tax fraud. I’m sure the cons have already dismissed the investigation as a “witch hunt” and the truth is, I don’t think these crimes are going to amount to much. The organization will give a little, “Oh, is that a problem? Who knew?” and pay whatever fine they agree to. (To me, it’s a problem that rich people get to “agree to” penalties for their wrongdoing…)

People on the left are salivating over the possibility that THIS time might be THE time. Maybe justice will catch up to the dumbass once and for all. Listen, don’t bet the farm on it. Satan takes care of his own and the Orange Moron seems to be a Satan favorite. In fact, I think if Jesus took care of HIS followers as well as Satan takes care of his, Christianity would be doing MUCH better in the world…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

SO…it’s the Fourth of July. Independence day in the United States. Well, at least the day we celebrate as Independence Day. Close enough. This year marks 245 years since the colonist’s uprising. The fireworks have already started. Through the years, I’ve become less and less of a fireworks fan. I like them. I’m always impressed by the skills necessary to make those things do the things they do. BUT…I live in Northern California. We’re currently embroiled in a drought. Actually, I’ve started to realize we no longer live in a rainy place going through a dry spell. I’ve come to realize we live in a desert that occasionally gets some good rain. It’s different. To hear the cons tell it, it’s anything – everything – except climate change. But, hell, they’re wrong about everything these days so why not that, too?

So I don’t like the fireworks because of the very real risk that some chump will do something stupid with them and burn things up. (One guy recently threw lit fireworks into a field. You’ll never guess what happened after that. The field caught fire. (Oh, you DID guess…) He burned several apartments and displaced the residents. Fortunately, he burned his OWN apartment, too, AND got arrested. It’s ALWAYS the few who ruin it for the many…)

Another objection to fireworks, though, is the fact that they actually celebrate war. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. The United States of America is one of the most warlike nations in the history of History. By some estimates (it depends on how one counts conflicts) of the 245 years the United States has existed, we have been at war for 224 of those years. That’s only 21 years where the US was NOT in a war – in our entire existence!

When I was a kid, one of my uncles who had participated in one of our little wars used to go inside the house when the fireworks started. I was too young to understand at the time but he was going inside to try and evade the very sights and sounds the country was inflicting on him to “celebrate” the wars. I’ve since learned about PTSD. Now I can’t see fireworks without thinking of that uncle and those like him. America manufactures and discards broken soldiers like plastic water bottles and all of those damaged people running around may very well not enjoy the rocket’s red glare nor the bombs bursting in air. (In my experience, actual combat veterans tend to have a very different understanding of the so-called “glories of war.”)

I want to be clear. My heartburn is with fireworks, not America and certainly not our soldiers. We don’t need fireworks and they’re very disrespectful of the men and women who fought so hard and so bravely to give us the freedom we use to disrespect them today. So I hope you enjoy your Fourth of July holiday. I hope you have a lovely barbecue and hang with your family or friends or whatever but I also hope you’ll leave the fireworks out of it.

Hope springs eternal, I guess…