There’s a movement afoot attempting to unseat Marjorie Taylor-Greene, that nutball con who never met a conspiracy theory she didn’t love – so long as it attacks the left. She seems to subscribe to the Q-anonsense without question. The effort to block her is based on the 14th Amendment of the United States Constitution. It bars anybody who has participated in insurrection against the US from polluting Congress or any other elected office of public trust, for that matter.

Specifically, Section 3 of the 14th Amendment of the United States Constitution reads:
“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.”

The truth is, I don’t know the detailed evidence against her. My understanding is that the January sixth commission has written records of her participation including texts and emails with some of the organizers. They also have statements made by others so…first hand reports from people she was working with to coordinate the insurrection. AND, it should be noted, none of this evidence has been tested in court, so it’s entirely possible the corporate media has glommed onto some juicy tidbits and turned then into something they’re not in it’s never-ending quest to divide left and right. But most of us have seen the videos of her making declarations in support of the big lie, the pretense that Biden didn’t win the 2020 election and declarations that “we can’t allow it to just transfer power peacefully like Joe Biden wants and allow him to become our President because he did not win this election. It’s being stolen.”

The attorneys for the plaintiffs saw the videos, too. MTG walked into court and did what every con does when confronted with reality. She lied, or, rather, dissembled. In fairness, what was she going to do, stick to her story? She risks opening herself up to charges of perjury. (Although, when I thought about it, I thought the a person who truly believed the story WOULD stick to it because they truly believed it. I mean, look, there’s no law about being wrong on the stand. There are only laws against LYING on the stand and, somehow, she knew to duck the questions. Suddenly, she can’t remember anything. The questioning went something like this:
Plaintiff Attorney: Do you remember saying (such and such or so and so?)
MTG: I do not remember saying that.
Plaintiff Attorney: Let’s go to the video!
Amazingly, she WAS able to recall, with perfect clarity and despite her inability to remember the video in the first place, that the clip being shown was being taken out of context. That’s some VERY specific memory, right there…

The right is characterizing the effort as an attack on democracy. I’ve noted they have no such objections to ACTUAL attacks on democracy. Gerrymandering, voter suppression, and violent insurrection are apparently a-okay but relying on the Constitution of the United States? Obviously anti-democratic.

I’ve said it before and I’m sure I’ll say it again. Conservatives have no principles, only positions of the moment…

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Hey, they seem to have found one of those criminal scofflaws who attempt to rig elections. In this case, that would be the Chief of Staff to the Dumbass, Mark Meadows. Apparently, he’s registered to vote in two different states, South Carolina and Virginia. This, AFTER he was removed from the voter rolls in North Carolina, where he was ALSO registered to vote. Really, it’s a pattern. Voter fraud DOES exist, it’s just that it’s nearly always Republicans (or conservatives) engaging in it.

Meadows is up to his hind end in the insurrection problem, too. The more I read, the more I see him as the point man for the coup. I suppose he was the Orange Moron’s shield. Participants of the coup communicate with Meadows, Meadows communicates with the dumbass, that kind of thing.

Meadows has already turned over much evidence that will be used against him in response to subpoenas from the January sixth committee. More testimony from others around him at the time continues to implicate him, as well. He should go to jail. But truthfully, I’ve lost faith in the integrity of this once-great nation and I think the dumbass will be back. When he DOES return, Meadows gets a pardon so all he has to do is avoid prison for a little while longer, right?

I liked the rule of law better…

Here’s a funny thing: CheetoJesus’s social media platform, ‘Truth Social,’ seems, by all measures, to be crashing and burning. That part doesn’t surprise me. The Dumbass has never started a successful business in his life. The part I like is the part about Devon Nunes. Nunes is a FAR right conservative. He polluted the halls of Congress for something like 18 years and like so many other permanent fixtures in our Congress, likely would have stayed forever. Except he bought into the trumpery. He voluntarily resigned his position in the House and went to work for the Orange Moron! Ha, ha! Now he’s out of the House (thank the gods) AND it looks like, soon, he’ll be out of a job, too.

Nunes is from a (IMHO) lazy, whiny rich family so he’ll be fine. But I LIKE seeing people who buy into the trumpery live the results of their faith. It’s kind of…comforting…

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The politicians sure have gotten themselves into a pickle, haven’t they? I saw a headline in the Guardian, ‘Garland Under Pressure to Charge Ex-President.’ Oh, what to do, what to do? Here’s the pickle: the United States DOES NOT jail ex-Presidents. So far, EVER. I believe the idea is that if one party’s president is jailed, it will lead to a tit-for-tat and the jailed president’s party will LIVE to jail the other party’s president. The very concept reeks of corruption but it worked for, like, 227 years. Nixon (R) pressed the boundaries by overseeing a criminal break-in. He resigned but otherwise walked away – and the Republicans STILL haven’t forgiven the Democrats. Bush (R) 43’s crimes were international war crimes. Not so much criminal activity in the US and so, apparently, “easy” to overlook. But then came the trumpery (R…hey, there seems to be a pattern, here). This guy is SO corrupt, even a small scratch at the surface exposes criminal activity and the deeper one looks, the worse things get.

Investigations across the land have found enough evidence to put anybody else in prison for a while. But this is an ex-president. Okay, so maybe he gets a pass on his financial criminal activities. Rich people stealing from everyone else is the very basis of the so-called “free market” system so we’re all kind of used to that. But treason? An attempted coup? Really? After the Orange Moron’s insurrection on January 6th, enough evidence has been produced to indicate his guilt. So now what? He’s an ex-president. Enter the “protected for life” rule. But he’s a traitor. He stands AGAINST the US Constitution. He actively tried to overthrow the government of the United States, fercrissakes. Can one give that a pass? He’s out there still, planning the next chapter of his coup and he STILL has widespread support among his base. (Don’t be too surprised. The Bible makes clear that many people will love the Beast of the Sea – and, boy howdy, do they!)

So…if they DON’T prosecute, the country is in dire risk of an authoritarian overthrow and descent into dictatorship. If they DO prosecute, the disloyal opposition pretends to take it personally (ignoring evidence) and this once-great nation, that apparently operated by handshake agreement – falls apart anyway. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t. It’s a bad choice. I don’t like, but I understand, the concept of not prosecuting a president lightly, even if it means letting them get away with some things but if we can’t prosecute treason, we’ve failed already and it’s only a matter of time before the facade comes down.

For my part, I’d prefer to fall on the hill of doing the right thing. Charge and prosecute the Trump Crime Family, most especially Donnie “the Don.” If the evidence supports conviction, convict them. If We, the People are destined to suffer regardless of the choice we make, let’s at least make the right choice, to do the right thing…

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To hear cons tell it, the only reason gas is so expensive is because Biden cancelled plans to allow drilling on public land and a pipeline extension that wasn’t expected to move one drop of nasty-ass, tar-sands oil until 2032. No, he didn’t cancel the leases the oil cartels already have. He just wasn’t going to issue any MORE leases on public land. His position? They should use some of the 9,000 leases they already have. Oil companies don’t like to use leases they possess. They put them on their balance sheets to boost company value, then let them sit idle. But the oil companies KNOW they have a strangle-hold on the world economy. They KNOW they simply shut off the spigot and – viola! – they get anything they want. They’ve done it again. Biden is now acquiescing and allowing leases on public land again. So, if the cons are correct (the cons are almost never correct) we should be looking at gas prices more like, oh, I don’t know, say, $2.00/gallon, right? Any day now, I’m sure.

The truth is, no president has much control over what goes on in a corporate boardroom. The truth is, gas is expensive because of greed and nothing else. Trumpery still reigned in this once-great nation when the oil cartel decided to cut production because, darn it, they just were pocketing enough of the world’s hard earned money. The so-called supply chain interruptions just gave them an excuse and they went for it. Enthusiastically.

As the greed-blinded execs raised prices as aggressively as possible – ostensibly because of the change in policy, not availability – gas went up 30 cents a DAY here in California. Now it’s coming down. A penny here, a penny there. It’ll never be where it was when the money grab began. Maybe it will drop to $5.00/gal – and people will feel relieved. At least it’s not $6.00.

As most of us know, the world is addicted to oil. World leaders will, eventually, do whatever they’re told to do because the oil “dealers” have what the world needs. But, as any/every addict knows, the only way to recover actual freedom and dignity is to break the addiction…

No column last week. My bad. I got involved with a wedding and it became rather…all-consuming. By the time the dust settled, I had missed my own deadline by nearly a week. The pay remains the same, though, so…no worries…

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It seems to me that putz Putin has gone full-on Dumbass. Now, the truth is, I’ve never been able to decide if Donnie is evil and stupid or evil and a wily schemer, or both. Evil, of course, is a given. But Putin is using trumpery in his Ukrainian invasion to full effect. Okay, so, to no effect. Nobody, except perhaps some Russians, believe anything Putin is saying. Really, in order for the Russians to even have a chance to believe it, Putin had to block every dissenting voice he could. And STILL, too many Russians know the truth. Some of the talking heads on Fox “News” seem to believe it, too, but it’s equally likely they’re just parroting whatever position-du-jour Fox is pushing in the moment.

Still, these days, when Putin speaks, it’s the words of the Orange Moron that come out. Oh, they HAD to invade Ukraine…uh…well…uh…to root out the Nazi’s. Yeah, THAT’S the ticket! The NAZI’S! The only thing I’ve ever heard about Nazi’s in Ukraine is when TrumPutin started whining he had no choice but to invade because Ukraine’s Jewish President was a Nazi! Yeah, right. He told the Russian people that Russia had no choice but to “defend itself” from Ukraine. He told his people that Ukraine wanted to end the Russian state. Of course, there’s not evidence of any of this but evidence is not important to fraudsters. In fact, they rely on the absence of evidence to continue whatever evil scheme they’ve initiated.

Now TrumPutin is telling the world that what they’re seeing with their own eyes from Bucha isn’t what they’re seeing at all. Pure trumpery…

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A little while back, Texas passed a law, SB 8, that allows private citizens to sue anybody who helps somebody get an abortion. No government employees, just private citizens. Texas thinks of it as a “work-around” to the “problem” of women having a choice regarding control over their own bodies. (I note they did NOT require the emitter of the sacred sperm to begin child support payments after 8 weeks.) I don’t like the law. Texas feels like they can’t officially enforce abortion bans, so they tried to empower private citizens to the job for them, whether said private citizen can show damages from the actions or not. It essentially creates a bounty of $10,000 per abortion. Lovely. It’s a trick I suspect they learned from the Federal government when 43 wanted to spy on all Americans. They realized it was illegal for the government to do it so they got private cell phone service providers to do it FOR them and just turn the information over. Cons, always on about infringements of their rights, didn’t seem to care about THAT particular infringement.

When I first heard about it, I immediately wondered if some other, smarter, state might use the same stupid tactic to enforce laws THEY can’t enforce but want action on. Take, for example, guns. One wants better regulation of guns but can’t achieve it because cons pretend it violates the Constitution? Hey, just ignore the part of the Second Amendment that reads: “A well-REGULATED militia…” (emphasis mine) and empower private citizens! Let THEM violate the Constitution for you! Why, it’s not a government action at all. It’s simply a civil action used to enforce legal preferences.

Enter California. They’ve done it, or, rather, they’re threatening to doing it. The California legislature is using the same tactic to address the problem of “ghost” guns and parts – guns with no serial numbers. If you know someone participating in the movement or ownership of such parts/guns, you can sue them for up to $10,000 per gun. I kind of love it. Not so much because of it’s issue but because it highlights the absurdity of allowing private citizens to violate the constitution on behalf of the government while pretending it’s not the government at all.

Now red and blue states can empower their citizens to violate the Constitution in a wide variety of ways! See a black person trying to vote? Sue them! There’s a church down the street with a message you don’t like? Sue them! A transgender human needs to pee? Sue them! Someone wants to associate with a group you disapprove of? Screw that, sue them! I think a clever politician could find a way to allow private citizens to violate the Constitution on behalf of the government on just about the entire Bill of Rights – which will, of course, effectively eliminate the Bill of Rights. Genius, right? An effing “work-around” for the Bill of Rights.

In truth, I don’t like either law and I think they should both be struck down but, nowadays, we live in a very stupid, very corrupt country and I’m not holding out hope. (I hope I don’t get sued for expressing my opinion, here…)

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I like that unions seem to be making a comeback. It seems that even conservatives have figured out, despite their conditioning to the contrary, that labor is a commodity and can be managed – like all the other commodities. It’s funny, so many people believed for so long that unions were only bad and that people should just trust their employers to do the right thing. But the right-wing disinformation machine can convince cons of just about anything – right up until they experience it themselves. THEN they see the detail. THEN they understand how they’ve been misled.

What I believe – and have always believed – is that employers will do ANYTHING to reduce the “burdens” they suffer from the employees, that is, the very people who do the work that make the owners SO incredibly rich. Don’t believe me? Let’s take a (brief) look at history. In history, “employers” used to bring workers down to the Caribbean islands and work them in the sugar cane fields until they died! Then, they’d just replace them with new “employees.” Yes, these were slave owners and slaves. But the very concept of slavery proves beyond question that some people will DO anything, can justify ANYTHING, in the name of profit. Jeff Bezos takes turns being the richest man in the world. HE, personally, doesn’t do anything to “earn” ANY of that money. He just keeps it – because he’s in a position to do so.

Amazon cheated in the unionization attempt in Birmingham, Alabama. They cheated so badly, in fact, the courts threw out the final vote and ordered a re-vote. Amazon had less success in New York where a recent union vote went for the union. Amazon is trying to fight the outcome. ANYTHING but treat the people who bring Bezos SO much like human beings. In the article I read in the Guardian, ‘Amazon fights to overturn union’s historic win at New York warehouse,’ there was this little tidbit: “In a filing last week, the company disclosed it spent about $4.2m last year on labor consultants.” $4.2 MILLION dollars trying to keep from having to do the right thing. Hey, the South went to war to try to prevent losing their free labor pool. Some people will do anything. Labor organization is the only tool workers have.

For years, corporate media convinced it’s consumers that all the “good” jobs – the manufacturing jobs, they claimed – had gone overseas, which was true. But these weren’t the “good” jobs because they were manufacturing jobs. They were good jobs because they were union jobs. Greedy, self-serving employers were forced to do the right thing, like it or not. Of course, they’re SO greedy, they just moved their operations overseas where they could take advantage of an even LESS powerful population and reported back to the American people they’d just have to get by on service jobs – with no unions. Ever since, our “service economy” has become poorer and poorer and more and more desperate while the Kleptocrats just keep taking more and more and more. The American people are going to have to organize and rise up and I’m glad there may be a way to fight back without widespread bloodshed…