I’ve been watching the left freak out about Herschel Walker recently. The dude is CLEARLY a liar and a hypocrite. The left has been trying to promote the truth about Walker, apparently hoping (and you can’t make this up), to change conservative minds with facts! Ha, ha! What a bunch of rubes. Why don’t they know one does not change a conservative mind with facts? Conservatives operate on faith and faith alone – and one CAN NOT successfully argue against someone’s faith.

Besides, even if the cons had standards or principles, THEY think they’re just doing what the left did to get rid of Trump. If you’ll recall, the left banded together, Dems and progressives, and everyone (except the MAGA cons) came out and voted against Trump. It was NEVER an endorsement of Biden. Nobody gave two figs about Biden, his policies, his age, his gaffes…nothing. All we cared about was that he wasn’t Trump.

The difference? The people who understand things were trying to get rid of a national cancer in Trump, a would-be strongman being used by MUCH smarter people than himself to usher in Fascism and turn over national secrets to a foreign adversary. But the cons have been so deeply inculcated into the conservative construct, they don’t even understand what fascism is, let alone that THEY are the group supporting the destruction of a once-great nation. They never WILL know it, either. Their faith informs them – and when has faith ever been wrong? (Yeah, I know – always – but you can’t tell a person of faith THAT, either, so…)

Consider this. Ever since Bill Clinton destroyed independent media in this once great nation, there’s been a pattern. When – and I mean the very day – a Democrat takes over in the Oval Office, the conservative bubble begins a well-orchestrated chorus of horrors, nightmares, failings, and faults. The United States is portrayed in the bubble as a festering hellhole, full of the worst kinds of people doing the worst kinds of things. Americans suffer poverty, restrictions on their “freedumbs,” overwhelming and uncontrolled invasions of the “wrong” people, loss of opportunity, death, devastation, and destruction. God has damned America!

Then (Glory!) the day – and I mean the very day – a Republican moves into the Oval Office, everything is sweetness and light. The economy BOOMS! Everyone enjoys perfect freedumb, the borders are closed. Opportunity is everywhere, nobody dies, nobody suffers, all is well in the shining beacon on the hill. (When bad things DO happen to people anyway, it’s somehow the Democrat’s fault…that’s the rule.) God bless America!

NONE of it is ever true but the cons don’t know that and they never will. For one, they don’t WANT to know but, really, they can’t. I mean, they can’t allow themselves to even consider the possibility their team might be wrong – it’s a matter of faith. People who understand things try logic. “What policy,” they ask, “has been put into place – today – that created all of this mythic awesomeness?” When 43 was installed, I actually heard cons responding to that question by saying it was all so much better so very fast in anticipation of Republican leadership! See? The cons don’t even have to DO anything, they still get credit for all that’s good and true in this world, leaving the Dems with the role of evildoers.

It’s important to note, this is not stupidity, it’s faith – and faith is FAR worse. A person can be educated out of stupidity. Refusing to question one’s own faith is, by definition, part and parcel of faith itself. When old Chucky Koch decided to destroy America, he found the perfect tool with which to do it – faith – and the perfect tools to carry the process forward – the faithful. And what happens when people operate on faith and faith alone? Jonestown. Waco. Heaven’s Gate. The Civil War. Faith has created some lovely paintings and some beautiful songs, but faith without fact is responsible for as much death and destruction in history as any other single cause – maybe more.

It’s a sorry state, the state of our State. I wish – and I mean I REALLY wish – I had some answer. But I just don’t know how to overcome the willful blindness of faith. I don’t think anyone else knows how, either. There’s only one thing I’ve EVER seen that changes the mind of the faithful and that is the fruits of their faith coming home to roost. They get smacked so hard with reality, they can’t turn away anymore. David Koresh tells a loving parent they have to turn their 13 year old daughter to him for sex – because God said so. Jim Jones kills a congress critter and they all drink the Kool-aid (or are forced to). Six million (14 million, really) people are murdered in cold blood. Then, and only then – maybe – a person will open their eyes. FAR too often, they drink the Kool-aid in order to avoid having to face reality. Joseph Goebbels killed his own children – and himself – to protect himself from reality. How does one defend against that?

So this whole thing plays out, like it or not. We’ll clean up the mess after and try again. Martin Luther King, Jr said the arc of history bends toward justice. I think it’s true. Each iteration, every time we try to make a better world, we get a little closer. I’ll tell you this: faith without fact is a tool of destruction. If we get the chance to try again, I’d suggest protecting independent media and teaching logic and critical thinking in school. It may not overcome faith but it’s a start…

Well, the right is CERTAIN that the left is going to start the looming civil war. And…just in case the left DOESN’T start the civil war, the right will be happy to start it for them. To that end, a one-time Green party activist turned right-wing nut-ball decided to kill Nancy Pelosi but he didn’t check her schedule and she wasn’t home when he broke in. So he tried to kill her husband, Paul, instead. His Green roots showed through, though. He didn’t use a gun, he used a hammer.

One thing I can say for SURE, right-wing media will focus heavily on his outdated, Green Party registry and completely ignore his far right rants. They’ll present it as a crazy lib and not what it was, a violent attack by a brainwashed con. The conservative bubble sucks in good people every day – and ruins them. The same happened to this poor schmuck. Now he gets to spend the rest of his life in prison because he believed the lies spewed from the conservative bubble…

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So…in the end, Elon Musk was forced to buy Twitter for 44 Billion dollars. He made them an offer they couldn’t refuse and they didn’t so HE tried to back out, knowing he had offered FAR more than Twitter was ever worth. But he took his bluff too far and had legal obligations and ended up having to fork over the money. The first thing he did was fire a bunch of the executives. Of course, he had just given them 44 Billion dollars to split on their way out the door so I don’t imagine their firing is going to harm them all that much. I DO imagine the new ownership is going to harm Twitter. A LOT.

I’m not a Twit – or whatever it is they call themselves – so I don’t imagine it’s going to be much of problem for me. But a social media web site that bathes itself in bullshit is a problem for the masses. Once he re-activates Trump’s account, the bullshit will return to being eyebrow deep – essentially useless space. No, worse than useless. It will be downright harmful.

I’ll tell you this: I just don’t think this once-great nation can overcome or survive the onslaught of propaganda. I think it was Jon Stewart who coined the phrase “Bullshit Mountain” referring to right-wing misinformation and disinformation but it’s not a mountain. It’s a glacier and it’s advancing. Bullshit Glacier has already overwhelmed much of America and the damage continues, unabated…

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Well, we missed it. The UN says we’re almost certainly going to miss the target of 1.5 degrees centigrade to prevent the worst of global warming from Climate change. They actually said there’s “no credible pathway to 1.5C in place.” Apparently, there was just too much profit to be had wiping out humanity. The people who don’t understand things spent enough time shouting stupid things based on stupid “evidence” (and these people will believe anything…), the corporations manipulating them to do so pocketed – and still pocket – rather tidy sums. Guess who will be shouting the loudest as the consequences of their political folly play out in real time. “Why, oh, why don’t the politicians save us from the corporate malfeasance?” Oh, that’s the DIRECT result of conservative positions, policies, and actions. Deregulation anyone? Citizen’s United?

I’ll tell you this: I THINK they thought it would happen slowly enough that it wouldn’t affect them personally – and a con never minds harming OTHER people. They were wrong about THAT, though, too. They ARE going to have to live (and/or die) with the consequences of their actions – or, rather, their failure to act. At least there’s that…

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I don’t mean to be unkind but I’ve got to confess, I’ve been very much enjoying Tom Brady’s struggles in Tampa Bay this year. If you know me, you likely know that I’m not at all on-board with the title of Greatest Of All Time (GOAT) for Tom Brady, current Quarterback of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Too many asterisks. But this isn’t that. I’m not enjoying his struggles because of what the struggles say about him. I’m enjoying them because of what they say about every other QB who ever hit the field, played poorly for some (short) period of time, then left the game.

Setting aside the controversies, Brady is still an incredibly talented player. The thing is, he has always been surrounded by talented teams. Even when he switched from the Patriots to the Bucs, they were ready to play. (Also, he brought along his favorite target for the first season there.) But the Bucs, the team around him, fell apart this year. They lost good players. They had a shakeup at head coach. They’re just not gelling. And there’s nothing Brady can do – as good as he is – to compensate.

So how many of those also-ran QBs came and went from the NFL, destined to be relegated to the dust bin of history, because the team around them wasn’t good? Or because they had a bad coach? Or because they were in the wrong system for their style of play? So I’m enjoying Brady’s struggles because they vindicate in some small way, every Quarterback who ever passed through the league with “You SUCK!” ringing in their ears on their way out. Maybe they did, maybe they didn’t, but if a player as talented and skilled as Tom Brady can suddenly – after YEARS of success – look very, very average, it could happen to anyone. And I like vindication…

Sidebar: this is tangential to the Brady story so I’ll just mash it in, here. Everyone ripped on Tom for playing this season. People everywhere suspected that his insistence on coming back led to the breakdown of his marriage. People should consider the possibility that he came back to play because he discovered the marriage was already over. What’s the point of trying to “spend more time with the family” if the family is not going to be there?

Hello, Good-bye…
Boy, Liz Truss, the new and now resigned Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, didn’t last long. I think these are the first words I’ve written about her and they’re pretty much just to say goodbye. She came into office and immediately began promoting more trickle down bunk. You know the bull – tax cuts for the rich, paid for by slashing the social safety net. Lovely. Standard conservative stuff. Comfort the comfortable, afflict the afflicted. But only the dumbest of the dumb still believe trickle down economics is anything but a scam and even the wealthy in the United Kingdom rejected the idea, aware of how the overall economic damage harms their own businesses. That’s actually a reassuring sign.

To be sure, I doubt the cons in America would balk at more trickle down economics playing out here. But people who understand things around the world seem to be finally rejecting the idea these days. That’s good. So, goodbye Liz. Don’t let the door hit you…

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Time Will Tell…
Okay, just to follow up…yesterday I wrote about the new Georgia election laws and how they might play out over the course of the election. One of my conservative friends posted a response from the Wall Street Journal (a plus) Opinion page (a minus). The message of the writer’s opinion was that voter turnout is rivaling record turnout numbers. A story on CNN supports the assertion but I call the two points unrelated – a non sequitur.

See, a high voter turnout doesn’t necessarily indicate the cons didn’t pass laws to make voting more difficult. It could equally indicate that the people fear the new, more restrictive rules and know they need more time to complete the process. The Democrats started warning lefty voters about the new Republican rules. The Dems had no choice but to try to get out early and vote. To overcome conservative fingers on the scales, there needs to be a large turnout – quite the trick during mid-terms. Really, that’s how the left beat Trump in the 2020 election. Cons think they outnumber Dems and progressives in this once-great nation. They don’t, but they DO turn out more dependably. When the Dems and progressives DO turn out, though, en masse, they normally win. But it still seems true that the new rules make liberal success more difficult in Georgia.

For one, the cons get to decide which votes count in the first place. For the other, it might take a bit of time to correct the various and sundry challenges to voters who get challenged and starting early leaves time to still get a legitimate ballot counted. Cons made mail-in voting more difficult. (Apparently, they feel like they need the “cheating” voting machines for some reason. Quick question: if you really thought the machines cheated, wouldn’t you use them less?) Oh, and where there have been difficulties reported? Largely areas populated by African Americans. Go figure.

On the other hand, high voter turnout could well indicate the anger of the voters at the con’s promises of abandoning the social safety net and their recent elimination of Roe v Wade with the offset to Georgia’s more restrictive laws being a fortunate side-benefit. That’s the one I’m hoping for – more Democratic and progressives turning out trying to stop the slide into moronic fascism and only coincidentally overcoming Georgia’s new restrictions.

The fact is, we can’t tell how the election will play out until the election has played out. High voter turnout could indicate that the Dems were wrong about the new laws. It could also indicate the cons were wrong to attack women’s rights. We’ll all find out together as this thing goes forward…

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Repetition For Posterity…
History likes to do postmortems on once-great nations that fall for one reason or another and I’m pretty sure the United States soon get that treatment. Sadly, the deciding factor will be whether humanity survives long enough to DO a postmortem. When (okay, if) historians get the chance, they’ll line up the usual suspects and, far and away, the vast majority will be either tremendously rich sons of bitches (Charles Koch, for example) and conservative politicians (Ronald Reagan and Newt Gingrich come to mind), but for my money, the person who will go down in history as having done the most harm to the survival of the Constitutional Republic called the United States of America? “Democrat” William Jefferson Clinton.

I point at him because he signed the Telecommunications Act of 1996. That act, written by conservatives, really destroyed the independent media in the country by allowing large, rich corporations to buy up nearly as many news outlets – television, radio, and print – as they could. Having so much money, they could – and did. The result? Poor, corporation-favoring information. But democracies and republics can’t survive on poor information.

It used to be the media that exposed political and corporate malfeasance. Now? The corporations mostly squelch stories that make them look bad and they promote stories that blame all problems on politicians. (That’s why oil companies can dictate the outcome of elections by gouging their customers. FAR too few people understand they’re suffering from corporate, not political, decisions, and we have no Walter Cronkite to set them straight…)

Oh, Clinton also facilitated the implementation of Fox “News.” His administration even had to issue a special waiver to allow them to broadcast their attacks on America…

I’ll tell you this: I say this from time to time and I’ll keep saying it. I’m not trying to convince anybody. Historians will make the final call. But if history doesn’t include the intentional, calculated destruction of accurate information as a key factor in the downfall of this once-great nation, it will be a crying shame…

Well, here we go. Georgia is off and running this election season. Sadly, they’re off and running to destroy democracy and they’re doing a pretty good job so far. Georgia is just chock full of people who don’t understand things and those people believe Trump’s big lie. Because they believe the big lie, they decided to make it harder for Democrats to vote. No, that’s not a typo. In fairness “harder for Democrats to vote” is not the wording of the law. The law really just allows any citizen to challenge – an unlimited number of times – the validity of any other citizen to vote, requiring them to cast provisional ballots. It’s just that only the cons are challenging voters and they’re only challenging Democrats.

The law also provides for cures to affirm address challenges. The challenged voter can provide verification of their address or fill out an address verification form in the moment and on site. The law says that if there’s a question, the poll workers should work toward including the challenged voter’s vote on a regular ballot, but that part is apparently easy to “forget” and the poll workers seem to be just ignoring that portion. (The same trick they use on the 2nd Amendment – just ignore the part you don’t like.) Okay, again, in fairness, many of the poll workers simply weren’t told about the cures on hand and in place to correct the challenge in the moment if a voter is challenged so maybe they’re not “forgetting,” just poorly trained by the state. They were NOT poorly trained in their ideology, however, and they DO NOT want Democrats to vote.

So, quick summary, in Georgia, the people who don’t understand things think they’re protecting democracy by denying democracy. These are the same people who get upset if you say they’re following fascist dictates. Go figure… I once had a guitar case covered with politically oriented stickers, one of which read, “Beware the power of stupid people in large groups.” I’m not happy seeing it play out.

Sometimes, I think this country’s destruction works in carefully calculated cycles. What I mean is, right now, EVERY MAGA supporter is shouting and whining and sniveling about the stolen election in 2020 and they have been since the election. There’s not a shred of evidence that the election was stolen in 2020. They marched into 61 courtrooms trying to challenge the election and lost 61 times! (Hey, a perfect record is a perfect record, right?) The fact that there’s no evidence to support their insane claims hasn’t stopped them. Hell, it hasn’t even slowed them down. They just whine and whine and whine. They’re not going to win that fight because it’s a delusional fever-dream but I suspect they’re not intended to win that fight. I suspect the true goal is just to wear down American’s tolerance for complaints about voter fraud.

You see, the left will come out and challenge laws like the one in Georgia. The right has passed so many democracy choking laws it’s hard to keep up. Between gerrymandering and these “Dems shouldn’t be allowed to vote” laws and the “adjusting” laws that allow state legislatures to simply declare Democratic winners the losers and the losing con the true winner, the right isn’t fighting election fraud – they’re perfecting it. The news coming out of Georgia is a portent. But the MAGA crowd will comfort themselves in their actual cheating by clinging desperately to their pretense of Democratic cheating in 2020. They’ll ignore the evidence – and the fact that Democrats will WIN challenge after challenge in court based on evidence. (No it won’t be a perfect record. There are too many partisan Aileen Cannons out there…)

Besides, even if someone DOES show the election was fraudulent, like happened when Bush 43 was appointed by the Supremely Kangaroo Court, We, the People don’t go back and install the rightful winner. For some reason, we let the cheater have their “win” and promise to “fix it next time.” The point is, when honest people come forward with actual complaints of true voter fraud in this 2022 mid-term, the masses are going to be SO saturated with complaints about election integrity, the complaints will fall on deaf ears or be easily dismissed with a blithe, “Yeah, nobody listened when we complained, either.”

If you were a fan of the Constitutional Republic known as the United States of America, this election cycle is a sad, sad moment in history for you. You’re watching, in real time, the fall of a once-great nation to greed and to fascism…

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Remember John Durham? He’s the guy the cons thought was going to blow the lid off the Trump-Russia “scam.” Oh my gods the cons celebrated his appointment. They “pre-gloated” about all the wrongdoings on the left he was going to uncover. I heard about John Durham, at the time, from every con I know. He was going to clear Trump of all of the false charges and bring convictions to – well, pretty much anybody with national recognition and a D after their name. They were ALL going to prison because they were ALL “in on it.” Hillary, Mueller, Comey, PeLOSi (by law, apparently, you have to kind of spit that one…) – ALL of them were going to jail.

Or not. He did get one low-level FBI lawyer, Kevin Clinesmith, for falsifying information to the FISA court. Clinesmith was sentenced to a year’s probation and some community service. Durham brought a second charge against another low-level character. The second case just ended in acquittal. I’d say Durham was less than successful in his quest to destroy Democratic leadership. Now his oh-so-devastating investigation is coming to an end with nearly nothing to show for it. (He DID get to piss away $5.8 MILLION dollars of taxpayer money so, there’s that…)

I asked a conservative friend of mine what he thought about Durham’s lack of success. He said, “Who?” Straight on to the next fever-dream, I guess…

I find myself a bit…confused at why Herschel Walker even bothers to respond when he’s caught, dead to rights, in a lie. The people who care aren’t likely to vote for him and the people likely to vote for him don’t care. So why bother? Worse? Everybody knows he’s lying. Everybody. The left tries to set the record straight. The right clings to his stories desperately wishing they were true – but now armed with a talking point to defend their otherwise defenseless positions.

On Bill Maher’s most recent episode of ‘Real Time,’ he suggested that the cons vote for irredeemable reprobates, liars, con-men, swindlers, and scoundrels as a kind of protest against the “woke” attitudes of the left. I agree the woke movement is somewhat over the top but the idea that someone, anyone, would hand power to such horrible people as some kind of retribution is just nonsense. It’s like saying they support the murderer because they don’t like the shoplifter.

I presume Maher is discouraged from talking about the damage done by conservative media. After all, he’s a media guy. A media guy attacking media for the damage media does might be seen as the very definition of pooping where you eat – a serious no-no.

Look, nobody ever said that ONLY cons are crazy. The left has it’s outrageous and faux-outraged element, as well. If you ask me, some elements of the left go WAY too far on WAY too many issues. They will attempt to shout you down if you stray too far from their preferred dogma. They are every bit as obnoxious as any element from the right. Enter Fox “News” or ONAN or any of the other right-wing media outlets. All they have to do is show a couple of the extremist lefties and pretend those represent ALL lefties and the right is whipped into a new frenzy of apoplexy.

They get away with it because nobody ever tells them they’re being deceived. They’re discouraged from accepting input from their political enemies in the same way a cult member is discouraged from listening to their families, friends, or anyone else who might bring information contrary to the cult-leader’s wishes. The right is not responding to the left. They’re responding to a caricature of the left. In short, the right wants to burn the forest because of what that witch tried to do to Hansel and Gretel.

It’s all great theater and grand laughing-stock – until one takes into account that these guys are getting ready to fight an actual civil war over the stories they believe. Now, to be sure, they appear to believe it will be the left who starts the war, not the right. (This wrongheaded position is based on their false belief that the liberals started the LAST civil war, too.) They feel like when the left brings the bullets, the right is ready to fight. Now all they have to do is get the left to bring the war.

History, it turns out, is littered with stories of wars being fought for fraudulent reasons. Our own once-great nation has several examples but the phenomenon is hardly confined to the imperial United States. It happens all the time and has happened throughout history. The thing I’ve always loved about history is the people. We always cover the events. We learn the dates of the events. We learn about the events on those dates from a distant point of view and there is commonly very little discussion of the effects of those events on the actual people who lived them. But that’s where I always go. (I’d say it’s one of the main things that make Ken Burns’ documentaries so compelling. HE focuses on the people, too.)

Some respected politician tells some horrifying tale. The common man, not knowing the truth, gets outraged and signs up. They get sent somewhere and start dying – and killing – in the name of the story. I wonder what happens to those soldiers if/when they discover the story they killed so many people over isn’t true. When Iraq War soldiers discovered that Iraq had nothing to do with September 11, 2001, they HAD to start wondering why they were killing Iraqis. When Vietnam War soldiers discovered that the Gulf of Tonkin incident was made up, they HAD to start wondering why they were killing Vietnamese. That is why, as it happens, I’m so concerned that the cons have such a nonchalant view of Walker’s lies. Political lies are FAR too often not just expediencies – they’re often VERY dangerous.

I’ll tell you this: I wish (I know) that I could get the cons to see they’re planning to start killing human beings – for real – over stories that are made up – before the killing begins. But if wishes were horses…

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Gavin Newsom continues to insist he’s not running for President in 2024. Words. He keeps doing things that look like he’s running in 2024. Actions. Actions speak louder than words. He has to say he’s not running. He’s a Party guy and he doesn’t want to ruffle any feathers should Joe decide to run again. He’s just (coincidentally) positioning himself in case Joe decides against it. As a side benefit, he’s also show-casing himself as a possible Vice-Presidential running mate.

The thing is, he’s “positioning himself” by aligning with corporate and hyper-wealthy interests. (I know. Ever since the cons ruined election integrity with their bullshit Citizen’s United ruling, cozying up to Richie Rich is pretty much the only option. But one cannot serve two masters. As he cozies up to the wealthy special interests, he increasingly turns his back on Joe Six-pack.) As the mid-terms approach, he’s taking part in two different campaigns. One is in support of Proposition 1, an amendment to the California constitution guaranteeing a woman’s right to choose. (Pro people. Yay, Gavin…) The other is against Proposition 30. (Pro-special interest. Boo, Gavin…) When I first saw Newsom was against 30 and suggesting it was a corporate giveaway to Lyft (the taxi service) I thought I’d vote as he suggested. The thing is, I’ve looked further into 30 – based largely on posts a friend of mine made in social media. (Thanks, Jeff!)

As nearly as I can tell, Newsom is misrepresenting Proposition 30. He invoked a boogeyman – corporate interest – in order to protect the true winners should Prop 30 fail, those making over $2 Million dollars a year. This is not even the first time Newsom has taken the pro-corporation, anti-people position. He does it from time to time. He’s just very good at “explaining” why he had to do so in this or that case. I even include the reality that politics is all about compromise. It’s just that he seems willing to compromise his support of Joe Six-pack more and more, and the more it happens? The less I trust him. Simple, really…

I’ll tell you this: Gavin can’t spend too much more time as Governor. From a political observer point of view, I think that whatever he’s going to do, he should do. The longer he’s in the Governor’s chair, the more he’s exposed as beholden to the wealthy and other special interests and not so inclined to care about the day-to-day concerns of the common man. I suppose it’s just life, but it’s VERY disappointing…

Well, the criminal con man Alex Jones was ordered to pay $965 Million dollars to the Sandy Hook families he’s been slandering for decades. Add this amount to the amount the lying, little weasel is required to pay from other trials he has already lost and he’s on the hook for over a Billion dollars! Okay, wow. Oh, and…good. He brought hell to those families AFTER their beloved children were brutally murdered. But even as the amount was being announced, HE was on the air, gloating that the families are “never going to get that money.” HE says he doesn’t have any money. A forensic accountant from Texas says he’s worth around $270 Million – all money he fleeced from the people who don’t understand things. Not surprisingly, the first thing he did after defying the court was to ask his oh-so-gullible audience to give him more of their money. (They will, too, giving life to the adage “A fool and his money are soon parted…”)

Two things. One, laughing and sneering at the court holding your future in your hands seems a risky bet. Two, I doubt the families will ever get a billion dollars, but based on what happened when OJ Simpson was found responsible for Nicole Brown Simpson’s death, they WILL get every dollar Jones earns (or steals from his naive believers) for the rest of his life. That’s okay with me…

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Just for laughs…I hear Trump is considering an actual appearance before the January 6th committee. I guess I should say I hear Trump is pretending to consider appearing. He won’t. Hell, he can’t. But WHEN he’s pretending, he says he’ll do it if he can appear live. Personally, I think the committee should agree. Heck yes, we’ll do it live! Watch how fast he back-peddles. Two hours of “the Fifth, the Fifth, the Fifth” is not very compelling television but it would show everyone but his blindest loyalists who he is. Worse, for him, he might actually say things. Now THAT would be fun. He’s used to just shouting down dissension. That doesn’t work in trials. He’s used to just saying whatever needs to be said to get out of things. That doesn’t work under oath. Especially when they already have the evidence.

In truth, the only thing Trump wants is to run out the clock. Remember when the United States faced the dark specter of him being in the Oval Office for a second term? The vast majority of people who understand things fell out to vote against him. We REALLY need to do so again – this time in the mid-terms. You see, the coup continues. Cons are trying to install anti-American, pro Trump politicians in sensitive political positions to manipulate the outcome of elections – the very “crime” they accuse the left of committing. (We didn’t, but they sure as heck will…) Worse, if the cons regain control of Congress, the January 6th committee is disbanded and Trump is off the hook – his main bet. The legal proceedings might well continue for awhile but even those can be disrupted by loyalists working overtime to protect their preferred choice of cheating, lying, con-man criminal “saviors,” the CheetoJesus…

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I think women are going to come out for the mid-terms. THEY need to stop the cons even more than before. The cons are actively taking their rights and running on the promise of taking even more. We have Proposition 1, that codifies abortion rights in the state constitution – which, of course, won’t matter if the cons take Congress and impress us all with their “state’s rights” stances by passing Federal legislation eliminating abortion rights from sea to shining sea…state’s rights be damned…

Frankly, I think we ALL need to fall out and vote against Prop 26 and Prop 27 as well. BOTH propositions suck. Proposition 27 introduces online betting in the state. Proposition 26 mostly just protects the deal the state already has with the First Nations tribes but they couldn’t just stick to that. It also tries to eliminate competition from non-Nations card rooms. Not nice.

You can tell the backers of Prop 27 are lying, by the way, because the thing it does MOST – introduce online sports betting in California – is the ONE thing they don’t talk about in their ads. Oh, we’ll cure homelessness and solve the drug problem. No, you won’t. You’ll add to both, exponentially. ANY position that depends on lies for support doesn’t deserve to be supported…

Okay, being a Californian, I’ve provided three good California reasons to come out besides stopping Trump’s minions but that’s only California. The rest of the country needs to come out against the anti-American movement conservatives and stop them. (I know, THEY don’t think of themselves as anti-American, being all flag-draped as they are and spouting love-the-country slogans as they do. But the flag-draping and slogans are just trappings. The things they argue against in this once-great nation – largely “once-great” as a direct result of the damage the cons have already done – are the very bedrock foundations of the Constitution and one cannot say they love the country – just hate everything about it – and be convincing…)

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It turns out there’s a tie-in from Proposition 27 to the recent demise of KGO radio’s News talk format. One of Proposition 27’s main sponsors is a company called BetMGM. (I wanted to confirm the company name and sought a confirming reference. It’s VERY WELL hidden – even on the Yes on 27 page…) Cumulus Media dropped the News talk format on KGO and replaced it with sports betting content. I haven’t listened much but DID happen to hear one of the network sponsors – BetMGM! Why, that’s the SAME BetMGM sponsoring Prop 27! Coincidence? Cumulus already had an agreement with a company called ‘WynnBet.’ Now WynnBet and BetMGM have created an agreement to work together. Together, they’re spending hundreds of millions of dollars trying to seize control of the gambling market of California. (Just imagine the return they’re expecting…)

KGO fell victim to greed – and greed kills. In one fell swoop, KGO was changed from a rare jewel that had served the interests of Californians and the Bay Area, in particular, for 80 years to a threat, out to siphon money from unsophisticated gamblers and harm California in countless ways. Cumulus, WynnBet, and BetMGM must feel pretty good about their chances of getting what they want. The polling shows their prop losing at the moment but the money keeps flowing. I’ll tell you this; personally, I hope they lose the proposition AND all that beautiful lucre they’re pouring into the process…

Oh, HER…
Herschel Walker has now admitted he knows the woman he insisted he didn’t know. That guy lies like a Trump. He’s been caught lying about so many things the list is too long for this space. Obviously, the cons have withdrawn their support for the lying son-of-a…what? They haven’t? Still on-board, eh?

I’d like to pretend I’m shocked but I’m not. The cons have made clear, through actions AND words, that they just don’t care about anything but getting the craziest cons possible into Congress. They couldn’t possibly know what Walker stands for. He never takes an honest position on anything. They don’t really care, though. They see the ‘R’ after his name, they hear him spout insanity and lies, and they KNOW he’s their man!

In my more serene moments, I realize they’re just doing what they THINK the left does. That is, ignore negative information about someone. Of course, as is always the case, what they THINK in no way comports to what actually happens. You see, the conservative bubble is very carefully stepping around all the criminal activity of their CheetoJesus. It’s the simplest way to keep the people on board: just don’t tell ’em. But they still have to fill time so they’ve turned to that other, hard-hitting pseudo-scandal, Hunter Biden and his infamous laptop.

While those of us who understand things are learning more and more about Trump stealing national secrets and then fighting for all he’s worth to keep those stolen documents, being forced to return them only to show that he’s STILL hiding some of them, and worst of all, that several of the documents seem to be missing entirely (I suspect his Russian handlers have them), the folks who DON’T understand things are learning that Hunter Biden tried to make deals based on his connection to Joe.

I’m going to digress a bit. It’s actually an important thing to remember when Uncle Con shows up for Thanksgiving dinner. He CAN’T know what he’s not told – any more than you do – and he’s been carefully conditioned to never, ever consider anything YOU say as valid. Uncle Con isn’t stupid. He’s deceived, and “deceived” can happen to anybody…

Anyway, those of us on the left have pretty much ignored the Hunter Biden story because it’s a nothing-burger. A well-connected kid who tried to profit from that connection? The news would be the well-connected kid who didn’t. Even the tales in the con bubble admit that none of Hunter’s deals ever went through. They also admit, usually at the very bottom of the story, that there’s no evidence that Joe ever participated in any of it. Worst of all, the source of the information, Hunter’s laptop, has such a chain-of-custody problem it’s completely useless in court. In short, even according to conservative media, Hunter never succeeded, Joe never participated, and there’s nothing anybody could do about it anyway.

But it’s the best the cons have so they run with it. The result, though, is that the con rank-and-file think the left is just ignoring information they don’t like in order to support the people they DO like. So, that’s what THEY do. Herschel has had a long string of affairs. He has fathered several kids out of wedlock and raised none of them. He will pay child support – if you can force him to. He has encouraged and paid for abortions. As we’ve already seen, he lies like a Trump. He’s running as an anti-abortion candidate and he’s still supported by the GOP who insists it’s because he’s so close to Jesus. (His opponent is an actual, practicing minister. Apparently, not as close to Jesus as the serial philanderer. Who knew?)

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Here’s another example of GOPBS. Biden went to a factory and referred to a report from CNN in which Republicans voted against Biden’s infrastructure bill as “Socialism”, which they pretend to be against, THEN tried to get money for “socialist” projects in their districts/states. Biden referenced the report, then read sections calling out the GOP hypocrites by name. (You can see the video in a new tab by clicking here.) He starts by saying we should, as his grandchildren would say, Google it. Well, I did that for you. (Click here. Yet another new tab.) Really, they do this stuff all the time.

I’ll tell you this: I’ve said before and I’m sure I’ll say again, Republicans have no principles, only positions…

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I always find it disheartening when things happen that remind me that this once-great nation is sliding deeper and deeper into a hell-hole of greed. Sometimes, they’re little things. I’ve been listening to a local “news talk” radio station, KGO Radio, for so long I can’t even remember when I started. I listened to the morning guy, Ronn Owens, and then the afternoon guy, Jim Eason. Owens was a liberal, sort of Bon Vivant of San Francisco at the time, and Eason was the conservative voice. Together, they created balance.

After Bill Clinton destroyed the media ownership rules that prevented one entity from owning too many outlets in a single market with the Telecommunications Act of 1996, a feeding frenzy started and KGO was sold, then sold again. It changed hands several times until it was owned by Cumulus Media. They tried, once, to dismantle the balanced news talk so beloved in the Bay Area by going to an all news format. That didn’t work and they returned to news talk. Now, they’ve done it again. I was listening last Wednesday while running errands. I got out of my truck for something like five minutes. When I got back in, the program I was listening to was gone – just…off the air…and had been replaced by a loop of music samples all referencing money and gambling and occasionally intoning that “something new was coming on Monday.”

Sure, something new. I’ll tell you this: it won’t be better. KGO News talk filled a niche that can’t be found elsewhere. Cumulus can’t replace it with something they don’t already have at some other station. Even if they go to a national news talk format (presumably cheaper for the corporation), it will be worse as it will lose it’s local flavor (and likely, take on a conservative edge). Yeah, I know. It’s a little thing. One more tiny sign of the submerging of a once-great nation…

Exposed…
It turns out, Russia is a paper tiger. Who knew? True, they still have nukes but nukes have a single, glaring weakness. Nobody can use them without getting nuked, themselves. It kind of limits the amount of damage such a weapon can inflict. Even if Putin decided to use tactical nukes in Ukraine, his generals might well not go along with that idea. But, as we all now know, Russia’s been a big talker with no real might behind them for some time.

This got me thinking. Now that Russia has claimed – and lost – four territories inside of Ukraine they insisted were theirs, perhaps Ukraine should reconsider it’s capitulation when Russia claimed Crimea. You remember, right? Russia went into Crimea and said, “This is ours,” and because everyone thought Russia had some serious military power they might unleash, the world kind of laid down and let the insult pass. Sadly, THAT acquiescence seems to have emboldened Putin who thought he could cake-walk into Kyiv and just claim other bits of Ukraine, if not the whole thing.

But now the world knows that aside from it’s nukes – that it can’t really use – Russia doesn’t bring as much, militarily, as the world once feared. Putin launched an illegal war. This has been a money and power loser for Russia and I think Putin’s strength is fading fast. But it’s not enough for Russia to surrender some treasure and offer a public apology. I’d like to see Ukraine reclaim Crimea as it’s compensation for the completely unnecessary destruction and death…

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Russia’s allies?
Speaking of Putin’s war, it seems Saudi Arabia has chosen sides and the side they’ve chosen is NOT the United States. Now, that seems kind of stupid, since the Saudi royal family gets ALL of it’s power from the weapons and troops the US provides, but their announcement that they’re cutting production of oil in order to increase the price of a barrel seems calculated to harm America and help Putin in his war.

I get it. Foreign, sovereign nation and all that. They get to choose whom they cozy up to. But several US Congress critters have introduced a bill to stop providing weapons and military support to Saudi Arabia in response to the Saudi’s attempted sabotage of the US economy. It’s pretty simple, really. If the Saudis aren’t going to stand with us, why the hell should we stand with them? They’ve been messing with us by turning the spigot on and off for decades and now they’re doing it in the service of Putin?

The legislation put forward by Representatives Sean Casten, Tom Malinowski, and Susan Wild would pull critical defense systems and troops from the area. I doubt it will go anywhere because such a principled move would interfere with the blessed profits of the arms dealers (Glory!) but it’s a very good idea and I think the bill should pass. (Call Congress and tell them to pass it!) If the Saudis want to help the Russians so badly, that’s fine. But let’s let them rely on Russian military assistance to keep their crowns…

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As a side note…
I do think it’s important to say, here, that I wouldn’t want to be in the army that invaded Russia. Right now, the world is kind of collectively surprised by how powerful the old Soviet state isn’t. The Ukrainian troops are pushing the Russian troops around seemingly with ease and the world is kind of laughing at the Russians. But it’s important to remember, the Russian soldiers weren’t told where they were going, what they were doing, or why. They don’t WANT to be in Ukraine and they don’t believe the dangers Putin keeps pretending. Heck, I imagine there are family relations that cross those borders, as well.

Meanwhile, the Ukrainians are fighting for their homeland. The homeland defenders often offer up FAR more resistance than invaders expect. The tiny British colonies in America threw off the yoke of the greatest power on Earth (at the time). The tiny country of Vietnam threw out the United States military – the greatest power on Earth (at the time). The French take a lot of crap for laying down to the Nazi’s in WWII but they never stopped fighting. They just kept up the fight in a way that protected many irreplaceable cultural treasures. In short, people fight hardest for their homes.

So I’m not prepared to disrespect the Russian soldiers – just the moronic “leadership.” I suspect that if someone invaded Russia, they’d find a MUCH stronger, MUCH more intractable force facing them than the one we’re seeing in Ukraine…

I can’t say, for sure, who’s copying whom but it seems as though Putin is trying to take a page from the Trump playbook. The specific page is the one where a person simply declares some…preferred reality and then insists THAT’S the “true” reality. Trump does this with…well, everything, really. He seems to live in a completely alternate reality of his own making. Of course, Trump got a little carried away with his delusions and now actual reality is intruding in the form of law enforcement enforcing real life laws.

But not even Putin is as Brazen a liar as Trump and just can’t seem to pull it off. It’s not that he doesn’t stick to the story. It’s that something happens to undermine his lies in a way Trump rarely suffers. My current favorite is Putin’s declaration that four regions of Ukraine are now Russia. Poof! He held a pseudo-plebiscite in which the locals supposedly determined their own political direction. Surprise, surprise, the results worked just the way Putin wanted them to and he had a big ole party announcing the annexation.

At the SAME TIME, though, the Ukrainian army was moving into and taking a key region, running the invaders out and controlling the entire area Putin was – at that moment – claiming. I laughed out loud. I never thought I’d be laughing at Vladimir Putin but at this point, I can’t help myself. He’s been ‘Trump pretending’ since his ill-advised invasion began. He lied to his army about what they were doing and why and as the soldiers have discovered the truth, they are largely NOT into the whole thing. They run at the first opportunity and they seem to be almost intentionally leaving equipment and ordinance around for the Ukrainians to use after the Russians bug out.

Now he’s conscripting more Russians into the fight and the vast majority seem to have other priorities. They’re running in droves trying to get away from Putin and if they DO get caught up, there are reports they’re trying to contact Ukraine to find out how to defect! It doesn’t help that Putin tipped his hand, a bit, and showed that this is important to him – but not important enough to risk sending ethnic Russians to the battle. He’s mostly been showing up and taking men who are NOT ethnically Russian – yet another reason for those men to NOT fight in Putin’s war.

Now he’s out threatening to use nukes. The “news” wants us to relax about the whole “nuke” thing so they’re stressing that these would be tactical, battlefield nukes. Smaller. “Safer.” But nukes beget nukes. If Putin DOES follow through with his threat, a concern the Ukrainians currently dismiss, Ukraine doesn’t have any nukes to respond with – but their friends do. (Ironically, Ukraine doesn’t have any nukes because they gave up their old Soviet stockpile in exchange for a promise from Russia that Russia would never attack Ukraine…)

I’ll tell you this: I’m pretty sure the world won’t let Russia use nukes with no response. I can only hope that Putin knows this as well, despite his Trump-like delusional status.

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Hey, Trump toady Aileen Cannon has apparently decided her taste for humiliation hasn’t yet abated. Look, I’m no lawyer but everything I’ve heard from competent lawyers suggests that she’s not all that great a lawyer, either. She’s loyal to Trump over everything else. He needs someone to run interference for him and she’s doing everything she can but she’s been over-ruled by better judges on the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals and she’s going to be over-ruled again.

She was presented a case she really shouldn’t have had because it really fell under the auspices of the judge who issued the search warrant, Bruce Reinhart. She kept the case, anyway. Trump wanted a Special Master even though there was no basis for a Special Master and she gave him his Special Master anyway. THEN, the Special Master demonstrated HIS loyalty to the law over Trump so, suddenly, Trump DIDN’T want the Special Master, after all, and went back to his Special Toady, Cannon, to block the Special Master’s ruling. She did, too. But the DOJ knows they’ve got a lackey on their hands and they use good attorneys. They know she’ll slow the process as much as possible but they ALSO know they’re going to defeat her efforts at every turn in higher courts. She’s exposing herself as a fool but not doing too much else that will have any lasting effect. (The fool thing will last forever…)

Now Trump has himself a Special Master he doesn’t seem to want, who isn’t willing to embarrass himself to protect Trump, AND whom Trump has to PAY! (I know. Trump doesn’t pay his bills. IF the Special Master gets paid at all, it will come from Trump’s PAC, not Trump’s pocket.)

I’ll tell you this: I had started to become concerned that maybe a person could just insist on alternate realities and have them become magically true. This week has been good for me as Putin’s folly in Ukraine AND Trump’s delusions in America have both been subjugated by reality whether they like it or not…

Wow, Hurricane Ian sure has offered the cons an opportunity to put their money where their mouth is, yes? These are the people always trying to deny other states aid when they have some natural disaster. They feel like Federal aid is wasted money – if it’s not being funneled directly to some corporate interest. So…now good old Ron DeSantis can show us all how dedicated he is to his conservative ideology and just tell all the Floridians to pull themselves up by their bootstraps while telling President Biden, “No, thank you, Sleepy Joe! We don’t need your stinking FEMA aid!” Right?

Okay, so I don’t mean to be unkind to the good folks of Florida. In fact, I believe that Ron DeSantis WILL demonstrate his “dedication” to his conservative ideology. Of course, that will mean dumping his conservative positions just long enough to accept aid from the big, bad, evil government that never does anyone any good, right?

Once the FEMA checks have cleared he can get back to whining about anything/everything the government does. Hypocrisy, thy name is conservatism…

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Well, if you live in California you’ve certainly noticed the oil companies are at it again. As you will recall, gas prices skyrocketed a few months back. The “explanation” was the FAR too overused, “supply chain issues.” Sure, we all knew supply hadn’t been interrupted but that doesn’t stop them from telling the tale. Okay, I say “we all” but that has to exclude the cons who seem to have been convinced that all drilling has stopped since Biden was sworn in…

But people who understand things knew there was still plenty of oil to go around. The corporations just saw an opportunity and took full advantage of it. “It’s just business,” right? It is, too. Unregulated, so-called “free market” business. It did serious harm to the economy for awhile. Then the government started hinting at windfall profits taxes and the prices started creeping – ever so slowly – downward. They never reached where they had started, of course. We all got used to $5.00+ per gallon and felt better about the “relief.”

Just in time, too. People were getting angry. People were starting to talk about fixes to the system. People starting talking about change. Once the prices came back down a bit, everyone settled down. Cons ALWAYS get wrong who’s responsible for what. They think high gas prices are Joe Biden’s fault or, in this case, Gavin Newsom’s fault. That’s only true to the extent that Biden or Newsom seem never willing to stand up to the oil cartels. Anyway, the economy started recovering a bit and people’s anger sort of subsided.

Now the cartels are doing it again. The gas prices have shot up at an incredible rate – something like 17 cents in a week! More at many places. The “excuse” this time? “Planned and unplanned refinery maintenance.” It’s just a line they use. The supply chain may or may not be interrupted at any given time but ‘planned and unplanned refinery maintenance’ is always there, always ready to lend a helping hand to unbridled greed.

Sure, it fattens the pockets of the oil cartels but I’m not sure that’s the actual motivation this time. THIS time, I suspect it’s political. See, the conventional wisdom WAS that the Dems were going to get their asses handed to them in the upcoming midterms. People pretty much thought it was a done deal and there was little or nothing the Dems could do to change it. That was likely true, but there was apparently something the CONS could do to change it.

They started attacking women’s rights – aggressively. Even dumber, they KEEP coming back trying to out-do each other on just how much harm they can do to women and society in general. They’re out there bragging about all the vicious little evils they’re planning. Despite all their talk about state’s rights and small government and ‘keep your government off my body,’ they’re planning to pass Federal legislation relegating women to second class status once and for all. “No, you don’t get to make decisions about your own body or your own health. THOSE decisions are for men to make.” Nice.

I suspect it’s not going to work. I mean, the masses WILL get progressively angry at the price gouging of the oil cartels. Eventually, we’ll DEMAND that Newsom or Biden do something about the rip-off. A windfall profits tax is the best idea. (As a sidebar, every time this comes up, cons start SCREAMING about “punishing success.” I’d just like to note that “punishing” THIS success is no different than punishing an armed robber who “innovates” by using a bigger, scarier looking gun. Theft is theft and should, by all rights, be punished…)

But as it happens women aren’t as stupid as Republicans wish they were. I suspect even many conservative women will (secretly) vote against the anti-women agenda. I really do think the cons have gone too far in their attacks on women’s rights. I think THAT will be the focus in the next election and likely the one after that. I think EVERYONE now realizes that getting rid of Republicans is the only way to save the Republic – and I think that’s the mindset.

I’ll tell you this: we’ll pay extortion rates as long as Newsom and Biden just stand by but we’re NOT, I think, going to put corporation-loving cons back into positions of authority so long as they’re actively, publicly losing their collective minds…