Wow, that turned into a nothing-burger of the greatest proportions. Of course, I’m referring to the so-called “Wagner Rebellion.” I guessing future students won’t have to spend too much time learning about the global impacts of this one. It seemed to last about a day and then? Well, everyone went home. The leader of the – I don’t know, tantrum? – Yevgeny Prigozhin, (boy, does THAT mess with my spell-check) said he faces no charges for his actions. Expect him to become so filled with remorse he flies out of some 5th or 6th floor window soon. The two men with him at the time will testify it was suicide…

It sure looked serious for a minute, though, didn’t it? I think Putin might well have been running scared for a while. He got on a plane and left Moscow and his whereabouts are still unknown, as of this writing. I think Donald Trump was likely clenched extra tight, too. Trump has no legal defense for his actions, here in America, so he MUST get himself “elected” so he can abuse the levers of power and free himself and his co-conspirators. Those he still likes, anyway. In order to do THAT, Trump needs Russia. If Putin gets bumped, Trump loses his main political supporter AND his handler. Who would Trump send his secret, stolen documents to, if not his buddy Vlad?

Still, if someone in Russia is even willing to pretend to engage in an uprising against Vladimir “the murderer” Putin, it signals a fairly substantial loss of support and prestige for Putin and his obnoxious policies. I’ll tell you this: the best thing that could happen for Ukraine and the worst thing that could happen to Trump are the same: the fall of Putin. Keep your fingers crossed…

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Republicans in the House are STILL working to undermine the popularity of their party by attacking a woman’s right to choose. Good. Keep coming. Keep them pissed off. Keep telling them how much you hate, hate, hate individual liberty. Well, for women, anyway. Women love things like that. They’re really going to respond well. Maybe next you could try a “half pay for equal work” bill. THAT ought to bring ’em running! (Sure, they’ll have torches and pitchforks, but they’ll be running…)

After that? Well the GOP should outlaw shoes for women. I mean, look, all those shoes just take up space in the closet. Besides, having shoes makes it easier to get away. Take their shoes. They can still get outside and water the garden but they won’t get much further. In fact, now that I think about it, the GOP should just outlaw ALL clothes for women. Hell, that’s better than a burka. They won’t want to go outside at all if they’re naked. THAT should keep them in the kitchen, where they belong!

Oh, crap, I forgot about work. They have to work. Gotta feed the machine. Okay, let ’em have clothes – but only the ugly clothes. If you let them dress too nicely, they might entice some poor, unsuspecting man into some kind of sexual misbehavior. I guess they’re going to need their shoes, too, but we can still keep them down by “managing” their ability to manage their own reproduction. I’m sure women everywhere will appreciate the helpful guidance they’re getting from men on the topic and rush to support the party promoting the 17th century, cutting-edge ideals.

Still no word on any serious effort, anywhere in the country, from sea to oil-stained sea, to hold the men accountable for where they leave their sacred sperm…

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In a completely separate, totally unrelated article, the Taliban assures the world women are provided with a “comfortable and prosperous life” in Afghanistan. The accompanying photo shows two women in full burkas just…out in public…as proof. Well…I’m convinced…

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Okay, one last thought on this whole, “women shouldn’t have rights” thing being pushed in so many red states. I remember ,clearly, when you’all wanted to attack women but couldn’t, the claim was that it should be a state’s rights issue. Now red states are trying to pass laws preventing women from leaving their own backward, neanderthal red states – those who can, anyway – in order to receive health care from states that still think women should be allowed to control their own reproduction. In short, they’re trying to extend their own moronic views to other, better states. The GOP doesn’t really think it’s a state’s rights issue, they think it’s THEIR state’s right to decide.

That’s quite common for the cons. They’re forever screaming about individual rights but those are just the words. What they DO is use their rights to take rights away from anybody and everybody they disagree with or whom they find kinda “yucky.”

I’ll tell you this: That’s not “freedom.” That’s imposing YOUR beliefs on others. Cons never seem to grasp the basics…

Five rich guys climbed into an uncertified, dangerous submersible – and headed off on an adventure they had paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for – an opportunity to see Titanic first-hand. An hour and forty-five minutes later, the craft with the questionable building materials imploded, killing everyone aboard instantly. For several days, the entire world watched as navies from several nations scrambled their best men and equipment in an effort to find and maybe save them, happy to help. Rich guys, you know…

Meanwhile, 750 people clambered aboard a boat that was built according to a known standard and had (once) met all required specifications – but was never built to carry 750 passengers at the same time – and set off on a desperate voyage they had paid thousands of dollars for – to find a decent, safer life. Some time later, the boat capsized, leaving 300 known dead so far. Did you even know? One small country, Greece, is dealing with it and they’re a little irritated by the trouble. Immigrants.

Just a little side-by-side reflecting the value put on some human lives over others. Deepest condolences to all who were lost…

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Well, this seems inevitable. I JUST wrote about how excited the cons were that John Durham had been appointed to Special Counsel so he could expose all the wrong-doing the cons believe the Democrats used in their baseless attack on the con CheetoJesus, the criminal, (allegedly) traitorous, sexual predator Donald J. Trump. I mean, cons were in progressive faces, taunting the progressives that their witch-hunt was about to be fully exposed. “Neener, neener, neener we’re gonna get you! Neener, neener, neener Durham’s gonna prove it! Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha you’re so stupid!”

Uh-huh. John Durham was their handpicked attack dog – handpicked, that is, by Bill Barr and Donald Trump, make no mistake. He did his best to attack. Durham and I haven’t spoken in, well, a long time so I can’t say for sure, but I believe he believed and went into the project with faith and enthusiasm. After days, weeks, months, and then years, he found nothing. Since that was what he found (nothing), that’s what he put in his report: I found nothing.

In fairness, Durham was being asked to find the Rainbow Unicorn Valley and bring proof of Unicorns to the world. Cons – as a group – don’t much care about facts or evidence or any of that legal “mumbo-jumbo.” Once the cons decided Rainbow Unicorn Valley was a real place, it was just a matter of finding the right man to discover the exact (and secret) coordinates and bring the proof.

In the same way, they knew Trump was innocent because they WANTED to know Trump was innocent. They told themselves (and each other) every tall-tale they could think of to cover up for their Pusillanimous Prevaricator. THEN, they dutifully forced themselves to believe their preferred reality was actual reality and that actual reality is just an obstacle to overcome. In short, they desperately believe in Unicorns because they WANT to believe in Unicorns.

But when you officially charge a guy with finding and proving your Unicorns, your guy is going to come up short. It turns out, tall-tales and delusions are notoriously difficult to prove beyond a reasonable doubt, unlike, say, criminal retention of classified documents or even suspicious contact with Russians about elections. (Special note to cons: it’s because the crimes are real and Unicorns are not, see?)

As you can imagine, since Durham was hand-picked by Trump and Barr and sicced on anyone and everyone who ever told the truth about Trump, once he (Durham) investigated and charged and tried (and lost) and reported that Unicorns just don’t seem to exist, the cons finally stood down, accepted reality, and stopped looking for Unicorns.

Ha, HA, what are you, three? Of COURSE the cons haven’t surrendered their delusions. Instead, they’ve surrendered John Durham. The cons called Durham before the House so he could tell them all the good dirt he really discovered and explain why it didn’t get into his hit-piece, er, “report.” But Durham didn’t fess up to the “deets.” He just stood by what he had reported in the first place. Dems, apparently, hadn’t broken the rules. Cons, predictably, were pissed off!

If Durham wasn’t going to confirm their fever dreams, there can only be one reason.
“Um…because there was nothing to report?”
“Idiot! NO! CLEARLY, John Durham is a RINO operative of the Deep State!”
Video exists of Matt Gaetz leveling the charge. Gaetz really tore into Durham, insulting him and abusing him and ranting and raving and finally, excommunicating Durham from the good graces of the party. I’m sure by now, every taunting con is certain Durham is a RINO operative of the Deep State – and remains certain Trump is just being picked on by meanies.

That’s what We, the People are up against – a group who WILL choose their delusions over evidence. (And the insanity is spreading in Europe, as well.) The hopeful part? These Einsteins would rather eat their own rather than confess they may have been mistaken. But since they will never find their Unicorns the con-eats-con-feast can only expand. These guys are going to tear themselves to shreds trying to out-crazy one another and I, for one, intend to sit back and enjoy the show. Pass the popcorn…

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OMG, I just stumbled on a good umbrella name for the cons, as a group: the “not-sees.” They choose to “not see” reality while they work to help the one percent infect our once-great nation with Fascism. It’s kind of perfect, the “not-sees.” Feel free to use it…

So…two things happened on Wednesday, June 21. One, Adam Schiff got John Durham to admit that Trump had received help from the Russians. (That’s not the same as saying Trump sought help – just that he received it.) Two? The House GOP censured…Adam Schiff.

You remember John Durham. MAGA cons were practically orgasmic over what John Durham was going to expose and all the crimes he was going to prosecute and it was going to be AWESOME when he “gets” all the big, bad Democrats, picking on their poor, persecuted, pusillanimous perpetrator, Donald J. Trump. Then? Crickets. I mean, nothing.

He filed three charges, prosecuted two, lost ’em all. (Turns out, he had no case.) So the great and grand ‘Durham Report’ landed with a thud. Cons just moved on to the next outrage du jour. Thinking Americans had never expected Durham to find anything, anyway, so we all responded with a collective, “huh.”

Cons NEVER give up a lie, though. So, the House GOP called Durham in to give the full skinny. According to the Daily Beast, this resulted in an exchange between Schiff and Durham in which Durham at one point “clearly stated he doesn’t doubt the validity of evidence showing Russia was trying to help Trump – something many Republicans have vehemently denied.” Durham’s words? “I don’t think there’s any question that Russians intruded into – hacked into the systems, they released information.”

So maybe, I mean, just maybe, investigating whether Russia tried to help Trump get into the Oval Office wasn’t such a far-fetched idea, after all. When even the guy appointed to say Trump DIDN’T get help from the Russians says he DID get help, perhaps it’s time to drop that particular lie once and for all, eh?

But not THIS crazy-assed GOP infesting the House. THESE guys decided to censure Schiff for leading the probe into Russian interference. They got to scold him on the House floor. You know, for doing his job. (Sidebar: still no word on how they plan to handle George Santos – if, indeed, that’s his real name – for lying and potential criminal acts. Classic GOP, if you ask me…)

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Heads are exploding! Fortunately, no brains have been damaged in the process as the heads in question belong to cons. They’re apoplectic that Hunter Biden pleaded guilty to crimes and was NOT sentenced to immediate death by hanging, then firing squad, then being drawn and quartered followed by just being taunted and insulted – a LOT! Damn it, he got away with murder because his dad, the senile, genius, doddering, shrewd, incompetent, mastermind sits in the Oval Office and ran interference for him.

Okay, so he actually got convicted of paying taxes late (in fairness, he DOES seem to have tried to avoid paying them at all) and checking off a box on a gun application saying he wasn’t a drug addict when he very much was a drug addict. It makes perfect sense that his father would run interference – but not too much interference. He didn’t block the DOJ from moving forward but he DID tell them to be nice to little Hunter? “Yeah, you can prosecute, but just a little, okay?”

“YEAH,” spittle the cons, “but the punishment he got was just a slap on the wrist – because his daddy protected him.”
“Well, the punishment he got was consistent with similar crimes in other cases. Hunter is going to do some probation and a diversionary program for the gun charge. (He apparently possessed a weapon for, get this, eleven days while a druggie.) Don’t you think the law should be consistent?”
“HELL, NO!” Shout the cons. “We want “justice” only when it suits us and “the cruelest of punishments” for people we don’t like! And we don’t like Hunter!”
“Okay, how about we start with the gun charge?”
“Oh, HELL NO! Guns are sacred, even for a DemocRAT! What part of ‘shall not be infringed’ don’t you understand?”

Hunter’s not out of the woods, yet. There are still other investigations going on. Why, it’s almost as if the DOJ is doing it’s job and shrewdly incompetent, mastermind moron Sleepy Joe is doing a terrible, perfect job of protecting him. Got it…

When it comes to power, it’s not really all that difficult to understand why humanity is stuck with privately owned power companies: profits, right? Easy. They have a LOT of control over how and when power is delivered and that control allows them to manipulate the market – always to their own advantage, of course. That “always to their own advantage” part isn’t a complaint. That’s just business in America these days.

It’s ALSO easy to know what would be best for humanity: A non-centralized, renewable power grid. Think, for example, solar panels on every rooftop everywhere. The advantages are legion – and obvious. Any disadvantage is usually just blather pressed into the dialogue by people with financial interests in maintaining centralized control. I fully understand why these power moguls want to keep control. Money, money, money, money – MONEY!

I live in an area of California where we have a main power provider, Pacific Gas and Electric or PG&E. PG&E owns and commonly fails to maintain the lines of delivery. PG&E has been implicated in several of the fires California has suffered over the last several years and too many times the explanation has been some variation of “deferred maintenance.” For the uninitiated, “deferred maintenance” means, “we didn’t maintain it ’cause it was cheaper.”

They do things like this: There was a time when natural gas lines in San Bruno were so old and leaky, people regularly called in to the company complaining about smelling natural gas. The corporation knew they needed to upgrade the lines and received permission for a rate hike to pay for the work (they should have been doing as a cost of doing business all along in the first place.) The parentheses are the part no official would say out loud but everyone knew. THEN, they used the money on a political campaign in an attempt to secure a state-wide monopoly on power production/distribution.

Fortunately, PG&E lost their attempt to corner the market. UNFORTUNATELY, a segment of San Bruno blew up when a spark ignited some of the seeping gas, killing at least 8 people. PG&E then sought – and received – another rate hike to pay for the work they had already received a rate hike to pay for and fixed the lines. TWO rate hikes to fix one problem they should never have allowed in the first place? Sweet – if you’re PG&E. It’s a sorry commentary on Capitalism that every time they burn down or blow up some town as a direct result of their feckless corporate “leadership,” they get another rate hike to address the problem. It explains their new slogan, “PG&E. We’ll burn your whole city down for a dollar!”

But it led to a competing local power company, Sonoma Clean Power. Sonoma Clean Power is customer-owned but still, basically, private – and “for profit.” Their thing is, they provide cleaner power at “competitive rates.” It IS cheaper. I signed up right away and the production portion of my power bill dropped. The thing is, PG&E still owns (and fails to maintain) the distribution grid and PG&E, separately, gets to charge for power distribution. And, boy, do they! They continue to charge on a tiered rate basis – and the tiers are still ridiculously low. Turn on one 40 watt bulb for an hour, you’ve busted through tier one and are now into the more expensive tier two. (Okay, hyperbole alert but the main point is still correct.)

It bugs me and it has ever since I realized the scam. I buy power from SCP but PG&E still gets to gouge on the delivery of the power? How does it make one iota of difference to PG&E if they deliver one kilowatt or three? Answer? It doesn’t. That was just the price for PG&E to “share” their power grid. This is only one example. There are many but I’m tired of typing and you’re, likely, tired of reading about it. Besides, it’s not really what I want to write about.

There’s a movement afoot. In Maine, the state is trying to wrest control over the stranglehold on power from private companies and take the entire grid public with a non-profit replacement. As you can imagine, the power companies are pushing back – HARD! The private power companies have already outspent the non-profit backers 17 to one. The companies have contributed $18.4 million dollars to three different ballot committees fighting the proposal. That represents 100% of the funding those committees have received. That, alone, ought to tell you something.

Just to make sure the situation is as confusing as possible, the pushback committees have names like ‘Maine Affordable Energy,’ the most affluent of the three. Corporations aren’t stupid. They know they’ll have a tough sell with “Hey, why don’t you pay more than you have to so I can buy another Maserati?” Instead, they’ll focus on confusion and, well, trumpery. Oh, you know what else they’re doing – and successfully? They’re enlisting the aid of state DEMOCRATS to help sell the idea that private, for-profit power must be the way forward! Yes, Democrats, the so-called party of the people in cahoots with corporations against the best interests of, you know, the people.

One of them, a former Democratic legislature named Charlotte Warren received $266,000 from Maine Affordable Energy to co-sign an op-ed against the ballot measure. Then, the committee paid Facebook to run the op-ed over and over directed at thousands of Mainers, creating the (false) impression there was widespread opposition. They’ve also kicked down some $5 million dollars to a Democratic group called ‘Left Hook’ that works with the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and is staffed by a bunch of Obama campaign alumni.

In short, millions of dollars are being spent to maintain a system that benefits very few but works directly against the best interests of ALL Mainers, Americans, and humanity in general. I doubt anyone would be surprised to hear Republicans were working so hard to support corporations, literally until the end, but Democrats? In my opinion, Mainers should support the Pine Tree Power initiative and simultaneously work to remove any/every Democrat who gets anywhere near the stink of what might be termed “Anti-Humanity Capitalism.” Then, we need to repeat the process, state by state, until private power is no longer a thing in our quickly submerging nation. Assuming, that is, we can wrest control from them in time to address the climate crisis effectively.

I’ll tell you this: The world’s temperature is already heading directly, and inexorably at this point, toward “bake” and if we don’t act soon, it will reach “broil” and I can guarantee you, that’s not going to be good for humanity. Is it really worth it to maximize share holder value if the end result is destruction of the biosphere?

It’s only been a couple of days. I just wrote, Thursday, about Fox Not-News showing a chyron that said “Wanna be dictator speaks at the White House after having his political rival arrested.” A headline in this morning’s Guardian says, “Fox News (sic) producer behind Biden “wanna be” dictator resigns.” Apparently, (according to Tucker Carlson so, take that with a grain of salt) he offered to stay for the customary two weeks but management told him to clear out his desk and get out.

Fox Not-News still stands as the Everest of bullshit mountains but they’re pretty clearly being more cautious about how they spread their manure. It looks like they’re trying to be 787.5% more cautious about the blatancy of their baloney… Good.

I STILL say we need the Fairness Doctrine back – equal time for responsible, opposing opinions. Yes, there ARE so many outlets out there people could easily check out the information from the “other side” – but people don’t. If one just puts on lying Fox Not-News (or MSNBC, for that matter) and leaves the station there all day, that person comes away with a heavily one-sided opinion of events with no pushback or balance from the other side.

There’s a reason cons think Biden didn’t win the last election and that pursuing criminal charges in response to criminal activity is somehow “weaponizing” the DOJ, or that ALL outgoing Presidents steal and stash thousands of classified documents or that Joe Biden is a senile, bumbling, totally inept fool who is, nevertheless and at the same time, the brilliantly successful mastermind behind the persecution of his political rival – and it’s not stupidity. It’s propaganda.

EVERY SINGLE COUNTRY in which Fascism has ever taken hold, started off with the general, national belief that “it can’t happen here.” But it’s already happening here, in the United States of America, and the tentacles of authoritarianism are slowly closing around the throat of our once-great nation – and propaganda is one of the primary tools of the Fascists…

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The Associated Press is running a story about how there are now more supermajorities in state legislatures than there have been in the last 40 years. A supermajority happens when one party is so heavily represented they can override a gubernatorial veto with no help from the opposition. 19 are Republican (commonly achieved by cheating – gerrymandering, that sort of thing) and nine are Democrats. I’m struck by what these all-powerful state legislatures are doing with their power.

Across the board, the cons are working tirelessly to strip rights from everybody they can while simultaneously harming as many people as possible. (Lovely people, the cons…) The Dems are working to support workers and other people and protect the environment. This is not what they’re saying, it’s what they’re doing. Keep that in mind…

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Peculiar observations:
Thinking Americans oppose what cons want to do because of how stupid the cons act. Conservatives oppose progressive measures because of how smart Dems think they are.

I think standing against stupid is better than standing against smart.

Just my opinion…

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Daniel Ellsberg died this week. He’s the guy who (kind of accidentally) released the Pentagon Papers that exposed the lies and machinations of the Vietnam War.
“What? America fought a war based on lies and fraudulent information?”
“A war? No. If you know your history, you know that America has fought most of her wars based on lies and fraudulent information.”
“Okay, so what do you mean ‘kind of accidentally?'”
“Well, he gave the report to a reporter on the condition the reporter use it on background only and then the reporter printed the whole thing.”

Ellsberg was charged under the Espionage Act of 1917 along with other charges of theft and conspiracy (sound familiar?) and faced a maximum sentence of 115 years in prison. The prosecutors so messed up his prosecution, though, that, instead, his case was dismissed. I suspect that’s why Jack Smith is moving so carefully against criminal traitor and sexual predator 45. A glitch released a man who was, basically, if accidentally, doing the right thing. Thinking Americans would hate to see such a glitch free the guy who engineered the coup and betrayed the nation he swore to protect…

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There’s a show out on HBO called ‘The White House Plumbers.’ I recommend it. It’s all about what was once the biggest scandal this country had ever faced: the break-in at the Democratic headquarters located in the Watergate Hotel, known now colloquially as ‘Watergate.’ (How quaint.) It includes another guy from that era (along with Ellsberg) who ended up getting credit as a stand-up guy: John Dean.

The thing is, John Dean was the Michael Cohen of his day. He was all-in with Nixon and on the break-in and continued to support and protect Nixon from consequences until his own ass was on the line. THEN he became Mr. Standup Guy. Uh-huh. To this day, John Dean is trotted out from time to time to explain this or that political scandal. It has been pretty much a complete recovery from scandalous shame to shining “hero” for Dean.

If ‘Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In’ was still airing (they’d be VERY old), Dean would definitely have won a ‘Flying Fickle Finger of Fate’ award and now Cohen will be trying for his own. I’d be happy to give either one of them the finger…

I’ve had occasion, since the indictment, to speak to some conservatives about it. (As a sidebar, it says something that I can just call it “the indictment” and everybody on Earth knows which indictment I’m referring to…) So far, the answers I get are sadly predictable. Whataboutism is the first choice. That’s an easy one for me. I simply agree, then return the conversation to the CheetoJesus. I mean it, too. My answer, generally? “You bring the evidence, I’ll bring the Prosecutor.”

Thinking Americans have an advantage over cons. We’re not required to support “our guy” under any and all circumstances. That means that should we discover the guy we supported turns out to be something other than what we had imagined, we can change our minds. Frankly, we can turn on him or her and, generally speaking, we would.

For the record, I really, truly, absolutely do NOT want criminals to get away with crimes. That’s pretty much it, for me. I don’t decide the severity (or even existence) of the crime by their political party, how much money they have, or the promises they make. For me, it’s all about evidence and the evidence that criminal and sexual predator Donald J. Trump is also a thief and a traitor is very substantial. Really, you’ve got to read the indictment. It’s easy to find. Just go to your favorite search engine and type in “the indictment.” The charges against Former Guy will pop right up.

Your jaw will drop, not just because of the detail but when you think about the fact that, in the face of all of this the MAGA cons are STILL out there pretending this all about a “weaponized DOJ.” This is all pretty simple. The Department of Justice (keyword: justice) investigates allegations of criminal activity. If evidence exists, they pursue charges. If not, they drop the investigation. That’s not “weaponization.” That’s “doing their jobs.”

“Weaponizing” would look more like, say, issuing a subpoena to someone because you heard from a guy who knew a guy who heard from his ex-wife’s brother that someone did something. Here’s an idea, bring the evidence or STFU. How’s that?

I’ll tell you this: I find it ironic that the cons are terrified of the very “America” they, themselves, are working so tirelessly to bring about – an America where someone is guilty or innocent based on say-so and conjecture. As for me and my house? We’ll continue to embrace evidence…

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Fox Not News showed a chyron under a split screen of Biden and Trump that said, “Wanna be dictator speaks at the White House after having his political rival arrested.” But the reference to the “wanna-be dictator” was to (wait for it) Joe Biden and NOT the guy who planned and executed an assault on the United States of America on January 6, 2021 trying to retain illegal control of the Oval Office. Oh, and, for the record: Joe Biden didn’t have Trump arrested. The actions of Donald Trump got Trump arrested. Wanna-be dictator, indeed.

They keep using that word. I do not think it means what they think it means. I can say – for certain – these guys wouldn’t recognize a “wanna-be dictator” if he dyed his skin orange, fluffed up his comb-over, claimed he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and not lose any supporters, and then planned and initiated an attempted coup that sent hundreds to prison and caused several deaths and actually did not lose any supporters.

Normally, the conservative blather wouldn’t bother me, much. The cons, especially the MAGA cons, have moved so far outside of reality, I want to treat them the same way I treat a homeless person walking down the street, alone, yelling furiously at invisible people: I feel badly for them, I wish there was something I could do for them, I secretly breathe a sigh of relief that I’m not among them, then, I ignore them -to the extent possible.

But these guys? They remind me of nothing so much as the Brown Shirts of the 1930’s. Yeah, yeah, screw Godwin. History repeats and in this case, the reference to the earliest efforts of the Nazi party in Germany are frighteningly accurate. The Brown Shirts weren’t always a well-oiled machine capable of horrifying atrocities on a mass scale. They started off a small throng of idealistic but moronic loyalists. So when we see the ‘Keystone Kons’ of today, idealistic but moronic loyalists flailing around furiously, arguing against reality, and generally bringing shame to themselves and their family names, we’re forced to take the threat seriously.

In my experience, it’s very common for people on their way to jail to stand outside the courtroom when the process starts, look very serious, and say, “This is a travesty. There is no evidence (or the evidence is all circumstantial) and I look forward to my day in court to prove my innocence.” It’s no different for the Trumpster and he has every right to make whatever claim he wants to make. He’s also going to get his day in court so he can prove his innocence. He’s likely to find that simply shouting, “I’m innocent!” isn’t enough. He’s going to have to answer specific charges and the charges are pretty solid against him.

In his favor? Well, he drew Aileen “loose” Cannon, the judge who tried so hard to help him earlier in this process by throwing in the biggest wrench she could find. It ground around in the process for a bit before the 11th Circuit Court stepped in and slapped her down. Now, like a bad case of herpes, she’s back. On the left, everyone is certain she’ll recuse herself, having been so disgraced by her earlier, obviously partisan support for her god-on-Earth.

I’m not so sanguine. I believe this woman would blow Trump on Fifth Avenue in the middle of the day right in front of her husband if 45 asked her to. I suspect she won’t voluntarily recuse herself because she knows he needs her. She shouldn’t have been involved last time but she stepped in and STAYED in until she was forced aside. They’ll have to drag her away again or she’ll do everything in her power to help him evade responsibility for his crimes. I WILL say this, though; I hope I’m wrong. I hope she displays some modicum of dignity and respect for the law and just graciously steps aside.

Ha, ha! A MAGA con doing the right thing, just because it’s the right thing? Best laugh I’ve had all morning!

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Ron DuhSantis is taking credit for sending flights full of undocumented workers to California under cover of darkness. (Cons always work under cover of darkness. I wonder why that is?) California Governor Gavin Newsom said he was looking at filing kidnapping charges against DuhSantis for the stunt. I doubt he will, but I wish he would. I also think that when possible, the planes used for the stunt should be confiscated.

The DuhSantis defense might include the video that was shot of the immigrants dancing to the plane and saying “thank you” for the “help.” The video will certainly NOT include the lies the victims were told to put them in that jovial mood. I’m STILL no lawyer but I suspect that if a person is lured into some action through lies and manipulations, their actions cannot be properly portrayed as “voluntary.” (Although, technically, leaving a red state and coming to a decent place means they likely will get the help DuhSantis promised so…tough position…)

The truth is the first time the cons did this I thought it was a mildly humorous political stunt that kind of made a point. Now though? It’s just…mean. MOST importantly, these people (keyword: people) come across the border and request asylum. They’re given a court date and released. Despite what cons lie, most of the immigrants return for their day in court. But…all of that happens where they come into the country. The courts the migrants were likely assigned to are in Floriduh. The people themselves, have been shipped to California or Massachusetts or the like and won’t be able to make their court dates.

I’ll tell you this: sending desperate people away because you don’t want to deal with them is certainly NOT what Jesus was talking about when he brought out his “as you do to the least of these” parable. I suspect DuhSantis is going to find it quite hard to get into the Heaven he pretends to believe in…

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Speaking of not getting into Heaven, Pat Robertson!

He finally died. It’s times like this I wish I believed in Heaven and Hell. The Bible is pretty clear about taking the Lord’s name in vain. It says, “Thou shall not take the name of the Lord, thy God, in vain.” See? Clear. Christians get around that one by pretending it’s about cursing but it has always seemed to me to be about using their god to sell tickets, or whatever.

“I received a call from God, last night, and he says you should send me your money so I can have yet another private jet. The two I have already are simply not enough for me to zip around doing God’s work.” THAT is taking the Lord’s name in vain and I’m not sure I ever once heard Pat Robertson speaking that wasn’t a pitch for money or the set-up of a pitch for money – all wrapped up in a package of the rewards (later, after you die) from God or else God’s punishment of you for making Pat buy his own plane.

There’s an ongoing theme in the Christian Bible. The Christian God doesn’t take kindly to defiance. He expresses His loving kindness and Holy Disappointment by – and I’m not making this up – setting you on fire for all time. You know, as you do when a child messes up.

I’ll tell you this: I’d like to see the look on Robertson’s face as God starts spraying him with lighter fluid. “Sorry, Pat. You broke My commandment every Medamned day for the last 62 years!” He didn’t seem any too worried about God’s wrath while he was alive, though…

They say adversity builds character. If we know anything at all about our recently indicted ex-“President,” the criminal, likely traitor, and sexual predator Donald Trump, it is that he has never faced a day of adversity in his entire whiny, pampered little life. The end result is that the Trumpster has exactly two arrows in his quiver: whiny tantrums and bullying.

The bullying he does with lawyers. That guy, using money his grandpa amassed, reportedly running a brothel in the Klondike during that gold rush, can array an army of lawyers against any and all comers. (Okay, almost all.) 45’s main trick in court is to, well, never get to court. He stalls. He obfuscates. He has his team file motions that must be sorted out – and every one of them takes time. He can drag out a case as long as anyone on Earth and, over the course of his nearly 77 years, has become quite skilled at it. It doesn’t really matter if the case you have against him is valid or not, he’ll wait you out. He can field his legal army for months, years, even.

Mostly, though, he has likely managed to get through life with whining and tantrums. I had a cat, once, that liked to be stroked for a few minutes but then would reach the end of his tolerance and let out a kind of guttural growl. If you stopped petting, all would be well. If you didn’t? Well, he’d give you a little nip or a swipe of his paw, claws engaged. I think Former Guy does the same. He starts off in full-on whiny mode. If people back down and give him his way, he quiets down. If not, he gets louder…and louder…and louder. He’s learned over the course of his life that tantrums are successful if you just hold them long enough. Eventually, people will give in just to shut him up.

Until now.

It turns out, one can not “out-army” the Federal government. If you bring 12 lawyers, the government brings 12 as well. Throw on 12 more? Okay, the government has 12 more – and the government’s lawyers are FAR better than yours. Trump has every right to his judicial process and I wouldn’t change that for the world – but the government has the ability to move these cases along for various reasons. I know, it has felt like forever since this all started but Jack Smith was only appointed Special Prosecutor in November of 2022. The Trump indictment was handed down in June, 2023. That’s pretty quick for the prosecution of a former (terrible) President. Trump has done his delay/obfuscation dance, of course, but…have you seen those pictures of the boxes piled all over Mar-A-Loco? I’m not sure how he could have made the prosecutors job any easier – and that was AFTER he was trying to hide them!

I hate to digress (you know I don’t) but I realized yesterday, looking at those damning photos, that his obsequious zealots were seeing the same photos at the same time. The difference? The captions under the photos THEY were seeing said something like, “the boxes the FBI staged just to make our precious look bad because of…reasons…” Mark my words, by this morning, every MAGA con will KNOW they weren’t looking at “evidence of a crime,” they were looking at a frame job. Sure, it will take some amazing mental gymnastics and some quality misleading by their outrage media but the MAGA cons WANT to believe – so all one need do is give them something to cling to and, by the gods, they’ll cling.

Anyway, Trump has also trotted out arrow number one: the whiny tantrum. He started small, his little warning growl. Didn’t work. He got louder. Ho-hum. He got even louder. Still, they persisted. Now he has advanced to FULL-ON CAPS LOCK RANTS OF RAMBLING NONSENSE AND FAUX OUTRAGE WITH NO PUNCTUATION AND MISSSPELLINGS AND BLAMING AND WHINING AND WHATABOUTISMS AND FINGER POINTING WITH NO EVIDENCE AND WOE WOE WOE IS POOR PICKED ON ME THAT OFTEN MAKE NO SENSE WHATSOEVER!!!!!!!!! Oh, yeah, and…WITCH HUNT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Frankly? He’s looking a bit unhinged, to me. He has tried every tool in his toolbox – crying, whining, shouting, and deploying his bully lawyers – and none of it has worked. He’s looking far less like the strong, resolute leader he’s never been and far more like a quivering mass of fury and fear. What passes for his “mind” simply cannot conceive that none of his previously successful strategies have worked to stop the prosecution.

Turns out? Trump isn’t the first whiny baby the government has ever dealt with. Turns out, the government doesn’t care how much you whine or how loud your tantrum gets. They don’t care how many lawyers you bring. They don’t care how long it takes. They care about evidence. They care about what they can and can not prove in court. They care about the process. So bring your lawyers and SCREAM YOUR SCREAMS but if you can’t make your case in a court of law, you’re going to face some consequences. And it’s about time!

You know what I miss, that I NEVER thought I’d miss? Traffic cops. I know, I can’t believe it, either but…have you driven recently? OH! EM! GEE! A couple of days ago, I was getting on the freeway after the metering lights had activated. I was heading up a two-lane on-ramp in the right lane with a car on my left. I was next to, but a hair behind, my “fellow motorist.” I really don’t know what she was thinking but it appeared she decided she was going to get through the lights faster in the right lane than if she stayed where she was – so she started coming over.

This was not an erroneous lane change attempt immediately aborted when you realize there’s another car there with an embarrassed little wave. This was…aggressive. She wanted the lane I was in, seemed to know I was there, and decided to move me out of her way so she could get what she wanted. She made two distinct swerves, in what looked like an effort to force me to hit my brakes and back off. (There was a car behind me and such a move may or may not have resulted in my car being rear-ended.) It is NOT to my defensive-driving credit that I didn’t yield. My Driver’s Education teacher would have been mortified. (Sorry, Mr. Marzett.)

She dared me not to get hit by her. I dared her to hit me. Thankfully, she didn’t. She retreated to the lane she had started in. This is my favorite part – we happened to arrive at the line at the same time, waiting for the light. (She had that very intentional “I’m not looking your way” attitude.) We only waited a moment when her light turned green! Had she succeeded in pushing me aside so she could move faster, she actually would have slowed herself (and me) down! I laughed at her as she drove off.

Yeah, one story, one time. Oh, you think? I own a small swimming pool service. I drive a LOT. Things like this happen daily. People force their way into lines and make last-minute lane changes that look like nothing so much as an attempt to confuse their fellow motorists. They drive FAR too fast or frustratingly FAR too slowly in the wrong lane. People ignore traffic controls like, you know, red lights and stop signs. There is a sense that not all of our fellow motorists understand (or actually know) the rules of the road. There’s a segment of our population that WILL NOT, under any circumstances nor for any reason, move into a line of traffic at the end where it’s clear and safe for them to do so. Instead, they STAND on their accelerators until they’ve moved in front of a few cars in the line and then force their way in – again, daring people not to get hit by them.

I’ve come to see the decline in the population’s ability to drive safely as a microcosm of the decline in our society overall. People drive poorly out there for two reasons: one, they were never taught to drive here and two, there are not enough cops to root out those who are on the road, but shouldn’t be. BOTH problems exist for the same reason: there’s not enough money to cover the vital functions government used to cover. The result? Steadily increasing chaos.

The solution is simple. I hinted at it in the second paragraph. See, I learned to drive in school. Both the classroom segment and the time-behind-the-wheel part were taken care of during school hours – and everyone who went to school, rich and poor alike, participated. That meant that, by and large, all Californians drove pretty much the same because we were all taught the same. One could know what their fellow motorist was likely to do because we all received the same training from the same curriculum. Then, California’s Proposition 13 passed. Schools were suddenly starved for money and driver training (along with bus service) was one of the first programs to go.

Proposition 13 was one of the wealthy class’s earliest and most successful assaults in their class war. It was a tax trick, a gift to corporations, sold as a tax benefit to Joe Sixpack. EVERYBODY’S property tax was reduced to a previous year’s level, then property taxes only increased with a sale of the property. Single family homes turn over regularly, so tax rates have increased over time as the houses are bought and sold. Large corporations don’t really sell their property, though. If there’s a sale, the property is simply transferred as part of the company assets so no new assessment is ever triggered. This means many corporations in California are still paying property tax at a 1973 rate, while all the homeowners are trying to make up the shortfall.

A new business model was created: driver training schools – but they are expensive. If all of one’s discretionary cash is tied up in food and shelter, there’s nothing for formal driver training. The family teaches their young to drive as well as they can but often were not formally trained themselves. Our roads are now infested with untrained, unlicensed, and uninsured drivers. As tax revenues have fallen, municipalities are forced to pick and choose where their reduced police forces might be most effective – and traffic control took a major hit so there’s no one out there to catch the untrained and get them trained. Chaos.

This is all the predictable and inevitable result of constant tax cuts for the rich and the “cut services” mantra. When one combines the effect of too-low tax revenues with the effect of an economy built to impoverish as many people as possible, chaos on the roadways (not to mention increases in crimes of all kinds) seems unavoidable. ALL of it stems from the conservative fever-dream the country has suffered for the last fifty years. (I don’t really blame cons for this. They’re simply the tools of the wealthy class, but without those “tools,” the rich could not have succeeded so brilliantly, so…completely at dismantling a once-great nation…)

I’ll tell you this: I live by an adage: when your outgo is greater than your income, your upkeep will be your downfall. This is true in a household budget and it’s true for a national economy. The thing is, when one’s expenses exceed one’s income there are TWO possible ways to respond. The first is to cut expenses – which America has done, now, FAR beyond advisability and much to it’s own detriment – but the second is to raise revenue. In governments, that means tax increases and we should focus those increases on the people who, after all, have all the money…

Here’s a nice little side note I hadn’t expected. Many of the January 6th rioters are using fundraising sites to raise money for their defense. No problem, there. They probably need a lot. Collectively, the rioters have raised hundreds of thousands of dollars. BUT…they’re not using the money they raise for their defense. They create a “defense” fund, collect the money, then keep the money and use a public defender. I suspect they got the idea from the Former Guy, who did the same thing to them. The difference, of course, is Former put the money in his PAC, effectively laundering it, so no one could reach it. His acolytes? They don’t even HAVE PACs.

These guys sell their need for legal defense based on the notion that they’re really heroic patriots, being persecuted by the big, bad gubmint. I imagine it’s pretty easy to feel persecuted while you’re being prosecuted. I continue to be surprised at the number of people who support the insurrectionists thinking they were, after all, just doing what their President asked them to do. I don’t think that should work as a defense. People are responsible for their own actions. I DO, however, think every time one of those Bozos uses that particular line, it should be added to the evidence against Trump that he was, in fact, the ringleader of the traitorous January 6th coup attempt…

Anyway, I wrote all that to write this: the government (or gubmint, if that’s all you got) is trying to claw back any money these swindlers raise for their legal defense that they don’t use for their legal defense. Prosecutors are asking judges for fines equal to amounts raised, but not used, for defense. Prosecutors think the traitors shouldn’t be allowed to use their notoriety for personal gain. I agree.

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Ah, June. Summer! After a long, cold, wet winter, a little summer will be nice. But it’s also when the Robert’s Supremely Kangaroo Court recesses for it’s summer break. They take three months off. They need that extra down time to process and enjoy all the bribes they happily receive. But this particular crowd of cowards also manages to issue it’s most disgusting and damaging ideological “opinions” as they abscond. I wonder which segment of Americans they plan to attack as they slink away this time. Last time it was women. This time? It will likely be people of color and children. You know…whomever is most vulnerable.

The cons used to complain about how bad it would be if America suffered under ideological, activist judges who ruled based on personal preferences rather than the law. Since it wasn’t happening when the cons were whining about it, I didn’t pay much attention. Now, the cons are quiet (of course) while it actually goes on but I’ve got to give them this: they were right. Ideological justices who care nothing for the law nor precedent ARE bad…

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So…the cons fell deeply in love with a sexual predator and “elected” him “President.” Thinking Americans thought that was not a good thing. As usual, Americans were aghast at the depths to which the cons will stoop just to get more stoop-ed. The cons, of course, just like that loving their sexual predator bothers thinking Americans but someone, somewhere realized that sexually predatory behavior could become a campaign issue – so they found a Democrat they don’t like and had someone point a finger at him. They marched out Tara Reade who claimed Joe Biden once pushed her against a wall in a public corridor and sexually assaulted her.

I’ve always been suspicious. Biden is a freaking gaffe machine and we all know about the weird hair sniffing thing but – unlike their sexual predator(s) – there have been no other reports of sexual assaults surrounding the guy. Just one conservative obsequious zealot with no evidence in a she said/she said again. Uh-huh.

You know what else cons think they love? Russia. It’s easy for them, not actually living in Russia and allowing themselves to love their trumped up fantasy delusion of what Russia might be, instead. I doubt they’ve noticed the number of Putin’s enemies who have suddenly “fallen out of windows” or otherwise met unexpected ends. Now the two things have come together.

Accuser Tara Reade has gleefully exclaimed that she has recently defected to Russia. She says NOW she feels “safe.” She also said her dream is to live in both places but acknowledged that might not be realistic. Gee, you think?

I’ll tell you this: At some point, I expect she’ll start to miss US freedom and want to come back. I hope they don’t let her. Or, since they likely will as a public relations coup, tell her that when she defected, she surrendered her Social Security number and all payments made to date. Issue her another one and make her start again.

Jeez, I guess I’m feeling a bit punitive…