Okay, not for nothin’ but I keep hearing MAGA cons say they need to install TRUE cons who will “fight for the people.” Rational Americans know that Fani Willis, Jack Smith, et al, ARE “fighting for the people.” What YOU mean is that you want people who will fight for YOU and you, alone. Not “the people.” Cons and their personal preferences. Period. FYI? That’s not the American way. You’re fighting against the American system. Still…

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Hoo-boy! Letitia James has quite a case going, doesn’t she? It turns out, when one sets aside all the blather and bluster and just looks at paperwork and (here’s that evil word again) evidence, the trumpster overstated his wealth by somewhere between 17% and 39%, depending on the year. In dollars, that translates, roughly, as $812million to $2.2 Billion dollars. The “magic” of Trump, it seems, is in the depth of his brazenness. Rational people simply cannot accept that someone would so flagrantly lie, so easily, so egregiously, about so many things. Inflating one’s wealth by 2.2 BILLION dollars? I’m more surprised he hasn’t been caught before now…

But he IS caught now and rational Americans have caught on to his proclivity for prevarication. Hell, NOW it’s easy. If trump’s lips are moving, he’s lying. He denies all wrongdoing. Of course, he ALSO denies he lost the election and that he’s fat, two verifiable facts. His day in court is coming in October and I think his theft will become a THIRD verifiable fact.

Even Letitia James says that during those years, his net worth in any year between 2011 and 2021 was no more than $2.6 Billion dollars and “…likely considerably less if his properties were actually valued in full-blown professional appraisals.” The depth of insecurity in a person who feels the need to inflate their wealth because they “only” have $2.6 Billion dollars is inconceivable…

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Holy gods, Mitch the Bitch locked up again. He was right in the middle of a presser and when asked a question, he started to answer and then, uh… didn’t. Just stood, staring. They had to jog is brain to get him going again. No, I’m NOT ripping on an aging man, suffering the slings and arrows of his aging. I’m irritated as hell that nothing can be done. I think the Senate minority leader ought to KNOW he’s the Senate minority leader in exactly the same way I think the Senator from California ought to KNOW she’s the Senator from California and whether or not she’s actually IN California.

Neither of them will step down. Apparently, it’s inconvenient, politically. California has a Democratic Governor and would replace Feinstein with a Democrat, BUT…she would lose her position on the Judicial committee and likely not be replaced by a Democrat there. Kentucky currently has a Democratic Governor as well, but he doesn’t get to pick McConnell’s replacement. A contingent from the Republican controlled state legislature does that and THEY would pick a Republican. I think, after the revolution, when we have to install a (my) new, improved Constitution we should include a requirement to remove impaired elected government officials.

Consider: political campaigns include some version of “Trust me to make decisions on your behalf you’ll be happy with.” So if Mitch McConnell and Diane Feinstein don’t actually KNOW they’re Mitch McConnell and Diane Feinstein anymore, who’s making the decisions we sent THEM to Washington D.C. to make?

Wow, the kangaroos on the Roberts Supremely Kangaroo Court are really getting into their imperial roles now, aren’t they? I mean, as more and more (and incidentally, even more) details come out about rich people buying Supreme Court Kangaroos to ensure favorable rulings, some people said, “Hey, maybe there should be some rules of ethics for the High Court.” Other people started saying, “What? There are no ethics guidelines for the Supreme Court? How could THAT be? No wonder they’re comfortable taking bribes!

The Kangaroos are off right now. They stop working early in summer and don’t get back to it until the first Monday in October. (You know, normal Americans…) But they’re still bickering among themselves so we hear more about them in their off time than normal. There’s at least ONE Kangaroo, the conservative “pseudo-justice” Alito, who is publicly claiming Congress has no power to impose ethics on the court. Justice Kagen is publicly disagreeing, being FAR more rational. She says, “But it just can’t be that the court is the only institution that somehow is not subject to any checks and balances from anybody else. We’re not imperial and we too are a part of a checking and balancing system in various ways.”

While they bicker, the bought-and-paid-for justices preferring to keep their personal gravy trains going and the ethical justices preferring ethics, I’m left to consider the question for myself, not being a Constitutional scholar or even a lawyer. But I CAN read…

Article III, the section of the Constitution that established the Supreme Court, Section 1 reads, in part, “The Judges, both of the supreme and inferior Courts, shall hold their Offices during good Behaviour…” (<– That’s Founding Father spelling…) So, without standards, how do people define “good Behaviour?” Clearly, Clarence Thomas defines “good behaviour” as accepting bribes and doing as he’s told. Personally, I define good behavior as NOT accepting bribes and in doing the right thing.

(Sidebar: Does anybody else see the irony in Thomas thinking he’s “made it” by allowing himself to be bought by a white man who tells him what to do? I’ve never been black but I would have imagined the idea of such a relationship would be repugnant to a black man…)

Installing a code of ethics might not need to be a law, so much as a guideline that clarifying for them (I STILL can’t believe it NEEDS to be explained to them) when they cross a line that COULD set them up for impeachment. I genuinely do not understand the criminal Kangaroos position. If they can’t be held to account for bribery can they be held to account for ANY crime? Are the Kangaroo cons actually arguing that they could, say, commit a murder and not be held liable?
“Of course not,” cons would cry, “murder is a crime, outside of ethics considerations!”
“Yeah? So is bribery.” (Sidebar: ‘Bribe’ is defined as “Money or some other benefit given to a person in power, especially a public official, in an effort to cause the person to take a particular action.”)

I’ll tell you this: I don’t know how it’s going to play out, especially since the Kangaroo criminals in question get a vote on the matter. (I suspect it’s VERY rare for a given criminal to support stopping the particular crime from which they benefit…) You want to know a truly sad day for America? That’s it, right there…

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(Editor’s note: I hope you’ll forgive the seemingly personal nature of this next post. While it DOES have a distinctly personal angle to it, I see the breakdown of traffic compliance as a kind of microcosm – a canary in the coalmine, if you will – for the breakdown of our society, in general…)

Okay, so I was sitting at a stop light waiting for the green. To be more specific, I’m in the right-hand side of a two-lane left turn intersection that leads up to a two-lane freeway on-ramp, currently being controlled by the metering lights. I expect, as one does, that the “fellow motorist” beside me, in the left lane, will move into the left lane on the on-ramp while I get in line in the right lane. Silly me.

The green arrow comes and we begin our turn. As we round the bend, the guy next to me encroaches into “my” lane. Okay, things like that happen. Sometimes the steering wheel slips a bit and you drift before correcting. Sometimes someone simply isn’t paying attention, whatever. I did what civilized people do: I gave him a bit of extra space until he got control of his car. But it turned out, in HIS pea brain, I wasn’t showing him a bit of driver courtesy in giving him extra space. In HIS mind, I was surrendering.

He DID move back toward his own lane for a moment, but only for a moment. When he realized I had given ground, he came back – aggressively. Now, I want to make sure I’m absolutely clear, here. We were, literally, right next to each other. It’s not like he was in front of me, even by a nose. But he came back anyway, this time, determined to move over. The lane I was in, after all, was two cars shorter than the lane he SHOULD have gone into.

I had two choices: crash or give space. I gave space. The thing is, there was no “space” to give so I was out of the lane heading off the road. I had to stop to keep from crashing. After he pushed me off the road, he cruised into my lane and moved up into the line, doing that thing people do where their steering wheel is suddenly the most important thing in the world and requires INTENSE scrutiny, consciously and aggressively NOT looking at anything else. I blew my horn at him, got back in line and then stopped behind him as we waited out the metering light.

I confess, I was angry. The guy was really willing to hit my car just to try to save himself two cars worth of wait? How long would he have had to wait if I hadn’t given ground and he HAD hit me? As one sits and considers realistic responses, it quickly becomes apparent there ARE no legitimate, realistic responses. Blasting my horn hadn’t done anything. It didn’t even really make me feel better. I thought about calling the cops and reporting him. Then I remembered, thanks to conservative tax cuts for the wealthy, the cops are seriously understaffed and overworked. They had to make choices and they long ago surrendered traffic control as part of their responsibilities. I’ve seen cars run red lights right in front of cops and they do nothing. They’re sure as hell not going to come out for a he said, he said debate on terrible driving that did not, after all, result in an accident.

But I could do this:

The license plate is 8NCN250…

I could make the trump-selfish putz famous. Well, on MY blog, “famous” is probably a bit…hyperbolic. But I could make a few (very well informed) people aware. Hell, I know it’s the longest of long shots but, maybe somebody who knows this clown reads the Bacon Press (MyBaconPress.com). If you do, please let the guy know he’s been published.

He looked young, to me. It’s likely he was driving mommy or daddy’s car, so, possibly untrained in the rules of the road, like so many young people today. The truth is, publishing him is really all I’ve got. But his move was so irritating, he’s risking a lot more than some old(er) guy getting angry. I turn on the morning news on a regular basis to see tales of road rage and shootings. THIS guy was so stupid, after he ran me off the road, he drove up and was promptly stopped by the traffic in front of him – with me right behind him! What if I had been a crazy like so many of my fellow Americans today?

Look, I’m not the kind of guy who’s going to get violent but if I had wanted to, he was a sitting duck. I might take out a hammer, get out of my car, and smash a tail light or a headlight – or maybe just his head. He had boxed himself in and had no place to run to. Maybe I’ve got a gun. (Maybe HE had a gun. Is he really willing to kill somebody over a slightly better position on the road?) I recognize those are extreme, less likely possibilities. But they ARE possibilities.

I just took a picture…

Well, the Russians have completed their “investigation” into whether or not Putin’s enemy was on an airplane, apparently shot down (or blown up) in Russian airspace. Yes, Prigozhin was on the plane. I suppose that’s good. If you’re willing to bring down an entire plane just to get one guy (okay, they actually got three guys they wanted, Prigozhin and two of his top guys) it’s good that you at least got the guy you wanted. Seven passengers, three crew on the plane.

After the “crash,” the only conversation I heard was speculation on what took Putin so long. Nobody, but NOBODY (well, Putin loving MAGAs excepted) believes this “crash” was an accident and the world started saying so. Fortunately, Putin set us all straight.
“That’s an absolute lie!” Putin said in a statement released by the Kremlin.
Oh, well, then. It couldn’t have been Putin, right? He said it was an “absolute” lie. Had he only said a “lie,” I might not have believed him. But since he added “absolute,” I guess the families of the dead can relax…

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Well, AP seems to be getting tired of his crap. They’ve done an article covering his litany of lies. I’m not sure why. Thinking Americans know the truth about these things. Anti-American MAGA cons won’t read the article and wouldn’t believe it if they did. They DARE NOT receive information contrary to the dogma. But, just so YOU know…
– Reviews and Recounts confirm Biden’s victory.
– AP investigation finds minimal voter fraud in swing states.
– Trump’s own administration found no widespread fraud.
– Courts heard Trump’s legal challenges and rejected them.
– Conspiracy theories about voting machines were unfounded.
– Claims involving suitcases and ballot mules are debunked.

Those are the headers for each section of their story, ‘Trump’s drumbeat of Lies about the 2020 election keeps getting louder and louder. Here are the facts.’ They add all the detailed supporting information after each header. On the one hand, it seems redundant to review the details of the Big Lie. On the other, I think it kind of helps to keep track of which lie is which from time to time. If obfuscation and confusion are his tools, clarity is his Kryptonite…

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I imagine the MAGAs think his mug shot looks strong and resolute. I suspect that’s the look he was trying for. To me? He looks like a homicidal maniac, about to attack the cops taking the photo. Fox Not-News started complaining that Biden was fund-raising on the arrest. Their crack team of intrepid story-tellers seem to have completely missed Trump’s own fund-raising from his arrest. And his last arrest. And the arrest before that. Not to mention, the arrest before that.
“Hey, I got arrested for my crooked business practices. Send me some money!”
“Hey, I got arrested for misusing campaign funds to pay off a woman I slept with while my wife was pregnant. Send me some money!”
“Hey, I got arrested for trying to overthrow the government. Send me some money!”
“Hey, I got arrested for stealing government documents that weren’t mine to take. Send me some money!”
“Hey, I got arrested AGAIN for pressuring a state official to try to help me overthrow the government. Send me some money!”

Faith is an amazingly blinding thing, I guess. His supporters will keep sending him money until they’re standing out on a street corner with a little cardboard sign. Meanwhile, his biggest concern (because he certainly does NOT care about the fate of the MAGAs he steals from) is how his trials are going to interfere with his campaign schedule.

I’ll tell you this: I suspect the convictions are going to interfere with his schedule even more…

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Well, word is that Bob Barker has passed, aged 99 years. Sorry to hear it. He was good at what he did. RIP, Bob…

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Yesterday was the anniversary of Martin Luther King’s march on Washington, DC and his “I Have A Dream” speech 60 years earlier. Technically, I guess there HAS been progress on the racism front. That is, until the trumpster reared HIS ugly head and brought blatant racism back into style. But it sure seems to me that the black community is STILL fighting for most of the same equality issues they were fighting for back then. (And, likely, for the previous 400 years…)

I’ll tell you this: sometimes, I really, really don’t understand what’s wrong with people. Yesterday, I wrote about the world trying to get back to the moon and we’re still judging people based on how brown their skin is? (And we love to hold ourselves up as the most “intelligent” species. I suppose we earn the title be being the ONLY species allowed to vote! Oh, crap! It was rigged…)

So…we know Russia is very good at murdering political opponents. They seem capable of waging an extended, illegal war. They’re not so good at landing spaceships on the moon. Curious.

I don’t know why or what changed but all of a sudden there’s a race to get back to the moon. (Okay, “back” for the US, “to” for the rest.) The US has a mission planned to the far side. The Chinese have already landed on the far side. India just landed a rover near the moon’s south pole. Russia crashed.

Hey, no disrespect to Russia, here. They own EVERY space first except, ‘get to the moon.’ They were first TO space with the first-ever satellite. First animal in space. First man in space. (Perhaps redundant.) First woman in space. First…pretty much everything. So I have no doubt they’ll figure out what went wrong and land there sooner or later. I just see the Russians suddenly NOT doing well things we thought they did well.

Except murdering political opponents. They still do that with special mastery…

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Politico/Ipsos did a lovely poll. I think it bodes poorly for the GOP but a) it’s early, and b) it’s early. Hell, the trials haven’t even started, yet. They broke down the various aspects of the trumpster’s troubles, asked people about them, then broke THAT data down to party affiliation. You will NOT be surprised to learn that people who identify as “Democrats” think, my words, here, Trump is a criminal. People who identify as “Republicans” continue to reject reality in deference to their preferred paradigm. The REAL issue for the GOP is that the “independents” lean more toward “criminal” than “delusion.”

THAT’s the part the media keeps missing (or leaving out, perhaps.) Republicans, still registered AS Republicans, have been driving rational conservatives from the party rather aggressively and for quite some time, now. What that means is that if pollsters don’t have the numbers for “independent,” they really don’t offer enough information.

So, using Politico/Ipsos numbers, when asked if Trump should stand trial before the 2024 election, the media will report that 89% of Dems say ‘yes’ while only 33% of Republicans do. But 63% of independents think he should stand trial before the election, meaning 61% of Americans who responded think he should stand trial before the election.

Despite the claims being tossed about by cons, most Americans believe the DOJ is acting responsibly in their prosecution of trump’s crime sprees. Is the DOJ being fair? Most Republicans, 74%, will tell you no. (Of course, they’ll ALSO tell you that gasoline was only, like, .22 cents/gallon when trump was president…) Not surprisingly, 89% of Democrats believe the DOJ is being fair in their actions. The key is, 64% of independents agree with the Democrats bringing the total number of Americans who support the DOJ’s actions to 59%. Hell, that’s almost enough to pass a law in this once-great nation…

For a lot of us, the big question is whether or not he goes to prison for his crimes like any of the rest of us would. It’s a real test of the “citizen-President” concept we’ve been waving around for 200 years. Republicans say no. Hell, 43% of them say that even if he’s convicted, there should be no punishment. That shows the value of Republican input these days. He shouldn’t be punished if he didn’t do it and he shouldn’t be punished even if he DID do it because they love the guy so much. Fortunately, the rest of America, most of American, is more rational. 87% of Democrats think he should go to prison if convicted, likely base in the notion that anybody else would go to prison for doing what he did.

The key is the independents. 51% of them think prison is appropriate. 31% support some kind of punishment, if not prison. That breaks down to 50% of Americans who think he should go to prison if convicted. That number isn’t as high but I suspect many of the independents will move toward supporting prison as the details of his crimes come out at trial.

So the “news” will keep hammering on the point that Republican support for the trumpster remains high and goes higher every time a new crime is revealed – because, of course it does. But those scary headlines are misleading.

Democrats knew, and then proved to the world in 2016, that they can’t win an election without independent support. The same is proving true for the Republicans. They’ll sew up a nomination for some crazy bastard in Republican primaries, where ONLY Republicans are allowed to vote, but, so far, the insanity they nominate doesn’t appeal to the mainstream in any way and the Democrats walk in by default.

It doesn’t hurt the Democrats that Trump is the GOP flag-bearer. Independent lefties may not WANT to vote with the Democrats but understand the danger the trumpster and his ilk represent to the country. (We aren’t actually supporting the Democrats, btw. We’re supporting, like it or not, the ONLY available path to “the right thing.”) Worse, the cons have decided to come clean on their goals and most of their goals are reprehensible to true Americans. ‘ALL rights for me, NO rights for you’ is NOT a message that sells well in the US these days and I hope it never is…

I’ll tell you this: I feel better, having seen this information. What with the media constantly fomenting conflict, it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that most Americans still believe in truth, justice, and the American way…

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There’s going to be some roiling in Niner world, today. Yesterday, the Niners completed a deal to send Trey Lance to the Cowboys. Lance cost the team a LOT to get. THEN, he cost the team a LOT to keep. The Niners thought they had something in Lance but then discovered, accidentally, they had, right in their hands, magic in Brock Purdy. Is that Lance’s fault? Hell, no. But are you going to play a lesser player because he cost a lot to get – and to keep? Hell, no. In the end, Lance’s contract meant he had to go.

I don’t think there’s any ill-will toward Lance. It just didn’t work out. I hope he gets a chance to resurrect his career somewhere else. AND I hope the Niners go 15-2 and win the Stupid Bowl…

Pretty much the entire world knew Yevgeny Prigozhin was dead when he stopped his march toward Moscow. It was just a matter of when. And how. Except for cons, the whole world knows how Putin responds to people with whom he disagrees. He kills them. Cons LOVE Putin, because he’s “strong.” Oh, I wrote something wrong, there. Putin doesn’t kill them. He HAS them killed. That’s a bit different. It doesn’t take “bravery” to order a murder.

The cons also loved Rodrigo Duterte, the one-time President of the Philippines. He liked to murder opponents, too. He DID have to claim they were “drug-dealers,” but he never had to prove that so it was more of a formality. But, like I say, the cons LOVED him – because he was “strong.” The cons are not deep thinkers and they certainly have not thought this one through.

Their expectation is that the strong man of the United States would be THEIR strong man, so they would be safe from being murdered. They’d be on the “right” team. Maybe. The cons are likely being “protected” from the feeding frenzy ginning up on the right even as I type, with the one-time ruling leaders turning on each other at an alarming rate. We have photos of these people laughing and having a good time together when times were good for them. Now come the consequences of their choices and there is very little loyalty to be seen anywhere. (And where it IS still on display, it feels, to me, more like ‘still hoping for the pardon’ than true loyalty.) If murder was a normal solution in American politics, the conservative body count would be pretty high, by now. Are you sure that’s the direction you want to go?

Murdering one’s opponents is an abstract idea when it takes place on the opposite side of the planet. One can separate oneself from the details or just randomly decide that the murdered person “deserved” to die. Personally, I’m very concerned about living in a country where political opponents murder each other as a solution. Yes, I have no doubt the cons would go on a killing spree to rival any in history but if that was the way things are done in this country, do you really think it would STAY a one-way street? And who do you think would be the current focus of political retaliation by the party in power today?

Tossed from a building, crashed in a plane, sprayed with poison, exposed to radiation, or even just shot down where he stands, I think Donald Trump would be in deep Kimchee. (Well, deeper than he is, anyway.) The cons never think about how such power might be used against them. Telling isn’t it? On some level, they KNOW they’d kill with abandon but they don’t believe the left might do the same thing? Talk about a “weaponized DOJ…”

In my experience, power is power and people will often do ANYTHING to hold on to it. Parties don’t make a difference. Political philosophies don’t make a difference. Money and power make the difference. The only thing we have that protects us – ALL of us – is the law and our ability to KEEP politicians from killing opponents.

So, please, cons, consider the idea that, once the rails are removed, anything you want to do TO people, could just as easily be done TO YOU! And then, let’s just agree to stick with the rule of law, eh?

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“If they can do this to me, they can do it to anybody!”

That’s the line Rudy Giuliani used when he came out of his booking process in Georgia. Trump likes to say the same thing. If they can do it to me, they can do it to anybody. Are you scared yet? You’re supposed to be. A government out of control. Government gone wild. A government that investigates criminal behavior and prosecutes miscreants? Well, no, that’s what it’s supposed to do, that’s not “gone wild.” But listen, at it’s core, the statement the trumpster burps out from time to time and Giuliani’s repetition of it is exactly right, perfectly true. A “perfect” statement.

It turns out? The DOJ WILL come after you if you try to overthrow the government. They’ll do that even if you say you didn’t try to overthrow the government. They’ll do that even if you get your friends to say you didn’t try to overthrow the government. But it IS true, if you try to overthrow the government, the DOJ may well come after you – just like they’re doing to the trumpster and his henchmen. (I guess that should be ‘hench-PEOPLE’ but it really doesn’t have the same ring…)

Easy answer? Don’t try to overthrow the government. If you don’t, the government won’t come after you for trying to overthrow it. Hey, that was easy…

Well, The Deceived MAGAs are demonstrating their love of country and respect for the rule of law again, in their standard “Screw this country and screw the law!” kind of way. A District Attorney, Fani Willis, brought evidence to a grand jury – this one in Georgia. The Grand Jury heard the evidence and decided there was enough there to issue an indictment for crimes.

It’s just a standard part of the process, called ‘discovery,’ that the prosecutor is required to send all relevant information to the defense to prepare for the trial. In Georgia, this includes the unredacted names of the members of the Grand Jury. Apparently the “thinking” is, the defense might need to vet the Grand Jury members for or against bias.

The thing is, the trumpster doesn’t have a defense. All he has is lies and whining – and threats. Serious threats. The trumpster has been told he can’t share this information but not yet by this court. So? The names and addresses of the members of the Grand Jury have been showing up online, specifically on Trump’s failing ‘Truth Social’ site. Now his acolytes know who to attack – and they’re doing so. Not physically, that I’ve heard, yet. Just threats. But some of The Deceived are unstable and very not smart. If trump says attack, they will. (That will be EXTRA stupid, by the way. The work of the Grand Jury is done. You can be mad at them for respecting the law but you can’t undo that which has already been done, so what good is the harassment?)

One of The Deceived wrote: “I’m looking forward to the fun some will have with the list of leaked grand jurors …” Well, bully for him. I’M looking forward to the fun some in law enforcement will have arresting these America-hating cretins as they issue their threats.

Did you hear about the woman in Texas named Abigail Jo Shry? She’s one of The Deceived. Her beloved started calling the prosecutor in ‘Indictment 3, the DC Caper,’ Tanya Chutkin, a “racist” and accusing her of bad behavior and ill-intent. Abigail knew just what to do: call Chutkin up and threaten to kill her – AND her family, just for good measure. (Hell, even the Mafia leaves family out of business.)

Shry also threatened to kill a Texas Democrat named Sheila Jackson Lee and every Washington Democrat and, apparently, all members of the LGBTQ community. (Hey, at least she has ambition…) Mental stability, thy name is clearly MAGA. Now she gets a shiny new trial of her very own! Nice work, Abigail. Enjoy your pending “vacation.”

I’ll tell you this: Frankly, I don’t understand the need for threats. The trumpster has made clear, over and over and over again that he has ALL the extra special, super-de-duper proof he needs to successfully defend himself in court. All he has to do is show up, whip out his proof, and go home again, laughing at the media and the District Attorney and Democrats and the law all the way…

…Unless he’s lying about having exonerating evidence, of course. In that case, he has a real problem…

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I saw video of the trumpster at a rally. He had primed his audience to give him permission to skip the debates scheduled for this Wednesday. He told them he didn’t want to do it. He pointed out that, as front-runner, it would be foolish to participate. He said everyone already knows his policies. (Sidebar: “Why is everybody always picking on me?” is NOT a policy position and it’s all I ever hear from that guy…)

After he had teed them up, he asked the question, “But, I’ll leave it to you, should I do the debates?” He expected a resounding, “NO!” Instead, he got a rather resounding, “YES!” He looked surprised. He dismissed the “wrong” answer by saying people just wanted the entertainment value. Then he said the people who had answered ‘yes’ were selfish. Pitching insults at your own base doesn’t seem wise but then I remember, MAGAs see that only as a well-deserved rebuke from their beloved, like the abused wife who dismisses the violence because she “made him do it.”

But the trumpster ain’t doing the debates and there was never any question. It’s not about knowing his policy positions or risking front-runner status. It’s all about knowing that his opposition would take every single opportunity they could to mention his impressive collection of indictments. Literally, the greatest collection of indictments ever collected by an ex-president. NO ex-president has EVER collected more indictments than him. He’s the GREATEST at collecting indictments! Nobody collects indictments like him! Why, he’s probably collected something like, a thousand indictments but the rigged mainstream media will only tell you about the two, three, four, soon to be five. Joe Biden!

I’ll tell you this: it’s cowardly, an expected trait from the trumpster, but it’s also probably pretty cagey. How does one defend oneself against the indefensible?

Disappointing. I wrote last Thursday (2 days ago) that the trumpster had called a presser to finally release a “large and complex” report providing his incontrovertible, incontestable evidence that everybody on the planet is guilty except for him. I allowed for the possibility that THIS time, for various reasons, he might be telling the truth. Of course, the topic IS Donald Trump, so I also wrote: “I mean, it’s either that or…just another lie in a long, unbroken string of lies…”

Guess which one it turned out to be?

He said that on the advice of his lawyers (<– THAT part is likely true) he was canceling the presser. “My lawyers would prefer putting this…in formal Legal Filings…” he lied. (No word on why he capitalized ‘Legal Filings.’) His lawyers would prefer putting this into a garbage can and there will be no “Legal Filings,” capitalized or not, citing this extra special, super-de-duper, and oh-so-irrefutable (but non-existent) “report.”

Did you know? Decent attorneys get trained on “lawyerin’.” They’re taught that they’re not allowed to lie to the courts nor encourage or knowingly allow their clients to lie to the courts. They KNOW they can be fined, lose their license to practice, or even go to jail for doing so. Federalist Society “attorneys” are apparently taught, instead, “conservative law” – which means lying is central to their cases so they have to hide their lies carefully. Several of them are in serious trouble, having tried the tactic.

The trumpster doesn’t hide his lies. He doubles down. The thing is, everybody knows (even MAGAs know, they just won’t confess) he’s lying about everything all the time. Some very good lawyers are tracking every lie he spews on the topic and just adding it to the charges. Keep talking, dumbass.

I’ll tell you this: I’m very impressed that some lawyer, somewhere, FINALLY got him to stand down from one of his harebrained schemes. I had actually come to believe that he was out to prove that nobody, but nobody, could force him to do the right thing – ever. In the end, though, he decided NOT to hand the prosecution a brand-new raft of actual incontrovertible, incontestable evidence against himself. Hey, maybe even a MAGA can learn…

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Sorry. Math. I’ll keep it simple. Let’s say your group is 1,000,000 people and 500,000 of them support a given candidate. That’s 50%, right? Okay, so the same 500,000 people continue to support that candidate but the group is now only 600,000 strong. Suddenly, the candidate in question enjoys 83% support. He didn’t gain a single supporter. The overall group got smaller. Worse, if the group is 600,000 strong and now only 400,000 people support him, his numbers are still 67% support. His percentage went up but his actual support went down.

From time to time – by which I mean “daily” – I hear that Trump leads the GOP nominating process by – whatever. It’s usually a big number. It recently fell from 43% of GOP to 41% of GOP. It sounds ominous. But consider, since the trumpster became the poster child of the GOP, the party, itself, has dwindled. Rational conservatives started leaving the party in droves. No, they’re not Democrats. They went independent. When they DO vote, they will likely vote with the GOP but, perhaps, not straight ticket. Maybe they’ll just skip the Presidential race. But…

When pollsters call, they call registered party members. The MAGAs have been embarrassing rational people out of the party for some time, now. So it’s a smaller group, overall, but more dedicated to delusion than ever before. Remember this: whenever you hear a percentage, it’s useless unless you know the base number it’s a percentage of. We rarely hear that number.

Barring a 14th amendment block, the base will likely make him the nominee, despite his long and ever-increasing list of indictments and, likely, despite the fact that his administration will have to take place from a prison cell. But how many people beyond the MAGA base will support traitorous insanity? I doubt many.

I’ll tell you this: I think the smaller GOP CAN make him the nominee. I doubt (maybe just desperately hope) they don’t have the votes to make him president again…

Dear MAGA’s,
You’re not keeping up. You need to work harder. You need to sacrifice more. Sure, you’ve gone to cat food but you need to just skip a meal or two entirely. The trumpster needs your money! The dude has some HUGE legal bills to pay. Fortunately, he ALSO has loyalists who send him money. Sure, it all goes into a campaign fund that then pays his lawyers for his criminal defenses but it’s all coming out of your pockets. If you don’t pay, how will the “billionaire” pay?

Originally, he planned to use the PAC to pay some of his legal bills AND to pay for campaign rallies but the legal bills are really ballooning. The PAC is broke. They had to claw back $60 MILLION dollars from a Super PAC they donated to – and that’s only estimated to cover 4 months of his legal bills. What then?

We all know that you’re trying, MAGA. (In fact, you can be really trying.) Every time he gets a brand new, shiny indictment, you’all re-affirm your dedication to treason and the crime spree and send him still more money. But, for some reason, with each indictment, the total coming in is less and less. That suggests that some of you, somewhere, are selfishly keeping your money for yourselves. You think keeping your own lights on is more important than paying a “billionaire’s” legal bills for him? Effing RINO!

Look, it’s gotten so bad, he doesn’t even have enough money left to hold a rally to tell you how totally smart you are for paying his legal bills for him. So you really need to dig down now. You need to send more of your hard-earned dollars (or some of the money you received for free from one of those “gub-mint” programs you hate so much). It’s either that, or he’ll have to pay his own legal bills out of his own pocket! (Oh, the huMANity!) Is that really what you want?

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Well, finally! Trump has decided, in his infinite wisdom, to hold a press conference this coming Monday, August 21, 2023. His stated goal? He’s finally, actually going to release all of that amazing, incontrovertible, incontestable evidence. No, stop that. No, c’mon. Yes, I hear you laughing, but listen…this time? I believe him. Yes, I know we’ve all heard all about all the exculpatory evidence MAGA has on hand for months and months with nothing ever being produced but you’ve got to admit, they’ve also always said they were just looking for “the right time” to release it.

I’ll tell you the thing that scares me the most about it. This is going to be one of those examples MAGAs are always on about proving Trump is playing Chess while everyone else is playing Checkers, you know? I mean, what kind of cunning, wily insight allows a guy to know, I mean, just…know, that now is the time to release the evidence? With this announcement, that it is finally the time, I realized just how far above the rest of us he is in his thinking, and decided I should just stand down. Here’s an example of how stupid I am.

If I were in Trump’s shoes, and I knew I had mountains of incontrovertible, incontestable evidence at my disposal? Listen, I’m so stupid, I would have used it at any one of the initial lawsuits I filed immediately after the election, proving, right away, that I was right and everybody else was wrong. I mean, I would have just wasted it. But Trump knew better. He just did. So he held his cards close and strategically lost 60 straight suits. Genius. Clearly, just setting them up to knock them down.

But if I HAD had his insight to hold the incontrovertible, incontestable evidence through all my “set-up” lawsuits, I’m sure I would have just…belched the entire cache of proof out when all of the criminal investigations into all of my criminal activity started. No, really, I would – and I’m sure of this – I would have offered up every bit of the incontrovertible, incontestable evidence I had and shut the investigations down before they ever even got started. THEN, I would have used the mega MAGA slap-down in my upcoming presidential campaign. But not Trump. Nerves of steel. Balls of brass. Ice in his veins. Keep the evidence close until “the time is right.” Bide your time.

That’s the second time I would have just…pissed away all of my good exculpatory evidence by proving my own innocence. Gees, what a rube. Clearly, I have NO sense of the long game Trump is playing because I KNOW, for a FACT – and I do mean without question – that I would have certainly, undoubtedly produced every shred of my incontrovertible, incontestable evidence LONG before I totally bankrupted my campaign coffers paying lawyers. (Have you heard about that?)

So now I know, I really don’t understand anything and I just need to take a seat at the foot of the master and watch how it’s done and learn. I’m sure I would have wasted my incontrovertible, incontestable evidence in any one of (or maybe all of) the early hearings. There’s no question I might have squandered it as the many, many investigations into my rampant criminal activity got under way. I stupidly would NOT have hobbled my own presidential campaign by spending all of my campaign money on criminal defense lawyers, like that insightful genius knew to do.

Somehow, in some mystical way, he knew that the perfect time to release his perfect, incontrovertible, incontestable evidence was right between Indictment number 4 and pending Indictment number5 while the rest of us were playing checkers – and that’s why I believe him this time. Well, that and the fact that he says he has a report now. I mean, if he’s gone to all the extra trouble to compile all of his perfect, incontrovertible, incontestable evidence into a report? Well, let’s just say Jack Smith, Fani Willis, Alvin Bragg, and Letitia James are about to be eating a heaping helping of crow – with icky sauce…

I mean, it’s either that or…just another lie in a long, unbroken string of lies and really, why would he do that?

There’s a dude out there, Isaiah Wartman, who got together with this other guy, Luke Mahoney, and set up a charity scam around the train crash in East Palestine, Ohio. They said they were going to buy water for the residents of the town but then just lined their own pockets. They got caught. They got convicted. They’ve been sentenced. They have to pay some money back.

Oh, and one of them, Wartman, once worked as a campaign manager for Marjorie Taylor Greene. No rational person likes or respects Marjorie Taylor Greene.

Two pieces of information, side by side. One, EVERY story I’ve seen on the subject makes absolutely certain to mention the “connection” to MTG in the headline. (You wouldn’t click on it, otherwise.) Two, as of this writing, not ONE story I’ve seen has included information that MTG had anything to with the crime, whatsoever. She just knows the guy.

I’d say this is getting awfully close to a ‘Hunter-did-some-bad-things-so-Joe-must-be-guilty’ kind of story. That is, a smear campaign. Guilt by association. It’s something I expect from conservative media. It is NOT what I expect, want, or need in journalism. It’s not just click-bait. It’s a lie – at least until some evidence is presented to show she was involved.

SO…show she was involved or drop her name from the headlines and move this tiny little story to page D-36, where it belongs. I’m really getting sick and tired of all of these trials of public opinion. With apologies to Patrick Henry, give me evidence or give me silence…

I’m just trying to help. Elon seems to be going through some challenges in the various things he wants to do to hurt his $44 Billion dollar investment. Recently, he decided to try a name change. You know, so nobody has ever even heard of his site before. Zero name recognition really ought to help, you know? So he went with ‘X.’

Transitionally, I think he should do a “mash-up” name. I propose ‘TwiX…” Mars, Inc. may not like it but I don’t think people will confuse the candy with the Web site…

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When ‘Indictment 2 – The Diverted Documents’ case dropped, Jack Smith asked for a trial date of December 11, 2023. That’s pretty much the very fastest he could reasonably expect a trial date. The “judge” in that case, “Oh-how-I-WISH-I-could-be-your-beloved, Aileen “loose” Cannon” set it back a bit, to May 24, pretty much the slowest she could reasonably justify.

Smith did the same thing with ‘Indictment 3 – The DC Caper.’ He asked for a trial date of January 2, 2024. Again, pretty much the very fastest he could reasonably expect a trial date. Frankly, I think he missed the boat on that one, by about 4 days. I think it would have been poetic justice for the trial regarding January 6th, 2021 to begin on January 6th, 2024…

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Okay, so, lots of excitement on the left over what these two Federalist bigwigs – two of the biggest wigs in the Federalist society, wrote. Well, at least they were bigwigs yesterday. As of their writing, I’m sure they’re persona non grata in conservative circles. RINOS. Sell-outs. (It’s the fate that rational people face if they question anything MAGA…)

What University of Chicago professor William Baude and University of St. Thomas professor Michael Stokes Paulson wrote is that paragraph 3 of the 14 Amendment is automatic – it doesn’t need anything extra to be invoked and (they wrote) because Donald J. Trump engaged in insurrection and rebellion, he’s already disqualified to hold public office. The left is all dancing and singing. Oh, what fun! Yes! Disqualify the guy.

Sorry to be a wet blanket but these are Federalist Society bigwigs. Here’s an opportunity for critics to point out, as they often do, that I’m no lawyer. True. I still have no respect for the qualifications of Federalist Society judges. If you hear a ridiculous ruling coming from some “judge,” you can bet that judge is a Federalist Society judge. They’re not taught law. They’re taught conservative law, which is always somehow different. They get close to the actual law. Then? They just miss it. Here’s what I mean.

Yeah, sure, paragraph 3 of the 14 Amendment IS automatic – but (and this is critical) only AFTER a conviction, right? Despite MAGA’s best efforts, this is STILL the United States and we STILL use the ‘innocent until proven guilty’ standard. I DO NOT WANT people just pointing their fingers, declaring someone an insurrectionist, and disqualifying them from holding office. You gotta prove it. IN. COURT.

MAGAs and other Anti-American types have made an art form of twisting words and ideas to mean things they don’t otherwise mean. Do you think they would hesitate to point at Joe (or any other potential opponent) and declare him or her a rebel? If some state official could just disqualify a potential candidate based on “feels,” no blue candidate would ever make the ballot in a red state again. Remember, these guys don’t need no stinkin’ evidence. They’d just level the charge and strike the name. By the time the courts settled it, the election could well be over.

I’ll tell you this: Defendant Donald Trump deserves his day in court, just like anybody else. I believe the evidence will show he DID engage in insurrection and rebellion but we need to wait for the trial before imposing punishments, if warranted, of any kind…