My heart goes out to the people of Maui. Living in northern California, I can relate. It’s devastating. Now comes the shock and the tears. But after? After comes the rebuilding and the refreshing. Yes, it takes awhile. Yes, much is lost forever. But you will be back. You will have sunsets, and the beach, and the ocean. The plants come back. The animals come back. Life goes back to “normal.” There is a future. Hang in there, Maui. You’ve taken a hell of a punch, but you will get back up…

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Ever since ‘Indictment 3 – the DC Caper,’ the MAGA attorneys have been out in force offering up a variety of excus…”explanations” as to why the case is weak or downright wrong. So far, I’ve tracked:
“Huh-uh!” (This one is a bit…non-specific…)
“Free Speech” (Speech necessary to commit crimes isn’t protected by the Constitution…)
“These ‘asks’ were aspirational.” (That one has a ring of truth. Trump aspired to stay President even after he lost the election…)
“Politically motivated.” (Investigating and charging crimes is not political. That’s just criminal prosecution.)
There will be others, I’m sure…

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Ohio voted on a sudden motion to eliminate majority rule in their state. That’s not hyperbole. Republicans there wanted to raise the threshold to change their state constitution from a simple majority to 60%. Why? There is a movement afoot in Ohio to enshrine reproductive choice into the state’s constitution. Ever since Dobbs, people have been rising up to regain control over their bodies. (Weird…) Republicans DO NOT WANT YOU to have the right to choose. They’ll do it for you.

Their problem? If they leave the process to a simple majority, they’ll likely lose, and they know it – so they wanted to change the rules to make it harder to stop their over-reach. More of the “Republican Freedumb” they’re always on about. “You have the freedumb to do as you’re told!” Never vote Republican…

Happy update: Ohioans rejected the measure and leave the threshold to amend the state constitution at a simple majority. You know, like democracy should be…

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Loose Cannon made a “ruling.” She’s challenging Jack Smith to explain why he needs an out-of-state Grand Jury to keep investigating Trump’s many, many…okay, many crimes. She also struck down two sealed motions filed by Jack Smith. The thing is, in her order, she included a “hint.” She suggested that nothing in her order prevented Trump’s team from filing a motion to dismiss. Now, why would a judge try to lead defense counsel to where they “might want to go.”

Smith needs to move for her recusal because Cannon is moving toward an outright, summary dismissal. What’s THAT called? Jurist nullification?

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Ah, the cons. Can’t please them by giving them their way. They’re trying to create some form of artificial “balance” between the vast mountain of charges facing defendant Trump and the comparative petite pile of problems facing Hunter Biden. Sexual predator Trump has a Special Counsel so they’ve been crying about needing a Special Counsel for Biden, too. So? Merrick Garland gave them one. Garland named Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss to the post.

It makes sense. Weiss has been the guy investigating Biden for awhile now so he’s already up to speed on the case. Also, it’s not like they chose Jill Biden to run the thing. Weiss was appointed by…Trump. (Sidebar: isn’t it sad how we have to check to see who appointed whom to try to make an estimate as to their qualifications and/or political bias? I preferred Better America, where appointees were selected by qualification first…) In typical GOP fashion, they politely celebrated their victory in getting what they wanted, then moved on to the next order of business.

Ha-ha, of course they didn’t. See, they don’t really care. Their actual goal, in ALL things, is to be contrarian – the third “con” in my “con” shorthand (CONservative, CON man, CONtrarian…) So? That’s what they did. Suddenly, the appointed Special Counsel is a “cover-up” and THIS Trump-appointed Special Counsel simply cannot be trusted. They turned getting their way into an attempted attack on Joe Biden. It’s stupid but it’s all they’ve got left in that quiver.

If you’re a subscriber, you’ve already seen some of this once. That’s because I screwed up and pressed the wrong button. So the first bit might seem…familiar. On the up side, you got a sneak peak at the writing before editing. (Oh, lucky you…)

Some of the trumpery we’re subjected to. He runs around telling his victims that the DOJ isn’t coming for him. They’re coming for them. These are not deep thinkers. I’m sure that line scares the crap out of them. It isn’t true, of course, but the MAGA cons are scared of all kinds of things that aren’t true. I’d like to try to help.

Dear MAGA cons, no, the DOJ is not coming after you (unless you’ve done something to warrant it yourself). They’re after Trump. Have you seen your name at the top of any of those indictments? No. You haven’t. Trump’s name is there. You didn’t have to appear in court Thursday. That was Trump. When the trial starts, nobody is going to say anything about you. Trump stands accused, not you. Should Jack Smith’s evidence prevail, it will be Trump found guilty, not you. Trump will get the sentence. Not you. Trump will serve the sentence. Not you. YOU only pay the fines. (I don’t know why you do that but you seem okay with it so…)

Like I say, it’s a great threat line, intended to scare you and it clearly works. But it’s just a line. The DOJ is coming after Trump, not you. They’re after him because of his crimes. If you didn’t participate in the crimes, you don’t have to participate in the punishment, see? That’s how it works. The DOJ is clearly after Trump and they should be. They’re not after you. It doesn’t matter how many times he says it. It remains a lie…

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My impression of 45 after Indictment #3? He stepped up to whine, of course, but he didn’t seem the same, to me. He still said all the crazy, accusatory things he likes to say. It’s just…his heart didn’t seem to be in it, you know? He looked kind of lacking in bravado. He also lacked an entourage. That’s very unusual for the guy. He almost always keeps a couple of sycophants around to keep his ego fluffed up, you know? Maybe they were in the car…

I suspect he might be very concerned about this latest judge. Her name is Tanya S. Chutkan. She’s been overseeing a LOT of these trials regarding January 6th rioters. She doesn’t like what they did and she’s been throwing the book at them. Apparently, she’s of the opinion that people associated with January 6th should go to prison, if only for a short time. It’s an opinion I share. But if she throws the book at the sheeple who answered Trump’s call, what is she going to do to Trump, himself, for putting out the call in the first place?

So far, 45 has done quite admirably when it comes to favorable circumstances in confronting the law. The cons love, love, love to point to how he “beat” the two impeachments. He didn’t. He didn’t get convicted in those cases because of jury nullification, where the jury (in those cases, Senate Republicans) doesn’t CARE if the defendant is guilty, they just acquit. Drawing Aileen “Loose” Cannon in Floriduh was quite a boon to him, too. No wonder the braggadocio kept flowing. She might as well wear her MAGA hat and ‘Trump 2024’ paraphernalia into her courtroom.

But Chutkan is different and I suspect 45 knows it. It appeared to me that he may be finally realizing that he might- literally for the very first time in his long, privileged life – have to take some responsibility for his actions…

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People keep hyping the idea that as Trump’s indictment numbers go up, so do his poll numbers. I’m skeptical. The key is the phrase “…among Republicans.” The Republican Party is a shell of it’s former self. The MAGA cons have pretty much run rational people out of the party. (No, they’re not Dems now, they’re independents, but they’re not getting the polling calls aimed at Republicans.) As the party gets smaller, the percentage of crazy gets larger…

“But I don’t WANT to write about him again! He’s already everywhere.”
“He does seem to suck the oxygen out of the room.”
“He keeps taking all the ink at every press. I write about him all the time.”
“Well, he DID try to overthrow our country. It’s kind of a big deal.”
“Yeah, I know. I don’t mean ignore it. I’m just saying, there are other things going on.”
“Okay, so, if you could, what would you write about?”
Well, I’d mention that asshole Republican governor in Texas, Greg Abbott. Do you know he agreed to eliminate water breaks for people who work outdoors? Apparently, employees stopping to get water interferes with profits. Republicans are now out, officially, as preferring profits to human life. It gets pretty hot in Texas. Right now, the state is in the grips of Republican-sponsored, corporate-induced climate change so it’s even worse than normal. Abbott and his ilk spend their days in air-conditioned offices. Of course it was easy for them to decide it ain’t that hot outside. (Dear Texas maintenance workers, Abbott might change his mind if his A/C mysteriously stopped working for awhile. Ahem…)

Here’s a fact Floriduh students will never be told. On the sugar plantations, slaves were brought in to work the fields. It was common practice to simply work a man to death and then? Simply replace him. It’s hard to get one’s arms around that. Work a man to death and then…buy another slave – and work him to death. When I hear about a plan like Abbotts, I’m certain there are STILL men on this planet who don’t see the problem with the “sugar plantation strategy” and would readily repeat it if they could…

Or maybe I could mention how the Republicans constant and ill-advised posturing and bloviating about the debt ceiling has now brought about a downgrade in the credit rating of the United States of America. They’ll say it’s because the debt is so high but that’s not what did it. EVERY time Republicans decide to hold the debt ceiling hostage to their ideology (that is, when Democrats are in charge but never Republicans) they’re threatening the entire world with simply not paying our bills. These are the SAME guys who insist that student loan debt must be repaid in full because the borrowers knew what they were doing when they took the loan. (That didn’t stop them from accepting forgiveness for the PPP loans they took for themselves, of course…)

How about this? I should really highlight how the Republicans have taken to trying to eliminate child labor laws. That’s not hyperbole. They’re working on it in red states across the land. Put the kids back to work. They’ve had it too easy for far too long, I guess. Oh, and in Wisconsin, there are Republicans there who want to allow children as young as 14 years old to be able to serve alcohol. These guys are TERRIFIED some guy in a dress is going to read to a 5 year old about a hungry caterpillar but they’re okay with 14 year olds serving in bars? Why, because that’s a much more pure environment?

But, okay, I get it. He is the news these days. Hell, he tried to destroy the nation. That IS a big deal. We should have known, the moment – the very instant – cons started screaming about Dems stealing the election, Republicans were out to steal the election. Every accusation is a confession. It was mind boggling when it started. I had gotten quite comfortable with the peaceful transition of power. Then? One big, fat man-baby decided to throw a tantrum. “Mine! Mine! Mine! I can’t lose! I never lose! Even when I lose, I win. That’s the rule! They cheated! They rigged it. Waaaah! It wasn’t FAIR! Oh, poor, persecuted, picked-on me!”

People fought. People died. People went to jail and they’re still going. Our Constitutional Republic lies in the balance but the only thing important to him is him. How could anyone get away with that? Turns out? They can’t. It just takes awhile for the wheels of justice to roll around. I guess it even makes sense that it took so long considering he was once the President of the United States (sic). One had BETTER have one’s ducks lined up neatly if they’re going to charge an ex-President with conspiracy to defraud the United States. Fortunately, Jack Smith is an excellent duck-herd and his line is perfect.

Currently the greatest national embarrassment in the history of our once-great nation is facing, all in, something like 74 different charges – in 3 indictments, Floriduh, New York state, and Washington DC. Georgia has yet to drop but I think that’s coming this week.

It’s like watching a really good, engaging television show. You just want to binge watch straight through but we’ve got to wait for the next episode. I hope George R.R. Martin didn’t write it, or the target of the indictments will suddenly, magically become king. Short of that, though, I think his only hope is a pardon. Jack Smith has built a masterful case and it seems Fani Willis is doing the same.

Always-wrong cons are still in tantrum mode, of course. I get it. From everything I’ve seen and heard, they don’t seem to know what evidence is or how it works. (It’s much easier to get the answer one prefers if one simply makes up the process as they go along.) But he’s in trouble. He knows it. That’s why he has taken to issuing threats about all the violence and damage that he’ll call out if he’s brought to justice. (“If I can’t have it, nobody can!”) Sounds like a ‘Law and Order President’ to me.

I find myself wondering how many of his acolytes will actually fall out for violence for him after everything that has come before. It’s one thing to admit publicly, that maybe one put their faith into a false idol, it’s another to come out fighting because the idol has been shown to be false. Most of the worst of the crazies are still sitting in jail from January 6th so we don’t have to worry too much about them, but what about the rest? Truth be told, I’ve had trouble gauging the depth of stupidity that can be displayed so I can’t really say how bad it might get. I don’t care, though. We can’t apply laws according to who might throw how much of a tantrum.

I’ll tell you this: I’ll pay a slight increase in my taxes to help pay for a new prison to house them all if that’s where they want to take this but I hope they don’t. We KNOW that nearly everyone in trump’s world is going to jail and he’s happy to let them. I think the MAGA cons should repay the consideration and just…let him to go jail, too.

At least he’d be with them…