Alright, but he’s not even smart about it. Donny got caught trying to move $40 million dollars, illegally, from his company without reporting it to the court monitor as he is required to do. He apparently moved the cash in three payments over 10 months. He reportedly used it for taxes and to pay part of his liability to E. Jean Carroll, a woman he sexually assaulted.

It doesn’t much surprise me that Trump is trying to skirt rules regarding his behavior. It DOES surprise me that he seems to have used it to actually pay some of his bills. He’s FAMOUS for stiffing creditors. I guess he still needs the people he’s still paying. They’d better collect the balance due before he’s finished with them, though…

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Well, they actually did remove George Santos (if, indeed, that is his name) from Congress. Obviously, they should have. But these are cons. They NEVER do the right thing, so why would anyone expect it from them now? Besides, they’ve set themselves up in a hugely hypocritical position now. Santos had to go because he’s a liar and a likely criminal and, according to the GOP, liars and criminals have no place in government. But now they’re going to continue to defend Donny? He lies at least as much as Santos. Worse, he’s a proven criminal.

But, the GOP is very…um…flexible when it comes to ethics and standards. All they have to do is insist they don’t see the crimes or lies and they’re home-free. But at this point? The ONLY people who don’t see the lying or crimes is – no one. EVERYBODY knows. It’s just that MAGA won’t admit it. Being mistaken, knowing you’re mistaken, but refusing to acknowledge your mistake is the mark of a small mind. Smart people aren’t afraid to acknowledge mistakes…

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It was only a matter of minutes after the “pause” expired that Israel started pounding Gaza with bombs, again. The planes must have been in the air, already, waiting for the “go” order. The US and some of her allies are still trying to pretend Israel is just trying to protect itself, but Netanyahu saw an opportunity and he’s seizing it. Predictions are stupid. Who can see the future?

But I suspect Netanyahu will stand down his attack once Gaza is emptied of Palestinians. Israel can then declare all of that land “disputed territory,” the walls, barbed wire, and gates can come down, and the Israelis can start building settlements and moving people in. In just a few years, Gaza will be Israel and the Palestinians will be pushed into the West Bank or into the sea and Israel can begin, again, (as if they might have stopped in the meantime) to agitate the Palestinians until they do, yet another, emotion-driven, stupid thing.

Hamas used the teeny, tiny, very limited resources they had available to buy rockets and attack Israel in an incredibly brutal, astoundingly stupid raid that served, mainly, to hurt the image of Palestine in the eyes of the world and to give Netanyahu the opening he needed to wipe Gaza off the map. They should have checked with me. I would have suggested that, instead, they use their limited resources to hire a good PR firm and begin a campaign of image rehabilitation – and then to let the world know the actual conditions in Gaza and why the Palestinians are so pissed off in the first place…

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I still don’t know what Gavin Newsom is about. He had a debate with Ron DeSantis. Well, a kind of a shouting match, anyway. I REALLY don’t like the shouting. But what was the point of the debate? If it was just to hurt DeSantis in the polls, it seems to have done that but old Ron has been doing an excellent job of flaming out all by himself. Gavin has stated over and over that he’s not running for President in 2024. He said so during the debate. So what’s he doing? He keeps doing ‘running-for-something’ things. Maybe, he’s trying to position himself for a VP opportunity. I suspect he’s setting up a run for 2028. I think he may have started a little bit early because he certainly looks as though he’s running. Maybe he’s positioning himself so that if Joe dies, he can step up with a “campaign” under way.

He won’t run against Biden because it would put him in poor standing with the party. We all know, once the party makes their backroom choice, the world is stuck with it, like it or not. The party will do whatever it needs to do in order to get the nomination for their preferred choice and they’re not likely to turn away from a successful incumbent. I’m very ambivalent about old Sleepy Joe. He has done a very good job as President but he’s frighteningly old. And it’s not just a number. I know several people with higher numbers who don’t seem as old. Joe seems old. He looks old. He moves old. He sounds old. When he runs out on stage trying to impress people with his vigor, he looks like an old man trying to impress people with his vigor. When he tries to trot up steps, he falls down. If you put him on a bicycle… No, don’t put him on a bicycle, again. Those old bones break pretty easily.

Still, he’s done a good job, mostly. No, I don’t agree with everything he does but the need for perfect agreement likely means there’s nobody I could vote for so that’s not a fair standard. Truthfully, and I don’t mean to be mean, here, but, it doesn’t really matter how good Joe is at the job if he’s too dead to do it.

I suspect Gavin is doing a little of both. He’s setting up a run for 2028 but doing so early has him already going should Joe, um, let’s just say, not be able to continue, for some reason…