It’s not that I think the machines are rigged so I hope none of the makers decide to sue ME for $1.2 Billion dollars. BUT…one thing we’ve learned from Donny and his henchmen – and henchwomen (you don’t really hear much about henchwomen, these days, but henchmen need love, too) – is that the people overseeing the machines might well take actions that benefit their preferred candidate instead of just doing their jobs.

I KNOW this because Cathy Latham, a former GOP chairperson of Coffee County, GA, did exactly that. She let people in and let them root around in her machines for awhile. They even brought in sandwiches and she took a proud selfie with one of the intruders, now charged with burglary! She’s just one. But think of the number of election workers out there who might just love, love, love Donny and might do anything to help him win – even cheat (and then go to jail, of course.)

DO NOT vote on machines. They CAN be distorted to a person’s preference, assuming a little help from despicable people who move into positions of trust, and such a deal could change the outcome of the election. Might a worker allow Russians to hack the machines and change the results? Of course. Might they allow someone in to bring their own dongle and change results? Why not? It’s not the machines that are a problem. It’s some of the people overseeing the machines I don’t trust.

We KNOW evil Vlad wants Donny back. It will help him take Ukraine. It will help him destroy NATO. Donny wants the help and Vlad wants to give it to him. His sycophants will do the rest. Vote by mail-in ballot. It’s more secure. It’s harder to distort. It’s safer for America…

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Well, how disappointing. Donny isn’t going to testify today. First, he was going to bring in over 100 witnesses in an attempt to slow things down but the judge said he doesn’t want or need people repeating testimony that has already been entered into the record. After all, how many people can swear to their unsupportable belief that Donny isn’t a dumbass, despite all available evidence to the contrary? So, they pared it down. Eric would testify on Wednesday but Donny, himself, would take the stand and prove his innocence by Monday.

Obviously, Donny’s expected brilliance rendered Eric’s fawning testimony moot so he was canceled, leaving Donny to come in and clean up the mess. I suspect he was planning to prove his innocence by laying on the floor, kicking and screaming, while threatening to hold his breath until he turned blue and calling it the “nuculer option.” (Even THAT would have come out “nuclaler.”

Alina Habba, Donny’s “lawyer,” who might want to start preparing for her own defense, was trotted out to offer an excuse. She says she discouraged his testimony while there was a gag order in place because a gag order would have squelched his testimony. Couple-a things. One, Donny doesn’t listen to attorneys. His attorneys listen to him and do as their told. (That’s why they keep going to jail.) More importantly, the gag order only keeps him from attacking people associated with the trial, not offering testimony relevant to his defense. The sudden turnaround lends credence to my theory that he planned to use the ‘laying on the floor, kicking and screaming, while threatening to hold his breath until he turned blue’ defense.

As a sidebar: Donny has taken to saying that shutting down his criminal enterprise will discourage any other businesses from coming to New York. My guess? One, he’s wrong again. Two, if you want to bring a criminal enterprise to New York City, I’m thinking New York won’t mind, much, if you don’t. Otherwise, I’d guess New York is going to be just fine, thank you, very much…

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Sports Stuff
Well, the Kansas City Chiefs are having a bad moment. They ran a play at the end of their game that gave them the game winning score. It was brilliant and a beautiful thing to see and I’m glad I got to see it. Sadly, it didn’t count because a player on their team lined up illegally at the start of the play. It’s very clear he was offside but the team was in the middle of enjoying the high that came with pulling out a last minute win when the flag was thrown – then it all went away and the Chiefs lost, instead. Talk about emotional whiplash!

Their Head Coach, Andy Reid, and their Quarterback, Patrick Mahomes, were furious. It’s rare to see either of them behave that way. They had tantrums on the sidelines. They complained at the after-game presser. KC fans are all worked up. It’s outrage. But they’re going to watch the film of it. They’ll see their guy in the wrong place. HE was the problem, not the officials. (I have no love of officials. They mess up as often as not but this time they got it right.) They’ll settle down. I respect both men so I’m going to let them have a bad moment…

More importantly, though, everything fell into place for the “local” and beloved Santa Clara Forty-Niners. The teams that needed to lose, lost, and the teams that needed to win (including the Niners) won, moving the Niners into first place in the Conference. For now, anyway. It means home field advantage throughout the playoffs but their position is a bit precarious. They have to win all the rest of their games to keep it. Otherwise, they need a little help.

I thought they were going to lock up their Division with that win and the Rams loss, but they haven’t quite done it, yet. There’s a not-very-likely but mathematically possible scenario where they end up losing the Division to the Rams, so it’s going to take one more week. (I guess I’m being a bit impatient.)

I’ll tell you this: I’ll be watching…