Oh. Em. Gee. Would you PLEASE stop? I keep seeing all these posts on the left suggesting that Trump can’t be President because of wording in the Constitution. Two things; One, true, the Constitution DOES say – in the 14th Amendment – that “No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.”

We all remember January 6th and Trump’s insurrection. MAGA pretends it was something else, but Americans remember. One can tell from the language of the amendment that the paragraph is self-actuating. It’s automatic. Take an oath, then engage in insurrection and you’re no longer qualified to hold public office at any level – unless Congress specifically goes to the trouble of removing such disability.

But, two, The Roberts Supremely Corrupt, Kangaroo Court of the United States has already ruled exactly the opposite of what the amendment actually reads and determined (after the checks cleared, of course) that Congress has to pass a specific law to KEEP someone from taking office if they’ve engaged in insurrection. Of COURSE it’s a bastardization of how the law actually reads. Hell, it’s literally the exact opposite of the text. But the corrupt court has ruled and that corrupt ruling will stand until a better court overturns it.

So now, desperate people on the left are pretending that if they can JUST get Congress to pass that law needed to disqualify Trump from ascending to his throne, they can stop him. Once and for all: no, they can’t. Sure, the Supremely Kangaroo Court is corrupt. Sure, their ruling IS wrong. Absolutely, you could stop him with a law – if you could get Congress to pass it. The Senate would be on board, I’m sure.

But not the House, okay? The House is as corrupt as the Supremely Kangaroo Court and they’re loyal to Trump. Several of them gave speeches after the attempted coup denouncing Trump’s efforts. They pointed their crooked little fingers right at the guy and declared his behavior unacceptable. But that was only a few hours before reappearing and apologizing for telling the truth and re-asserting their absolute, undying devotion to the insurrectionist.

No rational person wants Trump to take the power he’s about to assume. But wishful thinking on our part isn’t going to change anything. “IF we can get Congress to…” Yeah, well, you can’t, so move on…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Have you ever wondered how Romans knew what was going on in the world? I don’t mean modern Romans. They just open their newspapers and read. I mean ancient Romans. They knew what was going on in the world. They knew what was happening in Rome. They could follow actions of their Senate. Ancient Romans were QUITE cosmopolitan, as a people. So if you can’t just go into your living room and turn on Walterus Cronkiteurous, how DID ancient Romans get their news?

It turns out, ancient Rome had newsreaders. Romans would collect in designated places at designated times and a person would just read the news for all to hear. It kept Romans informed. Well, for a while, it kept Romans informed.

When Julius Caesar seized control of Rome, the newsreaders kept on reading news. It just wasn’t the news the people needed to make quality decisions. The newsreaders switched from informing the population, to misinforming the population. Nobody realized. Why would they? The newsreaders were still reading, right?

Well, turn on your TV. The newsreaders are still reading. But they’re reading what the One Percent-serving, corporate media want them to read and nothing that doesn’t serve the One Percent. Why, it’s almost as if allowing the rich people to buy up all of the media outlets wasn’t such a good idea, after all.

Back in Better America, we used to stop crap like that. We had rules that limited the number of outlets any one entity could control. AND, the rules covered multiple platforms. If you owned a television station in one market, you might not be able to own a radio station, too. The idea was that leaving control of media outlets in different hands created different points of view. It worked, too. That’s WHY the One Percent had to get rid of it by consolidating (or closing down) the outlets.

We should go back to that rule. We should break up the media conglomerates and eliminate monopoly control over the national message…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Would someone please go and find the form Matt Gaetz filled out when he bought HIS guns? DID he check the “Nope, not using drugs” box, even though we know he was using cocaine, “molly,” and probably other things? We KNOW how MAGA feels about that. We saw them with Hunter, demanding his head on a pike for checking that box. I’m sure MAGA will apply the exact same standard to Matt Gaetz, right? And according to MAGA, that should mean years, maybe decades in prison. (Yeah, they’re okay with the statutory rape thing but, by the GODS you will not check that box if you use drugs…)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It’s looking more and more like President non-elect Musk has a different agenda than his puppet, Trump. Trump ran around telling people he was going to round up and deport any and every (non-white) person he could find if they were here illegally – OR if they’re perfectly legal but they’re family of an undocumented person. Wouldn’t want to break up families, eh? Trump wants them ALL gone and he has sworn to get rid of them.

President non-elect Musk, on the other hand, thinks bringing in foreigners to do jobs Americans could do is perfectly a-okay and he plans to keep doing it. “Yeah, we’ll get rid of your immigrants who keep your food costs down, but we’re NOT getting rid of MY immigrants who keep my payroll down.”

MAGA hasn’t responded well. There was a LOT of push-back. Some of the MAGA faithful were foolish enough to push back on X. You remember X, right? That’s the failing social media site some billionaire overpaid for so he could turn it into a total and complete free speech zone – only to bird-dog, “moderate,” and censor the site so heavily people have been fleeing to better places. But those who stayed?

Well, if they criticized the unelected would-be king’s position, they found their accounts shut down or demoted. But THAT, in turn, has caused them to turn on the unelected would-be king. It’s turning into an all-out civil war between MAGA and Musk.

Far right-wing, um, personality Laura Loomer is angry. She thinks, maybe, Musk and Ramaswamy only infiltrated MAGA for their own purposes. (It’s a dim light, but it’s a light…) She wrote, “I have been more loyal to President Trump and his agenda than ANYONE. And I have only been punished for it. Pay attention MAGA. This is how you will all be treated now that Big Tech has infiltrated MAGA. “President Musk” is starting to look real.”

Then, X sent out a message to all of her subscribers, telling them that SHE had shut down her account and cancelled all of the subscriptions. She insists she didn’t do it. (But, in fairness, MAGA is full of stunts.) She’s not the only one being punished by ‘Mr. Free Speech, so long as it’s not aimed my way.’ Dozens of other accounts criticizing Musk and Ramaswamy’s position also claimed that their checkmarks and badges had been taken away.

Maybe Trump needs to reiterate – again – that HE’S the king. Of course, Tywin Lannister is still there: ‘Any man who must say ‘I am the king’ is no true king.’