One of the biggest shames of the current regime is their attacks on research. Aside from the damage they do today, they’re unilaterally walking away form research advantages that might have kept the US at the forefront of science and technology in the future.

47 is very old. He’s loyal to very old technologies. He prefers coal to solar, for example. I think he genuinely doesn’t understand that the world WILL let him corner the market in Conestoga wagons – because nobody uses Conestoga wagons anymore. (The world shrugs) “Have at it.”

So he’s sitting there in his Conestoga wagon dealership while the rest of the world is zipping around in flying cars and his tiny little mind simply can NOT conceive of a reason nobody is coming in.

Like it or not, the world is moving on, technologically. Up until recently, the United States not only moved with the rest of the world, we were world leaders in many of these technologies. Now the Felon is squeezing his eyes shut, plugging his ears, and SCREAMING that Conestoga wagons are, too, coming back! Any day now. Yep, feels like “finger on the pulse” to me…

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Mike Waltz IS going to lose his job. Not because he’s an incompetent who invited a journalist into his secret chat about bombing Yemen. 47 doesn’t care about that. But Waltz ALSO left his Venmo account open and it’s FULL of journalists Waltz engages with on an ongoing basis. Venmo is a cash payment app. Waltz is getting money from journalists? Hmm, I wonder why?

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Hey, MAGA, I imagine you’re all happy that Elon is out there buying “elections” for the cons. Sure, it’s illegal, but so what? He’s your guy, right? I remember when you were convinced that George Soros was doing exactly that and YOU WERE ANGRY about it, so I know YOU know it’s wrong. It was wasted anger. Soros never did MOST of the things you accused him of. He was just a convenient whipping boy.

But Elon IS doing those things. He did it in the November “election” and he’s trying to do it again in Wisconsin. Full disclosure, Soros IS in Wisconsin, trying to balance the scales a bit. I STILL say allowing billionaires to buy elections rather than letting the people choose is a terrible idea. The world is waiting for MAGA fury at THIS election interference. (Crickets…)

Here’s the thing, though. It’s a dangerous precedent. It’s a bad idea. It’s a bad idea to allow a billionaire – ANY billionaire – to buy votes. Think about it. You’re ONLY happy about it because the billionaire in question is – in your estimation – buying votes for your side. But what happens when another billionaire starts buying votes for the opposition? YOU will have established the idea that it’s okay. Buying votes is illegal, or it was until the corrupt Roberts Kangaroos decided to allow it. It SHOULD BE illegal still.

See, it’s NEVER a good idea to support corruption – even when that corruption seems to be working for you. It’s like magic. Corruption that worked FOR you today will almost certainly work AGAINST you tomorrow. And YOU will have endorsed it. What do you say then?

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Speaking of dangerous precedents, Rodrigo Duterte. Remember him? He was the mayor of a city called Davao, then the President of the Philippines. He rose to power promising to replicate the tactics he used as mayor to attack drugs and drug dealers.

From CNN: ‘“All of you who are into drugs, you sons of bitches, I will really kill you,” he told a huge crowd in one of his many characteristically profane-laced 2016 campaign speeches. “I have no patience, I have no middle ground. Either you kill me or I will kill you idiots.”’

Then he unleashed death squads. They engaged in what people euphemistically call “extra-judicial” killings. ‘Extra-judicial’ is polite-speak for murder. I say it was murder because the victims never got trials. No evidence was presented. There was never an opportunity to even refute the charge, let alone defend oneself. It was summary execution based on the word of one man, with no evidence to back it up.

The death squads just started killing people across the country. There are reports that Duterte killed some himself. Each time, he claimed the victims were drug dealers. Many of them may have been. But many of the people killed were not. Under the banner of “drug dealers,” he ALSO started killing his political opponents. For the record, he was very popular. He’s currently on trial for crimes against humanity.

Now we have a similar situation with 47. To be clear, I understand gunning people down in the streets is different that grabbing them off the streets and shipping them off to foreign prisons. But the overall situation is NOT as different as it should be. People are being rounded up and shipped out with no trials. No evidence is presented. There is never an opportunity to even refute the charge, let alone defend oneself.

But that doesn’t mean you won’t end up in one of the most brutal, high-security prisons in the world. And ALL of it is based on the word of the trumpster. Now might be the time to remind people that during his first failed effort at “Presidentin,'” The Washington Post recorded 30,573 individual, provable lies. (Except to MAGA, of course. MAGA MUST see the person they pretend him to be and never, ever the person he actually is.)

Just for fun, in four years, there are roughly 1,457 days. 30,573 lies over 1,457 days works out to an average of 21 lies a day. 21 lies. Every single day. When I know that the source I’m supposed to depend on has lied to me 21 times a day, every day, for four years? I’d like to see some evidence. I’m not comfortable destroying people’s lives based on the word of a known, proven liar.

And, hey, while we’re here, can we talk about the idea of “deporting” people to prisons?!? Look, if a person IS in the country illegally, it’s a minor misdemeanor. Minor misdemeanors are not usually handled with prison, and certainly not infamous high-security, foreign prisons with worldwide reputations for cruelty and prisoner abuse.

The Felon insisted that the people he deported to this prison were part of a gang, and, hey, maybe some of them were. But we KNOW some were not. We KNOW some got swept up because they had tattoos on brown skin, regardless of what the tattoo was. And as a matter of principle, as a fact of basic morality, none of the accused received a trial to prove any charges against them, whatsoever.

I suppose supporting corruption without ever understanding that said corruption might come back to bite you in the ass is an excellent example of some of that moral stupidity Bonhoeffer was on about…