Bribes and Capitulations…

So…Qatar (rhymes with ‘guitar’) wants to “give” 47 a luxury plane, a Boeing 747 that has been fitted out to the most opulent (read: gaudy) standard. The MAGA lie is that the plane is being gifted to the Department of Defense, not the Don of Destruction. They want to gloss over the fact that, should Donny leave office, the plane will leave with him and become the property of his presidential library foundation.

On paper, the plane will always “belong” to someone else. In reality, only The Felon will enjoy the use of the thing. Have you ever read the US Constitution? You really should. It has some good stuff in it, things like this: “no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.”

That’s called the ‘Emoluments Clause.’ It was put into the original Constitution (you “originalists”) in an effort to keep foreign governments from bribing American officials. Obviously, THIS “official” likeswantsneeds to be bribed to get him to do anything except play golf. I think a $400 million dollar airplane qualifies as a “present,” but I’ve still got it down as a “bribe.”

Fortunately, lying Leavitt has pronounced that all of the cronies and bootlickers that toady up to the Drumpfster and are incapable of defying him have declared that if Dear Leader wants it, it’s legal, so just don’t you worry. So HE gets a $400 million dollar plane and YOU get… to lose your health care and Social Security.

Yes, I know MAGA is a cult, enthralled to this nightmare but even THEY must have noticed how much nicer life is getting for their ‘Precious’ and how much more difficult it’s getting for them. Even MAGA can’t keep blaming Joe Biden forever.
“Oh, yes, we can! Nothing is ever our beloved’s fault – most especially the things he does!”

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I’ve been watching the way 47’s boneheaded tariffs have been playing out. Like most people, I’ve noticed the vast empty spaces where ships were supposed to be offloading. I’ve listened to reports of idled dockworkers and truck drivers. But I’ve been playing closer attention to the China/US “talks.” The lying officials from the US have been insisting that China and the US are in talks on a trade deal. China has been steadfast in denying any such talks are occurring.

At one point, Team Evil started announcing that China is trying to call them, that China is desperate to make a deal. Some insider revealed that, no, in fact, the US is desperately trying to call China to make a deal and China wasn’t picking up the phone. It seems that while Donny was trying to figure out his next “4D Chess” move, China was just sitting back, waiting for idled dockworkers and truck drivers to hit the news. Donny lies to try to manipulate the news cycle, China sits quietly while the stock market ticks down.

Eventually, the US found out where in the world a Chinese official was going to be and they sent an envoy of their own. Now there’s going to be a 90-day “pause” in Donny’s self-inflicted trade war. Tariffs will be lowered, not removed. A Chinese spokesperson rebuked 47’s regime when he said, “We hope that the US side will, based on this meeting, continue to move forward in the same direction with China, completely correct the erroneous practice of unilateral tariff hikes, and continually strengthen mutually beneficial cooperation.”

“…completely correct the erroneous practice of unilateral tariff hikes…” That’s diplomat talk for “Stop with your stupid trade manipulations!” In short, China decided to let Donny off the hook. Now they just need to wait and see exactly how stupid he actually is. Will he stand down on his failed trade war or will his unmanageable, uncontainable ego get in the way again and cause him to double down?

In short, 47 is admitting defeat. We know how he handles things like that. Expect him to come out LOUDLY proclaiming his “victory” and how he totally handled his opposition. He just won’t mention that he “handled” them by giving them what they wanted while getting nothing he wanted. Is surrender REALLY the only game he has?

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The Felon was forced to withdraw his nominee for Surgeon General because the person he chose had some “issues” with her credentials. Issues? Yeah, she lied about them. She mislead everyone about where she went to school and how long it took her to get through. Obviously, putting forward a name with problematic credentials won’t work. Fortunately, Donny fixed that.

He put forward a person who has no credentials at all. None. Zip. Zilch. According to THAT standard, I could be Surgeon General. You really wouldn’t want that. You’ve got to give him credit for one thing: he has an amazing ability to be laser focused on finding exactly the wrong person, the least qualified, and/or the person who hates that function of government the most – and putting them in charge of the section where they least belong…

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It’s important to remember, especially if you live in a red state: red states take more help from the US government than they give. More residents of red states than blue states are dependent on, say, the Affordable Care Act if they want to go to the doctor. I don’t mention this in any kind of “neener, neener” way. It’s a simple fact residents of red states had better start thinking about soon, since they’re about to lose their health care.

Congress is about to eliminate $880 billion dollars in Medicaid funding to they can extend tax cuts for wealthy people. The big GOP lie on THIS issue is that they’ve found $880 billion dollars in fraud, waste, and abuse. They haven’t. They just want the tax cut and if they’re going to get it by being cruel to those least able to defend themselves, they’d better pretend there’s a good reason, right?

The masses NEED the Medicaid funding to see a doctor when they need to. The rich people don’t need tax cuts. Sure, they WANT them. But they don’t need them. Several of the red states have “trigger laws.” A “trigger law” is a law written to become active based on a certain event.

In this case, the “event” is the reduction in funding for the Affordable Care Act the cons are pushing through right now. When that passes, Medicaid funding drops and the trigger laws take effect and the Affordable Care Act is canceled. How many millions of people will suddenly find themselves without heath care?

I’ll tell you this: if you’re willing to die just so some rich S.O.B. can have yet another tax break, you really shouldn’t be allowed outside without supervision…

Failed Morals…

47 steals his way into office and illegally fires a bunch of workers in the FAA. Then planes and helicopters start crashing. 47 can’t point to his own actions as the cause – he’s never responsible for anything he does – so he goes to a back-up explanation: outdated technology.

That is one of those stories that starts with a kernel of truth. The government DOES rely on outdated technology. That’s one of the earlier impacts of government revenue starvation – known more commonly as “tax cuts for the rich.” I mostly point to the GOP when it comes to government revenue starvation. That has been their stated goal for decades – starve the government of the money it needs to function, then blame the government for not being able to function.

The problem at the FAA has been in the making for decades. It has become highlighted, recently, because the only way to overcome inadequate technology was more Air Traffic Controllers and support people – the very people currently deemed ‘redundant’ and fired by Team Evil.

The very worst part about it? This has become an issue during the most corrupt and criminal regime in the history of the United States, bar none. You’re going to see an announcement that the system will be “upgraded.” Billions of dollars will be allocated but the contract will go to a crony, likely one of Muck’s safely government-subsidized businesses. Maybe the ATC system will be better. Maybe control towers will start bursting into flame. Who can say? But well-placed people behind the scenes will pocket piles of taxpayer money, rest assured…

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I have to confess, sometimes I get compassion fatigue and when I see someone who supported Donny feeling the pain of that choice – pain they were hoping for others, not for themselves – I allow myself a little schadenfreude. Other times, though, I feel a little sorry for MAGA. I know that MAGA is the product of their conditioning but keeping up with that conditioning sometimes seems like it must cause whiplash.

MAGA has been screaming about a long list of various and sundry crimes and excesses they’ve been told are being pulled off by Democrats in government. (There’s rarely any evidence.) They’ve been made to understand these crimes and excesses – always and only committed by DemocRATS, of course – are bad things that must be stopped.

Remember Hillary’s emails? Of course you do. You heard about it 24/7 for, like, ever. It was a possible security breach. Lock her up! (What fun they had with that one.) But now? Now MAGA has a guy in the regime inviting reporters to confidential meetings – accidentally – while intentionally including people with no need to know. It’s not a possible security breach. It’s an absolute security breach. Lock him up? Oh, hell no. Instead, “It could happen to anybody.” It couldn’t. Oh, and it didn’t – until Team Evil took over.

Remember when the worst thing in the world was the possibility that Hunter Biden might be selling access to the White House? Oh, the huMANity! Heaven forfend! All one had to do was ignore the fact that virtually NO evidence of such action existed. MAGA just KNEW it was true. Now 47, himself, is starring in late-night infomercials directly selling access to the White House, along with a wide variety of cheap crap. “NOW how much would you pay?!?”

In fact, the grifter-in-chief has so many illegal schemes working it would take pages and pages to cover them all. But we all know them. Even MAGA has an inkling of what’s going on and that’s the part I’m empathizing with right now: how does MAGA blame the left for ANYTHING now that the right has come out with solid evidence of doing the same thing to a FAR worse degree?

They KNEW they were just pitching theories about the Democrats. No valid evidence was ever presented, but it didn’t matter. It was just part of the game. NOW they know they’re having to bat away actual evidence which, less face it, isn’t going away. They can choose to forget it for a while but it’s going to be there later, too. They can’t even blast into social media with “Whataboutisms” since nothing the left has done even holds a candle to the corruption of this regime.

Donny has taken the fun out of their social war by being far worse in every way than anything MAGA ever accused a Democrat of doing. Now they have to start defending actions they were just condemning only months ago – or risk facing the hypocrisy of their own positions. A stronger moral compass, a determination not to lie, for example, would have protected them from this trap…

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We’ve all been watching the deportations, right? Americans have been horrified by the defiling of the Constitution. MAGA has been thrilled to get rid of “those people” by any means necessary. I think MAGA would bristle at that characterization. “It’s not racist!” Uh-huh. Were we not supposed to notice that the ONLY people being deported are brown? Are we supposed to believe there are NO undocumented white people in this country?

No, that’s wrong. One does not even have to be undocumented to get booted from the Bizarro United States, these days. 47 is even revoking permissions and legal statuses of many legal residents – but, again, only if the person in question is brown.

All of that could be debatable. Maybe it’s just a coincidence. Maybe it’s just because it’s easier to find brown people. So, 47 had to take special action to make sure people knew it was specifically because they’re brown. He seems to have found the perfect, racist answer.

He’s bringing in some white South Africans as “refugees,” a status he automatically denies brown people. Just to make sure the racism doesn’t go unnoticed, he says, out loud, that he’s doing it because they’re persecuted white people. The cherry on top? He says he’s giving them a quick path to citizenship. DACA “Dreamers,” people who have lived here their entire lives, can’t get that but he’s going to do it for White South Africans. Because they’re being “persecuted.”

A person is known for the company they keep. If you’re still supporting an obvious racist, it seems likely that you’re at least okay with it. ‘Racist-adjacent’ isn’t a moral position I would defend and it’s not a badge I would be interested in wearing…

The Gaslight Gang…

Hey, I thought 47 wanted to be the Pope. Aw, Jeez, does this mean we’re going to have to listen to MAGA blathering on about how the conclave was “rigged” for the next million years?

Instead, we should probably focus more on the $2 billion dollars a United Arab Emirates group just dumped into 47’s crypto. In Bizzaro United States, the President is for sale. He’s not cheap, but if you’ve got the money, honey, he’s got the time…

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I think the record for shortest Drumpf Team Evil is still held by Anthony Scaramucchi, who lasted all of ten days. Cameron Hamilton lasted longer, but it still wasn’t very long. Hamilton is – was – the acting head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). He was put into that position by Donny when Donny seized power. Hamilton went before Congress on Wednesday and testified that he thinks FEMA does a fine job and should NOT be dismantled. On Thursday, he was escorted from FEMA headquarters, out of a job.

It’s an article of MAGA faith that FEMA does a poor job. No, as always, it isn’t true – or wasn’t, when we were a decent country – and when there IS an actual emergency, red hats line up for assistance right along with everybody else. (“It’s wasteful government spending – except when I need it!”) They get it, too, or used to – before their chosen precious started telling them they have too much.

But it’s an article of faith. If The Felons says it, in their mind, it MUST be true. So when he tells them they didn’t get any Federal assistance money, they regurgitate that line – while simultaneously pocketing the assistance money they just received. That’s just crazy-making, which, upon reflection, explains a lot.

Hamilton simply told the truth. How was HE supposed to know that’s the ultimate sin in this regime? He knows now…

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“Um… I don’t know.”
“Oh, you’re just telling me about that now.”
“I don’t know, you’ll have to ask someone else.”
“First I’ve heard of it.”
“I don’t know, that’s up to them.”
“Couldn’t tell you. Ask whoever’s in charge.”

It’s a tough call. Is he completely out of touch from, perhaps, playing so much golf on the taxpayer dime that he honestly has no idea what’s going on in his name, or is he pretending he doesn’t know anything in an effort to create a blanket of plausible deniability, a layer of separation from accountability?

Isn’t it irritating, the number of times 47 accused Joe Biden of being completely out of touch with the actions of his administration, then listening to him insist he has no clue what’s going on with Team Evil? Yet another example of accusation being confession, yes?

When he was asked if his tariffs were permanent or temporary, he answered, “It could be both.” He spent several minutes trying to convince a reporter that a Photoshopped picture was not Photoshopped. He’s choosing people to work with because he’s seen them on TV. ALL of those indicate some serious mental failure.

Then again, he IS the captain of Team Evil and he’s perfectly capable of pretending to be a blundering, blowhard, buffoon while planning his next, even more despicable, evil move. I don’t know, though. Maybe it IS both. Maybe he’s easily evil BECAUSE of his serious mental failures…

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Quick question: when you’re driving down the highway and you see a traditional, black and white California Highway Patrol (CHP) car sitting on the side of the road, what do you do? You check your speed. You lower the joint or the beer. You set your phone aside (for a second). You fold the map, close the book, or put the mascara wand down.

That is, you end whatever distracted driving you might have been engaged in and you behave for a few moments. That tends to be true, even when there’s no cop IN the CHP car on the side of the road. You have the same reaction when you look into the mirror and see a police car cruising along with traffic. You mind your ‘P’s and ‘Q’s.

If traffic control and safety were the true and only goal of the CHP, their cars would be painted some bright, maybe fluorescent color because, for the most part, the mere sight of a CHP cruiser controls traffic AND driver behavior.

TO that end… no, wait. To some OTHER end, California has now purchased a bunch of brand new, shiny, “stealth” patrol vehicles. They’ve been specifically designed to blend in with traffic, to be hard to see. The CHP is highlighting how awesome it is that the lights they’ll use to pull you over aren’t on a light bar on top of these new cars so the cars are harder to see.

More, the cars have been painted in a way one doesn’t expect from a CHP vehicle. These cars hide in traffic, making it easier for the cars to pounce when they get the chance. CHP Commissioner Sean Duryee said, “The new vehicles give our officers an important advantage. They will allow us to identify and stop drivers who are putting others at risk, while still showing a professional and visible presence once enforcement action is needed.”

That statement is a bit of gaslighting, isn’t it? California is trying to sell it’s residents a bill of goods. Since we all know that very visible cruisers “stop drivers who are putting others at risk,” hidden cruisers must be intended for some… other purpose. And, the whole bit about “showing a professional and visible presence” makes me choke a little. The whole idea of a stealth vehicle is to NOT “show” at all. Eliminating the “visible presence” is the entire effing point!

I suspect it’s more about revenue enhancement and/or worse, the “important advantage” of being able to stop and check out vehicles just to see what’s going on in those vehicles. Are they being driven by brown people? Maybe they need a closer look.

I’ll tell you this: one does NOT go stealth when transparency and “visible presence” are the goal…

Faith, Failures, and Frauds…

Charlie Kirk set up a booth at San Francisco State University on Tuesday. For those of you who have been spared, Charlie Kirk is a MAGA talking head, a podcaster. He’s pretty slick and has a large following but I don’t know if he’s a top-level Deceiver or simply one of the many, many MAGA regurgitating the MAGA talking points of the day.

It’s an article of MAGA dogma that colleges don’t allow conservative speakers as part of their plot to indoctrinate the young into more inclusive thinking. As a result, they like to go to colleges and “challenge the status quo.” Anyway, Kirk was under this pop-up tent that had been emblazoned with the words, “prove me wrong.” I laughed out loud. How could anybody do that? MAGA is a faith-based movement. In a debate, about the best anyone could offer are facts and verifiable evidence but the first rule of MAGA is to never trade in facts and verifiable evidence. They can’t. Facts and verifiable evidence work against their positions nearly every time.

Christians have a slogan: ‘God said it, I believe it, that settles it.’ The idea of the slogan has been co-opted by MAGA. ‘Trump said it, I believe it, that settles it.’ It really, really does not. The Felon is the Father of Lies. I’m pretty sure I’d want independent verification if he told me my own name.

Now, in fairness, NO faith-based position can withstand facts or evidence. It’s not what they’re about. The more extreme the faith-based movement, the more aggressively they fight back against facts, and MAGA is a very extreme movement. Curiously, MAGA is a “stealth” faith-based movement. They don’t seem to realize they ARE faith-based. But they absolutely are.

So Kirk is going from college to college picking up soundbites for his podcast. As presented, Kirk will always “win,” pretending to show the dysfunctional thinking of lefties who will try to present facts and evidence only to hit a wall with Kirk. Essentially, it’s a trick. It would be best if people would just walk past his booth and ignore him, leaving him sitting there all alone…

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Mr. ‘Farts On The Deal’ really, really wants a Nobel Peace Prize. Obama got one and 47 has been jealous ever since. He thought his best chance was going to be in stopping Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine. He was so sure he was going to end the war he promised his base that he would have the war solved before he was even inaugurated. Yet another promise made, yet another promise not kept.

His “solution” seemed to be rooted in asking Ukraine to simply surrender everything Putin had stolen. Ukraine doesn’t want to simply cede stolen land to their enemy so they weren’t on board. For his part, Putin wants it all. Yeah, he’s got stories about this and that, but he seems hellbent on restoring the old borders of the Soviet Union, starting in Ukraine.

47’s “great friend,” Putin, isn’t playing along. It’s almost as if Putin doesn’t care what 47 wants – any more than Netanyahu does. So Donny did what any Master Negotiator would do: he tucked tail and he walked away, defeated. He quit. He gave up. He got his ass handed to him. He will NOT be bringing peace to Russia/Ukraine and he will NOT be receiving a Nobel Peace Prize…

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It seems to me that 47 keeps putting people in positions of power in an effort to prove MAGA elite are not nearly as stupid as they’re portrayed by thinking Americans. “Give them a chance to show their stuff,” he seems to think, “and they’ll impress everybody as much as they impress me. Perhaps to that end, he’s putting the guy who touted hydroxychloroquine to fight Covid-19, Steven J. Hatfill, to a top pandemic prevention role at HHS.

Like everybody else The Felon inflicts on us, this guy will no doubt prove just how stupid he really is. Donny will never understand. How can stupid recognize stupid? But the rest of us will know. I suspect it’s time to prepare for a new pandemic, brought to you by stubborn stupidity and pure incompetence…

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I recently took a guess at what Kilmar Abrego-Garcia’s tattoos on his fingers meant. I had no idea. I was just guessing. I wasn’t exactly right. It turns out that tattoos are actually a fairly commonly tattooed set of pictograms. It means “Smoke weed, get high, love God, until you die.”

Yeah, my guess was off. It was STILL better than 47’s guess. He actually thinks the ‘M,’ the ‘S,’ the ‘1,’ and the ‘3’ were all, actually tattooed on Garcia’s fingers. That really is some deep-level stupid, right there. All he had to do to know, for sure, is to look at any other picture of Abrego-Garcia’s hand.

I didn’t know what the tats meant. I made a guess. I missed a little and felt I should add this update for clarity. Consequences, you know? 47 didn’t know, either. He made a guess, too. He missed a LOT and sentenced Abrego-Garcia to life imprisonment with no crime, no charge, no trial, no chance to defend himself. Unconscionable…

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Hey, I think I understand something. According to MAGA faithful, Biden left us an economic mess. That’s one of those positions MAGA adopts as an article of faith. There are no actual measures that support the MAGA position on the topic. If one uses facts and verifiable evidence – which, of course, MAGA never does – it turns out the US had the strongest economy in the world the day Donny took over. If you’ll recall, the economy was so strong, 47 was taking credit for it.

I think the “mess” Biden left was that the economy was SO good, SO strong, it was going to be harder than Team Evil expected to crash the thing without people realizing it was, in fact, THEM crashing the thing. But make no mistake. This economic hardship is being brought to you by MAGA and it’s being brought to you on purpose…

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Isn’t it amazing how Musk and his illegal DOGE are running around cutting food stamps and health care and financial aid to desperately poor people, but managed to NOT cut any of the funding that comes to him? Muck has $38 billion taxpayer dollars in government contracts and not ONE of them got cut?

Oh, it’s worse than that, too. He was also facing fines. LOTS of fines. BIG fines. In what can only be called a stunning coincidence – unless you call it what it REALLY is: corruption – the people pressing those fines ALL found themselves without a job. Muck used his official position to let himself off the hook for all of his failures and mistakes.

So… he savages the social safety net for YOU but manages to keep his own mouth firmly latched to the government teat in a never-ending flow of YOUR money into HIS pocket. It really IS amazing that so many billionaires – who somehow manage to avoid paying income taxes yet also take so much money from the government – all know that the economic problems facing this nation are caused by the people who do the work.

Billionaires telling you YOU have too much. Screw those guys. It’s time to eat the rich..

Destruction Du Jour…

Who knew we were going to need this reminder? I mean, it’s Fifth Grade stuff. Still, it’s important. The ‘United States of America’ is NOT the land she occupies. It’s not the food we eat. It’s not the common culture. It’s not even the people who live here, citizen or not. The ‘United States of America’ IS the US Constitution. Without the US Constitution, there IS no ‘United States of America.’

If you’re one of the people cheering the bravery of ‘The Precious’ for violating court orders and taking a wrecking ball to government, you’re cheering the destruction of the US Constitution. You’re cheering the destruction of the United States…

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When reporters ask 47 if he’ll take military force off the table when it comes to seizing Greenland, the Felon says no. He says he won’t rule out anything. In truth, I kind of get that. I’m not sure I would project which tactics I might use in a conflict, either. I CAN say I wouldn’t be talking about invading or taking over foreign, sovereign nations so I wouldn’t be in a position of having to consider military force, but if I was looking at an actual conflict, I wouldn’t tip my hand about possibilities, either.

On the flip side, it’s not the same cagey strategy to avoid questions about respecting due process. When he was asked in a recent interview whether both US citizens and non-citizens deserve due process, he said, “I don’t know. I’m not, I’m not a lawyer. I don’t know.” It could just be me, but I’m of the opinion that the President of the United States of America should know whether they need to respect due process.

I’ve heard that Donny doesn’t read. There’s some question about whether he CAN read. (I suspect he can. He just doesn’t.) But maybe he could take a few minutes and read the Constitution. He might learn some things. I know, it doesn’t have his name in it, so he’d get bored right around the “…in order to form a more perfect union” bit. But he really should give it a look.

I would ask him to start with the Bill of Rights. I think he’d STILL nod off about eight words in. But if he could stay focused long enough to get through the thing – and it really doesn’t take that long – he’d eventually get to the Fifth Amendment. I’m going to highlight the key bits, here, but it says, “nor shall any person…be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law.”

He says he can’t do that. He says it would take too long. In short, he’s saying that following the law is too hard so he doesn’t think he should have to. I, for one, think he should have to. I’m sure there are others, like me, who think he should follow the law, as well. Not MAGA, of course. They won’t understand the implications of their support for these crimes until the system lands on them, personally.

That’s because he lies and then MAGA media pretends the lies are the truth. In the same interview, he said he was pushing to deport, “some of the worst, most dangerous people on Earth,” but cried that courts are getting in his way. “I was elected to get them the hell out of here, and the courts are holding me from doing it,” Trump said. The courts are trying to hold him to the Constitution.

47 terrorizes his base by pretending each and every person he has deported is a violent criminal, a rapist or a murderer or, more likely, both. He pretends that those he STILL intends to deport are even worse. To hear The Felon tell it, this country is RIFE with murdering rapists. They’re, like, everywhere, man. Look to your left. Murdering rapist. Look to your right. Murdering rapist. That guy over there? Murdering rapist. That two year old baby? Yep, murdering rapist.

It seems that in his fetid mind, this country is made up of two groups: white people and murdering rapists. Why, there are so many rapes and so many murders and so many rapes AND murders that every house in this nation MUST have been visited by the violence. Ask him. He’ll tell you. He knows a murderer when he sees one. He knows a rapist when he sees one. According to the courts, he sees one every time he looks into a mirror, but he’s only interested in the brown ones, obviously.

Apparently, this guy looks at a brown person – ANY brown person – and sees a violent criminal. That is some serious racism, right there. CAN you find me a brown person who is a violent criminal? Absolutely. No question. You can also find white people who are violent criminals. In fact, I’d say violent criminals come in every hue, shape, size, and gender (or not). But he’s only concerned with brown people.

It’s genuinely embarrassing to have such a pin-headed bigot in the White House. The US used to be about higher ideals. We were never perfect, but we continued to strive to be better. Now we’re stuck with… this. Each and every one of us should be ashamed we’ve allowed this to happen AND that we’re allowing it to stand…

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We’ve been watching the cruel regime aggressively dismantle the government since 47 stole the office. For Americans and the world, it has been horrific and stupid. Each attack is being met, though, with lawsuits pushing back. Move after move after move on the part of these clowns has been met with lawsuits and the regime wins some but loses more.

I don’t think they care. In attacking the way they do, the damage gets done early on. By the time a lawsuit plays out, even if the petitioner wins, it may well be too late. So 47 and his criminal crew flood everything and are met with drips in return. One suit here (drip), another suit there (drip). The piecemeal response to the flood of destruction works to the advantage of the regime. It simply takes too long to adjudicate each case individually. (Ironically, the very argument the regime makes about why it can’t offer due process.)

So the opposition has finally gotten smart and pulled together one huge lawsuit that addresses the whole damn thing at once. The complaint is 115 pages. The caption, alone, usually a small box on the first page, is FIVE PAGES long. (That’s the list of who is being sued and who is doing the suing.)

The press release announcing the suit calls the plaintiffs “A coalition of Labor organizations, non-profit groups, and local governments that filed this complaint to hold unlawful and stop the unconstitutional dismantling of the Federal government by the President of the United States on a scale unprecedented in this country’s history and in clear excess of his authority.”

In short, the plaintiffs have realized that the one-case-after-another approach is too little, too late, so they’ve filed one massive lawsuit to just stop ALL of the crap, ALL at the same time. I can’t say how it will play out. Much of this country is corrupt and complicit. But this seems like the most coordinated response we’ve seen yet. Hope springs eternal…

He’ll Do It…

I know a story about a man who was born to a woman who had never had sex. He traveled around the countryside with a group of people performing amazing feats – and they were not magic tricks. God had blessed him. He’s even said to have brought people back from the dead. There are no objective, living witnesses to challenge or confirm the story.

One day, he ran afoul of local authorities and that eventually led to his execution. According to the story, he died, as one will after being executed, but only stayed dead for three days, essentially avoiding the consequences of his actions. Then, he got up and went for a walk.

According to the story, he never did die again. He promised he would come back for a visit before that generation perished from the Earth. To this day – and, coincidentally, many, many generations later, people are still waiting. But his followers will tell you: promises made, promises kept.

It’s not a story I’ve ever been able to accept, as presented. It goes against everything I know about where babies come from and the permanence of death. But there are plenty of people who DO believe that story, exactly as written, or, more accurately, exactly as presented today.

It’s a very old story. I suspect through the years, it has been corrected, adjusted, and embellished. Even the protagonist’s name changed through the years, from ‘Joshua’ to ‘Jesus.’ First editions often need later edits. The fact that there’s not a shred of evidence to support the story doesn’t shake the beliefs of those who DO believe. By and large, they believe because they’ve been conditioned to believe.

Someone told them their special friend would protect them and they believe they’re being protected, despite that fact that successes and setbacks visit them at about the same rate as those who don’t believe. In faith, facts are problems to be overcome, not reasons to reconsider.

Because the story was written for a simpler audience, one can easily find conflicts and contradictions. I could spend hours talking to a believer – and have done – pointing out the problems with the tale and never shake their faith – because it IS a matter of faith. But THIS faith, at least, is faith rooted in morality, if one follows the actual teachings of Joshua/Jesus…

I know another story about a man born to vast wealth but who managed to pull himself up by his bootstraps, anyway, and become super-de-duper rich and it did NOT have anything to do with crime. God had blessed him, too. He is said to be a brilliant businessman and negotiator. There are no objective, living witnesses able to confirm the story. One day, he ran afoul of local authorities and was prosecuted. He, too, managed to avoid the consequences of his actions. Then he got up and ran – for public office.

So far, his actions have not been in keeping with his words. He has made many promises but has failed to keep most of them. In fairness, he DOES seem to be all in on the cruelest of them. Where he promised salvation, he has delivered only distress. He has a tendency to MAKE people dead, rather than bring them back, but those are the kinds of niggling details that can be corrected in later editions. Meanwhile, his followers will tell you: promises made, promises kept.

It’s not a story I’ll ever be able to accept, as presented. It goes against everything I know about where hyper-wealth comes from or how a brilliant negotiator operates. But there are plenty of people who DO believe that story, exactly as written, or, more accurately, exactly as presented today.

See, this is a newer story, clearly in need of correction, adjustment, and embellishment. THIS story is still in it’s first edition, though the protagonist’s name has already changed. The fact that there’s not a shred of evidence to support the story doesn’t shake the beliefs of those who DO believe. By and large, they believe because they’ve been conditioned to believe.

Someone told them their special friend would protect them and they believe they’re being protected, despite the fact that serious harm and setbacks are being visited upon them at about the same rate as those who don’t believe. In faith, facts are problems to be overcome, not reasons to reconsider.

Because MAGA is a simple audience, one can easily find conflicts and contradictions in their story. I could spend hours talking to a believer – and have done – pointing out the problems with the tale and never shake their faith – because it IS a matter of faith.

This is WHY they can move so quickly and easily from one position to the next, as though the original position never even existed. When he said he would fix a given problem on day one, they KNEW he would fix the problem on day one. They didn’t NEED to hear the plan. Their faith told them so. When he changed his story to “This is going to take some time, so be patient,” they made an easy pivot. “Oh,” they’ll adjust, “he meant he was going to START fixing it on day one.” They KNEW he had only ever said it was going to take some time. Their faith told them so.

The MAGA faithful are currently defending his latest shift: “Christmas is probably going to suck” as the only message he has ever delivered. Any one of them will tell you, all he ever said was it was going to take months and months to fix the problems, but he’ll do it. Their faith tells them so. When he gets to his final shift, “I can’t fix this. It’s too hard,” they’ll defend that, too. Faith.

I’m not sure MAGA realizes theirs is a faith-based movement, but it helps ME to realize the fact. I watch them shift their positions with the shifting stories and find it quite mind-boggling, but I understand. They have no choice but to adjust. Faith can’t withstand evidence if the evidence is accepted. So it isn’t. HOURS of video evidence proving their story false does nothing. It never even penetrates. “Fake news,” they call it.

Personally, I prefer fact-based reality. I remember the line that went around after 9/11. “Science flies people to the moon. Faith flies people into buildings.” That’s commonly true. MAGA faith, sadly, is the worst kind of faith. It’s faith completely removed from morality. It’s very dangerous. But it perfectly explains why Uncle Jim-Bob can’t be convinced of anything based on facts. He doesn’t need or care about facts. He has his faith. And if that faith asks him to fly into a building…

Too Much Insanity…

This is spillover. This crazy regime is getting SO far out of control, I can’t fit it all into a single, 1,000 (-ish) word column. I published on Monday morning. By Thursday, there was SO much insanity, it rolled over to Saturday. That’s a LOT of crazy in only three days…

So, 47 sits for an interview with a guy named Terry Moran and the subject of Kilmar Abrego Garcia comes up. 47 says Abrego Garcia was MS-13 because that’s the lie the regime is pushing. Moran pointed out that there’s a dispute about that. Donny replies, “Wait a minute. Wait a minute, he had ‘MS-13’ on his knuckles, tattooed.” Moran tried to help. He pointed out that Abrego Garcia has some tattoos but they’re not associated with MS-13.

“It says M-S-1-3,” 47 insisted. Moran pointed out that the ‘MS-13’ that appears in THAT photo was Photoshopped in. I think whoever did that was trying to smear Abrego Garcia in order to justify his deportation. But Donny doesn’t seem to able to understand the photo was altered. He even offered to pull out the picture and show Moran. (Pro tip: showing a Photoshopped photo to someone doesn’t prove it wasn’t Photoshopped.)

Donny glared. But it wasn’t an “I effing HATE you” glare. It looked more like he was trying to use mind control to get Moran to agree. 47 had that same look on his face Sheldon Cooper gets on ‘The Big Bang’ when he thinks HE’S mind-controlling someone. The only difference is that the fictional Sheldon Cooper is FAR smarter than the actual Drumpfster.

Kilmar Abrego-Garcia's left hand.

Okay so, let’s consider this, shall we? This is a photo of Kilmar Abrego-Garcia’s left hand. It’s a little hard to see but it was, surprisingly, the only one I could find. Still, it serves. You can see that he has a tattoo on each finger. You can ALSO see there is no ‘MS-13’ on his hand. What IS there is this: on his index finger, he has a cannabis leaf. On his middle finger, he has an picture of a dead guy, as indicated by the x’s in place of eyes. It’s an old animator’s trick to indicate a dead person in animation, x’s in place of eyes.

His ring finger sports a cross and the pinkie has a skull that looks like it’s smiling, as they do. The White House is pretending those are secret code pictograms that mean “MS-13.” The thing is, MS-13 members don’t make any effort to hide their affiliation. They tattoo MS-13 all over their bodies, often in large, stylized characters. The truth is, if I was interpreting any possible meaning to that group of tattoos, and I should say, here, Kilmar and I have never met so we haven’t talked about it, I wouldn’t get ‘MS-13.’

I think it’s perfectly reasonable to presume Kilmar’s tats of a cannabis leaf, dead guy, cross, and smiling skull could mean “Marijuana kills, Jesus saves.” I do NOT say I’m right, only that it’s a reasonable interpretation. FAR more reasonable, in my mind, than ‘MS-13.’ But 47 MUST maintain his lie for MAGA. If they ever figure out how gullible and downright stupid he makes them look, they might turn on him. Then what?

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A bright side? Trump is showing the entire world how horrifying and destructive today’s conservative policies are. Conservative media is non-stop. Using the internet and other side-steps to licensed broadcasting that requires more truth, they’ve been injecting conservative talking points into people’s minds for a long time. Some of it has taken root, the way cancer takes hold and spreads. The end result is the same, too.

Like cancer, the conservative talking points metastiasized. Unlike cancer, people were thinking they’d like to give it a try. Then Musk stole the election for Donny and the wrecking crew came in and began destroying everything, seemingly just for the sake of destroying everything. Now, the rest of the world can see the reality behind conservative talking points. Apparently, the world isn’t so thrilled with the reality of conservatism.

Canada recently had an election. The conservatives in Canada were WAY ahead and expected to win the thing in a walk. Then Donny began his rampage. After a brief peek at what conservatives have in mind, the liberal candidate won. 47 single-handedly turned around Canada’s recent election as people realized what a nightmare conservatives actually have in mind for the world.

Not to be outdone, Australia also took a look at the conservative agenda, which they had been openly flirting with for a time, and immediately re-elected their liberal leader to a second term. 47 really IS leading the way, or rather, the “No way.” Now that the world sees what the conservative agenda looks like in real life as compared to the lying and empty promises of conservative media, they get to reconsider their support of conservatism and go with “sane” instead.

I suspect his stunningly stupid incompetence is hurting conservatives in Europe, too. The cons have gotten out of control and they mean the world harm. There’s no more question about that. They must be stopped and it seems that nothing convinces people of the inhumanity of the conservative mind than the displays of conservative “thinking” that come from The Don of Destruction…

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The anti-American, criminal regime has settled a lawsuit with Ashli Babbitt’s family. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. You remember Babbitt, right? Well, in case you’ve forgotten, she’s a woman who was violently storming the Capitol, looking for someone to kill on The Felon’s January 6th “day of love.” As she was crawling through a smashed out window trying to access a Congressional chamber in which Congress critters were still present and frightened for their lives – as people often are during days of love – she was warned by US Capitol Police Lt Michael Byrd to stop or he would shoot. She was in a “love” rampage, though. She refused to stop, and got shot in the head. Appropriately, she died.

She died while committing a violent crime, and now, the family is going to get paid. It’s really mind-boggling. Here’s a basic truth: if you’re an American citizen and you violently attack the Capitol threatening to kill people based on pure, easily-provable lies, you’re a traitor. You’re not a hero and you certainly do NOT deserve to get paid…

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I think Elon thinks he’s funny. Have you noticed? He says really stupid things but he thinks maybe they’re funny things and people around him laugh. Apparently, it never crosses his shriveled and evil little mind that the lickspittles around him laugh because he has money.

I don’t think I’ll ever get used to how blinded, self-deluded, and just plain downright stupid the crew in the positions of power right now really are. But OMG, they really are…

In Only 100 Days…

100 days. The First Felon held a rally. He wanted to celebrate all of his success. Who wouldn’t, right? Now all he needs is some success. I guess I’m being presumptuous. I thought “success” would involve doing good for people. I presumed “success” might have looked like some of the things he promised on the campaign trail. He clearly knew what the American people wanted. Those are the things he promised.

End Putin’s war in Ukraine? Hell, yeah. Reduce the price of…oh, what IS that totally old and archaic word? Oh, yeah, groceries. He promised to reduce the price of groceries AND opined on how clever he is to use such an outdated word as “groceries,” just like a big boy! He promised to bring down the price of gas at the pump. I’m for that. He said he was going to end the inflation Biden had already controlled. He said he was going to end the ‘weaponization of the Department of Justice’ that had never happened. (His delusions are dangerous.)

He said he wanted to end the “Deep State.” I guess I’d have to give him half credit for that one. He has pretty much ended the State, deep or otherwise. But he hasn’t done ANY of the other things. Just the opposite, in fact.

Putin’s war continues unabated. Groceries are more expensive, not less. Gas, too. Job losses are mounting. He has weaponized the DOJ in a way never before seen in our once-great nation. He is weakening the government and the nation, reducing our position to “avoid them” status. He wants to claim success? The US has lost stature and treasure. We gave away our leadership role. NOBODY respects the US today. If he calls that “success,” that was his goal, right?

In short, his first 100 days HAVE been consequential. But only in the sense that there are consequences to incompetence, for rank-and-file Americans, anyway. HE, personally, is increasing his personal fortune by vast amounts. Pretty much every economic indicator is moving in the wrong direction and the worst effects of his regime have yet to play out. In short, the nightmare of the Pale Rider is just beginning. B-B-B-Baby, we just ain’t seen n-n-nothin’, yet.

What he does is feed soundbites into MAGA media so MAGA can lap them up, ignore the reality on the ground, and continue to sing his praises. (Hosanna’s ass. A little divine intervention would be great, right now, but it seems whenever someone really needs divine intervention, God’s off taking a powder.) You know what I mean. You’ve heard him saying things that are the exact opposite of the truth.

You’ve heard him saying things that sound absolutely insane. Not the word salads. Those ARE insane. I’m talking about claims impossible to prove (because they’re lies) and promises that won’t be kept. When Americans hear them, we KNOW he’s lying – but MAGA doesn’t. And that’s a key: the soundbites are to keep MAGA confused, not to convince thinking Americans of anything. He knows we know better. He doesn’t care. He needs to keep MAGA on board so he says whatever they want to hear.

Everything is great. Hey, it’s been 100 days. Let’s celebrate! You know, before the economy collapses completely, store shelves start emptying, everybody loses their jobs, and the police state starts invading homes and disappearing American citizens. Oh, I guess they’ve started on that last one already…

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“This is Biden’s stock market, not Trump’s,” Trump lied. “I didn’t take over until January 20th.” 47 seemed to be responding to the Commerce Department report that came out Wednesday. It showed the US economy had contracted 0.3% in the first quarter. I’m going to stipulate, here, that Biden WAS the President right up until January 20. It’s just true. But a first quarter report covers January, February, and March. 90 days. Biden was in charge for 20 days of that. 22% of that time.

Just think about how much worse the report would have been if it had ALL been Donny! Everyone (except MAGA) knows that the economy at the end of Biden’s term was one of the strongest in the world. The Drumpfster was actively taking credit for it, because of course he did.

Everyone (except MAGA, of course) knew it was empty blather but he was still taking credit for it. So, if I’m to believe the Felon – and I don’t – when Biden was actually in charge and making decisions, the economy was so strong Trump was claiming credit. Now that Trump is in charge and making decisions, Trump is trying to blame Biden as the economy tanks.

I’m the first to point out that most of the time, there’s a residual impact of the outgoing administration. But you would be hard pressed to find an incoming administration that went to so much trouble to change so many things so fast as this regime. He started swinging his wrecking ball on day one. He stayed up late undoing actions Biden had taken – just because they were actions Biden had taken. Had Donny not touched those things, the economy would likely have continued the Biden expansion that was already in place.

But just reversing anything ‘Biden’ as quickly as he could wasn’t the only damage he inflicted. He ALSO inflicted tariffs for no real reason. People who understand these things began warning him that it was an unforced error immediately. He did it anyway because he’s too stupid to know how stupid he is. Now we’re looking at soon-to-be-empty store shelves and higher costs on everything.

Because of the way the economy works, toy stores are already warning there won’t be enough toys for Christmas. (100 days in and 47 has ALREADY hurt Christmas!) At least he’s finally coming clean about the damage his tariffs are doing. Kids might get “two dolls instead of thirty dolls. So maybe the two dolls will cost a couple bucks more than they would normally.” There it is, the admission. Fewer things on the shelves that will cost more. Nice work, there, Donny.

He still, mostly, has MAGA bamboozled. “Who are you going to believe, me or your lying eyes?” Well, that’s an easy question for both sides. MAGA will pluck their offending eyes from their skulls, but I don’t believe Donny any further than I can throw him. And I’m telling you, I can’t throw that lard-ass at all…