There’s a small chain of restaurants in Texas, of course, called ‘Trump Burger.’ Okay, so, first, yech. Second, I know 47 is fat, but to think one could sustain an entire chain of burgers made out of him for any length of time seems overly hopeful. The guy who opened the restaurants, Roland Mehrez Beainy, 28, was quoted as saying, “I would love to have [Trump’s] blessing and have him come by. We’re hoping that he … sees the place.”

I guess SOMEONE saw the place. Beainy has been arrested by the ICEholes and is set to be deported for overstaying his visit to the US. He’s from Lebanon. No word on whether he’s a murderer, rapist, drug dealer, or all of the above. But since Donny promised he was only going after the worst of the worst, Beainy must be one bad dude. Great cover, though. He LOOKED like a guy running a business and adding value to the local economy. It’s a good thing they’re getting rid of him…

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

When Republicans wanted to avoid a vote on whether they should try to force the release of the Epstein files 47 had promised to release anyway, they folded up shop and went walk-about. According to the GOP, that was just good politics.

When Texas Democrats wanted to avoid a vote on whether Texas should cheat even more aggressively in “elections,” they folded up shop and went walk-about. According to the GOP, THAT is an unforgivable crime, a dereliction of duty of the highest order, a betrayal that cannot be overlooked.

Texas cons have asked the state supreme court to vacate the Democrat’s seats. They’ve claimed the FBI is in on the search for the Democrats. The FBI has not confirmed. There’s some more of that Fraud, Waste, and Abuse they’re always pretending they care about. What Federal crime did the Texas Dems commit to warrant FBI involvement, eh?

Besides, isn’t the FBI busy redacting all of the mentions of the Drumpfster in the Epstein files? I hear it has taken thousands of agents working for months to find and eliminate all of them. That’s a LOT of mentions, wouldn’t you say?

NOW the GOP Texicans are trying to figure out a way to make a civil arrest warrant valid outside of Texas so they can arrest the Democrats who, after all, only did what the GOP did, but when the GOP did it, it was to protect their pedophile Precious, and when the Democrats did it, it was to protect democracy so, obviously, we ALL know who’s in the wrong, here, right?

Here’s a conflict. I hate gerrymandering. I think it’s cheating. I KNOW it corrupts democracy and should be outlawed from sea to shining sea. Yet, I WILL be supporting Newsom’s effort to gerrymander California in response to Texas’ evil deed and I hope other blue states join in.

We have lots of sayings to help guide us through deciding the best course. ‘If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.’ (That is, do what they do.) ‘Two wrongs don’t make a right.’ (So, DON’T do what they do.) Fight fire with fire. (Um, so, do what they do.) Lie down with dogs, stand up with fleas. (So, DON’T do what they do?) Pick a side, you can find a slogan.

I’m on team ‘Fight fire with fire.’ Since the GOP is dedicated to cheating, decent Americans have no choice but to do the same or we lose our Republic. It’s a kind of ‘Sophie’s Choice’ situation where one is forced to decide between two wrongs. One is left to try and choose the least harmful wrong and then hope for the best…

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

It’s very strange, living here in the Upside Down. And really, it’s the Upside Down and Backwards. I used to wonder how the citizens of the Soviet Union felt while their government tried to gaslight them and convince them they were living the best possible life. I wondered if they knew better. I know they were enamored of things like American jeans (oh, God, he did NOT just mention jeans, did he?) which indicates a certain interest in things American and I suspect Soviet jeans weren’t as good as Levi’s.

Well, I’m sorry to say, now I know. And, really, we’re not even to the worst of it, yet. They’re just getting started. Americans still have it a little bit better off than the Soviets. We, at least, have the internet which CAN still bring us decent information from the real world. Having to rely on the internet for the best information, though, is like having to rely on GOP “integrity.” It could happen, but are you going to bet on it?

Speaking of which, I’m really getting sick of all of the click-bait headlines coming out on the left. Yes, the left. As often as they can manage, the headlines read something to the effect of “Trump crushed as courts hand down devastating loss.” (It turns out, Trump didn’t care, since he knew his corrupt appeals court would “fix” the ruling.) “Trump administration destroyed as truth comes out.” (The “truth” is something we all already know and it doesn’t even cause a flutter in, let alone “destroy,” the administration.)

This morning I saw, “Total HELL BREAKS LOOSE as Trump BLOWS UP STREETS.” It’s a hard-hitting review of the terrible things the ICEholes are doing. Yeah, it’s a crime against morality but I don’t see HELL BREAKING LOOSE, and I don’t see the streets BLOWING UP. Hell, I wish I did. Watching the US acquiesce to these… well, the acceptance has been difficult to take.

Is that what we have left? Outraged headlines? I think the left can do better and I really wish they would…

The US government provides numbers. Lots of numbers. Numbers on every subject. There are numbers we all know about and some numbers the vast majority of us wonder, “what the heck is THAT all about?” YOU, personally, may never look at any of the numbers – except the weather report, of course. YOU, personally, may have NO IDEA what some of those numbers are, what they mean, or even who might need them. But somebody, somewhere relies upon them.

Somebody, somewhere needs those specific, often obscure numbers. So, somebody, somewhere compiles the numbers into some usable form. An initial number is released but it’s almost always revised as information comes in. Revisions are as common as the sunrise. They’re expected. Sometimes revisions go up, sometimes revisions go down but revisions always happen.

Businesses and industries use the numbers the government produces. They’re used to make projections and decisions. They’re used to spot trends. They can be used to measure successes. They can also be used to measure failure, and THAT is the reason Erika McEntarfer, the commissioner of labor statistics, was fired.

Her job was to collect, collate, and report on employment numbers. She did. She reported that in July, only 73,000 jobs were created, well short of the 115,000 jobs expected. Remember, that’s an initial number. It will be revised, which she also did with the numbers for May and June. Her revisions to those two months slashed 258,000 workers that had been reported hired originally, but weren’t.

I’ll tell you the truth, I didn’t understand how the numbers for May and June could have been so glowing in the first place. How can unemployment go down while the government is laying off tens of thousands of workers because Donny doesn’t understand things, and private industries start laying off workers because Donny doesn’t understand things? So I wasn’t surprised the numbers were revised down. But Donny was, because Donny doesn’t understand things.

By now we all know the story, McEntarfer got fired for doing her job well and reporting accurately. That is, telling the truth. But consider this: What does that say about all the other numbers the US government, THIS US “government,” is producing? What happens to a business that creates a three-year plan based on numbers produced by the government? What if those numbers are not based on actual, solid information, but rather, based on what makes 47 happy? What happens to those business projections? What good are they?

This isn’t as big of a problem today as it will be in the near future. But the longer numbers produced by the “government” are massaged to make one orange moron feel better, the less value they have. My guess? McEntarfer is going to be replaced by a “yes-man” toady, someone who LIVES to make Donny happy. Someone who would pluck out his own eyes if Donny told him to, just because Donny told him to. Someone who will definitely and absolutely create glowing, but increasingly useless, jobs reports.

I suspect that in August, the US jobs report will reflect, according to the toady, at least 558,000 new jobs, magically restoring all of the false jobs McEntarfer had revised out. Won’t that be amazing? I mean, no, nobody will actually HAVE any more jobs, but the jobs report will make Donny happy, and isn’t THAT the important part?

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

Why did Ghislaine Maxwell get moved to a minimum security prison? She had to get a special waiver to go there, did you know that? She’s not eligible to BE in that prison as a child raper, but there she is. She meets with one of Donny’s useless toadies and shortly thereafter, she gets this plush new “home.” Do you know what I think? I think she’s going to lie. I know, that’s a deep insight. My vision can be uncanny. But that’s what I think…

Meanwhile, STILL no word on release of the Epstein files. Everybody on the planet knows that Donny is working overtime – no, that’s wrong. Donny doesn’t work. He’s FAR too lazy. Donny is having OTHER people work overtime trying to protect his evil name from being associated with the things he has done. It strikes, me, though, that his goal, likely, included protecting other rich and powerful people who ALSO did terrible things to defenseless kids.

I think one of the things that bothers me the most about all of this is that. Rich, powerful men who KNEW they could get away with sexually abusing financially challenged girls. They count it as one of the “privileges” they’ve “earned” by BEING wealthy in the first place. Donny even used that word, “privilege.”

I think a person, or in this case, Donny, who spends so much time trying to protect the rich and powerful from the “great unwashed” doesn’t really, CAN’T really, have the best interests of the work-a-day Joes on his mind. To him, we’re just cannon fodder. We’re just a source of money. Out daughters are his to take – and abuse – because he’s rich. We know he’s not alone. We know other rich men ALSO feel entitled to our daughters, and we KNOW that Donny is doing everything he can to protect the rich, not the victims.

47 says he can’t release the files because there are names of a lot of innocent people in there and they have to be protected. He doesn’t give two figs about the victims. They were, after all, only “poors,” people he and other rich men could buy and use a playthings. They don’t count.

I’ll tell you this: Innocent men don’t have anything to worry about. If one rode on the so-called “Lolita Express,” Epstein’s airplane, from one point to another but didn’t abuse any girls, they would – should – have no objection to anyone knowing they accepted a ride. It’s only the guilty “innocent” men who should be concerned. But they aren’t, because Donny is protecting them.

And why wouldn’t he? He’s one of them. Despite his claims of being a “man of the people,” he’s really only a “man of the rich people” and he’s doing everything in his considerable power to protect them, the rich and powerful, from the masses…

“I never had the privilege of going to his island.” That’s Donald Trump speaking. He never had the “privilege?” His word, not mine. Of course, he didn’t need to go all the way to the island. His good buddy Jeffrey Epstein lived only a short distance from Mar-a-Lago and they did most of their partying with minors there, at Jeff’s house.

Still, I think MAGA is starting to fall in line with 47, based on social media posts I’ve seen. This was NEVER going to be the deal killer Americans wanted it to be. MAGA wasn’t going to turn away from him, not over this. Yes, they were angry with him. Nobody stoked the Epstein files story more than Donny did and he promised and promised and promised to release them and now he won’t. So they’re angry about that.

But it’s like when a politician YOU like does something you DON’T like. You condemn that one thing but say, “but overall I like the job he’s doing.” THAT is the MAGA position.

Now, in MY mind, this one should be a little different. We’re not talking about some policy detail an administration and supporters disagree on. We’re talking about sex with minors. But in the MAGA mind, the details are only a… um… “minor” problem to be overcome…

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

My position on any “deal” Donny gets “done” is simple and static: wait for the paperwork. 47 runs around claiming deals. He makes up numbers and pitches them out like they mean something. He recently announced South Korea was going to surrender a full 25% of their total Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to the US. To be clear, he didn’t KNOW he was claiming South Korea was going to surrender a full 25% of their total GDP to the US.

He just made up a number and threw it out there in an effort to impress people. He doesn’t even know that he only makes himself look more and more foolish to people who DO know what he’s talking about when he pretends a country will surrender 25% of their total GDP just to get a deal with him. But it’s not just South Korea he lies about.

Here’s a quote about Europe, “We have a deal with Europe where they’re doing $750 billion plus $400 billion plus $300 billion and many other countries.” Okay, first, “and many other countries?” What the hell does that even mean? Europe is going to hand over $1.45 TRILLION dollars AND some countries? I’m sure MAGA is VERY impressed.

He does this all the time. Worse, the longer he talks about the same issue, the higher the number gets. If reporters were to ask him about the South Korea deal a few more times, he would eventually claim that South Korea was surrendering 236,000% of their total GDP, just because he would keep increasing the number in order to sound more impressive to his base, who doesn’t understand things. What did he call them? Poorly educated? Stupid? Weaklings? Yeah, all of the above. Not MY words. HIS words.

Of course, the dumbest of the dumb is leading the parade. Maybe those other countries ARE telling him these things in an effort to placate the petulant potato-head. Why not? So long as it’s not in writing, it’s not real. It’s just talk. He gets to brag, you get some temporary relief.

So, if YOU want to get rid of the bloviating windbag, tell him what he wants to hear. It’s a simple strategy with predictable results and most countries seem to have adopted it. Count on the fact that he’ll trumpet the story as a “done deal,” then his tiny little mind will move on to the next lie…

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

“In a way, it’s a backdoor to privatizing Social Security.” That’s a quote from evil Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, saying the quite part out loud at a Breitbart event.

It’s not ME saying they’re coming for Social Security. THEY’RE saying they’re coming for Social Security…

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

He REALLY DOES seem to think that if one doesn’t measure a problem, the problem goes away. Yes, that’s stupid, but consider the source. Now he has fired Erika McEntarfer, commissioner of labor statistics, because he didn’t like the most recent jobs report. The numbers weren’t as good as he would have preferred. Is that McEntarfer’s fault, or is she just the messenger?

It’s a difference without distinction to a dumbass. He wants to only see good numbers – like the kinds HE makes up – and if the numbers aren’t good and worse, she accurately reports that they’re not good, it must be HER fault they’re not good. Perhaps it’s all those tariffs she has imposed, but put on hold, but imposed for real this time, but wait, no, not you, but everyone else, no exceptions, except you, any day now, except we’ll wait another 30 or 60 or 90 days.

Maybe it was her constant whining about the Fed chair and how Powell is not doing what the President asked, exactly as his job description says he should not because she doesn’t seem to grasp that the Fed chair’s independence is about the last shred of credibility that remains for the US dollar and fear that she’s going to stick her face in anyway scares away investment. Obviously, but does that mean she has to report it accurately?

Oh, but wait. (Checks notes.) Nope, it’s Donny threatening on again/off again tariffs and it’s Donny threatening the Fed chair, which means it’s Donny creating the uncertainty in the economy, so of course it’s McEntarfer’s fault and she must be fired. She reported on the results of his stupidity. There can be no greater crime. Out she goes.

So, because we live in the Upside Down, he wrote “We need accurate Jobs Numbers,” in social media. I’ll tell you this: Firing the person who presents accurate jobs numbers and replacing them with a toady that will dutifully report full employment, at all times, in every sector, no matter what because some orange moron says so isn’t the way to get accurate jobs numbers…