Have you ever seen a juggler doing the spinning plate trick? You know the one. The performer sets a plate on a long stick and spins it, balancing the plate on the stick. Then, the performer sets up a second one. Then a third. Then a fourth. Then they run back and spin the first one again, keeping it in action. How many plates can they spin before they can’t maintain it anymore? It’s pretty exciting, watching the plates, waiting for them to fall.

That’s how I feel, watching Donny’s Team Evil trying to spin so many lies at the same time. They’re just flying from story to story, trying to keep the spin going. I have to confess, they’ve done pretty well, so far. But it looks like some of the plates might be getting close to falling. I think the first one to go will be this health insurance subsidy fight.

During the Spring, when Chuck Schumer rolled over and signed off on the Continuing Resolution to keep the government open, people on the left were furious with him. We suggested he sold out. But old Chucky had a plan and it is proving a good one.

See, Schumer understood he had no leverage at the time. A shut-down battle, then, would have been nothing but a debate on philosophy. With no tangible results, it would have been easy for the GOP to do what they do best: lie. By the time the rank-and-file discovered the lie, it would be too late. So Schumer signed off then, moving the fight to now.

You see, the GOP went with their standard practice. The lies started flowing right away. Their official position is that the truth always hurts their “official position” so they avoid truth like a bad neighborhood. “The GOP is the party working to protect your health care. WE want to fix it. The mean old Dems won’t let us.” For their part, Dems are pointing out that everyone’s insurance premiums are about to shoot through the roof.

Payments are going to go up hundreds and hundreds of dollars, leaving millions out in the cold. Cons lie that they have until January 1 to address the problem, and they swear on everything they hold dear (they hold nothing dear) that they really, really want to fix it, just not now. Dems are pointing out that this has to happen now, before November 1 because November 1 is when the open enrollment of the exchanges starts. If it’s not settled by then, the higher premiums take hold.

“NOT TRUE!” shout the lying liars of the GOP. “YES, TRUE!” say the notices coming out from the insurance companies to customers telling them of increases of hundreds and hundreds of dollars in their premiums. Essentially, Schumer took the Dems out of the conversation. The GOP says one thing, the notices of increase from the insurance companies say something else. MAGA can pretend the GOP is telling the truth all they want to, but they’re going to pay the higher premiums or, more likely, lose their health insurance.

The GOP is having trouble getting their lie to stick, what with all of those actual increase notices going out. And it’s not the Dems sending the notices, it’s the health insurance companies. Every day, it gets a little more clear – even to MAGA – that the GOP is lying. That particular plate is looking pretty wobbly…

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One of the plates the GOP spun was in the Big Ugly Bill, when the GOP stole $140 billion dollars from rural hospitals. Rural hospitals warned they would close as a result. The GOP restored $50 billion dollars of the $140 billion they stole originally and declared “problem solved!”

Now? Rural hospitals have started closing due to inadequate funding. The stories are the stories and the lies are the lies but reality doesn’t give two figs about stories and lies. Reality just keeps being real. This one seems like a plate that has actually fallen. Rural hospitals are closing. They will be very difficult to re-open. Huge swaths of this once-great nation will become health care deserts. Thanks, GOP. I’m sure that’s what people were voting for when they voted for you…

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One of the plates they’re most worried about is, obviously, the Epstein files. MAGA Mike, the Johnson STILL has the House in recess. So far, it’s all he can think of to stop the Massie petition to release the Epstein files from coming to the floor. If the cons come back, they’ll have to swear in the new Democrat, Adelita Grijalva.

She signs off as the 218th signature on the petition, the release of the files comes to the House floor, and everybody – everybody – even MAGA, gets to watch the GOP protect the pervert millionaires and billionaires – who count it among their “special privileges” to have sex with minors – by voting down the release. Another plate, crashing to the ground…

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A Qatari military base? Here, in America? Honestly, I can’t wrap my arms around that. I wonder what brought it on? Do you think it’s the new golf course bribe Donny gets in Qatar? Was it the $400 million dollar bribe plane? The “investment” bribe into Jared Kushner’s firm might have been relevant. Perhaps it was just input from one-time Qatari employees, Kash Patel and Pam Bondi.

In 2017, Donny declared Qatar “funders of terrorism.” Suddenly, they’ve turned into financiers of his personal comfort. So we’ve switched from the terrorist watch list to “How about a military base in the US?” We’re being told the base will be controlled by the US. It won’t be a “foreign” military base. It will just be a normal military base staffed with foreigners. Totally different. No, they’re calling it a “training facility.” In Idaho.

I’m not the only one irritated by this particular spinning plate. MAGA is angry about it, too. On this one, MAGA and I agree: foreign military forces shouldn’t be allowed to establish facilities in the US, most especially when said foreign military has such deep ties to Hamas…