Thursday turned out to be a pretty good day. Well, for me. Former Guy might not have enjoyed it as much. If you missed it, well, you’d have to be living under a rock but if you’ve been living under a rock, Former Guy was indicted for his hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels. The hush money payments are just a misdemeanor – unless they’re associated with some other crime. Then they become a felony. My understanding is Former faces felony charges so it’s more than just the hush money.

I had reservations about this particular indictment. I was concerned that something that could be seen as petty might not be the best place to start. I don’t feel that way, anymore. I see value in starting with something with lower stakes. There are obviously going to be legal maneuvers of every kind. IS an American ex-President an American citizen subject to American laws? I say yes, but the Roberts Supremely Kangaroo Court might well rule otherwise. They’re ideologues and they prefer a dictatorial strongman. A king would be right up their alleys.

But…thus begins the process. Former Guy will do what he always does – stall, lie, and obfuscate. He’ll seek every delay he can find and appeal all the way up as high as he can for every detail of the case. But he can only do those things once. Should courts rule he IS subject to the laws of the land – by no means a certainty – he won’t be able to challenge the legality of answering for other issues brought before the court. The Stormy Daniels indictment will clear the legal path for other, more serious indictments presumed to be coming sooner or later.

Besides, it felt so good to see him finally facing some consequences for his misdeeds…

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I’ll tell you this: most of the rank and file cons are keeping a low profile until they decide how best to attack the charges against their CheetoJesus but some are out, predictably claiming the whole thing is politically motivated and a witch hunt. Personally, I would be angry and massively depressed if it turned out they’re right. I have no love for the Dumbass. None at all. But I would NOT want to see the legal system perverted just to harass political opponents. I count that downright unamerican…

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Also on Thursday, within minutes of learning about the big indictment, I also learned that the New York Times has continued to look into the Iran Hostage Crisis of 1979. You may not be up-to-the-minute. In 1979, some Iranian “college students” stormed the American embassy in Tehran, Iran and captured the compound and the employees working there. The President at the time, Jimmy Carter, did pretty much everything he could do to secure the release of the hostages but no matter what he did, nothing worked. The hostages ended up being held prisoner until January, 1981.

The thing is, the Iranian Hostage Crisis really hurt Carter in the 1980 presidential election when he was running for a second term against Mr. 666, Ronald Wilson Reagan. To be clear, it wasn’t the only thing. The American (and world) economy was kind of going through it at the time and that was working against him, too. At one point, Carter even authorized a covert military operation in an attempt to recover the embassy and the people in it. The operation blew up in the desert. Literally. It was kind of the last straw and Reagan won the election. He was inaugurated on January 21, 1981 and the hostages were released almost exactly one-half hour later.

The official story was that the “students” were so frightened of Reagan’s great big firm…um…resolve they just quaked and surrendered. But stories started swirling almost right away that Reagan’s campaign team had been working behind the scenes to convince the “students” to hold the hostages until Reagan took office and he would give them a better deal. (He did, too. That’s how the world came to know the name Oliver North.) The thing is, working with foreign nationals against the efforts of the American government and against the best interests of American citizens? To me, that seems like a treasonous act.

The NY Times has never let it go. They kept trying to prove or disprove, or at least verify, various aspects of the story and have, over time, confirmed enough to state with little doubt that the Reagan campaign did, in fact, collude with the Iranian “College Students” to affect, in essence, “steal,” the 1980 election. I read about the NY Time’s confirmation that an act of treason put Reagan in the White House within minutes of reading about Trump’s indictment.

The reason these two stories go together so well, in my mind, is that a decision to undermine the electoral process in 1979 through what I see as a traitorous act led directly to the vacuous criminal now facing charges in New York and investigations in several other places for several other crimes. The focus for selecting Presidential candidates – especially for, but not limited to Republicans – became one thing and one thing only: serve the One Percent. Their first guy, Reagan, was charismatic and could, marginally, pull off a scene. Their last guy, 45, attracts attention like a fatal car crash on the highway and can barely string a basic sentence together. But they’ve ALL had one thing in common: they service the One Percent and only the One Percent.

Sure, a once-great nation can’t fix it’s roads, or it’s water system or it’s sewer system or fix it’s schools. Sure, there aren’t enough cops to control traffic anymore and basic social services, once paid for by taxes, now cost the user. Simple for the rich, a burden on everyone else. But, hey, rich people don’t have to pay taxes and that has been their only goal since 1980.

I’ll tell you this: I, for one, am sick of it. I’m MORE than ready to go back to the New Deal policies that made America great in the first place; unions, regulated business practices, and high taxes on high incomes. Remember, it’s always true that high tax rates cause the One Percent to actually do what they always promise low tax rates might someday encourage them to do…

David? Really?

There’s a principal in (where else?) Florida. Well, there was. Hope Carrasquilla is her name. She was forced to resign. Apparently, she allowed some sixth-graders to see a photo of the statue of David, the Biblical character who took it to Goliath in a really big way.
“But, wait,” you might ask, “isn’t ‘David’ considered one of the greatest works of art in history?”
“Well, yeah.”
“And, isn’t David one of the biggest heroes of the Bible?”
“Obviously, yeah.”
“Boy, those anti-religious, secular, public schools are really getting out of contr–“
“Um…private Christian school.”
“Private Chris–? Why would a private Christian school object to a photo of a statue of one of the greatest heroes of their favorite book?”
“Boy parts.”
“Boy parts?!?”
“Yeah. Apparently, when Michelangelo sculpted ‘David,’ he didn’t sculpt the guy in Levi’s. Now the kids know that boys have boy parts.”
“Well, didn’t they know that already?”
“One would think. But, (shrugs) Christian school…Florida…maybe not.”
“So the parents got all up in –“
“One parent.”
“ONE?!?”
“Yeah, one parent decided the kids had been shown pornography and the school board buckled.”
“Did anybody question the stability of the purist Puritan mom?”
“Apparently, the school was supposed to send out a letter warning parents their precious little offspring might see something ‘controversial’ but they didn’t for some reason.”

The conversation is purely imaginary, of course, but the events portrayed are true and correct. This is the direct result of Ron DeSantis’ big push in Florida to do everything he can to squelch education and knowledge. It’s all part of a conservative movement to make parents rights paramount over the schools, even if that parent is a drooling moron who thinks a statue of a nude Biblical hero is the exact same thing as pornography. (Apparently, Pornhub in Florida is VERY different from Pornhub in California…you know…from what I hear…)

I’ll tell you this: in a few, short years, there’s going to be a surge in teen pregnancies in Florida as the doe-eyed little know-nothings try to figure out how that happened. Nice work, cons…

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I like Gretchen Whitmer. She’s the Governor of Michigan and she has just rolled back Michigan’s “Right to work” law. Cons and businesses loved the right-to-work laws. They weakened unions. Unions are good for workers. Cons and large corporations hate workers and want the companies to have all the say in who does what and for how much money.

This might seem extreme but I think right to work laws kind of give away a certain position. I believe there are companies out there that would readily return to the days of slavery if they could just figure a way to get it done. I mean that. You can tell who those companies are, too. You hear some worker say “Hey, how ’bout a living wage?” and the company bellows it’s disapproval. “It would ruin us!” they cry. My position? If your business model can’t include a decent wage for employees, your business model is broken and perhaps you shouldn’t be in business…

As it is, we see stories from time to time in the corporate media about how employees are “quiet quitting.” But when you ask for a definition, it turns out “quiet quitting” means the employee isn’t doing anything more than the job requirement – and we’re supposed to believe that’s a bad thing? During Covid we heard about ‘The Great Resignation.” Oh, the humanity. People were leaving crappy jobs that paid poorly for better jobs that paid better. Companies hated that. They tried to smear the concept in their corporate broadcasts.

But you know what? People trying to improve their lot in life with a better job or better pay are hard to convince they’re doing something wrong. The employers could pay more and/or improve the workplace situation but, no. They don’t want to do that. They just want their stupid employees (the leeches that do all the work) to just STFU and do whatever they’re told whenever they’re told. I guess I get it. I just happen to understand the position of the worker, too, and I think the worker’s position is the correct one.

There are states out there rolling back child labor laws because cons think that’s a great idea. Did you know that? Let’s put kids back into the coal mines! Make America Great Again, indeed. Right to work laws are the exact opposite prescription for making America great again. America was great – when she was great – in large part because of unions. But, as we’ve all seen, if there’s a way for a con to turn stupid into stupid squared, they’ll find it.

I’ll tell you this: we’re fortunate we still have people like Gretchen Whitmer out there trying to do the right thing for American workers…

If you’re currently facing potential charges for inciting an insurrection (and subsequent riot, of course) – one that led directly to death and destruction – how smart is it to ask your supporters to come out and protest? Then, as 45’s fever-dream deepens, he ups the ante by suggesting that forcing him to be subject to the same laws as everyone else might well lead to “death and destruction?” I wonder; can those statements be used in his January 6th trial? You know, assuming such a trial might ever take place. If you KNOW that calling for “protest” equates to death and destruction – like it did last time – how are you NOT culpable? Smart, Donnie. Just keep wrapping that rope around your own neck…

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So, the Freedumb Caucus has alleged that all of the investigations into all of the illegal activities of Former Guy are “politically motivated.” By now, every MAGA-con in the country thinks investigating his many, many, many…okay, many crimes is “politically motivated” so I thought I’d help them out with a definition.

It’s actually pretty simple, even for a con. If there’s no evidence of a crime, nothing to go on except innuendo, “suggestions,” twisted truths, stretched stories, and pseudo(ish) “facts,” you’re probably looking at a “politically motivated” investigation. Think Benghazi, Benghazi, Benghazi. The cons KNEW there was no “there” there but they spent $14 million dollars investigating, anyway. The primary goal was to smear Hillary’s name.

“No” on Benghazi? Okay, how about Hunter Biden’s laptop? No evidence of a crime. Innuendo, suggestions, twisted truths, and stretched stories carry the day, at least if you’re a con. But most thinking people understand it’s a political tit-for-tat, just a “politically motivated” effort to smear JOE Biden by association with Hunter.

One might also point to the Bill Clinton/Monica Lewinsky affair. That was uncovered after an investigation into a failed land deal called ‘Whitewater’ turned up nothing. It took TWO oh-so-Special Prosecutors to find anything. The first, Robert Fiske Jr stated categorically there was no evidence of wrongdoing in regard to Whitewater. But facts just irritate cons so they replaced Fiske with conservative ideologue Ken Starr who just started making things up until something stuck. They “found” an affair and pressed it to great advantage. These days (and at the time) extramarital affairs aren’t a criminal act. That’s where the cons jump in with, “Oh, it’s not about the affair. He lied under oath.” Yeah, he did. About the affair. He got too cute. He should have refused to answer in view of the fact that it had nothing to do with Whitewater, the supposed scope of the Special Prosecutor. But no matter how you slice it, the Lewinsky persecution was purely “politically motivated.”

But Former Guy? There was evidence his campaign team was talking to Russians. There’s evidence he cheats on his taxes. There’s evidence he paid his porn-star side honey to keep quiet using campaign funds he then lied about. There’s evidence he called a Secretary of State and requested, then cajoled, then threatened the guy if he couldn’t “find” nearly 12,000 more votes – amazingly all in favor of 45. There’s evidence he incited his January 6th insurrection and did it with a plan he helped put in place. There’s evidence he stole classified documents from the White House and NOW there’s evidence he lied to his own lawyers in order to trick them into certifying he had returned all of the documents – which he clearly had not done since the FBI was finally required to go retrieve the papers themselves. All of those make the Trump crimes “evidence-driven” investigations, the kind we’re supposed to have in this once-great nation.

The cons are currently on a long whine that there are two justice systems, one for Democrats and one for Republicans. First, they make up some heinous crime they attribute to Dems. Then they pretend that Democrats are allowed to get away with it because of special handling – setting aside the fact that, mostly, the Democrat in question didn’t break any laws – or, at least, there’s no evidence against the accused that might hold up in court.

Simultaneously, they dismiss every possible charge against Republicans, no matter how well documented or founded. As an example, we’ve ALL heard the recording of Former Guy badgering Brad Raffensperger to outright cheat in the 2020 election by “finding” votes that never existed. That’s “evidence.” Not to a con, though. To a con, that’s just a “politically motivated” witch hunt. Easy, right? Your guy is always guilty, my guy is always innocent.

It’s important to remember the rule: when it comes to cons, every accusation is an admission. They claim there are two systems, one that benefits Dems and one that condemns cons. In truth, they WANT two systems, but they want one in which Democrats can be convicted of every fever dream cons suffer and the other one in which no Republican is ever guilty of anything, anywhere.

I’ll tell you this: I hope they don’t get what they want. But truth be told, the longer 45 goes without being prosecuted for any of his long, long list of crimes, the more I suspect the cons are getting their very backwards and unamerican way…

Marjorie Taylor Greene has given up the game again though, as usual, doesn’t realize it. She has taken to calling anybody to the left of her (that is, most Americans) “communists.” She has confessed that her crowd, whom she mistakenly calls the “silent majority,” has two emotions: fear and anger. Okay, two things. One, the cons are anything but “silent” and based on the pasting Former Guy took in the 2020 elections, they’re hardly the “majority,” either. The second thing is true, though. The loud-mouthed minority really DOES have but two emotions, fear and anger, and the conservative media bubble exists entirely to stoke those two emotions as often and aggressively as possible. It keeps ’em riled up. More importantly, it keeps them from thinking.

Emotions regularly overpower rational thought, especially the most primitive emotions. You know, like “fear” and “anger…”

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When Former Guy predicted – based on nothing, it turns out – that he was going to be “arrested” this coming Tuesday, March 21, he also called for protests. I’m not sure who’s left to fall out for such a spectacle. I thought any supporters willing (read: dumb enough) to come out and support him through protests were already serving time in prison for the last time he called for violence…

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Biden flew halfway around the world and made a surprise visit to Ukraine recently. It was a ballsy move. You can tell, for sure, because cons called it “irresponsible.” Apparently, Putin admired the move, though. Now HE has made a surprise visit to an occupied territory in Ukraine, Mariupol. One might have imagined Putin would have stopped by sooner to support his troops, given his much closer location. Biden had to fly halfway around the world and got there first. That’s forever, Vlad. Biden’s a braver boy than you…

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There’s an awful lot of chatter about the “trump-era” deregulation that allowed so many banks to set themselves up to fail causing them to switch immediately from staunchly Capitalist to definitely – if temporarily – Socialist. Well, except in the conservative bubble where they pretend the banks collapsed because that sexy, sexy green M&M put on flats instead of heels. (I guess it’s a fair question: who wants to have sex with an M&M in flats, fercrissakes?) These days, though, I find that sometimes, when a story breaks, the spin naturally aims at political enemies. But sometimes, the so-called “good guys” (our team) have participated, too. So I went checking.

A bit of background. Through irresponsible and unpunished criminal behavior, Wall Street crashed the American (then the world) economy in roughly 2008. Congress responded with new rules known collectively as “Dodd/Frank.” Dodd/Frank sort of forced banks to behave a bit more responsibly, so, of course, banks effing hated it and lobbied to change it.

As it happens, the Congress at the time of this particular deregulation (2018) was controlled by Republicans. Seventeen Senate Democrats DID join their Republican counterparts in the process, though. Worse? Barney Frank, the “Frank” part of “Dodd/Frank” supported the deregulation. Barney has gone on to other things since serving in Congress. He became a director of Signature Bank. He supported the loosening of his own regulations. Then, and you might want to sit down for this, his bank collapsed because it wasn’t properly Capitalized – the very deregulation he wanted.

So, yeah, it was Former Guy and it was mostly cons but some of the Dems played along. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, regulations are how society dictates the limits of avarice. Without regulations, as we’ve seen, the few with market power (meaning they control most of the money) will take more and more from those without market power (meaning you).

I’ll tell you this: I know things can be over-regulated. Of course they can. But when regulations are enacted in direct response to some previous market abuse, we should be very careful about rolling those rules back…

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There’s a little town near where I live called Sonoma. Sonoma is currently feeling assaulted by a couple of rich guys who are going around buying up the town one property at a time, using a variety of shell-companies to try to hide the fact that it’s just two guys.

This is the inevitable and direct result of the 2011 deregulation that allowed rich people to buy up all the single family homes. These guys own something like 100+ properties now and they’re still buying.

I’ll tell you this: we’d better put an end to this practice once and for all. Lack of affordable housing driven by corporate ownership of single family homes will very likely become a trigger point that unleashes such a backlash of fury I won’t be surprised when the Guillotine makes a re-appearance…

I can just imagine the behind-the-scenes texts between the various hosts at Fox Not-News:

Hannity: “Hey, just told the rubes that bank crashed because it was woke!”
Carlson: “Ha, ha. LOL”
Hannity: “No, really. It just popped into my head and I said it”
Ingram: “Well, how is a bank ‘woke’?”
Hannity: “What, you want me to tell them it’s the direct result of deregulation?”
Ingram: “Of course not. Tucker’s already made clear that if we tell them the truth we lose viewers.”
Carlson: “Yeah, we couldn’t tell them the truth even if we wanted to.”
Kilmeade: “Which we don’t.”
Hannity: “Right. ‘Woke’ is as good a whipping boy as anything else.”
Liasson: “What if we just told them it was deregulation and poor decisions in the corporate board room?”
Carlson: “Someone get that bitch fired right now! I can just feel the stock crashing!”
Liasson: “No, I’ll keep to the script on air, I was just wondering.”
Bartiromo: “Well stick a pin in it, pinhead! That bank was woke!”
Ingram: “You think they’ll believe that?”
Hannity: “Of course they’ll believe it. They believe anything I tell them.”

They do, too. I don’t know how stupid a person has to be to keep watching an outlet that has been proven in court to be pants-on-fire liars but it looks like we’re all going to get a chance to find out…

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I’ve got to say, I’ve always like the idea of the International Criminal Court (ICC). I wish it was real. I mean, I know there really is such a thing. I just also know that it has no teeth and no power and is therefore a concept art piece more than any kind of actual court. The papers are making a big deal (or trying to) about the ICC issuing an arrest warrant for that putz Putin for war crimes in his invasion of Ukraine. That’ll show ’em.

Remember when the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Bush 43 for his war crimes in Iraq? I’m not sure George has even noticed and I know he’s still running around, perfectly free, down there in Texas somewhere.
“Hey, Vlad. It’s me, George. Are you worried about that warrant?”
“It fell out window…”

Oh, well. Thanks for trying, ICC, but it looks like the world is going to have to find some other way of stopping Putin…

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Speaking of arrests not made, I’ve been hearing a LOT of chatter, recently, about just how close various law enforcement agencies are to, you know, maybe, if you wouldn’t mind, perhaps considering possibly actually charging Donald Trump with some of the crimes he’s committed around the country? If it’s not too much trouble, I mean…

Every thinking American knows most of the details of the crimes of Former Guy. We’ve watched him, over and over, stall, scapegoat, and slither out of harm’s way so many times, I’m not sure I believe they’ll ever bring him to justice. Sure, they could. But there has to be the will to do so and, so far, I haven’t seen it.

I mean…I understand. There’s a process to building a case. Sure, if one is about to indict an ex-President one needs to be very, very careful about their information in a way said ex was not. These things take time. But…OMG! It’s been over two years since Former committed his crimes, in public, on video, in front of the whole world. (Also in private on tape during phone calls.) From time to time there’s a flurry of speculation about indictments being just around the corner. So far? Crickets. (Apparently, it’s a LONG corner…)

You can file me perfectly in the ‘I’ll believe it when I see it’ file. But maybe, just maybe, 45 believes it. He apparently made a post on his stupid social media platform that suggests he thinks he’s going to be arrested this coming Tuesday. Not indicted, arrested. (He may not know the difference…)

I’d be happy with either one but like I said, I’ll believe it when I see it. I’ll tell you this: every day that goes by and this guy walks free is another day I lose faith in the so-called ‘rule of law…’

Okay, quick question.

Why TikTok?

I mean, I’ve heard the talk about how TikTok is tracking it’s users and collecting data. Yeah? So? As I understand it, every website is tracking it’s users and collecting data. Some of them are turning their data – your information – over to the NSA and ALL of them are using it to sell you some piece of crap you just really do not need/want/care about until they convince you you should. So the question stands.

Why TikTok?

“OMG,” I’m told, “TikTok is owned by an element potentially hostile to the health of America – the Chinese – who might use it to inject propaganda into the American paradigm with harmful intent!” Might, right? At this time, there’s no evidence that they have done, they just might. Okay, hold that thought, “might,” just for a moment.

A week or two ago, I wrote about a website called RT.com. The “RT” in RT.com used to stand for ‘Russia Today.’ It might still. Rebranding and all, you know. It turns out, RT.com is wholly owned by by an element potentially hostile to the health of America – the Russians – who absolutely ARE using it to inject propaganda into the American paradigm on a daily basis with harmful intent – and effect. It’s WHY the cons think mighty, mighty Putin is defending his country from Ukrainian aggression. I haven’t heard anything about banning RT.com. For those of you keeping score at home, that’s one “Might” and one “Absolutely Is.”

What about Fox Not-News? Fox Not-News is an element proven hostile the health of America. They’ve just been caught red-handed and dead to rights injecting propaganda into the American paradigm all day, every day with harmful intent and effect, as well. As much as I’d love to ban Fox Not-News, I haven’t heard word one on the topic. For those of you keeping score at home, that’s one for “Might” and TWO for “Absolutely Is.”

Elon Musk just spent $44 BILLION dollars to buy Twitter for the specific reason of wanting to once again allow various high-profile cons to inject propaganda into the American paradigm all day, every day. “Might,” one, “Absolutely Is,” three.

If you add in all the other major (and, likely minor) websites and social media outlets like Facebook and Google and Instagram and even Pinterest that track user behavior, the score becomes ridiculously lopsided at “Might,” one, “Absolutely Is,” all the rest. So why are we singling out TikTok?

Seems like a fair question, doesn’t it? If we KNOW RT.com is injecting propaganda into the conservative bubble all day, every day – and we do – and we KNOW the conservative media bubble is a cesspool of propaganda and misinformation – and we know that, too – what might TikTok do that the others are not doing?

Okay, so keep it off of government phones. But then, shouldn’t you already be keeping social media sites off of government phones? People are meant to be working not surfing the web. Besides haven’t you ever had a casual conversation about, say, learning to surf someday and suddenly ads for surfboards and surfing instructors start showing up on your phone and in your social media feeds? You think that’s coincidence? It’s your phone…or your smart tv…or your “virtual assistant” – ever present, always listening, always recording, ostensibly for your advertising pleasure. Uh-huh. So, please, help me out, here.

Why are we singling out TikTok?

I don’t know if you recall (of course you do) when pre-45 bragged to Billy Bush that he could just kiss beautiful women and grab them by their…um…inappropriately, without their permission and he could get away with it because he’s a celebrity. I never really believed it was anything other than braggadocio. 45 was riffing and Bush was laughing which fed 45’s desperate ego so he kept going and upping the ante, so to speak, until the now infamous line spewed forth and…scandal. Well, for Bush. 45 still got to be President.

I’ve never believed he would actually do something like that because I see him, fundamentally, as a coward. However, I DO think that he sees himself as so magnetically attractive that no woman, once involved, could ever tell him ‘no.’ The result? I don’t buy the Access Hollywood recording as anything more than talk but I can actually see him forcing himself on women depending on the circumstance.

One of the many, many, many, many…okay, many legal issues 45 is currently facing is a civil rape charge from a woman named E. Jean Carroll. She claims he raped her. He denied it but he didn’t just deny it, he said he never knew the woman and claimed she was “not his type.” (Later, he thought a photo of Carroll was actually a photo of his wife, Marla Maples, so it seems likely that, like everything else he says, he lied but that’s up to the courts, of course…)

Now, a judge in the case, Lewis Kaplan, has ruled that the Access Hollywood recording can be used during the trial. He wrote that a jury could reasonably find that in the recording, 45 admitted to having “contact in the past with women’s genitalia without their consent, or that he has attempted to do so.”

To be clear, pre-45 apologized for the comment and dismissed it as “locker room banter.” If you’ve ever been in a men’s locker room, you know that translates directly to “b.s.” but wouldn’t it be sweet if 45’s own, vile mouth did him in?

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The Biden administration released it’s budget proposal recently. The GOP immediately pronounced it dead in the water. I like that Biden said he doesn’t expect his budget to pass. It’s really about the fight. He’s going to force the cons to come out against the best interests of the population, though the con rank and file won’t know anything about that. They’ll be focused on gay penguins, or whatever. Biden’s budget does things the GOP likes to pretend to like. It increases the already bloated Pentagon budget and allocates more money for border protection. It even decreases the budget deficit by nearly 3 Trillion dollars. But…

It does these neat little things by asking the wealthiest among us to pay a bit more in taxes and the cons will have none of it. Even if they might, they’re not allowed. Thanks to the horrifyingly stupid Citizens United ruling of the Roberts Supremely Kangaroo Court, our Congress critters are owned and operated by the very people who might be asked to pay a little more.

Most people don’t realize that tax cuts for the rich mean tax increases for everyone else. By “everyone else,” I mean YOU. YOU get to pay more so Elon Musk can pay less. Nice. In the long game, though, the actual goal isn’t just to make a cushy life a bit more cushy. The actual end-game is to so financially starve the Federal Government of operating capital, it crashes. It’s working, too. You see it everywhere, all the time.

You’re told a wide variety of reasons for the various failures of the government but there’s really only one truth, the government has to keep cutting functions because Congress keeps cutting it’s own income. The Federal government is a huge operation and in any huge operation, there’s going to be some dead weight so, initially, the cuts were probably okay. But now bridges are falling down because nobody has the money to fix them, sinkholes open up around failed water mains that can be as much as a hundred years old, municipalities don’t have enough cops to enforce traffic laws, we all get health insurance but there are STILL huge numbers of Americans with no health care. Everything gets handled in emergency allocations and the national debt just keeps going up and up and up. Generally speaking, the place is filthy, failing, and falling apart.

But, hey…rich people don’t have to pay taxes so, there’s that…

You want to make American great again? High taxes on high incomes is what did it in the first place and high taxes on high incomes is what will do it again, if that’s really what you want. Everything else is smokescreens and mirrors…

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Yeah, it wouldn’t be Daylight Saving Time without me bitching about having to change my clocks just so energy companies can extract a bit more money from the populace and add to their already disgusting profits. So…there. I did that.

Oh, since we’re here, Congress is apparently working on trying to adopt Daylight Saving Time year round. That would be a stunningly stupid example of refusing to learn from our own experience. Of course, “stunningly stupid” seems to be the stock-in-trade of the US these days. We tried year-round Daylight Saving once. In summary, it kills kids. Nice. That’s not hyperbole. It really does. So many kids were slaughtered so quickly, the “experiment” was ended in less than a year. (It has to do with the kids going to school in the black as pitch darkness…) Now we’re going to do it again? How very, very…VERY stupid.

I’ll tell you this: I’m all for putting the clocks on one schedule and leaving them there. But let’s put them on standard time and drop all of this Daylight Saving crap once and for all, shall we?

Quick show of hands, please. Who among us did NOT expect what we got from the proven liar Tucker Carlson and the sleazy, lying Fox Not-News? Anyone? No, of course not. We ALL knew the reason House Kinda-Speaker Kevin McCarthy gave Carlson the security footage was so Carlson could twist the truth and re-start the whole “debate” about 45’s coup attempt and the assault on the Capitol building. Carlson, lying sleazeball that he is, did not disappoint.

In case you missed it, Carlson and Fox Not-News cherry-picked a few, seemingly peaceful moments from the January 6th insurrection and then pretended those carefully curated, isolated moments represented the entirety of the event. People from across the spectrum have been calling out, condemning the fraudulent commentary. Even some Republicans in Congress have dismissed Carlson’s crazy claims as misrepresenting the day.

NOBODY but MAGA cons believe any of the narrative anymore – but because of McCarthy, Carlson, and Fox Not-News, we get to start that fight all over again. How obnoxiously boring. At some point, one must admire the chutzpah, though.

I’m currently reading a book called ‘The Book of Vice’ by Peter Sagal. It’s an interesting little tome about the kinds of vice people engage in – and how. I’m currently on the chapter about lying. Appropriate, considering the topic at hand. The author provides a helpful list of the steps needed in a successful lie. (He also points out that, no matter what, sooner or later, the lie tends to be found out but if you lie successfully enough, it could be some time before that happens and you might well, essentially, get away with it.) Here are the steps, without his more detailed explanations:
1) Affect a reasonable and neutral demeanor.
2) Teach the “controversy.” Ignore the fact that one side – the liar’s – is completely made up…
3) Project your motives and methods onto the other side.
4) Your arguments are specific and seemingly verifiable; the opponents’ are broad and assertive.
5) NEVER GIVE IN. EVER.

Any of that sound familiar? Have you ever had to sit through a segment of Fox Not-News? You’ll recognize the steps with perfect clarity. It’s exactly what Carlson is doing right now with…well, with everything he says, really, but in this case, that’s his exact playbook for his lies about January 6th and what happened when the cons attacked the Capitol based on a whole slew of other lies.

It’s no surprise that people will lie for money and Fox Not-News has now been caught red-handed and dead-to-rights doing exactly that. They admitted it in their deposition. They knew they were lying about the election but did it anyway because they didn’t want to alienate their base and lose viewers. Keep the ratings up, keep the money coming in. They were free to admit it because they know their own, loyal viewers might well never even know they admitted to it under oath. Fox Not-News is certainly not going to tell them. They’re going to focus heavily on the “social controversy” about whether the green M&M is sexy enough to be using Hunter Biden’s laptop to read to children during gay pride week. Or whatever.

Even if they do find out, the author also happens to mention that, oftentimes, when people discover they’re being lied to – they go along with it anyway for fear of looking like they had been deceived by a liar. In other words, they double down on their pretended belief rather than confess they got conned.

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I don’t know if Dominion is going to win their suit or not. They’ve certainly laid out a convincing case and proven to thinking people everywhere what thinking people already knew. But Fox uses a technique that allows them to slither out of these things with a bit of ease. They simply pretend they’re not a news operation, at all. Whoever told you that? No, these are just actors, playing a part, reading a script.

Was Carrol O’Connor a bigot because he played Archie Bunker on television? Of course not. Could Sally Field really fly if she put on the right nun’s habit? Don’t be silly. No reasonable person assigns the actor playing the part with the character a person plays and if the actors on Fox Not News engage in the Method and just stay in character at all times when visible, well, that just shows their dedication to the craft.

I’ll tell you this: I wish I knew more about the law so I might have some idea about how a good lawyer might address that. I really would like to see these evil little dogs pay a price for the damage they’ve inflicted – and continue to inflict – on our once-great nation…

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was at the G-20 summit in India. Russia hasn’t been welcome in very many places since the criminal invasion of Ukraine but…India’s Observer Research Foundation invited them to this meeting, so they showed up. Nice. Lavrov started off well. He accused the West of having a double standard when they decry Russia’s invasion of Ukraine after the US’ own illegal invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq. (I’d say he has a point.)

But, then he turned to his comedy routine and said about the war in Ukraine, “…which we are trying to stop, which was launched against us using Ukrainian people…” The audience groaned and laughed out loud. Straight into his face. Some, still loyal to (or dependent upon) Russia didn’t – but I bet they wanted to.

This war in Ukraine was ALL Russia’s doing. Ukraine is NOT harboring Nazis. Most of the world knows this without question. American cons don’t know it, largely because they like to read ‘Russia Today.’ These days it goes by the name of RT.com but that’s what the RT stood for originally, ‘Russia Today.’ You might not be surprised to hear RT.com has a pro-Russian bias, being state-owned as it is. That’s why so many cons want the US out of Ukraine. US weapons are making it more difficult for their backup dear leader, Putin, to capture and imprison Ukraine back into the old USSR.

I think it’s past time for Russia to pack up what’s left of their gear and go home. I also think Russia should have to hand Crimea back over to the Ukrainians in compensation for all the trouble and damage they’ve done in Ukraine for no good reason. Besides, I suspect Russia was emboldened to try for all of Ukraine after they were allowed to finesse Crimea on threat of war in 2014…

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I had one big reason for not wanting Hillary to be the candidate in 2016. No, that’s not right. I had several reasons but one of the biggest was this: since husband Bill was President, the right-wing insane machine has been trashing her name and everything about her. Cons hate her with a white-hot passion and nothing, and I do mean nothing, would inflame the right to come out and vote against their opponent like running Hillary. (Please note: that’s exactly what happened, too.) But, Hillary had purchased the nomination fair(ish) and square(ish) and, as a direct result, the world was subjected to “President Trump.” Nice job, DNC.

45 is still frighteningly popular among the cons. It’s true, they have no idea about his true record or behavior or crimes or mendacity or failures, faults, or fabrications. On the right, the conservative media bubble ran interference for the Former Guy to near-perfect effect and the cons were never allowed to see anything other than the strong, capable leader he never was, never has been, never will be. But the rest of us did.

On the left, we couldn’t believe that the embarrassing moron who had moved into the White House was really our “President.” As he began to monetize his presidency, the shock began to wear off and the left started getting angry. As he failed at one task after another (something the con media bubble papered over nicely), I’d say anger on the left increased exponentially as the next four years unfolded. At the end of four years, as the left was all muttering into our masks about the complete incompetence of the Feckless Fuckup, we were sick and tired of it – and we were furious. And not the faux outrage so beloved on the right, this was true rage. We had come to realize that he had to go and, in the same way Hillary had brought out the right to vote against her, every person on the left fell out to vote against trumpery. I’m not sure anybody was actually voting FOR Biden. Every thinking person knew 45 had to go and we banded together to do the right thing, dump trump.

We did, too. The largest voter turnout in history left him on the outs and then, in response, he was kind enough to remind us all of the actual and honest danger he represents to our once-great nation by launching a temper tantrum the world will never forget in the form of the January 6th insurrection. It’s a heartbreaking reality that he has never been held to account for his traitorous ways and likely never will be. These days, ‘Rule of Law’ is little more than a catch-phrase in out submerging nation. Because the Democrats refused to prosecute and failed even to implement the 14th amendment prohibition against a person ever holding public office again if they’ve participated in an insurrection, he’s back – and threatening the nation all over again. He told the crowed at this year’s CPAC (I think that stands for ‘Conservative People Acting Crappily) conference that he is their “retribution” and that the country will be “lost forever” if he doesn’t win. But we all know, when it comes to cons, every accusation is a confession.

But THIS time, the white-hot hatred of one’s opponent is owned by the left. Will Rogers once famously said, “I don’t belong to any organized political party. I’m a Democrat!” But I think the Dems and progressives will fall out in large numbers to vote against him again. (He was shellacked last time because his pandemic had run wildly out of control and most people were forced to vote on paper. DO THAT AGAIN. Vote on paper.) I suspect the visceral hatred of the man will inspire the left to move heaven and earth to get out the vote. I hope so.

I’ll tell you this: The danger hasn’t passed and the threat is real. Make sure your voting registration is good (cons are forever trying to disenroll Dems) and vote – on paper – in this next election. Since the legal and political apparatus of this once-great nation seems unable to stop him, we, the people must act on our own…

Well, here we go again. A recently released US Intelligence report said that three researchers in the Wuhan lab got so sick they sought treatment at a hospital in November, 2019, before Covid was officially recognized. The fact sheet said that the workers had symptoms consistent with Covid-19 and common seasonal illnesses. Okay, so…maybe it was Covid. Then again, maybe it wasn’t. Maybe the workers got sick from accidental exposure to the virus in the lab. Then again, maybe those workers are friends and went to a bar or movie or shopping together after work and got exposed to a bad flu. While most of the scientists around the world lean toward species jumping, either idea could be correct and, truthfully, I don’t know any more than anybody else. Oh, you know what else? I don’t care.

I mean, if it turned out to be relevant to something, I might care, but it seems to me that “accidental release” or “species jump” makes no difference. We all know it originated in China in or around the Wuhan province. We also know that the previous two Coronaviruses, MERS and SARS, moved from animals to humans. After that? Nobody knows anything, for sure. Well, except the cons. They KNOW, without question, it escaped from a lab. Period. As a sidebar, you know the thing that surprises me most about how the cons keep bringing it up? I, for one, can’t think about the beginnings of Covid-19 without also thinking about how the administration in charge at the time failed so completely, so spectacularly in responding (along with everything else Former Guy did that helped it gain a foothold). One would think the cons would rather allow the story to fade than keep reminding the world of how useless Former was/is…

Anyway, for me, the key is “accidental release” or species jumping. If it was the lab, and it was an accident, it’s not much different than if it was an inter-species thing. We all know there are labs around the world working on these kinds of things. That’s nothing new. Something “escaping” is a bit of a concern, obviously, but in this case it was “only” Covid-19. Mostly, the world will never know because the Chinese are notoriously closed-mouthed about things like that. In fairness, any government would try to downplay and deflect such an event. Nobody wants the entire world “tsk-tsking” them but the Chinese got that anyway, didn’t they? In fairness, I might accept Chinese efforts at deflection as supporting the conservative position but I believe the Chinese would act that way no matter how the pandemic came to be so it’s hardly proof.

For me, the only real concern is that it might have been in intentional release but that position is fraught with difficulty. Consider, an intentional release of a potentially deadly virus is certainly a belligerent act, if not an act of war. Also, it’s a very high-risk act. If anybody ever found out it was intentional, the world would NOT just “tsk-tsk” the thing. Assuming such a release didn’t come to war, it’s very likely businesses would be pressured into moving their factories to other emerging nations so the desperately poor children living there could start assembling our iPhones, or whatever. The economic impact to China would be incalculable. Also, there’s no evidence the Chinese people themselves were spared any of the challenges, deaths, or difficulties associated with Covid. At the very least, if the Chinese were going to launch a potential war on the world, I imagine they would want to use a far deadlier virus that wipes out anything it comes into contact with, not just people with so-called “co-morbidities.” Also, wouldn’t they have an antidote for themselves? To this day, the Chinese vaccine is known to be less than effective.

I really don’t understand why the cons are so hot to prove Covid-19 came from a lab. I don’t see what they gain. I don’t understand how it helps them. Four years after the fact, I don’t understand why they still care. Then again, I rarely understand the “thinking” of a con…

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I think I’m going to enjoy watching the power play between Former and Rupert Murdoch, the lying owner of lying Fox “News.” If lying Fox “News” starts sneaking in little facts about Former that tell the truth about him, his base might start to figure out he’s nothing but a paper tiger. On the other hand, lying Fox “News” DID lie because they were so afraid of losing viewers (and therefore revenue) to more extreme media outlets. So I don’t think lying Murdoch can simply turn lying Fox “News” and have them start reporting truthfully. He has no choice but to start sneaking in facts. Maybe he can get lying Tucker Carlson to put on that “confused” face that is his stock-in-trade and just “ask the questions.”

When Former announced his candidacy for this run, I saw many one-time supporters now saying they didn’t want Former to run again. They all wanted Ronda Santis. (No, that’s Ron DeSantis.) But the trumpsters are turning back to their CheetoJesus. I guess DeSantis isn’t quite crazy enough. We ALL know Former will go as crazy as he needs to in order to regain support from the MAGA con base.

If you’ve spent any time reading my work, you may have picked up hints – here and there – that I’m not a real fan of Former Guy but his control over the weakest thinkers in our once-great nation is undeniable. Sure, he may be a drooling moron but the cons love him and he must be considered a Titan. Then again, so is lying Fox “News.” A Titan, I mean. Most of the MAGA cons wouldn’t think of Former the way they do if it hadn’t been for the facade created and supported by lying Fox “News.” So the question of who might win such an epic battle remains open.

I’ll tell you this: There are no good options. It’s like trying to decide how one prefers to die between, say, cancer and Ebola. I’m not sure a “winner” is possible. But it should be fun to watch the fight as we continue our submergence back to international irrelevance…