Okay, raise your hand if you’re shocked. The Epstein papers everyone made such a big deal about were finally released and, OMG, was it ever nothing. It was the greatest nothing. The nothingist nothing. Big, strong men come up to me with tears in their eyes and say, “Sir, that was really nothing.” Let’s just agree, it was bigly nothing. (My spell check hates this bit…)

What people WANT is his client list. That’s not what we got. The cons want to prove that Bill Clinton is a pervert who has sex with underage women and they need the information to smear him more effectively than they can do with their current “Hey, just make it up!” technique. Bill’s name was mentioned. Then again, so was Stinky Donny’s. But these were NOT reported as clients. These were people somehow associated with the trial of Ghislaine Maxwell.

The whole hullabaloo got me thinking, though, so I did something. Apropos of nothing – and I really mean nothing – I searched for photos of Clinton and Epstein. There are a couple, one at what looks like a White House function and the other looks…odd, like it might not be real. But then I did the same with Trump and Epstein. There are more. Lots more. And in party situations, hanging out. Even going out as couples, Stinky Donny and Melania, and Jeffery and Ghislaine.

I’ll tell you this: I’m not sure it’s a good idea for MAGA to try for political gain by slamming Bill’s association with Epstein when it’s so easy to link Donny and Jeffery, as well…

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

There was this defendant being sentenced for battery in a Las Vegas courtroom when he rushed the judge, leapt over her bench, and attacked her. It was, simultaneously, a very stupid move and a very impressive jump. I’m guessing that, particular, Einstein enhanced his sentence, somewhat – and that’s before the new trial for new charges of assault and battery get filed for THIS attack. To quote Bugs: “What a maroon…”

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

MAN the lies get old. No, they never go away. They just get old. Donny trotted out his “I tried to send 10,000 troops to defend the Capitol but Pelosi said no.” story again. THIS time, the story is to smack Liz Cheney, of all people. Donny insists he can’t prove he tried to send the troops because “Liz Cheney deleted it.” MAGA hates Liz, now that she did a right thing, so, of course it’s all her fault… Donny is trying to claim he “can’t defend himself” because of her meanie-pants behavior. Interestingly, I think Donny “can’t defend himself” because his behavior is indefensible.

Quibbles, right? Still, if the story is true, at all, in any way, it kind of creates more questions than it answers. So I’m going to ask the questions.

The United States had successfully enjoyed 44 (maybe 43, depending on how you count Grover Cleveland) peaceful transfers of power since the founding of our now MAGA-damaged nation. Why, pray tell, should Nancy have had concerns about the security at the Capitol? That is, what was the specific danger she was supposed to protect against? That question, alone, is usually enough to earn an epithet or two from MAGA as they slink back into the darkness.

For the rest of us, we know the answer because we’re not caught up in a web of delusions and stories. The danger that faced the Capitol building that day came from Trump and his attempt to steal the election. Why, oh why, would Trump try to send an army to quell the insurrection he was ALSO scheming to send?

Take your time, MAGA…

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

Now that the traitor-in-Chief, Stinky Donny, has filed his appeal to the Supremely Kangaroo Court, I, for one, am holding my breath. On the one hand, I don’t trust this clearly corrupted court. On the other, the ruling in this case could affect the entire Presidential race. The appeal in this case is about Colorado declaring Donny ineligible to run based on his insurrection and attempt to overthrow the government but if the court upholds Colorado’s decision, they’re basically declaring Donny ineligible in every state.

CAN you try to overthrow the government and then be allowed back to the levers of power for a second run at it? It’s a very big, very important, and very stupid question. ANY rational person would say, “No!” MAGA says, “Look, a shiny thing!” What’s important is what the court says. It will be important forever, either because they protect the nation and the Constitution or because they don’t, and he tears the thing up and starts making his own rules.

It’s a concern because of the makeup of this court. Clarence Thomas’ wife is, allegedly, a co-conspirator and participant in the attempted coup. I’m guessing his vote is already cast. Protecting Donny protects his wife. He should recuse himself but then he couldn’t protect his beloveds, so he won’t. So that’s one vote for ‘Dictator.’ Roberts himself, has said he doesn’t buy the argument that the 14th Amendment applies to the President. If that remains true (people sometimes change their minds) that’s TWO votes for ‘Dictator.’

Breyer, Sotomayor, and Kagan will all vote for the Constitution, of course. But after those three, “smart” runs out in this court and devolves to political loyalty. Sometimes. How will the last five decide, Constitution or Dictator?

I’ll tell you this: that’s not a question I ever thought would exist in this country…

Well, Donny’s got a new deception working. I know, he’s nothing BUT deception. This one, though, is likely to fool MAGA (I mean, what doesn’t?) but nobody else. Worse, he’s kind of mapping a route for MAGA to escape the cult. There are three women who worked in the Trump White House. Okay, there were a LOT of women who worked in the Trump white House but these three women both testified to the J6 committee AND went on network television together to warn Americans about the dangers of sending Trump back to the Oval.

In an interview with Jonathan Karl, Cassidy Hutchinson, Alyssa Farah Griffin, and Sarah Matthews appeared on ABC’s This Week on Sunday to caution America about the dangers a second Trump presidency could bring. They said things like, “Fundamentally, a second Trump term could mean the end of American democracy as we know it, and I don’t say that lightly” and that a second Trump term could mean “the end of American democracy as we know it.”

Trump, being the thin-skinned, man-baby he is, retaliated, or tried to. He started posting comments each of the women made in support of him and his Presidency. It seems like he’s going for, “Hey, they loved me, now they’re stabbing me in the back.” Except, no. The comments he posted ALL come from before J6. Ever since? The scales have fallen from their eyes and they’re trying to warn other believers that this guy is a false prophet to be avoided.

You see, they DID love him, just like everyone else in the cult. The difference? They saw him, up close and personal, in action on J6. They loved Donny but they love America more. (An unacceptable quality in a MAGA.) When Trump tried to overthrow the election, they were forced to re-evaluate their opinions and their newly updated assessments were not good. MAGA is trying to smear them as RINO (Republicans In Name Only) but they’re REALLY just good Americans, unlike MAGA.

In short, people who loved Trump and would have followed him blindly nearly anywhere now despise and fear him. They worry for their country if he gets back. They worry for the rule of law and the continuing existence of the Constitution. These aren’t lefty “libtards.” These are STILL Republicans who once loved Trump, only to discover he’s not who they thought he was. He’s far, FAR worse.

You see MAGA? You CAN break free. I mean, I don’t blame you for not listening to, say, me. I’m a pretty well established anti-Trump guy. But the people who loved him? The people who worked for him and did his bidding? People who, just like you, WANTED to believe and then just…couldn’t anymore – specifically because of what they saw of him behind closed doors?

I’ll tell you this: You should listen to them. They have no political axe to grind. They just know better now. And you can, too. It’s okay…

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

Donny’s been arguing that he has absolute, perfect immunity for anything and everything he does if he’s still the President, even if he’s just a lame-duck President. He’s taking that insane argument to courts and asking them to agree. He’s trying it in most of his cases so everything is on hold while courts go through the formality of saying, “No, Dumbass, NO American citizen has absolute, perfect immunity and the President is an American citizen, first and foremost.” And now? It has started.

The first appeal to come back with a ruling of, “Don’t be an idiot!” (I’m probably paraphrasing) comes from a three-judge panel at the United States District Court for the District of Columbia in the civil suits filed by the cops on scene at the Capitol on the day of Donny’s failed insurrection. Now the cops (or their families) can move forward with their cases. This is only the FIRST test that will affirm the President is NOT immune from prosecution for anything he does. But it won’t be the last. His “I’m immune” claim will buy him some time, but, long term, not a reprieve…

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

This is funny. In a 2004 interview, Donny is quoted as saying the economy does better under Democrats than under Republicans. Wolf Blitzer asked him if he was a Republican or a Democrat. His answer? ”Well, you’d be shocked if I said that in many cases I probably identify more as Democrat,” Trump replied. THEN he added, “You know, it’s interesting, I’ve been now around long — you know, I think of myself as a young guy, but I’m not so young anymore. And I’ve been around for a long time. And it just seems that the economy does better under the Democrats than the Republicans.” (Did you notice? He was doing the word-salad thing even back then…)

He’s right, too. Republicans consistently add more to the national debt than Democrats. LOTS more. After Donny’s complete collapse as President (MAGA pretends it was utopia), the economy tanked in a big way, the biggest way. A record way. No one has EVER tanked the economy like Trump. (The Trump maladministration lost 22 million jobs. The Great Depression only lost 15 million.) After only three years on the job, Biden has the economy humming along at a record-setting pace. (MAGA pretends they live in a Mad Max-style, dystopian hell hole. That must be hard to maintain every time they step outside…)

It has been this way since Reagan. Republicans crash the economy, Democrats come in a fix it. I’ll tell you this: why we ever bother with Republicans in the first place remains a mystery to me…

Amendment 14, Section 3…
The best thing about Maine booting 45 from the ballot – did you know Maine booted him from the ballot? – is that it will force the question in the Roberts Supremely Kangaroo Court. Colorado, famously, did it first. Now Maine. The thing is, these are not states in play in the race. Because of the constitutional distortion created by the “two” parties in this once-great nation, there are only something like five states that make the difference in Presidential elections, this year. Colorado and Maine aren’t among them. They both went Biden.

From the right, I see a lot of, “Let the voters decide!” In one sense, we’re going to – twelve “voters” at a time. But in a larger sense, it’s a bad plan, cons. One does NOT let the wolf decide if it should keep guarding the hen house after it kills the hens. MAGA has made clear that they’re NOT deep-thinkers and they are NOT trustworthy Americans. They want to put this proven traitor back into the Oval because they pretend he’s something he is absolutely not. But it’s only their image of him that is pretend. The damage he does is very, very real.

As an example, the American Civil War is said to have killed between 600,000 and 700,000 Americans – more than all of our other wars, combined. (And we’ve had a few…) It took four years. Stinky Donald killed more than that – in less time – just by being the feckless fuckup that he has always been – telling delusional stories while more than a million Americans died unnecessarily. MAGA thinks that was the victims’ fault. But it’s all down to Donny’s incompetence and apathy.

There are only three criteria for becoming President of the United States. One, you have to be at least 35 years old. Two, you have to be a natural born citizen who has resided in-country for the last 14 years. Three, you can’t take an oath to protect the United States and then participate in (let alone foment) insurrection against the same.

If you’re 32, the voters don’t “get to decide.” You don’t qualify. If you’re, for example, Arnold Schwarzenegger, the voters don’t “get to decide.” You don’t qualify. If you happen to be the President already and then plan with, and work with, the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers (and/or anyone else) to attack the Capitol Building in an effort to disrupt an official government proceeding, in an effort to stay in power even though you lost the election? The voters don’t “get to decide.” You don’t qualify. It’s pretty simple, really…

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

Hurry up and wait…
He’s stalling for all he’s worth. It’s all he’s got, stalling. His ONLY hope is to hold out long enough to try to take advantage of legal loopholes and the power of the Presidency. If the trouble you’re in requires the power of the Presidency to get you out of it, you’ve done something bad, bad, bad. But he has NO legal path out of the crimes he’s committed. He NEEDS technicality. It’s quite simple: if he loses the election, he goes to jail.

He’ll run around telling anyone who will listen how innocent he is. He’ll talk and talk and talk, trying to convince…someone. His acolytes will ALSO insist he didn’t do what he did and so he couldn’t be guilty of the crimes he commits. While out in public, he’ll call his opposition names. He calls it a “witch hunt” but it’s really just the end of a crime spree. He says it’s illegal, what their doing to him, but the law keeps agreeing with the law enforcers, “Nope, he’s not being persecuted. It looks like he committed crimes and should stand to account for them.” He’ll do and say a LOT, claiming he’s as innocent as a newborn babe. You know what he won’t do?

Testify. He’s got LOTS of chances coming up, sooner or later. There is trial after trial after trial (after trial, OMG) coming at him. Each one will offer him the opportunity to take the stand, swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, and tell his story. It will be the perfect venue to FINALLY put all this nonsense to bed, once and for all. But he won’t. He can’t. Now, that’s something every MAGA should consider. Trump won’t testify because Trump CANNOT testify. If he gets up on the stand, under oath, and tells all the lies he publicly tells his desperately-want-to-believers, they’ll add perjury charges and his situation will only get worse.

Pay attention MAGA. Trump is going to tell YOU he’ll testify but when the time comes, he won’t do it. Ever. He can’t. Oh, he’ll have excuses. But it will all boil down to one thing. If he tries to testify under oath, his crime spree expands – and so do the charges against him. Even his team of kinda “lawyer-ish” little legal elves won’t let him on the stand. Even THEY know better. THAT will be your cue, MAGA. THAT will be how you can know, once and for all, that Donny’s been playing you for fools and scamming you out of your money. He won’t testify…

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

Sing, Tay…
Did you know MAGA is mad at Swifties? Did you care? A Swiftie is a fan of Taylor Swift. Turns out, she has a few. Quite a few. All right, millions and millions. Taylor Swift is a very smart person and she has a good team around her. As she rose to prominence in the entertainment world, she pretty much kept her politics to herself and did her singing and dancing thing. Then came Stinky Donald.

Taylor saw the danger and decided to use her platform, despite warnings from her team. She knew it would alienate a portion of her fan base. She did it, anyway. She has come out loudly and strongly against the criminal ex-President. THEN, she started encouraging young people to register to vote. Apparently, this resulted in around 35,000 new voters in short order, scaring the hell out of the GOP. She’s mobilizing her army of fans against the rise of fascism – and the fascists really hate that. So, they’ve turned on her. Suddenly, she’s a topic of derision in MAGAland, that fantasy landscape of pure and perfect conservative living that has never existed and never will.

I’ll tell you this: in the MAGA vs Swifties battle, my money is on the Swifties. For one thing, there are more of them. More importantly, though, it’s easier for Taylor than for Donny. MAGA requires hours and hours of hate-filled, fear-fueled reinforcement on a daily basis in order to maintain their dogma. Swifties only need a song…

Donnie wins this one.
Yeah, see this is the problem. Before he left, Donny managed to corrupt the once-respected Supreme Court by packing it full of partisan hacks happy to do his bidding. It’s really kind of stupid of them. Once he’s back, there’s really no need for a Supreme Court. Trump will BE the Supreme Court. At a minimum, this means EVERY time the court rules to bring the traitor back to the White House, they’re ruling themselves out of a job. For Thomas and Alito, in particular, they’re ruling themselves right out of a magnificent gravy train. (Who bribes a judge with no power?) But that seems quite likely with this latest ruling they’ve made.

They decided NOT to hear the question of Presidential Immunity for the moment. Jack Smith had asked them to step in and rule on something everybody knows is going to end up in front of them in the end. Jack wanted them to cut out the middle man. Why bother with the lower courts? It’s a waste of time! Those last two sentences go together and give you your answer. Why bother with the lower courts? It’s a waste of time – and that’s the goal. With their one sentence, they bought Donny at least four months of reprieve.

DOES the President enjoy absolute immunity from everything he does while he’s infesting the Oval? Of course not. You’d have to be a blithering idiot (or a desperate criminal – or both) even to suggest it. But with these kangaroos, on this court? Who knows? I know it’s not what the founders had in mind. THEY thought the President is just a US citizen, just like every other US citizen and subject to the same laws. Listen, I’ve never bought the whole, President is immune while in office crap, either. The President is a US citizen and should be subject to the same laws. The “trick,” it turns out, is simply to NOT break laws while you’re President. Then you don’t have any problems, right? It really is a rather straight-forward solution. It’s something millions of Americans manage every day. It just shouldn’t be that hard for the President.

It COULD just be courtly cowardice. Send the question back to the lower courts, let the lower courts rule, then repeat, “No, the President is a citizen and subject to the laws of the land and does NOT enjoy absolute immunity for life.” THEN the SKCOTUS just refuses to hear the case when requested, leaving the lower court ruling in place. Still, it buys Donny time and that’s the thing he needs most in this world. Time to get himself back because, at this point, being President is the only way he can protect himself from the consequences of his crimes.

If the courts DO decide a President has absolute immunity for life for anything they do, legal or otherwise? I’d prefer to see our current President (that would be the clear winner of the last election, Joe Biden) declare himself President for life and just stay there, blocking the dumbass from getting back that way. Granted, President-for-life Biden might not last all that long, considering his age but, since the game in our failing nation is stall, stall, stall, it would be a good stall. Sure, not legal, but the President has full and absolute immunity for life, right?

BIDEN claiming permanent power is just as much of a problem, Constitutionally, as Donny claiming permanent power. A dictator is a dictator. But, Donny is a demonstrably, objectively worse human being that Biden. At least Biden could use his claimed extra time to pack the court with rational people and put the country BACK onto a constitutional track. (“Uh, hate to interrupt,” Ben Franklin’s ghost said, “But, um, absolute power corrupts absolutely.”)

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

A last-gasp angle
Okay, for clarity, this is just me noodling. I hope it never comes to this but… Even with the help of the kangaroos for Donny, Americans can have one last chance to save the country without bloodshed. On November 5, 2024? We can vote out MAGA (most of us want to, anyway) and hand control of the entire Congress back to the Democrats. They get sworn in – and take over Congress on Jan 3, 2025. Now, let’s say MAGA and the Russians have, actually managed to re-install their puppet, Donny, in the same “election.” (Vote on paper and they can’t.) Donny doesn’t get to seize power again until Jan 21, 2025. That would give the Dems 18 days to impeach him and remove him that way, with no danger of the jury nullification that helped him so much the last two times, and his corrupt cronies on the kangaroo court couldn’t help him…

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

The MAGA mind…
The cons are out, in force, trying to press the point that using the 14th Amendment to block a known, proven traitor from trying to gain control again is, somehow, “anti-democratic.” Tell me, is that more, or less “anti-democratic” than staging an insurrection in an attempt to steal power outright? (I think a constitutional disqualifier is a constitutional disqualifier…)

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

MORE evidence of his crimes
Meanwhile, a new recording has surfaced of Donny trying to steal the election by pressing Michigan election officials to NOT certify the Michigan election. He and GOP National Committee Chairperson Ronna McDaniel tried to get them to NOT sign off the certification and promised, “We will get you attorneys.” (I would think “We will get you attorneys” should be something of a red flag but I’m not MAGA.) Two of the MAGA, Monica Palmer and William Hartmann, tried to comply. They had already voted to certify but then refused to sign the certification and the next day, tried to rescind their initial vote to certify. Methinks Palmer and Hartmann are going to be needing those attorneys in the very near future…

In MAGA Newspeak, Donny was only trying to protect the election by undermining the election because, obviously, that’s HOW one protects and election, by undermining it. No, it doesn’t make sense. It’s MAGA. It doesn’t have to make sense, or have any rational basis, or be truthful in any way, shape, or form. It just has to help Donny and that makes it all okay…

Yeah, who didn’t see this coming? The Colorado State Supreme Court ruled that Donny is not eligible to be the President because of the 14th Amendment. The case will, of course, go to the Roberts Supremely Kangaroo Court to be settled. It’s a dark shame it’s going to be reviewed by this group of partisan, loyalist, pay-for-a-ruling hacks. Colorado got it right. There’s no telling what the Roberts Court might do.

IS it a good idea to allow a person who tried to overthrow the country once to get close to the levers of power again? Smart people say no. MAGA says “What about Biden?” We all knew the ruling might damage what’s left of Donny’s tattered sanity. We all knew MAGA would come out of the woodwork – they’ve been pretty quiet, recently – in support of Donny. I expected posts from 45 in social media lying about the decision. Death threats against the judges who made the ruling? Of course (and right on cue). Oh, and a FLOOD of misinformation being pushed into the conservative bubble. Gotta keep ’em confused…

These guys are pretending that Donny has immunity for life because he was President? (Hey, MAGA, then so does Joe Biden! Square THAT! I’ll wait.) He doesn’t. Oh, okay, then it was his obligation to “verify election information.” Here’s a direct quote from the transcript of the phone call to Brad Raffensperger, “All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes…” That’s not “verifying” anything. That’s trying to get the guy to manufacture votes that didn’t exist. That’s cheating. And that was just the smallest piece of his coup attempt.

So, yeah. MAGA is out there, screaming and yelling (mostly metaphorically, thankfully) and Donny’s about to spin even further out of control and MAGA doesn’t like this one teeny, tiny little bit. They simply CANNOT understand why people are responding to so much factual evidence about Donny but will NOT get equally upset over the things they make up about Joe (evidence perpetually “pending.”).

I was treated to a new phrase this morning, “Partisan Lawfare.” It’s pretty clever. Like everything MAGA, it’s pointing, fearfully, into the mirror. They’re trying to reinforce the “partisan prosecution” angle but they never seem to grasp that the ONLY team responding to the charges with partisan behavior is them. I want Trump tried because the evidence indicates he’s a criminal and a threat to our nation. THEY want Trump left alone because they really, really like him and they don’t CARE what he does. Trump Derangement Syndrome is real. It’s just that it’s MAGA that’s deranged.

I’ll tell you this: I’m not impressed by ANY of their tantrums. Donny can write what he wants in his social media. Cons can pretend anything they want. I already know words can be strung together. I’ll need to see some support that goes beyond, “But we don’t LIKE this!”

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

This is tangentially related. How could a person possibly believe that keeping someone who tried to overthrow the country from becoming President is “anti-democratic?” It’s one of the stories cons are telling themselves. America (and probably the world) is laughing at the field of Republicans out their “running for President.” We’ve ALL noticed, they want to talk tough. They want to make their points. But they do not, WILL NOT say word one against their main rival, the traitor Donald Trump. That seems…tough in a terrified, little way…

Nikki Haley finally said words that included Donny’s name. She said she thinks she can beat him without the help of the Colorado State Supreme Court. (That’s some hard-hitting stuff, there, Nikki.) Newsflash: they aren’t “helping” you. They’re enforcing the Constitution which now has THREE rules for eligibility for President of the United States. You have to be at least aged 35. You have to be a natural born citizen. You can’t take an oath to the United States and then participate in an insurrection. It’s pretty simply, really. It’s just that no one ever thought we’d need to enforce that third one. Who, after all, would support a traitor to take a second run at it? Delusion, thy name is MAGA…