I didn’t used to believe them. The cons, I mean . When they spouted all of their drivel about how everybody is out to get them, I dismissed it. I thought THEY thought it was a winning rhetorical strategy of politics and nothing more. Now? Yeah, I believe they actually believe the words coming from their mouths.

Ask ’em, they’ll tell you. You CAN NOT fool a con. If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it sure as hell AIN’T a duck. In fact, it’s probably a scheme Joe Biden cooked up to distract from Hunter’s legal troubles. And don’t try to fool them with facts. Facts are folly.

Everything, everything, everything, is conspiracies and paranoia. Liberals, Democrats, the “deep state,” Hillary (of course), Sleepy Joe (natch), “mainstream media” (except lying Fox Not-News), Obama (if you didn’t spit that, you didn’t say it right), anybody with facts and/or evidence, lawyers, doctors, the butcher, the baker, AND that lyin’ candlestick maker. Everybody who doesn’t agree with them, anybody who knows better than them? In on it. Obviously. Clearly, a deep state operative or mindless rube, blindly following along for…reasons.

Do you know how you can tell who’s in on it? They’re the people saying things like, “Climate change is a real and present danger.” “Cops shouldn’t kill unarmed suspects.” “Maybe there should be a little gun control.” “Working people should be paid a fair wage.” “Maybe rich people should pay their fair share of taxes.” “WOW! The mountain of evidence against lying criminal, sexual predator, and alleged traitor Donald Trump is huge!”

They’ve got “answers” for all of those, of course. “Huh-uh!” “They should comply.” “What part of ‘…shall not be infringed’ don’t you get?” “They should get a better job.” “Rich people already pay ALL the taxes.” “Every bit of so-called ‘evidence’ – all 482,593,678,912 pounds of it? Made up – oh, and planted.”

Is there a single issue on which the cons have the correct position? Honestly, I can’t think of one. I used to commonly refer to “always-wrong cons.” I kind of moved off of that position for a time. I thought, “There must be something they’re right about.” Alas, (hey, when do you get to use ‘Alas?’) nope. Not one thing. And it’s not just this week, either. Cons have been wrong about everything for the last 40 years or so. Even when they get close to right on something, “Hunter Biden’s laptop is a problem…” they get there for the wrong reasons, “…for Joe Biden!”

It’s not entirely their fault, of course. Not entirely. They’ve been led astray by conservative media, designed and built to lead them astray. But they’ve had 40 years to catch on to the con and it just eludes them. They’re having so much fun “owning libs,” they don’t notice what it’s doing to them or their reputations. Nor do they much care. Their “true” friends, those who know that, say, Hillary is a master of “wet work” for the CIA and just murders people for fun, will support them. And if they don’t? In on it.

Just think about John Durham. Durham was supposed to find all the big, bad, evil evidence that would put Hillary and Obama and every other Dem in prison for life for trying to frame Donald Trump for dealing with Russians during the 2016 campaign. They KNOW it was a set-up. Durham came in, spent millions of dollars, took YEARS investigating, TRYING to find proof of malfeasance, and, finally? Nothing. Crickets. No evidence of crimes.

When one of their own, hand-picked guys, well-established in conservative circles looks into the charges for years, spends millions on the investigation, and turns up nothing, the cons, obviously, shrugged. “Oh, well,” they say, “we thought we had something there.” Ha, ha! Don’t be a rube! Clearly, Durham caved…or was bought off…or threatened. Either way, RINO and deepest of deep state operatives. All they need, they insist, is the right guy to find and present all of the totally incriminating evidence they’re just sure must exist somewhere.

I’ll tell you this: I’ve spent years trying to point out to them, very much against their will, that wild-eyed accusations only hurt their credibility rather than making them appear as intrepid sleuths. But Maya Angelou was correct: when someone tells you who they are, believe them. The cons keep insisting they don’t understand things. ANY things. I’ve come to believe them. Look for a return of the “always wrong cons” moniker soon…

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California has long suffered the greed of the oil companies a the gas pump. We pay higher prices than most places and there has never really been a good reason for it. I mean the oil companies have a list of “reasons.” They just always seemed…contrived. As an example, California requires a different gasoline blend for summer driving. Every year, this meant a huge price increase at the pump as the industry “re-tooled for the summer driving blend.” Even though they had done it every year since 1996, each year seemed to catch them off guard.

“Well, we didn’t know we had to do that again THIS year so we have to raise prices at the pump, say, oh, I don’t know…how about a dollar a gallon?”
“A dollar?”
“Dollar ten, bitch.”
“Wait, I was just asking…”
“Dollar twenty.”
“Okay, okay, here you go. Thank you for making the gas, oh great lords of petroleum.”
“That’s better…”

The oil companies pressed and pressed and pressed. Prices at the pump regularly flirted with $6.00/gallon or more. It did serious damage to the California economy and was a money tap the oil companies could open and close at will. Californians got sick of the charade pretty quickly. California politicians FINALLY caught on to the problem a year or two ago and in March of this year, passed a gouging oversight law. With the exception of one lone Democrat, the bill was opposed by always-wrong cons. (<– See? There it is…)

Since the passage of SBx1-2, gas prices (mostly) have not risen higher than $5.00/gallon – even as we entered the (gasp!) summer driving season! Despite all the doom and gloom guaranteed by the cons, the bill worked. For now.

I’ll tell you this: I’m sure the industry is raining money on politicians in an effort to attain “carve-outs” and other work-arounds to have a free hand in price gouging again but, for now, I’m glad the bill was passed. It seems to be working. It’s a good start…

I’ve long felt that the best way to reduce abortions (yes, really) was early education and easy access to birth control. Teaching children about where babies come from, and how, best arms them to deal with what becomes one of the most important aspects of their adult lives. Shouldn’t we at least offer them some guidance, like we do before we let them drive cars?

No, apparently. Not if you’re religious, anyway. Teaching children how babies are made isn’t, to them, “arming them with information.” Not at all. No, it’s “condoning sex” and, for some reason, “condoning sex” is a bad thing. There’s not a single human being alive today anywhere on the planet who didn’t get here because some guy went “ugh” and it’s supposed to be a secret? Oh, and, not for nothing but the sex is happening whether you condone it or not. The only question is: is it a blind, risky behavior or is it well-educated, better protected behavior?

So I was happy to learn that OB/GYN’s have taken to TikTok to present videos on the entire spectrum of the subject. LOVE. IT! Anything someone wants to know can be found there. FINALLY, the internet steps up for something good. It’s not a perfect solution and I, for one, am certain that if actual doctors get out there and pass along sound information, some ideological schmuck will start making them, too, supporting all the wrong, deceptive things. It’s the conservative way. Can’t make a valid case? Well, then, make up a lie! (It should be the Republican slogan these days.)

I STILL think we should teach children about human reproduction in school starting at about age 9 – is that Fourth Grade? – and for all the cons who can’t believe I might support telling children truthful things, I think every lesson should include the idea that abstinence is the ONLY way to ensure no babies and is a perfectly reasonable choice. And, no, I wouldn’t teach 9-year-olds about what ‘The Joy of Sex’ called, ‘Sauces and Pickles’ until later. But I live in the real world where real people do real things and one of those things is the big “it.”

I’ll tell you this: Since I’ll never convince always-wrong cons that schools are the best place for such education, I’ll have to settle for the work-around of doctors on TikTok. Thanks, docs…

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Okay, that’s it for the good news. Back to paranoid Cult 45. Kevin McCarthy recently told lying Fox Not News “Someone has lied here. If we find that Garland has lied to Congress, we will start an impeachment inquiry.” Well, he’s right, someone IS lying. Um, that would be the CheetoJesus himself, Donald Trump. Of course, Kevin McCarthy and Jim Jordan tend to lead the pack. There are LOTS more. It’s just that none of them are Merrick Garland.

The cons really don’t like worshiping a criminal. Their “solution?” Destroy the evidence! Handcuff the prosecutors. Muzzle the whistleblowers. Fervently pretend thousands of people are in on the “conspiracy” – all of them jealous of what a great job the trumpster did as President. (Yeah, that sounds right.) They tightly close their eyes, shove their fingers in their ears, and shout, “La, la, la” as loud and as long as they can. They seem to think it’s not a crime if they don’t confess it…

The closer the walls get as they press in around trump, the louder Cult 45 screams. They don’t care if you’re a long-time con and full supporter of the dumbass who also happens to believe in the law. Nope, definite RINO. The “party of law and order” (I’m not kidding. That’s what they used to call themselves.) now wants to eliminate the FBI (still led by a Trump appointee) and maybe even the DOJ. After all, who needs justice? All in an effort to protect the lying, criminal, sexual predator, alleged traitor, Donald J. Trump. (Though Jim Jordan might have some more…personal motivations as well…)

I’ll tell you this: I’ve often wondered what it takes for people to so completely deceive themselves – and what it does to them over time. It looks like the final answer to the second part is? Madness…

Okay, I admit it, the recent “decision” by the morons on the Roberts Supremely Kangaroo Court that allows discrimination really irritated me. Worse? Finding out the whole “issue” they were “resolving” was made up in the first place. That has me angry, and I mean I can feel the physical surge, you know? Really angry. (I’m working on it…)

To summarize, a “Christian woman,” who is clearly NOT a Christian, pretended that, maybe, she would design web sites for weddings but had never done so and the one bit she knew was she didn’t want to risk having to design web sites for gays, none of whom had ever asked her to design a web site for them. She pretended to have standing in the court by making up an event and seemingly picked the name of the gay “offender” from, what? The phone book? Or rather, she and her lawyers cooked up the scheme. Now, thanks to ideological activism, discrimination is a-okay in America again. (Conservative America really sucks!)

You know what? These things – taking a case all the way to the Way-High Court – cost money. Lots of money. How many people can/would spend their own money to get a trumped up case to the Moron Court on a just-in-case basis? I think very few. To me, that suggests backers. Some shadow group somewhere likely paid the attorneys and, hell, maybe even Smith, herself.

There’s pretty wide-spread agreement there’s nothing anyone can do about it. The ruling is the ruling. Here’s the thing: at every level, she and her “legal team” lied to the court. Frankly, I want to know who her backers are/were. Which far-right “Christian” group fronted her as their “victim?” Who, exactly, conceived of the “pretend-offender” plan? (The “gay” man they claimed wanted to get married, despite already being married for 15 years – to a woman!)

Maybe the Court can’t or won’t stay the decision it made based on fraud. But can’t the fraudsters be arrested for perjury? They lied to every court they presented this case to. I thought lying in court, State and Federal, was a crime. Is it? It seems it was a conspiracy of like-minded morons. I think they all need to be rounded up.

I’m very concerned about the idea of Biden packing the court to 13 Justices for some sane balance but I’ve come to believe that if he doesn’t, the country will continue it’s wrongheaded backwards slide to oblivion. These activist ideological idiots are moving fast to do as much damage as they can in as short a time as possible. If they don’t get a case that helps them, they just create a fraudulent one! There can be no better proof that, like it or not, Biden MUST act – now! Saving the economy is good and all but if he doesn’t address this oh-so-corrupt court, there will be no United States to save – at least not the one most of us knew and loved.

I’ll tell you this: If the cons get away with this deception, expect more. They’ve learned if they can’t find an actual case to press, they can just make one up. Cons make stuff up all day every day. The ONE place that has been safe from their crazy is the courts – and now that’s called into question as well. Lorie Smith and her co-conspirators MUST be held to account for their fraud…

Tuesday morning, July 4:
Two headlines from “above the fold” at the Associated Press this morning? Shootings in Philadelphia, PA – 5 dead, 2 wounded, gunman arrested – and Ft. Worth, Tx – 3 dead, 8 wounded, no arrests as of this writing. I know… I write about this a LOT, but it’s not because I’m anti-gun. It’s because it happens a LOT. (There were two other shootings this last weekend, too.)

There are very few better signs that the conservative way is NOT the better way. The carnage in the streets, brought to you by conservatives, is all the proof you need. It’s outrageous. It’s needless. It’s heartbreaking. Frankly, it’s embarrassing. Thanks, Kangaroos. Your Heller “decision” was…well…killer…

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It was way, way back, um, three days ago when I wrote about the Christian bigot named Lorie Smith who “won” a case in the Roberts Supremely Kangaroo Court that allowed discrimination, so long as you did it in the name of Jesus. She thought maybe she would, someday, start to design web pages for weddings. She’s never DONE that, of course, but she might some day.

BUT, she did not want to risk having to design a web page for gays so she sued Colorado to stop a law that said she couldn’t discriminate – even if Jesus said. Colorado tossed her suit, saying she didn’t have standing. Not only had she never designed a web page, the court said, but she had never been asked to do so by any gay folk.

Suddenly, her attorney had an example: a guy named Stewart who wanted to marry a guy named Mike. Case proceeds, moron Kangaroos rule 6-3 (of course) that discrimination is a-okay. So, intrepid reporters go looking for Stewart to get his reaction. Turns out, Stewart never asked her to design anything. He certainly doesn’t need a web page for a wedding – he’s been married for 15 years. Oh, and he’s married to a woman. Kinda indicates a lack of gay, right? He didn’t even know his name was in the documents that supported the case.

I’m no lawyer, but I understand the ruling is the ruling and the fact that the ruling was based on a case that never happened by a plaintiff with no proper standing doesn’t change that. To my mind, that really sucks. Now you just KNOW the cons will be making up anything they can think of just to get some issue into the courts so the Kangaroos can press their religious agenda on all of us. So now people are free to discriminate, just like Jesus wanted.

Methinks our “good Christian” might-be, maybe, someday web page designer may have borne false witness, and I know what her oh-so-special storybook says about THAT! Thou shalt NOT. (According to the story, that’s direct from the Big Guy…)

The best indicator of how these super-duper (pseudo) Christians actually feel about their invisible super friend and the rules of their favorite book (they’ve somehow never read) is the evil they perpetuate on Earth without one second of regard for how it might impact their eternal souls in the afterlife. They’ve been told, flatly, their Lord God Almighty will set them on fire if they do things like bear false witness yet this bigoted buffoon blithely and easily lies. Apparently, she’s not worried at all…

I’ll tell you this: actions speak louder than words and that ought to tell you something…

A shooting in Wichita, Kansas left 7 people shot – and 2 more trampled during the rush to escape the nightclub. A person has been detained for questioning.

Meanwhile, another shooter, this one in Baltimore, tried harder. HE got 30 people at a block party. 2 dead, 28 wounded, 3 critically. Police are still looking for the shooter.

America’s been looking for a new identity since the class war was launched. I guess being number one at killing each other is…something. Before we settle on that, though, any other ideas? Please?

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Okay, so, according to USA Today today, the IRS has a whistleblower named Gary Shapely who knows without question that the investigation into Hunter’s tax issues was interfered with by the administration in power. He also said that if the investigation had gone the way he wanted it to, it “could have, potentially,” led, eventually, to Joe.

The cons are really, really pissed that Hunter “got off” with just the same punishment as others caught in similar situations. They just don’t understand why Hunter wasn’t executed immediately and his father right along with him – just for good measure.

So, I’m reading through this article and I come across this confusing bit in reference to Shapley’s charge: “He also alleged that while former President Donald Trump was in office, Shapley’s team was prevented from taking further measures that could have brought the investigation to Hunter Biden’s father, the sitting U.S. president.”

So…it was Trump’s people who interfered with the investigation in an effort to protect Joe Biden? That’s what the “IRS Whistleblower” said. Oh, and the plea deal Hunter reached was with a Trump-appointed US Attorney, David Weiss.

Of course, cons in Congress, specifically, Jason Smith of Missouri, then claimed the whistleblower implicated the Biden White House. They’re going to have an “investigation!” Well, bully for them.

The cons think they’re “evening the score” by “investigating” every delusional fever dream they suffer. First they fielded – and elected – the most corrupt person in the history of our once great nation. Then, as his crimes unfolded, one after another, actual, criminal investigations were launched. It turns out, that’s what happens when evidence of a crime is uncovered. Trump has already lost the cases that have come against him and they’re really adding up.

Busted for stealing from his kids with cancer charity. Busted for lying about paying hush money to a porn star. His company was busted cooking the books. Busted for sexual assault with a follow-up case close behind because he can’t shut his stupid effing mouth. Trump’s rap sheet is already as long as any petty crook – and he STILL has charges out the wazoo to deal with.

Crimes in New York, crimes in Georgia, crimes in Florida, and crimes in Washington, DC? That seems like a national “crime spree” to me. So, of course, his supporters – yes, he STILL has “supporters” – want revenge. They need something, anything, to balance the scales. For clarity, it doesn’t actually have to “balance” anything. They just need something with some teeth to whine about. Somebody gets video of Joe Biden jay-walking and the conservative press will treat it like the most egregious, heinous crime of the century.

I’ll tell you this: The self-proclaimed “party of responsibility” simply WILL NOT take responsibility for anything. BUT…I’m okay with them investigating everything they can pretend to think of. It keeps them from moving forward with any of their other, inherent evil goals…

As usual, the Roberts Supremely Kangaroo Court waited until they were absconding for their three month vacation to toss out their most reprehensible work. (By the way, $274,000 a year, before bribes, and they only work nine months? I think I’ve found some of that fraud, waste, and abuse cons are always on about…) Anyway, “No” to trying to help people with their student loans, “No” to Affirmative Action (unless you’re white or rich), and “No” to gay rights (so far).

Truth? I’m ambivalent about the student loans. On the one hand, I think higher education should be taxpayer funded. On the other hand, they DID take out the loans. On the other hand, it’s not like these loans were freely made choices. People these days are told they deserve to suffer financially if they don’t have a college degree. It’s kind of an “at-the-point-of-a-gun” thing. Besides, college is over-rated. Outside of the sciences, there are other, arguably better, paths to learning, like tech schools. I’m also old enough to remember that when student loans were becoming a thing, part of their appeal was that they were offered at reduced interest rates. (I think mine were at, like, two percent.) THAT is actually the help I think people should get: reduced interest rates – seriously reduced…

The cowardly court also ended Affirmative Action for minorities at colleges. Their excuse was, they pretended it violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution. Of course, that’s the opposite of the truth. Attacking formal Affirmative Action for minorities leaves plenty of unwritten Affirmative Action in place. Others have already pointed out, they ONLY ended Affirmative Action for minorities and the not-so-rich. Legacy admissions, where the kid gets in because a parent got in, are still a-okay. Donor admissions, too. Build a building (or wing) on campus, your kid will get in – and pass with what is politely referred to as a “Gentleman’s C.”! That’s not only a guaranteed admission, it’s a guaranteed outcome. Minority considerations never guaranteed outcomes. The information is still coming in but I’ve already seen reports showing that states without Affirmative Action (and I live in one) show greater racial disparities in college admissions so…SMACK-DOWN of the minorities. (I wonder how many of the Kangaroos got into college because of Affirmative Action…)

The worst, though, is the gay web page controversy. No, the web page isn’t gay. There’s this hateful bigot (Christian, obviously), Lorie Smith, who wants to design wedding web pages but NOT for gay people. (I suspect she’s afraid that even the sight of gay people might overwhelm her desires and send her spiraling into a world of sin, sin, sin – but that’s just a guess.) SHE says her all-knowing, all-powerful, god-like, invisible, super-friend will effing HATE her and set her on fire for all time if she does unto her fellow human beings as she would have others do unto her. She really seems to have missed the point of Jesus’ teachings but… The Kangaroos agreed.

The moron Gorsuch wrote that the First Amendment “envisions the United States as a rich and complex place where all persons are free to think and speak as they wish…” Sure. Unless you’re gay, right? THEN discrimination is perfectly acceptable. Religious idiots still insist gay is a choice. They have to. Otherwise they have to explain why their “god” creates human beings everyone is supposed to hate, hate, hate! If he’s all powerful, can’t he just NOT create them?

The “court” tried to hide the evil of their choice by limiting the damage to businesses that engage in creative pursuits. Writers, photographers, artists, and videographers should be allowed to discriminate but, say, a restaurant should not? Why not? If cooking for a black person violates my oh-so-stupid religious beliefs, and I’m a very “creative” cook, why should I have to cook for someone my “God,” dislikes? (And, fortunately for me, my “God” dislikes the very same people I dislike. It’s very helpful.) No, try as they might, they can’t hide the fact that they’ve re-opened the door to discrimination, which, I believe, is the goal.

I don’t believe there’s any difference between gay and black (from a “natural” standpoint). Both are uncontrollable conditions of birth. But you know what IS a choice? Religion. And, hey, I’m a creative type! MY God effing hates religious people, especially conservative “Christians.” He says they keep using His words to deceive and attack people and that isn’t what He had in mind at all…

So now I get to discriminate against Christians? Fair enough…
Or is that not what they had in mind?

Wow, that turned into a nothing-burger of the greatest proportions. Of course, I’m referring to the so-called “Wagner Rebellion.” I guessing future students won’t have to spend too much time learning about the global impacts of this one. It seemed to last about a day and then? Well, everyone went home. The leader of the – I don’t know, tantrum? – Yevgeny Prigozhin, (boy, does THAT mess with my spell-check) said he faces no charges for his actions. Expect him to become so filled with remorse he flies out of some 5th or 6th floor window soon. The two men with him at the time will testify it was suicide…

It sure looked serious for a minute, though, didn’t it? I think Putin might well have been running scared for a while. He got on a plane and left Moscow and his whereabouts are still unknown, as of this writing. I think Donald Trump was likely clenched extra tight, too. Trump has no legal defense for his actions, here in America, so he MUST get himself “elected” so he can abuse the levers of power and free himself and his co-conspirators. Those he still likes, anyway. In order to do THAT, Trump needs Russia. If Putin gets bumped, Trump loses his main political supporter AND his handler. Who would Trump send his secret, stolen documents to, if not his buddy Vlad?

Still, if someone in Russia is even willing to pretend to engage in an uprising against Vladimir “the murderer” Putin, it signals a fairly substantial loss of support and prestige for Putin and his obnoxious policies. I’ll tell you this: the best thing that could happen for Ukraine and the worst thing that could happen to Trump are the same: the fall of Putin. Keep your fingers crossed…

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Republicans in the House are STILL working to undermine the popularity of their party by attacking a woman’s right to choose. Good. Keep coming. Keep them pissed off. Keep telling them how much you hate, hate, hate individual liberty. Well, for women, anyway. Women love things like that. They’re really going to respond well. Maybe next you could try a “half pay for equal work” bill. THAT ought to bring ’em running! (Sure, they’ll have torches and pitchforks, but they’ll be running…)

After that? Well the GOP should outlaw shoes for women. I mean, look, all those shoes just take up space in the closet. Besides, having shoes makes it easier to get away. Take their shoes. They can still get outside and water the garden but they won’t get much further. In fact, now that I think about it, the GOP should just outlaw ALL clothes for women. Hell, that’s better than a burka. They won’t want to go outside at all if they’re naked. THAT should keep them in the kitchen, where they belong!

Oh, crap, I forgot about work. They have to work. Gotta feed the machine. Okay, let ’em have clothes – but only the ugly clothes. If you let them dress too nicely, they might entice some poor, unsuspecting man into some kind of sexual misbehavior. I guess they’re going to need their shoes, too, but we can still keep them down by “managing” their ability to manage their own reproduction. I’m sure women everywhere will appreciate the helpful guidance they’re getting from men on the topic and rush to support the party promoting the 17th century, cutting-edge ideals.

Still no word on any serious effort, anywhere in the country, from sea to oil-stained sea, to hold the men accountable for where they leave their sacred sperm…

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In a completely separate, totally unrelated article, the Taliban assures the world women are provided with a “comfortable and prosperous life” in Afghanistan. The accompanying photo shows two women in full burkas just…out in public…as proof. Well…I’m convinced…

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Okay, one last thought on this whole, “women shouldn’t have rights” thing being pushed in so many red states. I remember ,clearly, when you’all wanted to attack women but couldn’t, the claim was that it should be a state’s rights issue. Now red states are trying to pass laws preventing women from leaving their own backward, neanderthal red states – those who can, anyway – in order to receive health care from states that still think women should be allowed to control their own reproduction. In short, they’re trying to extend their own moronic views to other, better states. The GOP doesn’t really think it’s a state’s rights issue, they think it’s THEIR state’s right to decide.

That’s quite common for the cons. They’re forever screaming about individual rights but those are just the words. What they DO is use their rights to take rights away from anybody and everybody they disagree with or whom they find kinda “yucky.”

I’ll tell you this: That’s not “freedom.” That’s imposing YOUR beliefs on others. Cons never seem to grasp the basics…

Five rich guys climbed into an uncertified, dangerous submersible – and headed off on an adventure they had paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for – an opportunity to see Titanic first-hand. An hour and forty-five minutes later, the craft with the questionable building materials imploded, killing everyone aboard instantly. For several days, the entire world watched as navies from several nations scrambled their best men and equipment in an effort to find and maybe save them, happy to help. Rich guys, you know…

Meanwhile, 750 people clambered aboard a boat that was built according to a known standard and had (once) met all required specifications – but was never built to carry 750 passengers at the same time – and set off on a desperate voyage they had paid thousands of dollars for – to find a decent, safer life. Some time later, the boat capsized, leaving 300 known dead so far. Did you even know? One small country, Greece, is dealing with it and they’re a little irritated by the trouble. Immigrants.

Just a little side-by-side reflecting the value put on some human lives over others. Deepest condolences to all who were lost…

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Well, this seems inevitable. I JUST wrote about how excited the cons were that John Durham had been appointed to Special Counsel so he could expose all the wrong-doing the cons believe the Democrats used in their baseless attack on the con CheetoJesus, the criminal, (allegedly) traitorous, sexual predator Donald J. Trump. I mean, cons were in progressive faces, taunting the progressives that their witch-hunt was about to be fully exposed. “Neener, neener, neener we’re gonna get you! Neener, neener, neener Durham’s gonna prove it! Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha you’re so stupid!”

Uh-huh. John Durham was their handpicked attack dog – handpicked, that is, by Bill Barr and Donald Trump, make no mistake. He did his best to attack. Durham and I haven’t spoken in, well, a long time so I can’t say for sure, but I believe he believed and went into the project with faith and enthusiasm. After days, weeks, months, and then years, he found nothing. Since that was what he found (nothing), that’s what he put in his report: I found nothing.

In fairness, Durham was being asked to find the Rainbow Unicorn Valley and bring proof of Unicorns to the world. Cons – as a group – don’t much care about facts or evidence or any of that legal “mumbo-jumbo.” Once the cons decided Rainbow Unicorn Valley was a real place, it was just a matter of finding the right man to discover the exact (and secret) coordinates and bring the proof.

In the same way, they knew Trump was innocent because they WANTED to know Trump was innocent. They told themselves (and each other) every tall-tale they could think of to cover up for their Pusillanimous Prevaricator. THEN, they dutifully forced themselves to believe their preferred reality was actual reality and that actual reality is just an obstacle to overcome. In short, they desperately believe in Unicorns because they WANT to believe in Unicorns.

But when you officially charge a guy with finding and proving your Unicorns, your guy is going to come up short. It turns out, tall-tales and delusions are notoriously difficult to prove beyond a reasonable doubt, unlike, say, criminal retention of classified documents or even suspicious contact with Russians about elections. (Special note to cons: it’s because the crimes are real and Unicorns are not, see?)

As you can imagine, since Durham was hand-picked by Trump and Barr and sicced on anyone and everyone who ever told the truth about Trump, once he (Durham) investigated and charged and tried (and lost) and reported that Unicorns just don’t seem to exist, the cons finally stood down, accepted reality, and stopped looking for Unicorns.

Ha, HA, what are you, three? Of COURSE the cons haven’t surrendered their delusions. Instead, they’ve surrendered John Durham. The cons called Durham before the House so he could tell them all the good dirt he really discovered and explain why it didn’t get into his hit-piece, er, “report.” But Durham didn’t fess up to the “deets.” He just stood by what he had reported in the first place. Dems, apparently, hadn’t broken the rules. Cons, predictably, were pissed off!

If Durham wasn’t going to confirm their fever dreams, there can only be one reason.
“Um…because there was nothing to report?”
“Idiot! NO! CLEARLY, John Durham is a RINO operative of the Deep State!”
Video exists of Matt Gaetz leveling the charge. Gaetz really tore into Durham, insulting him and abusing him and ranting and raving and finally, excommunicating Durham from the good graces of the party. I’m sure by now, every taunting con is certain Durham is a RINO operative of the Deep State – and remains certain Trump is just being picked on by meanies.

That’s what We, the People are up against – a group who WILL choose their delusions over evidence. (And the insanity is spreading in Europe, as well.) The hopeful part? These Einsteins would rather eat their own rather than confess they may have been mistaken. But since they will never find their Unicorns the con-eats-con-feast can only expand. These guys are going to tear themselves to shreds trying to out-crazy one another and I, for one, intend to sit back and enjoy the show. Pass the popcorn…

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OMG, I just stumbled on a good umbrella name for the cons, as a group: the “not-sees.” They choose to “not see” reality while they work to help the one percent infect our once-great nation with Fascism. It’s kind of perfect, the “not-sees.” Feel free to use it…

So…two things happened on Wednesday, June 21. One, Adam Schiff got John Durham to admit that Trump had received help from the Russians. (That’s not the same as saying Trump sought help – just that he received it.) Two? The House GOP censured…Adam Schiff.

You remember John Durham. MAGA cons were practically orgasmic over what John Durham was going to expose and all the crimes he was going to prosecute and it was going to be AWESOME when he “gets” all the big, bad Democrats, picking on their poor, persecuted, pusillanimous perpetrator, Donald J. Trump. Then? Crickets. I mean, nothing.

He filed three charges, prosecuted two, lost ’em all. (Turns out, he had no case.) So the great and grand ‘Durham Report’ landed with a thud. Cons just moved on to the next outrage du jour. Thinking Americans had never expected Durham to find anything, anyway, so we all responded with a collective, “huh.”

Cons NEVER give up a lie, though. So, the House GOP called Durham in to give the full skinny. According to the Daily Beast, this resulted in an exchange between Schiff and Durham in which Durham at one point “clearly stated he doesn’t doubt the validity of evidence showing Russia was trying to help Trump – something many Republicans have vehemently denied.” Durham’s words? “I don’t think there’s any question that Russians intruded into – hacked into the systems, they released information.”

So maybe, I mean, just maybe, investigating whether Russia tried to help Trump get into the Oval Office wasn’t such a far-fetched idea, after all. When even the guy appointed to say Trump DIDN’T get help from the Russians says he DID get help, perhaps it’s time to drop that particular lie once and for all, eh?

But not THIS crazy-assed GOP infesting the House. THESE guys decided to censure Schiff for leading the probe into Russian interference. They got to scold him on the House floor. You know, for doing his job. (Sidebar: still no word on how they plan to handle George Santos – if, indeed, that’s his real name – for lying and potential criminal acts. Classic GOP, if you ask me…)

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Heads are exploding! Fortunately, no brains have been damaged in the process as the heads in question belong to cons. They’re apoplectic that Hunter Biden pleaded guilty to crimes and was NOT sentenced to immediate death by hanging, then firing squad, then being drawn and quartered followed by just being taunted and insulted – a LOT! Damn it, he got away with murder because his dad, the senile, genius, doddering, shrewd, incompetent, mastermind sits in the Oval Office and ran interference for him.

Okay, so he actually got convicted of paying taxes late (in fairness, he DOES seem to have tried to avoid paying them at all) and checking off a box on a gun application saying he wasn’t a drug addict when he very much was a drug addict. It makes perfect sense that his father would run interference – but not too much interference. He didn’t block the DOJ from moving forward but he DID tell them to be nice to little Hunter? “Yeah, you can prosecute, but just a little, okay?”

“YEAH,” spittle the cons, “but the punishment he got was just a slap on the wrist – because his daddy protected him.”
“Well, the punishment he got was consistent with similar crimes in other cases. Hunter is going to do some probation and a diversionary program for the gun charge. (He apparently possessed a weapon for, get this, eleven days while a druggie.) Don’t you think the law should be consistent?”
“HELL, NO!” Shout the cons. “We want “justice” only when it suits us and “the cruelest of punishments” for people we don’t like! And we don’t like Hunter!”
“Okay, how about we start with the gun charge?”
“Oh, HELL NO! Guns are sacred, even for a DemocRAT! What part of ‘shall not be infringed’ don’t you understand?”

Hunter’s not out of the woods, yet. There are still other investigations going on. Why, it’s almost as if the DOJ is doing it’s job and shrewdly incompetent, mastermind moron Sleepy Joe is doing a terrible, perfect job of protecting him. Got it…

When it comes to power, it’s not really all that difficult to understand why humanity is stuck with privately owned power companies: profits, right? Easy. They have a LOT of control over how and when power is delivered and that control allows them to manipulate the market – always to their own advantage, of course. That “always to their own advantage” part isn’t a complaint. That’s just business in America these days.

It’s ALSO easy to know what would be best for humanity: A non-centralized, renewable power grid. Think, for example, solar panels on every rooftop everywhere. The advantages are legion – and obvious. Any disadvantage is usually just blather pressed into the dialogue by people with financial interests in maintaining centralized control. I fully understand why these power moguls want to keep control. Money, money, money, money – MONEY!

I live in an area of California where we have a main power provider, Pacific Gas and Electric or PG&E. PG&E owns and commonly fails to maintain the lines of delivery. PG&E has been implicated in several of the fires California has suffered over the last several years and too many times the explanation has been some variation of “deferred maintenance.” For the uninitiated, “deferred maintenance” means, “we didn’t maintain it ’cause it was cheaper.”

They do things like this: There was a time when natural gas lines in San Bruno were so old and leaky, people regularly called in to the company complaining about smelling natural gas. The corporation knew they needed to upgrade the lines and received permission for a rate hike to pay for the work (they should have been doing as a cost of doing business all along in the first place.) The parentheses are the part no official would say out loud but everyone knew. THEN, they used the money on a political campaign in an attempt to secure a state-wide monopoly on power production/distribution.

Fortunately, PG&E lost their attempt to corner the market. UNFORTUNATELY, a segment of San Bruno blew up when a spark ignited some of the seeping gas, killing at least 8 people. PG&E then sought – and received – another rate hike to pay for the work they had already received a rate hike to pay for and fixed the lines. TWO rate hikes to fix one problem they should never have allowed in the first place? Sweet – if you’re PG&E. It’s a sorry commentary on Capitalism that every time they burn down or blow up some town as a direct result of their feckless corporate “leadership,” they get another rate hike to address the problem. It explains their new slogan, “PG&E. We’ll burn your whole city down for a dollar!”

But it led to a competing local power company, Sonoma Clean Power. Sonoma Clean Power is customer-owned but still, basically, private – and “for profit.” Their thing is, they provide cleaner power at “competitive rates.” It IS cheaper. I signed up right away and the production portion of my power bill dropped. The thing is, PG&E still owns (and fails to maintain) the distribution grid and PG&E, separately, gets to charge for power distribution. And, boy, do they! They continue to charge on a tiered rate basis – and the tiers are still ridiculously low. Turn on one 40 watt bulb for an hour, you’ve busted through tier one and are now into the more expensive tier two. (Okay, hyperbole alert but the main point is still correct.)

It bugs me and it has ever since I realized the scam. I buy power from SCP but PG&E still gets to gouge on the delivery of the power? How does it make one iota of difference to PG&E if they deliver one kilowatt or three? Answer? It doesn’t. That was just the price for PG&E to “share” their power grid. This is only one example. There are many but I’m tired of typing and you’re, likely, tired of reading about it. Besides, it’s not really what I want to write about.

There’s a movement afoot. In Maine, the state is trying to wrest control over the stranglehold on power from private companies and take the entire grid public with a non-profit replacement. As you can imagine, the power companies are pushing back – HARD! The private power companies have already outspent the non-profit backers 17 to one. The companies have contributed $18.4 million dollars to three different ballot committees fighting the proposal. That represents 100% of the funding those committees have received. That, alone, ought to tell you something.

Just to make sure the situation is as confusing as possible, the pushback committees have names like ‘Maine Affordable Energy,’ the most affluent of the three. Corporations aren’t stupid. They know they’ll have a tough sell with “Hey, why don’t you pay more than you have to so I can buy another Maserati?” Instead, they’ll focus on confusion and, well, trumpery. Oh, you know what else they’re doing – and successfully? They’re enlisting the aid of state DEMOCRATS to help sell the idea that private, for-profit power must be the way forward! Yes, Democrats, the so-called party of the people in cahoots with corporations against the best interests of, you know, the people.

One of them, a former Democratic legislature named Charlotte Warren received $266,000 from Maine Affordable Energy to co-sign an op-ed against the ballot measure. Then, the committee paid Facebook to run the op-ed over and over directed at thousands of Mainers, creating the (false) impression there was widespread opposition. They’ve also kicked down some $5 million dollars to a Democratic group called ‘Left Hook’ that works with the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and is staffed by a bunch of Obama campaign alumni.

In short, millions of dollars are being spent to maintain a system that benefits very few but works directly against the best interests of ALL Mainers, Americans, and humanity in general. I doubt anyone would be surprised to hear Republicans were working so hard to support corporations, literally until the end, but Democrats? In my opinion, Mainers should support the Pine Tree Power initiative and simultaneously work to remove any/every Democrat who gets anywhere near the stink of what might be termed “Anti-Humanity Capitalism.” Then, we need to repeat the process, state by state, until private power is no longer a thing in our quickly submerging nation. Assuming, that is, we can wrest control from them in time to address the climate crisis effectively.

I’ll tell you this: The world’s temperature is already heading directly, and inexorably at this point, toward “bake” and if we don’t act soon, it will reach “broil” and I can guarantee you, that’s not going to be good for humanity. Is it really worth it to maximize share holder value if the end result is destruction of the biosphere?