I haven’t seen much about this, yet, but I suspect it’s coming. I’ve heard that in the NY Fraud trial, Judge Engoron has ordered the trumpery organization to disclose ALL secret investors. The suspicion that he’s worth FAR less than he pretends in public has dogged this guy for a long time. Oh, but he has all those lovely buildings, right? Uh, maybe. Maybe not. Maybe, the buildings are owned by “silent” investors and managed by the Trumpery group. For a fee, of course.

I suspect we’re all about to find out why the trumpster is so submissive to Putin. If you’re not MAGA, you’ve seen 45 fawning over Putin like a child with a new puppy. The thing is, nobody can figure out why. Trump treats EVERYBODY like something that just fell out of his butt. There are two exceptions: if you can do something for him (but only WHILE you can do something for him) and if he owes you something he can’t slither out of. Like, say you’re a brutal murderer, and the leader of a country, and a large, perhaps majority shareholder in someone’s buildings. 45 isn’t likely to pull any of his shenanigans on someone like that. He just does as he’s told. And I’ve NEVER seen him do as he’s told like he does when Putin does the tellin’…

It could be Saudis. He let them get away with murder, too. Literally. But my money is on Putin…

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

On the other end of the lap-dog scale, there’s still Aileen “Loose” Cannon and she’s still trying to help the defendant in the trial she’s overseeing. She recently agreed to hold up the process for her trial because Trump asked her to. Um…while she makes some ruling or something. No word on when that will be. I’d guess, quite a while from now. One of the very few people who want to see Trump beat these charges as much as Trump is Judge Cannon.

It’s rather unusual for a judge to be on the defendant’s side in the United States. The judge isn’t supposed to take sides. Then again, there’s very little about trump that is usual… or reasonable… or even rational. Okay, so he has some breathing room in the Case of the Classified Documents. Fine. This was scheduled to be his last case anyway, thanks to his obsequious acolyte, Loose Cannon.

If she doesn’t just dismiss the case, outright (something I suspect she’s just itching to do) he can show up later… from prison… in an orange jumpsuit. It turns out, our legal system can accommodate multiple trials in multiple jurisdictions…

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

Hey, just a quick hit, here, but the FIRST thing Matt Gaetz did after ousting Speaker McCarthy was start fund-raising for ousting Speaker McCarthy. Ousting the Speaker of the House was just a fund-raising stunt? It’s illegal to campaign from official premises (like the floor of the House). Using official proceedings for campaign purposes seems exactly like campaigning from the floor of the House. Where is Jack Smith when you need him?

Oh, yeah, I thought this was funny. Gaetz said (threatened?) that if McCarthy managed to save his job as Speaker, he would be “working with the Democrats” – the ostensible excuse for tossing him out in the first place. But in tossing the Speaker? It was Gaetz who worked with the Democrats! Only 8 Republicans voted for the removal, all Freedumb (emphasis on “dumb”) Caucus members. The rest were Democrats who have no interest in a Republican Speaker. Matt Gaetz did the Democrats’ bidding!

Gaetz and the Democrats sitting in a tree…

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

There are a LOT of people upset with old Sleepy Joe for starting up the wall of trumpery again. He said he wouldn’t, now he is. Here’s the thing. My biggest complaint about the wall was, is, and will remain that the wall won’t have any helpful effect. It quickly proved to be little more than a minor impediment to those seeking entry. Joe knows that. Perhaps getting back to the wall was part of a back-room deal to get Texas to take down their razor-wire barricades that have been killing people. Killing people for showing up seems a bit…extreme.

Also, this is campaign season. The cons are pounding him on boarder security, because that’s what they’ve got. He gives them their wall. Now what? They get what they want, so he blunts that argument. But, since we all know the wall won’t stop ’em, the immigrants will keep on immigrating. For his part, Biden says he’s only spending money that was already allocated by Trump.

Meanwhile, people keep fleeing Venezuela, especially, in droves. Venezuela has essentially collapsed. Communism, you know. At this point, communism is a proven failure. Don’t be a communist. Be a Democratic Socialist so we can have a country that works again. But I digress. Biden is re-starting a program to send people back to Venezuela. That just seems mean-spirited, to me. Kind of like watching a snail make it across the sidewalk, then picking him up and putting him back where he started.

On the other hand, NO nation (especially our rapidly collapsing country – thanks, cons!) can just absorb millions of people in such a short period of time. Like it or not, there IS a gap between doing the right thing and doing what’s possible. Let’s say you see someone drowning. You swim out to help them but, in their panic, they put up so much fight they start to pull YOU under. The moral thing was to help but now, the victim won’t let you. Is it immoral to let the person go, KNOWING how it will end? I don’t think so. TWO deaths won’t help anything.

On the other hand, many of these south of our boarder nations are struggling thanks in large part to American “nation-building.” If we contributed to the problem (and surely we did), do we not have an increased duty to help? That is, maybe you try a little harder to save the drowning victim if you’re the one who pushed him into the water in the first place.

There are no good answers but I’m a fan of trying to solve the problem at the source. If we CAN’T take them all but they CAN’T stay where they are, we have to find a way to make their homes livable, so they don’t have to leave in the first place. But we can’t do that, either. (What, more nation-building?) Sadly, that’s as close to an “answer” as I can get. I don’t know HOW to help them where they are so they don’t have to leave. So I’m curious. Imagine you’re the President. It’s your responsibility now. What would YOU do?

It’s been a busy few days for Republican insanity. They’ve gone into overdrive. Trump showed up at one of his trials long enough to scowl at the judge and be disruptive in court, then step outside and confess to the very crimes of which he stands accused – over and over again! Then, after nearly three full days of trial, he got bored and flitted back home. He said he already knows what the judge is going to do. Yeah, he knows what the judge is going to do – because the judge has already done it. The judge in the case determined the fraud was SO evident, he didn’t need a trial. It’s called Summary Judgement. (What, after all, is a reasonable defense against claiming your 10,000 sq ft apartment is really a 33,000 sq ft apartment?)

I’ll tell you this: I don’t blame the dumbass Don for absconding back to Mar-a-loco. He’s heading to jail, soon, and I wouldn’t want to spend my last days of freedom in court, either…

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

Lots of people on the left are making hay about the fact that Alina Habba didn’t check the “Jury trial” box, laughing at her “mistake.” If you listen carefully, you’ll eventually hear that, in New York, these kinds of trials are usually handled without a jury. She might have asked but, likely, would not have gotten a jury anyway, so why ask? Not checking that box just shows she understood how the process works. Had she checked it anyway? The left, I suspect, would be trying to belittle her for checking the box when “everyone knows” that’s not how those trials are generally conducted.

I don’t like these little made up talking points. They’re so, so… Republican! They do it because it’s all they’ve got. If they don’t make stuff up, they don’t have anything to bitch about. But on the left, we don’t have that problem. The right is generating true scandal and stunning stupidity at a fast and furious rate and there’s no sign they plan to stop until they implode completely. The sooner the better, if you ask me…

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

Case in point? The ouster of the Speaker of the House – because he (Oh, Heaven forfend!) worked with Democrats for the benefit of the nation. Really? That’s an unforgivable sin? Compromise? Look, the art of politics is compromise. Nobody likes it because nobody gets all they want. You get a little, you give a little. You win some, you lose some. But not the MAGA cons. Not the Freedumb Caucus. “NO! No compromise! You do it OUR way or you don’t do it at all!”
“Um… your way is stupid.”
“OUR way or not at all! We count, you don’t!”
“Well, we’ll wait while you’all figure it out. Um…do you think you can do that?”
“Oh, we’ll show YOU! We’re forming our firing squad right now and the circle is almost complete! You’re gonna look SO stupid!”
“Um… a circular firing squad? Is that a good id–?”
“OUR WAY OR NO WAY! FIRE!”

So McCarthy’s out. The stupid sector has the power to destroy, but not the power, or, let’s be real, even the desire to build. The Dems, I suspect, will stay with their preferred choice for Speaker, Hakeem Jefferies. And why not? That’s who the Dems want. That’s who they’ll vote for so it’s up to the cons and they don’t have the votes. The far-wrong will insist on some MAGA moron. Still sane Republicans will prefer someone, well, sane. Impasse.

On the up side, the House can conduct no business until they have a new Speaker – except naming a new Speaker. (Oh, well, they CAN throw Pelosi out of her adjunct office. Petty tantrums are ALWAYS on tap for cons…) This means they’ve limited their own capacity to inflict the very damage they love so much. Good. The down side is, they’re still babies with a loaded weapon: the debt ceiling battle the Democrats refused to forestall.

So this will be pass-the-popcorn fun for awhile but it’s going to start getting serious in a few weeks and downright dangerous if it goes on for a whole month and with these guys? That’s always very possible.

As of right now, the nominees for the Speaker job are Jim Jordan, Steve Scalise, and Donald Trump. There’s nothing in the Constitution that says one must be a member of the House in order to be Speaker. Truthfully? I’m surprised these idiots overlooked the obvious: Jesus. There’s nothing in the Constitution that requires the person even be real, either, so Jesus could take the vote in a walk – if he wasn’t sitting in a courtroom with Trump, ignoring everybody else…

Jordan stands accused of ignoring sexual abuse when he was a wrestling coach at Ohio State University. He denies any knowledge. His wrestlers don’t believe him. Steve Scalise got shot by a gun-toting nutball and STILL thinks every nutball should tote a gun. He seems kind of incapable of learning, explaining his attraction to the Freedumb Caucus. Donnie the Dumbass says he’s too busy campaigning to spend time in court. But he COULD take time to be Speaker, suggesting he HAS the time, he just doesn’t want to be in court. (Hard to blame him.)

The cons made a big point of a new rule when they took over: nobody could be Speaker if they were under indictment for a crime that could put them away for two or more years. Trump is looking at like, 25 to life. But Republicans are NOTHING if not “flexible” about positions on any given subject, at any given time.

They’re supposed to having a closed door meeting this coming Wednesday to iron the whole thing out. They need to do it in private because someone has explained to them that the last Speaker-choosing debacle exposed them for fools, going 15 rounds. They’re going to STAY behind closed doors until they have the 218 votes one of them needs to get the job – or until one of the Freedumb Caucus members decides to make the whole process public for their own whiny reasons…

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

I was talking with a like-minded friend the other day. We were joking about how deceived the far-wrong faction of this once-great nation is and he asked me, “How do we know we’re right and they’re not?” Fair question. Here’s what I told him.
“In order for our side to work, we rely upon science, logic, and evidence. In order for their stories to work, they have to reject science, logic, and evidence…”

Trump during the 2016 campaign: Yes, I’ll release my taxes just as soon as they’re ready. (Never did.)

Trump during his maladministration: Yes, I’ll release my taxes right after the audit. (Never did.)

Trump during his indictment for fraud: This is a private company. I was never going to release that information! (Emphasis added…)

Hey, at least he finally uttered a truth – and proved, yet again, that the MAGA cons are fools to trust him…

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

Here’s the letter I’d like to see:

‘Dear Mr Trump:

We here at the Palm Beach County Assessor’s Office take our work very seriously. We strive for accuracy as our primary goal. As such, based on intrinsic property considerations, we valued your Mar-a-Lago property between $18 million and $26 million dollars. We have noted that you have objected, quite vociferously, to this valuation, claiming the property is worth “at least 100 times that amount!”

If pressed, we here at the Palm Beach County Assessor’s Office will have to admit, we did not take “intangibles” into account when arriving at our assessed value. But your (admittedly informal) request to re-assess using intangibles such as “Brand” has been honored and caused us to re-evaluate our earlier conclusions. We are STILL able to support your claimed valuation based on the property alone but in this one case, because you’re you, we’ve decided to accept your valuation and have reassessed the property known as Mar-a-Lago at your seemingly random number of $1.8 BILLION dollars. ($18 million x 100). Going forward, you will see this as your new valuation and property taxes will be billed accordingly, setting your new tax rate at $18,360,000 per year.

Unfortunately, the re-assessment means that you’ve been underpaying your property taxes for the 38 years you’ve owned the property, as well. As a result, you now have an outstanding tax assessment in the amount of $690,703,200 dollars, which is due a payable immediately. We expect this past-due amount in our office no later than end-of-business on Friday, October 27, 2023. Otherwise, we will be forced to initiate foreclosure proceedings to recover the outstanding tax amount now due.

If you would like to appeal this decision, please contact this office during normal business hours and an appeal will be initiated. But in truth, as we’re only using your stated valuation and you’re such a proven business genius (who are we to argue?) we don’t expect anything other than payment in full in our office on or before the due date.

Sincerely,

The Palm Beach County Assessor’s Office’

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

When grand-daddy Drumpf had to change his name because he had brought so much shame on the family name through cowardice in Germany, he chose ‘Trump.’ The word ‘Trumpery’ was in common usage at the time. It means “fraud.”

How apropos that Drumpf trumpery is costing the family the last of the fortune started (reportedly) through human trafficking in the Klondike during that gold rush…

No, not the shorter days of winter. I’m talking about the launch of the new session of the ‘John Roberts’ Supremely Kangaroo and Criminal Court.’ They re-launch their assault on humanity, freedom, and the Constitution starting on the first Monday of every October, and, apparently, there’s nothing anybody can do to stop them. Today is that dark day.

I imagine the bribe taking Alito and Thomas have pocketed lots of bribes, er, I guess we’re supposed to refer to them as “gifts from friends.” I don’t know why. A bribe is a bribe is a bribe. Why can’t we call them bribes? As for me and my house, we shall use the words that describe the acts. Bribes.

The current makeup of the corrupt highest court in the corrupt land includes at least four members who got their jobs by committing perjury and two (that we know of) pocketing bribes as quickly as rich people can hand them over. They sit outside the court on their lunch hours with little cardboard signs, ‘Will make rulings for money.’ And they will, too.

I’ll tell you this: I figure we all, to the extent possible, have to just ignore the “rulings” of the now-moron court until better (hopefully, FAR more honest) people are there. It’s likely going to take years before the damage they’ve done (and will continue to do) can be undone, if at all. I’m still rooting for a criminal investigation of the bribery but I haven’t heard an official peep about such a thing…

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

On the brighter side, today is ALSO the day 45’s New York fraud trial starts. He’s already lost the most important bits. The business has been ruled a regular fraudster, the business licenses have been cancelled, the assets are being put into a receivership for liquidation. There are a few questions remaining. Like, how much should Trump pay? Letitia James wants $250,000,000. I can only speculate on how hard the MAGA con base is going to have to work in order to pay that off for him. (They’ll do it, though.)

Trump doesn’t have to go but he says he’s going to. Apparently, his “lawyers” aren’t being disruptive and/or stupid enough, so he has to bring pro-level disruption to the courts. He may even win a couple of these smaller fine points but his New York business is already dissolved.

People worried about him transferring the assets to someplace, or someone, else – and he tried. Letitia James ran interference. (She’s smarter than him.) Now there’s no business to transfer and the buildings aren’t his to sell. It’s important to remember that we hear all the time about Trump’s “real estate empire” in New York, which has been true, but it’s also true that Trump didn’t build the empire. His criminal forebears did. When MAGA cons started shouting about what a business genius he surely is, I kept wondering what they were talking about. Off the top of my head, I can’t think of even a SINGLE business trump has started that succeeded, if by “succeeded” you mean, “became a going concern.”

I once read in Forbes Magazine an estimate that Trump had inherited nearly $8 BILLION dollars but at the time of the article, had already managed to lose three-fourths of it. I have never seen anything from 45 that would cause me to believe he’s anything but a huckster who started with a fortune. I seriously doubt he’ll ever be able to re-build that which he has now lost.

But with Trump, lying, playing “poor me,” and whining are ALWAYS an option and the trumpster has not let this opportunity pass. Trump is complaining about the judge in the New York case citing the Palm Beach County Assessor’s valuation of $18 million for Mar-A-Lago. Trump claims, based on his “gut,” that it’s worth $612 million, because of his “brand.” (You know, the exact crime that caused him to lose it all in the first place…)

I dunno. I think his “brand” is pretty well tarnished at this point. If Mar-A-Lago IS worth $18 million without his “brand,” potential buyers are probably more like, “Okay, I’ll give you $10 mil. Your “brand” has kind of hurt the place’s reputation…” Besides, Trump is a “motivated seller…”

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

But, MAGA cons still hold sway in the House. Although the government shutdown was averted for the moment, it was only for 45 days. The plan is to get the stubborn, selfish, stupid, and obstructive element of the House to get reasonable, in the next 45 days, and support America. What no person has accomplished in 45 years, Kevin McCarthy has to pull off in 45 days.

Meanwhile, Matt Gaetz, the MAGA moron “representative” from Floriduh, is set to try and recall McCarthy because McCarthy got all reasonable and stuff. I HAVE noticed other House Republicans avoiding the question, though, as though they may not really be into the idea. I suspect Gaetz will try anyway. It’s an interesting stand-off. If Gaetz does try and fails, the Freedumb Caucus will lose much of it’s force. If he doesn’t try, then McCarthy successfully called Gaetz’ bluff – and the Freedumb Caucus loses much of it’s force.

Gaetz seems to have manuvered himself into a ‘heads I lose, tails I probably lose, too’ situation. Now that’s some political skill…

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

I think it’s funny that Melania is so worried that Donald might really lose it all, she renegotiated her prenuptial agreement with him. She got more money for Baron put into a trust. I assume her personal allowance went up substantially, too. I hope she’s stashing it someplace safe. As his wife, the courts may call it community property and come after that money, too. Wouldn’t it suck to have to spend that much time with Donald Trump and then not get the pay-out you contracted for all along?

Then again, that’s Trump’s proven M.O. Maybe Melania should have expected to walk away broke…

Yesterday, I predicted the government would, indeed, shut down. Whoops! Not yet, anyway. I’ll call that a swing and a miss. (That’s just the risk of writing these things…) MyBaconPress doesn’t exactly regret the error, but certainly it should be noted… and so it is…

In this “stopgap measure,” support for Ukraine has been dropped – so they only passed something that has good hope of harming people. Sheesh! Republicans…

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

These days, the MAGA cons are all-in on circumstantial evidence. They have to be. It’s all they have, really. So, Hunter Biden knows a guy who talked to a guy who did something wrong, meaning JOE Biden is guilty as hell. They just KNOW it. But circumstantial cases, alone, are bad law. One takes a series of possibly unrelated (and, often, untrue) facts and/or information, mashes them together into a tableau, then reaches an unsubstantiated conclusion.

These days, Republicans aren’t too concerned about the holes in their circumstantial cases. Since THEY make up the cases and the cases are all (obviously) against Democrats, Republicans don’t see any problem. If a circumstantial case is all they’ve got, they’ll run with it. Now, explaining the problems with circumstantial cases to a Republican won’t stop them. They’ll simply choose to not believe any information offered them on the topic from their “opponent.” (read: “Fellow Americans…”)

So, today, I thought I’d make one up against their favorite guy. Fortunately, on our side, we don’t have to rely on circumstantial evidence since we have SO MUCH of the real, verifiable stuff on hand. But we could. Now, please note: I don’t want to be sued for defamation, here, so it’s important to note that I have NO legal evidence supporting the conclusion I’m about to draw. While the individual elements are true and correct, they do NOT support my conclusion. They’re circumstantial, and that’s the point. But the key? I’m making this up. So…here we go…

Donald J. Trump should be locked up for molesting Ivanka Trump, starting when she was about 12 years old! (Shocking, right?)

The first block in my “wall of assumed guilt” is that Donald Trump (among others, of course) was a known friend of proven child molester Jeffery Epstein. Trump and Epstein liked to party together and Epstein, infamously, liked the “underage women.”

The second point. Trump has bragged, publicly, about walking in on beauty contestants in various states of undress during competitions. His comments were about the Miss USA and Miss Universe pageants in which the contestants are adults, as though that, somehow, makes it less of a violation. But in 2016, Buzzfeed reported that Trump also walked in on underage women (15- and 16-year-olds) changing clothes in his Miss Teen USA pageant. Reportedly, one of the young ladies “mentioned the incident” (complained?) to Ivanka, whose reported reply was, “Yeah, he does that.”

Point three. When the ‘Access Hollywood’ tape dropped, I actually defended Trump in these pages. I genuinely thought it was locker-room braggadocio. My problem? I have actual regard for women. I simply could not put my arms around the idea that anybody might treat somebody – even a woman – with such disregard. Then we learned about E. Jean Carroll and, suddenly, ‘Access Hollywood’ wasn’t just hot air, it was an actual confession. Now the only question is, how many other women did he disrespect that way, just because “stars” get to “Unfortunately… or fortunately…”

Four: Of course, E. Jean Carroll. A court of law has now held him responsible – twice! – for exactly the sexual assault he described enjoying – and labeled him a rapist. The ruling suggests that Donald Trump sees women merely as sexual playthings, only on the Earth for his personal amusement.

Five: Trump is not a guy to deny himself any passing whim. If he wants to grab a woman inappropriately, he WILL grab a woman inappropriately. He does not deny himself any pleasure, any desire. He sees it as his “right,” being rich, or a “star.” If Donald Trump wants something, he doesn’t say “no” to himself – ever! And do you know what Donald Trump has always wanted?

Six: Donald Trump has stated, publicly and more times than people can count, that he wants to have sex with Ivanka, how great it would be to “date” his daughter. He’s been making this little “joke” since she was quite young, definitely one of those “underage women” he likes so much…

Point Seven: Trump’s second wife, Marla Maples, served out her sentence (I mean ‘stayed married long enough to satisfy the prenup.’ Even then, she only walked away with two million dollars…) Then, she took her daughter and ran. Ivanka was about 12 when Tiffany was born. Maybe Marla had noticed that Ivanka had already caught daddy’s eye…

ALL of this suggests (but, notably, doesn’t “prove”) that Donald J. Trump should definitely be locked up for molesting Ivanka Trump, starting when she was about 12 years old!

So there you go. My seven point (but fraudulent) case that I just made up by mashing together a series of seemingly related events to suggest that Donald Trump molested Ivanka, possibly starting about the time Ivanka was 12. Remember, my conclusion is NOT warranted according to the rules of evidence but works QUITE well according to the rule of “look what I can make up!” I say again, for clarity, I do NOT say my made-up conclusion actually happened, even though we know the supporting points all did happen. My ONLY GOAL, here, is to show why it’s a bad idea to press circumstantial cases because one thing IS true: two can play at that game.

I’ll tell you this: This is a dangerous post. Someone could take my “case” out of context without my knowledge or permission and re-post the incriminating parts as real, making Trump look very bad. I wouldn’t want that to happen. I think some MAGA con should defend Trump to make sure they’re on the record. But how do they do that? Even if a MAGA con can dismantle my “case,” point by point, I can be just as stubborn and wrongheaded as any MAGA con so, sooner or later, they will be forced to demand proof – actual evidence, which, obviously, I don’t have. But when you do, you’ll be proving to the world you know the difference between circumstantial evidence and direct evidence…

Ah, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, hee, hee, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ho, ho, ha, ha, Oh, my side hurts! ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha,

That’s me, laughing at those wacky, zany Republicans and their “hearing” into Biden’s “crimes.” They just get nothing, and nothing, and then more nothing. But having nothing doesn’t stop ’em. They’re going to run into that wall, over and over and over again. Hilarious!

They SHOULD be passing the debt ceiling increase but that would be responsible, doing the right thing. Republicans don’t DO the right thing. EVER! So instead, they’ve launched a hearing into the various and sundry ‘crimes of Joe Biden.’ (Checks notes. Is this correct? Joe Biden?) Yeah, Joe Biden. They brought in a hard-hitting first “witness,” Jonathon Turley from Fox Not-News, apparently because he was opposed to Trump’s second impeachment.

His testimony? No, he doesn’t see any impeachable crimes from Joe Biden. Oh, he thinks the hearings should continue because they might find something, but, no, they haven’t found anything yet. Yeah, that’s how it’s supposed to work, hearings in search of crimes. So far, so good…

These guys are an embarrassment to the country, to the world, and to humanity in general. But not to Republicans. Republicans think they’re hard-hitting, intrepid “investigators” seeking the dirt on a political opponent and they’re desperate to find… something… anything. They NEED some law-breaking from Biden in an attempt to counter all of the law-breaking from 45 but it just isn’t there. Private citizen Hunter, sure, but it just doesn’t have the same zing as getting Joe.

Meanwhile, Democrats are actively mocking them to their faces and they don’t even understand. At some point, stupid on stupid, trying to be even more stupid and, sadly, succeeding spectacularly is going to be a problem for this once great nation. It’s a good thing nothing important is going on right now or the Republicans might drop the ball entirely…

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

Speaking of the Republican debt ceiling failure, welcome to the Republican shut-down! Count that a prediction at this point. They actually have one more day, today, to get something done. In my lifetime, I’ve seen Congress get something done in one day exactly one time in my life. (I hadn’t even known it was possible.) It was when conservatives in Congress, trying to make some point, declared Terry Schiavo still alive. Doctors said no, she’s gone, but the cons took a vote and – viola! – resurrected (in a very much still-dead kind of way, though).

Cons have been very quick to try to convince people that nobody will be hurt. Specifically, what they mean is that none of THEM will be hurt. The Democratic controlled Senate is working, today, to try and get something passed as a stop-gap but the America-hating Freedumb Caucus in the House is going to say no to everything. This is their goal, their dream-come-true. They pretend they’re trying to save money but this isn’t the process for that. This is just a question of whether we pay our bills or not and the cons are saying, “NO!” That, alone, is going to do harm.

Perhaps we could slash the Pentagon budget in half. That would save LOTS of money. Hey, we could shut down the money-wasting, time wasting, politically motivated “impeachment hearing,” the very embodiment of “wasteful spending.” I also like the idea of refusing to spend one Federal cent in any district represented by a no-voting “Freedumb Caucus” member. That will save some money, too. Hey, if it’s what those, particular (and particularly stupid), constituents want, let’s give it to them. “No money for you – in keeping with your preference!”

I don’t really see any reason the rest of the country should suffer. Let the constituents of the “Freedumb Caucus” live with ZERO Federal assistance for awhile, say, through the next election. If they return their Freedumb caucus member to the House, they’re approving of no Federal assistance. (That won’t happen. That would involve having an actual principle about a thing.) If they prefer to receive their Social Security or Medicare or Disability payments or whatever other Federal assistance from which they might benefit, they need only replace their insane and always-wrong “representative.” Simple. Meanwhile, NONE of the Congress critters should be paid nor any expenses reimbursed until they do their job…

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

Well, Diane Feinstein has passed, aged 90. If you’ve been alive over the last couple of days, you’ve learned everything you could about her from most outlets. For me? I liked her when she was younger, less so as she aged. I thought she should have stepped down, at least when staffers started having to explain to her who she was. I don’t mean her any disrespect but she clearly overstayed her abilities and that was not in the best interests of the country, despite the rhetoric.

Governor Gavin Newsom gets to appoint her replacement. He says he’s going to pick a “place-holder.” He doesn’t want to choose any of the declared candidates for fear of giving one of them a boost the others don’t get. I expect a replacement sooner rather than later. We’ve all seen the state Feinstein was in. Again, despite all the talk, we’ve all been on a kind of death watch for her. Newsom must have someone in mind already…

Well, Donnie lost again. In court. Why, it’s almost as if this guy depends on lies and more lies to convince people of things but if he has to prove something, hmm, he never can. Like, EVER. Now it turns out his business empire is based on fraud as well. That’s not my opinion. A court just said so. They said, “Hey, your business empire is based on fraud!” That’s pretty clear. So, 45 has turned to his preferred legal strategy: lying and whining and attempting to try the case in public instead of the courtroom.

The numbers are self-explanatory. If you have a building genuinely valued at a million dollars but you report the value as five million to get a loan and only $27.50 at tax time? You’re lying. Period. But when you walk into a deposition and state, also clearly and under oath, that you use your “gut” to value your buildings? When you insist that using appraisers would take too long in the process of doing business so you just “estimate?” The prosecutors are going to look at you, likely dumbfounded, and say, “Uh…you realize those are the actual charges, right? You just made up numbers to serve your needs in the moment?”

So they had the charge that he did it. They had the numbers to prove he did it. They had his own statement, explaining clearly that, of course he did it. How could they NOT rule such a fraudster a fraudster?

The State of New York isn’t going to let a Trump do business of any kind anywhere in the state pending an appeal he’s going to attempt but lose. (They got barred from non-profits for criminal wrongdoing a few years ago.) I was worried a bit about Ivanka. She got dismissed from the suit. Not, it turns out, because she wasn’t connected to wrongdoing. Ivanka got dismissed because the Statute of Limitations had run on business deals in which she had participated. So, I was concerned the corporation might just welcome her back to the corporation and plop her down in the Chairman’s seat as a figurehead.

Actions speak louder than words and I’ve also learned that, despite all his claims that the whole thing is a witch hunt and he can prove his innocence, he was quietly trying to re-incorporate and shift all of his assets out of New York, indicating that, for all of his bluster, he knew he was going to lose. Letitia James stopped the process. The state WILL get what Trump owes.

But the judge has cancelled all of Trump Organization’s business certificates and the holdings are being put into a receivership for liquidation. With the business certificates all canceled effective immediately? I think the stable business genius is out of business in the State of New York…

I’ll tell you this: his rank and file MAGA cons are going to have to get second and third jobs to pay his legal AND living expenses. I guess it’s a good thing they’re so comfortable they can afford to bail out the self-proclaimed (but probably lying) billionaire…

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

Remember when 45 told people they were going to get tired of winning? Has he won anything since? This dude is the biggest loser I’ve ever seen – and I’ve known some losers…

His latest loss is his attempt to get Tanya Chutkin to recuse herself. She’s the judge in the D.C, J6 trial. She has sentenced several of the traitorous MAGAs and, I suspect, she’s looking forward to sentencing 45. He thinks that shows bias. I think it proves she’s been paying attention. Based on what I know, I expect a conviction in that trial but, I’ll tell you the truth, if I were sitting on the jury, I’d pay attention to possible exculpatory evidence and take it into account. (Trump claims he’s sitting on a trove of liberating proof. I don’t believe him, but I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt until the trial comes and goes and none of it ever appears.) I don’t like Trump. I think he’s dangerous to America. But I DO love America, or at least, what she’s trying to be. That means if I’m sitting on a jury, I have to do the best I can to be objective. That would be my role. If I can do it, Judge Chutkin can do it. (I’d guess she can do it even in situations where I couldn’t, her being a professional, and all…)

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

I hated the Trump years. I hated listening to the MAGAs all bragging about Trump’s great accomplishment, none of which were actually happening. I hated listening to his constant whining, bragging, and threats to anyone who thought differently than he did. I hated his elevating bigotry to “acceptable,” public-display levels again. I hated watching the world withdraw from America, coming to the realization they had an unstable trading partner and undependable ally in Trump. Hell, they started keeping information from the US, fearful that Trump might pass it on to Putin.

I hated that the one time America – and the world – needed a true leader when Covid-19 hit, instead we got a blithering buffoon whose response to the threat was “pretend it isn’t real.” How many tens of thousands of people died as a direct result of his utter incompetence? I hated watching his minions attack the Capitol building because an election didn’t come out the way they wanted and that orange moron had convinced them that if he lost, it was rigged. Most of all, I hated that he seemed to be getting away with all of it.

The wheels of justice move slowly and I was – and am – concerned that they may move too slowly. Apparently, despite his crimes, despite his failures, despite his incompetence, despite his lying, despite his bigotry, despite his age, despite his outright and demonstrated stupidity, despite his love for despots and dictators, and despite his disrespect of the U.S. Constitution, he has a good chance of being President again.

This says FAR more about the MAGAs than it does about Trump. ANY moron can say, “Hey, can I be President?” The fault lies with the crowd that looks at the moron and says, “Great choice!” But it’s still a danger. As President of the United States he would have the power to protect himself from criminal prosecutions. EVERYONE knows that. So the race is on. Have the trials, get the verdicts. Define the sentence or don’t, depending on the verdict. It’s pretty clear: stop Trump or lose America. Period. Those are the choices.

I’ll tell you this: life very rarely offers such stark, this-or-that choices but we’re looking at one right now: stop Trump or lose America. I expect the prosecutors to prevail at every turn. (They have VERY good cases.) But the devil still takes care of his own. The ONLY thing I’ve ever seen Trump do effectively is slither out of responsibility for anything. He deserves an orange jumpsuit. I expect to see him in an orange jumpsuit. But just in case, I stand ready to cast a ballot for whomever emerges as the anti-Trump. (Biden.) I really hope it doesn’t get that far, though…

MAGA cons are, quite literally, trying to effect actual change in real life in response to delusional stances. That’s not going to work. (Keyword: “delusional.”) They seem to think that simply declaring their delusion makes it real. In the House, the cons have an entire committee looking into what they describe as “the weaponization of government.” To a MAGA con “weaponizing government” means prosecuting crimes using evidence, in this case, a staggering amount of well-documented evidence. They don’t really object to weaponizing government, though. Have you heard them talk? All they want is to gain enough power to use the government to attack their political opponents and, preferably, lock up said opponents for reasons to be determined later.

The MAGA’s also have a tendency to declare the way something works – and then expect that that is, indeed, the way that thing works. Freedumb Caucus member Jim Jordan is heading up the “weaponization of government” “investigating” committee. They’re doing all they can to harass the prosecutors and witnesses against Trump. You know, because they hate weaponization of government. So, Jordan, having randomly decided his power as a committee chair is unlimited and irrefutable, sends requests to Fani Willis, demanding papers and documentation and regular reports on her work. The biggest problem cons ALWAYS have is that they do NOT get to just decide how things work and this event is no exception. I imagine Jordan thought his was a pretty slick move.

Willis told him no. She’s just not going to play – and she doesn’t have to. She used professional level lawyer talk to refuse his “demand.” She pointed out that the pesky constitution doesn’t allow for Congress to interfere with state trials. She mentioned his request was rife with “inaccurate information and misleading statements” whose “obvious purpose is to obstruct a Georgia criminal proceeding” and pointed out he’s advancing “outrageous partisan misrepresentations.” I suspect that if he pushes too hard, she could charge him with obstructing a state procedure. Wouldn’t THAT be fun?

If Jim Jordan wants to find the culprit “weaponizing government,” he needs to look in the mirror. All of this, mind you, in defense of a guy, 45, who claims the law is on his side and he has all the evidence he needs to clear himself – he’s just waiting for that magical, “right moment” before he drops a ton of exculpatory evidence on the Dems. Silly me, this isn’t about ‘Dems,’ it’s about the law and I would have thought the right moment would have been before the charges were filed. Secretly, I suspect he doesn’t really have any evidence at all. Shocking, I know. I keep thinking, “If he has the law on his side, and he has all the evidence he needs to clear himself, why is he relying so heavily, instead, on a campaign of harassment, threats, and – to the limited extent the MAGA’s can – government weaponization?”

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

I hear the writer’s strike is coming to an end. They’ve agreed in principle on everything and are just working out the language of the contract. Unions. STILL doing good in the US. Their strike worked. The UPS driver’s strike worked. The railroad workers strike worked. (In a weird way, but it worked.) I’m guessing the UAW strike is going to work, as well. Why, it’s almost as if employers know they have NOTHING without workers despite whatever rhetoric they spew.

I’ve written, in these pages and several times, my support for unions. I lamented that big business managed to off-shore most of the union jobs. “Oh,” they said, “we’ll become a service economy.” They liked that idea because many of the service jobs were not well organized. The shift gave the C teams across America the power they needed to do whatever they wanted and they wanted to pocket all the money. Executive-to-worker pay differences soared. When the workers said, “Hey, where’s our share?” executives said, “Shut up! Pay cut! Get back to work!”

I listen to Bloomberg Radio for financial news. They’re pretty good but they lean right. They’re not partisan, exactly, but the rightward lean is apparent. For example, they don’t like unions. I heard one of their talking heads trying to convince listeners that the USA hasn’t seen a strike succeed in over 40 years. That happened, literally, days after the UPS strike had, indeed, succeeded. The other day, I heard one of them pointing out that the latest strategy in the UAW fight, targeting parts distributors, would hurt the common man, people who need parts and can’t get them. If the workers don’t make the parts, she lamented, the company can’t ship the parts. Hey, that’s true.

In fact, I’d say that’s the point. The company needs the workers more than the workers need the company. Capital, as the adage goes, is subsequent to, and dependent upon, labor. That means nobody makes money without workers. Hey, the labor force has something the executives need? When I need gas, I pay what they gouge because they have it and I need it. Go to the doctor. Pay whatever number they make up – and they DO make them up, often, because they have what I need and I need it. I pay more for the delivery of electricity than the actual production of that energy – because PG&E owns the lines and they can charge what they want because they have what I need. All of that is viewed as “Capitalism.” (Capitalism – “You’re trapped! Pay up!”) Organizing for the control of their “product” – the labor the Capitalists need – is a VERY Capitalist move.

I’ll tell you this: I’m looking forward to more unionization and more labor actions to get what the workers deserve. I don’t like the disruptions from union actions but I very much like the ability to get a fair share for the people who create the revenues in the first place…

According to the super capable, stable genius, if Biden (or maybe Obama or maybe even Hillary. He’s not sure who he last ran against.) gets elected again, he’ll probably get us into World War Two. Damn, again?!? That war sucked the first time through. I’m not sure I WANT a redux…

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

I served in the US Air Force and earned an Honorable Discharge. That makes me eligible for VA medical coverage but, truth be told, I chose not to pursue it for many, many years. I was not a combat veteran and, in my experience, it’s quite common for non-combat veterans to stand aside for combat veterans, who, likely, need the resources more.

I have a friend who served in the Navy, also non-combat. He wasn’t using the VA, either. The thing is, the older we get the more medical services we need and in our current, vicious, Capitalist-crap-hole of a country (“America! We’ll squeeze til you die, then we’ll squeeze a little more!”), people go where they can to get health care. So, when my friend had a serious health issue, he hooked up with the VA to help him out.

Apparently, he likes it. He and I have been friends for a long, long time. I trust him. When he told me about his great experience and suggested I should go with the VA, I re-considered my position and looked into it. He said he gets all of his medications for $5.00 a bottle. What a deal. He DID point out that, mostly, he has to go to San Francisco for treatment. He lives in northern California and takes a special VA bus, spends the night at the VA facility, gets his treatment, then takes the bus home.

My experience has not mirrored his.

When one joins the VA, one is assigned a doctor, so you get what you get. What I got was a woman who doesn’t seem to be too interested in being there and every time I’ve spoken with her, to date, she seems to think I’m trying to put something over on her. (I have no idea what that might be.) The first time I met her, it was a welcome meeting and she set up prescriptions from my other provider. She also told me I should maintain my other coverage. I started ordering meds from the VA. They mail them and it’s quite convenient – but they were NOT $5.00/bottle and, in keeping with the normal quality of her work, a couple weren’t even set up in the correct dosages so I got some from the VA and kept getting some from my private provider. (I tried to get her to correct the dosages. She refused.) Just before my last appointment, I tried to refill a couple of things and everything listed said ‘Expired.’ Weird. My appointment was literally days later so I thought I’d just mention it to her then.

When I did? She looked confused. She said, “We don’t provide your medications.” Now I was confused. I said, “You have been.” She said, no, she hadn’t seen that in the records. I pointed out that she set them up. I mentioned that I have meds issued by the VA, bottles with the VA logo on them. She stopped debating the point but made no effort to renew the prescriptions and I came away believing she has no intention of doing so. Also, it seemed to make her defensive.

I have a problem in my wrist. I get this bone spur that presses against the nerves. It hurts. After awhile, it hurts a LOT. It comes and goes and I know what it is and how to fix it. A shot of cortisone does the trick. My other choice is a tricky surgery. I told her about the pain, told her the history, and asked for the shot. Her response? “We don’t just hand out things because a patient asked us to.” Hey, no shit, huh? I knew she would want x-rays. I just ALSO knew what she would find and was trying to do an end-run around the surgery talk. It’s a waste of time. Surgery is not an option for me. This is America. I have to earn every day, or else, so the message goes, I deserve to die. You know, “…and reduce the ‘surplus’ population.”

She explained to me that if a shot of cortisone was warranted, I would have to go to San Francisco to get it. Are you kidding me? If traffic is good, it’s just under an hour to get to the city for me. (Traffic is rarely that good, any more.) It’s more like an hour and a half getting home. The shot takes about two minutes to administer. Two and a half hours of driving for a two-minute shot? How stupid is that?

I had done a lab panel before the most recent visit. Oops, they missed one of the tests. She explained that I would have to go back to the lab for the one they missed. No sweat. At the end of the appointment, she casually asked me if any “alcohol or recreational drugs are involved.” Okay, alcohol IS a “recreational drug” so the phrasing of that question was stupid. I “recreate” with a little wine most evenings. But, no, her phrasing of her question wasn’t stupid, it was tricky. She and I had not talked about it but when I got to the lab, they ALSO wanted a urine sample. I asked why. The lab tech explained it was a tox screening for drugs.

I don’t DO drug tests. I count them a violation of my constitutional rights, both the Fourth and Fifth Amendments. It’s an invasive search without probable cause and without a warrant, a fishing expedition, and it absolutely leads to self-incrimination. (Yes, my position on the topic HAS denied a few potential employers the benefits of my services.) Fortunately, she hadn’t mentioned her little ambush test and I wasn’t aware they would need that sample in the lab so I stopped by the bathroom on the way to the lab. When I saw the cup, I told the tech that wouldn’t be happening. When I learned what it was for, I was glad for the way things had worked out. But now? I have NO trust in my VA doctor.

She’s very unresponsive. She doesn’t seem to know what day it is, let alone which patient she’s with or what she has done for said patient. She’s very good at “no” and now I see her as sneaky and underhanded, as well. I walked out of the VA in the exactly same medical condition as when I walked in and with no provision in sight, my VA “doctor’s” advice ringing in my ears, “You should see a doctor about that…”

I can’t just switch to a different (hopefully better) doctor at the VA. There’s a process and it STARTS with asking the offending doctor to reassign me. That seems a little like asking Clarence Thomas to recuse himself from a case involving his bribing friends and/or his criminal wife. “NO!”

So, for me? The VA is basically a wash-out. I can get little tests and screenings, maybe. Care, though? Not so much. The only decent advice she ever gave me was to keep my private coverage. Of course, private insurance in this once-great nation is like a personal seat license (PSL). The PSL you pay for only allows you to pay even more for seats. Health care insurance in this country only gets you in the door, where you can then pay and pay and pay some more.

I’ll tell you this: I hope my VA experience is an anomaly. I hope vets who don’t have access to other avenues of health care, like I do, aren’t stuck in such an unresponsive, dare you-to-use system. I don’t know, maybe the phrase “Thank you for your service” is supposed to replace decent health care. I would be interested to hear if you use the VA and what your experience is, if you would be inclined to share…

Well, it looks like we’re on track to yet another Republican shut-down of our government. Lovely. When I write my opinion that I think a segment of the Republican party wants to simply destroy our nation, it’s things like this I’m thinking about. And, make no mistake. This is not a bi-partisan problem. This is pure Republican. Worse, it’s a handful of insane, far-wrong (they’re never right) Republicans who care about nothing so much as optics. But when the nation starts staggering under the weight, blame the Republicans. When American credit gets downgraded, yet again, because of yet another Republican shut-down, blame the Republicans. When you go into the voting booth, perhaps pregnant with your rapists baby, blame the Republicans.

Kevin McCarthy was nearly forced to perform obscene acts in public to get the job of Speaker of the House in the first place. Now he’s going to lose it because a small segment of his party doesn’t understand things. That’s just going to make things worse. The House is non-functioning with it’s weak, weak, pathetic, loser of a “leader.” How bad is it going to be with no leader at all?

Here’s one way you can know, and I mean be absolutely certain, that shutting down the government is a stupid and dangerous idea: 45 really, really wants them to do it. He wants it bad. He thinks it’s a great opportunity to try to de-fund his criminal trials. (Sounds like justice to me. Can’t prove your innocence in court? Attack the process. Perfect.)

Can you imagine hating your country so much you would rather destroy it than (Oh! Em! Gee!) compromise? Horror of horrors! But this small band of Republicans are doing exactly that. The entire country gets to suffer while they have their little temper tantrum. But what’s their end game? They’re not going to win. Even if they force concessions in the House, somehow, the Senate is going to kill whatever stupid, far-wrong idea they’re endorsing now. If they can’t get what they want, what are they holding out for? They’re going to hurt Americans across the land just to try to make some, stupid political point.

I’ll tell you this: we all know who’s doing these things, Republicans. When you go into a voting booth, a vote for Republicans is a vote against America. At this point? There can be no question.

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Okay, so… at what point does “gifts from friends” become a criminal act? Let’s say you’re a Supreme Court Justice and your “friends” became your friends right around the time you became a Supreme Court Justice – and just happen to be millionaires and billionaires who likely have business before said court from time to time – and certainly have political goals. As we’ve all experienced, after being sought out and befriended by millionaires and billionaires, you begin to receive from those potential litigants some, uh, let’s call them “gifts.”

Yeah, that’s the ticket. Let’s say that. They’re “gifts.” Hundreds of thousands of dollars of gifts every year. Very generous friends. Oh, let’s add that, instead of reporting these… um… gifts, like he’s supposed to, he didn’t report them. At all. To anyone. (For clarity, that’s the opposite of what he was supposed to do.) There’s another word I know, ‘bribe.’ Maybe these two, independent points don’t stand together too well in this case. Who knows? But, to me? It doesn’t feel like Clarence Thomas has been receiving “gifts.” They seem more like “bribes” from the likes of Charles Koch, no less, and others, of course.

I’ll tell you this: I want Jack Smith to finish up with the dumbass, already, and turn his attention to the bribe taking Clarence Thomas.

This is only tangentially related, but… We ALL know that when the cons speak, every accusation is a confession. There is NOTHING they accuse the Democrats of doing – and they never have evidence – that the cons don’t get caught actually doing – always with evidence. Ask a con, they’ll tell you that George Soros is the root of all evil and the funder of all evil events, just because he likes doing things like that. They’re only pointing away from Charles Koch, the anti-American, corporate head who just hates, hates, hates paying taxes. (Wouldn’t want to contribute to the well being of the country that gave you so much, now, would we?) Of course they are… When they pretend ‘Soros,’ they mean ‘Koch…’