Free, Premium Health Coverage

Well, they’re gone. The House, I mean. They went home for Christmas. Isn’t that nice? WHEN they go home, each and every one of them – Republican, Democrat, Independent, et al, – ALL of them enjoy the safety and security that comes with having free, premium health coverage.

While enjoying their free, premium health coverage, Republicans took health insurance from millions of Americans with their so-called ‘Big, Beautiful Bill.’ It ain’t so “beautiful” to it’s victims, I can tell you that. While enjoying their free, premium health coverage, Republicans promised they were going to fix everyone up with a new, better way – but they never offered anything that might serve.

While enjoying their free, premium health coverage, Democrats tried to force Republican’s hands with a budget battle back in September. Democrats lost that battle by standing down after procuring nothing more than a promise to vote on the subsidies they had eliminated. That is, the Democrats relied on the word of Republicans. How stupid was that?!?

While enjoying their free, premium health coverage, the vote came but the subsides did not. The measure by the Republicans, which passed along party lines, does not include the subsidies and is considered a non-starter in the Senate, but while enjoying their free, premium health coverage, Republicans can tell constituents they voted on a package.

While Congress Critters are enjoying their free, premium health coverage, the estimate I’ve seen for the price increase on premiums is around $1,016 – PER MONTH! That’s the ‘Merry Christmas’ Americans get from Republicans in Congress. I don’t know if you’re aware, but all of this is occurring while members of Congress enjoy free, premium health coverage…

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Everyone is still angry at our moronic misleader over his Epstein involvement. The information that was released is a) insufficient, b) incomplete, and c) heavily doctored to implicate Democrats and protect Republicans – one Republican in particular.

The idea appears to have been to try to throw suspicion on Democrats and pretend no conservatives were caught up with Epstein. THAT, the hope seems to have been, will get people to stand down on this, right? Conservative dingbat Laura Loomer wrote, “It’s pretty rich how the Democrats falsely accused President Trump of being a pedophile, only for the Trump DOJ to release Epstein files that show Bill Clinton skinny-dipping with a pedophile in the pedo’s pool. Maybe now the media will stop obsessing over these files.” (Emphasis added by me.)

Then again, maybe not. It remains true that honest brokers don’t give two figs about the political affiliations of the people involved. Also, everyone – and I DO mean everyone – has noticed the release has been carefully manipulated to highlight Bill Clinton’s involvement while redacting Donny’s. Oh, AND there’s no evidence he was “skinny-dipping.” And it was all done so… skillfully. Why, I haven’t seen THAT level of clever since the last time a six-year-old tried to cover up a misdeed.

One year, our kids knocked over our Christmas tree. They knew they had messed up, badly, and they tried to “fix” it. To their credit, they managed to get the thing back upright. Then they put the ornaments back and – voila! – misdeed hidden, right? Well, it might have been – except that when they put the ornaments back on, they grouped them all in one place and no higher than their little hands could reach. It’s fair to say, we noticed. Secretly, we laughed. But their “fix” caused questions.

That’s how I feel watching this group of supposedly adult clowns trying to manage the release of the Epstein files that indicts anyone and everyone except Donny, who was probably not just a participant but part of the trafficking team. Their efforts at manipulating the files is SO poor, so… effing juvenile, well, now there are more questions, not fewer.

Personally, I just want to ask the victims. It has to be said, not every person is perfectly honest in every moment. Even if they mean to be, honest people make honest mistakes. But I’d guess these now women have a pretty solid memory of what happened, when, and with whom. I think we could ask the women, then corroborate their stories with information from the files. I think of that as a witness statement supported by evidence. What a radical idea.

It has the advantage of bypassing the stonewalling of Donny and Team Evil. It has the advantage of getting the information out there, without devolving into a ‘he said, she said.’ It has the advantage of NOT giving more consideration to the dead guy than the living victims. Witness statements supported by evidence is a pretty good standard. Let’s use that…

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Hey, MAGA, this last bit is just for you. I want to make sure we’re all clear about something. Look, nobody is asking you to become liberal. Nobody is asking you to betray core beliefs about fiscal prudence and smaller government. The rest of us are only asking you to stand against corruption. It just so happens that in this case, the corrupt politicians are Republicans but that part is just a coincidence. You don’t have to stop being Republican or conservative just because you stand up to corruption.

In fact, you stand up to corruption to defend yourself. You stand against corruption, no matter which party, because you love America and you want to preserve the Constitution. You stand against corruption to maintain your right to see things the way you see things, not the way you’re told to see things by someone else. Nobody is asking you to stand against Republicans. Nobody is asking you to stand against conservatism. We’re only asking you to stand against corruption.

I’m not even going to summarize the corruption in question. I don’t need to. I know you see it. The rest of us suspect you hate it as much as we do. We believe you know you’ll suffer from it right along with everyone else. (Check your health insurance cost right after you get back from the grocery store.) You defend it because you think this is a Democrat/Republican thing. It isn’t. If you acknowledge Donny hasn’t gotten the job done – for anybody but himself, anyway – you don’t have to switch parties.

It just feels like it needed to be said…

An Awful Lot Of Stupid…

It’s the law, right? The Epstein files must be released by Friday, 12/19. Today, 12/20, some of the files have been released, though heavily redacted. Democrats are pointing out that what was released and how it was released is not in compliance with the law. Cons are insisting this is the most transparent presidency in history, clearly proving they do not know the meaning of the word, ‘transparent.’ Here’s a hint: if Team Evil was being transparent, the world would be able to read the words in the files. Pretty simple, really.

Based on Donny’s behavior around all of this mess, I believe – and I mean I genuinely believe – Donald J. Trump raped or caused to be raped underage, adolescent girls. There is simply NO other explanation for the way he hides and obfuscates the information the FBI collected. I suppose he’s free to sue me for saying so, but the first thing I’ll demand in discovery is the entire Epstein data cache. Unredacted. But, for clarity, it’s just a personal belief. Sure, it’s one I think I share with millions, perhaps billions, of people on planet Earth, but it’s just a personal belief.

I wonder if anybody is surprised he released a pile of useless information that does nothing to move the case forward. Over 550 pages were completely redacted, just a series of black lines. Yeah, that’s helpful. The part the confuses me the most about his reticence to release the files is the why.

Look, if you’re not MAGA, you already know who and how he is. You already really don’t like him and you can’t wait for him to go away. You don’t NEED him to die, but if that’s the only way to get rid of him, you’re hoping and praying, daily, for Divine Intervention. If you ARE MAGA, you don’t care that he rapes kids. Hell, you’d drive your daughter to his house and leave her there – or even hold her down – if your Precious asked you to.

I might expect some pushback on that last sentence but MAGA’S moral malignancy is already clearly apparent for any and all to see. You happily killed family members when he wanted to pretend Covid-19 was a hoax. Why wouldn’t you sacrifice your daughter or grand-daughter to the darkest whims of your Precious? Yet, here he is, cowering in his hidey-hole, afraid someone might notice the reality of him…

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Okay, really? The Trump-Kennedy Center? That’s just disgusting. Maybe ‘putrid’ is a better word. I DID throw up in my mouth a little when I heard. He infested the Kennedy Center when he stole his way into the White House and the board was all hand picked by him. Primary criteria? Soothe and nurture his tiny, fragile ego. It’s the same job description as every person who surrounds him. So, when he said he wanted his name on the Kennedy Center, they put his name on the Kennedy Center. Keep the baby from having a tantrum.

I think he killed the Kennedy Center for the foreseeable future. I mean, the only performers that will show up are MAGA has-beens or never-weres. Who wants to see that? Once he goes away – and at this point, that can’t be soon enough – we’ll have to have the place fumigated. Maybe we should bring in some medicine men to exorcise the demons. Probably, we’ll just have to knock the place down. He just ruins everything

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Because we’re following Donny, we’re moving from putrid to petty. I’d say he acts like a three year old but that’s an insult to three-year olds. He put bronze plaques under photos of the previous presidents – except Biden, of course, whose “portrait” is a signature done by Autopen, because one can NOT be petty enough. I thought that was bad but then, as usual, he out-pettied even himself. The plaques are supposed to be blurbs about each President. A normal human would have said something nice about the guy and moved on. Not these. Keywords? “Normal human.”

Apparently, these are attacks on the people who have held the job before him. Petty, minuscule-minded attacks that, in summary, leave him described as the best President ever, despite ALL of the mountains of evidence to the contrary. But, look, Donny trying to convince somebody – anybody – that he is in any way competent or qualified to do this, or any, job while stroking his own ego just as hard as he can is nothing new. That’s just 47. But, quick question.

How much did all of that cost? Bronze plaques and gaudy golden fixtures are disgusting to look at and not cheap. I keep wondering, how can he have the highest deficit in the history of the nation when he hasn’t been spending on the American people? Where’s the money going? No, I don’t think he has spent a trillion dollars on plaques and gold fixtures. But that just begs the question: where is all of that money going? He’s putting it somewhere, by God…

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47 didn’t even WANT to give that speech. Maybe that was why he seemed so angry. He had other, FAR less useful things to focus his attention on. His whole bit was about how awesome he is and how successful he’s been and how much better than everyone else he is and what a great job he’s done and oh, yeah, how great he is and you can, too, afford your life because he said so and he’s great and you’re not so just Shut The Facts Up! (I confess, I’m not sure that ‘Facts’ is the F word that goes there.) I mean, for such a resounding success, he sure sounded angry.

Susan Wiles made him do it, at least according to him. He didn’t really have anything to say so he just rolled out mostly a greatest hits speech and repeated many of his favorite lies. By the way, I read in ‘The Daily Beast’ where they reported he “fired off mistruth after mistruth.” More euphemism. Why? Why not just call them what they are: lies? What’s so hard about that? Donny lied and lied. It’s easier to read and it’s easier to understand. But I digress.

One of the lies he told was about a “warrior dividend.” He promised some troops were going to receive checks in the amount of $1,776 dollars. He said it was coming from his tariff dividend, which he has promised to various groups at various times but not one of them has seen a dime because, despite his lying claims, the tariffs are a disaster. But worse, that money that he promised HE was going to send from the tariffs was already authorized by Congress from your tax dollars.

It’s a housing allowance for some service members who don’t live in base housing. Congress authorized the money earlier this year. Donny has rebranded the money as some largess that came from him. Ho hum, just another lie from the Father of Lies.

In fact, Paul Simon summed up Trump’s entire speech in a song called ‘the Boxer’ years ago when he wrote: “Lie, lie, lie. Lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie. Lie, lie, lie. Lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie.” Perhaps not Simon’s best poetry, but succinct and dead on years before Donny became the problem he is for the world. THAT is some quality insight, right there…

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Could someone please explain to me how Venezuela “took away” oil from America? What did they do, hide it underground in Venezuela just to pump it back out again later? Is that moron REALLY trying to convince the rubes that war is okay because Venezuela STOLE our oil? I simply can NOT believe that the recipient of the first-ever FIFA Peace Prize is going to lie his way into a foreign war – and for the ridiculously stupid reason of stealing their oil, an outdated energy source we should no longer be using. It’s a stupid act for a stupid reason endorsed by a stupid person. That’s an awful lot of stupid…

TACO Don…

Okay, so I have to confess, this is my favorite story of the week. As we all know, Donny’s a bully. He likes to use his money to abuse people around him. He’s especially aggressive about it when someone says something truthful about him he doesn’t like. We all say truthful things about him he wouldn’t like all day every day – and he makes it so easy – but he never hears the peons. He does hear newspapers and broadcasts, though, and he loves to sue them. The more honest their story, the larger the demand.

He did it again with the Pulitzer Prize board. They awarded a couple of their coveted prizes to the ‘New York Times’ and the ‘Washington Post’ on their reporting of collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government. Donny is working to convince the rubes that he didn’t collude with Russia and he insists nobody should say otherwise, so he demanded the Pulitzer board rescind their prizes over that coverage.

For their part, the Pulitzer Prize board reviewed the articles and said, “No.” Specifically, they said that “two independent reviews” of the reports awarded in 2018 showed that no aspects of them were refuted by special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russian collusion findings, despite Trump’s claims. So of course Donny sued.

Get ready for TACO time, because Trump Always Chickens Out. Like, when a Pulitzer Prize board you’ve sued demands pretty much everything in discovery? Trump claims he was defamed. He claimed emotional distress, reputational harm, and financial damages. So, the board has requested a long list of demands for documents and evidence. They’ve asked for his medical records going back to 2015 so they can examine the exact details of any claim of emotional or physical distress.

Donny’s used to just sobbing in his soup about how poorly he was treated and how it harmed him. The Pulitzer board is demanding evidence. How, exactly, was he injured and what was done about it? If there was no emotional or physical damage, they would like that stated in writing as well. He’s used to people cowering when they see the threat. The Pulitzer Board has, instead, decided to get into the nitty gritty.

Oh, he was financially damaged? Let’s see the evidence. The board has demanded his tax returns going back to 2015. Everything, all returns and supporting schedules. If there’s financial damage, it should show up there, right? Donny tried to overwhelm his opposition. I suspect the opposition has now overwhelmed him. He’ll obfuscate. He’ll lie. He’ll try to delay but eventually, he’ll fold. He’ll tuck his tail. He’ll continue to bitch about it in public (“It’s so unfair!”) but, he’ll drop the suit.

I’ll tell you this: Donny’s no strongman. He’s a wimp who turns tail and runs every time he’s confronted by groups he can’t intimidate with his money…

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That bit you just read? All of that above this? Yeah, go back and read that again, except insert “BBC” where it says “Pulitzer Prize board” because he’s about to go through the same treatment in response to his $10 billion dollar suit against the BBC. The Drumpfster thought he was going to intimidate journalists into backing down because he was able to push around American corporate stooges? There’s a path to victory with TACO Don; ask for evidence. He really hates that…

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I’ll tell you what’s weird: the economy is shedding jobs in December. This is a time when retailers are normally taking on extra help for the holidays. I’m used to unemployment going down in December, then up again in January as the temporary help is let go. It’s no wonder he keeps trying to hide jobs reports…

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I know it’s behind us and we’ve all had some time to process his selfish, hateful, grotesque response to the murders of Rob Reiner and his wife at the hands of their own child. He simply lacks compassion. I mean, completely devoid. I look for words and there’s nothing – nothing – strong enough. Depraved? Boorish? Disgusting? Even ‘Evil’ isn’t enough, but evil he certainly is…

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When one spends so much time writing about politics, it’s advisable to sit and watch any address from the president, or, in this case, Donny. So, you can bet that at 6:00pm Pacific Time, I was somewhere else, making music. I can’t stand that guy. Besides, I’ve seen his act. It’s old. Very old. It’s also very, very boring.

His approval ratings are plummeting. When I look at his approval polls, I’ve only been looking for one thing: is his approval less than 34%? You see, MAGA runs about 30 – 34% consistently. Anything that cuts into that mark indicates loss of support from MAGA. That’s dangerous for him. Recently, I’ve seen topic-specific approvals well into the 20 percentile group. MAGA seems to be catching on and they do NOT like what they see, now that they can see. So Donny had to do something.

He opted for a speech of lies. We all know them, by now. We can repeat them by rote. Oh, he inherited a terrible economy. No, he didn’t. Biden did it? (Did what? Everything bad. It’s all Biden’s fault!) Nope. Even his story about drug traffickers has fallen apart, now that we know his assault on Venezuela is an oil grab and has nothing to do with drugs. Pardoning the guy who brought 400 TONS of cocaine into the US was a pretty solid clue for me, as well.

The economy isn’t getting better. The reason it’s in free-fall is Donny, not Biden. Prices are still going up, except gas and the reason gas is down is the primary producers opened their spigots a few months back. It had nothing to do with Donny. Oh, hey, your health care premiums are about to skyrocket, especially in Red States where dependency is the highest.

In fact, Republicans in Congress have put up a Herculean fight to make sure your premiums go up. Actually, I suppose in many cases the cost will drop precipitously, since many won’t be able to afford the new costs and lose their coverage entirely. I mean, sure, they don’t get to see a doctor anymore but their premium did drop to zero. Then, as you lay there dying of some easily preventable illness, Donny will whisper in your ear, “But I lowered your health care costs…”

What we DID get was a long list of promises. Oh, things are just about to happen. Oh, any day now, the plan is going to work. Give it just a little bit more time. Sure, things suck today but in two weeks or a month or two months or first quarter of some time in the future at some potential end point – sooner or later – things are going to blossom and bloom. Promises, promises. Damn, that boy has been promising for a long, long time. He has yet to deliver on… well, anything

First Thing This Morning…

The first thing I see when I open the newspaper this morning? The lede is about the shooting in Australia at Bondi Beach. A father and son murder team killed 15 people and injured dozens more in an antisemitic attack on people celebrating the first night of Hanukah. I noticed a short-lived effort on the part of gun death advocates celebrating that the shooting didn’t happen in the US and claiming that “it happens everywhere.” For the record, Australia has strict gun laws and mass shootings are rare.

Meanwhile, there was a shooting at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. As of this writing, the shooter is still on the loose. THEN, there’s a story about how Donny’s budget cuts have threatened a crime-riddled town in Louisiana plagued by gun violence.

It’s just a lot of violence to wake up to, so I thought I’d… highlight it and put it at the top? It’s the world we live in. I think it’s getting worse, not better…

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Wow. On the topic of violence, Rob Reiner and wife, Michele, murdered? That was the last thing I expected to see when I got up this morning. Reiner was an outspoken critic of Dim Leader. So far, I know nothing of the details but it says something about the society in which we live today that the question pops into one’s mind, unbidden. Was this a political murder? It’s possible. It’s also possible it was something else so I’ll wait and see. I was just shocked by this…

UPDATE: Reiner’s son, Nick, has been arrested in connection with this event. Tragic. Is it a relief that it wasn’t some political thing? Yeah, but not much…

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Trump with six women whose identity is protected.

Have you seen that photo? It’s a big talking point right now. The right is being told this is a photo of Donny with the Miss USA pageant contestants. Maybe it is. If it’s from the island, a survivor needs to speak up and say so. Either way, though, this photo doesn’t implicate 47 in anything. Redacting the faces is dramatic, but everyone is dressed and nobody appears to touching anything untoward. So what happens if it IS just a photo of him with pageant contestants? Won’t the right use that to undermine all of the other evidence that supports the idea that Donny was in deep with Jeffrey?

That’s the thing that bothers me most about things being tossed out, presented as one thing that turn out to be another. It makes it harder and harder to know what’s true and it’s so unnecessary. Donny is the personification of all seven of the Seven Deadly Sins. Nobody has to make up terrible things he’s done. He’s got plenty of real ones. When someone does make them up, it doesn’t harm him, it protects him.

What we do know about that photo, though, is that it was released by the Epstein estate along with something like 95,000 other photos. It seems weird that Epstein would keep a photo of Donny with some contestants, but lots of things about Epstein seem weird. Donny DID own the pageants. He is said to have violated the women’s privacy during the pageants by “inspecting” facilities while the young women were changing clothes. Maybe that explains Jeffrey’s interest.

Novelty condom bearing Trump's likeness.

This photo, however, is going to be a bit tougher to explain away. This is a condom package from Epstein Island. It bears the Drumpfster’s likeness with a brag that sounds just like the “man” himself. Donny is trying to downplay his involvement with Epstein and prevent any evidence from coming out that might implicate himself. The harder he tries, the more it seems Donny wasn’t just a client at Epstein Island. He seems to have been part of the team.

I don’t have enough information to be sure. Maybe there are condom packages with images of Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, Steve Bannon, and/or Alan Dershowitz. Maybe. Maybe those packages simply weren’t released. But we all know this game. If the Dems release something they think is incriminating, the GOP works to dismiss it and then releases something of their own. I suspect, because we’ve all seen the ‘Donny Condom,’ if a ‘Clinton Condom’ existed, we would have seen that by now, too…

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The Bill of Rights became law on this date in 1791. Those were good things we had, there, rights. It’s too bad a small handful of wealthy miscreants decided we had had them too long. It’s just one of many down sides to living in a fascist authoritarian regime. I thought I should mention it in remembrance of what we’ve lost…

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I want to do a follow-up on yesterday’s NFL football. The Niners won, which they needed to do. There was an outside chance they could have improved their position considerably if certain very unlikely things happened and that was fun, but those unlikely things didn’t happen so they ended up just holding their own – but that’s good enough to make the playoffs at this point.

Next week the Niners are playing the Indianapolis Colts, now led by 44-year-old QB Phillip Rivers He came out of retirement to play after the Colts lost their other Quarterbacks to injury. Physically, he didn’t look like he was in game shape but he played well. They almost beat a very good Seahawks team. That means the Niners have their work cut out for them.

The Chiefs were eliminated from playoff contention yesterday. That hasn’t happened in years. Worse, for them, their star Quarterback, Patrick Mahomes, tore his ACL with about two minutes left in the game, while he was trying to drive the team downfield for a chance to even the score. He’ll probably have surgery and miss most of next season. As I watched the Chiefs get closer and closer to elimination, I noticed an upsurge in injuries to the team. I began to wonder if the idea they were at risk of being eliminated somehow increased the chance of injury. It’s just speculation.

The Dallas Cowboys were essentially eliminated, too. There IS a chance – 6%-8% – so I can’t say they’re out, but they’re out. They have to win all of the rest of their games AND they need help from other teams. I’m okay with both the Chiefs and the Cowboys watching the playoffs from home…

Morbid Fascination…

I shouldn’t say it, I suppose, but I’ve been morbidly fascinated, watching this spitting battle between The Drumpfster and MTG like one looks at an accident on the side of the road. You don’t want to know but you kind of need to see. Do you recognize the car? Might it be someone you know under that yellow cover? In their case, who’s going to win? Spoiler alert: everything we’ve seen supports the idea that the devil takes care of his own so MTG doesn’t stand a chance. The fact that MTG is right never really enters into it.

I was watching her the other day and I had the feeling that she really doesn’t understand quite HOW she became an outsider, here. It, just for a moment, felt more like she thinks she’s helping Donny get on a better path. Consider, if you honestly, genuinely do not believe 47 is incriminated in the Epstein files in any way, what would be the problem with releasing everything, all at once, and let the chips fall where they may, right?

And I honestly and genuinely suspect that MTG considers Donny above suspicion, so what’s the problem? Anyone can see that this whole sex-with-minors thing is a problem for the dotard, as it should be. No, it’s not a serious problem for MAGA. They figure if Donny had sex with kids, he had a reason. Maybe he didn’t KNOW she was 13. It was probably for the good of the country or some such. Some of them wish they knew how to get to that island, too.

But for those of us still operating with a functioning moral compass – and that is the two-thirds of us who aren’t MAGA, along with the rest of the world – yeah, it’s a problem. And from her point of view, MTG is right. If Donny’s not in the files anyway, why not just release them and let the entire issue dry up and blow away? She seems unable to make the final leap.

If Donny’s not implicated, there’s no reason to withhold the files. Donny is withholding the files. Take the leap Marjorie. Connect the dots. If Donny’s not implicated, there’s no reason to withhold the files. Donny is withholding the files. It’s such a short step. You can DO it, Marjorie. C’mon, make the connection. If Donny’s not implicated, there’s no reason to withhold the files. Donny is withholding the files.

The waiting is the hardest part…

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Meanwhile, a trove of who’s-who photos were released by the Epstein estate. Now we’re going to get to watch the left highlight all of the known conservatives that show up in the pictures and the right highlight all of the known Dems that show up in the pictures, each side trying to out-evil each other.

In the interest of fairness, it should be clearly stated that simply appearing in a photo with Jeffrey Epstein is not proof of moral failure. I suspect Jeffrey and Ghislaine were careful about whom they invited to play along. I suspect the infamous airplane served as a convenient place to “vet” a potential “guest,” so one might find themselves enjoying a convenient plane ride that never became anything more. But we KNOW there were some (many?) who DID, shall we say, pursue “opportunities.”

It’s the group that survived the vetting and visited the island I’m interested in. Those who appear in the DVDs that were secretly recorded and labeled with the date, a girl’s name, and the perpetrators name. The DVDs that, likely, formed the basis of the blackmail that “earned” Epstein enough money to own an plane and an island. I don’t care if you took a plane ride. I care if you took opportunities to engage in sex with teenagers. If you did, I don’t care what your politics are. You should pay a price for what you did to those girls…

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Look, only a moron of the highest order would think it’s some kind of good idea to allow Artificial Intelligence (AI) free rein with little to no oversight and no regulation. So, of course, Donny’s all in with little to no oversight and no regulation of AI. He has signed an Executive Order denying states the right to regulate AI as they see fit because as everyone knows, conservatives have always stood against states rights, right?

Gavin Newsom, once again, has taken the lead in opposing this stupidity, too. Executive Orders do NOT carry the weight of law. Only Congress can make Federal laws. Congress’ cowardly abdication of that obligation doesn’t change that.

There’s a thing out there called the Drake Equation. The Drake Equation is a mathematical formula that attempts to suggest a number of communicative extra-terrestrial civilizations in the galaxy. Frank Drake wasn’t trying to actually count the actual number. He was trying to stimulate debate on the possibilities. Since his original formula was presented in 1961, it has been modified.

One of the modifications is, “The number of civilizations that has survived it’s technological age.” That’s where we are and, as of this writing, it’s not looking like we’re going to be counted among those who survived. Donny’s desperate clinging to fossil fuels we don’t need anymore will definitely be a factor, but shoving AI into anything and everything that can have AI shoved into it will certainly do serious long-term harm, as well. But by all means, let’s just keep blindly careening at wild speeds into an unknown we can’t see, control, or understand, all the while trusting the same billionaires who have put us where we are today. I’m sure it will be okay…

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Look, would you PLEASE just read the US Constitution? Please? It’s not that long. You can find it online. You can choose between reading the “as amended” version (the one I recommend) and the original with the amendments listed at the end. Yeah, it’s a bit dry but it’s not written in “herebys” and “wherefores.” It’s written in plain English. Well, some of it IS a bit archaic. Still, the point is, you can understand it without a law degree.

There are just truckloads of debates in this submerging, once-great nation that could be settled quickly and easily if people would just take a few minutes, just a few, and read the basis of the nation. Thank you for your attention to this matter…

Why Would They Do THAT?

The other day, Wednesday, in fact, Donny said he didn’t understand why the US doesn’t get immigrants from Denmark, Sweden, Norway, or the like. He was blaming Biden for his own failures in a speech on inflation, so how he rambled over to immigration is anybody’s guess but there he was, bitching about people who come here from impoverished nations and wishing they would come from, well, you know, whiter places.

“Why is it we only take people from shithole countries, right?” he asked the audience. “Why can’t we have some people from Norway, Sweden? Just a few.” At another point he added: “Do you mind sending us a few people? Send us some nice people… But we always take people from Somalia. Places that are a disaster, right? Filthy, dirty, disgusting, ridden with crime.”

Okay, so it’s pretty obvious he wants more white people to come here and fewer not-white people. So far, the only group he has supported immigrating to the US is white Afrikaners, from South Africa. South Africa is a poorer country. It’s considered “emerging.” That’s the term for a country that is no longer Third World, but doesn’t yet measure up to First World.

One in five people in South Africa live in desperate poverty. That sounds like a shithole country, to me, but he’ll accept the white folk, anyway. So if he’ll accept white folks from shithole countries, then it seems the “shithole country” part has less to do with it and the “white” part has more to do with it. Feel free to toss “racist” on Donny’s pile, no, mountain of sins. But, just for fun, lets pretend it’s not just dripping racism and he really, honestly wonders why people from, say, Denmark, don’t try to come to the US.

Have you looked around recently? Look, if you live in a place that is “filthy, dirty, disgusting, ridden with crime,” the US might still look pretty good to you. But why would you want to come to the US from a decent, civilized, First-World country? At BEST, the US gets it’s own, new designation: we’re a “Submerging Nation.” That’s a country moving OUT of First World status and into something… less developed.

I’ve looked around at my fellow Americans. In a lot of cases, I could see Scandinavians coming to the US to visit, like people go to the zoo to see the monkeys. Will we actually throw our poop at the wall? Sadly, we might. That’s pretty much the level of intellect of about a third of Americans today. Yeah, I can see them coming to witness the freak show first-hand. But to come here to stay?

Why would anybody walk away from their much, much better lives in their Social Democracies that provide for the largest number of people, and trade that in for the realities of the daily life struggle in the US? So, yeah, if you come from Afghanistan, Haiti, or Somalia, the US probably still looks pretty good to you. But if you know what a First World, civilized nation should look like? The US is little more than an oddities stop on a visit – and even that is becoming less and less true…

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It’s just so…trumpian. It’s Donny all over. Classic 47. He creates problems with his impulses. Sometimes quite large problems. THEN someone explains to him why he can’t do what he’s trying to do, then he tries to fix the problem. Then, of course, he wants credit – maybe even an award – for undoing the damage he did in the first place.

A Washington DC non-profit has filed a lawsuit against Donny over the destruction of the East Wing of the White House. The East Wing of the White House is going to be a little harder to fix, having been completely demolished with no permits and no plan going forward. I mean, sure, he has concepts of a plan but no architectural drawings. The architect had a sense of taste and decency and, as we all know, Donny can’t stand that. Donny ONLY understands disgustingly gaudy and grossly ostentatious.

So, despite the fact that the ballroom is already much larger than the White House, itself, Donny wishes it was bigger. (Gee, projection much?) The architect and Donny “debated” the topic for a short time, then Donny fired the architect he had hand-picked for the project.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation sued The Felon yesterday, seeking to halt his barfroom project until it receives congressional approval and undergoes independent reviews. Yes, this could be an example of over-regulation but the US Capital has been a designed space since it’s inception. There are rules about building styles and such.

The ONLY thing I want to see happen with that ballroom once Donny has shuffled off this mortal coil is to knock the effing thing down and put the East Wing back. We’ll want to hide every aspect of our nightmare under the moron and knocking down that garish monstrosity will be an excellent place to start. Then again, maybe people can block the thing from being built at all. That would make it easier to put things back to right once he’s gone…

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The GOP in the House have finally released a “health care plan.” The main points? ‘Try not to get sick and, if you do, be a billionaire.’ That seems to be the key to survival in this once-great nation, ‘be a billionaire.’ If YOUR daddy wasn’t rich, what the heck is wrong with you? All you’re going to need is a job that pays $480,769.23 an hour and you’ll make it in no time. And our dumbass misleader wonders why people won’t immigrate here from better countries…

Failing and Fumbling…

Well, I did not expect the start of the day to look like this. The US seized a tanker off the coast of Venezuela yesterday. Oh, did I forget to mention it’s an oil tanker? No one is even pretending it’s part of a “drug war.” NOW, suddenly, Donny – who couldn’t find his own ass with both hands and a road map – yeah, THAT Donny, uncovered a cabal of oil cheats?

Pam Bondi got to make up the announcement. She said the tanker had been sanctioned by the US for “multiple years” due to its “involvement in an illicit oil shipping network supporting foreign terrorist organizations.” Terrorists, terrorists, terrorists! That’s just a catch-phrase these days. I think that, no matter where they are, when they look into the camera menacingly, scrunch their faces up, and spit the word “Terrorists!” it should be followed by a tension building, and foreboding fanfare. Technology in the world is getting better all the time. The regime should be able to find a small, hand-held player for such a moment. It will spice up the drama.

I think Donny is dragging the US into yet another oil war. He talked about the drugs – which, by the way, his base believes completely. He claimed drugs were being shipped out of Venezuela that don’t get shipped out of Venezuela. MAGA thinks those motorboats aren’t trying to reach the US mainland. They’re either going up the coast to Mexico or they’re heading to a ship waiting for them. When I asked why nobody said anything about waiting ships? Crickets. When I pointed out that, if true, ships might be going anywhere? Crickets. MAGA media gives them a story, not the details.

It doesn’t matter, though. Donny doesn’t CARE about drugs. That was just an excuse. Think Saddam and his WMDs, despite the fact that Saddam didn’t HAVE WMDs. He DID have oil and the US took that for a LONG, LONG time. Gratis. It was a light, sweet deal for US oil companies. (It’s actually Brent Crude, I think, but I liked the joke.) Donny is working to replicate the feat in Venezuela.

So, here we go again. The US gets into a brand new oil war, THIS time to procure a resource we shouldn’t need anymore. We have alternatives and we should be using them. How many lives will be lost? 87 and counting, so far. How much money will be spent?

Look, I don’t think that everything happening in today’s modern world is necessarily better but I don’t think it’s automatically worse, either. Renewable energy technology is better, long-term. It’s better for the environment and nobody has to bomb anybody to gain sunlight. It’s just…there. And, should the day come it’s NOT there anymore, human beings will have bigger problems than the cost of a gallon at the pump. MUCH bigger problems.

Donny SO desperately wants a peace prize, he’s willing to accept a made up knock-off from a soccer organization, but he’s STILL starting a war for all the world to see. I suspect he actually believes he’s picking this fight with Venezuela cleverly, fooling everyone. Blaming Venezuela, I guess, means nobody will notice what the US has been doing. But the US has been doing it badly. The world knows this will NOT be a righteous war. Team Evil really needs to be sent to the Hague and put on trial for crimes against humanity. And, the sooner, the better…

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If you’re surprised by this, you’re definitely MAGA. None of the pretend indictments against Letitia James or James Comey or anybody else the current incompetent regime accuses of mortgage fraud have held up in court. None. But they DID prompt reporters at ProPublica – real reporters, not MAGA media, opinion-spewing talking heads – to look into other mortgages, maybe those taken by some other potentially interested parties – like Donald Trump, for example.

So… guess who actually DOES commit mortgage fraud by claiming rental properties as primary residences to get better loan rates. Go ahead, take a guess. I’ll wait…

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Oh, sure. He imposes tariffs and wipes out the US soy market (again). Then, because his tariffs wiped out the soy market, he’s going to (again) give billions of dollars to the farmers who prefer to earn their living than need handouts. Donny gets to CLAIM he’s helping the poor, down-trodden farmer, but he’s really helping the banks that hold the notes these farmers need to pay back. If the farmers crash and burn, the banks are hurt. Donny NEVER cares about the little guy.

The regime is trying to convince the rubes that China stopped buying soy while Biden was running the show because they suffer from BBS, Blame Biden Syndrome, and blame Biden for everything. The fact that it’s so easy to check these details and understand them as the lies they are doesn’t bother them because they know the rubes will NOT check. They just believe…

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If you’re not a football fan, please bear with me, here. This deserves to be noted. In a Monday night game on the 8th of this month, the Quarterback of the Philadelphia Eagles, Jalen Hurts, threw a pass. It was intercepted by a guy named Da’Shawn Hand, of the LA Chargers. Hand was starting to return the interception when he was chased down by Eagles running back Will Shipley, who knocked the ball free from, well, Hand’s hands. The ball popped free and shot straight forward – into Jalen Hurt’s hands. At this point, Hurts started with the ball, threw it, and has it again, okay?

So, Hurts began to run with the ball but immediately had the ball punched out by Chargers defensive tackle Jamaree Caldwell from behind and it rolled forward about 10 yards before Chargers linebacker Troy Dye recovered the ball. It was something to see. Word is, this play makes Jalen Hurts the first player in NFL history to turn the ball over twice in a single play. How’s THAT for a record that will never fall? I’m not sure it’s a stat Hurts is going to want people to focus on, though…

Abominations…

It’s a United States government office, but Donny has plastered his name on it. It was, properly, the United States Institute of Peace. Now it’s called the ‘Donald Jessica Trump Institute of Peace,’ or something like that. (At least, that’s what I think his middle name is. I learned it from Randy Rainbow, but can’t verify Randy’s research methods.) After all, Donny DID “win” the FIFA Peace Prize they made up for him. And he HAS murdered many people in the Caribbean, supported genocide in Gaza, AND refused to help victims of an illegal invasion in Ukraine, despite a promise from the US that we would help Ukraine if Russia attacked in exchange for giving up nukes.

Donny fired the hand-picked architect he selected to build his new White House abomination. Like other things in his world, it’s not big enough to make him happy. He really, really wishes it were bigger and he keeps looking for someone who can help him out. That effing barfroom is already bigger than the White House, itself, and he wants to make it bigger? Someone ought to explain to him about gaudy ostentation. Then again, he just fired the architect who tried…

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In Donny’s diminished and delusional state, he has randomly decided that if a person is rich and was prosecuted for crimes under the Biden administration, the charges must be made up and the prosecution a fraud. He has no basis for this belief. He presses it because HE was nearly convicted for so many of his crimes during the Biden administration and he is STILL trying to convince someone – anyone – that he was being framed.

He wasn’t. He was being prosecuted for crimes he committed, if one believes the evidence. The only reason he wasn’t convicted is because he and the Heritage Foundation had a long-term plan for a coup that included corrupt (read: loyal to a fault) judges named by the Federalist Society. Many of those “judges” had been put in place already and they helped a brother out, you know?

So when he received a request for a pardon from one-time Democratic House Representative Henry Cuellar of Texas – along with a generous “donation” check, of course – he granted it. Cuellar apparently said the magic words, “Biden did it for political reasons.” In my mind, it’s rather important that Cuellar and his wife, who was also charged, were not yet convicted. They were charged with accepting bribes.

Apparently, when Donny granted the pardon, he assumed Cuellar would be so grateful he would switch parties and run as a Republican. Okay, so, first, run?!? He was busted taking bribes. How does one run for office, having accepted a pardon to escape the felonies he was facing? I guess if you’re brazen enough, you run anyway. This IS happening in Texas, after all.

And Cuellar IS running again. He filed the paperwork. He’s running in Texas as a Democrat and Donny is irritated about that. Donny expects loyalty he never, ever displays himself. I’d like to say that Texas is facing something of an IQ test to see if they’re dumb enough to elect an accused felon to public office, but they’ve already elected a convicted felon to public office so I guess the test is finished and the Texans can put their pencils down…

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Apparently, this doesn’t make sense to Linda McMahon, the Secretary of Destroying Education, but it turns out, if one reduces staff, one also reduces productivity. When this wrecking ball of a regime came in and started smashing things, most of the workforce of the Department of Education was laid off. That was supposed to save money. It didn’t, because a penny saved somewhere in government gets shoved into Donny’s pocket instead.

Look it up yourself. Donny came in and thrashed the government by laying off thousands of employees, yet his maladministration has spent more money so far than any other group in power in US history – even his own, who held the spending record before THIS group of clowns set the current record.

Now McMahon is calling back a bunch of Department of Education employees in an effort to reduce the backlog she created when she laid them off – but only temporarily. I guess if one hasn’t procured new employment by now, going back makes some sense but I’m not sure I would if I had an alternative. Why help the Bozos be clowns? Woeful mismanagement brings woeful results. Are we surprised? Every day, the extreme incompetence of this regime comes into clearer and clearer focus…

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Well, the Niners didn’t play this weekend. Bye week, you know. Still, they improved their playoff position. Pretty neat trick. It’s one of the things I like about this time of year. If you have a shot at making the playoffs, EVERY game you play now is very important. Many of the games other teams play become important, too. The Niners moved from the seventh seed to the sixth because the Green Bay Packers beat the Chicago Bears.

Meanwhile, game by game it’s looking like the Kansas City Chiefs’ dynasty is coming to an end. It happens. I learned ALL about it, the hard way, when the Bill Walsh Niner dynasty finally came to it’s end. The NFL is kind of structured to make dynasties hard to maintain. Eventually, your team will be picked apart by other teams. The players you keep? They get old. In football, “old” starts at about 32.

This is only tangentially related but I hear Taylor Swift has set a date for her upcoming nuptials. June, 2026. This means nothing to me. I’m not saving the date as I don’t expect an invitation. BUT, Tay-Tay is marrying Travis Kelce, the star Tight End for the Kansas City Chiefs. In June, Kelce would normally be in ‘football’ mode, getting ready for the upcoming season. THIS June, he’ll be in ‘gettin’ married’ mode. To me, this date foreshadows Kelce’s impending retirement, yet another sign of the decline of a dynasty…

Dates That Live In Infamy…

Today, Sunday, December 7th, 2025, marks the 84th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, killing 2,403 Americans. It was a tactical success for Japan but a strategic failure. They didn’t hit some of the most important targets of their attack. Oh, AND, (spoiler alert) Japan lost the war in the end.

Or maybe we all did. WWII changed the face of the planet and, upon further review, maybe not for the better. WWII brought about a new world order and, for a time, it looked like it might be an improvement. But we can all count on self-serving, self-important blowhards to decide they “deserve” more than anybody else to come along and ruin things for everybody.

Which brings us back to Donny and the One-Percent-serving Heritage Foundation and all of the damage and pain they’re intentionally inflicting on Americans and the world. History repeats (or rhymes) in roughly 80 year cycles. Roughly 80 years ago, the US pushed back authoritarian Fascism with extreme violence. Now authoritarian fascism is back.

I think Americans are hoping to stop all of this nonsense with the 2026 “elections,” non-violently. I have a hard time believing that the group that led this coup in the first place might let it slip away by allowing honest elections. I’ll wait and see. I’ll hope. But you’d better keep your powder dry…

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Twice, recently, I’ve seen Donny act exactly like a three-year-old boy who sees a big truck – and then the driver honks the horn for kid. We’ve all seen that young man. He’s the happiest he’s ever going to be until he discovers his newest favorite toy. The first time I saw Donny act like that was when he was hanging out with the Saudi murderer, you know, the one who killed Jamal Khashoggi, that guy. Yeah, Mohammed bin Salman, that’s the one.

The second time was this FIFA “Peace Prize” he was “awarded” on Friday. To be clear, FIFA does NOT have a long, storied history of awarding it’s well-known and prestigious “Peace Prize” to someone who has made a great impact on world peace for the benefit of nations. Instead, FIFA seems to be a rather corrupt organization that takes bribes and oversees world soccer. FIFA made up their “Peace Prize” for Donny and, one presumes, when Donny isn’t a factor in their world anymore, the “FIFA Peace Prize” will be a thing of the past.

But he was SO happy, giddy even. I thought he was going to literally clap his hands and jump up and down, “My peace prize! My peace prize!” It was scary. That dude is old. Jumping up and down on those cankles could break him in more ways than one. Old bones shatter. It was also mind-boggling. Can you imagine demanding a peace prize and then actually believing you’ve done something to “earn” it?

Donny grabbed that medal and put it around his own neck so fast I thought it might hit him in the face. (Full disclosure: I would have LAUGHED!) Then he stood, wearing his fake award, BEAMING. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a happier boy – even when the “Big Truck” honks.

This is a large part of the reason he’s as petty as he is: secrets he knows about himself. On some level, he knows he’s a fraud and he knows this is a fake award, created to placate his massive unquenchable ego. He acts like he’s done something to earn it but he knows that everybody knows – the thing was “awarded” by FIFA, fercrissakes. HE has to know it’s a meaningless award. And because HE knows the whole thing is trumpery, but wants YOU to believe he actually accomplished something, he gets insecure and belligerent.

Tough cookies, there, Donny. Most of the world knows you to be a fraud and we have always known you to be a fraud. You can act like the biggest assoholic on the planet, we’ll all still know…

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Speaking of recognizing Donny as the liar, conman, grifter, and general waste of human flesh that he is, it looks like there might be a bit of fraying at the edges of MAGA. It’s hard to say, for sure. MAGA isn’t going to confess their error, most especially not to me. I expect their support to drift away quietly. They’ll wonder in their own minds. If/When the scales fall from their eyes, the MAGA regalia will quietly disappear. They won’t fall out for rallies. They won’t come out to vote. They’ll get quieter in social media. They’ll just… step away.

So, instead of waiting for the mea culpa, we have to watch for signs of separation. Maybe they’re real, maybe not, but here’s one I’ve been hearing about recently. There’s a very definite date – well, dates – looming for Republicans who may have been caught up in MAGA thrall, but aren’t true MAGA in their hearts. Filing deadlines.

The major threat Donny represents to candidates is his ability to “Primary” them. That is, if he gets his knickers in a twist at someone, he can press another, more MAGA-friendly candidate to run. That might cost a Republican office-holder their phony-baloney job and they might lose all of that beautiful lucre that keeps them so happy. So they comply.

At the same time, one does not have to be Nostradamus to see what is going on with the right, these days. Donny can say all day and half the night that prices are down at the grocery store. Then, we ALL walk into grocery stores and – RATS! – prices are still going up. Donny can tell us until he’s blue in the face that medical care costs won’t go up. But the letters have gone out. Every American and every MAGA has seen the new, definitely-not-improved numbers.

Donny promised no more foreign entanglements. Not only has he NOT ended the major foreign wars he promised would be so easy to end, he’s actively ginning up a completely new, completely unnecessary conflict. Instead of less foreign entanglement, we’re getting more, like it or not. He promised to drain the swamp. He IS the swamp. By every measure, he’s the swampiest swamp monster ever to swamp the swamp.

And it is NOT that he is “just doing what they all do, just more transparently.” In the first place, taking bribes and committing crimes transparently doesn’t make them better. But no President in history has ever been so deeply involved with bribes, crimes, grifts, and cons. Everything, everything, EVERYTHING this boy does is about shoving more money into his insatiable pockets – YOUR money.

The point is, this has become SO apparent, even MAGA sees it and cons in Congress who have been compliant but not truly MAGA? They have to win back their seats in an environment where it’s clear and undeniable that Republicans hate America and Americans. That’s a pretty hard run, right there. So the moment the filing deadlines pass, that is, the moment there’s no immediate danger that Donny might primary them, they can start to separate themselves from Donny and the MAGA nightmare, hoping they haven’t already been too tarred.

The final filing dates vary from state to state but, generally speaking, they all come around August 25th, give or take. I know, that’s a long time from now. These pricks can do a LOT of damage between now and then. But let’s see how GOP candidates react after that date…

Sleepy Don…

It has certain side effects. It can cause drowsiness. Of course, so can simply being a dotard, an old, old man suffering mental decline. He’s been falling asleep a LOT in public recently. We never saw “Sleepy Joe” sleeping. Sleepy Donny, on the other hand? Oh, he’s snoozing more and more. Hey, at least when he’s sleeping, he’s not hurting anybody.

Trump sleeping instead of working

It can cause bruising at the infusion site, for example, his hand. I presume they didn’t use his arm for the infusion because it can be difficult to use blood vessels in the arms of people with severe cardiovascular disease. But if they could have used the arm, it would have saved a bunch of questions. We were told this bruise is because he shakes so many hands. Uh-huh.

Trump has a bruise on his hand.

It can cause swelling, bleeding, and/or fluid leakage into the brain, requiring repeated monitoring MRIs. He’s getting the MRIs. Team Evil is just lying about why. But then, they lie about everything.

A letter regarding Trump's Nov, 25 MRI

Oh, the “it” in question? That’s an early Alzheimer’s medication called ‘Leqembi.’ The infusions happen every couple of weeks to monthly, depending upon the patient. The bruise on his hand and the near-constant falling asleep during meetings we’re seeing more and more of? The MRI? Alzheimer’s medication.

It’s kind of poetic justice. HE is being visited by every damnable lie he told about Joe Biden. He’s already wearing the chain he’s forging in life, making it link by link and yard by yard. Dear MAGA: Your Precious has Alzheimer’s. Alzheimer’s is fatal. He’s dying. His brain is dying faster than his body.

I’m not interested in ripping on people struggling with Alzheimer’s. But I don’t want an Alzheimer’s patient for a “President,” either…

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Okay, quick question: how disgusting is it that puppy-killer Kristi Noem thanked the Drumpfster for keeping hurricanes away? Just how much of a brown-nose does one have to be to even suggest that Donny was able to keep hurricanes away? And for Donny to believe it? I’m sure he does. Hey, does this mean Donny gained control of MTG’s Jewish Space Lasers?

I know it’s just brain-dead, empty hero worship but it was a bad move. A hurricane is going to hit sooner or later. They just do. So now, when one makes landfall and kills a bunch of red hats, I suspect they’ll wonder why Donny let THAT hurricane hit after deflecting the others…

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I’ll tell you the truth, I thought the oil wars were over. I mean, I have great appreciation for what oil did for the US and for the world when we didn’t have any alternative. But I’ve also been somewhat bummed about the wars we’ve started just to get more of it with no cost to the company – just like “Capitalism” teaches, right? Instead, the “cost” was passed along to the American taxpayer and the soldiers who died and were maimed or otherwise damaged in combat in an effort to “protect American interests.” That’s rich person-speak for “they have resources we want but don’t want to pay for on the open market. Let the Poors pay the price.”

But now we DO have alternatives. We’re not tied to black gold anymore. Worse, we’ve used SO much oil, the world is running out. No, I don’t mean by day-after-tomorrow, but a decreasing supply is still a decreasing supply. We use oil for a LOT of things. Burning it up in car engines is not only bad for the environment (which I guess we’re supposed to pretend doesn’t exist anymore), it’s bad for other products. It’s a frivolous use of a limited resource. There’s a word for that: stupid.

So now that we have options, we quickly embrace those and preserve the remaining oil for other uses, right? Of course not, don’t be ridiculous. Instead, yet another American oil war, this one in Venezuela. Didn’t Donny promise he was going to get us out of foreign conflicts and keep us out of more foreign conflicts? You’ll make a fool of yourself, trying to pretend his assault on Venezuela is about drugs. It’s oil. With America, it’s always oil. Even though we shouldn’t even need it anymore. Yeah, stupid…

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On November 20, 2025, I wrote, “Texas, you will not be surprised to hear, is asking the Roberts Supremely Corrupt Kangaroo Court to overturn the lower court’s ruling, which they likely will because it’s what their Precious wants.” Well, they have done, now. Texas gets to use their new map, just as I expected. Speculating on possible different outcomes was fun, but corruption runs DEEP in John Roberts and his cronies on the Way High Court. But it WAS fun while it lasted…

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There’s a new(ish) trend taking place in the workforce: rolling layoffs. That’s what they’re calling it. Basically, it goes like this. A company lays off a few employees. Then does it again the next week. Then they do it again the week after. And the week after. And the week after that. They’re trying to reduce staff quietly. They’re doing it stupidly.

I’ve been through this in my lifetime. I worked for a mortgage bank whose directors made a huge mistake at a bad time. As a direct result, the company’s fortunes began to spiral downward. They finally laid off a bunch of workers on a Friday. On the following Monday, those of us who survived all had notices on our desks explaining how that was such a bummer but they’ve cut the dead weight now and the company is “better positioned” to compete and things like that. Then Friday came around and more layoffs happened. Another memo on Monday. Another layoff on Friday. And so on, and so on, and so on.

Eventually, the “we’re done” memos became a running joke with those of us who remained – and the stress at the company was palpable. There’s a basic problem with that strategy that the high-ranking, self-important ‘C Team’ never seems to see. You’re laying off the people who do the work. Fewer employees means less work. Less work means lower revenues. Lower revenues means fewer employees, which means less work, which leads to still lower revenues. All the while the morale of your workforce has cratered.

They never did think of letting go any of their very expensive senior managers, those sitting on the fattest salaries while bringing little to no benefit to the revenues. Eventually, it became clear that the company was going to fail. It was offered for sale. The goal of those managers at that point was to keep employee butts in their seats. The company knew they would get more money for a going concern – even if the “going” part was really “going to hell in a hand-basket.”

So here’s my advice for anybody going through that. The minute you realize you’re living in a “rolling layoff” world, get the hell out. The company might not fail, but it’s definitely going to struggle for a while and in the meantime, the people at the top don’t give two figs about you. They’ll keep you or they’ll dump you – whichever serves their agenda best. Take care of yourself first. You should know that’s exactly the attitude the company will take about you…