Giant Steps Back…

Well, of course they are. Limiting input on fossil fuel drilling on federal land, that is. They already know how most people feel about it and they know it doesn’t go their way so, “Hey, let’s just limit their input!” Oh, but you wouldn’t want Team Evil to leave it at that, would you? No way. So let’s allow the drilling companies to release more methane into the atmosphere while we’re at it.

Sure, it’s a greenhouse gas – one of the worst, in fact. But it will be easier for drilling companies to do their jobs if they don’t have to worry so much about the environment. I mean, c’mon, how important is the environment? Besides, they’ll clean up any mess they make, just like they always do, right? Well, okay, they’ll clean up some of it. The rest? Oh, we’ll shift that cost to taxpayers, that is, you. We wouldn’t want to burden the corporations with participating in society, now, would we?

Oh, we want the US to be energy dominant. We are already, but we want to be, too. The US became energy dominant several years ago. That didn’t stop Lying Donny from bitching and moaning about US energy output during his campaign. Then, all he has to do is wait a little while. After a time, he announces that the US is energy dominant under trump. See? He kept a promise. Sure, the promise was a lie. Does that matter?

According to Oilprice.com, the US has been the world’s largest natural gas producer since 2009. Obama was President. We became the world’s biggest exporter of LNG in 2023. Biden was President. I’ll grant that we became the world’s largest oil producer in 2018. Some Dumbass was President. So it seems becoming energy dominant has been an ongoing process. While it’s true that we’re in that position today, Donny is claiming credit for work other people did. That’s just his way.

For a while, we were a leader in renewable energy, too. That one was most important because renewable energy is the key to having a future as a species. We were heading in the right direction and leading the way. But who controls the sun? If some corporation, someplace, can’t turn off the spigot for a little extra cash infusion, where do their cash infusions come from? These are serious questions to greedy people.

Donny had the answer: attack the renewable industry. Slow it down. Maybe surrender our leadership position entirely. In truth, there are already too many rich people with too many investments into renewables for him to destroy the field entirely, but he’s trying. Corner the market in yesterday’s technology. What could go wrong?

One can’t be surprised by any of this. The bribe was paid during the campaign to the tune of $445 million dollars to Donny’s campaign. He promised he’d do everything he could for them and he’s doing that. Finally, a promise kept, and it’s a promise to destroy the environment. Destruction is what he does…

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The last number I saw for the death toll in Venezuela’s recent earthquake is up to 1,450 people. The destruction is incomprehensible with thousands more injured or displaced. The US has promised to help. We sent search and rescue teams to help find victims. Tens of thousands have been reported missing. China sent almost $15 million in disaster relief aid. At least 22 other countries have sent aid. The whole thing is a nightmare…

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Well, here come the Kangaroos. Traditionally, this is the last week of the Roberts Supremely Corrupt Kangaroo Court session until the first Monday in October. Also, this is the week said court issues what often turn out to be it’s most egregious rulings. They like to issue them late at night, as they scurry out the back door to cash their bribe checks.

They have indicated in the past that they rule in keeping with the text of the Constitution, where such information is available. They did the exact opposite in the case of the 14th Amendment that said nobody could hold public office if they had participated in an insurrection unless Congress made a special exception. The court stood those words on their head and said, no, Congress has to act to block the person.

Ah, what the hell, right? The cons on the court lied to get there. Why wouldn’t they lie once they’re there? Just keep the under-the-table checks coming. It doesn’t shock me to learn there are people who will corrupt anything for their own personal gain. It does shock me, a bit, to discover that so many of that kind of person have been collected together and put into powerful positions at the same time.

It took the One Percent nearly fifty years to corrupt each branch of government so completely. It’s going to take a long time to straighten it out, if we ever can. Right now, we’re swimming upstream against a strong current of ignorance and deceit. We certainly are living in interesting times…

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Conservative talk show host Bill Maher received the Mark Twain Prize for American humor at the Kennedy Center on Sunday, the 28th. Donny’s stupid tarps are still in place. He’s trying to hide the fact that his disgusting name was removed from the building. Jay Leno was a participant at the event and he said, “It’s vanity. It’s not a war, it’s not people getting killed. It’s not antisemitism. It’s not racism. It’s a silly thing covering a name. I mean, what’s funnier than that? You know, it’s high school with money.”

High school with money. That sums 47 up, over and over. The only real quibble I have with the idea is that Donny is usually Kindergarten with money…

Lie, Lie, Lie…

The reflecting pool has cameras on it 24/7. Many people know this. That makes it a simple matter to release video of the evil-doer who dared cut a slash into the new liner with a knife which, according to 47, couldn’t be cut with a knife. That makes it sound like he just makes things up as he goes along, doesn’t it? In order to prove THAT point, the making things up part, officials DID release video of the evil vandal, asking for help locating the “perp.”

In the video, one can clearly see – well, no, it’s not really all that clear – a woman reach into the Reflecting Pool and, um, pull out a piece of the already floating liner. That’s “vandalism” in Donny’s book, seeing the results of his failure. Which means we’re ALL “vandals” because we’ve seen the East Wing. We’ve seen his gaudy makeover of the White House, or should it be the Fake Gold House now? And now we’ve all seen his makeover of the Reflecting Pool. I know he loves to brag on himself, but based on what I’ve seen, he sucks at building.

What I did NOT see in that video, was anybody using a knife to cut a gash into the uncuttable liner. But that was how the video was released, “proof” of the vandalism he claims. We all know who the actual vandal is. What we DON’T know is if there’s method to his madness or if he’s just completely incompetent. It turns out, one does NOT hire workers based on loyalty alone. All he had to do was hire a company that knew what they were doing, but he gave the no-bid contract – paid by your tax dollars – to a crony instead…

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When a group of people planned to attack Donny’s desecration of the White House with a UFC event, right wing media was quick to paint them as lefties but it turns out, nope. They were a collection of far-right nutballs. They came together over the internet. They verified each other’s identities and ideologies then moved to private chat rooms to rant anti-government slogans and plan an attack.

They were going to create a distraction, then bomb the event with drone-borne bombs, causing a panic. When people fled, so-called “high value targets” were to be picked off by snipers. I say again, these were far right nutballs, but they were targeting Republicans. The thing is, they chose their targets with the help of a left-wing website that tracks politicians who receive donations from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the pro-Israel lobby group.

That’s what right-wing media seized on to “prove” the conspirators were lefties. It’s a two-fer. They get to smear the left AND they get to pretend the right isn’t as angry at Donny’s failures as everyone else. But the group’s focus seemed to be on Trump constantly taking the knee to Netanyahu. They didn’t like that one little bit.

I thought this was interesting: the would-be attackers talked a lot about the Trump/Epstein files and how the regime wasn’t releasing them. Right-wing media used those comments to note that they had “parroted Democrat conspiracy theories about President Trump protecting child predators connected to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.” I added the emphasis to the ‘Democrat conspiracy theories‘ bit.

It was The Drumpfster himself who whipped the right up into a frenzy about the Trump/Epstein files, though he DID leave his own name out of it. Everyone, everyone, everyone NOT in those files wanted them released. But, apparently, MAGA has now been successfully conditioned to repeat the idea that the whole thing is a left-wing conspiracy.

By the way, have you noticed that not one of the people noted in the Trump/Epstein files has been arrested or even investigated in the US? Look wrong at the Reflecting Pool and you’re doing hard time. Diddle a child in the Trump/Epstein Pedo ring and 47 will “cover your six.”

Apparently, this particular group of not-so-much geniuses expected the attack to launch the second revolution. Why is it these guys always see themselves as some kind of savior? Racists in this country often relate to a book called ‘The Turner Diaries’ that paints a picture of one event triggering a race war so the glorious white people can finally get rid of all those “other people” once and for all.

They see themselves as heroes in their misguided efforts. They won’t get the glorious outcomes they expect, but they expect them anyway. Boneheads…

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Donny’s war-that’s-not-a-war looks like it might be devolving into war again. There’s lots of shooting going on and 47 keeps flapping his stupid lips, trying to tough-talk his way out of the nightmare he tough-talked his way in to. He said he wouldn’t start any foreign wars. He lied. He said he could solve it easily. He clearly lied. He told MAGA only HE could fix the problems. 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…

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Oh, yeah, yet another failure. His State Fair. Nobody seems all that interested. Nobody is going. Word is, nothing works there. The food is mundane. There are two rides. The Ferris Wheel doesn’t work half the time. Finally, he shut the thing down, at least for the evening, blaming the weather. He might be trying to correct the failures. My prediction? Things are about to get worse. That’s just the way it is with this guy. He touches something, it turns to crap.

They built a little replica of the arch he hopes to build in honor of his disgusting self. Remember, this thing has only been going on for a very short time. There’s no reason in the world their little replica should be in shoddy condition – but it is. It’s already falling apart and the failure is visible from the “Freedom 250 Ferris Wheel.” Classic Trump. Failure at every turn. It seems the only thing this guy is even remotely competent at is crime. THAT he can do, and he does it every day…

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Texas has passed a law requiring all public students to read the Bible, or at least, passages from the Bible. Lovely. That’s probably for moral teachings. I wonder if they’ll read the part about Noah’s daughters getting him drunk and having sex with him. How about the guy who gave his concubine to a group of drunken men to use as they please, then had HER executed and her body parts spread about the region, do you think they’ll focus on that? Will they focus on Abraham, who nearly murdered his own son because of the voice in his head?

It’s a good thing I’m not a teacher in Texas because those are the passages I would focus on. You know, until I got fired. Hey, I’d be reading from the Bible as the law requires. Full compliance. That shouldn’t be a problem…

Affordable Housing? Not If Donny Can Help It…

It’s being hailed as a bi-partisan affordable housing bill. I don’t expect it to do much to make housing more affordable, but it IS bi-partisan and the Republicans, in particular, needed it for the upcoming campaigns. They want – no, need – something positive to run on. Affordable housing would certainly fit the bill. All the pols have to do is hope nobody pays attention to the fact that it won’t really do what they’re promising.

The new bill limits corporations in the number of single-family homes they can own. That’ll do it, right? Well, unless some corporate minion thinks of setting up several corporations under a holding company, allowing each corporation to reach the magic number but still collecting single family homes at a society destroying pace. But what are the odds of that happening? After all, it took me several, well, a few, um okay a couple of seconds to think of it. But maybe the smarter sharks will miss it, what do you think?

Anyway, the point is, both teams wanted to run on the great “success.” Dems should have this election in the bag, but never forget, they’re owned and operated by the same rich people the cons are, so the election can’t be certain. Republicans needed the law far worse. Even MAGA can see that things are going sideways.

They can lie to me all they want to. I don’t even care. But they can’t keep lying to themselves. Are you a MAGA soy farmer? Have you lost your farm to 47’s policies? Are you still MAGA? Okay, that’s stupid. You don’t have to become liberal, but continuing to support the person and policies that wiped you out is, well, stupid. There’s not a single thing Donny touches that he doesn’t destroy.

Like the affordable housing bill. He scuttled it because he wants congress to pass his SAVE Act. It allows him to interfere with elections so he needs it to SAVE his ass in those upcoming. The Dems stand opposed, with the possible exception of DINO Fetterman. Even some Republicans oppose the SAVE Act so cons can’t get a majority, despite Donny’s rants and threats.

Remember my fictional soy farmer from, like, two paragraphs ago? The Republicans in congress look like real-life versions of that guy, to me. Donny is a pariah, but he still wields great power. Cons in congress can see him destroying other politicians careers for the high crime of doing the right thing. They have to choose: do we continue to support the person doing so much damage to our own chances or not?

I suspect they will. So far, spine hasn’t been in evidence when it comes to Republicans. They’re lickspittle boot-lickers and it looks like they’re going to follow him right to the gates of Hell…

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Okay, so 47 certainly brought nothing new to his speech at the so-called ‘Great American State Fair.’ I call it a speech, but it was really just another rant. One lie after another, lies stacked on top of lies, braggadocio and hyperbole, and a few more lies to round things out. Some of the attendees just can’t get enough abuse and they stayed and cheered. Other attendees have seen this speech so many times THEY can deliver it – so they left.

The big opening ceremony was over two hours long with the blowhard speaking near the end. Maybe they were just tired. Maybe they came for the other stuff and left to avoid being associated with a pedophile. But maybe they’re one-time, die-hard fans who just aren’t quite as impressed anymore. Who knows?

Both sides are working it, though. The left is showing people leaving and calling it a “mass exodus.” The right is showing people who stayed and calling the left crazy. Neither side is telling the whole truth. But as always, Donny is only lying. He posted to social media, “The Crowd was incredible last night, packed to the brim — At least 45,000 people were there… Everybody stayed right until the end of my Speech.”

People were there for the ceremony and, clearly, many left during his rant. There were a lot of people, but I doubt 45,000. He likes to make things up. He’s SO terrible at real life, he mostly lives in a fantasy land…

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When is a cease-fire not a cease-fire? When people KEEP firing, instead of ceasing. How weird is it that we get this constant talk of cease-fires and then get the updates of the latest skirmishes, battles, killings, and other violence? That’s not a cease-fire. At best, it’s a little-less-firing…

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The man is just SO yesterday in every respect. It’s like he thinks we’re still living in some mythical past. Coal is king. Gas rules the world. Tough talk gets ‘er done. A woman should know her place. And now? ‘Godless communists.’ That’s a slur that goes back to the sixties and seventies, maybe further. He’s rolling out the term to try and scare the crap out of his followers. Oh, the commies are coming, the commies are coming.

The discrepancy between the socialism the US lives with every single day and the attitude of some of our less inquiring fellow citizens when it comes to the word is startling. I think the Capitalists are starting to notice the far-and-wide public fury where Capitalism is concerned. It’s just a brutal, brutal system designed to enrich a few on the backs of the many.

Capitalism has now, briefly, minted it’s first Trillionaire. One. At the same time, and necessarily, Capitalism has now, long-term, minted millions of struggling and desperate people, concerned about where their next meal is coming from. Countless people can’t even afford a home in this, the so-called ‘Richest Country On Earth’™. Is that the best we can do? It’s fine, if you’re the Trillionaire, I guess. But most of us aren’t.

Nobody is calling for communism, but I would be happy with another heaping helping of New Deal-style Democratic Socialism. That seems to be catching on around the country and it scares the hell out of the people sitting on their vast piles of money, laughing at the victims below them. They’ll use that money to try and convince people that the inequity is a-okay. “Just try harder,” they laugh. “Pull yourselves up by your bootstraps, like we never did,” they say. “Hey, maybe if you skip that coffee.”

Unregulated Capitalism has failed the vast majority of us. Communism has failed pretty much where ever it has been tried. But there IS a better way, a middle ground, that takes the best of each and mashes them together. Some people still get rich, but not so much at the expense of everyone else. I don’t understand why some people think that everyone working together for the benefit of everyone is a bad thing…

Things MAGA Support…

Well, it’s just one “metaphor” after another with this clown, isn’t it? The destruction he leaves in his wake, reflecting similar destruction in America. The East Wing. Wreckage. The Ellipse. Wreckage. Now the Reflecting Pool. Wreckage. And to be FAR more clear than the Reflecting Pool, there were no vandals. Yes, someone put 86 47 in a nearby lawn. The Reflecting Pool is all Donny, though. The Drumpfster is the only “vandal,” complete failure that he is.

Oh, how about the Kennedy Center? He slapped his vile name up there and the courts made him take it down. He has, but now there are tarps hiding the facade of the building. A judge has ordered the regime to explain why the tarps are still there because there really is no need for secrecy in this project.

Workers took out the entire panel where each letter had been attached. Presumably, they’re going to replace each panel rather than try to repair holes, but whatever they’re doing, they’re taking their own sweet time to do it. Still, the Kennedy Center has been around awhile. It seems likely that the color of the new panels won’t quite match the old. Even as he tries to hide it, there will be a visible reminder that he broke the law and the courts corrected him, yet again.

His destruction of America continues, unabated, and his various project failures stand as stark evidence of his incompetence. MAGA seems to love what he’s doing, though. They stand by him like an abused spouse, flinching and hoping to avoid the next beating…

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One of the people arrested for “vandalizing the reflecting pool” – except that’s not why he was arrested at all – say’s he’ll fight the charge. Christian Miles, was charged with violating a federal obscenity law for berating a group of Oklahoma state troopers guarding the reflecting pool. “Vandalism,” the regime called it.

Here’s the thing; he was having an argument with one of the troopers. This is from the Guardian, “Miles noted the irony that one of the Oklahoma state troopers he argued with before his arrest told him that the US was obviously a free society “because you can be out here and you can video all you want to. Go to China, they’d run over you in a tank in Red Square.” Miles was arrested seven minutes later. True, not run over by a tank, but not exactly free speech, either.

That’s the key. People are actually being actually arrested in an effort to prop up 47’s delusion that the reflecting pool failure wasn’t because of him, it was because of somebody else. That’s ALWAYS his story when things go wrong on him and things go wrong on him all the time because he’s an incompetent dotard. But my point is, the people being arrested are just props. He has a story to sell and he’s selling it through criminal action, misusing the DOJ.

How about the couple convicted to – are you ready for this? – 50 years in prison for “providing material support to terrorists.” Elizabeth Soto and her husband, Ines Soto, participated in a protest that got out of control at an ICE facility. I don’t mean to downplay the violence. Ultimately, a cop was shot. (He survived.) Clearly the shooter should face severe punishment. But neither member of this couple did any shooting. Hell, they had left the protest before it careened out of control. They weren’t even there at the time.

But they DO oppose ICE and they DO support left-leaning causes, going so far as to print what are known as ‘zines.’ Zines support far left ideas but not necessarily revolution or violence. They had one on “a journal of materialist feminism” and another on “a call for the eradication of artificial intelligence from the face of the earth.” It’s important to note the the FBI agent who testified at their trial said the content of the zines was “perhaps niche, but nothing illegal.”

The regime is targeting “antifa.” The Sotos were called antifa – and convicted to 50 years. Well, she was. His sentence gets handed down July 1. Antifa is an idea. That’s all. The word, itself, means “Anti-fascism.” There is no leader, no organization called ‘Antifa.’ Hell, nobody NEEDS a leader or an organization to be antifa. If you think fascism is a bad idea, you’re antifa, too. So the Sotos were arrested for being against fascism?

That means YOU can be arrested for being antifa – or anything else they might make up – whenever the government decides it needs a patsy. But if the government might arrest you because you oppose fascism, what does that say about the government? Pro fascism, yes? It’s binary. You either oppose fascism, or you don’t. I oppose fascism. President Pedo embraces it.

MAGA stands by him, though. Which means MAGA supports innocent people being arrested in the streets just to try and make Donny look less stupid. It doesn’t work. He looks how he looks for a reason, but they’d rather be falsely accused of a crime than confess his error…

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So NOW apparently, MAGA loves it when big government intervenes in states rights. I can tell because 47 has been trying to interfere with elections since he infested the office and MAGA only cheers. The Constitution says states have authority over how their elections are run, not the federal government. MAGA doesn’t care about the Constitution (except 2A, of course) so they likely don’t know WHAT it says.

When Donny stole his way into office, he issued an Executive Order (EO) on elections that included a requirement to show proof of citizenship. This is important to MAGA because they’ve been lied to about how many “illegals” vote in each election. Get this: MAGA actually believes the Dems run busloads of “illegals” from polling place to polling place so they can vote illegally – and nobody notices or cares.

So, they think the problem is rampant, even though more high-profile Republicans have been busted cheating in the voting process than undocumented immigrants. Don’t tell MAGA, though. Nobody else does and they love their ignorance. They think that wrongheaded is better than wrong – and they don’t understand they’re both.

But US district court judge Denise Casper ruled on Wednesday that the EO was unconstitutional. There’s a reason. She’s not just against the Dumbass. See, the Constitution says states have authority over how their elections are run, not the federal government. Legally, Donny can’t just issue an EO and call it done. He has actually had a pretty bad week. He’s a loser. Yes, he HAS stolen billions of dollars so he’s a rich loser but he’s a loser nonetheless…

Trying To Hide Reality…

Really, what a coward. He got ordered to take his name off of the Kennedy Center. He fought it, but he lost. He ALWAYS loses fair fights. But he’s a petty and petulant little man and he put up a cover to hide the spot where his name had been but is no more. Now he won’t take the cover down. I suspect he’s embarrassed that he has been so completely, publicly rebuked, with his name NOT being there as the evidence. Excuses. It’s always excuses with that weasel.

Now, to be fair, the regime says they’re leaving the cover up until work is done repairing the damage he did when he slapped his stupid name up there in the first place. That could be true but it isn’t necessary. We all know what happened and how it happened. We all know Donny broke the law and was corrected by the courts. We all know his stupid name came down. We know the holes need to be repaired. We also know he knows he has humiliated himself and now he hopes nobody notices him putting up a great big cover that draws attention in an attempt to hide it. He’ll need a new excuse soon…

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Speaking of excuses, now Team Evil is saying the reflecting pool was vandalized. Yeah, that’s the ticket, it was vandalized. No, he doesn’t mean what he did. He means by someone else. They’ve even made arrests! For instance, they arrested three-time Olympian David Hearn as one of the “vandals.” According to him, he just stopped when he saw some of the floating paint and wanted to touch it to see how it felt.

No details on anyone else, but if that’s the quality of the case, it seems like some patsies are going to have to face a legal fight just so 47 doesn’t have to admit being such a complete failure. Weaponized government, anyone? MAGA loves it because they don’t realize they could be victimized just as easily. All they have to do is be in the wrong place at time when 47 needs a fall-guy.

Now that the regime has it’s headline though, ‘Donny cries it is NOT is fault, see?’ the accused will likely enjoy a quiet dismissal of charges. Excuses…

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The guy just lies. Like, all the time. He went to the G7 conference, at which he was tolerated but not truly welcomed. Then he calls in to an Italian radio program and claims that Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni “begged me to take a picture with her. She wanted a picture with me so ​badly. I wouldn’t have taken it, but I felt sorry for her.” He said, “She’s probably happy I talked to her. I didn’t have to talk to her.”

That seems like projection, to me. HE was the one standing alone, with no one near him when the photo op took place and any informal gathering of the G7 attendees left him alone and isolated, each time. HE was the one who wanted some to talk to him. The world hates him and he knows it. Also, he cares a LOT more than he lets on. He really wants someone, somewhere to like him. I know, MAGA loves him, but he thinks they’re stupid. He doesn’t give two figs about their opinion so they don’t count.

He wants someone he admires to admire him back and he was hoping to piggyback to a bit of that feeling by claiming Meloni tried to get closer to him. She was having none of it. “Donald Trump’s statements are completely made up,” she said in Italian. “I am, frankly, astonished. I don’t ‌know why ⁠the president of the United States behaves like this towards his allies, and it’s not the first time.”

They used to get along. I suspect he hoped in citing her, she might support his lie. But no one – NO ONE – wants to be associated with the Drumpfster. Well, no one decent, anyway…

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Oh, so he’s rolling out his new Air Force One, the luxury jet “gifted” to him from Qatar. It’s painted darker than most of it’s predecessors. It costs more to fly a plane painted with dark paint. He doesn’t care about that. He’s not paying for that – you are! This plane is so big, it can only land at certain airports. That could mean his trips will take longer and require second legs, as he lands at the airport the plane CAN land at, then transfers to some other craft to reach his destination.

He doesn’t care about that. He’s not paying for that – you are! And it only cost $400 million dollars to renovate for his use for the next couple of years. That’s pretty extravagant but, of course, he’s not paying for that – you are! The planes he retired are still fine. They’re just old.

There are two brand new planes being readied to serve as Air Force One but they got delayed and won’t be around until 2028. Then he plans to “retire” this plane to his so-called presidential library, which, based on his apparent lifestyle, will be a run-down single-wide out in a field somewhere with broken down cars scattered around it – everything spray-painted gold, of course…

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Hey, is now a good time to remind you that Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein were best friends and likely co-conspirators in a sex trafficking scheme for years and years? He’s trying very hard to distract people because he wants people to forget that. People are not forgetting that. Don’t you forget that…

Too Much Stuff…

Okay, so this is an abbreviated post. As it happens, I’m moving house! Wait, didn’t I just DO that, like, two years ago? Yep. Sure did. Here we go again. The family group is growing and we need more space, so it’s a good thing. But, I’m too old to move every two years. There’s too much stuff. My back has collapsed over those two years. There’s too much stuff. We started eliminating things when we moved last time and realized there’s too much stuff. Not enough eliminating, though. There’s still too much stuff. We’re getting rid of more. But, OMG, there’s too much stuff.

So we’ve BEEN moving things over the course of the last month. The BIG things go today. Then there’s mop-up duty, both moving the last of the littler things and cleaning the house. As my bi-annual moving odyssey continues, I keep thinking, “My kids are just going to have to dump this crap when I die.” I’m going to keep getting rid of things. (I like the kids.) I just can’t believe how much stuff I have.

We moved two years ago, got rid of some stuff. We moved two years before that, got rid of some stuff. There’s STILL a LOT of stuff. (Pro tip: if you’ve lived in the same house for 10, 20, 30, maybe 50 years, you have too much stuff. Think of the children!)

But it’s likely going to affect my ability to post for a couple of days. I’m writing this on Friday, in fact. It will be automatically posted Saturday so, by then, the world may be completely at peace or trapped in total war and I will have missed it. Well, writing about it, anyway. I’m sure I’ll notice, either way…

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He didn’t drain the swamp. He built a new one. Badly. Leave it up to the Charlatan-in-Chief to screw up the process. I mean, really, is there ANYTHING he touches he doesn’t destroy? Anything at all? First, the whole thing turned green. That was followed by excuses. Now the paint is shedding and floating in the water in various sized sheets. This will be followed by excuses, too.

Excuses he can do. Success? Not so much. Now he’ll yell at people. It was his idea. It was his contractor. It was his project. But soon, he won’t know anything about it. He won’t “know anything about” the contractor, the one he claimed to love for taking such sweet, sweet care of his swimming pool. BTW, swimming pools are different than reflecting pools. His swimming pool guy might well do a good job on a swimming pool. That does NOT qualify him to work on the reflecting pool.

Soon, 47 won’t even know who started this project. But it was still him. His idea, his contractor, his project – and he screwed it up royally, cause that’s what he does…

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“The UFC event captures something about this moment in our history. After all, it’s vulgar, it’s violent, it’s commercial, it’s grandiose, it’s tacky, and it dishonors a place once thought worthy of care and respect. In other words, it’s Donald Trump.” – Conservative Bill Kristol…

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I enjoyed the shot of the G7 summit where all the members stood together for a photo shoot, then broke out into social groups and left our National Embarrassment standing all alone with no one to talk to. The entire world hates Trump. That’s what MAGA loves about him most, how much disdain the world has for him. They don’t seem to realize that disdain affects them, too…

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Oh, no! Netanyahu called some shots. MORE missiles fired into Lebanon. 47 needs that to stop because it’s a condition Iran has imposed and since they won his war, they get to dictate the terms. But if Netanyahu stops attacking Arabs in Lebanon and Gaza, he faces criminal action, so he can’t stop, even if he wanted to, which he very definitely does not.

But Donny needs the elections to go his way or HE faces criminal action so he needs to end his war-that’s-not-a-war in an effort to get gas prices down because people are furious at his terrible management of the economy and it shows most in inflation of gas and food prices. So if one guy faces jail if he stops his military actions, and the other guy faces jail if he doesn’t stop his military actions, and the two military actions are tied together, how much cooperation should each expect from the other? I just wish human beings weren’t trapped in the middle…

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I saw this headline in the Guardian on Friday morning, “Over-reliance on chatbots can diminish critical-thinking skills, study finds.” Lovely. The very last thing this country needs is greater diminishing of critical-thinking skills. Far, far, FAR too many Americans clearly have NO critical-thinking skills at all, and now it’s getting worse? Yeah, just lovely…

Our Department of Injustice…

Investigating Gavin Newsom? Sure, why not? The DOJ has announced an investigation. No word on what prompted it. It seems to be about seeing what’s what. It seems to be about smearing Newsom. To this day, people who don’t understand things (MAGA) will tell you how terrible it was that the DOJ “weaponized government” because they investigated 47 and his myriad shady dealings.

They see these other, current, harassment investigations as the same thing. As usual, they’re wrong. Every investigation of Donald J. Trump happened AFTER evidence of possible crimes was uncovered. Every. Single. One. In order to maintain the position they hold, they have to start by dismissing all of that evidence. So, suddenly, thousands and thousands of people are lying about trump’s crimes, and the accused, trump, is the only person telling the truth.

Team Evil’s DOJ “investigates” people just to see if they can find anything. Or just to harass them. There’s always that. In this case, it’s mostly about smearing Newsom since everyone knows Gavin wants to run for President in 2028. Donny thinks a little “preemptive investigation” might be in order. 47 is conducted one weaponized government investigation after another – and not a peep from MAGA. THOSE weaponized government investigations are fine, just fine…

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Well, it’s optimistic, anyway. On July 4th of this year, the America 250 commission is burying a time capsule in Philadelphia meant to be opened in 2276. 250 years from now. Time capsules can be fun, but in this case, I’m not sure there will be anybody around in 2276 to open the thing up. The only real remaining question is what gets us first, A.I. or climate change? Either way, I suspect that time capsule will be buried for WAY longer than 250 years…

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June 16 marked the date Abraham Lincoln gave a famous speech in 1858. It’s called the ‘House Divided’ speech. He used a phrase from the Bible and said, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” (It’s Matthew 12:25, if you’re curious.) It was a good warning when Jesus said it. It was a good warning when Lincoln said it. And we’re living with it, right now, MAGA vs reality.

We are a house divided and we’ve been divided intentionally, by people who would see our “house” fall for their own gain. It doesn’t surprise me that people might try to undermine our once-great nation. That’s been going on since the founding. It DOES surprise -and, I confess, disappoint – me that so many Americans went along with the process so willingly…

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Oh, no! Who could have guessed? Maybe we don’t have a deal with Iran after all? No, we do. It was electronically signed yesterday. Well, not a deal, so much as a deal to do a deal. There are still some sticking points. For one thing, 47 is going to have to get Netanyahu to cooperate. But, hey, it’s a deal. No, not as good as the deal Obama negotiated but let’s get real, Obama knew what he was doing. Our National Embarrassment does not. At least people might stop dying.

Donny’s “deal” would only get us back to where we were before he attacked. Oh, AND cost the US $300 billion in reparations. Suddenly, Donny says it’s “common sense” that Iran should have a nuclear program. Not weapons, of course, but for electricity? Sure. The Master Negotiator negotiated his way into a worse position than he had been in, and only several hundred people had to die for him to achieve his giant step backward. Last Sunday night, 47 authorized “the immediate removal of the United States Naval blockade.” I wonder if the ships left. It just feels like putting a moron in charge of everything was a dumb idea…

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He’s desperate, but he’s dangerous when he’s desperate. He really, really wants – no, needs – that voting corruption bill of his to pass. It’s called the SAVE Act because he needs it to save his ass by allowing him unprecedented control over voting. In an effort to force Congress to pass it, he has pulled his nomination of Jay Clayton to be our newest unqualified Director of National Intelligence.

This means Bill Pulte continues in the interim role, despite having no history of intelligence. This gets confusing because the fight is about the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), Section 702, which expired Friday, June 12. Congress is trying to revive it. The Dumbass wants the SAVE Act tied to the Section 702 bill so it will pass incidentally, so Donny held Clayton’s nomination specifically to pressure Congress by leaving Pulte in place.

It’s kind of an admission that even Donny knows Pulte sucks, if he can try to use Pulte’s existence as a threat. “Do what I say or I’ll leave Pulte in place.” Ole’ Bill must feel pretty good about that…

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My father was seven years old in 1943 and my grandfather was an officer in the army. WWII. At the time, my father had a full uniform made for him that showed him as the rank of Captain. He would wear that Captain’s uniform when he accompanied my grandfather as my grandfather visited soldiers. (He was a Chaplin.) According to my father, the soldiers would inevitably treat the at-the-time seven-year-old boy exactly as though he were an actual Captain. What fun for the child.

That’s what I think of when I hear Donny exclaim things like, “He doesn’t call the shots. I call the shots.” He was talking about Netanyahu, who is definitely calling the shots. Or more recently when he walked into a meeting of the G7 and declared, “I am the boss.” Yeah, he appeared to be joking but 47 doesn’t joke about things like that. He really does want to be the boss. He’s just so unqualified. People will humor him, sure, but nobody is taking him very seriously. They’re just trying to keep the little boy quiet…

The White Trash White House…

47 got his UFC fight, disgracing the White House. Bully for him. I’m not a UFC fan but my understanding is that many of the fighters were old. You know, for professional fighters. They put an old guy against a young buck and let them go. According to ‘The Guardian,’ “Every bout on the seven-fight card ended by knockout or technical knockout, the first time that has happened in the UFC’s 33-year history.”

The main event ended with an upset. 37 year old Justin Gaethje beat up previously unbeaten Ilia Topuria who many regard as the sport’s top pound-for-pound fighter. Yeah, the old American beat up the younger “feriner,” currently considered the best in the game. EVERY fight ended with a KO or TKO with the final match being an unlikely upset by an old guy? It feels like, perhaps, the fix was in. Look, I don’t have any evidence to that effect, so it must be true, right?

Yeah, I know, 47 has stolen billions of dollars so he’s rich, but that dude is as white trash as they come. I kind of expect to see broken down cars on the South Lawn any day now. I’m not sure he can surprise me with his debasements any more. If I found out his next planned event was a wet T-shirt contest or he was cooking Meth in the Lincoln Bedroom, I’d just shrug and file it under ‘More of the same.’ What more could anybody possibly expect from this guy?

The White Trash White House, brought to you by Donald Trump and Team Evil. I remember when the US was respected and behaved with dignity. I do…

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Say, we have a deal with Iran! Well, we have a deal to make a deal. Um, it’s more of a framework to consider details of a possible deal to make a deal down the road. Apparently, the shooting is going to stop for awhile, though. That’s good. The US and Iran have agreed to talk about the things they’ve been killing each other over for the last three months. It’s less of a final peace agreement and more of an extension of the cease fire.

That is good, don’t get me wrong. But the sticking points still to be discussed include the Strait of Hormuz and Iran’s enriched uranium. Oh, AND, Israel is still going to kill Palestinians. No, they haven’t said it that way. But Israel made clear they’re staying in Lebanon and that, likely, means more killing. The price of a barrel of oil started falling right away. I wouldn’t expect any concurrent savings at the pump, if I were you, though. Price increases pass on to us quickly. Price decreases are always in less of a hurry, because Capitalism works for the Capitalist, not the consumer.

Last night, 47 posted, “I hereby fully authorize the toll free opening of the Strait of Hormuz, and, simultaneously herewith, authorize the immediate removal of the United States Naval blockade. Ships of the World, start your engines. Let the oil flow!” But then an hour passed and he acknowledged that, no, it’s not open yet. First they have to sign a deal – scheduled for this Friday – and even that is about mine removal. Oh, AND the “toll free” part of his claim is not settled, either.

Iran says the deal getting done includes the the phrase, “Iranian arrangements,” which, Iran maintains, means they still get to charge ships to pass through the strait. So, to review, the war-that’s-not-a-war started over enriched uranium (still not settled), Israel attacking Palestinians (still not settled), and free travel in the Strait of Hormuz (still not settled).

It seems to be an awfully big splash over an awfully uncertain conclusion, but at least some of the killing might stop for a while…

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I saw a meme that read, “While you were so worried that Socialism would take your freedoms, Capitalism stole your pension, took your savings, destroyed the climate, shipped your job overseas, robbed you of health care, dismantled the educational system, and shackled you with debt, leaving you only your racism, xenophobia, patriarchy, and guns.”

It’s a good meme except it left one out: Capitalism has taken your freedoms, too…

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If you’re sporting a certain amount of grey in your hair, you’ve met somebody in your lifetime – or possibly BEEN somebody in your lifetime – who has known Polio. It’s a pretty horrifying illness, leaving it’s victims paralyzed or dead. People who survive often have lifelong physical struggles as a result. It was a tremendous blessing when a vaccine was introduced to combat Polio. It allowed for peace of mind, knowing your child was protected. Polio in the US, became something of a thing of the past.

It turns out, that’s bad news. It made Polio rather abstract. For years, young mothers didn’t have to worry baby might contract Polio. The reality of Polio was less in-your-face. That created a luxury space where people could pretend it wasn’t so bad and that vaccines are the real enemy. Young mothers who make that mistake run an extremely high risk of learning exactly how bad Polio is via their own children. By then, it’s too late.

I mention it because there was a news story that Mitch, the bitch, McConnell is in the hospital with some ailment likely related to his age. The story included the fact that McConnell had contracted Polio as a child and walks with difficulty to this day because of it. McConnell voted against the RFK, Jr nomination, largely because of RFK’s moronic, wrong-headed stance on vaccines.

I don’t like McConnell but he did the right thing, there. He did it because he KNOWS Polio. Those of us who remember the scourge – whether it touched us directly or not – embraced the vaccine. I’m not looking forward to the reality of life without vaccines – by choice…

Market Manipulation…

It’s a simple enough scheme. He announces he’s going to bomb the crap out of Iran and the stock market drops. This represents a buying opportunity to anybody who happens to know the situation will change. Then, he announces he’s decided not to bomb them because peace is at hand. The market recovers, he makes tons of money. It’s called market manipulation. It’s a crime. He does it a lot. I believe the current count is twenty-seven times, or thereabouts.

Until very recently, Iran had maintained that no peace agreement is close at hand. Really, we the people of the United States of America ought to listen to the Iranian leaders when it comes to the question of peace. We know we can’t trust them, but nobody – nobody – lies like a trump, and among the trumps, 47 is the master liar…

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I thought I had seen video of workers removing his evil name from The Kennedy Center shortly after the judge ordered him to take it down, but I guess I was mistaken. A lawsuit was filed and a delay requested. The delay was refused and now his name is coming off of the building – for real, this time. Lovely…

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The headline said, “Palestinian American woman held without charge by Israeli military.” Held without charge. That’s the language. When a Palestinian grabs a person and holds them against their will, the press everywhere calls the person grabbed a “hostage.” When an Israeli grabs a person and holds them against their will, the press everywhere calls the person grabbed a “prisoner.” The person grabbed is a hostage in both cases. The world should use the correct term.

Speaking of Israel, did you see how Netanyahu just obeyed Donny’s commands? 47 insisted. HE calls the shots. Bibi doesn’t call the shots. Then Bibi called a few shots, once again scuttling any chance our Fearful Misleader had of getting out of his Iranian debacle. Donny fumed, of course, but didn’t do anything else. What’s he going to do, stop providing the weapons Netanyahu uses to trap Donny in Iran? I wouldn’t count on that, if I were you…

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Speaking of which, there’s word from various sources that an end to the hostilities with Iran is at hand. Even the Iranians have said so at this point. 47 says the deal will be signed today but only an idiot still believes 47 about anything. The Iranians have said a deal could be signed sometime this week, though. At this point, the Iranians have more credibility.

So, Bibi launched another assault on Beirut. It’s weird, but the deal between Iran and the US is contingent on Israel giving up it’s warlike ways in Palestine. Netanyahu says he won’t tolerate people shooting into Israel – as he should not. But it seems he won’t even tolerate CLAIMS that someone shot into Israel, which he can make anytime he wants. And he does.

Israel loves to run around claiming ‘victim’ status, but they’ve been running an aggressive war of attrition against the Arabs in the region since the 1948 purge. They’ve been relentless. Inexorable. And now Netanyahu thinks he can see the end, his ‘Final Solution,’ as it were. Either that, or he’s trying to keep the war going to stay out of jail. That’s a real possibility, too.

So Bibi keeps making claims and firing weapons and gumming up the peace talks between our Foolhardy, Felonious, Feckless Fuckup and Iran. I don’t mind the Drumpfster being shown up for the gullible fool he is before the entire planet. I enjoy it, in fact. But in this case, the financial burden is killing me…

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Hey, is now a good time to remind you that Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein were best friends and likely co-conspirators in a sex trafficking scheme for years and years? He’s trying very hard to distract people because he wants people to forget that. People are not forgetting that. Don’t you forget that.

According to recently released Trump/Epstein files, there was an FBI intake form in which a tipster claimed that President Pedo “knew and funded underage sex parties” at one of his golf courses. There is no record of the follow-up, and I have no evidence to support the claim. So, according to MAGA Mike the Johnson, it must be true…

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Okay, here we go. Kevin Warsh, 47’s handpicked sock puppet now running the Fed is about to chair his first meeting of the bank’s rate setting committee. Remember when Donny promised to reduce inflation? Yeah, yet another promise made, promise not kept. In fact, promise broken in spectacular fashion.

When inflation was high under Biden, it was because Trump had allowed the Covid-19 virus to spread so widely it crashed the world economy. One does not easily recover from that kind of damage, but Biden did it – well ahead of the rest of the world. That’s because Joe Biden was a FAR better, FAR smarter President.

Donny’s been infesting the Oval for about 17 months, now, and he’s already got inflation on the rise again. A three year high, in fact. And HIS only excuse is his own terrible judgement (though he blames everyone else). So inflation is going up and the Fed’s normal response to that is higher interest rates to cool the market. But Donny’s a dumbass and he wants interest rates lower.

Warsh is in the job in the first place because Donny knows Donny can tell Warsh what to do and when. The only saving grace is this: Warsh doesn’t get to make the decision alone. There’s a board. So, does Warsh try to do the right thing and maintain rates at higher levels to battle Donny’s terrible management of the economy, or does he try to present Donny’s wishes as somehow important, and lower rates anyway? Bear in mind, Team Evil never does the right thing…

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Congratulations to the New York Knicks. They won the NBA championship in five games, ending a 53-year drought. And, really, congratulations to the fans. They didn’t play, of course, but they stayed loyal. Players come and go. The fans stick around. The players likely didn’t feel that 53 year losing streak, but the fans did…

Oh, He’s VERY Emotional…

By now we’ve all seen the video. Trump lies about the California vote count and reporter Kristin Welker asks him for evidence. He offers up the only actual evidence he has: he can just look at it and see. Welker pointed out that, no, he can’t. When someone accuses someone else of a crime, they need evidence. He got all petulant and told her she was crooked or stupid. Then he bravely ran away.

But that’s a simplification. Once his rant started, it really ran. He lied, she asked for evidence. That was it. That was enough to send him off on a tangent. “Your elections in this country, you’re like a Third World country. Your elections are crooked!” Then it got good to him. “And you’re crooked, and ‘Meet the Press’ is crooked. And so is ABC and CBS and CNN.”
Welker tried to intervene, “But Mr. President…”

“You’re one-sided, crooked networks,” the snowflake continued, face reddening. But now that his rage-tantrum was going full steam, he knew he needed to run away or she’d just keep asking questions. “Right, let’s call it quits cause I’ve had enough.” Then he turns back to Welker and says, “Thank you, darling. Have a good time.” Welker pointed out that she had traveled all the way to Wisconsin to talk to him. He chastised her a bit more. Then he stormed out. Out of control fury – because she asked him for evidence of his assertion that the California election is rigged.

I don’t care who you are, MAGA or no, it doesn’t matter. When you level a charge, shouldn’t you be able to support it? Doesn’t it take more than just, “That’s the way I see it?” How many times can he fool MAGA with the same old, hackneyed playbook? I guess we’re going to find out because that’s what he has left to try and discredit the elections before November.

He’s doing everything he can to prevent fair elections but courts and political opposition keep interfering. So this same, tired, old lie is what he has left. Now he’s running around perpetuating yet another fraud on the American people. But Welker had the right answer and it remains the right answer. Bring the evidence or S.T.F.U.

Oh, hey, since we’re here, do you know who disagrees with Cadet Bone Spurs about rigged elections in California? Steve Hilton, the GOP candidate who won a spot in the November general election. You know, the guy endorsed by the Drumpfster? Well, he was, I guess. Now that he has publicly disagreed with 47, I’m sure Donny thinks Hilton is crooked or stupid…

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Our lying National Disgrace went to Game 3 of the NBA finals between the Knicks and the Spurs. Obviously, there’s going to be a ‘Presidential shot,’ and someone decided that best time would be during the National Anthem. On cue, Donny was shown on the Jumbotron for eight seconds. The moment people saw him, the boos and jeers burst out – so loudly one couldn’t even hear the National Anthem. I felt kind of badly for the guy singing. He’s getting a moment, but nobody got to hear it because of the visceral hatred America feels for the Grifter-in-Chief.

The television camera stayed on 47 longer than the Jumbotron, though. After eight solid seconds of ear-splitting booing and jeering, the image on the Jumbotron changed to show Knicks players and the audience started cheering their team. MAGA media will edit that video to show the dumbass (a lot of people don’t know “dumb” has a ‘b’ in it!) standing while the crowd cheers. But the crowd was cheering the Knicks, not 47. The crowd booed 47 – clearly, roundly, and loudly…

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They’re always the Washington Generals, aren’t they? The Dems, I mean. They may not lose, but they sure try. The entire country sees Republicans (wait, are you writing about Dems or cons?) as… I’ll go with “problematic,” these days. Coming out as spineless toadies to a senile dotard was a bold move. Stupid, probably, but bold. In particular, Susan Collins of Maine is a dedicated loyalist.

She occasionally says things in the press that pretend that maybe, just maybe, she’s going to stand up to trump – but, by and large, she doesn’t. Susan Collins should be easy to beat in a campaign right now. She should be vulnerable. So the Dems searched far and wide for a candidate that can appeal to the masses and maybe displace Collins – and they found Graham Platner.

Platner’s got some baggage. The campaign is positioned to dismiss all of it as struggling with PTSD after serving three tours with the Marines in Iraq and another with the Army in Afghanistan. It could be true. People go through things in life. Most of the accusations revolve around tough-guy talk, alcohol abuse, and other kind of normal reactions to PTSD.

The worst charge comes from an ex-girlfriend. She has insider information, but she’s also a known conservative operative. Platner flatly denies her accusations. But then, he would, wouldn’t he? It’s hard to say. They’re both motivated to see things their own way. But Platner has acknowledged his PTSD and said he didn’t seek treatment until 2017. One assumes PTSD therapy is not a one-and-done kind of deal.

I can understand bad behavior from a struggling person. These days, he has Bernie Sanders endorsement. He says the right things. His (you choose) excuses/explanations for his earlier poor behavior are plausible. In my mind, the real question is, in all of Maine, you couldn’t find a single relatable Democrat who doesn’t have such baggage?

On the other hand, trump. That human failure has set the moral bar SO low, Platner looks like a choir boy by comparison. There are some things against Platner, yes, but nothing like sexual assault, fraud, grifting or any of the other serious crimes people ignore about 47. And Platner DOES benefit from the PTSD excuse/explanation. Cadet Bone Spurs certainly knows nothing of that. I guess I’m onboard with the ‘don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good’ logic.

He’s doing well in the race so I guess the voters of Maine have decided to overlook his struggles. OR, they hate Susan Collins so much, they’d vote in a ham sandwich instead of her. I don’t really care which. We hear it with every election: this is the most important election of your life. Sadly, we’re actually AT that election this year, with the mid-terms. Who would ever have guessed that mid-terms, the also-rans of elections, would determine the fate of a nation?

If sanity wins, we, the people stand a chance – a chance – of saving the nation without violence. If the One Percent’s MAGA wins? Economic insecurity, social upheaval, likely more wars, and ongoing master classes in corruption will result, and that’s just the start. Sooner or later, there will be blood shed. (That’s a prediction, not a threat.) This election is as high-stakes as it gets…