Conservatives, even some MAGA, are starting to realize that this Congress, specifically, this House of Representatives has accomplished precious little during their recent period of control. I hear them talking in their media from time to time. They know it. Their only real concern is how the voters might perceive their do-nothing time in Congress. But they’re trying to do something now.

Help the poor? Educate the young? Address the homeless issue? Fund Ukraine? Why, don’t be ridiculous! They’re not going to get involved in any of those things. Instead, they want a pay raise. Yeah, you might want to read that again. The cons in Congress want more money for all that nothing they’re accomplishing. These lifeless pricks make $174,000 a year. That’s about $100,000 a year MORE than most Americans make. I’m referring, here, to Americans who work. Oh, and this is important. The Americans who DO work, are expected to accomplish things WHILE they work, or they are granted the “opportunity” to NOT work – permanently. Of course, the pay stops, as well.

Cons started the radical pay escalations of Congress a long, long time ago. They came up with a story: if you want the best people in Congress, you have to pay them accordingly. The money started going up, the quality of our Congress critters started going down. Turns out, maybe quality people go where the money is, but scoundrels ALWAYS go where the money is, and I think we can all agree, Congress sure has a LOT of scoundrels in it, these days.

That’s still their story, though. Better pay equals better people. The FIRST Congress of this once-great nation, the one that worked for Per Diem only (that is, no salary), set up the country and the economy. That was quite the accomplishment and, I’m guessing, a lot of work. THIS Congress, the highest paid in American history, does nothing useful. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. Zero. Zip. Diddly-squat.

Okay, in fairness, the Senate WOULD do things if the House would, but the House is focused on harassing a private citizen for political reasons as “retribution” for the legal troubles of their most recent and most criminal President. (Dear MAGA minds: The Democrats didn’t “do this” to Trump. Trump did this to Trump. You guys are (mostly) old. You remember Sammy Davis Jr singing, “Don’t do the crime, if you can’t do the time.” (You even filled in the rest in your minds, didn’t you?) All Donny had to do was run an honest business, not sexually assault women, not steal from charities, not steal government documents, accept electoral reality, and NOT try to overthrow the government, and he’d be fine…)

Anyway, that’s the same story they’re trying to float in order to get THIS raise as well. It’s the story they’ll tell. Nobody will buy it. They’ll vote for their own raise anyway. One of the things I changed when I re-wrote the Constitution was that Congress’ salary should be tied directly to the fortunes of the American people. First, they shouldn’t get to set their own pay. It should be tied to the median American income. If THEY want more money, they have to do better by the American people. Pretty simple really.

I’ll tell you this: if there was some way to stop them, I’d suggest it, but once they decide they want more and feel they can get away with it, politically, nothing can stop them…

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

All right, I guess I’m obligated to note that this is the anniversary of Donny’s attempted coup, January 6th. I think we might want to mark this day on an annual basis, like the Brits do with Guy Fawkes Day. Fawkes was part of a crew that tried to assassinate King James I. The Brits celebrate the survival of the monarchy and we should celebrate the survival of the Constitution.

Meanwhile, MAGA is out there, trying to turn January 6th into their version of July 4th and they’ve done everything they can to downplay the assault on Congress. (That means they’ve lied about it a LOT!) Oh, it never happened. It was just an unauthorized tour of the Capitol building. It was just a peaceful gathering. Nobody died. The people who died killed themselves. There wasn’t a riot. The rioters were Antifa/BLM/crisis actors. But mostly, it never happened.

So…it never happened but when it did, it was somebody else? It was totally peaceful but the violence was caused by somebody else? Nice work, there, ‘party of personal responsibility…’

We, the people, absolutely have to remember January 6th, the day an underdeveloped megalomaniac tried to overthrow our government and install himself as dictator – and the evil weasel came FAR too close to succeeding…

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

Here’s something to remember:

Talking to a baby is the same as walking into a spider web in this way: anyone who catches you doing it immediately knows what’s happening, and anyone who catches you doing it understands…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Take your time, MAGA…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Did you know that on the floor of Congress, a congress critter can say anything they want? With impunity. That’s how the Republicans got away with showing their “revenge porn” of Hunter Biden, when they displayed huge blown up photos of him nude. They first tried posting them to various web sites but each time, Biden operatives got with the site and had them removed AS revenge porn, complete with very believable threats of lawsuits, I presume. The floor of Congress was literally, the only place they could do it, so, shamelessly, they did.

I would NOT like to see Dems in Congress go down that road – at least that far. But I’ll tell you this: I’m MORE than ready to see a Dem, any Dem, (please, God, SOME Dem) stand up after one of the MAGA makes some stupid, false claim on the floor and say, “You, sir (or madam, of course) are a liar! A stark-raving, bold-faced liar! You can either produce evidence of your claim, right now, or prove I am correct and you are lying.” Every time. Every. Single. Time.

They need to be just that blunt. Don’t couch it in political speak. As a group, Americans are stupid. They don’t understand, “I believe the gentlemen (or gentlewoman, of course) from (red state) has possibly misstated some of the salient facts in this issue that are not borne out by any evidentiary support whatsoever.” They understand, “You are a liar! Put up or shut up.”

The Dem base would love it. It would show the Dems really ARE fighting back against this nightmare. Hell, even some of the Cons would love it. (They wouldn’t admit it, though.) They admire strength (as they understand it) and straight talk is better that political talk. Besides, how would MAGA media “spin” (read: lie about) that? Do they try to belittle the Dem by showing the challenge, only to ALSO have to confess no such supporting evidence exists?

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Well, Rudy is out of the game. He got hit with a $148 Million dollar order to pay the election workers he smeared without basis during Donny’s 2020 election coup attempt for defamation. Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss from Atlanta will likely never see any of that money, or most of it anyway. Rudy doesn’t have it and there is already a long line of creditors in front of them.

Rudy has claimed financial hardship in several of the legal actions he’s consumed by. I believe he’s already had to sell some property and the bills are piling up. That kind of a judgement likely will exceed his ability to pay. So he just shut his mouth, of course, and is making careful choices about the fights he’s fighting and the words he’s saying in public, right? What, did you just fall off a turnip truck?

No, he says he’s not allowed to present evidence. Dear Rudy, Lies are not “evidence” and the courts won’t let you just spew whatever you feel like saying. He says the whole thing will be turned over on appeal in a “fair” tribunal, the standard response from some puke who just got his ass handed to him in court. THEN, he says Freeman and Moss did exactly what he said they did – STILL without evidence. Oh, he should have talked to Donny about E. Jean Carroll before he doubled down on his defamation. They can come right back with, “See? He did it again, your honor. Apparently, he still hasn’t gotten the message.” Then, he’ll be given the opportunity to pay even more. For the rest of his life, every dime he makes will be garnished to pay the order. Standing by Donny sure paid off, eh, Rudy?

I think “Team Traitor” thought they could get away with smearing those two because they’re just average Americans. That is, they don’t have any money. But the Ladies Freeman and Moss have good lawyers. They’re being represented by a group called Protect Democracy. Pro Bono. ”Ms. Freeman and Ms. Moss’s counsel team work on their behalf because of a shared belief in the righteousness of the case and its importance — both for the clients and for American democracy,” John Langford, an attorney for Protect Democracy, told Business Insider.

My understanding is that Protect Democracy employs some of the best lawyers in the business. Maybe they can file paperwork that moves Freeman and Moss to the front of the creditor line so they get something but I’m not sure the money was the most important point for these two. Sure, whatever they see will be nice, but I don’t think it was the focus.

Bye, Rudy. Don’t let the door hit you…

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So, Donny thinks he has immunity for life because he was, ostensibly, the President of the United States, although, as we know, he just golfed for four years. I don’t even believe he should have immunity while he’s infesting the Oval but, apparently, legal eagles disagree with me. Still, for life? I remember when Americans knew the President was a citizen first and President second, meaning he was subject to all the laws of the land, just like everybody else. It was better that way. Now MAGA thinks Donny is entitled to special treatment for some reason. So, Donny tried to stall his trials by claiming lifetime immunity, intending to move the thing through one court after another for, what, months?

Jack Smith is too smart for Donny, though. Jack asked the Roberts Supremely Kangaroo Court to just bypass all the lower court dawdling and hear the case right now. And the corrupt High Court said they would! That’s pretty cool. They have to get Clarence the Corrupt to recuse himself, though. His wife was an active part of the coup. She’s one of the High Lieutenants of Team Traitor and her bribe-taking husband shouldn’t be allowed a voice on ANYTHING relating to the coup attempt. Or anything else, for that matter.

Sometimes, this court actually uses the law to make decisions. It’s hard to say when that might happen but I don’t see anything in the question that might conflict with the religious views of those who prefer to rule by “feels” so…maybe Donny loses this one, too. We’ll all just have to wait and see.

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I have to do better at this. Recently, I wrote about a bill being introduced to block Wall Street from buying up all the single family homes in this once-great nation AND force them to divest their single family holdings within ten years. I suggested you call your congress critter and tell them to support the bill but I didn’t add contact info. So, here: https://www.congress.gov/contact-us (that’s a link). Using that site, you can find your Representative or Senator and how to contact them. The bill is ‘The End Hedge Fund Control of American Homes Act of 2023.”

Take the time. It’s important to America’s future…

Sometimes, I hammer on a topic. A LOT. Those are the issues I tend to see as the most crucial to be addressed and you, my faithful reader, get to see it over and over. One of my focal points has been, as you know if you’ve followed me for very long, about “pooled money investors” (Wall Street) buying single family homes and all the damage it does to our society. Sure, people are making money right now but that money is going to be useless when society collapses under the weight of a furious and frustrated population. Well, guess what?

Two Democrats (it had to be Democrats. They’re the only party interested in helping people.) introduced a bill to stop Wall Street from buying single family homes! AND they would be required to divest of all of their single family holdings within 10 years! That’s a little slower than my proposal but I’m not one to let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Democrats Adam Smith (Wa) and Jeff Merkley (Or) introduced the ‘End Hedge Fund Control of American Homes Act.’ There are several co-sponsors, all Dems, of course. Call yours. Tell them to vote in support of this act.

Forcing working class Americans to try to “compete” with the endlessly deep pockets of Wall Street was NEVER Capitalism. There IS no competition. Capitalists ALWAYS want complete control over things people MUST have so they can squeeze and squeeze and squeeze the money out of you and housing is a plum target market Wall Street tries to corner from time to time. Congressional rule changes in 2011, after Wall Street crashed the economy through a mortgage scheme that had created false home values and was now leaving FAR too many homes on the market unsold and owned by banks, allowed Wall Street to start again, and start they did. (You may recall the stat that ONE COMPANY now owns enough single family homes to house the entire population of Iceland – and there are lots of these companies.)

You want to know why rents are so high? Wall Street buying single family homes as investments. You want to know why house prices have skyrocketed? Wall Street buying single family homes as investments. You want to know why so many young people still live at home and simply can’t afford to move out or buy their own homes? Wall Street buying single family homes as investments. You want to know why the homeless problem has ballooned? Wall Street buying single family homes as investments. You know what would help fix all of those problems at the same time and in one fell swoop? Stop Wall Street from buying single family homes as investments!

Dear MAGA, this bill will help YOU, too. You’re being priced out of the home-buying market right along with everyone else. Your side maintains that wealth is built generationally and that home buying is a key factor. This is a rare opportunity to do the right thing AND to do so thinking of yourself and nobody but yourself – your favorite person to consider. For God’s sake, don’t help the Dems – screw the Dems! Help yourself. Contact YOUR congress critters, too, and get them on board. Or, try, at least. I’d bet there are truckloads of bribes on their way to Congress right now and Republicans are well known for pampering corporations. But try.

This is a good thing…

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Donny did a rant outside his fraud trial the other day. Same old, same old. “We won at the appellate level.” No, you didn’t. You lost. The Appeals court has paused a ruling, but they have NOT struck it down – and they’re not going to. “I expect him to rule against me.” That would be FAR more insightful if the Judge had not ALREADY ruled against him. Donny has lost this case, already. He and his family committed the crimes he stands accused of and there is no question. (I don’t even have to say, “allegedly.”) The rest is just to determine an appropriate punishment.

Watching him ramble, blame, obfuscate, ramble, digress, lie, distort, ramble some more, deceive, and spew his nonsense is a very old act, by now. Bor-ing! We know, Donny. Everybody lies but you. Thousands of people are simply engaged in a perfectly kept conspiracy. People enforcing laws that have been on the books longer than you’ve been alive are the bad guys and you, the perfect business man – who has never run a successful, honest business in his life -are somehow a victim.

I know most of your audience is old and old people tend to like hearing the old, familiar bits but if you’re going to expand your base, you’re going to need some new material – and soon. You’ve played out the whole “Oh, poor, poor put-upon me” bit. You don’t remind me of a fighter with great resolve so much as a little brat having a tantrum that has gone on for years, now. Snore. Someone needs to send that child to his room…

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An officer of a company is a formal leader who has more responsibility and authority than rank-and-file employees and is elected by the board of directors. If the “company” is the United States, and the “board of directors” are the citizens of the United States, the President of the United States IS an officer.

So-called (likely self-described) legal “experts” (HEY, don’t they effing HATE experts?) are bending themselves into pretzels trying to pretend the President of the United States can engage in insurrection any time he wants and nobody can touch him because he’s not an officer of the United States.

What about the so-called “originalists?” When the founders originally wrote the Constitution, they wrote in Article II, Section I, “…and the Congress may by Law provide for the Case of removal, Death, Resignation or Inability, both of the President and the Vice President, declaring what OFFICER (emphasis, mine) shall then act as President, and such OFFICER shall act accordingly…” Okay, in fairness, that sentence was removed by a subsequent amendment (the Fifteenth) but it certainly indicates the founder’s intention that the President of the United States is, indeed, an officer of the United States.

We, the people, shouldn’t have to surrender our Constitutional Republic to a autocratic dictator because some schlub wrote an amendment less eloquently than the writing of the founders. It defies logic and common sense that the President of the United States might not be an Officer of the United States. Please, God, don’t let us “stupid” our country away…

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Quick question. We know from the trials that Donny received advice from two different groups of attorneys. One group consisted of highly qualified lawyers who knew the law and told him what he was planning to do – and then was actually doing on J6 – was illegal. Another group consisted of highly UNqualified, soon-to-be-NOT-lawyers who happily confirmed his delusion that the President of the United States can do anything he wants.

Donny is supposed to be some kind of genius, brilliant leader, right? If the argument he’s trying to make in court that he was mislead by his lawyers is true (it isn’t), how could he have been so completely deceived by the bad attorneys and so completely disregard all the good, solid legal input he was receiving at the exact same time? I mean, where was his pretended “shrewd insight” then? Just asking…

Have you heard about Georgia Republicans? They’re trying to create a “commission,” whose job it would be to “discipline and remove state prosecutors.” In the U.S., laws are written to apply to everybody, even a law aimed at a single person or group. The “state prosecutor” Republicans want to “discipline and remove?” Why, that would be Fani Willis, the Fulton County D.A. who brought charges against Donny for his alleged crimes against the United States (or in this specific case, Georgia).

Georgia Republicans don’t care that Donny’s a traitor. They love the guy. The Georgia State Supreme Court, basically, refused to issue a ruling, saying the work of District Attorneys is outside of their purview, which has stopped the commission for now. SO, the Georgia Republicans are trying to remove judicial oversight of their actions so they can proceed with their nasty, whiny commission anyway.

I’ll tell you this: NOTHING says, “We know he’s guilty” more loudly that trying to keep him from even being tried because you know in your shriveled little heart of hearts that he did what he’s accused of doing and if he goes to trial, he’s also going to jail…

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Well, sanity is available for the world’s viewing pleasure in the Middle East for the next four days. (Hurry! Only three days left!) They’ve taken a pause in the killing and dying to release hostages and bring in some humanitarian aid.

Not to worry, though. Even as the pause was being announced, Netanyahu made an appearance to assure the world this was just a pause and ONLY a pause and as soon as the agreed pause time was over, Israel would get right back to killing and bombing.

It’s like paying off an over-charged credit card. You pay it down and pay it down until you reach a point where, with one mighty push, you can pay it off! That’s how Netanyahu seems to me. He can see the end of Gaza, once and for all, with just one mighty push – and he’s planning to push hard.

But yeah, let’s focus only on Hamas rhetoric about pushing Israelis into the sea…

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I’ve decided I want to start a GoFundMe page. I’m trying to raise money to purchase guide dogs for the officials in the NFL. Normally, I’m a big fan of putting disabled people to work, if possible, but I think hiring blind people to officiate games may have been a poor execution of the concept. If it happens they’re not blind, there’s no rational explanation for the calls they’re making, week in and week out. At least, there’s no honorable, rational explanation.

You know what you can find on YouTube every week now? A summary of that week’s bad and questionable calls in the NFL. Every week. It wouldn’t be so bad if it was like, two or three plays but these videos are often as long as twenty minutes. Twenty minutes of bad calls, every week? And it’s not just me and the guy making the videos. The videos, themselves, offer no additional commentary but the broadcasters usually offer their own – and they tend to agree the calls make no sense and are clearly just…bad. Twenty minutes of “What the heck was that?” Every week. (As a sidebar: I’m expecting the NFL to crack down on broadcaster commentary any moment now. It doesn’t help when even the broadcasters are publicly questioning the questionable calls…)

It’s a very subjective area, though, exactly what the NFL counts on to get away with it. Sometimes, the videos show a call in one game that officials handle differently in another game. To me, that’s just a different set of officials, demonstrating that this is a tough thing to quantify. Bad calls have existed in every sport for as long as sporting has included officials. They are, after all, only human and mistakes happen. But I wrote at the beginning of this season that I suspected they would increase, now that the NFL has announced it’s “partnership” with Fan Duel, the sports betting web site. It seemed like tin-foil hat stuff, at the time, but just prescient now.

Gambling was removed from ALL sports in America (theoretically) when the 1918 Chicago White Sox got busted accepting bribes to throw the World Series. Yeah, the whole team, except for one player. The powers that be in the sporting world at the time worried that an association with gambling would hurt the integrity of their “product,” the games. Of course it does. Who cares who’s playing whom if the outcome is a foregone conclusion, decided in secret by a small handful of people?

I watch football to see the games unfold. Imagine the damage done to the overall game if it comes out that the games “unfold” in New York before they ever even start. It’s not like the bad calls have to change the outcome of the game, either, although they do that, too. Sometimes, in betting, all they have to do is control the spread and they control who pays whom and how much.

Okay, still tin-foil hat stuff. I have no evidence to prove the NFL is rigging games. All I can point to is the huge number of inexplicable bad calls that do, actually, change the games, an admittedly subjective measure, and how often those calls are happening. Combine that with the NFL’s now well-established, easily demonstrated, and sadly infamous greed, and the idea that the NFL might rig games to increase their own revenues cannot be dismissed as paranoia.

I’ll tell you this: I’d rather just watch the games play out naturally leading to an honest and fair outcome. But in this day and age, in this once-great nation, what chance does honest and fair have against a little more money in someone’s already overstuffed pocket?