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?

I don’t like clickbait headlines. In trying to get clicks it’s often true that at some point, the highlight of the headline becomes… “less than true.” I saw an article in the AP this morning. The headline? “Secret Service agents protecting Biden’s granddaughter open fire when 3 people try to break into SUV.” Sounds ominous, right? Holy gods, they’re going directly after Biden’s granddaughter?

Um, no. Turns out, Biden’s granddaughter wasn’t even in the van. Neither were the Secret Service agents. Turns out, it was just three car thieves working a potential score. They likely didn’t even know it WAS the President’s granddaughter’s van. To them, it was just another van they could break into and steal or steal from. A Secret Service agent opened fire. Bad guys skedaddled. No one was hit and the Metro Police are looking for the perpetrators. Oh, and AP is left with a credibility hit…for clicks…

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I just finished watching, “All The Light We Cannot See” on Netflix. It’s very good and I heartily recommend it. Here’s how it ends. No, that’s a joke. I won’t do that to you. Just watch it. The reason I mention it is because it’s set in Europe (France, to be exact) in 1944, when the Nazis were in charge. As I watched, I could not stop thinking of the parallels between Nazi and MAGA. It’s really quite frightening.

Handing a bunch of small-minded, little people tremendous power and authority was devastating to the world, then and ever since. Doing it again seems like the dumbest thing in the world people could do do themselves, their loved ones, and their progeny.

MAGA would pretend to be outraged by the comparison, of course. THEY haven’t killed 6 million Jews so they COULDN’T be the same. They’re unable to grasp that while the Nazi’s were rising to power, THEY hadn’t killed anybody, either. One CANNOT compare the end of the Nazi’s with the beginnings of MAGA and declare them different based on outcome so far. ALL of the seeds of “same” are there.

The show is built around radios and at one point of of the Nazis says, plainly, that the Nazis could not have come to power without radio. That character is right. In history, once they gained control of the airwaves, they had control of the narrative and spread misinformation and fear that helped propel Hitler to power. As Mark Twain is sometimes credited with saying, “A lie can travel halfway around the world before the truth can get it’s shoes on.”

Now we’re watching MAGA come to power through control of their narrative and the spread of misinformation and fear that helped propel trump to power – and threatens to do so again – via the internet. All of it, based on a raft of lies. The truth finally has it’s shoes on, though, so…

I’ll tell you this: the MAGA/Nazi similarities are too scary to ignore. We, the people who still love the actual United States of America, CANNOT let this happen…

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Speaking of tools of evil, Trump! He’s out saying he wants to allow cameras in his Federal trial. No, not that one. No, not that one, either. No, that one’s State. The DC trial. News outlets have already sued to allow cameras in the courtroom. In Federal court, cameras are not usually allowed. Usually. It DOES happen sometimes and, I think, it should happen this time.

I’ve been paying attention to his current NY fraud trial. He’s done everything he can to turn it into a circus. Then, he comes out and lies about everything that happens inside the courtroom. Yes, he knows there are reporters in there who will report the truth but he ALSO knows MAGA will never see those reports. The conservative media bubble will focus on his “statements” (read: lies), instead. MAGA will continue to walk around terrified, furious, and completely oblivious to the truth.

I suspect 45 might be bluffing but it could be true he just doesn’t understand how much harder it is to support his lies when the whole world (except MAGA, of course) watches the trial as it unfolds. In the NY trial, he and his “lawyers” have been as disruptive as they can possibly manage. They’re planning a “defense” of tedium, trying to bring in over 100 witnesses, NONE of whom can change the facts but, likely, ALL of whom will likely try to “testify” that Donny is an innocent angel and won in 2020. The court is busily trying to sift through the “witness” list to see who has something relevant to add and who just wants to posture for their public. All of that without cameras.

So if he gets his cameras, HE thinks he’s going to walk into the DC courtroom and take it over, Chutkin being “only” a woman, as she is. I suspect Judge Chutkin will control her courtroom, and herself, just as professionally as Judge Engoron has done. But what THAT means is that the cameras he’s asking for will simply show him being slapped down time after time after time.

45 isn’t smart but he is clever, in an evil way, and he knows his audience. He sells shirts to these people that show his mug shot taken immediately after his surrender to authorities with the words ‘Never Surrender’ emblazoned on them and his supporter never catch the irony. Perhaps he can find a way to convince those same people – who desperately want to be convinced – that when he’s getting slapped down he’s actually “winning.”

I’ll tell you this: now that she has his “permission” as well as the lawsuit from news agencies that want to broadcast the trial, I hope Judge Chutkin allows the cameras. I suspect they won’t work for 45 the way he hopes they will and it’s better for ALL of America (and the world, for that matter) to watch this thing play out in real time…

MAGA gonna murder, I guess…
Cons are out with their message that the left is out-of-control dangerous. CRAZY! Unpredictable and unhinged.

Meanwhile, cons have taken to mailing powdered Fentanyl to people associated with the voting processes in various places. Yeah, the left is out-of-control dangerous…

As a side note: cops have made videos in which one of their deputies just touches Fentanyl and the deputy falls to the ground and goes into seizures. The videos are an attempt to scare the daylights out of people who might use Fentanyl. (“See how dangerous it is?”) Fentanyl IS dangerous. Just not touch-it-and-die dangerous. But MAGA, apparently, believes these videos are gospel so they’re lacing envelopes with Fentanyl and mailing ’em out.

I should add that at least one of the envelopes also contained a couple of symbols often associated with the left. The problem is, the same envelope also included a pentagram, often associated with devil worship. That’s because MAGA cons think all lefties are immoral devil worshipers so, naturally, we would include a pentagram on pretty much all of our communications. It’s a wonder they didn’t sign it, “Don’t blame conservatives for this. It’s from some libtard!” Smooth. Now we’ll never know which side it came from…

Fortunately, the envelopes not likely to kill anyone.
Unfortunately, the cons are perfectly willing to try…

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If not murder, might as well cheat…
The cons have realized Donny is going to lose his case in the NY fraud trial. I say, “…going to lose,” he has already lost. The judge has already ruled that the Trump Organization lied, lied, and then lied again. These days, it seems as if his entire so-called “fortune” may have been a lie from the start. It didn’t take a math genius to figure it out. A building appraised at, say, $18 million dollars is claimed to be worth say, $1.8 BILLION when he wants a loan against it and the SAME building is claimed to be worth say, $1.08 when it’s time to pay taxes. Pretty clear fraud, so even the cons KNOW this one is bad for Donny.

Enter Rep. Elise Stefanik, (R, of course). She’s decided to try to save the day by filing a letter accusing judge Engoron of bias and calling on the judge to recuse himself. Please note: that’s a United States Representative, a Federal position, sticking her nose into a NY State issue. Yes, she’s from the state but she has no business in a state court issue.

I’m pretty sure Engoron will line his bird cage with the letter and keep doing his job. He’s very good at it. He’s SO good, the cons are terrified of him. I kind of like it that way. I’ll be watching for the recusal letter for bias that comes from the cons when Aileen “Loose” Cannon presides over the stolen documents case in Florida and visibly loves Donny so much she publicly offers to hold him in a supportive embrace…

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Okay, so now, even Israeli apologists are starting to get uncomfortable with the decisions being made in this latest hot fight. The last number I know of Palestinian civilians killed (so far) is 10,000 with at least 4,000 of them being children. (Did you know? Most of the Palestinian middle generation has been wiped out completely. Gaza is mostly populated by older people and young children.) Israel has announced (you heard it here, first) they won’t be leaving Gaza anytime soon (read: ever).

One of the attackers, a guy who DID, in fact, participate in a drive-by shooting that killed someone, was arrested and is in Israeli custody. Do the crime, do the time, I’m okay with that. But then Israel went to the family home, where the guy hadn’t been for years (except occasional visits to see his children) and where the family knew nothing of his plans (that anybody can prove), and blew it up, leaving a woman and three children homeless. That’s called collective punishment. It’s a war crime. It’s immoral as hell. It’s very likely a tremendously successful recruitment tool for Hamas or whatever the next group calls themselves. And make no mistake, there will be a next group. One man’s “terrorist” is another man’s “freedom fighter.” Minutemen, anyone?

Also, it drew a public rebuke from the United States. Israel basically – I’m paraphrasing, here – told the U.S. to pound sand. Their ongoing attempt at genocide hides behind the line, “Israel has the right to protect itself.” Agreed. But they’ve gone WAY beyond that, at this point. If a guy punches you in the face, you have the right to defend yourself to the extent necessary to ensure your safety. Perfectly reasonable. You do NOT have the right to beat that man to death, then go kill everybody the man has ever known, then blow up his house.

I’ll tell you this: If you DO take that course, you’ve gone from being a victim to being a perpetrator in your own right and I’d say Israel is comfortably in that category now…

It’s pretty clear to me that I’m supposed to pick a side in the Israel/Hamas conflict. The side I pick? Neither. No matter how I look at it, I don’t see any good guys in this fight. Supporters of Israel ignore bad behavior by Israel and embellish bad behavior by Palestine. (Not Hamas, Palestine.) Supporters of Palestine can’t ignore bad behavior by Israel and see Hamas and the majority of Palestinians as separate.

No rational person can justify Hamas shooting rockets into the middle of civilian populated areas nor any other portion of their attack. Brutally murdering 1,400 human beings, many of them children, at best, seems an over-reaction to the metaphorical beard-pulling and face-flicking aggravations of Israel. But it was exactly the response Israel wanted, needed, to go in and take more land and kill more Palestinians.

Every week since this conflict heated up – again – Bill Maher, a devout supporter of Israel, repeats Hamas rhetoric about destroying Israel and pushing them off into the ocean. He never seems to notice that while Israel never says they have the exact, same goal for Palestine, their actions tell the story. I’ve never understood how stated attempted genocide from one side is an unforgivable outrage, but lived attempted genocide from the other side is supposed to be perfectly acceptable.

After the initial Hamas assault, the press in the US went into overdrive focusing on the number of innocent Israeli children Hamas had killed. (A large part of the reason I couldn’t possibly support Hamas.) But in Israel’s response, they’ve killed – as of this writing and according to the UN – over 3,900 children with another 1,250 children missing and presumed buried under rubble. Children. That’s four times (so far) the number of people (not just children) Hamas killed, but I don’t hear much about that in the American press.

There’s one more piece that weighs in on my thinking. The UN estimates Hamas membership at around 30,000 to 40,000 people. (I’ll use an average of 35,000.) Gaza is home to 2.2 million people. That means that Hamas represents 1.6% of the population in Gaza. One point six percent. Israel is taking vengeance on the entire 2.2 million person population – and they’re using US supplied bombs to do it.

Yeah, yeah, Israel has the right to “defend itself” – and they do. But this whole fight reminds me of when George Zimmerman stalked Trayvon Martin until Martin reacted, then Zimmerman used Martin’s reaction as an excuse to murder him. I’m not sure I could come up with a better recruiting weapon for Hamas. Well played, Zimm…uh…Israel.

Biden has tried to warn Netanyahu, Israel’s Prime Minister, that the brutality of his “response” is quickly eroding support for Israel in the US. So far, Netanyahu doesn’t care. This is an opportunity Israel has been waiting for and they’re seizing it. US support for Israel will remain unwavering but there’s only one reason: Israel provides eyes and ears for the US in the Middle East. It’s a strategic alliance.

I’ll tell you this: Like I said, I don’t see any good guys in this conflict but I DO see some innocent people who have gotten caught up in the fighting and I don’t want my tax dollars to be used killing innocent Palestinian babies. I sure do wish there was some super-duper invisible cloud being who could step in and stop this insanity…

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As a direct result of his criminal behavior, Donny is about to lose his business “empire.” The whole kit-and-caboodle. Prosecutors have proven, beyond doubt, that Trump’s entire business “genius” has been predicated on fraud and lying. So, naturally, his support is – increasing? Yep, that’s what it says. Increasing. MORE people support the criminal fraudster because he IS a criminal fraudster. American mental acuity can be very impressive…

In fairness to them, his supporters simply refuse to believe he’s the criminal fraudster he is – and you can’t make somebody understand something they adamantly refuse to understand. I guess that’s a good thing for Donny. The loyalty of his deceived believers is going to be his primary source of income in the very near future and he has expensive tastes. They’d better get yet another job to keep him in the lifestyle to which he’s become accustomed while they continue to try to pay his legal debts and fines for him as well.

I’ll tell you this: I see Trump living off the efforts of his supporters as the worst kind of welfare. He’s taking money he doesn’t deserve from people who have better things to do with their own money. That kind of makes him the world’s biggest Welfare Queen, the most astounding Welfare Queen, the greatest Welfare Queen in history…

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Daylight Saving Time ends again and we’re back to Standard. It seems to do little more than kill a few people trying to adjust to the time change a couple of times every year. What a stupid, stupid idea and don’t we all look like fools (except Arizona and Hawaii) for continuing the practice?

Let’s just set it at Standard Time, leave it at Standard Time, and get off this crazy carousel once and for all…