Correction and Update…

Well, I have a correction to make. Yesterday, I wrote that the focus of Katie Britt’s sex trafficking story was kidnapped and forced into prostitution at the age of 16. That was wrong. The person was 12, just a child at the time. She escaped when she was 16. (Even after all these years of MAGA, I STILL can’t believe how badly people can suck.) MyBaconPress regrets the error…

After being called out for misrepresenting, Britt went on Fox Not-News to defend her statement. She pretended people thought she said the person was a woman at the time. That wasn’t the issue. She pretended to be disgusted people would try to shut down her tale of sex trafficking. Nobody was doing that. She did NOT address the fact that the victim who actually suffered the event, Karla Jacinto, wasn’t happy Britt told the story during the rebuttal. She said, “I hardly ever cooperate with politicians, because it seems to me that they only want an image. They only want a photo — and that to me is not fair.”

It’s important to note, Britt took office in 2023. She mentioned that Biden had taken 94 “executive actions” in his first hundred days and then mentioned a couple that affected the border, trying to leave the impression that all 94 actions were border-related. They were not. Twelve of them were border related. Ten of the twelve reversed actions taken by 45. So the rest was just a bit of conservative misrepresentation to inflame people’s minds. (Hey, it’s what they do.)

After misrepresenting Biden’s actions at the border, Britt said she took a different path “after she took office.” She went down to the border and met Jacinto, who told her the story. Then, with no segue, she said, “We wouldn’t be OK with this happening in a third-world country. This is the United States of America. And it’s past time we start acting like it. President Biden’s border crisis is a disgrace,” Britt said. “It’s despicable, and it’s almost entirely preventable.”

So…did Britt SAY, exactly, that the trafficking occurred under Biden’s watch and in America? No. She just implied it so heavily the idea couldn’t be missed, AND she buried those pesky details – which make such a difference – so deeply it took people a little while to dig them up.

I’ll tell you this: I have a rule about cons: Their tales of terror and woe are NEVER ‘the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.’ There is ALWAYS some bit left out that should be included or some bit tossed in that should not. It’s how good lies are built and the cons are VERY skilled liars. They have to be. It’s all they’ve got…

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Also yesterday, I wrote about the case against Fani Willis and how the cons are trying to protect their Precious by eliminating the prosecutor for “impropriety.” (The actual focus was the GOP controlled legislature giving Ashleigh Merchant a bully pulpit to make whatever case she felt like making with little to no pushback.)

I don’t think they can show any impropriety. The actual charge is that Willis hiring Wade violated a Georgia nepotism law. ALL cons will tell you, Wade was not qualified for the job. Of course, they’ll also tell you that Trump won in 2020. As we’ve seen – and see constantly, cons lie. Wade is an established lawyer with a thriving law practice. He also sits as an associate municipal court judge and a state court judge. Does he have any experience prosecuting criminal ex-Presidents? No. Who does? This is all new territory because we’ve never had such a corrupt and outright criminal ex-President as we have in trump.

But after claiming some professional impropriety, the cons have focused, almost exclusively, on revealing salacious details of the lover’s affair. They have shown, over and over, that a dude took his girl on a couple of trips – and that he used money he earned by working to pay for it. Isn’t that how ALL dudes take their lovers on trips? Paying with money they work for? (Yeah, I’m setting aside criminals and criminal activity for the moment.) The idea, as nearly as I can tell, is to suggest that these two had sex – so they hate trump. That’s dumb. Most people hate trump whether they’re having sex or not.

There are other problems with Merchant’s filing. For example, it didn’t include any factual support for key claims. It was all innuendo. That’s weird enough, but here’s a quote from a Politico article called ‘A Reality Check on the Fani Willis Scandal:’
“The motion may also have violated an important ethical rule that requires lawyers to disclose controlling law that is at odds with any position that they are advocating in the case. In particular, Roman’s filing claims that Willis and Wade may have violated the honest-services and RICO statutes because they “personally benefited from an undisclosed conflict of interest,” but that theory of criminal liability was foreclosed by the Supreme Court nearly 15 years ago. The lawyers who wrote that language either did not know that it was wrong (ethically fine, perhaps, but embarrassing) or refused to level with the court about it (not fine at all and deeply ironic).”

There was an opportunity for a Georgia Democrat to question Merchant during the spectacle. He showed that the primary case she cited in her filing (Whitworth vs State) didn’t support her claim. She even admitted as much, after a bit of verbal sparring. He also made the case that impropriety refers to profiting in ways you normally wouldn’t by getting the win in a case or by getting some piece of the case to work better to get the prosecution, like getting a bonus for flipping a witness or some such. Wade is being paid whether the State wins or loses. That’s not impropriety. Prosecutors get paid to prosecute.

I actually think the weakest point in Willis’ defense is Wade, himself. In court, it came out that Wade was trying to hide some income from his soon-to-be-ex-wife. During the Georgia Senate dog-and pony, Merchant said she thought one of the reasons the legal firm Wade had with lead witness Terrance Bradley came to an end because Wade insisted on using his own trust accounts rather than the official trust accounts of the firm. So Wade appears to be maybe a little shady with money, personally. None of that indicates that he has done anything improper during the case, though.

I’ll tell you this: I hope the case proceeds. I really hate the idea of justice being derailed because two human beings exercised their infatuation with each other for a short time…

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Sometimes, I get a little pushback when I decry Daylight Saving Time. Oh, hey, you disagree? Okay. That’s easy. In view of current issues, this one is very low-level. The position pro-DST people take, though, is that they get “more daytime.” No you don’t. There are 24 hours in a day. Period. The reason you get “more sunshine” is because the Earth/Sun relationship changed to Summer mode. We get more sun.

What YOU get is the opportunity to go to bed while the sun is still up and being forced to use a little more power in the morning when most of us have to get up and go to work. Less of an issue, I guess, if you’re retired or don’t have a job.

A law passed in the Senate is trying to set the clocks to Daylight Saving permanently. It has not progressed in the House. As it happens, we’ve tried that. It was (hyperbole alert) carnage on the roadways and death to schoolkids. The program was implemented on a two year test basis but cancelled after less than one year because of the increase in deaths. That’s true.

I would be okay with leaving the clocks alone but I could only support Standard Time as the permanent choice. Fear not, my DST lovers. You’d still get the same 24 hours in each and every day. It’s the way science works…

Bizarro America, March 2024…

Huh. So, the Kangaroos ruled just the way I said they would. On the one hand, it’s great to be vindicated? Not so much, really. I think the only surprise was the 9-0 nature of the ruling. Now, to be sure, they didn’t agree on WHY they think the 14th doesn’t apply but they all said it doesn’t.

The cons on the court said it can only be implemented by Congress, the exact opposite of how the text reads because, you know, “Originalists!” Oh, and “Textualists!” Specifically, the text says, “But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.” Nowhere does it say, or even suggest, it’s up to Congress to impose the disability.

For their part, the lefties on the court said they were worried about a patchwork effect, some states allowing a given candidate, some states not. Of course, they would have put an end to THAT pretense by upholding the 14th, as well. Once it applied, it applied across the board, in the exact same way it does NOT apply…pretty much at all anymore.

But, I wrote at the time they decided to take the case up, they were not going to uphold the constitution so I’m not too surprised. Next up? They’re going to clear Donny of his J6 crimes by pretending he was just engaged in “official duties.” So he WILL be running. We’ll HAVE to beat him at the ballot box, which shouldn’t be too hard. BUT…

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An article by a guy named Thom Hartmann was brought to my attention. It’s called, ‘The New “Over the Top” Secret Plan on How Fascists Could Win in 2024’ (Click here). You really need to read this. I found it frightening and depressing. (Yes, I’m aware that’s poor upselling. But people would feel deceived if I described it as a delightful read – and then read it…)

Mr Hartmann, a brilliant mind with FAR too many consonants in his name, claims to have information regarding the NEXT conservative plan to steal the upcoming election. It’s frightening because it’s imminently “do-able.” It’s depressing because no rational mind anywhere on the planet would put it past conservatives to attempt to steal this election, any more than they continue to try to steal the last one.

The plan is predicated on two things: 1) A Trump/Putin loss, making the steal necessary, and 2) GOP control of the House of Representatives. Now, I don’t know about you, but I expect, after the wasted time, foolish follies, ineffectual “leadership,” and just general all-around clown show that has marked the Republican majority in the House, Americans are likely feeling the need to have some rational grownups in charge and will try to send Democrats back and put them in control.

That’s when step one of the plan kicks in: MAGA Mike Johnson – who worked tirelessly to help steal 2020 for Donny – simply refuses to swear in the new Democratic members, citing “voting irregularities,” and artificially (but legally) keeping conservative control of the House. Conservatives have been screaming about voting irregularities since 2015. Every single one of them knows ten, maybe fifteen, stories of some cheat “everyone knows” happened and they’ll be MORE than happy to share/shout them at you. Over and over and over again.

Not ONE of them has even the smallest scrap of evidence to support their claims, of course. They brought the crap they could scrape together into sixty different court rooms. Sixty! They lost every one. (MAGA thinks the cases “weren’t heard.” They were. They lost because there was no evidence.) No matter. Scream about it anyway.

The basic plan is this: artificially create a “Constitutional crisis” that throws the election to the House of Representatives, still artificially controlled by the GOP, who puts the Dumbass back into power (and destroys America in the process). You really should read this article (second chance click here). It will NOT uplift your spirit but it WILL inform you.

Frankly, I was a little hesitant to forward the article. After I read it, I thought, “Well, what’s the point, then?” I mean, it’s depressing, mostly because I have no doubt this is right up MAGA alley. I really gave it some thought. Finally, I arrived at something. Hartmann writes about the event, hijacking the certification process, and then jumps to the long-term consequences of GOP control and he does a masterful job of taking the reader along with him. It took me awhile – my emotions had to settle down – but I finally arrived at a question: what about January 4? January 5? What about January 7th? That is, what happens in the immediate aftermath of the hijack?

An issue not addressed; is the plan to NEVER seat the Democrats who won? Currently, Democrats control the Senate. Assuming rationality maintains Senate control, is there NO action the Democrats can take to intervene? In Hartmann’s analysis, there is little mention of Democratic responses, or of the responses of the American people. Some of the harm the GOP wants to do to the country can be accomplished with Executive Orders but some of it would require legislation. Would Senate Democrats be in “compromise” mode while the House was being held hostage?

What will the American people do when the House is held hostage to the GOP? Will we just get up and go to work or will we hit the streets, “France style” and do some screaming and yelling (and burning and rioting) of our own? Hartmann thinks the former because so many Americans were so tepid in their response to the GOP theft of the Supreme Court seats.

There’s a thing about liberals, though. We don’t want to fight. We would rather solve problems with our minds. Over time, that attitude can be mistaken as meaning we won’t fight. Cowards, you know. But historically, there is zero evidence to support that position. Yes, we might be slow to fight – because we don’t want to. But once we decide a fight is our only option? We fight. We usually win. See, the advantage of the slow-to-fight position is that we ensure we’re on solid moral ground. Having the moral high ground helps. It motivates.

Think of it this way: Russia should have simply overwhelmed Ukraine. Ukraine was disarmed a while ago and Russia is always heavily armed. But the Ukrainians are fighting for their homes and their families and the Russian soldiers are fighting because they were told to. They don’t have a legitimate reason to be killing and dying in some foreign country and they know it. It’s the same reason the powerful United States lost in Vietnam. Motivation.

Something that has become clear over time? The cons KNOW they’re lying about all the various charges they toss around. There’s no question. No, of course they’re not going to admit that to you. (False pride is a bitch of a taskmaster.) But they know. I’m sure of it because of all the times they readily refute their own talking points in trying to make another.

So the left will have the moral high ground and BOTH sides will know it. But that’s only if they fight. If Hartmann is right, we’ll just get up and go to work and wish it was different. If we do that, though? If we just throw up our hands with a “we’ll get ’em next time” attitude? We get what we deserve. The American people have had to fight to protect this country before, even against others who might have been called “fellow Americans.” It seems now the actual, most looming question is, will we fight for America one more time?

Donny’s Decline…

Donny has incorporated his “explanations” into his stump speech. The whole Nikki/Nancy thing caught a lot of people’s attention. I’m referring, of course, to the speech when 45 repeatedly said that Nikki Haley did a terrible job protecting the Capitol from his assault. Donny never admits error, one of the surest signs of a weak mind. So, when someone pointed out the error, he claimed it was intentional. He said – and continues to say – that he just interchanges the names back and forth because he doesn’t like either of them.

By that standard, I could interchange Donald J Trump and Adolf Hitler. I don’t like either of those guys so, what’s the difference, right? Well, when a sentence starts, “When Hitler so badly bungled his pandemic in the US in 2019…” it doesn’t make any sense. Hitler didn’t bungle the pandemic, Trump did. It doesn’t get any better in reverse, “When Trump launched WWII, leading to the murders of 14 million people, 6 million of them Jews…” Nope. No better. Because that wasn’t Trump. It turns out, the names don’t become interchangeable just because someone doesn’t like both of them.

He’s such a snowflake. The left started pointing out – and making jokes about – Trump’s inability to speak the language, complete a thought, or keep people straight on the who did what scale and Donny just HAD to respond. Not only did he put out a video speaking to his malapropisms, pretending they’re intentional, it has become a talking point in all of his speeches.

What a waste of time. He’ll never convince Americans his gaffes are anything other than evidence of his mental decline (perhaps outright stupidity) and MAGA will never believe he was anything less than “funny” when it comes to his gibberish.

Sure, Biden is old and does “old guy” things. But Trump is old, too, and does “old guy” things AND seems delusional and unable to track from moment to moment. Remember, it’s not BIDEN regularly taking cognitive tests because someone around him thinks it’s a good idea and a solid brag point. That’s Hitler, er, Trump, who, in fairness, CAN still recognize an elephant, though, he’s more likely to call it a “Heffalump…”

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Here’s irony: The US has started dropping humanitarian aid to Israel’s victims in Gaza. This has become necessary because the US supplies many of the bombs and other weapons Israel is using in Netanyahu’s current effort to “cleanse” Gaza of Palestinians.

It seems to me there should be a better way. Maybe…tell Israel we’re not sending any more weapons if they’re just going to use them for war crimes. War crimes is currently the American bailiwick – “enhanced interrogations” anyone? – and we do not like competition.

I can only guess, because Biden doesn’t take my calls, but I suspect there’s some treaty obligation binding Biden’s hands so he has to resort to trying to offset the damage he’s participating in by trying to help the people on the suffering end, while supplying the weapons of that suffering. It’s times like this “Presidentin'” doesn’t look fun at all…

The Right Ain’t Right…

Well, the corrupt conservatives on the Roberts Kangaroo Court have stepped in to help their Precious. That’s a bummer. They’ve decided they’re going to hear the case regarding whether the President of the United States has absolute immunity. He doesn’t, of course. The Constitution doesn’t say he does and the Federalist Papers have a word or two on the dangers of kings and such, making clear the intent is that the President was never intended to be anything more than a citizen. First among equals, perhaps, but just a normal citizen, subject to the laws of the country.

Every other court that has heard this “question” has issued a ruling against 45. Of course he doesn’t have immunity. These turds on the Highest bench, though? First, they’ve narrowed the question. Does he have absolute immunity “…for conduct alleged to involve official acts during his tenure in office?” Those are weasel words, the small crack he’s going to slip through and avoid prosecution for coup attempt.

What the corrupt high court should have done was simply refuse to hear the case. That would have supported the correct rulings from the lower courts and moved things along. Of course, that’s the problem. Things would have moved along against their Precious. EVERYONE knows he’s guilty. He CANNOT go to trial.

They scheduled the hearing for April 22 on a so-called expedited schedule. That’s a very slow “fast” if you ask me. What they could do is hear this bullshit case at that leisurely rate, then hand down their decision at the last minute after they “deliberate” until it’s time to go pick up their bribe checks – No, the President isn’t immune from crimes committed in office. Sadly, now that they’ve taken up the “issue,” that is the best case scenario.

Because what I fear they’re going to do is pretend to accept Donny’s assertions that he wasn’t battling to stay in office at all. Why, he was simply working, as President, to ensure the integrity of the election, an ostensibly “official act” and therefore, not guilty of a crime at all. Yeah? What about January 6th? What about phone calls coercing officials to “find votes?” What about fake electors? “Hang Mike Pence” seems like a rather extreme “test of the system” to me. You can expect them to hand down THAT horrifying call as they slink out the back in the dead of night – the way they do with all of their cowardly, ideologically driven decisions.

For conservatives, though, the important thing is the story they can tell, not what happened…

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Donny scored a second “victory” of sorts yesterday, too. In New York, when you lose a civil case, you have to post the amount you lost in a bond before you can appeal. Donny’s team asked a judge named Anil Singh to stay the amount, asking if, instead of the full $454 million he’s supposed to put up, could he put up only $100 million? The judge said no. So what was the “victory?”

The judge ALSO ruled that the bit about him not being able to borrow from New York Banks or serve as a corporate officer was too extreme and he DID issue a stay on that part of the order. So, now Donny can borrow from banks again (assuming one would be stupid enough to loan to him) and, likely, he’ll be back running his criminal organization in no time at all.

Keep in mind: at NO time, has Trump made even the slightest effort to prove he is innocent of these crimes. He’s using legal technicalities to weasel out of responsibility and even those technicalities wouldn’t work if it wasn’t for fawning sycophants who really, really want to help Donny – and so they do…

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I don’t know and, I mean, I really don’t know what the cons think they’re going to get when they finally succeed in turning this country into a fascist dictatorship. What I do know is that they’re not going to get whatever benefit they think they’re getting. Fascist dictatorships don’t work that way. They never have. The cons should have paid more attention in school.

It’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever seen and, sadly, I’m not just seeing it. I’m living it. Conservative America already sucks. How bad is it going to get when their paranoid, angry, and delusional little minds are in charge of everything, with no guardrails? I guess we all get to find out together. Shit, man…

Out Of The Bottle…

Remember when the New Hampshire primary was happening and a robo-call went out pretending to be Joe Biden telling people to “save their votes” and not cast a ballot in the primary there? At the time, the Democrats were trying to make a different state the first state to vote in the Primaries and didn’t want to have one in New Hampshire so it seemed like a Democratic effort to undermine the primary there. Biden won, anyway. But, guess what?

A Democratic operative named Steve Kramer has admitted he commissioned the AI call. He said he employed “easy to use online technology” to deploy the call. It cost him around $500 bucks. He was employed by Democratic candidate Dean Phillips at the time but has not implicated Phillips in any way. The two aren’t working together anymore. Kramer commissioned the thing from a magician and hypnotist named Paul David Carpenter who said it cost him $1 and took him about twenty minutes to manufacture with software from an AI firm called ElevenLabs.

On the up side, the Federal government has since outlawed automated calls using AI generated voices. They say it’s a threat to democracy and it is. So, that’s good. The thing is, now that we know how easy it is for anybody with even a little practice to do, AI generated phone calls are suddenly a real and present danger and any slaphead can – and, therefore, will – make one.

To his credit, Carpenter expressed regret over how Kramer used the work product and as the law enforcement investigation heated up, Carpenter got with authorities. My favorite quote from that story? “Nobody wants to become well-known for something shitty.” (He should pay closer attention to MAGA. Some people, apparently, don’t mind…) But he said it would take “mere minutes” for people to learn to do what he did. “Pandora’s Box is opened,” Carpenter said.

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Hey, it looks like Americans finally did the right thing. It was probably an accident. Apparently, we’re all tired of the gouging in the stores and at the gas pump and even when we try to buy a car – so we’ve stopped. Well, slowed. Fewer name brand items are finding their way into our carts. People are buying used cars instead of new. People are driving less. In short, we’ve finally closed our wallets.

We’ve been told – a lot – by corporate media that all that price gouging is “inflation.” Probably Joe Biden’s fault. Of course, it isn’t inflation so much as greed. But now that Americans have closed their wallets, the prices are starting to slide. They won’t come down much but they are coming down and more importantly, they’re not going up anymore.

Now all we need the Federal government to do is reverse their oh-so-stupid rule change made in 2011 that allowed Wall Street to start buying up all the single family homes so Americans can compete in that market again and the cost of housing can fall, too…

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Donny is running around claiming for the deceived that he’s just like Navalny, a persecuted political prisoner just murdered by Vladimir Putin. I can see some differences, just in the description. But the details count, too. Navalny was first poisoned, then imprisoned, and ultimately murdered, on the charge of “extremism.” What the hell does that even mean, extremism? That’s a pretty subjective charge, if you ask me.

Donny, on the other hand, faces 91 separate charges in four different jurisdictions, each of which is well defined – not subjective – well supported by evidence, and has been in the books for years. Donny hasn’t been poisoned. I’ve heard he lives in fear of being poisoned. The story is, that’s why he eats so much fast food and uses the smallest ketchup bottles. It’s harder to poison him that way. But that’s just his snowflake paranoia. Nobody is actually trying to poison him.

If justice does prevail in his case, and he does end up in prison, he’ll come out just as fat as he is now. He won’t be starved while being held. Oh, and…he’ll get out. That, too, is different than Navalny’s fate. Why, it’s almost as if 45 is delusional.

Currently, the United States doesn’t have a corollary to what Putin just did to Navalny. Donny has promised to start all of that if he gets back to the White House, of course, but right now, no. We don’t. Well, we ARE still holding a couple of people in Gitmo who have never been charged but remain in prison, nonetheless, so that’s close. But even they are being fed and not tortured. Nope, a terrified little con, 43, ruined America’s record on that.

Cons, and it’s always cons, justified that by calling it something different. Enhanced Interrogation wasn’t torture at all. Just ask the guys doing the torturing, I mean, interrogations. (DO NOT, for the god’s sake, ask the victims, er, “subjects of the interrogation.” My guess is, they have a different take entirely.)

Ah, crap. Just when I wanted to go all holier-than-thou on Russia, too. It turns out, the US DOES imprison people for political reasons and hold them “indefinitely.” That, too, was brought to you by the terrified, little minds of the conservative movement. I don’t know what’s wrong with those people. I just know they’re wrong…

Not Quite Right…

Leave it to lying Fox Not-News to put whatever spin they can on a story. The Story? Well, the headline read, “Nikki Haley’s campaign against Trump has siphoned thousands of ‘large dollar’ donors away from Biden.” It’s not a lie, exactly. According to the Fox Not News story – so take THAT for what it’s worth – something like 5,200 people who donated to Biden in 2020 gave money to Haley in this cycle.

Then, reluctantly, they casually drop that Haley has also siphoned off more than 10,000 donors to Donny in 2020, 3,000 in January alone. So, obviously, Fox Not-News highlights the smaller number and buries the larger number because it fools the deceived more readily.

I get it. We all distressed by how old the two leading candidates are. I can understand people trying to support someone younger. But Nikki Haley is STILL a nut-ball righty. She STILL wants to do terrible things to people – except rich people, of course. She will STILL bring most of what Donny wants to bring.

I know there was a backlash in 2020 among some conservatives who didn’t want to vote for Donny but intended to vote. That left them Biden. They were never “Biden people.” As nearly as I can tell, there ARE no “Biden people.” There are only MAGA and “Not Trump” people. And, no, I’m not being critical of the job Joe has done. I think he’s done a very good job, for the most part. If he were, say, twenty years younger, I wouldn’t even hesitate to vote for him again and I will cast my ballot for him in November.

I just think it’s so… Fox Not-News to highlight the smaller number as the event, while burying the larger number. It’s no wonder cons have no idea what’s actually going on in this world…

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MTG has done it again. She’s angry at Judge Engoron for being a good judge. She thinks he should get in trouble for his ruling against her precious. In her rant, she says Engoron should be “disrobed.” She wants to see him naked because he ruled against Donny? Weird…

Then again, isn’t she the person who perpetrated revenge porn against Hunter Biden on the floor of Congress because, hey, classy is classy, am I right? Apparently, she just likes looking at naked dudes. That’s her business – although I decry the involuntary nature of the exposures. What happened to getting permission?

I’ll tell you this: I don’t want to see any of it. It’s just none of my business…

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Hey, the United States is FINALLY back on the moon! Yay! It’s been fifty years. What a crying shame, waiting fifty years. But the drought is over and we’re back, baby. The lander was sent up by a private company. It’s a pretty amazing machine for moving cargo. If I have this right much of the lander was 3D printed! It’s not designed to last long. It’s going to freeze in a few days. Knowing humanity as I do, there is no plan to go back and clean up the mess.

Given the opportunity, I think I might have named it something else but if I were on their team, my attitude would be, “Hey, when YOU build YOUR moon lander, you can name it anything you want!” Fair enough. I’m not trying to start a fight, here. But Odysseus? Isn’t he the guy who kept getting lost and sidetracked on his journey? Is that solid optics? Then again, the lander DID trip on a rock and is now laying on it’s side so, maybe Odysseus is appropriate after all. Apparently, it’s still functional. Just having a lie-down. Science is cool…

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The thing that gets me more than any other part of Donny’s trials? The literal trials, I mean. He’s making NO effort – NONE – to try and demonstrate innocence. Instead, he’s stalling. He’s filing frivolous lawsuits. He’s raising stupid “questions” and “legal challenges.” People tease him and call him dumb when he claims, say, that Constitutionally, people with brown hair can’t prosecute ex-Presidents. Sure, it’s a stupid claim. But it’s going to be reviewed in a higher court. It buys him a month, maybe two.

Hell, his suck-ups on the Roberts Supremely Corrupt, Kangaroo Court can take up the “question” of perfect immunity and wait until they’re leaving for their annual three month vacation to issue their “Of course not” ruling late in the night of June 30 as they slink off to pick up this year’s bribes. Yes, he’ll “lose” his challenge. But he’ll win his delay. And in this case, justice delayed really will be justice denied. The very worst part? It seems to be working.

One of the stall tactics he and his co-defendants tried, was to attack the credibility of the prosecutor in the Georgia election interference trail, Fani Willis. Willis had an intimate relationship with a member of her team, Nathan Wade. The question is, did Willis hire Wade because she was in a relationship with him? That would violate a Georgia nepotism law. It looks like Trump’s team may have landed a pretty heavy blow.

Willis and Wade both testified that the relationship started after Wade was hired but they have both stated they knew each other prior to becoming intimate. Wade said he had visited Willis’ home prior to being hired but estimated the number of times to be around 10. They agreed Wade had never spent the night at Willis’ house until AFTER the relationship got personal.

Now cell phone data shows Wade in Willis’ neighborhood more like 35 times prior to the hiring, and on at least two of those times, the phone, at least, arrived late at night and left early in the morning. Now, to be clear, this is cell phone TOWER data. All it really shows is Wade was somewhere in Willis’ neighborhood several times before the hire date.

Maybe Wade has another friend, or perhaps an at-the-time side-honey, in the area who pings off the same tower. Maybe Wade is a stalker and lurked outside Willis’ home without her knowledge from time to time. Maybe he’s NOT a stalker but really, really wanted to ask her out. He would go over and then lose his nerve. Of course, maybe the relationship DID start earlier and they were “bumping uglies” before the hire. I don’t know. There are so many ways a thing can be, it doesn’t make much sense to decide which one it was. But if there WAS such a third party, that person had better stand up right effing now.

Because it doesn’t LOOK good and she can be removed for even the appearance of impropriety. That will end his Georgia case, wipe it right off the books. The ONE case he couldn’t pardon himself out of, nor get his corrupt AG to drop charges because it was a state case. Donny won’t win the case on the merits – he’s a guilty man – but he’ll beat the rap, as the saying goes. Justice denied…

Busy Friday, Part 2…

Okay, a couple of quick followups from yesterday. It’s important to remember that this $355 million dollar judgement against Donny only covered a few years of his criminal enterprise. He likes to tell the deceived that he “won the appeal,” but that’s all he says. He DID win the appeal. But the appeal only limited the scope of the trial because the Statute of Limitations had run on the older crimes. That’s what got Ivanka removed. Her participation, if any, ended before the time period in question. It could have been much, much worse if they could have considered his entire life of crime.

Also, Donny announced, yesterday, he’s launched a line of shoes. They sell for as high as $300/pair. That will help him pay his judgements. I’m guessing that – like his hats – they’re NOT made in America and I’m guessing the unpaid penalty will survive longer than the shoes will. He’s STILL managing to find some financial support from some GOP mega-donors, too. I suspect these were legacy babies, born to wealth. Which person in their right mind, who somehow acquired their own money, would give any of it to a known, proven, grafter and thief? And, yes, the word is grafter, a person who engages in financial chicanery or corruption. That’s Donny all over…

The other follow up thing? The Russians won’t turn over Navalny’s body. Nothing says “it was an honest accident” like hiding the evidence, eh? They HAVE, however, “detained” over 400 people mourning the passing of Navalny. And STILL…MAGA loves a dictator. I continue to be stunned by just how stupid stupid can be…

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But, ALSO on Friday, we all found out that James Comer’s hard-hitting (maybe), can’t be beaten (we think), absolutely definite (probably), open and shut case (if Biden was involved), with a “smoking gun,” FBI informant named Alexander Smirnof they couldn’t find for awhile hasn’t just fizzled. Their “smoking gun informant” couldn’t be found because he was on the run from the FBI. That’s because he lied, lied, lied!

All of the parenthetical asides are because Comer went on shows all over the conservative bubble, over and over again to say they were going to get Biden but was just smart enough to never once commit himself to any of his own actions. The ‘probably’ and ‘maybes’ came from Comer. To me, that suggests that Comer knew better than to commit to his story because he knew the story was false. Weasel words. He promoted it anyway. Hell, it was the linchpin of their entire impeachment against Joe. Oh, AND it laid bare (literally) Hunter’s life and smeared the heck out of Hunter’s name. (Hard to do, considering Hunter’s reality.)

MAGA lies are boring and predictable, these days, so I can tell you what Comer’s going to say in response: Biden had the FBI arrest the informant as a political move. It has probably, maybe already started – you know, if Comer knew the whole story was fiction to begin with. These guys always pretend the Democrats corrupt the DOJ like the Republicans corrupt the DOJ and simply CAN NOT wrap their arms around the idea that the Dems don’t. In fairness, though, the Dems don’t NEED to. The Republicans commit really stupid crimes and they’re not very good at covering them up. The DOJ just has to do their job. And the DOJ is VERY good at what they do.

The actual story is that Burisma paid Hunter AND Joe $5 million each to “protect us, through his dad, from all kinds of problems.” Smirnof amended his story after “meeting with the Russians” but it only got worse. As is always the case when MAGA is involved, there was never any evidence. Lots of promises of evidence. Never any actual evidence. Effing MAGA falls for this exact same shtick over and over. MAGAGOPCORP has been screaming for three years about having all the evidence in the world of all the cases they try to make. But they never, EVER produce one shred, not one scintilla to prove it. Still, MAGA deceived are forever telling me the evidence is there. Usually with an attitude. Hey, MAGA, school’s out. Grow up.

You know one of the people who helped him? Sean Hannity. Old Sean had Comer on his show to present the fraudulent case over and over and over again. One might have thought that after the $750 million judgement for promoting lies, Fox Not-News would have been more careful about helping spread MORE lies. One might also think that Hunter is probably gearing up the attorneys right now over the defamation. One certainly hopes, anyway.

I’ll tell you this: I suddenly find myself wondering how many three-quarters of a billion dollar defamation lawsuits Fox Not-News can absorb…

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It looks, to me, like the frivolous case trying to protect the Dumbass from his crimes by removing Fani Willis as the prosecutor in Donny’s Georgia trail took a pretty big hit on Friday. The suggestion is that Fani Willis hired Nathan Wade to be a special prosecutor so SHE could benefit, financially, since the two were dating. The two maintain the relationship started and ended after Wade was hired.

One of the key witnesses against Fani, Terrance Bradley, was once Wade’s law partner and, for a time, represented Wade in Wade’s divorce. He suddenly refused to answer questions, claiming attorney-client privilege. We ALSO found out that Bradley left his firm with Wade after an undisclosed “dispute,” protected by the privilege. Oh, we also found that this star witness was once the focus of a sexual assault claim by someone he worked with. He acknowledged the charge but denied it’s veracity.

The thing is, Wade got paid for his work. Wade and Willis got involved. Wade and Willis, as lovers, took a couple of trips together. Wade paid for them on his credit card. The total amount of money the trips cost came to something less than $5,000. THAT’S the big kickback scheme being alleged? Willis set the whole thing up for less than one month’s salary?

Oh, and Wade and Willis have both testified, under oath, that Willis paid Wade back in cash. No, she didn’t ask for receipts. Willis’ father testified he didn’t know Wade and Willis ever even had a relationship. Sounds pretty serious to me, when your family doesn’t even know about it. He also testified that it doesn’t surprise him to find out his daughter had cash on hand in her house. He called it a “black thing.”

There are a few details to be cleared up but it looks to me like the whole thing is a nothing-burger. Mostly, it seems a salacious effort to undermine Willis’ credibility and very little else. I mean, a couple of grown adults got hot for each other and worked each other’s fun bits for a short time. People do that. It happens. That seems more about the fun bits that Donny’s crimes.

I’ll tell you this: the case is still playing out, but it seems that Donny is STILL going to have his date with destiny in Georgia. And Fani, now EXTRA pissed off, is going to be leading the charge…

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Finally, I just want to note that the shooters at the Kansas City celebration were NOT Niner fans who couldn’t handle the loss. They were just a couple of average, run-of-the-mill “responsible gun owners” who decided to open fire on each other in the middle of a huge crowd over some personal disagreement and hit lots of people – just not the person they were shooting at…

Busy Friday, Part 1…

Well, lets’ see. Has anything worth writing about happened in the last couple of days? Some people call the “news” we get in this country on Fridays, “Take out the garbage day.” NORMALLY, it’s just fluff stories and light stuff. Sometimes, though, something important slips in under the radar – and right past the masses, hopefully. This was not that Friday.

Donny lost his fraud trial in New York. No, that one starts in March. This is the civil case brought by Letitia James. The judge, Arthur Engoron handed down his much anticipated ruling. $365 million dollars from Donny, two of his criminal kids, and a couple of their cohorts. The lions share goes to Donny, though, at $355 million dollars. You’d think he’d LOVE that. He got the biggest numbers. The Best numbers. Nobody has EVER had numbers like him.

In addition, he’s barred from doing business in New York for three years and can’t work with any bank, any where, that is registered to do business in the state of New York. Being the financial capitol of the world, that’s pretty much any bank large enough to do crime, er, business on his scale. I was disappointed.

Up until the ruling, it was assumed Art – can I call you Art? – Okay, it was assumed Judge Engoron was going to bar him from doing business in New York for the rest of his life. He even wrote up the order. THAT is what I wanted. Then I remembered. This is just the first conviction in a long line of convictions. This was a civil trial, not a criminal trial. This cost him money, but other trials he’s facing could very well cost him his freedom. That is to say, most rational Americans expect him to be in prison within three years…

He testified in one of his depositions he has about $400 million cash on hand. The way he lies, that might well mean he has $1.28, but let’s use his numbers. He just got hit with $355 million to New York. He’s already been ordered to pay $83 million to E. Jean Carroll for ‘Defamation Loss II,’ the sequel to his famous ‘Defamation, What Not To Do’ trial,’ which cost him an additional $5 million. That comes to $443 million dollars. Wait, no it doesn’t. I mean, it does, but there’s interest. According to Letitia James, that starts at around $99 million, and counting, pumping the beginning balance he owes to $542 million dollars.

I suspect most people think he’s going to tap into “campaign contributions” to pay some or all of the bill. It’s not supposed to be legal. NONE of this has anything to do with his maladministration nor a campaign but, since when does Donny care about legal? I don’t know how long MAGA can keep this up. (Actually, it’s only about $8 bucks to each of the 70 million MAGA who voted for him last election, despite his crimes and failures.) He’s also still got a compelling interest in his website ‘Truthiness Social.’ Hey, that has the word ‘Social’ in it. It must be communism.

Now comes the stalling. I’ll give Donny this: I’ve learned a LOT about the legal system in this country and how the rich manage to manipulate it to their advantage, thanks to him. Donny is OLD. He’s been “working the system,” as the saying goes, for a long, long time. He knows just about every trick. Supposedly, has to post a bond in the amount due for each trial he wants to appeal. In most states, bankruptcy can delay judgement payments but not discharge them. Will someone lend him money? I mean, he’s now been officially adjudicated a liar and a fraudster. Who’s going to part with a half-BILLION dollars to a known scallywag?

I’ll tell you this: Letitia James landed a big, hard blow on that tiny, little snowflake. She certainly staggered him – but she didn’t knock him out…

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I wonder how MAGA feels about their man Vladimir Putin today. Do they still love him for being the “strongman” or have they noticed, yet, that “strongmen” often kill their political opponents, like Vlad just did to Alexei Navalny? Navalny ran a long standing campaign against Putin for years and years. At one point, Navalny escaped Russia and kept taking pot-shots at Putin from a distance. Putin’s people found him and poisoned him, nearly killing him. He survived, though. THEN, the dude went BACK to Russia and filed to run against Putin in an election.

So, Putin did what Trump wants to do. He tossed his political rival – Navalny – in prison on what most of the world saw as trumped up charges. Navalny managed to keep up the attacks so Putin had him moved to a FAR north gulag, where they could kill him slowly and without any prying eyes. And they did. They say he died after a “fall at the Arctic penal colony where he was being held.” A LOT of Putin’s political critics die from sudden, unexpected “falls” these days. I guess gravity is cheaper – and easier to administer – than poison. Currently, the State is refusing to produce the body.

The thing about dictators is that murdering people they don’t like is a common arrow in their quivers. It’s not just Putin. Duterte did it. Erdogan does it. Xi does it. They ALL do it. Hell, Idi Amin used to EAT his opponents. I suspect MAGA thinks dictators are a great idea because they think they’re safe from the dictator’s wrath. I don’t think they understand, well, anything, really, but they seem to miss the idea that ANYBODY can become the enemy of a dictator, at ANY time, for ANY reason. Sometimes, all you need to be is in the wrong place at the wrong time.

In the book ‘Fahrenheit 451,’ the protagonist, Guy Montag, lives in a dictatorial society, based on Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union at the time it was written, and realizes at one point that he’s on the wrong side. He runs for his life, at night. He loses the helicopter chasing him but watches on television as the cops in the chopper kill “him.” The public had been tuned in to the chase, see, so they could know that opposition to the State was a bad idea. When Montag lost the helicopter, the State had to produce results anyway, so they gunned down a silhouetted figure, insisting they got their guy. Weirdly, I’ve always felt badly for that character we never even met, except to see him die. He just lived his life, likely followed all the rules, but died anyway in a misguided show of strength on the part of the State.

I’ll tell you this: MAGA should look more closely at the dictator state they think they want. It doesn’t usually go really well for the masses…

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So that’s it. That’s everything that came out this Fri – wait, what? Oh, yeah. It also looks like Willis is winning and the House MAGA are losing, but you’ve got things to do and so do I. Let’s look at those tomorrow…

The Games People Play…

Well, that was a very good football game with an ending I’d rather had gone differently. Congratulations to the Chiefs. They’re an amazing football team and beat the Niners pretty much the way I feared they would. I’ve got the Niner loss down to Moody missing that Point After Touchdown and Wilkes’ defense in the second half and overtime.

The missed kick changed the entire strategy of the game. KC only needed a Field Goal to stay in the game instead of a touchdown. Losing Greenlaw was huge – and heartbreaking. The guy tore his Achilles tendon running back onto the field. This meant his backup came in. A coach like Reid is going to target a backup player and Coach Reid certainly did. Wilkes called a pretty good game at the start but there’s something about the guy. He seems to revert to less-than play-calling in some situations.

At one point, Defensive Coordinator Wilkes called SUCH a poor play, Head Coach Shanahan was forced to use a timeout to tell him to call something else. Even the commentators were saying it was a seriously bad play call in the moment. It’s possible Shanahan would have done that again but he only gets three timeouts per half. I’m guessing he was irritated he had to do it once, let alone use all his timeouts trying to help his DC.

Look, I don’t mean to lay this all off on Moody and Wilkes. Mostly, KC is a great football team and all of Niner nation knew this was a possibility going into the game. We also knew the weak points. In what turned out to be something of a metaphor for the game, Moody set a Putrid Bowel record with a long field goal. Yay! Then, he lost the record to KC’s kicker, Butker, in the same game. Rats!

Moody’s challenge is playing in the shadow of Robbie Gould, one of the great kickers to have played the game. He might get more consistent. But Wilkes has a long history of real average coaching. There was no reason to think he was the guy to suddenly step up to that level and it turned out he wasn’t. I suspect the Niners will give a presser and say Wilkes did a fine job and it wasn’t him and yadda, yadda. Then, I suspect, the Niners will seek out a stronger candidate.

On the up side, this was Brock Purdy’s FIRST full season and he took the team to, and had a chance to win, the biggest game of the big games. Because Brock is stuck in a rookie contract, the Niners have a LOT of salary cap space, so they may, well, be able to keep the core of the team together. What THAT means is that it’s more than just blather when the Niners say, “We’ll see you next season!”

Also on the up side? We get to leave all the hype about the big game behind us for awhile. Now all we have to endure is hours and hours of political commercials and that’s…ah, crap! When does football start, again?

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Today is Donny’s deadline to ask the Kangaroo Court to rule on whether or not Joe Biden has perfect immunity. Okay, no, that’s not his question. He wants perfect immunity for himself. The DC Court of Appeals has said, rightly, that no American president has perfect immunity. Donny knew he was going to lose this fight going into it. He didn’t care. The point was about stalling. The court sniffed that out and ruled that a) he doesn’t have perfect immunity, b) he could appeal to the entire panel but the case was going back to Chutkin and would be active again even if he did, and c) they gave him until today to file his appeal with the ideological kangaroos.

The kangaroos, I’m sure, would love to help him. They help him every chance they get. But in this case, how do they give Donny perfect immunity without giving it to Joe, too? The only real risk is that the court takes up the case and then waits until it’s slinking out the back door late at night in June to issue their ruling. That would buy Donny LOTS of time…

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Did you see that weasel crap about Robert Kennedy, Jr during the Scooper Brawl? A Super PAC that supports him used an ad that looked exactly like something John F. Kennedy used in the 1960 campaign, complete with vintage look and soundtrack, and just stuck ‘Robert’ in where it would have said ‘John’ originally. In fact, it WAS something John Kennedy used. I wonder if the PAC can be sued for plagiarism? The thing is, THIS Kennedy is no John Kennedy. He’s a righty, in fact. He’s trading on his father’s and uncle’s name but he’s not in their league by like, light-years.

The dude even pretended to be a Democrat until 2023, when he switched to ‘Independent.’ The subterfuge, pretending to be a Democratic Kennedy, helped to get him elected in the first place. Now he’s running for President. I don’t know. Pretending to be something you absolutely are not in order to trick the electorate into supporting you? That seems…sneaky. Then again, it really is the American way…

Oversights…

Okay, so there’s a scathing new report out suggesting that the Biden administration has been downplaying Biden’s retention of classified documents. First we were told it was only a few. Then, there were a few more. Then, a few more. A special counsel was assigned.

In the end, the special counsel determined that Biden had willfully retained some documents but that no charges were warranted. This is likely because Biden cooperated with the whole thing. The special counsel took great pains to rip on Joe Biden for being old. That was not necessary but I was okay with it. It demonstrates the guy didn’t like Biden but STILL couldn’t recommend charges.

Do you think that will shut MAGA up, though? Where have YOU been living, under a rock? Of course it won’t shut MAGA up. They’ll see NO difference, whatsoever, between Biden having documents, turning himself in over them, cooperating with the investigation and giving them all back and Donny’s efforts to keep the documents, first claiming he didn’t have them, then that they were his to keep, then lying about giving them back, then trying to hide them. THEN trying to “negotiate” the documents return, finally losing them in a warrant search of Mar-a-Lardo, only to discover he likely has even MORE in his secret locked room.

Biden shouldn’t have had those documents and he is paying a political price (MAGA whining) for having them. Donny shouldn’t have had the documents HE had, either, but his crimes are about obstruction of justice – which Joe DIDN’T do. Joe cooperated, Donny didn’t. Joe gets a scathing report that attacks his age, Donny got charged. It’s all in keeping with the law and known legal practices but MAGA is going to scream and shout about this for a long time to come. Thanks, Joe.

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Turns out? It’s not likely to matter. Scientists have discovered that the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (Amoc), a vast system of ocean currents that is a key component in global climate regulation is slowing at a far faster rate than previously expected. Great.

So, what IS the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation, you say? It’s a conveyor belt in the Atlantic ocean that moves warm and cold water around, regulating much of the Earth’s climate. As global warming advances, the glaciers in Greenland are melting and dumping massive amounts of cold, fresh water into the ocean. This, in turn, slows the Amoc and changes the planetary climate – for the worse, it you’re human (and many of us are).

Scientists told us this was going to happen decades ago. Conservatives shouted that scientists wouldn’t know their ass from a hole in the ground and the scientific consensus was wrong. They knew this because some talking head in the conservative bubble who knows nothing told them so. So, thanks to a political position du jour, humanity didn’t respond fast enough.

Scientists say the change is likely to happen so fast, adaptation will likely not be possible. Oh, they ALSO say it will be “devastating.” But absolutely, let’s keep debating whether there are kids in school who get cat boxes in the bathroom because they think they’re cats. (There aren’t and they don’t. That’s just more MAGA crazy…)

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One of Donny’s missteps. The other day on the campaign trail, he pointed out that Nikki Haley’s husband isn’t out, campaigning with her. ”Where is Nikki’s husband?” he asked, pointing out the absence. Interesting choice. See, Nikki Haley’s husband is a combat veteran and active duty military member deployed overseas. Nikki responded, “Michael is deployed serving our country, something you know nothing about.” Then she got to add, “Someone who continually disrespects the sacrifices of military families has no business being commander in chief.”

This does two things: One, it highlights Donny’s draft-dodging cowardice and, Two, it begs the question; where is Melania, or anybody else in the Dumbass family for that matter? In 2016, Donny had nearly his whole crowd there. Barron stayed out because he was too young and Tiffany mostly missed it as well, though she did make some appearances.

But he had Ivanka, Dumbass Jr, and Eric with him all the time. Melania made the occasional appearance as well. I presume DJ and Eric are out because they need all of their time to fight the criminal charges they may be facing. Ivanka managed to avoid criminal charges, being the smartest of the crowd, and I suspect she’s staying away to keep from getting close to charges again.

We even know Melania renegotiated her marital agreement with Donny a few months back. The presumption at the time was she was getting more money for Barron before Donny loses it all in court battles but it surely included some provision that she pretend she likes him on the campaign trail a time or two. Still, it seems as though it would be fair for Nikki to ask the same as Donny, “Where’s Melania?” One thing’s certain, she sure as hell isn’t out “serving” anyone, particularly this country…

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We don’t know where Michael Haley is (and we probably shouldn’t) and we don’t know where Melania is (and we REALLY don’t care) but we all know where Taylor is. She made it to LA and is now on her way to Nevada. It looks like she’s going to make it to the game, just in time to tell all the Swifties to vote for Biden…

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Donny’s comments are becoming increasingly unhinged. On Saturday, he claimed that in an unspecified NATO meeting, he told a head of state that if they’re delinquent, the US wouldn’t support or defend them. He added, “In fact, I would encourage them to do whatever the hell they want. You got to pay. You got to pay your bills.” That, in and of itself is hilarious coming from the serial deadbeat Donny is known to be. But it’s also dangerous.

Trump brags he destroyed a woman’s right to choose. MAGA supports him. Trump brags that while daily carnage plays out in the streets, he will make no effort to protect Americans from Americans with any kind of gun regulation. MAGA supports him. Trump sings praises of dictators around the globe and insists he’d be a dictator on day one, pretending it would ONLY be day one. MAGA supports him.

Now he’s suggesting he would stand idly by while Putin attacks NATO allies. He would, too. And MAGA will support him. It’s sure a good thing the conservative corrupted supremely kangaroo court is going to keep him on the ballot and give him another chance to destroy our republic. He couldn’t QUITE pull it off on his first try. By all means, let’s keep giving him opportunities until he finally bumbles his way to success. Effin’ morons…