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…

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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…

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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.”)

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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…

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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…)

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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!”

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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?

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…