When he first got elected, I didn’t know much about Mike Johnson. I can’t TELL you how much I wish that was still the case. This guy is as crazy as any MAGA ever. And just to make sure he puts the cherry on top, he’s ALSO a security risk. For one thing, he was instrumental in trying to help Donny betray America. That’s bad enough, but he ALSO worries SO MUCH about his 17-year-old son looking at porn (“self-pleasure” being the sin it is), they have an app that tattles to someone when you turn on porn on ANY of your devices. (That’s why the 17-year-old is always borrowing his friend’s electronics.)

Okay, maybe you don’t understand how things like that work so let me offer you a thumbnail. Somewhere, there’s a company, with people working in it (we don’t know any of them and they likely change over time), that has full and complete access to ALL of the electronics of the Speaker of the House, next in line to the President of the United States after the VP. This, of course, creates a route for people of malevolent intent (say…Donny’s Russian buddies) to get access to the inner workings of the Speaker of the House. Cons don’t seem to care. They’re FAR too worried that Hunter once did some cocaine and took photos of himself in the bathtub. Priorities, people.

Since EVERY Republican voted for this guy, I had hoped that, maybe, he was just a teeny-weeny bit more moderate than your standard MAGA. As it happens, he’s in the extreme arm of the movement, carrying the MAGA flag (it’s all white, of course), and leading the parade (wherever Donny tells him to.)

He claims not to have any bank accounts, anywhere. What?!? How does a guy like that manage in the modern world with no bank accounts? I’d bet he doesn’t. I’d guess he just keeps that public disclosure information to himself. You know, like Clarence Thomas likes to do. Possibly, for the same reason. But he’s Speaker of the House, now, and people are on to him. If he HAS a bank account, reporters WILL find it. How does he cash his House paycheck? (And can you believe we still have to pay those useless f*cks?)

Clearly, he plans to try to govern according to MAGA delusions, too. These guys just keep trying to force reality into their preferred perceptions but it never works and they just don’t get it. It never sinks in that reality is reality and delusion is delusion and ne’er the twain shall meet. So, since the cons took over, they have only managed to finally elect a Speaker, dump that Speaker, eventually bring in a new Speaker, and initiate an “investigation” into Joe Biden for…reasons. Useless. (Good. Crazy is dangerous…)

The thing is, the founders never foresaw this kind of insanity in the House. ALL spending bills start at the HOUSE (technically. In reality, they don’t always originate there but the House has to approve first.) So…the debt ceiling the cons don’t understand? Problem. The next budget talks? Problem. Funding Ukraine? Problem. (Cons want Putin to win that war so they don’t want to help Ukraine. They’re mad at Ukraine because Ukraine refused to help Donny cheat in the election.) Cons don’t LIKE cheating in elections – unless, of course, THEY’RE the ones doing the cheating. Then they’re all in.

I’ll tell you this: It’s really quite simple. If you love America, you’ll never vote Republican…

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Donny got angry that his kids are part of his criminal enterprise and got called to the stand for it. He barked at the judge, “Leave my kids alone!” No. They’re criminals, just like you. They should be punished, just like you. At least two of them are going to jail, just like you. But the cons dutifully responded to Donny’s faux outrage by issuing subpoenas to pretty much everybody Joe Biden knows, including his lost son’s widow, for some reason. Donny made pretty clear it’s a petty response to bringing Donny Jr, Eric, and Ivanka to testify. Petty.

I’d bet money that Biden’s family’s testimony will be FAR less incriminating that Donny’s family’s testimony has been for him so…bring em…

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Donny says he wants to bring over 100 witnesses in his NY civil fraud case. Yet another stalling tactic I’m sure will fail. I doubt it’s POSSIBLE there are over 100 people with relevant information that is new. (They’re not supposed to bring witness to simply repeat information someone else has already brought up.)

He doesn’t get to ramble and he doesn’t get to give speeches, he doesn’t get to repeat some lie, over and over until his audience is mind-numbed and mesmerized and he CERTAINLY doesn’t get to throw temper-tantrums until he gets his whiny way. (Archaic reference alert:) As Joe Friday used to say, “Just the facts, please.” Donny always, always, ALWAYS loses on “just the facts.”

I’ve got to confess: I’m enjoying this…

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Hey, try to act surprised. Over 10,000 dead, so far, in Palestine. Over 4,000 of them babies. (“Oh, the babies,” whined the Israel apologists before not caring and giving Palestinian babies “what they deserve.”) Netanyahu says Israel will have a security interest in Gaza for the “foreseeable future.” You (may have) read it here, first. It’s EXACTLY how Israel plays it’s cards, over and over. Agitate your target until they over-react, then punish the HELL out of them for their over-reaction and take still MORE of their land, agitating them further. It’s been going on since 1947 and it won’t stop until Israel pushes Palestine off the map and into the ocean completely. It’s got to be getting harder for the Israel apologists to make their case…

Hamas (not Palestine) says they want to push the Israelis into the ocean once and for all but has no power to do it. Israel says, “Can’t we all just, get along?” and then continues to push Palestinians into the ocean on a daily basis because they DO have the power (thanks, U.S.) – they just have to manage the “optics…”

Listen, it’s great to be vindicated and all but…what a crappy thing to be right about…

It sure looks to me like Gavin Newsom is running for President. I mean, I can’t say for sure. He and I haven’t talked recently. And HE says, “Oh no, not me!” But, of course, he would. He’s a Democrat in good standing and he’s not going to rock the boat by running against Joe Biden. But he keeps…doing things. As the Governor of California (55 electoral votes), his profile is already pretty high.

But his high-profile spat with Ron DeSantis of Florida seemed mostly about increasing his name recognition on a national level AND hopefully being seen as a defender of the Florida common man (29 electoral votes). Then he’s off again, negotiating climate agreements with the Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party, Winnie-the-Pooh. No, I’m sorry, it’s Xi Jinping, Chairman Xi. Bother. International relationships with high-profile world leaders? Check.

On the other hand, he has a legitimate role in climate negotiations and governors DO snipe amongst themselves from time to time. It COULD all be normal. Either way, he’s positioned for 2028, should America (or humanity, for that matter) survive until 2028. But by then, nobody will remember Newsom rubbing DeSantis’ nose in it and negotiating with Xi. So maybe he sees, or even knows, something the rest of us don’t. I’ll tell you what I see.

I think Democrats are making a HUGE mistake with their currently held position that ‘Well, Biden beat Trump once, he can do it again.’ I don’t really think Biden beat Trump. I mean, I’m no MAGA, I know Biden prevailed fair and square in a perfectly legitimate election. But people voted Biden in order to stop Trump. It could have been nearly anybody. (Nearly. A certain wife of a certain ex-President, it could NOT be. But anybody else…) The only criteria America used in 2020 was, “Who’s not Trump?”

But speaking of not Trump, what if the candidate isn’t Trump? There are two cases happening right now, trying to keep Trump off the ballot via the 14th Amendment. If they prevail, as they should, other states will follow as quickly as they can and Trump will be dropped from state after state. Trump might well be simply declared ineligible before the 2024 election. Or what if he’s in jail? I know the die-hardest of the die-hards will vote for him anyway, but I doubt you’ll find too many rational Americans, Republican OR Democrat, willing to cast their ballot for Inmate 1875150.

What if Trump is dead? I mean, he’s got a few years under his very large belt, too, and he doesn’t exercise. (Driving a golf cart from hole to hole doesn’t count.) He’s under tremendous stress, right now. He’s about to lose his daddy’s business and then go to prison. At his age, in his condition, that kind of pressure can just explode a person’s heart.

Also, and I hate to say this, for all of our bluster about how super-de-duper honest the voting machines are, I still don’t trust them and I never have. The reason I mention it is, thanks to Covid-19 (what happened to Covids 1 – 18?) people were pushed to use paper ballots. (Standard rant: ALL voters should ALWAYS use paper ballots. NONE of us can know, for sure, how dependable the machines are, but pen to paper has always been pretty dependable. Besides, you can vote in nothing but your underwear! Less, if you want to.)

I’ve long been struck by Trump’s claims that he got more votes. He didn’t, but he’s just sure he did. If it’s not just a gimmick, why would someone believe they had the most votes no matter what? The thought has crossed my mind that he thinks so because he knows he paid the money for the most votes. But when the voting was pushed to paper, manipulation of the machines was no longer possible. Yet another failed investment by Donald J. Trump. But in 2024, the machines are back!

Listen, I think Biden has done a pretty good job, so far. I know MAGA disagrees but they think they live in a Mad Max style, dystopian hell-hole and 45 is being framed so…no one’s best source of information. I suspect most thinking Americans agree with me. But people are very wary of his age. (It’s scary!) I know, Trump is old, too. Trust me, I don’t want HIM to be President, either. Biden acts old, which is okay, because he IS old. But he’ll be 82 during next year’s campaign. Mitch McConnell is 81 right now and he keeps taking little mental vacations to the Bahamas right in the middle of sentences. I’m not making fun. These are the slings and arrows of age. But that’s the point: age. At 81.

I know the cons like to pretend Biden is in full-fledged Alzheimer’s and walking into walls but he isn’t and he doesn’t. Yet. Maybe never. It’s not automatic. But the likelihood increases with every year and a person can start suffering symptoms before others even become aware. I even know the country can function should the worst happen. We had a President with full blown Alzheimer’s in Ronald Reagan. The people around him (the deep state) took care of him and got things done. But can we agree, it wasn’t optimal?

So maybe Gavin positioning himself now isn’t such a poor idea. He only has until December 15 to register his candidacy, though, so, we’ll know soon…

Matt Gaetz loves Mike Johnson because of how much Mike Johnson hates America. Gaetz thinks the election of Johnson to Speaker of the House is a brilliant moment in which MAGA takes control and now? Hoo, boy, you just watch who MAGA can hurt going forward! Gaetz called Johnson a “Godly man,” but wouldn’t know a Godly man if he was talking to, well, God.

Gaetz blames the confusion in the House on Kevin McCarthy. It’s all Kevin’s fault. Kevin was working behind the scenes to sabotage the process. Kevin has been relegated to RINO status since he (gasp!) worked with Democrats to (horror of horrors) pass legislation. Gaetz knows how wrong that was and he assures the base that Johnson won’t work with anybody to get anything done. And THAT’S how he’ll get things done. Period!

Personally, I doubt anything will get done. Anything at all. Well, except damage. If MAGA convinces moderate Republicans to vote with them on some crazy bit, the Democrats will stand, uniformly, opposed. Little to nothing will get out of the House. NONE of the MAGA hate-fest will get past the Senate. The downside is that nothing GOOD will get out of the House, either.

The up side? MAGA on full display. They will no longer be able to snipe from the shadows, pointing their fingers at anybody, everybody else. They’re up front for all to see. When America’s credit rating is downgraded – again – because cons don’t fully understand the process – still – and will play games with the debt ceiling – again – there won’t be anybody to point at and blame but themselves. Oh, they’ll DO it. They do not take personal responsibility for anything. But everyone will know it was them. And I’ll be here to remind anyone who forgets.

All I knew about Johnson on Wednesday was that he was one of the traitors. Now I know he’s a hate-filled, extremist traitor. He thinks people should adhere to 18th century values. He presents himself as a super-Christian but violates the 10 commandments every time he talks MAGA. He has, in the past, blamed mass shootings on “no fault divorce laws,” “the sexual revolution,” “radical feminism,” and “government sanctioned killing of the unborn.” Nothing about arming crazy people with high powered rifles designed for urban combat. Apparently, Jesus is a-okay with that..

His answer on LGBT+ issues? “Go pick up a Bible…” There’s ALWAYS an unspoken part to that particular advice: “…and ignore the parts you don’t like.” That unspoken part is VERY important to pseudo super Christians. Sure, he’ll hate gays because Leviticus says you should but he’ll tell you about his hatred over a lobster dinner because Leviticus “didn’t mean it” about shellfish.

I wonder if he supports multiple wives (whom the man owns, of course) and wives acquired by rape? BOTH ideas are exemplified in the Bible as perfectly normal. Sometimes, under certain conditions, you can even KILL the bitch and still be viewed as an “honorable man!” Yet, he only has one wife (that we know of). I assume he’s into slavery, as well. That, too, is endorsed in the Bible. God even set the price! Those are all well-known, 18th century values.

He thinks abortion providers should be sentenced to 1 – 10 years of “hard labor.” No word on forcing the man to take responsibility for HIS actions in the pregnancy and certainly nothing about preventing abortion through early childhood education and readily available birth control. Apparently, using the brain God gave us is a sin. Yeah, that makes sense.

You know what? The version of the Bible I’ve read has a lot of ‘help the poor,’ ‘feed the hungry,’ ‘clothe the naked,’ and ‘visit the sick’ but none of that ever makes it into their pseudo-christian ideology. The Christianity-making part of the Bible, the New Testament, (you know…the teachings of Jesus) says to sell off ALL of your possessions and give the money to the poor. THEN you can get into Heaven. I never see any of that in their oh-so-on-display christian pretense and his suits suggest he may be hoarding money, not giving it all away.

So there you go; my take on our new Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson. He doesn’t believe in the Constitution and he cherry-picks the Bible verses that form his opinions on morality. His goal is to punish people who don’t think like he does and he’s MAGA crazy. It’s going to be quite a ride with him for the next year or so but I’ll tell you this: MAGA isn’t just crazy, it’s dangerous and if we, the people, don’t find a way to sideline them – and fast – this country will have to go through hell to rid ourselves of them later…

.

Well, interesting. Trump told his fans at a recent rally not to bother to vote. He said he has, “plenty of votes.” He said, “You don’t have to vote, don’t worry about voting. The voting, we got plenty of votes.” Instead, he wanted them to poll-watch. But if everybody is watching Democrats vote, who’s voting for Inmate 1875150?

So on Monday, October 23, 2023 in New Hampshire, Donald J. Trump declared he already has enough votes to guarantee victory on November 5, 2024? So many, in fact, the MAGAs don’t even need to bother to vote? Zero Americans have cast a single ballot in that race. Yet he has all the votes he needs? He ALREADY has so many his MAGAs can just stand down? I wonder (Putin) where all those votes (Putin) came from (Putin)? There’s no way to know…

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According to Donny, he’s a freaking genius because he “noticed” that the word “us” is spelled ‘u’ and then ‘s.’ Also, the abbreviation for the United States is ‘U’ and then ‘S.’ After dropping that deeply insightful observation on his audience, (no wonder his followers think he’s brilliant) he summed it up with, “Now, if we say something genius, they’ll never say it.”

Sure we will, Donny. Say something genius and we’ll “say it.” Hell, say something reasonably intelligent and we’ll shout it to the world. In the meantime, I must be a genius, too, because I know another word in which the letter ‘u’ appears next to the letter ‘s’: Justice! I wonder if anyone else has noticed that? The ‘u’ right next to the ‘s’ in the word ‘justice’ – something else you’re learning an awful lot about these days, isn’t it?

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Mike Johnson? That’s our new House Speaker. I don’t know much about him but I DO know he voted NOT to certify the election in 2020 because he didn’t like the way it turned out. Matt Gaetz called him MAGA Mike Johnson. Gaetz said getting Johnson into the role shows “MAGA is ascendant.” He thinks it proves that MAGA is the true power of the party. Steve Scalise couldn’t prove it. Jim Johnson couldn’t prove it. Tom Emmer couldn’t prove it.

After, what, 22 days of “proving” MAGA governing ability, they’ve finally figured out a way to open the government again so they can get back to the business of shuttering the government again. Nice.

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Okay, I need some help from my lawyer friends, here. One of Donny’s “lawyers,” Sydney Powell, entered a “guilty” plea for her role in Georgia during the attempt to steal the election. She assured the judge, I’m paraphrasing, that the charges and specifications against her were true and correct. She was under oath. Okay, no more paraphrasing. Here’s the actual exchange:
Judge: “Are you pleading guilty, today, because you believe there is a sufficient factual basis, that there are enough facts that support this plea of ‘Guilty?'”
Powell: “I do.”

So, she accepts her slap-on-the-wrist-for-treason punishment and walks out of court, essentially a free woman. Then she starts right in, again, claiming the election was rigged. She wasn’t charged with the lie so I can see her getting away with that but she also maintains that her prosecution in Georgia was “politically motivated” and that her guilty plea was – her word – “extorted,” suggesting she was just shining the judge on.

She STILL doesn’t think she did anything wrong in stealing voter data. She doesn’t think she should have faced consequences and she really does NOT see herself as guilty – the exact opposite of what she swore to – under oath – in open court. So here’s the question: Can’t the judge rescind the plea deal? If she lied to get it, is the judge still beholden to it? Part of her deal was that she would have to testify against her co-conspirators. What good is her testimony if everybody knows she’s lying from the second she takes the stand? Is it really THAT easy to game the courts in this once great nation?

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Okay, quick hit, here. If you’re a Niner fan and you think the sky is falling, suddenly the Niners suck, and Brock Purdy really should have been ‘Mr Irrelevant,’ would you please get hold of yourself? Did you really think Purdy was going to stay nearly perfect throughout his entire NFL career? Whomever you think may have been the so-called ‘Greatest of All Time,’ Joe Montana (you’re right) or Tom Brady (you’re wrong), NEITHER man was perfect. Why should Purdy be? You thought the Niners were going undefeated? An undefeated season in the NFL has happened exactly ONE time, to ONE team – and that was during a 14 game season. ‘Undefeated’ just doesn’t come up.

We’re supposed to be “Forty Niner Faithful.” Would you please hold on to the “faithful” part a bit more? The Niners will be fine…

Falling in love.
Being dumped.
A wedding.
A divorce.
The birth of a child.
The death of a parent.
Buying a house.
Watching it burn down in a wildfire.
Being hired for a new job.
Being fired.
Winning a huge lottery prize (I assume).
Watching your beloved country be overthrown in a slow-motion coup orchestrated by a few billionaires and facilitated by the least educated among us.

All of these things have one thing in common: they put people into what might be called a minor fugue state. It’s important to understand, I’m misusing the term. In psychology, a fugue state is a serious dissociative condition in which people will, for example, travel to places with no memory of how they got there. It’s a kind of escapist behavior and, again, in psychology, it’s very serious. But one definition (in the DSM-5) calls a fugue state a kind of “bewildered wandering.” That’s more how I mean it. My use of the term doesn’t refer so much a complete disconnection from reality as a great distraction brought on by serious, life-changing events. If you know a better word for me, please let me know…

Any of the things on the above list leave us functioning, but not at full capacity. We’re still “present,” which is why I say I misuse the term, but we’re largely distracted. We move through the day, doing what needs to be done but sometimes not even remembering that we had done the thing in question. We still function. We’re still out there. We’re just not 100%. We haven’t dissociated, we’re just distracted. (Okay, in the case of a new baby, we’re also just effing tired, but still…) Good things and bad come along and knock us off our game. But we have to keep moving, so we do. Hopefully, we don’t mess anything up too badly in the meantime.

I’ve been through most of those things on that list. (STILL waiting on that huge lottery prize.) Most of the time, we can only understand our reduced capacity looking backwards. We don’t even know we’re doing it while we’re doing it but once we see it, we’re usually a little stunned at how we even got along during those times.

I think most of the United States citizens are in a kind of minor fugue state because of the last one on that list, the whole “Watching your beloved country be overthrown…” Americans just aren’t used to treason and national betrayal as a “normal” state. It has thrown us off our games, a bit, a constant distraction.

I think (hope?) the charges, trials, and convictions are helping. They seem to be helping me. It’s been a bit crazy-making, listening to MAGA tell stories that have little to no bearing on reality, as though those stories might be real. I mean, has this country REALLY become a place where facts are fluid and evidence is ethereal? As these court actions play out, the clear answer is, “No!”

There have been over 1,000 convictions associated with Donald Trump’s January 6th coup attempt. (Meet Donald Trump and go to jail!) Mostly, they’ve been low-level charges and relatively minor sentences. That bothered me, at first, having seen what they did in the Capitol. But as they’ve moved up the ladder of responsibility, the charges and sentences have been more serious. Facts are NOT fluid. Verifiable evidence is still proof.

MAGA cons are likely to never know the reality of the situation. The conservative media bubble is producing articles and broadcasts every day attempting to distort truth and paint a different – and false – picture of events. (Cons think “spin” and “a lie” are the same thing.) They made tremendous headway before the courts could catch up. But events are overtaking the narrative, as the saying goes. Out in public, they’re free to say any damn fool thing they will – and they will. But in the courtroom, where “opinion” is far less valuable than factual evidence, the truth is being reinforced, one player at a time.

We’re getting to the big fish. Oath Keepers and Proud Boys leaders sentenced to decades in prison. Sydney Powell and Kenneth Chesebro flipping for the Feds against Trump. They’ll help convict John Eastman, Rudy Giuliani, and, ultimately, Donald Trump, himself. The courts have pierced the heart of the conspiracy and the convictions are following along steadily.

I’ll tell you this: For me, the convictions are comforting, reassuring. The system, slow as it is, seems to be working, for the moment, and my minor fugue state is a bit less distracted every day…

I used to say conservatives are always wrong.  It’s a nice little inflammatory line that enjoys the advantage of making conservative heads explode and – truth be told – is rather easily defended.  But over time I’ve realized it’s not correct or, rather, it’s not complete.  In order to be completely correct, it needs two more words so from now on, my new phrase is: conservatives are always wrong for civilization.

It’s a small but important distinction.  I mean, sure, you can have a society in which the wealthy and powerful are allowed – encouraged, even – to use their inherent advantages to prey on the weak and defenseless.  But you can’t have a civilized society in which the wealthy and powerful use their inherent advantages to prey on the weak and defenseless – at least not for long.

You can have a society in which everyone is armed to the teeth and willing to shoot the nearest likewise armed person at the merest perceived insult.  But it won’t be a civilized society.

You can continue to oppress various groups into desperation and beyond – all the while blaming the victims for being victims.  But they’re not going to go gently into that good night and in their desperation, they’re going to disrupt civilization.

You want a society of uneducated, illiterate drones?  Why, you can have that, too, by simply de-funding public education and setting up teachers to fail.  But that’s not civilization.

You can live in a world where pharmaceutical manufacturers wave life-saving medications in front of a dying man and ask “NOW how much would you pay?” But that’s not civilized, either.

As it happens, ALL of those are examples of conservative dogmas promoted in America today.  Each of them can be found in various places throughout history. We’ve seen the results of wealthy people preying on the poor all the while blaming them for being poor.  We called it “fiefdom” and, later, “slavery”.  It took a war to stop it.  Arm everyone to the teeth?  That sounds like the Old West and was addressed, by the way, by men like Wyatt Earp – who solved the problem by passing ordinances taking people’s guns away.  You prefer uneducated illiterates?  Why, we called that ‘the Dark Ages’.

Yet conservatives continue to support these ideas as somehow suddenly credible…because conservatives are always wrong, you know…for civilization…