I’ll tell you what’s weird. I received… no, that’s not right. My ESTATE received a notice from the VA expressing their condolences on my passing. “Wait,” I wondered, “am I dead?” I don’t actually FEEL dead, you know? Well, no, nobody knows what it “feels” like to be dead except dead people and I’m not one. (Unless this is a ‘Sixth Sense’ kind of deal and I just don’t KNOW I’m dead.)

Possible spoiler alert: if I AM dead, then I can tell you that when you’re dead, you’ll feel just like you did when you were alive. Sadly, that means all the same parts that hurt right now will continue to hurt. That’s not better. But how cool is it that I can still type on my computer? Or can I? Can you read this?

I received my “bummer for you” notice from the VA on a Saturday. They weren’t around on the weekend so I had to wait until Monday morning to contact them. It seems they were willing to accept me talking to them on the telephone – ostensibly live – as evidence I’m not dead yet, which I appreciate. I’m assured the whole mess will be straightened out soon, but in at least one official computer, I spent a couple of days “dead.” Now I’m alive again. Resurrected, in a manner of speaking.

What do you know? Jesus ISN’T the only one to pull off that trick! You’all might want to be impressed NOW and avoid the rush…

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Okay, back to the swamp. Sorry. I thought to myself, “Why would I watch? He’s going to lie – just, make things up out of whole cloth – and claim great successes he has yet to accomplish and never will.” I should have trusted my instincts. But I tuned in for a bit. Guess what? He lied. He just made things up out of whole cloth. He claimed great success but has actually only produced damage and suffering. In fairness, his goal is damage and suffering so, I guess, technically, that IS “success.” It’s just not the kind of “success” any decent human being would aspire to, right?

I DID get to see Rep. Al Green escorted out for speaking the truth. He addressed the dumbass lie that The Felon has a “mandate.” That’s a sin in Washington DC these days, speaking the truth. I’m sure the right is all aflutter about Green doing it during the speech. They’ll conveniently forget the way that behavior became “acceptable” during the Obama administration when GOPrick Joe Wilson of South Carolina shouted “You lie!” during Obama’s State of the Union. MTG then copied the behavior during a Biden address. NOW it’s an outrage?

One of 47’s falsehoods was about “trans” mice. He claimed someone was using millions of dollars to switch the sexes of mice. The problem? The word he saw was “transgenic,” not “transsexual.” Transgenic means the mice are genetically modified to accept human illnesses for research purposes. Now, I’ll tell you the truth, I didn’t know “transgenic,” either. But I guarantee you, I would have at least looked it up before I stood up in front of the world and made an utter fool of myself berating the misuse of money to change mouse sexes. I’d bet a DOLLAR there’s a dictionary in the White House. (I might lose that. Donny might have determined that dictionaries are a liberal plot and demanded their removal…)

President Musk and sub-president trump HAVE initiated their assault on Social Security. For clarity, that’s not just “liberal” Social Security. Are you a bright red MAGA, proudly wearing the mark of the beast on your forehead, supporting Trump in all things at all times, showing up at rallies, buying busloads of cheap, foreign-made crap The Felon hawks at every opportunity? Yeah, he’s coming for YOUR Social Security, too.

He DID say, twice that I heard, that Elon Musk is in charge of the illegal DOGE. I’m guessing the lawyers jumped all over that since it directly contradicts a court filing the government made. I THINK lying to courts is still a bad thing and now, with 47’s help, the court KNOWS the maladministration lied…

And have you HEARD his “idea” about the ‘Gold Card?’ Yeah, that will be for SALE! “Oh, you want to come to the United States and be a citizen? Here fill out this paperwork. Get yourself a lawyer because it’s a fuckin’ labyrinth of confusion and potential missteps that will cost you time and money and can easily derail success. Set aside the next couple of years of your life because you’ll need to be going back and forth from the embassy to answer questions, or provide more detail. No, it isn’t easy coming to America but it’s important that we screen every applicant to minutest detail to ensure only decent people get in…”

“OR, you could just pay Donald Trump $5 million dollars for a ‘Gold Card’ and walk right in. Oh, a Gold Card? Yeah, that’s a Green Card PLUS! YOU get immediate, unscreened access to the United States, PLUS Trump gets $5 million of your dollars. It’s a win-win.” And what could go wrong?

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For today, many Republicans are publicly disavowing The First Felon’s ridiculous claim that Ukraine invaded Russia. I expect they’ll be brought to heel soon, but for now, they’re accidentally expressing truth. The latest I’ve seen is H.R. McMaster. You remember McMaster. He was 47’s National Security Advisor during Trump’s first failed efforts in the White House. He knows Donny personally and better than you do.

McMaster did an interview with ’60 Minutes’ where he said, “Vladimir Putin couldn’t be happier, because what he sees is all of the pressure on Zelensky, all of the pressure on Ukraine and no pressure on him.” McMaster noted that Putin is a “master manipulator” with a deep understanding of how to work Trump to Russia’s advantage.

“He appeals to President Trump’s sense of aggrievement,” McMaster said. “And he’s been very successful at it because he’s a master manipulator and one of the best liars in the world.” (Editors note: I think Trump sees Putin as a role model.)

47 handled it with his usual aplomb and posted this to his failing social media platform late Sunday, “H.R. MCMASTER IS A WEAK AND TOTALLY INEFFECTIVE LOSER!” I don’t know. It seems like projection, to me, but it’s also stupid. If he’s an “INEFFECTIVE LOSER,” does that mean he’s ineffective at being a loser? Does that mean he’s a winner? If he wants lessons at being an effective loser, he should talk to the Democrats. Those idiots lose everything!

Then he added a separate post: “We should spend less time worrying about Putin, and more time worrying about migrant rape gangs, drug lords, murderers, and people from mental institutions entering our Country—So that we don’t end up like Europe!”

There he goes again, protecting Putin and working hard to distract the morally defective MAGA faithful by talking about all the scary, scary things they spend their days, nights, weekends, and vacations being terrified about, but never, ever see with their own eyes and in real life. Rape gangs. What a buffoon.

Donald J. Trump has humbled and humiliated the United States of America on the world stage. He’s an embarrassment and he has reduced the nation to a laughing stock. “…so we don’t end up like Europe!” I would MUCH rather end up like 2025 Europe than the 1939 Germany he’s working so hard to make us.

I’ll tell you this: I think the very FIRST person President Musk should send to Mars is Trump and Musk should go with him to make sure he gets there safely. Oh, no return trip? Bummer…

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I strongly suspect that 47’s “path to peace” for Ukraine is for Ukraine to surrender the land Russia has stolen – and probably whatever other land Putin wants. I suspect that is the real reason that conversation became so testy the other day. I mean, obviously, it was an ambush, but it would have helped to have Zelenskyy in a state of mind to defend Ukraine’s situation and discussing the possibility of just giving away the store to Putin in private before the press came in would be just the ticket.

Now Donny (by which I mean Putin) has suspended arms deliveries from the US to Ukraine. According to Reuters, the Kremlin says suspending military aid is the best hope for peace in Ukraine. So there you go. The First Felon has violated a treaty in which the US promised to defend Ukraine and turned his back on people fighting to defend themselves from an illegal invasion AND made Putin giddy by weakening Putin’s opponent.

Look, I know nobody is going to do anything about it, but how does that NOT make Trump a traitor, offering aid and comfort to an adversary? I have LONG since understood Trump is a Russian asset, handled personally by Putin. I’m not exactly surprised whenever 47 does things intended to help Russia. But I AM disappointed every time…

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Did you know that The Felon took all the boxes retrieved from the FBI Mar-a-Lardo search back to Mar-a-Lardo? It makes it so much easier for his Russian friends to come in an get copies…

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Wow, two of the corrupt kangaroos joined the rational few to order The Felon to pay the money already spent by USAID contractors. 47, in his normal style, intended to just stiff them. In a 5-4 ruling, the Way High Court said he has to pay. John Roberts and Amy Coney-Barrett did the right thing. Bought and paid for Clarence “give me more” Thomas, Samuel “I’m gettin’ mine” Alito, Neil “Luv my stolen seat” Gorsuch, and Brett “I like beer” Kavanaugh continue to suck.

I’ll tell you this: It always surprises me when this horribly corrupt court does the right thing for some reason…

Well, wow! THAT was something, wasn’t it? Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy came to the US in an effort to gain security guarantees in exchange for access to Ukraine’s rare earths. I haven’t seen much of JD Vance since the “election” but he was there this time. His role seemed to be in reminding Zelenskyy that 47 doesn’t do ANYTHING unless he gets a verbal handjob talking about how great he is, so Zelenskyy had better bow low in supplication. “You CAN’T say ‘Thank you’ enough…”

THEN Vance accused Zelenskyy of not negotiating with Putin. Zelenskyy corrected that false information. Of course, this is the ‘fact-free maladministration’ and facts are viewed as something of a mortal sin in the White House these days. So, obviously, Vance and Putin’s Puppet just had to push back – against facts. Something of a shouting match ensued.

At one point, The First Felon started trying to pressure Zelenskyy to say “something nice” about Putin. Zelenskyy refused. I get that. Imagine someone coming into your house and murdering your entire family. Everyone knows who did it. An arrest is made quickly and when the killer gets to court, the judge says he’ll hand down the sentence only AFTER you say “something nice” about the killer. THAT is the situation Zelenskyy is in, and 47 wants Zelenskyy to say something NICE about Putin?!? Frankly, I think Zelenskyy showed great restraint in that room. Oh, but as always with this crowd, the plot thickens.

It turns out, there was secretly a member of Russian State TV, TASS, embedded with the hand-picked press pool in the room that day. Reuters wasn’t allowed in. AP wasn’t allowed in. But TASS got in. When I heard THAT part, I understood The First Felon’s focus on getting Zelenskyy to say something nice about Putin. My guess? That was Trump’s assignment. “Make him to say something nice about me on camera,” Putin ordered, “We take from there.”

If there was something nice to say about Putin, and Zelenskyy HAD said it, the Russians would have put that crap on a loop and put it out into the world in a matter of minutes. It would have been a tremendous propaganda coup for Russia. But Trump failed. (I wonder if he still gets paid…) Zelenskyy MAY have been too smart for Trump’s clumsy efforts but, mostly, I just don’t think there IS anything nice to say about Putin so Zelenskyy was just being honest.

When the White House was asked how a Russian state TV “reporter” got into the room, the answer was – get this – he wasn’t supposed to be there. Remember, this was a hand-picked press pool, but this guy just wandered in? They pointed out that after Trump failed to secure the required footage, the TASS “reporter” was escorted out. (No, they didn’t quite phrase it that way. That’s just what happened…)

Wait, can we roll that back a little bit? Did you say someone just…wandered into the Oval Office? In the White House? Can people DO that, just wander in to the Oval Office? It’s very curious how a TASS “reporter” managed it – and only long enough to witness 47 trying to get Zelenskyy to say “something nice” about Putin. Very curious, indeed.

I’m sure, by now, MAGA thinks 47 was in awesome form, pretending to be a tough guy, and that Zelenskyy got what he deserved, but, really, MAGA is the least dependable source on the planet these days. They know nothing. Much of the rest of the world understood exactly what happened: Trump made a fool of himself. Again. Yet another blunder from the Blunderer-in-Chief.

Also, this marks not one, but TWO more failures on The First Felon’s part. One, he failed to cajole Zelenskyy into giving Putin the footage he wanted and, two, he failed to resolve that war. Technically, he had ALREADY failed on that one, having promised peace within 48 hours of being elected. But NOW he hasn’t even settled the issue 48 hours after a meeting on the topic. Nope, make it three failures.

He ALSO failed to secure the deal to gain access to Ukraine’s rare earths. Fail, fail, fail. It turns out, diplomacy and negotiation involves more than just shouting “Make a deal!” at someone. And, by the way, has anybody heard the details of the “deal” he wants Zelenskyy to make? Based on Trump’s previous fealty to Putin, I’d guess that Trump “recommends” that Zelenskyy just give Putin what he wants and call it even.

I’ll tell you this: I’m starting to believe that Trump may not be the master of the deal that he pretends to be, outside of criminal activity, I mean…

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You’re looking for money. You need it and you need a LOT. Why are you rooting around in the couch cushions for loose change and ignoring the huge jar of cash sitting on the counter? In my mind, that’s the equivalent of what Musk’s criminal DOGE group is doing. They intend to find savings in order to partially pay for the tax cuts they want. THAT, they insist, means eliminating people from jobs that need to be done. But so long as they can SAY those jobs don’t need to be done, they’re good, right? Setting aside, of course, that people can SAY anything. It’s still the same as seeking loose change in the cushions.

Meanwhile, there are billions of dollars being handed over to huge corporations that are in very good shape and don’t need any help at all. How is THAT not fraud, waste, and abuse? In America, corporations are the true welfare queens. Corporate welfare is about twice what the US pays in social welfare. But rich people benefit from corporate welfare, so the rich people are coming after social welfare.

Oh, it should be added that social welfare almost always creates value. People get their money back. That makes it an investment. Corporate welfare, on the other hand, doesn’t really benefit anybody since the corporations that receive it don’t need it. As it happens, when you give something to someone who doesn’t need it, he just throws it on the pile. It doesn’t help anyone. So, of course the rich people are coming after social welfare.

Republicans are working day and night to throw millions of people out of their jobs and their health insurance but Elon will still get his subsidies. We don’t even know how much Elon takes, for sure, because some of his welfare comes through the Pentagon. And NOW, his criminal position allows him to secure even more of your money. How could THAT be a conflict of interest, MAGA wonders.

If the criminal DOGE was interested in saving money, they’d look at corporate welfare. Since they’re not looking at corporate welfare, they must have some OTHER goal in mind. Every day we’re moving closer to needing those guillotines. Then? We’ll need an economic system that works well for everyone, not just rich people…

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The First Felon is ramping up his blame machine. The economy is about to experience a huge downturn. It’s the direct result of the current incompetence in the White House but, since 47 is pathologically incapable of taking responsibility for the things he does, he’s marching people out to blame, um…(checks notes) – Biden. Wait, Biden? Oh, of course he is.

Then again, maybe I’m wrong. Maybe Biden DID set him up. Biden left ALL of the economic indicators in favorable positions as he shuffled out the door. Inflation was down, gas was more affordable, unemployment was down. Consumer confidence was rising. The stock market just kept hitting new record highs. Things were looking good. But to hear Trump tell it, hidden in the weeds in there, somewhere, Biden left an economic bomb.

The really amazing part is, not ONLY did Biden leave a bomb set to go off, he managed to set it to go off only AFTER 47 started making his own moves. If I understand correctly, had The Felon simply not made any changes, the bomb would never have gone off. But that’s not the end of it. SOMEHOW, Biden tricked 47 into firing people by the tens of thousands AND initiate an incredibly stupid, totally unnecessary trade war against, well, against the whole world.

That means that Biden set a bomb so detailed, SO intricate, Donny couldn’t even describe it, let alone diffuse it. AND… he performed this feat of amazement even though he was trapped in the throes of debilitating senility. That, right there, is a master class in the senile genius of incompetent accomplishment.

Well, it’s either that or 47 is lying AGAIN in an effort to deflect blame for his own failures…

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MAGA Mike the Johnson is lying, too. By now, you’ve likely seen the videos of Congress critters holding town halls in which the crowd is openly hostile and shouting at their representative to do something. That’s gotta suck for the representative, but I suppose it’s the price one pays when one aligns themselves with evil. They’re not going to do anything to stop this, but they have to take the shouting from furious people.

MAGA Mike says the people shouting are paid protestors. Well, unless someone asks for proof. THEN, he admits he doesn’t know if they’re paid but instead pivots to “they’re Democrats,” ignoring the fact that they are also constituents. He says they come early and fill the seats. He calls it an “old trick.” THAT part, I believe. He would know the strategy. It certainly explains videos of cons shouting down their Democratic representatives, right?

The thing is, the cons were shouting because they didn’t know the truth about what the left was doing. The left is shouting because we DO know the truth about what the right is doing. That is to say, we’re shouting for the right reasons. So, keep shouting…