No Tribute…

There’s a LOT of commentary about how badly the US soldiers marched during Felon 47’s tin-pot dictator parade. Anybody can watch the video and see that it’s true. These guys weren’t marching. They were walking. Casually. Just out for a stroll.

If you haven’t served, you’ll just have to take my word for this: once you learn to march as a unit, you kind of CAN’T not march as a unit. While they’re teaching you to march together, they ALSO teach you how to self-correct if you’re out of step and after drilling for hours and hours and hours (and, just for good measure, a few more hours) you get good at it. When someone tells you to march, you march. I’m not sure the leadership stressed the marching part.

Some are calling it a silent protest – a Foxtrot Delta Tango* – and I think that’s true, but it ALSO has the effect of preventing future numbskulls from using footage of the event. Our army, the one I certainly wouldn’t want to face, looked like a bunch of rag-tag wanna-bes out there. Nobody is going to use the footage of them casually strolling down the street as a projection of power and I suspect that was the military’s real goal. Nice work, DOD…

*Foxtrot Delta Tango is the phonetic alphabet language used in the military. The first letter is the important part, FDT. In this case, it translates to ‘F*ck Donald Trump…’

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I have to say, it looks like the evidence that the 2024 election was stolen is piling up. I know, the GOP “inoculated” the country against such accusations by insisting the 2020 election was stolen, even though everyone – MAGA included – knew it was not. The thing was, they never offered any reliable evidence. The truth is, I want honest elections. If the GOP had shown anything, anything at all, that enjoyed a basis in reality, I would have looked at it. But they didn’t. They didn’t have anything to point to.

WE do, though. Sure, the bomb threats in Democratic districts and the fires in mail-in ballot collection boxes in Democratic districts were suspicious but, could be, if you look at it in just the right way from just this angle, coincidences. The late purges of Democrats from voter rolls are more concrete evidence. Felon 47’s comments about how well Elon “knows those machines” qualifies as consciousness of guilt but not proof of action.

Now, investigators have uncovered a vast scheme to distort vote tabulations. A company called ‘Pro V&V,’ one of only two federally accredited testing labs, approved sweeping last-minute updates to ES&S voting machines in the months leading up to the 2024 election. But they permitted the changes without any independent testing, public disclosure, or a proper, full certification review.

Worse, they labeled the changes “de minimis”—a term meant for trivial adjustments. But they weren’t trivial. They affected ballot scanners, altered reporting software, and modified audit files – and they were all rubber-stamped, apparently with zero oversight.

I used to be a tech-oriented guy. Originally, I thought computerized voting machines would be a great idea. These days? Put me down as vehemently anti-voting machine – and I mean ALL of them, right along with tabulating machines. I believe EVERY election should take place on paper ballots and be hand-counted, one at a time, by human beings.

I know, the “complaint” that results from such an idea is that we don’t get the results fast enough for networks to predict who might win on election night. So what? If I have to choose between fast and accurate, I want accurate. And the ONE thing that seems to be true ever since the introduction of voting machines is that elections keep coming out skewed. Wrong. The outcomes don’t match the exit polls, for example, so we were told exit polls shouldn’t be trusted.

But exit polls were once understood as the gold standard of polling. Exit polls are how experts test elections in countries where elections need monitors, like Bizarro MAGAmerica. If the outcome doesn’t match the exit polls, the outcome has been altered. Period. It really IS that simple.

We saw distorted outcomes in 2016 and we saw distorted outcomes again in 2024. The only reason we didn’t see distorted outcomes in 2020 is because Felon 47 had allowed the Covid-19 pandemic to rage out of control for so long people were forced to use paper ballots – and the forces of MAGA evil had not yet attacked tabulating machines. Elon is said to have addressed THAT shortcoming – and it was DONNY who said it.

So right now, there’s no doubt in my mind that the 2024 “election” was stolen. Kamala won, as we all suspected she would, but the outcome was altered. I doubt it will change anything but, at the very least, it DOES increase my faith in the American people – that we did NOT voluntarily return this moron to the Oval Office…

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After that conservative Christian nutball shot those Minnesota state legislators, many people on the right began a taunting campaign against Democrats. They tried, they tried oh so hard, to convince people it was some disgruntled lefty responsible for the shooting.

Utah Senator Mike Lee wrote on Brand X: “This is what happens When Marxists don’t get their way.”
Elon Musk, still trying to worm his way back into Felon 47’s good graces, shared a post from a pro-authoritarian, anti-American that read: “The left has become a full blown domestic terrorist organization.” Elon responded to that with this: “The far left is murderously violent,” which Mike Lee shared adding, “Fact check: TRUE.”
Loony Laura Loomer suggested the shooter had ties to the ‘No Kings Day’ protests.

Of course, as is nearly always the case, the shooter was a far RIGHT conservative pseudo-Christian who had a long list of names of Democrats and other left-leaning individuals he intended to attack. This dude is SO right wing, I expect 47 to pardon him – even if he doesn’t have the normal million dollar “tribute…”

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Happy Juneteenth! I guess we’re supposed to say “happy” anyway. It’s always been kind of a sad day, to me. I mean, it’s good slavery finally ended, don’t get me wrong. But Juneteenth recognizes the day when slaves in Texas were finally told they had been freed – two years earlier!

Two years! The south certainly did NOT easily give up their “freedom” to take away other people’s freedom, did they? I guess I’ll focus on the fact that the slaves were, eventually, freed so, Happy Juneteenth!

Good Luck…

Well, here we go, eh? I mean, I know voting started a while ago. I, myself, described the start of Trump’s coup attempt as being a few days ago. But today? Oh, today is the day the battle is joined. Everything has been theoretical until today. Now it’s real. Very, very real. Today is the day we begin to determine if MAGA gets the authoritarian dictatorship of their dreams, or if Americans can save what’s left of our democracy-on-the-brink.

There HAS been some attempted rigging but, so far, it has all come from Republicans. They’ve been flooding the information sphere with fraudulent polls to make it seem as though Trump is doing better than he is. Virginia started purging Democratic voters from their rolls as close to the election as possible (supposedly against the law but the SCKCOTUS said it was okay just this one time) so there was no time for the disenfranchised voter to correct the challenge.

Georgia even tried to make a rule that if the certification board didn’t like the results, they could just declare that vote invalid and substitute their preferred outcome. (Fortunately, that one didn’t make it.) But the most basic part of the rigging? Shouting about all the “election irregularities,” which MAGA has been doing since, well, 2020, right? Can you believe it? It’s about to get LOUDER!

As of now, the polling places are open on the east coast but not yet anywhere else. Has Trump declared victory yet? We know he’s going to. It’s part of the plan. Also as of right now, because of early voting, Kamala has a lead. She’s leading in all of the swing states and she even appears to have a lead in Nevada and Iowa. (Wow.) But, again, that’s the early, blue wave. We all know about THAT, too, and it has happened.

Now, today, comes the red wave that’s supposed to gain ground for Trump. The very moment he perceives he has pulled ahead in some state, he’ll declare victory. He’ll be lying and, because we all know the plan (I’m writing about it right now) we all expect it – and we’ll KNOW he’s lying. EVERYBODY will know it – because we all know the plan this time.

Bear in mind, this is not like the last time. The last time, MAGA was able to pretend (and convince themselves) that what happened was just a series of natural, spontaneous events that, unfortunately, spun out of control by January 6th. This time? Everybody knows the plan and cons who repeat the big lie will be active, knowing, co-conspirators. It was one thing to go along with the coup attempt when there was some possibility to convince oneself events just got out of control.

THIS TIME, everybody will know it’s just a part of the plan. MAGA will know – and be unable to deny – MAGA is actively attempting to overthrow a legal election because they didn’t get their way. I wonder if knowing they’re actively attacking the Constitution will dissuade any of them. These are NOT naturally occurring events – it’s a plan. MAGA is being used as the puppets to carry out the coup – and THIS time, they absolutely know it…

Frankly, I’ve been concerned about this election from the point of view of how the result will affect me. Yeah, a little selfish, I guess, but we’re supposed to vote our own interest and I expect a Trump win won’t be good for me, personally. But then I realized, if Trump “wins,” the result will be seriously bad for the vast majority of Americans. Even MAGA. We ALL suffer.

But then I thought about how that outcome affects Ukrainians. We all know Trump will tell his good buddy Putin to just have at it. That will be very bad for Ukraine. The US will cut off all aid in an effort to help Putin and it will be up to Europe from there. But…oh, yeah. Europe.

Trump, himself, said he had no idea what NATO was before becoming President. Now he wants us to leave NATO because, like most things, he doesn’t understand it. NATO has been the main stabilizing organization between nations in Europe. Trump thinks we should leave. And he plans to.

THEN, I thought about the Palestinians. I expect Trump to just tell his good buddy Netanyahu to have at it, too. Do what he wants. Go ahead, wipe out every Palestinian from the river to the sea. A Trump victory will be very, very bad for the Palestinians. But, oh, Jeez, I almost forgot.

The world. The whole, effing world. Trump wants to eliminate regulations, in general, but environmental regulations in particular. We, the species are already on incredibly shaky ground when it comes to climate change. With NO guardrails, Trump will put climate change on steroids. We’ll hit each tipping point in no time at all – until finally, most of humanity just…tips over.

So…good luck. Yes, to me. I don’t WANT to end up in a gulag for expressing my opinion.
Good luck to you. I presume you like the country as much as I do.
Good luck to every American (this obviously excludes anti-American MAGA) because most of us would suffer under Trump. (Hey, just like his wives and girlfriends!)
Good luck to Ukraine. You don’t deserve what Trump will allow Putin to do to you. In fairness, Trump, likely, won’t have any choice. He DOES as Putin tells him to do.
Good luck to all of Europe. You deserve better than an intellectually incurious imbecile like Trump, who only recently discovered there’s a thing called NATO.
Good luck to Palestinians. Your situation seems to be spiraling out of control and Trump simply doesn’t understand. Maybe, he just doesn’t care.
Good luck to the world. Please understand, we the people, the true American people, are doing what we can to stop this from happening. But there has been MUCH corruption inflicted on our once-great nation by MAGA and I really can not say if we can hold. I can only promise, we’ll try.

Good luck…

Fears, Frauds, and Frustrations…

It’s not that I think the machines are rigged so I hope none of the makers decide to sue ME for $1.2 Billion dollars. BUT…one thing we’ve learned from Donny and his henchmen – and henchwomen (you don’t really hear much about henchwomen, these days, but henchmen need love, too) – is that the people overseeing the machines might well take actions that benefit their preferred candidate instead of just doing their jobs.

I KNOW this because Cathy Latham, a former GOP chairperson of Coffee County, GA, did exactly that. She let people in and let them root around in her machines for awhile. They even brought in sandwiches and she took a proud selfie with one of the intruders, now charged with burglary! She’s just one. But think of the number of election workers out there who might just love, love, love Donny and might do anything to help him win – even cheat (and then go to jail, of course.)

DO NOT vote on machines. They CAN be distorted to a person’s preference, assuming a little help from despicable people who move into positions of trust, and such a deal could change the outcome of the election. Might a worker allow Russians to hack the machines and change the results? Of course. Might they allow someone in to bring their own dongle and change results? Why not? It’s not the machines that are a problem. It’s some of the people overseeing the machines I don’t trust.

We KNOW evil Vlad wants Donny back. It will help him take Ukraine. It will help him destroy NATO. Donny wants the help and Vlad wants to give it to him. His sycophants will do the rest. Vote by mail-in ballot. It’s more secure. It’s harder to distort. It’s safer for America…

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Well, how disappointing. Donny isn’t going to testify today. First, he was going to bring in over 100 witnesses in an attempt to slow things down but the judge said he doesn’t want or need people repeating testimony that has already been entered into the record. After all, how many people can swear to their unsupportable belief that Donny isn’t a dumbass, despite all available evidence to the contrary? So, they pared it down. Eric would testify on Wednesday but Donny, himself, would take the stand and prove his innocence by Monday.

Obviously, Donny’s expected brilliance rendered Eric’s fawning testimony moot so he was canceled, leaving Donny to come in and clean up the mess. I suspect he was planning to prove his innocence by laying on the floor, kicking and screaming, while threatening to hold his breath until he turned blue and calling it the “nuculer option.” (Even THAT would have come out “nuclaler.”

Alina Habba, Donny’s “lawyer,” who might want to start preparing for her own defense, was trotted out to offer an excuse. She says she discouraged his testimony while there was a gag order in place because a gag order would have squelched his testimony. Couple-a things. One, Donny doesn’t listen to attorneys. His attorneys listen to him and do as their told. (That’s why they keep going to jail.) More importantly, the gag order only keeps him from attacking people associated with the trial, not offering testimony relevant to his defense. The sudden turnaround lends credence to my theory that he planned to use the ‘laying on the floor, kicking and screaming, while threatening to hold his breath until he turned blue’ defense.

As a sidebar: Donny has taken to saying that shutting down his criminal enterprise will discourage any other businesses from coming to New York. My guess? One, he’s wrong again. Two, if you want to bring a criminal enterprise to New York City, I’m thinking New York won’t mind, much, if you don’t. Otherwise, I’d guess New York is going to be just fine, thank you, very much…

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Sports Stuff
Well, the Kansas City Chiefs are having a bad moment. They ran a play at the end of their game that gave them the game winning score. It was brilliant and a beautiful thing to see and I’m glad I got to see it. Sadly, it didn’t count because a player on their team lined up illegally at the start of the play. It’s very clear he was offside but the team was in the middle of enjoying the high that came with pulling out a last minute win when the flag was thrown – then it all went away and the Chiefs lost, instead. Talk about emotional whiplash!

Their Head Coach, Andy Reid, and their Quarterback, Patrick Mahomes, were furious. It’s rare to see either of them behave that way. They had tantrums on the sidelines. They complained at the after-game presser. KC fans are all worked up. It’s outrage. But they’re going to watch the film of it. They’ll see their guy in the wrong place. HE was the problem, not the officials. (I have no love of officials. They mess up as often as not but this time they got it right.) They’ll settle down. I respect both men so I’m going to let them have a bad moment…

More importantly, though, everything fell into place for the “local” and beloved Santa Clara Forty-Niners. The teams that needed to lose, lost, and the teams that needed to win (including the Niners) won, moving the Niners into first place in the Conference. For now, anyway. It means home field advantage throughout the playoffs but their position is a bit precarious. They have to win all the rest of their games to keep it. Otherwise, they need a little help.

I thought they were going to lock up their Division with that win and the Rams loss, but they haven’t quite done it, yet. There’s a not-very-likely but mathematically possible scenario where they end up losing the Division to the Rams, so it’s going to take one more week. (I guess I’m being a bit impatient.)

I’ll tell you this: I’ll be watching…