October 22, 2022: In Order To Survive

 

This republic, in order to survive, had to confiscate the wealth of the slave owners, then the richest men on the planet. Today we are confronted with a group of billionaire oligarchs holding the fate of the nation, indeed the world, in their hands. It is time for the nation to once again confiscate wealth and do it in the name of the republic.

----Quotations of Chairman Joe

September 29, 2022: Maggots Fed Up, Bloviating Gas-Bag, End Of His Tether.

 

Yahoo News published a report on the 23^rd of this month stating that the maggots may be fed up with Donald tRUMP. Dwindling attendance at his hate rallies; declining poll numbers even within the Republican Party, and now awful fundraising returns indicate that perhaps the bloviating gas-bag may well be at the end of his tether. Eric Garcia, reported that in the month of August, the 'Make America Gag Again' Super PAC, which recently shelled out 3 million in attorney fees, to keep the long arm of the law at bay, took in a paltry $40.00 in August. That's right, forty dollars total. Here is Garcia's report:

“Former president Donald Trump’s super PAC raised only $40 in the month of August, in a sign that his name doesn’t have the fundraising pull it once did.Along with the low August numbers, the Make America Great Again, Again! super PAC only raised $351,000 in July and nothing in June. By comparison, in the final fundraising quarter of last year, the super PAC raised $4m to $5m.

Even in April and May, it raised $864,000. Among some of the merchandise Mr Trump’s political action committees is selling are his son-in-law Jared Kushner’s memoir of his time working in the Trump White House, Trump wine glasses, a rally speech signed by the former president and the opportunity have their name engraved on the “donor wall”.

The numbers come as Save America political action committee foots the bill for Mr Trump’s legal fees. Last month, it spent $3.8m on legal fees, the most it had spent on such fees for a month the entire 2022 campaign cycle, with $3m going to Critton, Luttier & Coleman, a law firm based in West Palm Beach, Florida.

Most recently, New York Attorney General Letitia James filed a $250m lawsuit against Mr Trump, the Trump Organization and his three adult children for “engaging in years of financial fraud”. In addition, Mr Trump faces ongoing questions about the storage of presidential documents after the FBI executed a search warrant at his Mar-a-Lago estate last month.

Mr Trump’s fundraising network features seven political action committees, which altogether have $122m on hand. Despite this, he has spent little on supporting candidates for the 2022 midterm elections as Republicans hope to win back the House and Senate.” (1)

This came to my attention this afternoon watching a David Parkman podcast in which he cited this article as well as showing video of our intrepid con man begging for money citing a certain self-imposed 'deadline' for contributions no doubt to cover his legal expenses. The walls are closing in, the well is drying up and, perhaps, justice is at long last at the door.

Indict. Prosecute. Convict. Imprison

__________

1. https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/trump-super-pac-raised-just-155403468.html

September 1, 2022: Storm Is Brewing. Had Enough, tRUMP Is Done

 

In an essay written by a weekly columnist for the publication Salon, longtime White House correspondent Brian Karem wrote—in tone and in terms very much like those in these columns—his assessment of ReSCUMlickan prospects for November and the reasons why. Herein his essay in its entirety:

“One afternoon in college I found myself picking up trash at a Wendy's parking lot on the Business Loop in Columbia, Missouri.

I can't remember what happened the night before — no nefarious story there.

I simply cannot remember the mundane routine of most days compared to the shock of that one. It began as a beautiful sunny day. Warm. Calm. Nice. I picked up the trash as part of my employment requirements that afternoon and glanced up to enjoy the sun. I looked toward the horizon and in the sky saw what looked like a fat dark purple line drawn by a Sharpie marker. 

I wasn't sure what I was looking at.

In a short time I found out. The squall furiously assaulted Columbia and sent the outdoor garbage cans I had just emptied, flying into the air like rockets.

Rain and hail exploded onto the ground; the combination caused near-immediate flooding and was responsible for broken windows, dented cars, downed trees, downed power lines and many damaged roofs. 

As a lover of big weather, it was memorable.

As strong as it was, that storm is nothing compared to the political storm brewing this fall.

The future of the country is in the balance. Vegas oddsmakers could go either way. The latest polls, current conventional wisdom and some cautionary words for the GOP from Mitch McConnell (who stands out not only for his narcissism but also because he's one of the few Republicans who can count) suggest that the GOP may recapture the House while failing to take the Senate. 

Trump followers, who've evidently studied the Beer Hall Putsch, believe the Trumplican party will be victorious and consume its enemies in hellfire, congressional hearings and a never-ending belittlement on conservative media. Some Republicans with gavel envy and a lust for power are reportedly looking at swatches for their new offices.

They preach civil war and destruction should they not prevail, or if Trump is denied a return to his golden throne. They say those things even as they drive their SUVs less than a mile to go grocery shopping, visit their doctors and hit the drive-through for their favorite cholesterol burger and then a convenience store for smokes and liquor. 

No one's going to risk a real civil war while those things are readily available — not for a period of time longer than it takes to march to the Capitol and get arrested. 

A recent NBC poll reports that "persuadable" voters — which means registered voters who are not core Democrats or Republicans — are "breaking toward the party controlling the White House and Congress," which would be the Democrats.

The Hill recently published an opinion piece that said the GOP's embrace of extremism has dimmed its midterm hopes. Perpetual Republican cheerleader Anne Coulter just announced the political demise of Donald Trump, using the words millions have already mouthed: "Trump is done."

Maybe she's right. Of course, we've heard all this before and that's part of the problem. When it comes to Trump, there's nothing new. It's just reruns and Trump's ratings are wearing thin. People are sick and tired of his pre-pubescent drama. 

Every single person I spoke with in a month-long trip across the country said they'd "had enough" of the ongoing Trump melodrama. They want it canceled.

In a recent month-long trip across the country I visited 15 states and cities, from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C. Some were large, and some were as small as Millersburg, Missouri. Everywhere I visited, and every person I spoke with — more than 100 in 30 days — expressed exhaustion and frustration with politics. And while registered voters of both major parties blame both parties for the sorry state of affairs in this country (while failing to place the blame on themselves), every single person I spoke with said they've "had enough" of the ongoing Trump political melodrama. They want it canceled.

Finally, at a Mexican restaurant in Fulton, Missouri, I met a woman who said she was afraid there is no "United" left in the United States. She had spoken recently with a close relative in Kansas City and that relative was apparently equally fearful about the future. "I'm just so tired of it all," she said to me. She blamed Trump for a lack of civility, as well as other politicians and, of course, the media.

Progressives. Conservatives. Black. White. Immigrant. Hispanic. Male. Female. Gay. Straight. Trans. Rock n' Roll. Country. Bib overalls, G-Wagon, homeless or anything else. Everyone is tired of it. Well, except the ultra-rich. They're fine with it, since it doesn't adversely affect the bottom line, at least so far. But the rest of us are seriously exhausted by the vitriol in this country — vitriol we've all been intricately involved in creating. OK, some of us more than others.

Inflection point: Now.

The disgust with the lack of civility has converged with a growing anger brought about by the recent Supreme Court case reversing the 50-year-old Roe v. Wade decision. "The Catholics did that to us," one conservative Baptist told me in West Virginia. (Five of the six justices who voted to overturn Roe are conservative Catholics.) In Los Angeles, a rabbi told me, "I don't need to be preached to by other faiths about morality." 

A "devoutly" conservative woman I spoke with from rural Kentucky was most poignant. Her niece had an abortion because of a life-threatening condition. A "close" family member had an abortion because of an unwanted pregnancy from an abusive common-law husband she later left. 

"No one should tell us how to lead our lives," she explained to me. "That's what the Republicans used to be about. It was my body and my choice not to get vaccinated. The Republicans wanted government to leave us alone to make our own choices. But they don't want that anymore." 

A "devoutly" conservative woman in rural Kentucky told me, "No one should tell us how to lead our lives. That's what the Republicans used to be about: Leave us alone to make our own choices."

A growing number of people now understand the Republicans as a brazen group of feckless bullies. Welcome to the party. The woman I spoke with in Kentucky said something echoed by at least a couple dozen others I spoke with in the last month: "I don't usually vote. I am this year. I've already registered — and I'm not voting for a Republican." 

That continues to be the key for the Democrats. If the voter turnout is large, then the Republicans are done, since there are more registered Democrats. Issues? The Republicans have already conceded on the issues. All the Republicans have left is fear — and that, like Trump, grows wearisome. 

Elie Mystal, a writer for the Nation, said on Mary Trump's livestream show Tuesday that it comes down to whether or not white women have "had enough" with the Republican Party. He's not wrong. But it's not just white women who are ready to flee the GOP. It turns out people don't like it when a civil right they've taken for granted for the last 50 years is suddenly yanked away. Ironically, it is the Republican Party's greatest victory — the Dobbs decision, delivered by a politicized Supreme Court — that may prove to be its undoing. 

Bottom line: Any person capable of cogent thought is fleeing Trump and the Republican party. Anne Coulter proves that even those not capable of cogent thought are fleeing Trump.

Trump is done. Trumpism? Well, waiting in the wings is Ron DeSantis, who already prides himself on limiting access to the media. Even those who love him hate him. Fortunately for the rest of the world — that is, the world outside Florida — DeSantis currently has the popularity of a malignant tumor. Of course, that's never stopped the Republicans. They excel at finding malignancies and helping them metastasize in the body politic. 

*  *  *

I finished my travels this week with a visit to Annapolis. 

There I saw the Reflecting Fools, the new political satire theater group that sprouted from the ashes of the Capitol Steps. The show left me feeling nostalgic for a future filled with education, science and a sense of humor.

I wasn't alone. One line delivered in a skit was met with thunderous applause. "Pay teachers more and Congress less" nearly got a standing ovation. It gave me hope that the United States may yet endure — if we can laugh at ourselves.

Trump can't do that, though he'd probably watch the show — he'll take any attention you throw his way — even when he's being mocked. DeSantis may be the true menace. He struggles to control media access with an il Duce like focus. Hell, when DeSantis frowns, he looks like Mussolini with hair.

A racial skit by the Reflecting Fools, featuring a Kermit the Frog impression, ended on a hopeful note: "We can all talk to each other civilly." It struck a resonant chord among the audience — a diverse, packed house with an average age of around 45, and at least progressive enough to laugh.

The show also featured a skit that posited that Democrats will prevail this November but still, somehow, find a way to "muck it up." It's long-running conventional wisdom that the Democrats will find a way to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, but this year it's in vogue to believe that Democrats, despite their propensity for self-immolation, have a real chance to win and solidify their majority in both houses of Congress. If that's what happens, Trump is done and the GOP is screwed. 

If the Republicans could only understand that they did this to themselves. In the end, history mat note it was the compulsive need for self-gratification that ultimately soured the most zealous of the Trump Republicans. It's one thing to get screwed. It's quite another to watch someone who wants to screw their own side more than they want to screw their supposed enemies; that's when it becomes too kinky. 

There's little hope for what's left of the GOP. We're watching it die, in a coming tempest that will reshape the political landscape for a generation. It looks to be Ron DeSantis' party now — and he's a true menace.

There's little hope for what's left of the GOP. Lindsey Graham will probably soon be an inmate in a rubber room or wearing orange. Mark Meadows has gone MIA. Jim Jordan was recently seen on television sporting so much flop sweat that he looked like he just walked out of a college locker room. Jeffrey Clark got dragged out of his house in his pajamas. Rudy Giuliani is the target of a criminal investigation in Georgia. A 23-year-old assistant turned the tables on the former president in a highly publicized edition of the Jan. 6 hearings, and Donald Trump is apparently so upset that he's painting his walls with ketchup after being stupid enough not to return government documents — and lying about them repeatedly while also saying they were planted by the FBI and he declassified them anyway — maybe after he traded them for favors.

We are watching the Republican Party in its death throes.

That death is the nexus of a tempest that will reshape the political landscape for the next generation, and perhaps beyond. Whatever is left of the GOP looks to be DeSantis' party, and he's one of the most vile pieces of political excrement ever flung onto the scene.

So, yes — there is a storm coming. It's not a civil war. It's a reckoning — and I reckon the GOP would rather not face it. All the Democrats have to do is show up and vote, and the Republicans' beloved Supreme Court gave them an excellent reason to do so.

The FBI search of Trump's Mar-a-Lago home was merely an affirmation that those eager to flee the GOP needed, to let them know their instincts were right. When the facts are understood, Donald, it turns out that nobody likes a traitor.” (1)

As if to drive home the point tRUMPist Sarah Palin the disgraceful half-term former governor of Alaska lost last night in her bid to fill the vacant seat of the state's sole congressman. In a ranked order voting process she finished three points behind her Democratic competitor. Yes, Alaska now has a Democrat holding state wide office. This morning Palin, like Caesar Disgustus, whines about the outcome complaining that it was the process not the outcome that ran afoul. It's always the process. In an effort to discredit the process and, therefore, the legitimacy of the outcome, Palin refuses to recognize that yes the good people of her state had more choice in who to vote for but in exercising that choice they didn't pull the lever for her.

This is the second special congressional election that the ReSCUMlickans have lost in a week. The storm is coming and, perhaps, it's not blowing in the direction the scum think it is.

Indict. Convict. Imprison

________________

1. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/a-storm-is-coming-it-might-sweep-trump-and-the-gop-into-history-s-dustbin/

August 27, 2022: Nefarious Purpose, Flaunt His Importance, Follow the Money

 

In the nearly 3 weeks since the DoJ search of the Southern Palace, Disgustus has given many justifications for why he laid claim to the properties, and he has vehemently attacked the authorities for reclaiming them.  But the linger question is: WHY? To what purpose had he absconded with over 300 classified documents, over 700 pages, many of which are said to hold the highest security classifications?

 Yesterday the court released the affidavit in which the Department of Justice sought the search warrants, heavily redacted though they were.  Disgustus, trying to play both sides against the middle, had earlier demanded all the documents be released thinking that the court and the Grand Jury would balk.  But, after consideration, the judge who issued the warrants held that the pervasive public interest demanded the publication of as much information as could be done without hampering the ongoing investigations and endangering witnesses from the rabid maggots supporting tRUMP, sure to seek revenge.  Once again Disgustus, ever the blowhard, has been hoisted upon his own petard, now flailing on his failing anti-social platform about persecution and pointing fingers at anyone and everyone but himself.

But whatever the bullshit slung against the wall; the question remains: Why did he abscond with the documents?  To what purpose? To What end?

 Attorney George Conway, whose wife Kellyanne is tRUMP’s former campaign manager and confidant, holds that Disgustus is a 5-year-old (true) who relishes in shining objects and loves to flaunt his importance by whatever means—or props—that are at hand.  The thought of our demented Caesar holding ‘cabinet meetings’ at he is holed up at Mar-A-Lago and flashing intelligence reports as he crashes weddings at the Southern Palace—including, perhaps, nuclear information as well as signals intelligence—a god knows what to whomever books a few nights at the ‘palace’ is bad enough.  But while certainly possible, I suspect much more nefarious use of our most closely held information is more than likely.

 Disgustus is nothing if not transactional.  Disgustus is interested in nothing unless if further inflates his already outsized estimation of himself or, most likely, enriches himself.  And therein lies the key.

Disgustus, I suspect, like Benedict Arnold has sold his country for the money—or promises of money.  He has either sold or is in the process of selling the information contained in these documents.  We know he is perennially strapped for cash.  We know he is hundreds of millions in debt.  We know he had to sell of the ‘crown jewel’ tRUMP hotel in D.C. for half the original asking price in a red-hot real estate market.  We know he would sell anything, his father’s real estate empire, his children, his wife, anything but himself to make a dollar.  We know he cares nothing for anything or anyone except Donald J. tRUMP.

 And so, another investigation looms.  What needs be done is what Mueller should have done in the beginning—follow the money.  A seizure of all financial records needs to immediately be conducted at every tRUMP property and shell company and a full-scale investigation of every dime of his finances must be launched.  No negotiations, no warning, NOW.

 Indict. Convict. Confiscate. Imprison.

 

 

 

August 26, 2022: 440 tRUMPs 45, Grifting on Scandals, Tarred and Feathered

 

“Caesar Disgustus is no longer to be known, like some mythical reference to King Cyrus as 45, but 440 in honor of the number of times he pled the 5^th amendment privilege against self-incrimination.  440 tRUMPs 45.

         ----from The Quotations of Chairman Joe

 Caesar Disgustus has had a rough go of it for the last two weeks.  Since the Department of Justice executed a search warrant at the Southern Palace, it has begun to unravel for ‘our once and future potentate.  Forced to testify before New York authorities charging the tRUMP organization with serial crimes, Disgustus pled the 5^th amendment 440 times in a bit over 8 hours of testimony answering, it is reported, only one question: his name.

 Previously, while campaigning in 2016, our erstwhile strongman crowed “why would you take the 5^th if you’re not guilty?” referring to several of Hillary Clinton’s subordinates caught up in the email imbroglio. “Only the mob takes the 5^th”, he shouted to his adoring maggots.  Now, once again whining about ‘persecution’, he cries that finally, now, he understands.  Strange that he should now claim protection from the very document he tried so assiduously to destroy.

 Well, the disgraced, twice impeached, repudiated former ‘president’ now finds himself in a heap of trouble.  As Lawrence O’Donnell has repeatedly pointed out each day, for our once and future Caesar will, for the rest of his wretched existence, be worse than the day before. 

 The walls are fast closing in.  Attorney George Conway, husband of tRUMP sycophant Kellyanne and tRUMP critic, holds that the scuffle over stolen documents retrieved by the DoJ is now the shortest distance between Donald Trump and an orange jump suit.

 Add up all the litigation now facing his corpulence; the investigations into election interference in Georgia, Michigan and elsewhere; the investigations into the tRUMP Corporation; the investigations into his role in defrauding the people and government of the United States by soliciting and creating fake electors to the electoral college ad nauseum, and one can easily envision the fat ass of Donald J. tRUMP warming a bench in courts of law for the rest of his miserable existence.  Every day, it seems, another outrage emerges demanding yet another investigation.

 He's raised well over 150 million dollars grifting on these scandals sending out emails and text messages to his supporters, often several a day, imploring them to immediately contribute to his lost cause.   The great unwashed respond by the hundreds of thousands, eager to see tRUMP flush their money down the toiled, along with government documents and notes implicating him in god know how many other nefarious crimes.

 Yet for all this money, and the ReSCUMlickan National Committee is said to be paying his legal fees anyway, he cannot seem to find competent counsel.  One of his more publicly prominent attorneys is said to be affiliated with a law firm that last represented a parking garage.  His reputation for denigrating professionals, for being condescending and dismissive of expertise, and seeking counsel from those who tell him only what he wants to hear is superseded only by his notorious record of not paying his legal bills, a reputation that precedes his ‘presidency’ by decades.  Disgusts is not the kind of man you want to represent in court, especially given that many who have tried have themselves been tarred, if not tarred and feathered, by the experience.  Just ask Michael Cohen, Sydney Powell, and disbarred and soon to be jailbird Rudolph Giuliani. 

 So ‘Ol 440 has got himself in quite a fix.  The question is now whether he can drag it out long enough so that the legal process outlasts whatever time he now has allotted on this planet or whether he can whip his fetid base into such a lather that the authorities tremble at the prospect of clapping him in irons.  Only time will tell.  The failure of this republic to punish Jefferson Davis, Alexander Stephens, Robert E. Lee, Joseph Johnston, et.al., as well as Richard Shithouse Nixon and Spiro Agnew are historical precedents offering little hope.

 The Republic, which has every right to defend itself against corruption and sedition, has not historically risen to the task.

 An’ Br’er Putin, he jus’ laugh and laugh

 Indict. Convict. Imprison

August 11, 2022: At Fever Pitch, Aping Disgustus, Vein Needs Needle

 

It has been three days since the famous ‘raid at Mar-a-Lago’ and the maggots are at a fever pitch.  At least it seems if one is snorkeling in the cesspools of anti-social media.

To date, only Chris Christie the former Governor of New Jersey has, among ReSCUMlickan elected officials, come to the defense of the Department of Justice and the FBI. 

 Deep in the bowels of the paranoid ‘wrong’, calls are heard for a new civil war or, perhaps, revolution as they squeal like pigs claiming grievous injustice and outright persecution. 

 The leadership, if one dares call it that, of the ReSCUMlickan Party, ever anxious to genuflect to political idiocy, rushes to the front of the mob. In endless and disgusting servility, the spokesmen of the party clamor to the vanguard appearing to be leading; aping Disgustus’ claims of persecution and accusing the DOJ and FBI of weaponizing and politicizing justice.  Many mouthpieces of the idiot wrong have called for mass demonstrations as if to compound the crimes of Disgustus’ last days in office. 

 Last night Lawrence O’Donnell put it in perspective.  In his MSNBC broadcast he quite rightly pointed out that the great unwashed have instead chosen to stay home.  O’Donnell in a Last Word segment pointed out that about 6 million Floridians voted for Caesar Disgustus in the last presidential election.  Of those 6 million a good million are within easy walking or driving distance from where tRUMP has taken refuge.  Of those million or so, perhaps a few dozen have shown up to demonstrate their undying support. The country has stayed home.

 And for good reason.  The ‘wait and see’ posture taken by the country comes as allegations of serious criminality looms like a pregnant storm on the immediate horizon. 

 Everyone knows that Merrick Garland is cautious.  Indeed, he has been and will continue to be taken to task in these columns for demonstrable tardiness.  But mainstream media is now ratcheting up the pressure.  For instance, former Republican congressman Joe Scarborough now refers to the insurrection of January 6, 2021, as an open fascist coup d’état, an observation now in accord with what I have been writing for now a year and a half.  Former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner has repeatedly voiced his frustration with Garland and the DoJ as the wheels of justice turn at snail’s pace. 

 Disgustus is right about one thing, the execution of a search warrant on a former president of the United States is indeed unprecedented.  But this is in part a response to an administration rife with unprecedented criminality.  If, as tRUMP charges, the United States is here exhibiting the behavior of a banana republic it is because he and his party have brought us here. 

 You know it is serious when Disgustus screams that the FBI ‘planted evidence’.  tRUMPspeak translated this means that evidence exists and was seized.  Had there been nothing to get hung about, Disgustus would simply have dismissed and belittled the exercise, giving credence to his charges of overreach and persecution.  But Disgustus knew he was in possession of serious materials that warranted a serious response and so, ever the liar, he now claims that the evidence has been planted knowing full well that his paranoid followers—ever in need of a conspiracy fix—would lap it up. The teabaggers and the Jesus junkies need this fix like a vein need a needle.  Without it the pain would overcome their consciousness, if not their consciences. 

 Garland, for his part, responded to the nonsense spewing from Maggotland by holding a news conference this afternoon at which he announced that he had petitioned the court to unseal the search warrant as well as the petition for such warrant as it pertained to last Monday’s execution.  tRUMP, having been left a copy of said document, could easily have released the documents himself if his claims of outrageous government overreach are valid.  But he has not done so.  Learning from the Mueller fiasco, Justice has come to understand that you cannot let the scum wrestle command of the proceedings.  Accordingly, Garland announced that the DoJ and FBI are petitioning the court to release the documentation because of overriding public interest.  Inquiring minds want to know.

 The proof is in the pudding, and the country awaits the results.  Is it half or wholly baked?

 

An Br’er Putin, he jus’ laugh and laugh.

 

Indict, convict, imprison.

 

 

 

 

 

August 10, 2022: Gimme Shelter, Quiver and Quake, Elephant in the Room

 

“Oooh…the storm is threatnin’

My very life today

Gimme, gimme shelter

Or I’m gonna fade away

 

Oooh…children

It’s just a shot away

It’s just a shot away, shot away, shot away”

 

                 -----The Rolling Stones “Gimme Shelter”

 Liz Cheney is facing a tough re-election.  Wyoming’s sole congressperson has found herself on the right side of history and the wrong side of the fascist base of her party. In 8 days, she faces a primary challenger, endorsed by Caesar Disgustus, and is by all accounts well behind in the polls.

 She should be on her way to easy re-election.  Once the third most powerful ReSCUMlickan in the House, Cheney has been ousted from her leadership position.  She had angered the ‘Freedom Caucus’ or, more accurately the ‘Fascist Caucus’, of the House organized by Jim Jordan and Mark Meadows over her vote to impeach Disgustus.  But when she decided to accept appointment and was made Vice Chair of the Select Committee investigating the January 6 coup d’état her fate was sealed.  She had earlier survived a vote of no confidence but by late Spring of 2021 the entire party was in open revolt. 

 Originally, in the immediate aftermath of the attempted overthrow of the government of the United States, the leadership of both houses of Congress envisioned a bi-partisan bicameral committee, that is composed of members of both the House and Senate, as the Watergate and 911 committees were constituted to investigate how it happened, who organized it, who funded it and to what ends.  Rescumlickan leaders originally supported the measure.  But as polls began to demonstrate the blind loyalty the great unwashed have for their deranged leader with his messianic complex.  ReSCUMlickan ‘leadership’, according to pattern, began to waver.  60 days into the aftermath and the opposition on both sides were well off the reservation. 

 McConnell, after having endorsed the idea, quickly moved to quash it, hoping that time would wash the blood stains from the social fabric.  McCarthy, quickly demonstrating his spinelessness by beating quick retreat down to Mar-a-Lago to kneel and service the Golden Swine, appointed the firebrand Jim Jordan and another Congressman who, though obscure, is known to make a farce of serious proceedings.  Jordan, for his part, is schooled at ignoring the facts having failed to act on serious sexual molestation charges brought to his attention when he was a wrestling coach at Ohio State University. 

 Speaker Nancy Pelosi was having none of it.  Having authority as Speaker to reject the appointments by the opposition she moved to nix McCarthy’s obvious attempt to turn the proceedings into a cheap media spectacle.  Ever the petulant twit, McCarthy withdrew all his nominees.  Pelosi responded by naming two Republicans to her committee, now composed only of members of the House, since McConnell had filibustered Senate participation.  Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois accepted her invitation to join the investigation, both had voted to impeach the son-of-a-bitch.  

 This was the last straw as far as the fascists were concerned.  McCarthy quickly called a meeting of his caucus and Cheney was unceremoniously stripped of her position. Both she and Kinzinger were likewise relieved of their committee assignments.  McCarthy, in an act of unbelievable political stupidity had at once enabled the appointment of two sober and determined members of his own party to be placed on the committee but had insured that they would have no other functions than voting on the House floor and investigating the serial crimes of tRUMP and his minions. 

 But now Cheney faces further retribution at the polls.  Kinzinger has chosen not to seek re-election, the Democratic Illinois legislature having redistricted Adam into a clearly Democratic jurisdiction. Cheney elected state-wide in Wyoming which, because of its population has just one representative in the House is facing almost certain defeat.  Liz, the most prominent Republican standing in opposition to tRUMP—she has vowed to do everything in her power to see to it that he never enters the White House again—has been censured by the Wyoming ReSCUMlickan Party. Her defeat has become a major obsession with tRUMP, as the rejection of her party and the campaign against her in the primary has had their effect.  The most recent polls have her down by 20 points. 

 Enter Dick Cheney.  The former Vice President, the “Darth Vader” behind the uncertain leadership of Dubya, the man who many—myself included—believe hijacked Bush the Lessor’s presidency; the man who brought back torture and Gitmo, the man who took money from Halliburton even as he handed out billions in no bid contracts as 40 billion dollars disappeared without a trace during the Iraq war.  Cheney proved a villain in service of an idiot.

 But even the most villainous occasionally seek redemption.  In this case it was Cheney who organized the open letter published in The New York Times and The Washington Post and signed by every living former Secretary of Defense demanding that the military not interfere on behalf of Disgustus should he declare the election a fraud and attempt to seize power.  That is, warning the military of its constitutional responsibility to the republic and to not participate in a coup d’état.  Cheney, with the Department of Defense then in the hands of a tRUMP lackey appointed as Acting Secretary in the hope of just such an outcome, drew upon the example of former Secretary of Defense James Schlessinger.  It was Schlessinger who, as Nixon was facing certain impeachment and conviction, instructed the military not to obey any orders from the White House and that all military action must come through him.  Cheney, seeing that the then Acting Secretary had no such backbone, implored his colleagues to join him an a very public statement as a warning to both the military and the country about how close we were to tRUMP trashing the constitution and seizing power.  For this action, the country will be forever grateful.

 Now he has taken to the airwaves in Wyoming defending his daughter and calling out tRUMP as a liar and a fraud, actions and words that should have been shouted, from 2015 onward by every so-called ‘leader’ in the ReSCUMlickan Party.  Where is Romney, Collins, Murkowski, not to mention McConnell and McCarthy?  Why are they not defending this woman?  Instead, they quiver and quake, terrified that if they take to the ramparts, they will be in harms way. 

 And isn’t this the sum of it?  Terror, the great unspoken elephant in the room.  The fascists always employ terror when they cannot get their way.  Terror of political displacement; terror, perhaps, for their very lives.

 ‘An’ Br’er Putin, he jus’ laugh and laugh.

 

August 9, 2022: Nixon as Choir Boy, Squealing Like Swine, Derelict and Tardy

 

Today we celebrate the 48^th anniversary of the day that Richard Shithouse Nixon left the White House boarded Marine One and lifted off to San Clemente California into well-deserved oblivion.  We thought we had seen the worst of it, but Caesar Disgustus has put old Shithouse to shame.  Nixon today looks like a cherubic choir boy compared to Disgustus. 

 Nevertheless, we celebrate for we awoke this morning to find that the FBI had finally executed a search warrant at the tRUMP compound at Mar-a-Largo.  This set off the idiot wrong squealing like the swine they are with talk of armed revolt filling the dank cesspools of the internet.  Murdoch’s Faux News is beside itself with rage with talking heads aping Disgustus’ claim that the ‘radical left’ is out of control, politicizing the Department of Justice in an effort to head off a tRUMP candidacy in 2024. 

 This is of course complete nonsense.  Everything about that statement is a lie.  First, let me repeat there is no ‘radical left’ in the United States.  In fact, there is no ‘left’ in the United States.  There is only the political center and the fascist scum.

 Secondly, Disgustus, always projecting his own nefarious machinations, here accuses the Democrats of politicizing the Justice Department something he, himself, did while in office and will do again should, god forbid, he ever return to power.  This charge is on par with accusing the Democrats of stealing the election as he himself was precisely attempting this very larceny. 

 Finally, the truth is that the Democrats would welcome a tRUMP candidacy.  Disgustus may well be the only ReSCUMlickan Biden, given his current polling numbers, could beat. 

 The good news is that justice may finally be on its way.  The bad news is that it is taking far too long to get here. 

 It took two years before the House Committees obtained testimony from White House Council Don McGann.  And this was after the House Committees negotiated terms for his appearance, the courts still sitting on the case.  By the time he testified, the Mueller Report and the Russian Scandal were well in the rear-view mirror.  Ditto with the ensuing scandals. 

 When the authorities are not derelict in their duty, as in the case of Alvin Bragg dropping the investigation into tRUMP’s financial dealings, they have been altogether tardy in the application of the law.

 To wit:  Today it was announced that the D.C. District Court of Appeals has ruled that the House Committees have the authority to subpoena tRUMP’s tax returns.  This case has worked its way up to the Supreme Court which sent it back to the District Courts and is again working its way up the chain.  It has taken 3 ½ years to get this far, with another appeal to the Supreme Court no doubt being contemplated by Disgustus.  The Court ruled that it is within the legislative function of Congress to see the returns.  It is more important than that.  The people, through our representatives, have a right to see his financial statements not only because of a long pattern of tax evasion, but we have a right to know how much money he has received from the Russians and other foreign nationals.  We know that much of the properties sold after the scum began stinking up the White House were sold to shell companies held by Russian nationals.  The public has a right to know if the leadership of this country was being financially manipulated by foreign interests.

 The foot-dragging of the legal system has materially damaged this country.  Disgustus is now out of office and the legal system did nothing while he was in office to protect the nation from the collateral damage.  Any discovery, any remedial or punitive action taken, will now be after the fact.  The damage has been done.

 So, the good news is that action is being taken.  The bad news is that it is coming far too late.  The National Archives reported to the Justice Department over six months ago that documents were missing and were at Mar-a-Lago in violation of the Nixon era Presidential Records Act of 1978.  The action taken yesterday should have been done six months ago.  Similarly, the Justice Department, acting upon the ten citations in the Mueller Report of obstruction of justice, should have long since indicted tRUMP on these charges.  

Finally, tRUMP should have been indicted on the 21^st of January 2021—the day after leaving office—for his involvement in the Stormy Daniels affair.  He was named as “Citizen One’ in the case, in effect an unindicted co-conspirator with Michael Cohen.  Cohen spent three years in prison for the offense. tRUMP wasn’t indicted because his fat ass sat behind the Resolute desk in the Oval Office and Justice wouldn’t indict.  And we haven’t got to the fascist Coup on January 6^th or his attempts to subvert the election in Georgia and elsewhere.  There is no reason on earth why this scum should be walking free.  Disgustus has been able to game the system and remain free to strut across the political landscape unscathed by his numerous crimes.  This is institutional failure. 

 An' Br’er Putin, he jus’ laugh and laugh

 

 

August 8, 2022: Too Cute by Half, Eternal Vigilance, Barbarism Legitimized

 

“One must place one’s heel upon the neck of the conservative and never let him up.”

            ----from The Quotations of Chairman Joe

This, of course requires eternal vigilance.  To cite John C. Calhoun, who wasn’t right about much, “power must be resisted with power, and tendency with tendency.”

As the January 6^th Committee was winding up it’s presentations this summer, putting the forces of evil in full retreat, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), or “D triple C” as it prefers to be called, spent 425 thousand dollars in television ads supporting the primary opponent of one of the ten Republican members of the House who voted to impeach the bastard “president”.[1]

Peter Meijer, of Grand Rapids, Michigan, representing Gerald Ford’s old congressional district, voted to impeach the son-of-a-bitch immediately after the failed coup d’état in January of 2021.  Disgustus, ever the petulant juvenile, still claiming after nearly two years the election a fraud, still trying to get state officials in Wisconsin to decertify the results, has pledged to purge the party of those who still have conscience. 

So far, Disgustus has succeeded.  Congressman Fred Upton, the other Michigan Representative who voted to impeach the scum, has already faced a similar fate.  Censored by the Barry County ReSCUMlickan Party, and facing strong backlash, he too has been driven from the field.  Upton, a veteran congressman found himself facing a spineless reprobate in the person of Dick Huizenga, from Holland, Michigan who, after redistricting was to face Upton in the primary.  Upton, facing a fellow incumbent, knew it would be an uphill battle and chose to step aside.  Scum 1, decency 0. 

That left Meijer, who was the odd-on favorite to win renomination by his party.  Meijer is a well-known commodity in Michigan.  The grandson and great-grandson of the founders of the Meijer supermarket chain—an operation copied by Sam Walton in creating the ‘big box’ supermarket—the name is easily recognizable[2].  Meijer entered the voting last Tuesday facing an opponent with little name recognition and even less money. 

That is, until the D Tripe C entered the picture.  Dropping a television buy equal to more than half of the entire sum raised by his opponent, John Gibbs—having received the happy endorsement of Caesar Disgustus—was suddenly given profile.  Gibbs won by less than 4,000 votes out of 104,336 cast.

When the press picked up upon the skullduggery, James Carville declared the strategy ‘brilliant’.  Carville claimed they were attack ads aimed at Gibbs citing that the ads claimed Gibbs ‘too conservative” for the district.  Carville is being disingenuous.  The ads also prominently cited tRUMP’s endorsement of Gibbs; ads purposely designed to perk up the ears of the fascist base of the party and jerk Gibbs from well-deserved obscurity.   Carville, one may recall, was the strategist who helped catapult the Bush-Lite Democratic Leadership Council (DLC) and it’s ReSCUMlickan agenda back in the ‘90s.  It was Carville who gave us the Clintons. 

It was Carville who took to the airwaves in 2016 and 2020 screeching like a Cajun banshee at the prospect of a Bernie Sanders nomination.  It was Carville who engineered the final sellout of the Democratic Party to corporate greed.

So here we have James back on the air touting the nefarious actions of the D triple C as “a brilliant strategy”.  The thinking, if you can call it that, is that by boosting the candidacy of the most extreme ReSCUMlickan the Democrats can pick up a seat as the electorate in the general election, being larger, will reject the proto fascist.  

This is a dangerous game on several levels. 

First, the extremist by the very act of getting a major party nomination is thereby granted a level of legitimacy.  This was the crime of the ReSCUMlickan Party in the nomination of tRUMP.  Had he been defeated in the primaries and been forced into an early exit from the contest, he wouldn’t have been even an obscure historical footnote.  By anointing him at the convention the party, as it did in 1964 with Goldwater, bequeathed political legitimacy to a movement that heretofore had no such claim. 

Secondly, there has been a lot of wailing about what happened to the Grand Old Party.  Where are the Republicans, like Baker of Tennessee, Scott of Pennsylvania, Griffin of Michigan, Percy of Illinois, Javits of New York, and others who faced down Nixon and forced him from office?  The answer is that what distinguishes that time from this is that these people have been purged from the party.  Now Upton is gone, Kinzinger is gone, and now Meijer.

Third, how do you build consensus with tactics like these?  Here you have a congressman who consulting his conscience decided to defend the republic instead of kowtowing to his party.  Instead of rushing to his defense by encouraging Democrats to vote in the ReSCUMlickan Party if only to keep the crazies at bay, the D triple C doubles the campaign spending of his idiot opponent?  Clearly, if Meijer had been renominated by his party and re-elected it would have been embarrassingly difficult to go to him with a straight face and ask for support on any Democratic legislative initiatives.  With Gibbs, it will be impossible. 

The Democratic establishment thinks this is a brilliant strategy and, perhaps, it may well be.  They may pick up this seat.  The district has been redrawn to encompass most of the Grand Rapids metropolitan area and Muskegon.  Grand Rapids votes mostly Democratic, as does Muskegon.  But the district is a good one-third rural, especially is rock-ribbed Republican Ottawa County—one of two Michigan Counties, Barry the other—to vote for Goldwater in ’64. 

The choice now is between civilization and barbarism.  The barbarians are at the gates.  In Georgia we’ve seen the establishment defend itself, not so much in Arizona and in Michigan.  This is going to prove a close contest.  Closer than it should or has to be.  Win or lose the forces of barbarism have now, thanks to the likes of Carville, been legitimized.

---

[1] En.wikipedia.org/wiki2022_United_States_House_of_Representatives_elections_in_Michigan#District_3

[2] To all by Donald tRUMP, who demonstrating his profound ignorance consistently mispronounces it at campaign rallies in Michgan.