The Fluffer Brief

Last week the nation was introduced to the enigma that is Natalie Harp, the president’s new most trusted aide. She eased into our consciousness a month or two ago, when people wanted to know who the hot blonde was that was tagging along with the president. Some speculated that she was his new wet nurse, there to take his vital signs and change his dirty diapers. It stayed that way until the news blew up regarding her exact duties, which, rather than handling “duty,” she’s been handling the president’s ego. Dubbed the “Human Printer,” she provides her boss with hand-picked selections of good news and positive reviews (from MAGA sites) and any other slice of curated information he may require. In this situation, I don’t even think it’s about sex, just ego-stoking. It’s an old man enjoying the attention of a pretty girl.

The book, “Regime Change,” by Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan, illuminated just how devoted she is, describing personal letters she wrote and left for the president, stoking his confidence and declaring unwavering devotion. She’s basically a presidential fluffer.

Sen. Jon Ossoff, again, got his name in the news with a jibe that mentioned Natalie, which met with a tidal wave of organized indignation from the Administration’s talking heads and MAGA toadies, in a volume and level of vitriol that far outweighed the original slight. In other words, it struck a nerve in the Oval Office.

The funny thing is how they weren’t mad at the shots taken at his incompetence as a military leader, his chronic sleepiness, his golfing, insider trading, or taking a bribe-plane from Qatar. No, all the faux-outrage was focused on the “riding with Natalie” part. Maybe it really IS about sex after all. He’s mentioned many times how he doesn’t want to be “Cartered” by a military mishap. I’m sure he doesn’t want to be “Clintoned” either.

Now, is there anything wrong with a president having devoted staff? Nope, assuming they’re qualified and security-cleared. This president has been surrounded by nothing but sycophants for his entire career. He never seems to run out of them.

And yes, it’s alarming that someone who appears rational on the outside is so slavish in her attachment to such an utter imbecile, who has neither attractiveness nor cleverness, nor consideration, nor inquisitiveness to warrant such affection. A lot of people flock to power; this seems a bit overboard. Who else in Washington would fling themselves into the rear storage compartment of the president’s SUV rather than leave his side for a moment to take a trailing car? That is some seriously weird shit.

While everyone was discussing this story last week, there was one angle I haven’t seen covered, which may explain her MAGA-ier-than-usual Trumpmania.

What if she’s a Russian plant? Consider these possibilities:

·         It sounds completely within the realm of something an old KGB man like Putin would do. Russians know the long game. They have the patience to wait until their asset becomes sufficiently entrenched to receive the payoff.

·         Even if they didn’t develop her from scratch, they could have approached her when she worked at OAN, home of the Super-MAGA talking heads. Hell, for this opportunity, they may not have even needed to pay her off; just provide the inroad. She may have already lacked the dignity necessary for such an assignment.

·         They know he has a “type,” which she fits to a tee. They also know exactly how the president operates, thriving on praise and adulation; the more cloying, the better. They could have coached her up on what he likes, on what he needs from his inner circle. The more fanatical the attention, the more he eats it up.

·         Even with the president under Vlad’s control, they still could have needed an ear on the inside because this president may not always remember to report everything back to his handlers. That’s the problem with employing a “useful idiot.” No matter how useful he may be, he’s still an idiot. They may have needed a secondary source.

Now, I’m not saying this is all true. I don’t have any inside information, so this is pure speculation. But it’s plausible, no? Sadly, this is what we’ve come to in this country, where a president being on the take with the Russians is easily within the realm of possibility. “The Manchurian Candidate” seemed far-fetched at the time. Now it sounds like another Monday.

I guess I’d better be careful though. This could be a Pelican Brief situation, so maybe I should start looking over my shoulder and start checking under the car before I go out. Good thing our house is only one floor. At worst, any fall from one of our windows would result in grass stains rather than broken bones. Unless, of course, they got broken beforehand…

  

 

Director’s DVD Commentary: In case you never read John Grisham’s The Pelican Brief, or saw the movie, it’s about a young law student who writes a speculative “what if?” brief about land use crossing with ecological concerns, which ended up with a couple of Supreme Court justices murdered and assassins looking for the student. The movie stars Julia Roberts and Denzel Washington.

Lincoln Would be Pissed

It finally broke nationally that the aircraft carrier, the USS Abraham Lincoln, is in dire straits, and not just that of Hormuz. Conditions aboard the Lincoln have deteriorated to the point where several sailors have tried to jump overboard. They’ve been deployed for over nine months, without shore leave or apparently any supply shipments.

We’ve known for years that TFG gives less than a flying F about our servicemen (and even less of an F about servicewomen). Back during his first term, he was quoted by one of his generals as saying those serving in our military were “suckers and losers,” apparently for putting their lives on the line in exchange for relatively little monetary reward. He doesn’t understand service, nor honor, nor sacrifice, so volunteering for such duty doesn’t compute to him.

Also, please recall that in 2019, he diverted funds away from our rank-and-file servicemen. I wrote about it thusly:

“Did you see where he wants to pull the money from?  Among other uses, he’s targeting funds earmarked to upgrade soldiers’ housing. Apparently, there are significant numbers of servicemen and their families living in moldy, rat-infested houses. Sure, everybody gets all weepy and patriotic about military men and women, but let’s divert the money meant to keep them from living in squalor.

I’m certainly no military expert, but I don’t understand, even if a longer-than-usual deployment is necessary, how they are not flying in supplies to restock the ship. Why can’t they send some plumbers to get the busted pipes back under control? Maybe start helicoptering some of the crew to shore and back, just to keep them going. Nobody functions well in a never-ending grind of both mental and physical faculties, not even our best and brightest.

At least Sen. Ossoff is bringing the heat.

Today, we’re faced with the fact that our military members are being treated more harshly than those who were on the USS Indianapolis.

 “Ya got city hands, Mr. President. Been countin’ money all yer life.”

At least with the sharks, you know what’s coming. I’m sure there are a lot of sailors on the Lincoln who enlisted after believing all the hype about becoming macho he-man weapons of war, only to be left to sleep in their own filth for three seasons. They must feel completely abandoned by their country and their leaders, who had to be pressured into taking the most meager of actions.

Which brings me to all the military sycophants I’ve seen on social media over the years, adorning themselves in yellow ribbons, flag lapel-pins, and sappy patriotic memes, who are now dead silent on what’s happening under their guys’ watch. I know one of my best friends served on an aircraft carrier in the 80s, who would completely understand what his modern peers are going through. Yet there has not been a word from him or any of the others in their social media feeds.

I guaran-damn-tee you that if this exact situation happened under Biden or any other Democratic administration, they’d be screaming bloody murder and there would be non-stop news coverage of the outrage. Instead, all these “Seal Team Six” war movie fans are now more like “The Silence of the Lambs.” It makes you wonder if there is anything really there under the charade. Is there anything they really stand for? Under all the bumper stickers, ribbons, and dewy-eyed reverence for our soldiers, is there any substance when you dig down deep for our soldiers and country?

No, just like their patriotism, it’s a mile wide and only skin deep.

Sunsetting

For the last couple of weeks, I’ve been collecting more examples of the tricks used by a biased media outlet to taint what should be the “straight news” into partisan messaging. I have a prime example, right in my backyard: the daily newspaper, The Baltimore Sun. Last year, The Sun was purchased by the owner of the conservative media group Sinclair Broadcasting, and ever since, it has been coloring news stories with an anti-Democratic slant.

Granted, they have plenty of opportunities, given that the city and state are run by Democrats, so any and all “bad news” is immediately linked to a Democrat in power, especially Governor Wes Moore.

Rather than publicize a report stating that the Governor had kept many of his campaign promises, The Sun ran a front-page story arguing that he hadn’t kept them properly, claiming they were too vague or that fixes were already in process.

Gee, a candidate makes insufficiently specific promises… welcome to politics. Funny how they never run stories about Republican politicians taking credit for major projects at ribbon-cutting ceremonies, after having voted against Biden’s infrastructure bill that authorized the project. But then, it’s OK if you’re Republican.

But the point here is that they never cover a story that contains good news for Democrats without adding a big BUT. In fact, the “BUT” is usually the story. Like here:

And here:

They have to include reasons why it’s not really such good news, usually from hand-picked analysts, conservative think tanks, or one of the few Republican politicians in the state.

Take this article about a Fourth of July speech the governor made:

What did he say in the speech? No idea; they just question his motives and go on about what was wrong with it, as per their reliably negative “analysts.” They’re trying to torpedo, ahead of time, any chance a handsome, charismatic, young, Black, Democratic governor has to run for president in 2028. If you look at the first page of The Sun regularly, you’d conclude that their reason for existing is to provide a never-ending litany of smears of the Governor.

I understand and support that the media is supposed to maintain an adversarial relationship with the government, but we’ve never seen any such malicious coverage of the last two Republican governors, and that was before Republicans ran the paper. Digging up a black lining for every silver cloud is not balanced journalism; it’s putting your thumb on the scale. And even still, there’s a place for that, which is called the Op-Ed page, not the front page.

You can always count on The Sun to follow the traditional Republican talking points, like with this story:

Yep, whenever their own words are released and make Republicans look bad, they don’t apologize or look inward on what they can do better; they look to expose the leaker and prosecute. So rather than excoriate the Administration for using the “War Room” to devise plans to bury the Epstein Files information, The Sun/Sinclair National Desk attacks the efforts to expose such an atrocity. And if they can identify and punish this “transgressor,” all the better to dissuade future leaks. Yay! Democracy in action!

Note that this “columnist calling for a criminal probe” is one who works for the New York Post, owned by Rupert Murdoch, or in other words, Fox “News.” As per the modern conservative media playbook, they have one of their own people start talking about something, then have their other outlets report that “people are talking about something.”

Here’s another beauty from The Bubble:

What they completely omit from this story is the most obvious explanation: Republican talking points are far, FAR, more likely to be false or at least less true. So any objective reading of a situation will come down to a fair reading of the facts, which usually support the Democratic talking points rather than the Republican. We know it, and they know it… a great many Republican assertions are straight out of Fantasyland. It doesn’t even take AI to see that, just a rational look at the facts and data. So this article isn’t so much a stark, raving falsehood; by ignoring a major factor, it’s more like an aggressive misdirection. It nonetheless leaves the reader with the impression they want from the start, that the media has a liberal bias, all the better to claim victimhood, ignoring the fact that media ownership today is overwhelmingly Republican. And it’s getting worse:

Trump’s FCC just cleared the way for large media conglomerates, who own dozens of TV stations, to get even larger, to further provide a single perspective (a conservative one) for the nation’s viewers. With the Paramount/Warner’s merger about to go into effect, even more media outlets are about to be compacted into even fewer hands, and those hands will be overwhelmingly Republican.

Ultimately, that’s the most efficient way to garner good headlines… make sure your own people are the ones providing them.

Here’s one more story, this one from today’s paper:

It’s another traditional “Democrats in disarray” story, this time, about how the moderates are supposedly worried about the Progressives gaining favor. Why is The Sun writing about it? Because the last thing they want to do is run against progressives. They’ve been beating the Moderates for years. They just label them as extreme and go from there. Progressives promise the same things Republicans do: to make their constituents’ lives better. But Progressives actually plan for and try to do it. And when it works, like it’s doing in New York City, it scares the Republicans shitless, because they have absolutely nothing tangible to offer their voters, other than the millionaires among them, who make out like bandits.

So they call the Progressives “Communists,” which is funny because it’s the Republicans who are actually forcing private companies to go into business with the government.

Personally, whether it’s Socialism, Communism, or Capitalism, I tend to ignore the labels. The Democrats should be one message on blast: that they seek to spend money to make people’s lives better, not to provide more tax breaks and loopholes for those with the most. Costs down, wages up, tax the rich to pay for it.

Make food safe, address climate change, and install an immigration system that actually allows immigration. When in doubt, look to make things better for people as opposed to corporations.

If it wasn’t for the insatiable greed of the 1%, it would already be that way.

Just Say Thanks, Then STFU

House Republicans needed a distraction last week, probably from the fact that they haven’t done diddly-squat to better the lives of American citizens, so they decided to re-litigate the COVID pandemic by demanding testimony from Dr. Fauci.

As far as I’m concerned, Dr. Fauci is a national hero. He, alone, among the first Trump administration, spoke to what was in the national interest, as opposed to repeating whatever nonsense his boss was spouting. Congress should have been thanking the good doctor for pulling the country out of the COVID mess, despite constantly having to swim upstream against the torrent of snake oil and misinformation emanating from the administration.

I still hold great antipathy toward these anti-vax, anti-mask, anti-science idiots. I still blame them for the fact that my father’s last days were spent scared and alone in an ER hallway where he couldn’t have visitors, because all the rooms were filled up with COVID patients, in a Florida county where only about 35-40% of the people were vaccinated.

The Republicans’ aim was to compare Fauci’s public words and actions to passages taken from a personal diary, and to somehow get him to say something under oath that contradicts materials stated therein, to conjure up a perjury charge.

The first thing that came to mind upon learning all this was to wonder where they get off publishing a man’s private diary. I mean, WT actual F?

As someone who has journaled on and off throughout my life, I can attest that things found in my old journals should not be taken as raw facts. A journal was a place where I vented, or worked out my shit, on paper. I may have said, from time to time, that I’d like to see a particularly manipulative girlfriend’s head in a camera bag (quoting a Sam Kinison bit from the era), but that would hardly constitute a threat or even a committed position. I didn’t want actual harm to come to anyone; it was just me letting off steam, so I’d be able to function normally during periods of intense heartbreak.

Also, using a journal against its writer seems like nullifying his Fifth Amendment rights by disallowing his right to avoid self-incrimination via his own words and thoughts. It should be unconstitutional.

Note: I’m talking about figurative things like opinions and feelings, not a step-by-step written log of how the writer killed someone and where he buried the body. Or, details on running a massive child-trafficking and sexual abuse operation for rich guys.

So under the circumstances, I think Fauci was wise to plead the Fifth to every question.

There are no grounds too shaky for the current Republican justice system to create charges. Someone would definitely find an answer that didn’t exactly match something from the past, no matter how carefully he answered. As we know, these guys come up with charges first, before bothering with evidence. So as we learned from the movie “War Games,” back in the 80s, sometimes the only way to win is not to play the game.

Fortunately, he did get to read an opening statement, to get some shots in against ringmaster and head clown, Rand Paul. It was the most savage opening salvo since Roman Maroni in “Johnny Dangerously.”

It’s a pity that we live in a time when scientists are criticized by those who don’t understand even the basics of science. Rep. Paul pretends to have high-level medical credentials, but he really doesn’t.

But even he surely knows that at the onset of a novel virus, no one knows what it will do, how long it will last, or how to fight it. By definition, you need data that amasses over time. It’s not lying to say something that has to be corrected later in such a situation; it’s just someone being wrong. Being wrong is the basis of science. You learn as much from being wrong as from being right; you learn what not to do or what doesn’t work, and you adjust from there.

So it makes perfect sense to cast a wide net with basic precautions like masks, spacing, and avoiding large quantities of people in public places. What got Fauci into trouble is that some of that cost some big donors some money, a cardinal sin amongst Republican politicos.

See, that’s a defining difference between the parties. Democrats were trying to save people. Republicans were trying to save profits, and short-term profits at that. They were too amped up over the next quarter’s bottom line to realize that temporary pain would lead to solid recovery later, once the virus could be treated.

So, now that Republicans need a distraction from this month’s policy atrocities, Dr. Fauci made a good target at whom to point their fingers.

Always remember, Congressional Republicans need something to run on this fall, and they’ve literally done nothing to help their constituents. Well, other than for the racist ones who cheer the harassment and seizure of brown people to pen up and torture for a while before sending them out of the country, to someplace where they may or may not be from. But that’s all they’ve got. All the bridge openings and ribbon cuttings originated under the Biden Administration. Sure, they’ll show up to take credit for actions they voted against, but it’s hollow. There will always be someone around to point out who actually got the shit done.

I can only hope that the next national health crisis holds off until we can elect a new administration, one who works to restore faith by basing health initiatives on science rather than who can benefit from providing a “cure.” Because if some pathogen starts running wild in the next three years, we will be totally and completely screwed. There is no one left to do anything that will help. They were hawking malaria pills to cure COVID last time, because key people could make money from it. Maybe next time we’ll see them pushing Viagra to cure the next bird flu.

At least then the “side effects” can occupy people until they eventually drop dead.

A Country Divided

I recently started watching one of those extreme weather shows on the Discovery Channel; the ones that show tornadoes, floods, hurricanes, mostly cell phone video shot by people in the middle of the event. It’s epic, fascinating stuff. (Well, to me, anyway.)

Yesterday I watched the episode about 2024’s Hurricane Helene, which was absolutely devastating to western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee. What I remembered from the news at the time was how Republicans were asserting that Biden’s FEMA was only helping Democrats, adding to the victims’ sense of helplessness and abandonment. The fact that these statements were patently untrue didn’t seem to matter much, and in the face of constant repetition on Fox “News” and the like, it came to be understood as common knowledge.

I submit that this was one more example of Republican accusations actually being confessions, because we can see from the years hence that this is exactly what the current administration is doing with their own barely-existing FEMA. California was devastated by wildfires but was refused federal help at every request. Even in Red areas, they were still seen as part of the Blue state.

And just last week, it was discovered that an Administration member said in a sworn court affidavit that approved grants for energy projects had been rescinded in states that didn’t vote Republican in the last election.

The current pitting of the two sides of the country against each other to this extent would have been unimaginable just 10 years ago. No one would have believed the depths to which the government, as run by an Adderall-addled fuckwit, would sink. But look at us now.

“We need help.”

“Who did you vote for?”

“Them.”

“Denied. Piss off, vermin.”

***

To add to my general discontent, I’ve just started reading that new book by NY Times writers Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan, called “Regime Change.” I’m only about 120 pages in, and already, I’ve learned several appalling things. 

·         Stephen Miller is basically the Anti-Christ. He moves about the White House with impunity and tacit support from the president on everything he proposes. He’s so racist that even TFG noticed it. A quote from the book: “In a 2024 campaign meeting, Trump remarked that if it were left to Miller, there would be only 100 million people in the United States and they would all look like Stephen Miller.” A gruesome thought, to be sure.

·         Miller was enraged when the message emerged from the White House that ICE was only going after violent criminals, murderers, and gang-bangers during their deportation operations. He knew that they were going after everybody, and having that qualifier out there would make them look bad. (They weren’t picking up people at Home Depots and outside schools because they were going rogue; that was their mission in the first place.)

·         There has been very little thought put into who is getting tariffed and for how much. The president was basically determining tariffs the way you’d determine a tip for the gardener. “Let’s give’em 10%. No, make it 20%.” Apparently, no one in the president’s circle, nor any business leaders, thinks tariffs are a good idea, just TFG, who is always 100% sure of his own genius. All evidence to the contrary be damned.

·         They had invited 15 CEOs from the big fossil fuel companies to meet with them. The president asked for a list of ten projects the White House could help fast-track. The CEOs were amazed. Usually any request they made would get reviewed for political analysis, environmental impact, etc., before even being brought to the president. Said one of the CEOs: “He has a better sense of his executive authority than anybody else we’ve ever dealt with. [snip] I would never want a Democrat to have that same sense of executive authority. But this guy fucking does.”

Granted, we’ve known all along that Stephen Miller has been running the White House with racist intent, and the administration is totally in the pocket of big business and the fossil fuel companies, but it’s still jarring to see the details.

The Dog Daze of Summer

There’s a lot to talk about this week, from the president’s hallucinogenic speech to the nation about the 2020 election being stolen, to his fumbling about on the World Cup stage, to the condescending theater of the Acting AG “meeting” with Epstein survivors wherein he told them there was nothing actionable in the Epstein files, to the Iran War starting up again after they were already “defeated” several times, and so on. There’s so much, in fact, that it’s overwhelming, which I agree is the very strategy this Administration uses to protect themselves. There are literally too many atrocities going on at one time to effectively weaponize any of them. So instead I’m going to talk about dogs.

We’re usually a one-dog household. When I met Sweetpea, she had a 4-year-old yellow lab, who was in his prime. He is now a senior dog at the ripe old age of 13 and a half. We realize, given the traditional 9-12 year lifespan of labs, that we’re on “gravy time.” He’s slowed way down from his young adult activities to the point where he won’t walk much farther than a couple of blocks anymore. He mostly sleeps and asks for food. (His “feed me now” obsession continues unabated by time or creakiness.)

He still remains wildly photogenic.

This week, we’ve added a couple of beagles to the mix. We’re on a reciprocal dog-watching system with Sweetpea’s sister. When we go on vacation, she takes our lab. When she goes, we take her two beagles, Arthur and Minty. We’ve been doing this for as long as Sweetpea and I have been together.

Meet the Beagles: Arthur (front) and Minty (rear).

I never understood why Arthur was so unusually named. My first impulse was always to call him “Eddie.” But then I was told he is so named because he resembles Ron Weasley’s father in the Harry Potter movies. That made perfect sense to me, so now I get his name right on the first try a little more often.

His “sister” beagle (housemate, not litter mate) is named after Harriet Tubman, whose real name was “Araminta” or “Minty” for short.

Arthur is mostly reddish-brown, with more of a “hound dog” nose. Minty is the more traditional look with a black back-saddle, white chest, and tan all over, with a thinner nose. Both have long, velvety ears that dip into the water bowl every time they drink.

These two arriving in the house is like the circus coming to town. Once they hit the door, they fly into action, sniffing the perimeter of every room and hoovering up any stray bits of kibble leftover from The Lab’s food-dispensing rolly ball. (With his old age and failing eyesight, he sometimes misses them.) But the beagles find every last molecule of kibble, whether it’s behind the TV or under the sofa. The beagle nose is something amazing to behold. (More on that later.)

The dogs love attention, especially Arthur. Both will let you pet them until your arm falls off. But if you pet Minty first, Arthur, who is always more desperate for attention, will immediately jam himself in between you and his sister.

Minty is the diva of the two. She often holds herself aloof, and when she comes to you for a scritch, it’s not really a request. Back when I was working from home during Beagle Week, she’d stroll into the office and tap my leg with her paw. I’d lean over and give her pets and scritches, to which she would sink lower and lower before rolling on her back to present her tummy for rubs. Once I stopped, she’d stroll back out of the room, for at least three minutes before coming back to repeat the procedure for the next hour. Eventually she’d tire of it or amuse herself elsewhere.

I call her the Diva because once I was done for the day, dinner eaten, and took my place on the couch for the night, ready to pet her into a coma, she wouldn’t come near me. She’d stay on the other end of the couch. She only wanted my attention when it was going someplace else. She wants what she wants, on her terms, always.

“Like I have time for you peasants.”

Arthur, on the other hand, loves to jump up and snuggle in with you, and lick your face or whatever he can reach, until his tongue falls out. I don’t really want him licking on me, though, because he has a distinct predilection for eating his own doots, or any others, whenever he can. That leaves his dog-breath smelling like you would imagine. Eww. It’s nothing you want being applied to your face, trust me. But he’s such a charming little devil, so desperate for affection, that you can’t help love the little shit.

Feeding time is another story… It’s like a three-ring circus in the kitchen. When there is food in the air, the lab is always there underfoot, taking up a lot of space. Now when you add in two more slurping mouths dancing around on the tiles, you have to watch every step or else you’re going down hard.

Sweetpea already makes homemade food for our dog; our guests come with a laundry list of preparations… raw hamburger, veggies, vitamins, meds, it’s a whole ordeal. But then when it’s time to drop the food, it’s like when you see those tame carp at amusement parks, who all crowd the surface with their mouths opening and closing like machines. Minty tracks the bowl like a hawk, while Arthur spins around like the Tasmanian Devil, until the bowls are set down. You have to step on Arthur’s bowl because he noses in there so hard he pushes it around the room, often right into the other dogs. Ten seconds later, it’s gone; all gone. Nary a molecule left over.

The other thing about the beagles is the noise. The Lab is relatively quiet, especially in his old age. Even his barks, that used to rattle my brain as they echoed throughout the house, are more like raspy woofs now. The other two, however, sound like jet airliners landing. Any sound picked up from outside, from the mailman to the garbage truck to a plastic bag blowing by, warrants a full-throated howl that can be heard on Venus. Loud, shrill, non-stopping… Oh god, kill me now. Even when we’re asleep and something stirs outside, Arthur sends up the alarm, jolting me six inches out of bed. It takes some getting used to. I’ll let you know if that ever happens.

The other thing is when we let them outside. Sometimes, there’s a bunny in the yard. We have those around. If the beagles see one, it’s like their life depends on hunting it down. Both will run about the yard, nose to the grass, snuffling and baying, retracing everywhere the bun has been. Arthur is especially aggressive, snorting up the yard as if each blade of grass is covered with cocaine and he’s the dog-reincarnation of Charlie Sheen. It’s a trip.

They’re used to having a dog door at home, so they can go in and out at will. But they’re also trained to ring a bell hanging from the door, to signal their intentions.

This is a good thing, for the most part. It’s a clear signal for when they want out. It’s much less good when they ring it five minutes after coming back in, over and over. And you don’t want to refuse to open the door for them because you never know if it’s a potty request or just to go out and sniff things. You don’t want to risk an indoor accident.

Sweetpea had to deal with the other “outside” problem, wherein she let them out in the middle of the night and then had to wait around until they felt like coming back in. The Lab spoils us. When he wants out at night, he goes out, does his business, and trots right back in. He may sniff the air for a second or five, which I call “checking his email,” but he doesn’t prolong it. The beagles are not so inclined; being used to having their own late-night adventures.

So, we’re one night down, five more to go. As I tell them every day, “It’s a damned good thing you’re cute.”

I See Dead People

Or do I? We don’t know anymore. Between the habitual lying, political dirty tricks, and distrust of media, it’s hard to make heads or tails of the “Is he or isn’t he” situation with Schroedinger's Senator Mitch McConnell.

Yesterday, McConnell’s people released a picture that’s supposed to end the controversy over his condition and/or deadness. The problem is… OK, one of the problems is that the pic easily could have been created via AI, or even old-school photo-shopping.

I’ve seen lists of things considered hinky about the photo, indicating that it’s a fake. BUT, there are also ways to dispute each of those points. I’ve seen enough fake news coming from liberal sources of late that I no longer trust them out of hand. This could be one more.

But is there any wonder why? It’s 100% in character for Republicans in general and Senator Mitch in particular to scam their way into holding onto power. If he dies (officially)  before 8/3/26, state law requires an emergency election to fill the seat temporarily. Such a scenario could put a crimp into plans to keep the seat in Republican control, with the likelihood of former Rep. Massie running and splitting the Republican vote enough so that a Dem slips in. We know Republicans have no qualms about rigging election scenarios. And we know that Mitch has no qualms about bending rules to remain in power, for himself and his big-moneyed backers.

(Source: USA Today 2019)

Also, if Mitch is really as spry as he appears in the picture, he could have easily done a 30-second FaceTime or Zoom with the Governor and quash the whole thing. Something like this:

McConnell: “Mahwnin Govnah, les putta hoe thang a’baid.”

(Translation: “Good morning, Governor, let’s put this whole thing to bed.”)

But they didn’t do that; they sent out a picture, something that’s easily altered, which they had to know would keep the controversy coming.

So it’s no wonder there’s speculation over the veracity of the claims that Mitch is up and around, working on his rehab. Their actions, past and present, guaranteed that people would question their story. It’s like the Party that Cried Wolf.

At least Mitch isn’t casting Senate votes. As long as he’s away, that’s one less vote the Republicans have to screw the working class. When Mitch finally does kick the bucket, or news comes out that he already has, I won’t shed a tear. I may even do a small dance. No one has done more harm to our Republic since Newt Gingrich. His utter lack of principles, other than “protect the rich,” has made him Ground Zero for hypocrisy and unethical leadership. That hypocrisy, along with a total indifference to public opinion, allowed him to hold up an Obama Supreme Court nominee for 10 months, because it was too close to an election, and then rammed through a Trump nominee only eight days before an election, with a straight face. He considers this abomination to be his greatest legacy.

I agree, it’s a legacy of shame.

Then, in similar news, we’ve got the confirmed death of Senator Lindsey Graham. They didn’t bother trying to hide his death, I presume, for a couple of reasons. First, it was sudden… ruptured aorta, I heard. That’s one of those “Hey, what the”… and you’re dead kind of things. Depending on who was around, they may not have had time to formulate a strategy.

Or, maybe because it’s in South Carolina, they know they’ll be able to easily elect another presidential boot-licker. One out, one in, no sweat. Because there’s a Republican governor, he can appoint a replacement to relieve the short-term stress. From there, they’ll hold a general election for Senator in the fall. There shouldn’t be much stress about winning the seat in deep-red South Carolina. They’ve been re-electing a Republican chameleon who changes positions on command for decades.

It’s sad that these stories detracted from a couple of sadder passings, of Sam Neil and Bonnie Tyler.

Neil starred in several of the Jurassic Park movies (which I loved). Tyler was a tremendous singer with several big hits (and not much else). I’ll miss them both.

A Brand New Crisis from 1868

In catching a rare break from the Supreme Court, we can see the blatant racism that governs the MAGA movement. When SCOTUS found that the 14^th Amendment to the Constitution was constitutional (duh), the speed with which the MAGAts moved to capitalize on the moment was eye-opening.

Almost immediately, the talking points were obvious, with multiple talking heads and inside sources postulating fantastical stories about citizenship mills and birth tourism, all designed to replace white people in this country. They must have had this stuff already locked and loaded before the decision, with versions for either outcome. Steven “the Ghoul” Miller’s fingerprints are all over this.

Late last week, there was a letter to the editor in the formerly reputable Baltimore Sun, in which the letter writer decried this new “can of worms,” just opened to destroy America. In fact, many of the blurbs put out on social media employ this raging fallacy.

What makes it a fallacy is this: If the decision lets the 14^th Amendment stand, which has been in place for over 158 years, how in the bloody hell is this opening a “can of worms” if it's already been open for longer than anyone has been alive? There is exactly nothing new being put forth, just the clearly written law of the land, which states, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.” Where is the wiggle room? Where is the “interpretation?”

There is no “interpretation” without making up a bunch of far-fetched crappola drawn out of thin air.

They talk about what they think the writers intended. I say if there were any caveats, they would have been written in, but they weren’t. It just says, in plain English, if you’re born here, you’re an American. Case closed.

Remember, these are the people who cling to a literal reading of (part of) the 2^nd Amendment, insisting that the rules made to cover single-shot, hand-loaded rifles were designed to expand to include guns that fire hundreds of rounds per minute, so no further interpretation is permitted. “The right to bear arms shall not be infringed,” that’s what they repeat and contend that it covers everything. (Of course, they always ignore the “well-regulated militia” part.) They are only constitutional “originalists” when it serves their purpose. Otherwise, like when it comes to brown foreigners entering the country, they’ll twist any explicitly written statute until it says the opposite of what was intended at creation.

All of these new doomsday predictions, in the wake of the decision, were just as possible two weeks ago, yet no one was talking about them. Apparently, it just wasn’t that important. But now, when the headlines go against the Administration’s stated goals of whitening America, they want to rally support for new legislation. After picking through the dissent of the three fascist-supporting judges, I’m sure they will find an angle that would be upheld under constitutional scrutiny. That’s what these guys do, even when a Republican measure fails; they leave breadcrumbs for the next time.

And there will be a next time. Republicans don’t have anything to offer in the way of economic or environmental relief, just tax cuts and support for the rich. So they need to produce something to draw votes, and racism, sexism, and homophobia are consistent winners. And best of all, it doesn’t cost rich people anything.

“Wait,” you say, “Won’t it cost business owners by removing all the people who work cheap?”

Yes, it would, except they’re already getting replacements lined up, namely, people like us. Look at the massive cuts to state and federal jobs. Look at AI and robotics taking over jobs done by humans. Look at brick-and-mortar stores that have disappeared in favor of E-tail. Suddenly, there is a glut of people looking for work. Do you think they’re all going to train to be coders? With the prices rising like they are, people who normally wouldn’t lift a shovel will be fighting to work on road crews and farms, just to keep the lights on.

It’s a theory, anyway. And I wouldn’t put it past these bastards to see it through. After all, Project 2025 sounded pretty far-fetched at one time. Now its contents are found in the daily news.

First Amendment Bluz

Last week showed that everything is indeed bigger in Texas, including Constitutional atrocities, as the state school board eviscerated the First Amendment by requiring Biblical passages to be taught in public schools.

Later in the article above (in a portion I clipped out for size), a supporter claimed it was OK because our 250 years “started as a nation of unwavering Christian values.”

Yes, so unwavering that the founding fathers specifically prescribed against the government having any hand in religion in the very First Amendment to the Constitution. But in Texas, the only Amendment they recognize is a mile-wide interpretation of the Second.

Optional religious student groups have been in place for a while now, and I don’t really have a problem with that, given the “optional” part. But once it’s required, it changes everything, especially considering they’re not including Quran or Talmud readings, or even the Flying Spaghetti Monster’s manifesto.

I can only hope that in the mandated teaching of this material, the teacher works in the Biblical exhortations to feed the poor, welcome the stranger, and turn the other cheek. Unless, of course, the Texas Board of Education releases their own version of the Bible and snips out of those Commie, Leftist, Liberal platitudes for which that book was originally known. Republicans aren’t really interested in freedom of religion; they’re concerned with freedom to be Christian. (Only without the pesky liberal Jesus stuff.)

Filing lawsuits to stop this indoctrination won’t do any good; there is a zero percent chance that the current SCOTUS will kill this action. In fact, upholding actions like this is exactly why the Federalist Society and the Heritage Foundation put the six conservative members there.

The infamous Project 2025 document contains many actions aimed at allowing what the Constitution clearly forbids. This is one of them.

So the only way any of this changes is at the local level. At least these new requirements won’t take place until 2030, by which time these evangelical school board members could be replaced by others who understand the Constitution and Bill of Rights.

This is me, not holding my breath, though.

The Republican machine is strong in Texas and tightening its grip on Texas politics every day. As the population of prospective Blue voters increases, so do Republican operations to curtail their voting power through gerrymandering and the usual Election Day roadblocks to voting: reducing voting machine numbers in urban areas, reducing windows for early voting, sabotaging vote-by-mail, etc. And, of course, the Feds can send ICE into all the Latino precincts to scare off the Hispanic vote. With ICE’s propensity to scoop up and detain anyone foreign-looking, US citizen or not, who would risk their life and livelihood just to cast a vote?

The Republicans have complete power in the state now and will now give it up without a fight, dirty or otherwise.

A Message From Beyond

I mentioned, back in April, that my mom passed last September. Before that happened, there was a spooky little occurrence that I’d like to tell you about. (I’ll come back to current events and the latest political atrocities next week.)

In the weeks before passing, she’d been bedridden, either asleep or highly medicated. When awake, she didn’t always make a lot of sense, but would have occasional bouts of lucidity, holding conversation as if it were just another Wednesday in the parlor.

About three days before she passed, my brother was sitting beside her bed as she slept. On his cell phone, he received a text from his son, Sam, then a sophomore at Penn State, saying that he had been turned down for the fraternity he’d been trying to join. My brother never said a word, nor was his phone within Mom’s view.

Then suddenly, and quite clearly, Mom said, “I wonder how he’s going to handle the rejection,” before resuming her sleep.

My brother said he got chills up and down his body. He was astounded, as was I, when he told me about it. But that was completely in character for Mom. She always was a little “mystical.” She loved her crystals, horoscopes, lunar calendars, and such. So this didn’t exactly come out of left field.

I guess moms really do know everything their kids are up to. That “third eye” is real! Perhaps the door to the otherworld really does open a bit when one is at the end.

Mom at her 75^th birthday party, making good use of her magic wand.