Headline Newz

As one of the dozen or so people who still get a daily paper, I usually scan through the stories at lunchtime, on my way to the crossword puzzles, with an eye out for blogging opportunities, which I capture with my iPhone camera. There’s always something to latch onto, especially with my paper’s new ownership, namely the guy who owns Republican media mouthpiece Sinclair Broadcasting. They never fail to take the Republican side, not only on the editorial page, but throughout what’s supposed to be the straight news.

Very few of the stories are written by in-house staff. Most are farmed out to Sinclair and Fox News outlets. Like this one, from “The National Desk,” which is what Sinclair calls its national 10:00 PM news.

In a nutshell, this story gives credence to the Attorney General from Mississippi, who is complaining that AI is biased against conservatives. He goes on to blame fact-checking.

I can see where he’s got beef. When it functions properly, AI should deliver conclusions based on facts at hand. When these facts run contrary to Republican talking points, they must be “biased,” right? That’s how it works in the Republican media bubble. If the facts go against their dogma, the facts must be wrong. They’ve been believing their own bullshit for so long, it’s become second nature.

Pointing out what’s true and what’s false is not a matter of bias, but proof. And no proof will knock the scales from the eyes of these MAGA idiots.

Two weeks ago, there was a staff-written article about the Nation’s AG blaming lower courts for holding up too many of the president’s orders.

This could have easily been headlined, “President refuses to issue Constitutional orders.” Still, the paper takes the view that all those findings against the clearly unconstitutional executive orders coming from the White House are all a big conspiracy, rather than judges literally doing the jobs they are required to do.

It’s also rich that Republicans have used this very same machine to derail anything Biden or Obama tried to do, by filing lawsuits with judges known to be down with the Republican cause. See, when they do it, it’s fine. When it works against them, it’s a vast conspiracy.

Oh, and if you “have a tip” that makes Democrats look bad, be sure to hit up this writer, because they apparently can’t find enough news to report on their own, once they turn all the local Fox News stories into transcripts.

A couple of days before that last joke, they ran this one:

And this one is from the AP, so it’s presented fairly straight, as they quote someone labeling this attempt to re-categorize natural gas as green energy, as “green-washing.” This is just more Republican sophistry. The gas coming from the Louisiana swamps is cleaner than the hot air from those hyping this ploy.

Republicans are trying to repeat what they did when they created “clean coal,” something that never existed. They just changed what they called it and pretended they were actually doing something about climate change. Republicans understand that so many people never get into the weeds with details. They just skim the headlines and absorb the impressions contained therein. So it doesn’t matter if it’s really green or not; a lot of people will believe it is, which means Republicans have something other than an empty cupboard when their constituents want to know what they’re doing about the obvious weather volatility we’re experiencing.

“Hey, don’t blame us, we’re all-in on green natural gas. But the Democrats want you to give up your cars and ovens!”

Lastly, we have another AP article about one of the last remaining Republican wet dreams, getting rid of all limits on buying politicians political donations. 

As if Citizens United wasn’t bad enough, and to demonstrate how the rich are never satisfied with the billions they already have, now they want to remove all remaining barriers to literally buying federal policy that caters to them. Given how they’ve already ruined government, I have no doubt the Roberts Court will continue ransacking the government until we inevitably start putting the billionaires' pictures on our money.

DOGE Dividend? Don't Hold Your Breath

Talk about an idea that will never go anywhere…

Last week there was an article in the paper exploring the proposition that the big dividend that the DOGE cuts are supposed to provide be refunded to the taxpayers.

As soon as I saw the headline, I knew this was a non-starter. Republicans are not taking a buzzsaw to government agencies so that they can give the savings back to us…

Aside from eliminating federal regulations that might cost their companies money, they want these cuts to provide a bigger pile of money the one-percenters can divide among themselves. I’m sure they’ll figure out just how high of an increase to the deficit that they can stomach and still siphon the “found money” back to themselves by way of sweetheart contracts, shady deals, and tax cuts. There is a zero percent chance that the average citizen is going to see a dime of this largesse. Those were my thoughts before I even read the article.

Then, I found the “but” right near the end. They quoted a guy from the Heritage Foundation as saying, “I love what DOGE is doing, but this is a bad idea. There’s no need to send dividend checks. The dividend we get from slashing spending is that it brings inflation into check.”

In other words, “Don’t worry your pretty heads about it. I’ll tell you what you need, let’s not get into such unpleasant topics like “money. Just forget about it and we’ll tell you when everything is better.”

So, the original thrust of this article is that fElon was going to check with TFG. A couple days later, I saw this article:

So, fElon said he’d check with the boss and the boss OK’d it. So when are we getting our checks? Not so fast. For the prevailing conservative opinion, Sinclair National Desk (read: in bed with the GOP) quotes Blake “Brick Suit” Marnell, a MAGAt who attends rallies dressed up like the prospective Southern Wall, as saying: “Personally, I’m not in favor of this unless the yearly budget is balanced.” Use all the DOGE-generated savings to lower the yearly budget deficit first. Once the deficit is eliminated, we can talk about dividends.”

In other words: “No screen time until you finish your chores. Also, you will never finish your chores because I’ll keep adding more.” They are never going to “balance the budget.” Republicans will fight to eliminate “waste,” as defined by “services that help the average citizen,” but fight just as hard to avoid the tax hikes it would realistically take to balance the books. Not to mention giving up the tax cuts that will push the deficit higher.

No, this is a smoke-and-mirrors issue that will never come to fruition. They want the notion out there to make low-information voters think they’ll be getting some free dough. And when they don’t, they’ll find a way to blame the Democrats. Business as usual.

In other news, TFG remains busy trying to euthanize all the watchdogs.

Is should go without saying that if you seek control over independent investigators, they cease to be independent. That’s exactly what he wants. Any office that can throw a wrench into his government-destroying plans, he’s neutering by installing his own toadies who will be loyal to him, rather than the country or Constitution.

He’s also firing military Inspectors General (or JAGs), the armed service attorneys who would likely take legal action to prevent the president from unconstitutionally using the military. With them gone, and a new legion of loyalist paper Generals, he can use the Army against American citizens on American soil.

No one removes legal checks on power if they don’t have plans that require such checks.

Watch this going forward. He is not doing this just for shits and giggles.

It’s the same with the post office. He plans to abolish its independence and assume control. I’m sure there are reasons for that, too. The first one I came up with is that he bans them from delivering mailed ballots. Or, even more sinister, he keeps the status quo but covertly dumps mailed ballots from Democratic districts.

There is not a single thing this guy, nor the rest of the Republicans are doing that helps a single citizen (making less than $500k). The sad thing is that they’re not even hiding it anymore and their supporters couldn’t care less.

Remember how they called Obama “The Imperial President,” for all the executive orders he issued? (Less than Bush II, but who’s counting?) Funny how you don’t hear a peep out of them while their guy is destroying the government, our standard of living, and our safety net, one executive order at a time.

 (All articles are from my home delivery of the Baltimore Sun.)

Don't Blame the White Guy

I heard about the DC plane/helicopter crash on the radio when I woke up the next morning. While in the shower, I thought, “How long is it going to take before someone tries to blame the Democrats for this?”

I didn’t have to wait much longer. By midday, TFG declared the crash the fault of Dem-induced DEI at the FAA. Then as if by magic, all his minions appeared across the internet to parrot their Fuhrer’s line of bullshit.

And they stuck to their script, even after it came out that there were no “DEI beneficiaries” in the tower at that time. In case you’re keeping score, that means when white guys screw up, it’s because somewhere in their organization, Black, brown, or female people have jobs.

It’s funny how DEI is the problem now rather than at any time during the last four years of such hiring practices. If what they’re claiming is true, there should have been multiple plane crashes on our soil. Instead, there were none.

So, maybe shutting down FAA oversight committees, and directors, and tendering resignation requests among the staff might have had a leeeetle to do with it, but surely not as much as knowing a minority works there somewhere.

This is what we’re reduced to today. It’s a clown show held in a house of mirrors. Bizarro World government.

The day after a crash, nobody should be politicizing it, from either side, for the simple reason that no one knows jack shit yet. And no one will know anything definite until they review and release the data from the helicopter’s black box.

You’ve probably seen the film. You can plainly see the helicopter fly straight into the side of the oncoming airplane. Maybe there’s a case to be made that the helicopter should have been routed elsewhere. But it’s an uncontestable fact that the copter should have seen the plane coming in, all lit up in front of it. Helicopters have a complete range of visual access from far left to far right; with 180 degrees of visual range. All it had to do was move up, down, or left in the five to ten seconds before impact to avoid it.

Given that, I want to hear what was happening in the helicopter that was compelling enough to draw the pilots’ attention away from the jet airliner smack dab in front of them. Was there an injury, a heart attack, or a seizure? Did the steering system break down?

None of us know any of that and I hope we do soon. The faster we have the facts, the faster we’ll learn that DEI had nothing to do with any of this.

But then, who am I kidding? The Right never admits they’re wrong. If the pilot was having a heart attack, they’ll claim a DEI Army doctor missed the signs. If it was a mechanical problem, it would have been a DEI Army mechanic who didn’t see a damaged stick (or whatever.) You can’t win when one side will adapt any situation to match their core beliefs, facts, evidence, and common sense be damned.

Republicans have decided DEI is the cause of everything that ails the country and will stretch the truth to asinine proportions to make their point. I mean, look at this knob:

Aircraft terminology is the culprit that's making planes smash into each other or fall out of the sky? I can’t believe these shmucks can put that out there with a straight face. No shame whatsoever. They will look us right in the face and tell the most mind-bending lie they can and their disciples will believe it without question because they want it to be true.

On Facebook, I saw the father of an old childhood friend and faithful MAGA fall in line with this completely, claiming that because he flies a small aircraft, he can attest that DEI is dangerous because each “DEI hire” robs who he assumes to be a more qualified white man of his rightful job.

It’s funny that some of us thought that after Obama was elected, we’d reached a “Post-racial” environment. Au contraire. What it did was shock the racists so hard that they vowed that they would never let such a thing happen again. And the result of this mental reset is the MAGA we know today.

Lucky us.

Director's DVD Commentary: I just joined BlueSky last week, with the handle bluzdude.bsky.social. Follow me and I'll follow you back!

Final Arguments

Early voting is going strong, and we’re only eight days from Election Day (as of this writing), so we’re down to the nitty-gritty. Several weeks ago, I voted via drop-off box and have been notified that my vote has been counted. That’s how it works in a state where they want everyone to vote.

If you’re reading this now, you’re probably not in need of persuasion to vote a straight blue ticket, but it will make me feel better if I can provide some hardcore truths about this race. Maybe it will help if you convince someone you know who is undecided and uninformed.

·         TFG is a hypocrite who criticizes his opponents for things he does himself all the time.

·    The Republican candidate lies like it’s his job. They reported that he unleashed over 30,000 lies during his administration and probably 30,000 more in the following years. Some of them cost people their lives, during the COVID crisis and January 6th. Others are just his way of doing business.

·       TFG and his people have unleashed the most terrifying plan for the country since it began, one that will lead to the disenfranchisement of millions, separation of families, consolidation of power and capital under a small cluster of rich white men, and the effective end of the republic, and the plan is called Project 2025.

·       The orange phony is the least intelligent, least qualified, least curious person to ever seek or hold this office. It’s rich that he and his people call his opponent stupid. Listen to each of them speak for a minute or so and it’s clear who is smart and who is an ass-clown with the 4^th-grade vocabulary. Forty out of forty-four of his own former cabinet members plus his Vice President think he’s unqualified for the job and a danger to the country and have said so in public. That is unheard of in modern politics.

·       He intends to empower those who would devalue and enslave women, treating them as breeding property rather than sentient, self-determining beings, under the myth that they are preserving “life.” They preach “small government,” but their idea of government reaches into your bedroom and even your uterus. His people (and judges) are also coming for birth control, same-sex marriage, and possibly women’s suffrage.

·       Dolt 45 has no plan to bring down inflation. His two plans of action, levying wide tariffs and deporting immigrants would cause prices to soar. VP Harris supports a plan to fight price gouging and he and the rest of the Republicans went crazy fighting it, as they do any plan that helps average Americans. Big-moneyed Republican donors want high prices and low wages. That’s the best-case scenario for “them,” and not “us.”

·       TFG and his enablers are already planning on how to steal the election. He will claim victory on Election Night and set loose an army of lawyers and hooligans to intimidate election workers and state government officials. They’re not even trying to hide it anymore. Maryland’s lone GOP US Representative thinks they should award TFG some North Carolina Electoral College votes before the election because a hurricane might have made it hard for his supporters to vote.

·       He is in bed with the worst kind of people, white supremacists, Christian nationalists, racists, sexists, and many other “ists.” These are people interested in keeping governmental (and monetary control with wealthy, white, (pseudo)Christian, males. The racism isn’t even hidden anymore. Did you see his show at MSG? The racism was the marquee event.

·       TFG desperately wants the Religious Right’s votes but doesn’t give a fig about what they stand for. And now, neither do they. Republicans have managed to turn people who worship a man who preached about accepting foreigners, not throwing stones, giving money to the poor, and not judging, into supporting a party that practices the antithesis of every one of those points.

·       I would vote for a brick before this guy because a brick would do less damage to the nation. Luckily we can vote for a highly qualified, smart, tough, empathetic woman instead. She makes lucid points, speaks in complete sentences, has tangible plans for the country which are easy to locate, and that’s a very low bar that the other guy can’t even think of getting under. In any rational culture, she’d be polling at 90%. If you’re rich, racist, sexist, homophobic, evangelical, or nationalist, vote Republican. If not, there’s only one sane alternative.

Director’s DVD commentary: These are only the first points off the top of my head. There are dozens of other reasons why he shouldn’t be president, like sexual harassment and rape charges/convictions, hush money, business fraud, being a Russian operative/stooge, leaking security secrets, blackmailing other countries for personal gain, violating the Emoluments Clause, raking in taxpayer dollars by staying at his own properties and charging the government for his staff and security detail to stay there, and… well, it never ends. But this post has to.

What Liberal Media?

That’s the old conservative fallback, right? Blame everything negative you hear about Republicans on the “liberal media.”

The thing is, the “liberal media” doesn’t exist, if it ever really did in the first place.

Once upon a time, broadcast media tried to be fair. The Fairness Doctrine required that for every news bit that slanted one way, (or featured sources from one side) there had to be an opposing view to balance it out. For the most part, the national news outlets tried to play it down the middle… report on what happened without taking sides.

The Fairness Doctrine applied because these private networks were using public airways, so they not only had to be fair but they had to devote a certain amount of hours to public interest issues (which were usually buried on weekend mornings, (before cartoons came on, even) or the middle of the night.

News shows weren’t broadcast for ratings; they were like loss leaders*. They were required to produce these news shows so they didn’t let ratings drive the show’s direction.

*Loss leader is a retail term meaning an item a store puts on sale and doesn’t worry if they don’t make money on it, or even lose money, the point is to bring people in the door and sell them something else.

Watergate seemed to change that and every time there was bad news about the Republican scandal, Republican operatives blamed the “liberal media.” It became an easy excuse.

The Reagan Administration eventually got rid of the Fairness Doctrine, which gave rise to Fox “News” and started the slow march to the shop-by-brand version of news we have now.

TV news and newspapers dwelled on the juicy Clinton hearings, lingered over every tawdry detail, and hounded him until he was out of office. But when certain outlets questioned the wisdom of the Iraq War, suddenly they were the “liberal media” again. The same applied any time the media didn’t get in bed with the latest GOP illusionary scandal, like the Birther thing or the Tan Suit incident, et al. I clearly remember Republicans denigrating the “liberal media” for ignoring these “vital” stories.

Over time, media ownership has consolidated into a mere several major players, and each one is part of a vast conglomeration. Are they still out there working hard for the common man? Hell no. They have their own goals now, which always boil down to “mo money, mo power” for themselves. What we now have are conservative media outlets masquerading in liberal sheep’s clothing. NY Times, Washington Post, CNN, and all the Big Three networks, are owned or operated by Republican-leaning overseers.

If I had a subscription, I’d cancel it too, or at least register my condemnation.

In 2024 the “liberal media” is an illusion; nothing more than a quick cover conservatives slap on the occasional bad news story that can’t be ignored. (Despite the craters full of legitimate bad news stories that are completely ignored.) News is no longer about “truth,” or “benefitting society.” It’s about circulation and ad sales in print media and eyeballs in broadcast media. The stories are only tools to get you to pay attention.

I’m seeing it all play out in real time, here in Baltimore, after the sale of the once-respected Baltimore Sun to the owner of Sinclair Media. His stated goal is to make it like the local Fox News channel (that he also runs.) While stories still appear addressing both sides of the aisle, there is a pronounced bias toward conservative-driven storylines.  Take a look at this page from yesterday’s Sun:

This is the spot where the national news goes. Notice how all three stories benefit Republicans:

·         Dems call for Biden to step down

·         Negative analysis of Biden’s ABC interview

·         Trump wins another delay in his documents trial.

Do you know what you don’t see? Anything about Project 2025 or the new corollary, Agenda 47.

Some of these may merely be “stated goals” and not necessarily part of the original document.

Nor do you see any analysis of the garbage that spews forth from TFG during any of his campaign appearances.

I don’t mind calling out my guys on their problems, but when you ignore the other side’s foibles, you are no longer a news outlet, but a shill, a cheap shill hiding a no-pants wizard behind a curtain.

There should be daily updates on Project 2025. After all, it’s only the end of our democratic system of government. SCOTUS already took us halfway there with the advent of the imperial president. Maybe they already know the fix is in on this election and they are trying to avoid being in the crosshairs when TFG starts looking for heretics to prosecute.

The November election is our first “last chance” to stave off government by oligarchy, for the rich, by the rich. If we’re ever going to get a fair shake, we have to start shaking now, no matter who is running against TFG. The last 50 years of progress are about to be flushed down the crapper in favor of a White Christian Male ruling class. (And I’m a White Heathen Male and I’m more Christian in practice than any of these bloodless fuckers.)

We need to get our shit together, stop clutching our pearls over Joe Biden, and unite against the common opponent. Several very good outlets have already demonstrated that trying to come up with a replacement in this time frame is a no-win proposition on logistics alone. It would take from now until November just to settle on a name. And if that name isn’t Kamala, start funding the campaign from scratch.

Our literal futures rest on this next election. Social Security, Medicare, the EPA, Dept. of Education, Reproductive Freedom, contraception, and so much more, it’s all on the line. The rich and the religious wingnuts want all that gone.

And we’re quibbling about someone older and slower than he used to be? Old Joe got more done than any president with a split Congress should have been able to. And he’s old right now and things are running fine (more or less.)

We need to focus on what’s truly important and stop watching the sideshow being peddled by the “liberal media.”

The Numbers Game

This may seem like a Maryland-centric post but the point can be applied to any race where Republicans are trying to distance themselves from their radical fringe and MAGA nutjobs.

Last week I started seeing commercials for Republican Former Governor Larry Hogan’s US Senate campaign, where he basically dismisses both Republicans and Democrats and tries to mine a common sense middle ground.

At first glance, it sounds good. We all want things to get done without all the partisan bullshit. Unfortunately it’s an illusion.

In theory, we DO need more people willing to take a middle ground and accomplish things that a majority of Americans want done. But the problem comes down to numbers.

This is a divided country, with a significant portion willing to forego democracy if it means their guy is at the wheel. Those in charge of the Republican Party have already made it clear what they seek to do. (See: The 2025 Project. Short version: Hello Fascism, goodbye Constitution. Goodbye social progress, hello 1864. Goodbye America, hello Christian Iran.)  

So what’s more important than claims of reasonableness is the R or D beside the name. A single senator or representative isn’t going to do squat by themselves. But when you add up the Rs and the Ds, that will determine the direction of legislation and the committees that create it. Oh, and not for nothing, investigations too. Do we really want another four years of looking into Hunter Biden’s business partner’s cousin’s neighbor’s library book fines?

The Democrats have to defend 26 seats in this election so they have a razor thin margin of error. Maryland is customarily a lock for the Dems. We normally wouldn’t sweat it but here we are with a popular Republican former Governor trying to hide his affiliation and pick up the political center.

If the Democrats don’t hold the Senate, it won’t much matter what President Biden wants to do with a second term. The Republicans will take a page from the McConnell playbook and jam everything up like our Beltway without the Key Bridge. Then they’ll blame Democrats in the following campaigns for the fact that nothing is getting done. (That’s the second Obama term, in a nutshell.) They won’t clear judges that don’t have a Federalist Society pedigree.

And when issues like abortion come up, and somehow they always do, do you think this guy is going to buck his whole party just to align with his campaign rhetoric? Hah!

There’s always a way to rationalize going along with the group. Susan Collins has been pulling this for years, and then always seems surprised when the naysayers are proven correct yet again.

No, it’s a numbers game, pure and simple. Democrats need to occupy more seats than Republicans or else we can expect a backward slide into the Dark Ages.

Now if Hogan wants to renounce the Old Ways and become a Centrist Democrat, I’ll at least listen to what he has to say. Just as long as he’s on the Blue Team’s roster.

Hell Freezes Over

For the first time I can remember, I actually agree with Fox “News.”

I never thought I’d see the day. Well, you know what they say about a blind squirrel…

Thanks to Crooks and Liars for the story.

News Wheel of Fortune

Let’s spin the old News Wheel and see what to talk about today.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZINGGGGGGG tika tika tika tika tika  tika   tika    tika    tik:

I’m sure there are a lot of finance rules with which Lara Trump is unfamiliar.

It appears that the TFG’s takeover of the Republican Party is officially complete, what with the installation of his own lackeys at the Republican National Committee, namely his daughter-in-law. So now, all money raised by the party’s premier fundraising arm will now go exclusively to TFG, whether it’s air time, internet ads, or millions in legal fees and penalties. Down-ticket races are now on their own.

Basically, the RNC will become the Sucker’s Lounge, funded exclusively by the MAGA faithful, while the traditional, filthy rich, fat-cat branch of the party will wield their own PACs to fund Senators, Representatives, and Governors who will do their bidding. It takes a special kind of individual to pass laws cutting pollution standards and rewrite regulations so that banks can screw their clients more effectively. Without massive funding for slick ad campaigns, people might not think electing politicians to do those things is a good idea. Then where would those poor fat-cats be, having to take a small downturn in their obscene profits? Yachts don’t grow on trees, you know.

Let’s take another spin.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZINGGGGGGG tika tika tika tika tika  tika   tika    tika    tik:

Much like the proverbial dog who finally caught a car he was chasing, Republicans don’t quite know what to do with themselves now that the “True Believers” they put into power declared that a clump of cells is legally a person. At least in Alabama, anyway. I presume they wanted the clumps to feel at home, intelligence-wise, and Alabama fit the bill.

While the GOP politicians are trying feverishly to avoid saying anything concrete about this turn of events, I disagree with Sen. Duckworth that they won’t back such a bill with actual votes. They’ve been hollering so long about how life begins at conception, they can’t really back down now. They don’t know what to do now that they’ve got what they’ve been asking for. But they know that IVF is a popular and essential medical procedure, used by tens of thousands of people, including their own constituents. Much like abortion and the southern border, they’d much rather run a fearmongering campaign on the conceptual issues rather than deal with actual details and the inevitable fallout.

Issues like this bring into sharp relief how important this election is as well as every following one. Our democracy is just a swing state or two away from being destroyed by religious zealots who only care about their own narrow brand of morality, and wielding it like a scythe over anyone who disagrees.

What else do we have here?

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZINGGGGGGG tika tika tika tika tika  tika   tika    tika    tik:

Looks like the Biden Impeachment is DOA, what with the arrest and total discrediting of their top witness, Alexander Smirnov. It seems he was selling a complete fabrication, supplied to him by Russian Intelligence. Is anyone actually surprised here? Except Gym Jones, who always seems to look that way.

This is the inevitable outcome when a group starts with a conclusion and then tries to backfill the reasoning. It’s the opposite of the scientific process. Or in other words, a true witch hunt.

Unlike what TFG so often proclaims, it’s not a witch hunt when there’s overwhelming proof of criminal activity, like what’s happened every time he’s been investigated.

I want to make another point here but let me take a short detour to this editorial cartoon I found in the Baltimore Sun last week.

As I’ve mentioned before, The Sun is under new ownership, of the founder of the conservative media empire Sinclair Broadcasting. Immediately upon the takeover, I noticed a distinct shift in focus of the editorial cartoons. Most were pure conservative talking points, but others “appear” to find a middle ground, but if you scratch the surface, they reveal an insidious “both-sider-ism.” Like with this cartoon:

At first glance, I thought “Hell yeah. What a waste of Congressional resources.” But then I noticed there were five broken emergency cases, one for each impeachment since the 90s. The problem is that not all impeachments are the same, not by a long shot.

1.     Clinton. This was a fishing trip engineered by Newt Gingrich, who went looking for a financial scam but was left with nothing but a clandestine blowjob. The entire affair was a hit job, meant to keep the president occupied with defending himself rather than doing what he was elected to do. Yes, the president lied to the grand jury, but he never should have been put there in the first place. The matter had zero to do with governing and everything to do with vendetta politics.

2.     Trump's first impeachment, which laid out proof that he tried to extort Ukraine by withholding funds and arms unless they pretended they were investigating Joe Biden. There are documents, witnesses, recordings, or in other words, overwhelming proof.

3.     Trump's second impeachment, regarding his actions leading up to and on January 6^th. The proof of his involvement and support of a government overthrow left zero doubts of his guilt. As with the previous impeachment, only the cowardice and ambition of the Republican Senators kept him from being convicted.

4.     Secretary of Homeland Security. Impeached because of policy differences in an area where the Secretary has wide latitude. It's a complete sham that started with the conclusion and sought to backfill from there.

5.     Biden. Another sham, an impeachment pushed merely because their guy was impeached. Tit for tat politics. The only problem is they have no case. Every “witness” they produce ends up discredited or arrested. They desperately want Biden to be guilty of something, they just can’t seem to find anything he actually did wrong. They want to be able to say, “Hey, HE was impeached too,” thereby taking TFG’s double whammy off the board. But all they can conjure up is a mirage.

So, in a subtle maneuver, the cartoonist is insinuating that all the prior impeachment proceedings were a waste of time, rather than just the three that didn’t turn up any legal wrongdoing.

But don’t get me wrong, there have still been a couple of good cartoons. Let me end with this one, which I thought was pretty good:

Personally, I think Obama should have been on there, or maybe Roberto Clemente. But why quibble? There’s only so much room. And now I want to go play frisbee.

Crunch Time for a Blue State

As if we need more bad news on the political front, we have a new local development that will have national implications. Former Maryland Governor Larry Hogan has decided to run for the Senate seat being vacated by Ben Cardin. Normally a Republican declaring for a Maryland Senate seat would be greeted by yawns, but Hogan was a rare bird that won two terms as a Red governor in a very Blue state.

He was able to do that because he wasn’t a Bible-thumper or religious wingnut, nor did he support TFG. (He also ran against a couple of thoroughly uninspiring opponents.)

He was one of the rare Republican governors who took COVID seriously and actively promoted vaccinations, masks, and social distancing. Consequently, Maryland weathered the “Rona storm pretty well, with more than 95% of its population getting at least one COVID shot.

However, he was still a traditional Republican at heart, which was demonstrated by how fast he shot down a major public transportation project to create an east/west-running light rail. (Baltimore’s only other light rail line runs north/south.) There were tens of millions in federal funding already in hand, secured by the previous administration, but he left that money on the table to build and widen roads instead, mostly in the Washington suburban areas.

He seems to be burying his Republican past, eschewing party funding in lieu of raising his own money. He wants to run an “independent” campaign, which is fine, but we voters have to keep in mind that he will still be caucusing with the rest of the Republicans and will count as one of them when it’s time to see who wins control of the Senate. That’ll be a big deal when it comes time to get things done. Any bill that’s beneficial to the average American will be strangled in its sleep by a Republican-controlled Senate.

Democrats already have to defend a handful of seats in Red states; now they have to worry about what should have been a reliably Blue seat. I wish he’d just leave politics and open up a sandwich shop. He could call it “Hogan’s Heroes.”

I hope his opponents have the smarts and strategy to take him on and make him wear that “R” around his neck, whether he likes it or not. It doesn’t matter if he rides the middle if it swings power to the wingnuts. And speaking of:

This is what I’m talking about. Here’s a sitting Senator explaining how he would have supported the Trump Insurrection if he had the chance, and insisted on accepting fraudulent ballots. Sure, it’s a lot of Monday morning quarterback woulda-coulda-shoulda, meant to bolster his MAGA cred. But it tells you what this guy will do at crunch time if he’s called to support either the Constitution or the Wingnut Brigade. If he has to wipe his feet on his oath of office to placate a bunch of idiots who think it’s a fix whenever they lose at something, from law parts to lawn darts, it shall be done.

Now this was my favorite story from the recent past:

Excuse me, I have to go find some pearl to clutch. Will marbles do? I can’t believe Hannity was even covering this shit, let alone hyping it like it was Hunter Biden’s laptop. Have they ever heard their Dear Leader before? He swears so much, that you can’t even rule out Tourette’s.

And we KNOW Dark Brandon likes to drop the occasional F-bomb at important times. Remember how the ACA was a “big fuckin’ deal?” And it was, so Joe labeled it as such. I loved that when it happened.

The Right-Wing media ought to make up its mind. Is Biden a senile old fool who doesn’t remember who he is, or is he an evil mastermind who takes years to ratfuck his enemies, create byzantine conspiracies, fix NFL games, and offer dating guidance for young pop singers?

President Biden may be losing a step or two, and maybe a younger pol should step in. But that’s not going to happen in this world, so we’re reduced to a choice between two starkly different options. (And any third-party options are nothing but indirect ways to influence the choice between the main two.) I will always take a sometimes forgetful but well-meaning, true family values person who supports the working class over a sadistic, narcissistic, petulant, spoiled, ignorant, fucktard bent on installing himself as king and spreading the wealth to his rich “friends.”

Also, remember that Presidents have staffs that keep things running. Should Biden falter, I trust his staff to keep the train on the tracks so much more than the toadies and yes-men that will populate TFG’s prospective administration.  He appointed adults in the room last time and hated being told “no.” That won’t happen again. Now it will be all kiss-asses, all the time. And speaking of the biggest kiss-ass:

Yes, the border bill that contained everything Republicans wanted, negotiated in good faith by both parties and got shot down so that instead of solving (or even addressing) a problem (that Republicans claim to be cataclysmic), they have something to use in a campaign instead. And now, Margie Three-Toes thinks it’s traitorous NOT to go along.

She, of course, should know from being “traitorous,” given her public participation in the January 6^th Insurrection and Hootenanny, after which she sought a presidential pardon. If she had been incapable of identifying traitorous behavior, she wouldn’t have felt such a need.

Aside from wanting to use the southern border as a fear-mongering campaign issue, what Republicans really want is an end to immigration, period. No asylum, no work programs, no brown people coming over the border for any reason. That’s the real goal here.

Consider this editorial cartoon from the Newly Republicanized Baltimore Sun:

To make this accurate, turn the funnel upside-down. Then put a cork in it. That’s the Republican immigration plan.

Jingle Bells, Donald Smells...

 This week, I’ve been highly amused by the mini-drama that has erupted over the degree to which TFG smells bad.

Former Republican congressman Adam Kinzinger posted on X on December 16, "I'm genuinely surprised how people close to Trump haven't talked about the odor. It's truly something to behold. Wear a mask if you can."

He went on to add to the description: “The former president has a distinct smell of armpits, ketchup, a butt, and makeup, that’s been … put into a blender as if it has been bottled as a cologne. I’ve been amazed that everybody is just kind of learning about this now.”

I’ve always assumed that TFG smelled like a mixture of hairspray and powder. I was sure a guy as reportedly fussy as he is about his appearance would also take care to manage his aroma. In fact, I’m surprised he hasn’t slapped a name on and branded it.

I don’t know if what Kinzinger is saying is true, but in today’s world, it really doesn’t matter. What matters is that people are talking about it. It’s getting mentions in the press and there are memes everywhere.

TFG had to issue rebuttals to it, which I’m sure takes valuable time away from planning the destruction of our system of government. You know it’s already taking up brain capacity in a place where there isn’t much volume to start with.

The Lincoln Project has already released an ad on the topic because they know that this is the kind of thing that gets under his skin. It’s like that with anything that takes a chunk out of his meticulously crafted image. They want to distract him and make him look unhinged; maybe provoke him into making a bigger fool of himself than usual.

I’m enjoying this because it serves him right. After all the personal attacks he’s lobbed at opponents, here’s a big one coming back on him.

And it becomes important because smell is something that gets a visceral reaction. It bypasses reason and goes straight to the central nervous system. So labeling him as one who smells bad and including some features that sound believable is a skilled PR move. Whether it changes any votes remains to be seen. If the Republicans stick to their usual form, they’ll be coming up with countercharges about how President Biden smells, maybe a combination of hair tonic, Werthers, and arthritis cream.

So, truth or not, it doesn’t matter. If TFG has proven anything, it’s that a lie becomes the truth to many people if you repeat it often enough.

***

I don’t care if this is actually the first of the year, I’m treating this as my last post of 2023, and as such, it’s time for a meme dump! This is where I post all the memes I harvested over the last year and then held for an opportunity for use that never came. Or I forgot.

Politics

 

This is probably the most important one of all:

Socialism/Capitalism

Religion

 

Just for Fun

 

 

And on that note, thank you for spending time with me this year. I hope you continue to visit in 2024 Happy New Year from the House of Bluz.