Mother of the Year

 

This wonderful Mom found her son doing something she was not proud of him doing and took things into her own hands.  MOTHER OF THE YEAR.  Happy Mothers' Day to all.

This HAD to happen

 During testimony at the drumpf trial on May 9th, this occurred:  

BREAKING: Stormy Daniels absolutely destroys "orange turd" Donald Trump during his hush money trial after his attorney shows her a tweet that she retweeted calling her a "human toilet." The lawyer tried to embarrass Daniels and it backfired right on Trump... "Exactly!" said Daniels in response to the attorney. "Making me the best person to flush the orange turd down." "I don't see the word instrumental or jail," Daniels added, explaining that the tweet was intended as hyperbole. Trump's attorney then asked her if she was referring to Trump as the "orange turd." Daniels said that the tweet doesn't specify and is up to interpretation. "I'm also not a toilet," she said. Trump's attorney asked again what she meant by "orange turd." "Oh, I absolutely meant Mr. Trump," Daniels replied bluntly.

Project 2025

 

TEN TIMES!!!

 My guy @TizzyEnt on X (I still call it Twitter) on the bloviator drumpf at his trial today.
#TrumpForPrison

Tom on the "Great Divide"

 The Great Divide in American Politics is not between Republicans and Democrats, although one could make a case that that it is.  The two major parties are hardly philosophically monolithic.  The Democrats are split into a Progressive element that favors group  over individual identity, which I realize is a gross oversimplification, but I'm not in a mood to get bogged down in the weeds this morning. 

The truth is, (and I've frequently made this point), Progressives are humorless scolds who will reject any initiative that is proposed  by a 'Straight White Male, however virtuous that initiative might be, yet will celebrate any cockamamie theory put forward  by a POC or LBGTQ activist.  Examples include folks such as Pramilla Jayapal, Elizabeth Warren, Ro Kahanna, and the formidable Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

  
The other wing of the Dems represent what might be called the 'Traditional', or 'Moderate' element of the party. These are the more down to earth Democrats who tend to believe in what might be described as 'American Values', (at least as compared to their Progressive brethren).   Think Joe Biden, Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi,Seth Moulton and Adam Schiff.
 

 This wing of the Party used to  be made up of the so-called 'Lunchpail Democrats': principally men, who worked in the factories and mills that made America into an economic powerhouse.  But many of them fell for the siren songs of anti-labor activists who whispered into the ears of Ronald Reagan and convinced him that unions and the workers who made America great were somehow less important than the lawyers and other social parasites who work at cross purposes to the very real needs  of ordinary Americans.  They have been replaced by female voters who understand, as many male voters fail to do, that a robust social safety net is essential  for America to thrive, rather than merely exist.

Whatever philosophical differences exist among the Democrats, they manage to Get Things Done, at least in comparison to their Republican colleagues.  The divide in the once Grand Old Party might be more  accurately described as a schism, which is normally a theological term, rather than a political one.  But I do think that the term does accurately describe the current reality show that is today's Republican Party.

The rot that transformed today's Republican Party from a typical opposition party in a Democratic Republic into the misbegotten collection of conspiracy theorists and fabulists that they are today, requires more time than we have available.

There has always been the whiff of an anti-government cabal about the GOP that has waxed and waned over the years, but the roots of today's nihilistic Republican Party can be traced to Ronald Reagan and former house Speaker Newt Gingrich.   While there has always been a rift between the so-called 'Country Club Republicans', and their more populist  brothers; and the differences between these wings of the GOP were largely class-based. 

The country club republicans were largely based in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic, with tendrils reaching into the old Western Reserve and along Lake Michigan, while the more populist part of the party could be found on the South and West. 

This is an oversimplification, but, as the wise lady said: "It's good enough for government work".  Over the past half century, most of the country club types have been run out of the party, along with anyone who demonstrated a willingness to "...reach across the aisle...", and make common cause with the opposition to work on behalf of the American people. 

Bit by bit, the ideological bomb-throwers have taken over the party, as evidenced by their propensity to make life difficult for the various GOP party leaders, particularly in the House, where they've dispatched John Boehner, Paul Ryan and Kevin McCarthy, and nearly did the trick with Mike Johnson, with only the willingness of House Democrats to intervene on his behalf keeping him in the Speaker's chair. 

The wild card in all this is the 'Trump Factor', which causes otherwise relatively moderate republicans to quake in fear of a primary challenge by some tin foil hat wearing challenger who never did stop believing in fairy tales, (such as the one in which Donald Trump won the 2020 election). 

There are signs that the fractures within the House GOP caucus will tear it apart in an orgy of fratricidal bloodletting.  As an example of what I'm talking about,  consider Rep. Bob Good, (R-VA), who has endorsed a primary challenge to Rep. Don Bacon, (R-NE), for being insufficiently "conservative".  

But the divide in the GOP caucus isn't a matter of the degree of conservatism evinced by any individual member; rather it's the degree to which they are willing to pledge fealty to Donald Trump.  

The Republican Party, at least in its current incarnation, is not at all conservative in the sense that the term has been historically understood.  A more appropriate description might be to call the GOP the "Radical" Party.  Another accurate descriptor might be to call it a Cult of Personality centered around The Donald; God's Messenger.  But he's nothing of the sort.  He's just a fat, old, grifter with a flatulence problem.  I think the House will revert to Democratic control in the fall, because so many of those in the House GOP caucus appear to be certifiable.

Monday Smile

 

Vonshitzenpants and Alzheimer

Donald Trump did sit down for an interview with Time Magazine that was released yesterday morning and what he says doesn't particularly surprise me, but the prospect of a Trump Restoration is begining
to concern me.  Mr. Trump, never the sharpest knife in any drawer, is beginning to show signs of cognitive decline which, when you take into account the fact that his daddy, Fred Trump, suffered from Alzheimer's Disease, (AD), and according to the National Institutes of Health, advanced age and familial history are thought to play a significant role in the development of AD.  That aside, the plans that he has for the short term future of this country are disturbing, to say the least.

Tom on Those Pesky Student Protestors

It'll be interesting how these increasingly confrontational battles between witless students and the agitators that care nothing for the plight of the Palestinians who find themselves caught between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea.  As these protests metastasize, it becomes increasingly clear that this is about the "Perfidious Jew".  They employ the dog whistles of 'Genocide', and 'Colonialism' that only ever seem to be applied to Israel, and nobody else.   I always thought that we were better than that...

 

Tom on a Trump Victory

 Truth be told, I almost think that what America needs is a Trump victory in 2024. 

Sometimes a person just needs an emema.   It'll hurt and embarrass you, but you'll be 'aces' afterwards, (that one I got from my late wife, The Fabulous Missy).

Let America see that The Mighty Oz is, like any good magician, a master of illusion and misdirection; adept in the use of smoke and mirrors. 

But they'll soon find that illusion is no substitute for competence, and when inflation goes through the roof because of Trump's 'crackpot' economic theories, and the interest rate on a new mortgage hits 12.5 %, they won't be able to blame Joe Biden. 

 When your 15 year old daughter finds herself in the 'Family Way', because the law wouldn't allow her to get a refill for her birth control pill scrip, and she just was a silly girl trying to keep hold of her pig of a boyfriend the only way she knows how,  you can't blame Joe Biden. 

When the number of cops who die in the line of duty goes through the roof because even mental patients and wife beaters have a Right to Bear as many arms as they please without regard to their suitability to do so, it won't be a glib Joe Biden offering thoughts and prayers to the 31 year old widow and her two toddlers whose husband was gunned down by an angry co-worker for reasons that nobody can understand. 

The Muslims from Michigan who try to bring what remains of the Lebanese and Gazan families so sorely afflicted to new homes in the land of opportunity, Uncle Sugar will slam the door in their faces.  

Black folks who gather together to protest the senseless murder of some unlucky kid  whose only offense was "Driving While Black" could well find themselves gunned down by National Guardsmen who are. only "following orders''.  Think that they'll have PTSD? 

Biden will be enjoying his retirement by the time that happens...or will he?  The politician who doesn't buy into the 'Trump is divine' trope, may well find himself entangled in ruinously expensive legal proceedings designed more for intimidation than in seeking justice. 

And you have to wonder how long it will be before the "Trump Re-Education Camps", which will find its mission statement to sweep up dark-skinned hispanics, (regardless of legal status), expanded to include homosexuals and Jews.  

MUGA

 MAGA Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene tried to troll House Speaker Mike Johnson in a press conference and it completely backfired. While addressing her intent to invoke her motion to vacate to try and oust Johnson from the Speaker job, she unveiled a new take on the infamous MAGA hat: a blue MUGA hat, which stands for Make Ukraine Great Again. 

"The uniparty is make Ukraine great again. The uniparty is all about funding every single foreign war. They think the business model that needs to be done."

Greene then put the hat on a picture of Johnson and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries trying to make the point that the two leaders belong to the so-called "uniparty" which is more loyal to Ukraine than the United States.

Well now, in honor of Greene's cringe worthy stunt, you can purchase your very own blue MUGA hat at the MeidasTouch store.

Zzzzzzzzzzz

 

As any experienced homicide cop or FBI agent will tell you, suspects who are brought into custody for interrogation who fall asleep are usually guilty.  I have always heard this over the years from experts in interviews and books. Trump also thinks he's above it all.