Who’ll Be Minding the Store?

That Joe Biden is LESS CORRUPT than Donald Trump is not the issue.

That LESS CORRUPT would ever need to become the qualifying words, IS the issue!

There is no getting around the truth that Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, benefited, financially due to nepotism… by snagging his $600,000-a-year job on the board of Burisma Holdings. And that does beg some questions…

How could We the People ever entrust a President Biden to drain the Trumpian, overflowing DC swamp, when Joe failed to advise his own son to reject that job offer? Whatever happened to leading by example?

And that makes Joe a POTUS wannabe with a BIG problem. Let’s say he wins the Democratic Party nomination and goes head to head with Donald J. Trump. True, Trump has no head, but since bloggers, everywhere, have already discussed this ad nauseam, why say more?

Anyway, throughout the entire 2020 campaign, Donny (no stranger, himself, to allowing nepotism to benefit his own brood), ironically, will be successfully hammering in his talking point that Joe is soft on nepotism / corruption… that he reeks of it. The voters will catch a whiff of Biden’s stench and even vote for the far stronger stench of Trump, instead (go figure, huh?).

While I’d still have to oust Trump by voting for Biden (sorry… that’s a regrettable fact of life with a two party system), prior to marking my ballot, I’d either need to spray the voting booth with Febreze™ or bring a clothespin for my nose. One would think that to encourage a bigger voter turnout, our local election officials would supply both products.

So, do the Democratic Party big shots actually believe Biden to be the candidate most likely to succeed? If he’s the best man they can trot out, why not simply tell Joe to deliver his Election Night concession speech, right now, and get it over with?

No folks, most assuredly, I have not defected to become a Trumpian blowhole. I’m just being brutally honest, here, because we need to reject Biden while we still have time to nominate a far superior, hopefully progressive, (wo)man.

Look, even were Biden to get elected, unless he could snag up to eight long years of Democratic majorities in both the Senate and House, he’d wind up facing down his immediate impeachment / conviction / ouster, “courtesy” of his savagely vindictive, Republican foes. And he’d have no one else to blame but himself.

To regain some respectability, it might serve Biden well to [1] “crash” Trump’s Impeachment Trial, [2] admit nepotism is wrong, [3] deliver a stump speech that’d also expose Trump’s own corruption AND [4] challenge Trump to show up / fess up, too. Hell, figuratively speaking, Joe could probably mop the entire U.S. Senate’s filthy floor with Trump’s mangy mane.

Let’s now Fast Forward to Election Day 2020. It’ll likely be Biden vs. Trump. And whoever wins, the people will lose… namely… because Trump helps nobody but himself and, once the newly empowered Republican majorities within the House and Senate impeach, convict and oust Biden his VP turned President will be left cowering in the corner… even though that’d be impossible in a oval shaped room.

Indeed, be the victor Biden or Trump, nobody will be minding the store to effectively cope with a slew of national / worldly problems… namely… Vladimir Putin’s land grabs, a destabilized Middle East / North Korea, nuclear proliferation, foreign and domestic terrorism, unholy holy wars, domestic gun violence, a wealthy folks driven class war, corrupt Wall Street / business practices, non-living wages, racial / gender inequality, drug / opioid abuse, an ailing / aging populace and, last but not least, climate change that, left unchecked, will render Earth uninhabitable.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Needless Loss of Life

To quote from our above clip’s accompanying text… as it appeared over at YouTube…

Stephen Colbert and Jon Batiste offer their condolences and discuss the tragic helicopter crash that killed Kobe Bryant, Gianna Bryant, John Altobelli, Keri Altobelli, Alyssa Altobelli, Christina Mauser, Sarah Chester, Payton Chester and Ara Zobayan.

My condolences, too.

Admittedly, as neither an avid sports fan / team follower nor a seasoned air traveler, up until I viewed this vid, earlier today, I hadn’t really been paying this foggy weather related tragedy all the attention it is due.

The discourse between Batiste and Colbert thoughtfully addresses the grief of the families, friends and fans. Anyone who has ever experienced the loss of someone near and dear… regardless of the circumstances… can relate… will feel the tug on the heartstrings.

Also noteworthy is Colbert’s appeal to the National Transportation Safety Board… i.e., urging the NTSB to make “black box” flight recorders mandatory equipment aboard helicopters. The data from such devices could make for more flight-worthy aircraft, and ultimately, that would save lives.

True, my own travels, as a commercial airline passenger, to date, have involved only a couple of Michigan to California trips. But, factoring in how my very first flight, ever (at the age of 49), involved a foul weather experience, I believe I have an inkling as to what may’ve been going through the minds of Bryant and the other passengers during their final moments of life.

My basic game plan had been to attend a family reunion of two (following the recent death of our family matriarch). I also had some high hopes that, by vacation’s end, I’d be able to [1] get my mourning into perspective, [2] elevate my mood, [3] better accept that “life goes on” sentiment and [4] reestablish some ‘live each day to the fullest” determination.

However, it was during my return flight that I began to wonder if the home I was heading for would be Earthly or Heavenly. Mechanical difficulties had delayed, by three hours, our departure from the Golden State. We did eventually hightail it back to the Great Lakes State, but, by that late afternoon, clashing cold and warm fronts had produced severe thunderstorms.

In the air, that meant major turbulence, which not only, inwardly, unnerved me but appeared to have a similar effect on our (supposedly) unflappable flight attendants (one of them nearly losing her footing and getting floored. On the ground, unsafe wind velocities of 129kph / 80mph had closed down the control tower and necessitated our hour long holding pattern… as well as an unscheduled, diversion to Pittsburgh to refuel.

Yet, oddly enough, throughout, I did experience solace on multiple levels. From a purely practical standpoint, prior to takeoff, I had caught a brief glimpse of our pilot who appeared to be a confidence elevating veteran. From a philosophical perspective, were I to perish in a crash, it’d have been following my fun in the sun, California, celebration of life. Even on the spiritual plane, I was fully covered. I’d be testing my “wings” to soar upward from the mangled wreckage to attend yet another… albeit otherworldly… family reunion.

Obviously… I did luck out and survive. Now, if only each member of the entire Kobe Bryant entourage could say the same.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mitch’s Witch Hunt? Pelosi’s PlayHouse?

 

Folks who party with Democrats, would LOVE to roll out a badass derrick that’d kerplunk Donald Trump’s Fat Fascist Fanny into a U.S. Senate witness chair… i.e., to hear how he’d “sing” at his Impeachment Trial.

Folks who party with Republicans, would LOVE to haul in Joe Biden’s ass to hear how he’d “sing”, too.

FINE! I say, “Let’s Party Like It’s 2099!” But / Butt testimonials, such as these, must have ironclad, no BS rules…

• This shall be presented as a LIVE, televised / streamed (gavel to gavel) public hearing. Perhaps call it Mitch’s Witch Hunt? Or Pelosi’s PlayHouse? Hey, if the network suits can one-up either of my “working titles”, more power to ’em, right?

• Declare a one-time, National Holiday to ensure the hugest American audience possible. To further encourage viewership, each consenting 18+ viewer, shall wind up entered into a lottery… i.e., where the one drawn at random, top prize winner shall pocket ONE MILLION DOLLARS… A LUMP SUM PAYOUT… TAX FREE (federal / state / local)!

• Both men shall submit to a mandatory, pretrial, rigorous physical exam and psychological evaluation.

• Neither man shall be permitted to lawyer up during questioning and must answer while hooked up to a polygraph machine. Too damned Orwellian you say? Hell, this could’ve gone down as far, Far, FAR more Draconian! They should consider themselves damned lucky that war criminal W. Bush’s waterboarding “techniques” won’t be “in play”.

• An in-house, bipartisan team of Fact Checkers shall rate the respondents’ veracity, utilizing either the Pants On Fire or Pinocchio Scales (their rulings to appear, in-real-time, as a “crawl” across the bottom of our screens).

• Penalties for perjury, upon conviction, shall [1] automatically disqualify each guilty party from ever holding all future elective offices (all the way down to dog catcher), [2] require the immediate return of all raised campaign contributions and [3] if treason is involved, shall result in appropriate imprisonment.

• The actual inquiry will be akin to a multiple choice test… Trump’s and Biden’s six possible answers…

a. Yes
b. No
c. Won’t answer (arrogance)
d. Can’t answer (ignorance)
e. Can’t answer (national security issue)
f. I invoke 5th Amendment protections

• Whenever “e” responses arise, the respondent(s) must be re-deposed in a Closed Senate Session.

Election Year Fringe Benefit: Seeing how inordinate amounts of evasiveness, cluelessness and/or forgetfulness could prove damning for anyone auditioning for that Oval Office gig, the voters could view Mitch’s Witch Hunt or Pelosi’s PlayHouse as the ultimate means to ferret out one… perhaps even two unworthy candidates.

Hey… better to get this political bad blood out of our electoral system NOW, rather than to feel four (or four more) unbearably long year’s worth of buyers’ remorse LATER!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Refuting a Flawed Trumpian Talking Point

 

Trump’s floundering attorneys at (f)law, in collusion with the ginormous gaggle of grasping at straws, tin foil hat donning Republican conspiracy theorists, oft attempt to foist off their shared, flaccid fairy tale that Democrats, by dusting off the legitimate Impeachment process, are attempting to tear up the 62,979,636 ballots cast for their boy Donny.

What these right wing, wingnuts fail to acknowledge is how [1] the Framers of America’s Constitution had conceived of this very impeachment process, just in case voters, someday, inadvertently, wind up empowering a hostile to America candidate AND [2] that that someday HAS arrived!

To tear up that Trumpian false narrative…

• Had the voters been able to correctly detect Donny’s dictatorial demeanor and corrupt MO, just how many of them would’ve still cast ballots for him?

• Chances are that Hillary Clinton’s already impressive popular vote tally… 65,844,610… would’ve even more substantially trumped Trump’s… and she’d have emerged America’s 45th POTUS.

• Republicans’ “come to the defense of the voter” stance, at its best, is hypocrisy… at its worst it’s a brazen bald-faced lie. True, they may not tear up ballots, but it’s their Fascist voter suppression tactics that prevent those ballots from ever getting cast in the first place.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fortune Cookie Blog (freedom’s typo?)

 

Freedom will be forsaken whenever and wherever a F’ing Fascist
fools fools into feeling undue, unconditional, limitless love for him;
into professing to him their fervent, ferocious, F’d up faithfulness;
into even lavishing onto him a torrential flood of unearned flattery.
A hybrid word must be formed that’ll describe the lost llberty that
the fooled fools will be facing down; that word being FREEDUMB!

 

 

 

 

 

Fortune Cookie Blog (lust)

 

A loudmouthed, empty suit Fascist will resort to bluster to fabricate
his only skin deep, fake, illustrious image. Hmm… is it ONLY a fluke
that within both bLUSTer and ilLUSTrious, the word LUST is hidden?
After all, other than a LUST for power, what else can a Fascist claim?

 

 

 

 

 

Green (Sun)Day (Sunday Song Series)

Thanks to Green Day’s contribution / tossing their aptly titled track, Church On Sunday, into the collection plate (as it were), the weekly total of our Sunday titled songs has now grown to 72.

My thanks to all who are clicking by for a listen. You’re cordially invited back… seven days from now… for our next musical adventure…

 

 

 

 

Donny & Jay Can’t Beat the Rap / Notorious B.I.G.’s Rap

‘If you don’t know, now you know.”

Jay Sekulow, who is one of Donald J. Trump’s shameless mouthpieces at the Senate Impeachment Trial, appeared to be mystified when he asked, “Why are we here?”

Of course, what else can poor Jay do but feign ignorance? Theatrics is his only defense tool… i.e. seeing how [1] he could never, possibly, muster a legitimate, cogent refutation of the spot-on, damning Articles of Impeachment and [2] his client doesn’t even realize it when he’s constantly, publicly incriminating himself.

We must commend the House Impeachment Manager Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) for even entertaining the notion that Sekulow could actually be akin to a genuinely mystified toddler, who so desperately needs to be spoon-fed the following facts…

Just in case this YouTube clip ever “vanishes”, let’s back that up in text form, too…

“We are here, sir, because President Trump pressured a foreign government to target an American citizen for political and personal gain. We are here, sir, because President Trump solicited foreign interference in the 2020 election and corrupted our democracy. We are here, sir, because President Trump withheld $391 million in military aid from a vulnerable Ukraine; without justification; in a manner that has been deemed unlawful. We are here, sir, because President Donald Trump elevated his personal, political interests and subordinated the national security interests of the United States of America. We are here, sir, because President Trump corruptly abused his power and then he tried to cover it up. And we are here, sir, to follow the facts, apply the law, be guided by the Constitution, and present the truth to the American people. That is why we are here, Mr. Sekulow. And ‘if you don’t know, now you know.’”

Jeffries’ closing line quotes Notorious B.I.G.’s (NSFW) rap from his 1994 hit, Juicy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Witness the Donald J. Trump Impeachment Trial? NOT!

Yesterday, courtesy of YouTube, I featured Live PBS coverage of the U.S. Senate’s Impeachment Trial of Donald J. Trump.

Today, I UN-feature it. Why?

For starters… Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell… no big surprise… has now hit rock bottom… has been following through on his recent public promise to NOT be impartial… which… btw… flips off the oath he took to behave otherwise.

As usual, McConnell’s assessment is dead wrong. Contrast that with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s intent, which transcends mere politics. Her House of Representatives’ primary goals have been to preserve, protect and defend the U.S. Constitution… to preserve the sanctity of our ballot box… to save America from tyranny.

ULTIMATELY… Pelosi is telling Trump’s bff, Vladimir Putin, to go F himself!

Obviously McConnell and his fellow subversive Republicans do not take any of Pelosi’s concerns seriously, anymore.

Which brings us back to why I’m no longer streaming the trial…

Right from the get-go, Mitch and his entire Trumpian band of bootlickers, have been putting on a shameless, spineless, valueless exhibition that’s a monumental embarrassment to America. As such, I’d be ashamed to have any of you see it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Constitutional Crisis / Chaos Abetted or Averted?

 

This blog’s posting time marks the beginning of the historic, Impeachment trial of Donald J. Trump. Americans and many others spanning the whole world… will all be watching, intently, to see if U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts are honorable men, who’ll be able to [1] elevate patriotism over partisanship, [2] preside over a trial complete with witness testimony and presented evidence AND [3] pursue the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth… wherever that truth shall lead them.

While that is, precisely, what these high and mighty entities are under oath to do AND owe each and every American, alas, what We the People will likely get is quite predictable… namely…

The lurid, obscene spectacle of the Republican dominated Senate’s members, all standing at attention to salute… to lay bare… their undying, undue lust for dictator Donald J. Trump.