“I don’t know how to do this…”

Aug18

You know what my father said to me before he died? And I mean right before he died, it might have been the last thing he said. He goes “I don’t know how to do this” and I said “it’s okay, dad, nobody knows how to do it” and a short time later he was just quiet and I saw that he wasn’t breathing. I closed his eyes with two fingers of my right hand and took the oxygen tube out of his nostrils.

I understand now that I said the right thing, what he needed to hear in that moment. “Nobody knows how” was a reassuring touch, but the words he needed to hear were “it’s okay, dad” they released him to go in peace. As he did a moment later, as gently as you can imagine.

Biden signs Manchin-stripped law to protect environment, hands Manchin the pen

Aug17

The look Biden gives Manchin is a great moment in American legislative history.

Trump’s ongoing threat

Aug17

New reporting, Trumpie reached out to Merrick Garland to inform him that the country is on fire and wanting to know what he could do to turn down the heat — outside of turning over evidence, being truthful, not doxxing traitors online, or calling on the most violent of his followers to stop threatening violence against Trump’s ever-expanding group. of enemies, the the ones whose home addresses, names of spouses and children and where the kids go to school has been posted on Trump’s Truth Social network.

Trumpie’s larger point is that he controls 90% of the country’s most volatile, unreasonable, violent assholes, and 100% of our enraged racists, and the other side may well have 90% of the more reasonable, less violent citizens, but we can all agree that it would be a shame if anything happened to this great divided burning country, Merrick, my friend. You know what I’m sayin’, Merrick? Merrick?

Put Cuffari in the stocks

Aug16

Trump-appointed transparent liar and obstructionist DHS Inspector General Joseph V. Cuffari continues to lie and obstruct Congress. His aim is Trumpian — delay, deflect, mislead, omit, prevent production of evidence at all costs. Congress is considering their options for this lying sack of shit, who recently replied with this raft of crap:

He said he has published one review of the Jan. 6 attack and is working on two others. “When those two ongoing reviews are complete, we will be happy to provide briefings about them,” he wrote. . .
. . .“Sharing information about ongoing criminal investigations could impact potential witnesses or others who may be involved in the investigative process,” Cuffari wrote. “To protect the integrity of our work and preserve our independence, we do not share information about ongoing matters, like the information you requested in your letters.
“Similarly, we do not authorize our staff to sit for transcribed interviews with your committee about these ongoing matters,” he wrote. “Once these matters are complete, we will consider a renewed request for documents, briefings, or transcribed interviews.”
https://wapo.st/3QMJnpf

This transparently corrupt asshole, smugly aping the legitimate concerns of DOJ in its ongoing criminal investigations, serves at the pleasure of the sitting president. Biden should immediately dismiss Cuffari and have him placed in the stocks, within sight of Congress, next to Trump megadonor/postmaster general Louie DeJoy. Make them grim examples for the rest of MAGA world. Do it, Joe.

Trump sends MAGA militia after judge who signed Mar-a-Lago search warrant

Aug16

When the former president leaked his copy of the search warrant to Breitbart, he left in the names of the two FBI agents who signed and served it and the name of the judge who signed the search warrant, after finding probable cause, based on DOJ’s detailed affidavit setting forth all of the reasons why evidence of a crime was probably at Mar-a-Lago. He fingered these three, and their families, for terrifying, physical retribution, as he does (don’t ask Mike Pence, the question, understanably, gives him indigestion).

The next thing I heard was that there was a huge spike in anti-Semitic chatter in White Christian Nationalist world. Turns out not only is Merrick Garland a Jew, but so, apparently is the judge who signed the search warrant to unleash the lying FBI intent on planting and lying about evidence stolen from Trump’s Palm Beach home and resort. As is universally despised dead pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

So I did a quick search to confirm that the judge was indeed a Semite, and here are the top search returns. It turns out the judge’s name is Bruce Reinhart (no relation to Django) and the first few hits that come up are “Synagogue of Jewish judge who signed off on FBI search …” (yahoo news), Murdoch’s New York Post headline is next “Trump lawyer calls out judge who approved Mar-a-Lago search warrant for…” then Murdoch’s New York Post connects a few more nefarious dots “Judge who approved raid on Mar-a-Lago once linked to Jeffrey Epstein” (oh God, another Jewish pedophile!) we learned from that blurb that Reinhart had also donated to Barack Obama’s campaign in 2008. Something called JTA’s headline “the judge who signed FBI’s Mar-a-Lago warrant is facing violent…” then we get Fox News, moving in for the kill “Florida judge who signed the search warrant allowing the FBI to raid President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate was once linked to Jeffrey Epstein, according to a report.”

Several things become immediately clear when you do this quick Google search. One: the judge is indeed Jewish and there seems to be some concern at the synagogue he belongs to about unhinged men with guns or some other hateful plan arriving for Shabbat services. Two: Trumpworld is on full offense, already setting out (and searching out) the infuriating story of this biased fuck who not only … well, you know! Three, as we all know now, the guy was linked by reports to notorious pedophile, sick, evil bastard and Jew, Jeffrey Epstein.

And, with that, you know, based on reports, the People rest, and let’s make it a completely fair and balanced pogrom this time, shall we? Haha!

drawing with sobering quote

Aug16

The Espionage Act and Rand Paul’s call to abolish it

Aug15

Rand Paul (R-Ky) is an immense, reeking pile of excrement, and I say that with all due respect to prickly, eternally aggrieved Doctor Paul. He asked today how we know the FBI isn’t busy planting evidence, adding incriminating evidence to the boxes seized at Mar-a-Lago, how do we know the DOJ isn’t a bunch of liars? That said, his recent attack on the 1917 Espionage Act is not nearly as crazy as, say, his ongoing personal war with Anthony Fauci, or his generally paranoiac worldview.

The Espionage Act, as Paul points out, criminalizes certain forms of dissent in a way that offends the Constitution, the First Amendment specifically. The strict wartime law certainly needs to be looked at carefully and rewritten much better than its current form. The same could be said about Nixon’s 1970 Controlled Substances Act and other laws that are still on the books, laws that were made primarily for political purposes and that we can fairly conclude outlived their ugly origins.

So fine, Rand, let’s not prosecute Mr. Trump pursuant to the Espionage Act. Obstruction of justice fits Trumpie and his gang much better anyway.

Listening is an underrated art (in a place where no one feels heard)

Aug15

Brilliant defense of Trump, for millions

Aug13

Fair and balanced, two equally strong opposing spins on every story. Particularly when an honest former president is totally cooperative with every ugly partisan witch hunt. Chuck Grassley for the totally innocent former president.

Grey Lady breaks more bad news for team Trump

Aug13

Great reporting, headlined: Trump Lawyer Told Justice Dept. That Classified Material Had Been Returned, with a sub-headline only the NY Times is capable of: