Trump Finance, Rage, Shutdown, Impeach, Tubervilled Military

  • Dianne Feinstein has departed this mortal coil.
    One exchange comes up repeatedly on social media.
     
    I especially enjoyed how she forced Senator Craig to backtrack, insisting he hadn’t said what he was recorded saying seconds before.
     


    After his career was later demolished, I expressed some sympathy a decade ago toward anti-gay, secretly gay, Senator Craig.

  • Adam Kinzinger brings fellow Republican, Wisconsin Representative Mike Gallagher, to task for a lack of political courage.


    X denizen Aaron Rodriguez objects:


    Wisconsin conservative James Wigderson isn’t having it:


    Aaron appeals to practicality.


    And James has the last word:

  • The Palmer Report totals the potential years of jailtime for mr Trump, if convicted and sentenced on all counts. It all raises another question, will further evidence lead to charges against other Republican politicians?
     
  • A summary judgment finds the evidence inexhaustible. Donald Trump cheated and bamboozled his way to a false real estate success. Green Eagle provides a bit of context most news media leave out, and predicts how long coverage will continue.
     
  • Tommy Christopher captures another of mr Trump’s troubled sleep times, as he dead-of-night rages on Truth Social about such national dangers as Howard Stern criticisms and President Biden successes.
     
  • Does Trump’s rise represent something new, or is he a logical outgrowth of long term Republican authoritarianism?
     
    In Letters from an American, noted historian Heather Cox Richardson goes all Schrödinger and says both. She demonstrates with a brief history of gerrymanders, including the recent explosion of their exploitation by the anti-democracy party.

  • Cato Institute’s Julian Sanchez points to a dangerous ongoing grooming exercise:
     

  • Disaffected and it Feels So Good makes the case that a terrorist does not have to directly commit terrorism to qualify, but can explicitly encourage others. By that definition, many elected Republicans could qualify as terrorists.
     
  • Dave Dubya looks to science and discovers one reason for the rabid, hate filled, fearful branch of conservatism is fight or flight biology.
     
  • Our favorite Earth-Bound Misfit knows why so many MAGAfolk are into terrorism: Because it works!
     
  • PZ Myers has painful recollections of bullying when he was a kid. He recognizes bullying in my own area of the country as Missouri Republicans run for governor, one of whom is campaigning on a book burning platform.
     
  • Frances Langum watches as arch-and-then-some conservative Charlie Kirk finally notices abortion banning is a loser for Republicans.
     
    Key directive:
    According to Charlie Kirk, Trump “already proved he’s been pro-life.” So shut up, anti-choice Republicans!
     
  • M. Bouffant at Web of Evil resorts to linking as Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) votes against the Chair of the Joint Chiefs because, in his words, Our military is not an equal-opportunity employer.
     
    Key additional Tuberville:
    We don’t want to single-handedly destroy our military from within.
     
    Key history (in al link):
    The U.S. military has had an equal opportunity policy since 1948, when President Harry Truman signed an executive order…
     
  • CalicoJack in The Psy of Life finds multiple arguments against a government shutdown – it’s expensive, people get hurt, it’s politically unwise – and one reason Republicans will do it anyway.
     
  • In this week’s both-sides:
    driftglass resorts to accurate quotation as a reporter acknowledges that the coming shutdown is caused by Republicans fighting each other, but insists that President Biden is also to blame because he is not using his rhetorical powers to force Republicans to agree with each other.
     
  • In the Borowitz Report, Ukrainian President Zelensky warns that an escalation in fighting could spread to neighboring regions such as Maryland and Virginia. He offers to broker a peace deal between Kevin McCarthy and House Republicans.
     
  • Does Speaker Kevin have principles of his own?
    Watching him salute as he takes his marching orders from the likes of Donald Trump, Majorie Taylor Greene, and the extremist Freedom Caucus, the question is unavoidable.
     
    Republicans negotiated budget concessions in order to prevent a shutdown. But now, they find their own positions too mainstream.
     
    tengrain at Mock Paper Scissors examines a few of their more extreme new demands intended to stomp all over the most vulnerable in our society.
     
    The understandably frequent criticism of Kevin McCarthy has been:
    He doesn’t stand for anything.
     
    It now appears that, when it comes to keeping his job:
    Kevin McCarthy will stand for anything.
     
    Key position:
    …the Freedom Caucus does not want compromise. It wants blood.
     
  • Most of us are concerned about yet another Republican government shutdown because of its effect on vulnerable Americans and national security, what Bill Buckley referred to as widows and orphans and ABMs. News Corpse covers the parallel anxiety expressed by the Fox network: the search for reasons to impeach Biden might stall.
     
  • Vixen Strangely at Strangely Blogged watches the newest impeachment testimony, with Republican witnesses themselves insisting there is no evidence of wrongdoing. She explains the purpose of the impeachment hearing is to find some reason for the impeachment hearing.
     
  • Poor James Comer. At The Moderate Voice David Robertson finds the continually humiliated House Republican impeach chief so far over his head, with even his own witnesses turning against him, Democratic Senator John Fetterman expresses his love:
    Please keep dragging your own Republican party down.
     
  • Iron Knee at Political Irony senses a contradiction in the glee 2nd Amendment enthusiasts express at charges against Hunter Biden.
     
  • Nan’s Notebook gets behind the reasoning of a California judicial decision on high capacity gun magazines and ponders the part where, implausibly, they are used for self-protection.
     
    Self protection.
     
    The only self-protection reasoning I can think of for rapid fire high capacity firearms is that the judge contemplates a zombie mob attack.
     
  • Legal analyst Imani Gandy explores the evolution of the anti-trans movement and whether Constitutional protections can apply.
     
  • Libertarian Michael A. LaFerrara considers the balance between parental rights and the privacy rights of children, especially when it comes to gender preference. Should teachers be mandated to notify parents, or should they be barred from letting parents know what their kids say?
     
    Michael says no.
     
  • Ted McLaughlin at jobsanger has the polls. An overwhelming majority sees climate change as increasing natural disasters.
    That includes all demographics, age groups, and both major political groups.
     
  • Hackwhackers reports on a claim. Ukraine says its missile killed the commander of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, then on CNN says maybe after Russia produces undated videos of the commander alive.
     
    Key unverified:
    If true it would likely be the highest ranking naval officer killed in combat since WWII
     
    Personal note: I hate to cheer over a possible death. Like most humans (exception being the occasional Republican), I can’t help but cheer when a bully gets bloodied by a small intended victim.
     
    Still, I can manage a prayer for the alleged dead aggressor. A very small, miniscule prayer, to be sure.
    After all, I confess, I am but a tired old sinner.
     
  • Everyone should object, but I and other Christians should be especially provoked by this affront to Christianity by a Christian mob.
     
    A retreat for local artists includes an interfaith chapel for meditation. One painting includes a symbol often used for “Om”, a mantra often used in Hindu meditation.
     
    Scotties Playtime links, and reacts, to a small group of militant Christians barging in to chase everyone out.
     
  • North Carolina pastor John Pavlovitz is on solid scriptural ground, pointing out that conservative Republicans attacking the least of these are attacking Jesus.
     
  • In The Life and Times of Bruce Gerencser, one of my Christian brethren demands to know why, since Bruce has left the faith, he still cares about Christianity. As usual, Bruce has a good answer, one which we Christians should hear.
     
  • Infidel753 revisits a 2008 Bill Maher mockumentary of religions. Focus is on ordinary-believer-on-the-street interviews and unexamined details of mythology.
     
  • The Onion has the story as the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded to God for foundational work in developing all of creation.
     
  • Vincent at A Wayfarer’s Notes has the photos from his family home to show how people and places age over the decades. And that history makes them more interesting.
     
  • In Happiness Between Tails da-AL does some traveling and finds great things to say and show about Costa Rica.
     
  • @whiskeywhistle98 learns that Spanish is not always easy:
     
  • Michael John Scott explains the difference between getting older and getting old.
     
  • YellowDog Granny has a few graphically expressed (both meanings) thoughts on morning attitudes and Republicans.
     
  • SilverAppleQueen gets some help reconstructing her foot.
     
  • Mark Waulberg (No, not Mark Wahlberg, the other Mark) goes to unlikely hospital hijinks:
     

Podcasts from the past still hold up, in my humble opinion.
What do you think?
 

2 thoughts on “Trump Finance, Rage, Shutdown, Impeach, Tubervilled Military”

  1. I commend you on being open privately & publicly. If only more of us were like that, this would be a far better world.

Comments are closed.