A PATHETIC PRESENCE

Senator Mitch McConnell, the longtime top Senate Republican, said yesterday that he would give up his spot as the party’s leader following the November elections.

His decision was NOT a surprise.

McConnell suffered a serious fall last year and experienced some medical episodes where he momentarily froze in front of the media. He has also faced rising resistance within his ranks!!! for his push to provide continued military assistance to Ukraine as well as his close-to-the-vest leadership style.

And his toxic relationship with the Orange Despot, whom he blamed for the 1/6 attack on the Capitol – after orchestrating his acquittal in an impeachment trial on charges of inciting an insurrection – put him profoundly at odds!!! with the rest of his party.

The old Lobsterman is hoping he won’t be appearing on any postage stamps or quarters any time soon.

If McConnell were a patriot, he would have convicted Trump and saved the Republic. McConnell was/is weak . The best he can do is resign because he won’t endorse Trump – or will he?!!

History will NOT be kind to the level of incivility, obstruction, and destruction McConnell encouraged. A slick politician that bordered on amoral. He refused to stand for anything other than power!!!

DOWN-TO-WIRE…yet again

Biden will convene the top four congressional leaders at the White House today as lawmakers swiftly run out of time to strike a deal to avert another partial government shutdown.

Joey plans to discuss the urgency of legislation to keep federal funding going past midnight on Friday, as well as his requests for billions of dollars in aid for Ukraine and Israel.

The spending bill is being held up by demands from insane-right lawmakers [children of Trump] in the House, including measures to restrict abortion access, that many members will NOT support.

Re’Trump’licans have brought the government to the brink of a shutdown or a partial shutdown three times in the past six months!!! as they try to win more spending cuts and conservative policy conditions written into how federal money is spent.

With another pair of funding deadlines approaching at the end of this week and next week, lawmakers are now laboring to try to reach an agreement [machinations by a herd of hyenas] to fund the government for the rest of the fiscal year.

MORRISON WAS CORRECT

This is the end

Beautiful friend

This is the end

My only friend, the end

Of our elaborate plans, the end

Of everything that stands, the end

No safety or surprise, the end

I’ll never look into your eyes again…

h/t: The Doors.

REIGN OF CORRUPTION

A Manhattan jury ruled yesterday that the leaders of the National Rifle Association (NRA) had engaged in a yearslong pattern of financial misconduct and corruption.

The case, brought by New York’s attorney general, Letitia James, touched the uppermost echelons of the gun-rights group. In addition to the group’s former leader, Wayne LaPierre, the defendants included the group’s former treasurer, Wilson Phillips, and its general counsel, John Frazer, who still works for the group. The NRA itself was also a defendant, and was found to have ignored whistle-blower complaints and submitted false filings to the state.

Even if one just followed this these circumstances on its borders, the arguments made by the NRA in this case were nonsensical word salads.

Claiming the victim and abuse of trust [sound at ALL familiar?!!] when it’s the leadership was engaging in illegal activity; it’s the height of hypocrisy and entitlement. BOTH of which must be needed in large measure to keep a straight face while suggesting that arming teachers will make our schools safer.

What is this FIXATION with conservatives throwing $$$ at people who are obvious frauds?!! Trump, Lindell, NRA, Giuliani, RNC….?!!!!?

The old Lobsterman thinks he may have the answer: they enjoy being humiliated!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ACTION in the PALMETTO STATE

South Carolina is known as the palmetto [a tree] state.

One of the original 13 colonies.

Home of Francis Marion, aka The Swamp Fox, one of the great guerilla tactician of the American Revolutionary War.

Forty-seven minutes ago, polls opened in South Carolina, where voters will cast ballots in the state’s Republican contest, and where Donald John Trump is widely expected to notch another decisive victory on his path to securing the GOP nomination for president.

Most polls show Boy Orange trouncing former governor of the state, Nikki Haley, by more than 20 points.

Over the past ten days, social media posts have depicted Haley as Shiva, the deity of destruction. Others have used misleadingly fake technology [the latest weapon of world-wide politics/elections] to show her insulting voters. And, still others that direct vitriol at her son, a college student.

Although the prospect of supporting or voting for any Republican these days is an utter anathema to me, the old Lobsterman is tempted to donate $1 to Haley’s campaign just for the privilege of being forever banned from an audience with the Orange Despot or my presence in any of his hallowed dens.

If I could put this privilege into my lifetime resume for NOTHING more than a measly buck, I would consider my life to have been constructively purposeful.

THE ESSENCE OF A MESS

Washington – the US – is now perceived around Europe to have lost its will.

We have now turned the corner of the two-year anniversary of Russia‘s invasion of Ukraine,

The Europeans, in contrast, have the will having just committed another $54 billion to reconstruct the country.

But…

When it comes to repelling Russia’s revived offensive, they do NOT have the capacity.

Only a year ago, many predicted that Ukraine’s counteroffensive, bolstered by European tanks and missiles and American artillery and air defenses, could push the Russians back to where they were on February 24, 2022.

NOPE!

Severe lessons have emerged. Sanctions that were supposed to bring Russia’s economy to its knees have lost their sting. The International Monetary Fund’s prediction that the Russian economy would shrink considerably was only briefly true; with the huge stimulus of military spending, it is growing faster!!! than Germany’s. Income from oil exports is greater than it was before!!! the invasion.

At the core of the current strategic stalemate is the absence of any serious prospect!!! of a negotiated settlement.

As isolationism rises in a Re’Trump’lican-controlled Congress beholden to the Orange Manchild, deep pessimism sets in that Ukraine can hold out long enough to think about the long term.

IT’S ALL ABOUT THE TRIALS

The majority of Trump cult supporters do NOT read!!!

Their single focus: the words of their Cult Master – Donald John Trump.

The only way to restore the GOP as a legitimate political party [rather than a personality cult] is to prosecute and convict Trump and his co-conspirators and send the insurrectionists back to the fringes.

During his many years as a real estate developer and a television personality, then as a resident of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and as a dominant figure in the Republican Party, Trump demonstrated a character and temperament that render him utterly unfit!!! for high office.

Repeatedly, Boy Orange has put his ego and his personal needs above the interests of the, our, country. Now, as he campaigns again, his worst impulses remain as strong as ever – encouraging violence and lawlessness, exploiting fear and hate!!! for political gain, undermining the rule of law and the Constitution, applauding dictators – and are escalating as he tries to regain power.

Trump plots retribution, intent on eluding the institutional, legal and bureaucratic restraints that put limits on him [somewhat!] in his first term.

Trump confronts ALL Americans with a fateful choice: between the continuance of the US as a nation dedicated to “the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity” and a man who has proudly shown open disdain for the law! and the protections and ideals of the Constitution!!!

We’ll need to prove that, despite our differences, we can come together as Americans, a necessary first step to overcome the hate and division that feeds MAGA, fascism and open ignorance.

h/t: National Constitution Center.

BASELESS & MISLEADING

Donald John Trump – who faces 91 felony counts in four criminal cases, including one tied to his efforts to overturn the ’20 election – uses misleading and baseless characterizations [on a continuous basis] to support a larger theme of his campaign: that Joe Biden and Dems are severe threats to democracy.

Boy Orange, speaking at a Christian broadcast media convention in Nashville yesterday, wrapped such a depiction within a stark good-versus-evil framework, portraying his political opponents as part of a “wicked” system.

During Thursday’s speech at the National Religious Broadcasters convention, the Orange Despot revived his claim that America’s “greatest threat is not from the outside of our country” but “from within,” language that draws alarm from experts who see in it echoes of autocratic leaders. 

This turn inward has sounded new alarms among experts on autocracy who have long worried about the Orange Manchild‘s praise for foreign dictators and disdain for democratic ideals. They say Trump’s increasingly intensive focus on perceived internal enemies was a hallmark!!! of dangerous totalitarian leaders.

Wake up, America!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This illiterate, mean-spirited obese buffoon now poses an imminent threat to our democracy, something he has ALWAYS been bent on destroying since he descended that gilded escalator in 2015.

The insurrection, for which he was directly responsible and may go unpunished for, may very well serve as his first order of retribution to any who condemned him verbally or in any way instigated the lawful process to bring him to justice for his deliberate act to upend our democracy!!! in that first instance.

Now he is back again, RAGING this time more than ever, an abrasive, scalding voice spewing hate, threats and accusations toward anyone who sullied his ALREADY rotten demeanor and reputation. America as we once knew it, or thought we knew it, could very well be NO more.

Anyone who is newly shocked by, or concerned about, Trump’s use of name-calling to separate the world into two camps – my people and the enemy – has NOT been paying attention.

FATHER-IN-LAWs CAN BE RIGHT

Over the course of the first three years of my marriage, my late father-in-law and I agreed on ONLY 3 things:

• his oldest daughter was beautiful and brilliant;
• I would return from Vietnam;
• and, we BOTH loved rockets – he, working for NASA, meant those in outer space – while I was making reference to the then San Diego Rockets.

Early last night, a robotic lander, named Odysseus and just a bit bigger than a telephone booth, arrived in the south polar region of the moon at 6:23 pm ET.

Odysseus was the first US vehicle on the moon since Apollo 17 in 1972, the closing chapter in humanity’s astonishing achievement of sending people to the moon and bringing them ALL back alive…a feat that has NOT been repeated or even tried since.

But…

With the spacecraft’s ability to properly communicate still unclear, the celebration of clapping and high-fives in the mission control center was muted.

Later in the evening, the company, Intuitive Machines, the Houston-based company that built Odysseus reported more promising news.

“After troubleshooting communications, flight controllers have confirmed Odysseus is upright and starting to send data,” Intuitive Machines said in a statement. “Right now, we are working to downlink the first images from the lunar surface.”

As I fell asleep last night, I swear I heard the voice of my father-in-law whispering in my ear, “Hooray for human ingenuity!” He had constantly said that private industries would partner with the government as technology continued its march on advancement.

He would have been thoroughly amused that one of our most sophisticated technologies – lunar lander – gets repeatedly compared to a nearly extinct technology, the telephone booth.

By the way, Dad, your daughter is still beautiful and very, very brilliant.

LET’S HEAR THE TRUMPETS!!!

According to a new poll, Donald John Trump has now been labeled as the worst president that the United States has ever seen!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The third instalment of the Presidential Greatness Project, by University of Houston political science professor Brandon Rottinghaus and Coastal Carolina University political science professor Justin Vaughn, asked academics to rank each of the 45 people who have served as president ALL the way from George Washington to Biden.

Previous surveys were released in 2015 and 2018, with respondents this year asked to rank ALL those who have served time as president on a scale 0-100: with 0 being failure and 100 being great.

Trump ranked in the very last place, scoring just 10.9/100 – the same spot he occupied in the previous survey [he was NOT included in the first survey, which was conducted during Barack Obama’s presidency].

Boy, what a night’s sleep I’ll have…

Click to access presidential_greatness_white_paper_2024.pdf