To paraphrase Benny Thompson, the chairman of the January 6th hearings, “When you cast a vote, you expect it to be counted, and you expect candidates to respect the results. That is part of the deal.” Trump saw the 2020 elections not as part of the deal, but as the art of the steal. Now, after a long-delayed, complete audit of his culpability, his tax bill is coming due, so to speak.

Trump’s Christmas grift to his loyal followers are his NFT digital trading cards. There is not much more to say on this subject, which has been lampooned unmercifully. The art of the deal for Trump is to find P.T. Barnum’s suckers that seem to be born every minute. His MO is to separate his supporters from the rest of us, and then separate them from their money.

Trump’s tax records clearly show that his business acumen was limited to the selling of

his inherited assets, and grifting off of the Presidency. Trump’s DC property could have been called the Quid Pro Hotel. He bilked the taxpayers at his properties for exorbitant room rates for his Secret Service detail, which was also being paid for by the tax payers. Maybe his worst offenses involve his undocumented, charitable, cash contributions, which is ironic given his distaste for anything undocumented. Merry Griftmas!

December 15, 2022

Most decent Americans have celebrated the return of Brittney Griner in a prisoner swap for an international arms dealer. Knee-jerk Republicans have cried “What about Paul Whelan?” despite the fact that he was taken during the Trump administration, and Trump turned his back on a swap.

Now, Gov. Ron Dinsanity wants to launch an inquisition of the people who brought us the COVID vaccine because that is what is wrong with Florida. Maybe Ron the Con should propose a Trump for Fauci swap with the state of New York. He could extradict Trump to New York to face ongoing prosecutions, and clear the field for his 2024 Presidential aspirations. Then, he could detain Dr. Fauci to put him on trial for not killing three million more Americans.

Despite the Republican polls, Dinsanity has about as much currency as FTX and Sam Bankman-Fried, who is waiting extradition from the Bahamas. SBF is apparently guilty of fraud in the form of an old-fashioned Ponzi scheme. How retro? His promises of financial rewards were backed by bits and bobs, and not Bitcoins. Similarly, RD promises to fraudulently fight the culture wars only to back away when the lights are turned off. Hopefully, our only choice in 2024 will not be a trade of Trump for DiSantis.

December 12, 2022

As we were driving through the predominately Italian, Dyker Heights section of Brooklyn the other night, gawking at what has to be one of the largest neighborhood displays of Christmas lights in the country, I thought of Brooklyn’s own Dr. Anthony Fauci, and his farewell address in the New York Times. I also thought about the scurrilous attacks made on his reputation and the threats made on his life by criminally ignorant right wingers.

Dr. Fauci loyally served seven Presidents. He led us through a once in a century pandemic that left over a million people dead while dealing with a puerile President focused on UV light, hydroxychloroquine, Ivermectin, bleach, and his poll numbers. Right wing politicians all over the country used Dr. Fauci as a convenient punching bag and scapegoat. Almost as heinous were those who accused Dr. Fauci of profiting from the Chinese, conspiring with the Chinese to cover up the source of the COVID pandemic, and asserting that he was culpable somehow in six million deaths worldwide.

Dr. Fauci, a graduate of Holy Cross, arguably saved hundreds of thousands of lives. “We are living now in an era, I believe, where there is so much distortion of reality, conspiracy theory and untruths,” he said. Hopefully, in the spirit of Christmas, people will finally see the lights.

December 8, 2022

Democrats are ecstatic over Raphael Warnock’s win over Herschel Walker in the Georgia Senate race, giving them control of the Senate by a 51-49 margin. Warnock won with 51.4% of the vote. I am a little less sanguine because Herschel Walker inexplicably got 48.6% of the vote. In other words, almost half of the voters of Georgia voted for a seriously flawed candidate. Walker wasn’t a disgrace to his race. He was a disgrace to his gender. This should give Democrats pause. If one of the worst Senatorial candidates in history, a candidate who made Roy Moore look good, could do that well, what could a normal person have done?

Trump endorsed a clown car of candidates from all over the country, all of whom lost. If the Republicans ever get their act together, which is a whole other discussion, they could easily control all three branches of government. After all, they did win back control of the House, giving right wing nuts like MTG a platform for their lunacy. While I would like to think that the demographic tide is going out on Trumpism, the results seem to tell another story.

December 5, 2022

I was sitting in a bar in Florida, being forced to listen to the guy next me rant about Joe Biden and inflation. Apparently, Joe Biden’s pro-inflation agenda has been way more effective than I ever knew. It turns out that Biden has exported rampant inflation all over the world. Prices in Turkey are skyrocketing to their highest levels in decades. Inflation is running at double digit levels in England. Inflation in Russia is in the 12-13% range. Putin is presumably blaming it on President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act.

We need a Republican in the White House, who will jawbone inflation down by focusing on Hunter Biden, the LGBTQ+ community, Critical Race Theory, and abortion. Economists everywhere are waiting nervously to see what effect Republican tax cuts will have on dampening inflation. As far as I could tell, planes were at capacity, restaurants were full, and private clubs had long waiting lists of prospective members. I didn’t see anyone crying in their martinis about the price of their martinis. It seems that the people who are sitting on the nicest barstools and complaining the most about inflation are those that are the least affected.

December 2, 2022

It was 6:30AM, and I was trying to enjoy my free breakfast at a Florida Marriott, which is always difficult in the best of circumstances. Unfortunately for me, two Trumpists decided to have a conversation across the room, which was impossible to ignore. Thanks for sharing.

The louder of the two was a chiropractor pretending to be a doctor, virologist, and ethicist. He cited numerous people that took the vaccine, and now have long-term issues because of it. He believed in freedom of choice, and that it wasn’t any of the government’s business to get involved. He complained that children today have to take a hundred vaccine shots versus four or five when he was a child. Parents should be free to skip things like polio shots. He said that people don’t understand the havoc that vaccines wreak on the body. There was no mention of the more than 1,000,000 Americans, who died from COVID.

He said that Hershel Walker was a victim. You know how women are. They stalk these professional athletes just to get pregnant, and then get abortions. And, regarding Jerry Jones, who didn’t prevent black students from attending high school back in the day. He was a teenager. You know, kids being kids. He claimed to be a devout Christian, and proved it one day when he told a black man that we were all brothers. And his close was, “I am the least bigoted person you know.”

November 30, 2022

I am mystified by letter writers concerned about election integrity, which is code for their belief that the last election was rigged. The burden of proof is on the deniers to prove fraud. However, the work on proving there was no voter fraud has been done once again. A recent report stated that “state-level enforcement units have provided no indication of systemic problems.” The three states involved have Republican governors, yet 45% of Republicans are still in denial.

Some writers have suggested solutions like requiring voter ID’s, limiting voting to only US citizens, curtailing mail-in ballots, eliminating harvesting, auditing balloting machines, having equal numbers of observers from both parties, and having poll workers sign honesty pledges.

Voter ID’s clearly discriminate against poorer citizens. Federal elections are already restricted to US citizens. Voters clearly prefer mail in voting versus standing in long lines, and I trust the USPS. Ballot “harvesting” is regulated by the states. There was a case of fraud committed in North Carolina by Republicans. There is no evidence that balloting machines were reprogrammed by Dominion, Italians or Hugo Chavez. Election fraud by anyone in federal elections is already a crime.

As one election official said, “This is a solution looking for a problem.”

November 23, 2022

Now that the GOP has regained control of the House of Representatives, it can turn its attention to the serious business of developing an agenda and governing. What is up first? Hunter Biden’s laptop. Republicans want to know what’s on the laptop. I can save them a lot of time because I already know what’s on the laptop.

First, there is definitive proof that Hilary Clinton was behind the attacks at Benghazi. There is also evidence that she was actually in Libya at the time of the attacks. What was she doing there? It’s political malpractice that the Republicans couldn’t pin the blame on her despite countless hours of Congressional hearings at a cost of millions of dollars.

The laptop will show that Ukraine tried to swing the election to Hilary in 2016. The hundreds of contacts between the Trump campaign and the Russians was to solicit their help in stopping the Ukrainians. Rudy Giuliani was on to something before the FBI shut down his investigation. Trump was justified in withholding military assistance from Ukraine.

As it turns out, the Clintons really did kill Vince Foster, and the laptop will prove it. It will prove that Ted Cruz’ father killed Lee Harvey Oswald or JFK or both. It will prove that there was more than pizza in Pizzagate. There is an authenticated video of JFK, Jr. on the south of France. There are videos of Democrats drinking the blood of young children. I can’t remember if there is proof that the Yeti, the abominable snowman, and the Loch Ness monster actually exist. They won’t find the pee pee tape.

November 20, 2022

Tweedle-lee-dee-dee-dee, tweedle-lee-dee-dee

Tweedle-lee-dee-dee-dee, tweedle-lee-dee-dee

Tweedle-lee-dee-dee-dee, tweedle-lee-dee-dee

Tweet.tweet.tweet.tweet

He’s locked in his office all day long

Hiring and firing and doing what’s wrong

All the little turds on Jail Bird Street

Love to hear Elon go tweet tweet tweet

We’re mockin’ Elon.tweet.tweet.tweet

We’re mockin’ Elon, tweedle-lee-dee

Let’s dump on Elon

‘Cause he’s really gonna suck tonight

(Tweet, tweedle-lee-dee)

He is a nasty fellow, He’s on a spending spree

He’ll turn 40 billion into one or three

The rich, young fool, and the old orange crow

Flappin’ their gums yellin’ go Elon go

We’re mockin’ Elon.tweet.tweet.tweet

We’re mockin’ Elon. Tweet, tweedle-lee-dee

Let’s dump on Elon

‘Cause he’s really gonna suck tonight

…(Tweet, tweedle-lee-dee)

He let Donald Trump back into Twitter land

He’ll post his Nazi shit, isn’t he grand

Trump is crazy and bless his soul

He’ll be tweeting again just to be a troll

We’re mockin’ Elon.tweet.tweet.tweet

We’re mockin’ Elon. Tweet, tweedle-lee-dee

Let’s dump onElon

‘Cause he’s really gonna suck tonight

November 17, 2022

I visited the FDR Library in Hyde Park, NY the morning after Donald Trump declared his candidacy for the presidency…again. FDR actually declared his candidacy four times, and won each time. In his monologue, Trump once again claimed that he accomplished more than almost any President in history save for maybe Abraham Lincoln.

In the face of an economy that had expanded every year for the previous eight years, Trump succeeded in not screwing it up until COVID came along. In contrast, FDR had to deal with this thing called the Great Depression. FDR created programs for the poorest among us. Trump cut taxes for the wealthiest among us. Trump took over at a perilous time in our history when the world was at peace. FDR had to deal with this thing called WW II. FDR had to deal with homegrown Nazi sympathizers known as the America First movement. Trump encouraged Nazi sympathizers with his Make America Great Again movement. FDR had to deal with polio. Trump suffered from bone spurs. FDR had fireside chats. Trump had chopper talk.

It looks like Trump is only the third best President of all time, and not second, which is still an historic achievement.