Dead Bill Walking: Voting Rights Legislation Fails in Senate

It was a bad day for democracy.

The voting rights bill never had a chance. 

Trump Republicans were in lockstep, like zombies mindlessly and viciously overwhelming a school board.

Trump might as well have been sitting in a corner of the senate floor on a throne festooned with the spines of Republican senators.

A debate was held. Kinda. What really happened was a litany of fairytales pushed by Trump's Republicans who all were reading from the same seditious script. 

The Democrats kept pointing out reality. They appealed to their fellow senators by pointing out the days when they had spines and really wanted everyone to be able to vote.

Shame didn't work on the shameless. They hid their embarrassment behind the Big Lie - the only thing that matters now among the once party of conservatives.

The fact that Democrats brought up the vote - despite knowing it was a dead bill walking because of Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema's opposition - was an act of pure desperation.

The progressives in the party wanted to see something done about voting rights now. Not next year, or the year after. 

So, the show went on. As the hours labored away it was like watching a soap opera with each senator trying to give an award-winning speech that would melt the other sides opposition away like molten wax.

There was never a debate. The outcome was all but set in concrete. It was performance art spurred by political calculations on both sides. 

It was an example of the theatre of the absurd where the play focuses on what happens when human existence lacks meaning, or purpose and communications break down.

An effort to protect American's voting rights was squashed by a gaggle of gutless GOP senators who fear Trump more than anything in this world.

The whole thing was high drama performed by politicians who secretly pine to be movie stars.

A Modern-Day Pandora's Box is About to Open and There's Going to be Some Red Faces!

Before getting to the heart of this post I think it might be helpful to explain who Pandora was in Greek mythology.

She was the first human woman created by Hephaestus on the instructions of Zeus.

Basically, what happened is she opened a forbidden box (also described as a jar) releasing all the evils of humanity.

Ghislaine Maxwell who was Jeffrey Epstein's accomplice in sex trafficking with minors, has been convicted and faces up to 65 years in prison.

Up until just recently she has been protecting the identities of seven individuals named in the case.

Her attorney told the court Friday that, "After careful review of the detailed objections submitted by Non-Party Does 17, 53, 54, 55, 73, 93 and 151, we no longer have any objections to publicly naming them."

Oh boy! I wonder who those folks are?

Some of the names I've seen floating around are famous (or infamous). Donald J. Trump. Bill Clinton. Alan Dershowitz, and Prince Andrew. 

At the moment Prince Andrew finds himself being tried for having sex with a minor, as a civilian. Mom pulled all of his royal titles and gently pushed his lying ass out the door to the courts.

What do you want to bet Trump, Clinton, and Dershowitz will be named? Possible trouble lies ahead there.

Frankly, I'm not sure if it'll even faze Teflon Trump's popularity whose known for grabbing pussies anyway. 

But Billy, who still carries around his bad boy creds from his fling with Monica Lewinsky, may face a new round of sex accusations with minors.

As for Dershowitz, he's busy defending "Stop the Stealers" and other Trump minions. I expect he'll just lie and sue if he gets called in for fondling young girls.

As for the remaining "Does" there may be some surprises there yet.

Who knows? As a bonus, Maxwell may even try to cut off years of her sentence by testifying against some of the cretins I mentioned earlier.

What a Strange World We Live In: Here's Some examples

A New Zealand man who went to a local pool and later felt the sensation of blockage in his ear got the surprise of his life.

Not a good one either.

First, he tried some ear drops and went to sleep on the couch, but by the next day his ear was still blocked. So, he went to a doctor and the doc advised him to use a hairdryer to dry up the suspected water in there.

That didn't work.

The next day he went to see an ear, nose and throat specialist and was shocked to find out he had a live cockroach in his ear canal! It took the doctor five minutes to pull the insect out.

The whole encounter left him disgusted the man told a local reporter. He also mentioned a fumigator was coming to his house. (Source UPI)

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The world's largest' cast iron skillet was seen traveling down a Tennessee highway the other day.

The massive pan which measures 18 feet from handle to handle was heading for South Pittsburg Lodge Cast Iron store, the future home of the Lodge Cast Iron Museum. (Source UPI)

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Two men who tried to smuggle cocaine into Britain in cans disguised as baked beans and condensed coconut milk have been sentenced to a total of 15 years in prison, authorities say. (Source UPI)

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Talk about lucky! 

A Pennsylvania man won a $1 million prize from a scratch off lottery ticket -- marking his fourth major lottery jackpot since 1999. Mike Luciano, of Altoona, confirmed he scored a $1 million prize from a $20 scratch-off ticket Jan. 6.

It was the fourth time this guy went to the Pennsylvania Lottery Headquarters to collect cash! (Source UPI)

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That's all for today folks!

I Don't Think It's The End Times: But It Sure the Hell Feels That Way

Selected sentences from Ecclesiastes 31-8

"There is a time for everything,

 a time to be born and a time to die.

There is a time to be silent and to speak,

a time to love and a time to hate,

a time for war and a time for peace,

A time to tear down and a time to build."

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It feels like we're living in biblical times with plagues and rumors of war.

A worldwide pandemic has brought humanity to its knees and economies to the brink of destruction.

Russia and Korea are both spoiling for war as a weary world looks on silently.

The antichrist in the form of Trump is seeking to destroy democracy and spawn an era of kings and tyrants.

Truth faces daily attacks in media platforms that cater to the alt-right.

Americans haven't been this polarized since the Civil War, which by the way, has become a current topic for insurrectionists.

Fear and loathing stalk Congress and paralyze any meaningful legislation on a partisan basis.

Family members are turning against each other because of idiot ideologies spewing from right-wing lunatics bent on ripping society apart.

Our Constitution is on the line. The thus far successful experiment in democracy faces its greatest challenge to date.

The enemy within. The Trump cult is sabotaging freedoms with impunity. Despite being a minority in America, the Trumpies are still wielding a disproportionate amount of power.

In spite of everything mentioned here, and other unmentioned challenges in our lives, I don't think we're in The End Times. But it sure the hell feels like it!

Weenies of the Week Announced

Just so that we're on the same page, weenies come in multiple categories, but all have one thing in common...they're pathetic.

Let's start with Sen. Tommy Tuberville, a Trump acolyte. When it comes to attacking businesses in mainland China, he's made a name for himself as a vehement critic of them.

But, surprise surprise... Tuberville has been quietly investing in Alibaba which is a company based in Hangzhou, Zhejiang in the People's Republic of China.

He was outed this week thanks to CNBC's reporter Dan Mangan, who caught the double-dealing hypocrite making purchases as recent as last December.

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Probably the biggest weenie from last week is Ted Cruz. 

In a disgusting display of cowardice, he went on right-wing lunatic Tucker Carlson's show and apologized for - get this - referring to January 6 as a "violent terrorist attack," after his prior remarks about everyone involved in the assault was wrong.

"It was sloppy and frankly dumb," Cruz whimpered to Carlson. I only meant those who attacked police officers were terrorists, not the thousands of peaceful protestors supporting Trump.

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A true weenie since slithering into politics, Florida governor Ron DeSantis has plans to run for president in 2024 but won't outright declare his candidacy for fear of Trump's wrath.

Lately Trump has been pissed off by what he sees as a lack of fealty from his former protege. 

Trump wasn't happy with DeSantis's comments last week when he said one of the biggest mistakes, he made in office was listening to Trump about shutting the state down to slow the fast-spreading coronavirus.

But in all other subjects about Trump, DeSantis cravenly praises him and calls him the leader of the party.

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Shaming veterans everywhere, retired U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Daniel W. Prime was arrested for taking nude photos of his girlfriend's toddler-aged daughter.

The big weenie threatened to kill the federal agent investigating the case, according to the Daily Beast. He's in deep shit now.

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That's enough weenies for the day. I'll check back on them again in a future post. Have a great day!

The Flood Gates Have Opened: DOJ charges 11 individuals With 'Seditious Conspiracy' in Jan. 6 Assault on Capitol

Attorney General Merrick Garland has been under a ton of pressure to file substantial charges against the Jan. 6 rioters, and enablers, who attempted to overthrow the election results in 2020.

That pressure eased up a bit yesterday after the DOJ announced that 11 individuals were charged with seditious conspiracy to oppose the lawful transfer of presidential power by force.

Starting with the leader of the Oath Keepers, Stewart Rhodes, and other 10 members of the far-right militia, the DOJ sent a clear signal... the perpetrators of the assault on our democracy are going to pay the ultimate price.  

Garland opened the floodgates to others who may also be charged with obstruction of justice, citing their involvement in a seditious conspiracy. 

To be sure, the DOJ rarely uses the charge because it can be politically loaded and has been difficult to prove in the past.

So, this is a big deal. Garland must think he has a solid case.

This announcement comes amid the GOP's desperate efforts to downplay what happened on Jan. 6th. Trump and minions are in a full court press to erase history, or at the very least, re-write it.

It doesn't take too much imagination to see that Trump and his congressional cronies, along with right-wing lawyers and activists, tried their hardest to obstruct the certification of the legal votes.

It's the same thing the Oath Keepers did. But on a more massive scale.

We live in cataclysmic times where norms have shriveled up and it's a brave new world between the forces of tyranny and democracy. 

It Happens Too Often: Media Influencers Working with the Darkside

                        Fair warning.

Follow media influencers at your own risk. There's a dark side to those smiling faces recommending you buy the product they're shilling.

Who hasn't heard of Kim Kardashian? Or Floyd Mayweather one of the greatest boxers' pound-for-pound in history?

The Kardashian brand is well-known, and I presume somewhat trusted. That trust was violated, however. 

She's being sued over allegations that she misled investors when promoting a little-known cryptocurrency called EthereumMax.

A class action lawsuit filed last week in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California accuses EthereumMax and its celebrity promoters of working together to artificially inflate the price of the token by making "false or misleading statements" in social media posts.

Boxer Floyd Mayweather was another EthereumMax shill. He endorsed the token in his boxing match with YouTube star Logan Paul. EthereumMax was accepted as payments for tickets to the event, a move that the lawsuit against him claims boosted trading volumes sharply.

Investors call this kind of con a "pump and dump" scheme where scammers attempt to boost the price of an asset through false and misleading statements.

And get this.

It's not the first time these two celebrities have been in hot water for cryptocurrency endorsements.

Mayweather was charged by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commision with pumping an initial coin offering, a controversial crypto crowdfunding method in 2018.

He had to pay $600,000 in a settlement with the SEC but got away from admitting or denying the regulator's findings.

In September 2021, Charles Randell, chair of the U.K.'s Financial Conduct Authority, singled out Kim Kardashian's Instagram ad for EthereumMax in a speech warning of crypto scams.

If you take away anything from what you just read let it be exercising caution when listening to social media influencers.

There's a dark side to some of them many people aren't aware of.

Trump's Political Alternate Reality Rally Guaranteed to Be Entertaining

Make plans to attend now.

Trump has invited the who's-who of the far-right Big Lie promoters to a rally this Saturday and you just have to see it.

If you do go prepare to laugh your ass off because the lineup is better than a gaggle of demented comedians.  

Trump plays his usual maniac self. The event features a major QAnon supporter! Can you imagine? A full-fledged nutcase will set the table.

Sheep in red MAGA hats and sporting the latest in Trump attire, will descend upon the Arizona desert to cheer on Arizona State Sen. Mark Finchem, billed as the event's "special guest speaker."

He's special alright.

Trump has anointed him among other Republican challengers in the primary to see who the GOP's secretary of state candidate will be.

Finchem is an unabashed QAnon loonie who recently was a featured speaker at a QAnon conference in Las Vegas.

There's more entertainment.

The rally will also feature two of the most bad ass bitches in congress. That's right. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Lauren Boebert of Colorado.

You want to hear crazy? Those two females invented it. I don't know for sure, but they may pole dance with AR-15s. Just a rumor among the MAGA faithful mind you.

The fun doesn't end there, however.

Pillow Boy Mike Lindell will be there with reams of computer printouts proving Trump won the 2020 election.

Attendees can also expect to see Kelli Ward the Arizona chair for the GOP and ringleader of false audits signing autographs on allegedly missing ballots printed on rice paper.

Also expected to slither on stage is none other than batshit crazy, Rep. Paul Gosar, whose family hates him, but he doesn't care because he wants to be Trump's official ass wipe.

Gosar's fellow moron, Rep. Andy Biggs, will be hanging around backstage telling racist jokes while waiting to make an appearance alongside his master Trump. 

Finally, Kari Lake, a former Fox anchor who is running for governor, will challenge Boebert and Greene to compete in a screaming match.

Winner gets to go to Mar-a-Lago and dine on sumptuous McDonald's cheeseburgers while Trump recounts sexual episodes from his perverted past.

So, listen.

There's still plenty of time to change whatever plans you have this Saturday and head to Florence, Arizona for a day of guaranteed laughs and fun.

Here's Why Madison Cawthorn May Not Get Re-Elected in the Midterms

There's more than one way to stop Trump supporters from polluting our political system in future elections.

This brilliant tactic is the 14th Amendment.

The North Carolina State Board of Elections - which oversees the scrutiny of candidates' qualifications - received a letter from 11 voters yesterday challenging Madison Cawthorn's ability to re-run for Congress in the midterms.

The voters cited his participation in a rally last January in Washington that questioned the presidential election outcome and preceded the Capitol riot.

Cawthorn who formally filed as a candidate for the newly created 13th District seat last month, should be ineligible the voters contend because he fails to comply with an amendment in the Constitution ratified shortly after the Civil War.

That would be the aforementioned 14th Amendment which states, "No one can serve in Congress... to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same."

Guess what Cawthorn did? 

The written challenge says events on Jan. 6, 2021 "amounted to an insurrection" and that his speech at the rally supporting Trump, his other comments and information in published reports provide a "reasonable suspicion or belief" that he helped facilitate the insurrection (there's that word again). 

Meanwhile, the legal director, Ron Fein, of Free Speech for People, a national election and campaign finance reform group is backing the challenge. 

Fein told the Associated Press that Cawthorn is only the tip of the insurrectionist iceberg. The group intends to file against other members of Congress associated with the insurrection. 

The "leading national precedent" for such cases was created in 1869 by the North Carolina Supreme Court, which describes the meaning of "engage" when it comes to a disqualifying act of insurrection.

The challengers also asked the board to let them question Cawthorn under oath in a deposition before the regional panel convenes, and to subpoena him and others to obtain documents.

What I liked hearing was that state law says Cawthorn has the burden to "show by a preponderance of the evidence" that he's qualified to run.

It looks like one of Trump's congressional minions will be looking for a new line of work if the state disqualifies him.

As for other Trump candidates running in the midterms, they too may find they're not getting out of the gate to even compete next November.

Joe Manchin: A Two-Faced Man Who Became a God in the Political Universe

Two-faced Janus was an ancient Roman god with one face looking forward, and the other looking back.

Like Janus, Joe Manchin is a two-faced god in the Senate who claims to be a Democrat but caucuses too often with Republicans to believe him.

Unlike Janus whose job was to keep evil spirits out of homes, buildings, shrines, schools and wherever there was a doorway or gate, Manchin is all about closing doorways. Especially by threatening not to vote on key bills like supporting voting rights and Build Back Better bill.  

The Romans thought so much of old two-faced Janus they named the first month of the year January in his honor.

Manchin whose reveling in his temporary deity status is not interested in honor. No month of the year will ever bear his name. His place in history will be ensconced in the political hypocrite's hall of shame.

Like Icarus in Greek mythology who got too close to the sun, Manchin will eventually pay for his political duality someday.

The Alt-Right Fall Back: Become Catholic and You Can Still Be a Troll But Have God on Your Side

    Nicholas Fuentes' Groyper Army and "America First" 

The last year has been difficult for members of the alt right crowd as they got de-platformed and rounded up for being insurrectionists.

The hunt for traitors has extended into the halls of Congress, and the executive wing, according to the Jan. 6 Select Committee.

Like the white supremacist's movement to reframe their message, a couple of decades ago, Maga morons are trying to get legitimized by finding religion. You may be aware that many evangelicals already support Trump acolytes.

Not so commonly known is the fact that Stop the Steal founder Ali Alexander made a splashy announcement of his conversion to the Catholic Church only days before he helped direct a mob of protestors to the Capitol. 

Several months later, in mid-March, disgraced former Breitbart writer and alt-right star Milo Yiannopoulos told LifeSiteNews that joining the Catholic Church had helped him become "ex-gay."

He has been joined by a number of other far-right figures who have conspicuously intertwined their political advocacy with right-wing Catholicism, including Jack Posobiec, the Pizzagate promoter turned right-wing commentator, and Nicholas Fuentes, the youthful founder of the America First or "groyper" movement, who has built a massive online following. 

Watching the growing political polarization within the world's largest religious denomination, is damning evidence of the far right's efforts to infuse their actions with a spiritual purpose.

The far right is using Catholic imagery as an identity marker to give themselves a sense that what they do is blessed from above.

It's cynical and immoral. But it's happening. Now it's up to the mainstream Catholic Church to purge the political virus infecting their message of love and peace.

Deus vult.