It's About That Mugshot: Upcoming Poster of Trump Will Sell Out

Trump didn't have to get a mug shot while being booked and arraigned for numerous state felonies during his first indictment which was a major disappointment to me and millions of Americans.

When it comes to political collectibles a poster of Trump's booking mug shot will be the golden grail (or golden calf) of collecting memorabilia.

It won't just be posters that will feature his famous orange makeup while scowling for the camera.

The collectibles market is going to be swamped with Trump mug shots on glasses, coffee cups, t-shirts, hoodies, posters, stickers for vehicle bumpers and windows, toilet seat covers, women's handbags, and on and on.

McDonald's could have a new ad campaign connecting the original HamBurglar ads in the 1970s (where they had this clownish character wearing prison stripes and a black scarf with floppy hat who was constantly trying to steal -and failing - hamburgers for himself) to Trump's criminal mug shot with a backstory of how loves their burgers and how he ate them in the White House.

Using an updated clownish figure with an orange face and tiny hands in the new ad campaign would be perfect in this polarized society. 

Here's the thing.

Fulton County Sheriff Patrick Labat recently told the press "Unless somebody tells me differently, we are following our normal practices, and it doesn't matter your status, we'll have a mug shot ready for you."

Will Trump cronies somehow stop the mug shot from happening? It's a good question. The arraignment for Trump's attempt to overthrow Georgia's voters' choice is, Friday, August 25th.

As it stands, we'll find out then.

The Twilight Zone is Back with a Season About Treason

      Narrator: "You're traveling through another dimension, a dimension not of sight and sound but of mind."

I remember the first episode of The Twilight Zone on Oct. 2, 1959. I was nine years-old and instantly became a fan of the series where reality and imagination blended together.

The last episode was on June 19th, 1964. After five seasons of thought-provoking stories that often had a surprising twist or unexpected ending the show was canceled.

Meanwhile...

...back to 2023 where another season of the iconic sci-fi series is underway. It began on January 20th, 2017, when Trump became president, and is still ongoing.

This current season concentrates on Treasonous episodes in America starring our rogue former president and his MAGA cult.

The twists and turns of each episode are enough to keep the entire country watching treason unfold as Trump tried to overthrow the 2020 election and is currently seeking a repeat in 2024.

As hostages to the weekly chaos, madness, and attempts to destroy democracy, the American people are confused, angry, and scared. Each episode gets stranger and poses dangers to our republic.

Past snippets from early episodes:

Episode 9 - Trump gives American Carnage speech at his inauguration foreshadowing future events.

Episode 10 - Hundreds of thousands of protestors gathered in D.C. and other cities for the Women's March on Washington (the day after Trump's was sworn in), one of the largest single-day protests in history.

Episode 14 - Watch as Trump breaks all norms about presidential behavior, ranging from feuding with a military widow to reducing the size of a national monument. 

Episode 17 - In a bizarre scene Trump is hosting TIME correspondents at a private dinner in the White House. He gets two scoops on his ice cream cone, while everyone else got one. Note: it became a viral meme.

Episode 22 - Trump huddles up with the Russian Foreign Minister to the U.S. in the Oval Office and reveals highly classified information, calling Comey "a real nut job" and criticizing the FBI investigation over his involvement with Russians during his presidential campaign.

Episode 31 - In an eerie sequence we see Trump and wife Melania, Saudi Arabia's King Salmann bin Abdulaziz al-Saud and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi with their hands on a mysterious illuminated globe. Viewers are left wondering what kind of evil they are planning. 

Episode 38 - In a stunning revelation of clueless meanness we see Trump touring an emergency shelter in Houston for people displaced by Hurricane Harvey and tells reporters he sees a "lot of happiness" and tells everyone there "to have a good time."

Episode 45 - Americans are shocked to see how dumb Trump is when he's spotted staring at the sun during the solar eclipse without wearing protective viewing glasses. An aide is heard shouting "Don't look!"

The above snippets were from his first year in office. If you watch the next three years episodes, you'll see how Trump grew even crazier and more dangerous. By the time he lost the 2020 election he went full loon on his numerous attacks against reality, facts, and evidence.

Then defying all reality (like a good Twilight Zone story should) Trump claimed the election was stolen and led a coup attempt against our government and constitution that has polarized the nation up until today.

As it stands, if you feel like you're in The Twilight Zone... you just may be! 

Anti-Press Rhetoric Leads to an Unconstitutional Raid on a 154-Year-old Newspaper

According to The Press Freedom Tracker there's been 55 incidents targeting journalists' First Amendment-protected activities thus far this year.

(Photo: A raid on this small-town newspaper - The Marion County Record - has enraged free press advocates nationally)   

Make that 56 after a small-town police force in Kansas raided the office of a local newspaper and the home of its publisher!

The entire five-member police department seized computers, cell phones and other reporting materials effectively shutting down the operation of an historic newspaper founded in 1869.

The Marion County Record's 98-year-old co-owner was apparently so overwhelmed by the incident that she collapsed and died the following day according to Publisher Eric Meyer.

What prompted the gestapo-like raid?

Two things.

* The newspaper was actively investigating Gideon Cody, Marion's chief of police, following allegations that he retired from a previous job to avoid punishment over accusations of sexual misconduct.  

* The raid came after a complaint by a local restaurant owner named Keri Newell. She was upset with the newspaper's reporting that she kicked out reporters from a recent event at her establishment with Republican Congressman Jake LaTurner. 

She also found out that the publisher had unearthed her past DUI violation looking through government records. It's important to note Meyer chose not to do a story about it.

Meanwhile a Marion County District Court Magistrate Judge Laura Viar signed a two-page warrant that allowed the police to take anything "pertaining to Keri Newell." 

During the raid Chief Cody reportedly dislocated one reporter's finger after snatching her phone from her hand. Officers also reportedly photographed personal financial statements and seized personal items - including a smart speaker used by the newspapers 98-year-old co-owner Joan Meyer to ask for assistance.

Adding to the unconstitutionality of the raid was the fact that NO probable cause warrant was filed with the court. That's flat out against the law.

The Good News

With the help of other newspapers (even their competition) and free press groups across the country The Marion County Record was able to meet their deadline for their next publication because of the donations of computers, servers, and other equipment.

The newspaper is expected to file a federal lawsuit.

As it stands, anti-press rhetoric has become too pervasive in America thanks to the former twice impeached president who has been criminally indicted with 70 felonies (with more on the way) "fake news" mantra.

How Free and Safe Are You in Today's Society?

        Determining what rights/freedoms 

...you still have in America today depends upon several factors.

* Where you live

If you live in a red state - as opposed to a blue one - your rights are getting trampled by extreme conservatives who don't believe a woman has the right to her own body and should meekly accept their twisted ideology.

If you live in a blue state, a woman has more rights to her body and health care options.

If you live in a red state, it's more likely that radical groups are banning books in schools and libraries.

If you live in a blue state, the chance of book bans in schools and libraries is considerably less and generally only in certain rural counties. 

If you live in a red state, your children are more likely to be indoctrinated in a fact free version of history. Take Florida as a prime example.

If you live in a blue state, your children are more likely to get an education based upon factual history. Again, there's exceptions in some counties in some states.

* Who You Are

If you're a Caucasian, then you have more civil rights than other ethnic groups in America.

If you're Black or Brown, it's another story. Look at national police reports in every state and you'll find that more blacks are charged for crimes than Hispanics (they're 2nd) and of course Caucasians.

If you're religious, you could be targeted and murdered for your beliefs. Jews in particular are constantly suffering from attacks by deranged white nationalists across the country.

If you identify with the LGBTQ community, you're being marginalized by MAGA Republicans. You are also a moving target for hate groups no matter where you go. Trans rights are being stripped away daily in state courts.

* How Much Money & Power You Have

Too many freedoms in this country only apply if you're rich and have political power. The elite. The entitled. Politicians who make decisions to benefit themselves and not for the people they're supposed to serve.

We've become a caste society much like India. The haves and have nots with a sprinkling in-between of a frail middle class. 

As it stands, how free and safe are you?

This FBI Whistleblower Has Evidence the FBI Was Protecting Trump and Cronies Since 2016

Lately the GOP majority House has been providing whistleblowers for MAGA conspiracies that are just red meat for Trump's cult.

(Photo: FBI NY Supervisor Charles McGonigal whose been indicted on 2 felony counts.)

Remember when the chair for the House Oversight and Accountability Committee James Comey boasted he had 3 whistleblower FBI agents that were going to expose the Biden crime family?

He went on social media just before the House met with the alleged whistleblowers and told the right-wing media machine that the Bidens were going down after the hearing.

Of course, that's not what happened.

What happened was the Democrats on the panel shredded their stories and afterwards we found out that two of the supposedly whistleblowers were just disgruntled ex-FBI agents who had been fired for inadequacies on the job.

The third whistleblower turned out to be a foreign agent for China and an international arms dealer who has been charged with felonies.

Since then, the Democrats had an active FBI agent whistleblower testify in a Senate hearing that he was blocked from investigating Trump, anyone in the White House, and Trump associates.

Keep in mind that before this whistleblower there was amble evidence of individual FBI agents with pro-Trump sympathies. 

The agent's boss at the New York FBI Field Headquarters was the one who took issue with his reporting and took retaliatory measures to shut him up.

That supervisor's name is Charles McGonigal, the now indicted former head of FBI counterintelligence in New York. 

He's facing two federal indictments. One for lying to the FBI on his official paperwork and illicitly taking money to work for Oleg Deripaska, a sanctioned Russian oligarch.

Interesting isn't it how Russians keep popping up in collusion with Trump and his supporters?

Back to our still unnamed whistleblower, he stated that he was called to the carpet to discuss "performance issues" and concerns and was given suggestions on how to improve in an August 2022 meeting. Prior to that he had excellent job reviews throughout his career.

In that meeting he received directions including a strict prohibition on filing intelligence reports relating to Rudy Giuliani or any other Trump associate.

The agent after years of being frustrated in his efforts into investigating political wrongdoing in Trump's circle filed an internal complaint under the Whistleblower Protection Act.

In it he alleged "Numerous acts of intelligence suppression of my reporting related to foreign influence and the Capitol riots, retaliatory acts, and defamation of character."

So far, the FRBI's national press office has declined to comment.

Legal pundits have accused the Biden Administration of not quickly taking legal action after the Jan.6 coup attempt. Instead, it took two years of Biden's presidency to finally act upon information that has been in FBI files since 2016. Was it the FBI's fault?

With the next election just around the corner Trump's been collecting felony charges in numerous cases.

The question is how complicit is the whole FBI in suppressing information under Trump appointed Christopher Wray, the director? What did Wray know a long time ago? What does he know now?

As it stands, I'm wondering why no House committees have brought up this whistleblower's allegations. Could it be that the truth hurts?

Even Goebbels Would Blush at Florida's New School Program for Children

Fascism rears its ugly head once again in Florida as the DeSantis administration approved a climate crisis denial curriculum for children from kindergarten to 5th grade.

Installing pure propaganda into children's education was the brainchild of one of the most infamous Nazis, Josep Goebbels minister of propaganda in Germany during WW II.

In an absolute reverse of reality children in Florida will be watching videos that compare climate activists to Nazis!

They're going to be taught that solar and wind energy is environmentally ruinous, and that current global heating is part of natural long-term cycles.

In other words... lies, misinformation, and blatant propaganda promoting extreme conservative views will be the new norm in Florida's school systems. 

How did this happen?

There's an extreme national conservative group called the Prager University Foundation which produces materials on science, history, gender and other topics that distort truth.

Experts who have studied the videos and other PragerU output have warned that many of Florida's 3 million public school children will be at risk of being exposed to rightwing indoctrination that conforms to the worldview of the organization's funders.

It's propaganda 101.

Equating people concerned about climate change with Nazis can have long-term impact on young impressionable people. 

Let's get something straight here. Prager is NOT an academic institution and does not confer degrees. Prager is a right-wing millionaire who promotes an authoritarian agenda.

The group is funded by two brothers who are notorious climate deniers, Dan and Farris Wilks, who happen to be petroleum industry businessmen. No bias there eh?

This is the first time these videos have infected a school system in America, and it won't be the last if this nefarious group has its way.

According to Jill Simonian, director of outreach at PragerUKids, the youth arm of the organization, "More states will follow Florida. I'm applauding. This is a step in the right direction."

It's a step in the wrong direction if you believe in democracy, science, and the truth.

You know why this was possible in Florida?

Gov. Ron DeSantis is infamous for his denial of climate change, calling it "leftwing stuff." He's also full MAGA and willing to subvert democracy at every turn.

Michael Mann, a climate scientist at the University of Pennsylvania, said "that the irony in the decision by DeSantis' administration to allow the videos "is that this gambit would make Goebbels himself blush."

"For we have a politician who regularly trades in antisemitic and racist, misogynistic and homophobic tropes promoting agenda-driven disinformation into actual science to further the agenda of the fossil fuel interests funding him and his party," Mann explained. 

What use to be the Republican party is now a nest of power-hungry cretins who have embraced fascism openly and are attacking our democracy at every turn. Everything from slavery was good to denying science is part of Prager's un-American agenda.

Now it's up to the parents in Florida to fight back against this propaganda curriculum being shoved down their children's throats. 

If they care about telling the truth about our planet and many other subjects being perverted to promote fascism, they need to organizer and protest. Their children are the Guina pigs for a new wave of authoritarianism that's trying to sweep the country.

As it stands, I hope the rest of the states are watching what's happening in Florida because fascism in their school systems will be the next step in this insidious plot.

Apocalypse Now: This is NOT a Movie - it's Real

     Watching Hawaii's Big Island and Maui engulfed in raging wildfires this morning I couldn't help thinking about Revelations in the bible which predicted the end of times for mankind.

The deadly effects of the climate crisis we're facing worldwide right now are of biblical proportions. 

In America wildfires and floods are affecting people's lives in all 50 states. State emergencies, due to bad weather, are commonplace these days.

Let me be clear. I'm not a bible-thumping Christian telling people that it's time to repent and tithe at church.

I think about my eldest son and his partner who live in Vermont facing flooding not seen for a thousand years in that area.

I watch the record-breaking heat smothering the West and Southwest and how it's affecting crops, animals, and human lives with a growing horror and realization this is our new norm on planet earth.

It's only going to get worse.

The major cause of this plague on earth is not God's fault. It's the fault of billionaire fossil fuel CEOs amassing wealth while continuing to spew deadly carbons into our atmosphere.

Governments worldwide are unable to take meaningful mitigation efforts because corrupt politicians block climate legislation on behalf of their wealthy donors.

To my dismay I watch giant glaciers melting and causing sea levels to rise every day on the news. Areas in some of the oceans are heating up and killing the inhabitants from fish to coral reefs. The waters off Florida are like a hot tub with temperatures hovering at 100 degrees.

Wars, like the one between Russia and Ukraine, and rumors of war are rampant worldwide.

It's just a coincidence that Revelations talks about plagues, and we have places like Florida leading the country in leprosy and malaria - both of which were eliminated in the country... until recently.

Florida's real plague is its governor, the not so honorable Ron DeSantis. His attacks against science and wokism have turned the state into a bastion of idiots who go out of their way to avoid reality.

Weather forecasters have been covering Hurricane Dora's devasting effects on Hawaii's Big Island and Maui all day. The most recent report suggested the high winds were moving westward.

To where? No one knows. Just like no one knows when the area they live in will be hit with a catastrophic act of nature/mankind.

As it stands, it really hurts my heart knowing my children, grandchildren and great grandchildren don't have a future to look forward to.

Knowing When it's Time to Move On

Since my father passed away on August 4th, I've been grieving. 

Moving around in a surrealistic state of past and present memories.

Now, I'm ready to move on. It's what Dad would have wanted. He never let life's challenges take him down. He always moved on right up to until he was 95 years old.

It's not easy. I've had other tragedies in my life and managed to move on from them. 

There was never a certain timeline. Like a day, week, month, or a year to recover.

There are no rules for how to move on. It was a gut check thing and a desire to make my remaining days a masterpiece (as my good friend, author and newspaper columnist Woody Woodburn would say).

Moving on can be extremely challenging. When my best friend in Vietnam and I were in Cambodia we were ambushed by a sniper(s) whose shots riddled his body mere feet away from me. I physically survived but mentally part of me died. 

I was 19 years old. It took years before my PTSD was recognized and I went to a VA hospital in house program for other combat vets like me. I was able to move on after years of therapy, but I confess to a certain melancholy that hasn't gone away.

Moving on from bad things that happen to us is a built-in survival instinct. It's stronger in some of us than others.

Other reasons for moving on...

- When your spouse/lover constantly cheats on you.

- When your gut is roiling from spicy foods it's probably a good reason to move on to milder meals

- When you have a relative who is a MAGA minion it's best not to talk politics with them during family gatherings. Just move on to other subjects.

As it stands, time moves relentlessly on for all of us.

Blog Break - My Father Died Today

My father, Richard Wayne Stancliff, grudgingly passed away today. He was 95 years old and fought to the end.

Born in Cleveland, Ohio, he went out on the Great Lakes at 15-years old as a coal tender and was a Marine during WWII.

My grief is deep, and it'll take me awhile to stop mourning my hero. My Dad.

Right now, I'm taking it day-by-day.

Speculation Journalism is a Waste of Your Time

The health of good journalism in this country has been declining for years. 

The process has been sped up since Trump's emergence into politics.

Americans are at a place where they don't know what's true and what's not in the news. Credibility is strained when publications like the New York Post report lies and lurid stories speculating on conspiracies.

The stories I find the most offensive offer speculations based on lies and misinformation. "Is Big Foot bathing in your pool at night while you're sleeping?"

Speculative or opinion?

"The thrice-indicted, twice-impeached, once defeated, politically toxic Republican standard-bearer has a real shot at the presidency," according to Rich Lowry for Politico magazine.

Really? 

The writer came up with all of these terrible scenarios for what? What was the purpose? To scare readers? Titillate them perhaps? To take advantage of peoples fear that Trump will return to The White House?

Speculation journalism is a low form of communicating in my opinion. The only research being done by this type of writing is being conducted in an alternative universe with dubious sources.

Considered by some as a narrative technique, speculation journalism is said to help audiences think about the future in more concrete terms. But critics question if integrating fiction into journalism is responsible.

Caution. There is a difference between speculation and opinion. The line between them can be thin.

From Quality Journalism to Speculative Journalism - by Josep Lluis Gomez Mompart

The author explains, "Even though the new generations of journalists are better trained and more prepared by studying specifically at universities, they are finding fewer and fewer veterans in newspaper offices.

Veterans can guide the newcomers in critical, rigorous and important journalism, showing themselves to be a model of conduct, with high professional standards and independent, not servile, attitudes towards the public and private powers."

Without the guidance of veterans, our quality of journalism has been withering away. It's only one critical component in the deterioration of the profession, but a vital one. 

The serious newspapers have been dumbing down to produce a sort of journalism that trivializes reality. The result? Tabloidism and sensationalism have become the cancer of the modern press.

As it stands, the spread of the digital press via Internet doubles down on speculation, rumors, and misinformation. Viewer beware.

Playing Solitaire in a Tempest

The game of solitaire originated in the late 1700s and was also called Patience.

I like that... Patience. A game of patience. I would also submit that playing solitaire is a calming activity.

As a matter of fact, solitaire can be so riveting that you ignore the tempest being waged outside (or in some cases inside) your home.

The political storms waged daily have a numbing effect on your mojo. Playing a game of Klondike (the most popular solitaire variation today) challenges your mind while passing the time.

To keep your interest solitaire offers a variety of games to play. There's Mahjong solitaire, Peg solitaire, Klondike, Spider, Yukon and FreeCell.

It doesn't stop there.

Decks Solitaire offers up hundreds of variations of the game.

Let's go back to the original name of the game... Patience. It takes patience to play any of the variations. You have to be diligent and creative to win.

Read, Much More Than a Diversion: The Mathematics of Solitaire via BBVA OpenMind.

More advantages to playing.

For one, there's never any arguments (unless of course you have multiple personalities).

It keeps you away from social media and the lies and misinformation that spew into the national discourse like toxic chemicals through the suburbs and rural America.

You can listen to music as you cruise along in a game of OpenCell or Klondike.

As it stands, playing solitaire is only a diversion and it won't solve your problems, but it's a nice break from reality now and then.