Trump for Sale

March 06, 2024 By: El Jefe Category: 2024 Election, Insurrection, Russians, SCOTUS, Trump

At long last, the fake gold plated billionaire facade is falling down around TFG’s ears.  Longstanding watchers have known that he’s always been full of hot air, not money, and had it not been for Fred Trump’s fortune and Russian money, TFG would have fallen by the wayside years ago.  Because they are well known, I won’t list all of his failures, but he’s lost banks and investors billions over the years, has been a pariah in New York for 40 years and only pulled himself from the brink with a successful “reality” television show and selling real estate to Russian oligarchs.

He used the presidency of the US as a cash cow, raking in millions at his hotel in a US government owned building in DC , overcharging government agencies for hotel charges, and making millions from foreign countries who laundered money through his resorts and buildings.  All of that, though, didn’t actually build any long term wealth for TFG because he really only owns a fraction of his properties with investors and massive debt.  Because of his terrible reputation and disastrous presidency, even his licensing deals have dried up.  Even with all that foreign money, his resorts lose millions every year and the musical chairs game is coming to an end.  He now owes massive financial penalties for sexual assault, massive financial fraud, and defamation that he’s still committing, and the tab is now well over half a billion dollars.  He’s admitted in official court papers that he doesn’t have the money to pay.

So, TFG is for sale. The purchase price is only reachable by the billionaire class consisting of guys like Musk, Bezos, and a handful of others, and on Sunday he met with Musk in Palm Beach.  Even after his $44 billion fiasco with Twitter, Musk is still estimated to be worth over $200 billion, and Bezos is more.  I’m not convinced that Musk is buying because much of his fortune is in SpaceX and Tesla stock, but there’s also this other little detail that SpaceX is significantly dependent on the US government for a good chunk of its revenue even though they don’t disclose the amounts.  So, if Musk purchases TFG and he loses the election, he would be hundreds of millions in the hole and have a pissed off Biden to deal with.  I don’t believe Bezos is a buyer.  It’s just not his style.  So, what if a Russian oligarch purchases him?  There’s not a lot we can do, especially since the Thomas Trump SCOTUS has pretty much unwound any meaningful campaign finance laws.  As well, it’s unclear if there are any state or federal requirements for Trump to disclose where he got the money to pay off his debts except for IRS regulations and if he’s president, that doesn’t mean anything.

So picture this – there’s a really good chance that we could have a president that has been bought and paid for by an oligarch who will remain unidentified; the DOJ will quickly drop all federal charges against him.  That leaves the NY hush money case and the Georgia RICO case which Fani Willis has almost singlehandedly fucked up for all of us with her love life. On the same day of his inauguration, he’ll immediately begin disassembling the US government as we know it through Project 2025 and re-forming it for his own benefit which includes consolidating power to the Oval Office and turning the DOJ into a weapon to prosecute political enemies like Joe Biden, Alvin Bragg, Fani Willis, and may others.

How’s that picture look?  So, sleep well tonight, dear readers, as the rest of 2024 could be the end of the US as we know it if Americans don’t get off their ass and take responsibility for themselves.

SCOTUS Rewrites the Constitution to Protect Trump

March 04, 2024 By: El Jefe Category: 2024 Election, Insurrection, Trump

As expected, the SCOTUS ruled that individual states cannot keep an insurrectionist off their own state ballot.  The opinion was unanimous.  But what isn’t talked about as much in the media is what the majority did next, which was writing in a new constitutional provision specifically designed to protect none other than the subject of the ruling, TFG.  Even though the opinion was unanimous, it was unanimous only in saying the states can’t ban insurrectionists from the ballot.  The four women justices disagreed when the Trump Wing of SCOTUS went far beyond the question before the Court, adding a new requirement that a candidate can only be blocked under the 14th Amendment by FEDERAL LEGISLATION, which, in the current environment, is impossible.  It doesn’t impose that same rule on other provisions of the 14th Amendment such as the two term limit, just the insurrectionist provision.  So the Trump Wing of SCOTUS actually wrote in a new Constitutional requirement to disqualify an insurrectionist.  This is called legislating from the bench. And again, done so in the service of TFG to help him take over the US government in January 2025.

The Trump Wing of the SCOTUS often hides behind federal legislation in its opinions to help their own political party.  One glaring example of this is when they declined to stop clearly unconstitutional state gerrymandering  that has permanently disenfranchise millions of voters like those of us in Texas where Dems have to win 58% of votes in districts statewide to have a chance of taking a majority of Congressional seats.  SCOTUS says it’s not its job to protect from that, so disenfranchised voters have no recourse for justice.

So the SCOTUS continues to run interference for TFG, helping him run out the clock to the election in November.  Oh, and by the by, Clarence Thomas once again didn’t recuse in a case where he is clearly conflicted.

Your welcome.

The Open Sewer that is Now the Supreme Court

March 01, 2024 By: El Jefe Category: Corruption, SCOTUS, Uncategorized

Let’s just say it right up front – the current majority of the Supreme Court doesn’t give a flying fuck about the Constitution, the Rule of Law or you.  Given opportunity after opportunity to be the last line defense of The People against a continuous onslaught on the rule of law and common decency the Court has failed miserably time after time.  John Roberts has presided over the biggest abortion (no pun intended) of jurisprudence in US history, and appears to have lost what little control he had over what can now only be termed the Trump-Thomas Court of Law by and for the Highest Bidder, bought and paid for by Leonard Leo and the billionaire class.

Over the last two decades the Court has unraveled decades (sometimes centuries) of well established constitutional precedent, ruling that money equals speech (for billionaires and corporations), money doesn’t corrupt, gun safety laws are inconvenient to criminals and gun manufacturers, the EPA is a waste of time, political gerrymandering that destroyed state and federal legislatures is OK, unions that protect workers’ rights are tiring for corporations, separation of church and state is a quaint concept, state funding of religious schools is fine, public health policy to protect the health of the nation is unconstitutional, law enforcement can’t be held accountable for abusing the rights of the accused or wrongly convicted, access to reasonable healthcare is not a right, and state funding of campaign to counter billionaires’ money is illegal.  Added to this long list of disasters are the most damaging rulings, which were the gutting of the Voting Rights act and the reversal of Roe v. Wade, which is the first time in United States History that a personal right was taken away.  As I write this, the Trump-Thomas Court is now actually considering reversing the long established principal that US agencies can implement US law (Chevron Rule) and if a bump stock, which turns a rifle into a machine gun actually turns a rifle into a machine gun.  During oral argument Alito remarkably mused that bump stocks should be allowed so people with arthritis can easily fire off 400 rounds a minute.  Finally, Alito and Thomas have already sent the signal that marriage equality and contraception are on the chopping block as abhorrent as that idea is.

On top of all that, the Court is now actively helping TFG avoid prosecution by slow walking his ridiculous claim that a US president has absolute immunity from any criminal prosecution, even for murder.  So get this – in December, US Attorney Jack Smith, so he can get the election interference trial before the People before the next election, begged the Court to hear TFG’s claim that he has absolute immunity .  Oh, NO, says the Court, being all law and order, let it go through the appeals process first.  OK, so Smith does that and the DC Circuit quickly handed down a unanimous ruling that Trump’s claim is nonsense with an opinionthat legal experts say was “masterful”.  Of course, TFG then appeals to the Court, and then, after sitting on it for 16 days, decides that oh, we want to hear the case anyway, even thought there are no legal issues left undecided, pushing their hearing off to late April.  In other words, the Trump-Thomas Court is actively running cover for TFG to get him through the election for the highest office in the land without going to trial for trying to overthrow the US government.  If TFG is elected, it’s then game over for all the federal cases including the one for election interference and the stolen classified documents case.  It’s not just likely, but damn certain that the Court will then step in again and stay the state court cases against him until they carry him feet first out of the White House (whenever that happens) since he’ll never voluntarily leave office if ever handed it again.

And there you have it.  The United States Supreme Court, which is supposed to be the last line of defense against corruption, criminals, bad law, insurrection, and the stripping of constitutional rights is doing just the opposite, throwing The People to TFG and his goons.  And they’re doing it while failing to police themselves against blatant corruption.  As Steven Colbert put it last night, for the election case hearing, Thomas will put his tip jar out for that one. And Sam will be whining about how unfair Americans are toward him.  I mean, he’s just doing his job taking away rights and pandering to religious zealots and gun nuts, right?

 

What Finally Tipped the Scales?

May 26, 2023 By: El Jefe Category: Abbott, Corruption, Criminal, Impeachment, Paxton

After yesterday’s news that Ken Paxton has been referred to the full Texas House for impeachment, my only question was, which crime was finally bad enough to finally tip the scales of justice against him?  Did Republicans finally awake from an 8 year coma?  Did they finally turn on the news?  Identifying crimes and conduct that have been obvious to normal Texans for years, the House General Investigating Committee filed 20 articles of impeachment against Paxton listing crimes and corrupt conduct such as bribery, misuse of funds, abusing employees, using the power of his office to help a friend in a private lawsuit, lying on the record, and dereliction of duty, among other acts not generally associated with a state’s top law enforcement officer.  Paxton’s defense?  It’s rich – you can’t impeach me for any crimes I committed BEFORE the last election.  His argument is that each election washes away any prior misdeeds from previous terms.  This  claim not the only issue, though.

Paxton has been under felony indictment for securities fraud, among other crimes, FOR EIGHT YEARS.  He has successfully buried that case for that extended period after the legislature passed a 2015 law at Abbott’s urging to dismantle the Public Integrity Unit run by the Travis County DA and move cases against statewide officials to the Texas Rangers and local prosecutors in officials’ home jurisdictions.  Paxton’s felony case was moved from Austin to Collin County and was buried and remains bogged down to this day.  In fact, since that law was enacted, prosecutions of state officials have virtually disappeared.  90% of investigations result in no charges, and the people who are charged are generally low level employees.  This is not a flaw in the law – it’s a feature; the legislature and Abbott successfully blunted the only tool Texas had to prosecute corruption by taking away the only independent watchdog in the state.  Paxton’s unchecked corruption and criminality is the logical (and obvious) result of dismantling the existing justice system.  And it’s not just Paxton – high level officials in Austin can pretty much do what they want as long as their local DAs protect them, and that is exactly what’s happening.

What kicked off this entire episode this session was a request by Paxton that WE, the taxpayers, pay $3.3 million to settle one of the lawsuits against him that had been filed by his former employees for abuse and retaliation.  House speaker Dade Phelan had opposed the payment and the investigation into this settlement was begun.  That investigation then turned into an impeachment inquiry as the evidence against Paxton became so mountainous that not even Republicans could ignore it.

So the question is, which crime tipped the scales of justice?  Was it one crime, or did the collective weight of them all finally do the deed?  In my view, any of these well known crimes should have resulted in Paxton’s removal and jailing years ago.  That it hasn’t happened is a direct result of Republican corruption and the Texas Rangers looking the other way while local prosecutors selectively charged other low level officials.

I’ve believed since Rick Perry that Texas was lost.  It’s still lost, but have we finally reached bottom after 30 years of decline?  I’m a long way from popping champagne and tossing babies in the air, but maybe we’ve finally gotten there.  There’s no way but up from here.

The Actual Republican Strategy

March 29, 2023 By: El Jefe Category: Fun With Guns

“Not my job.”
“Nothing we can do.”
“Not our role.”
“Shit happens.”

These four statements are the total and complete strategy of the New Trumplican Party regarding public policy that protects the citizens they represent.  Politicians in the Trumplican party seek office for one reason and one reason only, and that is to grab, and then keep power.  There is no thought given to public policy that helps anyone (except for themselves and their patrons).  The public policy initiatives they pursue are purely cynical, designed to keep their gerrymandered base wrapped around the axle and ready to explode at any minute.  Their ENTIRE strategy is to keep their alternate dimension dark, dangerous, unstable, unhappy, and increasingly fearful.  That’s it, period, the end.

The key feature of this strategy, which I call The Dodge, is to do nothing to prevent massive tragedies, then heap blame on strawmen to deflect responsibility for their own negligence.  The most advantageous feature of this strategy is that nothing bad ever sticks to them.  From statewide power outages to mass shootings in schools, The Dodge allows those in charge of governing to brush those off to “free market” principles or “god given constitutional rights.”  “There’s nothing we can do because constitutional freedoms won’t let us,” is the rote answer to all gun violence.  The “free market” is also a common excuse; here’s one –  “healthcare must be free market.”  This Dodge allows insurance companies to overprice and deny health coverage to millions of Americans.  Another good one is, “We won’t talk about immigration reform until the border is 100% sealed and there are zero border crossings.”  Since “sealing the border” is impossible, they have the excuse to never have to do anything.

Abbott is masterful at The Dodge.  He paid no political price for his incompetence and corruption with both ERCOT and the PUC that caused the massive power outages that cost hundreds of billions of dollars to the economy and cost as many as 700 Texans’ lives.  “Free market” was his excuse as well as bald faced lying by blaming wind turbines for the outage.  He also did it during the pandemic, providing zero support for closed businesses to protect people from the spread, and then using economic deprivation as an excuse to open the economy far too early, even overruling local government officials actually trying to protect people.  After causing thousands of unnecessary deaths, Abbott then blamed the CDC, the WHO, China, Anthony Fauci, Peter Hotez, Lina Hidalgo, and other “liberals” to cynically gain political advantage using illness and deaths that he caused as a weapon.

We’re not surprised when shitbags like Abbott, Patrick, Cruz, Cornyn, McCarthy, and many others use The Dodge to avoid accountability for their own corruption.  However, the most shocking and disgusting abusers of The Dodge are the six SCOTUS judges that now say that the Court has no role to play in reining in massive extreme gerrymandering, protecting voting rights, stopping unlimited buying of elections by billionaires, preventing massive pollution enabled by their rollback of EPA regulations, stopping the rewriting of the Second Amendment to create a right for idiots to carry and use assault weapons in public, and protecting women’s right to equal protection under Roe v. Wade.

These politicians (I’m including SCOTUS justices in that description) use The Dodge to deflect all responsibility for their own incompetence and profound corruption.  And it works.  By continually piling on boogeyman after boogeyman they can blame everyone and everything for problems they create or fail to solve.  Such boogeymen include(d) gays, ACORN, those who “hate the troops”, immigrants, China, gays, “gun grabbers”, “welfare queens”, gangs, gays, drug cartels, old people, “radical Democrats”, gays, “voter fraud”, TikTok, Facebook, Twitter, transgender kids, drag performers, gays, and, last but not least, wokeness.  Oh, and gays.

By creating these boogeymen, these politicians accomplish their key goal which is gaining and staying in power by avoiding accountability.  They couldn’t care less if you live or die.  The textbook examples of this callousness is their disregard of human lives taken my massive gun violence and their willingness to sacrifice the old and sick for the economy during the pandemic.  If you doubt any of this conclusion, I invite you to listen to Rep. Burchett (T) Tennessee:

’nuff said.

Deep Fryer Sid’s Political Advisor Indicted

January 18, 2022 By: El Jefe Category: Corruption

Deep Fryer Sid Miller, famous for using taxpayer dollars traveling to roping events and to get his “Jesus shots”, took a political hit today as his top consultant, Todd Smith, was indicted for theft and commercial bribery in connection with his apparent selling of state hemp distribution licenses.  The licenses normally $100 each, were allegedly sold by Smith as “exclusive” for $150,000.  Miller’s Ag department is charged with managing these licenses.  Oops.

Miller, a braggadocios redneck shitbag and Trump Humper who loves to post radically partisan manure on his social media accounts, is a national embarrassment for Texas, well known for spending thousands of donor dollars for decorating his state office and for traveling on the taxpayer dime for personal trips.  He was shamed into reimbursing the state for the trips, likely motivated by a Texas Rangers criminal investigation of his spending.  You’ll recall that Miller used $55,000 of donor funds to outfit his state office with lots of dead animals and hairy furniture.

Worse, now his political cronies have apparently been profiting from Miller’s political office.  No one should be surprised.