Some years after President Nixon shared with a national TV audience the bald-faced lie that he was “not a crook,” he infamously claimed to David Frost in a one-on-one interview this little gem: “Well, when the president does it, that means that it is not illegal.”

That that guy never served a day in prison is why we are in the fix we are in today.

Donald Von Shitzenpantz never read a thing about Nixon. Of that, I am sure. But he didn’t have to. What his campaign is currently doing in campaign contributions is not a new thing for him or for any given chiseling entrepreneur.

He’s making lucre out of excess donations.

Here is an FEC document that I got from Alfredo at the Dairy Queen. It pretty much sums up the whole larcenous affair. Take a look. We’ll wait.

That’s right. The official presidential campaign of Don Von has pulled in an aggregate of $226,669.43 in interest from funds donated to the campaign, including by people who have donated over the legal limit.

You see, the FEC because it is fair-minded, gives candidates a 60-day time period to discover overpayment, and refund the balance to the donor. A time limit that the Von Shitzenpantz campaign has typically violated. Oh yes, you do clearly see refunds, but just as clearly, you see that they take their damned time about doing it. So much time, and so much money, that the campaign can buy an extra quarter of a million dollars worth of McD’s hamberders for their campaign workers.

According to a pornographic film actor and director, The Former Guy is pretty quick about getting his business done.

Just not this business.

Because they cannot win by following the rules, the WA State GOP decided to play a game of To Tell the Truth. (I’m old, this is the show I remember, not the new one). Our Dem candidate for Governor, Attorney General Bob Ferguson, has a rather common name. What are the chances that TWO other candidates named Robert Ferguson would file for the governor’s race? The REAL Bob Ferguson has been an excellent AG, and has made a name for himself bringing successful challenges ranging from companies responsible for the opioid crisis to dark money in politics to Catholic Church sexual abuse to environmental protection to immigration to scam artists, and even TFG himself (85 times during his term as President). He even made Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people in 2017 (he was fine with not being on the cover). So why would these two doofuses think they could pull a fast one on the Attorney General with lots of justice notches on his belt?

There is a WA state law that they could be liable for a class B felony for attempting to mislead voters. We have a top 2 primary, and these kinds of shenanigans can easily affect the outcome. Of course they don’t see it as election interference at all. It turns out the orchestrator of this strategy, conservative activist Glenn Morgan, was hoping to get a few more Bob Fergusons before last Friday’s 5 pm deadline to file. He’d contacted 12 but ‘ran out of time’.  AG Bob Ferguson was having none of this. He sent a Cease and Desist letter to each of the Bobs, and called on them to withdraw their names by 5 PM yesterday or face legal action. BOOM! Both of the Bobs who were persuaded to file as Democrats to confuse voters withdrew before the deadline,72 hours after they filed. Smart move for a couple of dummies. Chalk up another win for the Good Guy, who was obviously working over the weekend.

and for your patience, you get this historical bonus cartoon from the archives of Robert Crumb, from back in the 80s when TFG was just getting started with his insanity. Tip of the hat to Half Empty for the share.

Apologies to all who are awaiting Friday Toons. There are some darn good ones this week, so it is only fitting that there are server issues getting them posted. It must be the sunspots. Do you think TFG ordered them so that we couldn’t see all the funnies? BTW, I’m posting this as a test to see if it will publish. Tonight we’ll be watching for aurora. There has to be a prize in this somewhere.

There is no amendment in our constitution more integral to the concept of freedom than the freedom of speech. Yet, there is no freedom in our constitution more misunderstood than the freedom of speech.  This comes up for obvious reasons. People on both sides of the Gaza debate are feeling the crunch. College campuses grapple with protestors and how much is too much. More importantly though, we are seeing an increasing heavy hand of government on both sides of the aisle on this issue as government officials circle the wagons in support of Israel.

That immediately pushes us towards the responsibilities portion of free speech, but I need to take a few giant steps back. Free speech has never meant freedom from responsibility. I would not be able to (hypothetically speaking) run into the superintendant’s office and call them a jackass without some repercussions.

Yet, millions of Americans would say they have an absolute right to do that without any negative impacts on their own professional or personal life. This is not a liberal or conservative problem necessarily. The Dixie Chicks famously badmouthed George W. Bush on stage during his presidency and lost fans possibly in the millions. It went down exactly as it should. They expressed their views and their fans expressed theirs. That’s how these things work.

The Chicks (as they are now called) were effectively canceled. I throw that term in here intentionally. The whole cancel culture craze is nothing more than people being upset over the fact that they are receiving negative consequences for their speech. That’s a large part of the marketplace of ideas. Some people won’t like them.

When we start arresting people for protesting the Israeli government then we have gone way too far. Employers certainly can take note of someone’s political activities and make a decision for themselves as to whether they want a particular individual to represent their company. That is fair. To make demonstrating illegal as Florida has done in certain circumstances is antithetical to the whole idea of what free speech is all about.

We do have one responsibility as it pertains to speech. We need to be accurate. Our responses need to be accurate. That means actually stopping for a second and listening to what the protesters are saying. I would say that most are not anti-Semitic. Some certainly are. However, the majority are just outraged over what Israel is doing in response to Hamas’ attack. Criticizing Israel doesn’t have to mean that you are supporting Hamas, but that is how this issue is being framed.

You can think that what Hamas did is awful. You can think Hamas needs to be eliminated. You can also think that what Israel is doing in Gaza and to Palestinians in general is abhorrent. These things can all be true at the same time. That viewpoint can also be wrong. People are free to disagree with it and poke holes in it all day long. That’s how these things should be debated. However, simply calling anyone that criticizes Israel as Anti-Semitic doesn’t promote free debate. It shuts it down.

Mind you, there are plenty of Anti-Semitic people out there. I would dare say that many are the same folks levying the charge against those that would criticize Israel. There is no defense like a good offense. All of this is to say that free speech has never truly been free. It costs plenty when it is levied irresponsibly and without respect for others. It also hurts overall when we don’t take the time to truly listen to what the other side is saying and why they are saying it. Sometimes it is racism and bigotry but often times it isn’t.