CNN is hosting the first live presidential debate between President Biden and TFG next week, and I already have my DVR set and my popcorn bought.

Next week.

Not September.

Not after even one nominating convention officially nominates a single presidential candidate. And no 3rd, 4th, or 5th party candidates will be invited to debate. It’s just Biden and The Convicted Felon.

There are lots of new features to the debate that Americans are unused to. There will be two commercial breaks in 90 minutes, but no conferences with campaign staff can occur during them. There will be no opening statements and 2 minute closing statements. Microphones will be muted except for the one candidate who has the floor. Debaters will have no prepared notes. And there will be no live audience.

My only question: Will He Show Up?

All through his criminal trial, TFG was adamant that he wanted to testify:

“Yeah, I would testify, absolutely,” 

“I’m testifying. I tell the truth, I mean, all I can do is tell the truth. And the truth is that there is no case. They have no case.”

And then later, TFG hedged, saying that his 1st Amendment rights were being denied him because of his gag order, prompting Judge Merchan to state that his gag order did not cover TFG’s testifying on his own behalf.

Then, after the jury returned 34 felony convictions, TFG explained: “I would have liked to have testified, but you would have said something out of whack like ‘it was a beautiful sunny day,’ and it was actually raining out.”

It is that progression of argument, plus the fact that the rules of the CNN debate are so stacked against The Former Guy’s preferred method of outburst and obfuscation, that I just don’t think that, in the end, there will be a debate next week.

Am I wrong?

Sometimes I feel sorry for Marjorie Taylor Greene. Well, not really, but sometimes I like to say so because I consider myself a fair-minded person. But MTG makes it just too damned hard.

So I was mildly amused to find out that this past January, the Georgia Congressman found herself in Kissimmee, Florida with nowhere to go.

Her event that Saturday was canceled because the venue, The Westgate Resort, figured out that the Republican Party of Osceola County was going to mark the 3rd anniversary of the January 6 Insurrection at their property, and that just wouldn’t do.

So she found herself in the middle of Florida with nowhere to go, and her car’s trunk full of boxes of copies of her book, “MTG”, published by Winning Team Publishing, a company co-founded by Donald, Jr., one of a constellation of publications of a similar ilk. She was going to sign them for her adoring fans at the resort.

But alas.

Not to worry, though. A mere 83 miles down the highway was Ormond Beach, Florida, and there an event was featured that she was welcomed to attend, as well as set up a table to plug her book and take in lucre.

The event was a fundraiser for RD Club 40, a nonprofit group that partnered with Bikers Against Trafficking.

MTG. At a Biker Bar. In Ormond Beach.

This was months before Jasmine Crockett (D TX-30) dutifully dubbed the demonic diva her well-deserved 6B appellation.

But it is still worth noting that this event certainly was an example of a Bleached Blonde Bad Built Butch Body at a Beach Biker Bar.

Oooh. That’s a lot of alliteration.

Justice Clarence Thomas has found that an AR style rifle that is equipped with a bump stock, allowing it to spray 1000 rounds of rifle bullets in 11 minutes, is not a machine gun.

He used one word to differentiate what was used to kill 58 people in Las Vegas in October 2017 from, say, an M60 machine gun.

Function.

A “function” of a trigger is not the same as a “pull” of a trigger. When you pull the trigger of an M60 machine gun with a trigger finger, it fires a spray of bullets until you take your finger off the trigger. If you pull a trigger of an AR style rifle equipped with a bump stock, it fires a spray of bullets, but it is the bump stock that maintains the spraying.

Defining a weapon’s functionality based on its trigger, and not based on how many bullets the weapon fires per minute – or per second – is no sane way to define a weapon’s functionality.

But it is the way that 6 Supreme Court Justices define it.

So since the Vegas mass murderer pulled the trigger of his AR only once, that means he’s not – technically – a mass murderer, right?

Democrats who live in congressional districts represented by those of the GOP ilk may now discover whether their Congressman voted for the Clyde Amendment to the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act which would require that The Confederate Memorial be reinstated at the Arlington National Cemetery. The memorial, erected in 1914, was finally dismantled last December. Rep Andrew Clyde (R GA-9), obviously put off by the whole Confederates as Traitors paradigm, proposed the amendment, which failed to pass, but got 192 Aye votes from the GOP.

Newsweek provides the list of Aye votes.

(And yes, Ken Calvert (R CA-41), the guy who represents me, is on the list). Guess that means another donation to the Will Rollins For Congress Campaign.

I went with my parents, sister, and brother in law to watch Rachel Maddow speak last night. It was essentially a speaking tour for her book Prequel. The book essentially chronicles different anti-semitic and fascist waves in the United States and the ordinary people that stood up to fight them. As you might imagine, most of these stories are stories we never taught in history class and it is shameful for two history teachers (my father was also one) to sit and be dumbfounded with stories we had never heard before.

She called us a blue dot in a sea of red. We know all too well what the stakes are what life could look like if we fail. Obviously, many of the questions turned to the worry over what is happening and what might happen if we don’t succeed. Her advice was to stay in lieu of fleeing for a safe haven.

Two separate conversations I had prior to the evening made this point a lot more clear. The first one is that I obviously make myself known by doing this. I comfort myself in that I am but small potatoes in the vast internet. However, they could track me and know where I stand.

On the heels of that conversation, my brother in law told us that someone he knew had a conversation with him and knows he is more liberal. The guy flat out told him when the civil war comes he won’t hesitate to put him down since he now knows my brother in law is on the other side.

What we know is that the rhetoric is all designed to dehumanize us. If you can successfully make us less than human then you can successfully shut down the part of the conscience that doesn’t allow people to harm others. Maddow made the point that the best thing we could do and is reach out and make connections now. Go beyond what we normally would do. If we normally text then make a point to call. If we normally call then make a point to see them in person. If we see them in person then see them in person more often.

I think she was exclusively talking about loved ones and friends that are likeminded individuals. She didn’t say that specifically, but that is how I interpreted her plea. I think the idea is there would be someone looking for you (and us for them) if that time ever comes. I certainly can’t argue the point, but another thought entered my mind as she discussed this.

If the goal of the right is to dehumanize us then our goal should be to rehumanize everyone. Yes, I just made up a new word, but these times demand some invention. They say in hostage situations that it is harder for the aggressor to eliminate the hostages if they see them as people. If they know their name and see that they have feelings.

The overall takeaway is that average and ordinary people throughout history have thwarted the onslaught of fascism. Fascism always has an allure to some people. The allure of an all-powerful leader that can push back against the complex forces that “keep us down” can be alluring. Of course, that’s true until we become one of those that stand in the dear leader’s way. I don’t have all of the answers as to how to defeat fascism. However, the idea of doing it together seems much more palatable than doing it separately.