There’s a lot of reporting that Biden is being shielded by his wife, Jill, and his close staff from the reality of polling numbers which, besides personal pride, is one of the reasons he is stubbornly hanging on.  To counter the effort to get him to step down, it’s now coming out that he’s going to propose an overhaul of the Supreme Court including an actual ethics policy and term limits.  It’s also being reported that he’s going to propose a Constitutional amendment to restate that the President is not immune from prosecution for criminal acts.

There’s not a chance in hell of any of these proposals seeing the light of day, especially with Fascist control of the House and many of the states.  BUT, it’s the right subject.  Biden is way too late, but THIS is a key issue, and a Hail Mary is about all he’s got left.  The SCOTUS is now bought and paid for by billionaires lead by Leonard Leo and it’s got to be fixed.  However, with today’s politics there is no quick fix, especially with the juggernaut created by Leo and his Federalist Society.  To make real change here, the People will have to overcome the do-nothing inertia that paralyzes the Congress.  I’m not hopeful, at least at this point.

Maybe this effort by Biden will save his candidacy.  I don’t think it’s enough to overcome his negatives, but it’s something, especially if this proposal gains real traction that gives people some hope.

In other news, the DNC gave up on its attempt to ram through Biden’s nomination during July even before the convention rules committee meets.  Postponing this vote tells me that there are serious discussion going on behind closed about what to do about Biden.  This has got to be decided sooner rather than later.

Watching the formation of a new “America First” movement has become a hobby of mine that admittedly hooked me when I first listened to the Maddow podcast “Ultra,” now in its second season. I recently posted a small sample of the Dr. Seuss campaign against the pro-NAZI America First movement a while back, and I will post more today and maybe more in the future.

In the 1930’s and 1940s, the America First Movement was an isolationist campaign that was aided and abetted by pro-fascist influencers who saw the US entry into WW2 as a threat to their cause. They were, fortunately, very bad at painting NAZIism in a benign light.

More recently, TFG himself adopted the “America First” position in the run-up to the 2016 election:

America first will be the major and overriding theme of my administration.

And now, with his nomination to be TFG’s Veep, “America First” has a new spokesmodel in JD Vance. Speaking to current Danbury Federal Prison resident Steve Bannon on his podcast in April 2022, we have this quote from ol’ JD:

I gotta to be honest with you, I don’t really care what happens to Ukraine one way or another.

Stirring words that should tug at the heartstrings of pro-Putin neofascists everywhere.

Similar words were uttered by another famous American of note: The Lone Eagle, Lucky Lindy, Slim… you know Charles Lindbergh. He said this:

I have been forced to the conclusion that we cannot win this war for England regardless of how much assistance we send. That is why the America First Committee has been formed.

And the rest is history.

I’m depressed. I suppose there are many kinds of depression. There is the padded room with heavy medication kind. There is the soul crippling can’t move a muscle kind. On the other end of the spectrum there is the “I heard some bad news and I have the blues” kind.

For those of you that aren’t mental health professionals (I’m really not either although I have a masters in Counseling) dysthymia is more of a minor depression. Think of it as seeing the world with a pair of gray colored glasses on. Nothing is black per se. The colors just dim and the beauty gets muted. Suddenly, enjoyable activities aren’t so enjoyable anymore.

This is what brings me to today’s topic. Writing brings me joy. If I have learned anything since my diagnosis it is that we all have to find joy in our life. However, over the past couple of weeks writing has not been giving me joy. They are painful topics and the current landscape of the world seems to be a constellation of bad news that form a very bleak picture.

Some people in the gulf south still have no power after a hurricane hit eight days ago. The workers are working hard, but the company seems to be fumbling about and those in power at the state level could honestly give a shit. If they did they would have fixed the grid three years ago when it spectacularly failed. Moreover, the depressing part is that a majority of Texans continue to vote for these ass clowns even in the face of their failure.

Then we get the other news from the weekend and early part of the week. Combine that with a complicit Supreme Court and we have a man that literally will not be held accountable for dozens of felonies. Then, a whack job tries to kill him and ends up causing more damage to the cause. Even if he had succeeded in his quest it would have caused more damage. Political violence and violence of all kinds brings damage.

The reaction of the ex-president and some of his followers was more disheartening. He paused for a damn photo op. Who does that? Then, you get the sheep that post this on their social media like some kind of battle cry. One guy even got it tattooed to his back. The attempt is horrible enough and I’m thankful the ex-president is okay but I just wish there were a genuine human response there. I no longer believe it was a false flag but this is why so many of my friends think so. That is also disheartening.

I have to admit my mind went there initially. Obviously, there is proof out there in blogosphere of my initial thoughts. I say all this to say my joy is nearly gone. It is quickly being replaced with despair. Hanging on in quiet desperation is no way to live. I suppose this is a fight or flight moment and my instincts usually point towards flight.

I am not leaving forever. In fact, I can’t even tell you how long I will be leaving. When the joy begins to come back it will come back. I’ll linger about and make comments every now and then and I have other sources of writing that don’t involve politics. I’ll still do those and maybe they will bring me enough joy to come back soon. Hopefully I will see everyone again really soon.

We’ve all been watching the Florida documents case as Judge Aileen Cannon has handily delayed and pushed the case back and back in time. No way could it ever be tried before the Republican Convention.

And now, on Day One of the Republican Convention, Cannon dropped the ruling that Jack Smith was improperly appointed as Special Counsel, and therefore the documents case he brought against TFG was dismissed.

Mission accomplished. Judge Cannon did exactly as she must and no more. The appeal to the 11th Circuit Court practically writes itself, and that, doubtless, is exactly what is happening right now.

All moot if the Orange Julius Caesar wannabe is elected in November.

But that was the whole idea.

On Saturday evening at 6:11 pm local time, the 2024 campaign effectively ended.  When a 20 year old gunman took potshots (literally) at TFG which grazed him, wounded two others, and killed another, the ground shifted under our feet, swinging the election in his direction.  Since that moment, TFG has pivoted to a laughable “unity” message and has uncharacteristically embargoed all communication coming from the campaign to tightly control that message.  He’s fund raising on the assassination attempt and claims he’s rewriting his speech to emphasized “unity”.  His talking heads are blaming political rhetoric from Biden and Democrats for the violence, completely ignoring the open sewer of hate speech and incitement to violence that has spewed out of TFG’s mouth for well over a decade.

To add to his strength in the polls, his handpicked judge in the Mar a Lago documents case DISMISSED the entire case a few hours ago, ruling that special prosecutor Jack Smith’s appointment was unconstitutional.  Once again, her ruling flies in the face of decades of judicial precedence, clearly and openly violating her oath of office to defend the Constitution and the rule of law in order to protect her benefactor. This final ruling by Cannon is certainly a nice flourish to complete her audition as TFG’s next SCOTUS nominee.

I have to say that Failed Assassination Attempt at an Outdoor Rally was not on my 2024 election year Bingo card.  TFG is the luckiest son of a bitch on the planet.  While he has amassed a tsunami of evil transgressions including fraudulent business practices, racists policies, sexual assault, self aggrandizement, violations of state and federal election laws, insurrection, incitement to violence, extortion, and bribery, nothing has ever really stuck to him.  Now he’s survived an assassination attempt, and even Aileen Cannon timed her dismissal of the felony charges for stealing classified documents to coincide with the opening of the Republican Convention Coronation in Milwaukee today.

I say all this as background for my conclusion that this election is over.  Biden was, and still is, in serious trouble.  His negatives are terrible and he’s trailing TFG in all of the battleground states.  Like it our not, he’s been boxed in, and every measure is going TFG’s way.   I know that I’ve pissed off a lot of Salon customers in the last week calling for Biden to step aside, but now I believe that even doing that won’t help.  All of the momentum is in TFG’s direction, and this election now feels a lot like 2004 and 2016.  In 2004 GWB/Cheney started a war to get re-elected after 9/11 sinking Kerry’s bid.  In 2016 TFG fabricated a dark dystopian image of a crime-ridden country in decline being overrun by dark-skinned terrorists pouring over the border.  He’s banged on the this drum for almost 10 years now, and the assassination attempt has played right into his mythology to great effect.  Those not paying attention to the facts will be swept up in his new assassination attempt “unification” message and fall for it, not realizing the fact that TFG and his screaming heads are the ones who created this mythology that has been tearing the country apart for over a decade.  The false “both sides do it” argument has become embedded in our political DNA now for years.

I believe the 2024 election result will not be good.  Not only do we stand to lose the White House, which is terrifying, but we also stand to lose both the House and the Senate.  With the SCOTUS already lost, we’re entering into a dark future that threatens the very fabric of our country.  With no guardrails or rule of law to stop him, I predict TFG’s  “unification” message will go down the shitter right after the election when the convicted felon and his goons will take over.

This is not good.

There are dramas that are playing out in the backwaters of MAGAdom whose effects are still being felt by people no one has ever heard of. Big names in the MAGA Empire are scooping up all the cash resources, and that leaves little lucre for the locals.

Think of it. There is a finite amount of donor cash out there, and Republican donation recipients (aka donees) who are not first or second in line at the buffet table are going to have to squabble with each other for the table scraps.

Take, for example, the Texas Sheep and Goat Raisers PAC. I know. They are not on anyone’s campaign cash watch list, and that is doubly so now.

They are broke.

They are more than broke. Last week, Alfredo at the Dairy Queen hipped me to the news that the Federal Election Commission, sent the PAC a letter asking about their nonzero ending balance on their most recent filing:

Your report discloses a negative ending cash balance of  $3,791.44. This suggests that you have overdrawn your account, made a mathematical error, or incurred a debt. If your committee has incurred a debt or obligation, please itemize this debt on Schedule D, show a zero balance on Line 8 of the Summary Page and include the amount on Line 10. Please file an amendment to your report to accurately disclose your financial activities. (52 U.S.C. §30104(b)(8) and 11 CFR § 104.3(d)).

That’s right. Broke. Busted. Insolvent. Wiped out. Poor as church mice.

In 2022, the last year they had money to give, the PAC donated $6,000 to federal campaigns: $1,000 to Texas Rep Henry Cuellar (D TX-28) and $5,000 to four Republicans. Of these four, half, or $2,500, went to August Pfluger (R TX-11). And yes, Pfluger is a lineal descendent of the founder of Pflugerville, Texas.

These people, and more, will not be receiving any campaign cash from the Texas Sheep and Goat Raisers PAC this year. I guess they are going to have to look to some other goat rodeo to get their lucre.
When the MAGA Money Machine starts making sucking sounds, you know your peanuts PAC is in trouble.