When we were kids, the older folks taught us a very valuable lesson. How do you know when a politician is lying? The answer? Their lips are moving. In all seriousness, lying and politics have gone hand in hand for the length of this experiment we call democracy. So, why is it so difficult for the mainstream media to do the basic job of vetting comments before running with them?

Apparently, Donald Trump has “agreed” to debate Kamala Harris on Fox News on September 4th. It will be beautiful in front of a packed MAGA house. It will be the best debate anyone has ever seen with fair and balanced moderators straight from Fox News. You won’t believe how great it will be. There is only one problem you have probably already guessed. Neither Fox nor Kamala Harris have agreed to anything.

Despite this, most mainstream media outlets initially reported that the two would debate on September 4th. Why? Simply put, Trump said so on his shitty little app. Of course the mainstream media ran with the story because of course Trump wouldn’t lie about something like this. The guy that told over 30,000 documented lies as president is the perfect kind of guy to take at his word no matter what he says.

That is until the try to cover up what he said and make it sound more palatable. The headlines only changed after they received a ton of pushback from readers and viewers. The media has never been able to figure out how to treat him as a whole, but we have occasional pockets of reporters that get things right. His appearance this past weekend before a group of African-American journalists was a masters class in holding him responsible for inflammatory rhetoric and dubious claims.

This is very simple and I can’t believe I have to write this down. He’s lying. If he’s arguing anything anywhere near policy he’s lying. He’s not even particularly good at lying. Imagine a second grader BS’ing their way through a copy of “Where the Red Fern Grows” and you have a good mental image. One good targeted question and that second grader goes running back to their seat with tears in their eyes. You know, big strong men with tears in their eyes.

The Trump way is to overwhelm you with a tsunami of lies. The hope and expectation is that you won’t catch them all. You don’t have to report on him in real time. You can stop and verify it simply because if it sounds like a load of crap then it probably is. Did he really agree to a debate on Fox? Does it make sense for Kamala Harris to agree to go on conservative sponsored media with conservative moderators and a conservative crowd? Of course, since the MSM bought it hook, line, and sinker, the Trump team gets to run with the narrative that Harris is backing out. It’s a really simple lie that a second grader could work through. I just wish the mainstream media were smarter than a second grader.

Oh, I do like a good mystery. Remember Catamaran Consulting, LLC? The “go to” place to spend Ted Cruz’s ill-gotten PAC lucre (aka podcast advertisement proceeds) courtesy of iHeartMedia? In order to go to Catamaran Consulting, you just input into a map app this address provided by the FEC’s Schedule E report:

And that takes you to an area known for its architecture, green spaces, and diverse culture in LA called Los Feliz. To a place just off Franklin Ave that looks like this:

It’s a mail drop.

The California Secretary of State, however, has the “true” mailing address of Catamaran Consulting, LLC. According to The Google, that would be right here.

Nice digs huh?

Now, I’m beginning to wonder if Catamaran Consulting, LLC originally was a yacht sales agency.

By way of apology, and in my defense, this isn’t my job. Fran said I’d do the toons on Friday, so I’ll do them. But this week I’ve seen a notable dearth of political cartoons in my usual feeds, so in order to fully populate this posting with the requisite number, memes will have to do.

It looks like Ol’ Joe Biden still has a few tricks up his sleeve. Remember how TFG, in his grandiosity, claimed that Russian President Vladimir Putin would release Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich to him after he was elected?

At the time, it was considered a callous claim that practically guaranteed Gershkovich’s continued incarceration. Indeed, his claim was all but assured to scotch any progress made in diplomatic efforts to get his release.

Not so. In fact, it almost seems like a message from Moscow has been sent that they now believe TFG’s chances at a win this November are in doubt.

At least The Kremlin is catching on.

Childless cat ladies aside for the time being, I have a question about catamarans. As in Catamaran Consulting, LLC.

Why have they no website?

Catamaran Consulting, LLC is a political consulting group based in Los Angeles. If you Google the name, you get a couple of hits from Open Secrets, a political campaign tracking group, and a bunch of catamaran sailboat sales agencies.

The Open Secrets hits are the only web presence I could find for the consulting group that otherwise seems to be well-known by the Rafael “Ted” Cruz Campaign.

Well-known to the tune of $712,994.20.

Catamaran Consulting, LLC is where Ted Cruz spends his iHeartMedia podcast lucre. It’s also where lots of Republican campaigns have gone for help. Mostly to oppose Big Orange, you know, TGF, The Grifting Felon.

That business dried up when they got their respective a-double-scribbles handed to them by the former president back in ’23.

But it’s good to see they are still being kept afloat by Cruzlucre. It’s a tax-paying California company that needs a lot of out-of-state work.

Is this ever a “dog bites man” story. Just imagine this: Industrialist billionaires seeking tax breaks and de-regulation have traditionally supported the Republican candidate for President of the US. How many times since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution has that not been the case?

It’s just one of our Truths.

Now look at traditionally liberal Silicon Valley. The valley of youthful inspiration. The valley of Woz and Jobs in their garage innovating a miniature computer. Look there, and you see a microcosm of the schism that has spread out from coast to coast.

They all started out together. Young and idealistic. They went to the same schools. They knew each other. Later on, they formed business alliances and joined the same clubs.

Now they’re at each others’ throats…figuratively, that is.

All because of ‘heads versus hearts’, the classic schism that still challenges humanity. Or in the modern case: “those who are supporting Trump to protect their company’s bottom line versus those backing the Democrats over social issues, such as abortion.”

The divide between us couldn’t be clearer or more raw than what we see in San Jose. In this corner, Elon Musk and Peter Thiel (and others of their greed-soaked ilk). Arrayed against them: Melinda Gates and Mark Zuckerberg (and other heroes of “small D” democracy and what is right and good in America).

Before we had the robber barons: Chase, Getty, Huntington, Carnegie, ad nauseum. Now we have new ones to fill their money grubbing shoes. As the song goes, “Everything old is new again.”