Poor Don The Con. The man can’t get a break.

Do you know how much the NRA spent on TFG’s White House run the last time he won (I mean, the last time he really won)?

30 million samoleons.

That’s a lotta lucre that isn’t going to happen this year, and I think I know why: they keep shooting at him with semi-automatic rifles. You know, the kind that the NRA loves to tout to the gun-loving public. And wouldn’t you know it? The last guy to not shoot at TFG was using an SKS assault rifle with a scope.

That’s not a good look for an organization whose sole purpose is to promote the use of guns and ammo in America.

So they are keeping it on the down low this year by buying tables at shows and exhibitions and pushing pamphlets that they print up.

And not any $30 millions of dollars worth, either. In this reporting period just completed, they spent just $130,000 and change out of their Victory Fund, and just shy of $9K out of their super PAC.

You know, Election Day is just under 6 weeks away now, and Early Voting has already begun in four states. It’s past the time to start campaigning, NRA.

Or maybe it could be that all they have are moths flying out of their wallet about now. The Orange One says we are experiencing hard times in this Biden Economy.

Maybe, for the NRA, at least, it’s true enough.

New charges for that law abiding Team Trump were filed in Clark County Municipal Court this morning. The Haitian Bridge Alliance is hitting back after all the trouble caused after the whole eating the pets thing.

“The Chandra Law Firm used a state statute allowing private citizens to “file an affidavit charging the offense committed.”

The following charges were filed:

• Disrupting public service — by causing widespread bomb and other threats that resulted in massive disruptions to the public services in Springfield, Ohio;
• Making false alarms — by knowingly causing alarm in the Springfield community by continuing to repeat lies that state and local officials have said were false;
• Committing telecommunications harassment — by spreading claims they know to be false during the presidential debate, campaign rallies, nationally televised interviews, and social media;
• Committing aggravated menacing in violation — by knowingly making intimidating statements with the intent to abuse, threaten, or harass the recipients, including Trump’s threat to deport immigrants who are here legally to Venezuela, a land they have never known;
• Committing aggravated menacing — by knowingly causing others to falsely believe that members of Springfield’s Haitian community would cause serious physical harm to the person or property of others in Springfield; and
• Violating the prohibition against complicity — by conspiring with one another and spreading vicious lies that caused innocent parties to be parties to their various crimes.”

You all know how we at the Salon love a good legal reckoning. Here’s hoping they don’t draw a Trumpian judge.

The My Pillow Guy has a new target customer audience. After “crashing” the Democratic National Convention last month, Mike Lindell has moved on to promoting other things that are a little more than just slightly disquieting.

This time, he is staying home and promoting a familiar product: his pillows – with a twist.

Dog whistle, anyone?

See that? What a huge markdown for his “standard pillow.” What used to cost a ton of coin has been re-introduced at the low, low price of just $14.88.

Which is a thrill and a half for all of the National Socialists out there who sorely need a good nachts sleep.

14 and 88 are two very endearing numbers for American NAZIs. 14 refers to “the 14 words” that were first coined by David Lane, a former leader of The Order. Lane died in prison, but his words live on: “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children.”

Count ’em, that’s 14 words.

88 refers to the salutation familiar to anyone who has seen a WWII film where a NAZI has a speaking part. 8 refers to the eighth letter of the alphabet, H. Two 8’s then represent HH. HH is shorthand for “Heil Hitler.”

Taken together, it is a statement that is the central credo of all good NAZIs.

These lumpier than H-E-Double-Hockey-Sticks pillows should sell like proverbial hotcakes at TFG rallies.

Sleep well, NAZIs.

“Well, now that’s strange, I thought they couldn’t do that.”

That’s the jist of the conversation overheard by customers at The Salon this weekend between Juanita Jean and her friend and confidant, Alfredo at the Dairy Queen.

Apparently, a whole bunch of county committees of the Republican Party of Texas all received the same amount of cash from Ted Cruz’s Truth and Courage PAC.

They can’t do that, it’s illegal. Alfredo isn’t wrong. According to a law firm that specializes in political law, county committees cannot coordinate with Super PACs and vice versa.

Extracted from their website:

“A Super PAC’s activities must also not be coordinated with a candidate, a candidate’s authorized committee, a political party committee, or their respective agents.”

Emphasis is mine.

And yet, according to the Federal Election Commission query results below, that is exactly what is happening in Texas.

The whole report is here.

See that? Twenty-one Republican county committees each received a $50 disbursement from Ted’s Truth and Courage PAC. You know, the one that he keeps full of money from his podcast gig with iHeartMedia.

In each case, the disbursement was for “STORAGE.”

OK, what do you store in 21 counties for fifty bucks a pop? On the same day in August? Never mind. It’s illegal for the conversation to happen. Let alone the disbursement.

Ted Cruz’s blithe disregard for the rules that govern our politics seemingly know no bounds. But yet, I once heard him say, “We need a president who is willing to uphold the law.” 

Yeah, Cruz. Yeah. You first.

The WEP, or Windfall Elimination Provision, enacted by Congress back in 1983, was Congress’s answer to saving Social Security for future generations.

Its theory was simple. By taking a pension that is provided to government employees upon retirement through state retirement systems, a retiree was deemed to be “double dipping” if they also took the Social Security retirement that they earned from a second career.

These “double-dippers” are punished by having a portion of their monthly Social Security income withheld – forever.

It is a provision that is wholly unfair to former civil servents, and obviously so. It has been so obvious that over the ensuing 40 years since its passage, the WEP has had several efforts mounted for its repeal. All for naught as it has always been deemed a necessary evil that keeps our federal retirement system afloat.

My former congressman, Tom DeLay of TX CD-22, was in a position to, and was particularly skilled at, quashing any effort to reform this heinous affront that singles out 2 million Americans for monthly fleecings.

So, like Charlie Brown trying to kick the football, only to have Lucy snatch the ball from him at the last second, over and over again for the past 40 years. plans to repeal the WEP have all been snatched away at the last second.

This brings us to last Thursday. As announced by Rep. Abigail Spamberger (D VA-07), 206 bipartisan Members have signed a discharge petition to bring the Social Security Fairness Act, that would repeal the WEP, to the House floor, requiring a mere dozen more to get to 218 and a vote. And 100 of the bill’s co-sponsors have yet to sign it.

So why do I suspect that the latest effort to move WEP repeal to the House floor for an up or down vote will fail yet again?

Because I’ve seen this movie already.

Social Security, they tell me, will be insolvent by 2035 – even with the WEP still in place. One possible solution, they tell me, is to raise the cap that wage-earners must pay into the system. Those with higher-end jobs where the cap is attained every year (currently at $168,000) would have their FICA deductions continue for a little later in the year.

But that just will not do, will it? Those high end wage earners have a lot of influence, so rather than have the Social Security System propped up by the affluent, best to keep to the plan that requires 2 million former civil servants to pony up.

Civil servents, by their very nature, are used to sacrifice. They are used to getting lower pay than their private sector counterparts. So why not continue to rip them off?

So no. The Social Security Fairness Act will die – again – in committee.

I dare Congress to prove me wrong.

This past Thursday’s news about the gubernatorial race in North Carolina is the stuff that one dreams of in this new world of barbecued cats and flying projectiles.

Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson of North Carolina – who was already quite a piece of work – got his sordid pre-political sexual proclivities disclosed in the National Nightly News.

Far be it from I to judge how a man engages in self stimulation of the sexual kind, but when hypocrisy is involved, Let There Be Light (as the Bible says).

You can read all about it here and here, I really don’t want to enumerate all of the revelations of internet activities by #minisoldr, Robinson’s handle in porn site comments areas, because I already took my shower this morning, thank you very much.

I just have one question: There are comments areas on porn sites? Really? How does that work? And more to the point, WHO DOES THAT?

Robinson’s poll numbers are looking pretty awful as we pass the 7 week mark until 11/5. Before all of these revelations, he was trailing his Democratic opponent, NC Attorney General Josh Stein, by between 5 and 13 percent. Now it’s anyone’s guess how badly he will lose his race.

But the icing on this cake is that The Bronzer Bombshell is absolutely depending on a win in North Carolina. What is TFG going to do when the name of this guy that he endorsed appears right below his own, on the ballots that are being mailed just as I poke this post into  my phone?

North Carolina isn’t even a Swing State. Well, not that kind of swing, anyway. But this old quote from author/activist John Stoltenberg just might correctly summarize this whole tawdry business:

Pornography tells lies about women. But pornography tells the truth about men.