One of the things that some loyal readers of this blog have asked me is to outline a battle plan for liberals, progressives, and Democrats. Admittedly, those are three different things and that’s one of the things that presents a problem. However, it is a fair question.

My first suggestion is easy and yet it hasn’t successfully been done. We have a list of problems people commonly agree on. At least we agree that they are problems. The first thing you do is list all of the things that you have done to fix those problems. That includes mostly legislation passed by the House. You include what the bill was for, how many Republicans voted for it, and what percentage of Americans were in favor of it. Usually, these things died in the Senate and that’s also something you have to mention.

Believe it or not, Congress has enacted 139 laws since January 3, 2021. So, Congress is always acting more than people think. Most of these laws are ones you’ve never heard of, but it always is a good idea to remind them of the good stuff you have done. How many Republicans voted for those measures? What percentage of Americans were in favor of those measures?

The picture you begin to see is the fact that Democrats (be they progressive, liberal, or moderate) are trying to address our nation’s problems. The way they are addressing them are popular with a majority of the American people. The other side is not. They are actively blocking those things even when a majority of the people want them.

The second thing we need to do is the harder thing. Hearts and minds are tough to change, but the conservatives in this country have managed to beat the drum on gas prices, supply chain issues, and inflation. They have pulled off two major coups. First, they have convinced enough people that these are the main issues of the day. Secondly, they have managed to successfully blame Joe Biden.

You can tell people that the president doesn’t set the gas prices. You can tell people that the president can’t control world markets. You can tell people that world markets are terribly complex and susceptible to numerous factors out of everyone’s control. Then, you are explaining. When you are explaining you are losing.

This one is hard because it requires resetting people’s priorities. If the price of gas is the most important thing in your life then you don’t have much of a life. If the availability of a particular product or rising costs of goods are the most important thing then you’ve lost them. In many cases it will be. Some people can’t be bothered to care about quality of life issues. They can’t be bothered to care about safety. They can’t be bothered to care about anyone else’s life and how it has been improved by something Democrats have actively done. You won’t capture everyone or even most. You can capture some.

From there, you simply circle back to what is currently being done to alleviate that problem. You also go back to the fact that the other side hasn’t done a damn thing or even suggested a damn thing. They’ll tell you something Biden has supposedly done wrong. Make sure to fact check those things. Did he actually do that? If he did then did it have the negative impact those people say it did? Again, we won’t capture the majority, but we can capture some. Some is what we need.

The January 6th commission is finally releasing its work. They chose to do it during prime time over the course of several days. We seem to be following this pattern day after day, week after week, and year after year. We know exactly what happened. We’ve always known exactly what happened. Hearing it again is both shocking and familiar. Either you will hear it and nod in agreement or you will think it’s fake news. I’m not sure anyone will actually see their opinion change.

This has all been mentioned before, but here we are. So, let’s add up some things and put it all together to see if we can paint a picture. In the entirety of his life, Donald Trump has successfully done only one thing. He’s cultivated an image that he is a successful and a smart businessman. That’s it. If you look at any success he’s had it is all connected to that one thing. The Apprentice, frauds like Trump University, the presidency, all of this can be traced back to that one thing.

The fact that he’s a failed businessman hasn’t really sunk in with the people that support him. So, when you look at his failures as president, they all get laid at someone else’s feet. They are someone else’s fault or they didn’t happen at all. Naturally, it also manages to seep into the natural defense he is able to use when any of these horribly illegal activities get brought back to his door.

All of the fraud over collusion, the attempting strong arming of the Ukrainian president, the attempted overturning of the 2020 election, and the attempting coup on January 6th all didn’t work. They failed spectacularly. Not only did he not meet his objective, but he failed in such spectacular fashion and did such a horrible job covering it up that it all seems so unbelievable.

How does someone so successful fail so miserably? If he really is that smart and that successful then he must not have done it. There really is no other logical explanation. After all, a smart and successful businessman would have clearly succeeded somewhere along the way because he had done so all those times before when he was making billions of dollars.

Except, that was all a fraud. Any success he may have had he stumbled into. Trump Steaks? Trump Vodka? Trump Airlines? These were all spectacular failures. Not only did those businesses fail, but they failed in spectacular fashion. The reality of Trump is as a failed businessman. It is the reality of a blowhard that really is empty when you get past the bravado.

The reality is that when you attempt to collude with the enemy, attempt to overthrow the government, attempt to circumvent our laws to get dirt on an opponent, attempt to strongarm someone into committing election fraud you have broken the law. The attempt is still breaking the law. The fact that all of these were unsuccessful doesn’t matter.

The defense that a brilliant and successful businessman wouldn’t fail so spectacularly is the fraud. Strip everything down and Trump is the guy that holds up the bank without a mask, a bag with a hole in the bottom, and a carrot in his pocket in place of the gun. It’s stupid to the point of being comical. It’s still a crime. It’s haphazard, laughable, and pathetic, but it’s still a crime. Yet, if the commission’s obvious breakdown of these events don’t lead to arrests and convictions then it will be just another episode of the Keystone Cops. Those that know he’s an idiot will know he’s guilty. Those that think he’s brilliant won’t. Those are the facts of the case and they are undisputed.

Yep – his own daughter. The one he supposedly loves the most.  He threw her under the bus.

Tiffany!  Quick, Girl!  There’s an opening for Favored Daughter.

Cheney says the committee will provide proof that Rep. Scott Perry and other GOP members of Congress sought pardons for their actions after Jan. 6.

Oh, there is much to learn.

Those you who have been around here for ten years or so know that I had myself a charming little hair pulling spitting match with a neighbor of mine.  Yeah, a neighbor. We literally live in the same county commissioner precinct together.  Her name is Cathy Engelbrecht.

She’s a real stinker.

Back then, she used to go around my county preaching to low information voters, and old people over at the Lutheran church, about how Democrats were stealing elections. She asked them for money to fund her little “research.” That was cute to me because I was also doing research and I didn’t ask anybody for money. True, I got a local newspaper to pay me to do it. But local newspapers ain’t a well-spring of money and she lived in a fancier house than I did and drove a much fancier car.

Oh Lord, I can feel a story coming on and I do rattle, but stick with me if you have the time because it’s kinda a good story and I don’t do this but maybe two or three times a year. Okay, may six. I carry on maybe six, or it could be 7 times a year.

So, here’s Cathy giving all these “trainings” around the county. I go to one and she doesn’t recognize me because she doesn’t read newspapers.  Afterwards, I stick around to ask her about some of the math in one of her presentation slides because the percentages added up to 114%. She said I didn’t understand it. I pulled a pocket calculator out of my purse and added it right up as we stood there. She blamed “an aide” for the mistake. I giggled because she ain’t got no damn aide.

Anyway, I wrote about it in the newspaper along with some other mistakes she made. She did not take my constructive criticism well. She called my boss and said she would never interview with our newspaper again. My boss said she was delighted to hear that, and would she please put it in writing because we have a Wall of Jackasses in the reception office of people who won’t speak to us but they can’t complain about it because … you know … they ain’t speaking to us.

It was at that point that the gods of good intentions knew we needed some help with this woman. My boss gets an anonymous call that a Republican candidate for county commissioner in our county was bragging to the Republican party chairman how he voted twice the past three elections. Bragging. I love bragging. Especially from men. And double especially if it’s the candidate for county commissioner in the same precinct as me and Cathy Engelbrecht.

Boss and I knew this guy was from Pennsylvania. At the time, getting official voting records from Pennsylvania is harder than Chinese algebra. So, because I have happy ties to the Democratic Party, I called the Democratic Party office in Pennsylvania, shared a couple of Democratic passwords with the nice lady who answered the phone and within 15 minutes we had this guy’s voting record.

Sure ’nuff, both he and his wife were voting twice.  In Texas that was a third degree felony. I’m sure Pennsylvania has laws against it, too.

Of course this was followed by lengthy lame excuses from the Republican District Attorney on why he wouldn’t prosecute. Here’s one of the last times I wrote about it. Boss put it on the front page of the newspaper.

Which, finally!, brings us to today. Hi, Cathy! Been missing you, Girlfriend.

One of former President Donald Trump’s favorite election conspiracists promised to find evidence of fraud, but instead diverted more than $1 million in donations to herself, her longtime partner, and an attorney.

Ah, she’s still grifting.

Think I ought to send her a “Been Missing You” card?

John Cornyn, who tries to stay out of Republican messes and tries to play more middle of the road than a white stripe, is a sneaky little devil.

To his credit, he does put on a good show. When he first ran for office in Texas, he had to convince regular Texans to vote for a guy who worked hard not to be a Texan.  So, he decided to dress like a cowboy. Within one year, he singlehandedly put fringe on the endanger species list.  I don’t think he ever wore a jacket that didn’t have fringe on it.

Well, John’s sneaking around again. Ya know Dr. Mehmet Oz, the Republican nominee for senate in Pennsylvania? Yeah, he’s sneaky, too. He lied about holding duel citizenship with the US and Turkey. He voted in the Turkish elections in 2018 and still has holdings there.

So, Oz and Cornyn have much in common.  Who do you think would spot this?  Yeah, Alfredo over at the Dairy Queen.

There ya go. John’s gonna support this rightwing, Trump-lovin’, snake oil salesman but he’s going to try to hide it where most folks never look.  Oz is going to spend his donor money and John’s donor money, but not one damn penny of his own.