Forgive me if I’ve told you this story before.  Years and years ago, my county bought new voting machines. Up until then, we voted scan-tron with paper ballots that could be hand counted if need be.

A lot of people who had lost money in a Coke machine weren’t too excited about computers with no paper trail and we raise a bunch of hell about there being no paper trail on the machines being considered.  So, the county commissioners called a big meeting for the makers of the three machines being considered to explain how the machine worked and how safe they were.

After they explained them all and allowed us to use them in real time, they asked us to vote on which one we liked best.  And how did they ask us to vote?  They handed us a pencil and paper.  Yeah, my point exactly. When I asked the geniuses on commissioner court why we weren’t voting on one of the machines, they replied, in that real sarcastic voice that county commissioners develop during their first month in office, that for sure someone would complain that the voting was rigged and they wanted proof.  Yeah, someone replied, and the important lesson we learned here today is ….

We are finally getting new machines with a paper trail mainly because it got too damn embarrassing to say to new voters, “It works just like a rotary phone.”

Anyway, I started this story to tell you that we got troubles.

Pete Buttigieg’s campaign sent a letter to the Nevada State Democratic Party on Sunday, alleging that there are “material irregularities pertaining to the process of integrating early votes into the in-person precinct caucus results” and asking the party to take three concrete steps to address the purported issues.

With Trump firing a guy who says that Russia is interfering with our election and hiring one to say, “Premier Trump assures us that’s not happening,” I’m probably not the only one with a wary look on my face.

Look, I don’t think Bernie Sanders stole that election, and no matter what Chris Matthews says, I think it was legit.  (By the way, don’t watch Chris Mathews – he’s a bore and you should be eating dinner with your family or good music or something.) But, this stuff is not helping anybody get excited about voting.

Give us a pencil and some paper and let us vote.

Dana Rohrabacher is baaaaaack.

He says that he most certainly did speak with wikileaks’ Julian Assange at the Ecuadorian Embassy in August of 2017 and offered him a presidential pardon in exchange for Assange saying that Russia had nothing to do with the leaked Hillary emails.

HOWEVER, ever the true Trumpian and Putinite, Rohrabacher says he only really discussed it with John Kelly and that he reported it back to Kelly.  Well, that’s fortunate, because I’m sure Kelly can’t remember anything about it.

Yeah, I looked into the timing.  Kelly came on July 31st and left the following January. So, he was fresh on the job when Rohrabacher called to report back.

Roger Stone got 40 months.

U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson said Stone “took it upon himself to lie, to impede, to obstruct before the investigation was complete, in an endeavor to influence the result.”

“The truth still exists, the truth still matters. Roger stone insisted that it doesn’t,” Jackson said as Stone stood expressionless next to his three defense attorneys.

Three years and three months.  He can go home until the judge makes a decision on a new trial.

I think that’s a fair sentence for a man his age.

I didn’t see a disaster.  I saw some feisty people willing to fight for their beliefs.  I saw passion, and the ability to take on Donald Trump.

I saw Elizabeth Warren take home Bloomberg’s winkie in her pocket last night, showing why he was letting his money talk instead of his mouth.  His snappy comeback about Turbo Tax was an insult to most of America, and his reasoning for not releasing his taxes was the same as Donald Trump – he hadn’t had time.  Good Lord, he’s been talking about running since last summer and if he hasn’t had his people going over his taxes with a fine tooth comb, he’s an idiot.  I could give you my tax returns in an afternoon and most of that time would be spent figuring out if the paper went into the copy machine face up or face down and whether it should point east or west in the feeder.

I grinned at the vandalism on Wikipedia after the debate last night.

I grinned at the vandalism on Wikipedia after the debate last night.  (It’s a shame they got the date wrong – 2019 instead of 2020 – but I figure they were pretty much in a hurry.)

Amy Klobuchar showed she’s got game. She wasn’t going to stand down to anybody, including Warren.

I thought Joe did Joe very well and looked stronger than in other debates.  I saw Bernie even smile last night.

Y’all, don’t buy into the line that Democrats hurt themselves last night.  I think they showed they care about stuff and are willing to fight for it.

I had an acquaintance call me last night during one of the commercials and tell me, “I just can’t watch it because of all the negativity.”  God help me, I replied, “I’m sorry I can’t listen to you because of all the negativity about the negativity. Go watch the Hallmark channel. It’s fiction and no one’s life depends on it, but you’ll be much happier.”

Find which person you think would knee cap Donald Trump.  Vote for them.

This ain’t gonna be pretty.

Okay, so Julian Assange’s lawyer is talking.

An attorney for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange alleged in court Wednesday that President Trump offered a pardon to Julian Assange if he would deny any Russian involvement in the Democratic National Committee (DNC) hack in 2016.

This is a hearing where Assange is fighting extradition to the United States for trial where Assange could face up to 18 charges, including conspiracy to commit computer intrusion.

The lawyer added that the message was sent through ex-congressman Dana Rohrabacher.

Trump’s press secretary issued the usual never-met-the-guy line.

“The President barely knows Dana Rohrabacher other than he’s an ex-congressman. He’s never spoken to him on this subject or almost any subject. It is is a complete fabrication and a total lie. This is probably another never ending hoax and total lie from the DNC,” Grisham said in a statement.

Rohrabacher was known as “Putin’s best friend in congress” so the idea that Trump barely knew him is … well, insane.

When he retired from congress in 2018, the Washington Post did a column that now looks like they had a crystal ball into the development of Trump’s nationalism.  So, not only did Trump know him, Rohrabacher probably ordered the peeing hookers.

Hey, I’m gonna watch the debate tonight.