There are two things that always get me when watching movies or reading books about the future. Of course, the comical thing is when they get things all wrong. “Back to the Future” told us of a turbulent time when cars flew, kids rode hover boards, and holograms were everywhere. Extremely weird stuff happened. Stuff like the Cubs winning the World Series. Well, that actually turned out to be true, but the other stuff was pure fantasy.

However, nothing quite compares when the crazy stuff predicted in stories of the past actually turns out to be eerily true. “1984” was meant to be a cautionary tale even back then. It chronicled the dangers of propaganda when the government became all powerful and no one was quite sure what was up and what was down.

A lie is still a lie even if it is repeated often. Yet, a lie is more easily believed the more often it is repeated. It seems that Donald Trump and the GOP are bound and determined to get you to believe whatever they would like you to believe on Hunter Biden. They are going to keep pushing that same story about the laptop until you finally believe it.

Of course, the fact that Hunter Biden had a laptop isn’t the lie. The fact that Biden has made deals where he has taken advantage of his father’s position is also not a lie. The idea that either of these two facts point to Biden as being the most corrupt president ever is the lie. The idea is not only false, but is laughable on its face.

Are Hunter Biden’s dealings problematic? I’m sure they are on some level. Nearly every president has had a brother, son, or wayward cousin they wish they could put a muzzle on and keep locked away for their own protection. Billy Carter and Roger Clinton were absolute embarrassments. Heck, George W. Bush was that embarrassment before he cleaned his act up. You’d have to settle for Neil Bush as the black sheep of that family.

Go back far enough and there is a stupid relative or friend that a president wish they didn’t have. Of course, depending on the president, these idiots either provided for temporary humiliation or were much more problematic. Of course, like in the case of Warren Harding, those scandals were much more about their own reaction than what their idiot relatives or friends did.

So, how is this situation any different? Well, on the first note, the people leveling the charge are so guilty it is not even funny. To accuse Hunter Biden of excessively profiting from the presidency or making shady deals is galling when compared to their own behavior. Heck, you could break it down by child and all of them made more combined than all presidential children in history. Ivanka and Jared Kushner probably did more than the others.

Even now, there are propagandists on Twitter trying to convince you that he and his children divested while Hunter Biden profited. Actual facts say otherwise. Repeat a lie often enough and it becomes truth for millions of people. Joseph Goebbels told us how the big lie works. “1984” told us too. Seeing Back to Future’s version of 2015 was hilarious enough. Seeing “1984” actually come to life is anything but hilarious.

Louis DeJoy, Trump’s appointee to Postmaster General is pretty much the last person who should be in that position except for maybe Screwy Louis Gohmert, who has his own issues.  Here’s why:

• DeJoy is a GOP mega donor and fundraiser, and in recent years gave $1.2 million to Trump’s campaign and $1.3 million to the RNC.  His wife is also a big donor and was state finance chair for GWB in North Carolina.  She landed the US ambassadorship to Estonia for her contributions during that time.
• DeJoy has serious conflicts with the Post Office.  He is heavily invested in businesses that compete with the Post Office, holding as much as $75 million in the stock of competitors, one in particular being the company that bought his own logistics company for over $600 million.
• DeJoy is being investigated for possible illegal political donations where he extracted large donations to Republicans from his employees, then reimbursed them through bonuses.

So it’s no surprise that he’s under fire after being nominated by Trump and then confirmed by a board of governors that is dominated by Trump appointees.  Historically, the Post Office was strictly non-partisan, including the board of governors, since it served all Americans.  In recent years, though, boards have been hyper-partisan, including the FEC and others.  Not to be naive, many mega donors are given cush positions in both Dem and Repub administrations after writing big checks; they get ambassadorships, committee seats, even cabinet positions, BUT, and it’s a big BUT, they all go away when their President vacates the WH.  Hence the problem.  Trump attempted, and in the case of DeJoy succeeded, in appointing partisan supporters to permanent staff positions.

Let’s be honest here; the Post Office has been a target for privatization by Republicans for decades.  Where else could you find a multi-billion market that has over 300 million Americans held hostage to it?  The independence of the Post Office has been whittled away for years, and the last nail in the coffin was driven in 2006 when the Congress required it to pre-fund 75 years of retiree health obligations.  There was no reason to do that except to make it permanently lose money so Republicans could demand that it be privatized to fix it after they broke it.

The problem here is that demanding that the Post Office be cashflow positive is just as silly as demanding that the defense department turn a profit.  It’s not set up that way.  Unlike Fedex and UPS, the Post Office is mandated to serve ALL Americans, which include those in sparsely populated areas of the country.  In fact, if you order anything delivered by Fedex or UPS and you live in a rural area, it’s most likely the Post Office will deliver that package.  Just try to drop off a Fedex package in Valentine Texas, population 217.  You can mail it, but you can’t Fedex it without driving over 35 miles to Van Horn.  Why?  Fedex can’t make money having a presence in Valentine.  The Post Office doesn’t (and shouldn’t) have that luxury.  The amazing thing, though, is that Valentine, and much of rural Texas, is serious Trump country.  They rabidly support the guy and his party who’s actively sabotaging their way of life.  Go figure.

The worst part of DeJoy being postmaster general is that he’s actively sabotaging the Post Office.  During the election, he slashed spending, shortened hours, took out sorting machines in busy hubs, and slashed personnel.  Add that to the challenges of the COVID outbreak, and within 3 months the Post Office was delivering over 80% of the mail late, much not at all.  Millions of packages were delayed, destroyed, or just plain lost.  I believe this effort was to undermine confidence in mail in voting, and in large part that worked.  Like many, I decided to return my mail in ballot and vote in person to make sure my vote counted.

There’s simply no excuse for a radical partisan like DeJoy to be within 100 miles from the Post Office, much less running it while shooting the finger to the Congress.  He’s cemented in, though, until Biden can get enough governors on the board to fire him.  That’s not good enough.  DeJoy should be immediately removed for conflicts of interest and gross mismanagement.  The fact that Biden (who, unlike Trump, plays by the rules) can’t fix this problem shows just how broken our government is, and it’s long past time to fix it.

Shockingly, the General Services Administration (GSA) issued a determination letter yesterday that the lease of the old post office in Washington, DC, now known as the Cheeto International Hotel, is VALID, even though it states in plain language in the lease that, “No … elected official of the Government of the United States … shall be admitted to any share or part of this Lease, or to any benefit that may arise therefrom…”   Stupidly, the letter hides behind the fact that Cheeto Jesus put this business in a trust.  Yes, it is in a trust – a revocable trust, run by his children.

The Daily Beast interviewed George Washington University Professor of Government Procurement Law Steven L. Schooner who said, “Not only is the conclusion unexpected and unpersuasive, as a matter of law, but, as a matter of policy, it is harmful to the integrity—and thus credibility—of GSA, the Presidency, and federal procurement process.” When asked how the GSA could come to the conclusion it did he gave a simple reason, “Spine-ectomy.”

So lets lay this out in plain language – the GSA employee who negotiated the contract, Kevin Terry, has just stated publicly that his boss’s boss, who is in clear, undeniable conflict of interest, is not actually in conflict of interest, even though he is the highest elected official in the land.  It’s basically “Nothing to see here, move along.”

If you had any doubt, this is what creeping corruption looks like.  We are becoming Russia, one lease at a time.

It’s a conflict, so he’s postponing to January, which is a conflict.

Every time I think of Cheeto Jesus as President of the United States, I throw up in my mouth a little bit.  As normal people understand, this bullying, bloviating, bitchy, baboonish, banal buffoon is manifestly unqualified to occupy the oval office, and that’s a huge problem with global consequences.  Hard to imagine though, and to make matters worse, is that there is a magnifier to this problem: his businesses.

Cheeto Jesus has multiple enterprises that come under the parent holding company, Cheeto Organization LLC.  Within the holdings are interests in real estate and other businesses in the US, Ireland, Canada, Brazil, Azerbaijan, Scotland, Dubai, and other countries.  His financial ties are tangled, but at least some of his debt is tied to the Bank of China.

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