No Way Out. No Way Out. No Way Out.

And so, after a lifetime of getting away with, well, EVERYTHING--rape, tax fraud, witness tampering, cheating sub-contractors, money laundering, cozying up to the MOB, lying about, well, EVERYTHING, strong arming everyone, and, of course, TREASON, TREASON, TREASON--Donald J. Trump finds his pendulous teats in a wringer.

This must come as a "yoog" shock to a career criminal.

Honestly, when you've skated away from serious charges your entire life, you must think of yourself as bullet proof.

The idea that you're finally going to face the music is incomprehensible. It's unbelievable! It just can't be!

But it's where Donald J. Trump now finds himself. 

Some of his enablers--the smarter ones--are falling all over themselves in the rush to turn on him.

He will face endless prosecutions.

With any luck, ALL of his assets will be RICOed.

And, fingers crossed, he will take at least 3 members of his immediate family, and many Republicans, with him.

These are all good things.

Now, were he Japanese, and honorable, he would, at this point, be at least considering seppuku. Melania would be happily sharpening the knife even as we speak. And the line to deliver the final coup de grace would be long, and giddy with anticipation.

Alas, he is neither Japanese nor honorable.

He is, instead, a toxic narcissist, who believes he is smarter than any lawyer or judge. Handsomer than any Hollywood star. Richer than Croesus. Braver than any soldier. Wiser than, well, ANYONE on the face of the earth. 

All of the bluster, all of the threats, all of the increasingly deranged posts on Truth Social, will fall on deaf ears. Full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

Jack Smith is knocking at the door, and only the craziest, hardcore MAGAts remain by Trump's side.

#SAD.

And so, for Donald J. Trump, there is No Way Out. No Way Out. No Way Out.

Vladimir Putin Completely Understands The Conservative Mind

First of all, Putin is not a socialist or a communist. Putin is a mobster. He is surrounded by a coterie of billionaire mobsters. They have stolen Russia's riches for years. And spread some of that wealth to like minded people all around the world.

Mobsters understand two things: power and money.

Fortunately for Vladimir, those are the two things that conservative politicians everywhere--but especially in the U.S. and Great Britain--understand.

I would venture to say that those are the only things that conservative politicians understand.

They certainly don't want to govern. Governing is hard work. It takes compromise, and often requires progress to be slow and incremental. It also requires explaining difficult solutions to hard problems to a bunch of simpletons.

These ideas are antithetical to the conservative mind. 

Much easier to rile up the simpletons with the "dog whistle du jour."

Which conservative "news" organizations are more than happy to amplify.

Then, when the simpletons are all worked up about ridiculous things, the conservative are free to a) get their hands on the Treasury, and b) pass tax cuts for their richest backers.  

That is the sum total of their governing. Everything else they do is designed to keep the simpletons in a constant state of rage..

Putin is thoroughly evil--but not stupid. (This may be the only thing that differentiates him from Trump, by the way.)

Recognizing the greed of conservative western politicians, he and his crew have been buying them up for years.

Throw in a bunch of completely amoral bankers, tax lawyers, and accountants, and you can begin to understand how we got to where we are.

Remember, it takes at least two willing parties to launder dirty money. 

And there has been no shortage of willing partners with their hands out, falling all over themselves to get a little of Putin and Company's money.

 

Is This Really A Good Idea?

Since we are being relentlessly urged by about a billion ads every day to BET ON SPORTS-it's fun-it's easy-everyone is doing it--perhaps we should take a deep breath and ask ourselves,

"Is this really a good idea?"

Because, and let's be brutally honest here, many (if not most) Americans are mathematically illiterate.

If you don't believe me, watch someone try to make change without an electronic aid of some kind. It's very entertaining. 

Things like probability theory, vigorish, odds formats, etc. are way beyond most people.

But even more important, in the long run, the house always ends up winning. That's why casinos have huge chandeliers, and dancing waters, free drinks, and Britney Spears appearing nightly in the Main Room. And you don't.

Regarding a casino's relationship with its customers, I'm reminded of a line from a W.C. Fields' movie. During a card game Fields is asked "Is this a game of chance?" He responds, "Not the way I play it, no." 

(By the way, it takes a real fucking idiot to bankrupt a casino. They are designed to make money, after all. Guess who bankrupted a couple of casinos? Yeah. Lil Donnie Trump. Probably too busy laundering some Russian's money to pay attention.)

Of course, now you don't even have to leave the comfort of your home to lose.  Forget the free drinks and dancing waters. Forget Britney Spears. Just pick up your cell phone and start placing bets!

You may win once. You may even win twice. But eventually you will lose. And lose. And lose again.*

I think they better add a couple of phone lines at Gamblers Anonymous.

To continually encourage people to get mixed up in this borders on madness.

And to use wealthy celebrities, who can afford to lose large sums, to encourage we commoners to get mixed up in this borders on the criminal.

But, what the hell? It's a free country and like they say, "a fool and his money will soon be parted". 

Even while seated in his Lazy Boy, with an energy drink in one hand, and a bowl of chips nearby.

*Sure, there are "professional" gamblers. They make a living at it. They study everything, every angle. It's their job, after all. But they lose, too, sometimes. And there are just a few of them in a nation of nearly 400 million people. You like those odds?

In Too Deep

There's an old saying attributed to Will Rogers, "if you find yourself in a hole, stop digging."

Apparently, the Republican Party never learned that lesson.

They continue to spread Trumpie the Clown's Big Lie.

They refuse to sanction an investigation into the insurrection on January 6th.

They encourage fake election "audits" in various states.

They keep lying....about everything.

These are all losing gambits.

And yet, they persist.

Why?

Because, like criminals everywhere, at some point they find themselves in too deep to stop.

For many years, the Goons on Parade party has been run like The Mob, complete with an omerta.

They've taken huge, yoog, amounts of money from various sources--including the Russian government. And people don't give you that much money and expect nothing in return, now do they?

They've undermined our alliances with our allies and encouraged our enemies.

Practically every Republican in Congress has been tainted. 

Practically every Republican in Congress is complicit.

Their crimes are so many, and so antithetical to American Democracy, that were they all exposed, the Republican Party would quite simply cease to exist.

There is no turning back from this sort of, oh, let's call it TREASON.

So, best to keep digging. Keep shoveling as much shit as they can, to try and confuse the issues. Keep bleating about "unity" and "bi-partisanship", words that to a Republican mean "keep doing what we say and no one gets hurt."

He Is The Real Hoax

One of the definitions of the word hoax is "a fraud".

You know, like a businessman who brags about his acumen, but in reality is a multiple bankrupt, who cheats his sub contractors at every turn, who has blown through the many hundreds of millions that he inherited, and has only survived by laundering money for Russian crooks.

A guy who brags about his "genius", but is obviously a halfwit. And that's probably being insulting to all the other halfwits.

The same guy claims to be an expert in many fields, including diplomacy, warfare, health care, weather, and finance, but when push comes to shove, he really doesn't know much about anything besides self-aggrandizement. That he's an expert in.

This extremely "manly" man buddies up to any dictator he encounters, fawning like a debutante on her first date, and then folds at the first sign of trouble.

In addition, he's the phoniest of "Christians", a racist, sexist, xenophobic twat, who spends his days lying about everything under the sun, and blaming others for his never ending list of failures.

The idea that this person is equipped to lead us through the rough times ahead is laughable. Tragic, but laughable.

That's the real hoax. A walking, talking, snake oil salesman masquerading as a President.

Weather Report

Is it wrong for me to hope that Hurricane Dorian changes course once again and wipes Mar-a-Lago off the face of the earth?

No. It is not.

I am, as all good Americans are, only thinking of our Dear Leader's best interests.

Traitor Don's Florida show place is full of what every good Republican calls "illegal aliens", working their hardest, and no doubt underpaid, for the Orange Pustule's benefit.

Traitor Don's constituents, the world famous MAGAts, hate "illegal aliens". I wouldn't want TD to find himself in an ethical conundrum. Dorian can solve that problem for him.

Also, this would be a perfect time for some good old insurance fraud. Traitor Don, always short on cash and with way too much media attention focused on Deutsche Bank, his preferred laundered Russian money source--oops, I meant preferred lender--could make a killing by doing what he does best: LYING.

And finally, scraping the ruins of Mar-a-Lago away would leave a nice piece of land for Traitor Don and his vile son-in-law, little Jared Kushner, to build some slums. Which is something that Jared has experience doing.

It's a win win.

"Just Saying Stuff"

This is how a columnist for a major American newspaper describes the moron masquerading as our President.

As a guy "just saying stuff."

This would be amusing...except that it isn't.

In the course of a few hours, the "stuff" Dipshit said included insulting any and all of the Jewish Americans who don't support him--which is the vast majority of Jewish Americans.

Then he insulted the Prime Minister of Denmark, a country that has supported, with troops, our, oh, let's call it an "adventure" in ISIS land. Because she wasn't "nice" to him when she declined to sell Greenland to us. All she said was that it was an "absurd" request. But Dipshit defines not nice as anything that isn't fawning obeisance, so no Dipshit visit to Denmark until they remember their manners. And maybe get a man as Prime Minister--Dipshit has trouble with any woman who isn't subservient.

Then he retweeted some other moron named Wayne Allyn Root, who had called Dipshit the "King of Israel", and the "Second Coming of God."

Then Dispshit called himself "the chosen one", because he is convinced, somewhere in that fetid pool of pus that is his brain, that he alone can negotiate with the Chinese. That laughter you hear is coming all the way from Beijing.

Then he reversed his position from just a few days earlier and folded on background checks, probably because the NRA reminded him how helpful they had been in using Russian money to support him during the last election. And using money from the Russians is near and dear to Dipshit's heart.

This is your President, a guy who just "says stuff". 

Without Firing A Shot

Time was when the chief strategic problem that we worried about in Europe was what would happen if the Soviet Union sent several tank battalions rushing through the Fulda Gap in Germany.

NATO would respond in force, all hell would break loose, there would be chaos throughout Western Europe, and given the amount of tactical nuclear weapons on the ground, possibly the beginning of the end of life on earth.

Of course, this never happened, except perhaps in the fever dreams of Tom Clancy.

Instead, using a more sophisticated method involving lots of money, women, blackmail, and the latest techniques in media manipulation, the Soviets, now going by the less threatening name "Russia", have managed to unleash chaos throughout the West without firing a shot.

Brexit, and all the other right wing "populist" movements in France, Hungary, and elsewhere that dot the continent like the pox, have been funded completely or in large part by the kleptocracy, founded by an old KGB agent, known as Putin Inc.

And let's not forget Putin's prime lapdog stooge, our own Traitor in Chief, whose empire was kept afloat all of these years by laundered Russian money, his election to the White House helped immeasurably by Russian bots, Russian hackers, even more Russian loot, and a handful of elected Republicans who consider treason a reasonable means to an end.

Turns out this was our Fulda Gap--amoral people who would literally do anything, including selling out their country, to win an election.

Without firing a shot.

I Know! Let's Run Government Like A Business!

This notion pops up periodically.

There is, in fact, at least one current candidate in Arizona who promises, if elected, to "run government like a business."

(Of course he's a Republican.)

And I wonder, as one does, what sort of business?

Like a Trump business, for example?

A business that lies and steals and cheats on its taxes? A business that discriminates against people of color?

A business that hires thieves, liars, fools, racists, sexists, homophobes, and outright imbeciles?

A business that can only turn a profit by money laundering for foreign criminals?

A business that is a world wide laughing stock?

A business that goes bankrupt and leaves working people holding the bag?

That sort of business?

That sort of government?

Because that's what we have right now.

And if you really, truly want more of that shit, then by all means vote for the "run government like a business" guy.

Nothing Is Ever Donald J. Trump's Fault

It is an amazing thing to reach the age of 70 without ever making a mistake.

All those bankruptcies? Other guys' fault.

The various marriages? Bitches be crazy.

Mob ties? Russian ties? Russian Mob ties? Other dubious foreign loans? Money laundering on an epic scale? Hey, that's just business, and no one is better at business than Donald J. Trump.

The most incompetent Presidency in modern times? Don't blame DonDon. It's just the wicked "fake news" media spreading lies to undermine a great man. The truth is that everything is great! 

Subvert the Constitution? Hire completely unqualified people for highly sensitive positions? Fire the man investigating you? Hey, if the President does it, it's not illegal. Nixon said that, and by golly that's good enough for Donald J. Trump. He is the President, after all.

To have lived all those years without ever having to be responsible for your actions must be wonderful.

Now, of course, somebody always has to pay for jaw dropping incompetence, sleaziness, crookedness, and outright thievery.

But it ain't Donald J. Trump!