A Poem: A Box of Christmas Memories

Ends and Beginnings

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A tree stands in a room filled with lights and trinkets of the past

Ornaments on display refresh our memory of glitter and glue

Gifts of first graders proudly offered to mothers everywhere

Intermingled with shiny objects collected at vacation gift shops

Trips and travel that remind us of the busy years of children

This timeline fills my spirit of Christmases old and Holidays new

Stored in a box and released once a year from their bondage of dust

Thirty days of memories, thirty days of evergreen and candles

Sugar cookies, and cinnamon, the rich smells of Christmas

And at the stroke of midnight the year fades, and the tree crumbles

Needles fall on the empty skirt where presents once laid

The lights come down, and the memories are wrapped in tissue

Stored in their boxes in a cold attic for their dusty slumber

We will wait for the leaves…

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This wouldn’t happen if Trump was still president

Every morning when I get to the office at 7 am I type the word “Trump” in the Twitter search bar. I do it for a very different reason today than I did 3 years ago. During his “presidency” I wanted to make sure he hadn’t pressed the blow-up Mexico button on his desk instead of the bring me a diet coke button. Today I do it to laugh.

You see today Twitter is filled with MAGA characters who spend all day, everyday, telling the world how fucked America is because Donald J. Trump isn’t sitting in the White House like he is supposed to be if the 2020 election hadn’t been stolen from him. We also hear a lot about how Trump would be solving all of our problems, inflation, high gas and grocery prices, that weird little rash you have in your armpit, that smell you can’t find in your refrigerator, if he were still president, which he is, but again, the 2020 election was stolen from him.

The continuing sad part of this equation is how many people still think this fucked-up piece of shit is their lord and savior. I mean heck, down in Georgia, Raphael Warnock beat Herschel Walker by less than 100,000 votes. Think about that. Walker spent his time on the campaign trail talking about vampires and werewolves, our good air going to China, or a bull in a pasture trying to figure out how to bust through a fence to screw some other cows. Real important stuff. But if it weren’t for metro areas like Atlanta, Savannah, and Augusta, we would have six years of Senator Herschel “the doctor said I had dain bramage” Walker. Six years!

GOP leaders, in obvious hindsight, are saying, quietly I might add, that having Herschel as a candidate was a mistake. Who’s mistake? We know who but the GOP isn’t ready to say his name out loud just yet. I wonder, was Dr. Oz a mistake too? But again, Walker only lost by less than 100,000 votes. There are counties in northern Georgia. lily white counties, where Walker got 80-85% of the votes. I mean holy crap, this guy was a semi-literate train wreck from day one getting 85% of the vote? Oh, wait a minute Trump is a semi-literate train wreck, MAGA as a whole is a semi-literate train wreck, I get it now.

There is an article coming out that the political handlers hired by Walker prior to his announcing his candidacy did their opposition research to see what hurdles he would have to deal with on the campaign trail. This research is supposed to uncover all the skeletons candidates have in their closet. The results for Walker? 500 pages. In two weeks, a report was put together filled with possible business scandals, controversial quotes, allegations of domestic violence and other bizarre behavior. Living so close to Georgia, and following Walker’s career as I have, I remember several of the “bizarre behavior” episodes.

Once the campaign started and more shit started hitting the fan, Walker’s staff did another deep dive and found another 200 pages they had to deal with. But even after allegations of paying for abortions, children unaccounted for earlier in the campaign, domestic violence, pointing guns at women’s heads and a son who basically called his dad worthless Walker still almost won, just 100,000 votes short.  

Walker was The Donald’s hand picked celebrity candidate. The two have a long history together dating back to 1983 when Don drafted Walker out of college to play for his NJ Generals football team in the now defunct USFL. They also share an interest in domestic violence, cheating on spouses, multiple marriages, and making babies. Yes, both are real renaissance men (which also happens to be the name of Walkers fried chicken company).     

As I have written before, the GOP and MAGA are headed for a showdown, a meltdown, hell a hoe down. We will get a taste of it as Kevin McCarthy tries to secure the speaker’s position in congress. Will MAGA continue to win district races? Probably, rural, dumb as a bag of rocks, “Christian”, white people still love them some Donald. Hell, that voted for a black man that sells fried chicken. They will do whatever The Donald tells them to do. But I don’t see MAGA taking back the Senate and I certainly don’t see The Donald or a Donald like candidate taking the White House again. Moderation is going to be the key here, not bat shit crazy because the majority of Americans, like me, are exhausted with bat shit crazy.

It’s funny to read all the crazy crap in the morning on twitter but this cult of red heat wearing morons have proven that they will take-up arms and storm the castle for their dear supreme ruler. I confident we will see more acts of domestic terrorism in the name of Trump and MAGA in the coming months, maybe even years like the power substation attack in Moore County, NC. MAGA can’t win so they will disrupt and destroy. Sounds like a page out of the Donald J. Trump playbook.  

“Today is December 9th and Donald John Trump is the real president of the United States!” – Ultra MAGA Joyce Day (she tweets this everyday)              

The po-po is chasing him

“He’s running for the same reason every shirtless guy on ‘Cops’ runs — the po-po is chasing him.” – Trevor Noah

If President Trump continues this tone and delivers this message on a consistent basis, he will be hard to beat. His speech tonight, contrasting his policies and results against the Biden Administration, charts a winning path for him in the primaries and general election. As we listen to President Trump remind us of what is possible regarding our borders, economy, and national security, it is my hope that he will continue to focus on the solutions that he offered tonight to restore a broken America. – Lindsey Graham tweet (11-15-22)

Tonight, as you watch an orange-smeared circus clown gear up to take another stab at ending our democracy, remember this: when the Republican Party had a choice between Trump or America, they chose Trump over and over again. – The Lincoln Project tweet (11-15-22)

Did you watch it? I didn’t. I watched two exciting episodes of The Great British Bake Off instead of watching the orange clown sniffle his way through a Stephen Miller written teleprompter speech about the “the blood-soaked streets of our once-great cities”.

Frump announced his third candidacy for one reason and one reason only, so that he can label all the lawsuits and investigations he is at the center of as politically motivated. The truth is “the po-po is chasing him”. Apparently, he even called himself a victim, “I’m a victim. I will tell you. I’m a victim” which certainly sets the stage for his public relations defense (he has no other defense) because we all know he will do everything possible to keep from testifying and keep his fat orange ass out of prison.

But I don’t want to focus on Frump, because quite honestly as George Conway noted “He was always going to run. His narcissism, his megalomania, his delicate yet illimitable ego, would have it no other way.” No, I want to talk about my senator, Ms. Lindsey Graham.

You see, I remember what Frump accomplished which was other than stacking the Supreme Court and giving the top ten wealthiest people in America an incredible, debt increasing, tax break…. nothing, he accomplished nothing. And the thing is Ms. Graham knows this. She has had moments of clarity, moments where she attempted to grow a spine but then something happened, and she backed down and got back on MAGA train.

Conventional wisdom assumes that Frump has something nasty in his back pocket that he is holding over Ms. Graham’s head. It’s possible. We here in South Carolina presume that Lindsey is a gay man without a key to his closet and please I have nothing against gay men or women. I count both as family friends and co-workers and I understand how Lindsey, steeped in Southern Baptist tradition, would want to keep that hidden. He is a man that my grandmother would have called a confirmed bachelor, “probably queer but keeps his queer to himself”.

But I would have hoped by now that even MAGA would be progressive enough to embrace a confirmed bachelor. I mean hell, they have welcomed Herschel Walker into their ranks, a black man who checks off all the stereotypical MAGA boxes, why wouldn’t they accept Ms. Graham? It’s a rhetorical question, we know why.   

Ms. Graham is 67 years old and has been a senator for almost 20 years. He is not a rich man, hell he doesn’t even make the top 50 list of the wealthiest people in the Senate and the House (in case you are wondering Rick Scott is the wealthiest with an estimated net worth of $260 million). He gets paid about $175,000.00 a year, has a great benefits and pension package headed his way, and oh yea, he is powerful. POWERFUL and he doesn’t want to give that up. So, who can blame him for hiding his sexuality and kissing a lot of orange ass? Me.      

Democracy Held Once Again

Way back in 1912 former president Theodore Roosevelt lost the presidential nomination of the Republican Party to incumbent president William Howard Taft. Roosevelt formed a third party called The Progressive Party which was also referred to as the Bull Moose Party. Roosevelt and Taft basically split the Republican vote in half giving the presidency to Democrat Woodrow Wilson.

Why am I sharing this history lesson with you? Because a year from now, Ronald Frump will not be the Republican nominee for President and rather than endorse and support whoever the candidate is he will start his own party, The MAGA Party (placeholder) and split the Republican vote just like Roosevelt did back in 1912.

Now would this make me sad? Oh, hell no, I will buy an extra-large tub of popcorn and gladly watch the bloodbath that will ensue. Frump has already destroyed the Grand Old Party. I mean look at its “stars”, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Matt Gaetz, Lauren Boebert, Jim Jordan, Ted Cruz, and Ron Johnson. All hateful, racist, “Christian” trash who view Frump’s arrival in biblical terms. The midterms proved that the GOP is already split in half. Frump will happily finish it off just to keep the money rolling in.   

You see Ronald doesn’t care about Making America Great Again, Ronald cares about keeping his orange ass out of jail and convincing all those white rednecks that support him to keep sending him their cigarette and beer money. This is about the grift for the entire Frump family. Being President was nothing more than a license to steal from the very beginning. The Frump crime family used their “connections” and I believe we will soon discover illegal access to American security intelligence to get cash from foreign countries like Saudi Arabia, Russia, Qatar, and China.

Do you think the Saudi crown prince gave Jared Kushner $2 billion dollars because he thought Ivanka’s fake tits were hot? No, the Frump family got the money for not making a big fuss about the Saudis killing and chopping up Washington Post reporter Jamal Khashoggi. The evidence was very clear that the Saudi crown prince ordered the execution. Shit there is video evidence of Khashoggi going into a building, and Saudi thugs coming out with trash bags leaving no trace of Khashoggi. Frump’s response at the time; “It could very well be that the crown prince had knowledge of this tragic event — maybe he did and maybe he didn’t! We may never know all of the facts surrounding the murder of Mr. Jamal Khashoggi. In any case, our relationship is with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.” End of story, where is our check?

It would have been my hope that by this time Frump’s MAGA sheep would have figured out his con by now. But they haven’t I guess for the same reason that Kenneth Copeland, Joel Osteen, Jim Bakker, and Jimmy Swaggart still rake in millions selling Jesus to the masses on television.

When my mother was settling the estate of her grandmother, a woman that received a very small monthly social security check and had no other possessions other than the clothes in her closet, she found years of cancelled one- and five-dollar checks written weekly to PTL, televangelists Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker tv program. My mom thought about going through the checks and adding them all up but gave up because of the sheer number of them.

I can only assume Jim and Tammy Faye filled a hole in her life, not only entertainment but an escape. Here were two clean-cut, Christian people that God had blessed with both wealth and celebrity, a life she never had or would ever have. She died before it all came crashing down on the Bakker’s.

That’s what Ronald Frump delivers for the MAGA lemmings. He fills a hole in the life of Joe six-pack, who saw himself as powerless until Frump came on the scene. Now he is part of a club, a cult if you will, that has numbers, perceived power, and a leader willing to stick it to the man with some mean tweets. But like Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, Frump isn’t who MAGA thinks he is. Yes, he is rich (we think). Yes, he is famous (just ask him). But he is also a crook, a cheat, weak, a loser, dumb as a bag of rocks and truly fucked-up.

At this point MAGA and way too many still in the GOP will follow him over the cliff. They have had every opportunity to get away from him, but they can’t. For whatever reason, despite all the lies and the evidence presented (and the evidence they claim to have but just can’t find it) they keep drinking the Kool-Aid. How much longer do we have? Diabetes, lung cancer, cirrhosis of the liver and heart attacks will whittle down the MAGA throng in the coming years just like COVID did. Frump in an orange jumpsuit should help but then he becomes a martyr for the lunatic fringe.  

Is he still a menace to our democracy? Sure, he continues to support and encourage people to tear down what he lost, can’t have and I doubt will ever get again. But the one thing he doesn’t have, which makes me sleep better at night, is the code to start a nuclear war. If you must remind people that you are a “stable genius”, which he did again today, chances are you aren’t, and we all know he isn’t.       

Vote like your life depends on it

“Let’s say you’re at the airport and you see Mr. Walker and you say, ‘Hey, there’s Herschel Walker, Heisman winner, let’s have him fly the plane.’ You probably wouldn’t say that. You would want to know; does he know how to fly an airplane? Seems to me he is a celebrity who wants to be a politician and we’ve seen how that goes. Or let’s say you go to the hospital, and you say, ‘That Walker guy, he sure could tear it up at Sanford Stadium. Give him a scalpel.’ You wouldn’t say that. You’d ask — at least, I would — ‘Has he done surgery before?’” – Former President Barack Obama

“I wouldn’t let him fly the plane either. But I can promise you, if they see me and Barack Obama standing there, they’d probably pick me to fly the plane. My résumé against his résumé, I’ll put it up any time of the day” – Herschel Walker

In South Carolina, and I am sure in your state too, GOP candidates and the PAC’s that support them are running ads that the Democrats will defund all police departments, bring in busloads of Mexicans to live in your neighborhood, use your tax dollars for turning boys into girls, and girls into boys, fill school library’s with pornographic books, force every living creature including Fluffy your cat to get a COVID vaccine, open up free abortion clinics, and oh lord, take away your AK-47, your M-16 machine gun and QBZ-95 assault rifle. Yes, the Democrats plan on destroying America by taking away your freedoms, hiring more IRS agents, letting the FBI tap your phone, close your church (except for mosques and synagogues), burn your bible, and ban Jesus Christ.

But here is the thing, in all the ads that are running for the GOP the one crucial thing that is missing is this, a plan, that’s because Republicans don’t have one. To paraphrase the marvelous quote from the movie American President, the GOP wants to make you afraid of it, and tell you who’s to blame for it. That’s it. They want to paint a bleak picture for white, conservative, gun loving, racist, Christians, that their flag waving, God worshiping, apple pie eating days are over if the Democrats stay in power. That’s the message plain and simple. No plan for the economy. No plan for the environment. No plan for the cost of health care or prescription drugs. If the Democrats control our government the Jews will be in charge, Muslims will rape your daughters, and Mexicans will steal your job.

I started this post off with a quote from Obama about Georgia senate candidate Herschel Walker and Mr. Walker’s rebuttal. Once upon a time I thought that Ronald Frump was the most ill prepared human being to ever run for public office. Mr. Walker is a very close second. What Frump and Walker have in common is both are unable to tell the truth, both live in an imaginary world, both have severe mental health issues, both are celebrities and both are legends in their own minds.

I would love to see Walker debate Obama about anything, pick a topic. Barack is an intellectual giant and Walker is a mental midget that once upon a time could run fast carrying a loaf of bread. Just to give you a small sampling of Walker’s mental capacity below are his “thoughts” about the Green New Deal:

“So, what we do is we’re going to put, from the ‘Green New Deal,’ millions or billions of dollars cleaning our good air up. So, all of a sudden China and India ain’t putting nothing in there – cleaning that situation up. So, all with that bad air, it’s still there. But since we don’t control the air, our good air decide to float over to China, bad air. So, when China gets our good air, their bad air got to move. So, it moves over to our good air space. And now we’ve got to clean that back up.”

SO, it sounds like he has it all figured out. Right?

Ladies and gentlemen, the bottom line is this, VOTE next to Tuesday. Vote like your life depends on it. Vote like your children and grandchildren’s life depends on it. The only party that wants to take away your rights and freedoms. The only party that wants to control your life are the Republicans and they are okay with using lies, deceit, and violence to do it.    

A Charade and Witch Hunt

“This memo is being written to express our anger, disappointment, and complaint that with all of the hundreds of millions of dollars spent on what many consider to be a Charade and Witch Hunt, and despite strong and powerful requests, you have not spent even a short moment on examining the massive Election Fraud that took place during the 2020 Presidential Election, and have targeted only those who were, as concerned American Citizens, protesting the Fraud itself.” – Ronald J. Frump

This long ass sentence is just a portion of the 14-page “memo” Ronald J. Frump sent to Rep. Bennie Thompson, after the January 6^th Committee subpoenaed Ronald to come tell his side of the story yesterday, confront the evidence against him and answer questions all under oath. Now you and I both know that there isn’t a snowball’s chance in hell that Ronald is going to swear to a God he doesn’t believe in and tell the truth. Remember Frump pleaded the Fifth more than 440 times during his deposition in New York which is investigating whether the Frump Organization violated banking, insurance, and tax laws and if it engaged in financial fraud. The one question he did answer was his name and there is no reporting as to whether he answered that correctly.

I promise you in the coming days and weeks we will hear from Ronald affirming that he is ready, willing, and able to testify before the January 6^th Committee, provided of course they give him a primetime slot (see his comment below). He will crow about how strongly and powerful his testimony will be. He will boast that the world will have never heard such an amazing, and unbelievable testimony like his will be. Then he will let us know that many powerful, and successful people have encouraged him, please sir, to testify to save our country from the radical left. And then we will hear crickets.

The excuses of why he can’t or won’t testify will be as varied as a bag of jellybeans. But the ultimate and honest reason is this, Frump knows he is lying. He also knows that the “Big Lie” is the best money-making scheme he has ever come up with and besides, the GOP or some other political PAC is paying all his legal bills, using the nickels, dimes and quarters sent in by the white trash, MAGA horde who think their money is going to support MAGA friendly candidates. It’s not.

MSNBC had some historians on the other day talking about how Frump’s tenure will play out in history. Its not good. What happened on January 6^th and Frump’s involvement and encouragement is the perfect conclusion of what was an otherwise disastrous four-year term. As you can imagine Frump has already made many of the recent worst presidents list and in all of the ones I have seen, he is in the bottom five with a bunch of old ass guys like James Buchanan (1857-1861), Andrew Johnson (1865-1869), and Franklin Pierce (1853-1857). The most recent worst, besides Frump, is Herbert Hoover (1929-1933). Hell despite all of Nixon’s troubles he is typically not in the worst top ten column. He does get a dishonorable mention in one poll I looked at.

My point is this, almost 200 years later we don’t think much about Buchanan, Johnson, or Pierce today. I don’t know why they were shitty presidents, but I am sure historians have their reasons. The generation that experienced the Depression are now in their 90’s and 80’s and probably still have hard feelings about Herbert Hoover, my dad does. But what will really haunt Frump for the rest of his life and continue to destroy his already hideous legacy is the modern-day media trail that he has left behind for all to see and read, books, tweets, and television coverage. Historians 100 years from now won’t have to prove that he is and was an idiot, Frump will take care of that for them, just watch the tape.

I don’t know who said this first, but it remains true today, “When Frump’s lips are moving, he’s lying”. As I have written before, I can’t imagine that there was another human being more ill prepared for the job of being President of the United States of America than Ronald J. Frump. His list of failures, and it is an extensive list, should have been our first clue. Frump Steaks, Frump Vodka, Frump Magazine, Frump University, Frump Network. Should I continue? And the next Frump venture predicted to sink like the Titanic, Truth Social.

My kids asked me once how Frump happened? The answer is simple, rather than holding their nose and voting for Hillary Clinton, people just didn’t vote. They figured how much trouble could this clown get us into? Well, we got our answer back in spades. What people didn’t know then that they certainly know now is that this clown, this cartoon character, is a mentally ill sociopath (consistently shows no regard for right and wrong and ignores the rights and feelings of others). He doesn’t give a shit about anybody but himself and he never will.

So, Mr. & Mrs. MAGA know this very simple truth, the minute you quit sending Ronald J. Frump money. The minute you quit buying his hats and t-shirts. The minute you quit going to his rallies. And the minute you vote for someone other than who he tells you to vote for no matter how moronic they are (Herschel Walker), you are dead to him, a RINO. It is too late for you to save face but maybe not to late to tell your grandchildren that you fucked up.  

“Despite very poor television ratings, the Unselect Committee has perpetuated a Show Trial the likes of which this Country has never seen before. There is no Due Process, no Cross-Examination, no “real” Republican members, and no legitimacy since you do not talk about Election Fraud or not calling up the troops. It is a Witch Hunt of the highest level, a continuation of what has been going on for years. You have not gone after the people that created the Fraud, but rather great American Patriots who questioned it, as is their Constitutional right. These people have had their lives ruined as your Committee sits back and basks in the glow.” – Ronald J. Frump             

Hurricanes: The definition of insanity

You want to help world hunger? Stop sending them food. Don’t send them another bite, send them U-Hauls. Send them a guy that says, “You know, we’ve been coming here giving you food for about 35 years now and we were driving through the desert, and we realized there wouldn’t BE world hunger if you people would live where the FOOD IS! YOU LIVE IN A DESERT!! UNDERSTAND THAT? YOU LIVE IN A FUCKING DESERT!! NOTHING GROWS HERE! NOTHING’S GONNA GROW HERE! Come here, you see this? This is sand. You know what it’s gonna be 100 years from now? IT’S GONNA BE SAND!! YOU LIVE IN A FUCKING DESERT! We have deserts in America, we just don’t LIVE in them, assholes!– Sam Kinison

I was listening to the news yesterday and they interviewed a lady who had lived in Florida for 50 years. Apparently, the ladies house had been reduced to matchsticks by Hurricane Ian. She was recounting that this was the fifth or sixth Hurricane she had dealt with and the second time her home had been destroyed.

This lady was complaining that the Federal Government wasn’t being responsive enough to her needs. She also noted that FEMA was focusing too much attention on the Cape Coral/Fort Myers area rather than where she lived, which I don’t recall the name, because those areas were more affluent.

She was angry, she was emotional, and she was discouraged, which I get. The lady had just lost her home, for the second time. I honestly cannot imagine how she feels. Losing my home once would have been enough for me to rethink my geographic residential choices. But as she was talking all I could think about was the late, great, Sam Kinison skit above, YOU LIVE IN A FUCKING DESERT!

I am sure, if you like the ocean, heat, humidity, sand, bugs, and Frump supporters, Florida is an absolute paradise. But in my very humble opinion, if you are going to live in Florida or any other coastal community you should have to sign a waiver that stipulates that you understand the risk you are accepting and you are not going to go on television and bitch that FEMA hasn’t brought you a cold bottle of water.

Just so you know this flatlander understands the power of a hurricane, 33 years ago Hurricane Hugo hit the coast of South Carolina. It made landfall just north of Charleston in a little fishing village called McClellanville. In the early morning hours of September 22, 1989, McClellanville was hit with 140 mph winds and a 16-foot storm surge. My wife and I saw the aftermath of Hugo in McClellanville two weeks later when we travelled to her family’s beach house built with the best “Hurricane Construction Knowledge” available in the mid 1980’s.

The only way I can describe what I saw is that it looked like an atomic bomb of wind and water was dropped on this picturesque community. Even two weeks later people were still walking around dazed. It was very sad. My in-laws beach house (which they have since sold) suffered minimal damage, torn screens and a few shingles blown off. But the house directly in front of them, a classic 1940’s SC beach house was gone, gone! No rubble, no wood, no nothing, just the telephone pole piers in the ground.

I guess I can understand the appeal of living on the coast. Personally, I like to visit the beach occasionally (a week is my limit) but I have zero interest in owning a home on a piece of sandy soil dealing with hurricanes, beach erosion, or rising ocean levels estimated to be about one inch every three years. It is, and will continue to be, a very risky investment and one that when I get my annual homeowners insurance renewal I help pay for. Yes, ladies and gentlemen we all share the insurance companies’ “burden” of having to payout claims to rebuild homes, and other property destroyed by hurricanes. Don’t believe me? Ask your insurance agent.

I am sorry that people lost their lives, their homes, their belongings, their cherished memories, but remember, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. You can rebuild but the risk remains the same. It is a scientific fact that today’s storms are bigger, badder, and more powerful and they aren’t going away. YOU LIVE IN A FUCKING DESERT!

The coming civil war

There is a guy riding around my community in a piece of shit pick-up truck with a FUCK BIDEN bummer sticker on it. This moron has made two construction paper signs with a sharpie and taped them to the back of his truck. The first sign reads: FBI & DOJ Acting like the Gestapo. And the second: Biden Govt must be taken out by any means!  

When I saw a man coming out of Publix’s I knew he was headed for that truck. White, late sixties, dirty t-shirt and jeans. Yes, he fit the MAGA profile to the T. As he passed me, sneering at my Make America Grateful Again t-shirt, I thought to myself, this is the guy that is going to take out the government by any means? A well hit 9-iron in the nuts would drop this skinny piece of shit to his knees.

I am not on social media, but I have family members that are and what they are telling me is that there is a lot of chatter about a CIVIL WAR coming particularly if Ronald J. Frump gets arrested. Even my senator, that delicate southern belle, Ms. Lindsey Graham recently said that “If there’s a prosecution of Donald Trump for mishandling classified information, after the Clinton debacle…there’ll be riots in the streets.” I am sorry, what is the “Clinton debacle”? That MAGA rallying cry “But her emails” and “Lock her up”?

If you will recall, another “peach” of a South Carolina politician, the dude with the weird hair, and oily skin Republican Trey Gowdy chaired the committee that grilled Clinton for 11 hours on national television. In the end the REPUBLICAN led house published the 800-page Benghazi Report that found NO new evidence of wrongdoing by Hillary Clinton ending a two-year, $7 million dollar investigation.

The “But her emails” fiasco was about Hillary using her personal, unsecured email for official government business, something that both Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner admitted to doing after they were caught. The 800-page Benghazi Report didn’t find that Hillary’s use of her personal email put our national security at risk. It was a bad choice but that’s it. Just to make it more tantalizing for MAGA, Frump dangled the carrot of missing emails, acid washed hard drives, etc., even asking Russia to jump in to help him find them, and boy did Russia jump in.

Anyway, Frump’s precious Mar-a-Lago Club was raided by the FBI after being given ample opportunity and time, “Pretty Please Ronald”, to return all the documents he had stolen. But he didn’t, and he lied about still having any and the “Gestapo” had to rifle through Melania’s panties drawer. Honestly Ronald was probably jealous someone got to see something of Melania’s he hasn’t seen in years.

I don’t know anything about how files are classified. I have read that some of the stolen documents recovered have the highest level of classification available which also includes that they can only be viewed in a room called a SCIFs, Sensitive Compartmented Information Facilities referred to as a “skiffs”. How Ronald got those in his suitcase we may never know.

Last night the Washington Post reported that one of the stolen files recovered contained information about a foreign nation’s nuclear capabilities. There are only eight declared nuclear powers in the world, and the ninth undeclared one is Israel. Do you think Saudi Arabia would be interested in Israel’s nuclear capabilities? Sounds like a nice down payment on a $2 billion investment from the Saudis to me.

I have no clue how this is going to play out. It sounds like Ronald is in some hot water on several fronts, but he is a slippery and slimy fuck. If a civil war is imminent, if there will be “riots in the streets” as Ms. Graham noted I say bring it. Let’s clear the air. Let’s put Frump and MAGA down so our children and grandchildren can live a grateful life with grateful people rather than the hate and craziness Frump incites to line his pockets.

Love letters to the King

Driving down the mountain, listening to MSNBC my wife asked, “Why would Frump steal those documents?” Sounds like a rhetorical question, right? Honestly there are probably a multitude of reasons with several of them being criminal. But my guess is the number one reason Ronald took, what has turned out to be a treasure trove of top-secret documents with him down to Florida was to satisfy his narcissistic ego.

You see, Frump is no longer the King, or the Emperor. Yes, he still refers to himself as “President” as do his MAGA sycophants, but the hard cold truth is he will never enjoy the trappings of being a “Former” because he was such a shitty “Current”. There are no world leaders calling or visiting him. He is not being invited to speak at events that don’t include the My Pillow Guy. Hell Biden wisely yanked his security clearance because he knew this fat orange blob couldn’t keep a secret if his life depended on it.

Yes, he still holds sway over millions of people who worship him. Yes, he is still the cult of personality for white, nationalist, many who claim to be “Christians”, but I am convinced he will never be president again. He doesn’t have that kind of majority influence. He is a cartoon character, a clown. He has always been a clown and when he dies, he will be remembered as a clown. History will not be kind to him, nor will it be kind to the people who stood by his side, terrified of crossing him.   

Frump took those documents to prove to anyone that ever questioned him that once upon a time he was important and he has the top-secret folders, and the love letters from Kim Jong-un to prove it, “Want to see them?” We have all seen the videos of him entering the breakfast bar at Mar-a-Lago and getting a standing ovation as he dines alone at his table with the gold ropes encircling it. It is a pathetic scene manufactured to make him feel powerful and important.  

There are many in the media that believe Frump took the documents so that he could monetize them. I don’t think he is that smart. Now there are probably others in his circle, Jared Kushner using a few secrets as collateral to secure a $2 billion “investment” from Saudi Arabia for instance, that might have seen the value of sharing them for little cash. But I am convinced Ronald just wanted the files as a reminder of who he once was, a twice impeached, one term loser.

The vast majority of American’s want to see this piece of shit in an orange jumpsuit locked-up in a federal penitentiary. Will it happen? Hard to say. Some how Frump has skated through life avoiding prison like The Teflon Don, John Gotti did for so long. But remember Gotti eventually did go and died in prison with the FBI noting “The Teflon is gone. The don is covered with Velcro, and all the charges stuck.”

Frump has a lot shit piling up in front of him. Between what is happening in Georgia, New York, and the January 6^th Committee, stealing these documents might just be the icing on the cake, the thing that takes him down. Would we imprison a former president? Frump likes it when he is the “first” at something so maybe we can help him with this “first”. Lindsey Graham said on Newsmax recently that “Trump is too old to go to jail.” Obviously, I disagree. I think federal prison, in solitary confinement, would be the perfect senior living community for him. Hell, he might even get elected Tsar by the other inmates.

“Many people are saying”, see what I did there, that if we lock Ronald up that it will start a MAGA civil war. Here is what I know, Billy Bob Johnson from Gainesville FL all jacked-up on Mountain Dew and Marlboros wearing his camo onesie from Cabela’s would waddle back to his trailer as quick as he nicotine filled lungs would allow once he laid eyes on the National Guard marching down the streets of Gainesville. Honestly, and I have said this before, give MAGA Florida and Texas. I am sure they have a handful of nice folks living there but both are to far gone to try and save. My wishful thinking is a superbug STD strain will take Texas (ranked #2 in reported cases) and Florida (ranked #4 in reported cases) down and solve all our problems. These white nationalist like a religious context, Sodom and Gomorrah part dos has a nice ring to it.  

What the f*ck happened to you?

“Republicans seem to support one fella, some guy named Brandon. He’s having a good year, I’m kind of happy for him.” – Joe Biden at the 2022 White House Correspondents’ Dinner

I have a t-shirt that I like to wear that reads simply “Brandon Won”. For those of you who don’t know who Brandon is it refers to the political slogan “Let’s Go Brandon” used by the MAGA Neanderthals as a euphemism for “Fuck Joe Biden”. For the red hat brigade: eu·phe·mism – a mild or indirect word or expression substituted for one considered to be too harsh or blunt when referring to something unpleasant or embarrassing.

I ran into a guy I have known for easily 30 years at Home Depot and haven’t seen in a while. We spent the first 10 minutes talking about what our kids are up to and then John got serious and said “You know he is not my president” pointing at my t-shirt. “Brandon” I asked? “Yes”.

Now a little about John, he is from an old south family, seemingly related to everyone, that likes to trace its roots in our community back 200 years. He grew up in the blueblood neighborhood, went to the local private “Christian” school, has a private college education, with a masters from an Ivy league school. He took over the family business which relies on cheap (read black and then later Hispanic) labor.

John grew-up well off, not rich (he married RICH), but he had all the trappings of rich including a “black girl” that worked for his family who wasn’t a “girl” at all but a woman who died 20 years ago at the age of 89, penniless. I remembered when she died (John’s family wrote her obituary which was basically an ode to them) and John making a big deal about his family paying for the funeral.

Anyway, back to “You know he is not my president”. My next question was, who the fuck is your president then? Yes, I asked it just like that. For the next 15 minutes, this overeducated industrial rag salesman proceeded to preach to me that there was no way Frump lost, that the Mexicans were overrunning and overpopulating our country and the Chinese owned everything. When John was done with his rant I asked him one last question, “What the fuck happened to you?” and left.

Fast forward 2 weeks later and I ran into John’s wife at lunch, a woman who truly grew-up with anything and everything she could possibly want. If John grew-up with a “girl” she grew-up with “girls” and “boys” working at her family’s mansion, still the largest private residence in our community. Again, we spent the first 10 minutes talking about our kids and then she said with a smile “I heard you ran into my husband”. “Yes”, I responded, “I asked him what the fuck happened to you?” and the smile left her face and she responded simply, “Fox News and Tucker Carlson happened”.

We sat down and talked for 30 minutes and here is what I learned, whoever John votes for will be cancelled by his wife’s vote. She does not share his views, which apparently has and continues to cause her a lot of pain and concern. She stated, like she was trying to remind herself, that John has been and continues to be a wonderful husband, father, and friend. She honestly feels that for John to remain in his “circle of friends” he feels like he needs to have these conservative, she used the term “radical” views.

I asked her if their two kids shared their dad’s beliefs. “No”, she said, neither of them did which she was grateful for, particularly her son who is out in the business world trying to find his way.

I have written before that racist pieces of shit have always been with us. As a percentage of the population, we don’t have any more or any less than we had 200 years ago, 100 years ago or even 50 years ago. The difference today than say 10 or 20 years ago, is that people like John feel “comfortable” sharing their bias because they think they are part of a growing tribe. It isn’t growing, it’s shrinking and that’s what scares the shit out of them.

Eleanor Roosevelt said that “Some people are going to leave a mark on this world, while others will leave a stain.” That is what Frump, Frumpism, MAGA, and John, if he isn’t careful, are going to be, a stain. The one thing I know about a stain, they can be removed or at the very least faded. It may take some elbow grease and toxic cleaner, but we don’t have to look at a dog shit spot on the carpet forever.

But here is the thing, I would rather have someone like John, again a guy I have known for 30 years, feel empowered enough that he will show his true colors rather than having him hide his beliefs in the shadows. For me, that is where the danger is for our nation. Let the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, and the red hat oafs tell us who they are. When we can identify the stain with a face, a name, or a hat we will know the kind of cleaner we need and how big of a brush to use.