Wednesday, October 28, 2026

“Three Generations Of Imbeciles Is Enough!” Again.

 Crime a problem? Try the Final Solution!

Last week, one of the department’s top prosecutors argued that, in the pursuit of cracking down on criminals, eugenics could be a useful tool.

The prosecutor in question was Ellis Boyle, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina. Boyle was appearing on a local conservative livestream, NC Chats, to discuss—among other things—the administration’s investigation of Rep. Ilhan Omar, as well as the indictments of a handful of noncitizens for having allegedly voted illegally in the 2024 elections in North Carolina. Eventually, however, the conversation turned to crime, the supposed enabling of it by liberals, and how frustrating it is to see violent criminals get off on an insanity defense.
Let me stop here to say that no one “gets off” on successful application of the insanity defense.  The convicted is consigned to a mental healthcare facility. No one walks away scot-free for asserting an insanity defense.
“I’ve suffered with PTSD for most of my life,” host Cassie Clark said in the October 21 episode. “I also disassociate with it whenever it hits real bad. And you know what I’ve never done? I’ve never hurt anybody. Not one single time. It’s never even crossed my mind to hurt anyone, even at the worst of it, because I know right from wrong.”

Boyle seemed persuaded.

“What I’ve observed is, you know—it occurs to me, and this is not a new thought, I heard someone else say it, and I started looking, and if you look, you see it,” he replied. “Five percent of the population cause 90 percent of the crime.”

So far, so whatever—it’s true that most violent crimes are carried out by a proportionally small segment of the population. But Boyle didn’t stop there:

I think there’s a big component—if you took out [the] 5 percent of the population that’s bad and removed them from society, so they don’t create mayhem and create, you know, babies with the gene pool of more bad, then I think, in two, maybe three generations, think of how great this population would be.

“But,” he finished, “that’s something that takes willpower.”
Would we apply this to the Trumps? Why not? And who decides who the “5%” are? And do we forcibly sterilize them? Again?

We’ve done this before, you know. Pretty sure we’re not going to do it again. Not after the Nazis took our eugenics laws and created the Holocaust. But that’s what Boyle wants to do again.

The DOJ is going to be the new Augean stables.
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Old Man Shouts At Clouds 🌧️

Trump: "It has just been determined that the Democrats in Alaska illegally searched for, and recruited, a man named Dan Sullivan to run against our distinguished Republican Senator, Dan Sullivan, in order to defraud, confuse, and obfuscate the Election, thereby taking votes away from the REAL Senator, Dan Sullivan. The New York Times reports that, 'Democrats have insisted they have nothing to do with the other Dan Sullivan on Alaska’s Senate ballot. But aides with the Mary Peltola campaign and DSCC were part of a monthslong secret plan to recruit him to run — as well as other candidates.' The Democrats’ false statements were made under oath in Federal Court. Therefore, they perjured themselves, and should be liable for very serious consequences. Mary Peltola should suffer the Legal and Political consequences for what she has done, A FRAUD ON THE AMERICAN PUBLIC, and Dan Sullivan should be allowed to run without either Mary Peltola or FAKE Dan Sullivan on the Ballot. President DONALD J. TRUMP"
It has not ”been determined,” it has been reported. By the NYT, the same paper that missed most of Watergate, credulously reported on Whitewater (the corruption in Arkansas that led to the Lewinsky stuff), and swallowed “WMD” in Iraq hook, line, and sinker. Remind me, did they ever find any?

Did Peltola recruit Sullivan? SO FUCKING WHAT?

Statements were made in Federal Court under oath? When? There was a case in state court, but I don’t know how Peltola campaign workers can be hailed into the newly filed federal case before the Court has heard arguments for dismissal for failure to state a cause of action. (And false statements don’t = perjury, especially when you’re evidence us the NYT.)

And will someone please explain to the dunderhead in the Oval Office what “fraud” is. He’s committed enough of it, he ought to know by now.
The law of “DEMOCRATS ARE UNFAIR!!” (Trump’s DOJ can’t even make a civil case out of this.) That, and he really thinks he’s got something with this “perjury” claim. (No, those aren’t scare quotes. This isn’t perjury.) Then he had to beat that dead horse one more time, perhaps expecting it to finally get legs: Again, not election fraud. Not even close. As for “lying to the court,” is he switching to the state case? Probably not, but the Peltola campaign doesn’t have a dog in either court fight (the finished state one, or the nascent federal one).  Those cases go to the state authority responsible for ballots. I can’t imagine a reason a representative of the Peltola campaign would testify in the state court proceedings. And I’m quite sure Trump hasn’t read whatever trial court transcripts went up on appeal, looking for evidence of “cheating.” This is just an old man shouting at clouds because he didn’t get his vanilla pudding at the evening meal in the home.

His DOJ has no grounds, nor mechanism, to disqualify Peltola or Sullivan. Blanche has admitted as much:
What he’s asking for is an advisory opinion. Courts don’t do advisory opinions. DOJ can come back after the election, when (if) they have valid grounds for a valid (legal) concern. That’s right. So far, they don’t have anything.

Maybe Peltola’s campaign did it, and it’s dirty politics. But even Trump recognizes it isn’t really criminal, because he keeps trying to shoehorn it into a perjury charge. And that’s because he watched too many fake courtroom dramas for too many years. Yes, he’s “threatening serious consequences.” But his threats are as empty as his head.
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Lubbock Or Leave It

In the late ‘70’s, as the ‘60’s were finally ebbing, and Willie and Waylon and the boys were starting up “outlaw country music” in Austin, the phrase in that title was a play on the ‘60’s bumper sticker “America: Love It or Leave It.” The joke was that Lubbock was a redneck oasis everyone wanted to leave anyway. The phrase usually concluded with: “Last one out, please turn off the light.”💡 

Trump was in Lubbock when Talarico was. He drew about 4000 attendees. Trump brags about his overflow whether it’s there or not. Talarico had lines stretching several blocks. The campaign had to change venues to accommodate them. In Lubbock: a ruby red city in a ruby red area of a ruby red state.

Or is it, now? 🤔
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The Sky Is Falling! The Sky Is Falling!

So, here’s what happens when a new Congress begins, in rather excruciating detail:

Although no officers of the House will have been elected when the House first convenes, officers from the previous Congress perform certain functions. The previous Clerk of the House calls the House to order and presides over the chamber until the Speaker is elected and sworn in. In the absence of the Clerk, the Sergeant at Arms performs this duty.

After the Clerk calls the Representatives-elect to order, the Chaplain offers a prayer. The Clerk leads the Members-elect and their guests in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. The Clerk then directs a reading clerk to call the roll of all Members-elect to establish that a quorum is present. In current practice, the roll is not called by a clerk; rather, the Members-elect record their presence by inserting their official voting cards (obtained prior to or on opening day) in the chamber's electronic voting machines. Once the call of the roll is completed, a majority having registered their names, a quorum (218, if no vacancies) is indicated. This action fulfills the requirements of Article I, Section 5 of the Constitution that a quorum be present to conduct business.

The Clerk then announces the election of the Resident Commissioner from Puerto Rico (when applicable, since the Resident Commissioner's term is four years) and of the Delegates—one person from the District of Columbia and one person from each of the territories of Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, the Northern Mariana Islands, and American Samoa. The Clerk also reports any deaths or resignations since the election.

A quorum being present, the first order of official business is the election of the Speaker of the House of Representatives.

Election of the Speaker12

The candidates for Speaker are nominated from the floor by the leaders of their respective parties. Traditionally, there is one candidate from the majority party and one from the minority party, selected by the Republican Conference and the Democratic Caucus at their early organizational meetings. Individual Members-elect may place other names in nomination. Nominations are followed immediately by a "viva voce" roll-call vote, that is, a vote in which the Members-elect respond orally to the calling of their names. In this vote, the Members-elect call out the last name of their choice for Speaker when their names are called by a reading clerk. The Clerk appoints Members-elect to serve as majority and minority tellers, usually two each, to ascertain the vote. The Speaker is elected by a majority, not a plurality, of votes cast by Members-elect. So long as nearly all the majority party's members vote for its candidate, the majority party can assure its candidate's election because the vote is likely to be almost exclusively along party lines. The candidates themselves, however, sometimes vote "present" or do not vote.
You can see all of that assumes an accepted set of new representatives, which includes re-elected incumbents, and the newly elected. They are all, at this point, “new.”But certification precedes seating the new Congress:
Importantly, certification is not optional; it is mandatory and must be completed by the deadlines established by law. If an election official fails to certify, they can be compelled to do so by a court order.

Likewise, certification is not an opportunity to question results or attempt to resolve any potential issues or irregularities. Depending on state rules and the closeness of the race, recounts, audits or court challenges may occur before certification to address those concerns. But once the certification step is reached, it is the duty of state or local officials to simply provide an official certificate naming the winner based on the official tally.

What happens after certification?

For congressional elections, certification establishes who has won races for the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate. Each state then sends its list of election winners, formally known as certificates of election, to the House and Senate. In the House, these certificates are specifically sent to the clerk, a nonpartisan official who compiles the state lists into the full roll of members-elect of the next Congress. The winning candidates then begin preparing to take office.
Okay, now let's look at the law:
Before the first meeting of each Congress the Clerk of the next preceding House of Representatives shall make a roll of the Representatives-elect, and place thereon the names of those persons, and of such persons only, whose credentials show that they were regularly elected in accordance with the laws of their States respectively, or the laws of the United States. In case of a vacancy in the office of Clerk of the House of Representatives, or of the absence or inability of the Clerk to discharge the duties imposed on him by law or custom relative to the preparation of the roll of Representatives or the organization of the House, those duties shall devolve on the Sergeant at Arms of the next preceding House of Representatives.
That’s the statute behind the details of the procedure above. "Shall,” there, is a very specific word.  It means the act of the clerk, or the Sergeant at Arms, is ministerial. It is not subject to judgement or consideration, except insofar as state certification is lacking. And then the clerk must seek certification from the appropriate state. But everyone else is seated. 

Now, if the clerk refuses to seat all the Democrats; or just all the new Democrats? (Or just everyone, to be “fair”?) Well, shit hits the fan. Arguably, Congress can’t operate. Representatives could challenge the quorum call; and the courts (presumably the D.C. Circuit) could order the clerk, or the sergeant at arms, to do their ministerial duty.(This would not be interference with House rules and operations. There’s a federal statute to enforce. The clerk and the sergeant at arms are employees of the House, not elected officials.)

And then the majority sets about punishing anyone in the minority who thought this was a clever idea. 

Remember, Trump is a lame duck now. So why would Johnson pursue this Pyrrhic victory? To make life even more miserable for the House, and Trump, for the next two years?

Yes, Trump sent a crowd to the Capitol to disrupt the certification of Biden as President. What happened? Nothing Trump wanted. What happens if Trump persuades Johnson to put in a crooked clerk? More serious and immediate payback than he faced in 2021. Maybe even removal. I don’t think Congress 
will be happy to see its prerogatives interfered with. 
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The Polls Are Fake!

I mean, this can’t be right. There’s no mention of Arnold Palmer’s schlong, or Jon Husted’s ass, or windmills! Not even anything about the Cheesecake Factory!
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🎃 Hallowe’en At The Cheesecake Factory 🏭

BTW: I’ve never been to a Cheesecake Factory, but based on recent reports, spending Hallowe’en there is my newest worse nightmare. 
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The Big Idea Can Never Fail

It can only be failed. That would be the Russian diesel that is sanctioned and illegal to sell in America. Right? 

And this is the guy they are propping up:
That Tweet is 16 minutes old as I post. What time is it in Pennsylvania? As I post, it’s shortly after 11 a.m. in PA.
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“The Corruption Is So Pervasive”

A Brazilian Supreme Court justice has ordered an investigation into JD Vance’s billionaire donor network over alleged efforts to assist Flávio Bolsonaro’s failed presidential campaign.

The Rockbridge Network has ties to Peter Thiel, Rebekah Mercer, and other powerful MAGA donors.
The Brazilian Supreme Court also calls for an investigation into:

— Allegations that influencers were paid to promote pro-Bolsonaro Polymarket predictions.

— Whether Meta’s algorithms unfairly boosted Bolsonaro and restricted Lula.

— Reports of paid AI-generated fake accounts, deepfakes, and coordinated disinformation operations.
I’m beginning to think we need a constitutional amendment establishing an independent Department of Justice that can do things like this regardless of who sits behind the Resolute Desk.
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No Wonder Trump Admires Putin

Birds of a feather… 🪶 
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Uh-Huh

A) No. B) I question where that number came from. C) Because he says utterly stupid things like this:
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Feral Cunning 🤷‍♂️

So, high gas prices are a choice? Yup. That’s what he said. He’s standing in the state with the most windmills in the country. In the region of that state with the most windmills in the state.

Feral cunning.
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Tuesday, October 27, 2026

Is There Reason To Expect Trump To Do This In December?

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The Apotheosis Of The Cheesecake Factory Matter 🏭

No, not that one.👆 This one.👇 Damn, I miss having cats around.
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Clearly, The Owners Are Elitists…

... who just want to enjoy a cheeseburger on a brioche bun with au jus for $24, and now they won’t be able to. Well, there’s that. Frat boys across the country are wondering what’s wrong with the old guy, and whether he’s going to mention Husted’s ass. Fifth graders across the country are wondering what’s wrong with the old guy, and wondering whether he’s gonna mention the $24 cheeseburger 🍔 at Cheesecake Factory. 🏭  People around the country are wondering what’s wrong with the old guy.
Lorenzo Salgado Araujo's son:

The government has taken away my dad and countless other people. They have taken away people's liberties by detaining them. They have taken away our pursuit of happiness by splitting families apart. For those of you who haven't voted, there's still time left.
(4000 people in Lubbock fucking Texas??!???) I think I will be. I don’t think Trump will be.
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Suicide Squad

 This will take some annotating:

U.S. District Judge David O. Carter signaled Tuesday that he would reject the Trump administration's emergency bid to stop California from counting mail ballots from more than 20,000 registered voters the DOJ alleges are likely noncitizens, according to posts from Politico legal affairs reporter Kyle Cheney, who tracked the hearing in Los Angeles.

Carter made clear he was "deeply skeptical" of the government's position, Cheney wrote. The judge asked why, if prosecutors suspected people were illegally registered to vote, they weren't charging them.
Three guesses, first two don't count. (I’ll explain that below.) Or, more likely, they lack the evidence to establish probable cause. This is where I remind you proving election fraud is very difficult, and illegally registering to vote without voting is a very minor crime, indeed. Not the sexy charge DOJ wants right now. More critically, they probably lack evidence that the people on their list are not citizens. And they don’t want to prove that in court.
"Let's get busy," Carter said.

First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli, who argued the case for the government, replied, "We're very busy."

"Get busier," Carter shot back.
Remember Lindsey Halligan? The courts determined her appointment was invalid, and that unzipped everything she’d touched? Forced it all to be dismissed without prejudice and started again, if at all, under a properly appointed USA. That’s the position Essayli’s in, except Trump is pissed at the law, and is having none of it.

Essayli was appointed because of a similar situation. There was a vacancy that couldn’t be filled by regular appointment, so the court of the district, per the statute, appointed a new USA. Trump promptly fired him and appointed Essayli. The trial court ruled he was invalidly appointed. That case is on appeal. Essayli is standing pat (as Halligan did, IIRC). That makes all cases he works on subject to dismissal, on this “technicality.”  DOJ knows this; but they don’t care. Like the 28 cases in LA they released on recognizance days before the election, they just want the headlines, here. Oh, and to fuck with California. And yes, this should be grounds for Bar discipline (despite what Blanche thinks, government attorneys are subject to Bar discipline); whether it will be, is another matter. An unlikely matter.

By these cases are going to be tossed, and DOJ doesn’t really care.
Cheney reported that Carter called the request a "monumental change" and said the issue needed a slower timeline with expert testimony, not rushed filings that would "have the court just wing it with a ruling." The judge then appointed a special master to dig deeper into the issue, a move Cheney described as effectively a win for California.

Carter closed the hearing with a warning aimed squarely at the Justice Department.

"This court believes it would be wise that any threats to state and county elected employees cease immediately. Good night," he said. He's expected to issue a formal ruling Wednesday.

The warning follows mounting pressure on local officials. Trump's Justice Department cautioned election workers across California that they could face federal scrutiny if they refused to help flag suspected noncitizens, and it handed state officials a list of 20,000 names, NBC News reported.

California's lawyers fought back in court. Anne Bellows, an attorney for the state, argued the department leaned on what she called "mysterious database methods" and said meeting its demands would risk stripping eligible voters of their ballots, Reuters reported.
So that case is DOA, too. Again, DOJ doesn’t care. The cases are all to give Trump something to suck his thumb over. Because that’s all they can possibly be. I’m quite serious that the lawyers signing the DOJ filings risk a referral to their Bars for investigation and disciplinary action. This stuff is that out of line. 

And DOJ doesn’t care.
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Is Anyone Keeping Track?

How many no-bills is that? In 22 months (or less?). Somebody should be keeping the record, for posterity.

With maybe an asterisk for the third case against Comey. Charged on the last day of the 10 year period for limitations under the Espionage Act; but without an indictment, which the Act requires in order to use the 10 (versus general statutory five) year period. Hence, the asterisk.*️⃣ 

Two more years of this. That record is going to grow; and hopefully stand for a very long time. Although the damage to the DOJ , and so the nation, is going to be very long term, and not soon repaired. The institutional knowledge alone will take decades to rebuild.

So you take the wins where you can.
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“Caaaameealaaa, Koomaaala, Kamaleeee, Kumalaaaa"

Last week: Corpus Christi today: He was told that often in his criminal prosecutions. But that doesn’t explain why it’s now part of his repertoire. This one’s also a new repeat. And this. Also this one. This one is not. This one is also too familiar. Permian Basin production is 6.5 million barrels. Per day. Of sweet light, which doesn't require the special refining Venezuelan crude does.
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I Missed The Fruity Context

 When RFK, Jr. made his ignorant and racist (but I repeat myself) remarks about Arabs, he did so at a campaign rally for Sen. Mike Rogers in Michigan. A state with the highest number of Arab Americans in the country.

Next, he’s coming to Texas Border to tell us how little Mexicans are worth.

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Oh. Great.

We’ll just pay for it with more respiratory illnesses. 😷
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RFK, Jr. Tries To Go Richard Dawkins

It works as well as it did for Dawkins.
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Remembering When Immigrants Were Taking Up All The Houses

Mission accomplished.
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Monday, October 26, 2026

Mythmaking

Reporter: Bethel, Alaska is an isolated town that can only be reached by plane or boat. People living there say they're used to higher gas and grocery prices, but now both gas and heating oil hover around $8 a gallon. Residents are worried that "if we don't get relief, some of our villages are going to disappear."
Farm subsidies go largely to corporate farms. Less gets to individual farmers.

Message from the White House; “Fuck the farmers. Fuck the rural people. We got ours.”

It’s one week to Election Day.
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John Roberts Wants You To Know This Is Fine

Trump sets the stage to interfere in Minnesota's elections: "Let's all get behind Michele Tafoya in Minnesota. She's running a great race. Don't allow them to play with the Votes after the race is over. The Federal Government will be watching closely. The only way she can lose is if they cheat by playing games with the Ballots as they come in. We can't allow that to happen, because I won Minnesota three times, but they didn't give me the Victories, and Minnesota hasn't been 'won' since 1972, when Richard Nixon claimed the trophy. Michele Tafoya has my Complete and Total Endorsement to be the next Senator from the Great State of Minnesota — She will not let you down! President DONALD J. TRUMP"
Because it’s an “official act,” and therefore protected by the Presidential immunity he totally made up. Or maybe it isn’t an official act. But it will take years of appeals and review before the Supreme Court can decide whether or not this, right here, this thing, was an official act. Years. Of reviews. And appeals. And reviews. And then there’s all the people doing what Trump told them to do. Could be covered by immunity. Everyone of them. More years if reviews. And appeals. But the Justices are there for life, so…

No hurry. It’s fine.
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The October Surprise Is…

... Grandpa’s meds aren’t working anymore. (Stephanie Ruhle interviewed a builder this morning who can’t build houses because even though the workers are legal, they fear ICE and won’t come to work. He described lumber on job sites warping and going to ruin, which only drives the cost of construction higher.) It’s like he wants to be arrested in Georgia. Or take a pratfall:
In 2020, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick set up a $1 million fund for voter fraud tips. His first payout, $25,000 in 2021, went to Eric Frank, a progressive Pennsylvania poll worker whose tip led to the conviction of a Republican who voted twice, the Dallas Morning News reported. “This kind of blew up in their face,” Frank said.
Again: one week until Election Day. Pointing and laughing will go on far into the week.
Trump appears hurt by Obama's Cheesecake Factory joke:

I've taken care of the White House. I have fixed it with the finest artisans in the world. The exterior plaster was broken, cracked. And the painting was terrible. I've re-skinned the building beautifully. The White House is beautiful.
I honestly don’t think he got it. I also honestly think his fee-fees were hurt.

As I said, laughing and pointing will go on. 😹
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“Listen To Yourself”

And what Obama said: More of a comment on Saddam's aesthetic, really. Meanwhile: BTW, JD Vance is a Yale lawyer. And yet Trump has no trouble doing business with them.
EL-SAYED: I get that the President takes personal offense to my first name. He doesn't mind as much when it's the Saudis who are funding his son-in-law's private equity. Doesn't seem to mind as much when it's the Qataris who are giving them a $400 million private jet. He just seems to have trouble pronouncing it when it's my name.

I don't care how he pronounces my name. I don't even care that he remembers my whole name. Because he can just go on and call me senator after November.
Same difference. Ooops. That makes things MUCH better! (He knows Election Day is next Tuesday, right?) And the crowd of old people with nothing else on a Monday afternoon, goes mild.
Cheesecake Factory populism is so weird to me because the rise of chain restaurants created over-the-top, replicable dining experiences, which eventually put the final squeeze on mom-and-pop restaurants, such as the US version of trattorias. I would argue those family-owned neighborhood businesses made the dining experience feel more special and pulled communities together. The shift to chain restaurants homogenized American life and concentrated corporate power. Strange to frame corporate consolidation as "populism."
I’m guessing most of those people know the “Cheesecake Factory” from “Big Bang Theory;” and nothing else. And they work for corporations, so they are quite content.
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Who’s To Say?

 Anthony Scaramucci thinks Trump will go the way of Nixon.

Anthony Scaramucci, one of Trump's press secretaries during his first administration, predicted during a new episode of "The Daily Beast Podcast" with host Joanna Coles that Trump could be asked to leave office after the midterms. The risk of him being asked to leave will become even greater if Trump agrees to sit down with Russian President Vladimir Putin and China's Xi Jinping to discuss an end to Russia's war of aggression in Ukraine, he added.

"If that meeting were to happen, then I would tell you that the Republican Party is completely dead," Scaramucci said. "We'd probably have to get a tombstone out, and you tell me the date that meeting and I will chisel into the tombstone."

"Trump should be very careful with that, because he's going to push the envelope where he may be asked to leave the presidency," he continued.

Scaramucci added that Democrats don't have to win the Senate for the scenario to be plausible.

"People say, 'Oh, that's crazy. [It's] not crazy because the Democrats are going to take the House. Let's say they split and they go 50-50 [in the Senate]. You need 17 Republicans who have had enough of him," he said. "They hate his guts."
Trump has wrecked the U.S. economy. He’s weakened the world economy. He’s turned most of the country against the GOP. He’s all but destroyed our relationship with NATO. He’s hell bent on establishing America as a vassal state to Russia. He’s the most racist president since Woodrow Wilson. And he’s a blithering idiot.

They also clung to him like barnacles these last two disastrous years.
But they aren’t going to flagellate themselves. So they’ll take it out on Trump. 

It’s not like he doesn’t deserve it. 
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“Great” Americans Do What Trump Does

Three guesses, first two don’t count. Lame duck. Believe it!
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Sunday, October 25, 2026

The Week Ahead 🗓️ 🎃🎄

 Comes now the change in the year. No, not the weather, or the end of DST (Hooray! I call it the return to “God’s Time” because I really despise DST. It’s fun being old enough to be cranky; though I’d prefer “eccentric.” But you can’t claim that, it has to be granted you.)  My eccentricity is for the last two months of the year, and first days of the next, that period that begins with All Hallow’s Even, and ends with Epiphany (it should end with Ash Wednesday, but our culture descends from English Puritans, so that’s that). All that meant to be prelude for the next seven days of blogging.

What you’ll get, soon enough, is what’s been said before; this time with minor emendations where needed to keep them current, and with some smoothing of transitions to make them a more coherent whole. I could mash them in one giant post, but I’ve been told I have higher than normal graphic index, so I’m more comfortable with slabs of type than most. I dunno. I just know I’d do better  by my audwith shorter sentences and more paragraphs. So the great mash-up is probably not the best idea. The alternative is to edit as if they were one essay, but present them as a connected handful. If I don’t get around to it, imagine that I did, anyway.


I used to lament Xmas overtaking Hallowe’en. In 2024 I complained that stores had Xmas decorations out by early November.

How quaint.

Last year I had an epiphany, and realized Hallowe’en is, and should be, the gateway to Christmas. Besides, Advent is virtually the raison d’etre of my blogging year. This year I even hope to have a theme for Advent. If I can remember it long enough to get four weeks (well, once a week) of material. Without slacking, I mean. Not that I haven’t tried that before. I actually hope to achieve it this year.

Hope springs eternal.

Sort of like I’m doing this week, through Sunday, although I’m just retreading some old tires, again. . We’ll have to see about Advent.

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🧻

Speaking of toilet paper:
Lots to unpack here but Trump says Bill Maher is an unfunny loser pothead/drunk and the recent dinner was a waste of time.

TRUMP: Let's talk about this COMPLETE AND TOTAL LOSER, Bill Maher.

When I became President, I agreed to meet, after the first one, and the last one, but never agreed to do his show, which he wants me to do, DESPARATELY

I believe he lied to me when I asked him, with all the applause and laughter he gets after almost everything he says, about thing that aren't funny or even any good, what Laughter Machine does he use? People can't think he's funny.

Bill was very nervous. He asked for a drink. He was very insecure, and he had a seriously bruised eye and nose area, as though somebody had just beaten him up — But it wasn't me!

No sooner had we had that first dinner at the White House, which is a very seductive and beautiful place, especially now that I have fully renovated and fixed it in the style which it deserves, Bill wanted to come back.

Also, I wanted to tell Bill that he's a major POTHEAD. He's got to stop, it's very bad for his health. He looked like hell this time. Bill was drunk and had alcohol in his hand as he walked through the White House. Stephen A. Smith and Kid Rock came along with him.

I learned nothing, and felt it was a waste of time. After the first dinner, Bill Maher was friendly, I guess, everyone walked away pleased.

After the second dinner, Bill's "show" was far worse than the first. He went crazy! He's gutless, because he enjoyed every minute.

Also, I am not a building a swimming pool in the White House Briefing Room, and never had any intention of doing so.
Doesn’t he have a ballroom to build? Or a reflecting pool to repair? Or a helicopter pad to admire?

He’s been down this road once or twice before. The last paragraph is the only way to know this is current rather than archive.
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🦏

A stunning defeat for a Trump-aligned right-wing leader in Europe.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić, whose government cultivated close ties with Donald Trump and his family, has conceded defeat to a student-led opposition movement in a historic parliamentary election.

Trump's son Donald Trump Jr. personally met with Vučić, while Jared Kushner pursued a major luxury real estate project with his government.

Now, after nearly two years of massive student-led protests against corruption and authoritarianism, Vučić's ruling party has been defeated at the ballot box.

The student-backed movement is projected to win a parliamentary majority, ending more than a decade of dominance by Vučić's party.
Meanwhile:
EL-SAYED: I get that the President takes personal offense to my first name. He doesn't mind as much when it's the Saudis who are funding his son-in-law's private equity. Doesn't seem to mind as much when it's the Qataris who are giving them a $400 million private jet. He just seems to have trouble pronouncing it when it's my name.

I don't care how he pronounces my name. I don't even care that he remembers my whole name. Because he can just go on and call me senator after November.
El-Sayed: In my Neurology unit, I would have to give that MOCA exam, that cognitive test he's so proud of… The only people you give that test to are people who you worry may have cognitive deficits. By definition, if you’re taking one of those tests, something is wrong.

And you know the doctor who gave it to him was like, I just want to see how smart you are, sir. And he's like, me too.

He brags about having taken it. He's like I remembered the rhinoceros. You're like Habibi, everybody remember the rhinoceros.

And the funny thing about it is, you know, he's taken it multiple times. So he's not even bragging about the first time he took it. He's like, I took it the 1st time and then I took it the 2nd time. So with Donald Trump, you can't blame him for this, he's just dumb.

But for Mike Rogers, can you imagine how small of a human being you have to be to know that he has real deficits and to just nod your head approvingly at the most ridiculous shit that the man proposes?
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Huh

Pictures. A thousand (empty) words. Which wins?
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The REAL Cheesecake Factory*

This is actually a condescending view of working-class people. I grew up in a working-class immigrant family and we ate at Red Lobster and The Cheesecake Factory for "fancy nights out." But even we understood that the White House should not look like the inside of a Red Lobster. Working-class people are not culturally illiterate just because their experiences are shaped by their limited means.
(Trump lives at his own resort, and has probably never been in a Cheesecake Factory in his life. And I notice nobody is picking up the Saddam Hussein side of Obama’s comment.) *Full disclosure: I have never been to a Cheesecake Factory, so I don’t have a dog in this fight. If I did have a dog, I’d just wonder why I didn’t get another cat. Besides, Obama may well have been using “cheesecake” as a derogatory aesthetic term, not the restaurant chain. Anyway, it was a damned good line. “Listen to yourself.” I have been to a Rainforest Cafe. Once. For my daughter, when she was young enough to enjoy it. Never again. Way too expensive. And crappy food.
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Memories Of January 6, 2021

When people invaded the Capitol, beat police officers, trashed the building, and shit on the floor…

…light the corners of my mind.

Trump pardoned all those people.
Yup.

Nobody will call it a “pivot,” though. If anyone remarks on it at all  Any of it.
Would he say a Jewish candidate wanted Mosaic law? No more cheeseburgers, 🍔 for one thing. Somebody is gonna respond to the Pearl Harbor gaffe. The racism, of a Muslim? 🦗🦗🦗 This will probably draw a mild rebuke, cloaked in concern about anti-semitism. Which is ironic (etymologically, I mean). "The past isn’t over. It isn’t even past.” But it’s showing its age, and it’s pretty worn out. I’m betting this guy is on Social Security and Medicare, and thinks he’s “entitled.” But he’s not so sure about you.
Trump: If Abdul and the Democrats win, they will create a nightmare of terror until you cannot even have a Christmas—remember when I started the war on preserving Christmas? We’re saying Christmas again. Remember when the stores were afraid to put up Christmas trees. Now, they are all saying Merry Christmas again.
Nobody remembers that, Grandpa, because it never fucking happened. All we know is Hallowe’en’s not here yet, and the stores are already putting up Xmas trees.

Can you make that stop? ✋ 

And last I checked, Jews don’t generally celebrate Xmas either. Should we be worried about Jewish politicians? Or is that racist? Hey, I guess it is! Huh.🤔  Did you put the fucking country on autopilot while you fly around doing two-a-days? (BTW, Talarico’s still winning, Ossoff’s still winning, El Sayed’s still winning, and even Mississippi is in play. Great job, Gramps!)
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