J.D. Vance Rehabs Tricky Dick

 For those of you, like Vice President J.D. Vance, who weren't alive during the Presidency of Richard Nixon, let's have a very brief history lesson. He initially won the White House in 1968. By 1972, when he was running for re-election, his man, Henry Kissinger, was negotiating an end to the war in Vietnam and he had visited the Chinese mainland, ending over two decades of icy silence between the two nations. On the other hand, he was also dressing the ceremonial White House guards in uniforms straight out of the movie, "Prisoner of Zenda," and adding names to, "an enemies list." In addition, he had become obsessed with rooting out people who leaked information to the media and democrats. When the New York Times and later the Washington Post published what was known as the, "Pentagon Papers," Mr. Nixon went wild with rage, even though most of what was exposed happened before he assumed office.

In June of 1972 a group of people who were quickly tied to his re-election campaign were busted in the Watergate complex in Washington D.C. They were attempting to install illegal wiretaps and steal documents at the offices of the Democratic National Committee. It turned out Nixon had previously ordered the FBI to bug other organizations and individuals, but the Bureau had refused because the courts wouldn't allow it. Despite denying any connection to break in, evidence continued to mount that not only was his campaign involved, but so were senior White House staffers and the President himself. 

By August of 1974 the walls were closing in. The list of wrongdoing, bribes, payoffs, and outright criminal behavior was overwhelming. Richard M. Nixon was going to be impeached, convicted, and removed from office. He met with a group of republican Senators, among them the uber right wing, Barry Goldwater. They told him in no uncertain terms he was fucked. On August 9, 1974, Richard M. Nixon became the only President of the United States to resign from office. He was later pardoned of any and all crimes by his successor Gerald Ford and never appeared in court or spent a day in jail. 

Ever since, Dick Nixon has been considered the most corrupt President in American history. 

Last Thursday, J.D. Vance, the current Vice President of the United States, told us we had it all wrong. Speaking at the Nixon Library in Yorba Linda, CA, Vance said Nixon's Presidency might be, "Enjoying a renaissance and deservedly so." He also claimed that if the Watergate scandal occurred today, "It would be like a 12-hour news story and the idea it took down a Presidency is crazy." 

Then Vance said, "If you look at the story of how the deep state took down Richard Nixon, it's not all that different from what the same groups of people, the same institutions tried to do to Donald Trump in the first Trump administration." 

There it is. It wasn't Nixon's crimes that got him, it was the deep state before it was known as the deep state. It was a conspiracy before conspiracies became more common than snowflakes in Nome. (In 1972--1974 the only widespread conspiracy was who killed John Kennedy.) It was, in fact--despite all those republicans at that meeting--a cabal of radical liberals who caused the downfall. 

Then, J.D. Vance took it one step beyond. " A young Senator, Vice President writes some bestselling books, is hated by the media. It kind of sounds like J.D. Vance. I've always liked Richard Nixon." 

Wait. What? Did a sitting Vice President, a man on the national political stage, who has his eyes on the White House in a scant two years, just compare himself favorably to Richard Nixon, then say he always liked him? Why yes, he had. 

Add them all together and Vance's remarks become the most audacious re-write of recent history since Tucker Carlson claimed the January 6th capitol rioters were nothing more than a bunch of peaceful tourists. Well, either that, or all the acid we dropped in the 60's and 70's finally caught up to us. 

The proverbial weird part is that J. D. Vance may be right about some of it. Trump's in-your-face felonies and authoritarian ambitions makes Nixon's enemies list feel almost naive. Indeed, compared to Donald Trump's proudly overt corruption, Dick Nixon looks like a two-bit teen-aged punk armed with nothing more than can of spray paint. And given the scope of the high crimes and misdemeanors being committed these days, the Watergate break in might well last only a single 12-hour news cycle in 2026.

That doesn't make Richard Nixon innocent, or a victim of some deep state conspiracy. It was a different era. Nixon had followers, Trump has a cult. Nixon was dealing with GOP Senators and House members, who might have been willing to stand behind him to a point, but they weren't a bunch of rank cowards who were terrified of him. Most importantly, republican politicians back in those days ultimately believed in the Constitution and laws of the United States. They actually took their oaths seriously. The grab bag of assholes in congress now, consider the Constitution and law to be whatever Donald Trump says it is--no questions asked. 

J.D. Vance was wrong. Richard Nixon was a crook. It's just that Donald Trump is so spectacularly evil, nowadays ol' Tricky Dick seems downright quaint. 

10-5-26

Eric Schmitt and El Gaffe Grande

 Eric Schmitt was born in suburban St. Louis. After high school he attended Truman State University (Home of the Bulldogs). He then got his law degree from St. Louis University (Go Billikens). And yes, team nicknames are important here, trust me. 

 In 2005 Eric Schmiitt began his political career as a city alderman in Glendale, Missouri. Schmitt rose quickly through the GOP ranks, entering the Missouri state senate in 2009. By 2017 he was the state Treasurer, then in 2019 he became the Missouri state Attorney General. That's when he started to make a name for himself in MAGA world. 

As Attorney General he filed a lawsuit attempting to invalidate the Affordable Care Act. According to Wikipedia, after voters approved an amendment to the state constitution expanding Medicaid coverage, Schmitt argued in front of the Missouri Supreme Court that the republican controlled legislature and GOP Governor could legally refuse go along with expansion. You can't get any more Trumpian than that. In fact, it might have been the exact moment that Eric Schmitt became a genuine made MAGA guy.

To cement his image, during the Covid-19 pandemic Schmitt filed lawsuits against St. Louis County who was trying to implement restrictions on indoor dining and crowd sizes. One of the suits challenged a county wide mask mandate. When the pandemic really began to spin out of control Schmit's office filed a suit against the Chinese government and the Chinese communist party for, among other things, lying about how deadly the disease actually was. After using up $12,000 of the state's money to translate the paperwork into Chinese the federal court dismissed the case. Around the same time, he was going after the reds in Beijing, his office was also suing local school districts and Jefferson County, MO over mask requirements. 

In November 2022, the people of Missouri elected Eric Schmitt to the U.S. Senate by a little over 13 points. To paraphrase a lyric, his future was so bright he had to were shades. (Reports say the optimism in his camp was so prevalent he had even begun jockeying for the second spot on a J.D. Vance Presidential ticket) 

Then, early this week, things went, let's say, a tad awry. 

During the Senate Judiciary Committee meeting the Senator from Missouri appeared to be attempting to establish some sort of conspiracy between Special Persecutor, Jack Smith and Fulton County DA Fani Willis. Smith had been investigating Donald Trump and the entire January 6th coup attempt while at the same time Willis was investigating Trump's not so subtle effort to alter the 2020 election outcome in Georgia. No one is sure how serious Schmitt was about some nefarious collusion between the two--although we know MAGA loves conspiracies, well, except when they implicate Trump. The real reason for the line of questioning seemed to be to catch Jack Smith in a lie. In some quarters this is known as suborning perjury, a felony that will get you five years in the joint. 

Schmitt asked Smith if he had been in Atlanta during the investigations. Smith told the Committee he might have gone through Atlanta's airport while flying back and forth from Wahington to Florida. Schmitt, who had already called the Special Prosecutor a dirtbag, smiled slightly. Then he asked something along the lines of, "Would it surprise you, if we have proof, you were in Atlanta at an Atlanta Hawks game? " Smith was bewildered. One of Schmitt's aides rose with a large poster board showing Smith's texts about having tickets to a Hawks game. There was a problem though. Schmitt and his band of merry pranksters either didn't notice, or didn't care that while the texts mentioned Hawks, none specifically said the Atlanta Hawks, or referred to the city of Atlanta.   

During the ensuing uproar Smith said he did remember going to an Iowa-Maryland woman's basketball game, "around that time." That game was played in College Park, MD and featured then collegiate women's basketball superstar, Catlin Clark. Minnesota democratic Senator Amy Klobachar immediately jumped in to remind everyone Clark's Iowa team was known as the Hawkeyes. What she didn't mention, probably because she didn't have to, is that many times people shorten Hawkeyes into just Hawks. A little later observers noted the seat and row numbers Smith talked about don't exist in Atlanta's State Farm Arena, home of the NBA Hawks. In addition, Smith was accompanied by a couple of U.S. marshals to the game, and the Marshal service had a record of their whereabouts.   

It was a fuck up worthy of a Saturday Night Live bit. Everybody scrambled to cover their asses. When initially confronted about the mistake, Schmitt told TMZ only, "It's my job to ask the question." The implication being it was his staff who screwed the pooch and his only mistake was to believe them. Later he tried to laugh it off by saying, "Who knew Jack Smith was a Caitlin Clark fan?" He also tried to excuse the mistake by insisting the Hawks-Warriors game was the only NBA game being played that night. Actually, there were six NBA games played on the date in question, but by then a lie that lame was minor enough to be shrugged off. Judiciary Committee staffers began claiming they had warned Schmitt's staff the texts were, "unvetted." Others said the White House had provided the flawed information to Schmitt's people. 

Despite the epic goof the right-wing media and online hacks proclaimed the day was a resounding indictment of Jack Smith. Sean Hannity congratulated Schmitt on social media, but then quickly deleted it. Later on his FOX show he praised republican committee members by name, without mentioning Schmitt, for exposing Smith's abuse of power. Others in the online MAGA media simply ignored El Gaffe Grande and told their followers, numbering far too many, Jack Smith had perjured himself. 

Not everyone was trying to sweep the disaster under the rug though. An editorial in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch read in part, "Wrong teams, wrong league, wrong state." It went on to say the whole episode   was, "a loony right-wing conspiracy based on some misunderstood text messages. Falsely accuse a prosecutor of perjury; call him a villain and total dirtbag--and then stand by that playground pejorative even after the whole thing turned out to be a lazy mistake made by Schmitt and his staff..." 

 All that, of course, is the nature of the MAGA beast. Never say you're sorry or admit a mistake. Plow on to the next set of outrageous lies as fast as you can with the firm belief the truth can't catch up and, most importantly, the rubes will buy it all.

I tell you, Herr Goebbels would be proud.

10-2-26

The List of Donald Trump's Political Contributors Just Got Really Long

 It is being reported that the Donald Trump political campaign war chest started off the year 2026 with $300 million. That's not counting the PAC money his fabulously well-to-do pals have kicked in. It is strictly donations from individuals and various entities. In addition, it is estimated Donald Trump, and his family have pocketed not quite $4 billion since his second inauguration. Now, we all know the dollar isn't worth as much as it used to be, even a year ago, but still, that's a lot of fucking money. 

All of which begs a question. Why are the taxpayers, you and me, paying for the latest round of pro Trump political ads running on television? Has that crazed old coot come up with a scheme to embezzle the campaign funds? Is the family fortune stashed somewhere hard to get offshore?  Are the reports of the profits vastly overstated? Or has he gone all Scrooge McDuck and is just so cheap and greedy he'd rather stick us with the tab than pay for them himself? Let's face it, he does have a history of walking into places like ice cream parlors and promising to pay for everyone's meal, then skipping out on the bill. 

Well, according to a White House spokesperson the ads aren't ads at all. "These public service announcements are about reminding Americans to love their country and understand what makes it worth defending, at home, at our borders, and abroad. The ads are educational and unapologetically patriotic. We should be proud of our country." Later, another White House toady claimed, "The PSAs are clearly not political. The President is not on the ballot, and the ads don't have a call to action." 

What one of them does have is a stern-faced Donald Trump walking down a hall while in the background one of his old speeches is playing. In it he is telling a crowd, "We will cast out the Communists, Marxists, and Fascists. We will throw off the sick political class that hates our country. We will rout the fake news media, and we will liberate America from these villains once and for all." 

For those who might have just experienced a dis-orienting moment of Deja vu, no, you aren't going a little off the mental hygene beaten path.  In January 2024, during his third run at the White House, the same video showed up on Trump's Truth Social account. The last six seconds of the original ad contained Trump's campaign logo and a phone number to text in your contribution info. In the new version that was replaced with a message saying, "Paid for by the U.S. government." 

In another, "PSA," Trump denounces communism and socialism while a rolling texts brags about his administration's accomplishments, including, "reigniting American manufacturing." The music used in the ad is a song by JMSN called, "Love Me."  As always, Trump's people failed to get permission to use the song. JMSN, aka, Christian Berishaj, had his lawyers immediately demand that not only the ad be pulled at once, but that Trump and his people never use the song or any of his, "intellectual property," again. 

Yet another ad shows Trump at Mount Rushmore telling the audience, "Never before has any nation celebrated so magnificent a triumph as this one." Not to be a critic, but to the casual onlooker it isn't clear if he was talking about the sculptures, or himself.      

The ads began running on FOX and Newsmax. By this weekend, USA Today reports they appeared on several college and NFL games, FOX News Sunday, and even Saturday Night Live. All of it happening less than 40 days ahead of a midterm election that is skewing heavily toward the democrats.  

Ah yes, clearly not political. 

Senate majority leader, John Thune is quoted by CNN as saying, "It's a great message. I like the message, but it shouldn't have been paid for with taxpayer dollars." Texas lame duck Senator--thank you Donald Trump--John Cornyn was asked if the ads were political. His response was, "It's not even a close question." Democratic Congressman, Jamie Raskin was a tad blunter. On social media he wrote, in part, "It may be a felony..." CNN also quoted one former Trump, "campaign official," who said airing the ads at taxpayer expense was, "Dumb, dumb, dumb beyond belief. These guys are all gonna get subpoenaed. It's gonna be bad." 

While that remains to be seen (Screw John Gotti, Trump is the real Teflon Don) we do know that as far too many of us struggle to buy groceries and fuel, the President of the United States just made us all contributors to his current political campaign--whether we wanted to or not.

But hey, that's what Klepto-Autocrats do. 

9-29-26

Chock Full O' Nuts and Crooks

 You can say a lot of things about the republican party, but you'll never be able to deny that when it comes to finding corrupt and downright bat shit crazy candidates, they know how to do it. Obviously, American democrats can and have done it too--Graham Platner up in Maine comes to mind--but republicans have it honed into a real science.

We all know about the Texas GOP senatorial nominee, Ken Paxton. He is a man so wildly corrupt that when he was serving as the state's Attorney General his own staff ratted him out to the FBI. When there was a move to impeach him from that office, it didn't come from the democrats, but republicans themselves. 

Now word comes that in a 2022 interview he spoke about the Uvalde, TX mass shooting which killed 19 students and two teachers. Paxton was asked by radio host/pastor, Trey Graham what he would say to the parents of all those murdered children to comfort them. His response was, "I would just have to say, if I had the opportunity to talk to the people I'd have to say, look there's always a plan. I believe God has a plan. Life is short no matter what it is. And certainly, we're not going to make sense of, you know, a young child being shot and killed way before their life expectancy."

Ah yes, comforting indeed Mr. Attorney General. 

Out in Colorado, the republican nominee for governor is, Victor Marx. Raw Story reports Mr. Marx recently called for 21 days of fasting and prayer to, "shift ideologies before election day." Not his ideology mind you, but that of his opponent, Phil Weiser and his supporters. Mr. Marx (Has anyone else noticed the irony here? A MAGA republican named, Marx.) claimed, "The election will be determined by prayer." He also says, "It (the election) is a spiritual battle against the forces of wickedness." Raw Story notes, Marx has previously claimed he was, "forced to commit a murder when he was a child," although he has never said who, when, or where. In addition, the candidate maintains he has literally fought with, "demons and supernatural creatures," while performing missionary work. It remains unclear what mode of mortal combat it was. You know, was it guns, knives, or bare knuckles? Maybe karate, or even bull whips, ala Indiana Jones. 

Whatever the case, Raw Story also reports Marx isn't the first MAGA gubernatorial candidate to try praying his way into office. In 2022, Pennsylvania republican, Doug Mastriano urged his supporters to fast and pray for 40 days prior to the election. Previously he had publicly prayed for MAGA to "seize the power," right before Trump's supporters stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6th. That didn't work out, at least the way it was originally planned, and Josh Shapiro became Governor of Pennsylvania. So, make of it what you will. 

However, getting back, if only briefly, to our demon slayer, Victor Marx. It is also being reported that the candidate attempted to get around election finance laws by operating a campaign merchandise store through a shell company. It's an act most Colorado experts say is completely illegal. Raw Story says Marx is considered so far out there, some GOP state party officials have resigned rather than support him. 

Finally, we get to Maine Senator, Susan Collins. She has been in the Senate for three decades. She has gained a reputation for moaning and groaning about Donald Trump's crazed policies, but then, in the end, almost always voting for them. Now we might know why. 

On Tuesday ProPublica reported that early in her 2020 re-election bid she was losing in the fundraising department and behind in the polls. The gist of the story is that in exchange for a bunch hefty donations from the executives of a Hawaii based defense contractor, Navatek, Collins made sure the company was awarded millions in DOD contracts. In some quarters this is known as, "pay for play." in others it's known as bribery.  

Collins vehemently denies the allegations and has called it, "clearly a political hit job." The Senator's chief of staff called the allegations, "categorically false." ProPublica stands by the story and maintains Navatek CEO Martin Kao met with a Collins campaign fundraiser and agreed to write out a check in exchange for multi-million-dollar contracts steered their way.  The outlet has a photo of a sizable check made out to a pro-Collins PAC from a company called, "Society of Young Women Scientists and Engineers LLC." The Society was created in November 2019. The Hawaii Department of Commerce lists the, "registered agent," of the company as, you guessed it, Martin Kao. 

The FBI admits it investigated the allegations when they first surfaced in 2020, but after finding nothing dropped it. What they didn't say is that they didn't decide there was nothing until 2025, when Donald Trump began his second term and ordered the case closed. He then made sure all the agents involved were fired--one supposes just to be on the safe side. 

While no one can be sure if there is a connection between Trump's intervention and Collins' bizarre voting record, we do know that when Donald J. Trump does you a favor, he fully expects it to be repaid, with interest. Hey, he might not be a mobster in the traditional sense, but he certainly likes to act like one.     

And that, ladies and gentlemen, sums up the entire 21st century American republican party. From top to bottom, Chock full O' Nuts and Crooks--and sometimes they're both at the same time.

9-25-26

Natalie Harp Pushes the Old Geezer's Big Fat Button

 First things first. A lot of old men are easily triggered when things don't go their way. They have spent decades on this blue ball and when failure strikes it is particularly maddening because they know deep down, they have an ever-shrinking amount of time to, as they say, fight again another day. There are other reasons of course. They mostly fall under the headings of, "things I wanted to do, but never got to," and, "why do I have to take a leak every 45 minutes?" Add them all up and you get what might be called, "the grumpy old man syndrome." 

For the most part this behavior, while a pain in the ass for those stuck having to deal with an old man, is harmless enough. That's because most crotchety old geezers aren't the President of the United States of America. However, as we are all too aware, Donald Trump is and when he goes into an old guy snit it isn't just the family, friends, and nurses he screws with, it's the nation and whole world. 

All of which might explain why Mr. Trump, who was a tad out there even in his prime, has been in a really bad mood the last few days. First, you have the whole mail-in ballot thing. The Supreme Court voted not just no on his postal service election interference scheme, they voted resoundingly NO! It is the only way to describe a 7-2 decision, especially when you thought you owned five of those seven Justices who voted against what you wanted. 

Then there was Kevin Walsh, the chair of the Federal Reserve. Trump appointed him in May and as with all Trump appointees we can assume the Donald expected him to be totally loyal. However, last week instead, of lowering interest rates, like Trump wanted, Walsh raised them by a quarter of one percentage point. The reason cited for the hike was, "stubbornly high inflation," a subject the President wants everyone to be oblivious to in his, "great economy."

The news about the Kennedy Center hasn't gone well either. It has been so frustrating for Trump that he even said he'd tear the building down unless his name went on it out front. It was a threat that lands somewhere between, "If you don't let me play quarterback, I'll take my ball and go home," and, "Make me your partner and I can guarantee this beautiful business of yours won't burn down." According to the Daily Beast, at a recent meeting in the Oval Office the President went off on staff members because they hadn't "publicly praised his attempts to overhaul the Kennedy Center." In fact, the report went on to say that during the meeting Brother Don complained that he wasn't being, "publicly thanked enough by key figures in his administration," for everything he has done. 

Now that's an old man tantrum if there ever was one.

Finally, last week, into this maelstrom of senile rage, frustration, and self-pity stepped, Natalie Harp. To begin with it is hard to explain her presence anywhere near the White House, much less within constant arm's reach of the President. Does she remind Don Trump of the salad days when he used to appear on Howard Stern's show. You know, bragging he was just as brave as any of those guys fighting in Vietnam because of all the unprotected sex he had with strange women? Is she some sort of weird female version of Grigori Rasputin? Whichever the case, she has Trump's ear, not to mention the eyes and maniacal smile of a women capable of boiling bunnies. According to reports, last week, Ms. Harp showed El Don clips of coverage and a graphic from Politico that pushed his big old fat button. 

Within hours the President of the United States summarily banned Politico, MS Now, and CNN from the White House. There were a number of reasons given for the ban, but in the end what they all added up to was, "They keep saying bad things about me."

The three news organizations immediately sued and others, including FOX are boycotting White House coverage, at least for now. Trump, meanwhile, is threatening to ban the New York Times, Washington Post and others for their negative coverage of, well, pretty much everything he says and does. When the President showed up at the U.N. today, he was confronted by a CNN reporter asking him pointed questions about the war with Iran. Trump, seemingly surprised, said something along the lines of, "What are you doing here?" The reporter, Kaitlin Collins responded, "The U.N. invited us, sir."

Oops, a flaw in the plan.

Not to worry though, when it comes to the actual grounds of the White House, our man, Don has promised an alternative to Collins and the rest of her gang of radical leftists. It's extended White House, "news," coverage over Trump TV on the internet. No one is sure if Natalie Harp will be able to pull herself away from the President long enough to provide commentary on current events there. However, we can be assured, that no matter who is doing the reporting, the, "news," will be to Donald Trump's liking and all things will be coming up trimmed in gold and smelling like roses. That's right ladies and gentlemen, as far as this President, is concerned the only news fit to read, hear, and see is news that makes him look good. 

Hey, the first amendment says congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech and the press. It doesn't say Donald John Trump can't.

9-22-26

Charles Haywood: Shampoo, Conditioner, Gel, and Ultra-Right-Wing Politics

 Charles Haywood is a false prophet...and he is infiltrating everything.

Glenn Beck, conservative commentator

 

According to Wikipedia Charles Haywood graduated from the University of Chicago with a law degree, plus a degree from the school of business. In 2005 he founded a company in Indianapolis, called Mansfield-King which manufactured shampoo, hair conditioner, and gels. Apparently, they sold a lot of it. By 2018 the company's reported revenue was well over $34 million. The predicted revenue for 2020 was $50 million, but Haywood sold the place for what we can assume was a boatload of money. 

So, Charlie, now flush with cash, decides to get involved in politics. And not just your run of the mill politics. He named his personal political philosophy, Foundationalism. According to Foundationalism and Charles Haywood the current system of government in the United States is headed for collapse and should be replaced with an authoritarian regime. Haywood doesn't say he wants to run that regime, however he has expressed the desire to become a, "warlord, of an armed patronage network." 

Wikipedia also says the same year he sold his hair care company Charles Haywood founded a quasi-fraternal organization named, the, "Society for American Civic Renewal," or SACR. Since it is fraternal, it is a male only group and membership is by invitation only. The Guardian reports it currently has four, "lodges," three in Idaho and one in Dallas. 

SACR's website says the society wants to, "build thriving communities of free citizens who will rebuild the frontier-conquering spirit of America." They also want to, "counter and conquer the poison of those who rule today," and reject, "modernist philosophies and heresies." At least one of their members, Charlie Haywood himself, steadfastly opposes careers for women and believes women in the workforce should be socially ostracized. In addition, Wikipedia says Haywood, "blames mixed sex education for a lack of male masculinity." 

The Society's logo, which they call, "the mark,"--and you know where this is going don't you--is meant to, in the site's words, "evoke two versions of the Cross used in early Christianity: Saint Peter's Cross and the Anchor Cross."  

That's right, baby--give me some of that old time white/Christian nationalism.

Then, once again, comes the weird part. Charles Haywood, thanks to his big bucks, is a major donor to the Claremont Foundation. in fact, according to conservative commentator and writer, Erick Erickson things have gotten so cozy between Haywood and the Foundation, its current President and CFO are both members of SACR. For those not familiar with right-wing organizations, the Claremont Foundation was created in 1979 as a conservative think tank. It became an early supporter and defender of one Donald J. Trump. The Daily Beast has said it's responsible for, "having done more than any other organization to build a philosophical case for Trump's brand of conservatism." According to Wikipedia the foundation has played significant roles in the Trump administrations and in 2019 Trump awarded it the National Humanities Medal.

In 2020 when the shit hit the fan, John Eastman was a major player in trying to get the election overturned. He is a senior fellow at the Claremont Foundation. (Our pal, Charlie Haywood called the January 6th insurrection an electoral justice protest, but hey, what else would you expect from a guy who has openly admired the way Augusto Pinochet and Francisco Franco dealt with leftists.) 

Erickson wrote an essay accusing Haywood of helping to fund a group that is slowly working its way into different conservative think tanks and church organizations. Wikipedia notes that besides founding SACR and donating to Claremont, Haywood bankrolls The American Conservative magazine. In 2021 he put together what he calls American Moment. It is an organization which recruits, help train, then place jr. staffers in the administration and congress. It then had and one supposes still does have the full backing of none other than J.D. Vance.

To paraphrase an old line, well, isn't that all just special. 

Two days ago, Joel Borkert, a deputy coordinator for the State Department's Bureau of Counter Terrorism told a House subcommittee that left-wing extremism was one of the top three threats to American security. When asked about right-wing extremism by Florida Congressman, Jared Moskowitz, it took a full three minutes of prodding before Borkert would admit that such a thing even existed.

And now, we know why.

9-18-26

When it Comes to the AI Apocalypse, Donald Trump Says Full Speed Ahead

 There is this 27-year-old guy named Jacob Coxon who spent two plus years working for OpenAI. Eary this year he moved over to Anthropic which is another AI developer. The Wall Street Journal reported the reason Coxon made the move was because Anthropic's reputation for safety was better. Not worker safety in the labs, mind you, but in the AI models they are building. Apparently that reputation was undeserved--at least in Jacob Coxon's mind. When he quit last week he wrote a post on social media, which in part read, "Neither company (OpenAI and Anthropic) is acting responsibly. They are racing straight to self-improving superintelligence and gambling with our lives." 

In another post, Coxon wrote, "The people building AI earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade." 

That would be the end of this decade. As in the next four years. 

Some might think that seems a little, let's say, overwrought. So, what do other Anthropic employees say--the ones who are still there and haven't quit in a frantic alarmist huff? Evan Hubinger, Anthropic's lead in alignment science is far more optimistic. He told the media the chance of AI wiping out all of humanity in the next decade is only a little more than 10%. Hubinger says the main problem is that Anthropic can't figure out a way to keep a superintelligent system, "aligned," with what human beings want out of it. Another Anthropic developer, Samuel Marks, claims the longer a person works in research labs, the more frightened of AI he, or she becomes. 

Yahoo News reports over 1,000 AI researchers have signed a statement saying they want, "global coordination," on a way to stop AI if it begins to spin out of control. Proving Samuel Marks right, the Wall Street Journal reports, OpenAI lead scientist, Jakub Pachocki wants a, "coordinated AI slowdown backed by government rules." 

People have grown so alarmed--this anxiety was already bubbling, Coxon and the rest just popped the cork on the bottle--now even AI corporate CEOs are advocating for an industry wide development slowdown due to, "safety concerns."   

There is one guy though who isn't buying into all this caution shit. That's right, our man in the White House, Donald Trump wants, full speed ahead on AI. The other day, after being told by OpenAI CEO, Sam Altman things needed to slow down, the President told everyone, in no uncertain terms, where he stands on the issue. On social media he wrote, "The only control or guardrails that AI needs is a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ) PRESIDENT and the U.S.A. has that in spades. We already have tremendous CRIMINAL and REGULATORY power over these companies. There is a SICK conspiracy going on against AI and Data Centers, and the only one happy about it is China. WHOEVER WINS AI WINS! We are leading over China, and all others, and will continue to do so. Conspiracy Theorists, Treasonists, Traitors, and Leakers, BEWARE!"

While no one, not even Claude, is familiar with the term, "Treasonists," it didn't take long for one of Trump's congressional lap dogs to pick up on his lead. Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson told CNN, "If Congress races in and does some sort of emergency session to try to regulate AI, we will lose this race to China. And that is a threat to every single American. So, we've got to have a chance. We got to have steady hands at the wheel." 

 It is unclear at this time if the Speaker understands that when the Titanic slammed into the iceberg, the general consensus was that the hands at the wheel were steady, but the fucking boat was going too fast.  

So, here we are. Everyone involved in AI development--from the ones actually programming it to those in top management--say we need to at least slow things down until we are sure of what is happening. Or, we need to have the government regulate the bejeezus out of it, so it doesn't turn into a real-life version of Skynet. But, the President of the United States and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, who don't know squat about AI, say we don't need anything to keep it under control except Donald Trump's brain.

Is it just me, or does anyone else see the flaw in this plan?

9-15-26