Month by Month: 2023 in the Rear View Mirror

 2023 has been a long and strange year. And while it would be easy to blame the weirdness on Donald Trump we can't give him all the credit. No, there have been plenty of other players involved as witnessed below.

January: In November of 2022 republican, Soloman Pena ran for the New Mexico state legislature. He lost to his democratic opponent by 47 points. Being a republican Pena declared the election was rigged. No one believed him. In January he was arrested for shooting into the houses of various democratic legislators. It shouldn't have come as a surprise to anyone. Mr. Pena had previously done nine years in prison on charges ranging from burglary, to receiving stolen goods, and contributing to the delinquency of a minor. He was also present on the mall in Washington D.C. the day of the failed insurrection.

February: A huge white balloon of Chinese origin made its way across the continental U.S. driving the media and republicans in particular into a frenzy. Rumors of electronic surveillance and worse, flew about on cable news networks. The Chinese claimed the ballon was conducting, "civilian," scientific research. No one believed them and the U.S. military shot it down once it had reached the Atlantic. For a week or two afterward unidentified balloon sightings came on what seemed like a daily basis, but as all things American do, they soon faded from the news cycle.

March: Fox News host, Tucker Carlson used his nightly slot to show highly edited clips from the January 6th, 2021 insurrection. In an Orwellian attempt to rewrite history Carlson claimed the hand picked moments proved the pro Trump rioters were as well behaved as your average tourists and the stories of violence and destruction were wildly overblown by the liberal media. Scenes of the tourists smashing windows, doors, and the heads of cops were carefully deleted.

April: Speaking of Tucker Carlson....Fox News fired him, although it wasn't because of the aforementioned reshaping of the obvious facts. The reasons were never specified, but one suspects it was because he sent out an email calling the woman who runs Fox a cu-t. Well that and the network owed nearly a billion dollars to Dominion Voting Machine company for defamation.

May: In Okmulgee County, Oklahoma, Jesse McFadden murdered five children, his wife, and himself. McFadden had received an early release from prison on a rape conviction even though he had been charged with possession of child pornography and solicitation of sex with a minor while still in the joint. Evidence proved he had sexually assaulted at least one of his underaged victims before killing her. During a search of his house authorities found hand cuffs, dog collars, chains and wall mounts suitable for sadomasochistic rituals.

June: Friction between the Russian army and Yevgeny Prigozhin's merry band of mercenaries, the Wagner Group boiled over on the Ukranian frontier. Prigozhin ordered his troops north to Moscow in order to straighten things out. They were less than 150 miles from their target when a sudden truce was achieved and Prigozhin and Vladimir Putin seemingly kissed and made up The Wagner boys were told to go home, unarmed, and Prigozhin went to Belarus. A little while later, to no one's surprise, a plane carrying Prigozhin and some pals blew up, killing everyone on board.

July: Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction, Ryan Walters told a group of patrons that while the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre was a terrible thing, perpetrated by bad people, Oklahoma teachers should not link it to skin color. In effect he told the gathering race has nothing to do with race riots. Despite the whole thing being on tape, Walters later said the media had misrepresented and twisted his words. 

August: Six of eight so called republican candidates for president pledged to vote for Donald Trump if he was the party nominee. All six agreed Trump had been a great president. Meanwhile the Trump himself was booked into Fulton County Jail, becoming inmate P0113508009. He is currently free on $200,000 bond and tee-shirts bearing his mug shots are being sold by his campaign.

September: Congresswoman Lauren Boebert took a date to see a road company production of the musical, "Beetlejuice." She was kicked out for behavior unbecoming not only a member of congress, but adulthood. Besides vaping, taking flash photos, and groping her companions crotch, she went out of her way to insult a pregnant woman seated behind her, telling the woman, among other things, she led a sad existence. 

October: The Gaza based terrorist group decided to wage war on Israel. Not on their military mind you, but music festival attendees and residents of a couple of nearby kibbutzs. The succeeded in killing nearly 1,500 people, raping scores of women, and taking nearly 300 hostages. Most of the terrorists, if not dead already, are currently cowering in crumbling tunnels praying worldwide antisemitism will save their asses.

November: Ultra rightwing anti-abortion forces were shocked when voters rejected their extremist bullshit nationwide. No matter how it is spun women's healthcare is proving to be a fatal issue for them and they just don't seem to get it. The disaster at ballot boxes was so great it trickled down to Moms For Liberty, the group who loves to ban both gays and books. Their favored candidates were beaten so badly so many times the outfit deleted all their online endorsements. Later things went further downhill for Moms For Liberty when one of their cofounders confessed to being a willing participant in what the porn trade calls a, "FFM bi-sex scene," along with her husband.    

December: On Christmas Day former President and leading republican candidate Donad J. Trump posted on social media a holiday greeting of sorts to his political enemies, real and imagined, "MAY THEY ROT IN HELL," he wrote. 

Ah, yes, quite the messenger of peace and love that Donnie.

And there we have it ladies and gentlemen. The Year of Our Lord, 2023. As you might have anticipated, the bar is open.

12-28-23  

Everybody Might be Right About Colorado

 No person shall be a  Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office , civil or military, under the United States, or under any state, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any state legislature, or as an executive, or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged  in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.

Section 3 of the 14th amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America. 

Actually there is one more sentence in section 3. It says the only way to get around the rule is for both houses to approve an exception by a two thirds majority. And as we've seen the only person who can get a two thirds majority lately is George Santos.

A number of months ago Laurence Tribe and J. Michael Luttig started reminding everyone about the 14th amendment.  Tribe taught constitutional law at Harvard for close to 50 years while Luttig is a retired federal judge. He is considered such an expert on the constitution Mike Pence asked for his advice when Don Trump started telling everyone the Vice-President could do whatever he felt like when it came to electoral college results. 

Both men had come to the conclusion that the amendment applied to not only long dead confederates, but also to former President, Donald John Trump. As they pointed out there was ample evidence showing Brother Trump leading, or at least inciting an insurrection and continuing to comfort and aid  those who did his dirty work that terrible day in January, 2021. 

This past week the Supreme Court of Colorado, citing section 3 of the 14th amendment, took him off the republican primary ballot there. It only took a few moments after the news was announced for the MAGA mob to react like we all knew they would. 

One post on Truth Social read, "Kill judges. Behead judges. Roundhouse kick a judge into the concrete." Another urged, "Slam dunk a judge's baby into the trash can."  Others posted the justice's office addresses, their emails, and phone numbers. A few called for a second civil war. Marjorie Taylor Greene even rekindled her call for a, "national divorce."

Psychotics aside, others have reacted with support of Trump, doubt about the legal decision's viability, and dark assessments that the ruling will, in the course of things, help him. Tribe and Luttig have called the decision not only correct, but the only possible interpretation any court could make. Others have said the U.S. Supreme Court, chock full of Trump appointees and souls owned by billionaires, will never uphold the ruling. One, overly optimistic school of thought, says the ruling has trapped conservative justices like Kavanaugh, who have previously written the constitution should be taken as literally as evangelicals take the tales in the Old Testament. Finally, there are those who say it should be up to the voters to decide Trump's fate rather than the courts. (Blithely ignoring Ohio republicans who are busily trying to subvert the will of voters who passed a pro abortion amendment to the state constitution--their reason: sometimes voters make, "immoral and evil," choices.")

Oddly, everyone could be right, at least in part. The Colorado Supreme Court has just proven to every Trump devotee the deep state is out to get him. It is all a great conspiracy. On the other hand the crazy fucker did inspire and with his words lead what can only be called an insurrection. He took an oath to defend the constitution and then tried to destroy it when things didn't go his way. Yes, it will add fuel to his increasingly violent rhetoric. However, the Colorado decision might inspire other state supreme courts to follow suit. Maybe conservative U.S. Justices won't turn out to be political hacks and hypocrites, but maybe they will. 

All we know for sure is Donald John Trump did attempt to overthrow the government of the United States of America and the Constitution of the republic says because of it he should never be allowed to hold public office again. What we don't know is if any of that matters in the 21st century. 

After all, the man has spent nearly eight decades on this blue ball and he has always gotten off the hook no matter what sort of awful shit he has pulled.

12-21-23

Sometimes it Isn't Just the Hypocrisy

Sorry I was mostly in for her.

Text message to Christian Ziegler, Chairman of the Florida republican party, from an unidentified woman who was backing out of a menage a trois involving Ziegler, his wife, and her.

Although Bridget Ziegler had participated in at least one previous three way sexual encounter she had let her husband and the woman know she couldn't be there that day. Perhaps her duties as a Sarasota, FL schoolboard member, or her work on the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District kept her away. We will probably never know for sure, but her absence obviously meant a lot to the other woman involved. 

Apparently Christian didn't take the news well. He allegedly showed up at the woman's door shortly after receiving the text with his little head fully engorged and entirely in control of his big head. The woman has accused him of rape while Ziegler, an architect of Florida's notorious, "Don't Say Gay," law claims the sex act was consensual. 

Other than admitting to the cops she had done the group grope the year before, Mrs. Ziegler, the mother of three, hasn't commented on the incident. 

Everyone else has and  is though. The blow back, so to speak, has been massive. Florida republicans, including Ron DeSantis have demanded Christian Ziegler resign his $120,000 per year job as state party chair. So far he has refused. The Sarasota school board voted 4-1 to ask Bridget to resign. (Her vote was the lone dissenting one) 

How long either of the can hang on is up in the air. It has been reported Chris Ziegler told the state party he would go away if they paid him $2 million. He denied it, but then he has been denying a lot of shit lately. Yesterday the Grand Pooh-Bahs of the state party voted to strip Ziegler of all his power and lowered his salary to $1 buck a year. The word is at their next meeting in early January if he isn't gone they will fire him.

Bridget can't be fired by the schoolboard. This being Florida, only DeSantis can do that. The Governor is currently too busy losing the GOP presidential nomination in Iowa to worry about local schoolboards. Moms for Liberty, the book banning radical right group she cofounded, (she dropped out of it a year after she helped form it) has also remained strangely silent. Who knows why. Could it be large portions of the membership are out experimenting with each other as these words are being written? After all, those closets in some conservative households are starting to look pretty damn deep.

The Sarasota police are still trying to sort out the facts from fiction in the rape allegation. Christian Ziegler has yet to be charged. In addition no one has accused Bridget of anything other than what could be best described as felony hypocrisy. 

And there in lies the rub, as Big Bill Shakespeare used to say. If Christian and Bridget hadn't spent their entire careers screeching about what other people do in private--the rape allegation aside--no one would give a rat's ass what they do there.

Indeed, sometimes it isn't just the hypocrisy. Sometimes it is the sheer scope and arrogance of the hypocrisy. 

12-18-23

Introducing Oklahoma State Senator Elect, Dusty Deevers

 How long, oh Lord, how long?

Oklahoma State Senate District 32 is situated in the southwestern part of the state. It encompasses most of Commanche county and a sizable chunk of Lawton. Included in its precincts is the town of Elgin, the birth place of Southern Baptist Pastor, Dusty Deevers. Deevers graduated from Oklahoma City University and seven years later from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He has a wife and six kids.

Back during the Covid pandemic Brother Deevers began to be interested in politics. To use a favorite word of his, he was outraged that the government mandated masks should be worn by everyone and churches were urged to pause their services until the plague could be brought under some semblance of control. Mass vaccinations further fueled his anger and he compared all of it to the Nuremburg Laws. Those were the statues enacted by Nazi Germany to oppress Jews and kick start the Holocaust.

It is unclear if the mandates negatively impacted the Pastor's cash flow, or not, but one suspects he was as much concerned with shrinking donations to his church--and therefore his pay--as he was with any political philosophy.  

This past Tuesday there was a special election for the seat of Senate District 32. Dusty Deevers was the republican nominee. His campaign promised he would fight tirelessly to end, "no fault divorce," (an apparent fetish of his) and pornography. He has also stated he wants to, "abolish," abortion. You know--all of it. We're talking, no if, ands, buts, or coconuts. No more of this, if the woman's life is in danger shit.  In other words, hey, bitch, you fucked him, it's your fault if you die.  

That's right. Dusty Deevers describes himself as a proud, abortion abolitionist. He even cut a video for the web site of, what is known as Abolitionists Rising. The site has 200,000 subscribers. The Guardian reports another Abolitionist site, a YouTube account owned by Apologia Studios has over 500,000 subscribers. 

So, you might ask, what is it that abortion abolitionists want besides the no exceptions thing? Well, for one they want any woman who gets an abortion to be charged with a felony. A felony as in murder. Leading abortion abolitionist Jeff Durbin told the New York Times last year, "I do believe that the (penalty for the} unjustified taking of a human life, if provable, ultimately, justly, ought to be capital punishment." 

To prove they aren't hypocrites the Guardian story says, abortion abolitionists, "openly disdain the label, pro-life."

And in order to establish his abolitionist street cred, candidate Deevers' web site featured a statement which read in part, "Babies are being murdered in pro-life Oklahoma...Oklahoma has the fifth fastest growing rate of self-managed abortion." He went on to warn voters evil, anonymous liars in the pro-life movement who slandered his, "good brothers in Christ," in previous elections abolitionists lost might come after him also.   

Tuesday Dusty Deevers received a little over 54% of the votes cast. His latest title is Senator-elect. To celebrate the occasion he went on social media and posted, "Here in Oklahoma, it is time to abolish abortion, abolish pornography, abolish the state income tax and give power and equal representation back to the people!"

One assumes Reverend Deevers is referring to people just like himself. Because he certainly can't mean people who are in places like Kansas, Ohio, Michigan and others. In all those locales abortion rights, when put to a vote of said people, were resoundingly passed and have become enshrined in state constitutions. 

Perhaps he feels those elections were rigged. Such beliefs are not out of line with the awful rubes he will be caucusing with in the near future. 

Obviously, those of us in Oklahoma have one more problem right now. We are stuck with this crazy bastard for the next few years. Unless, of course, we can catch a break and he and his wife get nabbed doing the Christian and Bridget Ziegler thing. I wish I could be optimistic, but somehow that sems just too much to hope for. 

Let's face it, Elgin, Oklahoma isn't a sin ridden, Gomorrah like Sarasota, Florida. At least as far as we know.

12-14-23

    

Kate Cox vs. Ken Paxton and the State of Texas

Wikipedia describes Trisomy 18 this way:

Trisomy 18, also known as Edwards Syndrome is a genetic disorder caused by the presence of a third copy of all, or part of chromosome 18. Many  parts of the body are affected. Babies are often small and have heart defects. Other features include small head, small jaw, clenched fists with overlapping fingers, and severe intellectual disability. 

Kate Cox, a 31 year old mother of two recently found out her fetus has the disease, which in this case includes a spinal abnormality. In the 21 weeks she has been pregnant she has made four different trips to emergency rooms with severe cramping and fluid loss. Doctors have told her chances of the baby surviving the pregnancy are slim. In addition, if her condition goes sideways even more than it already has there is a significant possibility she will die during the delivery. They've also told her if she does survive the odds are she will be infertile the rest of her life. 

Tragically, Kate Cox has another health problem. She lives in Texas. 

Thanks to Texas law, which in effect bans all abortions, Ms. Cox went into court last week to plead for an exception because her physician has said her life could be in danger if she doesn't terminate her pregnancy. Such a petition is allowed under the law. The judge, took a look at her circumstances and ruled in Cox's favor. The ruling was personal. It had nothing to do with any other woman from Galveston to Amarillo and El Paso to Tyler.

As narrow as the ruling was, though, it was too much for Texas Attorney General, Ken Paxton.   

Paxton is one wild and crazy guy. He is such a Trump worshipper that after the 2020 election, he led the charge to throw out legitimate election results, not in Texas, but in places like Pennsylvania. The Don thought so much of him, Paxton helped rev up the crowd in Washinton the day of the violent coup attempt.

On Thursday, Paxton asked the Texas Supreme Court to delay the exception and put any medical care for Kate Cox on hold while he tried to come up with an excuse to endanger her life further. At the same time the AG wrote letters to three Houston area hospitals where Cox's doctor has privileges, threatening all manner of legal actions if they allowed Cox to receive an abortion on their premises. Being very Trumpian indeed, he also issued a statement saying he'd prosecute any Texas Doctor who performed--you know--what had become a legal act thanks to a judge. For good measure he accused the jurist who had issued the ruling of being, "a social activist."

Late Friday night--these sort of things always seem to happen when no one is looking--the Texas Supremes ruled in Paxton's favor.

It is unclear where any of these dirty old men, Paxton included, got their medical degrees. However they all seem convinced they are far more knowledgeable in the field of obstetrics and gynecology than anyone currently billing Kate Cox for care and treatment. Perhaps we are witnessing another example of the Dunning-Kruger Effect. Or, maybe they're just a bunch of sadistic ass holes.

The highest court in Texas didn't t rule Kate Cox definitely can't get an abortion there, at least not yet. But as one analyst said the clock is ticking. Each day of delay brings her closer to a medical emergency that puts her life at risk. And all because the ultra right wing wants to control every aspect of a woman's health and behavior from birth to the grave. It is the ultimate fascism.

And it is who they are.

12-10-23

Marjorie Taylor Greene's Twisted Three Way

 Before she ran for congress, Marjorie Taylor Greene fancied herself as a journalist. According to Wikipedia she wrote nearly 60 articles for a conspiracy website called, American Truth Seekers. In 2017 she was a frequent contributor to Law Enforcement Today, which Wikipedia describes as a pro police fake news site. By 2018 she was a heavy hitter for what was called The Family America Project. She moderated, to use the word loosely, the outfit's Facebook group which routinely contained death threats against democrats, vile, racist attacks directed at the Obamas and various conspiracy theories. 

Given the content of some of her rants back in those days we might well call this period, MTG's Jewish Space Laser phase. 

Taylor Greene still dabbles in far right phobias and conspiracies on occasion. The other day she left a social media post for, "Moms and Dads," telling them not to be offended by physicians who disapprove of parents who refuse to vaccinate their children. She went on to assure her audience she never hesitated when it came to not allowing pediatricians to vaccinate her own children. She even declared, "Kids aren't at risk for COVID but they face risks from COVID vaccinations." 

The Congresswoman failed to mention what those risks are, but as she no doubt learned during her Pizza Gate reporting for American Truth Seekers, details will often ruin a deliciously lurid story.

Despite these brief flights into conspiratorial paranoia, these days Marjorie Taylor Greene is more focused on Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The short version is she thinks the invasion is great and apparently hates Zelenskyy. 

It isn't entirely clear why Congresswoman Greene is such an avid fan of Russian aggression. One suspects it is multi layered. It may have started when she realized the guy she'd love to give a BJ to, Don Trump was happily doing the same thing to Vladimir Putin. Indeed, there might be fantasies of a twisted three way fueling her obsessive attraction to the two. 

Zelenskyy's refusal to manufacture dirt on Hunter Biden for Trump certainly has something to do with it. Anyone who refuses to do Trump a favor automatically becomes his enemy and therefore Marjorie Taylor Greene's enemy. We can only imagine Trump's fury when he saw his carefully crafted plans to gut NATO fall apart when Joe Biden rallied the alliance from the brink of extinction and unified it like it hasn't been since the cold war. Big Don's rage had to have filtered down to Greene.  

Late last month the congresswoman posted on social media, "Anyone who votes to fund Ukraine is funding the most corrupt funding scheme of any foreign war in our country's history. And forcing the American people to pay for it." To back up her accusation she provided a link to what is called the Strategic Culture Foundation. Sounds impressive, right? The SCF as it is known has been identified as a propaganda arm of the Russian Foreign Ministry. It has been sanctioned by the U.S. government for deliberately spreading disinformation and interfering in American elections. The first real splash it made was during the COVID crisis. The SCF ran with a story which claimed a COVID vaccine being developed by Bill Gates would contain itty bitty tracking devices the government would use to keep tabs on you and everybody else.

This latest post follows others by MTG which have promised American sons would be sent to die in Ukraine, and Americans were paying for a war the Ukrainians couldn't possibly win. Not to mention a couple which said that by funding the Ukrainian military we are causing needless death and suffering in the entire region. 

All of which tends to ignore one paramount fact. There wouldn't be any death and suffering or need to finance the Ukrainian military if Russia hadn't invaded the fucking place to begin with. 

Ah, once again those damned details.

At this point the only real question we should be asking about Marjorie Taylor Greene is how much are the Russians paying her and where is all the cash being stashed? Well, that and what charges should a member of congress face when she, or he becomes an agent of a foreign power? 

12-5-23