Explaining Election Math to MAGA Folks.

  

THIS PAST WEEK several of my MAGA friends were busy on social media, bashing Democrats and people like me. So, I tried, for the thousandth time, to explain why Democrats and people like think Donald Trump is nuts. 

One MAGA friend said his side never attacked Obama, and called him a Nazi, or compared him to Hitler. Our side, he fumed, was terrible, because we kept saying Trump had fascist tendencies. 

Frankly, I was stunned. I wanted to ask: “Where were you living from 2008 to 2016? In a cave in Tibet?” 

(Just Google: “Obama as Hitler,” click on “images,” and see what comes up.) 

  

Another friend (and in their hearts, these are good people, as far as I know) posted this last week: 

 

* 

FRANKLY, I hate memes. I prefer to dive into an ocean of evidence and see what I can find when I swim. So, I decided I had to try again. I’m not stupid. I know that, for sure. And I don’t want my MAGA friends to remain trapped in ignorance. That’s never good. Here’s what I know. Donald Trump didn’t win the 2020 election – which would mean he has been lying for five years – and that he was willing to overturn the results of a fair election to stay in power. That, of course, would be the very essence of fascism, or authoritarianism, if you prefer. 

How do I know Donald didn’t win? I will now explain why we on the Democratic side fear the man, using basic numbers. Also: Easily grasped facts. 

First, let’s look at a series of presidential elections. 

 

(2000) 

In a titanic contest between Sen. Al Gore and Gov. George W. Bush, the latter prevailed in the Electoral College but lost the popular vote. Pollsters had predicted a narrow win for Bush. 

Rounding off: 

Bush got 50.5 million votes. 

Gore had 51 million. 

Ralph Nader and his Green Party cost Sen. Gore the presidency, as they tallied 2.9 million votes. Gore was a dedicated environmentalist – like Mr. Nader – but the Greens took away more than enough votes to cost Gore the win in Florida. 

Another million votes were scattered across other minor parties but did not affect the outcome. 

If you don’t remember, the election turned entirely on who won Florida, with its then-25 electoral votes. Gore lost that state by 537 popular votes, out of six million cast. (You may also recall that the U.S. Supreme Court blocked a recount, voting 5-4, to accept Mr. Bush as winner.)

 

Melting ice in Greenland. c. 2020.
Gore was worried about climate change in 2000.

 

Total votes cast: 105,400,000. 

The U.S. population has grown by approximately 60 million since.

___ 

 

(2004) 

In 2004, Mr. Bush defeated Sen. John Kerry. Bush increased his vote to 62 million – a jump of almost ten million. 

Kerry increased the Democratic share of the vote to 59 million, a jump of eight million. Nader’s total vote fell to 500,000, and other parties piled up a million votes. 

(Remember those jumps when we get to 2020.) 

The polls (in aggregate) had correctly predicted a Bush win. Please note, my MAGA friends, a candidate can easily pile up many more votes, from one election to the next. It’s not some conspiracy. 

In just four years, voter turnout increased by more than seventeen million.

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan appeared to be going well in 2004.

 

Total votes cast: 122,500,000.

___ 

 

(2008) 

In 2008 and again in 2012, Barack Obama won four-year terms in office; and if you check polling numbers (as I always do) you will see that they are, in aggregate, surprisingly accurate. He was expected to win both times. The 2012 contest, however, was close; I remember worrying that the polls were within the margin of error. 

In 2008, the vote was: 

Obama: 69.5 million votes. 

Sen. John McCain: only 59.9 million. 

Ralph Nader ran again, got 700,000 votes, and other candidates pulled down 1,100,000 votes, or thereabouts. 

Again, voter turnout increased dramatically. The winning candidate, Mr. Obama, increased his party’s vote by more than ten million. With the U.S. economy having slid into recession, Republican vote totals declined. 

This is how voters act.

One of my MAGA friends said recently that his side never trashed Obama.

 

Total votes cast: 131,200,000.

___ 

 

(2012) 

In 2012, we had a closer election, just as the aggregated average of the polls predicted. Individual polls can be off a great deal. Taken altogether, they have been correct, regarding the popular vote, in every election going back to 2004. 

Obama had 65.9 million votes (a drop of 3.6 million) 

Sen. Mitt Romney had 60.9 million. 

Another 2.3 million votes were scattered to other parties. 

The decline in the number of votes reflected disappointment with what Mr. Obama had been able to accomplish in his first term, coupled with reluctance to vote for Sen. Romney and his policies. Donald J. Trump famously insisted the vote was rigged and Obama’s victory was a “sham” and “a total travesty.” 

He also said we were no longer a democracy, and warned, “We can’t let this happen. We should march on Washington and stop this travesty. Our nation is totally divided!” It was kind of like when he said, in 2011, that Obama wasn’t born in this country, and so wasn’t a legitimate president. 

That was some serious lying, right there.

 

Total votes cast: 129,100,000.

 

FUN FACT: Since Barack Obama’s mother was a U.S. citizen, by law any child of hers would be a citizen, whether they were born on a plane over the Atlantic, during a vacation in Slovenia, or, hypothetically, on Mars. Citizenship follows the parent or parents, and only one parent need be a U.S. citizen. 

Donald Trump should have read the Constitution.

___ 

 

(2016) 

In 2016, Mr. Trump made his first appearance on the ballot. When he lost the Republican primary in Iowa, he warmed up by claiming Ted Cruz “stole” the election, and he, Donald, really won. 

Leading up to the general election, Donald also predicted, “The election is absolutely being rigged by the dishonest and distorted media pushing Crooked Hillary – but also at many polling places – SAD.” 

Yet, somehow, he won. 

(The MAGA folks miss the cosmic irony.)

(And the fundamentals of math.)

The National Enquirer, in cahoots with Trump, 
warned us not to vote for Mrs. Clinton.

 

Polls indicated a Clinton victory was likely, but after F.B.I. Director James Comey indicated an investigation was open regarding her emails, her polling advantage shriveled. On the eve of the election, it was expected she would win by about 3% of the total vote. She did win the popular vote, but by only 2.1%. 

Trump had 63 million votes. 

Clinton had 65.9 million. 

Gary Johnson of the Libertarian Party accumulated 4.5 million votes (Two of the blogger’s children voted for Johnson; and a son-in-law voted for Trump). Jill Stein and the Green Party had 1.5 million votes – again doing nothing more than helping a candidate who was no friend to the environment to defeat one who was. Another two million votes were scattered. 

Trump claimed Democrats had rigged the vote, stealing millions in California – which only complete nincompoops would believe. The Democrats didn’t need to steal votes in that deep blue state. 

They could have taken Pennsylvania, by contrast, if they had used their magic powers to steal 45,000. 

Another 23,000 would have given Hillary Wisconsin, as well. These numbers are not hard to grasp. 

Finally, Michigan would have gone for Clinton, if only she had been able to garner 11,000 more votes. 

(Switching those three states, she would have won the electoral vote.) 

 

Trump did admit, a few days before the election that President Obama was born in America, which amused those of us who felt Trump would lie about any topic, including (as we later learned) sleeping with porn stars, if it was to his advantage. Of course, that’s just my opinion. 

The math, however? The math is so obvious that you would think even the dumbest person in America could figure it out. 

If Democrats had the magic power to steal millions of votes in one state, where they didn’t need any, why wouldn’t they use that magic to steal those thousands in the three states that cost them the win?

136,900,000 total votes cast.

___ 

 

(Midterm Elections – 2018) 

If you aren’t following the trend, the number of votes rises over time, and in some elections, totals rise dramatically, as in 2004. 

There were clear signs of what was to come in 2020, if one paid attention to what happened in the 2018 midterms. In 2018, pollsters were nearly unanimous in saying that Republicans were about to get shellacked. 

(Donald famously predicted a red wave – almost as if he were delusional.)

Trump's prediction.

 

In the end, voter turnout, as a percentage of eligible voters was the highest in a midterm election in at least four decades. Thirty million more people voted in 2018, compared to 2014. Everyone who understood politics and how to add and subtract knew voter turnout in 2020 would be huge. 

Democrats outpolled Republicans by 8.6 million votes, in all House races combined, as predicted. 

The GOP lost 39 House seats. 

(Republican leaders knew 2020 might be grim.)

___ 

 

Trump was never popular. 

It was always interesting to follow polls during Trump’s first term in office (which I did). At no point, during his first four years in the White House, did Donald’s approval rating rise above 50% in an aggregate of all polls. No other modern president has ever achieved that unenviable feat. 

Red, below is disapproval, black is approval. 

 

No one who could interpret simple polls should have been the least bit surprised when Donald lost in 2020.

___ 

 

(2020) 

On Election Day, November 3, Donald’s favorability rating stood at 45%, his unfavourability rating at 53.4%. RealClearPolitics, in an aggregate of all polls, had Biden ahead by 7.2 points. 

The final vote showed that the challenger had beaten Trump by 4.4 points.

Former Vice President Biden had 81.3 million votes. 

The incumbent had 74.2 million. (You knew he was going to start howling if he lost, and he did.) 

Roughly 3 million other votes went to third party candidates.

 

Total votes cast: 158,400,000.

___ 

 

Recounts and lies. 

The MAGA faithful refused to believe their Orange Hero had been defeated, either because they were obstinate, or numbers-challenged, or too deep in the cult, or ill-informed. Trump told them it was time to fight like hell, or they wouldn’t have a country anymore, and they believed. 

As in: “Hey, let’s attack Congress and stop the counting of the electoral votes.” 

Really, this is not difficult to puzzle out, my MAGA friends. Numerous Trump appointees in the Department of Justice, and in his own 2020 campaign told the president he lost – and there was no evidence of vote rigging. Look up Bill Stepien, Bill Barr, Jeffrey Rosen, Ken Block and don’t be lazy. 

I can name many more; but if you care about truth, start there. Block, for example, was paid $800,000 by the Trump campaign to find voter fraud. He came back with a report that he had found none. 

Recounts in both Arizona and Wisconsin, paid for by Team Trump, at a combined cost of $9 million, showed that voting hadn’t been rigged. Biden gained 361 votes in Arizona. In Wisconsin, he increased his tally by 132. 

That was fun. 

Then Trump tried to pressure Republican election officials in Georgia to “find” 11,780 votes, so he could “win” that state. They turned over a tape recording of the call to the free press. You can listen to that call yourself, if you want to learn a little about the 2020 election, and about Trump. 

And again, don’t be lazy. 

(I don’t think I have ever met a Trump supporter who has heard that call.) 

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, left, a Republican said the vote in his state wasn't rigged.
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger took the call from Trump.
He told Trump repeatedly that he lost.

 

Trump kept squealing about how he was cheated, even saying he had won a “sacred landslide election,” which exactly zero polls had predicted. And he and his allies made all kinds of wild vote-stealing claims. In Georgia, a machine recount, and a hand recount of more than five million votes, showed Trump gaining 1,779, nowhere near the 11,780 votes he wanted officials to “find.” 

(That is: Steal.) 

 

Yet, that number, 1,779, is the biggest discrepancy, by far, found by any recount of votes of which this blogger is aware. 

You had to wonder where Donald expected Republican officials in Georgia to “find” all those votes he wanted them to find. What? Like loose change under the cushions? In fact, almost 800 of the votes he did gain in the recounts turned up in bright red Floyd County, where GOP officials had total control. They forgot to upload final results from two precincts. So that was funny, too, if you were a Biden supporter, and you knew Trump was a fat baby, who just couldn’t accept defeat.

But the baby was ready to destroy democracy – and that wasn’t funny. Trump made all kinds of wild claims about how he had been cheated, and he kept up howling, like a newborn with a dirty diaper, for weeks. None of his claims have ever been proven in court, not in five years. One of my favorites: Donald said he was robbed of 6,000 votes in Antrim County, a GOP stronghold in Michigan. This, he insisted, showed computers had been rigged. 

Republican election officials did a hand recount of 16,000 votes. Follow along, my MAGA friends. “One, two, three…” 

 Trump gained 12 votes. 

He was off in his claim by 5,988. 

He kept up the crying the entire time Biden was president. He howled so long and loud, that in Lycoming County, Pennsylvania, in 2023, Republican election officials, at substantial cost to taxpayers, carried out a hand recount of 59,000 votes from the 2020 contest. 

This time, Trump gained 8. You could have counted on your fingers and had your thumbs left over to twiddle.

___ 

 

Fake news and plenty of it. 

The story of the “Stolen Election” in 2020 refused to die, because ignorance was bliss for the Trump faithful, and because they were fed a daily diet of empty calories in the guise of Fox News, et. al. 

Yes. We have real “fake news” to report.

Donald Trump repeatedly claimed that two low-level Georgia poll workers stole at least 54,000 votes. Then right-wing news ran with that claim. The F.B.I. and Georgia Bureau of Investigation both said there was no evidence of stealing. An official state investigation cleared the workers again in 2023. 

It didn’t matter what investigators said – because the MAGA faithful wanted to believe. Rudy Giuliani picked up Donald’s claim and did so much lying that the two poll workers ended up fearing for their lives. Rudy couldn’t even keep the imaginary number of stolen votes straight, and on one occasion claimed the two women stole 144,000 votes – which would have been impressive, if only it were true. 

Rudy lied so much and kept lying for so long that he got hauled into court and sued for defamation; and the poll workers smoked his sorry ass. A jury awarded them $148.3 million in damages. 

Yeah. The jury did that. That’s not fake news. 

Other Trump allies kept spewing “Stolen Election” shit too. They defamed Dominion Voting Systems and Smartmatic, insisting those two companies helped make it possible for computers to steal millions of votes. Fox News lied so much, that when the company was hauled into court, and it was shown that even Fox executives didn’t believe the lies their hosts were spreading, Dominion won $787.5 million. The Georgia poll workers won a second defamation judgement against Gateway Pundit. Newsmax was forced to settle in court after Dominion again sued for damages – although Newsmax claimed they settled because the judge was bad. 

That suit cost the company $67 million. 

(It might have helped if Newsmax could have provided evidence that voting was rigged. But they could not.) 

The hits to right-wing news organizations and individuals kept coming, even unto this day. And the MAGA faithful still can’t figure it out. In September 2025, Newsmax had to agree to pay $40 million to settle a defamation suit filed by Smartmatic. Rudy Giuliani lost again and had to settle with Dominion. Then we had daffy Mike Lindell, the most stubborn of all election deniers, not counting Donald himself. By now, Lindell has lost so many ways in court, that I’m going to skip to the final knockout, with a judge having ruled that in 51 instances Lindell made false claims regarding Smartmatic, and the company’s supposed interference with election results. “The Court concludes that, based on the record presented, no reasonable trier of fact could find that any of the statements at issue are true,” said the judge.

Finally, my MAGA friends, relatives, neighbors, and former students, let us not forget the Team Trump lawyers who were disbarred and/or forced to admit to misdemeanors or felonies regarding their involvement in the furtherance of “Stolen Election” lies and plots to steal electoral votes – for Donald J. Trump. 

Jenna Ellis, Sidney Powell, John Eastman, L. Lin Wood, Giuliani (again), and Kenneth Chesebro all bit the barrister dust. 

I could name more.

Eastman, left, Giuliani, right. They called on the January 6 crowd to fight.

___ 

 

(2024) 

This brings us all the way up to now, where we confront the absolute refusal of the MAGA folks to stop a moment and scratch their noggins. So, let’s remember this number. Trump lovers insist there is no way Joe Biden got 81.3 million votes – mostly because they don’t want to believe he did. 

On the other hand, Trump lovers readily believe that the Republican vote total in 2020, rose by 11.2 million in four years, because love is blind, and they were blinded by a fog of lies so thick they couldn’t see Capitol Hill when it was under attack. And they refused to believe that our side increased the Democratic vote totals by 15.4 million, because Donald told them that Biden lost.

(Sometimes I think the MAGA folks are easily duped.) 

 

So: The 2024 election was set, a rematch between the two candidates. And because I am not a member of some political cult, I looked at the polls hundreds of times, often multiple times every day. And the polls looked bad for our side, so long as Biden was in the race. Pollsters almost all expected him to lose. There was a bit of a bump when Kamala Harris took Biden’s place. Still the polls looked bad – the same polls that had looked good for Biden four years before. 

Finally, the votes were cast and tallied. Donald had 77.3 million votes. And his fans believed he could get 77.3 million votes, because they wanted to believe. 

Harris had 75 million votes. Again, Trump fans had no trouble believing that the Democrats could drop by more than six million votes, because it is what they wanted to believe was true. 

Once again, Jill Stein of the Green Party ran – and siphoned off most of her 900,000 votes from Harris, because every environmental organization in this country begged members not to vote for Trump. 

(Democratic candidates believe in climate change, after all.) 

  

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. also sucked up votes, likely from both main parties, with 800,000, and other minor candidates polled a combined 1.1 million. With neither Donald nor Kamala setting the voting population on fire with desire to see them run the country, voter turnout did fall: 

The total vote in 2024 was 155.2 million. 

 

What baffled the MAGA folk in 2020, that is, “How could Biden get all those votes,” was answered in 2024 (unless you just didn’t want to learn). Incumbents sometimes gain votes, but most often lose, because the problems a president faces are always complex and difficult to solve. 

Trump was unpopular in 2020. He lost. 

Biden was unpopular and would have lost in 2024. Harris couldn’t convince enough people she would change course. 

She lost.

There’s no mystery here, no conspiracy, no threat to MAGA freedom. That’s what the pollsters said would happen – they said Trump would lose in 2020, and Biden or Harris, too, four year later. 

The numbers aren’t hard to grasp. Biden won and then lost, like Herbert Hoover, who triumphed easily in 1928, only to be crushed in 1932.

___ 

 

The crux of the matter: Trump is a colossal liar. 

Of course, if I’m right (and the numbers say I am) we are left to undo this Gordian Knot. If Trump did lose in 2020 (he did), and his dopey followers fell for his lies, and the lies of Fox News, and all the rest (and they did), and the people who attacked Congress on January 6 had all been tricked (they were), then…

I’m sorry, to say this, if you love Trump. He’s grabbing your pussy, in a political sense. He keeps lying to you, and convincing you that you should hate Democrats, and he’s going to keep lying to you, like he lies to wives, for the next three years. But you don’t have to be fools. 

The most dangerous man – the biggest threat to democracy, the U.S. Constitution, and the rights of Americans who challenge him – is: 

The Second Coming of Donald Dumpling: September 2025

 

__________ 

“This entire ‘presidency’ is like being tied to a chair and watching a toddler play with a loaded pistol.” 

Seen in a post on “X.”

__________

September 1, 2025: It had to happen; but this is clearly going to be the month that conspiracy thinking catches up to that purveyor of complete nonsense, Donald J. Trump. The guy who said he could and would prove Obama was born in Narnia. The guy who says the 2020 election was stolen. Now the Q Anon crowd is turning. First, they want to know who killed Jeffrey Epstein. Second, who helped Epstein and his main procurer, Ghislaine Maxwell, abuse all those hundreds of young women and girls? 

(Okay, to be fair, this blogger wants to know those answers, too.) 

But there’s more. With concerns rising, regarding the president’s health, the kooks are out to play. Trump, they claim, is DEAD. Or: He’s sick and has only months to live; and he’s being played by a BODY DOUBLE. 

Also being played by a DOUBLE? Yeah. Melania.

 

* 

This Labor Day, we can also report that President Trump, by executive order, has wiped out all collective bargaining rights for 400,000 federal workers at the Department of Veterans Affairs. 

Eventually, more than a million government workers will be affected. Almost as if Donald doesn’t give a shit about ordinary workers.

* 

For even more fun, let’s look at how Team Trump is handling the vaccine debates. First, Secretary of HHS Robert F. Kennedy is warning fans that vaccines are going to turn all our kids into zombies and/or kill us all. 

Then the president went fishing for compliments, saying he wants the drug companies to release more information on the COVID vaccines. “I hope OPERATION WARP SPEED was as ‘BRILLIANT’ as many say it was,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “If not, we all want to know about it, and why???” 

Meanwhile, in a hearing before the U.S. Senate, Secretary Gravel Voice agreed that Trump deserved the Nobel Peace Prize…for his success in overseeing rapid development of the COVID vaccinations. 

(Since sucking up to Trump is an essential skill in any aide or cabinet member, Peter Navarro insisted recently that his orange-toner covered boss should get the Nobel Prize in economics. And, of course, Press Secretary Christian-Cross Lady Leavitt has insisted it’s “well past time” for Donald Dumpling to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, I suppose, for almost ending the war in Ukraine in one day, as he promised he could, and almost ending fighting in Gaza before the entire place was leveled by Israeli firepower, and all the remaining hostages were either killed or died of old age.) 

On the other side: Let’s note that nine former directors of the Centers for Disease Control have now penned an editorial – basically saying that RFK Jr. is a nut, and a threat to the health of all Americans. 

I am paraphrasing, of course; but you can read it yourself. They have more than a hundred years of combined experience at CDC, going back as far as 1977. “We have a message for the rest of the nation as well,” they write. “This is a time to rally to protect the health of every American.”

 

FUN FACT: It can be interesting to go back and look at what Vice President Vance said about Donald Trump in 2016, when he first ran for office. “Trump,” he said, “is a really bad candidate and frankly, I think, a really bad person.”

___

 

9/2/25: Having pardoned 1,600 January 6 rioters – who attacked Congress, stupidly believing Donald won the 2020 election, President Trump has acted again to change the history of the day. 

If you remember, Rudy Giuliani stood on the podium that day, and said it was time to “fight” to save the country. From what, exactly? 

Vote counting? 

Rudy is now justly famous for having defamed two Georgia poll workers, who he said, and Donald said, stole tens of thousands of votes in that state. They were inundated with death threats, but Giuliani never apologized or admitted he was wrong. A hand recount of five million votes in the state showed a discrepancy of only 1,779, with almost half of that margin a result of Republican officials in Floyd County fucking up and failing to record votes from two precincts. 

Rudy lied, and lied, and had to stop and catch a second wind. Then he lied and lied some more. The poll workers took him to court and won a huge judgment, $148,3 million, because the jury realized what a liar Rudy had been. 

Now? Donald Dumpling has announced that he will award Mr. Giuliani the Presidential Medal of Freedom. 

(What next? A medal for Ghislaine Maxwell?)

 

* 

If Rudy almost got two poll workers killed (and they did have to go into hiding), ICE has other criminals to catch. Namely, the fiend, Donggin “John” Chin, who was seen recently threatening Utahans with his violin and bow. Yes, the dangerous violinist in the Utah Symphony Orchestra is now in custody. 

Brought to the U.S. at age 10, by his parents, and now 37, he had an impaired driving misdemeanor on his record. 

His wife DaNae explained, “I got a call from John –  ‘Honey, I don’t have much time. I’ve been arrested by ICE and they are sending me to a detainment center. I love you and the kids, I will be okay, please call our attorney’ and then he was rushed off the phone. John is not a criminal, he is an amazing husband, father, and person, and I will do whatever it takes to bring him back home.” 

(John was helping support and raise two stepchildren, too.)

 

___

9/3/25: Exciting news out of Florida, where Dr. Joseph A. Ladapo, the state’s surgeon general has come out against “slavery.” Yes, and with Governor Ron DeSantis standing by his side! 

Finally, we have Republicans willing to admit that slavery was horrible and… 

Oh, wait. Not that slavery. Dr. Ladapo was talking about vaccination mandates. Which Florida is going to end. All mandates. Even the ones requiring schoolchildren to be vaccinated for mumps, and measles, and rubella, and… smallpox, too? 

Polio vaccines? Bah. Who needs ’em! 

Public health experts around the world have credited decades of vaccine mandates “with limiting the spread of infectious diseases.” 

Not Ladapo (or the governor). 

“Who am I to tell you what your child should put in their body?” he asked, to applause, during an event on Wednesday in Valrico. “Your body is a gift from God.” Well, Team DeSantis wasn’t going to mess with that gift, if you wanted measles. Dr. Ladapo and his friends were going to work to end all mandates. “Every last one of them is wrong and drips with disdain and slavery,” he insisted. 

So, for fun, let’s go back to 1900, when most of the vaccines we now require for children were unknown. 

Boy, it must have been great in those days to have all that freedom to get infected and live long, happy lives, maybe even with a deformed left leg, because you got polio when you were eleven. 

Yes, the average person in those days, in this country, could expect to live to 47.3, with that low number greatly affected by childhood deaths from diseases we now can make preventable. But not in Florida. For fun, you can look at graphs and see that life expectancy has gradually increased since, with a dip during World War II, and a huge decline, in 1918-1919, during the Spanish Flu pandemic. 

* 

In other news, a group of Jeffrey Epstein’s victims spoke today on the steps of the U.S. Capitol and called on the president to: 

A)   Release all the files.

B)    Stop calling the “Epstein Files” a hoax.

 

“The truth is, Epstein had a free pass. He bragged about his powerful friends including our current president Donald Trump,” said one of his victims. “It was his biggest brag actually. And while what I endured will haunt me forever, I live every day with PTSD. I live as a mother trying to raise my child while distrusting a world that has betrayed me. This kind of trauma never leaves.” 

“My first trip to the Palm Beach residence, I drove there from the airport with Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey and Ghislaine were always very boastful about their friends, their famous or powerful friends and his biggest brag forever was that he was ‘very good friends’ with Donald Trump,” she continued. “He had an 8x10 picture of him on his desk with the two of them. Like, they were very close.” 

RELEASE ALL THE FILES, YOU COWARDS IN CONGRESS.

 

Speaking of crime, I was a little slow to getting around to this, but F.B.I. data shows that violent and property crime dropped to a two-decade low in 2024, when Donald Trump was NOT president. 

Way to go, Sleepy Joe. 

As for Wide Awake Don, it is only fair to say that crime is continuing to drop. Homicides in Denver, Honolulu, Orlando, Portland and Tampa all saw homicide rates fall by 50% or more in the first six months of 2025, even without Mar-a-Lago Man sending in the National Guard.

Chicago, Dallas, Las Vegas, Louisville, Pittsburgh, San Francisco and Seattle all saw homicide rates drop by 30%.

(I’m not sure why Axios jumped from 30% to 50%, unless no city fell within the 40s for percentage declines.)

___

 

9/4/25: Some blind dates go well, and some go bad, as this blogger still remembers from his high school days, when he had the social skills, regarding the ladies, of a pumpkin. But Joseph Schnitt’s blind date will go down as one of the worst. 

Poor Joe, who works for the Trump Department of Justice. was tricked by his date into talking about the Epstein files – which Donald Trump, Joe’s boss now insists are a “Democratic hoax.” Joe wanted to let his date know that Donald has nothing to fear if the files were released because he was an innocent man… 

Oh, fuck no. I’m joking. 

Joe told his lady friend (who secretly recorded him) that the folks at DOJ would “redact every Republican or conservative person in those files, leave all the liberal, Democratic people in those files, and have a very slanted version of it come out.” 

He also assured the young woman that Ghislaine Maxwell had been moved to a cushy new jail because “they’re offering her something to keep her mouth shut.” 

He then offered this juicy detail: “Second-in-command [Dan Bongino] at the FBI has been causing problems, because he’s like, ‘No, these [Epstein Files] have to be released… Bondi wants whatever Trump wants. Internally there’s a lot of conflict.” 

RELEASE EVERYTHING, YOU SCUMBAGS!

* 

An ICE raid in Cato, New York managed to snare sixty-nine killer-criminal-illegal-immigrants, who were working at a factory making nutrition bars. Five were quickly deported before they could make any more dangerous snack foods. 

In a separate raid, in Fulton, New York, ICE grabbed another forty individuals, working at a factory making baked goods. Those arrested included parents of school age children, so that at least a dozen young people found themselves returning from school to empty homes.

(Many of these children were U.S. citizens.)

___

Job numbers suck. 

9/5/25: How are we doing on jobs reports, now that Donald Dumpling has fired the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and put a new person in charge? 

In August, the U.S. added a “robust” 22,000 jobs to the economy, and the unemployment rate ticked up to 4.3%. 

Even worse, the final revision for June showed that the U.S. lost 13,000 jobs, the first month of job losses since December 2020, when Donald last held office. The good news, if any? Not much. But the July number did rise by six thousand. 

FUN FACT: President Trump has claimed, as recently as July, that in five states gasoline prices were down to $1.99 per gallon. 

AAA keeps reporting that his claim was and remains nonsense:

 

FUN FACT #2: What is down? Well, tourism to the United States is down for sure. Travel experts estimate that three million fewer visitors will come here this year – mostly because they fear they’ll get arrested by ICE agents and sent to Uganda. 

Canadians are staying away in droves and herds and coffee klatches, apparently repelled by Trump’s insults of their nation and his suggestion that they become the 51st state and change their country’s name to “Even Farther North Dakota” and get two entire U.S. senators. According to experts the U.S. will be the only country, out of 184 nations reporting, to see a decline in tourism this year. 

Even worse, when Joe Biden left office, it was estimated that tourism to the U.S. in 2025 would increase by 9 percent, not decrease (so far) by 8.2 percent. 

FUN FACT #3: Measles cases continue to accumulate, now that the anti-vaxxer nuts are running U.S. health care agencies: 1,431 cases so far this year – the worst year since 2019, last time Donald Dumpling was in charge. 

___

9/7/25: If you haven’t noticed the signs, President Trump really hopes you will, as he rebuilds America’s infrastructure. Almost all by himself! Like give that studmuffin a shovel and watch him dig. Like a gopher with a bad combover. Wait! Cut the sarcasm. Donald is the Man! 

Want a bridge rebuilt? Donald will get it done. Need lanes added to the interstate near you? Call The Orange Dumpling! He’ll pave the old highways, too. Just look at these signs – as near a railyard in Seattle. They prove we should also worship the ground on which Trump walks and maybe get out of our cars and kiss the new pavement, once we see a new road being paved. 

Look! And eat your hearts out Trump haters…  

Or not. 

Take a second look, at that last line: “FUNDED BY THE INFRASTRUCTURE INVESTMENT AND JOBS ACT.” 

Trump fought furiously against passage of that act, when President Biden got Congress to pass it. Now Donald wants you to give him credit for what Joe got done. And he hopes you’re too dumb to notice. 

(Hey, has anyone seen the Epstein Files?)

 

* 

Speaking of pictures, I hope you have all had the pleasure of gazing upon the new décor in the Oval Office. As my wife said on seeing this photo, it looks like Saddam Hussein’s palace. Tacky and tasteless, for sure. 

I will not be surprised if the president simply takes down portraits of other occupants of the White House, and just puts a life size framed-in-gold picture of himself, playing golf. He can even use the one he charged to a charity he ran and then hung in a room at Mar-a-Lago. In that case, he ripped off the charity for $10,000. 

 ___

 

Arizona town falls into a giant hole, residents confounded. 

9/8/25: That there, that headline, is what we “influencers” call “click bait.” Other examples might be “PRESIDENT DECLARES WHITE HOUSE TO BE A FREE-FIRE SEX ZONE,” or “HARVARD SCIENTISTS FAIL TO EXPLAIN WHY ALIENS HAVE NEVER LANDED IN MASSACHUSETTS.” 

Honestly, the story of Wenden, Arizona is easy to understand; but you must be looking at the news to catch it, not watching replays of Bengals’ wins from previous seasons – as this blogger has been known to do. 

Wenden is located thirty miles west of the Phoenix metropolitan area, and like large swaths of Arizona (state motto: “We don’t have Las Vegas, but we have cacti.”) it is running low on water. 

But “low” in more than the one sense. So much groundwater has been pumped underneath Wenden that in fifteen years, the land has subsided three-and-a-half feet. In the last eight decades, in one lifetime, the town has sunk eighteen feet total. I mention this in my blog, because President Trump is too busy worrying about how much water comes out of his showerhead, to focus on complex problems. If Wenden disappeared into a giant sinkhole tomorrow, Donald would be too busy posting childish memes to notice. If his aides told him about the disappearance, it looks increasingly likely he’d be too fuzz-headed to register the danger. 

Wenden has a population of a little more than 400 – and sinking – like the unhappy town itself. The head of the local Water Improvement District warns, “It’s a train wreck waiting to happen. We sink it another 2.2 inches per year. It’s absolutely out of balance. It’s not sustainable.” 

Even more ominously, nearby Phoenix is also running out of water. Phoenix is the fifth most populous city in the United States, at 1.67 million and the metro area is home to five million. When water starts to trickle out of all the showerheads, regardless of type, you’ll know the train has wrecked – but it will be too late. Donald will be too busy playing golf to notice. 

Since 2010, giant “megafarms,” including some owned by Saudi corporations, have tripled the acreage under cultivation in Arizona, and these megafarms are blamed for using 81% of the groundwater pumped out from under Wenden. Or, as Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes says of the situation, “The water has disappeared for them because the Saudis are sucking it out of the ground.” 

Arizona State University Professor Jay Famiglietti, author of a recent study focusing on the problem, paints a simple picture for people like Donald, who are too lazy to read. “Just the way air keeps the tire pumped up,” he explains, “water keeps the land pumped up. When the water that’s between [clay minerals] gets pumped out, the flat minerals stack up, kind of like dishes in a sink, and that has the impact of lowering the ground surface.” 

The president? He’s busy pumping up hatred of transgender athletes and dark-skinned immigrants. 

“They’re eating our pets!”

 

The pumps keep pumping. The rain keeps not falling in a region that is essentially desert. And

Famiglietti adds, “Much of that groundwater is irreplaceable. Right? It’s fossil groundwater.” It’s water that collected underground hundreds, or thousands of years ago. When it’s gone, Phoenix could end up looking like Baghdad, or the abandoned city of Petra, in Jordan, which is worse. 

In 2019, during Donald’s first term in office, another study – which he and his administration ignored – warned that 1 in 5 wells across the West had already run dry. You can always dig deeper, of course. But the costs of drilling become prohibitive; and the water keeps getting harder to reach. 

And what does Donald Dumpling do? 

In his first term he spent his time complaining about low-water-use toilets, which, like some maniac-loose-in-the-bathroom, he said he hated, because he had to flush them ten to fifteen times. 

It was comedy gold. 

(I think he probably should have asked Melania how toilets work.)

  

Meanwhile, Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency is focusing not on protecting the environment but drilling of a different style. 

Hey, let’s drill for oil! Climate change is a “hoax,” right? 

His EPA, of course, is headed by former Congressman Lee Zeldin, who now says making America energy independent is his first priority, even if it means hooking up all the buffalo to treadmills to pump more oil. 

If you care about the environment – or cities sinking into the ground – you can see what the Sierra Club has to say about Zeldin and his clueless boss, and their position on various issues. That would include greenhouse gases (Team Trump wants to roll back limits), heavy metals in our drinking water (Team Trump doesn’t really care if we get cancer), staffing the Office of Research and Development, which has worked for decades to curtail air pollution (Team Trump is closing it), and, of course, taking action to conserve our most precious resource… 

NO! Not oil, nitwits. 

The Sierra Club believes the low-flow showerheads would help keep cities like Phoenix from running out of water. 

Donald? He’s focused on how his hair looks. Gotta look good for the ladies. Even if you grab ’em by the pussy. 

 

FUN FACT: Donald suffers another stinging defeat in court when judges refuse to overturn the civil judgement against him. A federal appeals court has refused to grant him relief – meaning he still owes E. Jean Carroll $83.5 million for defaming her after she said he raped her. 

(Hey, this reminds me: Where are the Epstein Files?) 

 

FUN FACT #2: Brett Baier, on Fox News, asks Justice Amy Coney Barrett if the Twenty-Second Amendment limits President Trump to two terms. She replies, “Well, you know, that’s what the amendment says, right? You know, after FDR had four terms, that’s what that amendment says.”

 

FUN FACT #3: Donald Dumpling celebrated today on news that the West Point Association of Graduates had canceled an awards ceremony to honor actor Tom Hanks. No doubt, the move came under pressure from allies of the president – since Hanks has been a staunch critic of the White House Baby. 

Trump crowed on Truth Social: 

“Our great West Point (getting greater all the time!) has smartly cancelled the Award Ceremony for actor Tom Hanks. Important move! We don’t need destructive, WOKE recipients getting our cherished American Awards!!! Hopefully the Academy Awards, and other Fake Award Shows, will review their Standards and Practices in the name of Fairness and Justice. Watch their DEAD RATINGS SURGE! 

(See: Rudy Giuliani getting an award, 9/2/25).

___

 

9/9/25: Speculation grows that Donald Dumpling is not feeling well, as he fails to show for an announced 4:30 p.m. meeting for at least three hours. We will follow up on this story later. 

(JD Vance has his fingers crossed.)

 

* 

Donald may be hiding under the bed in the Lincoln bedroom, hoping to dodge the Epstein survivors, who called on him today to release all documents related to the crimes perpetrated by Jeffrey and Ghislaine, and all their scuzz bag pals. Speaking today in front of the U.S. Capitol, a group of victims promised they would compile a list of Epstein’s clients themselves, if the Trump administration kept dragging its feet. 

As Lisa Phillips, told gathered reporters and supporters, she had been assaulted after she went to Epstein’s private Caribbean island when she was 21. “A lot of us survivors know we’ve been compiling lists of our own, and we have so many other survivors,” she said. “Please come forward, and we’ll compile our own list and seek justice on our own.” 

She continued, speaking for the group, urging political leaders to do more. “Congress must choose. Will you continue to protect predators or will you finally protect survivors? Us Epstein survivors have been discussing creating our own list. We know the names. Many of us were abused by them,” she added. “Now together as survivors, we will confidentially compile the names we all know.” 

(Why would anyone NOT help these women?)

 

* 

Meanwhile, a new Gallup poll hints at fresh turmoil ahead – as only 37% of Americans say they have a positive view of Big Business. The other 62% have a negative view. As a liberal Democrat, I am surprised to see that more Democrats have a positive view of socialism than capitalism. 

This may have something to do with reports that Elon Musk – who most of us view as a dangerous nut – may soon become the world’s first trillionaire. We also believe the Citizens United decision by the Supreme Court has allowed the fattest Fat Cats to abuse their money power to co-opt government. 

We also believe in labor unions, serving as a counterweight to Big Business power; but Musk and Trump famously laughed at the idea of firing workers who have the audacity to go on strike. 

Independents go with capitalism by a 51%-38% margin, Republicans, unsurprisingly, go with capitalism over socialism, 74% vs. 14%. 

However, if you ask MAGA farmers if they believe they should be bailed out by the federal government, as crops fail, or tariffs ruin business, suddenly, they’re card-carrying socialists. I like farmers. Don’t get me wrong. But if you take money from non-farmer taxpayers and give it to farmers, that’s… What? 

A hallmark of socialism, of course, is government control of essential industries – as when Donald Trump takes a 10% stake in Intel for the federal government, and warns car companies not to raise prices, because of tariffs. 

 

FUN FACT: President Trump’s plan to rename the Department of Defense, and call it “The Department of War,” has hit a speed bump in Congress. Even the Republican-controlled House Rules Committee has rejected a move to codify the change – which Congress must agree to do. 

Part of the problem is the sheer waste of time and money that will be needed to affect the change. Names on 700,000 facilities worldwide will need to be altered, all kinds of documents and official seals will have to be changed. What an epic waste of tax dollars and government employees’ time.

___ 

 

Pick your favorite murder. 

THIS MORNING, we know that Charlie Kirk is dead, and we can assume his wife spent a terrible night wondering why. Their two children, no doubt sensed trouble, but it will be days, weeks … years before they can process the full meaning of what has befallen their family. 

My feeling, as a liberal, was that Mr. Kirk was an asshole; but that doesn’t mean I believe anyone had a right to kill him in cold blood. 

There are all kinds of assholes, after all. 

When I sat down to write Wednesday morning, my focus was on another murder, this one in the state of Washington. But the sad saga is the same.

 

* 

A HALLMARK of racism, or any other “-ism,” is to pick one member of a group (one black guy, one Jew, one transgender, one illegal immigrant, one capitalist) and turn that person into a boogie man to scare the simpletons. We saw this again after surveillance video of an August murder was released this week, and that video showed a black man killing a blonde, blue-eyed woman, Iryna Zarutska. She was a Ukrainian refugee living in the United States, having fled the violence of the Russian invasion in 2022. 

Unfortunately, that “blonde, blue-eyed” aspect figured prominently in posts by right-wing influencers on X. 

So it was, also, when a self-identified transgender individual shot and killed two elementary school children, and wounded several more – while they were at morning prayers in church. 

It was just the same in February 2024, when an illegal immigrant killed Laken Riley, a 22-year-old nursing student. 

None of these people deserved to die; and these are horrific murders and the pain and sorrow felt by those victims’ families surely have no bounds. 

But it would be nice if we could stop vilifying entire groups, as a result, and trying to score political points before the blood dries at the scene. Justice is not served when Attorney General Pam Bondi and F.B.I. Director Kash Patel start spouting immediately about “crime in cities,” as if the only places you’re ever going to be murdered are cities, and primarily “blue cities,” at that. Unfortunately, scoring political points is what Bondi and Patel do best, whereas they’re not very good at releasing the Epstein client list. 

If it were me, and I were Attorney General of the United States, I’d be sitting down tomorrow with the Epstein survivors, to find out what kind of leads they could provide, to help break this conspiracy wide open. 

“Iryna Zarutska was a young woman living the American dream,” Bondi wanted us all to know, “[and] her horrific murder is a direct result of failed soft-on-crime policies that put criminals before innocent people.” 

Pam wanted everyone to know that Democrats loved criminals, and only she and Kash could keep real Americans safe. 

“I have directed my attorneys to federally prosecute DeCarlos Brown Jr. [the assailant],” she continued, “a repeat violent offender with a history of violent crime, for murder. We will seek the maximum penalty for this unforgivable act of violence – he will never again see the light of day as a free man.” 

Two quick notes, if I may. First, the Trump administration has been working hard to revoke refugee status for hundreds of thousands of individuals from countries around the globe. And this past May, the president suggested he might revoke protected status for people just like Miss Zarutska. Second, a government official is not supposed to comment on the outcome of a case before trial, lest a jury pool be irrevocably tainted. Brown Jr. has a history, not only of crime, but mental illness; and mental illness has long been held to be a mitigating factor in determining a suspect’s guilt or innocence. 

It is, of course, true. I would not want that man near my wife, or any of my daughters, or my granddaughter. 

It is equally true, that I would like every defendant in every case in this country to get the fairest trial possible. 

Director Patel came next, clearly intent on running up the political score. “The brutal attack on Iryna Zarutska on the Charlotte Light Rail was a disgraceful act that should never happen in America,” he said. “The FBI jumped to assist in this investigation immediately to ensure justice is served and the perpetrator is never released from jail to kill again. I want to thank Attorney General Bondi for her pursuit of today’s federal charges, which are the first step toward delivering justice for Iryna and her family – as well as the millions of Americans who deserve to live in our great American cities free from being targeted by violent criminals.” 

On X, right-wing influencers like Matt Walsh leaped into the fray, with Matt more than happy to talk about race, and to point out that, statistically, a white person was thirty times more likely to be killed by a black person, than a black to be killed by a white. Call me “woke,” I guess. I’m opposed to any person of any color murdering another person of any other color. 

See how easy this is? Always stand on the side of victims of violent attack. Not Matt’s style, though.

  

Pictures of the Ms. Zarutska soon began flooding right-wing sites. 

A sampling: 

 

 

 

 

In fact, Elon Musk decided he would pay to have pictures painted all over cities to memorialize the young Ukrainian woman. Her dream was to improve her English and become a veterinarian assistant.

 

  

This was all part of an ordinary morning on X, when I checked, a place where subtlety goes to die, and cherry-picking facts to prove all points can be a dark art. And what we “learned,” if we lived on the right side of the political spectrum – and didn’t think so much as react – was that black people are more dangerous than white people, and cities are dens of crime, but only blue cities, and we need to pray that Mr. Trump will send in the troops, to end crime (and maybe squash civil liberties, too). 

In fact, we know that the president himself has been screaming about Chicago, and promising to send in the troops. He calls the city the “MURDER CAPITAL OF THE WORLD.” He claims the city is the “worst and most dangerous city in the World, by far.” He’s working hard to scare the MAGA faithful because he knows it works. 

 

“Cool, how deep?” 

But I was curious, as most history teachers and retired history teachers are, about what the facts would really show. I happened to notice a different story, on the same day, about a different, but equally heinous crime. And in this crime, the alleged perpetrators were all white. 

Would the president take notice? 

Would Elon Musk? 

 

As I now discovered, Mark Wright (above), the individual on the right, had just pleaded guilty to helping kill and bury his sister’s two stepchildren, Mary and Elwyn Jr. – the first murder occurring in 2016, the second in 2018. Candice Crocker (center) and Elwyn Crocker Sr. (left), the father of the victims, are also charged in the murder, as are Kim Wright, the grandmother, and her boyfriend, Roy Prater, as accomplices. 

But this case won’t get much coverage, and Trump won’t talk about it during his next rambling press conference. These murders occurred in Effingham County, Georgia, not in Chicago, and he can’t score points talking about white people killing other white people. Especially in a red county where he got 74 percent of the vote in 2024. It just wouldn’t scare his base. 

If you were the type to think these matters over carefully, you might conclude that these killers were just as terrible as the black man who murdered Ms. Zarutska and possibly worse. When Crocker Sr. texted Kim Wright to say he was burying Mary’s body in his backyard, grandma responded, “Cool, how deep?” 

Evidence indicates that Mary probably died from starvation, but Crocker Sr. also texted his wife with a theory on why the girl had died. “I think she’s been hit in the head too many times,” he said. 

And then this chilling detail: Crocker Sr. and Mrs. Wright talked about going to the movie theater as soon as the burial was complete. 

 

Another school shooting and a murder in Utah. 

Then, even as I worked on my story about Iryna’s death, gunshots echoed across America again. Another school shooter, this time in Denver, sent three teens to the hospital, in critical condition. 

And a sniper shot Charlie Kirk, a firebrand right-wing influencer, himself, just as he was addressing a crowd at Utah State University. If you looked at the videos available online, you could see the bullet strike. 

You could also see videos of Mr. Kirk and his wife playing on the beach with their two children. 

Tragedy for several additional families to add to our mix. 

So what could I learn by looking at what reactions there were, regarding all this bloodshed? In writing about Zarutska’s death – and the sudden uproar on the right – commentators on the left were apt to point out that a cacophony of right-wing voices had been raised for years, but in a totally different way, regarding years of heinous crimes against Ukrainian lives. We were told repeatedly by the loudest voices on the right that we need not care if Vladimir Putin slaughtered tens of thousands of innocent civilians in Ukraine. Not our problem, they said. And why were we sending billions of dollars of military aid to help people so far away? 

In fact, Mr. Walsh had an entirely different opinion about Ukrainians in Ukraine, vs. a blonde, blue-eyed Ukrainian in a blue city, when he saw a chance to score points. 

A quick internet search leads to this: 

 

So, I’m going to do my best to explain this matter as dispassionately as I can. A decent person, not interested in scoring cheap points, stands with victims of all kinds of crimes, especially when crimes have the finality of murder. 

If Ukrainians are being murdered in a war, a decent person stands on their side. When Hamas slaughtered Israelis on October 7, 2023, stand with Israelis. Now? With nearly 20,000 children killed during the battle to control Gaza, stand with the children, at least. Stand on the side of Zarutska. On the side of Laken Riley. On the side of their families, and with Mary, starved to death in Georgia, and her brother, and children everywhere who are murdered by fucked up parents and relatives every day. 

If the government can do a better job of ending murders in Washington, D.C. or Chicago, I’m for it (up until the point, I believe already passed, where government tactics threaten our civil liberties).

Let’s say we DID want to reduce murders in every corner of this country – both Chicago, and Effingham County, Georgia. 

I would start by raising taxes to pay for more social services for families, because a good social worker might have saved the Crocker children, before their situations became hopeless. But we don’t really devote enough money to helping children, like we should. We give giant tax cuts to Elon Musk – so he can donate a piddling million to have murals painted in cities, so he can score points. Where guns are involved, we could make background checks mandatory, to keep twisted individuals from just walking into shops, and walking out thirty minutes later, but this time heavily armed, even with AR-15s. 

We could think dispassionately and try to get more facts and tune out the crazies. Is Chicago really the most dangerous city in the “WORLD?” What about Tehran, or Beijing, or Caracas, where protesters were slaughtered by the hundreds, or thousands, for protesting against their governments? How about entire countries with much higher homicide rates than the United States? Per capita, Haitians are seven times more likely to be murdered than Americans. 

Trump, of course, wants to send all Haitian refugees back to the island from whence they came. 

You could, of course, stand with the downtrodden here. 

We do know that the murder rate in the United States is higher than in almost any other developed nation – so it’s a national problem, not a blue city problem. Some say we have too many guns, and way too many in the wrong hands. Just this week, a 13-year-old, allegedly planning to shoot up his school, was arrested, and found to be in possession of enough weaponry and ammunition to supply a couple of squads of Marines. Police found eight handguns in the home, two shotguns, and thirteen semi-automatic rifles, 23 weapons in all, plus cases of ammunition. 

 

We could also point out that blue cities aren’t alone when it comes to suffering from high crime rates. If we look at U.S. cities with more than a million people (there are nine), then Chicago has the worst murder rate of them all. If we switch focus to cities with more than 500,000, Chicago drops to tenth (out of 37). 

I think we can assume that if you live in a U.S. city with a population of 100,000 or more (there are 87) you still don’t want to be shot or stabbed or clubbed to death. And if we measure it that way, there are 71 cities where homicides are worse, per capita, than in the Windy City. 

It’s the same if we compare states. 

According to data from the Center for Disease Control, Mississippi has the highest homicide rate, per capita (19.4 per 100,000) of any state. 

Ironically, Mississippi was one of four states that thought sending troops to police the streets of Washington D.C. was a sterling idea. 

Louisiana finishes a bloody second (19.3), but Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Mike Johnson says he “can’t imagine” why blue cities don’t want troops patrolling their streets. 

See: Tiananmen Square. 

See: Tahir Square. 

See: Hungary, 1957, Czechoslovakia, 1968, Argentina, 1983, Iraq, 1991, Iran, 2009, and North Korea, 2025. 

We already know the movie where troops take over cities, and where authoritarian leaders rule with a titanium fist. 

And if stopping crime is your real goal, Illinois is not the first place you should be sending federal troops – even assuming you wanted a president to have the power to create a police state. The murder rate in Illinois is 9.8 per 100,000.  You could argue that Mr. Trump misses the target. Georgia is worse, albeit by only a slim margin (9.9). Missouri is worse (10.4). So are Arkansas (11.3), South Carolina (11.3), and Tennessee (11.4). New Mexico (14.7) and Alabama (14.8) are far worse. 

So, where was Donald this morning? Shouting about the killer in Charlotte and calling for him to face the death penalty. 

On Truth Social he seethed: “The ANIMAL who so violently killed the beautiful young lady from Ukraine, who came to America searching for peace and safety, should be given a ‘Quick’ (there is no doubt!) Trial, and only awarded THE DEATH PENALTY. There can be no other option.” 

 

*

Political violence is unacceptable. 

Now, as I work on this post in the evening, X is on fire with screaming from both sides. I’m going to admit, I have a liberal bias, but you can make up your own list and maybe we can mesh it with mine. 

Charlie Kirk should not have been murdered in cold blood today. He’s the victim in this case. See. Side with the victims. 

Nancy Pelosi’s husband was badly injured when a crazy right-winger broke into her house and battered her husband with a hammer. Paul Pelosi is the victim in this case. Side with the guy who got hit with the hammer and had his skull fractured. 

Side with the elementary school kids killed recently in Minneapolis, and side with the kids slaughtered at Sandy Hook in 2012. Side with the victims killed in mass shooting in red states, and blue states, and purple states, too. Side with the people cut down by bullets during a Las Vegas concert, at a Pittsburgh synagogue, and at another school – just one of so, so many – in Uvalde. 

In fact, be sure you’re not a dick. Don’t convince millions of listeners that the attack at Sandy Hook was faked. 

Yeah, I mean Alex Jones. 

___

 

9/10/25: In recent days, we have seen Trump fans and Trump foes digging up different variations of his signature on all kinds of documents, on pictures, and even on book flaps. At question: Did he sign the letter in Jeffrey Epstein’s book – a letter he said he didn’t sign – including a drawing he said he’d never do. 

He said he didn’t do drawings. That lie was quickly blown to smithereens. Multiple pictures he had done, some even for worthy charity causes, began to surface. Now his faithful fans are finding signatures they say prove Donald didn’t sign the letter. Which is definitely IN the book. 

Careful observers of reality remind the Trumpers that The New York Times reported in July, that Donald’s name is on a list in the book of contributors. 

So, let’s post both the picture he says he didn’t draw or sign, and another lovely document, involving Epstein and Trump, and sleazy language.

 

 

 

The name of the “fully depreciated” young woman is redacted; but is this the kind of note you would think was funny? 

It goes back to Donald and the “grab ‘’em by the pussy” revelation. All men talk about women. Some talk about women in repulsive ways. 

It is my experience, at least, that most don’t. 

Generally, creeps hang with creeps, too.

___

 

9/12/25: In non-Charlie Kirk news (and this blogger does believe he was cruelly assassinated) we will try to focus on other matters, until we know a great deal more about the killing. 

In stupid news: The Trump administration has ordered $9.7 million in contraceptive medicines and devices, like IUDs, destined for poor countries, to be destroyed. Estimated cost to do the destroying: $167,000. 

The Gates Foundation and other aid organizations had offered to buy the supplies – and our tax dollars had already been used to pay for them – and now used again to destroy them.

 

* 

Jeanine Pirro, U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, former speeder (119 m.p.h.), former Fox News host, former nut case at work, is having trouble getting people indicted in Washington D.C. 

Really, big trouble. 

With Donald and his pals working hard to clean up crime in D.C., 

Prosecutors informed a judge Thursday that they were withdrawing federal charges against a man they accused of threatening to kill President Donald Trump, marking another embarrassing setback for Trump ally and former Fox News host Jeanine Pirro amid Trump’s D.C. crime crackdown.

 

Eduardo Alexander Dana got the pinch after breaking a light fixture outside a D.C. restaurant on Aug. 17, a truly abominable crime.

 

Unfortunately, while in police custody, he said he would kill the president – just like he killed that offending fixture. According to police reports, he was drunk and singing while in the police car, but DA Pirro was on the case! She decided that the drnk was serious about his plans to kill the current occupant of the White House and ordered prosecutors to charge him with a felony or two.

 

Dana’s his attorney argued that his client’s remarks amounted to idle rambling and not “true threats.” 

And a grand jury agreed, refusing to indict. The feds were then reduced to hitting Mr. Dana with a misdemeanor charge – one of a handful of cases in D.C. recently, where grand juries have decided Pirro and her folks are guilty of overreach. The judge in this case also hinted at the fact that Pirro might be an idiot.

 

* 

In related DA Pirro news, before she left Fox News, she made a name for herself in many ways, not least, claiming the 2020 election was stolen. If you have failed to follow developments, you may not realize that Fox got sued for defaming a company that Pirro, and Tucker Carlson, and other giant windbags claimed made the stealing of votes possible. But not only could the Fox bozos not prove their claims, secret emails revealed that they didn’t, technically, believe them. 

In court, Fox lost $787.5 million, as a result. 

Behind the scenes, Fox insiders were describing Pirro, the loudest bozo of all, as a “reckless maniac” and ““insane.” 

As one Fox executive but it: “I don't trust her to be responsible.” 

Another condemned her for a “tendency to find random conspiracy theories on weird internet sites.” 

(You can draw your own conclusions regarding her fitness for her current job.)

 

* 

Team Trump folks at DOJ are also standing strong for the “rule of law” by not pursuing cases against companies and individuals who have donated money to Donald’s campaigns (for example), while also going hard after people who have allegedly committed mortgage fraud. Those criminal bastards! 

Targets of investigation have allegedly claimed to own more than one “primary residence” to gain better loan terms. As ProPublica explains, Mr. Trump has used these alleged tactics  to justify targeting political foes, “including a governor on the Federal Reserve Board, a Democratic U.S. senator and a state attorney general.” 

ProPublica has an irritating habit of going after politicians, businesspeople, and anyone else who might be prone to criminal acts – such as U.S. Senator Bob Menendez, a Democrat, now disgraced and jailed for taking, among other bribes from businesspeople hoping for favors, of gold bars. 

Oddly enough, however, Team Trump is overlooking a second set of alleged criminals, guilty of the same heinous actions: 

 Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer entered into two primary-residence mortgages in quick succession, including for a second home near a country club in Arizona, where she’s known to vacation. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has primary-residence mortgages in New Jersey and Washington, D.C. Lee Zeldin, the Environmental Protection Agency administrator, has one primary-residence mortgage in Long Island and another in Washington, D.C., according to loan records.

 

In a flurry of interviews and rapid-fire posts on X, Bill Pulte, the Federal Housing Finance Agency director, has led the charge in accusing Trump opponents of mortgage fraud. “If somebody is claiming two primary residences, that is not appropriate, and we will refer it for criminal investigation,” Pulte said last month.

 

A political donor to the president and heir to a housing company fortune, Pulte’s posts online tease big developments and criminal referrals, drawing reposts from Trump himself and promises of swift consequences. “Fraud will not be tolerated in President Trump’s housing market,” Pulte has warned.

 

Nor can this humble blogger resist reminding Trump lovers that Donald is a convicted felon, based on 34 separate charges of … mortgage fraud. 

Let us suppose, for a moment, that Donald was a victim of “Democratic lawfare,” an abuse of power, intended only to drag an innocent, orange patriot through the courts and fine him millions. 

It is absolutely beyond question that when Donald wanted favorable business loans, and needed collateral, that he offered up his 30,000 square foot penthouse in Trump Tower to the banks. In short, if he blew the loans – as happened, for example, when several of his casinos went bust – they could seize his penthouse, worth an estimated $200 million, as compensation – that 30,000 square foot gem. 

Alas, when Trump was sued by the State of New York, for business fraud, it turned out that the penthouse had been shrinking over time – a truly mystifying development. Before it could completely disappear, it was measured again at 10,996 square feet, a mere third of its former glory, as if the penthouse had turned anorexic. 

Or perhaps Trump had been lying.

 

* 

Speaking of “lawfare,” Donald Dumpling has been threatening to take away the citizenship of individuals who piss him off. 

Could Melania soon be on the list? 

It is true that citizenship can be stripped from individuals not originally born in this country, and at one point, in a snit, President Trump suggested he might snatch the status away from his pal, Elon Musk. 

Also, maybe Zohran Mamdani’s citizenship, as well. Mamdani has infuriated Mr. Donald J. by being a candidate for mayor of New York City, leading in the polls, and pushing socialist ideas. 

The idea of taking away citizenship has so enthralled the President of the United States, that he is now threatening to revoke Rosie O’Donnell’s status, even though she was born in the United States, just like almost every nitwit in a MAGA hat who is going to agree that he should do that very thing. 

In fact, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1967, that a born citizen in this great country can only give up citizenship voluntarily. 

So, fuck off, Donald Dumpling.

 

* 

We can agree to disagree on many topics – for example, who is the best quarterback in the NFL today. 

Hint, It’s this guy: 

 

We cannot disagree, I believe, on whether Aaron Ely, a former MMA fighter, who competed under the ring name, “The Cyborg,” is a suitable candidate to be hired by ICE. 

As Newsweek reports, Mr. Ely expressed unhappiness over his failure to land the kinds of jobs he wants, telling a reporter for the Washington Post, “I keep seeing these memes where Indians are bragging about taking our tech jobs. So I said, ‘Oh yeah? Well I’m going to work with these guys that are going to arrest you, slam your face on the pavement and send you home.’” 

I suspect The Cyborg was hoping to get his hands, or feet, since he’s a former MMA fighter, on the $50,000 bonus being offered to new ICE recruits. I know my MAGA friends and neighbors get mad when we say we think Donald Trump is pushing a fascist agenda. So, let’s just say, if you were pushing a fascist agenda, Aaron Ely is the kind of person you would want on your side.

___

 

9/13/25: In the aftermath of the assassination of Charlie Kirk, President Trump sat down Saturday with reporters, to offer a message of hope, and reconciliation, and… 

Oh, fuck, no, he didn’t. 

With no proof of crimes committed by one of his favorite families to hate, he called for billionaire George Soros, and Alex Soros, his “radical left son,” to be jailed. 

Seriously. 

The president is mad because people keep protesting, as for example, when ICE agents in masks grab immigrants (legal or illegal), U.S. citizens (who “look” illegal) and kids graduating from high school and trying to deport them to some of the worst countries in the world. And we all know how much this leader hates protests – even peaceful ones. As you may recall, in the aftermath of the George Floyd murder, Donald asked Secretary of Defense Mark Esper if they couldn’t just shoot protesters, in the legs, at least. 

Now he has a “better” plan, as he explained on Fox & Friends: “We’re going to look into [George] Soros, because I think it’s a RICO case against him and other people. Because this is more than like protests,” he said. “This is real agitation.” 

Of course, the ass-kissers on Fox didn’t ask what the difference was, or how the First Amendment might apply. 

“He’s a bad guy,” Donald Dumpling continued. 

The Open Society Foundations, founded by George Soros and chaired by his son, responded, explaining, we “do not support or fund violent protests.” 

Allegations to the contrary are false, and the threats against our founder and chair [Alex Soros] are outrageous. Our mission is to advance human rights, justice, and democratic principles in the United States and around the world. We stand for fundamental freedoms guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution, including the rights to free speech and peaceful protest that are hallmarks of any vibrant democracy.

 

Nah. 

Not Donald’s style. 

In the wake of the terrible assassination of Charlie Kirk (an individual this blogger believes pedaled hatred, albeit in subtle ways) Trump appeared in a video from the Oval Office and pledged to target “each and every one of those who contributed [to?] this atrocity … including the organizations that fund and support it.”

 

* 

The president also announced on Saturday that the big, beautiful ballroom he is building on White House grounds is now going to be even bigger, and beautiful-er, and seat 900 fat cat friends of Donald, and look like the same person who oversaw the décor at Mar-a-Lago came up with the plans. It will cost $200 million, but Donald and his donors are going to pay the tab. 

Could have spent it on tiny homes to get homeless people off the streets in D.C. But you must have your priorities.

___

 9/14/25: With Little Donald Dumpling scheduled for a trip to Great Britain, wags in Scotland decided it would be an appropriate time to unveil a plaque they quietly placed on a bench on Trump’s Aberdeen golf course.

 

As I said, related back in 2017, regarding this President of the United States, Mark Twain was right. “Against the assault of laughter,” he once said in explaining why he mocked politicians, the powerful, and blowhards of all kinds, “nothing can stand.”  

  

As for Little Donny – as we anxiously await the release of all the Epstein Files, which Little Donny and his Little Sycophants once promised we would see – Little D has a better plan to Make America Great Again. 

You can’t fool this man. The Dumpling was on the job Sunday, doing presidency, and didn’t like the way the new NFL kickoff rules work. Kicker moving. Most players frozen in place, he wanted old fashioned action, bodies crashing into one another, the good old days, when you could still call a team the Washington Redskins – which Dumps is demanding to see again – that NFL franchise being famous in a bygone racist era for not having a single black player until 1962. 

For some reason, maybe the fact that Melania has cut off all sex, Donny felt an irresistible urge to vent on Truth Social and started whacking at the buttons on his cellphone. “The NFL has to get rid of that ridiculous looking new Kickoff Rule. How can they make such a big and sweeping change so easily and quickly,” he whacked. 

After whacking away at his phone for a little longer, his hand got tired, and he typed, “‘Sissy’ football is bad for America, and bad for the NFL!” and gave a little extra WHACK to that exclamation point. 

It would have been nice if he had been busy digging into the Epstein Files to see what they’re all about. 

(Well, he does know a lot, just from hanging with Jeffrey all those years.)

 

FUN FACT: Speaking of laughter, Donald did take time to talk to reporters Sunday and claimed that he had every right to blow up boats coming from Venezuela, because they were smuggling drugs (which may or may not be true), and illegal drugs had killed 300 million people last year. A quick math check reveals that Dumps was a touch off the mark. You know, like when he claimed he was cheated out of 6,000 votes in Antrim County, Michigan in 2020 – and then Republican officials who ran that county’s elections did a hand recount (speaking of whacking away at a “problem”) and the final count was off by a staggering… 

Twelve votes. That’s an error rate of 1 for every 1,230 votes cast in Antrim in the election that year. 

As for his claim that 300 million Americans (I think he meant) had died under Joe Biden’s last year in office, we would have to believe, for comparison’s sake, that every US. citizen, outside of California, was now dead. 

(Call or text ten friends. If Donald is right, nine will be dead.) 

 

I tend to forgive slips like this as simple mistakes – but I’m always surprised Trump makes these blunders and never corrects himself. It’s like he doesn’t listen to the words that spew from his mouth. 

Plus, we know Donald does this all the time. On September 5, he claimed that during Sleepy Joe’s last year in the White House, he was snoozing at the wheel and let “350,000 people” die in just one year. 

The CDC, however, had been tracking drug overdoses since at least 1999, and the tally for 2024 was 79,383.

 

FUN FACT #2: For classic Dumpling fun, revisit the days when Candidate Trump was claiming Obama left him a mess to inherit, and 95 million Americans were unemployed.

___

 

9/15/25: Can we all agree that today would be the right time to pat Little Donny Trump on the head and tell him, “Such a good boy!” 

After years of blaming President Obama for letting the war in Ukraine to start, and President Biden for not getting it to end, and blasting President Zelenskyy for not agreeing to surrender, because Putin a “smart guy” to invade the way he did … and getting mad because the leader of Ukraine didn’t wear a tie to a White House meeting… 

He finally said it! 

Asked about the continued fighting, which he promised last November he would end in one measly day, and still have time to go play a round of golf, the president explained, “Eight thousand soldiers have died this week, from both countries. Some more from Russia, but when you’re the aggressor, you lose more.” Indeed! Donny got it right, at last. Russia is and always was the aggressor. 

It only took him eleven years.

 

FUN WITH SYCOPHANTS. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Scott Turner offered up praise for the president at the latest meeting of the White House Religious Liberty Commission. In fact, Turner offered up a shout-out to God, too. “Father,” he solemnly intoned, “we thank you for our president, Donald J. Trump, whom You have anointed and appointed for this time, for such a time as this. Lord, thank you that the president prioritizes prayer.” 

So: God “chose” Trump for this high office. And does that mean God also anointed Biden in 2020? 

Or was the election rigged (a lie the president repeats without end), which would mean God was in on the steal? 

In all seriousness, I suppose we can agree. Prayer in school is pretty much the only idea Republicans have to offer in the face of all the gunfire American educators and students have to dodge every year.

___

 

“The ties that bind us together.” 

9/17/25: In the wake of the shooting of Charlie Kirk, former President Barack Obama suggested that the job of a chief executive in times of tragedy (as when Dylan Roof, a right-winger shot and killed nine congregants in a Charleston, S.C. church), “is to constantly remind us of the ties that bind us together.” 

As in: Roof was a crazy right-winger, but that doesn’t mean every right-leaning person in America is a threat. 

Mr. Obama cited Republican leaders like George W. Bush, John McCain and Mitt Romney, who also tried to unite the country in times of horror. 

Donald Dumpling has been spending his time accusing Obama and top members of the Biden administration of treason, for which, of course, the penalty is death. 

Meanwhile, Sen. Lindsey Graham has been complaining about Democrats and their language, blaming them for all the violence – not even noticing that Kirk, himself, had said President Biden was guilty of treason. 

And again, Sen. Milk Toast, the penalty for treason is death.

 

* 

One tie that will bind everyone together in the next hundred years is the reality of climate change – that reality ignored in the Oval Office today. You may know that the current version of the Environmental Protection Agency (New motto: “Hey, Let’s Melt More Glaciers.”) has found a few rum-dumb, bargain-basement scientists to declare that global warming isn’t bad at all. 

And with a report from these yahoos in hand, President Trump and his coal-and-gas-industry pals have moved to relax all restrictions on drilling for, burning, and spilling fossil fuels into our rivers and lakes and oceans. 

As The New York Times reports, “The nation’s leading scientific advisory body issued a major report on Wednesday detailing the strongest evidence to date that carbon dioxide, methane and other planet-warming greenhouse gases are threatening human health.” That scientific advisory board would be the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, which represents more than 6,300 members. 

Rep. James Comer – a member of Congress famous for spending his days and nights trying to prove that Hunter Biden was the greatest threat to our nation – had complained that some of the scientists at the National Academies have “shown partisan bias,” and hope to “undermine the Trump Administration.” 

Which behavior Comer would never consider – such as spending most of the Biden presidency focused on Hunter’s laptop. 

Well, this blogger is going to go out on a left-wing limb and admit, the scientists at the National Academies no doubt have a bias. 

They are biased against scientific nonsense, and don’t think idiots should be making terrible policy. Energy Secretary Chris Wright, for example, likes to cite a study he commissioned, signed by five entire scientists – enough for a basketball team – who said climate change would be “less damaging economically than commonly believed.” Which may be true. But damaging it is, and almost all the other nations of this wide world understand that we must get the problem under control. 

As the Times notes, “a team of more than 85 scientists wrote a 439-page reply, saying that the Energy Department analysis was riddled with errors and cherry-picked data to fit the president’s political agenda.” 

Secretary Wright, of course, also has a bias – having previously run companies involved in the hydraulic fracturing business. 

A Pew Research poll finds that 73% of Americans say that climate change news makes them sad about what is happening to the Earth. Almost two-thirds of respondents to that poll (64%) said they were already seeing evidence that climate change was impacting their own communities. A whopping 80% expressed frustration that there is so much political disagreement related to the issue. 

I’m going to say it like this. If a body representing 6,300 experts, and a report authored by 85 experts goes up against a report written by five other experts, I’m siding with the 6,385, myself. 

(Plus, we all know Donald Trump doesn’t even know the difference between weather and climate.)

 

* 

In other environmental news, the E.P.A. has stopped toying with the idea of ignoring the dangers of PFAS chemicals in our drinking water. Those “forever chemicals,” as they are known, are responsible for increased risks of lovely cancers, infertility, and development problems in children. 

Naturally, the chemical companies had an interest in loosening regulations, because they might get stuck cleaning up the threats their products created. So, inside the E.P.A., Steven Cook, previously a lawyer for the chemical company folks, now charged with helping form “environmental protection” policy, had pushed to weaken restrictions and absolve the companies of responsibility for cleanups. 

Hey, I’m getting thirsty…

___

 

OMG! I agree with Tucker Carlson! 

9/18/25: OMG! I agree with something Tucker Carlson has said! I need to get an appointment with a head doctor. In the wake of the assassination of Charlie Kirk, right-wing folks have been floating all kinds of bonkers “solutions.” Such as arrest people who say something they don’t like. On Monday Attorney General Pam Bondi, happily announced that the Justice Department would “absolutely target you, go after you, if you are targeting anyone with hate speech.” 

Several other voices on the right have criticized her for her comments, with Carlson warning, 

“You hope that a year from now, the turmoil we’re seeing in the aftermath of his murder won’t be leveraged to bring hate speech laws to this country,” Carlson said Wednesday during a special edition of The Tucker Carlson Show in tribute to Kirk.

 

“And trust me, if it is, if that does happen, there is never a more justified moment for civil disobedience than that, ever. And there never will be,” the pundit added. “Because if they can tell you what to say, they’re telling you what to think ... There is nothing they can’t do to you because they don’t consider you human.”

 

Not sure about some of that… but the right idea, generally. And I’m going to say again that I didn’t like much of what Kirk said. That doesn’t mean I would have advocated his assassination.

 

* 

“This kind of garbage.” 

In related news, a U.S. Army veteran, and father of two, has had the nerve to complain about his recent arrest by ICE, just because: 

A)   He’s a U.S. citizen

B)    His identification papers were in his car at the time of his arrest, but ICE agents didn’t bother to look, even when he told them.

C)   He was held in jail for several days on assault charges, but released without being charged at all

D)   Fuck! He’s a veteran.

E)    Not a criminal, you ICE numbskulls.

 

We’ll let him tell his story next, but I thought reaction from the Department of Homeland Security deserved top billing. “We do our due diligence,” DHS insisted.” We know who we are targeting ahead of time. These types of smears are designed to demonize and villainize our brave ICE law enforcement. This kind of garbage has led to a more than 1000% increase in the assaults on enforcement officers.” 

So, an op-ed by a U.S. citizen is garbage. And the citizen is trying to “villainize” the “brave ICE” officers. 

George Retes, 25, the complainant had an entirely different view of matters, a view through a shattered window of his vehicle, with his vision blurred by pepper spray and tear gas. In an opinion piece for the San Francisco Chronicle, he said he was driving to his job, where he did security work for a cannabis farm, when he ran into a sort of roadblock, set up by masked federal agents, where protesters had gathered. 

Retes writes, in part: 

When [agents] started walking toward me, I got back in my car. But soon, they were banging on my door and gave opposing directions to “pull over to the side” and “reverse” while also trying to open my door. I was able to reverse and get out of the way, but then agents started using tear gas to disperse the protesters, which filled up my car and left me choking.

 

Again, they approached the car and told me to reverse, but I couldn’t even see where I would be going. And again, agents contradicted themselves, telling me to back up and trying to open the door. Suddenly, an agent smashed my window and pepper-sprayed me. I was pulled from the car, and one agent knelt on my neck while another knelt on my back.

 

My wallet with my identification was in the car, but the agents refused to go look and confirm that I was a citizen. Instead, I sat in the dirt with my hands zip-tied with other detainees for four hours. When I was sitting there, I could hear agents asking each other why I had been arrested. They were unsure, but I was taken away and thrown in a jail cell anyway. 

 

My first night in jail, my hands were burning from the pepper spray and tear gas because I was never allowed to wash them off. During the three nights and three days I was locked up and put on suicide watch, I could not make a phone call and was not given a chance to speak to a lawyer.  

 

He added, “I missed my daughter’s third birthday party. Then I was just let go, with no charges, no explanation for why and no apology.” 

 

FUN FACT: With the President of the United States and First Lady visiting the British royal family at Windsor, palace officials announce that Donald and Melania will be sleeping in separate suites during their visit. (This blogger fears that Trump’s anger problem relates to his inability to convince his attractive wife to look upon his nakedness.) 

British reporters say that the president and his wife had special sheets flown in for use during their visit.

 

FUN FACT #2: In a statement today, Donald Dumpling claimed again to have ended seven wars, “unsolvable wars, really.” 

Still, Magic Man is disappointed. He thought the war in Ukraine would be “easiest,” but his pal Vladimir has “disappointed me” he admits. 

Yeah, you lunkhead. Putin never had any intention of working with you, unless it was to his distinct advantage. 

DAYS SINCE DONALD PROMISED TO END THE UKRAINE WAR IN ONE DAY: 

317

 

DAYS SINCE DONALD SAID HIS HEALTHCARE BILL WAS ALMOST READY: 

3,151

 

(We start the count on the last day of January 2017.)  

 

FUN FACT #3: Ol’ Dumps gets confused while giving a speech at a dinner in Windsor Castle. He says he’s honored to be the first U.S. president to be invited – not knowing that Reagan, George W., Obama and Biden have all visited. 

Also, Donald J. Trump, during his first term. 

 

FUN FACT #4: A judge has ordered Rudy Giuliani to pay his lawyers $1.36 million in fees he owes for their work defending him in a defamation suit, after he nearly got two Georgia poll workers killed by lying and insisting that they stole at least 54,000 votes. The number varied, with Rudy once suggesting the figure might have been as high as 96,000; but a hand recount showed the tally in Georgia was only off 1,779 votes, and in the county where the alleged stealing occurred, Fulton, recounts showed Donald gaining only seven votes – although Biden’s tally dropped by 932. 

That struck me as surprisingly high, although, when I did the math it was still only 1 per 558 votes cast, and an error rate in Biden’s favor of only 1 per 566 votes cast. (Still, that’s the worst result I think that I have seen.) 

But before all of you Trump lovers start ranting about gunfire and civil war again, keep calm, because I believe the second biggest disparity uncovered during the 2020 recounts was in Floyd County, a red, GOP-controlled jurisdiction, where failures to upload two precincts had temporarily cost Donald Dumpling more than 800 votes. 

So, this is why you do recounts. And also why recounts show Rudy was lying as was Donald himself. 

Donald is famous – assuming you aren’t deaf to the truth – and too lazy to look for the facts –  for calling Georgia officials and asking them to “find,” 11,780 votes that he needed to “win” the state’s electoral votes that year. And during that call, he insisted that he really won the state by hundreds of thousands. 

Because the man in delusional.

___

 

9/19/25: To listen to right-wing nuts, you would have to imagine that every Democrat in the land had some kind of hand in aiding the killer of Charlie Kirk. (These are the same bozos who used to make fun of claims that gun violence was out of hand.) 

Here’s another proof that more guns don’t make us all safer. In Pennsylvania yesterday, a man who was wanted on all kinds of domestic abuse charges opened fire and killed three police officers. 

As far as we know, the killer wasn’t transgender, or Muslim, or a Democrat. And the problem wasn’t rampant crime in a blue city. The ambush occurred in North Codorus Township, east of Gettysburg, and south of York. And, of course, the alleged shooter was armed with an AR-15-style assault weapon.

 

* 

President Trump was busy today, calling for U.S. District Attorney Erik Siebert to be removed from his post. This was interesting because: 

A)   Trump appointed him to his post in January.

B)    Siebert was well-respected and unanimously approved of by judges in the Eastern District of Virginia.

C)   Tasked with finding evidence of possible crimes committed by two of Donald Dumpling’s biggest nemeses, Letitia James, and James Comey. 

 

And where did DA Siebert go wrong? He and his team of federal prosecutors searched for proof of crimes and found none. 

Trump wanted him gone, and Siebert has now resigned.

___ 

 

9/20/25: President Trump wants action, and he wants action now. He’s going after everyone who helped Jeffrey Epstein… 

Ha! Fat chance. 

Donald posted a demand on Truth Social, which makes clear his view of the job of his Attorney General Pam Bondi. 

GO. 

AFTER. 

HIS ENEMIES. 

 

You could try to explain to the MAGA folks why Trump was deservedly indicted, and why this call for action is nuts, but I fear they are all deaf, dumb and blind, and even their senses of smell and taste have been damaged.

 

 

In related news, The Dumpling Dictator has appointed famed criminal defense lawyer Lindsey Halligan to take the place of Erik Siebert – who was fired for failing to find evidence that would justify an indictment of James Comey. 

Ms. Halligan: 

A)   Has never prosecuted a single criminal case at any level.

B)    Has never served in a district attorney’s office.

C)   Has worked as an insurance lawyer – for the insurance companies.

D)      "      "        "   "        "             "     – against homeowners’ claims.

E)    Competed in the Miss Colorado pageant twice, in 2009 and 2010.

 

You can probably guess why President Pussy Grabber first got interested in hiring her for his staff and then promoting her.

 

 

UPDATE (9/26/25): Lindsey spends just about as much time drawing up an indictment of James Comey as she does fixing her hair and makeup for an appearance on Fox News. Comey gets indicted, just as President Trump has been demanding.

___ 

 

9/22/25: Jimmy Kimmel returned to the airwaves Tuesday night and laid down two markers in favor of freedom of speech and the right to protest. He made it clear he had meant no insult to Charlie Kirk, when talking about his murder. Then he cited two irrefutable experts on the importance of these foundational freedoms. 

First, he quoted Brendan Carr, the Chairman of the FCC, who explained very clearly, in 2022: 

Should the government censor speech it doesn’t like? Of course not. The FCC does not have a roving mandate to police speech in the name of the “public interest.”

 

President Biden is right. Political satire is one of the oldest and most important forms of free speech. It challenges those in power while using humor to draw more people into the discussion.

 

Then the paid comedian turned to that unintentional humorist, President Donald J. Buffoon, showing him in a clip defending free speech. “If we don’t have free speech,” the Buffoon-in-Chief once said, “all our rights topple like dominoes.” RIGHT AROUND 10 MINUTE MARK 

You can watch a 51-second clip, if you like. 

 

(Other defenders of the Constitution dug up a second quote from Mr. Carr, from 2023: “Free speech is the counterweight – it is the check on government control. That is why censorship is the authoritarian’s dream.”)

 

* 

Trump fans later insisted that Donald Dumpling had nothing to do with censoring Kimmel, and it was just the networks, figuring out his ratings were no good. Then Mr. Dumpling posted this: 

 

* 

In other news, President Trump gets dunked on by another one of his authoritarian pals: Kim Jong-un. The North Korean leader says that while he has fond memories of his visits with Donald during his first term, he will be happy to meet with him if the U.S. drops demands that North Korea give up its nuclear weapons. 

Those are the ones Donald said Kim was going to hand over to him in 2019, and then the Nobel Peace Prize would be his! 

___

 

President Trump cheats escalator death! 

9/23/25: On Tuesday, President Trump waddled up the escalator at the United Nations headquarters in New York City, and delivered a boffo speech, according to his sycophants. But first, someone tried to kill him by stopping the escalator just as he and the First Lady stepped aboard. 

Your favorite blogger first saw mention of this “assassination attempt,” and thought it might be a joke. But no. The White House press secretary went wild, and insisted people should be investigated and fired: 

  

Only it was even worse! According to Lard Butt Donald, he and the First Lady were lucky not to have been maimed. 

“It’s amazing that Melania and I didn’t fall forward onto the sharp edges of these steel steps, face first,” President Butt wrote. “It was only that we were each holding the handrail tightly or, it would have been a disaster.” 

Or you could just do what Lardo’s wife did. This blogger could not help but notice in a clip of this near-death experience that Melania had no difficulty maintaining her balance and immediately started walking up the steps. 

She didn’t even look back to see if Donald had fallen and impaled his face on those pointy edges.

 * 

Regardless, in his speech – which ran slightly over the normal allotted time of fifteen minutes – ending mercifully after almost an hour – President Trump told the leaders of almost all the nations on earth that climate change was a “hoax,” and he wasn’t going to cut greenhouse gases, because green energy is a “scam.” 

“It’s the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world in my opinion. Climate change, no matter what happens you’re involved in that,” Trump grumbled. 

“All of these predictions made by the United Nations and many others, often for bad reasons, were wrong,” he continued. “They were made by stupid people that have cost their countries fortunes and given those same counties no chance for success.” 

Forget clean energy, he told leaders from every continent except Antarctica – where even penguins can tell something bad is happening. “If you don’t get away from this green scam your country is going to fail,” the president said, adding, finally. “And I’m really good at predicting things.” 

 

Meanwhile, most of the nations of the world know climate change is real – and realize that future generations are going to pay a price for inaction. The U.N. is an imperfect organization, and nations look out for their own interests first. But 121 countries pledged to accelerate efforts to combat the threat. 

And then there was Lard Butt. 

Among the nations vowing to push green energy forward were China, Japan, Germany, and even Saudi Arabia. Trump? He warned the gathered nations, “If you don’t get away from this green scam, your country is going to fail.” In fact, we should remind our loyal readers (Bob and Martha) that if we scan the globe, we can compile a lost of all the countries that have refused to sign the Paris Accords, pledging to address the threat of climate change. 

Okay, you have: 

Iran

Libya

Yemen 

And the United States.

 

That’s the full list of countries that think Donald is not talking out of his ass. We’ve got Yemen on our side!!! 

Wopke Hoekstra, climate commissioner for the European Union, which represents 27 countries, was blunt, afterwards. As he explained for reporters, “We’re doing the exact opposite of what the U.S. is doing, which, by the way, I find concerning and problematic. The world’s most phenomenal geopolitical player, its largest economy, its second largest emitter, is basically checking out.” 

(What he probably wanted to say was, “Trump is a giant, talking asshole.”) 

 

Donald had so much fun, rambling on for 57 minutes, after his teleprompter conked out, that he was able to hit all his favorite low notes. First, he said open borders in Europe were letting all the scum of the earth (he didn’t use that term, but we are paraphrasing) enter. And what was the result?  “Your countries are going to hell,” he said. 

In fact, he really wanted to let the entire world know how much he hated his recent state visit to Great Britain and singled out one city for special scorn. “I look at London,” he complained, “where you have a terrible mayor, terrible, terrible mayor, and it’s been changed, it’s been so changed. Now they want to go to Shariah law. But you are in a different country, you can’t do that.” 

As you might imagine, the British press was unimpressed. The tabloid Daily Mirror spilled a picture of Donald Dumpling across its front page and went with the one-word headline, “Deranged.”

 

* 

Finally, President Fat Ass did a 180° on Ukraine, after sucking up to Vladimir Putin for most of the last ten years. White House Press Secretary and Christian Lady Extraordinaire, Katheryn Leavitt, posted this, from the president. She did not mention that what Donald had “learned,” any reasonably alert high school honors student would have figured out three years ago. That is, Putin is a murderous autocrat. And with NATO support, Ukraine can defeat Russia, and, yes, the Ukrainians have been fighting with “Great Spirit” since Putin launched his invasion in 2022. 

To put it plainly, whether the topic is climate change, or Ukraine, or just basic manners, it’s like Donald’s head has been cryogenically frozen. Then some mad scientist decided to thaw it out, but the un-freezing process malfunctioned, and the brain … suffered irreversible damage. 

  

Speaking with reporters later, Mr. Trump also said NATO countries should shoot down any Russian aircraft that violate their air space. U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Mike Walz backed the tough talk of the president.

“The United States stands by our NATO allies in the face of these airspace violations,” Waltz insisted. “And I want to take this first opportunity to repeat, and to emphasize, the United States and our allies will defend every inch of NATO territory.”

 

* 

Rapture postponed. 

If you missed the Rapture today, never fear. Because everyone missed the Rapture that didn’t occur. 

On TikTok, tens of thousands of dopes had fallen for a prediction by Joshua Mhlakela of South Africa. Some reports describe Mhlakela as a “pastor,” but that is in dispute. In a YouTube video from June, Joshua says, “I’m just a simple person, no title. I’m not an apostle, I’m not a pastor, I’m not a bishop. I’m just a believer.” He claims in that video that Jesus came to him in a dream several years ago, and told him, the Rapture would occur over the course of September 23-24, 2025. 

Well, then. 

Maybe tomorrow. 

 

FUN FACT: President Trump has claimed that China is producing the wind turbines we use, but doesn’t use them at home, because, according to the Fool-in-Chief, the Chinese know they don’t work – and they kill all the birdies – and cause cancer – and something-something about witchcraft. 

Meanwhile, President Xi has pledged that China will reduce its emissions of greenhouse gases by 7 to 10 percent by 2035. 

How? 

The Chinese propose to increase the percentage of non-fossil fuels used to power the country to 30%. As The New York Times notes, Xi said China would “expand wind and solar capacity sixfold from 2020 levels, adding up to a massive 3,600 gigawatts” of power. President Xi also promised that China would make electric cars “mainstream” when it comes to new sales.

___

9/24/25: You can’t deny: President Trump moves fast when the Epstein Files are involved. Not wisely. Not honestly. Just fast. 

A group billing itself as “The Secret Handshake,” erected a statue on the National Mall in Washington D.C on Tuesday. They had a permit, good until Sunday evening. The U.S. Park Police assured them they would receive 24 hours’ notice before removal. But someone in power did not like the statue. In honor of “Friendship Month,” it showed Trump and Jeffrey Epstein holding hands and frolicking in … well, who could be sure? On Epstein’s private island? Plaques also cited the wonderful letter Donald says he didn’t send to Jeffrey on his 50th birthday. 

So down came the offending work, which Park Police busted up – lest it rise again – at 5:30 a.m. Wednesday.

 

* 

In other news, regarding free speech and the right to protest, the president lost his shit after he learned that ABC was bringing back Jimmy Kimmel’s show. On Wednesday he started angrily whacking his phone’s buttons, posting this screed on Truth Social. 

Truth Social is MAGA’s version of Pravda, the Soviet Union’s official Communist Party newspaper. Said the president: 

I can’t believe ABC Fake News gave Jimmy Kimmel his job back. The White House was told by ABC that his Show was cancelled! Something happened between then and now because his audience is GONE, and his ‘talent’ was never there. Why would they want someone back who does so poorly, who’s not funny, and who puts the Network in jeopardy by playing 99% positive Democrat GARBAGE. He is yet another arm of the DNC and, to the best of my knowledge, that would be a major Illegal Campaign Contribution. I think we’re going to test ABC out on this. Let’s see how we do. Last time I went after them, they gave me $16 Million Dollars. This one sounds even more lucrative. A true bunch of losers! Let Jimmy Kimmel rot in his bad Ratings. 

 

I think we can all agree, someone really hates: 

A)   Comedy.

B)    Free speech.

C)   Jimmy Kimmel.

D)   The First Amendment.

E)    The U.S. Constitution. 

 

Trump, of course, has no problem with Fox News playing “99% positive Republican GARBAGE.” Nor is he offended by AM radio programming, like Bill Cunningham’s show, which fills the airwaves with pro-Trump gibberish, which must also be an “Illegal Campaign Contribution.” 

But his post serves as a flashing red light for any judge who might have to hear a case against ABC. Trump is going to sue because he doesn’t like what he hears a comedian say. He’s probably even madder that Kimmel’s ratings for his return broadcast Tuesday night were four times normal. 

(Has anyone seen the Epstein Files?) 

 

FUN FACT: The sun sets on another fine September day, and the Rapture turns out to be a heavenly flop. Yep. We’re all still here, sinners and saints, together. I’m not saying I thought I’d get lifted up. I will say, I’m a better example of a Christian than Donald Dumpling will ever be. 

And I don’t even go to church.

___

 

“It’s a violation of the First Amendment.” 

9/25/25: With Jimmy Kimmel in the news, the spotlight shifts to Chairman Brendan Carr of the Federal Communications Commission. There’s a reason Donald put Carr in charge of the licensing bureau for network television. Because Carr doesn’t like liberals, I think you could say. 

Carr has decided that his normally sleepy federal agency should investigate, for example, the evildoers at “Saturday Night Live,” who invited Kamala Harris to be a special guest in an episode prior to the 2024 election. Isn’t it enough that SNL includes skits on President Trump almost every week? 

 

Carr was first appointed to the F.C.C. commission in 2017, courtesy of Mr. Trump. According to sources, he started “looking for a way to break onto the national stage,” and began “flooding social media with critiques” of the biggest tech companies. Predictably, Carr soon showed up on Fox News, where he chatted amiably with that paragon of the free press, Tucker Carlson. 

What Carr was there to say was that he opposed Big Tech’s plans to turn over control of content (on Twitter, for example) to the government. Carr was against it! “Outsourcing censorship to the government isn’t just a bad idea, it’s a violation of the First Amendment,” he told Carlson’s viewers. “So I’m a no on that.” 

According to The New York Times, “The appearance helped him to become a rising conservative star.” 

Now Carr’s thinking is evolving. When CBS edited an interview with Kamala Harris for “60 Minutes,” in the days leading up to the 2024 election, Carr smelled a malodorous rodent. CBS explained that editing interviews was pretty much what news organizations all did – and for obvious reasons. Trump decided to sue CBS, because Donald doesn’t care for the free press any more than he does the rules of golfing – which he routinely violates. CBS, which is owned by Paramount, could have stood up for the First Amendment, and almost surely would have prevailed in court, but decided to settle the lawsuit for $16 million. And why, oh, why, oh, why? Not long after, Mr. Carr approved an $8 billion merger between Skydance and Paramount, which he might otherwise have blocked. 

Now, Mr. Carr has his sights set on comedians like Jimmy Kimmel, and the women at “The View,” because they keep making nasty remarks about Donald, and his pal, Mr. Jeffrey “Pedophile” Epstein. 

“I think it’s worthwhile to have the F.C.C. look into whether ‘The View’ and some of the programs that you have still qualify as bona fide news programs,” Mr. Carr told a radio host last week.

 

* 

And we’re not done yet with censorship! Secretary of the Department of War and Killing All Kinds of People Pete Hegseth has a plan. He is trying to force reporters who cover the Pentagon to promise they won’t publish even unclassified information without official approval. 

As The New York Times correctly notes, had this policy been in force during the withdrawal from Afghanistan, we would have never heard about the suicide bombing attack that killed thirteen Marines. That would have meant the right-wing press could never have endlessly blamed President Biden. 

If the Hegseth Censorship Doctrine had been in force in 2003, we would have been left to believe that the Iraq War was necessary and that they had found all those “weapons of mass destruction” we heard about. We would have been left to imagine we were winning the war in Vietnam and Richard Nixon was great – and, hell, we might still be fighting that war. 

What the free press does well, whether you like it or not – and Hair Gel Hegseth doesn’t – is hold our leaders accountable. 

(If you don’t get this, seek therapy.)

___ 

9/26/25: ICE strikes again to rid America of dangerous murdering and raping and lettuce-picking illegal immigrants. 

This time, the intrepid masked thugs snag Ian Roberts, a former Olympic athlete, and current superintendent of the Des Moines Public Schools in Iowa. A native of Guyana, Roberts has been plotting to kill or maim the rest of us ever since having entered the U.S. on a student visa in 1999 and failing to go home. Well, golly, I feel safer already. Assuming no school shooters show up again on Monday.

 

* 

Also: The Department of Justice indicts former F.B.I. head James Comey, basically on the president’s orders. 

On Truth Social, Trump is up early and exults: 

 

* 

We can also report that the Team Trump dorks have fired a dozen F.B.I. agents who knelt, partly in sympathy, partly to defuse a dangerous situation, during a George Floyd protest march in Washington D.C., back in 2020. You might think agents could engage in a little free speech or an ad hoc protest, or display a modicum of sympathy, as marchers passed. But you would be clueless as to what is going on in Trumpistan today.

 

* 

As for this Ohio old goat, I would much rather see the police and F.B.I. working on arresting people like Jonathan and Jolene Harms. This lovely Idaho couple sent out a 277-page kill list to people in the Boise, Idaho region. They don’t appear to be transgender persons. They’re not immigrants. Nor are they African Americans living in blue cities where Donald Dumpling says crime is rampant. 

They’re just white nuts. 

(Allegedly.) 

If they are guilty, you wonder what kind of dopes would work hard enough to put together a kill list that elaborate and long. 

Did they have the armament to do damage? Of course they did. This is America, where you can all but get military grade weaponry from vending machines at 7-Elevens, and fast-food drive-in windows. 

According to the website, Law & Crime, 

Prosecutors say the couple continued talking about their so-called kill list while Jonathan Harms was in jail on [previous] charges. Local NBC affiliate KTVB reports many of the people on the list are members of a Boise-area church in which the Harms’ were excommunicated. The members were “frankly terrified” that the suspects would carry out their threats as cops recovered a large cache of weapons and ammunition at the Harms home.

 

 ___ 

 

9/27/25: In 1890, twenty U.S. soldiers were awarded Medals of Honor for their role in the massacre at Wounded Knee. During that final “battle” with America’s original inhabitants, as many as 300 Lakota Indians were killed, roughly half women and children. Two dozen soldiers were also killed, though most were cut down by friendly fire, since the troops had the Indian village surrounded. 

Major General Nelson A. Miles, later Commanding General of the U.S. Army, summed up the fight this way in 1891: “I have never heard of a more brutal, cold-blooded massacre than that at Wounded Knee.” 

It was decided in 2024 to revoke those medals, but Pete Hegseth, Sec. of Hair Gel, Binge-Drinking, and War, has announced that they will keep them. “We salute their memory,” he says of the men with blood on their hands, “we honor their service, and we will never forget what they did.” 

Nor will historians. 

 

FUN FACT: You may recall all those times Donald Trump said tariffs wouldn’t hurt U.S. businesses or consumers. He was wrong about that, but even if he had been right, he was clearly forgetting about farmers. China has now cut off all purchases of American corn, wheat, and soybeans. 

With farmers hurting – and no other group votes more dependably for Republican candidates than farmers – except maybe neo-Nazis – Donald has a plan. 

Socialism, it’s called. As he now explains, 

“We’re going to take some of that tariff money that we made, we’re going to give it to our farmers, who are, for a little while, going to be hurt until the tariffs kick into their benefit. So we’re going to make sure that our farmers are in great shape, because we’re taking in a lot of money.”

 

See how this works? 

Citizen A, who is a plumber, and not a farmer, pays extra for his favorite imported beer. Citizen B pays more for imported toys for a grandson’s birthday. Citizen C must pay more for a new BMW. Citizens D, who is a farmer, gets a check from “the government,” which is actually a check from Citizens A, B and C. Yeah, that would be socialism. 

Even the folks who raise soybeans for fun aren’t happy. One disgruntled farmer complained about the tariffs and the costs, grumbling, “Chances are it’s gonna cost [farmers] $10, and they’ll get $5 back.”

___ 

 

Team Trump will keep us safe – unless we criticize Team Trump. 

9/28/25: At least one Republican member of Congress, Rep. Van Orden, is calling for the arrest of California Governor Gavin Newsom. The charge: “domestic terrorism.” This, after the governor labeled White House aide Stephen Miller a “fascist.” 

This is amusing, if for no other reason that we know Miller himself has previously used the “f-word.: For example, we had Miller attacking Democrats: “If the idea of free speech enrages you – the cornerstone of democratic self-government – than [sic] I regret to inform you that you are a fascist [sic].” 

For good measure, in March 2024, Miller added, “The Democratic party is now a Facist [sic] party. Using corporate and government power to punish dissent and dissenters.” 

(Can someone teach this fascist how to fucking spell “fascist!”)

 

* 

Gun violence continued over the weekend, with a former Marine ramming his truck into a Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints building and opening fire. Four dead, at least eight injured. 

The attacker also torched the building. 

On Saturday, in Southport, N.C., a man opened fire from a boat on partyers at a waterfront bar. Three killed, five wounded. Authorities say the attack was “highly premeditated.” 

A third mass shooting took place at the Lucky Eagle Casino in Eagle Pass, Texas. Two dead, seven injured. 

A quick check shows that there have been 35 mass shootings (defined as shootings with four or more victims) in the United States just in September, though none have been in Portland, Oregon – which President Trump now claims is a “war-ravished city.” He’s going to send troops to Portland, even though the mayor and governor of Oregon haven’t requested any aid. Six of the 35 shootings have occurred in Texas. None have taken place in Oregon this month. 

In fact, when I skim the entire list of 381 mass shooting incidents this year, it appears Texas has had 26 additional mass shooting events, for a total of 32. Oregon has had two, one in Portland, and the other mass shooting in Grants Pass, Oregon was a case of domestic violence. I also checked to see. It turns out Oregon has a murder rate of 4.46 per 100,000. The rate in Texas is 6.05. 

You can look it up and so could Donald Dumpling. The problem being, the president has the intellectual curiosity of a hamster. 

In the first half of 2025, Portland had 17 murders, a decrease of 51% since 2024, in a population of more than 650,000. 

According to AI, when I checked, Dallas had 82 murders during the same period, a decline of 37%, in a city of 1.3 million. 

If you know how to estimate, you will see at once that the murder rate per 100,000 is worse in Dallas – more than double, in fact.

___ 

 

Is there any conspiracy the MAGA folks won’t believe? 

9/29/25: At this point, I think we can say that right-wing conspiracy kooks will believe anything, no matter how dopey it is. Until today, this blogger had never heard of the “med bed” conspiracy; but somehow a post about the beds showed up on Donald Trump’s Truth Social feed. 

(It has since been deleted, at least.)

 

The magic med beds are said to be in use by militaries around the world. They can cure any disease, reverse aging (I’m in!) and regrow missing limbs in a matter of minutes. According to the Truth Social post, President Trump was going to reveal his healthcare plan (after eight years), which would include a “med bed” card for every citizen in this great land. 

(Hot damn, I’m going to look and feel twenty-one again!) 

 

Okay, seriously. What poor fools would believe this shit? Well, maybe the fools who believed Trump had his healthcare plan almost ready back in 2017. Or the people who thought Mexico would pay for the wall. Or who really thought North Korea was going to hand over all its nukes to Donald. (Even Trump, the Big Fool, thought that was true.) And how about: Sandy Hook was an inside job; the Parkland students were paid crisis actors; Jewish space lasers started forest fires; Donald could prove Obama wasn’t born in this country; Michelle Obama is a man; Joe Biden was dead all along and was played as president by a robot; Democrats rigged the 2016 election (which MAGA fools believed even though Donald won); Donald really won the 2020 election in a sacred landslide; Donald could end the Ukraine War in one day; and many more.

___ 

 

The new “F-word:” Fascism. 

9/30/25: This poor, bedraggled blogger knows the MAGA faithful get mad when we on the left accuse President Trump of looking like a duck, swimming like a duck, and quacking like a duck – while they imagine him paddling peacefully over the pellucid waters of Lake Fascism. But let’s end September with an “F-word” bang. 

Earlier this month, to cite one chilling example, Jon Karl of ABC News asked the president how he would differentiate between “free speech” and “hate speech.” This was after Attorney General Pam Bondi announced that she was absolutely going to come after anyone who used hate speech, in what sounded, even to some of Trump’s biggest supporters, like an “F-word” plan. 

So, Mr. President, how would you define “hate speech?” What do you think Bondi has planned? And don’t blow this, sir. We’re counting on you to understand, at bare minimum, the First Amendment. 

Unfortunately, the duck ruffled its feathers and quaked, “She’d probably go after people like you because you treat me so unfairly. It’s hate. You have a lot of hate in your heart. Your company paid me $16 million for a form of hate speech, so maybe they’ll have to go after you.” 

That, my MAGA friends, is “F-word” thinking. 

And let’s say you’re just too stubborn to admit there might be a problem with this president. Today, at a meeting called by Secretary of Whatever, Pete Hegseth, Trump spoke to the assembled top leaders of the U.S. military. “Last month,” he told them, “I signed an executive order to provide training for a quick reaction force that can help quell civil disturbances. This is gonna be a big thing for people in this room, because it’s the enemy from within and we have to handle it before it gets out of control.” 

Who would that enemy be? Other Americans, of course. Those who oppose Mr. Trump in some way. 

 

FUN FACT: If you missed the video, a food-delivery cyclist, who may or may not have been a U.S. citizen, recently ran afoul of ICE agents in Chicago because he was (choose one): 

A)   Shooting at drivers.

B)    Taunting agents, shouting, “I’m not even a U.S. citizen.”

C)   An illegal wanted on a warrant for eating neighbors’ pets.

D)   Drinking wine from a bottle, which he threw at the ICE agents.

 

If you guessed A, C, or D. You fail, numbskull. These were ICE agents. They don’t have to respect free speech or due process. 

Several gave chase, but the delivery man made his escape.

 

FUN FACT #2: Suppose you really did want to police “hate speech.” Or let’s imagine you love Donald Trump more than sweet potato fries. So, you hate “hate speech” aimed at you Dumpling Hero. 

You might want to open your eyes a little wider. Arizona State Representative John Gillette logged onto social media so he could suggest death for Congresswoman Pramila Jayapral, whom he insisted was advocating (irony alert) hate speech. “Until people like this, that advocate for the overthrow of the American government are tried convicted and hanged ... it will continue,” he warned. 

The Arizona Mirror explains: 

That clip uploaded to X was from a longer video, which was posted online in March, that is part of Jayapal’s “Resistance Lab” series in which she and others discuss protest movements and non-violent actions. The session in question featured a speaker who studied political violence and spoke about non-violence. 

 

The post Gillette responded to claimed that Jayapal was making a call to violence because she said protesters should be “strike ready” and “street ready.” The Arizona Mirror watched the video in its entirety and found no calls to violence or advocating for overthrowing the government; it was focused on “non-violent resistance” to Trump and advising people on how to do that. 

 

In contrast, Gillette has expressed support for the Trump supporters who stormed the U.S. Capitol in January 2021, who violently assaulted police officers and broke down doors and windows in order to access the building so they could stop Congress from certifying the 2020 election. In several posts on X, he called the 1,600 or so people who were prosecuted — and since pardoned by Trump — for their actions that day “political prisoners.”

 

He refused to answer questions when the Mirror reached him by phone on Thursday.

 

FUN FACT #3: In a poll to end the month, 68% of Americans oppose the government going after networks to end shows. Almost one in five (19%) aren’t sure – which is a sad testament itself.

Only 13% thought it was a great idea.