POST #1,128: Random Observations

Pissing off the Far Right since June of 2006

What you are about to read are a collection of unrelated observations that I had scribbled in my notebook or posted out in the Facebooksphere. Any resemblances to any people - living or not-quite-so-living - are purely intentional. 

1: More American Carnage

There was another mass shooting in the American night; this time at a dollar store in Jacksonville, Florida. Get used to living in a nation in ruins. Unless our politicians get their priorities in order, this is the way it's going to be from now on.  keep voting the Republicans and the Blue Dog Democrats. 

2: The Error of Donnie's Ways

Donald Trump's fatal error was assumption that all professional Republican politicians are as blatantly corrupt as he. Most of them are - but not all of them, I cannot tell you what a pleasant surprise it was for me to find this out.

3: The Year of the Black Woman

Three of the four people whose mission it it to deliver justice to Donald Trump are Black women. I'm absolutely certain that this nasty little fact must be driving the old bugger nuts. Book 'Em, Fani.

4: Rudy's Irony

Twenty-two years ago, Rudolph Giuliani was one of the most beloved Republican politicians since Dwight Eisenhower - perhaps even Theodore Roosevelt. Three years ago, he attached his star to Donald Trump's clown car. Today his historic reputation is mere ashes on the alter of public opinion. He is telling everyone who will bother to listen that he is proud to be in Donald Trump's corner. He's not. The association with the former POTUS is the biggest regret of his once-proud life. Take it to the bank.

5: What Is Reality?

This particular post that you are now reading has no point whatsoever. Please move on to the next one.

6: A Disney Moment

I just had a revelation that almost threw me: today (August 30, 2023) I am four days older than Walt Disney was on the day he died (December 15, 1966). My only comfort is the certain knowledge that when you wish upon a star, it doesn't make a damned bit of difference how old you are.

Tom Degan

Goshen, NY

SUGGESTED VIEWING:

Don't Arraign on His Parade

By Randy Rainbow

Randy's latest is a hoot!

Don't Arraign on His Parade! - A Randy Rainbow Song Parody - YouTube

The man is every bit as good a lyricist as Lorenz Hart.

AFTERTHOUGHT, 4:00 PM

Piss off the Looney Right!

Go out and enjoy a Bud Light!

WHAT A MUG!

Mugshot of the former president of the United States

Yesterday was a ripe day for schadenfreude. Donald J. Trump, the former president of the United States, was booked for multiple felonies in Georgia at the Fulton County Jail....The Fulton County Jail....It sounds like the name of a country and western record:

Oh, Mama, A'hm here in the Fulton County Jail

Mah life has always been a gigantic fail

If Trump is convicted of only one of the ninety-one felonies he's being charged with, it will end up meaning that he'll go to prison for at least five years....Five years in the slammer, baby! He could very-well die in federal custody. For someone who has spent the last fifty years thumbing his nose at the law, this would be quite a Shakespearian comeuppance indeed. For someone like me - who was laughed at and sneered at seven years ago when I predicted that his administration would end disastrously with him being the first chief-executive in American history to be sent to federal prison - this is indeed a red-letter-day of sweet vindication.

Some of the opinion makers out there are mournfully bowing their talking heads and bemoaning yesterday as "a sad day for America". I could not disagree more. In fact (with the exception of Donald Trump and company) yesterday should have been viewed by all as a beautiful day for America and the American people. Yesterday the entire nation could hold their heads up high and proclaim to the rest of the planet that, in the United States of America, NO ONE is above the law. Thats's a very good thing. It was one of the great days in the history of this country, with the head of an organized criminal enterprise being held accountable for his many crimes against the people. What's not to be giddy about? Smile, Darn You, Smile!!!

The following twelve months will be the most civically interesting of our lifetimes. More interesting than Watergate even. As I've said too many times to count, Nixon was a pin-prick. Donald Trump is a freakin' blood bath, A lot could happen between now and the GOP convention next summer. If Trump ends up incarcerated between now and then, would he be so brazen to run his campaign from his prison cell? Of course he would! Remember that this is Donald Trump we're talking about here. In fact, it would not be unprecedented; Socialist candidate Eugene Debs ran his 1920 campaign for the presidency from his prison cell. The only difference between the two men is the fact that Debs would have made a pretty decent president.

I hope I live long enough to see this mess through to its conclusion (my health is not great these days and my longevity is anybody's guess). The first time I ever heard of Donald Trump was not though the print or electronic media - it was by meeting him. It was about 1983 or '84. I was polishing the brass railings in the lobby of the not-yet-opened Trump Tower when Donald and one of his sycophantic little flunkies came over to where we were working. After he asked us a couple of questions about what we were doing, the sycophantic little flunkie informed us that we should not direct our answers to "Mr. Trump" - but to him. I remember thinking: What an asshole! At the time, Trump was just another dime-a-dozen New York real estate mogul and not yet a public figure. That would happen in about a year. After that, I studied every article on him that I came across. By the year 2016 I was an expert on the guy. That is why when he seized the White House on January 20, 2017, I knew he would be a disaster as chief-executive. In fact, it was the easiest call I ever made.

Tom Degan

Goshen, NY

SUGGESTED READING:

Confidence Man

by Maggie Haberman.

I plugged this one a couple of weeks ago but I need to repeat myself. Historians will still be referencing this excellent book a century from now.

Jumpsuit For the Donald

"IF YOU GO AFTER ME, I'M COMING AFTER YOU."

Donald J. Trump, 8/4/23

Full disclosure: I committed a felony - once.

The year was 1975 and I was seventeen. I had come into possession of eight ounces of marijuana. Back in the days of New York governor Nelson Rockefeller's insanely stupid drug laws, carrying a half pound of weed was a felony. I knew perfectly well that what I was doing was agin' the law but, the way I looked at it, I was hurting no one - not even myself. That was the only time in my life that I committed any type of felony. Given the age I was in 1975, I would not have been tried as an adult had the coppers nabbed me. That being the case, the question is screaming to be posed:

How the heck does a man in his seventies manage to commit seventy-eight felonies in the course of just four years?

Oh yeah, "allegedly". We must not forget the truism that Donald Trump is innocent until proven guilty. For all we know, that audio recording of him threatening the Georgia secretary of state with criminal prosecution if he didn't provide the seventeen-thousand-plus votes needed to secure that stare's election might only be Rich Little doing an impression of the man's voice. If that is the case it would be the only perfect impersonation that Rich Little ever did in his career. I think the guy's incredibly overrated.

The man that we must assume Trump was threatening in the quote at the top of this piece is the man who is in the process of making the case against Trump, Jack Smith. Making so public a threat against a prosecutor is against the law. Trump should placed in custody until his trials are over and he is sent to federal prison - not jail  - PRISON.

Jail is where you go when you've had one-too-many on a Saturday night and you accidentally back your car into the plate glass window of the local pharmacy. Donald Trump needs to go to prison for a very - VERY - long time.

In the meantime, hold the silly dip-shit in the slammer until [unless] he is sent up the river for his long overdue, involuntary vacation. Anyone else who publicly threatens an officer of the court for doing his job would immediately be placed into custody. Why not Donald Trump? And what does he mean by, "I'm coming after you"? Is the deranged old bugger physically threatening Jack Smith? Is he threatening his life? At the very least he needs to be brought in for some serious questioning. His lawyers must be having a collective nervous breakdown. 

Some are arguing that sending a former POTUS up the river would set a terrible precedent. I agree wholeheartedly. The only worse precedent would be to allow him to get away with his crimes against the people of the United States. We need to send a message to the rest of the planet that, in the Untied States of America, no one is above the law. not Donald Trump; not you; not even seventeen-year-old Tom Degan (The statute of limitations long ago ran out; the weed in question long ago went up in smoke. NYAH!) 

Tom Degan, Goshen, NY

SUGGESTED READING:

Confidence Man by Maggie Haberman 

The best post-presidency book on Trump yet written. Historians a century from now will be referencing this amazing work. Maggie is as good as they get.

AFTERTHOUGHT, 8/10/23, 12:30 PM:

When I learned that a gun company was marketing an automatic weapon for pre-schoolers, my immediate reaction was that this has to be a joke.

It isn't.

WEE-1’s JR-15 Is the AR-15 for Kids (nymag.com)

Idiot Nation