The Coming Raid on the US Treasury

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Between the years 2018 and 2020, a contracted employee working at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) unlawfully released the confidential tax returns of 405,427 taxpayers, one of whom was Donald Trump.  At the time of this serious breach of taxpayer confidentiality Donald Trump was President and in charge of the executive branch of federal government.  The US Treasury Department is an important component of the executive branch of the federal government, and the Internal Revenue Service falls under the purview of the Treasury Department.  In other words, Donald Trump was the person ultimately in charge of the IRS and its employees when the illegal data breach occurred.

Justice was ultimately served in this criminal matter when the contracted employee,  Charles Littlejohn, was arrested and pleaded guilty to his crime.  He was sentenced to five years in prison in January of 2024.  He currently remains in prison.  Additionally, the US Treasury Department cancelled millions of dollars in contracts with Booz Allen Hamilton, the firm that had been Littlejohn's actual employer.  All of the corrective action took place while Joe Biden was President.

Littlejohn released the returns of 405,427 individuals to multiple media outlet including The New York Times and Pro Publica.  In Trump's instance the released files showed that Trump paid no federal income tax in several years prior to 2020, and paid only $750 in his first year as President.  Even though most presidential candidates voluntarily release their tax returns during campaigns for the White House, Trump never did, and he took great personal offense that they were made public.

Trump and his two oldest sons filed a $10 billion lawsuit against the US Treasury Department and the IRS in early 2026, at a time when Donald Trump was again serving as President and overseeing  both agencies.  A couple of weeks ago US Federal District Judge Kathleen Williams was questioning the constitutionality of a case where a President is suing agencies that he oversees, and it looked as though she was preparing to throw the case out.

But, Trump's legal team regrouped and went at the matter a different way.  Trump voluntarily drpopped his damage claims with prejudice before the judge could rule against him, and that cleared the way for HIS Justice Department to agree to a settlement with the injured party (Trump and his sons).  The settlement will reportedly include $1.776 billion of public funds being set aside to compensate Trump allies who believe they were politically targeted by the Biden administration.  It is being called an "Anti-Weaponization Fund."  Acting US Attorney General Todd Blanche said the fund is:  

"A lawful process for victims of lawfare and weaponization to be heard and seek redress."

What Blanche is referring to as redress, critics of the scheme are calling it a "slush fund' to reward Trump cronies and allies - and a blatant theft of public funds.  Congressman Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee issued a statement saying:

"This case is nothing but a racket designed to take $1.7 billion of taxpayer dollars out of the Treasury and pour it into a huge slush fund for Trump at DOJ to hand out to his private militia of insurrectionists, rioters, and white supremacists, including those who brutally beat police officers on January 6th, 2021, and sycophant accomplices to his election-stealing schemes."

Donald Trump, himself, speaking his native Gibberish said the fund would be dedicated to "reimbursing people who were horribly treated." 

Trump's lawyers are saying the settlement would not be reviewable by a judge, but 93 members of Congress have filed a brief challenging the payout scheme.  Senator Elizabeth Warren has referred to it as "corruption on steroids,"   Senators Chris Murphy and Chris Van Hollen described the arrangement as a "pure theft of public funds."

How the Trump Slush Fund will operate:

• A five member commission will be appointed by the US Attorney General (who will have been appointed by Trump), with one of the five members being chosen in consultation with congressional leadership.
• Trump will have the authority to fire any commission member "at will."
• The commission is not required to disclose all recipients of the funds, though it will make a quarterly report to the Attorney General.
• The commission will stop processing claims on December 15, 2028 (a month and five days before Trump leaves office), and if any money is left over it will go back to the federal government.    

The agreement that the Justice Department made with Trump to resolve his lawsuit also contains a provision barring the IRS from pursuing tax claims against Trump, his family, or his businesses.  

That's a very sweet deal, if your name is Donald John Trump.  A person that he appoints to be US Attorney General will chose four members of a five-member commission to run the project, and he will talk to congressional leadership regarding the selection of a fifth member.  Trump can fire any on them at any time without stating a reason,  The commission doesn't have to reveal to whom they are giving the money - and, if any is left over (a very unlikely event) it will go back to the Treasury rather than run the risk of being controlled by a President of the other party.   And, the IRS is prohibited against coming after Trump, his family, or his businesses.

Presumably the list of people who have been "horribly treated" by the Biden administration and seeking cash consolation from our government could (and probably will) include members of Trump's own family, possibly even himself, and the rioters and scum who were attacking police officers and smearing feces on the walls of the Capitol on January 6, 2021.  Trump, in fact, admitted on Monday that those who attacked the Capitol in his name would be eligible for payouts.   The courts and Congress will have no say in who receives the money.

The slush fund will come out of a "Judgment Fund" run by the Treasury.  It is an uncapped, permanent appropriation created by Congress that allows the federal government to pay out judgments and legal settlements without needing congressional approval for each transaction.  The money is easy to access if you control the Justice Department - and way too tempting for a professional, life-long grifter to pass up.

(If Trump's lawyers had been that clever at his trial in New York in May of 2024, he might not have been convicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in the first degree!)

Brian Morrissey, the top lawyer at the Treasury Department, showed some character and resigned immediately after the deal was announced.

It might be worth pointing out - again - that Trump's original complaint about his tax returns being leaked to the press did not occur under the Biden administration - those leaks occurred under the first Trump administration.  The entire payout scheme is rooted in a lack of supervision of and by Trump's own government employees, all of whom were ultimately overseen by Donald John Trump.

This taxpayer objects like hell to Donald Trump's weaponization of the US government in order to steal my tax dollars - and I object like hell to my tax dollars being used to pay criminals for their participation in the Capitol riots and their wanton physical attacks on police officers!

  

Any member of Congress or government official who enables this theft of American tax dollars and stain on American history needs to be held to account.  Lock 'em up!

Marideth Sisco, Songbird and Renaissance Woman, Dead at 82

by Pa Rock

Word is out this morning of the passing of  Marideth Sisco, one of the best known personalities in the Ozarks.  An obituary blurb already posted on the internet states:

"Merideth Ann Sisco (June 15, 1943-May 18, 2026) was an American storyteller, folklorist, singer-songwriter, author, and journalist.  Her work largely focused on folklore related to the native Ozark Mountains.  Sisco and her music were featured in the Oscar-nominated film Winter's Bone."

Merideth, a true renaissance woman of many talents, was born in the town of Cassville in southwest Missouri and graduated from high school there in 1961. After living in a variety of states as far-flung from the Ozarks as Washington and California, she eventually returned to the land of her roots and settled in West Plains in south-central Missouri which is where I became acquainted with her.  She worked for the local newspaper, The West Plains Daily Quill, for a couple of decades as an investigative reporter and one who covered environmental issues.  She was also a well-known local entertainer who played acoustic guitar and performed folk songs and music native to the Ozarks.

In 2009 Hollywood came to the Ozarks to film a movie based on the novel "Winter's Bone" by the country noir writer Daniel Woodrell, who was also a resident of West Plains.  The book was about the impact of drugs and poverty on rural areas, and many of the references in it were specific to Howell County where West Plains is located.  Woodrell referred to the county as "Howl" in several of his works.  

When Hollywood showed up to make the movie, they were not all that impressed with the county of "Howl" and decided to do most of the filming in Taney County which is east of here in the vicinity of Branson and not too far from Springfield.  (There was undoubtedly more for the West Coast types to do in the evenings around Branson and Springfield than there was in West Plains!)

Most of the cast in the low-budget film were people were unknowns before and after the movie was made, with one big exception.   A 20-year-old actress named Jennifer Lawrence was given the lead in the film and went on to receive her first of three (so far) nominations for an Oscar for Best Actress for her performance.

But there were two other noteworthy stars associated the film, at least as far as this gnarly old typist is concerned:  Daniel Woodrell, the author of the book which gives an amazingly accurate portrayal of the sub-culture he sought to bring to light, and Merideth Sisco whose beautiful vocals helped to make the film so memorable.  The opening scenes of the movie pan across the rugged Ozark landscape with Merideth singing "The Missouri Waltz" a cappella in the background.  Her crystalline voice carrying Harry Truman's favorite song across the majesty of the wooded Ozark hills provides a stunning backdrop to Woodrell's tale.

The amazing voice and personality of Merideth Sisco were so captivating that a special scene was added to the movie just to incorporate her and her singing into it.

Daniel Woodrell, the author, passed away at his home in West Plains last November, and Merideth Sisco died in the same community yesterday.  I never had the privilege of meeting Mr. Woodrell, but Merideth and I met in a cardiac rehab group in which we were both enrolled.  We had several good conversations during the time that we were both in the group, discovering that we agreed on many things and especially those of a political nature.   She was a lovely person, and I feel very privileged to have gotten to know her.  I will never listen to "The Missouri Waltz" again without thinking of Merideth Sisco.   She was a kind and caring human being and a songbird for the ages.

Rest in peace, old friend.

The Clock Is Ticking

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Wars are much easier to start than they are to stop,  That is a scrap of knowledge that Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu failed to share with Donald John Trump as he led the US President by the nose into an endless war on Iran.  Netanyahu and Trump initiated their war on the country of Iran with bombing raids on the morning of February 28th, and Trump seemed to fully expect that one, or maybe two, bombing runs would result in "Mission Accomplished!" - a holdover GOP mantra from the days of George W. Bush prancing around the deck of a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier in a flight suit.

(There is no danger of Donald John repeating the "Mission Accomplished!" theatre because he can neither fit into a flight suit nor prance.)

But here we are 80 days later and the war on Iran still figures in almost every news cycle.  About the only thing it has accomplished is to take the public's attention off of the despicable sex crimes of Jeffrey Epstein and his billionaire buddy child rapists.  (And, of course, that could be the real reason we instigated this war to begin with.)

Trump's plans for demanding the Nobel Peace Prize for ending a war that he helped to start have been put on ice as he frantically searches for a way out of the mess that he gleefully helped engineer.  During the 80 days that the War on Iran has dragged on, Trump has tried every escape hatch he can find. He has, on multiple occasions, declared the war to be over, initially indicating that he (or was it "we"?) had won it on the very first day - to raging threats toward Iran declaring that their entire civilization was about to die.  One day he's a conquering general basking in his own glory, and the next day he is back to shit-posting and threats of annihilation.  

We amp up, we tone down, we amp up, we tone down.

Today, if news reports are to be believed, we are back into the amping up phase.  There were stories this morning stating that the US and Israel are visibly increasing their military presence around Iran. and Trump is back in his threat-belching mode, letting Iran and the world know that his patience is wearing thin.  His current dire warning is "the clock is ticking!"  

This gnarly old typist has been around long enough to know that the world is full of clocks.  I am seventy-eight years old and my own personal clock is ticking louder and faster than ever.  Donald John will be eighty next month and his clock is undoubtedly ticking louder and faster than mine.

We all reach a point in life when its time to put the shit-posting aside and begin working on polishing our obituaries.   I'm there, Donald John, and buddy, you are too.  The clock is ticking!

The Man Who Doesn't Give a Damn

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Republican political hacks have been falling on their swords all week as they try to defend some tone-deaf remarks that their Golden God, Donald John Trump, made to reporters on Tuesday.  Trump, who is unlikely to have ever been inside of a Walmart or a Dollar Store - or pumped his own gas - cut loose on a reporter who asked how much American's economic concerns were motivating his push for a peace deal with Iran.   The king of bluster, replied:

"Not even a little bit."

Trump went on to blather that his focus was on keeping Iran from having a nuclear weapon, something that had already been negotiated and agreed to between the Obama administration and Iran, and inspections were already being carried out, but when Trump came into office he tore up that agreement in his childish quest to erase the achievements of President Obama.  Now Trump has taken us into war and sabotaged the American economy in an effort to just get the United States back to the same military footing that it was on when he came into office the first time.  If he wins his concession, we will ONLY be back where we started - and every day it appears more and more doubtful that Trump and his administration can do even that.  

The price of gas at the pump has risen 50% since Trump and Netanyahu summarily took their two countries to war against Iran.   As transportation costs increase, so, too, does that cost of goods that must be transported to America's stores and markets.  We are all paying the price for this war, and we all know it.  Trump refers to the increase in prices as "short-term pain," but there seems to be no actual indications of when that pain will subside.

After finishing his pitch for an agreement to end Iran's quest to create nuclear weapons, Trump bounced back to the American economy:

"I don't think about Americans' financial situation.  I don't think about anybody.  I think about one thing.  We cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon.  That's all."

Well, he thinks about that and his billion dollar ballroom.

(Note:  Trump's dismissive attitude toward the economic hardships being endured by Americans because of his war and policies is reminiscent of Melania's famous jacket that was inscribed on the back with "I really don't care, do u?"  Obviously neither of them care very much, at least not about the little people, those of us who aren't in the Epstein class.)

Desecrating a Tomb

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

On Sunday morning, December 7th, 1941, at 8:00 a.m. local Hawaiian time, fighter planes from the Empire of Japan soared through the skies above Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, dropping their payloads of deadly bombs on the American ships lying in port.  It was a bloody and smoke-filled Sunday, and when the attack was  over, 21 American ships had been sunk or damaged. One of the ones which the Japanese sank was the USS Arizona which went down with 1,102 marines and sailors trapped aboard. Now the remains of those brave young Americans are forever entombed in that vessel, a permanent memorial to their lives and sacrifice.

Today Pearl Harbor is surrounded by Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam (JBPHH), and a ferry from the base takes tourists out onto the harbor every fifteen minutes to visit the concrete memorial with sits above the sunken USS Arizona.    There are displays from the attack as well as a video presentation about it at the memorial, and it is a very somber experience.  I was a member of the 1:15 p.m. excursion to the memorial on January 21st, 2018.  (I know that because I saved the ticket for the ferry ride.)

The trip to the Pearl Harbor was a very somber and emotional experience, one which I will never forget.  Fortunately, it was not marred by any high-dollar, VIP tourists flopping around in snorkel gear in the waters surrounding the memorial as they ignorantly disturbed the peace and tranquility of the "at rest" remains of the earliest American casualties of World War II. 

In fact, the VIP snorkel tours were never mentioned the day I was there.  If they had been, I'm sure some of the older tourisis, such as those who had actually served in American wars, would have probably taken issue patent disrespect of the practice.

Normally the only people allowed in the waters above the massive sunken battleship are people with a reason for being there, park employees or marine archaeologists, for example, but apparently exceptions are sometimes made for visiting dignitaries, those folks who are better than us folks, and FBI Director Kash Patel qualifies as a VIP and got to grab his snorkel gear and go for a swim around the massive tomb while he was in Hawaii for a visit to the FBI Honolulu field office last summer.

News sources reveal that Patel's lady friend, a 27-year-old country singer, accompanied him on the taxpayer-funded trip aboard an FBI plane, but it remains unclear as to whether the traveling companion accompanied him on the snorkeling outing or not.  But if she remained on shore, she was safe because she travels with her own FBI security detail which at times includes SWAT personnel.

It feels so good knowing that the Trump administration is hard at work guarding against government waste, fraud, and abuse, and that they are so mindful of the very real and tragic human costs of war.

Party on, Kash!

Sending a Rocket to the Moon is Easier than Weather Prediction

(Editor's Note:  Good friend Ranger Bob took exception to yesterday's post regarding weather prediction and forwarded this informed response.  Bob has good information, as he always does, and I am posting his reply today with his permission.  I learned from it, and others may, too.   Pa Rock)

by Bob Randall

The public's understanding of weather forecasting is unreasonable.  You're right.  Weather prediction isn't an exact science.  I once heard a fellow comment with profound disgust that "We can send a rocket to the moon, but we can't accurately predict the weather."   Here's my take:  Weather forecasting is a prediction of mixing air, humidity, ocean patterns, etc.  Sending a rocket to the moon is easier.  We know the locations of the moon and the earth relative to each other.  We can see it and have been watching ti for millennia.   Modern science can mathematically predict with certainty where the moon will be in relation to the earth at any given moment.   We can apply the amount of force needed to propel a rocket to the moon.  It's not nearly as difficult as predicting the weather with the same accuracy.

We can't see the air, the humidity, or the ocean temperatures, we can only measure them.   With more instruments, we could measure them with more accuracy and make better predictions, but the number of instruments needed would be annoying in our daily lives as we had to zig-zag around weather stations while driving and mow around deflated weather balloons that landed in our yards.   In space travel to the moon, we control the outcome.  In weather prediction, we work with invisible moving tarrgets that we can't control.

In weather predictions, data is fed into models and numbers come out.  They do not necessarily give rain chances in nice, even percentage numbers.  If it says 57.3% chance of rain, Brandon Beck will round it off to 60% when he reports it.  We're used to hearing it in rounded-off numbers.   Alexa was trying to impress you (LOL), or more likely simply reported numbers as she dug them out from the cloud.

Additionally, the public hears a weather report and visualizes it as being for their house.  It's for a general area.   My sister used to complain that it didn't rain at her house. I pulled my hair when she said that.

I'm finished.

61% Chance of Rain

 

by Pa Rock

Weather Watcher

Some evenings before I crawl into bed I spend a few minutes chatting with Alexa,  Since AI has hit its stride, she is getting better in her ability to do things other than just serve as a deejay.  She can answer a broad range of questions on standard subjects like history, politics, and science, and she even performs math calculations.  I haven't asked Alexa for a bedtime story yet, but I have no doubt that my friend could rattle off a doozy.

Last Sunday evening as I was getting ready to go to bed I asked Alexa for the next day's weather forecast.  She replied with a quick encapsulation of anticipated temperatures and weather conditions.  The thing that stood out in her prediction for Monday's weather was a "61% chance of rain."  I was so surprised with the specificity that I asked her to repeat the rain chance - and she did, with the same exact percentage.

It's been a while since I've been to school, but I have a basic understanding of percentages.  A 61% chance of rain means that the chances are 61 out of 100 that it will rain.   Math, however, wasn't my forte, and I never had any classes in meteorology, so I am fuzzy on how she came up with that exact number.  Somewhere there must be an list of observable inputs that get run through a proven math calculation that spits out an exact percentage of rain chances for a specific area.

Lee George, the weatherman on KODE Channel 12 in Joplin, Missouri, in the 1960's, would have been astounded at how far weather prediction has come in just sixty years, and now, with the growth in knowledge accelerating exponentially, every facet of weather will soon become as predictable as sunrise - and perhaps it already is, but Elon and the Gods on Olympus won't release the process until they figure out how to maximize their profits for sharing that knowledge.

It didn't rain on Monday, at least not at my house.  I guess that 61% could have meant that 61% of West Plains would get rain - and I was in the 39% that missed out, but the more likely explanation is that even with our growing knowledge of our planet and its weather patterns, weather prediction is not yet an exact science - but it's getting there.

Unserious Leadership: Unpacking the Clown Car

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

In my new quest to describe elements of the Trump era in simplistic terms, something that could easily be engraved on a small participation trophy, I turned from Trump himself, whom I cloaked in my new word, "enfeeblementia," and am today trying to reduce his administration (cabinet officers and agency heads) to a one-or-two-word descriptor.   "Clowns" leaped to mind because many of his selections for important posts come from the field of entertainment, and "unserious" because so many seem to be unqualified or unfit for their jobs.  In fact, it often feels as though thy were primarily selected  just as a way of creating controversy.  

According to an article in Newsweek a year ago this week and written by Peter Aitken, the magazine's weekend editor for politics, at that time Trump had appointed 23 former employees of Fox News to positions of prominence in his government or in the courts, with the latest appointee having been Judge Jeanine Pirro to be the interim US Attorney for the District of Columbia.  She was confirmed to that post on a permanent basis three months later and now serves at the pleasure of the President - until he or his successor chooses to relieve her of the post.

In addition to Pirro, other bad apples that Trump picked from Fox News include Pete Hegseth as his Secretary of Defense, Pam Bondi as Attorney General, Sean Duffy as Transportation Secretary, Tulsi Gabbard as Director of National Intelligence, Michael Waltz as the former National Security Adviser until he was relieved of that position and is now US Ambassador to the United Nations, General Keith Kellogg who became a special envoy to Ukraine and Russia, Mike Huckabee as Ambassador to Israel, Tom Homan as the US "Border Czar," and Don Jr's ex-fiancee Kimberly Guilfoyle as Ambassador to Greece.  Trump also appointed Fox personalities Maria Bartiromo and Laura Ingraham to the Board of the Kennedy Center.

FBI Director Kash Patel was not a regular employee at Fox News, but he was a recurring presence on the network as a regular guest and commentator.   FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino was also a Fox News  retread.  He served as second in command at the FBI for the better part of a year before "voluntarily" returning to the private sector.

(Comedian Bill Mahr noted with regard to Trump's many Fox News hires that he had heard of "state run television" but this was "television run state."

A few other unserious people Trump has placed in important positions include television personality Dr. Mehmet Oz to head the Centers for Medicare and Medicare Services, and Billy Long, a Missouri auctioneer and former congressman, to head the Internal Revenue Service.  Trump removed Long from the IRS less than two months after he assumed the job, and. then transferred him to a new position as Ambassador to Iceland.

Many would argue with plenty of good reason that Robert F. Kennedy, Jr, as Secretary of Health and Human Services, and Elon Musk, as head of the Trump-created Department of Government Efficiency, were also unserious hires.

Donald Trump has found his comfort zone and immersed himself in it.  He is sitting blissfully in the backseat of a self-driving clown car surrounded by shallow, unserious sycophants whose main function is to feed him praise. The presidency isn't a job to Donald Trump, it's wack-a-doodle reality television and he is the star.  He's in it for the adoration.

Enfeeblementia: The Public Decay of a World Leader

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

The other day I was looking for a single word to encapsulate the conspicuous decline in the mental acuity and physical stamina and condition of Donald Trump.  I wanted to try and come up with a concise synthesis of his deterioration which is occurring right before our eyes.  I finally arrived at the word "enfeebled" as an adjective for Trump in his present state, a snapshot of the man currently in charge of the world's  most powerful nation.  

The thing that got me off on the tangent of Trump's overall unwell-being was the release of the recent Washington Post/ABC News/Ipsos poll which provided insight into how he was being viewed by the general public, and some of those poll results were alarming.  The current results of that highly respected national poll highlighted findings such as:  

• 59% of respondents said that Trump does not have the mental sharpness that it takes to lead the country;
• 55% of respondents said that Trump is not in good enough physical health to serve as President; 
• 54% said they do not regard Trump as a strong leader;  and,
• 67% said they do not believe that Trump considers important decisions carefully.

(Note:  The above poll was conducted on-line between April 24-28, 2026.   2,560 US adults participated nationwide.  The margin of error is 2.2 percentage points.)

Those poll results indicate that a majority of Americans recognize that Donald Trump, who will be eighty next month, is not the man, physically or mentally, that he was once.   Our abilities diminish as we get older - always have, always will.  Time is bringing Donald Trump down, enfeebling him, just as it slowly erodes the vitality and life from all of us.

When I finally settled on the word "enfeebled" to capture the essence of Donald Trump's current physical and mental state, I had the audacity to think that I might have coined a new term, but a quick review of the dictionary and current literature disabused me of that notion.  The word is so common in fact, that The Atlantic magazine had used it last December 9th in the title of an article about Trump by David A. Graham:  "The Enfeebling of the President."  (So much for my own vain attempt at originality!)

The list of Trump's infirmities is concerning and expanding.  He falls asleep at meetings and was recently captured by press cameras seemingly dozing at a Cabinet meeting, footage of which appeared on television.  Clearly not a "presidential look" or a quality to be valued in an important world leader.

But some might argue that Trump is at his best when he is snoozing, and that it is when he is awake that his infirmities are most noticeable.   His inability to stay on topic when he is speaking is almost the stuff of legend.  He'll start out on one subject and drift into another and then another, going wherever his obviously wandering mind takes him.   Trump's verbal and mental meandering is so obvious that even he has picked up on it - and he refers to his stream of gibberish as "the weave."

Trump has obvious issues with impulse control, posting rants or making unfiltered statements on things as far-ranging as insulting someone's physical appearance to threatening the destruction of an entire civilization.  The man who had an immigrant mother and two immigrant wives is quick to display strong animus toward certain groups of immigrants, particularly those from poor nations and those who are not caucasian.  And his proclivity for insults and name-calling is constantly at-the-ready and strongly resembles that found in a schoolyard culture.  Trump has a particular disdain for female reporters and recently addressed one as "Piggy," and called another a "horror show" after telling her that her question was "stupid."

His body is old, and press cameras are constantly catching new bruising and swelling.   Trump's body and ours age by the day on the downward spiral that captures us all in our declining years, making a few vain attempts to stay afloat as we circle the ever-present drain of death.

I'm less than two years younger than Donald Trump and I still have enough presence of mind to know that my enfeeblements are real and accumulating by the day.  When I get to the point that I can no longer recognize or admit my declining physical condition and mental acuity, enfeeblementia will have set in.  I won't know when that hits me.

But even as I am today, somewhere short of enfeeblementia (I hope), I would still have no business being the face of the United States or standing anywhere near the nuclear codes.

There is a point in life where it's time to sit down and shut up - and maybe put it all in a blog that nobody reads!

My Little Kia Set a Record; F*ck the Ballroom!

 

by Pa Rock

American Consumer

I bought my little Kia Soul, used, in the Kansas City area five years ago next month.  The fact that I am not a heavy driver can be attested to by the car's odometer which registered 18,000 miles when I bought it and today still has a little less than 70,000 miles to its credit - and that includes two trips to Oregon and back, one of which traversed much of Canada - as well as numerous trips to and from Kansas which tally about 600 miles per outing.

Earlier this week I pulled into a Casey's Convenience Store here in West Plains, probably for a lunch sandwich and a lottery ticket, and noticed that my gas gage was sitting below a quarter of a tank.  With an empty gas pump beckoning me to pull forward, I did.  It wasn't until I had the fuel flowing that I noticed the sticker which said that it contained Ethanol, or "corn juice" as I like to call the additive to the bastardized gasoline.  (If you haven't guessed, in a country where children go to bed hungry every night, I have issues with putting part of America's food supply into our vehicle tanks - when it should b going into the bellies of the nation's hungriest and most vulnerable.)

But the fuel was already filling my tank, so I let it run.  I noticed that I was paying $3.93 a gallon for the gasoline adulterated with corn juice.  Just a few scant weeks earlier I had been paying $2.49 a gallon for real gasoline.  When the pump finally shut off and after I squeezed a final squirt or two into the tank, the tab was just over $40.00!  

My own $40.00 purchase of gasoline last week was a record.   In the five years that I have owned the little Kia Soul, that was the first time ever that it has had a forty-dollar fill-up!   In fact, I have rarely even had a $30 fill-up.   It's a good thing the tank wasn't completely empty to begin with or I would have probably forked over a fifty-dollar bill just to do a few weeks of putting around!

I heard on the radio this morning that the national average price for gasoline is now at $4.52 a gallon.

Trump owns this mess.

I wish Donald Trump had to pump his own damned gasand pay for it, too.  Maybe then he might have a smattering of a feel for the hell that he is putting ordinary Americans through - but that would take more humanity than Trump could probably muster.

F*ck the ballroom!

Gerrymandering: Political Games with Real Consequences

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

The past two days I have focused this blog on the racial gerrymandering of congressional district maps currently being rushed through a few state legislatures in the American South, with special emphasis on those of Tennessee and Missouri.  Both of those states are eliminating a Democratic (and Black) district by skillfully dividing a large urban area (Memphis, TN and Kansas City, MO), into three separate districts, each with a large coattail of enough rural Republican area to place each third of each city under the control of their country cousins.  

I have just a bit more to say on the topic, and then I will let it go.  I promise.

I promote this blog twice a day on Blue Sky.  Yesterday I received a response on Blue Sky from one of those promotional blurbs, and her remark overlayed perfectly with the final point I wanted to make today.  The nice lady from Kansas City had this to say:

"I live i KC about 15 minutes away from my sister.  She's been gerrymandered into MO-4 and I'm still in MO-5.  We'll both end up with MAGA kooks who know nothing about urban issues and won't bother to learn.  A real travesty." 

Yes, that lady is exactly right.   Every single American, whether they have have been gerrymandered or not, will still have a representative in Congress at the end of the day.  Well, not.exactly.  Many of those who have been gerrymandered will have a congressman who is LESS REPRESENTATIVE of their issues and needs.  At the end of the day both Tennessee and Missouri (as well as a few other southern states) will have more people in Congress who are representative of White rural people and their issues - and less representative of both Black AND White citizens of urban districts whose needs from the national government are distinctly different than those of rural Americans.  Those few additional votes squeezed from the gerrymandering process can be instrumental in putting America on a course that falls short of meeting the critical needs of everyone - and the American promise of equal access and opportunity.

Kansas City or Memphis might have a critical need for federal funding to replace a bridge on a busy interstate in order to keep a large factory open and maintain jobs, but if that area of the city is represented by an insurance or real estate salesman two hundred miles away in Hooterville, his interests are going to be more aligned with the needs of his friends and neighbors, the locals sitting at thr regulars' table in the coffee shop on Main Street - and they are going to be focused on the price of tractor parts from overseas or fertilizer costs.  In fact, if the people in that coffee shop each listed a hundred priorities for Congress, that critical bridge replacement in Kansas City or Memphis would not be on anybody's list.

The needs of rural and urban areas are distinctly different in many respects, as are the needs of communities which are predominantly populated by one particular race.  Ignoring those needs by denying community representation to the people, deprives people in those communities of a voice in government.  By virtue of political and racial gerrymandering, some types of communities in the states are getting more representation that they ever dreamed of having, and others are being stripped of their communal voice altogether.

Gerrymandering is about inequality.  Congressional districts should be drawn tight so they can be more reflective of the people who actually live in each area - and promote their specific needs.  Anything less is just political gamesmanship.

Missouri's Jim Crow Gerrymander

 

by Pa Rock

Missouri Voter

Yesterday I used this space to highlight the reemergence of Jim Crow practices across the American South by focusing on this week's congressional redistricting in Tennessee, a political farce in which the Tennessee legislature drew and passed new congressional district maps for "partisan advantage," but which also spoke loudly to racial disadvantage and will effectively eliminate the  state's only Black member of Congress.  The core of Tennessee's new plan is to divide the city of Memphis, which is about two-thirds Black and heavily Democratic, and place it in three other districts, thereby diluting not only Democratic power, but also Black power.  The new maps, in fact, should not only dilute Democratic and Black power, it should stop either of those political forces from reaching Congress from the Volunteer state of Tennessee.

Tennessee was able to get away with that travesty on democracy by virtue of a recent US Supreme Court decision which gutted Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act and essentially ruled that although racial discrimination in the drawing of congressional district maps remains unconstitutional, it is alright to draw political maps for partisan advantage.    The fact that most Blacks tend to vote Democratic and were therefore split up when the legislature divided heavily Democratic Memphis into three neighboring congressional districts, was just coincidental - and Tennessee will no longer have any Democratic or Black representation in the US Congress.  

Too bad, so sad, that's just how Trump version of democracy operates, and his judges say so.

In the blog posting yesterday I noted that Missouri's backwater legislature would undoubtedly do something like that with our sole remaining Democratic (and coincidentally majority Black) congressional district that basically encompasses the city of St. Louis.  At that point I should have elaborated on, but instead totally ignored, the current political situation with our other major city:  Kansas City

Last year our right-wing GOP legislature here in the Show-Me state drew new congressional maps that decimated the political power of Kansas City.  The legislature, which is dominated by people from rural areas and large cow towns like Springfield, split Kansas City into three neighboring districts and created a situation almost certain to unseat one of the state's current two Black and Democratic congressmen.  The new districts all come together in downtown Kansas City and then stretch out into the rural parts of the state.  One of those districts covers roughly the top third of the state, and is so large that it borders four other states.   Some residents of downtown Kansas City will be in a congressional district that stretches all the way to Illinois!

So, Missouri has its own Memphis.

Missouri citizens did not take the legislature's partisan and bigoted assault on democracy lying down.  Petitions to get the new maps before the voters for their approval (or not) were promptly passed and adequate numbers of signatures were collected, but the Republican secretary of state, a CPA - which means he should be able to count - has not rushed to verify signatures, and now, if they are verified by the secretary of state, the referendum on the new maps will not be on the ballot until this November when the new maps will already be in effect.  That means that Kansas City has officially lost its Democratic and Black representation in Congress for at least two years.

The St. Louis metropolitan area is already divided into four congressional districts (including the one in which I reside - and I am about a four-hour drive from downtown St. Louis - and yet one of those districts, Missouri's 1st, is the core of the city and still has a Black Democrat representing it in Congress.    I am not a political cartographer, and I suspect that drawing a map that would smash that district would be very difficult, but I would still wager that there are farmers and car dealers and lobbyists sitting around coffee shops in Jefferson City today who are hell bent on finally turning the Missouri delegation to Congress into a completely White and Republican group, as God intended.

It's not a legitimate government unless we all get to participate.

Jim Crow Born Again in Tennessee

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Jim Crow, a patron saint of of bigotry, racism, and marrying your cousins in much of the United States and particularly in the American South, was thought, or at least hoped, by many to have succumbed to mortal social wounds during the Civil Rights movement of the 1960's, but he miraculously sprang back to life yesterday in the Tennessee state Capitol building in Nashville.  

Both houses of the Tennessee State Legislature voted to pass a new congressional district map that will completely eliminate all Black and Democratic representation in the state's congressional delegation.  If the voters vote as their masters in Nashville are counting on them to do, Black citizens and Democrats will no longer be represented in Congress by anyone elected in Tennessee.

Tennessee only had one (of nine) congressional districts that was Black majority and Democratic to begin with, but that was one too many for the raging racists of the Volunteer State.  The vote in the legislature, after a day of  loud demonstrations inside and outside of the Capitol building, was a decisive 64-25 in the House and 25-5 in the Senate.  Tennessee's Republican Governor Bill Lee signed the measure the moment it reached his desk.

One of the highlights of the protests was Democratic State Representative Justin Jones of Nashville burning a paper Confederate flag inside of the Capitol building.  Jones and one other state representative, both Black, were expelled from the State House of Representatives in April of 2023 for leading a protest inside of the Capitol, but were quickly voted back into the legislature by their districts.  

The GOP Tennessee Legislature was quick to act on its political wet dream after the US Supreme Court voted 6-3 on April 29th to nullify Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act that had kept Black representation in place.  Now, with that ruling, state legislatures can draw congressional districts based on political party affiliation, and since the majority of Black voters are reliable Democratic voters, states in the south immediately began looking at breaking up "Democratic" districts instead of "Black" districts, a political sleight-of-hand.

In the previous congressional redistricting Tennessee had one majority Black and Democratic district, a tight georgraphical area around Memphis.  (Memphis is almost two-thirds Black.). Now, with the new maps, the city of Memphis is part of three separate congressional districts, one of which stretches nearly three hundred miles from the city's center.  The new districts encompass enough rural areas to ensure that each becomes reliably Republican.

With this last minute change, it is unclear whether overseas voters or military voters from the new districts will have adequate time to cast their votes in the upcoming primary elections or not, but those people were clearly not a priority of the Tennessee State Legislature and governor as they rushed to make Tennessee White Republican again.

Other southern states are already knee-deep in drawing maps to eliminate their own Black Democratic districts, and the Republican troglodytes in the Missouri State Legislature are undoubtedly chomping at the bit to give St. Louis the Memphis treatment.  

Praise Jesus and pass the keys to the White restrooms!

The Old South has risen!  Jim Crow is born again!

Warmongers Face Challenges on the Home Front

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

The three primary instigators of the big wars currently plaguing our planet - Putin of Russia, Netanyahu of Israel, and Trump of the United States - are not only focused on aggression beyond their borders, but are also having to closely monitor their rearguard as they try to control dissent at home.

News reports indicate that Vladimir Putin is worried that he could be personally attacked by Ukraine in response to the brutal war that he unleashed on that independent nation initially in 2014 with the Russian  annexation of Crimea, and has been fighting with full-on since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February of 2022 - more than four years ago.  Ukraine, like Afghanistan before it, proved to be a tougher nut to crack than had been anticipated.  

Ukraine has been launching drone attacks deeper and deeper into Russia, and this week they managed to strike an upper story of a luxury residential skyscraper in the heart of Moscow.  Last December a Russian General was killed by a car bomb in Moscow that was reportedly planted by Ukrainian intelligence services, and last week a Russian military officer was killed in a remote town by a bomb in a military barracks that was believed to have been orchestrated by Ukraine.

Clearly the war is not going Putin's way and he has cause to worry about his own personal safety.  But in addition to direct threats from Ukraine, Putin is also reportedly facing threats of assassination at home over the way the war with Ukraine is playing out and the impact it is having on the Russian people.  He is said to have spent months in bunkers and avoiding his three primary residences.  People who work in close proximity to the Russian leader are having to forgo bringing their phones or devices with internet connectivity to their work sites.

Growing paranoia on Putin's part seems to be the order of the day and he worries more and more about his own personal safety.

But Russians aren't the only people who are growing tired of war.  Dissent is also growing in Israel where the country has been at war with the terrorists of Hamas since its attack on Jewish settlements on October 7, 2023.  Israel's subsequent utter decimation of Gaza in retaliation for the attack was so total and devastating that it ultimately began to stir condemnation from much of the rest of the world - and grew to the point where the Israeli leader, Benjamin Netanyahu was even facing harsh criticism from Israeli citizens.  The anti-Netanyahu political forces in Israel have grown since Israel and the United States launched a war with Iran at the end of this past February, and Israel has also started bombing Lebanon to eliminate Hezbollah (another militant group) forces in Lebanon, turning parts of that country into rubble piles like those of Gaza.

Netanyahu has been involved in a corruption trial in Israel since 2020 that is on hold during his tenure in office, and cynics see this push for continuous war as his way of staying out of court and out of jail.

Netanyahu's warmongering may come to an end, not through violence such as that feared by Putin, but by the ballot box.  Israel is scheduled to have legislative elections no later than this coming October, and those could take Netanyahu out of power and bounce him back into court where justice might finally be meted out.

And then there is Trump, the American, who professes loudly that he does not like war - and he even campaigned on the promise that he would not drag America into a protracted war.  Yet, here we are in our third month in Iran with no end in sight.

Trump was led into the war against Iran by Benjamin Netanyahu who played to the American president's ego and vanity with promises of a quick and glorious victory.  Trump had just come off of a successful snatch and grab in Venezuela and was probably feeling invincible, and when Netanyahu pulled him by the nose he had no qualms in going along for a second quick win.  But Iran wasn't Venezuela and today we are stuck firmly in the muck of war.

Trump, like Netanyahu, has to worry about elections, not his own, but those of the next Congress which will occur this November.  The Republicans are in danger of losing both Houses of Congress, and if that happens not only will Trump's ability to get things done in Washington, DC, be limited, but he will also likely face impeachment charges over corruption in the House and a removal trial in the Senate - for the third time - something that is unlikely to remove him from office but will certainly eat up a lot of time that he has left as President.

The Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll released this week shows Trump's approval rating at only 37%, the lowest of his current term in the White House, and his disapproval rating at 62%, the highest of either of his terms as President.  Those ratings, which have been impacted by rising prices which in turn have been impacted by the war in Iran, could likely have a significant impact in November's Congressional elections.

Three old men - Putin (73), Netanyahu (76), and Trump (79) - politicians in precarious political positions - have begun wars that may hobble or consume them.   The arc of the moral universe truly does bend toward justice - eventually.

Boone Macy at Twenty-Seven

 

by Pa Rock

Proud Grandpa

I am the grandparent of six fine individuals, the oldest of whom, my grandson Boone, was born in the previous millennium, twenty-seven years ago today, in the community of West Plains, Missouri, only a couple of miles from where I sit typing this morning.   Other than his birth, nothing much of consequence has ever happened in this community.

Boone lives about two hundred miles from here, and I rarely get to see him - and much of that is on me because I have a car and can still see the road.  He is a college graduate, always has an interesting job, and is single, something I wasn't when I was his age.  Being single is a good thing, though, and Boone, I encourage you to enjoy your independence because life after thirty is a wild ride on an out-of-control toboggan!  It flashes by far too quickly!

Boone, I hope you have a wonderful birthday and get to do some fun things.  Your card from me will be late, it's just going out this morning.  (The mule that carries the mail from West Plains has been ailing.) Enjoy your day and come see us when you get the chance.

Much love on your birthday.!

Ultra-Millionaire Tax Act

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

American billionaire Elon Musk, currently the planet's richest human with a net worth hovering around $800 billion, aspires to corral even more wealth and become the world's first trillionaire - and he appears to be on track to do so relatively soon.  The 54-year-old Musk has a life goal of accumulating $10 trillion in wealth.  As his grotesque levels of wealth grow, so too does his influence and power over the other inhabitants of Planet Earth.

Musk has also said that he expects to pay $500 billion in total taxes over his lifetime.  $500 billion is only five percent of $10 trillion, and that would have been spread out over a lifetime.  Clearly Musk does not see taxes as being a major drain on his lifetime financial situation.

One measure of Elon Musk's wealth that has been bandied about the internet for almost a year is the fact that he has more wealth than over 52% of American households combined - more than half of American households in total!   Another measure of Elon's wealth is that it is more than 65 million times that of the average American. (Or, as Senator Elizabeth Warren so dramatically expressed it, if the average American's wealth was represented by one grain of rice, Elon's wealth would be a 350-pound bag of rice!

But Elon Musk is just one pig-rich American, albeit he is the biggset hog in the lot.  Google AI says that the US leads thte world in billionaire population and that there are somewhere between 987 and 1,135 billionaires currently residing in the United States of America - with a collective wealth of over $5.7 trillion.

And you know what?  All of them could get by quite nicely on less.

Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, one of the Senate's top financial watchdogs, is proposing a wealth tax on America's uber-rich.  Senator Warren's wealth tax proposal involves a 2% annual tax on the net worth of households and trusts with over $50 million in assets, and rising to 3% on fortunes of more than a billion dollars.   She believes her proposal will raise $3 trillion to $6 trillion over a decade to address societal issues like child care, health care, homelessness, and education.  

Senator Warren's proposal would effect ONLY households with a net worth of over $50 million, literally none of my friends and neighbors - and it will provide life-sustaining assistance when, in the very near future, Artificial Intelligence decimates the job market.

But that is a whole other blog posting.

The people of the United States are fortunate to have fighters like Elizabeth Warren on their side as they battle the greed of the oligarchs and rage against the machines.

Dems Could Flip US Senate Seat in Kansas

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

A 61-year-old white, male minister of a protestant megachurch in America's heartland does not sound like  your average Democratic candidate for a major federal political office, but that is exactly who Adam Hamilton is and what he is doing.

Reverend Hamilton founded the Resurrection Church of Leawood, Kansas, in 1990, with a mission of attracting congregants who were not regular attendees of a church, and over the next thirty-six years his small church has blossomed into the largest United Methodist congregation in the United States.  Not too shabby for a fellow who started literally from scratch and holding his early services in the borrowed facilities of a funeral home.  Today the United Methodist Church of the Resurrection has over 24,000 members, including several satellite facilities in the KC metro area and even downtown.

Kansas, which will occasionally elect a Democrat as governor, has not had a Democratic US Senator since the last one, George McGill, left office in January of 1939, giving it the dubious distinction of being the state with the longest continuous period of not having a Democrat in the US Senate.  Adam Hamilton aims to change that, and by most accounts it is entirely possible that if he gets the Democratic nomination, he could defeat Kansas Republican Senator Roger Marshall, a man who spends much of his time residing in  Florida, in the November general election.

I became aware of Rev. Adam Hamilton earlier this week when I read an article on-line which stated that he had been toying with the idea of running for the Senate from Kansas as an Independent, but had done a listening tour of the state where people encouraged him to run as a Democrat instead so that he would not split the anti-Marshall vote in November.  Last week Hamilton filed for the US Senate seat as a Democrat, a move that was not popular with the Kansas GOP which immediately began lobbing sour grapes and accused Hamilton of using church assets to further his candidacy - and urged the feds to investigate.

I have an old friend in Kansas, though not as old as me, who has three passions in life of which I am aware:  his grandchildren, his religion, and politics.  When I read about Reverend Hamilton's bid to become a United States Senator, I emailed my friend to learn more.  As a part of his response, my friend replied that by filing as a Democrat instead of an Independent, he thought that if Hamilton won the Democratic primary - against eight other candidates, he would go on to defeat Roger Marshall.

My friend knows Kansas and its politics - and his prediction is good enough to garner a modest donation to Reverend Andrew Hamilton from me.  A Democratic US Senate seat from Kansas would be be a gift for the ages!

Prediction Markets as Polls

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

(Disclaimer:  Pa Rock, the wretched old typist who puts out this daily blog, has no involvement in the crypto or prediction market industries whatsoever.   He is not an investor in any prediction market company, nor has he ever placed a "bet" on one of their sites.  Today's posting is based solely on information that is readily available over the internet.)

Background:   Prediction markets, gambling operations where people place bets on the likelihood of certain things happening in the future, are a fairly new way for people of average means to pass their modest wealth on to the world's oligarchs.  Donald Trump says he is basically opposed to prediction markets.  According to Google's AI-powered search engine:

"President Trump has expressed disdain for prediction markets, saying that they make the world a 'casino' and that he is 'not happy with any of that stuff'.   While he finds them 'intriguing' and finds that 'smart people' use them, he conceptually dislikes them and is concerned about insider trading, despite his administration and family having ties to the industry." 

("Insider trading" is where individuals use privileged information that they acquire from work or from others involved in certain work or activities, and use that information to make money for themselves.  Several members of Congress and other prominent political figures have profited off of stock market investments or prediction market bets in manners which suggest they may have had special advance knowledge of certain events to which ordinary investors did not have access.)

But, despite his lukewarm stance toward the notion of prediction markets, Trump does not want them banned in the US because other countries have or use them, and even though he fears they bring a casino-like feel to the world, he does not want states regulating prediction markets as they do other gambling ventures.  Again though, those sentiments are likely connected to involvement in the prediction market industry by Trump associates and his family.

As to Trump family involvement with prediction markets, Google's AI notes that "Trump Media is planning to roll out its own prediction markets," and regarding the President's son, Don, Jr:

"Donald Trump, Jr, is actively involved as an investor and adviser in the prediction market industry, specifically with Polymarket and Kalshi.  He is a stakeholder and adviser for Polymarket, and acts as an adviser to Kalshi, both of which have seen significant betting volume on his father's political actions."

I have written a couple of times in the past about odds established by Las Vegas bookmakers in elections and how those serve as polls - of a sort - of public perception of various candidates.  The odds are established by the amount of money "bet" on each candidate.  I had in mind to do that again this election cycle, but then came up with the notion of using the odds of prediction markets instead, since they seem to have a strong focus on politics.  

I began this effort by looking at the two primary markets, Polymarket and Kalshi, but after learning that Polymarket uses crypto (something I know even less about than prediction markets), I decided to keep it as simple as possible and see what the Kalshi was saying about 2028's presidential race.  One thing to remember as to the reliability of polls and prediction markets, it's easier to lie to a pollster than it is to mislead in a prediction market where your own money is on the line and doing the talking.

(The odds on both sites change constantly due to the ease of on-line betting, but the most recent numbers (below) have been relatively stable over the past few days.  People can bet either for or against a certain prediction based on the odds at the time of the bet.  A candidate with a 20% chance of winning would have a smaller payout than betting on a candidate with only a 5% chance of winning - but if you bet against those candidates, the odds would be roughly reversed.

Here is what a few of your friends and neighbors - as well as many, many government insiders - are saying on Kalshi about the presidential race in 2028:

On the Democratic side:

1.  Gavin Newsom  (24%)

2.  Kamala Harris  (11%)

3.  Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez  (9.3%)

4.  Jon Ossoff  (8.4%)

5.  Rahm Emanuel. (6%)

6.  Pete Buttigieg  (5.4%)

7.  Josh Shapiro. (4.4%)

8.  Mark Kelly  (4%)

9.  Andy Beshear  (3.7%)

10 - 11.  J.B. Pritzker and Ro Khanna (tied at 3%)

The list stretches through 34 additional names on whom people have placed bets, including such notables as Jon Stuart, Mark Cuban, Jamie Dimon, and Lebron James.

On the Republican side:

1.  JD Vance  (38%)

2.  Marco Rubio  (24%)

3.  Tucker Carlson  (7.7%)

4.  Donald J. Trump, Jr. (5.9%)

5.  Ron DeSantis. (4.1%)

6.  Donald J. Trump  (3.5%)

7-8.  Glenn Younkin  and Thomas Massie (tied at 1.4%)

9.  Marjorie Taylor Greene  (1.3%)

10.  Ivanka Trump  (1%)

The list has 25 more including Lara Trump, Elon Musk, and Nicki Minaj.

And the odds as to who will ultimately be elected President  of the US in 2028:

Kalshi's current odds for which party will win the presidency in 2028 have the Democratic Party over the Republicans by 62% to 38%.   

Small wonder Donald Trump, Sr, does not like prediction markets.  Kalshi has him at Number 6 for his party's nomination (even behind his own son!), and has his party losing the White House by 24 points. That's some legacy, Donbo!

Iran War Temporarily Terminated

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

The United States of America was involved in combat operations (actual war) in Vietnam for eight years, from 1965 through 1973, without ever going through the formal and constitutionally-mandated process of Congress officially declaring war.  (In August of 1964 Congress did pass a joint resolution - the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution - which permitted President Lyndon Johnson to use military force in Asia without a formal declaration of war.)   The result was an "unofficial" war that dragged on for years and resulted in millions of casualties and the deaths of over half-a-million American troops.

Vietnam was a helluva bloody mess, and Congress did not want to risk being led into another disaster by another vainglorious President.  In 1973 when the war ended by treaty in a stalemate that quickly morphed into a rout of American troops, Congress passed the War Powers Resolution to keep from being sucked into another Vietnam.   That resolution required the President to end unauthorized military activities within 60 days, or, in other words, if the President deems that a war needs to continue beyond 60 days, he must get approval from Congress for that to happen.

Today marks the 64th time that the sun has risen over American military involvement against the country of Iran, but the Trump administration has yet to approach Congress and request an extension of its right to assert warfare against a foreign nation.  What's up with that?

Donald Trump is the answer to that question.    He put on his grifter garb and began playing sleight-of-hand games with Congress.  Trump initiated a very ill-defined two-week "ceasefire" with Iran on April 8th, one which may or may not have involved our partner in the war effort, Israel, and one which is murky at best because blockades and hostilities continue.  But Trump, for purposes of dealing with Congress, maintains that the cease fire is a real thing (at least in his mind) and the war is at an end (at least for the time being).  It is temporarily terminated.

Gas prices remain high and are climbing, and our troops do not appear to be returning home, but Trump says the war has ended and the 60-day clock has been stopped.  He says it with a wink and a nod because it is a fiction designed solely to meet the 60-day congressional mandate for an authorization to continue.  (A Republican Congress would conceivably give him his war authorization, but this is an election year and almost two-thirds of Americans oppose the war with Iran, so politically authorizing that war would be a very dumb move.  The Republican Congress feels better protected politically by just accepting Trump's specious logic that the 60-day clock ended with a cease fire.  House and Senate members are also winking and nodding.)

And so, in short, the United States war on Iran goes on, but it is shrouded in semantics and political gobbledygook.   Bullets are still flying, vessels are still being boarded, and soldiers, civilians, and children are still dying, and bellicose politicians are still belching threats all night, every night, on social media.  A war by any other name is still a cruel and bloody nightmare.  

Our military is being controlled by show horses and incompetents, Congress is manned by individuals whose primary motivation seems to be getting re-elected, and the war is being fought by young people who don't have clue one as to its purpose.

It certainly feels like we are still at war, a very ill-conceived and poorly executed war, but a war nonetheless.

Donald, you need to wind your clock and get some sleep.

Schumer Blows It in Maine

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Despite the best efforts of leaders of the US Senate to keep their chamber looking like a retirement home, the gerontocracy suffered a major setback yesterday when the sitting governor of Maine, 78-year-old Janet Mills, a Democrat,, suspended her campaign for the US Senate.  Mills, who is almost three months older than the senile reprobate who is typing this blog post, was handpicked by Chuck Schumer, the Democratic leader of the Senate, to seek that nomination and to run against Maine's Republican Senator Susan Collins in the fall.  

Janet Mills was supported financially in her effort by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, DSCC, in the primary election in Maine.  The DSCC formed a joint fundraising committee with Mills last October with the aim of helping her defeat the other Democratic hopefuls and be able to take on Collins in the fall.  The DSCC is headed by New York's Senator Kirsten Gillibrand who was appointed to that important position by New York's other US Senator, 75-year-old Chuck Schumer.

Governor Mills cited difficulty in raising campaign cash as her reason for exiting the race.  That was true, at least in part, even with the financial support of the DSCC, but she was also being swamped in the polls by Maine novice politician Graham Platner, a 41-year-old oyster farmer and Marine Corps combat veteran.  Platner was leading Mills by more than 30 points when she left the race yesterday.

(In the most recent polling Graham Platner is also leading the Republican senator he hopes to beat in the fall, Susan Collins, by between 6 to 9 points, so a Democratic pick-up there seems possible, or even likely, despite the best efforts of Chuck Schumer and the Democratic political insider establishment to stomp out Platner's candidacy in the primary.)

Schumer and the DSCC are also being accused, with reason, of putting their thumbs on the scales in US Senate races in Iowa and Michigan. 

Chuck, here is my unsolicited and free advice:  focus on New York politics and on making the US Senate function.  There is a 34-year-old, highly popular Democratic Socialist mayor in New York City, one whom you declined to endorse, who could develop an interest in taking your US Senate seat, and there certainly will be some younger members entering the Senate shortly, probably even Graham Platner, who will be focused on electing more dynamic and aggressive leadership to run that body.

Either that, Chuck, or go sit in a corner someplace and ride out the rest of your term by writing "sternly worded' letters.   A generational tide is washing in, finally, and you would be wise to get out of the way.  Here's what Bob Dylan had to say about it when you and I were teenagers:

"Come senators, congressmen

Please heed the call

Don't stand in the doorway

Don't block up the hall

For he who gets hurt 

Will be he who has stalled

The battle outside ragin'

Will soon shake your windows

And rattle your walls

For the times they are a-changin'"

Political Rodents Want Public to Pay for Ballroom

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Last October when the historic East Wing of the White House was demolished by the Trump administration with no prior warning or approval from Congress, Donald Trjmp announced that the fresh pile of rubble would be bulldozed away and replaced with a gilded, 90,000 square-foot ballroom that would seat 999 people.  Trump assured the public that the glitzy edifice to himself would be paid for entirely by his rich oligarch friends in their never-ending quest to purchase influence with the government.  The cost would be $100 million.

Trump being Trump and Washington, DC, being Washington, DC, the estimated cost quickly doubled to $200 million, and not long after that it doubled again to $400 million because . . . well, why the hell not!

It's always easy and fun to spend other people's money.  The political rodents in Washington, DC, know that very well!

And when it comes to spending other people's money, nobody does it better than Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina.   Earlier this year Senator Graham was a cheerleader for getting the US involved in a war with Iran and stated that he would have no problem in asking South Carolinians to send their sons and daughters to fight in the Middle East.  It was no skin off Lindsey's wallet - and now, just over two months later, the US has already sunk more that $25 billion into that war and we appear to be stuck in it indefinitely, and the price of gas, thanks to the GOP/Trump/Graham War on Iran, has jumped from less that three dollars a gallon to more than four dollars a gallon, and, well  . . .  Lindsey's still good with it because it's other people's money!

But Lindsey's not done yet.  Not only is he still hosing our money - yours and mine - onto the dumpster fire in Iran, he has also decided that the public treasury (your money and mine) should be used to pay for Trump's gaudy ballroom - still a steal at just $400 million!  

Senator Lindsey Graham (R,  SC), Senator Eric Schmitt (R, MO), and Senator Katie Britt (R, AL), have collectively shown that they have no shame and introduced a bill in the US Senate to have US taxpayers foot the bill for Trump's big, beautiful ballroom!  Was that the plan all along?

Lindsey, you need to dust off your bubble wand, head back to Disney World, and share your global insights with Goofy - and Eric, you would do well to return to Missouri and spend some quality time visiting with your constituents at a few gas stations and grocery stores - and bring Jason Smith with you!

America needs healthcare for all, affordable housing for all, daycare for working families, quality public education for all in safe schools, renewable energy, quality mass transit coast-to-coast and border-to-border, safe jobs that pay living wages, free post- secondary education, and so much more.  What America does not need is another endless war or a damned vanity ballroom!

Absurd New Heights in Vanity

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

It now looks as though Donald John Trump and his merry band of co-conspirators have found something else to taint with his name and image.  It was announced yesterday that the US Department of State, currently under the small-fisted control of Trump appointee and toadie Marco Rubio, is in the final stages of redesigning US passports, and they will henceforth feature a scowling likeness of Trump and his signature, in gold, superimposed over the US Declaration of Independence.

I object, of course, to the whole notion of a sitting and living US President being featured on my personal passport or on any coins which I might happen to have in my pocket, and I emphatically object to having to carry items such as a passport or coinage which depict a person convicted unanimously by a jury of his peers of 34 counts of fraudulent business practices - all felonies.

I don't want my good name connected to a criminal lowlife anywhere, let alone on an official State Department document (passport) that I would need for international travel.  I object, I object, I object!

But it is far more than just passports which are being besmirched by a convicted felon's ego.   In December of 2025 a board of trustees appointed by Trump changed the name of the "Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts" to the "Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts," placing Trump's name before and above that of a highly respected US President who was never charged with or convicted of any felonies.

Plans have also been announced to place Trump's image on two separate US dollar coins, a silver one which will be in general circulation and a special golden commemorative one which the US Treasury has reportedly been instructed to make "as large as possible."

But the glory doesn't end there.  The US National Park Service is also preparing to issue new passes for our nation's national parks which will feature the scowly, jowly face of . . . you guessed it . . . Donald John Trump!

Trump's signature will soon be on US currency, and many federal buildings in Washington, DC, now have large banners on display outside bearing his image.   Trump has splashed his name around government programs including the "Trump" gold and platinum cards which assist rich immigrants with buying their way into US residency.   He has had his name placed on the US Institute for Peace, and his Big, Beautiful Bill Act started an IRA scheme to help children save called "Trump Accounts."

Then there is also the new government website to help with prescription drugs called "TrumpRx," and a new type of battleship which the planners are referring to as "Trump class."

Take all of that, and what is surely yet to come during the remainder of his presidency, and add to it all of his private properties which bear his name in unbearably large letters, and a new level of narcissism emerges, one that only Gods dare to imagine!

Leave my passport, national park pass, and pocket change the hell alone.  While others may enjoy the excitement and intrigue of associating with criminals, Pa Rock definitely does not!

Shooter's Manifesto Trips a Politician's Trigger

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Yesterday I wrote in this space about the armed mayhem at last Saturday night's annual White House Correspondents' Dinner at the Washington Hilton.  Donald Trump and members of his entourage and cabinet were sitting at the head table focused on a "mentalist" who was performing for the packed venue (which seats 2,000) when an armed intruder who was apparently intent on doing harm to Trump and his administration officials fired off several rounds in the hotel, one floor above where the banquet was being held.  I mentioned in that posting that a "mentalist"was performing because Trump has an aversion to comedians who make fun of him - and poking fun at sitting Presidents has pretty much been standard fare at WHCDs  for years.

Donald Trump lacks the ability to take a joke about himself graciously.  Trump is also one of the most prolific name-callers in the history of American government, and , not surprisingly, possesses extremely thin skin and cannot easily withstand any criticism of himself.

The shooter on Saturday night, a 31-year-old white male named Cole Allen from Torrance, California, caused harm to one Secret Service agent whom he shot in the chest.  The man was wearing a bullet-proof vest and suffered no life-threatening injuries.  The shooter was never able to reach the floor where the banquet was being held, though he did earnestly try to get there.  His "body count" for the evening was zero.

Cole Allen was arrested at the scene, and yesterday he was charged with attempting to assassinate the President of the United States, transporting a firearm, and discharging a firearm.

While young Mr. Allen's bizarre and very dangerous behavior did not result in the spilling of any blood, he was able to use his crime to make a statement.   The shooter left behind a 1,052-word manifesto that apologized to his parents and several others before going on to outline his motivations.   The document, which was signed "Cole 'coldForce' 'Friendly Federal Assassin' Allen," read in part:

"On to why I did any of this:  I am a citizen of the United States of America.  What my representatives do reflects on me.  And I am no longer willing to permit a paedophile, rapist and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes.   (Well, to be completely honest, I was no longer willing a long time ago, but this is the first real opportunity I've had to do something about it").

Donald Trump has been able to distance himself from certain embarrassing words in news stories and public discourse by threatening massive lawsuits, but the night after the WHCD dinner, a journalist finally confronted Trump with two words that Trump vehemently does not want used anywhere near his own name.  Trump was being interviewed on the CBS News show, "60 Minutes" Sunday evening by journalist Norah O'Donnell when she read aloud from the shooter's manifesto the part about the crimes of a "paedophile, rapist, and traitor" coating the shooter's hands.

Donald John Trump, the politician who called another female reporter "Piggy" to her face in a public setting just weeks prior and had also called a black female aide of his a "dog" during his first term in office, exploded in anger:

"I was waiting for you to read that because I knew you would, because you're horrible people.  Horrible people.   Yeah, he did write that.  I'm not a rapist.  I didn't rape any body."

At that point, O'Donnell interjected:  "Oh, do you think he was writing about you?"  Touché.

Trump ignored her and concluded, "I'm not a pedophile."  He was finally forced to go on the record with denial - and not just avoidance of the Epstein questions that have been swirling about Washington, DC and the nation for years.

Game, set, and match, Ms. O'Donnell!   It would certainly be nice to get the Epstein matter before a judge. and get some compelled testimony under oath.