23 May—Readers probably won’t recall that El Conservatissimo saw the light a couple of months ago—or, as we noted on 25 March, he’d “joined the stampede of former Trump admirers, defenders, and apologists who have finally seen and smelled the shit in the cesspool that is Trump and his corrupt administration.” We welcomed El C “to the right side of the right” and assured him “that now he’s more likely to be admitted to heaven.”
Well, El C continues to hew to the Monitor’s cause, as it were, and agrees with yesterday’s disquisition on younger generations’ inability—or disinclination—to take the heat. “Old farts like us didnt need airconditioning so why do young shits,” he writes. “I dont have airconditioning in my house and I bet you dont either and we don’t need it. Im not surprised trumpers cant come up with good things about the prick. Keep up the bitchin! Nobody does it better!”
Many thanks to El C, who reads and writes on a cell phone, which must explain his lack of punctuation.
Truth be told, there are a couple of ancient window units hiding somewhere in the Hovel, but they haven’t been in the windows since the gods know when. Good old-fashioned fans do the job quite well, thank you. And heat is preferable to cold in all events.
Moving on, then, as the self-styled peace president and his dutiful war-mongering flunkies prepare to illegally (of course) inflict still more gratuitous devastation and death on Iran (just because it appears they can get away with it), the Iranian buggers, as we’ve seen, aren’t taking it lying down. In fact, they’re doing war dances in Tehran in the north and Bandar Abbas in the south to piss off the aggressors.
Sad to say, given the vicissitudes of war, the musical instruments available for the Iranian war dances have been limited to the traditional folk rial whistle (somewhat like a penny whistle) and bodhrán (exactly like a bodhrán). Our Mideast correspondent, who moonlights as a rapporteur for the United Nations, was able to record the northern and southern Iranian war dances—a reel and a jig—for your edification.
Can you tell which is which? Do you care? Does it matter?
22 May—Before diving into the daily disquisition, we must extend our profound sympathy to pupils and staff of Connecticut schools. Because, as today’s Hearst RepublicanAmerican tells readers in a front-page-over-the-fold sub-headline, “Many Connecticut schools still lack air conditioning to endure heat waves,” wherefore, according to the headline, quoting the president of the Connecticut Education Association, it’s “Hard for kids to learn.”
CEA president Kate Dias bitches in the story, “We shouldn’t have schools that are hard for kids to learn in physically. I mean, I taught in an un-air-conditioned room on the second floor of a high school built in the 1950s. It’s rough, man. … You hit this time of year, I would challenge anyone to go into that classroom and feel ready to learn math.”
We suspect that mid-fiftyish Kate’s solicitude for pupils pales next to her solicitude for the teachers whose dues pay her salary and that she really would challenge anyone to go into that classroom and feel ready to teach math. But irregardless of learning or teaching, we’ll limit our comment to Jesus Christ! and note that we old farts must have been made of much sterner stuff because not only did we learn and teach effectively despite suffering extreme heat in decrepit un-air-conditioned buildings but we didn’t get to stay home on snow days.
Incidentally, the CEA office in the Capitol Place building (21 Oak Street) in Hartford is centrally air conditioned.
Leaving Kate Dias to swelter vicariously, then, on this day in 1849 Congressman Abraham Lincoln was granted Patent No. 6,469 for a contraption (i.e., device) for “buoying vessels over shoals.” Lincoln submitted a model of an inflatable waterproof bladder or bellows to lift boats over obstructions, which is on display at the Smithsonian (if it hasn’t been removed by the Trump administration for no good reason). But it was never produced for practical use and probably wouldn’t have worked anyway.
Lincoln is probably the first sitting congressman to have received a patent. (We say “probably” because the Patent Office suffered catastrophic fires in 1836 and 1877.) He’s also the only president, sitting or otherwise, to hold a patent. And, just so you know, soon-to-be-former Republican Congressman Thomas Massie of Kentucky (thanks to the revenger-in-chief), an MIT engineer, holds 20-some-odd patents related to computers; and they presumably work.
And on the subject of nasty, violent politics, it was on this very day in 1856 that South Carolina pro-slavery Democrat Congressman Preston Brooks galumphed over to the Senate chamber, after the Senate had adjourned of course, and beat Massachusetts anti-slavery Republican Senator Charles Sumner to a bloody pulp and almost to death with his heavy walking stick. It seems that Sumner had made remarks in a floor speech that offended Brooks.
The last physical fight on the U.S. Capitol floor was back in 1902, between the two Democrat senators from South Carolina, who engaged in a fistfight. But no blood was shed. Wouldn’t it be nice . . .
21 May—After Donald Trump defiled Connecticut yesterday when he came to the state to bloviate at the Coast Guard Academy graduation ceremony in New London, a hazardous-waste remediation team from the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection was called out to disinfect and decontaminate wherever the self-dealing retribution crusader had trod.
Meanwhile, Trump’s flunkies have conspicuously deployed additional warships to international waters around Cuba in preparation for what the world is supposed to believe is the kidnapping—characterized by Trump’s degenerates as the lawful capture and extraction—of 94-year-old Raul Castro and a few others for defending Cuban airspace against American invaders three decades ago.
But that’s really a feint. For the benefit of Trump’s flunky warlord Pete Hegseth and others who may not know what a military feint is, it’s a deceptive tactic intended to mislead an enemy about the real time and/or place of an operation—i.e., a target or an attack. In this instance, the target is Brazil.
Brazil? Yes, Brazil. For two reasons. First, Trump wants to spring his fellow criminal dictator pal, former Brazil president Jair Bolsonaro, from overly lenient 27-year house arrest for plotting a coup d’état, attempting to overturn election results when he lost in 2022. Sound familiar? Brazil’s supreme court has been more reasonable than SCOTUS.
Second, Trump has decided that he now wants to annex Brazil as the 51st state, along with Canada, Cuba, Greenland, Mexico, and Venezuela. Don’t even think about his rationale. Because he’s irrational.
Harking back to last Friday’s disquisition, anyway, we reported that “an artificially intelligent flunky in a quiet recess of Mar-a-Lago is already working on a design for a 55-state flag and that instead of stars the canton (the blue part) will have 55 grimacing Trump heads to represent the states.”
But we were wrong. Because Trump’s hand-picked aesthetically deficient, naturally obeisant flunkies in the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts evidently got the word about Brazil and ran with it. In fact, they ran it up the flagpole—just before they approved the execrable Arc de Trump this morning.
Figuring that Trump actually wants to make all five of the sovereign nations and the one autonomous territory into states of the Union (for a total of six, if you lost count), the Commissioners of Fine Arts designed a flag incorporating classic elements of Old Glory but giving their narcissistic lord and master what they know he’ll absolutely love. And not only have they been able to use Trump’s grimacing heads, but they’ve kept the five-pointed stars.
As it happens, moreover, six new states are no problem to place in the canton (the blue part, a.k.a. the union). Truth be told, though, while three new states would have been easy, five new states would have been impossible to represent symmetrically. And don’t worry about the U.S. Flag Code—it’s non-binding and doesn’t prescribe any penalties. Not that it would bother Trump if it were otherwise . . .
20 May—This is a “Quotable” selection that follows the unrelated editorial in today’s Hearst RepublicanAmerican. The quotation is taken from the 18 May New York Post: “Remember, please, that the perps themselves filmed and even livestreamed much of this savagery. They were gleefully proud of their atrocities; it was a major part of the mission, meant to crush . . . spirits and force submission to the terror masters’ will.”
That’s a spot-on description of the Trump-inspired 6 January 2021 Capitol insurrectionists and other thugs, who stand to get their “anti-weaponization” rewards tax-free. (Who said that crime doesn’t pay?) Problem is, the word replaced here by the ellipsis (three dots) is “Israeli” and the title of the NY Post editorial is “Don’t let the deniers ignore this record of Hamas’ Oct. 7 sexual atrocities.”
Even the title of the Post editorial could easily apply to Trump’s 6 January thugs with an ellipsis: “Don’t let the deniers ignore this record of . . . atrocities.” Make no mistake, Trump’s MAGA mob at the U.S. Capitol certainly did commit atrocities—heinous, horrible, savage, wicked deeds.
And it’s no surprise that Donald Trump’s eleventh-hour endorsement yesterday of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton rather than four-term incumbent U.S. Senator John Cornyn in the state’s GOP primary run-off next week wasn’t at all well received by Senate Republicans.
Maine Senator Susan Collins, for instance, was “disappointed” at the endorsement. “I don’t understand,” Senator Collins said. “He is an ethically challenged individual.” She was probably referring to Paxton, who, in his first year as attorney general, was charged in 2015 with defrauding Dallas investors and completed a pretrial diversion program to keep him out of the slammer only in 2024. And don’t forget that he was impeached by the GOP-majority Texas House of Representatives in 2023 for bribery, abuse of public trust, and obstruction of justice; but he was acquitted by his grifter pals in the Texas Senate.
Incredible what these bastards get away with!
Thus, “probably” is italicized because Senator Collins could just as well have been referring to Donald Trump as “an ethically challenged individual.” Even his supporters don’t deny it when they’re not being recorded or quoted. Yet they support him and what he does. It’s amazing that Trump, with abysmal popularity and hardly any respect nevertheless commands so much power among Republicans. And it certainly doesn’t speak at all highly of them. What happened to principle?
So Trump’s endorsement of Paxton will more than likely get the Texas grifter the Republican nomination. But it may also work to the advantage of Democrat State Representative James Talarico, who’s running for the U.S. Senate seat and is currently in a surprising dead heat with Cornyn and Paxton.
The nation and world can only hope . . .
19 May—Soon-to-be Republican ex-Senator Bill Cassidy and the Democrats in D.C., among many others, appear to have no sense of humor. Or reality. Cassidy and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, for instance, yesterday called the Trump administration’s creation of a $1.7 billion “compensation fund” to reward convicted 6 January insurrectionists and, presumably, other Trump-supporting criminals “a slush fund”—and one “without legal precedent,” as Cassidy reminded us.
Sen. Schumer said on the Senate floor, “Trump is shaking hands with himself in order to fund his insurrectionist army to the tune of two billion dollars.” And Dr. Cassidy explained it this way, quoting a lawyer: “It is as if somebody sued themselves and agreed upon a settlement with themselves that’s going to be funded by the rest of us. If that’s the case: What?!” Where’s the expletive?
Keep in mind that Schumer isn’t the majority leader at the moment and Cassidy lost the Louisiana primary to a Trump flunky last week. Very sad. But that’s life and politics. And things won’t improve as long as Trump is around to intimidate, prevaricate, and retaliate. As long as Trump is around. Period.
Oregon Senator Ron Wyden called the slush fund “among the most corrupt acts in American political history.” Ninety-three House Democrats filed a legal brief referring to the “specter of corruption unparalleled in American history.” Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren called the lawfare fund “an insane level of corruption—even for Trump.” And MS NOW commentator Chris Hayes called the gift to goons and thugs “the greatest heist in American history.”
No shit, Sherlock!
But look at it positively. Trump was really being rather charitable in withdrawing his $10 billion suit against the IRS for leaking his tax returns that he had promised to reveal himself but never got around to. Wasn’t he? Sure, it was likely to be thrown out of court and unlikely to be resurrected even by Trump’s SCOTUS pals. But what the hell.
The critics of Donald Trump’s undeniably corrupt “weaponization fund,” ironically named that by the most corrupt and weaponized federal justice department in history (in the most corrupt federal government in history), must realize that his second deleterious reign of terror isn’t even half over and that the grifter-in-chief and his satrap-flunkies are certain to devise even more bizarre, precedent-setting, and incredibly corrupt schemes to enrich themselves, fleece taxpayers, and continue to get away with whatever Trump damn well pleases . . .
18 May—On this day in 1860, Republicans (at the time the grand new party and the good guys), convening in Chicago, nominated Abraham Lincoln for the presidency on the second ballot, after front-runner New York Senator William Seward had failed to go over the top on the first ballot. Maine Senator Hannibal Hamlin got the vice presidential nod, also on the second ballot, defeating Cassius Marcellus Clay of Kentucky, an abolitionist planter and namesake of boxer Muhammad Ali’s father.
Lincoln and Hamlin went on to win the general election, with 39.7 percent (1,855,276) of the 4,122,819 popular votes in a four-way race, taking 180 of the 303 (59.4 percent) of the electoral votes from 18 of the 33 states, 16 in the north, two in the far west. (California and Oregon were in fact the only states in the far west, with Oregon having been admitted in 1859.)
It’s worth noting that Democrats were the bad guys back then, generally regarded as conservative and not anti-slavery. Enough or at all. Kind of like Republicans today. That said, in the 1860 general election, Kentuckian John Breckinridge, James Buchanan’s vice president at the time, running as a Southern Democrat, scored 72 electoral votes from 11 southern states with 14.4 percent (672,601) of the popular votes.
Stephen Douglas, on the other hand, running as a Northern Democrat, carried only Missouri with its nine electoral votes (by an incredibly thin 0.26 percent); but he also won the popular vote in New Jersey, although he took only three of its seven electoral votes under a fusion ticket—for 21.5 percent (1,004,042) of the total popular vote.
Tennessean John Bell, known as the Great Apostate, was a slaveholder who opposed the expansion of slavery to the territories and maintained that secession was unnecessary because the Constitution protected slavery. The current SCOTUS majority likely would have agreed at the time. Bell ran in 1860 as the Constitutional Union Party candidate and carried three borderline (northern-southern) states by a slim margin with 590,980 popular votes (12.6 percent) and 39 electoral votes.
After the Battle of Fort Sumter, Bell abandoned the Union cause and supported the Confederacy. And the electoral college continues to distort and abuse the democratic process.
So fifty-seven years later, in 1917, a little over a month after the declaration of war against Germany (the legal way to do it), President Woodrow Wilson signed the Selective Service Act, which Congress had just passed at his behest. “The most democratic form of enlistment,” as Wilson called military conscription, unpopularly known as the draft, required all men in the United States (not just citizens) between 21 and 30 to register for military service.
The age limit was shortly thereafter raised to 45, but the draft was discontinued in 1920—only to be reinstated in 1940, requiring men 18 to 64 to register. Senior citizens weren’t actually drafted in what was known as the old men’s draft. But they could have been. Yet American women of all ages have been exempt. So much for equal responsibilities being concomitant with equal rights.
And 46 years ago today, after several months of volcanic action and a magnitude 5.1 earthquake, Mount St. Helens in Washington erupted. Needless to say, it was a cataclysm, but we’ll say it anyway . . .
17 May—Louisiana Republicans demonstrated their lack of judgement and principle as well as their ovine docility and sheer stupidity yesterday by effectively ending the political career of Republican U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy in favor of a person endorsed by Donald Trump. Dr. Cassidy, a gastroenterologist, isn’t perfect, mind you.
In February 2020, for instance, Cassidy voted to acquit Trump on both articles of his first impeachment—abuse of power and obstruction of Congress—both of which the scumbag-in-chief clearly was guilty of. But a year later, in a questionable post-presidential impeachment intended to foreclose another term for Trump, Cassidy was one of seven Republican senators who voted to convict the then-former scumbag-in-chief on the single charge of incitement of insurrection.
“Our Constitution and our country is more important than any one person. I voted to convict President Trump because he is guilty,” Dr. Cassidy declared solecistically—unless the Constitution and the country are construed as an inseparable single entity. But why quibble?
So that’s the vote—and comment—that pissed off Trump. Of the seven principled Republican senators, four—Richard Burr of North Carolina, Mitt Romney of Utah, Ben Sasse of Nebraska, and Patrick Toomey of Pennsylvania—chose to retire rather than subject themselves to pretty certain electoral defeat by Trump diatribe.
The three others are Bill Cassidy, of course, who has just suffered Trump’s wrath; Lisa Murkowski of Alaska who was reelected in 2022 despite Trump’s endorsement of her opponent in the state’s ridiculous ranked-choice voting, which may be repealed; and Susan Collins of Maine, who wasn’t challenged in a GOP primary but may be unseated by an antisemitic oyster-farming Democrat in an election that likely won’t involve the state’s ridiculous ranked-choice voting.
On the subject of impeachment, yesterday’s Hearst RepublicanAmerican informed readers that “On this date in 1868 having already been impeached by the House of Representatives, President Andrew Johnson narrowly avoided impeachment by the Senate, which voted 35-19 in favor of impeachment—one vote shy of the required two-thirds majority.”
Sure. Except that Johnson didn’t in fact avoid impeachment by the Senate. He only avoided conviction by the Senate—essentially the jury—after an 11-week trial for violating the Tenure of Office Act—technically, for high crimes and misdemeanors—which required Senate approval for a president to fire executive officials and had been passed in 1867 over Johnson’s veto.
The Tenure of Office Act was repealed in 1887. Even worse, in 1926 the Supreme Court ruled (in Myers v. United States) that laws requiring Senate consent to remove executive branch officials were in violation of Article II of the Constitution. The separation of powers have been a constitutional bugbear ever since and the SCOTUS troglodyte majority is currently looking for a way to rationalize Donald Trump’s firing of anyone he doesn’t like for any reason.
And while on history, bet you didn’t know that on 17 May in “1787 37 American sailors were killed when an Iraqi warplane attacked the U.S. Navy frigate Stark in the Persian Gulf. (Iraq apologized, called it a mistake, and paid more than $27 million in compensation.)”
That’s what the Hearst RepublicanAmerican tells us. In all events, we must give credit to the Iraqis where it’s due, because the Montgolfiers and Benjamin Franklin were still flying in balloons in the 1780s. And even though $27 million in 1787 would be worth about a billion today, the Iraqis still got away cheap—and with murder . . .
16 May—Here’s why Connecticut residents from Windsor Locks to Litchfield may have been awakened early this morning by the unbearable din of a squadron of helicopters. First, rest assured that it had nothing to do with Armed Forces Day.
Not at all. Rather, it was Donald Trump taking his new super-duper BFF Xi Jinping to Litchfield to visit the site of their hideaway love nest. The Monitor has the scoop about the Trump-Xi love match that evidently has eclipsed Trump’s amorous obsession with Kim Jong Un. It would appear that Trump has a thing for Asian men but now prefers grown-ups.
First things first, Trump didn’t take Melania to Beijing this time. And now we know why. And Xi was able to travel undetected with his new super-duper BFF on Air Force One thanks to a clever disguise as a McDonald’s (yes they’re in Beijing, too) delivery boy who wasn’t able to disembark before takeoff. (The ruse worked because Xi actually delivered 20 pounds of greasy junk food to Trump.) (And Xi won’t have to worry about being undocumented.)
Of course, Presidents and Donald Trump don’t ordinarily land at Bradley—or come to Connecticut, for that matter. But since no one knows what to expect with Trump, the Air Force One crew and privileged philotrumpic press contingent weren’t too surprised when the 747 was diverted hither. Or thither, if you want to niggle.
The Connecticut Air National Guard was absolutely delighted to schlep the lovers to Litchfield, even at short notice. The original plan, we learned, was to commandeer Monitor Meadow as a drop-off venue. But happily the grade is too steep. So evidently and unfortunately another drop-off was found.
So why Litchfield for the hideaway love nest? Well you may ask. But we can only speculate that Trump has been saving an undeveloped tract on the Borough’s exclusive Prospect Street for just such a purpose. There was a rumor that Trump had approached Michael Peloquin about some land elsewhere in town, but we haven’t been able to confirm that. Come to think of it, the land for his affordable housing is flat and probably helicoperable.
Anyway, since pictures are worth thousands of words, then, here are pictures. The top one shows Donald and Xi renewing their acquaintance. The second one is of Xi inviting his reunited lover to come closer for a press picture. The third one is that picture, but snapped inside the Temple of Love because it provided a more intimate background.
And the fourth photo, taken right here in Litchfield this morning, is of Trump assuring Xi that the Prospect Street rubbish is nothing to worry about and that he’ll get it taken down to DC immediately and have their McMansion love nest built tomorrow by executive order and at no expense to taxpayers.
You’ll have noticed that the old lovers are dressed similarly if not identically. And not particularly well. In all events, it’s probably not a coincidence. And you may be wondering about the Trump-Xi pillow talk. Well, as you may know, Xi learned to speak English in Iowa almost 40 years ago. And of course Trump is a New Yorker. So it’s no surprise that an interpreter is present at all times and even shares the pillow.
And since the interpreter is a yenta, we know that what Trump and Xi have been talking about most is screwing. Taiwan . . .
15 May—The big news today is that Donald Trump now wants to make Venezuela the 51st state. What, you may wonder, has happened to his plans to make Canada, Mexico, Greenland, and Cuba the 51st state? Since he’s never mentioned a 52nd state, it would appear that he intends for them to fight for the honor, thus fomenting a little world war to benefit his pals in the armaments business. Unless, of course, he intends to annex them all, giving the United States a total of 55 states. For now.
Word is that that an artificially intelligent flunky in a quiet recess of Mar-a-Lago is already working on a design for a 55-state flag and that instead of stars the canton (the blue part) will have 55 grimacing Trump heads to represent the states.
You may also wonder, what about making Washington DC and Puerto Rico states? Well, you can forget about that because Trump has made it clear that he’s categorically opposed to statehood for either—“absolute no” for Puerto Rico, “ridiculous” for DC. So it looks like the 55-Trump flag is it. For now.
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In other news, Litchfield’s budget passed unanimously last night, with about 70 people voting. Your $10,000 property tax bill will now be $$10,200. Count your blessings.
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In still other news, Erin Stewart is no longer in the running to lose to Ned Lamont in November. It’s not that she saw the writing on the wall, mind you—מְנֵא מְנֵא תְּקֵל וּפַרְסִין (mene mene tekel upharsin, numbered numbered weighed divided)—because that was painted over after Belshazzar’s big bash two-and-a-half millennia ago and it’s clearly a message for knackers. And Erin doesn’t do Aramaic anyway. But Connecticut GOP’s unrealistically optimistic (hopeful, anyway) apparatchiks got to the poor malfeasant former phenomenon before she could harm the party any more than it’s already harmed itself. You know they don’t care about Erin.
And we’ll probably see that evidently ingrained self-destructive tendency dominate the Connecticut Republican convention on Saturday and Sunday, at which Trump stalwart and shameless hollow promiser (i.e., typical political bullshitter) Betsy McCaughey—considered the underbitch ever since she carpetbagged her way in a few months ago—may just upset new favorite Ryan Fazio for the gubernatorial nomination simply because of what normal people—i.e., non-nincompoops—would consider the Trump taint.
Pity that Fazio hasn’t had the scrotal content or political smarts to at least disavow Trump. Sure, that would piss off Connecticut Trumpublican nominators but it would ingratiate him with and even impress far more—and more important—Connecticut voters. Of course, that’s assuming Fazio isn’t a Trumpublican himself.
Connecticut clearly needs to get rid of the dangerously entrenched and therefore arrogant Democrat trifecta in Hartford. But it doesn’t look like that will happen this year . . .
14 May—Israel celebrates its 78th birthday today, having declared its independence on this day in 1948, thus ending the British Palestine Mandate. It’s utterly amazing that the little “Jewish and democratic state,” as Israel defines itself—a secular parliamentary democracy rather than a theocracy of any sort—has been able to survive, let alone thrive, immediately surrounded as it is by sworn enemies intent on destroying it for trumped up religious reasons. And of course in a decidedly antisemitic world.
Since Israel is first and foremost a refuge and homeland for all Jews, quasi-theocratic concessions to ultra-orthodox Jews have been inevitable from the get-go and have been grudgingly tolerated by the non-orthodox. But that’s politics rather than religion.
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Updating Litchfield’s annual budget meeting tonight, thanks to a half-million dollars the state has thrown the town’s way at the last minute, the mill-rate increase to be voted on will now be about two percent rather than five percent. The whores of Hartford may consider the half-million-dollar state aid a sort of gift, but it’s actually compensation for some—just some, mind you—of the excessive onerous mandates they’ve inflicted on towns and cities in the name of big-brotherhood.
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Corollary to yesterday’s condolences for Erin Stewart’s moribund political career, let’s assume for the sake of argument that the poor girl hadn’t in fact known what was going on about tax favors and carelessly—mistakenly, rather than intentionally—used a New Britain city credit card instead of her personal one for $200,000 worth of undeniably personal purchases.
Does Connecticut need another governor like that?
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And wouldn’t it be nice if Donald Trump never made it back from visiting his BFF Xi Jinping in Beijing? No no no, don’t get us wrong. We don’t wish any harm to our most benevolent philistine-in-chief, of course. Perish the thought. But maybe he’ll fall in love with the beautiful People’s Republic of China and do a deal with Xi to desecrate it as he’s done in and with Washington and so many other locations that have fallen prey to his execrable, tasteless, self-indulgent instability.
And don’t forget that Beijing is only about 500 miles from Pyongyang as the 747 flies, so Trump could spend lots of quality time with his true love, young North Korean tyrant Kim Jong Un . . .
13 May—Before dealing with the positive aspect of Donald Trump’s current reign, we must extend condolences to former New Britain mayor and current candidate for the Republican Connecticut gubernatorial nomination Erin Stewart. Whether Erin during her 12-year tenure actually had misappropriated over $200,000 of municipal funds by using a city credit card for personal purchases and/or originated or even was aware of tax favors for the right people is irrelevant.
Erin probably was the announced Republican gubernatorial candidate least likely to lose to entrenched Democrat incumbent Ned Lamont. But even if she’s able to prove beyond any doubt at all—not just reasonable doubt—that she hadn’t done anything wrong or at least present some sort of credible defense against the accusations of misfeasance and malfeasance, her campaign is dead in the water. Because people—and voters (even some Republican voters) are people—remember negatives and forget positives, especially in political campaigns.
Negative campaigning—mud slinging, knocking copy, vexatious innuendo, and the like—are effective campaign strategies and tactics because mud sticks and even when it’s washed away it leaves a stain.
With Erin Stewart out of the way, then, here’s the positive aspect of Donald Trump’s current reign. Be aware that positive with regard to Trump can only be understood mathematically: an increase, represented by a positive number. So what has increased in Trump’s current reign of terror? You name it.
There have been more government employees fired than ever before, for instance; more lawsuits—invariably vexatious—filed by Trump’s unweaponized justice department; more desecration and destruction of government buildings and property; more unqualified political appointees than in any previous administration; highest national debt ever (approaching $40 trillion); more extrajudicial murders by an unlawfully deployed military; more lies out of one president’s foul mouth than could have been imagined.
And let’s not forget inflation. During his distasteful 2024 campaign, Trump promised to end inflation and bring down costs for American consumers—to “Make America Affordable Again” on “Day One” of his new term. Even though presidents don’t as a rule have much influence over such things, the great prevaricator would reduce energy and electricity prices by half, for instance, and make groceries and consumer goods affordable. Right.
Keeping positive, then, Trump’s family, friends, and associated ass-kissers have in fact done quite well with the philistine-in-chief on the gilded throne. Not only has self-dealing been at an all-time high in and around the administration, but the stock market (which doesn’t reflect reality) has gone up. And so has real estate.
So what else matters?