29 December—Not long after Donald Trump had been inaugurated as President of the United States, God help us, I got into somewhat of a dissing match in the Republican-American correspondence columns with a pair of typically moronic Trump zealots, whom I naïvely referred to as “tag-team comrades.” One of the ignoramuses retorted, in part, “I am no one’s ‘comrade,’ and I resent that snarky reference to my being a communist. That is totally uncalled for and worthy of an apology.”

Yup. Jesus, save me!

So that naturally segues to U.S. Senator Richie Blumenthal holding forth at a communist dinner and claiming he didn’t know it had anything to do with communists. Richie had been invited to do his thing for three particularly obnoxious lefties at a Connecticut People’s World Committee dinner, the annual Amistad Awards, observing the 102^nd anniversary of the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA).

Given the Communist Control Act of 1954, I had no idea CPUSA existed or was legal. Getting past my incredulous ignorance and going to the entirely legal CPUSA.org website, I discovered that it is in fact what its website claims is merely “a political party of the working class, for the working class, with no corporate sponsors or billionaire backers” that invites visitors to “join the generations of workers whose generosity and solidarity sustains the fight for justice.” The last bit’s ungrammatical, to be sure, but at least it doesn’t advocate the violent overthrow of the government. Unlike too many Trump comrades.

And, since American communists purport to be merely peaceful proletarians rather than violent insurrectionists—unlike Trump comrades—it’s pretty obvious why labor unions would have anything to do with them. But just because it’s on the internet, does that mean we have to believe what CPUSA says?

Now, Richie Blumenthal may be an asshole and a liar, but he’s not stupid by any stretch of the imagination. And his defense is typical: “As everyone in Connecticut knows, I am delighted to be invited anywhere in our state and I go almost everywhere. I was at this event to honor three really impressive people who have given a lot to Connecticut and their communities,” his prepared statement read. “I was invited by a local labor union to honor these three individuals—that’s why I was there. I’m a Democrat and a supporter of American capitalism.”

Notice that Richie’s writers don’t even mention communist or communism or even socialism. His staff almost certainly didn’t suspect what they were getting their boss into. And he probably begs to be invited. But it’s highly doubtful he knew anything about the red nexus.

In truth, Democrats are not usually communists or even socialists. Especially ones like Richie Blumenthal whose patient wives are filthy rich. And in further defense of Richie, he’ll take any opportunity at all to be seen and blather and bloviate. He even shows up at Chabad Lubavitch shindigs. That’s only one of the reasons not to vote for him.

But no matter what Richie Blumenthal does, no matter what we say, he’ll be reelected to another term next year to piss us off even more . . .