OK, It's Official. We're Screwed.

It's hard to know just where to start this week, there have been so many developments. I mentioned awhile back that one of the downsides of our instant media hellscape is that the amount of information coming our way is like drinking from a fire hose. Due to the tragedy at the Wings Over Dallas airshow last week, I didn't comment on the election. So...

MID-TERM MANIC DEPRESSION

OK, it could have been worse, but only the Democratic Party would consider losing the House of Representatives a victory. Granted, they could have lost the Senate with a few elections falling the other way, but think about the nonsense in store. Republicans have already signaled their return to sane governance with an announcement that investigations into Hunter Biden are in the works. Now, as I mentioned months ago when all the gory details emerged, Hunter was, and may still be, a real slimeball. But is America clamoring for a series of hearings on his slimeballness? I know, I know,  they are hoping that this unguided missile will somehow hit the President, so, onward into the muck. But unlike some occupants of the big house on Pennsylvania Avenue, Biden has produced all his tax returns going back years, so if there is a big stash of ill-gotten doubloons, they will be hard to find.

And to cap things off, the Leopold and Loeb of modern democracy, Lauren Boebert and Marjorie Taylor Greene were re-elected. Greene has declared she wants an audit of the money that has been sent to Ukraine to fend off those pesky Russian missile barrages that are, you know, decimating their country. This, of course, signals to Vladimir Putin that if he just keeps up the blitz, he may pull this one off. You know, like when Roosevelt told Churchill to just give up during the London bombing. Isn't that what happened?

And, while she's at it, I hope they find out why Ukraine didn't help Trump with some dirt on Hunter Biden. See? All roads lead back to Hunter. And, while we are on the subject, given the anniversary this week, where was Hunter on November 22, 1963? After all, Trump knows where Ted Cruz' father was.

And, of course, there are the poor, unfortunate folks who stormed the capitol to simply try to prevent the peaceful transfer of power in 2021. You know, like Jefferson and Madison hung from the rafters of Independence Hall? From New York Magazine...

“In a closed-door meeting of Republicans on Monday, right-wing lawmakers including Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia extracted a promise that their leaders would investigate Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the Justice Department for their treatment of defendants jailed in connection with the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.”

Not really sure what Pelosi has to do with the judicial process involving the rioters, but she has to be involved, right?

And Boebert? She sent out this tweet after the shootings at the gay nightclub in Colorado...

Lauren Boebert@laurenboebert

US House candidate, CO-03

The news out of Colorado Springs is absolutely awful. This morning the victims & their families are in my prayers. This lawless violence needs to end and end quickly.

Though she has sent out plenty of others over the last few months concerning so-called “grooming” of kids to go gay, or something, and does seem obsessed with drag queens for goodness knows what reason. But, while we are on the subjects of shootings and grooming, we'll just leave this here.

TWITTER'S CHIEF TWIT

Was it just two weeks ago that Elon Musk, who makes Citizen Kane seem like a documentary, took over Twitter? There are titans of industry who start huge, successful companies like Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller. There are those who invent or develop great innovations like Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Edison or Henry Ford, despicable human being though he was.

Then there are guys like Musk whose dad owned an emerald mine in Africa and grew up with so much money that, as he describes it, “We had trouble closing the safe.” He bought Tesla, hired guys to design rockets, and then made public statements that caused his companies various stocks to plummet. He is the exact opposite of the old saying, “If you're so smart, why aren't you rich?”

And then he decided that a 40-character social media site was the essence of modern democracy and needed some reforming. So he approached the Twitter folks, whose company was worth, according to experts, about $10 billion and offered them $45 billion for it. Yeah, buy high sell low, right?

He then proceeded to insult the employees, then beg them to come back, fire a bunch, then beg them to come back and finally, reinstate that unstable genius Kanye West, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Kathy Griffin and the Instigator in Chief, Donald Trump. Hey, when you have money to burn, why not set the fire?

New York University business professor Scott Galloway summed up Musk in this way in an interview with Christiane Amanpour.

“This is someone who, in my opinion, shows a bit of a God complex,” Galloway said.

He argued that technology leaders are taking the place of religion for many people amid declining church attendance, with Musk taking on the mantle of a “new Jesus Christ.”

“And every ridiculously mean, nonsensical, irrational move he makes is somehow seen as chess not checkers,” Galloway said.

“This is an individual who has demonstrated a total lack of grace, has no guardrails around him and is going to see his wealth probably cut in half,” he said, noting that all people “eventually screw up.”

“This is a company probably worth 10 billion [dollars] that he paid 45 billion, and [Musk] thinks he can lay off half the staff and treat them poorly and disparage them and not have any ramifications.”

And this is the guy whose company is designing the next moon lander. Houston, we have a problem.

And to add insult to injury, he has had several ultimately rich but troubled children. From his Wikipedia entry...

In 2022, one of the twins from his first marriage officially changed her name to reflect her gender identity, and to use Wilson as her last name because she no longer wished to be associated with Musk.^[414] In an October 2022 interview with FT.com, Musk blamed the estrangement of his daughter on what the Financial Times characterized as "the supposed takeover of elite schools and universities by neo-Marxists."

In 2018, he dated a purported singer who calls herself Grimes. OK. They had a son named X AE A-XII Musk, with "X" as a first name, "AE A-XII" as a middle name, and "Musk" as surname. Grimes and Musk had a second child, a daughter named Exa Dark Sideræl Musk (nicknamed "Y"), born via surrogacy.

I trust you will not be overly surprised to find these two kids have, somewhere down the line, gone all Menendez Brothers on Elon and Grimes for those names.

LADY MAGAGA

This week, that pleasure palace Mar a Lago, played host to our ponderous former POTUS as Donald Trump announced he was going for the trifecta. Not content with losing the 2022 election and helping Republicans to a disappointing mid-term result, now he intends to waddle into the ring again in the 2024 Presidential race.

The announcement was met with stifled yawns as Trump rambled on in his usual ADHD style with nonsensical asides like, “Nobody’s remembering her now,” in reference to former German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Really? No one?

Here's another gem. “We built the wall. We completed the wall. And then we said, ‘Let’s do more,’ and we did a lot more.” Uh...

And this graphic observation. “The cities are rotting, and they are indeed cesspools of blood.”

I am reminded of George W. Bush's whispered comment to Michelle Obama as they sat listening to Trump's inaugural “national carnage” speech...

“Well that was some weird shit.”

And the new phrase? Let's Make America Great and Glorious Again. Really? MAGAGA?

Perhaps the most telling point of the, pardon me Jeb Bush, low-energy evening was when a number of folks were trying to do an Irish Exit from the ballroom, slipping out early. Trump aides actually blocked the doorways, lest the cameras show a sparse crowd through the whole hour-long ordeal. That is like waterboarding but with canapes.

The next day, I got this email from President 45...

Friend,
I am proud to tell you that I just announced from Mar-a-Lago that I am officially running for President of the United States.
It is with your help that:
WE WILL MAKE AMERICA POWERFUL AGAIN.
WE WILL MAKE AMERICA WEALTHY AGAIN.
WE WILL MAKE AMERICA STRONG AGAIN.
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AND WE WILL MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!
It was hardworking Patriots like YOU who built this Country, and it is hardworking Patriots like you who are going to SAVE our Country with ME in 2024. Together, we will take back our beautiful, magnificent White House from Joe Biden and the radical Left.

We have a lot of work to do, and we're only just getting started. Can I count on YOU to rush in an inaugural donation of $20.24 RIGHT NOW? When you do, you'll go down in history as one of the FIRST Patriots to donate to my 2024 Presidential Campaign.
For TODAY ONLY, all gifts will receive a 1300%-IMPACT! Please make a contribution of $20.24 or more RIGHT NOW to proudly stand with me as I run for President in 2024 and your gift will be INCREASED by 1300%. >>

CONTRIBUTE $250 = $3500 >>
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Remember, there is no mountain we cannot climb, there is no summit we cannot reach, there is no challenge we cannot meet, and there is no victory we cannot have. We will not bend. We will not break. We will not yield. We will never give in, we will never give up, and we will never, ever back down.

Can I count on you at this critical time?
Please contribute $20.24 or more IMMEDIATELY to claim your 1300%-IMPACT and get your name on the Official 2024 Donor List that I'll review.

Thank you,

Donald J. Trump

=====================================================

"Holy cow! We need to take back our beautiful, magnificent White House, Margaret!"

Everything else aside, you have to give the guy points for chutzpah. And while we are in a Yiddish mode...

And then, by the weekend, the former President decided to “Jewsplain” to American Jewry that they weren't loyal enough to Israel. I haven't seen any poll numbers, but I'm sure they took it well.

And, of course, no Trump report would be complete without some sort of conflict of interest. The latest, reported by the New York Times, as he launches his newest kamikaze mission, is a $4 billion deal he signed last week to forge a partnership between his business empire and the Saudi-based Dar Al Arkan. The deal is for the construction of a Trump-branded hotel and golf course that Dar Al Arkan intends to build with land and financial backing from the government of Oman.

Add in the money invested by the Saudis in Jared's new hedge fund, and we have some new investigations that can commence right after they are done with Hunter Biden, right, Marjorie? Marjorie? Hello?

THE CHRISTMAS GARLAND WE DIDN'T WANT

And, this week Attorney General Merrick Garland, a man who makes Mitch McConnell seem impulsive and high-strung, decided that with the rushed entry of Donald Trump into the presidential race, he needed to appoint a special prosecutor for the various cases against the portly POTUS. Now, many have decried this as passing the buck, but since the man named is a former war crimes prosecutor, it seems fitting.

KIM? REALLY?

This week, North Korean leader, His Pomposity Kim Jung Un, was photographed with his daughter as they walked around one of the various rocket-powered phallic symbols he has been firing off lately. This has an unfortunate side effect for one person in particular. This will force some reluctant woman in North Korea to come forward and sheepishly have to admit she slept with Kim Jung Un.

TED, WHY ARE YOU STILL HERE?

Showing an all too reliable lack of self-awareness, Texas Senator Ted Cruz (R-Cancun) said this on Friday.

“So I just wanna say one very simple thing. Nancy Pelosi is gone. Nancy Pelosi is gone. Nancy Pelosi is gone. Hot diggity damn, Nancy Pelosi is gone,” Cruz exclaimed.

He said this on his podcast, so with any luck, very few had to hear Ted exclaim “hot-diggidy-damn.” But it does beg a point. When will we have the pleasure of saying that about him? I know we all hold our noses before voting periodically, but my Republican friends have been doing it since 2013, and in that time have watched Cruz allow Donald Trump to call his father an assassin, his wife ugly and crazy and him a liar. And then Ted rose up in righteous dudgeon and then promptly knelt to kiss his hand.

Forget that he embarked for sunnier climes while his constituents were freezing to death two years ago,  he makes Fredo Corleone look like Thor. Frankly, it's embarrassing.

As former Senator Al Franken summed it up.

"Here's the thing you have to understand about Ted Cruz. I like Ted Cruz more than most of my other colleagues like Ted Cruz. And I hate Ted Cruz."

Actually, Al. We do understand.