the constitution is dead

The United States Constitution is dead.

Well, maybe not dead, but it certainly is on life support.

And make no mistake about it, the cause of death is Donald Trump and his enablers in the federal and state governments, as well as the right wing media.

We have long known that Donald Trump (yes, for this one I am actually going to use his name.  While this is not a legal document, indictments require use of actual real names) has absolutely no regard for the United States Constitution.  Want proof?  Look no further than Trump International Hotel in Washington, where foreign governments and dignitaries have been lavishing business ever since he took office, billing the government for layovers at his properties overseas and here in the United States, especially at Mar-a -Lago, n clear violation of the Emoluments Clause.  His response is to refer to the "Phony Emoluments Clause" and claim that as president he is immune from prosecutions and civil lawsuits.  Notice, he does not claim that he has not been profiting off of all of this.

The phony Phony Emoluments Clause.  You know, the one that has been part and parcel of the Constitution since it was written at the birth of the nation in 1787.  Clearly, the founding fathers wrote the Phony Emoluments Clause into the Constitution two hundred and thirty-seven years ago with the thought of getting even with Donald Trump all these years later.

For perhaps a more controversial example, I point to the Good and Welfare Clause, which requires him to care for the good and welfare of the people.  No masks.  No urging of masks to protect yourselves.  No urging of social distancing.  Modelling that shows he does not care a whit about the good and welfare of the people.  On top of everything, word has spread that anyone left in his government who dares to even hint at helping the incoming administration in a smooth transition of the government will be fired, including members of the coronavirus task force, from whom critical information is going to be needed to distribute potential life saving -- no, society saving -- vaccines.  No financial assistance to those in dire need in these critical times.  No attempt to even try to come up with an aid package.  No fire side chats.  No words of comfort to an increasingly desperate populace.

Nothing.

And then there is the outright blatant attempt to steal the election.

First he tried, with the assistance of Mitch McConnell and Lindsay Graham, to pack the federal judiciary.  He made no bones about what he was doing, outright saying he wants the election to go to the Supreme Court, where he figures his three appointees will take his side in the fight.  Thankfully, thus far, no court, no justice has ruled in his favor on any of the phony issues he has raised to date.  Funny thing.  Even most arch-conservative judges have some sense of moral integrity and take their oaths of office seriously.

So when you bring ridiculous claims before the courts backed up by nothing, these judges will do their duty and uphold the law as written, just as conservatives say they should.

And it's not like they have not repeatedly had the chance to make their case.  Remember, just prior to the election, Trump and his minions sued in Pennsylvania to exclude absentee ballots, before any such ballot had even been cast, on the grounds that they were rife with fraud.  The judge in that case, a Trump appointee, set a deadline in the case for Trump and his gang to produce any evidence of such fraud.  The case was then dismissed when not only was no such evidence produced, but THEY DID NOT EVEN TRY.

And now, case after case around the country has been dismissed because when confronted with the requirement in any case to produce evidence backing up your claims, Trump and his minions have failed to produce ANYTHING.  In some of the cases, the attorneys involved, knowing of the disciplinary consequences their license and therefore their livelihoods may be facing have either moved to dismiss their own cases or have withdrawn from representing the Trump, the Trump campaign, the RNC, etc.

So all legal avenues shutting off in front of him, he is now resorting to calling in republican state legislators to bully them into refusing to certify state election results so that he can have faithless legislators appointed in those states against the will of the voters, who will presumably vote to put him in office when the electoral college meets.

In other and plain words, HE WANTS STATE LEGISLATORS AROUND THE COUNTRY TO DISREGARD THE WILL OF NEARLY EIGHTY MILLION VOTERS, MORE PEOPLE WHO HAVE EVER VOTED FOR A CANDIDATE IN ANY PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION IN OUR ENTIRE HISTORY AND APPROXIMATELY SIX MILLION MORE VOTES THAN HE GOT, SIMPLY TO STAY IN POWER AND TO SATISFY HIS UNQUENCHABLE EGO.

The 12th Amendment of the Constitution sets forth how the electoral college is appointed and how it is to vote, at least in terms of the mechanics.  For the 12th Amendment to work as intended, it is assumed that there is a certain level of good faith that must be observed.  While it does not specifically state so, it has always been assumed that the electors from each state will vote as the popular vote in their state dictates.  Indeed, earlier this year, the Supreme Court validated that very concept in a unanimous decision.

So now, he has called Michigan legislators to the White House to discuss appointment of faithless electors.  This after he called republican members of the Board of Elections to bully them into trying to change their votes to certify results in Wayne County.  For some reason, the legislators are going to Washington, although their doing so at least hints that they are going to change their long standing statements in public that they will appoint electors who will vote the will of the people in their state.

And not a peep from congress. 

Oh, Mitt Romney has blasted what is going on, but we all know that the president will never listen to any criticism of Mitt Romney.  Nothing from Mitch McConnell.  Nothing from Lindsay Graham.  Nothing from any g.o.p. senator or congressman.  No indication that anyone with the ability to stop this is going to try.

As noted above, the 12th Amendment requires the good faith of our elected officials in order to work.  If there is no good faith, there is no 12th Amendment.  In turn, if that happens, there is no legitimately duly elected government.

And if all that is allowed to happen, the United States Constitution is dead.

and the winner is...

By now, it should be clear to just about anyone who is paying attention that the only way to stop the spread of the virus, or at least slow it down before vaccines which are showing promise are generally made available to all of us is to have a uniform national response that all, or at least so much of society follows as to effectively flatten the curve.  That includes the usual calls we have come to hear for mask wearing, social distancing, etc.  As the virus proliferates, it includes banning the type of social gatherings where the virus is likely to be spread, which unfortunately includes many businesses and gathering places that we all enjoy patronizing.

By now, we have also become used to the anti-mask, anti-lockdown you cannot tell me what to do crowd, as they tout their right to make the rest of us sick and question the efficacy of just about any common sense method touted by medical experts to slow the spread.  These folks apparently believe that individual responsibility is what counts, regardless of the fact that once anyone shows any irresponsibility, it increases the risk for everyone else.  We all know that there will always be irresponsible people out there for whom nobody can tell them what to do no matter what.

But I now give you the clear winner of the debate:

A friend who lives in the middle of the country recently commented on restrictions the governor of the state this friend lives in had just imposed.  The friend challenged anyone to show where any such restrictions had resulted in a flattening of the curve or any measurable success in dealing with the virus.

In the county where I live on Long Island, we had such restrictions in place since the early days of the pandemic in March, eased a bit during the summer and now slowly being reimposed.  Our positivity rate as of yesterday was 3.49%, which we consider to be terrible.  The rate in my friend's state as of this morning was 15.6%.  While I did not comment on that particular post, as it would result in nothing more than the usual gang from the right coming down on my neck, the comments posted after my friend's challenge crystallized what the rest of us are dealing with.

The highlight; frankly, one of the dumbest statements I have ever seen, came from the genius who posted that he was fully protected from the virus by his second amendment rights.

I repeat.  He thinks the second amendment protects him from contracting the virus.

There are sane people who reside in this part of the country.  One of them asked midwest gun guy what part of the virus he planned on aiming at when he pulled out his high tech weaponry.  In response, midwest gun guy replied that if a mask can stop the virus, he can stop it with a gun.

He thinks he can shoot the virus.

I repeat.  He thinks he can shoot the virus.

Who knew?

How could all of our doctors, researchers, public health specialists and scientists have gotten it so wrong?

And why aren't our soldiers, national guardsmen, sheriffs, police departments, highway patrolmen, state and local militias and neighborhood watches out there protecting us?  For that matter, where are the second amendment enthusiasts, private militia gangs, the you can't take my guns away and you can't tell me what to do crowd?

Any minute now, I expect to hear a veritable fusillade of bullets from our duly appointed law enforcers and patriots whizzing past my windows, followed by street cleaners driving by to clean up the remaining bodies of dead viruses in the street.

Any minute now...

Any fucking minute...  

ruth

The mother of an old and dear friend passed away last week.  Ruth -- I will use only her first name to protect the privacy of the family -- was the kind of person who you could only love.  She was a completely devoted wife, mother, grandmother and friend.  Back in the stone ages, when I was in college, she was the one who would occasionally host her sons' friends and provide us with a nice home cooked meal around a large and boisterous dinner table.  She was a loud, loving, boisterous and sometimes profane sounding person, who left a mark on all of us.

I am told that she is also a statistic that our present administration would just like to forget exists, but cannot in the long run ignore.

Ruth was diagnosed with Covid back in March.  While she made an initial recovery, there were debilitating effects which required her to undergo extensive physical therapy.  Several months later, in the course of her recovery, she suffered a severely broken leg in an accident that required a number of surgeries.  After each one, my friend tells me he could see her strength ebbing.  Indeed, about a month ago, on the occasion of my birthday, my friend told me Ruth was fading away.

He also told me he blamed cadet bone spurs.

No, he did not blame him for Ruth contracting Covid.  She could have caught anywhere from anyone or anything.  Instead, he blamed him for his callous response to a pandemic that has resulted in vast numbers of unnecessary deaths.  He blamed him for creating a task force manned not with experts in epidemiogy, infectious disease and public health, but with political sycophants who appeared to be more interested in protecting the president's image than in finding a cure or therapeutic.  Most of all, he blamed him for minimizing the virus and the count of those who contracted or died from the it so as to make himself look better, Ruth now being one of those.  Ruth's death certificate may state that her cause of death was complications from her numerous post-accident surgeries, but my friend and I agree that Covid-19 was a contributing factor.

In this time of political and cultural polarization, we must not lose sight of the fact that the casualties of this time are mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters and friends to all of us.  Ruth was one of them.  Minimizing death counts, calling them fake news and demonizing anyone who tries to say otherwise is an insult to the memory of all of the victims, such as Ruth.  Please remember that before you start your daily rant against everyone who does not necessarily believe as you do.

And please remember to wear your mask outside and social distance as possible.  Do it for Ruth and my friend's family.

May Ruth's memory be a blessing.

the election by the numbers

 You can break down just about anything by the numbers, so I figured I would take a crack at the election.  I am not getting into the obvious numbers here, such as 45, the number of presidents who have served this country -- well 44 and then the present occupant of the office -- or 270 of 538, the number of electoral college votes needed to win the election.  Let's take a look at some of the more interesting and illuminating numbers.  Where possible, I have provided links to the source of the numbers.

19 -- as in Covid

0 -- purportedly the number of times cadet bone spurs has attended a meeting of the coronavirus task force in the past several months.  

https://www.axios.com/fauci-trump-hasnt-been-to-covid-task-force-meeting-in-months-7b05721c-d670-400e-8540-2316c18553e7.html

Also the number of vaccines that are presently available to the public.  While I do not have a precise count, it is noted that cadet bone spurs has predicted any number of times that a vaccine would be ready before election day.

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/09/16/trump-says-he-thinks-us-could-start-distributing-a-coronavirus-vaccine-in-october.html

https://fortune.com/2020/09/04/trump-vaccine-election-day-race/

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-09-17/will-a-vaccine-be-ready-by-election-day-trump-and-scientists-disagree

54 -- The number of times he downplayed the virus in public, in spite of the fact that he knew how deadly this virus was at the time, as evidenced from the Woodward tapes.  We note that this is undoubtedly a low number as it comes from a source in May of this year.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/politics/the-fix/54-times-trump-downplayed-the-coronavirus/2020/03/05/790f5afb-4dda-48bf-abe1-b7d152d5138c_video.html

234,218 and 1,188,211 -- Number of covid-19 deaths in the United States and worldwide as of early morning, October 30, 2020.

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

545 -- Children forcibly separated from their parents at the border with Mexico and never reunited, in spite of court orders to expedite reunions.  It is reported that the organizations attempting to reunite these families believe it is never going to happen.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/immigration/lawyers-say-they-can-t-find-parents-545-migrant-children-n1244066

0 -- The number of tax returns he has released.

1 --  The number of audits his tax returns are presently undergoing -- at least, this is what he admits to.

$70,000 -- Amount of deduction he is said to have claimed for one year of having his hair made up daily.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/06/business/trump-taxes-hair.html

$21,100,000 -- Amount of deduction he claimed on his 2015 tax return as a nature conservancy claim for not developing his Seven Springs Estate in Mt. Kisco, NY.

https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2020/09/eric-trump-westchester-compound-tax-write-off

$130,000 -- Hush money payoff to porn star Stormy Daniels.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-cohen/fbi-documents-point-to-trump-role-in-hush-money-for-porn-star-daniels-idUSKCN1UD18D

2010 -- The tax year of the audit he claims is preventing him from releasing his tax returns.  The audit is said to have begun in 2011. 

3 years from date of filing, and then 1 year afterwards -- The amount of time the IRS has to bring an audit of a tax return, and then the average time it takes to complete the audit.

https://www.freshbooks.com/hub/taxes/how-long-do-irs-audits-take#:~:text=After%20you%20receive%20the%20Internal,are%20completed%20within%20a%20year.

$400,000,000 to 1,000,000,000 -- The range of debts owed by him coming due within the next few years.  We presently do not know exactly to whom this money is owed and the source(s) of the original debt(s).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wealth_of_Donald_Trump#:~:text=Trump%20has%20a%20total%20of,reported%20Forbes%20in%20October%202020.

The total may have been more; however, it is reported that he negotiated forgiveness of approximately $281,000,000 of that debt.  Once again, we do not know the original source of the debt, although it appears to have been related to a failed Chicago real estate venture, and what the creditor(s) may have gotten in return for the debt forgiveness.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/lenders-forgave-287-million-in-unpaid-debt-by-trump-report-11603844181

$750 -- The amount he appears to have paid on his federal income tax for 2017 and 2018.  He claimed at the last debate that he only paid this much because he prepaid his taxes.  Here's a hint to cadet bone spurs and to those who do not know.  When you "pre-pay" your taxes, the amount of money you pre-pay must be included on the tax return.  This is how the total amount of the taxes is calculated; therefore, they must be on the return even if "pre-paid".  This would even include taxes you paid in a previous year that would go towards the tax assessment in the year of the return.  In other words, when he said his reflected tax liability is not accurately reflected on the 2017 and 2018 returns because he pre-paid his taxes, he was either blissfully ignorant of what is included in any tax return, or he was lying.

Speaking of lying...

22,247 -- The number of proven lies he has told since assuming the presidency.  This number is undoubtedly too low, as it comes from a Washington Post article noting that the tally is from August 27, 2020.  The post indicated that he was averaging about fifty lies a day.  One wonders how many lies it would be if he did not have to take breaks to eat and go to the bathroom.

7 -- Number of presidential advisers who have been indicted.  This is as of August 20, 2020.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/08/20/how-many-trump-advisers-were-criminally-charged-steve-bannon-makes-7/5616793002/

I suppose we could go on and on with further numbers associated with the election, but at this point, you get the point.  So I leave you with one final number:

4 -- more years of this?  

Really?

the quiet before the storm

My next door neighbor here on the north shore of Long Island has put up a Trump sign on his front lawn, just a couple of feet from the curb.

Frankly, I do not care.  It is entirely within his rights to put up a sign in support of whatever candidate he supports, even if that candidate is cadet bone spurs.  The sign itself is one of those very small unobtrusive things that look like it could be blown over by a moderate breeze -- you know, just like cadet bone spurs himself.  I do not know how long the sign has been there.  My wife and I only noticed it about a week ago.  Since then, I have noticed that the sign is primarily hidden from the public by a car that parks directly in front of it on the street just about every day.  I do not know if the car belongs to my MAGA neighbor or somebody else.

Why the neighbor has put up the sign this time around is not entirely known.  While  I do not recall him placing signs on his front lawn in past elections, even the last one in which cadet bone spurs was running, I suppose it is entirely possible that he did, and I simply did not notice.  I do know that there has been an influx of Hispanic families moving into the neighborhood over the past several years, including one immediately next door on the other side of MAGA neighbor and one across the street.  I would hope that this is not the reason he chose to erect his sign this time around.  Along this line of thought, however, I would note that we have a friend who lives in the next town over.  This friend is Chinese.  A neighbor of hers, who lives across the street, has placed a large sign on a telephone poll on the edge of his property, accompanied by a number of flags in various states of disrepair, directly across the street from her, pointed directly at her front door, which among other gems, states, "This is America.  Speak English", and if that wasn't clear enough, "Boycott all Chinese Take Outs".  Our friend does not own any Chinese restaurants that we know of.  Another friend, also Chinese, who lives on the other side of Long Island, tells us she has been getting, to put it mildly, chilly receptions from neighbors when she placed a Biden Harris sign in front of her house, in what appears to be a mostly cadet bone spurs neighborhood.

I am sure that none of the MAGA types involved here think they are bad people, and I am willing to concede that some, if not most of them are not.  I do not know the neighbors of my friends.  I do know that our south shore friend tells us that she has gotten along well with the neighbors in the past, and is still mostly friendly with them.  I have not been buddies with my MAGA neighbor over the years, and have never been in his home in the thirty some odd years we have both lived here.  I admit I am a terrible neighbor, as for the most part, I do not even know the names of the people who have lived for years directly around me, including MAGA neighbor, who has lived next door the entire time.  I have exchanged pleasantries with MAGA neighbor over the years.  We have lived in peace in the neighborhood, which is a middle class one in which the neighbors smile and wave hello whenever you see them and do help each other out in a pinch.  It is all I have ever wanted in my neighborhood, and I expect it to remain that way, even after November 3.

Given the sign on MAGA neighbor's lawn, my wife and I took a drive around the community yesterday to survey electioneering signs in a radius of about a half a dozen blocks all around us.  The results were rather surprising, considering that we have seen many signs throughout the years in connection with dozens of elections ranging from national to local.  We note that MAGA neighbor's sign was the only cadet bone spurs sign in front of any house we saw.  I do not know if we should feel honored to live right next door to the only such sign in the community.  On the other hand, while there were about a half dozen signs in total for various candidates in various races, there were only two Biden/Harris signs, both of which were on the same block just around the corner from our house.

We do not believe our neighborhood is any less into the election or any more or less politically involved than any other neighborhood.  We do believe there is a certain feeling I am not yet ready to categorize as fear that people do not wish to make their political feelings known this time around for fear of attracting retaliation from neighbors or those just looking for trouble.  Not putting up a sign on your lawn is a small price to pay in order to protect your lawn or your home from vandalism or worse.  There have been reports around the country, if not necessarily in this neck of the woods, of people having signs stolen or set on fire right in front of their homes.  I have little doubt what the reaction of the neighbor of our friends in the next town would be to her putting a Biden/Harris sign on their front lawn pointed at the neighbor's house, although if her sign contained a large print menu, it might be fun to film the neighbor's reaction.

So the signs stay in the shed or the basement, and folks quietly go about their business, perhaps making calls or sending e-mails and texts to help get out the vote, which are mostly done anonymously, perhaps making plans for surviving the election and the days that follow, which is somehow what we have come to.  Instead of making plans to celebrate our country regardless of who wins the election, we are looking at election day as a sort of armeggedon.  I half expect the four horsemen of the apocalypse to come charging down the street in front of the house at about midnight November 3.  There is half a thought that MAGA neighbor will come roaring from his house with an AR-15 if cadet bone spurs looks like he is going down in flames, even if I do not know if he owns any weapons at all.

I would love to be out at the ranch where there are no neighbors on election night, but we are here.  We will hunker down with our freezer filled with supplies to last for a few weeks and our kerosene heater to keep the first floor of the house warm.  We will hide in the basement if we have to.

And we will pray like mad that cadet bone spurs will slink away quietly, as will his supporters.

hypocrisy in the land of the free

 Let's talk for a few moments about hypocrites and hypocrisy.  Not so much about the dictionary definition, but simply about those who say one thing, but then act in a completely different manner, thereby saying they really did not mean what they said in the first place.

The idea of hypocrisy is nothing new.  In the past twenty-four hours, however, it has been crystalized with the passing of Ruth Bader Ginsburg.  The man for whom the hypocrisy trophy has been named for and long since retired, Mitch McConnell, told us in 2016 that when an opening occurs in the Supreme Court in an election year, the American people deserve their say in who gets appointed.  In that case, Justice Scalia died nine months before election day.  Supposedly, that was insufficient time to allow for a proper nomination to be considered and voted upon in the Senate.  Now, with forty-five days until election day, there is not only sufficient time to vote in a replacement, but it is somehow the duty of the Senate to do so.

The difference?

McConnell now says that in 2016, the American people deserved the chance to have their say because the sitting president was from the opposite party of the senate majority, and that is not the case now.  Putting aside the fact that McConnell never said anything of the sort in 2016, it is worth remembering that when President Obama was sworn in, McConnell outright said his job until Obama was out of office was to ensure that nothing Obama tried to do would pass the Senate.

Nothing.

Zero.

This coming from the man who spent eight years openly and admittedly doing everything he could possibly think of against the sitting president of the United States, the first African American to hold the office to bring him down short of calling him "Boy".

And now, it is okay to hold hearings and confirm a Supreme Court Justice when the opening occurs forty-five days short of election day.  I would have said ok to this if not for the fact that four years ago if we were lectured by this guy about how nine months was to soon before the election.

Hypocrite,

In what could be even worse.  Joni Ernst, she of demon sheep fame, put out a text last night, just minutes after Justice Ginsburg's passing was announced, using her death as a fund raising tool to rally the troops to ensure that a justice would be put on the court who would reverse Roe v. Wade.  Perhaps e even worse was Rep. Doug Collins of Georgia, who is running for the Senate, who sent out his condolences, not to Justice Ginsburg and her family, but to the millions of "innocent babies" allegedly murdered with the complicity of Justice Ginsburg during her term on the Court.  As of this writing, he has not apologized, taken down the post, or otherwise sent out any condolence over the death of Justice Ginsburg.  At least Sen. Ernst has tweeted out an appropriate tribute.

This is the sanctity of life crowd.

The All Lives Matter crowd.

The all lives are sacred gifts from God crowd.

The same crowd that believes that a single abortion, even to save the life of the mother, is murder.

And they are also the same crowd that has said nothing to date about the story coming out that doctors at an I.C.E. facility in Georgia have been performing nonconsensual hysterectomies upon detainees seeking asylum here before sending them back to the countries they have been fleeing from.

Not a word.

Not from Doug Collins.  It is apparently murder to abort any child, but nothing at all to perform nonconsensual and medically unnecessary hysterectomies upon women seeking asylum in the United States.  

You wouldn't think that the fact that these women do not vote or that they do not speak English has anything to do with his and his crowd's silence has anything to do with this, do you?  Apparently, all lives are sacred except for the ones you do not care about.

Hypocrites.

Yes, all lives matter.

Unless you are black and demanding rights all whites get without a second thought.

Unless you are protesting police killing black people.  After all, how great is it that some white teenage kid can carry an AR-15 across state lines all by himself, into a state where his mere possession of it is illegal, and then shoot and kill protesters on the street.  And how great is it that a bunch of openly armed white guys in MAGA hats can storm the state capitol in Michigan, openly threatening legislators and forcing the cancellation of session, the very definition of sedition, while unarmed black protestors are thugs, murderers and terrorists.  It is noted that William Barr believes the black protestors are guilty of sedition for peacefully exercising their first amendment rights, while those white guys with AR-15s are heroes.  It is noted that in Washington, unarmed protestors were tear gassed to allow cadet bone spurs to pose with a Bible before a church he does not attend, while yesterday, the police in Michigan simply asked the armed white guys to step back a few feet.

Hypocrites.  The entire lot of them.

This is what we are facing.  A crowd of mostly white guys, who will say and do just about anything to hold onto their power and to suppress any contrary belief.  It has yet to reach the point where they will have their minions out on the street actually shooting us en masse, as opposed to one or two at a time, but it looks like it is getting there.  There have been a number of those far right types who have outright said they will be out on the streets killing us if they do not get the result they want on election day.  And from those All Lives Matter folks?

Nothing.

No statements pleading for sanity and peace.

Nothing.

So...

VOTE. VOTE. VOTE.

Send the hypocrites home.

Fight on.

Thank you Mr. President

One of the lasting moments from the Watergate investigation was when Howard Baker asked "What did the President know, and when did he know it?"  Howard Baker was a republican senator from Tennessee.

We now know what cadet bone spurs knew about the nature of the virus and when he knew it.  We also know that he deliberately downplayed the virus for months, allegedly to avoid a panic.

Ok.  He did not want a panic over the virus.

Apparently, he did not want a panic over the lack of testing, the lack of PPP, the lack of a coordinated, let alone a coherent plan of dealing with the virus, creating a vaccine and respect for science and the scientific process either.

So right now: 

1.  I am not panicking over the fact that we are closing in on two hundred thousand dead people and counting, perhaps because I am not one of them, most of them are old or disadvantaged minorities, of whom I am not one.

2.  I am not panicking over the fact that during this summer, when violence is allegedly increasing exponentially on his watch, fanned by his exhorting his supporters to defend their second amendment rights as a way of dealing with the virus, perhaps because I have not been shot -- although there was what appears to be an unrelated shooting that occurred a couple of blocks away about a month ago.

3.  I am not panicking over the fact that I have not worked since March and have no clue present clue if I will ever work again, perhaps because I have been much more fortunate than most and have investments to fall back on -- not to mention state unemployment benefits, if not federal assistance, the lack of which I am sure is what is getting those poor multinational corporations over the top in their time of need.

4.    I am not panicking over sending my children to schools that have been ordered to open without a national coordinated or coherent plan to safeguard the children and the teachers, perhaps because I no longer have school age children and my wife, a lifelong public school teacher is happily retired.

5.  I am not panicking over the fact that while there is still food on the shelves in the stores, there appears to be just a little bit less just about every time I go shopping, perhaps because my wife and I had a nice dinner last night.

No, I am not panicking.

Not a bit.

Thank you Mr. President.

Thank you for keeping us all in the dark, while you knew first what was about to happen and then what was happening while it was happening, but did nothing to stop it other than slapping a travel ban on Chinese citizens.

Thank you for ignoring the fact that the virus was coming into this country from places other than China.

Thank you for letting us know you were blaming China for the entire thing, even after the virus sneaked into this country and you did nothing.

Thank for for not panicking us when the virus did sneak into the country in spite of the fact that you knew it was coming and did nothing to stop it.

Thank you for putting forth that very brave and well made up face every day and setting the example for the rest of us by not wearing a mask, so that your very expensive make up job would not be smeared.  I feel much better knowing you looked better, even if the rest of us were getting sick and dying.

Thank you for making sure the rest of your gang did not let us in on your little secret, lest we all panic.

As for this last one, I am eternally grateful for your sycophants, who can keep a secret, apparently with the best of them.  So....

Thank you to the Vice-President, the head of your coronavirus task force, who has told us over and over again what a great job you are doing, and how you are the best thing to ever happen to the universe.  

Thank you for replacing anyone on the task force who was even temporarily willing to tell the truth with somebody who was only willing to praise you, and had no experience or qualifications to deal with epidemiology.  I for one am happy to hear daily from a radiologist, instead of an epidemiologist or infectious disease specialist.  Facts make me panic.

Thank you to those who know, who know what you knew and when you knew it, but said nothing.  I am particularly grateful to the director of national intelligence, Robert O'Brien, who told you in January what was coming, but never told the rest of us.  It allowed my wife and I to go on a couple of vacations in January and February without panicking.

Thank you for all you red state governors who kept us from panicking by opening up restaurants, bars, gyms, schools, hiding all that panicky public health data, and generally reminding us every day that the guy in the oval office is the greatest human ever born.

I am particularly thankful to Mitch McConnell for not saying anything, and then leaving town without addressing any relief package for the rest of us, thereby sparing me of the job of figuring out how to spend my disaster relief and unemployment checks, thereby ensuring that I do not panic when it comes time to paying my bills.

There are so many more to thank, but not enough space in the universe to do so, so thank you to all cadet bone spurs supporters for letting us know how panicky we would be if only we had something rational in the oval office.

So thank you to everyone for keeping my mind free and clear of anything I cannot handle.

And oh...

Once cadet bone spurs is out of office, whenever that may be, please don't come forward at that time, especially if you hold public office now, to tell me you knew and tried to stop him, because then, if you wanted to spend the rest of your career in your cushy little entitled position, it will be your turn to panic when you see the reaction of the rest of us.

black lives matter. no qualifier necessary.

I am a middle aged white male.  I have never had to look over my back whenever I have walked outside, even in a neighborhood I did not live in.  I have never been particularly concerned for my safety when pulled over for an occasional traffic violation.  I have never been frisked.  I have never been asked what I am doing anywhere I have ever walked.  I have never had to lecture my sons about how to act to the police if they get stopped, other than to tell them to be polite to everybody.

So I do not know what it is like to be the subject of ingrained institutional generational racism and bias against me or "my kind".

But I do know one thing:

Black Lives Matter.

You see?  That was easy.  All I had to do was put three words together.

Black.....  Lives...... Matter.

I didn't have to add or subtract anything from it.  I did not have to add a qualifier.  There is nobody out there who can be hurt by my writing or uttering the phrase.  It simply states the obvious.  Nothing else.

Black Lives Matter.

If you cannot say it without adding "Blue Lives Matter" or "All Lives Matter", then quite frankly, black lives do not matter to you.

Because if black lives really did matter to you, you would not have to add anything to it.  We all know that blue lives matter.  We all know that all lives matter.  Nobody seems to have any difficulty saying either without adding anything to it, especially "All Lives Matter", which is a just any overly simplistic way of saying "Can't we all get along?", and avoiding the real issue in the first place.

So just say it.

Black Lives Matter.

Pause for a moment.  And then do not add anything to it.  Do not tell me about any other kind of life that matters.  Do not explain anything.  It does not need an explanation.

And certainly do not tell me that George Floyd was no angel, as if he deserved what happened to him.

At that moment, whether or not George Floyd had done something terrible to anyone else any time in his life before having his breath squeezed out of him by Derrick Chauvin's knee while his three partners looked on and did nothing has no meaning at all, unless black lives do not matter to you, nor should it.  I would highly doubt that while he sucked the life out of George Floyd, Derrick Chauvin was thinking of Mr. Floyd's "victims", whomever they were.  He certainly was not thinking "all lives matter".  As you watched the video for the first, second or third times, I would doubt you were thinking of George Floyd's supposed victims or that all lives matter either.  All you were thinking was how horrible that was, and possibly that black lives do indeed matter.  If you were not thinking, at the very least, that we witnessed barbarity at that moment, then I do not think I, nor anyone else, will ever be able to help you.  If you thought well, all lives matter, not just this life, then black lives probably do not matter to you.

So we march.  We paint signs.  We dance around the streets.  We yell slogans.

And then what?

If we go home satisfied that we have done our part and then do nothing else, then black lives do not matter to us either.

So vote.

So agitate.

If you see something that says black lives do not matter, point it out.

Do not stop.  Force the change.  Force those in charge to face the fact that black lives do matter, even if they have never owned up to the obvious in the past.

Do not shoot a jogger in your lily white neighborhood.  Come to his aid if he is being harassed by a know nothing.

Intervene if a black man is being crushed under a knee.

Do not let them push over a black woman who is doing nothing but exercising a constitutional right to speak out against institutional violence perpetrated for generations against her and her family.  Or sleeping in her own home for that matter.

Use that cellphone camera for all it is worth.

Press charges.

Make them stick.

Vote those out to whom black lives do not matter.

Do not buy or do business with those who do not believe black lives matter.

Vote.

Vote.

Vote.

Make them know, even if they do not want to hear it.

BLACK LIVES MATTER.

you can't talk to a maga -- exhibits b and c

A couple of months ago, I talked about a person I had known since high school who unfriended me over a very brief Facebook discussion about cadet bone spurs.  I called it exhibit a as to why you cannot talk to a maga.  Today, I present exhibits b and c.

Exhibit B

I have known this person for about twenty years.  He is a colleague in the legal profession.  He is an ex-marine.  I have known for years he is a conservative; however, we have always been reasonably friendly and our conversations always respectful to each other, and something I rather enjoyed.

Until this past Monday night.

The fun and games started when cadet bone spurs addressed the nation prior to making his way out to St. John's Church for his photo op with the Bible.  In his brief remarks before heading out into the wilds of Lafayette Park, cadet bone spurs noted he was out there protecting our second amendment rights, as if that had anything to do with the ongoing protests.  I said exactly that in a facebook post, wondering why he would mention the second amendment at that moment.  I did not say how ridiculous it was to encourage anyone to bring weapons to public protests that were already tension filled.

My now ex-friend responded heatedly that anyone would have the right to bring their weapons to protect themselves against the marauding mob of looters out there who were setting fires, throwing bricks, etc.  I responded simply that I disagreed with him and could not disagree more.  I did not explicitly say that I was referring to weaponry in a tension filled public protest; only that I could not disagree more with what he said.  I was not advocating looting, arson, etc.

His response was to invite me out into the street with the hoodlums, where he sort of hoped I would be bashed in the back of the head by a hammer wielding thug, that I had obviously not paid any attention to anything taught to me in law school and good luck with whatever is left of the rest of my life.  He not only unfriended me, but blocked me from any attempt to tell him he had completely misinterpreted anything I had said in my post.

A number of people thereafter told me I was not missing out on anything having been unfriended by him.

Exhibit C

This one involves a friend of mine.  I will only use her first name --Karen.

Karen posted on Facebook after cadet bone spurs made his heroic pilgrimage across the mountains and deserts of Washington, across the street to St. John's Church, waved his Bible and posed for photos with a bunch of folks from the office, who all looked like they may have preferred to have been sunbathing on Mars.  Her post showed a photo of his highness, holding the Bible in front of the church, with the caption, "He tear gassed Americans to get a photo in front of a church he doesn't go to holding a book he never reads".

The response?

Several defended the indefensible.  Many claimed everything said was a lie.  My favorite was this guy -- no names this time -- who questioned if there was really tear gas used, if the crowd was peaceful, as opposed to his claim of being unruly and violent, that we really did not know if he does not belong to the church and that he does not read the Bible.  It was pointed out to this MAGA that the teargassing was on several videos shot by several different news organizations, clearly showing tear gas being shot at a peaceful group of protesters.  Some pointed out that the pastor and the bishop of the church both said that cadet bone spurs is not a congregant there, and hardly ever shows up at all.  No priest, pastor, reverend, bishop, cardinal, pope, rabbi, or holy man of any kind has come forward to say he is a member at their house of worship.  It is conceded that we do not have personal knowledge as to whether or not he has ever cracked open the Bible, read a single passage of if, or did anything with the Bible other than autograph it next to a reference to God.

The next response?

Our MAGA worshiping hero told Karen that this is why he does not read newspapers or watch the news, but that he knows in his heart that none of this can be true...

As we say in court, no further explanation is necessary.  I rest my case.

In Answer to Ronald Reagan

Ronald Reagan used to tell us when we considering whom to vote for to ask if we were better off today than we were four years ago.

Minneapolis.

We have become the laughingstock of the world.  They would be laughing out loud and slapping their knees trying to get their breath if it was not for the fact that this buffoon has caused misery all over the world.  All the while, constantly blaming somebody else for his own ignorance, his own bigotry, his own cruelty.

Louisville.

On January 20, 2016, the unemployment rate in this country was 4.1%.  As of today, most economists agree that the true unemployment rate is greater than the officially announced rate of 14.7%.  Yet all he talks about is how great things were, if only for that damned virus, which he blames on a laboratory in China.

Atlanta

We have put children in cages, apparently because their parents came to this country looking for a better life for their families, but did not sound like the rest of us.  You know, just ike his grandparents at the end of the last century.

Denver

We have systematically withdrawn our authority as the leading voice of just about everything around the world.  We are no longer a part of the Paris Climate Change Accords, as the pace of climate change accelerates to the breaking point.  As the pandemic surges around us, he has withdrawn from the World Health Organization.  Never mind that this hamstrings the medical and public health world at perhaps the most critical time in its history.  He has also guaranteed that if a vaccine is found, but is found outside the United States, we will not be in line to receive it.

Charlottesville

In not condemning white terrorism for what it is, he has set free and given the imprimatur to all would be white nationalists, the KKK, Nazis and other second amendment terror types to prey upon the rest of us with impunity.

Philadelphia

Russians interfered with our election in 2016.  He stonewalled every investigation.  He has all but shut down the possibility of election security, threatening to veto any such provisions in any legislation given to him to sign.  Why would you want to veto legislation designed to ensure the integrity of our elections?

New York

At a time when the nation needs somebody to lead by example, he refuses to wear a mask in public and outright says Wall Street is more important than the lives of the people he serves.  So no masks for him.  Not even encouragement for others to wear them.  No social distancing.  No testing.  No tracing.  More than one hundred thousand dead and counting is a badge of honor.

Miami

Our cities are on fire.  We need soothing words, soaring words from our leaders to assure us that we will be okay.  That people of color are not going to shot when they go jogging in their neighborhood, shot by the police when they are asleep in their own homes, or snuffed out by an animal with a badge who grinds his knee into a handcuffed black man until he dies, while his partners stand around doing absolutely nothing even after the black man has stopped breathing.  Instead of words of healing, this imbecile offers images of the Jim Crow era, of lynchings, of dogs set upon people simply for protesting their rights.  He then tries to silence dissent when a single social network finally has enough of he lies and the dog whistles.  As staggering as it seems , all of this happened simply in the last week.

Chicago

So are we better off than we were four years ago?  On a personal note, I have not been able to work in the  profession I trained for and made a good living in for nearly forty years since March 16.  Although I had given up my private practice a year or so ago, it was nice having a stream of income coming in.  That ended when they closed the courthouses around here.  Since then, I have not been able to socialize in person with any friends.  No visits with families.  I cannot hug or kiss my ninety year old mother.  

Columbus

In the meantime bread lines form across the country.  People wait in their cars for hours for basic staples.

Minneapolis

Louisville

Atlanta

Denver 

Charlottesville

Philadelphia

New York

Miami

Chicago 

Columbus

Seattle

Los Angeles

Any Town, USA...

Although I am infinitely better off than many, if not most, yesterday, I received my first installment of unemployment insurance from the government.  Aside from this, I do not know what other income I personally will have for the foreseeable future.  Am I better off than I was four years ago?.

You tell me.

you can't talk to a maga -- exhibit a

A few nights ago, I was unfriended on facebook by a person I have known since high school.  This was a person I had accepted a friend request from almost as soon as I signed up on facebook back in the stone ages.  You know, like about twelve years ago.  I am not all that upset that I was unfriended.  Frankly, I barely knew this person in high school, and as I think about it now, if you showed me her picture from our yearbook without her name tagged to it, I don't think I could have picked her out.

For reasons you will easily figure out, I will refer to this now ex-friend as "Maga-ette".  While Maga-ette was mostly quiet for a long time on facebook, only posting pictures of wineries she visited every now and then and of her grandchildren, once Cadet Bone Spurs got elected, it started.  Nothing he could do was wrong.  All the problems of the world were caused by "libtards".  I debated unfriending her myself, but never got around to it.  Then came the events of this week.

It started a few nights earlier, when Mitch McConnell announced that the reason the coronavirus was allowed to spread through the United States as it has is that the president was distracted from the looming disaster by the "impeachment hoax".  From there, the inevitable happened.  A few right wing pundits backed this statement, none of them showing a bit of proof for the claim that the president was distracted by proceedings in the house that ended in December and in the Senate that was over in the first days of February all the way through the middle of March.  Then Maga-ette posted McConnell's statement word for word in boldfaced font on her newsfeed for all to see.

I pointed out to Maga-ette that the impeachment proceedings had long since ended before the president even considered taking the coronavirus threat seriously at all, and in any event, if any politician suffers from such a severe case of attention deficit disorder, perhaps they should not be serving in public office at all.  Another friend on my side of the political spectrum added that Cadet Bone Spurs did not seem all that distracted during that time so as to prevent him from running around the country giving campaign speeches and playing golf at his clubs.  Maga-ette professed not to know what either of us were talking about.  I then explained that he did not seem distracted from making nominations to judicial and government posts.  He did not seem distracted from working on deregulation of any number of industries.  He did not seem distracted from making speeches or golfing. Why was he distracted from attending to perhaps the single most looming existential threat in history, but nothing else?

Maga-ette responded that in times like this, we should all be working together, which is true.  That would have been good enough if it ended there.  Instead, she added that it is clear that I do not want to work together for the greater good at this time.

I note that Maga-ette lives about three thousand miles away from me, and to the best of my knowledge has no clue of what I do now or what I did before I semi-retired.  So I decided to educate her, at least as to the last two weeks.

During the last two weeks, my wife and I have formed a facebook group called "Stitched Together Long Island".  The purpose of the group is to mobilize the home sewing community and get them to make masks for health care professionals on the front line fighting the coronavirus pandemic.  We are in just two weeks at just under one thousand, five hundred members.  In that time, together with a sister group in California, we have distributed just about fifteen thousand masks throughout our community.  Now that the CDC is calling for all to wear facemasks outside of the home, our people are shifting slightly and making masks for their friends and neighbors, while still cranking them out for the first responders and the medical community.  All the while, we do not ask about political affiliations.  In fact, there is a rule in the group that there is no political discussion allowed.  We provide for everyone, regardless of political belief.  I also pointed out to Maga-ette that we do all of this for free and do not accept monetary donations.

I concluded by saying that I thought I was doing my part, and asking what she was doing.  Her reaction?

Maga-ette instantly had two one sentence responses, which sort of told me she had not really read what I had written.  The first told me to stand up, pat myself on the back and give myself an "ada boy" (her spelling, not mine).  The second was to tell me I was an "arrogant dem".

Frankly, I am quite proud of what my wife and I have done in the past two weeks.  The response from Maga-ette was so asinine I went immediately to my friends page to unfriend her, only to find out she had beat me to it.

And that, in a nutshell shows you how difficult it is to talk to somebody who has made up their minds that they are not going to listen, no matter what you say.  In other words, she might as well be the president himself.

let's play softball -- questions...

It was a softball question.  As softball questions go, it doesn't get more softball than this.

NBC's Peter Alexander gave Cadet Bone Spurs the opening all political leaders crave.  He asked him, "What do you say to Americans watching you right now who are scared?".

This was his Fireside Chat moment, his "Nothing to Fear but Fear Itself" moment, his "Shining City on the Hill" moment.  It was his opportunity to bring all Americans together, to rally around the flag and we are all Americans moment.  It was the opportunity to shine and let all Americans rally around the effort to beat back the coronavirus.  It was the chance to be proud for a moment.

Instead...

What does he say to Americans watching right now who are scared?

"I say you are a terrible reporter.  I think it's a very nasty question, and I think that's a very bad signal that you're putting out to the American people.  The American people are looking for answers and they're looking for hope.  And you're doing sensationalism, and the same with NBC and Comcast.  I don't call it Comcast, I call it Concast, for whom you work.  Let me just tell you something.  That's really bad reporting, and you ought to get back to reporting instead of sensationalism.  Let's see if it works  It might and it might not.  I happen to feel good about it, but who knows?  I've been right a lot.  Let's see what happens".

And then while a reporter was asking him the next question, he told Mr. Alexander "You ought to be ashamed of yourself", signalling, if nothing else, that he was not paying attention to the question being posed to him even though he had called on the reporter to ask it.

He was given the chance to shine and took it to make gratuitous insults and say a softball question is nasty.  We can only imagine how he would answer hard questions.  On the other hand, we have already seen how he does with those.

Don't believe me?  Watch the clip.  And watch the fact that nobody in the background bats an eye when he comes up with this drivel.

Leader of the free world, my ass.

https://www.aol.com/article/news/2020/03/20/trump-responds-to-question-about-coronavirus-fears-by-bashing-the-media/23956487/

something not political or coronavirus...

My wife tells me if I post something today, it should be entertaining and not so political, coronavirus, or just a downer in nature. 

Soooooooo....

This one was originally published in the Daily Pennsylvanian, my college newspaper, some time around 1978 or so.  I do not remember who wrote this.  He/she is an immortal in my opinion.  I may not get it exactly right, but so what?  I am now a senior citizen, eligible for social security, if the GOP does not ravage it (oops...).  When I finish with this, I am going to the kitchen.  My wife will tie a bib on me, and she will try to spoon feed oatmeal to me...

A cow is standing in a pasture, minding its own business, when a rabbit walks up to him and challenges him to a race to the fence on the other side of the pasture and back.  Knowing he cannot beat a rabbit in a footrace, the cow declines, but the rabbit persists (not unlike Elizabeth Warren, but then again, I digress...). 

"Mr. Cow, I am a good sport and I know you need something to make you feel better.  I will let you win the race".  With that, the cow and the rabbit take off.  Sure enough, they get to the fence on the other side of the pasture and the rabbit is letting the cow lead.  They turn around an head to the start/finish line.  Just before they get to it, the rabbit puts on a burst and finishes just ahead of the cow. 

Dismayed and utterly (I avoided saying udderly.  Oh wait, I just did...) heartbroken, the cow runs across the pasture where the old mare is munching on some hay.  Upon reaching the horse, the cow lets out his heart.

"Oh Ms. Horse.  The rabbit told me he would let me win a race from to the fence and back, but at the last moment, he ran past me!  He cheated!  He lied!  Just like the president (oops again...) I cannot believe he would do that to me!!!  What can I do?"

The mare looks up from her pile of hay, looks at the cow, and says...

"That's funny.  A talking cow"...

You're welcome.  I am ready for my oatmeal...

worst person addendum

Oops...  Worst Persons in the World Addendum...

Sometimes, you just have to admit you made a mistake.  I do so here.

I started the second annual Worst Persons in the World list a few months ago, and then finished up after having strayed for a while, publishing it earlier today.  Then moments later, I looked at the list...

How on earth I could have excluded William Barr is beyond me.

He undercut the Mueller investigation, gutting its findings before it was actually published.

He publicly embraced a president gone wild and promoted a unitary executive theory that states that the president can do just about anything he wants, and because he is the president, it is not illegal.  That would include the famous boast about shooting somebody in broad daylight on Fifth Avenue.

He announced that Christianity is a guiding force and that Christians have been persecuted for their beliefs throughout the history of this country, and notably, in the last several years.  As a result, "Christian" values that impose upon just about everybody else, are perfectly find by him, first amendment be damned.

As soon as the senate got through gutting the constitution, shredding the thought of fair and legal process, he announced that there would be no more investigations of presidents or presidential candidates henceforth without his approval.  Who do you think he is thinking of?  Andrew Yang?

I could go on.  I believe you get the point...

2nd annual top ten worst persons in the world -- well in the united states, but it sounded good

This one falls under the better late than never category, especially since I announced the list was just about to come out and solicited nominations about three months ago.  Oh well...

Tis the season.  With help from our loyal legion of followers, and simply because I can do it, the good folks here at White Fluffy Duckies, with herald trumpets blaring, hereby present the Second Annual Top (Bottom) Ten Worst Persons -- IN THE WORLD!!!... well, at least here in the good old USA...

As a reminder, last year's list was:

10.  Susan Collins
9.  Ryan Zincke
8.  Duncan Hunter
7.  Sarah Huckabee Sanders
6.  Ted Cruz
5.  Brian Kemp
4.  Lindsay Graham
3.  Sean Hannity
2.  Steve King
1.  Mitch McConnell

Before the big reveal, I once again note that the President is not on this list, as he remains in a class of worstness by himself, and by including him herein, I would be permanently rendering lists of this sort obsolete and even more irrelevant in the grand scheme of things than they already are.

I also note again that in whittling the list down to only ten, I know I am leaving out much deserved people, who tried their darndest to get on the list, practically soliciting inclusion from me personally.  You cannot, however, include all fifty-two republican united states senators and one hundred and ninety-seven members of the House of Representatives.  It just does not work in a top ten list, unless you happen to use math employed by the President, which I will not do, even if we share the same alma mater.  By the same logic, the entire staff of the President at the White House cannot be included; therefore, we tearfully leave Kelly Anne Conway out once again.  We note, however, in a world of alternate facts, she is at the top (bottom) of the list once again.  But wouldn't you want to be a fly on the bedroom wall when she and George get into it?

But I digress...

Sooooo.... with our second annual nod to Keith Olbermann, and without further ado:

10.  Betsy DeVos -- To be honest, I was not going to include Ms. DeVos here, although it does seem to me that in less than three years she has demonstrated clearly that her name and the word "education" should never be mentioned in he same sentence.  It does take a massive amount of talent, however, to have a member of the president's cabinet held in contempt of court, not once, not twice, but on sixteen thousand counts.  Aside from the punishment of being included on this list, Ms. DeVos is going to be asked to write "I will not be in contempt of court" on the blackboard sixteen thousand times, assuming she knows where the blackboard is located in the classroom, is not offended by holding a piece of chalk and knows how to spell "contempt".

9.  Jodi Ernst -- This is by popular demand.  How on earth a woman can approve of defunding planned parenthood, sponsor legislation that denies a woman the right to choose, cannot bring herself to pass any kine of legislation controlling the ridiculous explosion of weapons in the hands of those clearly unqualified physically or emotionally to own one, let alone an arsenal is beyond me.  She has solidified her stance, however, by being the first to call for the impeachment of Joe Biden, who has not even been nominated to run for president, let alone be elected to the position.

8.  Rush Limbaugh -- I almost gave this one a pass; however, in light of his health, this may be the last chance for him to make the list.  Call this a lifetime achievement award that balances off the Presidential Medal of Freedom.  Hint to the president -- if Mr. Limbaugh's lifetime of bigotry and vile comments about anyone he disagrees with makes him deserving of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, please do not consider me for the prize.

7.  Steve Mnuchin -- A bastion of consistency, he refused to release the president's tax returns, claiming there was no legitimate legislative purpose in doing so, but immediately upon being asked, never mind subpoenaed, he released Hunter Biden's info.  You know, the son of the guy who is running for president against his guy.  Well, he is consistent.  He consistently aides the guy in the oval office regardless of whether or not it is ethical or legal to do so.

6.  Jim Jordan -- This one was rather close between Rep. Jordan and Mark Meadows, who according to the transcript of the closed door hearing of Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch questioned the Ambassador over where she got the nickname "Masha" from, as if that established that she was a Ukranian mole for the democratic party.  But Mr. Jordan, who has made it a mission in life to make very loud, abrasive and completely baseless claims about just about anyone to the left of him, which means just about everybody, and then staring blankly into space when confronted with the proof that he was once again wrong, wins out herein with his performance in the public impeachment hearings.  He has a talent for making baseless allegations in the most abrasive manner and then, as noted above, staring blankly into space when confronted with the fact that his claims have already been debunked.  We won't even get into the fact that he was an assistant wrestling coach at Ohio State for years and claims he had no idea there was a sex abuse scandal playing out under his nose nearly the entire time.  Well, I guess I just did get into that.  Nothing to see here.

5.  John Cornyn -- This is the guy who usually is standing in the background when Mitch McConnell is at the microphone telling us why Democrats to do nothing and then explaining why he is blocking a vote on (fill in the blank), just past by the House, that happens to have a democratic majority.  Senator Cornyn gets on the list this year, as well as a vote for humanitarian of the year by supporting the decision to have our troops get out of the way, thereby allowing Turkey's rampage and ethnic cleansing of the Kurds, hinting that this was perhaps a good thing.  Perhaps someone should have whispered in Senator Cornyn's ear the simple fact that the Kurds were supposedly our allies.

4.  Mitch McConnell -- You knew he had to be here somewhere.  I'm sure Mitch is devastated that he did not repeat his championship performance of last year.  I suppose he can take solace in the fact that he is part of the group that took this year's honors and led the way for the nonsense that is our elected representatives.

3.  Bone Spurs, Jr. -- He is this year's best selling author, as long as the Bone Spurs Re-election Committee, the Republican National Committee and the Fox Cheerleading Network continue to shop for stocking stuffers this coming holiday season.  BSJ makes the list this year, however, for repeatedly wondering in public how an underqualified, apparently uninterested and completely idiotic son of a politician can land a cushy job on an international corporate energy board simply by being the son of that politician.

2.  Rudolph Giuliani --  'nuff said...

1.  with a nod to all the congressmen and senators who are listed above --  EVERY REPUBLICAN MEMBER OF CONGRESS.  Yes, I said that I could not include every single one of them, but then again, with the exception of Mitt Romney, they all showed a complete lack of spine, morals or whatever it takes to be a decent human throughout the impeachment fiasco.  I would also note that this is my list, so if I want to ignore my own rules, it's still my list.  Go make your own.  That said, even Mitt did not vote for a conviction on teh obstruction of congress count.  Hey, he announced he would not comply with a single subpoena and then he did not.  I agree here that no witnesses or documents were needed on this count.  By definition, this is obstruction of congress.  Not a single GOP legislator or senator agreed.  We will now all reap what they have sown.

Can't wait til next year...