Joe Biden Pardon's Hunter Biden, and Why Not?

 

When I heard the news last night that Joe Biden had pardoned his son, Hunter Biden, I was of truly mixed emotions.  I said to myself, "Self...he said he wasn't going to do that!  What is he thinking??"  Then I promptly went to sleep, because let's face it.  No one is going to lose any sleep over what Hunter Biden is doing right at this moment as a free man.  I'm sure it's nothing horrible or suspicious.  

Joe Biden outlined his reasons for changing his mind on this, and I don't disagree with him.  Donald Trump has promised to do whatever it is he has to do to go after his political enemies, and Joe Biden is one of them.  It seems that Joe Biden himself is pretty clean, or has at least covered his tracks a heckuva a lot better than Trump has.  Joe Biden's biggest weakness is his affection for his family, and yeah...Trump WILL go after Hunter Biden and do his absolute worst to the guy, even after he was in prison serving the sentence he was given, just to get under Joe Biden's skin.  Hunter would never get out of prison.  The extreme right wing crazies would just keep after him, month after month after month.  I cannot bring myself to blame Joe Biden for what he's done when I think about the probability that this is what's going to happen.

And today, I hear about how wrong Biden was for doing it, and how he's damaged the Democratic Party by doing so, after saying that he would not pardon his son.  They say that in doing so, Biden has just proven how unreliable and unlawful Biden is, and how he's taken our justice system and used it to his own ends.  Hunter WAS guilty, after all.  He admitted it.  Hunter should have to serve his time.  This stuff is what I'm hearing from mainstream media, no less.  Well media, guess what.  I don't blame Biden, and neither should you.  You know what's REALLY coming.  Have you forgotten that?  I doubt it.  Our morals and principles are all gone anyway, just as soon as that man takes office again on the 20th.

Trump responded "What about the Jan 6th insurrectionists and their pardons?"    Well, Donnie, I really think that's different.  You used those folks to try to overthrow a duly elected government and there is a price to be paid for treason...that they were lucky to not be charged with.  And you're going to pardon those treasonous fools just as soon as you get into office anyway, so why should Biden do it.  At least we can get another two months worth of real justice for what those people did before we all pretend that it never happened in the first place.

So, this latest topic of conversation about Hunter?  We need to just drop it, honestly.  I'm glad that Joe Biden had the ability to help his son when his son needed help.  The guy paid all the excess fines and tried to do the right things to get them taken care of.  I can respect that.  I can also respect the fact that Joe Biden doesn't want to leave any door open for Trump to attack him through while Biden is powerless.  I sure don't want to be involved in this.  I don't want to be a part of this game.  Leave it alone...

Cabinet or Junk Drawer: What Trump is building.

 I swear, I don't know how much more I can take.  I will admit, I've spent a great deal of time this week laughing maniacally at the choices Donald Trump is making for his "Cabinet".  I really can't tell if this crazed laughing is because Trump is entertaining me with sheer lunacy, or if it's just me losing my sanity.  Seriously folks, I would be surprised if there has EVER been a presidential cabinet of more unqualified people taking the most important jobs in the United States before.  I really thought that his last cabinet was bad, but at least there were a few adults in the room to try to steer Nutbag Trump back into the correct lane when he was getting out of hand.  I don't think that's happening this time around, judging by his latest selections. Let's have a look at some of the man's selections of people he wants to back him up as POTUS.

Trump has tapped former Democratic Presidential Candidate and Congressperson Tulsi Gabbard to be Director of National Intelligence (a position created after the Sept. 11th attacks in 01, and designed to help facilitate communication between intelligence agencies, including the FBI, CIA, and the DOD).  

What good can we say about Gabbard?  Well, she IS a veteran of the US Military, having served 20+ years in the Army National Guard.  She participated in both "Operation Desert Storm" and "Operation Iraqi Freedom" including hostile situations and environments.  She was awarded a Combat Medical Badge in 2005, for providing medical services for soldiers while under fire, indicating that she may have been in the medical branch of the Hawaii Army Reserves.  She later won 4 consecutive terms for House District 2 in Hawaii, serving in the House of Representatives from 2013 to 2021, not filing for Congressional Office again in order to run for the Office of POTUS.  When she lost her bid for the Presidency, she supported Joe Biden for the office. Okay...that's the good.  Now let's examine a few more things...

Since her run for President, Tulsi has seemingly fallen down a rabbit hole of MAGA indoctrination, becoming a darling in Trump circles, and winning the man's favor. She has never had any experience in intelligence, much less in coordinating the communications between 18 separate intelligence agencies.  She has no idea how an intelligence agency is even run, at least according to my research into her employment history.  Our current Director of National Intelligence is Avril Haines.  Before she was appointed to this position, from 2015 to 2017, she served as Assistant to the President and Principal Deputy National Security Advisor and actual led the Deputy Security Council's Deputies Committee.  This was after her stint from 2013 to 2015 as being Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency.  Honestly, I'm not sure how to even compare the experience levels of the two women because they DON'T compare.  There is a big difference between assembling a voting group of congressmen and women to support a bill, and preventing a violent criminal attack upon US Global interests by making sure that all intelligence is verified and double checked, including the assignment of hundreds of agents out in the field that are in extreme danger of compromise 24 hours a day if a single wrong move is made.  I'm sorry, but Tulsi Gabbard's experience does NOT qualify her for a position like this, in spite of what Donald Trump thinks.  But I suppose that her being the new MAGA "it" girl, he had to give her something.  There are quite a few folks out there that are qualified to do this job, unfortunately, none of them will work for Trump.

Moving on, let us touch on the subject of Matt Gaetz, who Trump has tapped to be our new Attorney General.  This is hard to swallow since I think that Matt Gaetz is the most disgusting toad in the world next to Donald Trump.  He should be serving time for the things that he has done, instead of moving up into the upper echelon of our government.  I guess that an alleged lifetime objectifying women, trafficking young girls and abusing illicit drugs does sometimes pay.  Come ON, folks--the man bragged on the floor of the US House once that he'd crush up ED medications, slam them back with Red Bull, and the result was that he could "go all night long."  Nothing but class, that one. Strong Florida values, I guess.

Aside from being the Republican Class Clown of the House of Representatives for the past 8 years, Gaetz is notoriously known for his strong opposition and removal of Kevin McCarthy as Speaker of the House and holding the whole house hostage until Trump-crazed speaker Mike Johnson took over the position.  Matt Gaetz has served representing Florida's 1st congressional district from 2017 until yesterday afternoon, when he resigned just days before the House Ethics Committee was to release a report on him--which may or may not have included discoveries regarding inappropriate behaviors such as soliciting sex with a minor and sex trafficking.  While former Rep. Gaetz IS an attorney, he is an attorney with light to middle experience trying cases, having only 7 trial court cases in his career.  I recommend this report from the Tampa Bay Times for more information on his background:  https://www.tampabay.com/news/florida-politics/elections/2024/11/15/is-matt-gaetz-an-accomplished-attorney-closer-look-his-record-lawyer/  .  

Usual qualifications for the position of Attorney General require at least some experience in being a judge as well, something that Gaetz has never done.  Our current Attorney General (who I'm really angry at and we'll discuss that later) is Merrick Garland who is an alum of Harvard Law and graduated with top honors.  Before Merrick's appt to Attorney General of the US, he served as an appellate judge for the district of Columbia Circuit starting in 1997, until his appointment by Joe Biden in 2021.  He was famously tapped to ascend to the US Supreme Court in 2016 by Barack Obama, a promotion halted by a bit of unethical practice by Mitch McConnell, then Speaker of the House, refusing to bring his appointment up for a vote in the US Senate.  Suffice it to say, Garlands legal background goes back a very long time, and he has more than enough experience under his belt. In contrast, Matt Gaetz is TOTALLY unqualified for the office.  I'll not even mention that the Department of Justice, which Gaetz would be in charge of, has 115,000 employees.  I wonder if he's ever supervised more than ten people before?

All of this, of course, is just my opinion, coupled with fact.  Make your own decisions.  I'm tired and I need to put this to bed for now.  Stay well, friends.

 SIX days after the results of the United States' election and about half of the country are still asking ourselves "What in the hell happened?"  The Democratic Party is promising us an autopsy of this mess of an election, but I don't think that they'll ever get the real answer as to "WHY" Donald Trump was elected and Kamala Harris was not.  

There are still hundreds or thousands of people out there lamenting the fact that the United States just isn't ready to have a woman for POTUS yet.  You know, I really don't think that's the truth.  While there are some folks out there that still don't want a woman to run the country, I don't believe that the bulk of us still feel that way.  We've had plenty of examples of women running a country very successfully, all the way back to Margaret Thatcher, so I really don't think that's the issue at all.

This time, I really think that Donald Trump won strictly on the basis of his smoke and mirrors act.  He has continued his "Tell them lies so many times that they question their own memories" campaign of deception to the point of perfection during this campaign, making sure that people believe that the cost of groceries is insanely high because of "Inflation"...and it's not due to inflation at all.  It's due to corporate price gouging.  Inflation in the USA is actually down to 2.5%, which is actually a very normal inflation rate.  What has happened is that our food corporations have realized that we are willing to pay the prices for food that were charged during the pandemic and that they can continue to get away with it.  I mean really....think back in your lifetime.  When was the last time you saw the price of ANYTHING other than gasoline go down?  The prices of bread, milk, eggs, and general household staples?  When those prices rise, they stay there.  We got lucky with the price of eggs coming back down after the bird flu epidemic, but they still have their prices raised too high.  That's greed though...not supply and demand, or anything else.  Rather than realize what is actually going on, which Kamala Harris outlined for the people of the US in her campaign though, they found it much easier to throw their trust behind the lies of Trump, who has been gaslighting them by calling this inflation caused by the Biden Administration for almost two full years now.  Harris had only 100 days to convince the public otherwise, and with their TV's set to Fox News Entertainment network, they were never going to get the truth anyway.

There was a percentage that fell for the "I don't support that woke stuff at all" line and actually believed Trumps claims that kids were leaving for middle school as little boys and coming home in the evenings after school as little girls (and vice versa).  There is just SO much fear of Transsexualism out there as to be embarrassing.  If a TS person is being mistreated, beaten, or killed, they won't stop to help them.  If there is a TS story on the news that's positive, they won't allow little Bobby or Susie to watch because it might be contagious.  Why won't they ever accept the fact that TS effects no one other than the person who is going through the issue?  I realize that there are issues regarding sports and how they think that people born as men shouldn't be playing women's sports, so there needs to be a LOT more education from US on why that sort of thing should be allowed.  How do hormones effect and weaken the male body?  Even more difficult, how do we get them to sit still long enough to listen to these explanations?

I swear.  I'm going nuts.  These people are really driving me nuts.  Their brains are NOT engaged.

Electing Trump in 2024.

What have we done?  Why have we done it?  Was it a good idea to do it?  Why was it a bad idea to do it?  I personally ask the question "What good can come of it?"

Today I don't understand the people of the United States.  They have gone completely against history and voted for a convicted felon who attempted to overthrow a dually elected government from office by inciting a violent coup on Jan 6, 2021 when Joe Biden won the presidency and he wasn't ready to leave yet.  They voted into office a man who has committed crimes ranging from sexual assault to illegal retention of national security documents for personal use and gain.  Personally, I think that the coup he attempted was treasonous.  The man has been impeached twice as POTUS already.  What can possibly get better with another 4 years?  I guess American's can't wait to get an answer to that question.

And worse, they denied a perfectly wonderful candidate who would have made a great POTUS from ascending to the presidency.  Kamala Harris represented all the good things about the United States--the willingness to cooperate with each other to reach desired goals, and so much more.  We as a people rejected that because we were too concerned about the price of damned eggs.  The worst part is that the price of eggs has gone down and will continue to do so.  Did anyone bother to notice?  No...they didn't.  They were too busy with their "Oh, poor me....I can't afford eggs" attitudes that they didn't notice that things are changing for the better and have been for almost a year now.  You know what caused that?  A presidential campaign caused that.  That campaign convinced you that the price of those eggs was going to drag you down into oblivion.  That campaign convinced you that things were SO much better when Donald Trump was President and that taking things back to that time is what was best for this country. What a bunch of Horse shit.

Perhaps the first thing that you need to remember is that horrible economic crisis that Barack Obama inherited when he came to office in 2008.  He spent his entire eight years in office turning the economy around and implemented many policies that carried over well into the Trump administration to make things better for US citizens.  At least the first two years of Donald J Trump's administration was reliant on the economic foundation created by Barack Obama.  Those were two very good years.  Trump even managed to keep us pretty steady for the third year too after riding on Obama's coattails for the first two years.  Unfortunately, COVID hit, and that was the end of the good economy for a few years.  You know, I don't blame Trump for what he did with the country economically during this time.  He did the best he could have, I suppose, eventually giving the people some money to live on toward the end of his first presidency.  You know, I'll even give Trump credit for one more thing...his creation of Operation Warp Speed, which created a vaccine for us.  Many will tell you that the vaccine is garbage and doesn't work, but it does.  They tell you that, but they don't mention the fact that we aren't exactly drowning in COVID 19 cases anymore.  The vaccine certainly had something to do with THAT.  Funny though that Trump doesn't even support his best accomplishment as POTUS.  He doesn't much care for his vaccine and doesn't seem to support it anymore.  Oh well.

And all of this is BEFORE we even begin to speak about the damage that he's done to the rights of women with the overturn of Roe vs Wade by nominating SCOTUS judges that would overturn the decision and send it back to each individual state to make law on the topic.  I don't care where you come down on this actual subject, but one thing is certain.  Denying women the right to reproductive health care is only going to result in the deaths of more women and babies alike.  And yeah, there is going to be a MASSIVE outcry about the unnecessary deaths of women.  It's stupid to think otherwise.  If you are one of those that think that you are so Pro-Life that you can feel that way even at the expense of the mothers life, I have news for you.  The life of the baby is always dependent on the life of the mother.  If Momma ain't happy, no one is happy.

I now turn to the foreign policy portion of my little post here.  Trump would move us toward isolationism when we have fully invested in NATO, as well as in a war between Ukraine and Russia, in a desperate bid to uphold Ukraine's RIGHT to have a democratically run, FREE nation.  Vladimir Putin only wants to reign in Ukraine as a bit restoration of the old Russian Soviet Union.  That's not a good reason to strip a country of it's independence.  That's a selfish motivation.  Putin wants something just because he wants it, and is willing to spend human lives in order to get it.  His people won't stop him, so he get's to do this.  Ukraine has to sacrifice their lives to Putin's whims, which is horrible.  The USA has supported Ukraine up to this point, but now that Trump is in office we won't be doing that any longer.  We will let those people lose their individuality and be reabsorbed into the Russian Federation just because we are tired of sending money to them.  It's all about "Me and My Money".  If there were any justice in the world, we would continue to help those poor people retain their independence from Russia...but it doesn't seem that option exists under our current leadership.  Trump would also like to withdraw from NATO, citing that we are the only country that puts any real money into it and he sees no reason to continue a 60+ year long military tradition that hasn't even really needed to be used.  I really don't think he realizes that NATO hasn't been used because it's simple existence is a deterrent, and that's kind of the whole point of it.  I can't even begin to imagine how many wars didn't happen because NATO was there and the offending country really didn't want to deal with the military protective power of that organization.  To just abandon it would be tragic.  What happens if it collapses without our leadership and funds and territories open up that are detrimental to the security of our country?  A great deal of European trade is affected by the stability provided by NATO.  What if that were to disappear?  We would lost access to goods that may otherwise be unavailable to us in the United States, or at least we'd be charged more for those items because the expense of making them in the USA is that much more.  You know, I can't possibly express just how serious matters of foreign policy are to our country.  People these days don't seem to get it...they really don't, and I don't know how to make them realize that it IS important.  Our reputation amongst those nations is important.  Now we have to go through another four years, if not longer, of Trump denying the need for or importance of things like NATO, or supporting fledgling democracies like Ukraine.  There was a reason that our forefathers thought that they were important.  We should honor those who came before us by continuing those traditions.

Gaza is another animal altogether.  Many may have decided to not support Harris based on the Biden administrations refusal to stop sending arms to Israel, not realizing that we are virtually treaty bound to do so.  No one today understands the importance of keeping treaties anymore. There is no understanding of how "the word of the US is it's bond."  For more than 70 years we have been supportive of Israel's RIGHT to protect itself within it's violent, antisemitic, Arab environment.  Back in 1948, we PROMISED to keep it armed and able to defend itself at all times.  We now find ourselves in a situation where our western values no longer support Israel and it's lack of compassion to human life in this current war against HAMAS and Hezbollah and our people are getting nasty about it, not using their heads or realizing that we are bound by a promise.as a nation.  I don't think anyone likes what is happening, honestly, but no one knows a magic cure as to what needs to happen with it.  Do we break our word to Israel?  No one WANTS to do that.  Now that we have Trump though, we no longer have to worry about that.  Our word to Israel won't be broken.  Trump will continue his unwavering track record of buddying up with Bebe Netanyahu in that dictatorial way and giving him everything he wants regardless of the death and destruction it causes.  Problem solved, right?  And just because you didn't like the way the Biden/Harris administration handled it.  The words "stupid as a stump" come to mind to those who voted based on this issue.

But wait!  There's more!!  We also got a genuine, bonafide sex offender now getting ready to take over our country.  There have been dozens and dozens of women who have accused the man of misbehavior, but now we have Writer and Columnist E Jean Carroll's civil lawsuit to tarnish our president's already foul reputation.  In a court of law in New York City, Carroll successfully filed a suit where she was awarded $5 million dollars in damages due to sexual assault of the woman in the 90's and then Libel on top of that.  Trump was told that if he didn't stop lying about her, she could ask for even more money.  He didn't stop and now he's been awarded damages of $83 million because he can't keep him mouth shut about it.  Last I knew, he was still calling the woman a liar and talking her down as someone that he would NEVER do anything sexual with because "Well, look at her!".  OMG...what slime.

You know that there's more, too.  I won't even get into the company he keeps, except maybe to mention that people should perhaps pay attention to the lunacy that his good friend and personal attorney Rudolph Giuliani has been doing and how his lawsuit with Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss are is going.  Last I heard, he has lost everything and is required to turn over all of his valuable assets to those two women for his libel of them during the 2020 election.  Thankfully, we did get a bit more justice before the 2024 election.  Way to go, Ruby and Shaye.

In closing this up, I would like to let everyone know that I now live in fear every single day, as a gay man, that my civil rights will be violated or taken away from me.  I fear that if things get out of hand and Trump does wind up going on the Hitler path, that I will wind up in some kind of concentration camp, especially if he turns into the kind of dictator that I fear he CAN become.  Imagine, if you would, what it would be like to live with fear like that.  How would you feel?  WHY did you vote the way you did?  Why did you not realize that your vote was going to hurt me like this and put others like me through the same daily fear?  You know, it's not so simple as saying "Oh I hope you understand and that we can still be friends after my vote against your very existence."  If you voted for Trump, you are very bad friend, and not a very good patriot, either.

Blind Justice Prevails.

 In spite of the fact that half of the US population thinks that the Dept of Justice has been weaponized against the right wing of the country, today a jury of 12 convicted our Liberal US President's son on gun charges.

One would think that I would be upset by this, because of course, as a Joe Biden supporter, I must be so far enmeshed into supporting the "Biden Crime Family" that I must think that the system didn't work this time.  But no...this is not the case.

What todays verdict did for me was uphold my belief in the idea of blind justice.  Hunter Biden was convicted of his crimes and justice is going to be served to the son of the POTUS, just as justice will be served to Donald Trump on July 11th at his sentencing. I am very happy to see that the US Justice System works, in spite of all of the screams and protests to the contrary.  Now, don't get me wrong...  I still believe that there are racial disparities in the justice system.  I still believe that punishments are much worse for anyone who isn't of the Caucasian race in this country, but now I know that it's not necessarily the case for those of political power (Not that being the son of Joe Biden gave Hunter all that much clout in the first place).  

I look forward to no longer hearing about how the Justice Department is weaponized against Donald Trump.  If he has committed crimes, then let him be tried for them by juries of his peers.  Justice IS blind, and if he's committed no crimes, then he should be acquitted.  We may not trust our judges, police, lawyers, etc, but have we also lost faith in our friends and neighbors' abilities to judge right from wrong--good from evil based upon the laws drawn up by our legislature?  Do we really believe that just because our friends don't really like someone that they would allow them to be jailed for years and years for a crime that wasn't committed?  I'd like to think that the answer to that question is a qualified "no"...they wouldn't do that.

SO...can we get on with all the court cases now?  I think it's important that we all know the results of Trump's upcoming cases BEFORE we elect him to office.  We should know if he has been harboring National Secrets in his bathroom and bedroom, claiming them as his own and sharing them with whomever he wants--perhaps even selling them to enemies of the state.  I'd also like to know how he actually fits into the whole January 6th debacle, if he in fact fits at all. 

Leave her alone and let Justice do her job.  Those that are innocent will be absolved.  Those that are guilty should be punished appropriately for their crimes. 

Petulant Pennsylvania Politicians Protest Police Presence...or Something like that.

Today I saw on the news that some of the on duty January 6th Capital Building Police appeared before some sort of Congressional function today and that they were booed.  I am just beside myself at the nerve of these people.  

These men are heroes.  They stood between an angry mob that was looking to interrupt or stop a political proceeding and terrified politicians inside that were not sure what to do.  If you have any questions of how scared they really were, check out the footage of Josh Hawley running for his life inside that building, trying to get somewhere hidden.  He actually might have been helpful in controlling that mob, but no...he was just as complicit as Trump was.  But now I digress...my problem is with the incredible disrespect shown to the police...not what was actually happening at that time.  

These police officers that you guys booed today?  The were injured on the job.  Some of them were badly injured and required surgeries in order to find some normalcy in life again.  Some of them will need another decade of psychological help to get over the trauma of horrible violence perpetrated against them.  Of course, we all know that that's the kind of violence that ALWAYS happens on tour day at the US Capital Building, right?  Republicans have seen the footage and claim that it was just like a normal day at the rotunda...people just passing through and looking around.  You idiot Republicans.  We have all seen the footage and know what we saw.  Stop pretending to be delusional.  It really does NOTHING to make you look like intelligent men who should be making laws for us to live by.

People of Pennsylvania--Are you paying attention?  THESE are the ignorant people that have been elected by you and your peers.  You can't really want Trump Cultists making the laws in your state, can you?  Nooo.  Get out and vote the jerks out of office.  Their actions show incredible disrespect to the law, and those that we enlist to help us uphold those laws.  Don't let them get away with this.  VOTE THEM OUT.

My Broken Perspectives: Trump and his Revenge Needs...

 Little disgusts me as much today as much as the current political need for revenge against one political party or another.  The Republican Party specifically, is seeking revenge against the Democratic party for a number of poorly conceived "slights" and fantastical insults that have never happened.  Let's start with Donald J Trump and the Dept of Justice.

The biggest issue right now in our politics is Donald J Trump believing and convincing his cult members that he's been targeted by a politically weaponized Department of Justice run by Merrick Garland.  This is laughable, really.  Trump has managed to halt all of the DOJ charges against him until after the election, where if he wins, he can just dismiss the cases.  He is gas lighting his base.

The "Stormy Daniels Hush Money Trial" was his latest nightmare, with 34 felony counts of falsifying documents and election interference, and that case was brought against him by the Southern District of New York--NOT a DoJ entity, but a State Entity.  The two do not mix together.  Trump violated New York law when he covered up payments to Stormy and tried to hide his infidelity from the world.  Again...the DoJ didn't do that.  The State of New York did that.  This is not an example of a weaponized Department of Justice.  What this is is an example of someone who, having broken laws in the State of New York, answering to the rule of law...which is an actual thing.  Trump was found guilty by a jury of his peers...Twelve people who gave up 8 weeks of their lives to pay attention and make a decision on Trump's innocence or guilt in this matter.  This jury was selected by a combined effort of both counsel's for the prosecution and defense.  Trumps lawyer had the right to throw out any potential juror that he thought might be influenced by Joe Biden. Do you MAGA people really believe that all 12 of these people voted guilty on 34 felony counts just because they were lefties and controlled by Joe Biden?  The odds...no.  It's not very likely that there were NO people in that group that weren't willing to give Trump the benefit of the doubt, unless there was really SOLID evidence that committed the crimes he was accused of.  So just stop it, you all.  Trump was guilty.  He was found guilty.  Anything he does on appeal is him trying to find a way out of accepting responsibility for the crimes that he's committed.  He thinks he can do that, and he's probably right.  Lord knows he still has a SCOTUS in his pocket.

What bothers me the most is that powerful Republican Congressmen and Senators alike subscribe to the idea that Joe Biden was behind all of this, and that it was a need to prevent Trump from running for office or to make him quit that was behind the creation and follow thru of this case.  In our State, Joni Ernst, and Chuck Grassley both think of this New York trial as the result of a weaponized DoJ. 

As per Joni Ernst on "X"

This was never about justice. It was always about politics.  

Americans see through Democrats’ weaponization of our justice system and this sham trial as a desperate attempt to persecute Trump and block his re-election."

No Joni.  It was never about politics.  It was about the man committing crimes.  He did them.  Nothing was weaponized.  Many of us were most pleased to see Justice actually done...for a change.

They know better and their reaction to this just makes me loathe the both of them that much more.  Same with our local Republican Congressperson, Zach Nunn and our Republican Attorney General, Brenna Bird, Trump cultists, one and all.

My question to you:  Is it really so far out of the scope of reality that Donald Trump may well have committed such crimes?  These crimes aren't going to prevent him from running for POTUS, which is what these Republicans think the reason behind all of this nasty New York STATE prosecution is about.

I submit to you the idea that just maybe Trump was guilty of these crimes and that the DoJ wasn't involved in them in the least.  Trumps cry of weaponization here is really not that much different than saying "If I didn't win, then it was rigged."  He has, in fact, said pretty much this exact same thing.  How very sad of him.

Let's not forget the the real fireworks haven't even begun yet.  Jack Smith and the Special Counsel appointed by the Department of Justice have yet to do their jobs.  There are dozens of illegally held National Secrets found in Trump's Bathroom and Bedroom and Storage that he REFUSED to return upon exiting the White House.  Many people will and do profess that holding these secrets is a REAL example of Treason against the United States...and they may be correct.  Likewise with the Jan 6th insurrection (Yes...it was an insurrection.  People don't knock out windows and kill cops just because they want a Capital Building tour.) case, which will be tried in the Washington DC courts.  Trump has managed to dodge prosecution on these thus far, but I imagine that he will be found guilty of the charges in those, because he actually DID do them.  I'm that sure of the outcome.  So get ready, Trumpers.  If he doesn't win the election, he's pretty much a finished criminal.

Border Politics--A Political Brain Bleed.

 I understand that today the Biden Administration has created some kind of executive order that will limit the number of aliens crossing the southern border of the country.  Of course, that has again excited a large portion of the US that is negatively effected by immigration, and even many who don't even have a stake in it, but rather just don't like "all the damned Mexicans" pouring into the country.  

These people don't seem to care WHY people are crossing the border, or if they are even crossing legally.  They want the border closed to everyone.  To these people, they're ALL illegal aliens and they should probably die.  They only bring crime, drugs, and drain the US social safety net when they come into the country.

You know people, we hear you, but you really disgust a lot of us.  I have tons of friends here in our state that are Mexican or are immigrants from other South American countries.  Not a one of them is an illegal alien.  We have people that came here from Mexico that have opened fantastic restaurants.  They are working great kitchen jobs.  They work the fields here in Iowa, detasseling corn and walking beans and doing jobs that our youth don't want to do...the summer jobs that Gen-X and before used to work.  They pick up after OUR slacking, as new generations refuse to work for the lesser wages.  So it gives me great distress when you talk of these folks as though they are beneath the common courtesy that we offer to any other human being in the US.

People come to the United States looking for a better life.  They come to the United States because their own country is being run by drug cartels or because their governments don't really care about their citizenry, leaving them in crime ridden poverty.  Those folks aren't wrong for wanting better for themselves and their children, are they?  If it were YOU, would you stay in your country and allow the government or the drug cartels to walk all over you, or let them conscript your child into their criminal ranks?  I don't think you would.  I think you would search for something better for your family.

In a way, I feel really bad for immigrants to the US.  They expect such opportunity, but you know...the US really doesn't match up with the hype it's given.  Sure, we have jobs, but let's face it...it's an expensive place to live!  The price of housing, compared to places like the small towns in Mexico, or Honduras, or heck, even Brazil are ridiculous.  They don't have the kind of money it takes to survive in the US when they arrive after fleeing the crazy of their own countries, so we help them out a bit...get them started, so to speak.  I'd rather do that than see them living in tent cities all over the country in squalor, in huge groups that are hungry and unable to get work, with no showers or facilities except for a few wooden buildings scattered among the tents.  Honestly, if you look at our Federal Budget, they are NOT that big of a drain on us, especially when you look at what we spend on farm subsidies and big business subsidies and even the military budget.  This money thing? Yeah...let it go.  It's one of the things that we CAN handle.  Sure it would be nice if we could figure out a way to decrease the costs of all this, and we should strive to do just that...lay down some SOLID policy on it.

Here is where I think we run into our problem.  The MAGA people speak as if all aliens are illegal aliens.  I'd go so far as to say that MOST of the people that appear at our border WANT to enter legally.  They present themselves at the border and are either accepted or rejected.  I also understand it's crowded at the port cities, so people try to find ways around them, and cross into the country illegally just to get the chance to speak to someone who may help them with asylum requests, etc.  They've done it wrong, of course, and deserve to be booted out until they follow the rules.  We don't have the required staffing down there to deal with situations like that, and that IS a problem...one that the Biden Administration has acknowledged and is now trying to do something about.  

About a year back, a bipartisan bill passed through the US Senate regarding some much needed changes to border policy, but this bill was shut down by Mike Johnson and the Republicans in the US House of Representatives.  Donald Trump told them not to accept the bill, and I personally don't believe that any of them even read that bill simply because Donald Trump told them not to pass it.  Trump wanted to run his campaign on Border Policy, and if Joe Biden came up with solutions to the issues down there, then Trump could not use that as a cudgel against Biden in the campaign.  It madness.  It's also the truth as to why nothing has changed down at the border...until this new thing happens.

To the people saying, "Oh--it's too late to take credit now,  He waited until the election year to do anything about it.  We know he supports open borders and tons of illegal aliens entering the country", you're WRONG.  There is no bad time to make these improvements or needed changes in that system.  If Biden hadn't done what he did, you would accuse him of just ignoring the situation.  Since he can't get the Congress to work together (and he DID try), he's forced to handle this by executive order, which is unfortunate, as what's been done can be undone with a stroke of Donald Trumps pen if he wins the election.

More to come.  Please feel free to comment.