And we’re back...

And, we're back: 7 Years ago, Justin Amash, Republican-about-to-turn-Independent Member of the U.S. House of Representatives,  posted his take on the then newly released"Report On the Investigation Into Russian Interference In The 2016 Presidential Election" — the Mueller report.  

Representative Amash concluded that Attorney General William Barr deliberately misrepresented the Mueller report to the American people. Amash assessed that President Trump had, in his term, engaged in impeachable conduct, and that partisanship had eroded the will of Congress to check and balance the president. And he concluded that few Members of Congress had read the Mueller report.  

The evidence was there all along, available to anyone.   

[ Volume 01 . https://www.justice.gov/d9/report.pdf   

Volume 02 . https://www.justice.gov/storage/report_volume2.pdf ]  

A few months later, President Trump was impeached by the House of Representatives on different corruption charges: Abuse of Power, and Obstruction of Congress.  

[ https://www.congress.gov/116/bills/hres755/BILLS-116hres755enr.pdf ]  

He was acquitted by the Senate.   

Later, he was impeached by the U.S. House again, this time for Incitement to Insurrection.   

[ https://www.congress.gov/117/bills/hres24/BILLS-117hres24eh.pdf ]  

He was acquitted by the Senate.   

The prevailing public argument in the two Senate acquitals seemed to boil down to the expectation that 1) The president would learn his lesson and 2) If the president did not learn his lesson, he would face jeopardy in the justice system.  

Judging from his behavior going forward, it seems Mr. Trump did learn a lesson, but not the one members of his party say they anticipated. 

You probably don’t need a rundown of the president’s misbehavior toward the U.S. Constitution; the law of the land and the Courts … nor do you need a list to help you tally the results playing out in the economy; in broken international treaties and relationships of trust; in extrajudicial killings in the waters off Venezuela; in complicity in the killing of 70,000 civilians in Gaza; in Iran and the Strait of Hormuz; in the mistreatment of brownskinned Americans, asylum seekers and guests; in the cycle of apparent self-dealing, misappropriation of government funds and personnel; in the deaths of ½ a million poor people in the wake of DOGE closures; in the attempt this week to write away all of the tax and business fraud liabilities to which he may be subject under the law … and much, much more….

[ https://www.justice.gov/opa/media/1441086/dl

https://www.justice.gov/opa/media/1441216/dl ]

The corruption is staggering and, staggering as well is the approval his debased and debasing behavior enjoys from Americans who, just a minute ago, claimed the high moral ground.

In this election season, I think we must make Republican candidates fear the people more than they fear the president. There may be little room for MAGA-aligned officials and voters … though we have enjoyed the occasional revival of public morality here and there and now and then over 250 years together, so, who knows…. 

Be that as it may, there remain Republicans who may respond to the call to rededicate themselves to this particularly Americn Democracy; and Independents who know a bad deal when they see it, and will vote a better deal, even if there’s no perfect deal on offer. 

The need is now; the time is now; the later it gets, the hard it is.

Mothers' Day (not Mother's Day)

Julia Ward Howe, 1908

In September, 1870, the great Julia Ward Howe wrote, maybe, the first Mothers' Day card.

That's Mothers' Day, not Mother's Day (due respect to the latter). Here it is, courtesy The Library of Congress.

APPEAL TO WOMANHOOD THROUGHOUT THE WORLD.

Again, in the sight of the Christian world, have the skill and power of two great nations exhausted themselves in mutual murder. Again have the sacred questions of international justice been committed to the fatal mediation of military weapons. In this day of progress, in this century of light, the ambition of rulers has been allowed to barter the dear interests of domestic life for the bloody exchanges of the battle field. Thus men have done. Thus men will do. But women need no longer be made a party to proceedings which fill the globe with grief and horror. Despite the assumptions of physical force, the mother has a sacred and commanding word to say to the sons who owe their life to her suffering. That word should now be heard, and answered to as never before.

Arise, then, Christian women of this day! Arise, all women who have hearts whether your baptism be that of water or of tears! Say firmly: We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies. Our husbands shall not come to us, reeking with carnage, for carresses and applause. Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn all that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience. We, women of one country, will be too tender of those of another country, to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs. From the bosom of the devastated earth a voice goes up with our own. It says: Disarm, disarm! The sword of murder is not the balance of justice. Blood does not wipe out dishonor, nor violence vindicate possession. As men have often forsaken the plough and the anvil at the summons of war, let women now leave all that may be left of home for a great and earnest day of council.

Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead. Let them then solemnly take council with each other as to the means whereby the great human family can live in peace, man as the brother of man, each bearing after his own kind the sacred impress, not of Cæsar, but of God.

In the name of womanhood and of humanity, I earnestly ask that a general congress of women, without limit of nationality, may be appointed and held at some place deemed most convenient, and at the earliest period consistent with its objects, to promote the alliance of the different nationalities, the amicable settlement of international questions, the great and general interests of peace.

JULIA WARD HOWE. 

Boston, September, 1870.

Source

Library of Congress . http://www.loc.gov/resource/ rbpe.07400300 

 

The Deal ≠ The Delivery

The Art of the Deal is not the same as the art of delivering a fair and equitable deal for the American people and our neighbors, near and far.

Read this from Heather Cox Richardson, two years ago, a few months before we made the colossal mistake of putting Donald J Trump back in the White House ... and consider the U.S. economy at the end of 2024 — *The Envy of the World* — rebuilding after the Covid 19 global pandemic on the sound, real world economics of rules-based cooperation among large-, mid-, and small-nation economies; and compare that with the chaos unleashed by our Big Ugly Mistake.

We did this to ourselves, by entrusting political power to the wrong people, with consequences that threaten the well-being of not just a supermajority of Americans but a supermajority of people on earth.

Now we can undo this ourselves by electing a U.S. Congress who will force a return to the fundamentals that have tended towards shared prosperity and liberty in the past, and can help us get back on track again.

The road to a shot at another 250 years of American Democracy begins with electing and seating a 120th Congress dedicated to building a more perfect union on the foundation of the Declaration of Independence, The U.S. Constitution, and the rule of law.

There's no shame in being fooled into a big mistake. There's great shame in not correcting that mistake at the earliest possible opportunity.

https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/may-8-2024...

just kidding ... [or *is* he...?]

 The Plutocrats' Pope . h/t Truth Social

This time last year, the U.S. president posted the first layer of this joke. 

Getting it right away, I added a second punchline. 

The third one is the worst: Whatever you may think of clowns, you should be aware that the one pictured has a hand grenade.

Eisenhower GOP Unite!

 

killing for the hell of it

Reflections on killing for the hell of it on March, 09, 2005

Gandhi . 1931 . London . By Elliott & Fry - philogalichet.fr Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=76882768

Last month [February, 2005], Marine Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis famously said, "Actually it's quite fun to fight them, you know. It's a hell of a hoot…It's fun to shoot some people. I'll be right up there with you. I like brawling…You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil…You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them."

Marine Corps Commandant General Mike Hagee, wishes Mattis had chosen his words more carefully. World Magazine columnist Gene Edward Veith, on the other hand, concluded that: "As in other vocations, so in the military, there is nothing wrong with enjoying one's work."

To Dr. Vieth, Martin Marty poses a few questions:
______________________________________

If a Christian believes that humans are made in the image of God, should it be "a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them"?

World Wars I and II, and many other wars, had Christian fighting Christian, sometimes because they were drafted to do so against their will.  If a Christian believes that another Christian is a child of God, should it be a "hell of a lot of fun to shoot" and kill him?

If a Christian is an evangelical -- like those to whom World magazine is directed -- and he must kill someone who is as yet unevangelized, thus cutting short his potential for salvation, should it be a "hell of a lot of fun" to shoot him?

If a Christian is a grandson, son, father, husband, brother who knows that survivors of his killed counterpart will suffer all their lives because of his necessary act of killing, should it still be a "hell of a lot of fun" to shoot him?

If a Christian is to pay special attention to the weak, and he decides that someone "ain't got no manhood left anyway," should he do Darwin's work and eliminate the unworthy, taking a "hell of a lot of fun" in doing it?

Can the unconvinced -- and I don't mean just the "What Would Jesus Do"-types -- at least ask how finding it a "hell of a lot of fun to shoot" those who "ain't got no manhood" squares in any way with "love your enemies"?
___________________________________________

It just startles me what people who claim to know something about God are willing to put their name to in 2005.

So, with a line from someone who didn't claim to know much about God, I'm out:

"When I began as a prayerful student to study Christian literature in South Africa in 1893, I asked myself again and again, ‘Is this Christianity?’ And I could only say, ‘No, no. Certainly this that I see is not Christianity.’ And the deepest in me tells me that I was right; for it was unworthy of Jesus and untrue to the Sermon on the Mount."

Mahatma Gandhi’s Ideas: Including Selections from His Writings, C. F. Andrews; pp93-95 The Macmillan Company, 1930

we need this. why're you so mean?

Here's the list of U.S. presidents and administrations who have been calling for the construction of a large, permanent, secure, gathering space on the White House grounds for 150 years. **

1876

1877

1878

1879

1880

1881

1882

1883

1884

1885

18**

1887

1888

1889

1890

1891

1892

1893

1894

1895

1896

1897

1898

1899

1900

1901

1902

1903

1904

1905

1906

1907

1908

1909

1910

1911

1912

1913

1914

1915

1916

1917

1918

1919

1920

1921

1922

1923

1924

1925

1926

1927

1928

1929

1930

1931

1932

1933

1934

1935

1936

1937

1938

1939

1940

1941

1942

1943

1944

1945

1946

1947

1948

1949

1950

1951

1952

1953

1954

1955

1956

1957

1958

1959

1960

1961

1962

1963

1964

1965

1966

1967

1968

1969

1970

1971

1972

1973

1974

1975

1976

1977

1978

1979

1980

1981

1982

1983

1984

1985

19**

1987

1988

1989

1990

1991

1992

1993

1994

1995

1996

1997

1998

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

2021

2022

2023

2024

2025

2026 Donald J. Trump

** banned number sequence 

no kings iii . seattle . 03.28.26

Anti-Authoriterrier

An estimated 90,000 participants took to the streets in Seattle proper for the peaceful No Kings III protests on March 28 [final number pending expert analysis]. 

For Seattle, that more than doubles the storied 3.5% share of the population that political scientist Erica Chenoweth identifies as a common feature — once it reaches national scale — of nonviolent mass movements that succeed at sparking regime change and/or major government policy concessions.

3.5% population mobilization is not a guarantee; it's a rule of thumb. But it *is* a rule of thumb, so....

Source

[https://www.hks.harvard.edu/faculty-research/policy-topics/advocacy-social-movements/35-rule-understanding-what-makes-protest].

suck it up.

Taxpayers have bailed out U.S. airlines to sustain smooth air travel in the past and it'll be no surprise if we do it again.

But not today.

Today, it's not about keeping commercial travel easy; it's about equal protection under the law, due process of law, and keeping American democracy possible.

Suck it up ... that's what you expect people whose health insurance has been stripped from them to do ... it's what you demand when the moms and dads of trans kids demand you protect their parental rights ... it's what you've required of TSA workers and other federal aviation employees ... it's what Congress, right now, imposes on farmers, truckers, and commuters — all of us — by failing to put the brakes on this hellbent for holy war administration. Suck it up.

And, yes, of course I want TSA and federal aviation workers to be paid fairly and on time. That's not a gift to those who labor; it's nothing but right.

That said, there's too much on the line to give in to businesspeople whinging about long lines at the airport, and short term losses. We've always found a way to make that up in the end. Our bigger concern today is constitutional protections for everyone within our borders and protectorates.

Until we've done that ... Suck . It . Up.

Source

https://apnews.com/article/airlines-ceo-homeland-security-funding-shutdown-789e7fdebd77ed80f1b529fa2fdebf01

the answer to your prayers?

Mark Twain's mysterious stranger tells the congregation God sent him to make sure they understand what they're praying for:

“O Lord our Father, our young patriots, idols of 398our hearts, go forth to battle--be Thou near them! With them--in spirit--we also go forth from the sweet peace of our beloved firesides to smite the foe. O Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn them out roofless with their little children to wander unfriended the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst, sports of the sun flames of summer and the icy winds of winter, broken in spirit, worn with travail, imploring Thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it--for our sakes who adore Thee, Lord, blast their hopes, blight their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimage, make heavy their steps, water their way with their tears, stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feet! We ask it, in the spirit of love, of Him Who is the Source of Love, and Who is the ever-faithful refuge and friend of all that are sore beset and seek His aid with humble and contrite hearts. Amen.”

Source 

From Mark Twain, “The War Prayer.” Circa 1904–1905; Published posthumously in Europe and Elsewhere (1923), Harper & Brothers, New York and London, page 394, edited by Albert Bigelow Paine. Download for free at: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/68604

praying over it doesn’t make it good

what a wanker ii

ev’rything’s a bit

straight from the horse’s mouth — ha! 

who’s the horse’s ass

[with apologies (and gratitude) to Carlo Collodi, who told the story, and Enrico Mazzanti, whose art made it good and ugly]

[what a wanker i — which addresses trustworthiness — is here: https://jimhancock.blogspot.com/2026/03/what-wanker.html]

what a wanker

what a wanker.

It's annoying to even mention this today; but on this of all days ... with U.S. military personnel at risk on the borders of Iran — some already dead, many wounded in the first days of the president's military adventure — on this day when many Trump Epstein files remain illegally concealed ... the president directed our attention to *this* matter. He asked for our attention. And so he has it.

 

In fact:

1. The White House Correspondents Association has invited this president to every annual dinner in both his terms. In each prior instance, he sullenly announced he would not attend, because what a wanker.

2. If the president shows up this time, he will not be the WHCA Dinner *Honoree* because *there is no Honoree* — the event celebrates the First Amendment; raises money for journalism scholarships; and celebrates the recipients of journalism awards from the association. Also, he will not be the *Honoree* because, what a wanker.

Sorry to have even brought it up, but it needs to be said since the U.S. President wants you to believe it's something it isn't, because, you know....

Sources

1. https://apnews.com/article/trump-attending-white-house-correspondents-dinner-eb63e9bf024c56dab1fdefc732a42d5d

2. https://whca.press/news/awards/

3. https://whca.press/2026/03/02/statement-on-president-trumps-decision-to-attend-whca-dinner/

Joseph + the Amazing Technicolor Tax Plan*

“Okay, everybody, gather round; it’s time for a story!” Mr. Shepherd said with a big grin.

“What kind of story?” asked Miss Dollar, pretending she didn’t know.

“A Bible story!” Mr. Shepherd exclaimed.

And all the the children cried, “YAY!”

When everyone was still, Mr. Shepherd said, “Today’s story is about Joseph. How many of you remember him?”

“I do! I do!” said the children, raising their hands.

“Of course you do!” Mr. Shepherd said. “Joseph is a Bible hero! Does anyone remember why?”

“He’s a Bible hero because he loved his family!” said Ben.

“That’s right; Joseph loved his father and brothers very much, Ben. And what else?”

“Joseph refused to have premarital sex,” said Chastity. “He ran away naked when his boss's wife tried to…um…what do you call it?”

“When she tried to seduce him; that’s right Chastity! What else?”

“He’s a Bible hero because he always trusted God, even when everything looked hopeless.” said Will. 

“My, you all remember so much about Joseph! And because of all those great qualities, he was promoted to a position of tremendous honor and responsibility in the land of Egypt. Isn’t that wonderful?”

And all the children nodded their heads; except Elizabeth, who raised her hand and waited until she was called on. 

“You stopped asking, ‘And what else,’ before we got to the end,” she said.

“OK, Elizabeth,” Mr. Shepherd replied, throwing a little wink to Miss Dollar. "What else?"

“Joseph is also a Bible hero,” Elizabeth began, “because when he saw in a dream that a global food shortage was coming, he instituted a 20 percent tax on everything grown in Egypt for seven years and stored huge quantities of grain all over the country — so much that he stopped keeping records because no one could count it all." 

“Wait a minute!” interrupted Milton. “That doesn’t sound right! I thought you said Joseph followed God.”

“He did!” Elizabeth responded, but Milton cut her off again.

“No way! That's nanny state stuff! God would never tell a leader to do that!”

“Well, apparently, that’s what God told Joseph,” Elizabeth said. “Then, when the economy slid off the rails, Joseph opened the storehouses and sold grain back to the Egyptians.”

“They bought their own grain?” Milton demanded. “That’s crazy! That’s like a double tax! God hates taxes! Tell her Mr. Shepherd!”

But Mr. Shepherd just sat there, looking stunned.

Elizabeth pressed on: “And then the global food supply collapsed and everybody in the world came to buy grain from the Egyptian government.”

This horrified the other children, who looked to Miss Dollar for help. But she faked a coughing fit and buried her face in the crook of her arm. 

After an awkward moment, Milton intoned the words they were all thinking: “God believes in free market solutions, Elizabeth. You take that back.”

But Elizabeth didn’t take it back; she plowed ahead: “The famine was far from over, and Joseph sold food to the Egyptians until all their money was gone." 

Milton’s face was very red now. “He never!”

“When the money was gone, Joseph traded food for livestock. And when the government owned all the livestock, Joseph bought up all the land in Egypt — and everyone sold, because you can’t eat dirt every day. So the people were reduced to servitude from one end of Egypt to the other.”

“LIES!” Milton screamed, his eyes bulging.

“No!” Elizabeth countered. “It’s not! It’s part of why Joseph is a Bible hero! It’s right there in the book of Genesis! You could read it for yourself!”

Milton was crying freely now. “But we’re just children!” he sobbed, snot running down the little furrow between his nose and upper lip. “The adults would have told us if that was in the Bible…right?”

“You’d think, wouldn’t you?” said Elizabeth in a sad voice. She smiled gently. “After that, Joseph gave everyone seed to plant. And he made the 20 percent tax permanent. And do you know what the people did?”

Milton snuffled. “They rose up in a mighty tax revolt and demanded a return to true capitalism as God intended?”

“No,” Elizabeth said. “They thanked Joseph for saving their asses — also their camels and goats. Just kidding; the government owned the livestock. They thanked Joseph for saving their lives and got to work rebuilding the economy.

“And that’s how Joseph became a Bible hero,” Elizabeth concluded. “And it’s how his father and the rest of his family survived to become the Twelve Tribes of Israel. The rest of the story, you can read at your leisure.”

”I need to blow my nodes,” Milton moaned, and excused himself to search for a tissue.

* Apologies to Andrew Lloyd-Webber, Tim Rice, Moses . First published on these pages 02.20.2011