RockyRoadTravel

I love pickles - how did you know?

You know what they say: scratch a cynic and find a romantic underneath

It's still good to acknowledge that the country is inching back towards the center from the extreme right.

News Flash. There is some drama with my Chick-fil-A Piece Prize. There have been ethics complaints about the lack of published criteria for the award, and the lack of public information on the selection process and criteria. How was I nominated? Were there other people nominated? Who chose me and how? Gianni Infantino, President of FIFA hasn't made any information public about his fabricated award - why am I subjected to public accountability?

This time it's a 18+ point win for the City of Miami Mayor, first time Democrats have won their in 28 years. (While technically non-partisan everyone knows who the Democrat and who the Republicans are.) The Incompetent-in-Chief was heavily involved in the race with endorsement of the Republican aligned candidate. Once again it's an election race that can be taken as a clear and direct rejection of the incompetents currently in the White House. Also, on the same day, another State seat was flipped from red to blue in north east Georgia. That would be the 25th flip from red to blue this year.

If I can say with the greatest respect, not so much a class clown as a horse with blinders on. I blame the sexual chemistry between you and Allan Lichtman. One comment on the Harris campaign. I think the energy of her campaign, and there was a lot from the start (that massive Atlanta rally comes to mind), was I think mostly an anybody but Joe excitement. It was a sign of relief excitement. (And I always found Tim Walz an annoying candidate. I don't know who she should have picked, but I was not a Walz believer.) I also think there has been a fundamental change in elections in regards to Lichtman's keys. The ability to campaign effectively rising in importance in this new age of immediate news and governing effectively can be neutered in the noise of social media.

I don't see what her new message would be in 2028 that's going to wash the film of the 2024 campaign from her resume. It's so unfortunate that Biden held on. He was a successful president in many ways. Woulda shoulda coulda. If Biden had decided to be a consequential one term president, and then spent the next two years joyfully welcoming the next generation of leadership - American would be a much healthier and wealthier and less hateful of a place.

Wait. What? Are you saying that the Incompetent-in-Chief won the (very prestigious) American Standard Pees Prize? The selection committee for that prize is composed of the leading lights of the plumbing industry and porn producers. A 21 flush salute to him, no one could deserve it more than our Incompetent-in-Chief.

You and Steven should be saving this material for the Peas Prize awards ceremony. Apparently the venue has been changed to the Eros bath house in San Francisco instead of the original location at the Reagan Library.

The Incompetent-in-Chief tells people over and over that the whole world is going to hell in a handbasket and that "they" are out to get you. And he is the personification of every ugly thing he says and predicts.

The over performance of the Democrats in special elections continues. Last week's Tennessee 7th house seat had a 13+ swing towards the Democrats. Even though during the campaign the GOP's candidate steered clear of mentioning Trump as much as possible, and the Democrats ran a candidate that was more easily misrepresented as a "radical" than other candidates would have been. The GOP also spent a lot of money in this campaign, money flooded in from out of State right-wing PACs. However even if this type of support holds it's unlikely that a 2018 Blue Wave might happen. The GOP has gerrymandered House seats since 2018. This Tennessee 7th district was gerrymandered in 2022. Under the old map the Democrat would have won. GOP motto, if you can't win, cheat. It seems the GOP hates American democracy.

The made up award season continues. @stevenkesslar has won The Green Giant Company's inaugural .Peas Prize. Does Steve like peas - who knows? Did he attend the award ceremony in tightie whities - I'm sure he'll let us know. Was the award ceremony held at 4 Season's Total Landscaping? Does it matter? Two hundred years of the real estate industry's mantra of location, location, location. It's fake news. Living next to an newly unregulated nuclear waste dump is in! The important thing is Steve has a Green Giant Peas Prize and Obama doesn't.

I'm please to tell you all that I was selected as the honoree of the recently created Chick-fil-A Piece Prize. I know some of you will question both the award and my selection. I don't like chicken. I've never done anything to warrant recognition for my piece-work. I'd never been to a Chick-fil-A until recently for the award ceremony. The only thing that matters is that I have a Chick-fil-A Piece Prize and Obama doesn't.

You have a future career awaiting you in the Incompetent-in-Chief's spin room churning out X files and "alternative" facts

Get a room

I just finished Pelosi's 2024 book, The Art of Power. For people who follow politics it provides a survey of events of American politics over the last 40 years. I'm not too sure if it'd have much of an audience outside of the politically committed (unlike the Obama's various books). Pelosi emphasizes HIV/AIDS as a reason for her first entering into electoral politics in late 80's. Then there are sections on the 9/11 Commission, passing the ACA and the attempted MAGA coup in 2021. It's really in the last section of the book dealing with the assault on American democracy on January 6th that the book comes alive. Maybe it's more recent, maybe it's the fact that her daughter's life was in danger as well that day while in the Capital. She talks about various Republican elected officials that day, from the courage of Mike Pence refusing to leave the Capitol and his commitment to the peaceful transfer of power, Mitch McConnell's initial condemnations of the Incompetent-in-Chief while later refusing to consider impeachment, Steve Scalise's involvement in calls to the President which he later denied were ever made, and she has a special place in her heart for Kevin McCarthy's portrait in cowardice whining there was nothing he could do at all that day.

The Grand Jury was never presented with the final charging document by the rookie prosecutor that the Grand Jury voted on. It's just more incompetence from the Incompetent-in-Chief's administration. Leavitt blaming other people for the Administration's own incompetence - what a man baby we have in the White House. My god will this Administration take responsibility for any of the thousands of their screw ups and self-dealing.

AND a plan for building and funding infrastructure from the Incompetent-in-Chief

I just saw Wicked for Good. I hope no one throws water on the Incompetent-in-Chief before he releases this Plan (that the GOP has been promising for 15+ years).

I don't think I've pointed out my question adequately. This isn't about the the Supreme Court striking down progressive legislation. They're right-wing extremists, no one is expecting them to support civil rights, voting rights or small 'd' democracy. This is about this group of extremist activist justices weaponizing the shadow docket - seldom used before 2017 - to issue quick anonymous rulings that lack any explanation, legal precedent or reasoning backing them up. Presented with the exact same set of circumstances under a Republican or a Democratic President and/or Congress with the shadow docket they could issue two separate politic decisions depending on who's in power. The shadow docket decisions are more political decisions and less about the rule of law and the Constitution.

Even the blind right-wing extremists can't be immune to the blatant corruption and personal dealings of the Trump Crime Family. The Trump Derangement Syndrome of the MAGA base has to be cracking. My concern is that a swath of Americans who legitimately think/feel the system is screwing them over (40 years of neo-con economics has decimated the middle and working classes in the USA), and have believed the MAGA lies, will turn to a pox on both your houses. Disengage or think violence is the answer - right-wing extremist violence is the most significant terrorist threat we currently face - rather than recognize the lies they've been fed by FOX, NewsMax, Breitbart, Infowars etc.

The shadow docket, historically, was rarely used. However since 2017, the current extremist majority of the Supreme Court has been using the shadow docket as a means of issuing emergency stays of lower-court rulings at the behest of the Incompetent-in-Chief's Justice Department. The shadow docket has been rightly criticized for it's lack of transparency or accountability. These are unsigned rulings where no oral arguments have been heard and little is any legal basis for the decision is provided. Ruling without arguments or precedents. My question is given the lack of transparency, the lack of accountability, the lack of any provision of a legal reasoning and the clear political bias of the current right-wing extremism of the Court's majority, what's to prevent this Court's majority to rule in a completely opposite way with the same set of circumstances when a non-rightwing-extremist Administration is back in the White House. For example, with shadow docket overruling Humphrey’s Executor, the Supreme Court allowed for the firing of federal agencies' leadership without a rationale, even though this countered 100 years of legal precedent regarding the separation of powers. Given a sane Administration in the White House after 2028, would this extremist Supreme Court majority maintain these shadow docket rulings or would decide to flip their unexplained unsigned decisions and run interference for the extreme right?

I hope I didn't scoop @EmmetK with this posting