Today is Tuesday, November 15, 2022. Tonight I became nauseous like so many other Americans upon hearing of the orange-haired former criminal in the White House delivering an announcement that he’s running for president once more in 2024. When will this guy ever shut up? When will he be stopped by all of the machinery of law enforcement that can be mustered against him? To me, this is a very tired and sad act from a has-been. Doesn’t he realize that the midterms went south because of his association with the candidates that failed to win seats in Congress? It’s because of him that Republicans didn’t do better last week. With his announcement, Dumpf is the earliest repugnican dumbass to announce his presidency! I just think he’s doing this to be in the spotlight because his influence is fading within the repugnican party. His tremendous ego has to be caressed like the touch of a sensuous woman which is most probably not his wife, Melania.

Addressing the options that were available to Republicans some years back to stop this unrepentant insurrectionist in his tracks, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) scolded his repugnican colleagues for not doing the right thing when they had the means to do it when the former liar-in-chief was impeached. His comments appear in an online article for Raw Story by Sarah K. Burris entitled “Raskin says he tried to warn GOP senators they needed to convict Trump – but ‘now they’ve made their bed.'” Asked about Dumpf’s intention to announce his third bid for president, Raskin said, “He has a right to run unless it is determined that he doesn’t have a right to run due to the ban in Section III of the 14th Amendment on people who participate in an insurrection against the Union.” Raskin further went on to say, “At this point, it’s a problem for the Republican Party. If 43 Republican Senators had done what seven Republican Senators did, he would have been convicted and presumably disqualified. I told Republican Senators that conviction was something they needed to do for the Constitution and the country, but it’s also something they needed to do for their own party because he would come to destroy their party. And I think they have a very serious problem because they’ve taught everyone to follow Donald Trump’s orders, and now they’ve made their bed.” And must lie in it, as they are powerless to stop this megalomaniac’s pursuit of power or his desperate attempt to avoid prosecution.

Raskin was then asked about his colleague, Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), and whether she intends to run for president. The Maryland Representative said he couldn’t think of a more qualified Republican to be president, given her Constitutional patriotism.

Reporters then asked Raskin if Democrats proved their case during these midterm elections by focusing on the fragility of democracy, freedom, and the right to choose. Raskin concurred that the strategy did indeed work last week because it was originally predicted that Democrats might have lost 40 or 50 seats by concentrating on talking about the loss of democracy and freedom, and this did not happen. He concluded, saying, “I think we can say that the strategy of talking about democracy, freedom and social and economic progress together was vindicated.”

Another member of the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 attack on Congress, Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) told a similar story to Raw Story in that the information provided to the American people through their public hearings likely helped voters see the significance of American democracy. However, if Republicans do take over the House, and, sadly, it seems to be the case, it will mean that the January 6 committee will be shut down or relitigated by the Republicans with a focus on blaming Democrats for the ills of the country.

A bigger story than the ludicrous bid for attention from the resident at Mar-a-Lago was the explosion in Poland by a supposedly Russian-made missile that killed two people. The missile landed outside the rural Polish village of Przewodow, about 4 miles west from the Ukrainian border today, roughly the same time as Russia launched its biggest wave of missile attacks on Ukrainian cities in more than a month. This news is covered in an online CNN article by Tim Lister, Tara John, Antonia Mortensen, Anna Chernova, Emmet Lyons, and Rhea Mogul entitled “World leaders hold emergency meeting as ‘Russian-made’ missile kills two in Poland.”

Even though the armament was Russian made, it is still not known who fired the missile or where it was fired from. Attending the G20 summit in Bali, Indonesia, President Joe Biden spoke to reporters after holding an emergency meeting with G7 and NATO leaders on the sidelines of the summit, saying that preliminary information suggests it was “unlikely” the missile was fired from within Russia, but he couldn’t say conclusively until the investigation was complete.

Biden stated, “We agreed to support Poland’s investigation into the explosion . . . And I’m going to make sure we figure out exactly what happened.” He added, “Then we’re going to collectively determine our next step as we investigate and proceed. There was total unanimity among the folks at the table.”

The Kremlin has denied involvement in the explosion, with Russia’s Defense Ministry calling the reports by Polish media, who first reported the deaths, “a deliberate provocation in order to escalate the situation.” It’s typical of Russia maintaining this.

Let’s hope this situation doesn’t escalate into something more serious, but I must say having a President like Joe Biden in the driver’s seat at such a tense time is a welcome relief if the situation were to be reversed and we had the Orange Menace calling the shots. Oye!

It’s getting late here. I missed the announcement from the former demagogue, as Elliot and I watched, uncharacteristically, two films at once: The Good Nurse and Don’t Worry Darling. The weather was unseasonably cold today, so I did very little walking around the neighborhood. I did go out in the morning to have breakfast at the Austin Street Diner, where I met my table-mate, “Carol.” She was already sitting when I walked in.

I don’t have time to critique both films. Maybe tomorrow.

Stay safe and be well.

Can you believe this was the New York Post‘s headline from yesterday? It’s so uncommon for the rag to criticize Dumpf ever, but here it did. It’s a collector’s item, undoubtedly.