His smirking mug on every corner or the apocalypse? A tough sell.

My Sunday movie was Tu me manques. I think the movie said the title translated from Spanish means I miss you in me. (Google translate says something quite different.) It is based on a true story. Gabriel had moved from his conservative Bolivia to New York. There he meets Sebastian, also from Bolivia. They fall in love. The movie actually opens with Gabriel’s father receiving his son’s red backpack and suitcase. A while later he receives his son’s body. Dad goes off to New York to demand from Sebastian what did you do to my son? Dad meets his son’s friends and begins to understand who his son was. There is a scene where Dad talks to a priest about what the Bible says, and doesn’t say, about homosexuality. Sebastian wants to do something about the homophobia in Bolivia and creates a play featuring thirty versions of Gabriel – the audition of these men explaining why they want to be a part of the play is intense – as are several scenes in the movie. The story is not told in a linear manner. There is a lot of jumping between Gabriel and Sebastian falling in love, then Sebastian dealing with Dad, and Dad learning about Gabriel’s life. When Sebastian takes Dad to a restaurant where Gabriel had worked we almost see them in the same scene. I now prefer watching stories with a lot less homophobia. Even so, I recommend this one. The University of Houston LGBTQ Resource Center took a while to get approved and get up and running. That happened only a few years ago. Monique Welch of the Texas Tribune, in an article posted on Daily Kos, reported the UH LGBTQ Center is closing because of a Texas Senate bill that bans diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives at public higher education institutions. The law exempts student run programs, but this one was run by the university. Orion Rummler is a writer for The 19th a “trusted source for contextualizing LGBTQ+ and education news.” In an article posted on Kos he started with:

At least 11 states have passed laws to censor discussion of LGBTQ+ issues in public schools, eliminating the potential for queer students to see themselves in their education. But most LGBTQ+ students haven’t been learning about their community in school anyway. Instead, they’ve turned to the internet to learn about their identities as queer and trans young people. Some do online research about LGBTQ+ identities after learning from their friends or seeing representation in fiction.

Schools hadn’t been teaching LGBTQ history, didn’t mention us in sex ed classes. That comes from surveys of students, most in high school, a few in middle school and college. So the Don’t Say Gay laws don’t make much difference. So in some places the students are teaching themselves. One club meets once a week and students present history from the LGBTQ, women’s, and black point of view. Willie Carver, an English teacher, said it was embarrassing to watch teens try to do what professionals should be doing and also inspiring to see them care enough to persist. They’re also more motivated over these topics than they are over the sanitized curriculum. As for learning about their community on the internet there is a lot of good content, and also a lot of very bad content. And a teen may not be able to tell the difference. Mark Sumner of Kos reported that when the nasty guy was indicted last week he boasted that today he would release a report that would result in “complete exoneration.” Then last Friday he signaled that the report and associated news conference was “no longer necessary.” Friday’s announcement included words such as “I believe” and “my lawyers prefer.” Which means, wrote Sumner, that those lawyers convinced him these charges are serious and that litigating in public, and committing more crimes as he did so, rather than in the courtroom would damage his case. That’s some amazing lawyering.

So for the moment, Trump has to bite his lips, scowl, and go without a television appearance in order to please his attorneys. But Trump’s faux contrition is unlikely to last. After all, if Trump can’t run his mouth without limit, isn’t he already in jail?

Greg Dworkin, in a pundit roundup for Kos, quoted a couple articles that discuss the same idea. The 14th Amendment of the Constitution says that a person who committed insurrection shall not be allowed to hold government office. Of course, this is aimed at the nasty guy. Today I heard on NPR (maybe the last half of this show here?) a discussion about this clause in the 14th amendment. One of the basic questions is how does it get triggered? Election officials in one or more states who refuse to put someone on the ballot? Citizens sue to make it happen? (and who has standing to bring the lawsuit?) There was agreement such actions should happen well before the election rather than after. Hunter of Kos noted that Republicans don’t have any policies, they just support whatever the nasty guy wants. So how might Democrats use that to their advantage? One way is to name every bill after the nasty guy: The “Donald Trump American Awesomeness Act” for example.

Now, I'm not thickheaded. I know full well there are two main problems with this plan. The first would be that while we could probably save the planet and certainly society by slapping Trump's name on everything, it would require seeing Trump's name on everything. It would be a hellscape. A hellscape of free health insurance, lower global temperatures, and the continued existence of Florida, to be sure, but if the price is seeing Trump's smirking mug on every corner, then it's quite possible the majority of America would prefer apocalypse. It's a tough sell.

There is a lesser problem that if we’re using the nasty guy’s name he’d want a cut. Though that might start a bidding war with billionaires. The other way is for Joe Biden to change his name to Donald Trump. The base would get the second term they’re clamoring for. Biden could claim he’s the original and that guy in Florida is the impostor. We’re already used to the nasty guy contradicting himself. And the old Trump is likely going to prison where he can’t object to what the new one says. I had written that since liberal justice Janet Protasiewicz joined the Wisconsin Supreme Court and flipped the court to a progressive majority the conservatives on the court have become quite annoyed. Quinn Yeargain of the Daily Kos Elections community discussed two of those conservatives, Justice Rebecca Bradley and Chief Justice Annette Ziegler. The chief justice is annoyed because the liberals are limiting her power, saying she’s been abusing it. As for Bradley, she sounds like a full throated conservative, criticizing everything and everyone that doesn’t conform to her beliefs and getting in her way of imposing those beliefs on others. She tosses out a great deal of projection along the way. Hunter reported that in Georgia Republican State Senator Colton Moore is calling on the governor to call a special session of the legislature to “review” what Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis did in indicting the nasty guy. That review is to consider impeaching her and stripping funding of her office (and he adds a “donate here” button). Hunter wrote that Moore’s move is deplorable but right on brand for Republicans. As for the party as a whole...

Republicanism is a fascist movement, and fascist movements operate from the core presumption that they are allowed to commit crimes and promote violence as long as it is in service to expanding movement power.

In the comments of one of Greg Dworkin’s pundit roundups for Kos there is a cartoon by Christopher Weyant in which a mob boss is playing poker with his associates and he tells one, “Get our consigliere. We want to sue Trump for giving organized crime and racketeering a bad name.” And a cartoon by the Daily Felltoon shows the devil in a MAGA t-shirt in bed next to a very surprised evangelical. The devil says, “Oh, come on, now... Who did you really think you were in bed with?” In another roundup is a cartoon by Bob Englehart. A black man is talking to a white man. The black man speaks first.

What are you white people so afraid of? That you will treat us the way we treated you! You mean lynch you and rape your women? And steal our jobs! So, you’re afraid of revenge. (pause) That and justice.