Dedicated to publicizing the character of the Republican inquisitors

I finished the book Finding Joy by Adriana Herrera. The title is a play on words because the narrator is Desta and his name, in the Amharic language of Ethiopia, means joy. He’s a biracial American who lived in Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa up to the age of three. He’s back for two months to do survey work in the southern part of the country for US Aid. On his second day he meets Elias, who will be his driver. Desta is immediately smitten. A big question is whether Elias is also gay and how does one find out in a country that is not friendly to LGBTQ people? I was surprised that this recent book, published in 2020, references another recent book, Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz, published in 2012. I read it though didn’t blog about it. Desta has this and several other audio books, plus lots of music, downloaded onto his phone for something to listen to on long drives. He and Elias listen to it and he hopes it will reveal if Elias is gay. Elias enjoys the story but says nothing more. But Desta and Elias are shown embracing on the cover so we know where this is going. In a romance story between an outsider and a local there are three possible endings – the outsider stays, the local leaves with the outsider, or they have their moment of love and split up. Desta is quite afraid it will be the third possibility. Before we get to that Desta has to decide what he wants to do next and Elias is tired of being closeted. This was a breezy 210 pages. I enjoyed it. Joan McCarter of Daily Kos discussed a story reported on The Verge that says many of the online tax services have been sending customer financial info to Facebook. And tax returns contain a great deal of a person’s financial info. The companies include H&R Block, TaxAct, and TaxSlayer. It is enough info that Facebook can integrate it with what else they know about these customers. These tax preparation companies are the same ones (plus a few more) that prevent the government from doing our taxes for us. The government has enough information – income and such – that they could send us completed returns and most of the time we could simply confirm it is correct. The government could then send us the bill or the refund. Almost all other countries do it this way. And it costs citizens nothing – well maybe the cost of stamps and the time to verify numbers. But these tax companies spend millions lobbying to make sure we have to use them and to pay to use them and to pay to have them electronically file for us. Since 2021 I’ve used my own system of spreadsheets to do taxes. I recognize I’m good enough with spreadsheets that I can do this. I’m aware many other people aren’t. Before 2021 I used a couple different tax programs on my own computer, never on their website. Does this betrayal go back far enough that Facebook has my financial data? I don’t know. Tax companies are probably not the only companies to share personal information with Facebook. Biden’s granddaughter Naomi was married on the White House South Lawn last weekend. This was a private event. The press was not invited. Before the event the wedding party allowed Vogue to do a photo shoot. Vogue was not at the actual wedding. Hunter of Kos says the White House Pres Corp is back to doing what it does best – sniping. They accused Biden of lying about no press at the wedding. And somehow that lie (which wasn’t a lie) was more serious than anything the nasty guy and his daughter and son-in-law ever did. Which means (1) the WH Press Corps can only report news of the sort of a rich or important person said something and (2) this Press Corps is jealous of others encroaching on its role of being the celebrity reporters for the Capital. Just don’t ask them to report on anything that is, you know, important. Naomi is the daughter of Hunter Biden, so this is a good excuse to next discuss a photo essay by Walter Einenkel of Kos of the evidence against Hunter and his laptop. The whole thing is something about Hunter being corrupt because he cashed in on his father being Vice President and then President of the USA. So this photo essay shows many of the times Hunter took advantage of his father’s position to make big money. Shame on ... Oh, wait. This is really strange. None of the photos in this essay show Hunter Biden. Instead, they all show the pandemic prince and princess. Perhaps ... nah ... but perhaps ... the prince and princess are the ones who are corrupt and should be investigated? And Hunter is ... sheesh, I’d hate to say it ... innocent? Alas, I don’t think any Republican investigation will be redirected. As Republicans increase their promises to investigate Hunter Biden (and Dr. Fauci and Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas and anyone else that seems to be doing something good for the country) Democrats are coming up with ways to fight back. Dartagnan of the Kos community reported that Democrat strategists have created a “war room” dedicated to highlighting and publicizing the character and connections of the Republican inquisitors. The war room will investigate and report such things as who funds the inquisitor’s campaigns. There are also shady things in the pasts of such people as Jim Jordan (allegedly ignoring the sexual abuse around him) and Matt Gaetz (allegedly paying for sex). I hope Democrats have stiff enough spines to actually do this. Kerry Eleveld of Kos reported Republicans will have a difficult time dealing with the nasty guy declaring a third run for president. All the scenarios look bad – for them. Nasty guy loyalist voters, now only 47% of Republicans, might be enough to give him the nomination, but since the rest of the country is so sick of him it’s not enough for him to win the election. If the nasty guy doesn’t get the nomination that 47% could feel alienated and not vote. That could cripple the nominee. And if the nasty guy doesn’t get the nomination he might want to burn down the GOP by making a third party run. He could be so disgruntled he won’t care his actions could give the election to the Democratic nominee. He may not be able to get on the ballot as an independent in all 50 states but he could do it in enough states to make the GOP nominee lose. He’ll want to prove the Republicans can’t win without him. All that sounds good for Democrats. I’d want to say “please proceed” but his rhetoric is dangerous for the country and I don’t want another two years of it. I had previously written that the nasty guy is losing Evangelical support. Aldous Pennyfarthing of the Kos community also discussed that. I mention it because of the last two paragraphs:

Of course, ever since Constantine, many Christians have seen sidling up to power as the best strategy for promoting their own interpretations of Jesus’ message—which, to be clear, included exactly nothing about abortion. And now they appear to be sidling away from Trump, who seems to have suddenly contracted a form of political leprosy even Jesus can’t heal. That’s great news for America, but that doesn’t mean America isn’t still thirsty for snake oil, and if Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis—who presented himself as God’s gift to the Sunshine State in a recent campaign ad—becomes Republicans’ new panacea, the cure may actually turn out to be worse than the disease.

Rebekah Sager of Kos reported that just days after announcing his run the nasty guy signed a $4 billion deal with a Saudi real estate company to build a mammoth project in Oman. Definitely a conflict of interest, though just one of about 3400. I think the report implies the whole project is $4B – which is a huge real estate project – and not the amount the nasty guy will pocket. Which leads to a question. What does the nasty guy contribute to the deal? Brand? It’s tarnished. Money? He doesn’t seem to have much. Expertise? Everything he touches turns to dust. Well qualified workers? They seem to be fleeing. Which implies the only reason why he was included in the deal was because it is a way for Saudis to pay him off for services rendered or secrets spilled. Anyone want to speculate whether the buildings in this real estate project actually get built?